#strive4success

Today, I taught both social studies 20-1 and 20-2.  For the "-2" crew I sat down at my stool, the bell rang and they kept trickling in and talking. For the "-1" gang, I sat down at my stool and instantly they had their eyes on me. I cracked a joke and 75% of them laughed!  I might be exaggerating on the reaction of the kids to my joke but there is a huge difference in mentality between my two classes. On one end I have a group who continuously tells me, "as long as I get a 50%, I'm good".  The other pushes to know more and pushes to figure out more about the topic we're talking about. This affects me. For the "-1" group I found myself throwing current events into my set and giving deeper more meaningful learning opportunities. The "-2" groupI got rid of the current events, I pushed for learning but not to the same standard. This is something my cooperating teacher and I both realized. Because of this hindsight, I can see myself working toward the direction of pushing both equally and challenging each in their own way to rise to the challenge.  Why do we teach current affairs? Why did I teach students about what happened to Chris Kyle and Eddie Ray Routh? About PTSD? About all the hundreds of Veterans home from the middle east trying to assimulate back into society? 

To get kids to think about problems outside their own.