my lesson plan and my faceless cooperating teacher or
supervisor (my actual CTs and supervisor didn't
appear, it was just a "generic" person) just GRILLED
me. I woke up stressed. Not a very restful night!
RIDDLE ME THIS: Why is it that the 25 year veteran
teacher that I just observed today is the one who
seems the most "current"? This dude is great from what
I saw today. He gets the kids into reading circles,
discussion circles, and pairs! And most miraculous of
all, he makes grammar PART OF the daily lesson instead
of just skill and drilling it to death. He told me
he's still got to do a discreet lesson on grammar, but
he likes incorporating bits of it in as they go.
HELLO! Someone give the man a medal!
He also stresses personal accountability. He had a
great story to tell the kids today. He received a
phone call from a concerned mother of a student in one
of his other classes. That mother was working with her
student to help her get through The Scarlett Letter.
That class, like the one I observed, does a lot of
group work. Apparently the student must have mentioned
to her mother that some people in her group weren't
doing the reading or contributing. The mother wanted
to know from the teacher, "What are you going to do
about it? This isn't fair."
I practically laughed when I heard the teacher say
that and his reply: "Well, what do you want me to? I
can hold a gun to their head and tell them to do it,
but if they're not going to do it, they're not going
to do it." And again the mom is like "that's not
fair." Well, of course it's not, but chill out. I
would have been biting my tongue trying not to tell
the woman she should just mind her own business. Great
- I applaud her efforts at being involved and
providing scholastic support for her child. EVERY
parent should do that. But like the teacher said, if a
kid wants to screw around, they're going to. They have
to be responsible for their own actions. If you're not
going to do your homework, fine, but your grades are
going to suffer for it and eventually you will face
the consequences of your actions. That was the big
point he made: choices and consequences...karma. He
went on to say to the class that he knew well enough
that some of them weren't keeping up, but it was going
to be their problem eventually when they had to catch
up or when they received the grades. He left it at
that. Later, as the kids worked on discussing the book
chapter, I heard some of them talking about it and
niggling each other for not keeping up. They took him
seriously. Good.
Most hilarious was when I caught one boy go to his
mates, "Haven't I been contributing since I failed
that last test?!" His groups mates replied, "Hmmm.
Yeah." I had to walk away so I wouldn't laugh.
Finally, being discreetly truthful. This is mostly for
my supervisor to read. I filled out the Weekly Report,
but what I really want to write about for the
"experience that had particular significance" for me
would be the whole grammar thing and, now, this
veteran teacher being the most "with it". I've written
about it here already and in emails to you. Since the
CT has to sign off on the sheet, it obviously wouldn't
be a good idea to rag on how I perceive the grammar
instruction to be less than ideal!
