Weekly journal postings
Hi Everyone,
I just returned from a meeting in San Diego and am anxious to hear how things are going in your schools. I mentioned that there would be 4-5 major topics for Blog discussion during the semester but I also want this site to become a resource for each of you. You should be keeping a reflective journal. I would like you to choose two things at the end of every week that you would like to share with the others and post before Monday of the next week. The idea is to summarize from your journal a couple key issues. A few paragraphs will suffice and will give others a chance to respond. These postings can be about a funny third grader or a difficult discussion in 8th grade social studies class.
The hope is that this forum will give you a virtual seminar and foster good communication so obviously I expect you also will talk to each other. To be clear...you are expected to post and respond to at least one other person each week.
I will read the responses that are already posted and respond so you get the idea!
Have a nice weekend and be thinking about what you will post before Feb. 13.
Chris
posted by Chris @ 10:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Feb. 9
So I have been working on developing lesson plans for psych and current issues. My mentor teacher helped me have a basic understanding of what we should do for Current Issues, but I feel completely LOST about psych! I have tried a couple of times to have my mentor teacher help me, but all she says is, "What do you want to do?" I have never taught psych and am not trained for it. It is a little frustrating because I am supposed to be able to rely on her expertise. For example, I woke up at 2am with the thought "I am not prepared for tomorrow!" I could not get back to sleep because I was trying to come up with an idea of what I was going to be doing in the morning. I feel like I am winging it with that class. I wish she would sit down and brainstorm with me, but she is constantly busy and hard to get on a one-on-one basis.
On the flip side, thanks to my memory of T&L classes I decided to have my psych kids take the Multiple Intelligences Test because we are beginning to talk about famous psychologists. The best part was the students. They had fun doing the lesson and I felt like I had accomplished so much. I just wish I could have had the lesson planned the night before. Instead, when my mentor teacher came into the class I had to give her a quick briefing and then teach the lesson.
Feb. 15
So I just had a lesson that bombed. The worst part is that last week the same lesson went really well. It was in my Current Issues class. The point of the class is to discuss current issues. As a result, I have pick out the topic for the next 5-6 weeks. Since most issues have 2 sides, I decided we would do informal debates. Last week we did cloning and it went really well. This week we did school prayer, and the kids did not do well. I think the problem was in the group selection. I am trying to see what my students are capable of so I have am rotating the people in the debate groups. Today some of the shy students went and it was ugly. Only two of the students led the debate and when I pulled them out the others floundered. The problem is that this is meant to be a discussion class based on participation. I am at a lost at what to do. I have really strong students who make the class great, but its the quiet ones I worry about.
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