18 January 2006

Day 2

Today was a more normal schedule, punctuated by a lunchtime fire drill (faulty sensor) at the junior high. I got to call up my nursing skills and help haul a wheelchair down the stairwell.
Mrs. E did review in English 12, and approached the 7 periods in Literature from a couple different "learning styles". She did some nice concrete charting and some artsy poetry writing (haiku: still math-y enough for concrete thinkers.) She ends each class as they file out by calling out "I care about you." Cool.
The day went much quicker at junior high with normal class periods!. The seventh graders did group work with homonyms and homophones. It took the whole period for most groups to complete two worksheets, front and back, but all in all they did seem to work well together and grasp the assignment. The eighth graders read a newspaper article for comprehension. I did this because Mrs G. was called out of the room. We did some basic q&a, but I felt at a bit of a loss as how to wrap it up. We have one really smal section of 15, and one of 26, the other nicely in the middle. Its really interesting to see the different dynamic in the groups.

17 January 2006

Day One

Once again traveling between two teachers of different styles. It helps to have a bit of history with Mrs E. Mrs G rocks. She looks like she's having fun even when the kids are irritating her (and she tells them!)
Its end of semester so at the senior high this week is all wrapping up and review.
I'va already found a couple new ideas to steal (thank you Harry Wong!) Both teachers keep a stack or box of folders for their students where handed back work is kept until the end of the term, fending off questions about missing grades or lost asignments. Mrs G said she got the idea from Mrs E.
Hard to learn the first day because it was a homeroom day, which this district does once a week. Everyone I encountered in the staff room seemed to feel homeroom was a wasted effort and a bunch of busywork. This month is careers, others are character and another "C" which escapes me at the moment. The eight (!) class periods are rearranged and shortened to create the homeroom block (30 min.). Must say I prefer Monte's 20 minutes every day, 'tho they were probably wise to move it to later in the day for attendance issues.