Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Unspoken
Silent words spill dotting the page white
damn this dry pen. I meant
Thoughts burn and won't write?
Looking for pigment.
Monday, March 29, 2010
not much sleep last night and had an EXTREMELY boring day subbing, my students basically had a catchup-on-work day and there was nothing for me to do but make sure everyone was library quiet. I had to shake off the sleepy ... it worked. Another nice ... read more
not much sleep last night and had an EXTREMELY boring day subbing, my students basically had a catchup-on-work day and there was nothing for me to do but make sure everyone was library quiet. I had to shake off the sleepy ... it worked. Another nice day, ya!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
One reason I can think of topically is that education is being taught as ed_cation. The u is missing. Without a u, education sounds more like vacation or caution. What? Yes, students don't own anything they do. Ideas are distilled onto a worksheet destined for the bin, destined for the dump. Are ideas just something to be seen and tossed? NO! How can we make learning a point of pride?
Did I mention that I HATE worksheets? Let's strip away the tedium, toss in the conversation. If we say these students are adults then let them be. Save the tedium for test days (which come often enough to dull the importance), teachers should know where their students are at anyway without having to constantly force them to complete a worksheet.
Open ended questions can bring upon more learning that any well prepared worksheet because the questions come from necessity.
I wish I were a better writer, but still ... many people have written before and they should be appreciated. Appreciate Paul Graham and his thoughts:
http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html?dsq=41851049#comment-41851049
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Dr. Mike Wong, who teaches a large mechanics of materials class, is frustrated that his students appear bored and disinterested. Mike wants his class to be an engaging and instructive experience, so he talks with a research colleague who offers useful suggestions for enlivening the course.
© 2006, All Rights Reserved
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Why is this? Well an excerpt from the article makes the most obvious point ... “We’re not asking them to read nearly enough, and we’re especially not asking them to read enough complex materials,” Ms. Pimentel said.
One of the failures of education today is that we're not teaching students to think and appreciate learning as a way of life. Students are evaluated by taking tests, and so their education centers around how to succeed in taking tests. NOT FAIR. Learning must be centered around critical thinking skills and problem solving in an experiential environment.
Adult life is not measured by bubbling in A B C or D but by being able to think out of the box and coming up with creative ways to solve a problem.
Today's run was a mind game the whole way, I battled against stopping halfway ... it was either that sweet stretch break relief or the proud moment at the end of the run knowing that I pushed through it. I opted to push through. So when the run hurts... read more
Today's run was a mind game the whole way. I battled against stopping halfway ... it was either that sweet stretch break relief or the proud moment at the end of the run knowing that I pushed through it. I opted to push through. 3/4th of the way I had that gurgling feeling in my bowels, oh, great I think to myself, I've already past my oasis pot. ...gotta make it home.
So when the run hurts and you really want to stop, what do I do?
1. flip my keys in rhythm to my pace, I like the jingling sound.
2. Drum along with my music ... might look a little silly but it's just distracting enough. (I ALWAYS run to music)
3. Punch the air, just a little bit of aggression can go long way.
4. wave to random people as you pass, I always run a bit faster as I pass em for some reason.
What are your strategies?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
i carry your heart with me by ee cummings
i carry your heart with me by ee cummings
Circle the word that doesn't fit (football, soccer, dance, basketball)
Everyone chose dance, I asked why? Blank stares until one student said that football, soccer, and basketball are all sports. "Ah true" I say "so what is dance?" More blank stares! I inform them that dance is art. "ART?" They questioned. I was surprised that they were surprised. It made for a fun conversation about art. Of course dance could be a sport as well, so I didn't really like the question to begin with and so provided me freedom to digress.
.
Time to get some wings for the seat of my pants.
Any HS teachers out there that have some thoughts to prepare for my sub job?
Random photo post. I love this photo! It reminds me of the long run days when um, you come across that need to erm ... well you look for the oasis bathroom on the horizon. My path has plenty of pit stops, but they're a bit too public (no doors on stall public). There is an oasis on my run 4 miles in, the oh so private port-o-potty. It's been my saving grace many a time. Best feature of the pot is the oh so modern DOOR! Well, it makes me appreciate the noble out house on the horizon.
Well, you can't expect me to run the same pace 2 days in a row can you?
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A recurring regret ... somehow I lost this shirt, I loved it! Where did it go? I'm very afraid I may have thrown it out in a terrible spring cleaning accident of exuberance ... drat. Not giving up the quest to find it.
Quick lesson on adjectives and articles ... and I tossed in an off the cuff game for them to play to match the word to the type which was fun. After the game it was worksheet time. It's nice when I can break away from worksheets for a moment and give them something to experience.
Lunch came and I had to run out to find promised rewards for the mos behaved table group. I came across a small store in Paramount, I think it was called the party place? They had just what I needed! I filled my bag FULL of Small tubs of play-doh, little gliders with launchers, and bags of dino-toys! Next door they also owned a tiny sandwich shop ... not only did I get the prizes but I got to eat lunch too! Bonus! I won't forget about this place soon. Total cost for lunch and prizes=$10.00.
My afternoon lesson was about national monuments. Passed out the little book of monuments and was going to have them label each one with me when I realized that I couldn't name them myself! Major bummer for me. Fast switch, I had a book about national symbols in my back pack, so it was off to the carpet for story time (love it when a plan comes together). Now if it were possible I could have done a research lesson: Take the students to the library and fill in the names of the monuments on their own, it might have been doable, dunno.
The story went well regardless and they were learning about the Liberty Bell later anyway so it fit.
The end of the day we had a small celebration to tally the table points and award the prized. I got a few polite thank you's ... love that!
I watched about 7 episodes before I realized it was midnight and I have to get up in 5 hrs! Morning came fast! Am I really complaining about sleep? At least I slept in a warm bed for a few hrs and don't have to jump in a frozen lake in the next 30 min.
Moral of the story? If you have to get up early in the morning, please don't watch Hulu before bed unless you're training for S.E.R.E.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Best run in a long time, perfect weather! Sunny, with a slight bit of a cool breeze. Definitely pushed hard at the end and finished strong. Not sure if this is my fastest run ever, but it should be.
The excitement of dinosaurs and gangs left my students underwhelmed to talk about our social studies topic, government and laws. Now, I can't blame them because I found myself lecturing about a topic they couldn't clearly visualize ... if we had more time we could have acted out the responsibilities of the 3 branches of government, and I should have made it happen anyway but .. I didn't. Ah, so they were a bit glazed eyed and it the discussion, er pontification, took longer than planned. I had a few minutes left in the day so we got to finish the day with a fun art lesson. Woo! Now to think about how I can revisit our government lesson in a quick mini-lesson format ... hmmm.
Hmm, I was thinking about drawing an apple tree on large construction paper with 3 branches. Each branch grows it's own unique apples (green apples, yellow, and red). Each color has a role that that gov't branch is responsible for ... important people within the branch. The students must paste the apples under the appropriate branch on the tree...could be fun. And discuss.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
About Me
- Welcome to my blog!
- On May 2009 I finally finished my student teaching and officially became a credentialed elementary school teacher. Five years of juggling work as an Network Admin and school are finally over! Career change complete, well, almost.
- The bad news is that I've finished only to find that California, due to budget constraints, is not hiring any new teachers. Guess I've picked the wrong time to begin.
- Still, I'm subbing regularly ... a great way to pay my dues, only problem is that it doesn't exactly pay my bills. I'm hardly gonna give up on education just yet, too much invested, too many students yet to mentor.
Let's see what happens!