username : aho

Ah, Mission Accomplised. First Day of School behind me, pretty much everybody showed up, and only one class with too many kids. My curriculum the first half of the year is computer based, so too many kids is not an option. There is no where for them to sit and nothing for them to do. That doesn't always mean anything in public school, but there is a waiting list to get into my school so we have to give them what we promised them - a second chance, an opportunity to catch up with their peers and graduate high school on time. I started off with the usual, this is how my classroom runs, see how it looks, see how it sounds. Normal plethora of interruptions you get in any school. One class with a few kids trying me, testing my boundaries. Turns out the ringleader had issues with his bus schedule, a tough morning, and came to his school to find it had changed from a cozy one level cohort of 100 to a teeming mass of 300. Coming from a school of 3400 students and over 200 teachers, it feels plenty cozy to me, but he had gotten used to being the only child. Now the babies are taking over his space and his old teachers, and he has to get used to new ones, so he lashed out. I'll catch him on the flipside. After my Amazing PowerPoint Presentation on How My Class Works, I let my hair down a bit and ask the kids to tell me their "Story" It's a fill in the blank survey that lets them tell me as much or as little as they want about their lives. I got as little as "So and So isn't in class right now, plz leave a message" written in red ink in the upper corner of the paper to "I'm in foster care and I'm a good kid" and "I'm gay and I HATE it when people treat us different". Hear hear sister. Some really opened up, some didn't want to tell me anything more than their names, and even then it had to be doen on their own terms. The most common them was "I am a good person." Some of these kids have had awful experiences in the educational system and are looking for a fresh start. The people I work with all seem more than able to see past their tough exteriors. In the end, no matter how tough a kid acts, there is a child underneath. Tommorow I will do The Amazing Lab Safety PowerPoint, a Lab Safety Scavenger Hunt, and an observation lab.