On a brighter note, I am glad to say that state assessments are soon approaching. I have been doing some really fun things to help the students review. We have played a couple different jeopardy games and a lot of different games on our new smartboard. I have a ton of resources for activities with the smartboard thanks to my CT, so shoot me a line if you need any fun things to help with review items for Language arts state assessments. I used most of my materials for 8th graders, but I know all of them can be adapted in some way to help different grade levels. More and more each day, I am looking forward to state assessment and can’t wait to see how well my students will do. I will continue to keep everyone update and look forward to any and all suggestions.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
It's Mrs. Hart not Amy
Time seems to go by so fast. I can’t believe I have been teaching for a month now. I am really excited to be teaching a novel study along with doing test review for the state assessment. My students seem to be doing well, but I still have a few challenges. I continue to struggle to reach those few students who need to have the control of the classroom. I try to be the disciplinarian however being so close to their age I am still finding it difficult for them to take me seriously. I am working on when I say I am going to do something, I do it. But what else can I do? I have given lunch detentions, taken pencils away until they had to do their work, sent kids out of the room to be refocused, and even called home. This seems to be a never ending battle and I am starting to feel defeated. I think the worst thing that I have still not been able to correct is one student who finds it necessary to address me by my first name. When I introduced myself to the class at the beginning of the semester I told them my name was Mrs. Hart. I have not told anyone my first name but my id badge says first and last name. This student either just trying to be smart or just plain out being disrespectful refuses to stop calling me by my first name. I have asked and told him my name is Mrs. Hart. Today, when he decided to call me by my first name, I pretended I didn’t hear him. He repeated my name again and I responded, “Does anyone know of a student named Amy because I don’t know of any Amys in this class.” This made the class laugh a little but I am scared to think that this is all he was wanting. I know this isn’t really a serious problem in some people’s eyes but this is a problem to me. If I have a student trying to call me by my first name, I feel that it is not helping my quest to gain respect. Any suggestions on what I can do or say would be greatly appreciated. With all of this drama I am afraid to look in the mirror because I don’t want to find any grey hairs.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Amy,
ReplyDeleteI can understand your frustrations. At the beginning of the year, I had some students who tried to call me Mr. W. "Really," I asked, "is 'Mr. Whitman' that difficult to say?'" Most of them corrected themselves, but one actually had a hard time saying "Whitman," so I let it slide. In your case, however, you should maybe ignore any comments or things that the student says when addressing you by anything other than "Mrs. Hart." Set the expectation: "I will not acknowledge you unless you call me Mrs. Hart." I agree that it seems he's vying for attention, but that's about the best I can come up with.
We too have been practicing for the reading assessments. I've incorporated some review sheets for bell work activities, and the students seem to be doing fairly well.
Best of Luck, "Mrs. Hart!"
-- Nathan
I work with seniors who, admittedly, are often taller and even older looking than myself. Most of my student, however, did not have difficultly seeing me as an authority - I hope - based on the fact that they ALL consistently called me Ms. Nightingale (or just Miss)as soon as class started.
ReplyDeleteThis was interesting to me, because I always introduce myself (gasp!) as Elena OR Ms. Nightingale. I know, I know, the debate can rage all day about whether or not students must learn to use titles, and I'd be happy to contribute my thoughts, but for the sake of this conversation, suffice it to say that for the past 3 or 4 years I have been more than willing to use first names with students. However, I have found that "Miss" has been so ingrained in students' heads that remembering or using my first name rarely happens.
I suppose I am saying all this to offer this comfort: if a student is using your first name, at least they are aware and responding to you. By all means correct him or her, but take peace in their communication of awareness of you.
Best of luck Mrs. Hart!
~Elena