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.