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Day 18 - September 30th, 2005
Today in Geography, I had two magazine articles from one of those educational magazines about China and how it changed. Since I hadn’t really been giving the kids things to keep for notes, I took this opportunity to have them take notes. I wrote important stuff on the board as we read about it and I asked them to write it down. 2nd hour had no problems that I could see, which was a pleasant surprise. The readings covered differences in schools and standards of living between the city and the country, a little bit about the Communists, and something about the Three Gorges Dam. It ate up both hours easily, with me not even getting to the second article with 7th hour. That wrapped up my few lessons about China, and we’ll get into Japan next. I printed out grades for the kids to see, and gave them each a number to be able to find their grade. I have 11 colored dragons on the wall, which I think is pretty cool.
In US History I did my powerpoint about Populism and the Wizard of Oz. I think it’s a really cool angle to look at, and I think the kids enjoyed the change. I had a sheet for them to fill out as I went along, keeping them on task as I occasionally asked them questions. It’s also a good way for them to get some “free points.” It went well in both hours, and then I handed them out their review packet that will be due Tuesday, so they would have something to work on after I was done. It went quicker with 6th hour since they didn’t discuss as much, but I think they thought it was at least different.
My second full week was ok, and I am glad I have some time to relax. With my seminar and an in-service coming up, it should help break up the week. I have to write tests pretty soon, which hopefully won’t be too hard. I think my students are getting more used to the way I run things, and I hope that means they will know how far they can go, and stop doing things they know they can’t do. We’ll see.
Day 19 - October 3rd, 2005
I got my History test pretty well written over the weekend, which is good. I’m going to look at a movie for them to watch during my prep, so hopefully it isn’t too bad.
For Geography, we started on Japan today. The first lesson I did was about schools and education in Japan. I had 4 sheets total for the kids, with 3 being information, and 1 being their homework. I read them to the classes, because some of the sheets were a bit beyond what I would expect their vocabulary to be. I also had a slideshow of pictures of students in Japan. We learned that students eat in their room, and often serve lunch themselves. The students stay in one room all day, and the teachers move every hour. The students also take an hour and clean the school every day. They wear slippers in school and go to school 60 more days a year than we do. This lesson was a lot of info, so I hope I spiced it up a bit with the pictures. It wasn’t the most exciting thing, and I’m not sure the kids will retain much, I guess we’ll see. My teacher said she has seen some teachers give little quizzes to classes to make sure they keep thinking about certain ideas. For 2nd hour, I gave them a little 5-question quiz over our 3 days in China. They weren’t extremely hard, and I hoped it did them some good.
For History, I had them watch a movie about the West all hour. I walked around and had them write 1-page summaries about what they saw. They stayed on task well, and 6th hour I even had a student tell others to be quiet so she could listen. I gave her a little Twix bar.
I went to the 7th-grade BB game tonight and they lost to Gladstone. I corrected papers in the stands again, and sat near the same group of folks.
Day 20 - October 4th, 2005
Today in Geography we delved into Japanese numbers, and I gave them an opportunity to see their name written in Japanese. I had a few sheets that went over the numbers 1-10 and had them do a few math problems and things like writing out their phone numbers in Japanese characters. I then handed them out another vocab sheet to take up some time, and I was still rather short, but I wanted to give them time to come up and find out their names. 2nd hour was kind of wild with that freedom, so I will remember to make sure to have enough for them to do. We listened to the radio 7th hour, and they were more calmed. I had new seating charts for them today, so maybe I’ll learn the rest of their names. I tried to let the kids know who had assignments out yet, so I don’t have to put in too many awful grades in during my mid-term reports.
I have a little paper thing outside my geography room that says Mr. Karsten on it. I like it. I also bought a button today that says Go Emeralds. Too bad I probably won’t be here for the Homecoming game.
In History today, we had review. Last time, I just went over their sheets and had them answer a few questions, and try to go over them in class. This time I split them into 2 teams and made 30 questions for us to review on. It was 1 against 1 competition where the person who wrote the answer and circled it, quickest, was the winner, and their team got 1 point. The team with the most points at the end of the hour got 2 points on the test. 6th hour tied, so we’ll have a tie-breaker tomorrow. Doing this was the most fun I’ve had, so it made the day go well. The kids got into it, and most kids got up front twice, with everyone going up at least once. I have their tests all done, but I should come up with a good extra credit question for them.
I wrote up 4 kids today, so they are getting used to it and they know what is too far. I think this honor system thing works pretty well. I have no school Oct. 10th and Parent-teacher conferences on Nov. 7th with the vote for the new elementary school on Nov. 8th.