Tuesday, November 29, 2011
NAILED IT!
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.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Continued ...
- Citizenship Test results
- University of Maryland application
- Mayflower shaped Thanksgiving basket
- Teaching about slums
- City Project --- to be continued
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
COMING SOON:
- Citizenship Test results
- University of Maryland application
- Mayflower shaped Thanksgiving basket
- Teaching about slums
- City Project
Friday, November 18, 2011
New Colossus
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.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Gorilla Glue
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.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Debate!
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.
Monday, November 14, 2011
"What are we doing today?"
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.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Skype Chat recap
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Skype Chat
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.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Random Assortment of Stories
Tone
Sunday, November 6, 2011
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.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
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.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Pirate Ship
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.