Week Three of WBT and Me

This week I think I fell back into some of my "old" teaching styles. Guess what???? They worked as well as they did when I used them last. I left at the end of the class period feeling frustrated and worn out. Monday I will become a new woman...a WBT woman. Two of my classes are becoming lethargic in their "Class-Yes" responses. Not their fault. I take full blame. One of my students, an IEP, even said I was not doing the "class thing" too much anymore. The Scoreboard has been a flop! Tow of my classes beat me and received a reward, but they thought they deserved more. So the plan Monday is to have them generate a list of "free" things they can win when they beat me at the Scoreboard. Maybe this will help them to buy into it more. I also need to spend some time (whenwhenwhen?) looking into Mind Soccer and other fun review activities for Fun Fridays.

With the Scoreboard I was keeping a daily tally so student could see how close they were each day. Maybe the Scoreboard is not visually appealing to seventh grade students? In looking at the board you would think my more difficult students were evident by the differences in the numbers from "them" vs. "me". Not true. My most difficult class is the first class! I also have written with smiley faces what they were doing correctly and what was being consistently done incorrectly. They just do not want to give up their talking, joking, and put downs.

Again from teacherspayteachers, I think is an assess yourself concept. I created the tree map and we really focus on the words novice, apprentice, practitioner and expert. I write an "I can...." statement on a writing strip and the students assess themselves using post-its. Quickly I am able to see who needs what level of instruction. I really stress that the students be honest with themselves. I even turn the board away from the class, so those sitting near do not have the opportunity to see who is ranking themselves how. Seventh grade students are ALWAYS looking for ways to make others feel bad. Students have the opportunity to walk up and around the board to place their sticky note on it.

Posted in the room are the definitions of a novice, apprentice, practitioner, and expert. We review these often. Also I used the same terms with my rubrics for writing. Friday, during a writing one of the students used practitioner within her writing as one of her two mandatory vocabulary words.

Goals:
Grade papers
Prepare for Grade Recovery
Create a project for "Thank You, M'am"
Revisit my presentation for my two lower classes
Implement Scoreboard with MORE gusto