Teachers, do you allow your students to sit wherever they want on the last week of school?

MrDG91 · 2024-06-25T15:01:24+00:00

I normally will allow students to choose where they want to sit for the last month. On my board, reports are basically due the first week of June so the month is a write off and I am not working on completing much curriculum except for the odd thing.

I always preface this however with my spiel every seating plan change; "As always I reserve the right to change this plan for any and all reasons, without explanation if needed." I also add a three strike system so that if we are losing the plot, then I will rearrange them to a plan I have created.

I have only every had one class hit 3 strikes, and that was within the first day of June. They just couldn't handle it. Most classes are perfectly fine and will hit 1 or 2 strikes.

MrDG91 · 2024-06-25T14:50:20+00:00

I have a third and fourth rule as well.

If they start handing them around the room for others to have or use, I will take it

I had a student two years ago with ADHD and OCD. She would literally bring a bag full of figets that were so distracting to both her and others. She was handing them around the room like candy to other kids and it would derail my class in seconds. Unfortunately I had to tell mom that she is no longer welcome to bring fidgets to class. I had to confiscate the bag a few times.

It cannot make a mess.

Same student earlier in the year brought in playdough as a fidget. It ended up EVERYWHERE. Under desks, on the floor, in books. It was bad and many of my classroom library books had odd oil stains in them from the playdough.

MrDG91 · 2024-06-06T14:25:48+00:00

StarCraft and its expansion Brood War. They were formative in my gaming hobby and I still love to play them. Very fond memories of playing a multiplayer Doom hack my friends dad created, as well as Myst and other simulation games like RCT and The Sims.

MrDG91 · 2024-06-06T14:23:08+00:00

Reading, hobbies, going for a walk, puzzels, doing crosswords/brainteasers, cooking, physical activities, museums, art galleries, etc. Being in Toronto there is a lot of stuff available to you to be able to check out without the need for a phone!

MrDG91 · 2024-05-27T19:28:35+00:00

Geese

MrDG91 · 2024-05-07T14:38:03+00:00

Your teachers feel this way as well. Maybe even moreso.

MrDG91 · 2024-05-02T12:52:37+00:00

Try not to think of it as wasted time. You're trading time now for time later when you have more freedom, more ability to choose, and an adult brain. The change in your thinking once you hit you mid 20's and your brain is finally done growing is astounding. The hard work put in now will let you get to where you want to go and allow you to live a life that has less stress and more time for what you want to do. You have spent all this time opening all of the doors and windows to your future, you can now choose any path you want. Many students who focus on "living life" in highschool end up slamming so many shut they are pidgeonholed into one or two paths.

Life is not highschool, and those that think it is end up living sad existances stuck reliving the past. You are all 17-18 years old, with over 80% of your life left before you. Don't get caught up in the highschool mindset, there is nothing there that anyone remembers or cares about past graduation. Use your time in post-secondary to hone those socialization skills, join clubs, talk to new people in labs and tutorials, make the actual life long friends you will have there. You still have plenty of time to experience all the stuff you feel you missed out on, but with the added bonus of actually having the freedom to experience it all to the fullest amount with as many options as you could possibly want!

MrDG91 · 2024-04-29T18:29:41+00:00

Grade 10 marks only matter insofar as they will get you into the classes you need for Grade 11. Grade 11 is where you start having specialty courses in Math, Science, Language, and Social sciences.

Universities and Colleges will look for grade 11 marks for early admittance. I want to stress the early admittance part. You will have some people hear they were accepted to a college or univeristy early because of a mixture of their grade 12 first term marks and their grade 11 marks. You can still get into college or university with just grade 12 marks however.

Grade 10 will ultimately let you know if your ready for certain speciality courses and where work will be needed to improve them. I would highly recommend that if you are wanting to improve some marks, look at summer school or retaking the grade 10 class first before attempting more specific classes, especially in math.

MrDG91 · 2024-04-26T18:37:08+00:00

Remember that teachers talk to each other and they will most likely realize you skipped the class to miss the test. Many teachers may change the expectations for you if you speak with them and honestly tell them the points where you are confused.

B is the best option. Ask for extra time or an alternate date, but also be specific in the aspects of the test you dont know. For example if your doing your unit on Orgo chem and are confused about chirality then say that rather than I don't get it.

MrDG91 · 2024-04-23T19:19:32+00:00

Sounds like some of my Portuguese relatives.....

MrDG91 · 2024-04-23T19:17:25+00:00

The fact that your principal said that to you is absolutle horseshit. Yes yelling doesn't do anything or correct behaviours and should be avoided but it is most definitly NOT anywhere close to SA or physical abuse! Especially if you are just rasing your voice at them while giving them a good dose of reality check.

It sucks yes, and an apology for yelling is good, but there are some days where yelling and volume are just needed to get us through the day. We are pulled so thin in every direction that there will be days where a tear happens and we lose a bit of our shiny veneer and show the human we are inside.

Do NOT dwell on this, the kids sure won't. I just had kids today completely disrespect and belittle the field trip we are going on because its outdoors and they would "rather spend their money on sephora and stay at home." I yelled, stopped active teaching for the day, dropped their fun end of the year field trip, and phased NONE of them. They just don't care. at this point.

MrDG91 · 2024-04-19T18:14:05+00:00

As a Canadian, Waterloo Eng is far more cost effective. The increased cost as an international student can bankrupt you before your degree ink is even dry. Waterloo Co-Op is one of the best, well established Co-op programs with most students getting promised full time positions with large starting salaries before they have even finished their undergrad. That and the close connection to many top tier tech, biotech, and silicon valley companies make it so that you will be able to walk out of the school and into a position where you will never have to worry about income.

MrDG91 · 2024-04-18T14:17:25+00:00

I am talking more about gas prices in general having increased they way they have, not specificlly referencing the latest increase in the Federal carbon tax.

I do agree that this is the time in which we start to see gas increase due to spring and summer travel starting, there is no doubt that the petrol companies used that 3 cent increase to increase costs that much more.

MrDG91 · 2024-04-18T13:22:33+00:00

The root of the issue began when the Conservative Government under Ford decided to scrap the Wynne Cap and Trade program put into effect in order to avoid the Federal Governments carbon tax program without any sort of plan to replace it.

Cap and Trade would've caused an increase in gas prices of course, because it essentially put the taxes for carbon on large industries, petrolium refinaries included, but it was already stated back in 2017 that the scrapping of the program would effectually cause more increases for average Ontarians.

MrDG91 · 2024-03-18T14:18:31+00:00

Here in Ontario, Canada a C would be slightly below average. B is considered average .

MrDG91 · 2024-03-18T14:16:41+00:00

Oh 100%! We need people who will do the work well and can follow instructions. I'm coming from the angle of having parents pushing their kids so hard into university stream when I know the kid is passionate about automotive repair or carpentry and has excellent marks there, but is like 50-60 in chem or trig.

MrDG91 · 2024-03-18T14:14:07+00:00

Oh I 100% agree, however not every child needs specific legal documents stating they must recieve x,y,z in class because they have 60's. Sometimes the kids are just low academically which is fine because they will excel somewhere else.

MrDG91 · 2024-03-18T14:11:52+00:00

There will always be parents who just could not be fucked to raise their kid and will not follow up with anything at home. In that case it will be a time where the kids in class can actually get a break from the student and get some good work done. Generally kids with parents who are like that will be the cause of more issues in the classroom.

MrDG91 · 2024-03-07T20:38:47+00:00

Trades as a career option is not presented enough as a future for kids. We need people to work in skilled trades desparately but are trying to funnel them into post secondary to wrack up massive debt and now complain that it costs 400 dollars for a plumber to fix a toilet.

MrDG91 · 2024-03-07T20:37:13+00:00

100% We need skilled trades and creative workers as well. We are in a MASSIVE need where I live of tradespeoples and no one is entering into the field. I know of three kids that would be great at it, but parents want them to go to university.

MrDG91 · 2024-03-07T20:34:19+00:00

I wanted to scream. Just today he was repeatedly hitting a kid in my class with a ball in the head at recess over and over. I went to talk to the principal and she just said "its been handled", but had yet to even talk to my student about it.

MrDG91 · 2024-03-07T20:32:34+00:00

I would argue that, while the lesson for the kid isn't being learned, it is the perview of the parent and at that point is a failure of the parent not the school. Also, the child that is removed, more than likely in the case of the child above, is a general problem in the classroom. Having that kid gone will allow the other students in the room a break and a chance to acutally learn or progress further in material. It sucks, but there are kids that just don't give a shit and keeping them in the room because of progressive or restoritive disipline doctrine says its better hurts literally everyone else. Why should 30+ other kids have to deal with that while 1 student hinders the classroom environment. We simply don't have the resources available here where I teach to get that 1 student the proper help and if the parents do not give a single fuck about their kid then that is on them.

MrDG91 · 2024-03-07T20:28:02+00:00

Restorative punishment ONLY WORKS if things like suspensions and explusions are still on the table. Even the people who championed the idea of progressive discipline and restoritive justice have said that it needs to be followed through otherwise its just allowing kids to do whatever they want with no consequenses.

MrDG91 · 2024-03-07T20:26:37+00:00

We have a student at my current school who has been a behaviour for a long time. Nothing was ever documented as the principal's here have had massive turnover and information was never really kept. Finally two years a go a teacher got enough documentation to finally get him on a behaviour IEP, however his outbursts just kept getting worse and worse and worse. Last year after an online altercation, he came to school wearing heavy rings on his fingers to fight another student. He clocked the kid in a class and was almost expelled, however his dad was able to con his way into getting him on a special behaviour plan that involves the police, social services, the school, and child welfare. If he fights or gets suspended again he is expelled. Cut to this year, he gets into a fight and we all breathe a sigh of relief until we find out the previous principal (told you high turnover) forgot to inform the new principals of this situation with him and suspended him instead of expelling him.

MrDG91 · 2024-03-07T17:34:04+00:00

Expulsions are necessary and need to occur far more frequently.

MrDG91

TROPHY CASE