Monday

First, I should say that I'm flattered.  It's really cool to know that there are people out there waiting for me to share a new post.  The fact that these people are all close friends and family may make the sample a bit biased, but I'm still glad to hear that people are interested!

As far as Monday goes, it's a rather calm day.  For the most part students are still sleeping.  I always think to myself, "Don't you kids realize why you do poorly on quizzes and tests?"  They barely take in a word I say and half-ass the in-class assignments.  Particularly in second and fourth periods.  The motivation level is so low in these two periods, I don't know how they manage to pass any classes.  I'm a little appalled at their grades.

In particular there are several students who clearly have the smarts but do not have the work ethic.  I wish they would commit themselves for an extra 10 minutes a day.  The improvement in their grades would be enormous.

I also don't understand what these kids are doing after school.  Perhaps 50% turn in homework on a regular basis.  It's no wonder they have C's and D's!  I'm not giving them a lot of stuff to do at home.  They had all weekend to complete a short worksheet and many of them "forgot" to do it.  Unbelievable.  I forget that I was always in advanced track classes with kids who were crazy about good grades.  I almost never forgot to do homework!  I've never been confronted with so-called slackers before and they drive me up the wall.

On a positive note, I think I'm getting better at "lecturing".  I try to talk about the material a little bit so the students don't feel like all they do is read and take notes.  And I've been throwing in really cool videos too.  All in all I'm getting better at anticipating problems and explaining things.