At the end of the day... It's night.
It has only been one week since my last blog, so I don’t have as much to say as I usually would. In RG’s class, the students started with their individual reading. They do this most classes. They just read quietly for ten to fifteen minutes. I actually really like this idea. It provides the kids a brain break and once a month they have to write a book report on something they have read. RG records what book they are reading, and how many pages it has, but they can read just about anything and at their own pace. Last week, the class was doing some small research projects on pre- WWII so they can be prepared for reading The Book Thief. They have now started their class reading so they had to have a group chat about Jesse Owens and his impact to American and world history. They watched a couple short clips that talked about him and then they discussed what kind of an effect he would have had on Nazi Germany.
AA’s class did a quick journal entry as their bell ringer, then they jumped into reading Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry. The state assessments have officially started, so AA wanted her class to be a little easier, to give them a break, so they also started watching The Help. Next week, after they are finished with their reading, they will have to do a compare contrast paper. She stops the movie every so often and points out some of the parallels for the students.
WG’s class is finishing up their short story unit. They read The Gift of the Magi and made some comparisons to some of the stories they have read so far. What kind of character development do you see in these short stories? What kind of personalities are present? How do they compare to each other? Just like with the other short stories, she had them watch the video that goes with it and they discussed the differences between the story and the video. For this story, the main couple is very poor. The written story does a great job illustrating how their apartment is a little broken down and their clothes are a little dingy. In the video, their house is fairly nice and their clothes are clean and new looking. How do these differences make the reader/viewer feel about the couple and their actions?
Which do you view your supervising teacher as having a greater strength in a) relationship with students, b) subject matter knowledge, or c) effective teaching skills?
Before I answer this question, I feel like I need to make sure to point out that all three of my teachers are great at their jobs. They are all knowledgeable, effective, and caring teachers. That being said, they are all individuals with different strategies and strengths.
Let’s start with RG. She is great at being direct with her students. She doesn’t sugar coat things when they are missing assignments or being distracting in class. She will also ask them questions if she needs help, like with technology. She keeps an open line of communication. She is very knowledgeable about Pre-AP English. She understands the curriculum, even though it has been very wonky this year, and how to share that with her students. Subject matter knowledge would be her greatest strength.
AA is a very laid-back teacher who smiles and jokes with her students as often as possible. You really feel like she wants her students to succeed when you are in her classroom. She knows the material and provides scaffolding for her students. It is easy to forget she is teaching a special education class because she doesn’t baby her students, she just teaches them. She is great at leaving time everyday for her students to ask her questions, and she keeps up on reminders for missing assignments. She is knowledgeable about her subject matter and makes sure the students have a way to enjoy it, no matter what style of learning suits them. Her greatest strength would be relationship with students.
WG is similar. Her class is an inclusion class, so she uses some scaffolding techniques to make sure all of her students are on the same subject. She jokes around with them and has a pretty calm class. She is very knowledgeable about her subject matter. She is incredibly passionate about the different things she gets to teach about, and you can tell she really loves teaching English. Her greatest strength is subject matter knowledge.
Resegregation means exactly what it sounds like: Re- segregating schools again. Over the last couple weeks, some of my classes have talked about segregation and racism. They have discussed pre-WWII Germany and racism in America. They have researched Jesse Owens and how he was snubbed by Hitler and treated very badly here in the United States. They have read stories and watched videos about what America looked like before and after segregation was abolished. In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, they just got to a part where a white family burned a black family alive. Some survived, but not without a lot of physical and emotional damage. No one speaks out about the white family; it is a well-known secret. Unfortunately, this wasn’t some fictitious thing that only happens in books. This is a thing that really happened in America. We are still having a lot of issues with racism, even after decades of civil rights legislature. AA’s class talked about resegregation, and the schools that are still segregated against Federal Legislature, and what this means for the American Education system. Many of these schools are trying to say it is better for students of both schools. But what do the students think?
