I'll try not to be too much of a debbie downer in this post, but some days are just plain hard. Unfortunately, today was one of those days. Going into school this morning, I felt like I had a good, solid plan. I'm still recovering from my beginning-the-year cold, but I felt pretty good. Then, first hour happened. We were playing a game, which I thought would be super fun, but my students clearly didn't think so. They were sleepy, cranky, and just not in to playing charades or bingo, or speaking German at all. It can be so frustrating to have what you think is a good idea for a lesson, only to see it flop right before your eyes and not have a backup plan. Ugh...so that was first hour.
My other German 1 classes were just ok, and my English class went pretty well. I gave a quiz in my German 3 classes today, so those classes were pretty easy for me. By the end of classes, I was still feeling pretty good...sniffly and tired, but pretty good. Then we had a staff meeting. Then I had an English department meeting. Then I had a world language department meeting. (I really do love being able to teach German and English, but double duty department meetings have gotten old fast) By the time all the meetings were over, it was 4:00. If I leave before 4:00, I usually have a pretty good shot of making it home in an hour and twenty minutes or less. If I leave any later, even 10 minutes later, that'll add on about a half hour to my drive. I've figured that I either have to leave by 4:00 or after 6:00. Seeing as the meetings were done at 4:00 and I'd barely done any prep for the next day, it became clear that I would be leaving at 6:00.
(Quick side note: It's ridiculous how much extra stuff there is to do and keep track of that's not actually related to teaching, blurg.)
Anyway, I planned, made copies, and cleaned up my classroom (it had looked as if a tornado had come through...so much construction paper everywhere...), and by 5:00, I was done with prep. Then, I decided to grade those quizzes from my German 3 classes. I almost wish I hadn't, because, after grading them all, it became clear that my students were not ready to move on with the next lesson. Their scores were terrible. It was so disappointing and confusing. I don't think that I'm that hard of a grader or that my expectations were unreasonably high, and most of my students had said they felt good after the quiz....but something was off with their sucess-senseometers or my expectations because most of my students bombed the quiz. So then, at 5:30, I had to come up with a completely new lesson plan and materials for the next day. The quiz was on an important topic, and we can't move on if their quiz scores are true indications of how well they understand (or don't understand) the material. I feel like moving on without some review would just be setting them up for failure on the chapter test.
Anyway, I didn't get out of school until 6:15 or so. By this time, all the Day-Quil I had taken earlier was gone, my nose was leaking, and my head was pounding. Also, did you know that driving West around 6:30 happens to be the perfect time to catch the sun when it's too low for your sun visor to block it out, but still incredibly bright? It is. Also, my ambitious hour and ten minute goal for my drive home turned into an hour and fifty minute hike, due to accidents, because, of course, that would happen today. As much as my cold and my drive were bugging me, the thing that was really getting to me were those quiz scores...
How could they have been so low? We spent five days learning and working with this material. There were homework assignments, fun activities, two days of making and going over notes only one page long. This also wasn't the first time I've taught this material. I clearly remember teaching it last year in two days to my freshmen German classes during student teaching, and they all seemed to get it. I used many of the same methods and materials this time around, and after five days, my classes full of juniors and seniors still weren't getting it? Huh?
One thing to consider is that last year, I was teaching in Ann Arbor, and this year, I'm teaching in Macomb. Many of my Ann Arbor students were obsessed with getting into a good college and getting a stellar ACT score when they were only freshmen. Most students didn't question that they were going to go to college, and many assumed they were going to go to UofM or an even better school. I'm quickly learning that not all of my students at LCN plan on or even consider going to college. It's definitely different - but I don't think at all that my students at LCN are any less intelligent than the kids in Ann Arbor. I think it's more of a different attitude in the community over there - definitely not a college town. Anyway...I feel like I'm rambling...I'll get to the point.
My feeling is that it's an issue of expectation of the rigor of the German class. In Ann Arbor, many, certainly not all, but many students were very academically-oriented and were ok with working their butt off in class and doing homework. My German 3 students, from the sound of it, are used to playing a lot of games, semi-frequent parties, and no homework (not that homework is always a measure of rigor, but whatever). I think that what might have happened with this quiz is that they are still getting used to me and what I expect for them to be able to do on a quiz or test. Even though I know I stated explicitly what I expected in class, and we practiced what the quiz would be like in class, I don't think they 100% believed me that I have definite, high (though not unreasonable) expectations for them. Maybe they'll believe me when they see their quiz scores tomorrow...
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