1/4 through

It is hard to believe that I have nearly made it through one fourth of my first year in my own classroom. Yep, Friday the 29th will mark the last day of the first quarter.  There have been a lot of firsts for the quarter. First try at management, first time arranging the desks, first time disciplining a student that is mine and mine alone, first time decorating my classroom and the list goes on and on. I can assure you that I have changed everything on that list more than once.  Next week is the debut of my new classroom management strategy.  I have been talking to some fellow, and very wise teachers who have given me lots of sound advice.  I am going to try and use the money system of earn/pay to encourage positive behavior and curb the tope three negative behaviors in my room.  I have five rules in my classroom, and they are not hard to follow. In theory.  This week we have been working on rule number two. Rule number two in my class is "raise your hand when you have a question or an answer." This is a simple rule but the cultural tendency of shouting over someone else to get your voice heard tends to overrule that. The number one rule of my classroom is "Show respect." The concept that one general rule or idea can cover more than one specific topic is so foreign to them. However, help (I hope) is on the way.  Today, I think was a record for my kids for time owed to me after school.  We spent 27 minutes today in silence because since they continue to waste my time, I will waste theirs.  I think, with this blog post, I was going to write something fantastic but I got interrupted by facebook and a phone call. Right now the social studies assignments that are sitting on the table are just screaming, "Grade me! Grade me!!!" So, that is my little voice telling me I should be sensible and grade the assignments so  I can go to bed at a sensible hour!!!  Signing off...