The seminar itself was awesome and I believe all students would benefit from an experience like this. The students were assigned to tables with students from other schools and each table had an adult from the community that lead the activities. There were several scenerios the students had to talk through and agree on a plan of action for. Great discussions were had and it was so nice to see the students thinking, acting and behaving like adults.

I had a chance to meet some other teachers from around the district…many of whom know my mom. Its always fun to get an “oh, you’re sheila’s daughter, we just love her.”  Additionally, I got to catch up with another Pacific grad who was a substitute for my mentor teacher last spring in my practicum placement. She got a full time teaching position in the health department at Springfield High. I also got a chance to chat with superintendent Nancy Golden. She had observed in my class in the spring and was asking me about my current student teaching experience. It was nice to know that she remembered who I was.

All in all it was a very fun trip. I was happy to be able to help out in my last few weeks at Thurston.

I am looking forward to teaching again next week. I am taking a weeklong unit on resumes and interviewing for the other Business teacher out here. I have been in her 2nd period class helping out, so the students are getting to know me and I am amazed at how much more confindent I am at jumping in. In the beginning I just held back and observed and now, day 1 of this trimester i started roaming the class, chatting with students and asking them questions without hesitation. This is a nice feeling to be comfortable in a new classroom. Substituting will be similar to this, Im sure and I think Im finally ready.

On another note, I decided to show movies in both of my classes last Friday and on into Monday before finals. We watched Fun With Dick and Jane in Personal Finance (the students got a big kick out of learning what NOT to do to get out of debt) and The Net in Computer Applications (where Sandra Bullock gets her identity stolen because of how easily accessible everyone’s information is on the internet). Two very fitting and what I thought to be entertaining movies. The Computer Apps class had never even heard of The Net and were not excited to watch. I thought, oh its not THAT old, just 1995, but then I remember that some of them were barely born in 1995…yikes Im gettin old  Well I showed it anyways and by the end of class on Monday we still had 15 min left to watch (which I showed at the end of the finals period the next day). Now usually when the bell rings the students sprint for the door, but it turns out my movie was a hit. They were all so caught up in the suspense of the movie that they picked up their bags to leave, but just stood there watching until I managed to actually shut the projector off. Some of them asked to stay after class to watch the end becuase they couldn’t wait for the next day. That was really fun…and thats all I have to say about that

Hope everyone had a very delicious and happy, long weekend!

~Kenzie

Another highlight of my week was with two of my personal finance students. I thought both of these girls didn’t like me at all. They seem annoyed by my policies and just a little snotty when they participate in class discussion. One was super excited when I told her that I referenced her in my “talk with the students” critical thinking paper. The other asked me if I was going to be at Powder Puff (senior girls vs junior girls flag football game). I said yes and she got a huge smile on her face. It really made my day that she was so excited for me to come. You just never know who you make an impact on.

My students are always asking if they can have free time and think I should let them be on the computers and their cell phones during my class. I literally responded with “are you serious,” and they are. They think that they should be able to make the decision to pay attention or not in class and then their grade will reflect their decision. This is a good argument, I will give them that, but if I give into this, then at what point am I not teaching them to be respectful, responsible adults. It is disrespectful to text and play on the computer (or sleep…oh yes I had a guest speaker in last week that I had to wake up 3 different students during) when someone is talking to you. They don’t seem to grasp this concept though. One student told me that he is not paid to be there, so its his choice to pay attention or not…not like at a job. He’s thinking only about himself. I asked him what about the students around him or me as his teacher. He said his fellow students want to play on the computers too and I get paid whether they learn or not. Wow…I asked him if he thought I was in the profession just for the money and then he got quite. He knew where I was going and another student, one of my favs of course, jumped in with the fact that they are in school to learn, not to have free time all the time. Finally, one who gets it…but those students seem to be few and far between.

I feel like I am constantly on stage, trying to compete with all of the more exciting things they have going on in their life. Cell phones, ipods, computers, video games, etc. They come to school and they want to be entertained. They want me to show movies all the time (although I’m seriously thinking about their suggestion of Fun With Dick and Jane since it is a Personal Finance class.) They don’t want to do work…even in class work that I give them plenty of time to complete. So I think to myself, maybe it is too easy and doesn’t challenge them enough, so I rework things and they complain that they don’t get it. Yikes! I’m at a loss here. How do I make every lesson exciting, interesting and relevant. And for cryin in the rain, how do I keep them off those darn cell phones?!?!

The parents who need to be there, the ones who’s kids need a kick in the pants or help getting it together never seem to be the ones who sign up for these things. I got this confirmation from several other teachers. This probably explains why they are doing poorly to begin with…little to no support at home I would guess. I don’t understand parents, and perhaps I will have a different outlook on things when I have kids of my own, but really, how can one not take an active interest in their kid’s education.

It’s not like my classes are really that difficult. I rarely, if ever, give homework and offer several possibilities for extra credit. Most of my assignments are given in class, so when students don’t come to class, they don’t get the work, and when they return, many of them don’t make up their work, even when I give them every opportunity to do so. And to top it off, the students who do utilize opportunities for make-up work and extra credit are already getting As…go figure.

It’s so hard to feel like I have given time, opportunity and resources to allow students to excel and have to watch some of them sit through class and do nothing rather than simply try. What more can I do short of doing their work for them. I guess I feel like by high school its time to stop holding their hands. Maybe they are refusing, for whatever reason, to “do school” but I will be interested to see what happens when it comes time for them to “do the real world.”

Its fun to walk in the halls and see students and have them say hi or pass through the courtyard at lunch and get a shout out. As it turns out, I’m not quite the hard a** I thought I would be coming in to teaching. I have my rules and I stick to them, but I feel like I can laugh and fun with the students too. Things are a lot different than I pictured and I like it a lot.

I have to say Bob and his OPR are so fantastic. I bought cookie dough from a couple of cheerleaders in my class and they told me all about their hopes for attending Nationals this year. Also, one of my quietest students is a soccer player and leaves early for games at least once a week. I always ask him the next day how they did and now he comes in and tells me first thing (when they win that is). I am love, love, loving this.

Now if I could only get the students to stop being absent (yeah right). I would say that is what is annoying me most right now. I try to help students catch up when they are gone, but they don’t want to come in at lunch or after school to make-up work or get help. I have come up with an assignments folders organizer for computer applications class though, so they can go right to the folders and do any missed work. Its really helpful for that class, but wouldn’t really work in PF. Ah well, I suppose nothing is perfect. Hope you all have had a great week. I can’t believe the time is flying by so fast

My favorite part of spirit week was when my supervisor showed up unexpectedly on Tuesday when I was sporting my tu tu. He laughed and thought it was really neat that I was gettin into the spirit. The observation went really well. My class was not as attentive as I would have liked, but it gave me an opportunity to try some new techniques. One of which was a tally system where I documented every time I had to wait until they stopped talking to continue with my lesson. For each time I had to wait, they lost a minute of “Free Time Friday” which they have come to hold so dear (free time on the computers). After a few tallys, the students began to regulate each other. I like this new plan and will be continuing to use it throughout the rest of the trimester (and yes, they are allowed to earn their time back by being on task).

My supervisor was impressed with this technique and gave me a few other pointers to help things run more smoothly…like having the kids who don’t talk put together a new seating chart. I’m going to try that this week and see what happens.

I had to laugh on Wednesday because on student asked me if my supervisor stopped in unexpectedly. I told her that he did and asked her why she asked. She said that if they knew he was coming, they would have acted better. Too funny…like they knew they were misbehaving and couldn’t just be good on a daily basis. Ah well, at least they seem to like me enough to act good when my supervisor is there.

Anyways, I took them to Albertsons on Friday. They made a grocery list for a week and then we walked over (less than 1/4 mile) and did a price check on all the food on their lists. This was a fun way to get them to really understand the importance of budgeting and planning becuase grocery shopping can be expensive. I am going to offer extra credit to students if they go to another store (like Walmart or Winco) and re-price their list to see how much they can save shopping elsewhere. I also bought them all donuts and have officially become their “favorite teacher”. The Beatles were wrong, I can buy me love…lol.

Take care all and have a fantastic week! Kenzie

So what about per 6 then? It is a computer applications class where we spend 4 weeks on Word, 4 on Excel and 4 on PowerPoint. The students who had keyboarding last year are sooooo bored. “They already learned all of this” they tell me. Their grades and overall quality of work would, however, suggest otherwise. I am at a loss in trying to make it interesting. I won’t lie, the content is pretty dry. They come in every day and do 10 minutes of keyboarding warm-up (yes I know, not exciting, but 20% of their grade comes from timings.)

We then move into the new concept for the day. We are working in Excel now, so I explain new tools or features they will need to understand about Excel. I work with them on the overhead (I have a computer that hooks up to it so they can see what I am doing and follow along on their computers.) I find that although they seem attentive during this part, when I ask them to apply the knowledge to assignements, they have a billion questions because they were, in fact, not following along.

When we worked in Word, I would give them assignments where they would create their own content, and I will do so for Excel, once they know what they are doing. This does help, when they get to make up their own content they like it much better (or when I give assignments where they have to research answers). This class is all about learning the computer programs, and i am struggling to focus their attention. I just feel like I am teaching the class once and the students brains wander, so when I give an assignment, I am required to reteach students individually.

I am trying something new today. I am going to do a class assignment together but not hand it out. I am going to give the instructions verbally, one step at a time and make sure all the students are following along (instead of doing from the book where they can work ahead, then don’t end up paying attention and doing sections wrong.) I will see how this goes. The hard part is giving the instructions, doing on the overhead and also checking that they are doing it.

If anyone has any suggestions, please share. Also, if anyone has any good computer activities that could relate to the topic of computer applications, I would love ideas to break up the monotony of the content.

Thanks all…hope everyone is having a fantastic week so far