My students are honest with me

I have a group of about 15 7th grade students who are my advisees. Once a week we get together and talk. This week's talk was about respecting one's self. While we talked and the direction of the conversation led us to talking about smoking and the dangers of smoking or drinking, some of my students talked about family members that smoke pot. Some brothers, cousins, and even some parents were outed by the students.

I asked if any of them had seen someone smoke pot and every hand went up. OMG, I thought. First of all that the culture in our society is such that talking about this is very okay and that these students don't keep information to themselves. I will never breach the confidence that they have in me unless I am obligated by law. What I will do is to help them learn.

Last week they all told me how they have been hit for punishment (spankings, cords, belts). So drugs and fear of physical punishment, guess I'm getting to know these kids more and more. I have amazing students that are insightful, resilient, happy, and a joy to be with most of the time.

I retaught how to multiply 2 or 3 digit numbers this week. I also tested the 7th grade students on 5 different NYS standards. Hopefully they understand the different classifications of numbers and can tell the difference of a rational and an irrational number now. They also were tested on their understanding of adding and subtracting integers. Most of them can handle the integer laws. This week we finished multiply and divide integers. Next week the 7th grade students will delve into remembering the Order of Operations. This is one of the skills that they need to practice A LOT! My principal is going to observe me on Tuesday. It's my first formal observation. I video recorded myself this week to see what he will see. I am making some immediate changes. First of all, students fill any time you give them. So if I give them 5 minutes to do something that should take 2 minutes, they'll fill the entire 5 minutes. So... I have shortened the amount of time I give them to do tasks. Especially the time to get into the room and to get started. We practiced this on Friday. We reset the room and went back into the hallway and came back into the room and reduced the amount of time needed by 50%. That's a huge amount of time that I can use for instruction.

Enjoyed a night out with many of the staff last night. got home at 9:30 which is so early in a town that never sleeps. I slept and now I need to get my own homework done.

Peace!