Prom

  This last Friday I got the honor of being a chaperon at my school's prom. This is an interesting place to sit around and look at what your kids are like outside of the room. One other insight that this grants you is how well they like you as a teacher. Kids that you may have had trouble with all year come up and are legitimately glad that you are there, while others barely look you in the eye. This can be a rewarding experience, but it can also get to you if you are as tough on yourself as I am. I have had both successes and failures this year like every other year, but it really gets to me when a kid that I think is a good one shows obvious dislike for you. I think that this really makes you reflect on what you have done right and what you have done wrong. For me, what I have done right is show these kids what a challenging class looks like, this is also in some of their opinion what I have done wrong.  Kids can be hard on teachers that do not hand out A's if they are use to receiving those throughout their school life. Also, I have put in another classroom management plan that has not been as successful as I wanted it to be. This plan has resulted in a better overall relationship with the students, but a more lacks atmosphere in the classroom.
   All of these things are irrelevant, as much as you may or may not want to be liked, it is not important. People may not like you in the world and they may not like you in the classroom. What I want them to take away is that working hard even on a tough subject will result in a rewarding experience. I may not hand out a lot of A's in my class, but those that get it deserve it. Those that do not, get a free lesson in what college is like.  Prom is a unique experience for the kids. In a lot of ways it is playing adult for the first time. It works great for kids, and it is a good experience for the teacher to see what kids are like outside the classroom. Overall my first year experience was a good one. This week, I am going to concentrate on several issues that surround the prom season. Tomorrow is the issue of drinking, Wednesday is the imfamous Senior Skip day.

Until Tomorrow,
The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas.  ~George Santayana