What would you do if your students always came thirty minutes late to class and never did their homework? Well, you might pass it off as cultural or time management problems. On the other hand, you might say, “Who cares why they are late! They should be punished!” I don’t often think about punishing students. I tend to empathize with them.

Most of my students work at least one full-time job and many of them work two jobs. Some of them work a night shift and a day shift. So I find it hard not be impressed by what they do. They are my inspiration. They work so hard and they normally manage to come to class three days a week for two and a half hours.

The problem is that class is four days a week for three hours! And despite how busy they are, I am responsible for teaching them all of the course material. So the other teacher and I decided to “punish” them for missing class. Two days a week, we instituted a half hour homework time after class that is mandatory for students who come late or don’t complete their homework.

The first two Homework Half-Hours went brilliantly. Even students, who weren’t required to stay, decided to stay and work on extra homework or help other students. The time was very productive and I thought they were all very motivated.

But maybe they were just motivated because they wanted to leave! Because last night (which would have been a class followed by the Homework Half-Hour), only three students came to class. All three of them had completed all of their homework and didn’t have to stay after. I can’t help but think that the other students did not want to get “punished” for not doing their work, so they decided to skip class. It was very depressing because we only want to make them successful. And we just aren’t sure how to do that if they are gone so much! I honestly feel like I got punished last night.

It was so exciting as a kid to start summer camp. And let me tell you, as an adult, it is still exciting. This week I joined pbwiki’s summer camp for educators. Pbwiki is a simple place to make a quick publishing, collaborative website. I have been excited about my class’ wiki for the entire school year, but I need more ideas.

So for the next six weeks, I will be going to summer camp along with a thousand other educators. Together we will complete weekly assignments, learn how to maximize our wikis’ features and earn cool free stuff. If you’re interested, please sign up. It should be fun.

This week on our wiki, the students used the wiki to teach the world about English simple past. They even recorded little descriptions of simple past pronunciation rules with example sentences. Besides the recordings, our wiki is pretty simple looking. So I am excited to go to camp and learn how to do more exciting things.

Do you ever wonder how your students are grading you? Or what they really want from you? To begin the new term, we made posters of what it meant to be a good student, a good group member and a good teacher. To me, the most interesting poster was what it meant to be a good teacher. Look at their poster!

A good teacher:

• is on time
• respects students
• helps students
• makes students happy
• has good behavior
• is a friend to students
• teaches well
• explains the work
• makes students do group work
• is happy

Some of these qualities were exactly the same as the qualities they listed for a good student. They thought both good students and teachers should be “on time,” “respect” one another, and have “good behavior.” To me these answers were the least thought out and the most generic. (Although they are true.)

I was more excited by how important students thought happiness was. They said a good teacher was happy, that a teacher should make students happy and that students and teachers should be friends. I guess, I am pretty lucky that I love my job and my students because my students think that is a big part of being a good teacher. And sometimes all I have is my love for the job. Luckily, that is enough. So if you aren’t happy with teaching right now, take this holiday weekend to relax. Because your students expect a happy teacher. And they deserve one too.

So I have to report back on how well my new cellphone policy works. It is kind of amazing. I didn’t explicitly tell students that my policy changed, but I started encouraging them to use cellphones at different parts of class. After what happened in my last class, I am convinced that cellphones are an asset.

We have a big test coming up, but the students still have lives and jobs. So sometimes they have to miss class. Well, yesterday two of my most dedicated students missed class and I wanted to know what was going on and make sure they got the information. The solution came really quickly! A student took out his cellphone, texted the missing students, realized they were at work, and sent them pictures of the chalkboard. The missing students wrote back some questions about the things on the board. I was sold! Cellphones have the power to bring the classroom anywhere!

Now, imagine if I had a great classroom website. They could view that at work on their cellphones. But I am not there yet. Cellphones will have to do for now.

I have been really concerned about my students’ ability to meet my vocabulary course’s objective. I mean, I want to be sure that students have learned to use some new academic vocabulary words. Otherwise, the class is pointless. For me, this has meant designing meaningful activities, but also it has meant creating good assessments. At the beginning of the course, I used several different methods of assessment. I had them write sentences with only the vocabulary word as a prompt. I had them read a paragraph and answer multiple choice vocabulary questions. But, I had a hard time with both of these assessments. They didn’t seem to really test all of the aspects of knowing a word and the students wanted a consistent quiz format. Maybe you have the perfect quiz format…I was still searching.

But I found the answer! I decided to change the assessment so it tested both productive and receptive vocabulary knowledge. Productive knowledge is knowledge of how to use the word. Productive knowledge was assessed with “use in a sentence” questions. Full credit was given to students who demonstrated knowledge of the words’ meaning and grammar. And let me tell you, few people got perfect scores! So I also tested their receptive knowledge or their ability to understand the words in context. I gave them questions that required students to understand target words in order to complete some writing task. For example, “Describe a traditional holiday” or “Explain the process of buying a book.” For these questions, they were not required to use the new word in the answer, but they had to be able to accurately answer the question. Together, I feel these two groups of questions give me a sense of their total understanding of the new words. Now, I know whether students had trouble understanding the words or whether they have trouble using them.

So I am writing my blog a little later than usual this week. I could blame the holiday, Memorial Day, but mostly I have been in panic mode trying to get ready for a conference in Providence, Rhode Island. It seemed like a daunting task to find the perfect substitute teacher and rearrange all of my engagements.

I wanted to make sure that my students were left in good hands. I have never had to use a substitute teacher before, so it is all new to me. I mean: What should my replacement do? What should the substitute know about my students?

I knew my substitute teacher didn’t need to be my twin. She could have her own style. I just wanted to make sure she could engage my students. Well, I found a teacher, Lael, to teach my class. I gave her the basic materials, but she didn’t want a lesson plan. She is going to do whatever she wants. (And I’m ok with that.) It will be interesting to come back next week and hear about what happened. I know my students won’t behave poorly like some kids do with a substitute teacher. But more than behaving, I hope they enjoy her teaching style and her activities. The truth is, I don’t know what to expect. I am willing to bet, though, that everything turns out perfect.