Some of you might have noticed that I haven't posted on my blog in awhile. In all honesty, I had every intention of making blogging a regular thing this year, and then IT happened.
As teachers, we all have years with THOSE classes. The ones that have reputations that seemingly follows them from Kindergarten. You hear the stories and warnings, but say to yourself "It will be different when they are in my class," and "They will surely mature before they reach 7th Grade." Most years we get through the honeymoon period and the inevitable middle school slump as the pressure increases, and then we come out the other side. Usually by the time they reach the end of the second Marking Period, they have matured and settled into their school routine. We have procedures established, and we can go about the business of exploring, working hard and having fun. But NOT THIS YEAR! This year was a bit different. I can't exactly explain what happened, but things that had previously worked just didn't anymore. Activities and assignments that were previously captivating and engaging just fell flat. Starting after the holiday break, things just became more difficult. Students were harder to motivate in class, and many didn't think they needed to do anything outside of class time. In my team meetings we all found ourselves saying, "What has happened?!?"
So what is a teacher do? We still had half the year to go and a lot more content to cover.
You reassess, reexamine and keep moving forward. I had to dig in, not give up. Nights and weekends were spent scouring for new approaches to reach my students. Materials were tweaked, reworked or thrown out all together. Twitter chats became a source of inspiration and motivation to just keep working for all my students. I needed to focus on teaching the students that were in front of me each day, and they deserved nothing less than my best. Fortunately I have a very understanding husband, and my dog is happy as long as he can sit next to me on the couch and gets the occasional scratch and cuddle.
In the end we all made it through the year. I was not able to reach all students in the way I had hoped, but I know that I did the best I could. Middle school is a rough time, and I hope that students are able to take what they learned about themselves as learners to start off 8th grade on the right foot. In 7th Grade sometimes we are the transition year, and we don't get to finish all the work we need to do with students. On the anonymous end of the year feedback form I give, most of my students said they enjoyed the class and learned new things in Science. Many of them thanked me for making Science fun for the first time for them.
As I reflect on the year, there were a lot of challenges but there were also a lot of successes. I discovered some great new tools that I will continue using in the future, including Plickers, Quizizz, Formative, and Quizlet Live and the amazing power of sketchnoting! I moved away from whole class instruction and gave more opportunities for choice in what and how they approached a task. It has led me to my direction for next year, which is more of a blended learning approach.
My most difficult students have in fact made me a better teacher.
I have no doubt that in my career I will encounter this again before I leave the classroom, but I will see it as an opportunity to rise to the occasion and up my game. As teachers we have students in front of us that we are charged with teaching to the best of our ability each and every day.
We have 180 days to make a difference in the lives of our students.
It is not always easy, but it is ALWAYS WORTH IT.