Friday Night Football
Cheerleading season has gotten off with a bang—well more like the beginning of a loosing streak. The hardest thing about football is that we don’t win a lot of games. The score right now is 28-0. It’s hard on the kids. . . shoot, it is hard on me. . . my allergies have flaired up and I’m coughing, sneezing and can hardly breath. I’ve got a doc appointment for the morning to get some more Allegra D. I’m loving my laptop more and more b/c I can blog while watching “my babies” lose. I love them dearly, but they just can’t handle football—I just watched the 5th injury of the night. Poor babies. . . I just hate it for them.
School is going. . . .well, except for 6th and 7th periods. Seventh period is the worst. I’d been planning activities that get the kids involved, instead of straight lecturing. This week, I attempted to do a 4 square cooperative activity. 7th period got nothing accomplished. So here is the new lesson plan that I will always use for 7th pd b/c they can’t handle anything more. Guided Reading (20 minutes), Lecture & Note taking (10 -15 minutes), Pop Quiz and/Essential Questions. I instituted it today. This way they will stay alert and on task b/c I’m sick of the noise and lack of cooperation. Maybe in March, their behavior might change and we will do things a little differently. It was so quiet a one point you could hear pin drop.
Teachers out there, do you have any alternative solutions to this problem? A last period with inattentive, unruly, uncooperative students? What do you do with them?
Cheer, Teaching Strategies | Miss Teacha | 
August 31, 2007 8:30 pm
6 Comments
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By Ms. V, August 31, 2007 @ 11:08 pm
First I read something inspirational.
Check for 2 pens or pencils
Seven minutes of silence while they do daily grammar.
Correct daily grammar.
Two Minutes of Questioning (of me…)
The lesson
At the end I do four minutes of formulation where they write nonstop
Six minutes of summation.
This seems to keep them hopping. From one thing to the next. A nod to Halford, wo gave this to me…but it works.
I just keep setting the timer, and there we go. They don’t have time to get in trouble, and 6 & 7th periods are tough for me too.
By BtheTeacher, September 1, 2007 @ 12:50 am
I’d stick with the lecturing and guided reading… at least for awhile. Once the students start to shape up, add in a couple of cooperative structures, such as communal poetry or a hands-on activity. I would say to do it on a Tuesday or Wednesday (never a Friday, lol) and only for 10-20 minutes. Just make it as structured as possible
Good luck!
By Miss Profe, September 1, 2007 @ 6:49 am
Last period of the day is a challenge – for both students and teacher. I teach on a block schedule, and so I have the kiddos for 95 minutes. I think that there should be a balanace of structured routine – things you do to begin and end the class – along with lecture, group/pair, and individual activities. Variety is also important. I don’t know if you are on a traditional or block schedule, but, look at the time frame, and decide on things which are keepers – the routine builders – and the things which you vary from day to day. I hope this helps.
I’ve tried varied instruction for them. Its been three weeks and they are NOT doing well. Discussions are ALWAYS a bust and the kids who are really interested and trying to learn are struggling. I have what I call workshop time in which they share their work with a partner to get it correct and then we discuss as apart of the large group–BUST. They did nothing with it but socialize;even after i set up the parameters. As I was monitoring I was mostly trying to get kids back on task; it is the most fustrating feeling. When I gave them a timed guiided reading; the environment changed. When I give them notes back to backandthey continue to write there is more focus on learning from them . . .i try to vary my instructional methods . . .i do this with ALL of my classes except for them. I’ve made this crazy vow that I’m going to grade everything they (7th pd) turn in and give it back the next day so that they can see that they can have it the easy way or the hard way.
By frumteacher, September 2, 2007 @ 2:33 am
First of all, I hope your allergies are better! I also started having breathing problems again when school started. The whole summer I felt great. I guess it’s the combination of the unhealthy school environment, the talking, and the stress. Hope you feel better now!
Teaching a last period, especially with a big non-cooperative class, is a real challenge. I even teach 8th period on Monday, with my most difficult class. Haven’t been through that yet. I am still trying to think of ways to make them tick. In civics/history class there may be more options than in grammar class, but did you think about audio or video (DVD) lessons? If you are studying a certain book, you might put on an audiobook and have the kids read along with it. Did you check the learning styles at your student information cards? You could try to adapt your lesson to the learning styles of the students this 7th period, even more than you would normally would. If they prefer working in groups, or have a kinesthetic learning style, then maybe this is the period to try it out.
I keep following the comments to this post, because I am still at odds about what to do with my class this 8th period.
By frumteacher, September 2, 2007 @ 7:53 am
Aah, and something else that could be nice is this. When you are finished explaining a certain grammar issue, in stead of letting the students do assignments from their workbooks, let them make their own assignments for the student next to them to make. It’s a great way to check if they understood the material, and they will probably like it!