Just a note to add some fun to your day...
Yesterday during the Spanish 4 class, my hilarious cooperating teacher was teaching a poem. It is a very cool poem from a cuban poet (Nicolas Guien) who blends African and Spanish to create "poesia negriblanca" This poem is actually a chant. A chant to get psyched up to kill a snake. Cool.
So to teach this she brought in a bongo-type drum from the orchestra department and had a student play a beat while she read the chant and the whole class came in for the chorus. Very fun.
But, before she got to this choral reading of the chant, somehow the discussion went to Germans. Yea... afro-cuban spanish snake-killing chants...germans... same thing, right? yea. I think so too.
So off we went with Terese on an adventure into the inner-world of a german and how they deal with their emotions. She adopted an amazingly accurate stereotypical german accent and informed us all how to "Stuff your emotions! Stuff them deep down! Stuff them down down down so you will not feel them ever again! We do not cry, we do not feel, before we can feel we Stuff it!"
It was beyond hilarious. The kids were cracking up, she was cracking herself up, I was crying with laughter and this went on for a solid 5-7 minutes.
Just picture it. You'll laugh.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Who bombed a lesson?
Shannon bombed a lesson! That's right. You heard it. I wrote a bad lesson plan and then implemented that crappiness and not surprisingly, got just as crappy results! Wooooweeee!
Okay, so the lesson itself wasn't crappy at all. It was just fine. For juniors, or maybe seniors. Not, however, for freshmen. Noo... definitely not for freshmen.
I should have noticed something when the night before I was looking over my lessons and thought to myself "huh, my spanish 3 lesson plan looks really similar to my spanish 1 lesson. weird." Good lord. Shouldn't that send up giant red flags? Well it should. But it didn't. Ugh.
Not only did I plan a lesson that was above their level and not helpful to their learning... it didn't take as long as planned and we were left with like 9 awkward minutes at the end of the period.
Great. Super. Thanks.
On a much happier note, I have since made my college of education proud and shown them how much of a "reflective professional" I can be.
Because today... I rocked.
From one crappy lesson I relearned a years worth of things about freshmen that I really did know in the back of my head, but had forgotten after working with solely upperclassmen for so long.
So, with that spasm of bad decisions over, I put on my creativity cap and planned a spectacularly fun, learning-filled, age-appropriate, well-timed and smooth as silk lesson for today.
So spectacular was my lesson that my university supervisor (oh yes, I was being observed today :) ) was literally wiggling as he recapped all the things that he had liked. So spectacular was my lesson that my cooperating teacher left me a super-cute note and some candy just to make sure I knew how great I had done.
Hahaha. Its good to be back.
Okay, so the lesson itself wasn't crappy at all. It was just fine. For juniors, or maybe seniors. Not, however, for freshmen. Noo... definitely not for freshmen.
I should have noticed something when the night before I was looking over my lessons and thought to myself "huh, my spanish 3 lesson plan looks really similar to my spanish 1 lesson. weird." Good lord. Shouldn't that send up giant red flags? Well it should. But it didn't. Ugh.
Not only did I plan a lesson that was above their level and not helpful to their learning... it didn't take as long as planned and we were left with like 9 awkward minutes at the end of the period.
Great. Super. Thanks.
On a much happier note, I have since made my college of education proud and shown them how much of a "reflective professional" I can be.
Because today... I rocked.
From one crappy lesson I relearned a years worth of things about freshmen that I really did know in the back of my head, but had forgotten after working with solely upperclassmen for so long.
So, with that spasm of bad decisions over, I put on my creativity cap and planned a spectacularly fun, learning-filled, age-appropriate, well-timed and smooth as silk lesson for today.
So spectacular was my lesson that my university supervisor (oh yes, I was being observed today :) ) was literally wiggling as he recapped all the things that he had liked. So spectacular was my lesson that my cooperating teacher left me a super-cute note and some candy just to make sure I knew how great I had done.
Hahaha. Its good to be back.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Student Teacher, Student Husband
So, not that this has anything to do with my student teaching. But I thought you might want to know.
I have been waiting not very patiently for my wedding pictures to come online. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. Thinking, "hmm.. they said a month...it was a month like 15 days ago..."
I sent off two seperate emails asking when I can expect my pictures and got no response.
I fielded a million questions from friends and family asking when the pictures would be online. Each time thinking to myself "grrr..I want my pictures".
I checked the online status every single day hoping for a different outcome. No luck.
Finally, today, I found the phone number and called the company (stupid me should have done this a while ago).
Me - "I got married on January 5 and was wondering about the status of my photos"
Super bubbly and nice Beauty-and-the-geek type girl on the other end of the phone - "It looks like you still have a balance of $1400, so as soon as you pay that your pictures will be available online"
Cut to me on the phone with Erik five minutes later...
"So, you remember like two months ago when I sent you those five emails reminding you to pay the balance of our photographer bill?"
Student husband - "Yea..."
"Did you pay it"
"Uh, I thought so"
"Nope you didn't"
Gah. Well, now it's paid so I should have the pictures by Thursday at the latest so they should be available to you all by this weekend :) Hooray!!!
I have been waiting not very patiently for my wedding pictures to come online. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. Thinking, "hmm.. they said a month...it was a month like 15 days ago..."
I sent off two seperate emails asking when I can expect my pictures and got no response.
I fielded a million questions from friends and family asking when the pictures would be online. Each time thinking to myself "grrr..I want my pictures".
I checked the online status every single day hoping for a different outcome. No luck.
Finally, today, I found the phone number and called the company (stupid me should have done this a while ago).
Me - "I got married on January 5 and was wondering about the status of my photos"
Super bubbly and nice Beauty-and-the-geek type girl on the other end of the phone - "It looks like you still have a balance of $1400, so as soon as you pay that your pictures will be available online"
Cut to me on the phone with Erik five minutes later...
"So, you remember like two months ago when I sent you those five emails reminding you to pay the balance of our photographer bill?"
Student husband - "Yea..."
"Did you pay it"
"Uh, I thought so"
"Nope you didn't"
Gah. Well, now it's paid so I should have the pictures by Thursday at the latest so they should be available to you all by this weekend :) Hooray!!!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Respeto
Today was my first adventure into disciplining teenagers.
They are learning clothing vocab and descriptive words, so they were doing a pair activity where they were given a place at random (a party, the theater, grandma's house etc.) and they had to write a good, juicy descriptive paragraph about what they would wear to that place.
They worked well enough, my vietnamese gangster student of course happened to choose "a party" as his place. So after making it clear that our paragraphs have to be school appropriate (he wrote about a "fiesta limpia" -clean party- where they get dressed up and play spanish games - he's one of my favorite students. He's sharp, witty and a total sass) they wrote some okay paragraphs.
After writing for a while, I asked them to go to the podium and share their paragraph with the class. They were absolutely thrilled as you can imagine but they at least played along until one pair of students got up to share.
As this pair began to read, someone sitting in the front made some sort of comment, whether about the girls or not, I can't be sure, I didn't hear them, but whatever was said, the comment sent out a wave of giggles through the class. One of the girls, being a very regal little thing gave the giggling morons a very strict teacher look and said "And what is the laughing about?". This of course sent another shockwave of giggles through the immature masses. I was pissed but as I was about to say something they settled on their own. I was still pissed, but I wanted to let the girls read their paragraph so we moved on for the moment.
After this little sharing session, there were only a few minutes left of the hour so I passed out the homework. They began to work on it as I stared at them for a moment.
I looked around and began to tell them a story.
"During the summer I work at Encompass daycare for their summer camp program."
::their faces roused...they like when I tell stories::
"Yea, I work with 7-11 year olds"
student - "Woah, that's crazy"
"No, their a lot of fun. I like that age group. We have to have a lot of talks about respect though."
::I start to see some "uh-oh" faces in the crowd::
(picture me with a very matter-of-fact, slightly cocky, i-am-disgusted-with-your-behavior-face) "Yea, we do a lot of talking about creating a respectful classroom, listening to our friends when they talk, respecting one another, their opinions, their ideas and their rights. We have to have a lot of sit-down talks about these kinds of things. So if we need to have a talk like that in here, I'm very well practiced. If I need to make that speech, just let me know, I have a really good one"
::ahhh the faces of shame, regret and dissapointment::
Ha. Little buggers. I crushed them and they didn't even see it coming.
They are learning clothing vocab and descriptive words, so they were doing a pair activity where they were given a place at random (a party, the theater, grandma's house etc.) and they had to write a good, juicy descriptive paragraph about what they would wear to that place.
They worked well enough, my vietnamese gangster student of course happened to choose "a party" as his place. So after making it clear that our paragraphs have to be school appropriate (he wrote about a "fiesta limpia" -clean party- where they get dressed up and play spanish games - he's one of my favorite students. He's sharp, witty and a total sass) they wrote some okay paragraphs.
After writing for a while, I asked them to go to the podium and share their paragraph with the class. They were absolutely thrilled as you can imagine but they at least played along until one pair of students got up to share.
As this pair began to read, someone sitting in the front made some sort of comment, whether about the girls or not, I can't be sure, I didn't hear them, but whatever was said, the comment sent out a wave of giggles through the class. One of the girls, being a very regal little thing gave the giggling morons a very strict teacher look and said "And what is the laughing about?". This of course sent another shockwave of giggles through the immature masses. I was pissed but as I was about to say something they settled on their own. I was still pissed, but I wanted to let the girls read their paragraph so we moved on for the moment.
After this little sharing session, there were only a few minutes left of the hour so I passed out the homework. They began to work on it as I stared at them for a moment.
I looked around and began to tell them a story.
"During the summer I work at Encompass daycare for their summer camp program."
::their faces roused...they like when I tell stories::
"Yea, I work with 7-11 year olds"
student - "Woah, that's crazy"
"No, their a lot of fun. I like that age group. We have to have a lot of talks about respect though."
::I start to see some "uh-oh" faces in the crowd::
(picture me with a very matter-of-fact, slightly cocky, i-am-disgusted-with-your-behavior-face) "Yea, we do a lot of talking about creating a respectful classroom, listening to our friends when they talk, respecting one another, their opinions, their ideas and their rights. We have to have a lot of sit-down talks about these kinds of things. So if we need to have a talk like that in here, I'm very well practiced. If I need to make that speech, just let me know, I have a really good one"
::ahhh the faces of shame, regret and dissapointment::
Ha. Little buggers. I crushed them and they didn't even see it coming.
I'll be here all week...
Teaching high school is like being a stand up comic without a microphone.
How do you motivate a room full of bored teenagers so that they don't stare at you like you're an alien speaking in tounges? You act like a moron.
You dance the cha-cha so they remember the word for "vest" (cha-cha-- chaleco!)
You work your "superlatives" lesson around David Beckham's hotness
You satisfy their strange curiosity about your personal life with anecdotes involving your pale white husband who listens to Snoop Dogg
You blame it on them when you forget a student in the hallway
You make them dress up in a DuBois formalware vest with peacocks on it, a feather boa, a giant sparkly sombrero and make them strut in front of their classmates
Yea. I like it.
How do you motivate a room full of bored teenagers so that they don't stare at you like you're an alien speaking in tounges? You act like a moron.
You dance the cha-cha so they remember the word for "vest" (cha-cha-- chaleco!)
You work your "superlatives" lesson around David Beckham's hotness
You satisfy their strange curiosity about your personal life with anecdotes involving your pale white husband who listens to Snoop Dogg
You blame it on them when you forget a student in the hallway
You make them dress up in a DuBois formalware vest with peacocks on it, a feather boa, a giant sparkly sombrero and make them strut in front of their classmates
Yea. I like it.
Monday, January 28, 2008
???
Some questions for the general public -
Why, when you already are carrying a backpack, is it necessary to carry a purse around the high school?
Is it really necessary that I see your butt crack when you sit down?
Why can't you make a copy of a sheet of paper if it has been 3-hole punched? 'Cause I am pretty sure you can.
Since when is teleconferencing a "highly unorthodox" practice? I thought it was a simple alternative to driving two hours to attend a 45 minute meeting.
Does it seem wrong to anyone else that high school students don't know which country Castro is the president of? Or that when asked how much the human head weighs, they guess 41lbs?
Why, when you already are carrying a backpack, is it necessary to carry a purse around the high school?
Is it really necessary that I see your butt crack when you sit down?
Why can't you make a copy of a sheet of paper if it has been 3-hole punched? 'Cause I am pretty sure you can.
Since when is teleconferencing a "highly unorthodox" practice? I thought it was a simple alternative to driving two hours to attend a 45 minute meeting.
Does it seem wrong to anyone else that high school students don't know which country Castro is the president of? Or that when asked how much the human head weighs, they guess 41lbs?
Black fog of negativity and Doom!
That would be my fellow student teacher Kay.
Today I drove down to Oshkosh to have the once a week meeting with my University Supervisor and the one other Student Teacher that he supervises. I have never put 100 miles on my car for a less worthy reason.
The minute we sat down, the first words out of her mouth were "I hate student teaching, it is a total waste of time, I am completely bored and I am ready to be done". Well. Alright then you crazy bucket full of negativity. She then proceeds to rant and complain for 35 minutes of our 45 minute long meeting just bitching and whining about all the horrible things that are going on in her school and "do we have to go to the teacher inservices? It was totally useless and so not relevant to me and I felt totally out of place and all the other student teachers got to go home, but I had to stay and next time can I skip it because I didn't learn anything.....blabbity blah blah blah!" And it just went on and on and on, whining about her Cooperating teacher, about the students, about the schedule, about her policies, about the drive, and anything else you could think of. I actually asked her at one point if she really even wants to be a teacher... she's not sure. Go figure.
Well anyway, it took me about the whole car ride home to Green Bay to shake off her dirty, tainted black fog of pessimism and get back to my world where teaching is fun, my cooperating teachers are spectacular and my kids are funny and play along with me very nicely! It's good to be back in my world :)
Today I drove down to Oshkosh to have the once a week meeting with my University Supervisor and the one other Student Teacher that he supervises. I have never put 100 miles on my car for a less worthy reason.
The minute we sat down, the first words out of her mouth were "I hate student teaching, it is a total waste of time, I am completely bored and I am ready to be done". Well. Alright then you crazy bucket full of negativity. She then proceeds to rant and complain for 35 minutes of our 45 minute long meeting just bitching and whining about all the horrible things that are going on in her school and "do we have to go to the teacher inservices? It was totally useless and so not relevant to me and I felt totally out of place and all the other student teachers got to go home, but I had to stay and next time can I skip it because I didn't learn anything.....blabbity blah blah blah!" And it just went on and on and on, whining about her Cooperating teacher, about the students, about the schedule, about her policies, about the drive, and anything else you could think of. I actually asked her at one point if she really even wants to be a teacher... she's not sure. Go figure.
Well anyway, it took me about the whole car ride home to Green Bay to shake off her dirty, tainted black fog of pessimism and get back to my world where teaching is fun, my cooperating teachers are spectacular and my kids are funny and play along with me very nicely! It's good to be back in my world :)
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