I am finding it exceedingly difficult to maintain a sense of continuity with my classes. The reason I say this is because every week we have had something that disrupts my presence in the classroom. First, we have our weekly seminar down at UT from 1-4pm every Monday. This is all fine and dandy, because despite what some of my colleagues think of it, I actually learn something every time (except for last week when I spent the entire 3 hour period working on AirSet for my students). Leaving for UT in the middle of the day causes problems for me because I don’t get to see some of my students almost all week. Because the school is on a block schedule, every other Monday is a “B Day.” On B days I teach 3 out of the four classes I’ve taken over. Now, leaving in the middle of the day means that I completely miss out on teaching the second two periods. This translates into putting more pressure than necessary on the CT; less involvement on my part; and a sense of transiency between teachers on the part of the students. To the students, every day is a crapshoot, with them thinking “who is gonna be teaching today?” I think this opens up an atmosphere that has the potential to detract from learning.
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The best moment of this week was on Tuesday (if I recall correctly). We got a new student towards the end of January who had been having trouble with her previous history teacher. He had called her some names in front of the class, prompting her quick removal and replacement into our class. As I had already taken over when she came into the class, I think she identifies me as her primary teacher (which is pretty cool!) Anyways, recognizing her previous negative experience with teachers, I have tried to make her feel as welcome as possible in the class, and have noticed that she consistently cooperates and participates.
One key moment last Tuesday cemented the fact that she enjoyed class. Generally, when I check homework I walk around the class with a stamp so I can talk to the students and correct their work. This takes a bit of time, but I know that students can’t pay attention for a full 90 minutes – and this gives me a way to interact one-on-one with the students. Well, a couple of weeks ago I ran out of ink for the stamps I use. On Tuesday, after going to TAKS camp for the day, this young lady came by the classroom and presented me with a brand new two-sided stamp. I really appreciated the gesture, and made sure to tell her so. Unfortunately, because of the multiple times I had to miss class week, I have been unable to use the stamp in her class to actually show that I cared.
