Monday, April 30, 2012

Last Day...

The 7th and 8th graders don't show emotion like 4th graders do, but they were sad to see me go.  Some kids groaned when I said it was my last day.  Others told me I should come back and sub for Mrs. B.  A few of them asked me where I'm going to teach next year.  The 8th graders all wanted to skip school to come to my graduation.  I can see it now, buses pulling up with 90 middle school kids, jamming them into an already full gym.  I wouldn't mind if Mrs. B came, but I don't think she can just skip out in the middle of the day.  I think my graduation service is being streamed live on my college's website, so she said she'd look into that.  I'm really going to miss her.  But I'm sure we'll stay in touch.


This morning I came to school feeling sick and kind of gross and tired, but as soon as I started teaching my energy levels went up and I felt way better.  I love teaching; I love asking questions to get students thinking on the right track and I love it when they start feeling excited about what we’re discussion. I feel at home in front of the classroom and I know that’s where I belong.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

What would you do without TV?

The 8th grader's assignment for today was to answer some questions about technology, specifically television.  One of the questions they had to answer was, "How would you learn about new ideas?"  I don't think these boys were talking about that particular question, but I overheard this conversation about the lack of TV:

(picture a bookish young 8th grader with glasses) "But then we couldn't watch educational videos!"
(his neighbor, another 8th grade boy) "That's what the internet is for."

Most of them said they would miss their phones the most if a piece of technology disappeared from their lives.  I was kind of surprised how many said video games had the greatest negative impact on society.  A few people said phones and the internet.  The internet was also listed as the greatest positive impact on society along with hair straighteners, electricity, light bulbs, the internet, and toilets.  Great thinkers, these 8th graders.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The latest middle school style

The weather was quite nice today, nice and sunny and warm.  But with that warmth comes a change in fashion in the students, especially the girls.  It seems that the warmer it is, the shorter the shorts.  They get away with it by wearing leggings underneath.  Let me tell you, it looks pretty weird to see light blue jean shorts with a line of black spandex peeking out underneath. 

The guys just start wearing plaid shorts that don't match their shirts.  There's one 8th grader who always wears a striped shirt with his plaid shorts.  The teachers just shake their heads and pray for his mother.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Sad Day

It was a normal day in school, or as normal as normal goes.  We did have a fire drill today (apparently teachers aren't told when it will happen so it will be an actual drill).  The weird part of today was that I felt sad after teaching the 8th graders.  It wasn't like a crying sad or a painful sad... it was more of a disappointed sad and an I-expect-more-from-you sad. 

So many of the 8th graders are bright students with tons of potential, but they just don't care!  They slack off and mouth off to the teachers.  Now, I realize that it's the end of the school year and everyone is getting sick of school, but that doesn't give them license to goof off and mess around during class. 

However, there was a bright spot in my day.  There is one 8th grader who has a history of not caring about school; all the paras are counting down the days until he turns 16 and can drop out.  But I know he's smarter than he acts.  Today he was the only one in his group on-task and actually moving the lab activity forward.  He was the first one to write down the answers and helped switch the materials around for the different steps.  I was so proud of him!  I really hope he sticks it out and doesn't drop out.

Monday, April 23, 2012

On the hunt... a job hunt

I didn't go to school today.  Actually, none of the girls in my elementary education class did.  We went to a Job Fair up in the Cities for educators.  Our college covered the cost, so we just had to have our resumes prepared and hop in the 15-passenger van!

Since I have some job options already, I wasn't looking too hard at the schools recruiting potential teachers, plus most of them are schools in the Cities or are out of state.  I did take a look at a rural school on the west side of South Dakota.  It's on a reservation in the middle of nowhere "120 miles from the nearest Walmart."  A rancher has a small "store" out of his house where one can buy "chips and stuff like that" [note: all quotes were taken from the interviewer representing the school].  Since the school is so far away from everything, some students have to get on the bus at 4:00am.  Some kids leave for school at 6:00am and don't get home until 6:00pm.

My friend Jonni and I got signed up for an interview and were told that we could interview together since we could potentially get sent there together.  We could even room together!  They have trailer homes for all the teachers that can be rented for $200/month.  But really, the school/job seems pretty neat.  They have a four-day school week and go from the end of August to the end of May.  And the teacher benefits are pretty nice.  The students are really in to basketball and have a huge basketball tournament right before Christmas break; all the Lakota schools in South Dakota bring their teams. It's too bad the school is about 6 hours away from home... a little too far for me to go right now.  Maybe later down the road.

We left the job fair at 1:00 absolutely starving, but we had still had to walk to our vehicle.  On the way there, we passed an Indian cuisine restaurant that smelled amazing.  Mr. B, our chaperone/adviser, and his wife love Indian food, and most of the rest of us were feeling adventurous, so we went in for lunch.  The food was very satisfying.  It was different, but still tasty.  I think my favorite thing was the bread (naan) and the rice.  It was buffet-style, so I got to try a whole bunch of things including a spinach/cheese-type sauce over rice, fried vegetable clusters, rice pudding, and red colored chicken (from the spices). 

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Circulation Going 'Round the Nation

Today my 7th graders did a lab activity involving the circulatory system.  This activity involved a large circle of red tape being placed on the floor.  Every single class that entered our classroom made some comment about the tape, "Mrs. B, what's the tape for?"  Both of us thought it would be kind of fun to mess with them, so we said, "Oh, the blob died in here last night and that's the left over crime tape they put down."  Not very many kids believed us. 

Some other students decided they needed to "follow the red brick road" or skirt around it never touching it.  An 8th grader yelled at one of his classmates who was walking only on the red tape, "You're not doing the straight line test, so get off!"  Quite a few of them wanted to know if the tape was for their class, and some of the 8th graders were even sad that it wasn't for them.

However, the 8th graders have been able to do some cool stuff with baking soda and vinegar.  Since the two items react together, they're supposed to wear safety goggles.  Apparently the 7th graders think mud and filters are dangerous because a whole bunch of the guys were wearing those safety goggles as they did our filtration experiment today (modeling a kidney). 

The 8th graders did an activity involving rolling marbles down a ramp.  While they were doing this, I had the chance to supervise some of the groups.  Two girls decided they wanted some social time with the teacher and started asking me about my friendship with Kristy (the other student teacher and classmate of mine at this school).  The girls had seen us arrive at school and walk into the teacher's lounge together, so they assumed we're best friends.  When I said we were friends, one said, "Yes! I knew it!" The other said, "Yeah, they go to the same school."  I said, "We even drive here together in the morning."  One of the girls commented, "That's so great! You get to spend time together and it's efficient!"  Somehow we got talking about Kristy's wedding and they wanted to know if her husband was cute and if he treated her well and what her colors were at her wedding.  Once they knew that they started talking about their favorite colors and what they'd want for their weddings, and I decided it was about time we got back to talking about science.  Whew! Those 8th grade girls are something else.

Questions upon Questions

Yesterday was a crazy day, and not just because of the testing.  I had two interviews after school.  One was an in-person visit to a small Lutheran school fairly close to my college to talk about teaching 5th and 6th grade, and the other was a phone interview with the call committee at a bigger Lutheran school further away to teach middle school science.

My journey started out fine, until I attempted to drive up a gradually inclining hill.  Then my vehicle decided to spaz out.  The check engine light started flashing and my vehicle had some trouble accelerating up the hill.  I immediately called Dad to see if I should pull over or if I should keep going.  He said I should keep going.  So I did.  And I made it safely there. 

The school is kind of patched together, but there's a cozy, at home feeling in the building.  The principal was great; we sat down to chit-chat and just talked about education and my experiences.  I came prepared with a list of questions to ask, should the occasion arise, and it did.  When I pulled out my list, the principal made the joke that now I was interviewing him and maybe he should start making notes.  But he was glad I had questions.  After that we went on a tour of the school.  My would-be classroom is huge!  I would only have about 5 students, plus some other random grades for one or two subject areas, so there would be plenty of room.  Right now there's not a SMARTboard, but one is going to be put in for next year.  That would be fantastic!  So after some encouragement from the principal on my other interview, I headed back to college.

My phone interview didn't go as well.  I don't like phone interviews because it's so hard for me to get my personality across.  I'm a very visual person and frequently use my hands to demonstrate a point, plus I like to think about what I'm saying, so over the phone I don't always sound poised.  But, I was going to give it a shot.  I sat at my desk in my room, waiting for the call.  I did a little homework, but I didn't want to get too involved.  So 8:00 rolled around and no one called.  8:05, nothing.  I was starting to get worried and a little bit angry; if they didn't want to interview me, they could just send me an email or something!  But at 8:10pm, I got a phone call.  Apparently the interviewee prior to me was in a fender bender and arrived late to his interview, pushing my interview back a few minutes. 

We began and ended with prayer.  There were about 7 people interviewing me: the pastor, principal, board member, parent, 1st and 5th grade teachers, and the science teacher who's place I would take.  That last one was intimidating.  I looked at her website and she seems like an awesome teacher.  She was also the one doing most of the question asking.  It seemed like I was just repeating myself over and over for every question, "I am passionate and enthusiastic about science."  We talked a lot about my faith and the Christian aspect of teaching, and we also talked about their desire to make the science program excellent.  Many of the students' parents are high class doctors, so that would be a pretty big task.  I just don't know what to think.  But I guess I'll have to wait and see what the Lord is telling me.  So prayer would be much appreciated!

"If you're testing and you know it, clap your hands"

The past two mornings have been spent in silence while the entire school tested for the MCAs.  Mrs. B and I had a section of 7th graders doing the reading test.  Wow, that first day everyone was absolutely crazy after testing ended.  I noticed the 8th graders getting fidgety and not being able to focus.  Even my last hour of 7th graders had a hard time getting their work finished. 

I almost sent an 8th grader to the office too.  He was being very disrespectful and wasn't talking to me the way a student should talk to a teacher.  But I wasn't quite sure how to send him there, and I didn't want to look like a tattletale running to Mrs. B, so I just walked away (after giving him the teacher look/stare).  He knew he wasn't behaving right.  I talked to Mrs. B about this later, and she asked if I wanted her to talk to him, or if I wanted to handle it.  I said we should leave it alone right now because he could've just been reacting to the weird schedule of the day, and we'd see how the next day went.  But if he still didn't shape up, I should talk to him; having someone else fight my battles wouldn't get me very far respect-wise.

Later, Mrs. B told me this student has been going through a rough spot and his mom took away his baseball privilege until he shapes up.  Knowing this student, that is a very effective consequence for this guy, and I think that alone will help get him back on track (part of my reasoning for waiting to see how he'd act the next day).  The next day, this guy was still goofing off and was still pushing it, but he was slightly more respectful to me.  So I gave him the look again and hung around his group a while to help the people who actually wanted to work.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Lockdown

Today we had a lock-down so the police could do a random search of lockers.  That meant we had to stay in the classroom even after the bells rang until they gave the all clear.  So we were stuck with the 8th graders for about an hour and a half instead of our normal 50 minutes. 

In homeroom today, we had locker clean-out day, which means basically what it says: students clean out their lockers.  One of the teachers shared what a student said to him, "Are we having locker clean-out day because of the lock-down?"  The teacher said no, and the student explained that he thought the searchers must've seen the inside of his locker and wanted him to clean it out because it was so messy.  Not quite buddy, they're looking for other stuff.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Mystery Class

Before I started teaching this clinical, I was poking around on my supervising teacher's website and was quite intrigued by her lesson plan schedule for the week.  About every other day was a thing called "Mystery Class."  I had no idea what it could be, but I soon found out.  


All semester, Mrs. B's students have been deciphering data and recording the sunrise and sunset times of ten different locations around the globe.  No one has any idea where they might be located, but that's the mystery my students are trying to solve.  They've used their data to pinpoint the longitude of the locations and are currently in the process of using cultural clues (submitted by actual schools in other countries) to narrow down the continent, country, and city.  They'll turn in their answers on April 27th and then the Mystery Class schools will be revealed.  

Typically our science classes do Mystery Class on Fridays, but we're planning extra days next week to make sure the students have enough time to put everything together.  The last set of cultural clues was made available, so my students were fully equipped to find those cities!  

Some boys were really impressive in their map skills; using the few geographical clues given in the cultural clues, they looked on an atlas until they figured out the city.  Mrs. B and I are kind of on a competition now.  I had roughly three figured out and she had about the same.  Good nerdy fun, that's what she calls it.  It's a good thing I'm a nerd, because I can't wait to figure out the rest of them!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

It's like pulling teeth...

It's rather surprising how much I enjoy working with the 7th graders.  I didn't expect to like them as much as I do.  The 8th graders take some getting used to.   They are more conscious of how they look and try to act all cool, like they don't like school.  But I know that secretly, some still like it, or at least still want to get their work finished.  All three 8th grade classes have been preparing for the science MCAs, which is an important test that covers all the concepts they learned in science from 6th-8th grade.  We've been doing lots of prep work for this test.  Today, the 8th graders were supposed to complete some packets dealing with physical and chemical changes.  A group of boys were "working" together in the back.  I was walking around answering questions and supervising, so I stopped by their table.  They weren't getting very far.  Big shocker there.  So I stood around, hoping that my presence would encourage them to get back to it.  Nope.  It didn't work.  So I asked what question they were on and tried to get them to focus.  It was like pulling teeth! I didn't want to give them the answer, but trying to get them to think for themselves... wow.  What a challenge. 

Not a whole lot of funny stuff goes on in these grades.  I guess one of the 8th grade girls said something pretty funny today.  Our classroom is pretty cold because of the ventilation system.  So as soon as this girl walked in (she was wearing shorts and a fitted t-shirt), she said, "Are you raising penguins in here?"  Mrs. B's response, "Did you know what temperature it was outside when you got dressed for school?"  She said yes.  Obviously you can tell fashion was more important to her than staying warm.

The 7th graders carry so much stuff with them everywhere!  Their stacks of binders and planners and books is so high, they have to be getting some serious muscles lugging that tower around all day.  However, they don't take very good care of their stuff.  Both 7th and 8th graders throw their books around and slam them on the desks, and sometimes chuck them on the floor in the hallway.  Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Friday, April 6, 2012

What do you want to be when you grow up?


An Education Talent Search speaker came to give a presentation to the 8th grade classes today about making the transition from middle school to high school and beyond.  One of the first things she asked them was, "Where do you see yourself at age 30? What do you wear? What do you drive? Where do you live?  What do you do?" 

Some of their career choices were quite interesting, to say the least. A lot of students wanted to be engineers or cosmetologists.  Two boys said they would be writers.  A couple girls said they'd be artists or hairstylists.  Some students said they'd be lawyers or doctors or astronomers or farmers… there was even someone who wanted to be a gator hunter!  His dream job location was in the swamps of Louisiana (I'm pretty sure he was serious about that job).   Two boys declared they wanted to be underwear models, and another one piped in to say he'd be their manager.  Given the fact that one of those boys said he'd probably be living in a box, I think they were kidding.  But you never know with 8th grade boys.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones...

Our 7th grade activity for today was to look at bones, real bones from a real human skeleton.  "Mr. Bones" has been around since before Ms. B started teaching at this school, so he's been here for over 30 years.  Pretty neat if you ask me.  I decided it would be awesome if I could have my own authentic skeleton when I get my own classroom, so I did some research on Amazon and Ebay.  It turns out that they do sell real skeletons (and it's legal), mostly for medicinal purposes.  The cheapest one I could find was $1000, but they average between $2,000-$5,000.  Yeah, chances are, I'm not going to buy one in the near future.  Mom, Dad? My birthday's coming up...

Anyway, my 7th graders had a blast checking out the bones.  Since the skull is pretty easy to identify, I had it sitting up on a chair at the front of the room to use as an example.  One guy came up to me right away and asked if it was from a real person.  I told him that it was, so he of course wanted to know who the person was.  I had no clue, but decided to tease him a little; I said it was a former principal.  He did a double take and then, "No, you're joking."  Yes, I was.  Then he said, "It's probably Mr. So and So."  (I'm guessing one of their old principals.  That's one of the things I love about 7th graders; they can actually take a joke.  4th graders tend to take everything literally and will cry at the drop of a hat.

But back to the bones... The rest of them were numbered and my students had to figure out what part of the body the bones belonged to and then had to explain their reasoning.  Some were trying to stick the bones together, some got grossed out, some wanted to look at them a second time during study hall!  Of course I let them do so.  Overall I'd say it was a success. 

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

The Case of the Missing Teacher

So I was thrust right into teaching today.  Yesterday, Ms. B and I decided to each teach part of the lesson for the next day and I planned a lesson and threw together a SMARTboard lesson.  I emailed it to her so she could look it over.  This morning, I got to school and found an empty classroom.  Ms. B was nowhere to be found.  I don't know my way around the school very well as this is only my second day, so I thought it'd be better if I stayed put.  I figured she'd be back in a few minutes.  But she wasn't.  So I tried to turn the computer on.  It didn't work.  I started to panic, but calmed myself down.  In a few minutes Ms. B would probably be in the hallway monitoring the students like we did yesterday; I could catch her then.  So I looked out into the hallway.  Nobody was there.  I waited a few more minutes... still no teacher in sight.  A few minutes later (10 minutes before class was starting)... no Ms. B.  Finally the bell rang and Ms. B came swooping in.  She had been at a meeting.

Within minutes, she had the computer up and running and checked her email.  But it wasn't working.  Thank goodness I had my flashdrive!  I had almost left it in my room this morning, but ran up to grab it at the last minute.  So I was able to get my lesson up and running, even if my mind wasn't completely ready for 7th graders.

Ms. B taught the first fifteen minutes of the 7th graders' science lesson and then turned the class over to me.  It actually went okay.  Sometimes the students got a little chatty and didn't raise their hands; I didn't know what to do so I basically ignored them and talked a little louder (that's how Ms. B handles it).  That worked pretty well most of the time.  I'm still looking for a better alternative.  Anyway, after I finished the lesson, the whole 1st hour 7th grade class started clapping for me!  I didn't think the lesson was that great, but whatever; I'll take what I can get. The other two hours of 7th graders I taught paid attention in class, but no one else showed their appreciation as much as that first hour. 

Tomorrow is a shortened day for the high school parent teacher conferences.  All our classes are shortened to about 20 minutes, so we'll see how the day goes.  I have high hopes... hopefully they won't be dashed!

180

Well, I survived my first day of 7th and 8th graders.  Whew! I was so exhausted after I got done with school for the day.  I think it was trying to learn all their names.  There are 8 periods of about 50 minutes plus a half an hour for lunch and the same amount for homeroom.  Each class has about 30 students in it, so I have somewhere around 180 students.  Learning their names is going to be a monumental task.

I wasn't too worried about these kids, and I guess I'm still not too worried.  There's only one class of 8th graders that were intimidating; a group of girls were eying me up and they didn't look too friendly.  Most of the students seemed okay with me being there.  One 8th grader asked me how old I was and another guy quickly followed with the question, "Are you married?"

My supervising teacher is really cool.  She's been teaching for 27 years and knows what she's doing.  We actually kind of matched yesterday.  Both of us wore a purple shirt, gray pants, and black shoes.  More than one person commented on it.  One 8th grader remarked as she walked past, "Ms. B, she's like your twin!"

Apparently, these students have trouble keeping track of things...   I asked to see one student's graph and he said, "Oh I don't have it.  Abby has it so I don't lose it."  I guess that's one way to keep your stuff from being misplaced.

These kids are obsessed with their grades.  There are a few computers scattered around the room and the students love to log onto InfiniteCampus to check their grades.  The 8th graders got a test back today and one boy turns to another and says, "Hey, what'd you get? ... I got a 97... backwards."  I take that to mean he got a 79.  Not the best grade in the world.  But there's always room for improvement!