I was completely delusional about how my first day this year would be. Here's why:
1. By the end of last year I was lucky enough to have built really good rapports with nearly all of my students. I was able to joke around and have fun while still maintaining discipline. I was genuinely happy to see my kids walk through the door every morning, and instead of meeting them with stone-faced, rigid management, I took on a happier, more laid back persona. They really responded well to it and at the end of the year, I had far fewer discipline problems than I had at the beginning of the year. Seeing those students in the hallways the first day was easily as exciting for me as it seemed to be for them. They gave me hugs, asked about my summer, said they missed me... What a feeling! What I forgot was that I had laid the ground work for all of that at the beginning of last year. I tried to be the best disciplinarian I could be (even if that wasn't very good). I was fresh out of summer school, fresh out of Dr. Monroe's class. I was just fresh.
2. Despite everything that Teacher Corps preaches about the first day, first week, first month, first semester... all of that stuff about "not smiling until Christmas" and "sending someone out on the first day" and "not letting anything slide".... it was like a totally forgot it... or OK, I'll admit it, I guess I was just a little cocky. I thought I could just walk back in and have that same rapport, that same laid-back demeanor, no management issues. WRONG!
Luckily for me I got a little mileage out of being around last year. The kids had either heard about me or seen me in the halls, but it was clear that by the end of the first week, things were far too laid back. It wasn't that kids were being disrespectful or talking out or slacking on work. In fact, I didn't have to give out anything worse than a warning, but that felt wrong. I was supposed to send a kid out of the room on day one! I was supposed to give warnings for sneezing!
I realized that what worried me wasn't poor behavior. The kids were fine. The problem was that I was being WAY too friendly. The kids liked me. At first they're supposed to be afraid of me, right?
So at the beginning of this week, our first full week, I laid down the hammer. I gave warnings for crumpling paper, coughing too loudly, standing up half way to grab a pencil. I gave my lunch class "silent lunch" because one student laughed in the hallway on the way to the cafeteria. The amazing thing is that the kids haven't seemed to stop liking me. They just seem more scared. I think that's good... but this is still only my second go around, so who knows.
1. By the end of last year I was lucky enough to have built really good rapports with nearly all of my students. I was able to joke around and have fun while still maintaining discipline. I was genuinely happy to see my kids walk through the door every morning, and instead of meeting them with stone-faced, rigid management, I took on a happier, more laid back persona. They really responded well to it and at the end of the year, I had far fewer discipline problems than I had at the beginning of the year. Seeing those students in the hallways the first day was easily as exciting for me as it seemed to be for them. They gave me hugs, asked about my summer, said they missed me... What a feeling! What I forgot was that I had laid the ground work for all of that at the beginning of last year. I tried to be the best disciplinarian I could be (even if that wasn't very good). I was fresh out of summer school, fresh out of Dr. Monroe's class. I was just fresh.
2. Despite everything that Teacher Corps preaches about the first day, first week, first month, first semester... all of that stuff about "not smiling until Christmas" and "sending someone out on the first day" and "not letting anything slide".... it was like a totally forgot it... or OK, I'll admit it, I guess I was just a little cocky. I thought I could just walk back in and have that same rapport, that same laid-back demeanor, no management issues. WRONG!
Luckily for me I got a little mileage out of being around last year. The kids had either heard about me or seen me in the halls, but it was clear that by the end of the first week, things were far too laid back. It wasn't that kids were being disrespectful or talking out or slacking on work. In fact, I didn't have to give out anything worse than a warning, but that felt wrong. I was supposed to send a kid out of the room on day one! I was supposed to give warnings for sneezing!
I realized that what worried me wasn't poor behavior. The kids were fine. The problem was that I was being WAY too friendly. The kids liked me. At first they're supposed to be afraid of me, right?
So at the beginning of this week, our first full week, I laid down the hammer. I gave warnings for crumpling paper, coughing too loudly, standing up half way to grab a pencil. I gave my lunch class "silent lunch" because one student laughed in the hallway on the way to the cafeteria. The amazing thing is that the kids haven't seemed to stop liking me. They just seem more scared. I think that's good... but this is still only my second go around, so who knows.
