First Week - I Made It!

Well… I made it through the first week of teaching.

My students
I started out summer school with 13 students in my sixth grade English and language arts class (reading and writing class). One of my students has since been expelled and another simple quit coming. The student that quit coming will be expelled if they come back because the summer school program has a policy that if you miss three days in a row you are no longer a student in summer school. The other student who was expelled had an incident take place outside of my classroom and I was told is that he is no longer in summer school and to “cross him off my attendance sheet.”

With 11 students my class is a little easier to handle, but it is pretty disheartening to see students leave that need to be here so badly. I am not sure how I would handle the situations differently, but I know that without summer school the students will be completing sixth grade again during the upcoming school year and are even more likely to drop out when they are able too.

My class consists of all Hispanic students, ranging in ages from 12-15 years old. They all have great personalities, and despite having their moments, are pretty well behaved. My students are all great people, but not the best students. Most of them have set very low expectations for themselves (probably a result of society around them setting low expectations for them), and if left up to their own decision, would not try very hard. Most of my students come to school very tired and it has been a constant struggle with a few of them to just keep their head up off their desks. Another issue we have to deal with is that most of my students come from families where Spanish is the main language that is spoken at home (and sometimes the only language spoken at home). Because of this, many of my students are very far behind in terms of general literacy skills. This hinders their progress is all aspects of their education.

Although I have some days that are very rough and can not wait to get home, I have already become very attached to my students. Their stories are amazing. Many have already been through more in their limited lifetime than some will have to deal with in their entire life, and instead of giving up, they are continuing to work and trying to get better.

My students are beginning to grasp my classroom rules and procedures, which is making my days a lot easier. I have yet to go a day without at least two students in my classroom receiving “warnings” (the first of a five steps punishment system). In fact, I have yet to go a day without having to move a student (second step). I have even had students stay with me and eat their lunch (third step) and it is only the first week. I am seeing some progress though, and with some consistency, I hope they will know how to act in my classroom by the end of the summer without me having to remind them at all.

I gave my sixth grade diagnostic on Monday and found out that none of my students would have passed the fifth grade exam, let alone the 6th grade test they will be required to take at the end of summer. My highest scorer on the 6th grade diagnostic was a 25%, which means that I definitely have my work cut out for me the rest of the summer.