Brand New Week, Brand New Course

Today was the start of a new week. It was definitely an “experience-filled” day. I started off the day excited about a new course that I’m teaching called “Social Skills.” It has an interesting curriculum that helps students mold their abilities to productively and effectively interact in social situations. Since that was the later period of the day, I will get back to it later.

I also teach a math study skills class in the morning. Last week, only two students were listed in the class, and only one student reported. Since it couldn’t fit with many students’ schedules, I was told that it was probably going to be cancelled. Therefore, I was planning to have an inclusion class during that period, so I did not plan for my study skills class. Mistake. If something is EVER “probably,” then you need to prepare for it. But it wasn’t too big of a deal. I had given the one student who had come the previous class period a diagnostic test on that day; therefore, I worked with him on some math skills based on what he did on his test. Meanwhile, the other students took the diagnostic test and filled out student questionnaires. Crisis averted.

During my planning period, I went around trying to make copies for my last period class. The two copier machines downstairs were not working; consequently, I had to try to use the copy machine in the library. The only problem was that my id number doesn’t work on that copy machine yet. I felt bad using somebody else’s number, so I just asked them to copy the EXACT number of people that I saw on my roll. Again, mistake, but we’ll get to that later.

So, I stood outside of my classroom ready for my social skills class. As the kids trickled in, I realized that some of them weren’t on my roll. No big deal, right? This is when I remembered that you always should print extra copies of worksheets.

Anyway, so the class went well. There were a few (…interesting?...) moments, though. After I went over the syllabus with the students, I told them that we were going to have an exercise in social skills as we would come up with the rules together. The first rule the students came up with was that they would need to raise their hands to speak. Great, I agree. The second rule that a student stated was, “no rules.” For the life of me, I am not sure why I was not expecting that. But anyway, I rolled with it. They told me that they were old and mature enough to know what to do and what not to do. I explained to them that they thought they were old enough to know what rules to follow and which rules not to break, and I would be happy to hear more examples of them. With that, I erased “no rules” from the list and continued with the exercise.

In terms of today’s class, it was a good learning experience. I definitely need to have more differentiation on Wednesday. I had to talk to a few students out in the hall, and I had to tell one student to stop hitting on an adult who was observing the classroom. But, all in all, I thought it was a good first day, and it is going to be a good, although definitely challenging at times, semester.

Until next time, peace.