Week 27 was interesting. First of all, it was a four-day week.
Short weeks are wonderful in that they are short; however, I think short-week demons work their way into students because I have found that short weeks often present more challenges. It is almost as if students are not as focused as they are during five straight day of classes.
Throughout the week, my juniors and seniors worked on their short stories. The stories were due on Friday, and they needed all of that time to fine-tune them.
My 6th graders continued reading poems. We worked on incorporating all of the literary devices we have been learning about into writing poems of our own.
Meanwhile, my 9th and 10th grade students finished reading and discussing Romeo and Juliet.
On Tuesday, my school’s education director came into my classroom and observed me. Here’s what he saw on my board…
The lesson for that day went extremely well. My students carried on a lively discussion. We worked on a Venn Diagram to list similarities and differences between the main characters of the play.
On Wednesday, my 6th graders worked on rhythm, rhyme, and meter…
We also read the poem Whatif. One of my little students giggled the entire way through the poem. I have to tell you that 6th graders’ giggles are simply delightful.
During lunch, I did what I’ve been doing for a couple of weeks now…
I studied.
I am preparing to take the General Knowledge Test that the state of Florida requires all teachers to pass. I am focusing my studies on the math section. I am hoping that the forty minutes I spend studying each day during lunch will help me. Math is not my best subject, so I am nervous. I would really appreciate your prayers.
Following lunch was my ninth grade class.
I had a surprise for my 9th graders.
I gave them a pop quiz on Act 5 of Romeo and Juliet.
They were not amused.
I wanted to ensure that they had read the material and had been paying attention in class while we discussed the first two scenes of that act.
Needless to say, my class’s morale went downhill from there.
One thing I have learned in my education certification classes is that the task of motivating students to learn falls on teachers. I have discovered that doing this requires a huge amount of energy and creativity…especially for classes comprised of students with short attention spans.
I cannot say that I did the best of this with my ninth graders.
Sigh.
I know God is teaching me a lot of lessons in this class.
I have much to learn.
Thursdays are always fun in my classes.
Well, they are fun for me.
These are my vocabulary testing days (and spelling testing for my 6th graders)…
Vocabulary tests typically take most of the class period to finish, so I don’t typically schedule a heavy lesson for afterward.
I have to share one cute story from Thursday. One of my seniors really struggles with vocabulary tests. I think that I’ve mentioned how difficult they are. I require students to know the spellings for each word as well as the definitions, parts of speech, synonyms, and antonyms. Not only that, but my students have to know how to use the words in sentences.
The student who usually struggles walked into class on Thursday morning, and she announced that she had studied for the test. She said she was ready, and she proceeded to explain how she remembered the meaning of the word “badinage.” My heart swelled with pride as I heard her making connections with the words and real life.
She wound up doing very well on this test!
My spelling test, however, is short, so the 6th graders and I worked on more poetry. I have a feeling they are going to be sick of the genre by the time we finish!
Friday was…hmmm…interesting.
During first period, my students were chit chatting, and one of them mentioned The Scarlet Letter and moaned. You might remember that we read this book before Christmas. We dissected it completely, and all of us were quite sick of it by the time we finished.
This student, however, told me how much she had learned from analyzing the book in detail. She has taken what she learned and used it to analyze movies she watches.
This is true teaching…when your students apply the lessons from the classroom to real life.
That was a good moment.
It was followed by some bad moments (which eventually led to my shopping excursion, which I blogged about a day or two ago).
And so another week passed.
We have seven more days of school before we begin Term 3 finals. Following finals will be Spring Break.
I.
Am.
On.
A.
Countdown.
Meanwhile, I continue to enjoy the fabulous weather that Florida is experiencing, along with a slight reprieve from my certification classes. I spent Saturday afternoon out in the sunshine with my lesson plans…
Slowly but surely…one week at a time…my first year of teaching will, in twelve short weeks, be complete.
Between now and then are more lessons for me to learn and to impart on my students.
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