Daily+Reflections+1st+Semester

8/9/09-
First day jitters kept me up most of the night. I tossed and turned with my mind running through different scenarios that could occur during the first day of school. I came to school wondering what I would in fact experience in class and what my students would be like. Christi met me in her room and gave me the quick run down of what was going to take place throughout the day. We had tentatively decided that I would take over her 5th hour English 9 class, so I was given all of the information needed to be prepared for class that day. As all of us know, my focus has changed, so I no longer will be focusing on the English 9 class, but on Christi's English 12 class After two hours of of freshman, it was nice to have seniors walk into the room. What a change in behavior and maturity! They still had some silliness in them, but for the most part, they were a breath of fresh air compared to the freshmen. Naturally, the first day is usually filled in with logistics, so nothing too educational occurred today. We welcomed students and had them write down three things about them. We did some group building with the activity and then assigned a letter for them to finish for the next day. Overall, I was impressed with how the seniors presented themselves. They seemed to be attentive and participated in the activities Christi had planned for the hour. There were a few complaints during the 'three things' activity, but I'm sure that was mainly due to the fact that the activity seemed a little redundant and boring after a while. Once the letter assignment was handed out, students seemed to dive right into their work. Overall, I think that the day went well. The students seem to be a good group as of right now. I'm somewhat concerned about their opinion of me. It was very apparent to them that I was an intern and hopefully, throughout the course of the year, I'll be able to change that ideal as much as possible.

Second day of class. Things seem to still be running smoothly. Students are responding to Christi's instruction well and are warming up to me as another educator within the room. I'm glad that they are asking me questions and are approaching me as if I were their teacher. I hope that this continues throughout the year. It will make my transition easier and will hopefully help them make a smooth transition as well. Today was a pretty easy day. Honestly, I wouldn't want to give out a test to students so early on within the school year, but it is a school requirement, so I guess it's necessary. The seniors took the test in about half the time that the 9th graders took it, so it was great that there was a supplementary reading ready and waiting for the kids to look over. *I think that this is a great idea. It's always important to have something to fill in those extra minutes. I'm going to do my best over the next few days and weeks to come up with good ideas as to how to keep students occupied if and or when we have some free time. ** Suggestions are welcome :) Christi also introduced the 'facebook' assignment to the students as well today. In my opinion, I think it was just too much for them. It can be draining to take a test and then turn around and hold a full fledged class discussion about a reading. I think that I would have just had students begin working on their 'facebook' assignments instead of insisting that they discuss a reading. It was apparent that they did not want to read nor discuss the article, no matter how simplistic it was. Other than that, I feel that the class period went well. It was pretty easy since they spent a good amount of time taking the test, but it was nice to have the ability to still interact with them at the same time. **

10/9/09-
Third day. I'm starting to get familiar with the class. They are starting to recognize me as a teacher which is great. Today we did a basic run through of grades and then passed out their 'facebook' assignment sheets. Students were given the rest of the hour to work on their facebook pages. Overall, an easy day in terms of activities. It was nice to have the chance to talk with a few of the students. They are very insightful and I appreciate the respect that they show one another. There was a bit of a heated discussion that arose from a transfer student, and those individuals around him handled some of his negative statements towards the school very well. I was impressed to see that a lot of the kids didn't take the statements to heart and just kept on working. I think that this is a great activity to have in the classroom. It allows everyone to get to know their classmates, plus it allows them to express a more artistic side. It's great to see how their minds work, plus on a Thursday mid-day, it's nice to allow them the chance to kind of kick back and enjoy the first few days of school. I would definitely use this assignment within my own classroom.

14/9/09-
My first full week of classes. Students came in dragging today. I think that the reality of school has set in and that students are starting to show some of their "true" sides. I believe that the honeymoon period is slowly fading away. Although I feel that behaviors are starting to appear that we did not see last week, I still feel that this class will be a good class to work with. For the most part, the students were on task today and actually completed their assignments too early. Again, I feel that it is necessary to find little tidbits of work that can be assigned and completed in 5 minute intervals so that students are standing around talking too much at the end of class. I thought that the segway into their biography writing went well and Christi gave students a good look at what will be expected of them come the following weeks. Christi also mentioned that I would slowly be taking over the class from now on. The afore mentioned statement somewhat concerns me. There was a general snickering from a few of the guys in the class, and I want to make sure that everyone respects me the same way that they respect Christi. I also want to make sure that lessons are interesting as well as helpful to the students. As of right now, I'm apprehensive about going into this class blind, but I know that I'll be better for it in the long run. It's all about organization :) I'm also concerned about a few students who don't seem to be challenged enough during the class period. I hope that there will be something that I can present to them that will be challenging as well as informative for them at the same time. It is difficult with different learning abilities, especially when most of the students are at a lower pace than the select few. I feel good about class, yet still somewhat apprehensive about what is to come. I guess we'll see.

15/9/09-
Library Day! Today's class was really laid back and fun. It was great to get to know the students even more before we get into our biography writing assignment. Students went up to the library and created wordles. I think it's funny that they seemed to have such a negative attitude towards going to the library when they first came into the room. They complained and didn't want to do the assignment (especially when they were handed a sheet that asked them to describe themselves using adjectives :D). Overall, I think that the class period went well. I'm still a bit frustrated at the fact that I don't have as much classroom presence as I would like, but I know that it coming within the next few days or so. I was happy with the fact that students were asking me questions and I feel that they are finally starting to recognize me as a teacher. YEA!! I think that the assignment went well. Students were printing out multiple copies of their wordles so that they could take them home which is very positive. I would have perhaps added in another element into the assignment. I'm not sure what as of yet (I need to think about it for a while), but students seemed to finish quite early and then there was quite a bit of talking time. I am, however, glad that the students had such a fun time and that they actually enjoyed their time in the library today :)

16/9/09-
I loved this activity! I thought that the one question interview is a great idea to compile information for all students in the class without being too tedious for any of the students at the same time. Fantastic! The kids got really into this and enjoyed having the chance to talk with each other while doing work for a future assignment. Overall, I think that the assignment went pretty well for the day. We were able to compile most of the questions are will be able to hand out the information to students tomorrow along with the official biography assignment sheet and partners. Some of the things that I would have done differently: First of all, I would have handed out the scrap pieces of paper and index cards with questions first. We were somewhat scrambling today due to the fact that we couldn't find the original note cards this morning. We also didn't foresee the amount of scrap paper we would need for a class of 30+. Next time I know to have a huge pile of scrap paper cut and ready to go as well as have the note cards in a easy and accessible place. Secondly, I would have handed out the paper and had students count how many pieces they had first before telling them the instructions of the activity. Students seemed to be too excited about the assignment that they didn't listen to all of the directions. Numerous students came up asking of additional pieces of paper, which was frustrating due to the fact that they were instructed to count their papers before moving on. Lastly, I would figure out a different way to have students circulate to ask their questions. There was a lot of confusion and students didn't know whether they had spoken with each other or not. There were some missing answers to questions which unfortunately hinders those individuals who will receive the answers to the missing person's questions. Also, there was a lot of chaos as well. There were students walking around and not knowing what they were doing. They were also socializing as well, which hindered an accurate and timely completion of the question interviews. Overall, I'd say that the lesson was successful, but those few changes, I believe, would make the lesson run smoother.

17/9/09-
Phew! My first official lesson over and done with. I think it went alright. Unfortunately, I had a subject that isn't as interesting as others. **Note to self-Try to find ways to make learning grammar fun** Christi introduced the assignment and discussed what was expected of them in relation to the assignment. I then took over, discussing how important it is to know how to properly punctuate quotations before handing out their handouts. The students went to work on their handouts (were interrupted by a shelter drill) and then continued working on their worksheets. I expected them to have more issues on the sheet than they did. Overall, just about everyone got to work and completed the worksheet by themselves. There were a few students who didn't either care to do the worksheet or know what to do. I am aware of who those individuals are, so, I can keep an eye on them to see how things go for them in the future. After they completed the sheet, we went over the answers. Even my tricky sentence didn't fool them. I was impressed. The whole assignment seemed to boar them. I'm glad that we went over it, just so that I know where they are in terms of their grammatical abilities. Hopefully Monday will go a bit better and have more interaction. As for things that I'd like to change...I'm not completely sure. I think I'd like to make the activity a little more interactive and/or interesting. I'm not sure how I'll do this, but I'll contemplate it and work on my lesson another day. Overall, I think it was a successful day.

21/9/09-
My first day completely in front of the class is now done. I honestly don't know exactly what I feel about the first full class period. I felt like I was trying to fight with them a lot in terms of talking. Yes, they're seniors and yes, they like to socialize, but they're also wasting the time that they have to get things done, which, in little words is frustrating. They complain about not having time to do their work in class and yet they continually waste it.-I think this is one of those issues that I'm going to have to pay attention to. I need to find ways to keep the students on task with out being too mean. I felt that I was yelling today (granted I do tend to talk quietly) and I felt like I was fighting with them for a while. Hopefully, the more I'm in front of the class, the more they'll look to me as the teacher and not as someone who's just here to learn. I think that will help to clear up some of the talking that I experienced today. As for the lesson...I don't know. Christi said that it was good, but I don't know how I feel. I don't feel that the students were responding well to the activity. I wanted them to brainstorm good qualities of biography intros and I felt like their list was very short. Next time I will have some examples of my own so that they'll be able to build their opinions off of mine. Also, I think I'll cut the amount of groups down. I wanted the students to hear as many different introductions as they could, but I feel that it became a little repetitive and not helpful. Overall, I think that it was alright for the first full lesson. I'm sure it will get better with time. Christi said that I have good presence in front of the class, so that's good. I just need to work on talking louder (yikes) as well as working on keeping my composure when scolding them for talking, other than that, nothing as of right now. I'm sure they'll be more that I'll need to work on later :)

22/9/09-
Easy day today! All I had to do was take attendance and then introduce the councilor who spoke to the students for the rest of the class period. I'm slowly getting names. I'd like to be a bit better at them, but I also haven't had a lot of interaction with the students yet. Hopefully with a few more days interaction, I'll be good with the names (cross your fingers). During the presentation today, I found that students were attentive and yet bored. They wanted to know about college info and yet they seemed to just space out at times. I personally thought that the speaker was very interesting. I wasn't bored and I've already done everything that they're going to be doing. I hope that there are a lot of students who are headed in that direction. Hopefully I'll also be able to direct them on the right path so that they won't be blown away come fall of next year. We'll see. There's a lot to keep in mind while planning for the future.

23/9/09-
My first full lesson day. I think it went alright, but I definitely need to plan more. I've always heard that you need to plan more than you can fit into a period. I personally thought that I had enough to cover the entire class, but unfortunately the students aren't very talkative. I'm hoping that this will change over time. They enjoy talking with each other, but I need to get them to talk about the assignments more than their personal issues during class. Had the discussions gone a bit better, I think that class would have gone a bit smoother. Perhaps I'm asking questions that don't have as many answers than I think they do. I'll have to ask Christi and see. I'm hoping that I posed good questions, but perhaps not. Luckily, this is something that can easily be remedied. On the positive side, students seemed to really get into the bas essay example. They were laughing and couldn't believe that someone had actually submitted an essay such as the one I found for their college application. I believe that they reacted more to the bad example as opposed to the good one. This could work for further assignments. I'm thinking if the bad is obviously bad, then they'll be able to base their answers and assignments off of the bad ones by tailoring their answers to be the opposite of what they see. I'm glad that I've included this in other assignments, so we'll see what happens. In terms of attentiveness...I'm not sure. I want to say that students are paying a bit more attention. I know that this isn't exactly what they'd want to do, but I want them to pay attention so that they can succeed and get good grades on the final project. Overall, I think things went pretty well. There's still room for improvement, but I think I'm heading in the right direction.

24/9/09-
Second day into College Essay teaching. I've found that the students are overall disinterested in the assignment. I have the feeling that if they're going to apply to colleges that they've already done so and submitted their essays to the schools. If not, they're definitely thinking that the essays don't apply to them. I'm wondering how I can get them to get involved in the lessons and have them get into the work. I know its not the most exciting assignment, but it is useful and somewhat required of the school. My ever growing question for my lessons and for my literacy inquiry is to find out how I can help students relate to the material I'm trying to teach. Christi mentioned that students at Everett don't tend to look towards the future but rather look towards each day instead. How do I help them look further on into the future while still staying grounded in the present? Questions that I will hopefully be able to answer as the day, week, month and year goes on. As for my lesson-I think that it went fairly well today. I have a knack of making the students look bored :) I think they got the point even though they were disinterested. Christina was in the class today as well. I'm sure that the students were aware of her presence, but I only received one question about who she was, so for the most part, her presence in the class didn't deter anything in terms of behavior. Besides behavior, there didn't seem to be any other issues that were overly problematic. There's always talking going on, but I'm starting to recognize where the talking is coming from and in knowing so, I am able to deter the discussions a bit better. I'm happy with the way that the lesson went in terms of length. I've been trying to give students some free time to work on their assignments, but I also want them to have as much interaction as they can with the material. Today seemed to go a lot better than yesterday. It allowed students maybe 15 minutes to work, which I thought was ample time to get their work done. Granted, we'll see tomorrow when the biographies are turned in. If the biographies aren't finished, then I'll take that as a sign that they're not using the time wisely. As for things that I'd do differently. I think that I'd try to explain the worksheet a bit better as well as some of the questions on the small essay handout. I've found that students seemed to have the same question pertaining to those worksheets. Also, Christina made a good point about having students be responsible for their group work by assigning different tasks to each student. I definitely think that I'll use this in future lessons. First of all, it get students actively involved in the lesson and secondly, they're actually paying attention which should eliminate multiple questions later on. Overall, I think that today was pretty successful. Granted, I won't know exactly how well until their final assessment is turned in next week.

28/9/09-
Today was frustrating. I'm honestly not even sure how to term today. Perhaps we were all just in one of those I don't care moods. Who knows. Students were just overly talkative today. It flared up right at the beginning of class and it didn't end until the bell rang. For the beginning of class I figured that I would ask about the weekend. That was perhaps where everything started. It started out as a group discussion and then gradually branched off into individual groups. Once discussions took off, it was really hard to get back on track. Students were carrying on discussions for the rest of class. It was hard. While trying to continually work on getting them to focus up on the board, I did attempt to go through some activities with them. I had a bit of review of imagery with them. I actually tied in a quote from //Their Eyes Were Watching God//, which Christi thought was funny because I took a very provocative quote to use. Even more amusing was that the students didn't even catch on to it. *I guess this is a forewarning as to how things may go with the text next week* I also had them work on a description activity that actually worked well. Students actually got into that activity and seemed to enjoy them selves. They actually asked me if they could switch partners and reverse the jobs. I'll have to remember that for next time, because I could use the reverse activity in a more instructive way. Besides the description activity, things were very difficult. Students were just disinterested and just had an 'I don't care' attitude. I couldn't even get them to pay attention when I asked for them to be quiet. I eventually gave in due to the fact that I was tired of fighting. I'll only fight for so long before it's worthless to even fight even more. I'm going to have to work on finding ways to get their attention when they get so crazy. Hopefully over time I'll be able to figure it out. On the plus side. Christi said that I did a good job using examples in my lesson. She said that I showed students good and bad qualities which helped. I just hope I can get them to be a bit more respectful in the future. Overarching question-How do I get them to respect me without yelling all of the time for them to be quiet?

29/9/09-
Yet another frustrating day. I've started to question whether I'm doing the right things or not for my students. What can I do? I've spoke with Christi about methods of how to get everyone involved and keep their interest. She recommended that I do a few little things to keep them into the lesson. Some of the things, hopefully, with practice I''ll be able to implement without any problem. For starters, she recommended that I don't start class until everyone is quiet and paying attention. She thinks that the little conversations that are going on during the beginning of class cause problems that go over the entire rest of the class period. Perhaps...I will have to work on that. I'm thinking I need to make mental/written notes to myself to make sure that I do this before I start class. Along with the elements that I can focus on, I'm still running into time trouble. I feel like I have enough planned, and I think in all essence I would have enough planned, but the students aren't interested in what we're doing, so I end up breezing through everything due to the fact that I'm trying to keep them occupied and interested in the lesson. I'm experimenting with other ideas as to how to keep students interested in class. I guess it will be a trial by error system, so I may know in a few days as to what works and still what doesn't.

30/9/09-
Phew! Finally a day that I can call somewhat good. I was able to bond with the students a bit, which I think helped a lot. I asked students to write about their after school responsibilities. I asked for examples with the premise of finding out how much time people had for homework. I'm starting to understand why students don't get their work done. There is a possibility that they just don't want to do it, but it looks like a lot of them are at work until 10 pm every night. Amazing. I thought I had it difficult. I do, but I give these students credit. They do well considering everything that they have on their plates. Besides having a decent discussion on after school responsibilities and such, I think that the time went fairly well. I actually went until 4 minutes before the bell! Great! We worked a bit on ACT questions, and I agree with Christi, I should approach the activities with less of an ACT approach and more of a skills based approach. I will work on that for future lessons. Besides all of the questions, I feel that i would modify my conclusion assignment. I wanted students to brainstorm ideas as to what types of conclusions were based on the information I gave them. They seemed to be extremely lost, so, somewhere in there, I need to find a way to explain all of the information for them so that they understand what it is that I want of them. I'm not completely sure how that will go, as of yet, but I'm working on it. Perhaps with a few more tries, I'll be able to come up with something concrete to use with them. Other than the change in activities, I thought that today went really well. The students actually seemed to pay attention for the most part. Not all of them, but most of them :) I'll take one accomplishment at a time :)

1/10/09-
Good Day today! Although we had peer editing, it seemed to be stress free and most students were on track with what they needed to be doing. I ran into a few glitches with what I was planning today. I wanted to copy off those peer revision sheets, but all of the photo copiers were broken, so I had to write everything on the board. I also think that I'm going to have to figure out a different way for people to edit their peers papers. Ideally, I wanted to have everyone have a different colored pen. I would then, in this way be able to see what they had edited on their peer's papers as well as be accounted for their editing. Instead, I had to have them sign the essays and I personally think that this isn't as effective due to the fact that people can just sign their names and not do any other work. Also, I think I'm going to come up with a more efficient way to have students evaluate their peers papers. I would like them to look at other elements of the essays besides the three categories I gave them. For next time, I will have a more complete evaluation sheet that the students can take home with them. I ended up taking the evaluation sheets in order to give people participation points for the day. Besides the evaluation glitches, I think things went well. Students seemed to be overly concerned about their essays, so it was nice to see people work together. I do think that they finished quickly, so I think that the expectations need to be changed there. Perhaps once I revise my evaluation sheet, students will be more productive during this time. Overall, a good day :)

2/10/09-
Friday! Well, my first Friday of the school year has been survived. It was difficult. I am starting to see why Christi had a hard time working with the kids last week as well. I believe that there is an energy that fills the building on Fridays that tends to make students a little crazy to say the least. There were also three fights today (all at the same time), so students were energized from that as well. I'm finding that it has become harder and harder to get the students to settle down. I'm not sure what to do go their their attention without yelling at the top of my lungs. Personally, I think I'm still a little timid around them. I had the ability to go back and look over my video tape of the day and there were elements that I would like to change. Perhaps that will make up the difference when it comes to teaching these kids. Christina came in today to observe me teaching. It is true, I really don't notice the field instructors there, but today I kind of wished she wasn't there just do to the chaotic state of things. It was horrible trying to get everyone settled, and something that should have been fun for students was taken advantage of and was cut short. I wasn't playing around today. I had a horrific headache that lasted all day, so I wasn't in the mood to tolerate much. Perhaps that's a good thing. Who knows... The lesson, I think, started out shaky, but there were elements that went well. I thought that our group discussion on oral tradition actually started to go somewhere by the end of the activity. I'm finding, however, that I need to retrain myself on what I expect out of these kids. It's apparent to me that they haven't gotten some of the formal training that I received as well as students at Okemos received as well (I was at Okemos last year). It seems to me that formal discussions were not highly promoted with these kids. I wonder why. Yes, these kids may have not had the same types of opportunities as some other schools in the area, but I don't think that their educational experiences should be hindered because of that. I'm going to try to pull in some more of these elements within the classroom. It may be a huge disaster, but I'm going to try. I'm not going to accept anything less that what I know these kids can do, and I know they can blow me away if given the chance. I guess we'll see as we go along. Overall, I thought the lesson went well. I don't know that there is much I'd change. I just have to figure out how to change some of my teaching attributes in order to reach these kids better.

5/10/09-
For how talkative students were today, it was very surprising to find that my seniors were actually very quiet. I found that it was extremely easy to keep them quiet today most likely due to the fact that it was Monday morning. Although they were a little talkative, I found that they settled in quite a bit today. The only problem I've found with them being too tired is that they don't do their work at all. A lot of the students were very disinterested in what we were doing. I've been going over summarizing paragraphs, and some students seemed to get it, while other students did not. I'm not completely sure how to re-approach this with them. I want to make sure that everyone knows what's going on and how to summarize, but I think that there are a few elements that are slipping people. I'm going to have to take a few more minutes to decide what I can do to help them reattempt summarizing items before moving on to proper reading strategies. Besides the lack of interest, things seemed to flow pretty well. Students somewhat listened while we read "How it Feels to be Colored Me." Hopefully, I can fall back on this personal reflection in order to help students understand TEWWG text. I'll have to get cracking on everything for the unit, but I'm hoping that they'll start to get into the story. I'm hoping that they'll associate the text with things that they've been through. We'll see how it goes. :) Overall, I don't think that there is much I'd change. Perhaps I'd approach how to summarize a bit better, but I'm not sure as of yet. I'm sure with more reflection and with how tomorrow's review goes will alter how I could teach things in the future.

6/10/09-
Today was surprisingly well. I figured that students would have been a little crazy today because it was Tuesday, but they were surprisingly mellow. I'm thinking it was related to how warm it was in the classroom (it was warm). I noticed that there were some students with their heads on their desks when we weren't doing anything specific. Along with my "sleepers" I had some issues with students doing work for other classes in class. I understand that a lot of students work, but there is a time and place for homework and it is not in class. I had to remind one student two or three times to put her homework away. I had an issue with another individual, but he actually put his book away and contributed some great ideas to his group. I think that the lessons went alright. Granted, I tend to base my lessons on whether the students actually do the work and whether they're actually quiet during the class. I think that they got into some of the group work today. I had students brainstorm ideas of storytelling on large post-it pages and they really got into it. I had a hard time, however, trying to pull them back into the discussion and to see what similarities of storytelling were. I loved what a lot of the groups came up with. I would have come up with fewer elements than what a lot of the groups did. They were amazing! I did, however, cut out some of the ACT prep work today. I had more work surrounding questioning authors in my lesson, but I got the feeling that they weren't really going to gain any more from the lesson on questioning today, so I jumped right into the storytelling aspect. I'm glad that I did because I almost ran out of time with our activity. Overall, l I think that the day went well. Students actually seemed excited about what was going on and actually contributed a great bit. I'm starting to see what they respond to and what they do well within the class. We'll see how things go from there.

7/10/09-
Today was far more talkative than the previous two days this week. Students were a bit rowdier and I had a harder time settling them down. I honestly wasn't surprised by this, but I was happy about the fact that they still somewhat did what was asked of them. It has been noted for the past few days that I need to change up the seating. There are a lot of people chatting and naturally, it causes distractions. Students talked through bell work today and a lot of them didn't know what the answer to the question was. Obviously, they aren't paying attention to the ACP prep-work that I'm doing. I'm thinking that we need to do something differently. What, I'm not sure, but I'm going to figure it out at one point. Perhaps I'll take a break from doing ACT prep work for a little while. Besides all of the talking, they seemed to be excited yet disinterested in the book. They kept asking me whether we were going to start the text today or not. When I informed them yes, some students seemed to be excited because they thought it was a nice change from what we had been doing, but at the same time, they seemed very disinterested in the reading. I took volunteers to read. Only one student read. She did a wonderful job with the dialect, but it was also apparent to me that the kids were disinterested, weren't reading the text while the reader was reading and didn't catch half of the descriptions going on within the first few pages of the text. They didn't catch any of the descriptive words to describe Janie, which, if they had been paying attention, they would/should have reacted differently than they did. So, I've thought about how to approach the text in general. I'm not sure how to make reading it be interesting for them. They want to read by themselves, but I just don't trust that they'll do that, especially when there are kids in the class who brag about the fact that they don't read books. I've downloaded a version of the text from iTunes, so hopefully, listening to someone else read the text will help students get involved and pay more attention to what is going on. Overall, I think we had a good day despite some of the negative thinking about reading in general.

8/10/09-
Today I went to the substitute teaching training. Christi is planning on being gone from class next Monday, so I wanted to make sure that I was taken care of so that I could get paid while she's gone. With this being said, I was gone from class today. Christi taught a sub plan for today. Students focused on doing some dialect work as well as read the rest of Chapter 1 of TEWWG. Looks like everything went well. I guess we'll see tomorrow.

9/10/09-
Well, after a long period of trying to figure out what we were going to do today, I opted for somewhat of an easy day. I figured we could read chapter two, do a little vocab work and then go from there. Unfortunately, when I got into class on Friday morning, I was informed that most of my seniors were going to be gone due to the fact that they had some sort of senior fieldtrip. Oops...not necessairly what I wanted to hear, but luckily I had some ideas as to what we could do in order to pass the time without getting too far ahead of those who weren't going to be there. I figured I'd just play it by ear. Well, as luck has it, there were only seven students gone. I figured that there would be a lot more, so I decided to continue on with chapter two. We started out the day with a bell work writing assignment that was supposed to get them thinking about how Janie must have felt when her grandmother made her marry Logan Killicks. That, unfortunately, didn't work. I asked if their parents ever made them do something that they really didn't want to do. "Everything" was the most common answer. Argh!!! Not what I was thinking, but it works...I guess :) We briefly discussed Obama winning the Nobel peace prize and then we went into reading chapter two. I had a recording of the text (read by Ruby Dee) and offered to play the text instead of having students read it. Everyone, for the most part, was excited about that. Unfortunately, about two pages into the text, I found that most of the students were dozing off or lost because they found her rendition to be a bit boring. :) So, after our discussion about the pear tree, we continued on with the students reading instead. As for the pear tree...this class just didn't get the connection at all. Actually, it was quite funny to see the lightbulbs go off when they finally realized what Janie was talking about. I had them try to deduct from the reading what the main character could have been talking about, and granted, there were a few who were close, but for the most part, they just didn't get it at all. I'm thinking that they really didn't do a lot of text analysis during their other three years of school, so this could very well be their first introduction. We'll see what happens. :) Overall, I thought the day went well. I'd like to do more with the pear tree section in the text, so I'll need to figure out something there, but for the most part, I thought that everything flowed and actually went somewhat according to plan, so I can't complain. The students are starting to respond to me more and that's a good sign. :)

12/10/09-
Today was my first experience with substituting. Unfortunately, I didn't get paid :( I was surprised as how well things went for the most part. I let the kids kind of kick back and just do what they were required to do. They seemed to like that, and the three out of four freshmen classes loved it and used it wisely. As for third hour, things went pretty well. I introduced the Harlem Renaissance projects to the class as well as gave them an ideas as to what was expected for them. They complained a bit and didn't understand why we were doing another project while still reading TEWWG. When I explained that the Harlem Renaissance had a huge influence on the text, they seemed to understand why we were doing projects. They actually seemed a bit excited about what we were going to do. Hopefully they'll take that excitement and actually work with that to do a good job on their presentations. I decided that for the rest of the time students would be given the opportunity to catch up with the text. They've been begging me to read on their own, so I let them do so. I had lots of complaints about how hard it was to read, plus they were really upset that I gave them additional questions to go through and answer while reading the text. When they complained about the situation, I wondered if perhaps I had given them too much to do, but most of the class had actually finished everything by the end of class, so I took back that bad feeling back and felt pretty good about the whole thing. I'm glad that I could tell how much they could handle. It makes me feel like I have a good grasp on everything in relation with my class. I also know after that experience, that we cannot read the text outside of class. Kids are having too many problems with understanding everything going on within the text, so I know that it is important to go over everything with them in class to ensure that they understand everything. Overall I think it went well today, but I do think that I'd be on them a bit more to get everything done in time. Some individuals were not doing work during the time, so I need to find a way to hold them accountable as well. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

13/10/09-
Today was library work day. There wasn't a whole lot in terms of personal instruction for me. Students are required to work on a topic related to the Harlem Renaissance and then put their information into a power point. They will be presenting their information in class in another two weeks. They actually were pretty excited, so we should hopefully have some good presentation information. The one thing I noticed during class is that students need to be given expectations for the library. I figured that as seniors, they'd be ok with not having the typical "how do we act in the library" speech. Obviously, I was wrong. I couldn't believe that they were so rude to the librarian. They were disinterested and actually started working on their power point presentations during the instructional time. We ended up locking up the computers which helped a bit, but they still talked a lot. It amazes me how much they fail to realize that the information being covered is actually important to them. We can continue to say it, but they never realize the reality until it's too late. This is something that I need to work on a lot. How do I get students to understand the importance of what is going on? Do I just ignore their pleas for verification? Perhaps I need to use some tough love. They know me well enough now, so perhaps that would be alright. Who knows?\ Besides the respect factor, I think that the students did a good job of researching. I think there are a few extra expectations that need to be added in for the next assignment. I need to make sure that they are aware of resources as well as works cited information. This is something that can easily be added in for a later time.

14/10/09-
Parent teacher conference day. Boy, was having the kids in the library a good idea. With the business of the day already, it was nice to have kids in the library researching. The librarian was amazing! She was right on the same wavelength as I was. We both had generated templates for students to use in order to plan their power points. She was also going to talk with them about using Works Cited within the power point. I love it! That was exactly what I was going to talk about, so it was refreshing to have another individual think the same thing I did. The librarian, like yesterday, failed to receive the respect that she fully deserved. It's been a struggle. They know that this is information they need, but they don't want to pay attention. This is a big question. How do I help them listen to this? Perhaps this needs to be a bigger investigation for me. I'm liking this idea :) Overall, students were doing a good job of researching. I'm really excited to see their presentations. It's going to be a lot of fun. They were starting to put power points together and they were looking quite nice. Goal for next week: to get them to pay attention to instruction.

15/10/09-
So, students were really disappointed that they didn't get to go to the library today. I'm glad that they look forward to going, but I also think they enjoy going because they can actually kick back and do what they want within the jurisdictions that I have set upon them. Today, like every day, they were pretty talkative. It was hard to initially get them focused, but once we started talking about storytelling, they seemed to be a bit more attentive. I noticed that I should do a bit better at transitioning what we are doing. I tried to make connections to the activity by discussing how when they were little how they read story books. I asked if they told the same types of stories. OOOO...idea! I should totally use //Tuesday// with the kids if I do this again. It's a story without words. I LOVE IT! Anyways, once we started looking at the stories that pictures tell, the students got right into the activity. In fact, they got into it a bit too much. They were talking over each other and it became very difficult to hear what people were saying. I had a discussion with them about respect and then they followed procedure for a bit before starting back into talking over one another. For the rest of class, they were given time to catch up with chapter two as well as work on drawing a visual from chapter two. I also noticed that I need to explain my expectations a bit better as well. I had a lot of students who quickly drew a picture and called it good. I need to make sure that they are putting some effort into their pictures as well as making sure that they add in color. Another note for next year. Overall, I was happy with their connection with the pictures. I'll need to transition a bit better, but I'm loving the fact that they reacted so well to the visuals. I definitely know that this is something that works well. I'll need to add in more visuals during other lessons. I think they'll connect a bit better with the text. Perhaps I'll start showing the Oprah film. I know it isn't as good, but maybe it would be worth wile. Hmmm....lots of things to look at.

19/10/09-22/10/09-
Out Sick. I found out exactly what is entailed when a teacher misses class. It was quite educational and I learned quite a bit about the whole experience during the week. I was fortunate enough to email my plans to Christi, but it seemed like Christi was able to email lesson plans to the secretary. I was always under the assumption that teachers had to run their plans into the school for subs, so it was interesting to learn that plans could be emailed. It was also frustrating to try and plan things for students. I knew that they wouldn't do a whole lot with the sub, so it was challenging to try and help them progress in class while the sub was there. Pretty much, students read and answered questions for the entire week. I know that it was frustrating for them, but it was the only thing that we could really do at such short notice.

26/10/09-
Monday-back into the swing of things. It was hard to come back into class and to try and instruct my students. First of all, they were used to having a sub, so although they were happy to see me, they were used to being able to talk and do whatever in class. It's frustrating because I feel like I'm back to day one again with them and that I'm trying to fight for attention. My goal is to not miss any more days due to the fact that this happened. Students came in complaining about the difficulty of the book and complaining about everything that they didn't understand. I'm trying to back track with them, but am struggling to finding a good way to do so. We discussed chapter three in depth today. I wanted them to understand the perspective issues between Janie and her grandmother. I wanted them to write as if they were one of the characters. Some students were right on top of the activity and understood what was going on, while others didn't understand at all. I had them reread the text and then use examples from the text in their writing, but there were still some issues. I'm crediting it to being gone, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm starting to be too soft with students. I'm debating whether I need to tougher on them. Christi said that I need to make them accountable. I'm wondering how I can effectively do that while still going over information. I think that this is something that I need to continue to keep thinking about. It's something that I can always improve on, but am wondering how to best incorporate that in right now. I guess that's one of those never ending questions. Overall, the day was somewhat frustrating and only somewhat effective. I tried to make it interesting, but obviously it wasn't interesting enough for the students. I'll do my best to make it more interesting as time goes on. I don't think I'll spend as much time reviewing with students due to the fact that we need to keep moving. I'll do whatever I need to do, but we cannot stop anymore. We'll keep going, I guess.

27/10/09-
Today went alright. I'm always a little concerned with Tuesday's and Thursday's because MSU seniors come in and observe. I somewhat feel like I need to perform better on those days than other days. To top things off, I spent a good portion of the night at the hospital and then couldn't sleep when I got home. I maybe had about an hour of sleep tops. Lack of sleep definitely seems to alter my mental capacity, although I think it is more the emotional strain than anything else. Lesson seemed to go fairly well today. I make the students responsible for reviewing today. I had them break into 6 groups and then go over assigned chapters. I actually thought that my questions worked well to help them describe what was going on in each chapter. I know that there were students who weren't thrilled about sharing in class, but overall, things went well. I was a bit frustrated about everything in general, but they seemed to get the activity. We then looked over chapter 8 in class. We practically finished the chapter, but I assigned the rest for HW. We'll see how that works with them. I told them that there would be a quiz tomorrow, so I need to make extra effort to create quiz questions from the end of the chapter to double check their reading. Overall, things went well. I was frustrated, but Christi seemed to think that they were connecting with the material and they were working when instructed to do so, so that's good. Perhaps I'm just too harsh on myself with the expectations I have. I think that if I don't get students to react in the way I want them to that they aren't connecting to the material. I need to realize that this isn't always the case and to go from there. Now...the only thing I need to work on again is the talking problem. Hopefully things will get better. They have improved, but more improvement is needed.

28/10/09-
Today was slightly frustrating. I'm still not getting as much sleep as I probably should, so my patience level isn't as high as it would be if I'd had a lot of sleep. I personally am getting frustrated with students not listening in class. Today, they were held accountable for their work. I gave them a quiz over chapter 8 and a lot of them did horribly. I even had a student insist that we didn't read chapter 8 in class yesterday. Where was she?! Seriously?! I didn't have any sympathy for her either. I'm more than willing to work with students, but I cannot keep repeating myself and keep going over things so that students can get everything down. I honestly think that I'm babying them a little too much. I showed a clip from //Rain Man// today. My goal was to have them recognize the horizon reference, but they were so busy talking during the clip that they didn't recognize what was going on. I even had a student say he didn't know why we were even doing this in class. I'm tired of the comments as well as the attitudes. I'm just wondering how I can curb this behavior as well as make them responsible. I've decided that I'm going to give them questions to answer while they are reading, but then they will have comprehension quizzes over the chapters as well. Perhaps they will actually pay attention if I start doing this. They need to know the material and know why we are looking at the sections we're looking at. With all of this in mind, I think that my lesson went alright. I need to set up the movie clip more if I'm going to use it again in class. I also need to make my expectations a bit clearer when it comes to their timeline assignment. I was answering a lot of extra questions that I could have covered during the presentation of the assignment. I think these are just little things that I need to make mental note of when I plan for lessons. Hopefully, over time, I won't need to add these little elements in, but I'm also glad that I'm recognizing everything going on because I should be able to change it up later.

29/10/09-
Christi was gone today. I was actually able to get paid to teach. YEA!!! Gotta love days when I get reimbursed for some of the money I've been paying to go to school. Today we covered chapter 9. Chapter 9 was short, so I had students listen to the cassette tape and we discussed a few important elements as we went along. Students did really well at paying attention today. Must have been in the air :) After we read chapter 9, I had students write down reading comprehension questions. They were concerned that I was going to make the answers due at the end of class, but after 3 of 4 times of repeating the instructions-just copy down the questions-they finally realized that the answers weren't due today. After they copied down the questions, I gave the students the rest of class to work on a mask for Janie. I handed out paper plates as well as markers, glue and scissors. I explained to the students that I wanted them to create a mask that represents Janie. One side needs to be what she shows on the outside-what she shows to the towns folk. The other side is to represent what she feels on the inside. They actually seemed excited about it. They set to work and most of the students had some great insights. The one thing that I became a bit frustrated about tho, was the fact that some of the students tried to get it finished as quickly as possible and didn't put a hole lot of thought into the assignment. I've found that this happens a lot. I'm still trying to find a way to fix this problem, but have yet to discover the exact way to hinder this as of yet. I guess I'll figure it out with time :) Overall, a fairly good day. It was also helpful to have the seniors there too.

30/10/09-
Students spent the day in the library today. They were required to finish working on their harlem renaissance projects since they will be due next week.

2/11/09-
Students were in the library again today. I was frustrated and didn't know exactly what to do with them. A lot of students were gone and then some of those had supposedly finished their work last week. That was fine. I had passed out missing assignments to students before we left for the library, so there were quite a few students who had asked to work on making up their work during the class time. I didn't have an issue with this. In fact, I thought it was a great idea. Why not be productive in class. Those students actually accomplished a lot that day. It was great! In fact, most of those students had all of their missing work turned in by Wednesday. For those individuals who claimed they were finished, I let them chat. Probably my first mistake. There was some drama going on, so I let the kids chat. I always enjoyed those few days when I was able to catch up with my friends as well as vent about every day life concerns. I figured they could use one of those days as well. Those other students who needed time to work on their power points were actively working. They got a lot done and I was overly impressed with the work that they did. Overall, the day went alright, but I think I need to assign other activities for those students who claim to be finished. I'll have to look into that when planning as well. One new thing learned :)

3/11/09-
Scheduled Day Off!!!

4/11/09-16/11/09-
Out because of my dad. Plans will still be placed on lesson page. I just wasn't available to teach them.

17/11/09-
First day back in quite a while. I would have loved to have been here during the past two weeks, but I guess things weren't meant to be that way. Students seemed to be excited to see me and expressed gratitude that I was back in class. I'm assuming it's because I tend to be a bit easier on them than Christi is. Perhaps that's a bad thing...I'm not really sure. I began the class with questions about Janie's struggles. There were quite a few people who needed prodding when it came to brainstorming 4 ideas of struggles that Janie has experienced since chapter 1. Perhaps they weren't completely sure of what struggles were, although, if they looked at their own lives, they'd find that most of them experience struggles every day. Once I explained the expectations, they seemed to be a bit more receptive to what was going on. We read chapter 18 today. I put the cassette tape on and had the students read along. They struggled. I'm not completely sure how things went while I was gone, but students were distracted, texting, listening to their headphones as well as sleeping. There is only so much that I can do to help correct the problems and express the importance of listening in class. I'm not their parents and I'm not going to spend time in class devoting to correcting behavior problems all of the time. I'm overly emotional right now anyways, so I wasn't going to blow up in front of class. I will make some changes to how things are structured and will then go from there. Chapter 18 was extremely long. I knew this when we began reading it, but I wanted them to finish the chapter today. They tend to forget everything from the day before, so I wanted to make sure that this chapter was covered in one sitting. It was long, and I tried to break it up on occasions to generate discussion, but it was apparent that it was boring for them. I caught people passing notes in class as well, and the student actually got mad at me when I tried to take it away from him. Seriously...If you're not paying attention, I'm going to talk with you. I assigned the students exiting ticket as a free write prediction. I wanted them to take the information they've received from the past 18 chapters and predict what will happen in the last two chapters. I haven't read the responses yet, but I'm very aware of the fact that there are people who just wrote a basic statement, a very obvious statement at that and then turned them in. I really need to find a way to be more specific when I teach things. I want better out of the kids and I obviously need to use every element necessary to not only make sure that they understand what is expected of them, but that they also write what I expect to see on their papers. There's more contemplations to make, so hopefully, one of these days, I'll find a solution to the problems I've been experiencing. There's a year to improve.

18/11/09-
The seniors have a meeting today during 3rd hour. I am extremely tired, so I'm glad to know that I won't have a lot to take care of during class today. I just need to make sure that that I have everything covered in terms of the rest of the weeks lessons before leaving today. Must be prepared! Well...if I can say things this way I will. There were two classes that met together for the senior meeting. The other class was filled with talkers and their teacher got on them quite a bit. Amazingly, my students were actually pretty good. They were bored, it was pretty obvious, but these looks are oftentimes looks that I see everyday. I didn't have any huge issues, except I saw some people using their cell phones. I didn't get on the students because I thought that the other teacher was extremely rude when she interrupted the speaker when she yelled. I figured that I would discuss this issue with my students tomorrow. I thought that it was better to just let if go by without too much of a fight. I will, however, make sure that my students know what is expected of them. They know, they just pretend not to.

19/11/09-
Frustrating day. Students were disrespectful and just seemed to be in a talkative and defiant mood. I have a feeling that I'm going to find myself really trying hard to keep my composure right now. I'm already emotional, so to have to deal with disrespectful students is trying to my patience. Christi seemed to think that I handled everything well. I had to have a discussion with students about being respectful and quiet when others are talking. This almost needs to be an every day conversation with some students. I somewhat made a stab at them because they were acting like middle schoolers. These are seniors! They shouldn't have to be scolded every day. I'm about ready to go into a rampage about how college will be nothing like what they're experiencing now and that they better realize that they need to get on track otherwise life will be difficult. I'm trying to hold back from that rampage because I don't want to turn people off, but at the same time, I'm still feeling a bit frustrated with them. I created index cards with situational questions. I gave them to each group and had students discuss the situation within their groups. I wanted the students to think about the situations Janie has found and will find herself in. I'm not 100% sure if this situational activity really worked out well. Students were making very inappropriate remarks and were overly rude. I was hoping to use some of the material today to post for my video. I'll have to go back and see if it's worth using. I also think that I need to prod the students for more answers. I want good thoughts from these students and I know that they're fully capable of doing so. I just need to find the best way to get there. I also had students begin chapter 19. We would occasionally stop to discuss some of the situations that we had discussed earlier in class. I was hoping that the students would change their minds about some of the situations I gave them. Some of them did, but others didn't. I was trying to prove that they were in the same situation as Janie but they didn't really get what I was trying to get them to see. Well...more work needed. As always :)

23/11/09-
So...today tested my ability to change plans at the drop of a hat. My goal was to have the students finish the book today, but unfortunately, they were a bit out of sorts because of the short week. I decided to have the students complete part of the assignment I had planned today before we watched the film. Afterwards, I asked them to keep note of 5 different elements that they notice in the film as opposed to the book. I haven't gone through all of the papers yet, but students seemed to at least get the gist of what was going on and what was being asked of them. I'm still having some challenges with Michael, the autistic student. Christi gave me some pointers as to what autistic students react to, so I'm hoping that I can incorporate something into my lesson so that I won't have as many challenges with him each day. I'm also hoping to help the other students in the same situation as well. Perhaps I should let them know each day what we'll be doing the following day. Maybe that would help quell a lot of problems from all of the students. Things I need to look into doing/incorporating. I continue to feel like class goes alright, but I just feel like I'm not there yet. I really need to spend time evaluating everything that I'm doing and try to figure out a way to improve/change some things. Hopefully, I'll be able to do this soon. We'll see. Overall, a pretty good day. I got a kick out of the kids reactions to the film, and I think that it was actually a good thing to use (no matter how different it is from the text). They seemed to visualize everything a bit better this way. Also a good thing to know for the future :)

24/11/09-
Thank goodness we had an easy day today. I was feeling pretty cruddy during class. The kids seemed to get into the film today. Perhaps it was a good idea to show it to them. I think they respond to texts a whole lot better when they're visual, plus they were actually starting to make some connections to the text. I don't think they realized at all what was going on with Janie in the book. This gets me wondering if there isn't another way to get students more involved with what we are doing/reading in class. I'm not sure what I can do to get them more involved. Christi mentioned trying some Blooms Taxonomy with the students. I know that I've heard of this taxonomy before, but it just didn't come to mind until Christi mentioned something. I think this will work very well and this should honestly be something that we focus on more in TE class. I don't have a whole lot to say in terms of things that I'd like to do fix in class. The kids were pretty good and it works well when you have speakers that only get somewhat loud. Students are required to be quiet then. It's great! We'll see how the rest of the film goes :)

30/11/09-
Today went alright. I have a nasty cold, so I cannot talk very loud. I was really concerned about being able to maintain some control over the students today. Luckily, everyone was pretty sympathetic towards the whole situation and they, for the most part, were pretty quiet. We finished reading chapter 20 today. Finally, finished with the book. I feel like only some of them actually came out knowing what was going on in the book. I think the other students literally just coasted through the classes. I'm trying to figure out a way to help students connect to the material for the last time this week. I know they aren't that interested and I'm still trying to help them find that connection. It's a difficult book to read, but there are things that everyone can learn. We'll see if I can get them to connect with everyone one last time before the test. I think the film was also a good representation of the everything that happened in the book. Then ending was considerably different from the book, and I don't think that the students realized this, but I'm hoping to bring up some discussion about this soon. We'll see what happens from there. Overall, a decent class today.

1/12/09-
I was really nervous about today's lesson. I decided to incorporate a group discussion in class today and it was the first that we've ever done. I wanted to get a good discussion going in relation to the book and thought that a round group discussion would be a great way to get everyone involved. Students were extremely reluctant when I mentioned that we were going to move our desks. They tried to barter with me on how they could participate in the discussion while sitting where they were. I insisted that they form into a circle. Most students did get into a circle, although I had to prod a few to do so. My goal for the class period was to get a discussion going on in between the students as opposed to the students answering questions and directing them to me. Sometimes the discussion worked, but most of the students still directed their answers to me. I got on a few students who kept looking back to find me when they were answering questions. I had a lot of students who didn't participate as well. I've decided that I need to make them responsible for participation. This is going to be a grade for today. I think I'll stress it tomorrow in order to get students to realize that this is important. Overall, my lesson didn't go as well as I wanted it to, but I did have more student interaction that I had honestly expected. This is great! I thought for the first discussion, that we did a good job of getting ideas out there. I'd like to do this again in class. Hopefully with these types of methods, I'll be able to get more students actively reading. I'll have to figure out how to incorporate those activities more into my lessons. I also need to figure out a way to get everyone else active in class. Small steps, but steps in the right direction :)

2/12/09-
Today was trying. Students seemed to be bit by the talkative bug. I wish they would have had this much energy yesterday. We could have had a really great discussion had they been this talkative. It was problematic all around. I felt like they were all talking over me and when I was able to gain their attention for a second, as soon as I started talking, they were right back to their own discussions. I am running out of ideas as to how to deal with them. I'm sure that once I move their seats that things will be better...that is if I place everyone in the "right" spots :) As for the writing prompt this morning. I didn't realize how many students didn't know their own backgrounds. I was truly shocked. Most of them possibly knew as far back as their grandparents and nobody further. I was hoping that they would know of individuals who paved their families way, but unfortunately not. I had a lot of students who either wrote about their parents or their siblings or themselves. Overall, there was a lot of resistance and a lot of people were talking during the activity. When I went through and gave those who were actually participating stamps, production seemed to increase. Perhaps I need to do more of that with the seniors as well. In terms of the poetry section. Students seemed to get into that a bit better. They had some really great insights and I loved everything that they came up with. Because they spent a lot of time talking, they didn't finish up their interpretations today. We'll have to cut into review time tomorrow to catch up. Overall, once I get the talking under control, we should be good. The kids are smart. They just need to realize this as well.

3/12/09-
Well...I've officially been proven wrong. I know that there are teachers who will avidly admit when they issue an incorrect answer. I, today, have done this. I completely forgot a particular element in the text that we have read, so I completely confused the kids. I'll blame it on the fact that I didn't teach that chapter with the kids :) Oh well, at least they won't get any questions on the test wrong because of me. Phew :) The kids were still talkative today. I'm going to need to change and enforce a new seating chart. That's something that I'll need to work on this weekend. They seemed to get into the cell phone poll, although the poll seemed to go on a little too long. They were into it for a while. Perhaps next time, I'll work with the poll and then have some other type of review activity. I'm still frustrated with the way classes have been running over the past few days, but I always have higher expectations for my kids and lessons that I think were bad, were actually good. We'll see. I've just got to get better at keeping their attention. It's a never ending task.

7/12/09-
A day of groans. I don't think I've ever heard the kids get so upset with coming into class. I finally, after a lot of debate, decided to change up the seating arrangement. I should have done this a long time ago, but kept pushing it off. I should have taken care of instances sooner, so hopefully I'll pay attention to more of my posts and make changes as quickly as possible. Rearranging took forever today. They were defiant and weren't really willing to work with me. I will say, however, once everyone got into their new seats, things were actually quiet. Like, quiet that I haven't ever heard before. It was kinda nice and yet kinda abnormal too :) I think the vocabulary activity that I planned with them seemed to work well, but they were a bit irritated with me when I handed each group an informational packet on the Sudan. I wanted to make sure that they had a lot of background information about the area and what went on before we begin working with the topic. Although they fought the activity, they seemed to do quite a bit of good work. I guess I can't complain :)

8/12/09-
I'm not really sure how to term today's class. Students came in with an overly bad attitude about the seating. I find more individuals standing outside the classroom until the bell rings and I heard a few more comments about hating to come to 3rd hour and such. Granted, I need to look at it from their perspective as well. I didn't always like going to my classes either. I'm trying to make class as interesting as I can, but it's hard to get them motivated as well as get them interested in what we're doing. I think that if they actually worked hard and did the "simplistic" elements in class that we could overcome the basic activities and actually do something a bit more interesting. I don't know...it's one of those situations where you want to do well by the kids, but you also want to make sure that you're covering everything that needs to be covered. I don't think it's a winning situation. Technology also didn't work well today. I'm not sure why, but it just didn't work. So, instead of showing the students a clip from a news cast, I spent a part of the hour discussing the US's obligation to help other countries. We discussed how one person can make a difference and connected it back to the picture that I had put on the screen with a poor starving Sudanese boy and a vulture. It caused quite a bit of conversation, which I'm thankful for because I didn't know what to do if the conversation didn't get off to a good start and if I couldn't keep it stimulated. Thank goodness it worked :) This is the primary reason why I cannot decide if I'm happy with the day or not. There was a lot of resentfulness, yet they seemed to have a decent discussion. I guess we'll just keep working on improving all aspects.

14/12/09-
Today was horrible! It's obvious that the kids don't want to be here and I honestly don't want to be here this week either. I have a lot of things that need to get done before the end of the week, so I have a lot of stress added onto an already looming pile of it. My kids came in and started telling me what to do. I HATE when they do this! It doesn't happen all of the time, but every once in a while they deem it alright to tell me what they should and shouldn't do in class. I did, however, stick to my guns and do what I had originally planned. I tried to get them talking about the reading they had last Friday. I asked them simple questions about the reading, and they still didn't seem to connect with the material. I gave up trying to prod them for information after a while. It was obvious that they weren't going to deal with it. Along with the disinterest, I had at least 6 students ask to use the bathroom within the first 5 minutes of class. I had a discussion about the appropriateness of when using the restroom is alright. This is with seniors! Crazy! One girl got so upset and got up to use the bathroom anyways, that I asked her to leave and go to the office. It's going to be a week from that really warm and uncomfortable place. I presented the students with a unique article written by Angelina Jolie. She brought up a lot of information about Darfur, and I personally thought that this letter would have been a great discussion piece. Didn't work. Students didn't respond to any question I had, so I just made them read the next section of reading. There will be a quiz tomorrow as well. I've had enough of the attitude and such. They'll work if they're not going to want to when I have it planned. ARGH!

15/12/09-
Today was considerably better than yesterday. I had the kids review their vocabulary words. I had the flyswatter game in mind, but many of them thought it was too childish. I am sure, however, if they tried it, they'd like it. Yes, it seems a bit childish, but it is a good way to think about the vocabulary words and their meanings. I gave the students a pop quiz today. I was so frustrated with everything going on in class yesterday that I felt it only necessary to give the kids a quiz. I was actually surprised by those students who looked like they weren't reading yesterday. Almost everyone got every question right. I guess its just there are days that just seem more difficult than they are. After the quiz we looked at a few passages from the book that I've been having them look at. They actually got into it as a group. There are a lot of interesting things in the text, and I was trying to have them examine why those elements were presented in the text as opposed to other incidents. They really weren't going that far into the conversation with me, but they were doing a good job and paying attention. I hope this keeps up for further classes. Thankfully, today was better than yesterday.

16/12/09-
Two more days to go! I think I'm looking forward to this vacation as much as the kids are. I am READY for a break! I handed out the vocab quizzes today. Talk about groaning. Students were complaining right and left about the way that I formatted the quiz. All I had them do was put the vocabulary words into the correct sentences. I thought that would be a bit more challenging than matching or other things I could have done with the vocab. I remember having vocab quizzes like that and I felt that those were the quizzes that helped me remember the material the best, so there ya go. After the quiz, I put the Lost Boy's video on and the kids really got into it! Amazing! I think they were more attentive during this video than they were during the TEWWG video. I'm loving it. I hope to have them look at how the story is told tomorrow and then have them evaluate how the stories are presented in different manors. I think this would be a great way to approach the final that I am thinking of. We'll see what happens. I have to get my lesson plan set and ready to go for tomorrow. Christina is coming in for the last review of the semester.

17/12/09-
Easy day today. I'm so glad that I picked a film that the kids got into. They were really attentive and although talkative were actually talking about the film. It was nice. I need to find material like this more often :)

18/12/09-
Somewhat of an easy day today. Kids were really talkative which as always is frustrating. There's got to be a give somewhere. Don't really know. It was nice to be in a bit of a holiday spirit though. I like it! The kids had a decent discussion on the film and then I gave them the rest of the hour to de-stress. It was an overall laid back day (minus the talking).

4/1/10-
What a day! I was overly excited about the lesson today. I've decided that I would work a bit with the text //Push// with the kids. I thought that it was relatable as well as a text that the kids would get into. When I looked around online I found a really cool recommendation that paired up //Push// with fairy tales. I loved it! I thought that I could plan a mini unit based off of working with fairy tales. I went out, invested in a lot of children's books and had the kids read through some of the books today. The kids complained the whole time. They were really talkative and complained the whole time about reading a children's book. ARGH! Talk about frustrating. I'm trying to figure out how tomorrow will work out since I have more fairy tale work planned. I think we're all tired and I'm struggling with how to get the kids active and such. I'm thinking there's going to be some rearranging of expectations come second semester.

5/1/10-
Today seemed to go a little better. I did, however, realize that my students don't know a lot about grammar in general. They lacked the knowledge in knowing what particular nouns were, so I'm at a loss as to how to approach everything with them. I'm thinking that maybe they need to start diagraming sentences. I'll have them go through the basic parts of speech and such and then have them start diagraming sentences. Good thing I have the folder left over from my college lessons. As for attitude, students were still a bit negative towards the whole fairy tale situation, but I think it's working. I wish that I could get them to think more about their assignments. In depth thinking is out the window which is frustrating. I think we could have some great discussions if I had students who were more aware of what is going on as well as those who are a bit more insightful as well. I'm going to try to figure out a way to get them to think more. I obviously have to take baby steps towards the entire situation, and then maybe they'll be able to have those discussions. It's a matter of getting them there. One day at a time.

6/1/10-
I was so glad with today's class!!! I think I finally found a way to connect with the students. I just need to find a way to have those breakthroughs with them more often. I did the typical stuff today and went over material that we didn't complete yesterday. After our catch-up session, I presented a group of pictures that represented different types of societal perceptions and expectations of women and men. I also included pictures of things that we, as a society may deem acceptable, or unacceptable. The pictures really got them talking. I loved it. They had some really great insights into expectations that society has on individuals. It was the first great discussion we've had in a while! My goal now, is to find ways to make everything somewhat applicable to them. Granted, I'd like to think that I do that already, but I honestly think that the best way to incorporate everything for them is to bring their lives into everything. That's going to be hard. I'm thinking that a survey might be acceptable for next semester. Perhaps something that asks what types of movies/tv shows etc they enjoy watching and then go from there. I want to make material as relatable as possible, and if there is a way that I can find a way to connect things with elements that they enjoy, then I'm one step ahead of everything. We'll see. I'm very happy with the way the day went tho. Let's hope for another great day!

7/1/10-
What a great day again! I love it when students respond to discussion within a classroom setting. YEA!!! The day started out with groans due to the fact that they didn't want to do any more grammar work. I did, however, express to them that they will be writing a research paper next semester and we're doing this as proper preparation for paper writing. They seemed to be more receptive then. GREAT! When we began reading Push, students were pretty attentive. I had kids who give me issues in class who were really into the story. I love it! I'm so glad that I chose a text that they can relate to or at least get into. I'm so happy with that. I was able to pose questions as we read and I received some really insightful statements. Good to know. I'm glad to know that when they get into the material, it's a lot easier to get them to get involved with what's going on in class. I'll need to remember this for next semester. MAKE IT RELATABLE TO NOW!!! Great day!

8/1/10-
SNOW DAY!!!!

11/1/10-
Today seemed to go alright. I was thinking about new ways to get those students who weren't involved in discussions more involved. I bought some candy over the weekend and am thinking about using it. I didn't, however, use it today. I was feeling that it just wasn't a good day for that. Perhaps some day soon. I'd like to get the kids copies of the book. It's been frustrating for me to try and read them the text. They are, however, pretty interactive with the text. They have some good questions to bring to the table. I don't have much to say for today. It was your basic class.

12/1/10-
I thought that I would try something new today. I handed out post-it notes to everyone in the class and had them write down questions/comments about the book. I thought that this could be a good way to get them interacting with the text. I'm not sure whether it worked or not. I'll know more tomorrow. There was, however, a huge stir about one comment that a student made about Precious stealing chicken. The class went nuts. I'm not completely sure why it took on such a strange role, but it took me a while to get the class back down and settled. I truly need to find a way to get the kids more involved and interactive with the text. We'll get there :)