"Wait, how many states are in the Union? And what's the Union?"

Classes have been going pretty well. We are now almost done with the unit I created when I student-taught, so that was easy. Not much else to say. The days are somewhat dragging by but the weeks are going quickly. I can't believe it's almost December.

I gave a quiz last friday and the average on it was somewhere between an 82 and an 85 depending on the class period. Maybe it was too easy, or maybe they just got it. Either way, they did well and they were all really happy about it (which made me feel good as a teacher).

The other day we were talking about something and I asked what it reminded them of from what we've covered so far. Some kids were picking out similarities with things we learned during the first two weeks. I was pumped.

Today we took a "test" on the 100 Most Frequently Asked Questions for an immigrant applying to be a US citizen. We made a game out of it in class to see how many of the students could pass the citizenship test. They did horribly, some scored in the 30s. Some scored in the 80s though, so that was good. But I got wicked excited when a few of them moaned at each other, "this is so hard, I'm so glad we are already citizens and don't have to take this. I would totally not be allowed to stay in the country." I was so happy they got it and understood the purpose of the activity without me telling them anything.

One Down; who knows how many more?

Gave my first detention today. Well not a real detention, a teacher-detention. But still, I have now given one.

I won't get into details, but a male student was being ridiculously inappropriate in class, so I told him he had to see me after school.

When he got to my room after school (on time even) I handed him an index card with an assignment:

In a 300 (or more) word hand-written essay, explaining why what you did was ridiculously inappropriate. Due: Thursday.

Yes I could have been stricter, but with the circumstances of it all, I thought I handled it well. It at least sends a message to him and the rest of the class.

shumanitutanka ob wachi

We have now finished "Dances with Wolves" and today I did an whole lesson on Reservations Today. We talked about a bunch of different statistics and data about the reservations and then I specifically talked about the one I worked on in South Dakota by sharing stories and pictures.

The kids seemed to appreciate it, some questioned me about whether it was worth it or not. A valid question, they asked it appropriately though so it was OK. That got the class into a big debate which I was really happy to see.

Next week we start an Immigration Unit, so we'll be talking about a different population of people in America. It should get interesting.

Until then.

TEST DATA!

Also, I meant to update about the test. Overall, things went pretty well.

In my technology class, because he's teaching us excel non-stop. So I made an excel spread sheet that calculated averages for each period per section and also the averages of all the classes put together.

As you can see, my Period 4 class is made up of super-humans.

Fill Ins - out of 20 points

Matching - out of 20 points

Chronology - out of 10 points

Map - out of 20 points

Essay - out of 30 points

Bonus - out of 5 points

Total - out of 100 points

	FILL IN	MATCHING	CHRONO	MAP	ESSAY	BONUS	TOTAL
PERIOD 1	12.87	16	7.93	12.13	24.93	4.67	78.53
PERIOD 2	12.83	16.08	7.5	7.63	25.54	4.67	74.25
PERIOD 3	14.33	16.67	8.4	9.13	23.8	4.8	77.13
PERIOD 4	17	17.65	9.29	17.29	28.18	4.76	94.18
PERIOD 5	16.32	17.26	7.84	13.68	26.58	4.53	86.21
ALL	14.61	16.71	8.13	11.73	25.87	4.68	81.73

4 days of teaching, 4 days of movie

This week has been going by pretty well, (yes I'm aware it's only wednesday morning). This week we started the "Moving West," "Manifest Destiny" mini-unit. I was actually pretty excited to start this because this is what I began my student teaching with.

During student teaching I covered Early frontier life and Native American history (1870s to today) all in one overwhelming lesson for my students. This year (as a real teacher), I have taken what I did in one day and made it into a four-day ordeal.

We started with early frontier life and manifest destiny, then we did a lesson on the clashes between frontiersmen and Native Americans, today we will be covering the Native American Wars, and we'll be wrapping up this mini-unit with a lesson Reservations today.

And, because time allows, we are going to watch "Dances with Wolves" too. So I'm pretty excited about this unit. Also I realized I was awful as a teacher when I student taught. So that's a great realization.

"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.