I found senior skip day to be most valuable about my previous week. Seniors are the majority of students in my classes and it was nice to have a free day to catch up. I completely forgot about senior skip day and it was a nice surprise that I would be able to use my lesson that I prepared the next day. I feel it was nice to have a free day to grade papers, make exams, etc. during the day because I was falling a little behind. On Tuesday, I gave a really hard Accounting exam and a student came during their study hall to review with me. I handed the test results back yesterday and he came to me and said how happy he was with his grade and said it was because we reviewed before the test. That was a nice aspect of my week.
If I were to change an aspect of my previous week it would be to have more thoroughly investigated the on-line classroom I developed for my Computer Applications courses. I thought I had everything figured out with it but as soon as my fifth period students logged on, they immediately began chatting with each other on the QuickPost feature. Soon after, I heard a female student exclaim, "I AM NOT A LESBIAN!" (after she was reading what other students typed about her on QuickPost) Boy oh boy, to top it off, I was getting observed! So needlessly to say, I disabled the QuickPost feature and class was back to normal. Also, something else I would have changed would have been with the on-line classroom. I have the students upload their activities to the online classroom but there isn't a way to re-save what the students uploaded so they can see what they did right/wrong and the comments I inserted into the Excel file.
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Isn't Senior Skip day great!! We're trying to introduce it once a week! Just kidding! But it was nice to have a day to catch my breath. I try to keep up with the grading as soon as it comes in. And I do mean as soon as it comes in because I'll have students asking about their scores the very next period. When I give accounting tests or quizzes I grade them as they are handed in. Some students may take 20 min. to finish and others (but only a few) will take the entire period. Typically I can have the tests graded the same period that the test is given with the exception of the one or two that are held on to until the end of the period. It's the writing assignments/papers that take me some time to grade. I like to go through and read all of the papers before grading them to get an understanding of the work that I'm getting as a whole. I'm not familiar with the classes that the students have had and the expectations that were held for them so I try to look at all of them before commenting and grading. I don’t want to be too critical or hold the standards too high if that is not what the students have had in the past. I’m still learning to balance expectations with reality; and, that reality can be a class in which 50% of the students have IEPs.
ReplyDeleteWell, I’m glad to hear that you were there to disable the QuickPost feature! LOL… that’s a very good lesson for all of us! You’re going to be a great teacher. You have such warmth and a zest for life that I know the kids will really enjoy your classes. Keep pushing, we’re getting there!
It is nice to have a surprise day or even an extra period that you can get some other things accomplished. I had such a day, but mine was on Thursday when the eighth graders had to take a national test. The guidance office had forgotten to notify my co-op that this would be happening.
ReplyDeleteIt sounded like you had an interesting lesson with regards to the Quickpost feature. Even when we think we have everything figured out, the students do surprise us.
Have a good week eight!
I know exactly what you mean with the needing to "thoroughly investigate" all activities prior to allowing the students to dig into it. They all have such a knack for finding the little things that manage to make lessons go wrong haha. It sounds like you handled it well though.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could say I have had the same benefits from senior skip day, but that occurred this week on a day when I didn't have to teach anyway due to having to cover ISS for a period (as we do twice every six day cycle) and it was a day when we had neither personal finance or career prep (the classes which I have taken over thus far.) So, the classes were lighter, but I didn't have to teach as it was haha.
Anyway, it sounds like you're doing a good job. I wish I could sit in on some of your classes. I always thoroughly enjoyed your lessons in IS&A last semester. Good luck the rest of the way! The end is near ;)
It is so great that you had a student thank you for helping with his test success with the review that you created. This is the ultimate payback!
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