Silence is not always golden.

This week was the best one so far! Since we didn't have school because of fall break I was able to go see first and second block. It was the first time I had ever met them and it was great! Although it was great to finally meet them I found myself thinking back to the proverb "silence is golden," but silence is not golden. Especially when you have a room full of seventh graders and you just asked them a question. It was like pulling teeth to get anyone to answer a question or respond in any way. There were about 3 students who wanted to answer everything and the rest of the class just sat there, silently. It was obvious my CE was becoming frustrated. She would let the students who wanted to answer, answer one or two but then she would have to encourage everyone else to talk and even call on some of them specifically. This was strange to me because all of the other classes are all so eager to answer questions and to talk and ask questions that she doesn't hardly have time for all of them. I made me think about how I am going to have to differentiate for them next semester. I will have to  make my lessons VERY engaging and interesting, otherwise, I will just be standing up there like Dora the Explorer waiting on an answer that is never coming.

I think I have some neat activities planned out for my unit next semester but after seeing fist block I wondered if they may not be exciting enough. My job is to teach them and to facilitate their learning, but to be able to do that I have to make them want to learn. The other three classes will not be this difficult because they are already more engaged from the get go. When I am planning my lessons, I need to focus on motivating these students and coming up with creative ways for them to learn, that everyone will want to do. I know this is the goal for every lesson we teach, right? We all want every lesson to be phenomenal and that send our students home telling their parents how great of a teacher we are but that doesn't always happen. I fear that if I do not find a way to effectively motivate the students in first block, they will never go home and talk about how much fun or how much they learned in social studies today.

This is a meme that I found that reminds me of this situation:

On the other hand, second block was the complete opposite. They needed to be focused and reigned in because all they wanted to do was ask and answer questions. There class was much more energetic and my CE was much more at ease with this group. This is not to say that she doesn't like first block. I think she just becomes exasperated with their enthusiasm for participation. I actually found myself more energetic and more excited to listen to what they had to say. I think it is only because they had the same enthusiasm to answer questions as Katniss did when she volunteered for her sister in The Hunger Games (I couldn't help myself).

Either way, I need to find a way to give first block, second block's enthusiasm and inquiry. I have not yet thought of a good way to motivate them yet so I will take any suggestions anyone has. Also, I know the least about them so it's hard to think of things that would get someone motivated when you don't really know what they like and dislike. It would probably be a good idea to spend a little more time getting to know what they like and what they dislike so that I can get a better sense of who they are as individuals and as a class.