reach 106 Assignment 1

After careful thought over the course of several days, I finally was able to organize what I wanted to describe as my high and low points for the first two weeks of school. In terms of a high point, I think the majority of my students in all four math classes are becoming familiar and comfotable with me and the routines we have. We have spent a lot of time drilling procedures and I am happy to say that the procedures are coming along pretty well. They know how materials are distributed and collected. They know how to transition from carpet to the desks and vice versa. They know what they do when they come in the room at the beginning of class. In this respect I feel very confident that the flow of procedures will continue to get stronger as the weeks go by.

Where I have encountered a lot of frustration is in the area of the the core value of responsibility. With the exception of one class, I have anywhere between 5-8 students who are not prepared for class. They come into class without their folder, or with the folder ripped up or shredded into pieces, no progress report, no homework packet, or a homework packet with incomplete homework. Too many students lost their folders in the first few days of school; some have completely destroyed them. Every single day I spend an enormous amount of time checking the homework and hearing the same excuses. I hear things like, "I lost it; I left it at home; I left it in the car; I don't know, etc." Responsibility is such a huge value, and I know that if I want them to be responsible then they have to understand what that word means. I have to be relentless and continue to go after them, but it is overwhelming to track for 80 students. They lose their recess, but this does not seem to be having enough of an impact on changing their behavior. I have begun to make phone calls home to inform the parents that homework is not being done, and some I have had success with and others not yet. This problem of the homework is frustrating and draining. This is the biggest struggle Ihave had thus far.

In terms of the behavior management system, the children know how to move their clips and they know what the pictures mean that they pull out of the cups. They know they have to put it behind their number on the pocket charts. THey are good at being able to identify which behavior breaks which core value so I am very happy about that. Doing this system for 80 children is quite a task, but it is being done.