It's been 2 weeks since checking in on my blog and I had a student ask me about it yesterday! Oops. Without having my mom around to complain if I miss a post, I often procrastinate. My mom would call me if I missed a day, concerned about why. This semester I have an overload-- 6 classes instead of 5, so I'm feeling busier. I started swimming again at lunch twice a week to keep myself active. I actually posted my Professional Practice Goal as swimming 500 yards in 15 minutes twice a week. I know it's not really "professional" but it's about self care and staying healthy as a teacher during this difficult time. I'm overloaded, the pandemic is dragging on and I'm dealing with record numbers of students who are disengaged in my class. It's exhausting. BUT overall my classes are going well. Animation is the most time consuming class, not yearbook interestingly. The only discipline issues I seem to deal with is kids are are not engaged in class -- they stare at their phone, on Tik Tok or watching Netflix. They aren't disruptive. Kids are so rarely disruptive anymore, at least not in my classes. I have kids failing in all of my classes except Yearbook. They fail mostly because they rarely come to class and when they do, they don't work. I make rounds, after giving instruction to the class, asking kids who aren't working what they need. Students so rarely ask questions and seldom ask for help. If I sit back and work on other things, kids will sit back and just fail. There are a few kids who can't take the confrontation. They rarely push back, they just leave. There is a culture change and it scares me a bit. There are a lot of students who are avoiding life. What happens to those kids after high school? I try not worry about all that. I know I'm on my last few couple of years teaching. It makes for a nice balance in the scheme of things.
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