"Union Wins! WOOOO UNION!!"

Spirit Week ended well. Thursday was crazy tie day, two of my roommates and I went in with real bowties that we tied ourselves (thanks YouTube). Friday was theme day. The students decorated the hallways to their themes the night before. The main floor was a jungle for Tarzan, the senior hallway was split in two with a "heaven" side and a "hell" side for Hercules (including a River Styx). The junior hallway, by far the best was all decked out like Alice in Wonderland with the theme "into the rabbit hole". The sophomore Peter Pan hallway just looked like someone threw green streamers all over the place for no reason. So they were horrible.

Friday afternoon was a rally with class skits. The freshmen did well, they reenacted the music in the camp scene from Tarzan. The sophomores sucked. Seniors was 15 minutes of confusion, with zombies, angels, demons, Thriller, and a fight scene? I don't know. Juniors again were awesome they had the tea party scene and then some more after that which was awesome. The faculty (not me) reenacted the hippo dance scene from Fantasia. HILARIOUS.

This week was good though. My classes' Civil War Reenactment Projects were due. A majority of the students made dioramas of battles, some awesome most other mediocre. One group did an in-class reenactment. I have about 8 groups make movies and they were awesome. Legitimately, awesome. I was so impressed. It was great, funny too. One group had in the beginning that their video was dedicated to me even.

We had review games too this week, went well, got to use a Smart Board. Got observed and evaluated, generally good (he didn't enjoy the review game). But test tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes (I really hope the do well, they are totally capable).

College Bowl

We are preparing for the college bowl in my free period this morning. The College Bowl is a trivia competition. So I'm helping one of the teacher come up with answers. So these are the responses we are going to try to work into the College Bowl:

I would like to phone a friend

Whoopi for the block please

I would like to spin again

When do we play Plinko?

Where's the Agro-Crag?

Umm, $701, Bob

I would like to take the physical challenge

I would like to solve the puzzle

Can I make it a true daily double?

Can I buy a vowel?

Red Light Challenge!

Good Answer, Good Answer

No Whammy!

You are the weakest link!

No Deal.

When do I put the Silver Monkey together?

We can't think of more right now, but I'm sure there are tons out there.

advance, retreat,, double advance, double retreat, lunge

For the past two days (well lesson, not every class meets everyday) I have been going over the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address. Two full lessons on a battle that lasted 3 days.

For our next lesson, we will be learning about Reconstruction. A period of 12 years all wrapped up into one 45 minute lesson.

We'll see how that goes.

Beyond that, school has been going pretty well. This week is "Spirit Week" because Homecoming is Saturday (at my high school homecoming was never a big deal, so this is new to me). But for spirit week:

Monday - Tie-Dye and Neon Day (dress up in those clothes - I didn't join in)

Tuesday - Twin Day (pick a partner and dress alike, me and my twin were awesome - we wore matching polos and jeans but then over that we worn 1980 throwback Astro's jerseys. For some reason, he had 2 of them, we were wicked cool)

Wednesday - College Sweatshirt Day (makes sense) but also the "College Bowl" takes place. Freshmen vs. Sophomores, Juniors vs. Seniors, Faculty plays the winner of the students.

Thursday - Crazy Tie and Tights Day

Friday - Theme dress down day.

- each class has a di fferent theme and for friday the students have to dress according to their theme (the faculty get to dress in whatever theme they want)

Freshmen - Tarzan

Sophomores - Peter Pan

Juniors - Alice in Wonderland

Seniors - Hercules

We'll see how the rest of the week ends up.

[right now i'm doing after school cafeteria duty. on tuesdays, the fencing team has practice. imagine about 50 or so awkward high school kids fencing. yes it's hilarious and terrifying at the same time]

Parent Teacher Night

Last night was parent-teacher night and it actually went really well. Like all the others teachers have told me, basically all the parents you need to see don't show and all the parents you really have nothing to say to show up.

But it went well, of my 100 or so students, I have 25 of their parents show up. Not bad, I do teacher juniors so most of the parents don't really have the need to come into school and talk to their kid's teachers anymore. But some did. Parent Teacher night went for three hours, and I think I talked to parents in total for about 45-60 minutes of that.

Typical exchange:

"Hi, I'm [john doe]'s mom, how are you?"

"Good, [john] has a 90+ average"

"I know, I just saw there was no line at your table so I figured I would stop by. Ok, nice to meet you, goodbye"

"bye?"

There were three students who were failing and I was happy to see their parents show up so I got to talk to them.

Student 1: GREAT student, pays attention, participates, asks questions, very smart (got 100% on our first big quiz), but never hands in her homework.

Her Mom: "this is horrible, this is outrageous. I am not happy with this average [not mad at me, so I don't mind]. she said she wanted to study history in college, not with these grades. I won't let her. Oooh, I have to talk to her when I get home. This is just unacceptable"

Honestly, that was the most upset any parent got all night. So good for me I guess.

Student 2: pays attention, a little chatty, doesn't participate much in class, and does not hand in homework.

Her mom: "Why does [jane doe] have such a low average (49%)?

Me: "she pays attention in class and in engaged but honestly she just isn't handing stuff in.

Her mom: "Oh, I could just slap her ....."

Student 3: extremely quiet, never participates, never hands things in, did mediocre on the firs big quiz, just doesn't seem to care

His dad: "I see that [john doe] isn't doing well in your class, he has the habit of not handing things in. I think he's rebelling against his mother and I because we're academics. His mother is a computer technician and researcher and I am a mathematician and nuclear physicist."

Me (in my head) "HOLY CRAP! no wonder he's not doing anything in school. PHYSICIST!?"

but overall the night went really well. I had four parents tell me how much their kid loves me class. One parent who son is pretty much exactly my little brother Billy just in a different body told me "oh he really likes you. I can tell that something clicked and he really loves your class. He definitely admires and looks up to you." Another mother told me, "almost anyone can teach, but not everyone can inspire. i can tell you're doing great things because you have inspire my daughter to try harder and appreciate school."

So yeah. I must be doing something right.

who knows?

The week is going by pretty well. They took the PSATs which was an off day for all the teachers yesterday but today was back into the swing of things.

Parent - Teacher conferences tonight. So we'll see how that goes.

Sans Beard

So on a whim I shaved off my beard last night. Relatively happy with it.

It's so funny to watch students try to figure out what is different about me and then come to the realization soon after.

One student was jokingly upset (although he was a little serious) I shaved. "Why did you shave off your beard? You inspired me to one day grow a beard, now that out the window." So for the rest of the class, he proceeded to point out every guy with facial hair in my Civil War pictures slideshow.

insert > table> i'm not kidding

Lately, the days have all been blending together. We've been covering the Civil War for about a week now and we are going to continue with the Civil War for about one more week.

We started with Lincoln's election, then the states seceding, and since then we've been covering a couple battles a day with one day dedicated to the Emancipation Proclamation. Next week, I plan on spending at least 2 full days on Gettysburg.

So yeah. school's school. Outside of teaching, the classes I'm taking are going well. One of the teachers in my "Supervision of Personnel Problems" class is a grammar crazy person. She has said, if you even only forget to capitalize one word in your paper, it is not deserving of anything higher than a B+. Crazy Person!

To other class I'm taking about using Technology as a school administrator, the teacher is explaining different types of technologies and how to use them. Last week we learned about Microsoft Word and how to insert a table, and he said for the next 5 classes we'll be learning about Microsoft Excel . Seriously, this is a graduate program. Seriously.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Sorry about the lack of updating.

Last week we started the Civil War ad we went through some of the battles and logistics. It was pretty dry. (I personally think the Civil War is wicked boring). So I decided to punch up the week with a Civil War song lesson.

I had all the students clear their desks so they had nothing in front of them. Then I played the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and asked to students to listen for Civil War or Military imagery. Next we listened to the song again and this time I gave the students the lyrics. I asked them to circle or at least mark any words or phrases that contained that imagery they were looking for.

They sort of got into it, but not so much (wasn't expecting much) so I went one step further. I had them create their own groups in the classroom instead of me assigning groups. And as a group they had to create their own Civil War song in whatever style they wanted. There were some guidelines, but really they had artistic license.

They all really got into the activity. Most groups did raps, but they were surprisingly good. It made my day (week almost)

Anyway, that pretty much wraps up my week.