What is Going Well? Where do I Need to Improve?

I think one thing that is going well in my class is exposing my students to new experiences. I work with students who are emotionally disturbed, often times from foster care or group homes. A common thread that runs through most of my students is poverty. For the most part, they lack what most people consider basic needs - being able to order pizza, nice clothes, getting out to a park, etc. To partially remedy this, I have worked hard on, for example, making pizzas. Students learn to fold pizza boxes; they make the dough from scratch; they weigh ingredients out on scales so they learn ounces, grams, etc; they learn radius and area of a circle; they learn the cost of pizzas, they learn about the quality of ingredients and multiple other skills. The most important part of this is teaching them to be the 'best' at something. You see, we don't just make a basic pizza, but my students understand how to make the best pizza. I have confidence in them to be the best at this and they develop confidence in their self. I try to inspire my students to be the best at this, to use their imagination and in the end the confidence they develop in their self is priceless. The are my super stars!

A second thing that I believe is going well is taking my students off campus and exposing them to things they would otherwise never experience. Not only did we make pizzas at school but we were able to go to Lou Malnati's pizza where my students toured the kitchen and made a pizza of their own. My students have been to the Arizona capital museum, the science museum, filled out applications at Chick Fillet, shot off model rockets at the park, and much more. I take my students to an assisted living facility every week where mentors work with them. Every one of these off campus  field trips is a lot of work but the experience for the students is indispensable. Although students were able to eat at Chick Fillet, the real purpose was to find out what Chick Fillet looks for in an interview and to learn how to fill out an application. 

One of the things I am constantly trying to improve is to find more hands on activities, more engaging assignments. That is most likely every teachers' life long pursuit - to find those assignments that inspire your students. My students start the day with writing in a journal, and you try to find something for them to write about that will inspire them, something that they are self motivated to write about. No one really enjoys writing about something they are not interested in. 

Since I work with emotionally disturbed students and conduct disorder students, I am always reading, searching and asking for ways to help my students overcome their behavior. The behavior for many of my students is past traumas they are still trying to overcome. You must be careful as a teacher to not take on the role of a social worker or counselor, lest you create more problems. You can though look for activities that teach students to reduce their stress. We try to accomplish this mid-morning with activities like coloring. To make this time more productive, we check for organization while students are more relaxed. Organization is a key to success in life, and it is a key to reducing stress. If students feel organized and not behind, they are not overwhelmed. Having said that, I am always looking for ways to improve the organization of the class in order to reduce my students stress. There is always a need for improvement in this area, especially with emotionally disturbed students.