I agree.. game ideas.. long

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I agree.. game ideas.. long
By Trish

I agree with the above poster. PLEASE don't go in there afraid. If you do, hang it up. Go in VERY confident. It is YOUR class and you are in charge not them. Be firm but fair.

I taught 7th and 8th grade last year. You
will get some behavior problems, but you will also get students that just are missing some basic skills and were too afraid to say something for whatever reason. Be kind to them. they probably feel like failures. They more than likely have been teased because they failed. And they are facing having to retake this test. There is a lot of stress there.
8th graders are so much like younger

grades. They like the simple things like stickers, etc. They love playing silly games. However, at the same time, they want to be treated as adults. You can do both. They are fun. You will have a great time with them, once you establish respect. Respect them and earn their respect. I have a huge poster that I place right under my clock in my room, it says: Respect is not a gift, it must be earned.
I stick to that. I have to earn theirs, and they have to earn mine.

As far as centers, you can break them up according to the skills they are missing. Say 3 students have trouble with factions, put them in a group with a student that is strong in that area. Assign a fration game to play (ex: get dice, on each dice place stickers that have the fractions 1/8, 1/6, 1/4, 1/2, 1/3 and 1/16 on the 6 sides of the cube. Then give bars made out of construction paper of different colors. Each color is cut into the different fractions. Ex. red could be 1/2 so there are 2 pieces of red. black could be 1/16 so there are 16 equal pieces of black. Then have a whole sheet of paper with 6 complete bars drawn on it. Have one for each player. They have to roll the dice (once each) and whatever fraction they get, they place it on the first complete bar. Ex. roll 1/2 pick up one piece of the red construction paper and place it on the whole sheet in the first spot. Then on their next turn, they roll 1/4, they would pick up the color that is cut into 4's and place it on the bar next to the red paper. They would have to roll 1/4 or something smaller to move on to the next bar. If they rolled osmething bigger, they do nothing. Once that bar is filled, they go on to the next. The first one to fill all the bars, wins.

There are tons of games you could have them play.

For reading, there are so many things you could do. Most importantly, teach them good writing skills. COmplete sentences, writing 5 paragraph essays, etc.

If you need any help, email me. I taught science but also worked with the English teachers to co-relate writting in my class to help my students on the tests.

What state do you live in?