A Classroom Experience

My experience as a high school math teacher has its ups and downs to stay the least. i think that by the end of this experience, if there is an end to this experience, i will have gained some huge insight into the way that people operate in a general motivational sense. what motivates people to do what they do?

why do feel like wisdom is laying at my finger tips and and unity is right around a corner that i can almost see. i feel so close yet so far away to making things work.

it is funny... classrooms are such DYNAMIC places... they change depending on who makes it to class, who walks in when, who has to go to the bathroom when, and it depends on the mood of EACH student AND especially on the mood of the teacher. It depends on how hard or easy the material being presented is. It depends on if all the students are on the same page academically, if they are all on the same level or if some are bored while others are struggling. it depends on if the teacher is prepared and organized, it depends on the seating chart, it depends on the rooms temperature, it depends on whether or not there are a lot of random announcemnets. a classroom is an ever changing never stagnant place where people have to learn how to work as individuals and in groups and channel their own needs into ways that benefit the group, and the group has to learn how to meet the needs of each individual.

Today in class we had our first class party, and it was awesome. 

I feel like we (the class) bonded. 

Jeremy

(my built 6'3'' freshman who 

can't stay in his seat, 

copies me while i'm lecturing, 

distracts others by talking to them and making ridiculous scenes, and who 

often flat refuses to do work...

 (perhaps because he doesn't know how)) 

shushed people today because he wanted to have our 15 minute party at the end of class 

with soda and brownies. 

Mind. 

Blown. 

i have two students who really know how to make my day. both are students who tend to have behavior problems. they need a lot of attention and need to have their achievements acknowledged, but they are both so worth it. to see their faces when they are happy is the biggest blessing anyone could ask for...it tears at my heart to think of them feeling rejected or unloved or hopeless or even like they can't do math (because they ought to feel like they are intelligent enough to succeed at whatever they want to, and that there are people who care enough to help them). i don't want to be the cause of any negative feelings in these two young men. how awesome would it be if they could learn to communicate their needs in a clear respectful productive manner! They would be able to grow SO MUCH more. What if they could see that other people have the same problems as they do, and that the behavior of other's is influenced by those problems too...What if they could see what it was that was influencing their own behavior, and not put the blame on how others behave or treat them. That would lead to some GOOD MEN.

Take those last three sentences and replace "they" with "I". Mmmmm. I'm gonna end with that -- chew chew.