teaching
When I logged on today, the diaryland site let me know I haven't updated in over 3 months. I guess I should get on that. So here I am updating.
School is going quite well. I'm teaching 2nd grade this year. I started with 13 students the first day, went up to 22, and as of tomorrow will be down to 18. This is a really good group. As a group they are very intelligent, they listen well, and they grasp concepts. (Not at all like my yester-yearers) The biggest problem I have is students that really don't belong in the regular ed room. I have 3 students that are well below level, with another 2 ESOL (non-english speakers). It's difficult to teach when almost a third of the students have no clue what's going on. Of the 3 below level, I think at least 2 should be special ed. I sat down with the one girl DB for almost an hour one day. I had a student helping me work with her on kindergarten sight words. We worked the entire time on 3 words. At the end of the time, she still could not tell me the 3 words. Perhaps it's a learning disability, but it translates over into math and all other subjects.
One of my students is moving tomorrow. I can't pretend that I will miss him all that much. He is incredibly energetic and on a very low level. He is from New Orleans and the family will be moving back to LA. I hope that he gets a good teacher that has the time to work one-on-one with him.
Lately I've been considering my choice for next year. With all the transitions from this year, and last year, I know I don't want to stay with my current school. It is really difficult not to see the progress from year to year (or even month to month).
i think i will be moving on after this year. i love the students here and even some of the parents (i had two in today, a record!), but i need to see the results of my work. i need to see where i need to make changes in my teaching. i need something new.