Had a moment

I think we've all been kind of living on the edge of sanity lately, and I know I for one sure have. But one of those little things just happened this morning, with my fifth block class ... slowly creeping into my heart even despite themselves, or starting to.

Michael Simpson. No. My fifth block class.
Okay, so they're the "regular" kids, as in not IB, not accelerated. English I. Basic.
They're the only ones who, every morning when they come in and I say good morning to each one of them individually, completely ignore me. I finally decided a few weeks ago that it's my job to teach them life skills every bit as much as alliteration or irony, and told them that I don't expect them to like me but I do expect them to acknowledge me when I greet them every morning and that if they didn't I would simply ask them to exit the room and enter again properly. That was a few weeks ago, and they're slowly getting used to it. Today a kid Michael Simpson, who sits near the front but rarely says anything, was walking into the classroom when I was turned away talking to somebody else. He totally could have slipped by, is the point. Instead he lightly grabbed my arm on his way by and said "Morning, Mrs. Smith."

If there wasn't ANY joy in my life before that, there was in that moment. I know I'm going to hate them again someday soon for acting like the precocious 14-year-old children that they are, but d**n. They're the ones who actually need me. and I kind of love them for it. Go me. And yay for the Michael Simpsons in my world. :)

Learning Styles Inventory

My learning styles inventory separates into Visual, Auditory, or Tactile learners. I gave it to my first and second blocks. They're both IB; one is French and one is English. I suppose I chose these two classes partly because I have quite a few overlapping students but the personalities of the classes are completely different so I was curious to see how those differences played out.

First surprise was how into it the kids were. They all wanted to know immediately what style they were and what that meant (guess everybody's favorite topic is themself). I think that my classes were more heavily weighted towards auditory learners because they are IB and classes are traditionally lecture style, so they have to be fairly good at that to have been so successful. I wasn't surprised at that because they all listen well (to me and to one another) and are able to have engaging discussions.

As far as varying instruction I have a much easier time with that in French than in English. It seems so natural in a French class to make up motions to go with the verbs, or songs to help you remember things, or puzzles to put together the right pieces for verb conjugation, but I'm a lot less creative in my English classes.

Also one thing that I didn't notice about my learning styles inventory until after I had stupidly given it was that it doesn't have any suggestions for how to teach the different kinds of learners, it just suggests to the students what to do with information once they receive it.

Coulda shoulda woulda is the name of this game, though, at least for me. I think that had I spent more time selecting an inventory that would help ME help them I could have done a lot more with it, but add that to the ever-growing list of things I'll try to do better next time.
When I have the time...