First Day

I love this job. It was a great first day. I have a very good group of students. I was up at the Institute wake up time of 5:55 am and somehow I was wide awake. I was able to get to school early and make some last minute preparations for homeroom and the rest of the day. I put the agenda on the board, straightened my stacks of papers, and then went down to the cafeteria to meet my homeroom class. Once the class lined up we returned to the room where I introduced myself and shook each student's hand (a practice I saw on one of our TFA videos and something my roommate does as well). It helps the students make a transition and leave anything bad behind in their last class. Part of my training emphasized "creating a welcoming environment" and this is the start. I did it with each class and most students responded positively (the others were simply quite surprised). It's something I'll do each day.

Homeroom was interesting due to the bell schedule We didn't follow it; instead the office dismissed us. Homeroom went longer than expected and I'm glad I had back up activities to do. We first played the name game where students said their name and something they liked. We went around the circle and each student had to repeat all of the names before his or her name. This seemed to go over well and it allowed the students to burn off some energy by being out of their seats.

Each class period was pretty much the same. I had students fill out a survey about themselves and then we discussed my rules, positive and negative consequences, the Super Scientist Friday system and the Super Scientist Money system. The last two are the behavior management systems I'm using that address the students as a class and the student as an individual. In the first, each class is given 15 minutes at the beginning of the week. This 15 is the class' to lose or add minutes. If the class is efficient for each part of the period, then they gain minutes proportional to the time gain. If the class is inefficient, then they lose seconds. This helps with minor disruptions like talking to neighbors, rustling papers, or anything else that makes a teacher stop a lesson or set of instructions for a task. The difference between rewarding with minutes and penalizing with seconds is there because positive incentives work better than disincentives, and therefore I'd much rather put the focus on the students working to gain efficiency and save time.

The money system is your basic token economy where students earn money based on their academic and classroom behavior each day. This money is then used in the store for school supplies, homework/bathroom passes, and other reasonable suggestions by the students. I made it clear that I don't hand out pencils or other materials. If those are needed, they may be bought at a premium price (due to buying them when the store is not open). Students will keep an account and so will a class treasurer so that I do not have to take on extra work.

While it was the first day, I made sure that some academic learning took place. I did a demonstration called "sewer lice." I told this story about my friend who graduated with me and went to New York to help with the sewer lice problem. He goes down into the sewers with protective gear and a net and scoops out sewer lice so they don't clog the sewers. You see, they are these small brown creatures that cause lots of problems in pipes. My friend gets paid $100,000 a year for this job. He recently sent me some because he knew I was teaching science. I bring out this glass container filled with these brown things and some greenish liquid. I ask the students to make observations and to answer whether or not the things inside (the sewer lice) are living. The students came up with some interesting on both sides. Some said that because of the air bubbles around the "lice," their movement, and my description of them as organisms, they were living. Others said that because they were shriveled and not in their environment that they were not living. After these answers I praised them for thinking like scientists as many make these types of comparisons and observations each day. I went on to explain about using reason and the five senses and one of those senses being taste. At this point, I reached in to the jar and pulled one out and ate it. Luckily, it was a raisin in mountain dew. Of course, most of the students thought it was the grossest thing ever. I then made my final point about science. You cannot just accept what you read, hear, or see at face value. As a scientist, you have to gather data, you have to observe, you have to inquire, and you have to seek the truth. I hadn't let them get too close to the demo as they would've smelled the mountain dew (and I let them know this). Almost all had a big smile on their faces and seemed to understand my point. It'll be something memorable I'll return to each time we discuss the purpose of science.

I said at the beginning that I had great students today and it's true. I know, though, that the first few days are the "honeymoon" period. The students will soon be testing my rules and consequences to see if I'm actually serious about what I said. Middle schoolers are quite good at catching insincerity, inconsistency, and when your promises fall short of your actions. The rest of the week will be focused on getting the procedures and rules learned well along with focusing on team building skills, which we'll build upon during the rest of the year.