Posted by Rob on November 2, 2009 – 8:50 pm
Per. 2
Class went pretty good today. I started out by using a video of George Washington which served as a review of what we have been talking about, and as an introduction to Hamilton and Jefferson. I gave them a video quiz along with it, but at the end of the video they were basically lost, and had a lot of missing questions. So I decided to count it as simply a class activity rather than a quiz, and then went over it in class so that they could all get the correct answers written down.
After that I moved on to the introduction of the first political parties under Hamilton and Jefferson. To do this I gave them a blank chart which stated both political parties, and had sections to fill in such as who supported them, where they were located, how they felt about the Constitution, etc. I then basically just discussed it all with them while the Special Education teacher filled out a similar chart on the board for them to go along with. This worked out really well, and I was able to get them to correctly guess which aspect each person would support by dropping hints, which was great.
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Posted by Rob on October 31, 2009 – 12:20 pm
Per. 2
I sat back again and let my teacher finish up his lesson from yesterday with them. I wanted to see how much detail he covered and whatnot. The thing that is confusing is that while the AP students are taught chronologically (as things happen historically), the 11-3 classes are taught in chunks of themes. Thus, I have to get used to covering things that don’t happen yet time-wise at different times. It sounds confusing, and it is.
So I was able to get a sense of what to cover, so I have a general idea of how to teach to the big picture rather than a timeline. Now I know what to do with Per. 5, and I will have a good plan set up for Monday.
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Posted by Rob on October 29, 2009 – 6:54 pm
Per. 2
My teacher took over for today to introduce the next unit. Its amazing how well he works with the students. He can get and maintain their attention for a majority of the time. I could track how he used his voice to keep control, and he had varying tones that projected his mood. I learned a lot from watching him in action, and I hope that I can be as good as him some day. I guess he is the teacher I aspire to be.
I will basically follow his lesson and try to replicate it with Per. 5 today. I don’t know if it will work or not, but Im sure as heck gonna try and see how it goes.
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Posted by Rob on October 29, 2009 – 6:16 am
Per. 2
Class went well enough today. They had their test, and Im hoping they did good. I think I made my test maybe a little too easy, but that’s just me. I will see how it is when I actually sit down and grade them.
The last person finished with about fifteen minutes left in class, so I just let them hang out for a bit. I also gave them back their essays, which I was generally pleased with. Now that I returned the first essays, I have to take a seat and grade the second essays…I hate grading essays…
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Posted by Rob on October 27, 2009 – 5:38 pm
Per. 2
The class had the essay portion of their test today. It was a pretty rough going. Basically two students were not writing a thing. One complained that he wrote it at home on his computer and the student refused to write anything because she doesn’t like history and doesn’t know anything.
The first kid I sat down with and eventually got him to start writing. It took constant pushing and prodding, but at least he is not going to have a 0. The other kid was even worse. She refused to write anything at all, claiming she didn’t know anything. I took her out in the hall to see what was up, and she just finds history boring. I think this boringness leads to her not paying attention, which leads to her not learning anything. She also works a heck of a lot of hours after school, so Im sure that that contributes a bit to it as well. From now on Im going to try and stay on her during class and try to keep her engaged more, so hopefully she will learn something and understand the material.
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Posted by Rob on October 26, 2009 – 10:12 pm
Per. 2
I came into school today having no clue as to what I was going to do with them. I wanted to review for the test, but I couldn’t come up with a good review activity. I didn’t really want to play a game because I remembered how badly it went last time. I was hoping my teacher would have some insight, and he did.
I broke the class up into small groups, and gave them all large sheets of paper and markers. I then proceeded to ask them questions that would appear on their test, and they would have an x amount of time to write an answer on the paper. I had three groups, and I ranked each group’s answer into first, second, and third places, and then gave that group either three, two, or one point(s). Later on I shifted to more precise questions, and I had it so that the groups had to race to write down the answer first, and assigned points based on the order they presented their answer.
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Posted by Rob on October 26, 2009 – 10:11 pm
Per. 2
I let today be a pretty relaxed class, and it ended up being pretty fun. They have a test on Tuesday, and there was only one last thing I wanted to go over with them. So I started out class by pretty much telling them that I just needed fifteen minutes of their time to go over this last thing, and that the rest of the class would be pretty laid back, and we would just work on the create an amendment worksheet.
This plan worked out pretty well. They were pretty attentive, and I was able to rock through the material I wanted to cover pretty quickly. I then let them work on their amendment, and went around the room and checked and chatted with each one of them individually. It was a really good class. I hadn’t taken this kind of approach with them before and I feel like I learned a lot about them individually by doing this. Its definitely something I wouldn’t do again anytime soon simply because of how it’s a waste of time to a degree, but it was a good way to end a Friday class.
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Posted by Rob on October 23, 2009 – 6:15 am
Per. 2
The class went pretty good today. I started off by having them work in pairs to complete a worksheet about the Bill of Rights. Most of the groups were working pretty hard, and one group the special education teacher and I had to keep pushing. Once they were all done we went over it together and made sure everyone had to correct answers.
After this, I spoke briefly on how and why the Constitution is amended. I then gave them a worksheet which guided them through the process of making their own amendments. Basically I had them think about a law they wanted to change or a social problem they wanted to fix, and then had them write an amendment to the Constitution that addressed that problem. I think it’s a fun activity that got them engaged creatively. Tomorrow I will finish talking about the Constitution, and then let them finish their amendments.
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Posted by Rob on October 23, 2009 – 6:15 am
Per. 2
Period 2 went pretty good today. I didn’t accomplish all that I wanted, but I think I spent enough time on the material that I am confident they caught on. The first thing I did was collect their essays. Four students did not do their essays, and I gave them until the end of today to do it. If they don’t hand it in by today, I will start giving them late penalties.
I then started discussing the Bill of Rights. I had a sheet with all ten listed on there, and after an introduction to them we started going over them. The Bill of Rights stimulated a lot of good discussion, and its something that they are interested in, which is good. I told a couple of stupid stories and made some ridiculous examples with their names in it, and I think it went pretty good. I had intended to get into a worksheet to reinforce the Bill of Rights, but by the time I got to the last amendment the class was over. Im still pleased though because I feel they got a good grasp of the Bill of Rights.
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Posted by Rob on October 20, 2009 – 5:34 pm
Per. 2
Class went pretty well today. I was surprised to find that mostly everyone (except one) did their homework, which was very good. We went over the homework to ensure that everyone had the correct answers, and then went about structuring the essay.
The special education teacher was once again very helpful with this class. Together we showed the students how to organize their thoughts for an outline for their essay. I think it went pretty well. However, we spent so much time organizing that they had no time to actually start writing the essay, which is something they will have to do at home on their own tonight, since its due tomorrow.
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Posted by Rob on October 19, 2009 – 7:05 pm
Per. 2
Class was a bit rough today. I started by giving them back their quizzes from Friday, and since many did poorly on it, I decided to go over it. I probably spent about ten minutes going over it, and in the end I don’t think it accomplished much. I told them to write down the correct answers but no one did, and many were not even paying attention. I don’t think there is a point to going over the quiz in class, and next time I will just say “let me know if you have any questions” so that the people who are really concerned can still ask their particular question.
I then got into how to write a DBQ with them. Luckily the special education teacher was there to help, because the kids were just totally dragging and out of it today. I couldn’t get anything out of them, but luckily the special education teacher was able to motivate them a little more.
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Posted by Rob on October 16, 2009 – 8:24 pm
Per. 2
Class went pretty well. They had a quiz today on the three branches of government. What I did was I had the branches listed on the board, and then gave them about four minutes to come up with as much information as they could on the branches. I wrote the answers they had correct on the board in the area they belonged. Then I gave them the quiz, and allowed them to use the information they came up with on the board as a “cheat sheet.”
After the quiz, I spent the next half of the class talking about their DBQ assignments. We spent most of the time going over the “Do’s and Don’ts” of DBQs. I had a few minutes at the end to quickly look at the documents and the questions, so they could get a sense of what the general theme was.
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Posted by Rob on October 16, 2009 – 6:19 am
Im pretty drained right now. Yesterday I had my college class after student teaching. So I leave for school at 7am, and then Im there until 2. Then I have to head over to the college for a 4:00 class. Our apartment is so far away from both schools that it is totally pointless for me to drive all the way home, and then come back out to go to the college like 1/2 hour later. Plus the professor for this class (its a methods class that connects to the student teaching) prefers that we come to class dressed as we do for student teaching.
So anywho, Im there until about 6:50 when he lets us out, so I dont get home until after 7. By the time I get settled and eat dinner its 8, and I still need to do research and write out notes for Friday’s (today’s) lecture to the AP classes. So I sit down at my computer for a good 15 minutes and accomplish nothing. I was so drained last night that I couldnt bring myself to do anything.
So instead I wake up at 5am this morning to get all my last-minute work done. I am totally looking forward to the weekend. Sure, it will be a little hectic with the family coming up tomorrow, but I should be able to get some extra sleep and relax. However, I have a crud-load of work to accomplish on Sunday…
Posted by Rob on October 16, 2009 – 6:12 am
Per. 2
Today went pretty well. I started off by quickly having them tell me different ways the three branches check each other. I then had them get into groups and read some articles based on checks and balances. I try to find more current articles and articles they would be interested in. I found one about Obama’s idea of enhancing education by making the school year longer (something they kept asking me about for days), one with G.W. Bush pardoning a rapper for some drug and tax evasion crimes, and one with Obama appointing Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
The group work goes well, especially in Period 2 when I have the special education teacher to help float around to all the groups. When there are two teachers it is easier to ensure that all the groups stay on track and whatnot. I think it went pretty well.
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Posted by Rob on October 14, 2009 – 6:23 pm
Per. 2
Today was a rough day. I had to teach some relatively dry material on the Supreme Court, so I had created a reading/worksheet that the kids could do in class to learn about Marbury v. Madison and judicial review. However, when I showed the sheet to my teacher, he felt that it was too challenging for them, so I didn’t use it. This being said, I ended up having like 15 minutes at the end of class, and I didn’t know what else to do. Plus, because I didn’t have that activity, the entire class was basically a huge lecture, and that was not cool.
I started off with a fun review activity, where I had them fill in a chart on the board with the terms and qualifications of federal officials. I then ended up telling them the basic story of Marbury v. Madison, and the concept of judicial review.
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Posted by Rob on October 13, 2009 – 5:45 pm
Per. 2
First off, I will officially begin teaching the honors classes on Friday. They have their unit test Thursday, so the day after I will jump into the historical stuff. My teacher gave me the lecture notes for the class, and I know most of the information on there. I will probably have to start reading their text book every night before a lesson to ensure I remember everything.
So on to Period 2.
It went alright today. For starters, there was only five students in the class. I guess there was a big class trip to the local community college today, and most of my class was there. Anywho, I did the best I could. I went into more detail on the electoral college, continuing from Friday. It was a bit rough, because the class was a bit groggy, probably from the three-day weekend.
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Posted by Rob on October 9, 2009 – 7:17 pm
Per. 2
It went pretty good today, but it was rough. First off, it’s the Friday before a three-day weekend, so they are all excited and fired up. Secondly, to make matters worse, today was the pep rally. The classes are all a few minutes shorter, because at 1pm they will be going to an assembly for their pep rally and whatnot. So I have shorter time, and the kids are all excited. Yet I got some work done.
We went over their assignment from yesterday on the roles of the President, and then went on to the Cabinet and line of succession, in case the President dies. I told them the story of John Wilkes Booth, and then told them about the Tom Clancy book Executive Order in which some Japanese commercial airline pilots who are still upset over losing WWII (mind you the story takes place in the 90s) fly their plane into the Capital during a State of the Union Address, and everyone there dies. So the President, Vice President, Cabinet, and Congress were all killed. Pretty crazy story.
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Posted by Rob on October 8, 2009 – 4:49 pm
Per. 2
The class went really great, and my teacher told me it was my best lesson yet. I started out by going over the class procedures and the essential question. I then did a quick Q&A which only took a few minutes as a review of yesterday’s class.
Today’s class was on the different roles the President has. So I start the class by having a ten-minute brainstorming session in which the students named Presidents they knew, and the biggest accomplishments they had. That was a fun way to get a bunch of Presidents out there in their heads, and their biggest accomplishments could all be sorted into one of the roles.
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Posted by Rob on October 8, 2009 – 4:48 pm
Per. 2
Class went well today. What I started doing is writing on the board prior to each class what the procedure of the class was going to be, and what their learning objectives were. So I have an itinerary on the board of all the things we will do in class, from the review through the actual learning activities. Next to that I write down what I call the “essential questions”, and these questions are the two major points of the class. My goal is to have every student know what is expected of them before the class even starts, and they will know exactly what the main points of the class were. Before class ends, I go back to the essential question and ask it.
So the class went well. I started out explaining what they were going to do, and then what I wanted them to be able to know by the end. I then went through each part of the procedure on the board, so that they can follow along as I talked. I think it went pretty well. I got through most of the information I wanted to, and we had some good discussions about the law stating that all Presidents have to be natural born citizens of the United States.
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Posted by Rob on October 8, 2009 – 4:47 pm
Per. 2
I started the day by handing back their tests and quizzes. The results were not pretty, and I offered them the opportunity to make it up after school by re-writing the essay question. This grade on the essay question will replace their previous grade on that portion, and hopefully most of them (who choose to take advantage of the opportunity) will get close to full credit for it.
After that I did a quick review from yesterday, and then moved on to the process of how a bill becomes a law. To do this I divided the class into the House and the Senate, and then had a student act as the bill and walk around to the different stations, such as the introduction, committees, compromises, and the President. I think it went well, but I’ll definitely do a quick review tomorrow to ensure. It’s a lot of information to take in during a class period.
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