This week went pretty smoothly. My mentor teacher has been having substitutes in the mornings, so I've been getting accustomed to working and collaborating with other teachers. It's been an interesting week, and I've experienced the positives and negatives to substituting. I'm not sure I have the personality or the patience to choose the career of a substitute teacher!
In reading, we've begun the novel Tears of a Tiger. We're taking it slowly at first, just a few pages at a time, until the students get the hang of reading and then reviewing the text. I created a journal with many prompts and assignments; I combined these into a little packet that each student is responsible for keeping and filling out after each reading. Most of the prompts are summarizing questions, but there are also plot reviews, and critical thinking.
We're getting closer to the end of the 9-week period, and the students are finally getting into the hang of "school." Most of the students' grades in my classes are poor, and my mentor teacher and I are wracking our brains trying to find ways to help them bring up their grades in the time they have left. They seem so unmotivated, or plain disinterested! Motivation is something we can try to address, but how do you "fix" a class of 8th graders who just don't care?
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