Did I mention...

I PASSED that god-awful social sciences: political science test from early October?

HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA *draws breath*

OH my gawd. I can't believe I passed it, but I did. There were maybe five genuine poli sci questions on it, I swear. I got something like 30 more points than needed, which I think is pretty good.

I will be able to pull the trifecta people: English, history AND government. Right-wingers everywhere, lock up your kids! Because I's a gonna edumacate your chillen!

On a complete aside, the sheer number of parents who don't - you know - actually PARENT astounds me. Every week I hear of something stupid a parent does. The parent that claims education, values, whatever is important. Trust me, folks, your kids aren't going to know or appreciate the value of hard-work, dedication, integrity, accountability, etc., if all they have to look at is your pitiful example. I've got parents pulling kids out of classes for a week or more to go on some fancy pants cruise, vacation or attend a wedding. Better yet, a parent whose real concern in DEMANDING a make up exam well past the deadline is not because the are concerned about the child's education. No, no, no. It's because if little Joe or Mary doesn't get that good G.P.A., the car insurance (for the brand new car mummy and daddy bought their darling) will be higher.

YOU PEOPLE ARE PATHETIC.

Also: still hate sitting through 90 minute masses. Please send booze. I'm telling you, halfway through I wanted nachos, a beer and several chasers.

I did nothing today. That was bad. Because now I have waaay too much grading to get done tomorrow. Egads. I just needed a day OFF though.

Not a fantastic start...

Talk about staying one step ahead here, and flying by the seat of your pants.

 

Today, I did the briefest of brief cruises about Expository writing. I know what it is (duh), but teaching it is another matter. I was re-reading my info over it last night.

 

So I was already feeling shakey about that, and then I could NOT sleep. I kept flailing in my sleep. Then, around 2am, I got a horrific case of cramps. Damn it all. I managed to swallow down some advil and then I just squirmed in pain for about an hour until I was finally able to fall asleep.

 

Unsure of material, crampy, sleepless and cranky. What a fantastic way to attempt to teach. I was SO CLOSE to throwing in the towel and calling in sick. Kept having to give myself a pep talk this morning: fake it till you make it.

 

And then, the mother of one of my students emailed questioning her daughter's score on the essay. Good student, really, but she handed it in LATE. Per my C.T.'s already long established procedures, late material is only worth 1/2 the possible points. So, thankfully, my C.T. was able to quickly and effectively counter the parent on that, but it still sucks. These parents would be better off telling their kids to do their work ON TIME. Believe me, when you get to college, your professors are going to laugh in your face.

Sad and Pathetic

It's terribly pathetic that mid-way through my
semester of STUDENT TEACHING (as in, not fully
fledged) I am already dreading and procrastinating at
grading these damn paragraphs of my students.

I know, I know. I don't mark them down over what I
haven't taught them. But the writing is ATROCIOUS. I
think I could run out of ink in my red pen.

No. Not going to run out of ink. Will resist. Will
only mark up one or two examples of things they did
wrong on their respective paragraphs, then tell them
to be on the lookout.

If they're ever to write well, they need to WRITE AND
WRITE AND WRITE MORE.

Realizations

I teach by the seat of my pants. It's a good thing I kissed the Blarney Stone again last year.

 

AND

 

If I have to tell one more kid to tuck in their damn shirt today to be in dress code, I'm going to HURL.

Bad Day

I had to bear witness to the "dog and pony" show today.

 

I'm going to be in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

Weekly Journal

     The day and night difference between my two morning classes continues. The first class makes me feel like the whole week has been frustrating. The second class makes me feel that I might actually belong in a classroom.

            The students had a quiz over the first half of our grammar unit on the parts of the sentence on Monday. I started grading them right away after the classes, and was just shocked. The average for Period B was a D+/C-. Period D was a little better at a C. Honestly, there were a lot of careless mistakes. In the diagramming, some of the students had the right content, but did not diagram correctly (crooked lines, or modifier lines going in the wrong direction). I think what was very clear was that the majority of the students did NOT study, nor did they take notes in class. They didn't even use the study guide I gave them at the start of the unit. A study guide, I must point out, that essentially GAVE them many of the answers. I can't even tell you how many students could not tell me the four types of sentences and that was on my study sheet! Front and center!

            I had at least two students tell me "But I did [x,y,z]…," and I had to tell them, "but is that what the instructions told you?" Not to mention, what they did do didn't answer the questions I was asking. I might have been lenient had they just come to a correct answer via an alternate method, but that wasn't what they were doing.

            Tuesday I had to lay the hammer down about taking notes in class and cutting down on careless mistakes. I pointed out the study guide again as well, and told them there was really no excuse to have missed things like the four types of sentences considering it was on there directly. When I asked if anyone studied, most said they hadn't. Today (Wednesday) I gave back the quizzes and I think the lights finally went on about how important it is to ask questions and take notes in class, especially for the B group. The D group, immediately after my Tuesday talk, really stepped up and started asking lots of good questions about the content. [Whereas I still feel B wasn't taking me seriously and/or giving me the "screw you" kind of attitude on Tuesday.]

            Like I said: NIGHT and DAY difference.

It was a bad day

For the students, really, but I don't feel so hot either! So, I administered my first quiz today. It was on the first half of our parts of the sentence schtick. It's a darn good thing my C.T. told me to make it worth a lot less. If not, these kids would all be failing.

I guess now I get to tell these kids that this is what happens when you don't take notes like you're supposed to. They were all "lah de dah" half the time. And they were like "you're not going to have the diagram models up on the wall????!!!!" Uh, no. The point is for you to KNOW this stuff, Einsteins.

I don't know how many times I've told them, you will NEVER EVER EVER infinity find your subject in a prepositional phrase. So, I put in what I thought was a "gimmee" question on the quiz. "True or False: You can find a subject in a prepositional phrase. " The second class all go it right, but my first class? It's like I never even taught them. Half the time they're not awake anyway.

A lot of the diagrams were atrocious, too. I'm going to have to inundate them with diagramming homework for the next four days. I know diagramming is the ass-end of exciting, but come on. When did I ever show you diagram models with crooked lines? YES, it DOES matter if your line for an adjective or adverb is straight or if you make it "L" shaped because the L shape means something completely different! Like: indirect object!

My C.T. was astounded when I showed her some of the quizzes. I told her I felt so bad and was wondering was it me? She told me to go over the stuff again, assign more diagramming, but that she thought I gave them every opportunity to ask questions and they were the ones not taking notes. Hell, I practically begged them to ask me questions.

Today, I told them that if I wrote it up on the board, then they'd better be taking notes. They grudgingly took out their notebooks. (Don't even get me started on this one kid who habitually doesn't bring a freaking pencil or pen to class. Seriously, I'm going to start keeping tabs on how often he does this in the next week. If it gets insane, I will forbid him from asking someone else for a pen, and then I'll tell him he's got a choice. He will either serve a detention for habitually coming to class unprepared, or he can take a detention and either get a pen from someone or from his locker.) Tomorrow, when they get their quizzes back, especially the first class, I am going to tell them again: 1) TAKE NOTES and 2)ASK QUESTIONS.

Redundancy

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I have to question the purpose of essentially handing in the same work TWICE.

I already have to fill out a weekly report sheet; why do I have to have another weekly journal? It's just going to be the same material.

This irks me. Severely.

GAAAH!

This completely sucks! I SUCK!

I am totally jumping all over the place for parts of
sentence and diagramming. I had to totally overhaul my
gameplan for tomorrow and the rest of the week.

*whimpers*

First Lesson

Well, it wasn't horrible. But I didn't exactly *like* it either. Straight grammar is never going to be a barn burner of a lesson for students, is it?!

 

I had some students I love already really make an effort to contribute, bless 'em. Somehow I wound up with a group of boys (did group work) who were chatting about anything but what I was doing in class. Guh.

 

One boy who I suspected would not bring in his homework - did not bring in his homework. Not a surprise. That kid is totally dialling it in. If he's still in this school by next semester I'd be shocked. Does he dislike it here that much? He should just tell his parents to stop wasting the tuition money and send him off to public. Of course, his parents' whole point may be that this institution may be the only place he's got a hope of doing well in because of the tight discipline. Well, it only works so far you know. Then the kid and the parents have to kick in.

 

Planning period now. Have to go on stage again in about thirty minutes. I hope this class is more lively than the first one. Need to make some adjustments - have kids do definition of subject and predicate first before underlining and circling them.

 

I think I am dreading my supervisor's visit this Thursday, though. Seriously, this grammar is B O R I N G.

Today is the Day

I take over my first two classes. Nervous. I worry
about my plans either having too little or too much
time. You just can't tell how fast the students are
going to go through this until...you start!

Well, I should know how good or how bad by 11:34
today!

Nightmares, Veterans and Being Discreetly Truthful

I had a nightmare last night. I completely cocked up
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!

I am an English Geek (and proud of it)

Okay, I'm not so hot or confident about the sentence diagramming I'm going to have to do, but then....then I found this website: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/diagrams/diagrams.htm

 

It is majesty. It is awesome. Check out the diagram of the freaking Preamble to the Constitution. I think I may tell the freshmen that it's their homework for the night, wait for them to freak out, and then go "JUST KIDDING!!"

 

Ha!

 

This is also majesty: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ SO FREAKING COOL. Except you have to pay (I think) for full access. Not so cool.

 

Also, I am hanging around the French and Spanish teachers and it is hysterical. The printer ran out of paper and I went "Profesora! Yo necessito papel y yo no se donde esta."

 

Yes. Things are cool.

 

Just ask me if that's still the case after I start teaching next week. I already know which classes are going to be the hard ones. Period B (those kids are still zombies at that hour) and Period H (last period, no one wants to be there).

30, Teaching like you're 60

D'oh! In search of suggestions...

I've worked it out when I'm going to start teaching
classes - next week. I'll be doing grammar.

I understand the obvious need for grammar, but I'm
frustrated with how I'm going to have to do it.
Everyone here has been taught time and again that we
should "teach grammar in context" right? Right.

Both women, who are right around our ages, teach it
OUT of context and separate. They've both already
started the first half (parts of speech), which kind
of places the burden on me to finish my part (parts of
the sentence and DIAGRAMMING) in a similar manner.
They want to go straight through grammar. I want to
weep. (Well, not really. I'm just aggravated.)
Seriously. They sit in class and DO WORKSHEETS.

Come on! The NCTE website has a freaking POSITION
statement on not using exercises to teach grammar!
Which is exactly what my school is doing! "This
resolution was prompted by the continuing use of
repetitive grammar drills and exercises in the
teaching of English in many schools. Proposers pointed
out that ample evidence from 50 years of research has
shown the teaching of grammar in isolation does not
lead to improvement in students' speaking and writing,
and that in fact, it hinders development of students'
oral and written language."

I was trying to think of what to do: 1) do the grammar
exercises on the texts we'll be reading 2)use old
issues of the school newspaper or 3) use professional
newspaper articles covering the school. At least with
2 and 3 it's stuff that might be interesting to them
as it's about their community, but it doesn't get rid
of the fact that it's completely out of context.

Does anyone have a better idea?

No wonder kids hate grammar.

Frustration

So it's settled: next week I will take over the two
morning classes. And I will be teaching grammar. The
parts of the sentence. As diagramming and all that.
Ew. I completely understand the necessity of grammar,
but the way I sort of have to do it is completely out
of context. That's the way they have already started
it (they're doing parts of speech now); it's
completely unrelated to any meaningful text or
situations.

I mean, crap, do the kids already KNOW any of this? Is
there part of this they could skip? Parts they need
MORE help in? Rote memorization of grammar skills and
concepts is just NOT the best practice and yet people
persist in doing it.

I'll do my best to bring in literature, authentic
texts, or even write short paragraphs of their own,
but this sucks.

Pulling Things Out of the Air

I've got an idea brewing regarding using tangrams (instead of lousy worksheets) for parts of speech.

I've been meaning to write about my first two days, but I've been crazy busy. Things that must be covered:

• 30 y.o. going on 60 in educational years
• you only think you're "interactive"
• instructional hours vs. prayer

Sayings and ideas:

• Between true friends, even water drunk together is good enough. (Zimbabwean proverb on a Celestial Seasonings tea box.)
• Go big or go home

And this one goes out to my seminar's resident Grecian Goddess: (use Cartman voice) "Dear God, thank you for not giving me Afrodite's commute." ;)

Thursday the FIRST

It's just after 6am. I'm UP. I slept well. Time to do
an asana or two to get the blood flowing.

Time to get ready.

FIRST DAY!

Training

I just came back from three hours' worth of the most
inane "training" on abuse prevention in the Catholic
diocese. Seriously.

I'm not exactly the most unbiased person, either, when
it comes to the heirarchy. I had to bite my tongue
during parts of the training video where the church
official was like "to tell the truth, we have made
mistakes in the past..."

NO. REALLY? That's your stellar day-late-dollar-short
remark. I'm sure that makes abuse victims feel better,
especially considering there are still ongoing cases
of things being covered up.

Still, it was one of those things to just go to, get
through, and just file. *rolls eyes*

PLACED! It's official!

FINALLY, and due to the diligence of my wunderbar
supervisor (no love to placement office X[), I am
placed. My home for the term will be a local Catholic
high school.

This is not the place I would have ever thought myself
landing, but HEY! Good school. IN TOWN. CAN WALK TO
IT!! I actually walked there this morning to time
myself. I can make it in 40 minutes. I can't walk
there tomorrow though, because I have to go to seminar
right after in Chicago.

Very excited, VERY RELIEVED. I think my two
cooperating teachers are going to be awesome. They
seem like the type of people who are really going to
be "cooperative" and "mentoring". Not "you're a sucky
student teacher, eat it!" like I've known some of my
friends to have. Yeesh.

I have to finish running around like crazy - gotta
fill out more background check stuff for the
archdiocese and go to some "don't abuse the kids"
training tonight in a neighboring town.

And then I have to figure out what to wear
tomorrow...pack a lunch. The usual.

I'm probably not going to sleep a wink tonight. GAH!

Oh my GAWD

No pun intended...I may yet wind up at a local Catholic high school.

 

*laughs*

 

For those of you who know me, this is the ultimate irony....*proceeds to laugh self sick*