Keeping the motivation going

As I write this, I am thinking about the events of the last few weeks. Since my last post, I find myself still struggling with the same issues. That being said, I will not discuss that here. On, a bright note, a few of the students have figured out that I am still in college, and the dynamics have changed a small amount. One of my low readers was walking with me at the end of the class and I asked him why he didn’t like to work in class; he simply told me it was because he found reading so hard and that he didn’t like it. So I told him that I understood that class could be tough, and sometimes we had to do school work that we may not like very much. He asked me how would I know, and I told him that I knew because I had a lot of homework that I was going home to, and that if I didn’t get it done I would fall behind in my class.

                I still have problems with him being motivated to actually read during class; I think part of that is a “cool” persona he is trying to uphold. We were going over our workbooks today, and they were asked to correct the things they missed, and this poor kid had a big ugly F in his and he was pretty upset about it. I sat next to him and talked with him for a minute and looked over his book and discovered that some of the answers that were marked wrong were actually right. I brought this up to my MT, where, after looking through her book discovered that she used the wrong key to grade with. I went back to him with his corrected book, and he was so startled to see that he had a B. He was really happy for a few minutes, then he decided to just close his book and not work for the rest of class.

                I’m still trying to find my own path in this class, but there are days where I really do feel like I’m drowning. The reading skills are so challenging for me when I want to be creative and make my students really think about their reading. I have looked at sever websites that are designed for ESL classrooms, but even with those I feel like the plans are beyond my students. My teaching is coming up early next month with no real clear direction from my MT. I feel that the lessons that I make for this class are going to be challenging for me, yet with this struggle I will find a better part of myself in my ability to create a lesson that (hopefully) engage my students.

                I am always on the lookout for new material and ideas on how to manage a class that has not management. I have actually bought a CHAMPS book that will hopefully give me some good management insight. I’m actually learning that when these kids have something really positive happen it takes them by surprise, and changes them for a moment, and then its chaos again. I will keep my head up and keep marching on.