Coming Back

Getting back to teaching after two weeks of virtually no-stress (well, some...) up in Colorado with the family and friends was a little tough. I only really had to teach for 3 days, since the first two days of the week were training and inservice days. I do love those inservice days.

The kids were pretty calm, and I was happy to take advantage of their rejuvenated spirits. We got back to reading our novels, recapping the stories, and getting set for next week's Six Weeks/Semester Exam. It's very strange, down here, with a winter break BEFORE the semester is over. I don't know why that happened, but I'm not going to ask too many questions.

Over the break I got to thinking about how much trouble I could have gotten into at school, yet didn't. I know that I was a good kid, but there was the occasional day where I would goof off a little in class, or make up new games to play while getting work done. I tried to compare my 9th grade year to my students, and felt like I should cut them a little bit more slack in some areas, (namely certain types of behavior), but still find myself in awe of the differences. If I assign homework, I have to spend the next two weeks reminding the students and collecting assignments just to make sure my students don't fail for having not turned in work. I can have a completely orderly classroom where 95% of assignments are completed and turned in, but homework assignments are treated like junk mail. The story is the same in all of their classes too, and for just about all students. I get the feeling that homework was never really stressed early on, and it's now somewhat of a joke. The only problem is... I don't see it as a joke, and I do my best to make sure my kids know that in education, they should ALWAYS be learning, not just in school. If they have to get a few zeroes and make up class credits because they fail to turn in classwork/homework projects, then that's a lesson that they need to learn. Ugh... I just wish I didn't have to sound like a broken record to get things in three weeks after they were due... (Seriously, I NEVER missed a homework assignment, and to the best of my knowledge, my friends didn't either.)