The last few days were great. They had a party for me on Friday, where the kids surprised me with cards they'd made, and my cooperating teacher gave me a nice frame with a photo she'd taken of me and a student on one side, and several overlapping hands showing the "I-LOVE-YOU" sign on the other side.
Reflecting back, a few things are now clear. I could be just as happy teaching in a school for the deaf as teaching hearing kids. My sign skills are sufficient enough that I could connect with many of the kids in a meaningful way, but there's still a lot of improvement I could make. Based on the experiences of my friend and what I know of the job description, I know that there's no way I ever want to be an itinerant teacher of the deaf. (Fine for some people, but it's not for me.)
Since my classes fall quarter are all going to be from 4 to 8 pm, I've decided to put myself on the substitute list for the school I was student teaching at. The kids would be excited to see me again, and the math (and maybe science) teachers would be excited to have a sub that could actually teach something in their content area.
Just in time for summer, I've got a new job at church (RS secretary). Between that and my job as a research assistant, I should be able to keep just busy enough until school starts up again.
The best news: I'll be home in FIVE DAYS!!! :-D
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
We're in the $$$
Great idea for kids who need to develop their basic skills with money -- make math class an economic experience.
The modified classes are back in my cooperating teacher's hands this week, so she started them on a money unit. They're starting out with cash, but eventually they'll each have a little checkbook. They get money for doing their homework, coming prepared to class, being on-time, doing classwork, being polite, etc. But they have to pay for their classwork. A worksheet costs $1, but they get $2 for completing it. They can also buy popcorn, a free homework pass, laptop time on Friday (to play math games online). If they're chronically forgetting things like a pencil, or being disrespectful, they can get fined. And they have to keep track of their money on a "register" page.
It's been a little awkward the first couple days, explaining it to the kids and getting it going, but it's already starting to smooth out a little and become another part of the routine.
I'll have to keep in touch with my cooperating teacher to see how it goes through the rest of the school year. Seems like something I'll want to try with my own classes someday, if I have younger kids.
The modified classes are back in my cooperating teacher's hands this week, so she started them on a money unit. They're starting out with cash, but eventually they'll each have a little checkbook. They get money for doing their homework, coming prepared to class, being on-time, doing classwork, being polite, etc. But they have to pay for their classwork. A worksheet costs $1, but they get $2 for completing it. They can also buy popcorn, a free homework pass, laptop time on Friday (to play math games online). If they're chronically forgetting things like a pencil, or being disrespectful, they can get fined. And they have to keep track of their money on a "register" page.
It's been a little awkward the first couple days, explaining it to the kids and getting it going, but it's already starting to smooth out a little and become another part of the routine.
I'll have to keep in touch with my cooperating teacher to see how it goes through the rest of the school year. Seems like something I'll want to try with my own classes someday, if I have younger kids.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
The 80's are Back!!
No, I do NOT mean the era of super-big hair and Day-Glo everything -- I mean 80-degree weather. Very warm today. But Thursday the high's only supposed to be 55?! Go figure.
The 8th grade survived the first day of testing. It was interesting to observe. There are a total of 8 students. All have IEP's, so they all have different test accommodations indicated, most particularly time allowed. One girl had 1.25 time (she hardly even needs that -- she'd wipe the floor with most hearing 8th graders). 6 of them had time-and-a-half, and one boy had double-time.
This is supposed to level the field, but my cooperating teacher and I noticed that particularly in the case of double time, it was giving him more time to think about it than a hearing kid would get.
On the other hand, we can't do something that would level the field -- clarify English (not the mathematics) by signing portions of questions when requested by the student. However, this might get changed in the future, thanks in part to me and my cooperating teacher.
The other day, we were doing a practice test, and one of the students asked me about a question. The gist was, a class is going on a field trip, there's a certain price for adults and another price for kids -- if 1 teacher, 3 parents, and 25 kids go, how much will the total cost be?
The student asked me if 3 parents meant 3 moms and 3 dads or just 3 people (moms, dads, whatever). I clarified it for her, but as I was signing back to her, I realized what part of the confusion might have been -- the sign for PARENTS. With a 5-hand, you touch your thumb to your forehead, then your chin -- it's a combination of the signs for FATHER and MOTHER. So when I sign "THREE PARENTS", it feels like it means 3 mom-and-dad pairs.
Anyway, interesting...
Another day of testing tomorrow... all open-response questions (today was half multiple-choice), but they get to use a calculator. Should be fun...
The 8th grade survived the first day of testing. It was interesting to observe. There are a total of 8 students. All have IEP's, so they all have different test accommodations indicated, most particularly time allowed. One girl had 1.25 time (she hardly even needs that -- she'd wipe the floor with most hearing 8th graders). 6 of them had time-and-a-half, and one boy had double-time.
This is supposed to level the field, but my cooperating teacher and I noticed that particularly in the case of double time, it was giving him more time to think about it than a hearing kid would get.
On the other hand, we can't do something that would level the field -- clarify English (not the mathematics) by signing portions of questions when requested by the student. However, this might get changed in the future, thanks in part to me and my cooperating teacher.
The other day, we were doing a practice test, and one of the students asked me about a question. The gist was, a class is going on a field trip, there's a certain price for adults and another price for kids -- if 1 teacher, 3 parents, and 25 kids go, how much will the total cost be?
The student asked me if 3 parents meant 3 moms and 3 dads or just 3 people (moms, dads, whatever). I clarified it for her, but as I was signing back to her, I realized what part of the confusion might have been -- the sign for PARENTS. With a 5-hand, you touch your thumb to your forehead, then your chin -- it's a combination of the signs for FATHER and MOTHER. So when I sign "THREE PARENTS", it feels like it means 3 mom-and-dad pairs.
Anyway, interesting...
Another day of testing tomorrow... all open-response questions (today was half multiple-choice), but they get to use a calculator. Should be fun...
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Ninth Week, FINISH
And we're on the home stretch.
Solo Week worked out fine. My cooperating teacher is taking back over the modified classes this week to transition them back. (I'll still be working with them, sort of in a teacher's aide capacity.) That's okay with me, since coming up with individual homework assignments/in-class assignments every single day was starting to fry my brain.
9th grade and 6th grade are finishing their current chapters, so I'll finish up the week with them. 8th grade has their state exam Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are going to be the fun days -- the 6th, 8th, and 9th classes get to make stellated icosahedra, such as this one:
For anyone who's wondering, an "icosahedron" is a polyhedron (3-d object, no curves) with 20 faces. The "stellated" part means that each face has been "pulled out" to form a pyramid or point. (If you've ever played Scattergories, the twenty-sided die used for that game is an example of a regular icosahedron.)
I spent the last 10 minutes of the 8th grade class Friday (the 3 boys) teaching them how to make the basic unit. Boy, I have never seen them so attentive and well-behaved. Hopefully I'll remember to bring my camera and take pictures.
I'm definitely going to miss the students I've been teaching for the past two months, but on the other hand, I get to visit everyone at home in less than two weeks. I'll undoubtedly see some of my old students while I'm there, so it's a trade-off.
Here's hoping I get a decent amount of sleep to kick off the final week!
Solo Week worked out fine. My cooperating teacher is taking back over the modified classes this week to transition them back. (I'll still be working with them, sort of in a teacher's aide capacity.) That's okay with me, since coming up with individual homework assignments/in-class assignments every single day was starting to fry my brain.
9th grade and 6th grade are finishing their current chapters, so I'll finish up the week with them. 8th grade has their state exam Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are going to be the fun days -- the 6th, 8th, and 9th classes get to make stellated icosahedra, such as this one:
For anyone who's wondering, an "icosahedron" is a polyhedron (3-d object, no curves) with 20 faces. The "stellated" part means that each face has been "pulled out" to form a pyramid or point. (If you've ever played Scattergories, the twenty-sided die used for that game is an example of a regular icosahedron.)
I spent the last 10 minutes of the 8th grade class Friday (the 3 boys) teaching them how to make the basic unit. Boy, I have never seen them so attentive and well-behaved. Hopefully I'll remember to bring my camera and take pictures.
I'm definitely going to miss the students I've been teaching for the past two months, but on the other hand, I get to visit everyone at home in less than two weeks. I'll undoubtedly see some of my old students while I'm there, so it's a trade-off.
Here's hoping I get a decent amount of sleep to kick off the final week!
Friday, May 06, 2005
Have They Checked for Spiders?
Not one, not two, but THREE fire alarms today. Never did find out what precisely was going on, but we evacuated each time, in a very orderly manner, and waited in a parking lot a few minutes before getting the okay to come back in.
Fortunately, it never interrupted anything very important. The first was during 1st block, 9th grade just going through review problems at the end of the chapter. The second was during 2nd block, modified 6th grade (just two girls this week) doing their individual work. The last was during 4th block, which was my prep period today.
At my old school, that happened a lot one year. They actually determined that it was spiders crawling around in the system setting off the alarm. It got to the point where they said, "If it goes off again, just stay inside. If it's a real fire, we'll let you know."
Fortunately, it never interrupted anything very important. The first was during 1st block, 9th grade just going through review problems at the end of the chapter. The second was during 2nd block, modified 6th grade (just two girls this week) doing their individual work. The last was during 4th block, which was my prep period today.
At my old school, that happened a lot one year. They actually determined that it was spiders crawling around in the system setting off the alarm. It got to the point where they said, "If it goes off again, just stay inside. If it's a real fire, we'll let you know."
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Reality Hitting
Solo Week has gone smoothly... no disasters or even panicked moments.
My cooperating teacher has been camping out in the library all week -- she says she's getting so bored with getting all the non-teaching-type stuff done that she's really ready to get her classes back.
She was there in the library during advisement today, when the modified 5th grade class was brought in to do some special computer thing. She was chatting with one of the boys either before or after that activity, and somehow the it came up that next Friday is my last day. At first he misunderstood and thought it was my birthday (even though he knew my birthday was last month). She clarified it for him, and she told me later that his face just fell, and it was the sweetest thing.
When that boy and a girl from that class came back to my room just before lunch, the girl was trying to tell me something about my last day and missing me, but I wasn't able to totally figure it out, because the boy kept interrupting her saying, "Don't tell her!" Now I know it was about what the boy had talked to the other teacher about.
Nice to know my few weeks here have had some impact. That girl is the one who wondered the other day if I was coming back eventually.
I've always said if I have to choose between being liked and being effective, I'd choose being effective, no question. However, it's nice that those two things aren't really mutually exclusive.
Hopefully, tomorrow I can make an impact on the 8th grade boys. Two out of three said that a man who can make 12 pies in 96 minutes can make 5760 pies in 8 hours. (If you're wondering, that's 12 pies a minute.) And not one of them correctly answered the trig problem that I know they all know how to do. They'll probably get a clue if I can get them to sit still long enough to think about it.
My cooperating teacher has been camping out in the library all week -- she says she's getting so bored with getting all the non-teaching-type stuff done that she's really ready to get her classes back.
She was there in the library during advisement today, when the modified 5th grade class was brought in to do some special computer thing. She was chatting with one of the boys either before or after that activity, and somehow the it came up that next Friday is my last day. At first he misunderstood and thought it was my birthday (even though he knew my birthday was last month). She clarified it for him, and she told me later that his face just fell, and it was the sweetest thing.
When that boy and a girl from that class came back to my room just before lunch, the girl was trying to tell me something about my last day and missing me, but I wasn't able to totally figure it out, because the boy kept interrupting her saying, "Don't tell her!" Now I know it was about what the boy had talked to the other teacher about.
Nice to know my few weeks here have had some impact. That girl is the one who wondered the other day if I was coming back eventually.
I've always said if I have to choose between being liked and being effective, I'd choose being effective, no question. However, it's nice that those two things aren't really mutually exclusive.
Hopefully, tomorrow I can make an impact on the 8th grade boys. Two out of three said that a man who can make 12 pies in 96 minutes can make 5760 pies in 8 hours. (If you're wondering, that's 12 pies a minute.) And not one of them correctly answered the trig problem that I know they all know how to do. They'll probably get a clue if I can get them to sit still long enough to think about it.
Monday, May 02, 2005
Eighth Week, FINISH ...
... and ninth week, START ... and I am flying solo!
Not that it's really a big deal. My cooperating teacher's been in and out the last couple weeks, and even when she's been there, it's not like I've had to rely on her much.
Plus, since most of the 6th grade's at Space Camp this week, the load's a bit lighter. The "modified" 6th class is down to two kids, and the regular class is down to just one. Had a nice little tutoring session with that one this afternoon.
Videotaping went fine Friday. I did force myself to watch the tape over the weekend -- all 70 or so minutes of it. Really wasn't too bad -- I can imagine worse. Naturally I saw plenty of things I'd like to improve, but nothing drastically terrible -- and I could generally understand what I was signing with the volume off. (The class I taped has one of the two kids I tend to voice and sign together with.)
The eighth graders are in serious Test Preparation Mode -- the state exam is next Tuesday and Wednesday, so until then we're practicing with last year's test. The girl who's obviously top of the class is going to do great -- her first time through the multiple choice section, she only missed two out of 27 problems. They're all a little anxious, but hopefully it'll be fine.
My supervisor comes again tomorrow -- he'll just be there for the morning, then he's heading to Michigan to observe another student. Mostly he'll see the ninth grade -- here's hoping Combining Inequalities goes well (it should, as long as they remember what they learned last Thursday about conjunctions and disjunctions). I might be videotaping that lesson, too, just to have choices.
And ... the digital clock has been banished. Realizing that far too many of our students are relying far too much on the digital message clock in every room, my cooperating teacher covered the portion where the time shows to force the kids to look at the analog clock. It's been a learning experience for many.
Better get this lesson plan written for the 9th grade ... I'm hoping to work in some "active/discovery learning" ... I used to do it all the time, but it's a lot harder to let the kids wade into uncharted waters when you're not so sure of your communication skills.
Not that it's really a big deal. My cooperating teacher's been in and out the last couple weeks, and even when she's been there, it's not like I've had to rely on her much.
Plus, since most of the 6th grade's at Space Camp this week, the load's a bit lighter. The "modified" 6th class is down to two kids, and the regular class is down to just one. Had a nice little tutoring session with that one this afternoon.
Videotaping went fine Friday. I did force myself to watch the tape over the weekend -- all 70 or so minutes of it. Really wasn't too bad -- I can imagine worse. Naturally I saw plenty of things I'd like to improve, but nothing drastically terrible -- and I could generally understand what I was signing with the volume off. (The class I taped has one of the two kids I tend to voice and sign together with.)
The eighth graders are in serious Test Preparation Mode -- the state exam is next Tuesday and Wednesday, so until then we're practicing with last year's test. The girl who's obviously top of the class is going to do great -- her first time through the multiple choice section, she only missed two out of 27 problems. They're all a little anxious, but hopefully it'll be fine.
My supervisor comes again tomorrow -- he'll just be there for the morning, then he's heading to Michigan to observe another student. Mostly he'll see the ninth grade -- here's hoping Combining Inequalities goes well (it should, as long as they remember what they learned last Thursday about conjunctions and disjunctions). I might be videotaping that lesson, too, just to have choices.
And ... the digital clock has been banished. Realizing that far too many of our students are relying far too much on the digital message clock in every room, my cooperating teacher covered the portion where the time shows to force the kids to look at the analog clock. It's been a learning experience for many.
Better get this lesson plan written for the 9th grade ... I'm hoping to work in some "active/discovery learning" ... I used to do it all the time, but it's a lot harder to let the kids wade into uncharted waters when you're not so sure of your communication skills.
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