Sitting here in my chair enjoying basketball and the last day of my spring break, I will be honest I would like a couple more days of this. I'm not ready to go back to school. I know there are many students out there on Monday that will be thinking I was ready to come back. How little they know. I'm not really ready. Like my students I would love to have a few more days.
Guess it is time to look forward to the week ahead and what I have plan. I plan on doing something a little different with my yearbook staff this week. I will have to see how this goes. They are used to coming in and working on their pages, but on Wednesday I am going to give them an evaluation sheet and have them look over the other pages that have been finished. There are are couple of reasons I am doing this. One I want them to see what the others have been working on, but second I would like another set of eyes to look over the pages. I have been looking at these pages numerous times and I still find little things that need to be corrected. I have even found on one page where we totally forgot to list the players and coaches and I don't remember how many times I have looked at that page and not noticed the names were missing.
Since this is something totally different for the staff, it will be interesting to see how it goes. They have had this same routine all year, with the exceptions of handing out pictures and or working picture day.
I have already decided that I am going to talk to my staff on Monday to give them a heads up about Wednesday. That way when they come in on Wednesday it won't be such a shock. I think they will be just fine, but I understand it is hard for students to change things up when we have had this routine all year.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
March Madness
Yes folks, for those basketball lovers, like myself, it is that time again. MARCH MADNESS!!! A basketball lovers dream month, Ups and downs, unexpected upsets and just pure fun!! I love it!!!
But with basketball season also comes the student aspect, sub-state and state tournaments. There are only a few teams that win and a number that don't, however this can apply to any high school and college sport. Having athletes in your class can be fun, your excited when they win and bummed when they lose. I had two such experiences this week, thanks to the Basketball State Tournament.
I have a number of basketball players in one of my classes and after a first round loss at state, they were all pretty bummed. I watched a bit of the game film that was posted with them and tried to help the understand what happened, having played I understand how they felt. I used to have these same conversations with my nieces, we talked about how it is just a game and this is not going to define who they are. The group I have, will all be back next year and there is always next year. They need to keep looking forward.
Even though they may have been bummed about state, we gave them a bit of room and time. However, we did get them to refocus and start in on the project that was do the next week. We are working on movie trailers which has been interesting. We have seen a number of creative trailers from a number of different genres. This group chose to do a parody of Titanic. Needless to say it was hilarious. They had a hard time taping because we were all laughing so hard. By the end of class the guys were feeling much better. Sometimes a bit of laughter can help lift some bummed spirits.
Now on the other side of things, I have a niece that plays and they made it through to the weekend. However, they lost Friday's game and were playing for third. Luckily, since I had just been through this with my group of guys, I switched to sympathizer mode. I talked to them about how, at the worst, they would finish 4th in the state. Fourth is not all that shabby, granted everyone wants to win it all, but it does not always happen. For a number of them who did not play, I told them that things would be different next year when they were on the court.
Now after taking 3rd, their attitudes had changed. They were all excited and taking pictures. Sometimes it is a wonder what a day or a project can make.
Basketball it not everything going on this month, there is also the Spring Fever going around. Students are already starting to check out and looking forward to Spring Break. I don't have a lot of room to talk, because I am too. Granted I have not checked out quit yet, but I am ready for a break and sitting around watching some basketball.
Hope everyone has a great week!!!
But with basketball season also comes the student aspect, sub-state and state tournaments. There are only a few teams that win and a number that don't, however this can apply to any high school and college sport. Having athletes in your class can be fun, your excited when they win and bummed when they lose. I had two such experiences this week, thanks to the Basketball State Tournament.
I have a number of basketball players in one of my classes and after a first round loss at state, they were all pretty bummed. I watched a bit of the game film that was posted with them and tried to help the understand what happened, having played I understand how they felt. I used to have these same conversations with my nieces, we talked about how it is just a game and this is not going to define who they are. The group I have, will all be back next year and there is always next year. They need to keep looking forward.
Even though they may have been bummed about state, we gave them a bit of room and time. However, we did get them to refocus and start in on the project that was do the next week. We are working on movie trailers which has been interesting. We have seen a number of creative trailers from a number of different genres. This group chose to do a parody of Titanic. Needless to say it was hilarious. They had a hard time taping because we were all laughing so hard. By the end of class the guys were feeling much better. Sometimes a bit of laughter can help lift some bummed spirits.
Now on the other side of things, I have a niece that plays and they made it through to the weekend. However, they lost Friday's game and were playing for third. Luckily, since I had just been through this with my group of guys, I switched to sympathizer mode. I talked to them about how, at the worst, they would finish 4th in the state. Fourth is not all that shabby, granted everyone wants to win it all, but it does not always happen. For a number of them who did not play, I told them that things would be different next year when they were on the court.
Now after taking 3rd, their attitudes had changed. They were all excited and taking pictures. Sometimes it is a wonder what a day or a project can make.
Basketball it not everything going on this month, there is also the Spring Fever going around. Students are already starting to check out and looking forward to Spring Break. I don't have a lot of room to talk, because I am too. Granted I have not checked out quit yet, but I am ready for a break and sitting around watching some basketball.
Hope everyone has a great week!!!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Back into the Swing
It has been a strange couple of weeks, with only being at school a 1.5 days last week and only 3 days this week. Then looking forward the students only have 8 days of school before spring break. There is a lot of learning we are going to have to cram into those 8 days.
I will have to say, coming back to school, the students did really well, I even heard a few say that they were ready to come back and they were getting kind of bored at home. I can understand that, I was, truth be told, ready to come back to. My reason, I was tired of being in my house, those walls were starting to bother me.
I did have an interesting lunch on Wednesday, I had finished and was going to the teachers lounge when one of my students stopped me in the hall. This student was complaining about another student hanging around where they ate lunch and this student was starting to get on their nerves. They had asked tried joking around and asking him to leave, but this student just stayed.
This caught me a bit off guard and I could tell that it was upsetting my student, however, the other student was not doing anything bad, and was eating lunch. There was not a whole lot I could do. So I just tried to hang around and explain to my student that this other kid had every right to be there as much as they did, even though that was there "lunch spot." I did tell my student that if he was starting to get really annoyed he should come and get me, I was always in my room eating lunch, which is just around the corner.
I talked to my student again on Friday and the student told me that they pictured this other student's face on their punching bag and beat it up. I told my student that was a healthy way to deal with their aggression, but to keep that focus on the punching bag and not this other student. I said that it was not worth getting suspended over and I reiterated that I was in my room eating lunch everyday and to come and get me or join me if these aggressive feelings were starting to take over and they felt like they may lose it. I would rather have them in my room then suspended. I will just have to keep monitoring the situation, but I hope what I said has sunk in, but one never knows.
If anyone has any other advice, I am open to suggestions. This student is a good kid and I hope they make the better choice.
Hope everyone has a great 5 day week, which will seem strange after the last couple of weeks.
I will have to say, coming back to school, the students did really well, I even heard a few say that they were ready to come back and they were getting kind of bored at home. I can understand that, I was, truth be told, ready to come back to. My reason, I was tired of being in my house, those walls were starting to bother me.
I did have an interesting lunch on Wednesday, I had finished and was going to the teachers lounge when one of my students stopped me in the hall. This student was complaining about another student hanging around where they ate lunch and this student was starting to get on their nerves. They had asked tried joking around and asking him to leave, but this student just stayed.
This caught me a bit off guard and I could tell that it was upsetting my student, however, the other student was not doing anything bad, and was eating lunch. There was not a whole lot I could do. So I just tried to hang around and explain to my student that this other kid had every right to be there as much as they did, even though that was there "lunch spot." I did tell my student that if he was starting to get really annoyed he should come and get me, I was always in my room eating lunch, which is just around the corner.
I talked to my student again on Friday and the student told me that they pictured this other student's face on their punching bag and beat it up. I told my student that was a healthy way to deal with their aggression, but to keep that focus on the punching bag and not this other student. I said that it was not worth getting suspended over and I reiterated that I was in my room eating lunch everyday and to come and get me or join me if these aggressive feelings were starting to take over and they felt like they may lose it. I would rather have them in my room then suspended. I will just have to keep monitoring the situation, but I hope what I said has sunk in, but one never knows.
If anyone has any other advice, I am open to suggestions. This student is a good kid and I hope they make the better choice.
Hope everyone has a great 5 day week, which will seem strange after the last couple of weeks.
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