this has to be some sort of world record

Today's schedule:

Period 1: gave 22 tests
Period 2: gave 20 tests
Period 3: free
Period 4: gave 16 tests
Period 5: gave 18 tests
Period 6: free

By the time the end of the day bell rang at 2:15, I had already corrected all 76 tests. BAM!
(oddly - the class average in each of the classes was an 88.4)

Propaganda!

Propaganda!

My students handed in their propaganda today that they had to create, some of them came out amazing. I left them at schools, so tomorrow I'll take pictures and upload them for you all to see.

Recap & More

So I apologize for not updating whatsoever over the past two weeks. These past few weeks have been ridiculously busy with curriculum mapping for professional development, administrative internship coming to a close (that Curriculum Mapping paper ended up being 26 pages), midterms being due, and life on top of that. So things have been a bit hectic.

But, to recap, way back when we finished up my “Growth of Cities” Unit by examining and analyzing city grids and talking about the different sections of a city. After that, each student had to create their own city using Google Sketch-Up a 3D rendering/architecture computer program. The “technology integration specialist” was ridiculously excited about what I was doing in class and help me out a lot with support and advice. She asked me if she could write about the project in her monthly newsletter for some educational technology thing. I said sure. She also bragged about me to the Academic Vice Principal who popped in on my class a few times to check out what the kids were doing. So that felt good, I had the support to know I was doing something right and somewhat impressive. (Below is a city I made when I was bored)

The kids also had to do an immigration project and trace back their family’s roots and immigration story. I students whose parents came from Ireland, Italy, Russia, Poland, Portugal, Greece, England, France, Spain, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Norway, Sweden, China, Thailand, Peru, Japan, Guatemala, Belize, and more so it was a good mix.

Some of the highlights:

• My great-great grandfather was kicked out of Norway because his dad thought he was a screw-up
• My great grandfather fled Italy because the Italian mafia was after him and his family
• 5 students’ families settled down in Medford, MA – kind of weird how many that happened to
• One girl refused to say her family was from Lebanon, she was embarrassed for some reason

I have had two students with concussions over the past month. One girl got in a car accident on the way to school and hit her head. Another girl is a soccer goalie and was kicked in the head so hard she had to get 20+ stitches in her eyebrow and the concussion was so bad for the past three weeks she hasn’t been able to

• Look at a computer
• Look at a projected computer image
• Use a cellphone
• Take tests/quizzes
• Take notes
• Do homework
• Read
• Be around loud noises 

She’s a wicked dedicated and hardworking student so it was really aggravating her that she couldn’t do anything in school. At one point she actually lied to all her teachers and said she could do work again but the guidance department quickly shot that one down. They say she should be fully back after Christmas Break. 

Words with Friends is a scrabble-like game people can play on their smartphones and ipod/ipads. So in study hall a few kids have been pretty competitive with it lately. Being bored, I decided to help a kid out who needed to play a word. The word I ended up helping him with scored him 75+ points which caused his friend he was playing (sitting next to him) to get wicked upset and started to whine and pout because I wasn’t helping him too. I tried to help him for the next couple rounds but I couldn’t get him any words that scored more than 15 points. Oh well.

Words with Friends is a scrabble-like game people can play on their smartphones and ipod/ipads. So in study hall a few kids have been pretty competitive with it lately. Being bored, I decided to help a kid out who needed to play a word. The word I ended up helping him with scored him 75+ points which caused his friend he was playing (sitting next to him) to get wicked upset and started to whine and pout because I wasn’t helping him too. I tried to help him for the next couple rounds but I couldn’t get him any words that scored more than 15 points. Oh well.

Last week we started covering WWI in class. Every time I teach the outbreak of WWI I like to teach it as if it was high school girl drama. In no way am I trying to make light of the situation of the war, but in order to understand the chaos and confusing of the time period – high school drama works as an analogy. It’s all about Amber (Austria) and Stacy (Serbia) who fight over Frank (Franz Ferdinand) and the chaos that ensues as a result. It really worked but my kids are getting a little sick of me lying to them so much to create a lesson. They haven’t really trusted me since the Abe Lincoln/cheating fiancée story. (Here's a conflict map to characterize the outbreak of the war)

We’ve covered the US standpoint at the start of the war, the beginning of US involvement, the war in Europe, trench warfare, submarine warfare, aerial combat, biological warfare, and the war at home. Today, we focused on propaganda. We talked about what it was and used modern day examples to explain how it evokes a specific message subtly (sometimes) and how it tries to get an emotional response from the audience (ie Sarah McLachlan ASPCA commercial). Then we went over different propaganda posters from WWI and talked about them for a class period.

One poster we looked at (below) tries to get men to feel guilty for not joining the war effort. I asked my students “what is the poster saying” trying to go for the overall message when one of the guys in the room enthusiastically yells “gee, I wish I were a man!” Only after he said it did he realize what he was actually saying and got ridiculously embarrassed. It was pretty hilarious.

GAH!

There are a few stories to share but right now I'm currently working on my paper about Curriculum Mapping that's due tomorrow for my Administration Internship. I'm already on page 11 and I'm only about halfway done.

Stuff to update about later:
1. City Project - yet sorry I haven't done that yet.
2. Immigration project recap
3. Review game (maybe if I feel like it)
4. Concussions and students
5. Words with Friends
6. .... maybe there's more - I forget

NAILED IT!

Yesterday I did a lesson on the importance of city grids and how much you can tell about a city just by looking at a satellite image of it. We talked about the characteristics of the old and new sections, rich and poor districts, business section, and so on. Then we spent the next part of the class looking at satellite images, using Google Maps, of fifteen different cities from around the world including: New York, Boston, Chicago, LA, London, Paris, Dublin, Sydney, Tokyo, Beijing, Manila, Johannesburg, Reykjavik, Wellington, and Rio de Janeiro.

But in any case, I had an informal observation yesterday too where my department head snuck in the room and observed me for about 15 minutes. I didn't even see her come in, it was just all of a sudden she was in the back of the room taking notes. I thought it went well, some parts were a little shaky but all in all I was pleased.

I just saw my department head this morning when I walked in and she asked how we wanted to go about "debriefing." I told her whatever works best for her was fine and right then and there she started discussing my lesson in the middle of the main office (no one else was there yet - it was about 6:30am). But she loved it, she said I was animated, I did a great job getting the kids to participate, she thought it was really well done including my Prezi and she appreciated the global perspective on how all cities develop in the same manner and have similar characteristics.

It was a very validating, although brief experience for me, this was the first real time I was observed and critiqued outside of student teaching or the current program I'm in. I'm not saying that those observations/evaluations haven't been beneficial, but at some point those experiences have been more about so focussed on a person trying to be a teacher and learning about what that means (if that makes sense). This was one of the first times I was evaluated for being exactly who I was, without any preconceived notion that "I'm in the process of figuring this out."

It was just nice to be seen and evaluated as a real teacher, not just some form of student teacher.

Continued ...

• Citizenship Test results 

We took the citizenship test once more this year, and my students surprisingly did much better than last year. In all of my five classes, I only had roughly 15 students "fail" the citizenship test. One student got 100% and I had another student who is an exchange student from Thailand score a 58%. Sure he technically failed, but he did really well in terms of US history and government for someone who moved her last August.

• University of Maryland application

One of my students in study hall was trying to fill out her application to the University of Maryland. The school isn't on the Common App or something, because its questions were kind out out there and all over the place. Yet, still hilarious. It didn't help that my student was writing ridiculous answers. For example:

1. What place on earth do you want to visit most? --- Cleveland, Ohio 

2. What was the most exciting thing you did last Tuesday? --- Went home and took a nap

• Mayflower shaped Thanksgiving basket

Every year the school does a Thanksgiving drive for needy families. To go along with the donations of food, each homeroom decorates their baskets as part of a competition. This year, the homeroom I help cover placed second in the competition because a student built the Mayflower out of wood to decorate the basket - it was pretty awesome.

• Teaching about slums

Last week we covered slums and the development of cities as immigrants came in waves. We talked about Five Points, New York and what that was like in the mid 1800s. (I feel like I have more to say about this but I'm completely spacing)

• City Project --- to be continued

COMING SOON:

There will soon be a blog update about the following:

• Citizenship Test results 
• University of Maryland application
• Mayflower shaped Thanksgiving basket
• Teaching about slums
• City Project

I just don't feel like typing it out now.

Until then.

New Colossus

For homework, my students had to read the poem "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus about the Statue of Liberty -- the poem with the line, "give me your tired, your hungry, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."

I gave them a quick 5 question quiz on the poem (I had warned them yesterday).
Question #1: What is the title of the poem?
Question #2: Who is the author of the poem?

You have no idea how many kids had absolutely no clue what the answer to either of those questions was.

Recommendations update

Completed: 27
Not done yet: 2




awesome.

Gorilla Glue

When talking about reasons why immigrants came to the US, one of the students said escaping from a natural disaster is a reason to immigrate to the US. So I asked what is an example of one of these natural disasters. Right away a student's hand shoots up and she yells, "HURRICANE KATRINA!" Yes, that is why people immigrated to the US, to escape the hurricane.

In a different class we started talking about how to make glue (it worked - somehow) and I commented that they used to use horses. One student then asked if gorrilla glue comes from monkeys, my response was that crazy glue comes from the criminally insane. A different student then asked about glue-sticks and I knew it was time to change the subject.

Also, yesterday the kids took a Twitter Quiz on Native Americans. I had some fun with some of tweets and user names. Like General Custer's user name was "NeverStandingAgain" because he had his "last stand" at the Battle of Little Bighorn, and Sitting Bull who was Hunkpapa Lakota had the user name "iloveitwhenyoucallmehunkpapa" sadly only a handful of the kids got the Biggie reference.

Debate!

Debates today in three of my classes. Overall, they went really well. In my first class, things got heated. Kids were yelling back and forth, throwing around statistics to aid their arguments, and bashing each others' argument at the same time. I had to force them to take a breather at least three times just to calm everyone down.

My next class went well too. Low key, but the major points were there. In my third class, kids started to get heated again but the surprising part was that the loudest kids in the debate were the kids who hardly ever spoke in class to this point.

Fourth period we played a review game where the students had to guess important people/events/places from our Native Americans chapter by only being able to give three words worth of clues. The best was one kid who for George Custer just yelled, "Horse-Wall!" and for Sitting Bull he said "Perching Bovine." Whatever gets the right answer I guess.

"What are we doing today?"

So not having the skype chat really messed me up today for some periods. I was supposed to watch the video of the skype chat in four of my classes today, but no video led to some issues.

In three of the classes I handled it well. We went over the homework in full detail, I brought in different crafts and objects from the reservation to show off and pass around, and we began hashing out the major points in a class debate that was going to happen the next time the class met.

In my fourth class, things did not go as well. This class met an extra time last week so they already went over that homework, already had the class debate (which went really well), and did not have anything due today. I couldn't give them their chapter quiz early because (1) they already had a pop quiz this chapter - and this was a big quiz any way, and (2) I didn't get my copies back from the people who photocopy everything for the teachers yet.

So in class, I talked about what happened with the skype chat and why it didn't save (or evaporated is more like it - it legitimately just disappeared as the computer was trying to save the recording), we talked about the major points of the skype chat and how it went in general, I passed around the crafts and objects and we talked about them for a little while, and we went over what the quiz would be on. Then came the dreaded question from a student, "so what are we doing today? just this." To answer the question directly, Yes. But I couldn't say that to them. So I strung them along for a little while and talked about other things, but they could see I didn't really have anything planned for today.

That was fun. But then they started asking questions about the notes and I was able to use the next few minutes in class being articulate and knowledgeable for the students - it proved I wasn't a complete idiot.

We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Skype Chat recap

My plan was to skype with my friend's 6th grade class from a reservation in South Dakota. Using SMART notebook, thank you school for downloading it onto my computer, I was going to record the chat and show it to my other 4 classes that didn't get to be part of it in the first place. Well, to cut the story short - at the end of the chat I went to hit save and my computer decided "delete" was a better option. So there is no copy of the skype chat out there - sorry other classes of kids.

In any case, the chat itself went well. You had my 22 juniors and my friend's 8 sixth graders, but it went well enough. Right when the skype chat turned on, you could hear her kids yell, "wait, why are they all white?" Awkward.

The questions both sides were asking were pretty good. Basic ones like "what do you do in your spare time?" "how far away from your school do you live?" and "what's your family like?" were able to provide a lot of info about both sides.

There was one kid in my friend class that would answer every question by first saying "shiiiiiiiiit" like he was wicked cool. My kids kept turning back and looking at me, "did he just swear? I think he just did it again ... Wow, this kid just won't stop ... This is hilarious!"

Skype Chat

No real funny stories or experiences have happened lately. I'm in the middle of my Native American unit as of now and it''s going well. We just started going over the Reservation system as of the 21st Century with a specific look at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota (where I used to work). We've read articles, watched videos (20/20 did a Special about the Rez on October 14th), looked at pictures, and I told about my experiences.

Tomorrow, in one of my classes, I'm skyping with my friend who teaches on a the Pine Ridge Reservation. My juniors will be asking her 6th graders questions and vice versa. Today in class, we went over the appropriate and inappropriate questions they could ask. You can't just ask a 6th grader "what's poverty like?" straight out. Instead, what we covered today, was how to get answer you want but by asking the correctly phrased questions. For example, if you ask "how many people do you live with?" it is not intrusive, inappropriate, or rude. But you would be able to find out a lot about a child's home life if they answer that they live with over 10 other people.

In any case, we'll see how it goes. My students seem really excited about it. But who knows, they might get "stage fright" and not ask any questions tomorrow.

Random Assortment of Stories

 “I kind of just grabbed it and it was in my hand, so I just went back to my seat” – Student in the cafeteria

I started to overhear two students talking about how weird it is to go to a Catholic school. One girl said this high school is the first Catholic school she’s gone to and the guy with her started to say that he’s not even Catholic; he was Protestant and didn’t understand the “rituals” involved with Mass.

GIRL: “do you still receive the Eucharist at Mass?”

BOY: “I don’t wanna look unclean by not going up.”

GIRL: “seriously, what do you do?”

BOY: “the first time I went up, I just kind of give them a head nod and grabbed it, I didn’t know you had to do all this weird stuff [does the sign of the cross].”

GIRL: “did you say Amen?”

BOY: “no, I kind of just grabbed it and it was in my hand, so I just went back to my seat. Then it got really awkward, people started to ask me, ‘why do you still have the body of Christ in your hands?’ and then a teacher yelled at me. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Also today I had two guys point to their crotches while talking to me. Why? I don’t know either.

GUY 1: “so I got poison oak this weekend, all over. On my face, on my arms, and … [points to his crotch and makes an awkward expression]”

GUY 2: talking about a girl on an opposing volleyball team, “yeah she was really good at volleyball, she could jump high and everything but she hit me in the crotch [points] right when I walked in after she spiked the ball over the net so I didn’t like her.”

High school kids are great.

This morning, I had a girl from one of my classes run up to me in the hallway, “Chad [a classmate] got in a car accident!” she then proceeded to keep walking by, I asked if he was ok, “oh yeah, he’s fine. Whatever.” She was obviously concerned. 

Tone

Sometimes when I teach I try to create a tone for the class. As lame, cheesy, and stupid as that sounds. Today we are learning about the Massacre of Wounded Knee. I could easily have just lectured the information and told them exactly what happened, but that doesn’t do it justice. So instead, I try to create a tone for the room. On Friday I did my first run of this lesson and I’m doing it four more times today. I shut off the lights, closed the curtains, projected a picture of a snowy hill and valley and took a seat at the front of the class. I never normally sit down when I teach, and most times it freaks me out if I do. But for this lesson, I simply want to tell my students a story. I slowly get their attention and begin the story. It’s a depressing and kind of heavy story about the massacre of the Lakota tribe at the site of Wounded Knee Creek. In total, close to 300 Lakota men, women, and children died. I told them the story of the events of the day, about the three day blizzard that followed soon after and the mass grave that was dug after that.

The class was silent, we finished with fifteen minutes still left in the period, but I knew it wouldn’t be wise to keep going. I decided to stop and just answer questions knowing how heavy the class had been. The kids (juniors and seniors) looked a little stunned, they were silent and seemingly afraid to be the first person to make a noise. Eventually one girl asked a question which started a good discussion in class.

The bell rang and instead of them jumping up and sprinting out of the room, the casually took their time. As depressing a class it was, I know my students won’t forget it. They may forget the names of the people and the facts of what happened, but they’ll always remember the tone & mood of the room and the weight of the story of the Massacre of Wounded Knee.

Tatanka Sauce

While teaching about the importance of the buffalo (tatanka in Lakota), a student asks, "is it true that you grind up the bones of a buffalo to make buffalo sauce? And what part of the buffalo is the wing?"

Idiots.

Wall o' Horses

Today we learned about the Battle of Little Bighorn and went over Custer and everything like that. One of the weirdest aspects of the battle happened towards the end when Custer was grasping at straws in order to defend himself. Having nothing for protection to use as cover, Custer actually ordered his men to shoot their horses and make a wall to hide themselves. I tried to get across to my students how ridiculous of an idea this was and I think it worked. In any case, one of my classes just kept referring to "horse wall" throughout the rest of the class.

At lunch, a science teacher came up to me and asked how my day was going (seemingly out of nowhere) I said it was fine, but she continued "some of my students couldn't help but talk about your class during mine. Something about a wall of horses? I don't know what they has to do with marine biology but they thought it was essential to share with the rest of the class."

Oh horse wall.

Pirate Ship

I tried the "Reservation System" with a different class of mine. The only other class I tried it with. It didn't go the way I wanted, they loved it. The were pumped they got to push their desks so close together. The point was still made, they still understand the reservation system - they just have positive memories of it.

I walked past one of the kids in the hallway yesterday morning:
ZACH: Can we sit like the Great Plains again today?
ME: No sorry, not today?
ZACH: What about the Rocky Mountains?
ME: No Zach.
ZACH: Appalachian Mountains?
ME: No Zach
ZACH: Mississippi?
ME: That's not even a mountain range.
ZACH: We can twist and bend the desks like the river.
ME: No Zach.
I walk into the Main Office, Zach keeps walking down the hall. W hen I leave the office, I see Zach in the hallway walking in the other direction.
ZACH: What about a pyramid?
ME: I was waiting for you to come up with a new one, but no.
ZACH: Pirate Ship?
Me: Ok, I'll give you that one.

In any case, I guess the overall goal of having them remember the reservation system did work. The kids have been sitting with the desks all bunched together for the past three days now. We'll see how long that keeps going.

Is there some sort of historical lesson in this?

Started my Native American unit today. And, sadly to say it doesn't seem to be going that well. I figure I have had so much to say, that a lot of times I just seem to ramble in front the class. They have been able to see my enthusiasm for the topic which I hope they get into, but content wise it is a little all over the place.

For my first period class, I told them "it's been two months since the start of school, I know all your names, so I figure at this point you can sit where you want." Then the kids moved around, spread out throughout the room. As I got going, I kept eliminating rows that they would have been able to sit in: can't sit in the back row, or side rows, or front row. Soon they were all boxed in together and I told them that they had to move all the desks closer to each other. They started to complain and whine about being so close to each other. One girl goes, "is this just like that fiancee story? Is this meant to be some historical lesson?" It was. I just yelled, "RESERVATION SYSTEM!" and tried to start a discussion about what it felt to be boxed in and so on. They didn't get into it because they were too upset about me moving seats around in the first place.

Oh well.

11/11/11ish

Yesterday, I was trying to get my students to a deeper level of understanding about Reconstruction and the different viewpoints of it. One viewpoint was Lincoln's which called for the South to be forgiven and he wanted the US to move on after the Civil War ended. The other viewpoint is that of the Radical Republicans which called for the South to get punished for what they did, and forgiveness was not an option.

I talked a lot about how Lincoln was all about forgiveness, and I didn't think I was really getting the point across as to how much of an extreme idea this really was. How could you really forgive your enemy after you've fought for 4 years? So I asked the class, "How many of you, if you were in Lincoln's shoes, would forgive the South now that the Civil War has ended?" Just as I thought would happen, practically every hand in the class is raised. All of the kids swear they would forgive the South and then say that they wouldn't punish them.

So that's when I start to tell a story:

"I was talking to my friend from college the other day, just catching up and seeing how they've been doing. After talking for a while, we started to ask about our friends that graduated with us and if any news about them had happened. My friend told me how Danielle, our mutual friend, got engaged in April and is going to get married in about two weeks on 11/11/11."

- - - the kids start to get wrapped up in the story, some girls start to say how they think it's so cute getting married on 11/11/11 and how good luck that is and everything like that - - -

"So wedding is all planned out, a lot of the stuff has already been paid for, bought the dress and everything. Well, my friend just told me over the phone that last week, Danielle found out her fiancee has been cheating on her."

- - - at this point a giant gasp that goes through the room - - -

"I think it's ridiculous, she totally shouldn't marry the guy now. I think she should call it off. Well apparently Danielle has decided to keep going as planned. She figured she's already paid for everything, it's just over two weeks away, people have bought plane tickets, and all that stuff. She said that she'll just marry him like it was originally intended and they'll figure out their problems after the wedding and move on from there. I think this is crazy, what do you all [students] think about this? Is she insane? I'm asking you because I want to see if I'm being ridiculous for feeling this way."

- - - now the students start to chime in, girls are calling for him to dump him, someone else calls for some sort of physical altercation, one girl even says that Danielle should marry him and then divorce him right away so she can get half of all his stuff - - -

So I ask the class, how many would forgive the guy? How many would go along with the wedding as planned? No one raised their hands. When I ask if she should dump him and if he should get punished in some way, every hand emphatically shoots up in the air.

I ask them, "is she ridiculous to think that they should get married and move on and be a couple and figure out the problems later?" Everyone dramatically nods their heads, "so do you now see how extreme and radical Abraham Lincoln really was that he would want to forgive the South?"

At this point people start to get angry, "what do you mean that was all made up!?" "you lied to us! do you even have a friend named Danielle, was anything in that story real?" One girl says that she was unhappy with the ending of the story and wanted me to make it a happy ending that makes everything better, she claimed she really got into it and was upset it wasn't real.

But the students got the point, they realized Lincoln was extreme for his forgiveness and the Radical Republicans weren't even that radical because their viewpoint was that of human nature.

In any case, my kids probably don't trust me anymore.

Nope, don't got one of those

Today was wicked boring. I even told the kids that up front. I said, "all we're doing today is taking notes. They are going to be boring notes, and there are going to be a lot of them. I'm trying my best to make this interesting, but we have to get through this because it is important ..." That is one of the many things that I still remember from student teaching. My cooperating teacher would always say, "they're going to be able to see right through you, so just be up front with them. If it'll be boring, just tell them. They'll respect you more for being honest about it."

In any case, we studied the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant and the Compromise of 1877 today. Both things I didn't even cover last year, so I feel like I'm teaching this year's students a whole lot more already. It was boring, but I did try to make it fun with my presentation. Trying to engaging, funny, and interactive. It worked with some of the classes, they're a good group this year. It's gotten to the point where they're talking and taking part in class so that's good. At the beginning of the year they would just sit there stone-faced and not say a word. I'm glad we've moved past that.

Tomorrow they're Twitter Projects are do (similar to the Twitter quiz from two posts ago) hopefully those turn out well. Also, I'm doing a surprise activity that I'm nervous about it because it may work really well, or it may blow up in my face. But I'll write about how it goes tomorrow.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For my internship for administration right now, I have to complete a series of projects within my school. For my first project I wrote out a twelve page evaluation and analysis of the Dean system my school uses for discipline. For my second project, I'm working with the school's Crisis Management or Emergency Plan. Every classroom has (or should have) an Emergency Binder. It's a simple, red, three-ringed binder that contains all the plans for evacuations, lockdowns, bomb threats, etc.

After school today, I went around to twenty different classrooms to see if they had their Emergency Binder. Out of the twenty, ten had them and ten didn't. I walked into a few rooms and right away I could find them without even asking where they'd be. One room I walked in, I asked the teacher there if he knew where the binder was, he just looked at me and said, "Yeah, I don't think I have one of those, and if I did I have absolutely no clue where it would be." So that's good.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My Native American unit starts next week!

Recommendation count: 20-6

Running total:

Letters of Rec completed: 19
To be completed: 7

Woot.

This Week's Recap:

MONDAY - Civil War Test!
TUESDAY - Lincoln's Assassination, beginning of Reconstruction
WEDNESDAY - Johnson's Impeachment (GOT OBSERVED)
THURSDAY - Former Slaves in the Post-War South
FRIDAY - State Testing!


The week went generally fine, took until thursday to be fully recuperated from Sunday's half marathon. One of my classes found out (because I told them) about me running a half marathon and then winding up in the ER a few hours later for severe dehydration. By the end of the day, I had a student come up to me, "I heard you passed out halfway through a 5k." Glad to see my story was getting retold accurately.


In any case, yea Reconstruction! Last year I "taught" this chapter in a span of 2 days. I've extended it to a week and a half, still moving quickly though. Got observed wednesday and my program director loved the lesson! One the last page of the evaluation sheet he always fills out the sections that say Commendations and Recommendations. Under commendations, he wrote three comments, then crossed out recommendations, so he could write three more commendations. I thought the lesson was boring and dull, but he loved it. Also wednesday, I gave the kids a pop quiz on Lincoln's Assassination by making a fake trending topic Twitter page and the students had to fill out the real identities of the Twitter users based on their comments on the Lincoln Assassination.
ATTACHED:

On thursday, we talked about life of a former slave in the post-war South. We covered  Jim Crow Laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, Black Codes, 15th Amendment, voting rights, and so on. When we covered literacy tests as a way for southerners to restrict the black vote, I wanted to give the kids an understanding of what it might be like to be illiterate. So I took a handout one of my roommate got in his class on Special Education, of what a child with dyslexia sees when he/she tries to read something. I thought it was really cool, and I could also brag to the kids that I could read the whole thing without even trying. 


Here's a picture of it if you want to check it out, and the "translated" text is below it.

Children with particular
problems may reverse letters and
may not be able to make out what
they say. They may see some
letters for others, they may
pronounce letters so that they do
not form words that make sense to
them. If you study these w0-
-rds long enough you should be 
able to figure out what they ar-
-e saying because you have had
certain experience that allows
you to substitute some letters
for others and then to make
sense out of them. The child
with learning problems has not
had the same types of
experiences that you have had
and so cannot substitute in the
same manner as others.


But on friday I spent the day grading the tests from Monday since the kids were occupied taking the state standardized tests. Woohoo free work day! Ended up finishing all the tests and found 8 tests where the kids just didn't do the second essay question that was worth 15 points. One girl managed to get an 84 without the second essay, another student ended up with a 59. But 8 students! Ridiculous!


Also so far this year, I have written 17 letters of Recommendation and I still have 7 more to go. Who knows how many more kids will ask me for one, this is just what I get for teaching all juniors.

Pre-Assessment

For our next chapter (Reconstruction) I gave my students an online survey-ish quiz to find out what they already know about this point in US History.

I assigned it this morning, so the responses have been coming in slowly up to now, but I figured I could share a few of the gems with you.

QUESTION: What ended Reconstruction?

• Re-Reconstruction 
• Me
• The builders were done
• Construction
• 50 Cent
• WWI

ANSWER: Compromise of 1877

QUESTION: What is the famous line from Plessy v. Ferguson?

• It's on
• Never Lie
• Four score and seven years ago
• I love you, you love me, we're a happy family
• Let them eat cake
• To infinity and beyond
• Play. Laugh. Grow.
• To be or not to be
• I. Don't. Know.
• In any war, there are calms between the storms. There will be days when we lose faith. Days when our allies turn against us. But the day will never come when we forsake this planet and its people. For I am Optimus Prime, and I send this message to the universe: We are here. We are home.
• Give me liberty or give me death
• Just Dance
• If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much

ANSWER: Separate but equal

QUESTION: What are Jim Crow Laws?

• Laws that disallowed Jim to own crows?
• They kill crows

ANSWER: System that established segregation and black codes

QUESTION: Who was the first president to die in office?

• The 17th one
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• Ronald Reagan
• JFK

ANSWER: William Henry Harrison

All Hail the King!

Homecoming week is coming to a close. It officially ends tomorrow with the Homecoming Football game against a school rival, and then the Homecoming Dance tomorrow night.

This week was full of all sorts of random events. Twin Day on Tuesday where kids (and teachers) picked a twin and dressed the same. Thursday was College-Sweatshirt Day where everyone gets to wear a college sweatshirt over their uniform and then each class and the faculty has a 4 person team that plays in the College Bowl - a quiz bowl / trivia game. FACULTY WON! (I wasn't on the team though - absolutely not).

Today all the hallways were decorated to each class's theme: Freshmen - 20th Century, Sophomores - Ancient Egypt, Juniors - Wild West, Seniors - Future. Hallways were pretty good overall. We had our Homecoming Rally, complete with skits by all four classes.

Finally, they announced the Homecoming Court and the Faculty Homecoming King and Queen.
ALL HAIL KING ME! Yep, the seniors elected me Faculty Homecoming King - apparently my face was ridiculously red. They gave me a crown and everything.

Right ... Parents Night

Meant to update earlier about Parent-Teacher Conferences, but generally they went really well.

First off I saw more parents Thursday night, than I did all of last year - which was only about 33. Some of the teachers who teach freshmen saw at least 60+.

I got a lot of really nice compliments from parents. Many of them said how their son/daughter really liked by class, others said their son/daughter told them they had to come see me "because he's so cool."  -- I take all of those with a grain of salt, the parents may have just been trying to be nice to me so I like their student better - Suckers that won't work!

I had another parent that said, "when he comes home at night he always talks about your class. He told me that in your class, when you talk it seems like you only talk for 5 minutes but then he looks at the clock and realizes it's been 40." I thought that was a great compliment because most times i feel like I'm just droning on in front of the class.

Another parent was trying to find my table in the cafeteria, and when she finally came over she told me she had asked one of the student volunteers where I was sitting. The student told her, "Oh, he's in the back corner, he's the one that looks like a teddy bear." Awesome - students think i look like a teddy bear. Really?

But I did have the classic parent conference mixed in with the others. I have a student who is a really smart kid, he might not appear to be paying attention but if you ask him a question in class, he'll get it perfectly. anything we do in class he is great at. However, he problem is that he doesn't do any work outside of school. At this point in the year, he's only handed in one homework assignment on time. It was clear his mom was very frustrated with him. It was also clear that she was on the verge of tears during the conference because nothing I said about the student was a surprise to her. Classic example of a kid doing nothing with his potential. I did say at least 25 times that he is a great kid - didn't seem to do anything for the parents.

 - But, friday after school this kid came to talk to me. We talked about his homework, what he can make up, and different things from parent-conferences. So I'm hopeful maybe things might turn around for him - but that is pretty unrealistic of me.

Parents Night

Hola,

Parent-Teacher Conferences are tonight for the first semester. Can't wait!

Beyond that not too much has happened lately. We've finished up the Civil War as of today. Long weekend approaches. Video projects are due on Tuesday ....

That's about it, a better update will come after tonight is over.

More Songs!

[sorry in advance for the long post, but some of these songs were pretty good]

To the tune of "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO

Battling in the South tonight,

Everybody just grab your guns.

And we gonna make you lose your limbs,

North is just gonna have a good time.

Battling in the South tonight,

Everybody just grab your guns,

And we gonna make you lose your limbs.

We just wanna see ya … Shoot that.

In the north, bounty-ing, looking for your slave, ‘cause they ran away,

Nonstop when we start to fight, we gonna win ‘cause we’re organized.

Where the ammo? I gots to know beacuase I need to blow up some southerners, yo,

Half slave, half free, we don’t care, whatever word. Op-a-doe.

Ayo, I’m running through the south like a fugitive slave, 

shooting people up like we be playing Halo.

We battling! Yeah it’s my army I’m repping, 

I know we are real forward, hope were not overstepping.

Battling in the South tonight,

Everybody just grab your guns,

And we gonna make you lose your limbs.

North is just gonna have a good time.

Battling in the South tonight,

Everybody just grab your guns,

And we gonna make you lose your limbs.

We just wanna see ya … Shoot that.

Everyday I’m battling …

To the tune of "All-Star" by Smashmouth

Somebody once told me the war was gonna be short,

He wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.

He was looking kind of dumb, with a musket as his gun,

And he doesn’t even know of a rifle.

Well, the war starts coming and it don’t stop coming,

Lincoln takes office and the south hit the ground running,

Didn’t make sense not to fight for freedom,

The south wants slaves and the north wants to free ‘em.

So much to take, so much to win,

So what’s wrong with General McClellan?

You’ll never know if you don’t go,

You’ll never shoot if you don’t reload.

Hey now, you’re a soldier,

Get your gun out, take aim.

Hey now you’re a hero,

Get the battle on, get fame.

And all the glitters is blood,

When you’re shooting bodies where is the love?

To the tune of "American Idiot" by Greenday

Don’t wanna be a confederate idiot,

Don’t wanna nation ruled by the southern states.

And do you hear the sound of the battlefield?

And who is really fighting for America?

Welcome to a new kind of tension,

All across this divided nation,

When everything isn’t meant to be slavery.

Victory will be ours for tomorrow,

We’re not the ones who’re meant to surrender,

For that’s enough to fight.

Well maybe I’m for freedom, America.

I’m not part of a redneck agenda.

Now everybody do the Anaconda,

And sing along to the war of America.

To the tune of "Don't Trust Me" by 3Oh!3

Blue coats with a white tee underneath

He has the least breath of a cigarette on his teeth,

He’s a general and he ain’t got no speed,

He’s got money from the President back up North.

Ga-ga-ga-guns,

Firing in your face,

While his gun is in his jacket.

Tell the confeds if they have speed that the

Union is still in training,

And you’re going to get a hold of them!

He likes to move real slow,

He’s diligent you know,

He will never leave you alone.

Don’t trust McClellan! Never trust McClellan!

Don’t trust McClellan!

McClellan only trusts textbooks,

Lee’s man dropped the plan and how it’s in McClellan’s hands.

Wash those plans out? He would have been the man,

The bodies they found on the ground

Have red and dark blood all over them.

Ba-ba-ba-bruises cover your arms,

Shaking in the fields with a cantine in your palm.

And the best is its all McClellans fault,

Just another general slower than all.

To the tune of "Our Song" by Taylor Swift

We were marching up North,

But got held up short,

Landed at the Battle of Bull Run.

Realized our ways were

A little off these days,

And this war was not going to be fun.

They turned around,

Took the spectators down,

Because they knew something had gone wrong.

We were stronger then they’d

Thought we were for them,

It must have been all a blur.

Our war is a battle for our lives.

Fighting to be free,

While the guys on the other side,

Trying to kill our slaves.

To get up and run away,

Now we have to defend our ways.

Some nursery rhymes and limericks:

I’m a little southerner short and stout,

These are my slaves, they like to pout.

If you take them from me hear me shout,

We’ll defeat the North without a doubt.

-

There once was a man from the South,

Who really knew how to run his mouth,

He got in a fight,

With a northerner one night,

And now there’s a war abouth.

To the tune of the theme song from Holes (apparently?)

You’ve got to go and free those slaves,

You’ve got to go and free those slaves,

Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah

Nah-nah-nah-nah-oh.

Two guns to a soldier in their hands,

Got to kill you if you’re a Southern man,

Got my freedom, the North’s full of rights,

Black people live free, man it mad tight.

N-O-R-T - to the H.

What’s that down South, for blacks that’s hate.

We don’t capture Africans and we don’t hurt them,

But we do have factories, while you torture them.

To the tune of "Last Friday Night" by Katy Perry

There’s a stranger in my trench,

There’s a pounding in my head.

Blood all over the field,

There’s a finger on my shield.

I smell like a bath of blood,

Soldiers passed out in the mud.

This war will never end,

That guy killed my best friend.

Results of last night,

Ended up in the paper.

We lost,

Oh well.

Last battle fight,

We went marching in the night,

And we put up a great fight,

Till the morning light.

Last battle fight,

Fired way too many shots,

Thought we’d win but we lost.

To the tune of "Tonight, Tonight" by Hot Chelle Rae

It’s been a really really messed up week,

7 days of torture, 6 days of bitter.

McClellan went and lost it for me,

He’s a West Point graduate, but it’s time for him to quit.

La la la, whatever la la la it doesn’t matter,

La la la, oh well la la la.

We’re going at it tonight, tonight,

There’s a battle on the hill top top of the world.

Tonight, tonight, and we’re fighting on the edge of the DC line.

I don’t know if we’ll win it but watch how hard we’ll fight it,

It’s alright, alright, tonight, tonight.

I woke up with a strange battle wound,

Not sure how I got it, not a gun in my pocket.

And it kinda looks painful, too,

Mixed with the Battle of Antietam.

To the tune of "Beat It" by Michael Jackson

They told the slaves not to run up here,

We need to work you, don’t disappear.

‘Cause if you run and you hide, we’ll find your hide and,

Beat it, just beat it

Our bounty hunters will get you, better run while you can,

Lincoln got elected and started a slavery ban.

You wanna get your freedom, try all that you can,

So beat it, just beat it.