8th Grade Focus/Class Composition

For the purpose of reflection, I have chosen to focus on one of my most challenging classes...my 8th Graders! Primarily composed of boys, my eighth grade class includes many students that I had taught last year at Carson. For the most part they have matured over the year, but there are several challenges many of which I will discuss here. First of all let me describe my class composition. The group consists of about 14 students, 3 of which have Mild Intellectual Disabilities, 3 with Specific Learning Disabilities and the rest all with Emotional Behavior Disorders (2 Severe). At the start of the school year, we actually had the class sepearted into 2 groups and it worked beautifully. Much was accomplished and I actually felt as if they were making tremendous progress in the subject area. However, many things soon happened. 1.) We lost a team member, he died unexpectedly. 2.) One team member left for maternity leave 3.) We received about 10 new students from the PEC team downstairs which forced us to combine the 8th grade.

Since that time, everything has changed. About 50% of the class is actually instructional time. The rest all goes to discipline issues. Its almost like oil and water the way they don't mix. It is so stressful and so discouraging at the same time. I write beautiful lesson plans only to actually be able to teach about 20% of what is written. We've tried so much with this group and I refuse to give up. I am here to teach and that's exactly what I'm going to do even if it takes everything out of me. So, that will be the next few posts focus...the 8th grade group.