It has not been a very exciting time since my last posting. However, things do happen that keep life in the classroom interesting.
Two weeks ago we had student-led, parent conferences. I caught a chest cold and have been fighting it ever since. The six years I was out of teaching I think I had a total of two colds. Now I have one every fall and again every spring. I suspect the ninth graders are the source. They seem to have no concept of germs (bacteria) as they pass around water bottles and soda pop containers. Sometimes up to four different kids will drink out of one bottle.
I inherited the district’s greenhouse when I volunteered to teach Natural resources. This past week they hooked up two LPG tanks to supply heat. The horticulture teacher used to have the kids doing hanging baskets and vegetable plants. I will be using a different approach and teaching the kids how to do grafting of conifers and how to root conifer cuttings. We will do flower seedlings in the late winter. I want to have some things to sell for community day.
Community day is unique to Eatonville. The whole school closes at noon on or near May 1. Clubs and other school groups set up stands on the school property and sell various things to the public. The elementary schools provide students to do a Maypole dance. A fun time is had by all. We just have to watch for Middle School students coming onto the school grounds and causing problems with their immature behaviors.
Every once in a while something will happen in the classroom that can only take place in a rural school system. Two days ago I was doing a lesson in equation writing with my first period chemistry students when there was a slight commotion. One of the boys asked if I had a hose he could take outside. He was disappointed when I said no and that the outside faucets could only be turned on with a key. The students around him were waving at him and holding their noses. When I gave them a puzzled look, they told me that there was a very bad smell coming from the boy. He was upset over the commotion he was causing. It seems that he gets up every morning at 5:00 AM and does chores on the farm. This morning he was repairing some fencing around the cow pasture and walked through a number of cow pies (cow flops or poop). The excrement was all over his boots and part way up his pants. He had tracked it into my room (luckily I don’t have carpet) and was quite aromatic (for once my cold was helpful). I sent him outside to clean his boots, without much success. He finally went to the lavatory where he managed to get everything off and then wiped up the floor when he returned to class.
One of the other boys started to criticize him but shut up fast when I pointed out that getting dirty doing honest work is nothing to be ashamed of and getting up to do an hour or two of dirty work before school is something to be admired. I have a number of older students who are very hard workers outside of school. Sometimes they don’t see a need for the same amount of effort on their intellectual type of work.
We got the word this week that we have to plan ahead for sophomore and freshmen students who don’t pass the end-of-year science test for graduation. It will be given to biology students and administered through the state. The WASL was such a fiasco that the state has moved in this direction. Students who normally take just two years of science (the graduation requirement) must now pass this test. Since many of them will not pass it, we will have to figure some way to offer two or three more sections of a biological based science. They have to retake the test until they pass or they will not graduate, even if they pass the class. I hope the impact on our higher level classes is not severe but I am afraid there will be some negative impacts.
Two weeks until Christmas break. The last day of school is our Christmas assembly. It seems that a bunch of kids got together and for their Christmas wish want me and another teacher to sing a song at the assembly. I'll let you know how it goes.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Fantasies
Education is full of fantasies. They start at the bottom of the ladder with the students and work their way up to the top at the state level.
A large number of ninth grade students think ninth grade is for socializing with their friends and ignoring teacher directions and assignments. They beiieve that they will become tenth graders, regardless of how they perform as freshmen. Extra credit is a common request, especially by students who do not do assigned work. When they are criticized or told in a firm manner to stop , they reply with comments like, “I’ll tell my mother.” or “You can’t make me.” or “I didn’t do anything.”
The root of this fantasy is that ninth grade students belong in the senior high school setting. Freshmen students cannot be treated like the older high school students. They do not have the necessary maturity. Failure rates are high and behavior problems abound. Ninth graders belong with the seventh and eighth grade students in a junior high school where they can be transitioned to the high school.
Another fantasy is that sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students mix well in a middle school setting. It is interesting that sixth grade teachers want the old kids kept away from their students and prefer their own area of the middle school. Then too, the eighth grade students think that they “rule the roost” because they are the oldest. Ninth grade students would subdue this attitude.
Recently the state of Washington has been fantasizing about graduation requirements.Starting with the class of 2013, all students need three years of math to graduate. They need algebra and geometry to get a high school diploma. The fantasy is that all students can be successful in these math classes regardless of ability. The majority of the students can’t pass the tenth grade math exam that is supposed to test basic skills so why not up the graduation requirement?
Another fantasy is the idea that people who have never been public school classroom teachers can conduct studies to determine the future of education in this country. Or that college and university instructors know how public school students should be taught when they never had to deal with that type of student. These individuals repeat what they have read in books and rehash old ideas using new names.
The biggest fantasy of all pertains to the idea that most politicians want to do what is best for students, not their political careers. More than one graduating class has been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. Luckily, students who want to learn, will learn, in spite of the latest educational dogma and politically inspired educational requirements.
Before I fall off my soap box, I will step off of it and mention a few things about this past week.
We are preparing for parent conferences. These will be student led and focus on student testing results and on post graduation plans. Unfortunately there is not much time for parents to talk with their children’s teachers about how their youngsters are doing in their classes. This trend seems to be prevalent throughout the educational community and ignores what most parents really want to do. Then they wonder why inducements like extra credit are needed to bring out the parents.
My freshmen are taking more interest in the Natural Resources class. I started a plant unit and we will work toward lessons on grafting and rooting cuttings in the school’s greenhouse (which was being used for storage). Of course there are a number of them who still haven’t lost their childish behaviors andregularly get into trouble. I am concerned about handing out exacto knives to some of the more moronic classmembers.
My physics students did pretty well in a triangulation lab using surveying equipment to determine distances and elevations. The chemistry students are trying to master stoichiometry, with varying degrees of success. But I have high hopes for them all.
A large number of ninth grade students think ninth grade is for socializing with their friends and ignoring teacher directions and assignments. They beiieve that they will become tenth graders, regardless of how they perform as freshmen. Extra credit is a common request, especially by students who do not do assigned work. When they are criticized or told in a firm manner to stop , they reply with comments like, “I’ll tell my mother.” or “You can’t make me.” or “I didn’t do anything.”
The root of this fantasy is that ninth grade students belong in the senior high school setting. Freshmen students cannot be treated like the older high school students. They do not have the necessary maturity. Failure rates are high and behavior problems abound. Ninth graders belong with the seventh and eighth grade students in a junior high school where they can be transitioned to the high school.
Another fantasy is that sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students mix well in a middle school setting. It is interesting that sixth grade teachers want the old kids kept away from their students and prefer their own area of the middle school. Then too, the eighth grade students think that they “rule the roost” because they are the oldest. Ninth grade students would subdue this attitude.
Recently the state of Washington has been fantasizing about graduation requirements.Starting with the class of 2013, all students need three years of math to graduate. They need algebra and geometry to get a high school diploma. The fantasy is that all students can be successful in these math classes regardless of ability. The majority of the students can’t pass the tenth grade math exam that is supposed to test basic skills so why not up the graduation requirement?
Another fantasy is the idea that people who have never been public school classroom teachers can conduct studies to determine the future of education in this country. Or that college and university instructors know how public school students should be taught when they never had to deal with that type of student. These individuals repeat what they have read in books and rehash old ideas using new names.
The biggest fantasy of all pertains to the idea that most politicians want to do what is best for students, not their political careers. More than one graduating class has been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. Luckily, students who want to learn, will learn, in spite of the latest educational dogma and politically inspired educational requirements.
Before I fall off my soap box, I will step off of it and mention a few things about this past week.
We are preparing for parent conferences. These will be student led and focus on student testing results and on post graduation plans. Unfortunately there is not much time for parents to talk with their children’s teachers about how their youngsters are doing in their classes. This trend seems to be prevalent throughout the educational community and ignores what most parents really want to do. Then they wonder why inducements like extra credit are needed to bring out the parents.
My freshmen are taking more interest in the Natural Resources class. I started a plant unit and we will work toward lessons on grafting and rooting cuttings in the school’s greenhouse (which was being used for storage). Of course there are a number of them who still haven’t lost their childish behaviors andregularly get into trouble. I am concerned about handing out exacto knives to some of the more moronic classmembers.
My physics students did pretty well in a triangulation lab using surveying equipment to determine distances and elevations. The chemistry students are trying to master stoichiometry, with varying degrees of success. But I have high hopes for them all.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Observed by the Principal
Today I had a visitor. The high school principal sat in on today’s lesson. It is part of his job to observe and evaluate each tenured teacher twice a year. New teachers are observed more often. After the observation, an evaluation is prepared and presented to the teacher. It becomes part of the teacher’s permanent file and if the rating is poor, steps are taken to bring about some improvement.
I remember my first observation at Weatherly Jr.-Sr. High School. I was twenty and several of my students were my age. It was done by a representative from the county rather than the district and it was a disaster. The students put on an obvious act for the observer. I had been hired in January to teach six math classes, all different. (I was the fourth teach that year. The first three all walked away.) She observed my 11th grade, general math class. It was near the end of the year and I was losing control of this particular class. I was even considering quitting and joining the army, even though those were the days of the Vietnam buildup.
But I survived and the following year was experienced and teaching science classes. The same person observed me in November and gave me a superior rating and I have survived almost 80 formal evaluations with all satisfactories and aboves by at least twelve different administrators in my 38+ years in four different districts.
I have always wondered about the procedure universally followed by administrators. The teacher is given advance notice of up to a month as to the date of the observation. Then a preobservation meeting is held with the planned lesson being reviewed. Afterwards, the administrator observes the lesson and does a written report for “the file”. It is a little bit like college, where a lesson is prepared that will impress the administrator and keep everybody happy. If the teacher “screws up” with all of that advance notice, he/she definitely needs help.
Some of us experienced teachers don’t worry about doing anything special for the observation. We know we are observed everyday by over 120 observers who really matter- our students. We do a “show” for them everyday. The principal is just another body among many.
I have always believed the principal needs to drop in at random to do observations. Then he will really know what is going on in a classroom. Of course the principal needs to observe with several goals in mind: give a pat on the back for good things, a kick in the ass for bad things, and be a resource to help the teacher improve.
Every teacher can always benefit from helpful input from any observer. The problem is, however, that teachers are by and large the most insecure people around when it comes to a feeling of job security. If the principal is a rare visitor to the classroom and only points out negative aspects of the teaching techniques, then the teacher will develop fear toward the principal and be one “unhappy camper”. The “drop in” observations take on the aspect of harassment. But handled properly (in a helpful and positive manner), they are more effective than the “dog and pony” show the principal usually gets to see and no teacher will feel threatened.
By the way, my evaluation was exemplary and I believe he enjoyed the two oxygen production demos I did for my first period chemistry class.
I remember my first observation at Weatherly Jr.-Sr. High School. I was twenty and several of my students were my age. It was done by a representative from the county rather than the district and it was a disaster. The students put on an obvious act for the observer. I had been hired in January to teach six math classes, all different. (I was the fourth teach that year. The first three all walked away.) She observed my 11th grade, general math class. It was near the end of the year and I was losing control of this particular class. I was even considering quitting and joining the army, even though those were the days of the Vietnam buildup.
But I survived and the following year was experienced and teaching science classes. The same person observed me in November and gave me a superior rating and I have survived almost 80 formal evaluations with all satisfactories and aboves by at least twelve different administrators in my 38+ years in four different districts.
I have always wondered about the procedure universally followed by administrators. The teacher is given advance notice of up to a month as to the date of the observation. Then a preobservation meeting is held with the planned lesson being reviewed. Afterwards, the administrator observes the lesson and does a written report for “the file”. It is a little bit like college, where a lesson is prepared that will impress the administrator and keep everybody happy. If the teacher “screws up” with all of that advance notice, he/she definitely needs help.
Some of us experienced teachers don’t worry about doing anything special for the observation. We know we are observed everyday by over 120 observers who really matter- our students. We do a “show” for them everyday. The principal is just another body among many.
I have always believed the principal needs to drop in at random to do observations. Then he will really know what is going on in a classroom. Of course the principal needs to observe with several goals in mind: give a pat on the back for good things, a kick in the ass for bad things, and be a resource to help the teacher improve.
Every teacher can always benefit from helpful input from any observer. The problem is, however, that teachers are by and large the most insecure people around when it comes to a feeling of job security. If the principal is a rare visitor to the classroom and only points out negative aspects of the teaching techniques, then the teacher will develop fear toward the principal and be one “unhappy camper”. The “drop in” observations take on the aspect of harassment. But handled properly (in a helpful and positive manner), they are more effective than the “dog and pony” show the principal usually gets to see and no teacher will feel threatened.
By the way, my evaluation was exemplary and I believe he enjoyed the two oxygen production demos I did for my first period chemistry class.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Measuring Up
I have two sections of ninth grade students taking a course I helped develop at the county level called Natural Resources. It is available for students to take as either a science credit or a CTE (Career Technical Education) credit. It is oriented toward the students who are not planning on attending a four year college. The past two weeks we have been doing drafting with drawing boards, T-squares, architect scales, and other equipment.
The first disaster was an assignment to draw a 4”x6” square centered on a sheet of paper. I thought most of the students were just being difficult when they said they could not do it. After the third disastrous drawing, I had them do a scale drawing of the front of the high school building. Then I discovered the reason for the difficulty: most of them could not read a ruler. It was like beating my head against a wall as I showed student after student the 1/8 and ¼ marks on the scale. They had no comprehension of the fractional divisions on a scale/ruler.
Then this one girl asked to be excused on the first day of the scale project to go work on a history project. I told her she would fail the drawing if she missed the introductory information. She said she didn’t care. She missed day one. Then on day two she showed up in the middle of the class period. On day three she just sat in the corner of the classroom with two other girls and ignored what the rest of the class was doing. When class ended for the day, she came up to me and said she wasn’t able to complete the assignment because she was absent and didn’t understand it. I was very sympathetic and was moved to tears as I told her that was her choice and have a nice day.
Meanwhile my physics students are studying triangles by triangulating the distance to Mount Rainier from our football field. Then they have to determine the height of a radio tower on a ridge about two miles away. I have two theodolites on permanent loan from a local surveying company. They were just collecting dust in the owner’s garage. Some of the students are really getting “into it”. Meanwhile, my ninth graders can’t even read a ruler and they don’t think that is a problem.
Their math teacher is doing algebra (no one gets general math anymore) and rulers are not part of the curriculum. Whenever they were taught to use rulers, it obviously didn’t stick. Meanwhile the state wants all students to take math through geometry to graduate. I doubt they will “measure up” and are in danger of becoming dropouts.
The first disaster was an assignment to draw a 4”x6” square centered on a sheet of paper. I thought most of the students were just being difficult when they said they could not do it. After the third disastrous drawing, I had them do a scale drawing of the front of the high school building. Then I discovered the reason for the difficulty: most of them could not read a ruler. It was like beating my head against a wall as I showed student after student the 1/8 and ¼ marks on the scale. They had no comprehension of the fractional divisions on a scale/ruler.
Then this one girl asked to be excused on the first day of the scale project to go work on a history project. I told her she would fail the drawing if she missed the introductory information. She said she didn’t care. She missed day one. Then on day two she showed up in the middle of the class period. On day three she just sat in the corner of the classroom with two other girls and ignored what the rest of the class was doing. When class ended for the day, she came up to me and said she wasn’t able to complete the assignment because she was absent and didn’t understand it. I was very sympathetic and was moved to tears as I told her that was her choice and have a nice day.
Meanwhile my physics students are studying triangles by triangulating the distance to Mount Rainier from our football field. Then they have to determine the height of a radio tower on a ridge about two miles away. I have two theodolites on permanent loan from a local surveying company. They were just collecting dust in the owner’s garage. Some of the students are really getting “into it”. Meanwhile, my ninth graders can’t even read a ruler and they don’t think that is a problem.
Their math teacher is doing algebra (no one gets general math anymore) and rulers are not part of the curriculum. Whenever they were taught to use rulers, it obviously didn’t stick. Meanwhile the state wants all students to take math through geometry to graduate. I doubt they will “measure up” and are in danger of becoming dropouts.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Teaching is Never Boring
Yesterday my ninth graders started working on a drafting unit. I have them use drafting tools to draw simple geometric shapes with specific measurements. Eventually we get to the point where they are able to do scale drawings. Then when we start studying maps they have a better understanding of map scales and what they are showing. The first assignment involves drawing a 2” x 3” rectangle in the lower corner of a sheet of paper to be used for the student name, date, class, and assignment title. Then a 4” x 6” rectangle was to be drawn in the exact center of the same paper. All sides of the rectangles were to parallel the sides of the paper.
You would have thought I was asking them to do calculus. I had to baby them through the assignment. Eventually most of them completed the assignment with various stages of accuracy. In my last period of the day the students were getting their equipment together to begin work. I was helping some students get started when I heard a loud CRACK. Upon investigation I discovered one of the boys standing with his equipment and blood running out of his nose. He threw his drawing board across the room and started calling one of the girls a “fucking bitch’ followed by an interesting string of obscenities. Meanwhile the girl was just sitting at her desk trying to ignore him.
It turns out that he had used his board to push her board part way across her desk. She told him to stop and she stopped his pushing. He held his board in front of his face and she pushed it into his face, catching him across his nose, thus the blood. His response was to slam his board across her skull much like Randy Orton using a chair across the head of John Cena. The board was cracked and she appeared to be unaffected by the whack. He weighs about 80 pounds (35 kilos) and she weighs about 200 pounds (90 kilos). I turned the incident over to the administration and they proceeded to handle it since I had 31 other students working with the same equipment to monitor.
I am not really looking forward to teaching these students how to graft trees. I can almost imagine the carnage that might result when I put exacto knives into their hands.
You would have thought I was asking them to do calculus. I had to baby them through the assignment. Eventually most of them completed the assignment with various stages of accuracy. In my last period of the day the students were getting their equipment together to begin work. I was helping some students get started when I heard a loud CRACK. Upon investigation I discovered one of the boys standing with his equipment and blood running out of his nose. He threw his drawing board across the room and started calling one of the girls a “fucking bitch’ followed by an interesting string of obscenities. Meanwhile the girl was just sitting at her desk trying to ignore him.
It turns out that he had used his board to push her board part way across her desk. She told him to stop and she stopped his pushing. He held his board in front of his face and she pushed it into his face, catching him across his nose, thus the blood. His response was to slam his board across her skull much like Randy Orton using a chair across the head of John Cena. The board was cracked and she appeared to be unaffected by the whack. He weighs about 80 pounds (35 kilos) and she weighs about 200 pounds (90 kilos). I turned the incident over to the administration and they proceeded to handle it since I had 31 other students working with the same equipment to monitor.
I am not really looking forward to teaching these students how to graft trees. I can almost imagine the carnage that might result when I put exacto knives into their hands.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Which High School Grade Has the Most Morons?
Today there were a few incidents at school that led me to think of this question, and at the same time also come up with an answer.
My school district has what is supposedly a cutting edge “deployment” of students. Our sixth graders go to our middle school, where the teachers want them segregated from the 7th and 8th grade students. Our ninth graders go to the high school where their middle school maturity leads to all kinds of interesting situations and the upperclassmen wish they were segregated from them.
This year we have been required to institute a half hour study session that actually runs twenty minutes for students in grade trouble. I have sophomores and seniors while my neighboring teacher has freshmen and juniors. We have been telling our students the expectations for three weeks. Many of the freshmen have no idea what is going on. Some of them have decided they don’t care if they are failing everything. Others are angry because they can’t go “hang out” with their friends who are passing everything. They have to stay in the “study hall” and do work.
Meanwhile, in my freshman science class, I had an interesting “moronic” incident. A boy was playing with a tennis ball and fifteen minutes before the end of class he shoved it down the front of his jeans. He then turned in his seat so the two girls to his left could see what he was up to. Somehow he thought I didn’t notice what he was doing. I was going to wait until the end of class (I was lecturing) to have a “chat” with him. But he kept playing with and adjusting it, so I told him to come up front. When he did, I told him I wanted the tennis ball. He had to reach next to his crotch and work the ball down the inside of his leg. He handed it to me with a smaile that disappeared real fast when I told him he was being reported for inappropriate sexual behavior. After class I explained to him that using a tennis ball to make a bulge like a big penis or large testicles was inappropriate and doing it to girls was a sexual harrassment.
When I asked him if his mother would be upset, he said it wouldn’t bother her. I said “We’ll see later tonight.” Ten minutes later I called his home and spoke to his mother. She had just talked to him and he explained that he had the ball in his pants pocket and I took it from him. When I hung up five minutes later, she was very upset, with him.
Yesterday I announced to my freshmen that too many were going to the bathroom during class so the privilege was taken away. They were just going for walks. One of them told me I couldn’t stop her from going and if she had to go, she would just go. I was so frightened!
Freshmen kick each other, throw things at each other, get the most F’s, walk around in their own little worlds, BUT eventually they grow up and become normal people.
My school district has what is supposedly a cutting edge “deployment” of students. Our sixth graders go to our middle school, where the teachers want them segregated from the 7th and 8th grade students. Our ninth graders go to the high school where their middle school maturity leads to all kinds of interesting situations and the upperclassmen wish they were segregated from them.
This year we have been required to institute a half hour study session that actually runs twenty minutes for students in grade trouble. I have sophomores and seniors while my neighboring teacher has freshmen and juniors. We have been telling our students the expectations for three weeks. Many of the freshmen have no idea what is going on. Some of them have decided they don’t care if they are failing everything. Others are angry because they can’t go “hang out” with their friends who are passing everything. They have to stay in the “study hall” and do work.
Meanwhile, in my freshman science class, I had an interesting “moronic” incident. A boy was playing with a tennis ball and fifteen minutes before the end of class he shoved it down the front of his jeans. He then turned in his seat so the two girls to his left could see what he was up to. Somehow he thought I didn’t notice what he was doing. I was going to wait until the end of class (I was lecturing) to have a “chat” with him. But he kept playing with and adjusting it, so I told him to come up front. When he did, I told him I wanted the tennis ball. He had to reach next to his crotch and work the ball down the inside of his leg. He handed it to me with a smaile that disappeared real fast when I told him he was being reported for inappropriate sexual behavior. After class I explained to him that using a tennis ball to make a bulge like a big penis or large testicles was inappropriate and doing it to girls was a sexual harrassment.
When I asked him if his mother would be upset, he said it wouldn’t bother her. I said “We’ll see later tonight.” Ten minutes later I called his home and spoke to his mother. She had just talked to him and he explained that he had the ball in his pants pocket and I took it from him. When I hung up five minutes later, she was very upset, with him.
Yesterday I announced to my freshmen that too many were going to the bathroom during class so the privilege was taken away. They were just going for walks. One of them told me I couldn’t stop her from going and if she had to go, she would just go. I was so frightened!
Freshmen kick each other, throw things at each other, get the most F’s, walk around in their own little worlds, BUT eventually they grow up and become normal people.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Phew!!!
This is my first chance to work on my blog since school started. I plan on retiring from teaching in three years and I guess I’ll go out “firing on all cylinders”. Chemistry is taking up a lot of my free time. I am so glad I spent much of this past summer building the curriculum and I was actually to get the first semester all set up. Doing a chem lab every week is very tiring but also very effective. I build each week around one basic concept or set of concepts with coordinated lecture, lab, and homework for the class.
I am enjoying teaching chemistry and watching student expressions “light up” as they understand various concepts. Their lab technique was not the best, but in just two labs I have seen a lot of improvement. The lab this week involves determining the thickness of the layer of zinc on a piece of galvonized iron. Hydrochloric acid will be used to remove the zinc and the students have to be able to work with mass, area, and volume to calculate the thickness.
Teaching a section of physics between my two chenistry sections is sometimes confusing to me. This is my third year of teaching physics and I am still becoming comfortable with the subject. So, of course, I had to also take on chemistry! I had a comment from one of my chemistry students the other day. “Why do the physics kids get to play with toys and we don’t?” I love questions like that. It shows that the kids are communicating with each other about science, not just what they did over the weekend.
Physics labs are set up differently from the chemistry labs. In physics I work on a number of basic principles to prepare the students to successfully complete a lab. The lab itself may take several days, unlike the single period labs of chemistry.
This week we are finishing the lecture/worksheet part of lessons on velocity and acceleration in physics. The lab I designed has several parts to it involving scale RC cars, friction powered cars, and model trains (HO and O scale). The kids will have some time playing with “toys” and learning science.
Then my afternoon classes become the focus for the rest of my day. I have two sections of Natural Resources, a class for students who have a history of difficulty with their science classes in the middle school. My major goal in these classes is not to simply teach subject matter. I also try to teach self esteem by helping them become successful without treating them like babies, not an easy thing to do.
We have been working on insects and the interest is high, as long as they don’t have to overexert themselves. For the past two weeks I have been after them to bring in jars so we can go outside and collect some insects. I have four jars from 60 kids (I have one class of 32 and another of 27) and 9 jars from one young lady, who insists on dressing like a boy. Last week she was punished by her mother. She was made to wear girl clothing and put up her hair.
The afternoon is when I have to fight the cell phone battle and stop kids from chasing each other around the classroom. One boy likes to take things from other students and run off with them. The other day in another class he knocked a friend’s hat off his head. The teacher had to intervene to separate them and prevent a fight. Then they were both supposed to come to my class but luckily one went home early. I have the kicking, socializing, forgetfullness, throwing of objects, refusal to do homework, and several other behaviors coomon to middles schools. It’s amazing how different these kids will be after I have worked with them for this year.
It’s too bad I can’t bring former students back who left the system and never finished. I know of several who have bad jobs or no jobs, with wives (whom they got pregnant in school) and kids to support, and have just about given up on having any sort of a good/happy life. Unfortunately the ninth graders have to learn these things for themselves since adults don't know anything about what they are going through.
I am enjoying teaching chemistry and watching student expressions “light up” as they understand various concepts. Their lab technique was not the best, but in just two labs I have seen a lot of improvement. The lab this week involves determining the thickness of the layer of zinc on a piece of galvonized iron. Hydrochloric acid will be used to remove the zinc and the students have to be able to work with mass, area, and volume to calculate the thickness.
Teaching a section of physics between my two chenistry sections is sometimes confusing to me. This is my third year of teaching physics and I am still becoming comfortable with the subject. So, of course, I had to also take on chemistry! I had a comment from one of my chemistry students the other day. “Why do the physics kids get to play with toys and we don’t?” I love questions like that. It shows that the kids are communicating with each other about science, not just what they did over the weekend.
Physics labs are set up differently from the chemistry labs. In physics I work on a number of basic principles to prepare the students to successfully complete a lab. The lab itself may take several days, unlike the single period labs of chemistry.
This week we are finishing the lecture/worksheet part of lessons on velocity and acceleration in physics. The lab I designed has several parts to it involving scale RC cars, friction powered cars, and model trains (HO and O scale). The kids will have some time playing with “toys” and learning science.
Then my afternoon classes become the focus for the rest of my day. I have two sections of Natural Resources, a class for students who have a history of difficulty with their science classes in the middle school. My major goal in these classes is not to simply teach subject matter. I also try to teach self esteem by helping them become successful without treating them like babies, not an easy thing to do.
We have been working on insects and the interest is high, as long as they don’t have to overexert themselves. For the past two weeks I have been after them to bring in jars so we can go outside and collect some insects. I have four jars from 60 kids (I have one class of 32 and another of 27) and 9 jars from one young lady, who insists on dressing like a boy. Last week she was punished by her mother. She was made to wear girl clothing and put up her hair.
The afternoon is when I have to fight the cell phone battle and stop kids from chasing each other around the classroom. One boy likes to take things from other students and run off with them. The other day in another class he knocked a friend’s hat off his head. The teacher had to intervene to separate them and prevent a fight. Then they were both supposed to come to my class but luckily one went home early. I have the kicking, socializing, forgetfullness, throwing of objects, refusal to do homework, and several other behaviors coomon to middles schools. It’s amazing how different these kids will be after I have worked with them for this year.
It’s too bad I can’t bring former students back who left the system and never finished. I know of several who have bad jobs or no jobs, with wives (whom they got pregnant in school) and kids to support, and have just about given up on having any sort of a good/happy life. Unfortunately the ninth graders have to learn these things for themselves since adults don't know anything about what they are going through.
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