Good afternoon everyone! I am the ISS teacher at a highschool with 2500 students. As the end of the school year approaches I wanted to ask anyone who also teaches(or has taught) ISD, what their year was like. Mine was pretty chaotic. Especially since I'm the only ISD teacher for such a large student body. My first year was pretty rough. I was having a hard time maintaining control of all the students and it was starting to jade me. This year, I tried a few new things to see if I could improve, and to my delight, they were very successful. One thing I started doing was standing. I went out and bought a stand-up desk and use it all day. It was rough at first, but now I stand all day no problem. Anyway, standing made an instant and dramatic decrease in behavioral issues. Sitting at eye level with students affords them the opportunity to hide behind other students; standing eliminates this problem and the subsequent negative behavior that it produces. Plus, ISS is very quiet, and standing helps me stay awake on those tired days. Another thing I started doing was to taking a walk. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon, I take the students out of the room and go on a short walk. This not only gives them something to look forward to, but it wakes them up and re-energizes them while simultaneously boosting everyone's mood. It makes it easier to get through the day for everyone. What do you guys think? How has your year been?
Well, I’ve never been an ISS teacher, so no. I don’t have any input. This site doesn’t get a lot of regular traffic anymore, so there are usually more people asking questions than providing answers.
