Another full day!
March 12 was the last day of the unit for the 6th graders. I spent the first three classes grading their packets as they turned them in. It really is time consuming.
Discipline:
With many of the students finishing their assignments early, there was a need for them to have an activity to do, or they started distracting the kids that were still working. Mrs. Christensen spent some of her time telling students to sit in their seats and work on their menus, but they didn't have any consequence for being out of their seats and talking, so they didn't listen. They had menus to work on, but many didn't bother. The menu wasn't graded, but it would help them get the job they wanted for their restaurant next week. The ones who didn't care, didn't do it.
Teaching Techniques:
The students had to gather all their assignments for the unit, then put them in order, and staple them. Some of the assignments were already graded, and others I had to check. If they student hadn't put the papers in order, they had to re-staple their assignment with everything in order. this was part of her focus on following directions. Part of the purpose in grading during class, was so students could correct their mistakes. A major focus was on how they spelled foods on one page. They had the names of everything written for them, so it was mostly just copying. I was amazed at how many still spelled words wrong. Some would spell the same word incorrectly three or four times. I felt that it was important, because it would help them be fluent in the terminology they needed in cooking and nutrition, and to help them understand ways to acquire terminology and fluency within a specific content area. Grading them during class made it easier for recording after school, because they would only need to be entered in as done or not.
Classroom management:
The sergers were crazy all day! I had to re-thread each one about four times each class. Since there were two sergers and three classes, this added up. I am mentioning this in classroom management because having working machines helps the kids stay on task. The hardest part was having three of four kids waiting in line as I had to re-thread and test the machines. This left many bored since they had to wait to serge before they could do the next step. These kids got bored and restless, and distracted the others. The noise got out of hand at a few points. Mrs. Christensen shared a good idea with me to help this. She has four or five sergers, and usually keeps a few threaded with the same color so if one stopped working, another could be pulled up to use. She didn't have them then, because some needed to be taken to the shop for repairs, and others had different colors of thread for projects students in another class had been working on. Preparedness is so vital! I wasted a lot of class time checking sergers, if I had been the only one there, the whole class would have had to wait for me to work on those machines.
3 comments:
Good points to know about sergers in a clothing room. Isn't it amazing how it affects management which affects discipline. It sounds like you would like there to be consequences where you saw none. How will this shape your own practice? Full credit.
Crazy! I guess I lucked out on my sewing time. The class was so small and there were plenty of sergers to go around. I could not imagine trying yuor hardest to get them threaded then 2 seconds later to be a mess again. Crazy!! That would be so frustrating. Not to mention how you said the students were getting restless. What a juggling act, GO KIM!!!
The same thing happened in the sewing class I was observing, but not quite to that degree. There was a shortage of working sergers and the two that were working had a few gliches through the day. It so crazy how something like that can throw the whole class out of order.
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