Fi-ya Pow-ah

Today started normally. Got to school, settled in, got some work done. The school day started next with homeroom and then first period (my free) all going smoothly.

I started to look out the window and saw that it was absolutely down-pouring outside. Just then the fire alarms at the school started to go off. (Even with a friendly automated voice: ATTENTION ATTENTION A FIRE HAS BEEN REPORTED IN THE BUILDING). So I grabbed my jacket and began to walk down the stairs and out the building with the students.

We got outside and you could see a sea of the school's 1100+ students all soaked and dripping wet from the pouring rain. Teachers began to complain that this was the worst time for a fire drill, someone else noted that was lightning in the distance and so on. Soon the principal called everyone back into the building before the fire department was even able to show up.

Apparently there was actually a fire in the building, somewhere in the kitchen but it was handled and dealt with. But now, all the students are drenches head to toe as they head back into the building. After the teachers were able to settle their students back down, the principal came out the loud speaker and announced that the teachers should be lenient in terms of the school uniforms and gave students permission to where sweatshirts, t-shirts or any other dry clothes they may have with them.

At that announcement, the hallways filled up with students all headed for their lockers, lockerrooms, and some back outside to their cars to get some clothes to wear.

In any case, it's an interesting start to the third day of school (and I haven't even started teaching yet)

LOST

Today was relatively uneventful. I lectured all day about the Compromise of 1850, which is pretty boring but I think I managed to make it interesting.

While I was in the Main Office today, I random tiny little freshman came in carrying his books in his hands all the way up to his chin. He went over to one of the administrative assistants and just said, "I lost my schedule and I have no idea where I'm going."

She managed to print him off two new schedules, one to bring home and one that she taped inside his student handbook/assignment book/passbook. He looked to me and said, "I think I'm supposed to go to room 314 next period," so we looked at his schedule and he was supposed to be in 224. I ended up walking him to his next class because he was afraid he was going to be late (he wasn't). And he was all squared away.

One and Done

First day of school is officially over. Overall, I thought it went pretty well. With each of my classes I went through my syllabus, explained my expectations and classroom rules, pretended to be strict and serious (I don't think it worked). I tried to start a class discussion about what they thought were the most important things in history but with all my classes, hardly anyone spoke. Too bad for them, this is their first essay.

Today I also assigned all my students an essay due on monday about what they think is/was the most important event/person in World or US history. This way I get to see their perception on history, I start off the year with an example of their writing style, and I set the tone that I'm the teacher and they shouldn't mess with me.

Anyway, we also shared fun/unique facts today in order for me to learn names by affiliating them with random bit of information. Here are some of the highlights:

• I'm afraid of clowns
• I've never eaten a sandwich
• I can lick my elbow
• I have a scar on my right eyebrow from running into the corner of a shoe-rack
• I broke my front tooth by running into a pole
• I once got 87 stitches in my face
• I blew up my friend's mailbox
• I fractured my skull as in infant
• I once got stuck on a roller coaster for 7 hours
• I eat in my sleep
• I have two different colored eyes
• I once convinced my sister bugs were candy (my mom caught her eating ladybugs)
• I recite Disney's "Hunchback of Notre Dame" word for word
• My brother pushed my down the stairs when I was still in a stroller
• I've never lost a game of Monopoly

New Year!

So a new year has begun. I have the same five classes but a whole new group of students. Some students I knew from last year, some students I knew by reputation, and some students I had never seen or met before.

On Tuesday the teachers met and had an in-service day where we did a series of breakout sessions with our administrators. Over the past two days we had had our student orientation days. On Wednesday, the seniors and the freshmen came in for half a day consisting of assemblies and a mini-schedule run through.

This year I only have 9 seniors mixed into four of my classes. So during the mini-schedule, it was kind of awkward. I only had 2 seniors in each class and 3 in one of them. So doing my spiel about expectations and what the class was going to be like, while only 2 students sat in the desks in front of me.

In any case, Wednesday went well. Today went well too. I saw the rest of my students and gave them my expectations. In the first class today I just rambled for the 10 minutes I had, but by the fifth class I spoke to my timing was perfect.

But beyond all of that, there were no funny stories or students making animal noises. However, I have no doubt this will happen at some point. Also, I have given semi-administrative-ish responsibilities including watching the seniors in the cafeteria during the study period with the class deans, and being responsible for kicking the students out of the parking lot at the end of the day so they don’t loiter. FUN!

done-zo

The school year, as well as my first year teaching, is officially over. It's exciting but surprisingly sad at the same time. After finishing grading all the final exams it was a great feeling, but cleaning up the classroom and shutting off the light (however cheesy as this sounds) felt weird. Brian, the teacher whose room I have my desk in, and I made a few Boy Meets World jokes as we slowly left our classroom imagining Feeney giving some sort of closing remarks.

In any case, I an no longer and will never be again a first year teacher. Although I will always be a student-teacher.

Birthday

My Period D class threw me a surprise birthday party first period. They brought in drinks, cookies, cake, cupcakes, brownies, and more. They even went to the Vice Principal to ask for permission to throw the party because they didn't want me to get in trouble.

It was great, never saw it coming.

Business Cards!

So March 20, was the last time I updated this thing. Sorry.

Since then, did a unit on the 1950s where we talked all about communism, the Soviet Union, conformity, and so on. We watched an episode of “Leave it to Beaver” and compared the family structure and values to that of “Everybody Loves Raymond”. The kids really got it and latched on to the idea of conformity and really understood what it meant and how it shaped the time period.

Using conformity as a jumping off point, we went into our next unit of the 1960s. We spent about a week and a half on Civil Rights with a look at Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Black Panthers. Some of my kids freaked out when I told them how Rosa Parks was actually an NAACP officer and her protest on the bus had been planned and organized weeks in advance. One student yelled at me, “you just ruined my childhood! I thought she was this average lady … and now this! I can’t believe this, this changes everything!”

I finished up our section on Civil Rights by talking about civil rights in the 21^st century, so I did a whole day on North Africa and the Middle East with a focus on Egypt and Libya. Some of the kids were pumped to be learning about stuff that had just happened or was happening as we were learning about it.

Some other kids freaked out, “wait we’re in 2011 now? What happened to Vietnam? Why did we just skip all that stuff in history, this is ridiculous.” I guess they didn’t see the connections between the 60s and today, but they got it eventually.

Here’s a link to that presentation I gave if you want to check it out …

https://prezi.com/secure/b19dc562d64e742c107bb2a0482b5a6bfde18a70/

After the Civil Rights, and a break for April Vacation (which is pretty much the greatestinvention ever), we started our Politics section of the 1960ss unit. We learned about the Kennedys, the assassinations, the Space Race, Lyndon Johnson and the start of the Vietnam, and a whole lesson dedicated to 1968. (Here’s the Space Race presentation, I thought the bit about the monkeys was funny … my kids didn’t https://prezi.com/secure/ad6831a2db8f2582991a94169011ad9ce2b47993/ )

After all of that was wrapped up, we finished off the unit with a week long look into the counterculture of the 1960s. The whole time of the section, I never put notes on the board. All we did in class was look at pictures, watch videos, listen to music, and talk about what was going on; sort of a “countercultural” approach to teaching. But they really caught on and appreciated it.

At the end of each section I gave a quiz (ourunit test is going to be on Monday) generally the grades were in the mid to low 80s for the Civil Rights and Politics sections, but the average on the hippies quiz was a 95. So clearly the kids bought in and really got it (or my quiz was way too easy)

For part of the hippies section, the kids had to create a concert poster for a sixties band. Some of them were amazing; I took this picture to give you an idea.

For a summation of the 1960s the kids had to make video projects, they came out really good but for privacy purposes I’m not going to post any here. But take my word, they’re good.

In other news, school is coming to a close. The seniors last dayis next Thursday before their exams begin. Most of my classes won’t be affected by seniors leaving but I do have a few of them mixed in with my juniors. Otherwise, as part of staff appreciation week, the administration gave all the staff business cards (I’m legit now) and a notepad with “From the desk of [name]” so that’s pretty cool.

We had Prom two weekends ago, it was fun. Weird being a chaperone but still fun. One of my classes organized everyone together and got the photographers to get a Period B class picture. That was cool, I’m gonna hold onto that picture forever.

Also, boys tennis, which I’m assistant coaching, is now 9-2 (oursecond lost which was yesterday was against a really good team we only play to make us better – we pretty much knew we were going to lose but it was good competition). And also, we have the chance to be conference co-champions after one of our matches next week. It would be the first time in 7 years tennis got to put a banner up in the gym. That would be an impressive resume for the first year as a coach (although I don’t do much).

Beyond that, I’ll try to keep this updated but nothing really is happening lately.