Mrs. Eagle and I have always been the type of teachers who are willing to try something new to see if it works with our kids in our classrooms. Foldable notes? We'll try 'em (love them). Cornell notes? We'll give them a whirl (hated them, kids hated them, we don't do them.) Brainpop videos and quizzes? Sure, bring them on (use them a lot!)
So, when nearly a year ago, Admin said they were considering putting together a program (with the help of a prestigious nearby University and members of the staff) to help with our discipline issues, we were all for it. Goodness knows we have more and more at-risk kids walking our halls every year, many of whom have absolutely no support at home. We needed to find a way to keep them in class and learning, rather than constantly getting into trouble and being out the door.
So, it's been nearly a year that our school has been working on this program, and they rolled it out to the faculty (for the most part) last spring right before we left for the summer. Today was an in-service day and we had workshops on how to train our kids on this (gotta love lessons already done up for you), as well as how to reward them and how to do our new discipline referral process.
Gotta be honest...I'm impressed.
Tomorrow and Wednesday we have a two hour block in the morning where we'll be working with our homeroom kids on the program. Lessons are already prepared, posters up on the wall, we're ready to go. From the conversations I've been hearing in the halls, pretty much the entire faculty (and definitely all the admin) are willing to give this a real chance. Good gracious, they even trained the cafeteria people and the bus drivers on the program, so that's saying something!
So, we'll see how it goes. I'll keep ya'll posted.
And in the meantime, let's just hope my class of 36 magically shrinks.
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4 comments:
I love reading your blog and really appreciate your positive attitude! Good stuff. When you have a chance, could you post some details about this classroom mgt initiative? It sounds very interesting!
Sounds interesting! Keep us posted!
I'm a little jealous. I am anticipating a tough year with larger classes and one less dean. I wish we had a proactive approach in hand!
Our inner city high school has been trying "Capturing Kids' Hearts" for a couple of years now with mixed results. Some teachers and classes handle it well, for others it is a disaster. Attitude of the teacher has lots to do with it.
Let us know how the program works! You sound really excited about it-- I just found your blog recently- I love reading what you have to say. I am a first year teacher beginning to teach in a State Tested Subject Area-- YEAH- scary :)
P.S.-- I had a class of 35- they "magically" shrunk it to 33- just hoping to get below 30!!
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