Meet Mrs. H.
This is my first year as a teacher. I teach middle school math, Civics, and English. I am not sure if civics should be capitalized and math should not. The capitalization of English as a subject, I am confident on. In my mind, English is much less capitalized than the other two, because I require so much prep time, and they make me a little anxious. Teaching poetry elements is like swimming in a hot tub.
The school I teach at is surrounded by farmland. The middle school and high school are combined. The superintendent office is in the building. All the students have the same lunch period. We play 8 man football, and are seriously considering going to 6 man. There is not even an Alco here. It is a small school.
I have the 7th graders three times during the day. They move from class to class together. I see them for English, Civics, and Math. I also frequently eat lunch with them in the cafeteria. I also see them before school while they are playing volleyball in the gym. My classroom is also right between the lockers of the 7th and 8th graders. My principal calls me The Queen of Middle School.
My math classes are a working progress. We go over homework, and then I lecture and we practice together on the big class white board. I have very high hopes of making math more interesting over time. Two fun things I have introduced into class lately are a beach ball with a bunch of math questions on it that the students throw to each other and catch it. Where their right thumb lands, that is the question they answer. I also have a card game with positive and negative numbers. It is like war, but whoever answers the question right between the two numbers put down gets the cards. They love it. We also do yoga at the beginning of class. Because, why not?
English begins with a sentence correction and a journal topic. I make the sentences up every day. They are usually topical. I like throwing homophones into them. It makes the sentences funny.
Journal topics are also made up every day. They usually have to do with the class discussion, but not always. I allow students to share what they wrote before we move onto the main activity for the day. Yesterday in 7th grade English we were talking about Animal Farm, and prejudice, and discrimination, and Ruby Bridges. It was awesome. Today, most of the middle school students will be at a volleyball/football game, so I will only have a handful of students in class.
Civics is my favorite. I have always loved government. I have my best ideas in Civics. Like, Loyalists, Patriots and Fence Sitters, where the fence sitters get to decide what group they want to be in. Test review where the questions are on notecards, and they have to get up between each question they write down. I like to incorporate movement. My middle school students do so much better when they get to move, and it is part of the learning activity. We have done speed questions, where the desks are lined up across from each other and they have one minute to find the answer with a partner, and then they have an exercise until the minute is up: wall squats, pushups, hold warrior 2 pose, standing lunges, etc.
I have started shaking the hands of my students when they enter the class, and that has surely caught on. Eye-contact, touch, and I tell them I am happy to see them. It starts the class off with good vibes. Good vibes are important.
I also have funny little traditions with my classes. In 8th grade English, the students take a picture of my outfit because I don't like to match, and they like to document my outfits. I have one student I make sure to tell I am going to be at school on Friday, and I tell him every single day all week long. If people drop their pencils, I take them and keep them on my desk until the end of the day. Just silly things. Yesterday my windows were getting replaced in my room, and we wrote goodbye notes to the windows before they went to their doom. " Stay cool window." " Keep in touch" "Rest in Peace."
Things I need to work on are organizational. I am not surprised. Are you surprised? You should not be surprised. Organization is the thing I struggle with in every aspect of my life. But, the relationships are strong. I work with what I have, and I am improving. In 28 years, I will have it all down. Right?
The school I teach at is surrounded by farmland. The middle school and high school are combined. The superintendent office is in the building. All the students have the same lunch period. We play 8 man football, and are seriously considering going to 6 man. There is not even an Alco here. It is a small school.
I have the 7th graders three times during the day. They move from class to class together. I see them for English, Civics, and Math. I also frequently eat lunch with them in the cafeteria. I also see them before school while they are playing volleyball in the gym. My classroom is also right between the lockers of the 7th and 8th graders. My principal calls me The Queen of Middle School.
My math classes are a working progress. We go over homework, and then I lecture and we practice together on the big class white board. I have very high hopes of making math more interesting over time. Two fun things I have introduced into class lately are a beach ball with a bunch of math questions on it that the students throw to each other and catch it. Where their right thumb lands, that is the question they answer. I also have a card game with positive and negative numbers. It is like war, but whoever answers the question right between the two numbers put down gets the cards. They love it. We also do yoga at the beginning of class. Because, why not?
English begins with a sentence correction and a journal topic. I make the sentences up every day. They are usually topical. I like throwing homophones into them. It makes the sentences funny.
Journal topics are also made up every day. They usually have to do with the class discussion, but not always. I allow students to share what they wrote before we move onto the main activity for the day. Yesterday in 7th grade English we were talking about Animal Farm, and prejudice, and discrimination, and Ruby Bridges. It was awesome. Today, most of the middle school students will be at a volleyball/football game, so I will only have a handful of students in class.
Civics is my favorite. I have always loved government. I have my best ideas in Civics. Like, Loyalists, Patriots and Fence Sitters, where the fence sitters get to decide what group they want to be in. Test review where the questions are on notecards, and they have to get up between each question they write down. I like to incorporate movement. My middle school students do so much better when they get to move, and it is part of the learning activity. We have done speed questions, where the desks are lined up across from each other and they have one minute to find the answer with a partner, and then they have an exercise until the minute is up: wall squats, pushups, hold warrior 2 pose, standing lunges, etc.
I have started shaking the hands of my students when they enter the class, and that has surely caught on. Eye-contact, touch, and I tell them I am happy to see them. It starts the class off with good vibes. Good vibes are important.
I also have funny little traditions with my classes. In 8th grade English, the students take a picture of my outfit because I don't like to match, and they like to document my outfits. I have one student I make sure to tell I am going to be at school on Friday, and I tell him every single day all week long. If people drop their pencils, I take them and keep them on my desk until the end of the day. Just silly things. Yesterday my windows were getting replaced in my room, and we wrote goodbye notes to the windows before they went to their doom. " Stay cool window." " Keep in touch" "Rest in Peace."
Things I need to work on are organizational. I am not surprised. Are you surprised? You should not be surprised. Organization is the thing I struggle with in every aspect of my life. But, the relationships are strong. I work with what I have, and I am improving. In 28 years, I will have it all down. Right?
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