Somehow six weeks of this school year have already come and gone. It seems like the other day we were all coming back with our new teacher clothes getting ready for the kiddos. I think that it is important to reflect on the first few weeks of the year and see what is going right and what is not going so well.
My students are collection of characters that keep me on my toes everyday. I always thought I wanted the classes with all of the smart kids. This year I have realized that having the most academically minded students in class is not the best thing for my class. Yes I do think that it is important for students to be focused on their grades. But the kids I have the greatest success with are those kids that are struggling in their core classes. These kids are not interested in literature or math but in going outside and getting their hands dirty.
In these first weeks I have realized the importance of identifying what each kid is going to be good at after high school and building upon. I don't believe that everyone is meant to go to college and it is important that we try and develop a skill set for a student that will help them get a job instead.
So as I ramble on the things that are working are the hands on lessons that allow the student to do manual labor and develop new skills that will help them survive in the real world. I am teaching them to change light switches, fix their lawn mower, and repair sheetrock to name a few. These things are skills that you cannot learn from a textbook.
There are still somethings that we need to work on. I need to integrate more reading and writing into my lessons to develop that set of skills since they are just as important. I need to do a better job of planning and find new ways to reach all of the students. We'll see how it turns out in 6 more weeks.
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