. . . I harp on things. If you know me very well, this will be obvious to you. But currently I am harping on my own wrestling with an inservice I'm in for the weekend. It is the first one I've been to since I became a teacher that I didn't agree with everything or almost everything the presenter said. He prefaced the talk by saying that we needed to be open-minded, etc. so I am trying *really* hard to do that. It is hard with me cause I think I have some ideological problems with the basic premise. . . . one more day.
But on to my harping. Does anyone know where the "teach a man to fish" saying really came from? In the workshop it has been attributed to the Bible, which is not anything I remember or can verify. I can deal with people being culturally naive, but lets not go throw things around like "That came from the bible" when really you have no proof. I found this site that references phrases that *did* come from the bible. But it is by no means comprehensive. Any thoughts?
Friday, April 29
Saturday, April 23
Respect, TAKS and 4/20
Things I have learned this week:
1) my kids like me. well, one does. i have them writing their culminating Caesar papers and one of the topics is qualities of a good leader. After fighting with one student, leaving him alone, coming back, etc, etc. I finally relented and let him use me as the good leader. a lot of the students tried to pull that they were going to use me, but i talked all but this one out of it. I let him write. . .came back and read it. one thing stood out. he said that I respected my students. now this is big for teenagers and for the students at my school particularly. they don't dish that out lightly. i was pleased. this kid made like a 10 in my class first semester and is passing for the spring. he is one of my sucesses, be it ever so slim.
2) TAKS is tiring, very hard for regular kids and apparently a breeze for the bright, culturally neutral students. for teachers it is just a worry and an incredible pressure. will they pass? if they don't will the state really come in and take us over? will it make a difference? we are on probation with the federal government's no child left behind annual yearly progress. we didn't make standard last year. this year if we don't the state has someone on campus every day then the next year we all reapply for our jobs and start over. . . or wait, maybe we reapply in the fall. who knows. it is bad. but we have prepped, yelled at the kids, tried to make them take it seriously and now we have to just wait.
3) 10 points extra credit for anyone who knows the significance of 4-20 day. :) My birthday sits smack between it and Earth day. what does that say about me?
1) my kids like me. well, one does. i have them writing their culminating Caesar papers and one of the topics is qualities of a good leader. After fighting with one student, leaving him alone, coming back, etc, etc. I finally relented and let him use me as the good leader. a lot of the students tried to pull that they were going to use me, but i talked all but this one out of it. I let him write. . .came back and read it. one thing stood out. he said that I respected my students. now this is big for teenagers and for the students at my school particularly. they don't dish that out lightly. i was pleased. this kid made like a 10 in my class first semester and is passing for the spring. he is one of my sucesses, be it ever so slim.
2) TAKS is tiring, very hard for regular kids and apparently a breeze for the bright, culturally neutral students. for teachers it is just a worry and an incredible pressure. will they pass? if they don't will the state really come in and take us over? will it make a difference? we are on probation with the federal government's no child left behind annual yearly progress. we didn't make standard last year. this year if we don't the state has someone on campus every day then the next year we all reapply for our jobs and start over. . . or wait, maybe we reapply in the fall. who knows. it is bad. but we have prepped, yelled at the kids, tried to make them take it seriously and now we have to just wait.
3) 10 points extra credit for anyone who knows the significance of 4-20 day. :) My birthday sits smack between it and Earth day. what does that say about me?
Ray Bradbury
Cool site about Bradbury. It has the first chapter of a quite of few of his fiction books to "test drive."
Ray Bradbury
Also, this is a new program by Jon Scieszka (the guy who wrote Stinky Cheese Man and other fairly stupid tales) about how to get boys to read and what they like to read. Any validations from the guy community out there?
Ray Bradbury
Also, this is a new program by Jon Scieszka (the guy who wrote Stinky Cheese Man and other fairly stupid tales) about how to get boys to read and what they like to read. Any validations from the guy community out there?
Saturday, April 16
Saturday school
Ok, first off, I have proven that I am a horribly unreliable blogger. I will work on getting better.
Random thought of the day. I worked at Saturday school this morning. In addition to providing extra tutoring for students it is also a way to make up attendance. . . when you realize that it is April, you have 15-20 absences and can't get credit for the semester for anything over 9 and panic. We let them come 3 hours a week on Saturdays and make up the time. Today they needed a math teacher. I told the lady in charge on Wednesday to make me her absolute last backup person. While I am not horrible at math it has been a long, long time and I tend to get confused on the rules. Today I was able to help 7 kids. . . most of whom told me how to do it first or I just asked the right questions like:
"So after you set it up, what should you do first?"
"What is the order of operations here?"
and other mathy type questions that I remember. I don't think I confused more than 1 poor kid and by the end of the 3 hours I was actually beginning to remember algebra and geometry, I think. Now it is also possible that I was just fooling myself and doing all the questions completely wrong because I only went and asked the AP math teacher (doing a lesson down the hall) one question cause I kept having to bother the class and I have a phobia about that. All in all I think it went pretty well. My students even smiled to see me on Saturday. That is encouraging. They didn't groan and walk out though I freaked out one kid entirely trying to teach him math instead of English. . . he left early and said he would see me on Monday.
Random thought of the day. I worked at Saturday school this morning. In addition to providing extra tutoring for students it is also a way to make up attendance. . . when you realize that it is April, you have 15-20 absences and can't get credit for the semester for anything over 9 and panic. We let them come 3 hours a week on Saturdays and make up the time. Today they needed a math teacher. I told the lady in charge on Wednesday to make me her absolute last backup person. While I am not horrible at math it has been a long, long time and I tend to get confused on the rules. Today I was able to help 7 kids. . . most of whom told me how to do it first or I just asked the right questions like:
"So after you set it up, what should you do first?"
"What is the order of operations here?"
and other mathy type questions that I remember. I don't think I confused more than 1 poor kid and by the end of the 3 hours I was actually beginning to remember algebra and geometry, I think. Now it is also possible that I was just fooling myself and doing all the questions completely wrong because I only went and asked the AP math teacher (doing a lesson down the hall) one question cause I kept having to bother the class and I have a phobia about that. All in all I think it went pretty well. My students even smiled to see me on Saturday. That is encouraging. They didn't groan and walk out though I freaked out one kid entirely trying to teach him math instead of English. . . he left early and said he would see me on Monday.
Sunday, April 10
Switching gears
Mondays through Fridays I prod and poke my 10th graders along. Really I enjoy it a lot. I like conning kids into doing their work and then seeing them actually retain the material. (For this Caesar test it is going to be the "sleepers" in the class that do well . . . don't ask me why, but they are the ones that can answer the review questions).
Sundays I switch gears entirely and pull out all my long buried children's knowledge and teach 5th and 6th grade. It is probably a good break but it is fun pulling out the scissors that cut funny shapes, crayons, magazines and making cards for the leadership in the church. Today the only kid I had that showed up was pulling out all the questions he had been saving up all week. First he asked who Pope John Paul III was going to be. . I told him I didn't know and then tried to explain what a pope was, just so we were on the same page. Then he asked me what girl popes were called.
"What? Girl popes? They don't have girl popes."
"Yeah, you know girl popes. They are like married to God. What are they called?"
"Oh, you mean nuns. Nuns aren't really the same thing as a girl pope."
"What does it mean to be married to God?"
"Well, it is their way of saying that they are dedicating their lives to God and his ministry instead of getting married."
"Can they fly?"
"What?"
"Can the...what do you call them?"
"Nuns"
"Yeah, can nuns fly?"
"No, that was just a movie."
We went back to the lesson from there. I can only assume that The Flying Nun was on TV yesterday. And just for those of you who are wondering what I teach in Sunday School, we were studying baptism. You can't get much more doctrinally sound than that.
Sundays I switch gears entirely and pull out all my long buried children's knowledge and teach 5th and 6th grade. It is probably a good break but it is fun pulling out the scissors that cut funny shapes, crayons, magazines and making cards for the leadership in the church. Today the only kid I had that showed up was pulling out all the questions he had been saving up all week. First he asked who Pope John Paul III was going to be. . I told him I didn't know and then tried to explain what a pope was, just so we were on the same page. Then he asked me what girl popes were called.
"What? Girl popes? They don't have girl popes."
"Yeah, you know girl popes. They are like married to God. What are they called?"
"Oh, you mean nuns. Nuns aren't really the same thing as a girl pope."
"What does it mean to be married to God?"
"Well, it is their way of saying that they are dedicating their lives to God and his ministry instead of getting married."
"Can they fly?"
"What?"
"Can the...what do you call them?"
"Nuns"
"Yeah, can nuns fly?"
"No, that was just a movie."
We went back to the lesson from there. I can only assume that The Flying Nun was on TV yesterday. And just for those of you who are wondering what I teach in Sunday School, we were studying baptism. You can't get much more doctrinally sound than that.
Saturday, April 9
Worried students
I love giving out grades . Every time I give out grades I have these students that panic "What you mean I have a 21 in your class? Why did you give me a 21? I do all your work?" Let me reinterate that I don't give grades. I have found out that some teachers do, in fact, make up grades as they go along. However I base my grades purely on what the kiddos did. I don't even have a participation element. Secondly, if they had actually "done all the work" then they would have a blank bottom half of the page where the missing tasks go.
Yesterday I gave out grades, I have about 75% of my students failing because I gave a test grade for memorizing Mark Antony's funeral speech. A lot of them blew it off. So I had 3 kids stay after yesterday for tutoring. . .on Friday. . . I don't stay on Fridays. I ran home cleaned up and two of our friends came over with their new baby. So I got to play with the baby all night and chat with Sarah, while Dan and Scott look on monster.com for a job for Scott when they move out to North Carolina last month. Far too much excitement for a Friday. . I'm tired!
Yesterday I gave out grades, I have about 75% of my students failing because I gave a test grade for memorizing Mark Antony's funeral speech. A lot of them blew it off. So I had 3 kids stay after yesterday for tutoring. . .on Friday. . . I don't stay on Fridays. I ran home cleaned up and two of our friends came over with their new baby. So I got to play with the baby all night and chat with Sarah, while Dan and Scott look on monster.com for a job for Scott when they move out to North Carolina last month. Far too much excitement for a Friday. . I'm tired!
Sunday, April 3
A Week of Kindness Blog: The Laura K. Krishna Saga Archives
A Week of Kindness Blog: The Laura K. Krishna Saga Archives: "Laura K. Krishna is Just a Dumb Kid With a Nice Mom"
Found a great resource that lays out a present day example of plagarism and can be used in a lesson. I'm working up a lesson for next week (April 14) if anyone wants a copy of it w/ a powerpoint, let me
Found a great resource that lays out a present day example of plagarism and can be used in a lesson. I'm working up a lesson for next week (April 14) if anyone wants a copy of it w/ a powerpoint, let me
Cheater, cheater, cheater
Every Friday I give a vocabulary test. Every Friday since school started I have looked around for students to be cheating, given them zeros for talking during the test (mostly threatening to give zeros but a few students have actually gotten them). However until last week I haven't actually caught any. . . does this mean I am getting more observant? Building that teacher sense?
Cheaters in the past two weeks:
1) Hid words under hand, put head on desk. . .ended up having the wrong list of vocabulary words, swore they were there already and weren't using them
2) Hid words under their hat with hat on desk (nothing is supposed to be on their desks) picked up hat to move it, found words
3) Taped Marc Antony funeral speech to Mountain Dew bottle and asked to bring it up as they recited. Turned their back to class and read from the bottle.
4) Taped vocab words to the back of chair in front of them.
If I have caught this many in the past two weeks have I been being scammed all year? Scary thought.
Cheaters in the past two weeks:
1) Hid words under hand, put head on desk. . .ended up having the wrong list of vocabulary words, swore they were there already and weren't using them
2) Hid words under their hat with hat on desk (nothing is supposed to be on their desks) picked up hat to move it, found words
3) Taped Marc Antony funeral speech to Mountain Dew bottle and asked to bring it up as they recited. Turned their back to class and read from the bottle.
4) Taped vocab words to the back of chair in front of them.
If I have caught this many in the past two weeks have I been being scammed all year? Scary thought.
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