It's the third month and I am still unable to keep students in seats. I still over plan and dread those few minutes where I have to transition from one topic to another. Because I'm new, the transitions are never effortless, the way I've noticed they can be in more experienced teachers' classrooms.
Every day, at least one kid in one class will get up out of his seat, shuffle over to the door as if he were at a bus depot, and gaze out the window. I call their names and they say "yeah," but keep looking out the window or talking to a friend or folding paper into origami airplanes.
I spend hours thinking up ways to grab their interest. I lesson plan each Sunday and then run out to CVS to buy packets of Butterfinger Bars and Tootsie Rolls, in an effort to teach them how to write a thesis statement about the best candy in the world. I spend oodles of my own money on trinkets and tokens meant to motivate and inspire. I am constantly exhausted and frequently annoyed. I vow, constantly, to replace candy bar lesson plans with straight-up reading and writing assignments that will NOT cost me an arm and a leg to fund.
And then I just run right back out to CVS again.
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