Tuesday, June 3, 2008

9th Grade at the Middle School

Today was a great example of experience being a hard teacher. She give the test first and the lesson later.

21 comments:

Tim W said...

Toady I learned that even with a plan you still have to be ready to make changes. We had the lockdown which messed up our gameplan. Luckily we were able to put some ideas together and teach them. When we first started one kid new the answer real fast. He said he just did it in his head. When we tried to explain the concept, it seemed some kids understood while others did not. When we did the problems on the board I think it helped a little bit. I noticed it was not until we used the white boards that the students began to get it. By the time the worksheet was out and we began individual help, it really clicked with more and more students. I feel that the day went well.

Nigel said...

I found that going to the Norton Middle School was a great, fun learning experience. All of the 6th Graders were able to do the equations with or without help. We were kind of rushed with the lockdown but we were able to recover nicely. The lockdown helped because we got to the main ideas instead of stretching it out. I hope we could do this again but I think we need more practice first. (75 words EXACTLY and it doesn't include this sentence)

Sarah T. said...

Today at the middle school was truly a new experience that all of us could take something from. Right from the beginning there were obstacles such as the lock down, or the attitude of the kids, but that really didn’t stop us from coming together and forming a newly devised plan. No one said it was going to be easy, but when we really worked as a team, I think we all learned something today.

tory said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tory said...

I thought that today went well. We taught kind of at a fast pace so some of the kids didn't really get how to solve equations but when we passed out the worksheet and got to help 1 on 1 with them, they eventually got it. (or we hope they did) I think that the whiteboards worked well, because it made it possible for evry1 to try out the problems instead of going up to the board and solving in front of the whole class because at one point bri or audra asked if anyone knew how to solve an equation & a bunch of kids raised their hands but when we asked to come up to the board hands went down. So like having the whiteboards it prbly made a lot of the kids feel more comfortable. Overall we did awesome

E. Anderson said...

I really enjoyed teaching the sixth graders. I started to help one girl who I had approached and asked if she had any questions. She said to me that she didn’t understand any of it. After I was finished explaining it to her and she got it, it really boosted my confidence and morale. Just the thought of being able to help someone like that, like we had planned (as apposed to the lockdown, which was not planned) was a major accomplishment. Also in class you said that one thing we did was help someone then walked away. I thought that was a good thing to do because we already intimidate them and just standing over their shoulder would make them even more nervous. Another girl that I helped was literally shaking when I asked her what 15/5 was. It took her at least 30 seconds to a minute to figure it out. So I finished explaining the problem and left her alone afraid I was going to intimidate her into cardiac arrest. And something that surprised me about one girl was that when I asked her what the order of operations was she had no idea. Something that I got out of this was that one on one teaching is so much better. I knew it helped before but these circumstances amplified it to a much greater extent which made it a lot more apparent.

E. Anderson said...

holy crap i wrote a lot. ... a lil more than 75...

bri valeri said...

I think that the 6th grade lesson at the middle school went really good. The lock down did throw us off in a way, but also taught us that things do come unexpected and you should be ready for anything. Getting to know the kids and helping them was fun and I enjoyed teaching them what I knew. The group did a really good job with thinking of problems off the top of our heads and being able to answer questions immediately when the kids asked. I also think that the white boards helped a whole lot. With just the worksheet, we wouldnt' have had enough practice and we wouldn't have been able to help the kids or answer their questions 1 on 1. If there was one thing I noticed that I wish I could help if I could go back, it would be to boost their confidence. The first thing I heard once I walked in the room was "We are the sped class, good luck." That comment really showed that they don't believe in themselves. Also, when we asked if someone wanted to come up to the board, about 6 hands went down immediately! I think that if their self confidence was boosted, they would be able to solve problems (and equations) on their own and want to teach others just like we did today.

Rob S. said...

Well i guess i'll start off the 8th grade. It was a disaster JK not really it just wasn't what we planned for. At first i didnt want to do the intro because I thought it would be a waste of our little time but after when the kids were not interested I think we should have done it to make them more comfortable.(stupid lockdown)
However I did think the kids also had a bad attitude. No one raised there hand when Emily asked what they knew about area right after the teacher said they all knew about area. Also when i did problems on the back board during the game they didnt even try. If it was a yes or no question, they would write yes and then walk away.
Finally, Dan, your idea totally backfired, true you should reward the behaved kids but the non behaved ones just whined louder about getting no candy.

Audra said...

At first, I was totally intimidated by the thought of going to the middle school and teaching kids who may not pay any attention. Another thing I was afraid of was one of them asking me a question that I couldn't answer. Thankfully, I wasn't asked any difficult questions and most of the kids paid attention. The lesson part was really difficult because we had about ten minutes to teach them something that some of them had never seen before. Also, there were some kids who completely understood everything and found the examples easy, while others didn't get it at all. It was hard trying to teach in a balanced way so that every student was benefitting from the lesson. Although the lesson wasn't that great, handing out the worksheets and letting everyone in the group go over the information with the students individually really helped them to get it. The candy was a good motivator for the kids who weren't listening or participating. I think overall, my group did really well with the time that we had.

Rob S. said...

Going to the middle school was a life expierence. Today taught us all how to be a teachers, and also how to adapt when things don't go your way. The "lockdown" obviously was a setback, but as a group we overcame the situation and continued to teach our lesson.

I felt that the students had mix feelings toward our presentation. When Audra started she called on Chris. Chris was a very intelligent student but announced to the class, "That's obvious! The answer is 2. Anyone can do that. I just used mental math." I felt that his comment sorta intiminaded the class. Some students clearly had trouble with the concept, such as Alexandra. When I helped her she was trying hard the concept. I felt that she was a good student from all the questions she asked. Even though the day was a little crazy, I though the time we put into the project was worth it.

Rob S. said...

srry grasso!
the reason my name came up as class of 2011 because being a Class Officer for the Freshman Class i made a blog recently so the members of our class can share there ideas with the advisors & officers


http://nhsclassof2011.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I don't really get nervous very often, but getting up in front of a whole class of judgemental eighth graders had me shaking. We had some trouble at first, what with the lockdown throwing off our schedule, but I think we recovered very nicely. I wish we had had more time for an introduction with the kids, but sometimes plans change. The kids already knew a lot about area, which made teaching them a bit of a challenge, but our lesson at least made a nice review for them. I also think the idividual group time helped some of the kids who didn't understand it completely. Our game didn't go over well because we under estimated the amount of time it would take us to write the problems, and the kids just wound up talking through most of it. We also brought way to much candy, but I think the whole class enjoyed eating it later during our second lockdown of the day. I think that the whole teaching field trip went well, considering, and I think I got rid of some of the nerves that I had at the beginning.

shannon said...

Today i learned many things about teaching and being prepared for making changes when being put on the spot. The lockdown was a unexpected mishap which we had to make arrangements to continue with finishing our lesson. Overall the experience of teaching and helping individuals was great and fun. Although the eighth graders knew what our lesson was and were very confident with it, most of us found a way to deal with that fact and still teach the lesson. The attitudes of most of the students were certainly not helpful to teaching the lesson, but we had to get over that. I realized that nothing goes as you hoped or plan so there always has to be a plan "b" or even "c". There are always going to be obstacles that you have to work around, as the lockdown drill or even their attitudes. I liked the experience and would like to do something like this again, i thought it was fun, and everything went good.

jessica w said...

i just typed a whole thing and then it got erased.. but anyways typing this for the second time... today things went both good and bad. although in our eyes, in the 8th grade, things seemed to be more bad than good, i dont think they were as bad as we all thought. i learned that we should never let other people's attitudes bring us down. i think our "game plan" was relatively good, but we could have planned it out a little more. it was also a lot harder because they had already learned what we went to teach them. if we had something planned to do if they already got it, it would have been a lot smoother. if we had the chance to do this again i think it would go very well, we would just need to make a few changes, but i would without a doubt teach the middle schoolers again.

Kaylyn said...

Well, today was a good experience and we can all learn a lot from it. Things did not exactly go according to plans when we had the lockdown. We had a time a huge time crunch even more than we already did. So, we did not properly introduce ourselves which would have been better but we wanted to make sure the kids learned the lesson that we came to teach. When we starting the lesson it didnt go as well as planned. Not because of us but it seemed like the kids had no interest and didnt want to learn and the teacher pointed out that they already learned this. But as we gradually got into the lesson the kids got more comfortable and talked to us more and answered questions. I realized that we could have re-worked the game so it wasnt as time consuming. we should write all the equations on posters rather than take the time to write them out on the board. Uhmm..i think if we did this again that we would be more prepared for the lessons. But for the most part it went wellll !

C.J. said...

in my mind the whole thing went alright even though we didnt have full attention of the class. if we did it again i would try to incorporate more of a hands on lesson rather than say hi and then give them some problems to do. i think we did a good job teaching them even though they already knew it.

coolconor said...

In the hood my expierience would be greatly smiled upon. I think it was mostly a success, Children learned, and were also granted with my presence. I think they all benefited from meeting me because they not only know what true beauty is on the inside and out but were able to be taught by it. All of the children are now better people because they not only saw great looks, great personality, and great poise, but all three of those things mixed into one person. And that person is Conor Loring Regan.

Keegan "What A Figure" Schleicher said...

What a uncanny middle name that "Great Poise" young fellow has. I marval what his guardians were pondering while coming up with such a stimulating name.

Keegan "What A Figure" Schleicher said...

I thoutght miidle school went well. Some kids knew more than others, bnut that always happens. I think the lockdown actually helped us because the lesson wasnt long to bore the kids it perfect timing. Also i think the lockdown helped us show how good we are as teachers which means BETTER GRADES. AND its ok rob about the nose, theres always plastic surgery!!!!jk but that kid was funny

Kaylyn said...

I thought that today was a difficult lesson. The lockdown made us have to change our lesson plan and rush through some things. During the lesson the 8th graders already knew everything we were teaching. We could never really grab their attention. Also during the game it didn’t go well at all. Everyone just wanted to talk and not pay attention at all to the game, I found myself repeating myself multiple times.

--justin