What do I do?

What do you do when one of your A students finishes all of his work and then takes a nap in your class? This boggles me because I feel that if he has mastered the objective for the day, why bother him? Am I not being a good teacher and using every instructional minute to his advantage? I think that students should have a break evey once in a while. This student is in my Lodging Management class and we call free days "Mental Preparation" days. He calls them "Mental Institution" days. We don't get them very often, but when we do, the students love them.

This is my FYI board. Anything that is happening in school that needs to be posted goes here. The paper to the left is my "Tardy Sign In" sheet. Every student that is tardy has to sign this sheet and come the next day to a lunch detention that is to be served in my classroom. The pretty blue furry string has a pen at the end of it. I provide it for them because I don't want any excuses. I only keep my tardy students for about 5 minutes and send them on their merry little way. I do this because we don't have any real punishment at school for tardies. The Dean of Students is in charge of K-12. He couldn't possibly know every student. He is new this year and lazy. (But you didn't hear that from me!!) This is why our students are running wild on the campus. But I say this, as long as I have my classroom under control, he can not do his job and it won't bother me at all!!!

I made a breakthrough!!!

This picture is not staged!!! On Monday, December 1st I did it. I was soooooooo excited!!! This is one of my special education students. He is severely ADD and has a behavior plan. This is Accounting and he understands it. I have had the hardest time trying to get him to sit down in his seat and not be tardy to class. He actually did the work and got it right!!!! I don't know what I did, but I'm going to keep doing it!!! (Maybe it was just easy to him, but I'm taking the credit!!)

My Mentor

MEET MRS. LOVE!!!! This is my mentor for the second year. She is something else. She tells it like it is and won't sugar coat anything. She has been a teacher here for 13 years. Mrs. Love was my 9th grade keyboarding teacher. It seems funny to be her co-worker now and once was her student. She gives me great advice and we are next door to each other. Great location!!! She has always been someone that I could look up to!!! I'm glad to have her because she keeps me on task the Arkansas Department of Workforce Education. That's another story!!!

Standard Based Bulletin Boards

A Standard Based Bulletin Board is something that America's Choice Design has mandated us to do. Do I like it? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Do I have to do it? YEEEEEEEEEEEEES!! These are all of the things that should be posted: the task, a rubric, student work (with comments). These people confuse me. They tell us to only put up work that meets the standards. Then they tell us to show work that is in progress. I don't know about other teachers, but when I'm finished with a section or topic, there is no going back. So how can work be in progress? I just do my own thing. This picture is an example of my Intro to Hospitality bulletin board. The students had to pretend to be a human resource mangager and create a job advertisement The only thing that I was missing was a rubric. (Now I know how to make up one, I'll do better!!) The Literacy Coach that if I do a little more detail, I will have a model classroom. GO ME!!

Trying to Catch Up!!

It has been something else for me to keep up with this blog. I don't have a computer at home so I have to go over my mother's house to get this done. We don't have public libraries in this small town. This site is blocked at school, so I was kind of doomed!!

Word Walls

At my school, we are under America's Choice. Whe have to do word walls and standard based bulletin boards. I kind of like this because it gives my students a visual. I don't like it because it really doesn't do anything for my students. I honestly think that it takes too much time and effort to keep up with. This is an example of my word wall for my Introduction to Hospitality Class. I teach 5 different classes and every word wall is color coded. It is easier for me and my students.