One thing I am proud of in my classroom is the level of cooperation between students. They work together better than I could have imagined. This is also one thing that I need to work on in my classroom management because the students want to work together on everything. Including asking each other questions when I have asked them to be silent. I am currently working with my mentor teacher on new ideas on how to resolve this issue.
Another thing that I am proud of in my classroom is the lack of no name papers. I instituted a highlight your name policy starting day one and I have only gotten 2 no name papers all year.
I also need to work on getting students to return their homework. I believe that this is a problem because they have spent their entire educational career in elementary school and are thrown into high school as freshmen. I was told that we were to teach content and not responsibility, but then I am confused as to who is responsible for teaching these students responsibility. When I give homework only about 25% of students actually complete it and return it on time. In order to work on this I think I will send a letter home for all parents to sign letting them know what the expectations are on homework.
