Substitutes....

I unexpectedly had to have a sub last week... and she was a little nervous to be in the art room.
She had quite a bit of trouble with one of my classes in particular- problems that I have never had with them. They are generally a very well behaved class- there were a few others that I was worried about but not this one. They had trouble listening, following directions, 2 boys cut their art shirts (!), throwing things, etc. I am really shocked that they would behave this way and don't want to let it go just because I wasn't here.

Anyway, my question is this: If you have a sub and there are behavior problems what do you do? She didn't know which kids they were- so I can't address individual students. Also they are 1st graders and I had the sub last Monday and don't have them until this Friday (a long time for 1st grade)! Their teacher had them write apology letters- however, I want them to know that this is not an acceptable way to treat another teacher.

Homework Completion

I am currently working on increasing completion rates for homework in all of my classes. I have noticed that students who typically fail my classes or are receiving lowers letter grades have done so not because of poor test results (although on rare occasions this is the case) but rather because students fail to turn in their homework. Because homework makes up 40 percent of students' overall grade, this can have and does have a dramatic impact. My next goal is to try and implement new strategies in the classroom that will increase homework completion. Some of the things that I will try to implement include allowing students to start their homework in class before they leave for the day. Also, I plan on grading their homework on a much more regular basis. In addition, I hope to try to create new types of homework that allow students to see the relevance in the material and how it should matter to them. Lastly, I plan to differentiate my homework so that it reaches all learners of of different styles and learning types. Although I have given students choices in the past on which homework items they can complete, I will continue to do this as it seems to be rather helpful for students of all levels of learning.

SIOP

So at the high school our goal is to have everyone SIOP trained this year, which is happening through building in-service time. To be quite honest, I am feeling overwhemed with the MANY strategies, expectations, and truly understanding all of it. I do however, understand that it is an important model to desgin instruction around. My goal for quarter 1 was to have the objectives posted in my room, which is happening on a daily basis. Since I am new to this, and all of my SIOP objectives are new, I am finding it very time consuming. I have created a document that I used (and shared with my colleagues), that I can write them objectives down on a daily basis, and not reinventing the wheel each semsester. My goal for next semester is reinforce them by actually disucssing them at the beginning and end of every hour. So, right now, I feel like they are just there, but not for any reason. I felt that this was my solution to really understanding if my objectives are good, and easing to the new system.

Question: If you are SIOP trained, how do you use the model in your classroom. Any suggestions for an art teacher who feels overwhelmed?