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.

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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.

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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.