Lessons Learned So Far: Teaching, Year 3, Entry 1

Since I have had many visitors lately, it only seems fair that I write the blog I should have written months ago.

Year 3 has a bit of a twist, because I changed schools, which means relearning many of the things I had already learned at the last school!

1. The teacher and the classroom are symbiotic creatures. We're lichen. This is something I had begun to understand a little at my last school, because my classroom and I were getting along so well. In my work, that classroom was my right arm. I knew how it worked, I knew the trouble spots, and I knew it better than my students. Changing schools to a new classroom has got me missing my right arm a little. We're starting to grow on each other, though. (I think I just heard some science nerds giggle...but maybe it was just me.)

2. Culture matters. I know we all say it, and we all recite it in our BTSA and credentialing essays, but it's still kind of jarring to actually come across the evidence. I moved from one low income school to another low income school, both with similar social issues, and similar household statistics. They are extremely different students. The school itself is extremely different. Even the culture of colleagues has its own beat to learn(There: Teachers used more last names of colleagues when discussing things amongst other teachers, here: First names, almost always. I'm still playing the matching game of which first name goes to the last name I learned from listening to students discuss their teachers!) Often it's the little things that baffle you in the change, such as at the old school the borrow pencils couldn't have erasers on them, the students would destroy them, at the new school the students can handle the erasers on the pencils, but will thrash the large spare erasers left on the table. Why the difference? I. Seriously. Don't. Know.!!! What is the psychology here?!

3. BTSA still sucks. But it's not as scary as it used to be. I think perhaps that lowers my efficiency in it. All I know is that any small dregs of fascination I once had with it are gone now. If it was a toy, it'd be in the Goodwill box already!

4. The "Are you a sub?" question returns upon changing schools. Dang, I had just finally put that question to bed with the students at the last school!

5. Old technology. New technology. They'll both steamroll your day someday. Whether it's the computer that fondly recalls the debut of Oregon Trail as the good ol' days, or the shiny new projector that experiences epileptic fits when it sees light on the screen, it's always best to be ready to teach that lesson in a more creative fashion if necessary!

6. Students like control.  Gasp! What?! I know, "Thanks for that, Señora Obvioso!" But rather than just complain about the obvious, sometimes it's good to establish that this fact regularly causes problems, and try to work it into a few solutions. I have tried the whole, "You will stay in this classroom as long as it takes until you tell me what was wrong about your behavior." (Oh goody, a show down) And believe me, some of those students would have spent their summer vacation in my classroom if I didn't find a way out of that corner I painted myself in.

7. Give them better ultimatums. Let's face it, if you're being held late individually by the teacher, odds are, you're already in a lose-lose situation, and one "lose" option allows you to brag about your resilience to your friends when the teacher finally has to let you go to the next class. However, give a student the option in the form of "Lose&Win or Lose&Lose", and you'll find the student in a more reasonable mood. Example: "You're staying 10 seconds late if you can tell me what was wrong with your choice earlier, or a full minute if you can't." No coercing, no pleading, just the facts. (I have a timer. I use it obsessively. They know it will be an exact minute.) Either way, you're staying, one way lets you shorten the stay and get on with your life. I tried this one week. Kids who would have gladly waited 15-45 minutes to stick it to me with my previous approach will fess up with full details in 10 seconds.

8. Make it their problem. You may remember from previous LLSF entries, I have borrow pencils. Big, fat finishing pencils, this year from Lowes (I like these especially because they have the motto "Never stop improving" printed on all of them. Good statement for a classroom). I have magnets strapped to them. They get 5 new ones stuck to the board every quarter (The old ones are removed). If someone forgets to bring one back, then they only have 4 spares until the end of the quarter. If someone bites them until they're nasty, then they have bitten pencils until the end of the quarter. If someone saws a hole midway through the pencil (I have no idea how that was done), it is what it is. The regular borrowers learn, if they want a pencil available, they better put it back; if they want a nice pencil tomorrow, they better not destroy it today. It's their problem. If something goes awry, it is not my job to fix it, and thus, there is no point in messing with the pencils to mess with me when you're cranky. The next part is the part I'm really getting better at this year: when something does go amiss, gently remind them that it would be great for the class if the pencil found its way back. I'm not going to yell at you if you took it accidentally, because it's not my problem. Everybody knows it went missing in 5th period yesterday. If you don't want to look like "the class that made it so we only have 4 pencils", it might be a good idea to bring it back. For the first time ever, we got a perfect score (all 5 pencils made it to the end of the quarter) by the 2nd quarter this year. It took until the 4th quarter last year.

9. The kids you really want to scream at are the kids who really want you to scream at them. This one goes back to #6. Control. If they can get you to lose your cool, then you are in no more control than they are. They have proven that you are just as unstable as they feel. They knew they couldn't lean on you for support all along, because you're irrational. There are some specific students who really feel the need to test this every stinking day. If you give in, and raise your voice, you're finally entering a battle that they can win. They know all the tricks. They have all the perfect button pushing lines on speed dial (and they know they work, they've tested them out on their parents ahead of time). Let's face it, they're kids. They're just flat out better at irrational shouting matches. At some point, your reason will kick in and remind you this is idiotic, and force you to back down. The odds of the student's reason debilitating them in such a battle is extremely low. Don't go there. Send them out instead!

10. Children forget that they are good at learning. Children are the best learners in the world. They pick things up with an alacrity that is the envy of everyone who misses that ability, and yet we have several generation of children that are scared to learn, because successful learning has been defined as something completely unattainable. People have a lot of negative things to say about Common Core. And to be honest, there are a lot of negative things about Common Core (although, often the actual negative things and the spoken negative things are not in the same neighborhood), but before everybody gets up in arms and starts defending the "good ol' days" let's recall that the good ol' days as they stand now are pretty sucky. The last system of education had become a place solely of telling kids to sit down, shut up, you don't know anything, here's what you need to memorize to be considered smart. There are actual official directions (IN POSTERS AND BOOKS) that warn teachers not to let students play with ideas, don't let them share ideas without teacher approval first, or take guesses and try them out, experiment, or come to their own answers through logic, because- much like Thomas Edison- they might not get the answer right the first time. Don't let them think it out; it's dangerous! This is the classroom the students have learned how to learn in, and so as science does its little tap dance of glee over being told by the Common Core that the students need to learn to "figure something out through experimentation" the students' eyes grow wide with panic. You give them a situation, tell them to make a prediction about the outcome and their mouths go dry. How are they supposed to know? You never told them the outcome. This is terrifying to them. However, give them lots of chances to play with things, to work things out, to be the ones who hit upon the answer before their peers, and you'll see them start to realize something: Thinking is fun. It's just a very slow awakening process, and I have to remember to be patient, and give gentle nudges as I wait for them to be brave enough to try something (cotton, coal, wire...anything!) until a light bulb comes on.

11. Ask more questions. Whether it's in a disciplinary situation, helping with student understanding of a concept, or even when greeting a student in the morning, questions are important. Asking someone a question implies that they already have important information stored up, ready to access. Too often, as a teacher, I assume I probably already know the source of the confusion or problem. Too often, I end up wasting a lot of time trying to explain the molecular description of density, when a student really understood all that, she just wanted to know how to pronounce "molecular."  Too often, students assume that they are completely, and hopelessly lost, and when I ask questions to figure out what they already understand, they realize they did understand it, they just didn't think it could be that simple. Too often, I assume that a student is just in a meddling, cantankerous mood, when I finally find out that the student's parent got arrested last night, and the student is just overpoweringly concerned about the rumors flying about campus.

12. When you tell the students to stack their chairs on the table before they go, maybe make sure that everyone understands what that actually means. We have special chairs that allow you to rest the seat of the chair on top of the table, while the legs dangle underneath the table. It's great. Make sure, however, that you do not assume that because there are 35 students doing it correctly in the room, that the one new student will look around and do as they do. If you do, you will wind up with 35 chairs neatly tucked onto the table, and one chair literally sitting (feet and all) on the top of a table, looking out over its peers, wondering why all the other chairs in the room are so short...

Lessons Learned So Far: Teaching, Year 2, Entry 2

What a classroom looks like when you move classrooms entirely on a Thursday night. Blurry vision intentionally incorporated into photo.

39. Talk less. Designate the task, give the directions, assign the roles, and turn them loose. It works a lot better than lecture lessons.

40. Use fewer tones. Have a happy tone, have a directions tone, have a last warning tone, but leave the drama tones to the theater. Kids are easy panic triggers. If your tone becomes higher, faster and frustrated, you lose them to panic before the message is transferred. In discipline, keep the matter of fact tone, go lower, not higher, pace words evenly.

41. Blame the system. You don't have to do it because I say so, you need to do it because this is the way the classroom works, and I don't want to send you out, but if you break the classroom system, I have to... Suddenly, it's just the machine works of the classroom and school, no longer an evil teacher being mean and unreasonable. It never seems to phase them that the system you blame is the system you created...

42. Sometimes, clearly spelled out mercy works better than harsh punishments.

43. End the class every period by telling them to, "Get out... and have a good day!" and eventually, whenever they leave your classroom or presence, they'll make sure to wish you a good day before they leave every time. It's nice. Say it a minimum of 6 times a day, and get wished it a minimum of 100 times a day.

44. Students are entirely different people when in entirely different teachers' classrooms. 'Nuff sed.

45. Narrow in on one classroom management area at a time. If you feel you need to improve the class exit procedure, do that, but make that your baby. If you try to fix 7 different management issues, you'll be scattered and frustrated, and so will the students. If you focus harshly on training one item for a week, and then make a new focus next week, while maintaining last week, the students will learn what is expected better than trying to demand two new procedures at once.

46. The teacher needs as much classroom routine practice as the students do.  Making sure that the students push their chairs under the tables every time they get up takes as much out of you to remember to enforce regularly, as it does for them to remember to do it regularly. (Hence lesson #45)

47. Blame yourself. True, there are things that you cannot take credit for (Some kids will never study or do homework), however if the thing is, "This class just won't be quiet."or something of the like, blaming the students only gives you the excuse to quit trying, blaming the yourself makes you start looking for sources of the issue, and strategies that can curb the problem before is starts.

What happens when you listen to student ideas for the door decoration.

48. If a student in your class has good study habits, a strong understanding of how to behave appropriately in a classroom, how to talk to peers, how to treat teachers, or any sort of thing that would make a person want to say, "He's such a good student!" then you probably need to thank their teacher in the grade level before yours, because no person is naturally a good student, it's a vocation that must be taught. (Parents deserve a lot of credit too, but even "good parents" have kids who act out in a classroom because mommy's not looking right now)

49. Teach some of your students how to run your classroom technology! You never know when you're going to have sub whose highest technological skill is using a touch-tone phone, and will be completely incapable of running the slides you left for class, let alone be able to turn on a projector or unlock the computer when it falls asleep.

50. Hinging on #49, whenever possible, grab your squirreliest kid and throw him onto running the slides for the day, or queuing up the videos. He'll pay better attention, feel important and necessary, learn technology, and maybe actually remember what happened in class that day! (And, you'll know exactly when he's goofing off, because that's when the slides on the projector screen will start fritzing out... :-/ )

51. If you work on a subject for a really long time, so long that you as a teacher want to vomit if you have to hear or speak the word "inertia" again, and work on it in several different ways, making the students work the concept out in writing, lab practice, reasoning, discussions... you'll be relieved when the unit is over. The zinger is, you'll fall out of your seat in shock when 3 months later, you explain how satellites stay in orbit, and the students raise their hands and say, "Isn't that just using Newton's 1st law of motion?" Suddenly, hearing the word "inertia" will make you want to kiss someone.

52. Really, really, really invest in the classroom relationship. Own up to your mistakes when you make them, or they'll never stop holding them against you. Don't burn bridges by losing your cool. Don't insult the way a student is doing something, because then you have insulted the way their brains and hearts work, which is who they are.

53. Appeal to the ideal side of the student, even if you only see it every once in a while. Point out the good attributes that you catch sight of in them and tell them that's who they really are, because, at this stage in their life, they really have no clue who they are. Take advantage of their confusion and nudge them towards their best sides.

54. Let them cry. They do that. Especially during adolescent years. Acknowledge that they feel hurt. Expecting them to suck it up and soldier soullessly through their trials is unreasonable. Allowing them to take a moment to cry it out, and then jump back into life, lets them acknowledge the issue, and then acknowledge that there is life outside of that issue.

55. They know when you're just trying to pass the time. They sense when you're unprepared. They may never say anything (though often they will), but they know. Every time. You can see it in their eyes.

56. They can be really, really sweet and helpful. And that's nice. Even though, sometimes you'll spend an hour outside of class time trying to undo something they good spiritedly "helped" you with, the good spirit is still rewarding to see.

57. They break your heart. The thing that makes you reevaluate whether or not you can keep doing this vocation is not the piles of paperwork, hassles from coworkers, the long hours, the parents, the piles of homework, or the adolescent behavior... the thing that makes you really wonder if you can keep doing the job is the heartbreak. With over a hundred little souls, every day, laying claim to some small portion of your heart, the odds are high that a few of them will fall down so hard that they shatter that portion of heart that they were clinging to. Odds are at some point you will have to find some alone time to overcome the heartbreak.

Lessons Learned So Far: Teaching-Year 2, Entry 1

1. You're never fully dressed without a smile.........Unless they are seriously in trouble.  If you're always good humored and smiling, then the moment the straight face appears, the fear sets in. Very handy.

2. Don't judge books by covers: Some of your most fantastic textbooks will have gum and poorly rendered drawings of things that the book wasn't originally intended to teach. Some kids present as excellent students, and yet will do no homework, pay very little attention, flunk tests, and put gum in your books. Some students will look like they're in an open-eyed coma, and come out super genius whenever their names get pulled, test scores come back, and homework gets turned in.

3. Never trust the schedule. Never. Not for one minute. Never. Never. Never.

4. No matter how thoroughly you have thought through a plan or system, until you test it on people, you will still never get all the kinks thought out ahead of time.

5. Teaching students sitting in desks is a very different process than teaching students seated at lab tables.

6. It's visibly filthier to have carpet flooring than linoleum.

7. The Promethean board is awesome.

8. Apparently, you can have too many student aides. Never would have dreamed it.

9. 8th graders can break marbles, even at table level. Seriously, it happened.

10. Someone will always attempt to steal the lab equipment. I don't know why, because we only use cheap lab materials. Hopefully, it'll be one of the broken items.

11. When purchasing a skateboard, buy one with metal axles, not plastic. 8th grades can break those, too.

12. 8th graders are capable of more than they let on. They are capable of more than they understand. They are capable of achieving high goals, if they are given the careful framework to get them there, and you refuse to ever doubt your expectations.

13. Whether they have to take the CST or the SBAC- at the end of the year, they still have to know science and how to think. That's a big enough task to worry about.

14. OneDirection is not as cool anymore. This makes using tricks from last year's slides work less. Darn pop culture.

15. Matter of fact works way better than frustration when dealing with discipline moments.

16. Crack down on unwanted behaviors fast.

17. Don't over help. If they need a pencil, remind them that they know where the borrow pencils are. Don't get it for them. Or else they'll just wait for you to do it next time, too.

18. You're part of their transition to adulthood, make sure you're an effective part. Junior high is the beginning of child to adult mutation. They have to learn about appropriate behavior in the work environment. It starts with junior high teachers, if we insist on it.

19. Put a line in the hallway and expect students to be in it before they enter the classroom. Their brains work soooooo much better that way.

20. Require the first five minutes of class to be silent work, and then go to the mat for the silence. It's amazing how much the behavior and focus improves if they have to practice containing themselves for 5 minutes every day (Also, they get their homework copied down much faster).

21. Simple rubrics are the most wonderful things in the world. Make some. Make them broad enough that they apply to multiple assignments, but narrow enough that when someone wants to argue the grade, there is a rule sheet to reference. Teach them how to rubric themselves. Show them to the parents. Quality, performance, attitude and metacognition improve. Arguments, excuses, and grading time decrease.

22. Teaching is more than informational. Teaching requires to see individuals. Teaching requires knowing when to reach out and offer help, and when to allow problems to resolve themselves. Teaching is knowing when to do a student a favor, and when to do them a favor by not doing them a favor. It requires knowing where to draw the lines. Knowing which student needs nothing more than a fist bump and nod in the hallway, and which one needs to hear, "Are you okay?" Teaching is figuring out what each individual defines as respecting them as people. Teaching is hard.

23. The moment you call the tech guy in is the moment the projector will get jostled by a careless kid and magically start working. If you're lucky. Otherwise, the tech guy will actually make there, jostle it himself, and then look at you quizzically, as if you didn't try every useful and useless trick in the book first.

24. Sticky notes are like 20 dollar bills. It's handy to have a stack of them, and they disappear fast.

25. If you like your prep, remember, next year you could easily get moved from 7th period prep to 4th period.

26. Fourth period prep makes for an optimum restroom break.

27. Dang...

28. Love your librarian. You don't realize how valuable she is until she disappears for a few weeks.

29. The food shack across the street sells large fountain drinks with the "good ice" for a dollar. Pepsi products!

30. The second year is leaps and bounds better than the first.

31. BTSA's main reason for existing is to suck the life out of the minimal amount of free time you have.

32. Science fair. It's a love hate relationship. You have to drive the students into their projects by using pitchforks and torches, and then the students chase you down during every single one of your spare moments to talk about the projects non-stop, asking questions you've already given them notes on(and they usually forget to remind you which project they're working on, which can make listening very interesting), but they weren't listening to the directions at that time because they hadn't picked a project yet. But then... they are talking to a teacher about science, during which time they ask questions, and there's a spark in their eyes that says "Sometimes science is really fun!"...and then you think: I love science fair...even though it tries to eat me alive.

33. Don't let that one kid who loves to waste time use the pencil sharpener. Especially if he is also borrowing your pencil. Enough said.

34. The second year can still be really difficult and overwhelming at times.

35. Instruction for English Learners changes severely when their Native language is not Spanish.

36. Sometimes, when school is out, you have to learn to step back and say: No...today I am not a teacher. I am not spending the whole day grading things, or working something out on the computer for Monday. Today I am going for a walk, taking a nap, doing my Bible study, hanging with friends...any thing but teacher stuff.

37. Sometimes you still have to be a teacher, and sometimes you talk above mentioned friends in to grading things with you.

38. When you plan a lab, carefully set it up, plan out all the steps, decide how to divide the students, decide how much of the lab you will guide and how much they will, decide what they will write on their papers, what they will turn in, buy all of the materials necessary, plus extras. That way, on lab day, while you are sitting under a table during a surprise earthquake drill during half a period, you can sit and think about preparation. And you'll wonder why you forget that drills always seem to coincide with lab days...

Lessons learned so far: Teaching, entry 3

41. Junior high students will do nearly anything for an ink stamp on their paper! Tell them you will give them extra credit for turning in their homework on time, nothing. Give them a stamp on their pages to mark their extra credit, and suddenly every student is clamoring, "Where's my stamp? How do I get a stamp?" and homework turn in rate increases by 60%.

42. Buy cheap stamps. Certain junior high students will steal your stamper no matter where you put it. Especially if it was expensive. Twice.

43. Returning after spring break is like going to the zoo and finding out it's your job to potty train 20 monkeys all at once with time limit of 50 minutes. Expect to be pelted by lots of poop.

44. They grow up. Right in front of you. Not just height, either. Sure, sometimes, you'll turn around and say, "Hey, wait a minute, weren't we the same height yesterday?" Other times you'll look at them and see the eager, bright eyed, quick to please children, desperate for all the attention you can give. Most of the time you'll look at them and see the surly teenagers they intend to be for the next 2-12 years. But, every rare once in a while, you'll see them make a selfless decision, use common sense, deal with a frustrating situation with maturity, use integrity, or show great responsibility, and for that moment you are privileged to see what fantastic adults they might someday be. That's a beautiful moment.

45. You should brag on them. Especially in front of them. Every chance you get. To other students, other teachers, their parents, other kids' parents, your parents. Some students don't have many people in their lives who brag on them for anything, let alone education. Some students have parents who brag on them, but you know kids at their age: what do their parents really know?

46. Even though you'll despise yourself for it every time you do it, tie the current ridiculous heart throb boy bands(currently OneDirection/Justin Bieber) into every concept possible. Something with that much passion behind it, whether loved or hated, will be remembered.

47. Notice every little change for the better, even if it's not yet enough.

48. Learn a long list of positive adjectives and use them often. "You put the erasers away? Have I mentioned how fantastic you are, today? Oh, well then, you're stinking fantastic, thank you! I really appreciate that!"

49. Don't let them get away with stuff. Just because you're being all warm and fuzzy doesn't mean they get to disrupt the class or ignore procedures. Demand perfection, at least then they might achieve acceptable.

50. KEEP TRACK OF EVERYTHING! Did you ask that student to stop clicking his pen 3 times today? How many times did you ask him yesterday? Last week? It seems frivolous, but it matters.

51. Come up with a system that works with your brain. You can try everyone else's systems, but if you don't adapt them to your brain, you won't use them, and then you'll just be disorganized and ticked off. It may be a perfect system for Mr. So and So, but if it doesn't work for you and you can't adapt it, it's crap, get rid of it.

52. Try stuff. It doesn't matter if it's the middle of the semester, quarter, week, or day. If something could use improvement and you come up with or hear an idea you think has merit, don't save it for next year. Plan a little, find the perfect moment, explain what's going to happen, and then do it. If it works, dance for joy. If it doesn't work, try it again. If it doesn't work again, adapt it a little, try it again. After that, maybe set it aside for more tinkering at a later date.

53. Stick with new things. Don't just try it once and then throw it out if it went bad. If you introduce something new, the students will balk because "we've never done this before!" Explain it clearly and confidently. Give it a week. Let them understand classroom=ship, students=crew, teacher=captain, mutiny is not an option, plank walking and keelhauling are, though. Usually, they catch on and even appreciate it, after they have learned that no amount of kicking and screaming will be rewarded.

54. They have to try the kicking and screaming thing every time just to make sure it won't work this time.

55. Remember to love them. This may sound funny, but honestly, sometimes they will drive you to the brink of insanity, and if you forget that you love them, you'll start to hate them. You knew when you signed up that junior high students are crazy people. If you love the crazy people, they're easier to tolerate when they're about to push you over the edge.

56. Always, always, always, always, always, ALWAYS have your OBJECTIVE, subject specific vocabulary, standards, and EL standards in prime condition, posted visibly and ready for superintendent inspection. The day you don't have one of those items in prime condition will be the day 5 people from the superintendents' office will decide to sit in your room for 2.5 periods and take lots of notes.

57. Bring Cadbury Cream eggs to the office ladies. Office ladies control a lot. They have many opportunities to giveth and taketh away. They like chocolate. And Cadbury eggs are only 4 weight watcher points, so they won't hate you for bringing a treat they can't have.

58. Don't leave your Cadbury's in the car. If you do, though, the office ladies will still appreciate them, lopsided and all.
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60. When the maintenance people back their golf cart into its parking spot 12 feet from the classroom door, it sounds like the distant ring of the fire alarm (which, if you recall from entry 1, can barely be heard in this classroom). Even though they know it's the golf cart, they'll still protest multiple times: "We're all going to burn to a crisp while everyone else is out standing in the soccer field talking to each other!!!!"  The scary thing is, they're actually more upset that other students might be socializing without them than they are about the idea of being burnt "to a crisp." Oh, the junior high mindset... Be glad you are only surrounded by it, and no long have to live in it!

Lessons learned so far: Teaching, entry 2

21. Take all drills seriously. Really, really.

22. You can't please everybody, when you're working on practicing academic skills,  someone will whine about not doing enough labs. When you get a really cool lab going, someone will whine for worksheets. (Worksheets?!)

23.They'll call every single bluff you make, so you have to make every single bluff they call. Be cool with that.

24. You can get tired of chilli beans for lunch. If you assign lunch detention though, odds are you won't wind up eating the chilli, and then you can pack chilli 3 days in a row, and only actually have to eat it once. Problem solved... ish?

25. Student aides are still great.

26. Shower wall paneling is not the same material as whiteboard. It just looks like it. It writes like it, too. However, it does NOT erase like it. (This is mainly the reason student aides are great)

27. When you make the students do classwork during a drill while they sit under their desks, your reputation as a mean teacher grows rapidly. Own it.

28. Paper is evil. When you need to print on it, it will not be there. When you need to use your desk, it will hold the desk hostage in large masses until you file it.

29. It is easy to get total participation in a "Thumbs Up" question, if the question is either "Thumbs up if you hate Mondays"  "Thumbs up if you didn't want to get out of bed this morning" or "Thumbs up if you are happy it's Friday."

30. #29, though started somewhat in a goofy mood actually works really well for jump starting a halfhearted class or focusing an overly energetic class. Go figure.

31. Candy works if #30 fails.

32. If you ask students if they brought you homework as they walk through the door daily and incessantly, eventually some of them will crack and bring it in. Go figure.

33. If you tell students that every time you see a mechanical pencil "a little part of my soul dies" you'll notice more mechanical pencils appear in the days to come. You will also notice students raise their mechanical pencils, look you in the eye, and click it with a maniacal eyebrow wiggle. Learn to love maniacs, and replenish your soul often.

34. Always review your seating chart. There are some that will never give up trying to sit in the worst partnership combo possible, so you should never give up checking that chart vindictively.

35. Whether or not they know, every public schooled student wants to be homeschooled in some way. They want you to stop at their desk, lean over, smile, and ask them how they are doing. They want to be able to mold their lessons into something that intrigues them individually. They want to be trusted to be responsible with their work, while being offered occasional support/nagging. They want to be given choices in their learning. While they are comfortable with the ease of worksheets, they really want to to be forced to think, even if it takes a lot of force to get them there. They want someone to look them in the eyes and say, "You struggle with this? There's nothing wrong with you, it just means you need a new angle of approach, try this one." They want someone to be intentionally proud of their achievements based on who they are, not how they compare to their class. In relation to that, they want you to be individually aware of when they do not succeed, and they want you to expect better of them, individually. That's a lot of work. It's worth it, though.

36. Any lab you bring in that the students can eat in the end will ensure full enthusiasm and participation from the students.

37. Any lab that should not be eaten at the end will probably end up in their mouths anyway.

38. In a lab involving icing, you do not need to worry about spills, or sticky surfaces. Junior high students have ways to insure not a lick of it goes to waste.

39. Something to consider: If a drop of icing falls on the floor, a junior high student may actually lick the floor. Use this information however it may sway you.

40. Students who understand your lesson quickly at the first exposure make your job easy. Students who completely don't get it, get frustrated to tears, need the concept explained seven different ways, make you give up so many minutes and meals of your "student-free" time explaining it one more time, and then, one day, finally get it, make your job rewarding.

Lessons learned so far: Teaching

1. Always have handfuls of activity ideas that can be applied to practically any subject. Because standing there on a day when the assembly is canceled, with 15-30 minutes to spare and no actual activity planned for this slot of time is really awkward. (Bonus tidbit: "Quiz, Quiz, Trade" is an almost entirely fool proof back-up trick)

2. No plan is fool proof.

3. Put homework instructions at the beginning of  class. Fire alarms go off frequently

4. You can't hear the fire alarm. They're working on that. It makes you look really bad, though.

5. Junior high students are generally incapable of thinking of cause and effect if it extends beyond the next 30 seconds. You have to put a pair of consequences in place for them, one that happens in the next 30 seconds, and the real one.

6. Junior high students do not believe there are consequences for anything. And if there are, they are for other people. Especially other junior high students.

7. If a junior high student was told that he must stop talking, or his dominant hand would be cut off, there would be a lot of new lefties in the world, and a few new righties. (Please refer to lessons 5 and 6)

8. You don't have to read every piece of homework.

9. You cannot be a private tutor to every student in the class, during class. You have to make it worth their while to take instruction as a group, partly by stepping up the entertainment value, and partly by letting them learn the hard lessons a few times.

10. Junior high students have extremely short memories. It means that when things didn't go right in a lesson, the next day is nearly entirely a clean slate.

11. There are 2 kinds of trouble-makers: The attention-seekers and the power seekers.

12. Catch the attention seekers doing right, give them special jobs so that you can praise them.
Give the power seekers duties. If that doesn't work, get them out of the room long enough for you to get the rest of the class in the right rhythm so power isn't as easy to seize.

13. Don't underestimate the power of choices. "You have the option to work cooperatively with your teammates, or be sent out and work on the same project alone. Please make the best decision." works WAAAAAY better than "Work with your team now."

14. Don't sit on chocolate chips. They melt.

15. Get a student aide. It's great.

16. Call parents. Early and often.

17. Never forget yard duty week.

18. Very few lessons will actually be able to be completed during Red Ribbon Week.

19. Ask a lot of questions, in class and out.

20. Don't tell the kids there are dead bodies in the filing room that connects your room to 2 other classrooms. It really bothers them when the lights go on in there and silhouettes start moving around silently behind the frosted window.