Post 1 reflection "Time on Task"

The start of the school year has been an interesting one.  I have a variety of students in my EEN English class, a total of 10.  This is the first year that I am co-teaching this class which has made for some exciting ideas but also some stress that I haven't experienced before.   I feel like we have a pretty good handle on the classroom as far as behavior but management of the curriculum is an area that I would love to feel more confident in. 

We have the students complete a journal response on a daily basis.  The students are expected to come into class, get their journal from the shelf, and begin writing.  As one would expect, we need to give reminders to the students as to what the expectation is when they walk in the room.  Most of them do well at following the procedure but there are a few that like to push the limits and try to waste as much time as possible.  I have noticed that I will occasionally cater to the kids and not give them the timeline that I laid out (meaning I give them WAY too much time for their journals which isn't necessary).

Today I put the timer up on the Smartboard not only for the students but for me.  It worked really well and I found that I was able to manage my time with journals far better than before. A few of the students didn't finish their journal partly because they were busy gabbing rather than writing.  I told them that they were able to finish it in study hall if they needed extra time. We transitioned to our 'Word Graveyard' which was a repeat from the day before.  The students handed in their work but as I was looking them over, several of the students didn't really understand that the words around the flower needed to be words that were the same  but colorful/creative.  Many of them put words that described the center word.  I started thinking about the lesson and wondering if I didn't explain the lesson well enough and do enough modeling or if it was just that the kids weren't paying attention?  I have a hard time distinguishing whether or not the students can really do the work or is it a case of learned self-helplessness.  I notice that many of them won't even try something on their own.  So is it their disability or not?  Do I move on or redo the lesson?  I think part of my problem is that I don't teach all day long so I don't get the chance to repeat my lessons several times and I don't get to see various groups of kids.