Wall decorations and learning environment

So many things happened today, it's crazy. There are so many things running through my mind right now.

First of all, there is one week left in the 1st semester. That alone means a lot. It means there are student presentations all week. It means I will be working on grades this weekend. It means we are half way through the year. I can write more about this, but I think I will save that for Friday.

Today I substituted one period for a middle school language arts class. This was my first time subbing for a teacher in the middle school (our school is middle school/high school). I do teach a middle school section and there are other teachers that wear both hats, but it all occurs in the high school building. Today I realized that the middle school building and the high school buildings are two different worlds.

As a new teacher, I am trained to survey a classroom and notice the set-up (seating arrangement, doors and windows, teacher's desk, etc.). One thing I noticed in the middle school building and other middle school teacher's classrooms is that the walls are covered with posters, student work and things of that nature. Unfortunately, you don't get that as much in the high school classrooms.

Decorating the classroom creates a comfortable learning environment for the students. Posting student work on the walls makes the students feel as though the classroom belongs to them; which it does. This raises the comfort and safety levels students feel when they come into the classroom.

Now, I have always thought about how I am going to decorate when I get my own room. I think I would have fun doing that too. Honestly, I don't think I would decorate my classroom very much only because I am not very creative. I am more about being organized. Once my room is organized the way I want it, then I will work on the decorating part. Also, I would need some students work to post on the walls.

Anyways, a well organized and decorated classroom will make students feel more welcomed and comfortable creating a better learning environment.

Goal for tomorrow: create a scoring rubric for the Small Business Project.

A farfetched notion of trust

A lot happened today. During a passing period, the Spanish teacher stopped me and told me that all her students are saying in their presentations that they enjoy my class because I make it fun and they are understanding what they are learning. Now, this is not the main thing I want to talk about today, but I do want to say that I have to believe that a little. If you recall from yesterday's post, students lie. However, in this case, I want to say they are being truthful because they did not intend for me to hear about their presentations.

Anyways, I finished my final project for one of my UCSD courses. Today was the last day. We learned how to take Cornell notes. Do not ask me why. We just did.

3rd period was a little off task. Nothing out of the ordinary. I seriously need to assign them new seats.

The main thing I want to talk about is about a string of food thefts that have been happening in the teachers' area. That is the little area where our group of teachers eat lunch. I do not remember if I wrote about this, but one day I found that my chicken nuggets had been taken about a month ago out of the little freezer partition in our mini-fridge. That was not the first time that we have had something gone missing. Previously, another teacher had her Vitamin water taken out of the fridge. We have also had a Nature Valley granola bar taken. The last occurrence was a lean cuisine lunch taken out of the lunch bag laying on the table in the teachers' area.

Now think about this for a second. In order to eat the Lean Cuisine, the culprit had to have gone into the restricted teachers' area, open a teachers' lunch bag, take the lunch out of the bag, open in packaging, poke holes in the plastic, heat in the microwave on high for 3 and a half minutes, open and stir, heat for another 2 minutes, then let it rest in the microwave for 1 minute. Now think about the progression of the food taken. They started with just the water; easy and convenient. Then the granola bar; easy to swipe and it is food. Then my chicken nuggets. This was a little weird to me because I had taken the nuggets out of a larger bag in my freezer and put them in a little Ziploc baggie. They were not individually packaged. Then the most inconvenient, the Lean Cuisine.

This culprit (or culprits) have gotten awfully comfortable in our area. We are thinking about getting a hidden camera and catching the thief (or thieves) in action. I look forward to seeing what we find. In the meanwhile, I have been keeping my lunch, and anything else of value, in a locked cabinet. And you wonder why I do not trust these students?