Week Nine: Oct 9th to Oct 15th

On Thursday I chaperoned my very first school dance. It was wonderful entertainment to confiscate footballs, break up a few nasty couples, turn kids away at the door for not having IDs, get mooned by the kids we turned away at the door, escort a young woman to the door after listening to her express herself with some rather colorful language (in both English and Spanish), and more. At the end of it I found myself wondering why the school is willing to suffer through such hideous events. I’m sure the answer lies in the thousand plus dollars that were made for the school that afternoon. And what did I get? Twenty dollars, and an opportunity to kiss up to the principal and the other teachers for being willing to go through it with them and “take one for the team”.

Friday was a disaster. The school administration decided to change the schedule halfway through second period so that it would work with the field trips the 8th and 9th graders were going on. It was a nightmare. The schedule was created at the last minute and had a million holes in it. As a result, we were given four different schedules that day, some of my kids had to take two lunches, and I never had a lunch at all because there was never a moment in the day when I didn’t have students in my class. It was horribly disrupting to my lesson because none of the kids knew where they were supposed to be or where they were supposed to go next and eventually I just had to tell them that it didn’t matter if each new schedule made sense or not, we were just going to work with each new update and learn to be flexible.

When compared to last week, this week was heavenly! On Monday I taught commonly confused words and started the kids on their narratives. Everything went according to plan, the kids were great, and when my mentor came in to observe me the lesson went smoothly and I couldn’t have asked for more.

On Tuesday we had what I feel was probably my most successful lesson this year. I taught the kids about using sensory detail in their writing. They each had a slice of lime on their desk and at first they just had to write down details about what it looked like. Then they picked it up in their hands and described what it felt like. Then I made them put the entire slice (peel and all) into their mouth and run their tongues over every part of the lime and write about it. Then we took it to another level when I asked them what would happen if they had to describe something to someone else but didn’t have it right there in front of them like they did with the lime? We looked at an image of a tropical beach and walked through the different types of sensory detail with them and then made a paragraph using the details they had observed. Then we did the same activity with a photo from the Great Depression. Following the activities with the photos, the students needed to choose one aspect of their narratives and build it up with sensory details. The kids were really involved and excited about learning and really threw themselves into the activity. It felt wonderful!

Today was a good day too. We had a commonly confused words practice and then finished writing our narrative rough drafts. The kids were so quiet and involved during their writing time that I was able to sit down and get some grading done. I think that this week is really the first time I can honestly say that I felt like I really am beginning to catch on to this whole teaching business.

I’m excited to have tomorrow and Friday as a day off school. I’m planning on coming back to my classroom and just working my rear end off planning my next unit, getting grades ready for the end of the term and getting work done for my TWS.