I am joining Elisabeth from The Dirigible Plum in writing a Haiku-A-Day during the month of December.
Haiku-A-Day December #14: Frustrated Friday
Picture high school students off task - cell phones out, checking their latest Snapchat notifications, viewing You Tube videos. Students talking over me, lots of giggles and raised, excited voices. If you could have peeked into my classroom this morning, this is what you would have seen.
My students are not usually allowed to check Snapchat or watch You Tube unless it is a part of that day's learning activity. Students were supposed to be finishing up a written reflection about learning from recent guest speakers. My students were engaged, but not with anything academic from my class. I used the proximity move - hoping that physically standing by students off task would remedy the problem. That didn't work. I gently (and privately) asked students to put away their technology. That didn't work. I used turn-and-talk followed by a full group share out, calling on random students. That didn't work either.
To my surprise, there is no full moon on the horizon. No upcoming storm. It's just Friday and the week before Winter Break. There is a lot of energy that I could not harness, and most of my students didn't show up wanting to learn today.
In reflection, my lesson plans were okay. I was prepared with teaching provisions. I shared my learning targets with students. I tried to get students moving and talking. I held students accountable for conversation. I did my best to be responsive for my students' needs.
Yet today was a day that I felt like nothing worked to nudge my students back to work. I got so frustrated. If I am honest, I don't feel like many professional teaching books or blog posts share enough about difficult teaching days like today. For me (and most teachers I know), these frustrating, difficult days happen.
I already know that I will spend a lot of time carefully planning next week's instruction this weekend.
In reflection, here are today's thoughts in a triple haiku:
Is there a full moon?
Has a pressure change occurred?
Extra energy
makes me wonder if
external factors create
classroom chaos here.
How can I create
conditions for meaningful
and worthy learning?
How can I create
conditions for meaningful
and worthy learning?
I really like these double and triple haikus you write. This post made me remember soooo many similar situations in my own classroom when none of the solid strategies or tricks work. The final question is so powerful.
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