Day 11 (Oct 13 Fri)
I went to school today to make up for last Thursday. Karen was surprised we had to make up, telling me that it shouldn't be the case for students who are genuinely sick. Oh well, I don't know. The policy here seems strict.. but I do know of other people in my cohort who skip school - wonder what will eventually happen to them. *shrugs*
Anyway, I love my classes. The students are all very nice (at least for the 2 months I've been there, they haven't chewed off my head yet =p) and the school environment is great. I can tell that a lot of the teachers are very passionate and committed to teaching and student learning. For example, Karen and I are always brainstorming on ways to get our 312 students more engaged in class. They have a higer tendency than 310 or 311 to drift off to dreamlands and we often find it so hard to get their attention (which isn't long to start with!) We talked about breaking the lessons into smaller chunks, getting the students work in groups more often and bringing in a small beach ball to throw at them (each time the student who got hit was to return the throw back and answer the questions). We are planning to try them out the following weeks and see if there's any improvement. It's hard for this class because they are the "unofficial AWC" students, expected to perform at AWC standards but given another syllabus that is different from that we teach 310 and 311 even though Mrs Russo wants Karen to do otherwise.
At one point, Karen played Mathmania (the equavilent of Jeopardy, only dealing with math) with the class and I watched the students fighting to choose the catergories and get their friends to 'elect' them for the next round. It was interesting to see the students so hyped up. I sat quietly at one side, solving the math questions in my head and arranged the color blocks that 2 students had messed up in the boxes by the side of the class. I'm not totally positive that no play and all work at The Murphy is a good idea. Karen and I try to encourage the kids to complete (& bring in!) all their work - the whole class had to work as a team - if anyone didn't do/bring, the class would not be allowed to go outdoors for recess. That works as a great motivation (peer pressure is good at middle school level) but our fear is that it will only last while we can take the kids out. When winter comes, we might have to think of other 'money-less' strategies to get the students working since we wouldn't be able to go out unless we wanna freeze. Side note: it's been getting really cold and chilly lately.. I believe it might be time to take out the big winter coats!
A student greeted Karen "bad day Mrs Cross!" at the end of the day - which was a little shocking, considering both of us weren't expecting to hear it. "Why do you say bad day, Gab?" Karen asked. "Well, because it's Friday the 13th! It's a bad day!" *gasps! whoops, didnt expect that didn't you?* "Well then, bad day Gab.." *winks*
Anyway, I love my classes. The students are all very nice (at least for the 2 months I've been there, they haven't chewed off my head yet =p) and the school environment is great. I can tell that a lot of the teachers are very passionate and committed to teaching and student learning. For example, Karen and I are always brainstorming on ways to get our 312 students more engaged in class. They have a higer tendency than 310 or 311 to drift off to dreamlands and we often find it so hard to get their attention (which isn't long to start with!) We talked about breaking the lessons into smaller chunks, getting the students work in groups more often and bringing in a small beach ball to throw at them (each time the student who got hit was to return the throw back and answer the questions). We are planning to try them out the following weeks and see if there's any improvement. It's hard for this class because they are the "unofficial AWC" students, expected to perform at AWC standards but given another syllabus that is different from that we teach 310 and 311 even though Mrs Russo wants Karen to do otherwise.
At one point, Karen played Mathmania (the equavilent of Jeopardy, only dealing with math) with the class and I watched the students fighting to choose the catergories and get their friends to 'elect' them for the next round. It was interesting to see the students so hyped up. I sat quietly at one side, solving the math questions in my head and arranged the color blocks that 2 students had messed up in the boxes by the side of the class. I'm not totally positive that no play and all work at The Murphy is a good idea. Karen and I try to encourage the kids to complete (& bring in!) all their work - the whole class had to work as a team - if anyone didn't do/bring, the class would not be allowed to go outdoors for recess. That works as a great motivation (peer pressure is good at middle school level) but our fear is that it will only last while we can take the kids out. When winter comes, we might have to think of other 'money-less' strategies to get the students working since we wouldn't be able to go out unless we wanna freeze. Side note: it's been getting really cold and chilly lately.. I believe it might be time to take out the big winter coats!
A student greeted Karen "bad day Mrs Cross!" at the end of the day - which was a little shocking, considering both of us weren't expecting to hear it. "Why do you say bad day, Gab?" Karen asked. "Well, because it's Friday the 13th! It's a bad day!" *gasps! whoops, didnt expect that didn't you?* "Well then, bad day Gab.." *winks*
posted by sarabel @ 9:42 AM
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