Summer Class

On Monday (today's Friday) I started my first class: Managing Classroom Behavior. It meets for 2 1/2 hours a day, five days a week and runs for three weeks. That's fifteen consecutive class periods for a 3 credit hour class. It sounded good to me but the instructor is making no adjustments to the curriculum he uses in a regular 15-week semester so the first day's reading assignment was two chapters and the second day's assignment was 3 chapters! Now that we have slowed down to one chapter a night if feels like cake. The instructor is knowledgable, experienced, and interesting, so I am enjoying the class. This is a very good thing as he will also be the instructor for the second class I am taking this summer. That class will meet 6 hours a day, Monday through Thursday, for two weeks. Sigh...
Our first paper was due yesterday. It was to be a critique of the "Schoolwide Behavior Intervention Plan" at the school where we teach. Well, our school doesn't really have one. We have what might be considered pieces of one. One of the questions we were to answer in the paper was whether the school had provided any personal development related to creating a schoolwide BIP and when I thought about the four years I have been teaching there, I could not remember any PD devoted to this topic. Why? Student behavior is a major issue at our school. Why haven't we ever addressed student behavior in a schoolwide manner? It pissed me off, especially when I thought about all the agonizingly long PD days spent in inane workshops and presentations.
This fall, the middle school will be physically relocating to the high school. We (middle school teachers) have among ourselves discussed our concerns about the difference in behavior expectations and rules. The adminstration hasn't addressed this issue at all and it is worrisome. We will now be under the administration of the high school principal and we don't have the comfort level we developed over the years with the elementary school principal.
Another problem I am having is that I identify myself as a middle school teacher. Beginning in the fall, however, I will be primarily a high school teacher. I always intended to teach high school, but after the last six years I have developed a fondness for middle schoolers and their peculiar brand of charm. Now I am apprehensive about teaching older students! Well, I don't care--I am still putting up all of my stupid posters and bulletin boards.