Halfway through my first year of teaching!!

Well, these 2 ice days last week really messed up the plans I had made before break. I wanted to complete our book and test on it, and now that is not going to happen. I am going to spend one day finishing up this week, 2 days on a study guide and then give the students a big quiz. I have been really busy lately trying to get my research plan lined up. I know I want to focus on student engagement. I think I want to further focus on the effects of goal setting, conferencing, and self reflection to see how that improves student engagement. I found a ton of good articles and some really good surveys and checklists for anecdotals to get me started. I have just noticed lately that I am finally becoming really relaxed in the classroom. I feel that after my formal observation was over, that was suddenly a huge weight off my shoulders. I havent used any other technology lately other than my projector and the calculators. It's been so busy, and I have just been trying to get through these lessons before we leave for Christmas break. I have been doing something interesting though lately: I have been taking down the names of students who do not turn in their homework and I have been keeping them for lunch detention. I am amazed at how the number of students has decreased!!!! On Monday I had over 10 students and I only had 3 on Friday. They have been doing so much better at turning in homework because of that punishment. After Christmas I am really going to start focusing on MAP practice more.