My weekly thoughs for 3/14-3/18

This week was interesting and full of grading.  The kids were so excited about spring break and many were leaving early for family vacations.  It took a lot of work on my part to prepare for the week.  On Monday I gave every one of my students a spring break survey, asking if they planned on being at school the entire week.  If they did not, they had to write what days they would not be at school.  Both the regular and honors finished the last section of their chapters on Monday.  Tuesday was spent on review for both classes.  Wednesday was a field trip.  As a team we went to Governer's State University to see the Chicago Shakespearian actors perform Macbeth.  Although many of the kids seemed to use it as a nap period, I thought the play was excellent!  The actors used tons of expression so it was easy to understand what was going on.  More importantly, going to a Shakesperian play isn't a common thing for these 8th graders.  This was a unique experience for them and hopefully at least some of them enjoyed it and understood Macbeth better.  They didn't read it in language arts, but they supposedly read it their freshman year for the majority that plan to go on to the local public high school.  This exposure hopefully with help them.  Thursday and Friday for the regular students were days of the chapter 4 assessment.  They were working in groups of two or three and creating several of the graphs we learned in the chapter.  For those students who couldn't be there both days, they took a written test for chapter 4.  Thursday was a review game for honors dealing with chapter 10 on quadratics.  On Friday, they took their quiz.  Once agian, those spring break surveys came in handy.  The students who left early took the quiz early before they left.  It was a lot of organization, but in the end it worked out.  I only had three people who need to take the test yet.

Last week I set two goals: one was to make sure I had myself organized for all the tests and quizzes happening this week.  I ended up being very organized and it worked out for the benefit of the students.  My second goal was to incorporate more critical thinking this week.  I added a component of thinking into each of my lesson plans.  The one example that really surprised me and I really enjoyed was on my scatter plot lesson.  I had the students think about what two things (pieces of data) would form positive, negative, and no correlations between them.  The students did an excellent job and were very creative with ideas.  I had answers ranging from amount of gas put in a car and amount of money spent on gas for positive relationships all the way to the Chicago Bulls winning record and the Miami Heat winning record for a negative correlation.  They were creative and could compare things that interested them.  I also made them think and write down how line graphs and scatter plots were different.  I had some very nice insightful responses as we shared in class.

This week I need to make two goals for the following week (spring break is in between).  My first goal is to put emphasis on the students being well-rounded.  I think that this is good for the student's well-being and they need to learn life is more than school, or friends, or sports.  They need to understand what well-rounded is and how that benefits them.  A second goal is to make sure I'm ready with lots of activities for chapter 8 on percents.

A competent teacher understands education as a profession, maintains standards of professional conduct, and provides leadership to improve students' learning and well-being.  At my placement I have seen and heard so much more than I realized was going on in the minds and lives of 8th graders.  I realize that my Christian family and private schooling has put me in a "bubble" in many ways.  I didn't realize how many broken families these students have, how many cries for attention that these kids make, and the overwhelming amount of time students put into being "popular".  These things were around to a small degree in my Christian schooling and life, but not the extent that I see in the public school setting.  These "naughty" kids are usually from broken families and are screaming for attention, positive or negative.  I have tried to connect with all my students in a professional way by talking before and inbetween classes about whatever interests each student, by going to their sporting events, and by listening to whatever they may be trying to tell me.  This is the coolest and most rewarding part, for me, about becoming a teacher.  It is saddening but rewarding all at the same time.  I realized, yes, I need to teach, but more importantly I want to impact.

Impacting needs to be done at a professional level following all the state and school guidelines, which sometimes can seem to get in the way.  I realize they are there for the safety not only of the students and their families, but also myself.  I have had to avoid many words with parents and students to remain professional.  It can be hard at times to not just speak my mind, but in the long run, I think that sugar-coating things will benefit more.  ISAT week was huge on avoiding legal issues, but I got through it.

To my Seminar Instructor, the coolest thing about social justice is that it is teaching our students more than just knowledge from a textbook, but more importantly it is life skills that they will need.  Sometimes it's holding students accountable, not accepting the late work, etc. that will teach them the most valuable lessons for life skills.  I really enjoyed Schmidt's commentary on waking students up and explaining what students learn from social justice.  Going back to what I wrote earlier, I want to impact kids.  Things like personal convictions, their own abilities, belief in their own power to make differences are things that need to be taught to students, but in a way that teaches through social justice issues not from a textbook.