BigBadBob's Blog

Today was an alright day, but I think the kids are starting to get “spring fever.”

We had a parent teacher conference today. The student in question is not in my classes, so I wasnt familiar with her. Apparently, her biggest problem is that she spends all her time in class talking to boys, and has “boys on the brain”, as her mom says. I always hate these conferences, because eventually they bring the student in, and the parent and student go at it, and the student is never comfortable, and wont talk or explain themselves, and eventually run off crying. Its one of the aspects of the job Im not looking forward to.

My class went well today, for the most part. Theres still a few chatty girls in there who wont stop for anything. Tomorrow will be the last lesson, and then we will give them a test on Thursday. I just finished writing up the test a few minutes ago. Its such an easy straight forward test, but students still do bad on them. They are lucky that the teacher accepts test corrections.

Fifth period was ridiculous. One of the students has been off the wall for weeks, due to extreme family issues. Knowing what happened, I can understand why she acts the way she does, but its not cool, especially when it rubs off on the other kids. Then another girl was off the hook, and it was due to “woman problems.” They are at that age in 7th grade where some of them begin to go through that stage in their lives, and it makes them nuts.

I still think the coming of spring has a lot to do with the kid recent craziness. But despite how crazy they are, I will still miss them when its done next month.

Today went pretty good. I had created three different worksheets with primary source documents, and that took up the whole class time, which was good. The first two were pretty basic and easy, and the third one was a bit more challenging, and took up the majority of their time.

For the team teaching, we did the class on pirates. The kids definitely enjoyed it, but we found out that guided notes were not the best way to go. The kids wasted way too much time asking us to constantly repeat ourselves as we went through the guided notes. If I was to ever do that again, I would have a section set aside where I could write what I wanted them to write, so they could just copy it instead of having them keep asking me to repeat it.

Its funny. The kids moan and complain about the primary sources, yet they always tell me they prefer it to taking notes. I think its a good break, but I think that using the documents should always be a supplement, and should not replace an actual lesson. Ive noticed that without proper notes, the students have no way of studying. Thus, even if you try and teach them by doing different, innovative ideas every day, that doesnt mean the information will stick. Just because they have fun doesnt mean they understand what they are doing. Thus, I will always use PSD whenever possible, but not at the expense of a physical lesson with at least some kind of notes which they can leave the class with.

So today was interesting. Third period we had to go to the home ec room and help the math teacher finish baking cookies. I guess for her math class, she had the kids bake cookies, and when the period ended they were not ready yet. So my partner and I were called in to finish bake and help clean up. Let me tell you, there were some ridiculous cookies. One group of boys made a super-chocolately batch. What I think they did was that they just dumped the chocolate chips on top of the batter and didnt mix it in, because that batch had super-chocolatey cookies, and their next batch had none. Also, it was sooo chocolately that it kind of just melted away the center of the cookie, so they all fell apart. But they were tasty. Another group got lazy 1/2 way through and decided to just stop mixing the batter and just bake it, so their cookies were full of unmixed flour. It was gross.

My class went well. The kids behaved for the most part as I gave my lecture. They are also starting to participate more and more. A few kids who never did are starting to talk more during class. A few talk, but to themselves rather than offer anything relevant to the class, and I continue to have to talk to them. But kids will be kids, is the way I see them.

Team-teaching went well, where we had the kids get into pairs and read short biographies of members from the Corps of Discovery (Lewis and Clark) and answer questions based on that. Those kids are good as long as you keep them engaged. Unlike the other period, they behave better in groups then when on their own, in a lecture-setting.

Monday we get observed as team-teachers. We plan on teaching fifth period about pirates, since America had to deal with several African pirate countries in the early 1800s. I think that will keep them interested, and it should prove a good lesson. We will have them present their image of pirates, then tell them about these particular pirates, and then go into how pirates are still around today. It should be fun.

Today, I tried to arrange the kids desks in a horseshoe design. Also, instead of using traditional notes, I tried to get them to fill out a chart of sorts. It failed. The kids were extremely chatty and rude today with the new seating arrangements. Also, they didnt seem to be catching on with the chart. So tomorrow, its back to notes, the standard way.

Fifth period was team-teached again, and that went better. My partner designed twelve short biographies about individuals who were involved with the Louisiana Purchase, and the kids took turns reading each one and answering short questions individually. That went well. Most of the kids enjoyed it, though when I asked them what they thought about it, one kid said he didnt like it, and told me that he prefers notes where things are explained to him rather than reading on his own. I still think traditional notes are the best way to go. The students are not used to these new, unique teaching methods, and I dont think the information sticks with them as well. My partner wants to do another special in-class assignment with them again tomorrow, and I dont know. I dont think that the kids get as much out of it. I think its ok once in awhile, but not back to back like this. Well, we will see how it goes tomorrow.

So today the kids had their Math Regents, so I missed my class. However, for the 5th period class, which is a small regents-only class, my partner and I team-teached for the first time. It went very well.

Basically the idea of team teaching is for both teachers to get into a comfortable flow and order, where everything works out smoothly, and one person does not overshadow the other. I think we accomplished this pretty darn well. I started up, then gave him control, then he gave me back control, then I gave him back control to end the lesson. I think the kids liked it, as it was different, and hearing both of us talk is probably better than listening to just one person. Also, we are able to help each other, where if he forgets to mention something I can jump in, or he can add something to what I just said.

We have a good balance together, and we worked well. As I said, I know the kids enjoyed it, and thats the main thing. From now on, we will always team-teach this class, so we’ll both be physically teaching two classes a day. Its pretty cool. I had a lot of fun doing it, and I know the kids did too.