My week.

Yesterday I went to the Freshman football game with the cheerleaders, I love filling in when the coaches cannot go, that way I get a taste of it and not all of the hassle. The girl’s were great at the game, but horrendous on the bus there and back. I thought kids knew not to stand up and yell and scream while the bus is moving. The bus driver had to stop the bus for five minutes until I could them to stop and sit. It was sad. Coach was mad! I cannot blame her. It was only four girls out of twenty one, but still, they are all going to get in trouble. I still had fun though.
My Vertical Alignment session when good, or should I say horizontal alighnment becuase it was actually just Economic teachers. I did not have to monitor the PSAT, I got to go to training. YES! I learned about some of the lessons they do and got some great ideals. Now in December I go to a Vertical Alignment session for US History. For some reason my district has chosen to make it a big deal and we are speading about 25 hours of training on it. I do get tired though of all the useless training and pulling me out of my classes. Why not do the training during the week before school starts, that way I have something to do that week.

Devry

Devry was here today for my Economics classes, they do a good presentation, it lasted the whole class period. My 1st period was much better than my 4th period, but that is par for the course. My US History class did a time line over the Era of Strikes, it took them a lot longer than I thought to do this, so we did not get to the notes and the short video about the Progressive Era today. That puts us farther behind, oh well we will eventually get caught up. Next year I think I am going to skip the 2 weeks of review for 8th grade history until it is time for the TAKS test, then I will not be behind. They are enjoying the History Alive stuff much better than the regualr History stuff. It is more interactive, and we get to move around. It is alot more fun to teach as well.

1/2 day

Today is a half day for the kids, not the teachers. We have Staff Development after school and all day tomorrow. OH BOY! We are finishing up our chapter on Socialization. We took our notes and them spend the last half of the class learning social skills with discussions and games. I love this unit. Next we will be talking about self esteem and the media and I want to see if I get “Real Women Have Curves”.
My newspaper assignment seems to gone over well. It took some kids longer to get it and some complained it was too much writing, but after explainiing and telling them to use lots of Adjectives I think they understand what I want. I even had some come in after school to get help and to finish the classwork part. We shall see the finished product on Tuesday 2nd period.

newspaper assignment

They semed to have fun with this assignment going around the room talking, climbing, being on the floor, and having time to interact with each other. We watched a powerpoint about Upton Sinclairs “The Jungle” and explained about muckrakers and how they wrote. The newspaper article is due next classtime. We had to take about 2 hours to this, between two classes.

Directions I gave the kids for my assignment. I love History Alive!

Conduct Your Field Investigation
When you reach a field site, open your muckraking
notepad to the first two pages. Divide the space into
three sections, and take notes by following the guidelines
below. When you move to the next field site, turn
to the next two pages. You must visit each field site at
least once and investigate a total of seven problems.

Field Site: Topic:
Examine the visual and written information at the station. In this space, explain what problem you think you have uncovered.
In this space, describe the problem using vivid and shocking language that will stir your reader into action. Write at least two sentences about the photograph. Also choose one sentence from the quotation to excerpt.
Read the corresponding section of Chapter 16.
Then, in this space, record at least four important pieces of information about the problem from the textbook.

They go around the room and look at 4 sets of three pictures, some are high on the wall so they have to climb on a desk to see them, some are under a desk and they have to get down on the floor to see them, one set they have to go through “trash” to see and then one set they have to “Pay” to see. It is all about the Guilded Age. they take a two sheets of paper and fold and cut it in to four quaters and cut them down and staple them like a little notebook.
Then they take their finished notebook and write an article:

Writing an Investigative Newspaper Report
As a muckraker, you uncovered alarming information about problems in American society at the turn of the century. You will now expose what you learned to the American public by writing a newspaper report that will stir your readers to action.
Your article must include these elements:
• An appropriate and appealing title.
• A byline with your name and an appropriate date from the time period.
• An introduction with a brief explanation of muckraking and an overview of what you plan to expose in your article.
• One paragraph describing each of the problems you uncovered at your field site. Use vivid and shocking language. Each paragraph should have at least two sentences, including at least three pieces of information from your Reading Notes.
• A conclusion summarizing the reasons your readers should take action to address the problems you uncovered.
• A “photograph” from your investigation with a brief caption. This can be a drawing you make or a copy of a photograph from a book or the Internet. It should depict something you wrote about in the article.
• Any other clever and creative touches that will make your article
more realistic.

Friday

Today I am leaving at 3 pm today. School lets out at 2:45, and since my mother is coming in town for the weekend, I am going to leave as soon as school is over.

I found a lesson from History Alive on mukrukers and the Guilded Age, to do for my US History class on Monday. It looks like it is going to take a bit to do the lesson and to set it up, but I think it is going to be worth it, even for just one class. The kids are going to look at pictures and some blurbs and write a newpaper about the wrongs of the time period.

Monday

It is Monday and I have Sociology today all day. We are playing board gmes today, for our chapters on Family, Norms, Values and Social Behaviors. The kids are loving it. You learn valuable lesson from playing board games, and it seems some kids have missed out on those lessons. My high schoolers even love Candyland and Chutes and Ladders. They are behaving and being good sports today.

Vent

I am tired of being tired, I am ready for vacation and school has just started. I am not enjoying my year or my classes. I do not care if my kids learn Economics, I do not care about Sociology. I find them both boring and not fun. They are a hassel to plan for and to grade. I put the grading off because I do not want to do it. I begged not to teach Economics, freaking begged. The Administration does not care whether or not I know my subject and whether or not I like it. Would my kids be better served by a teacher that knows the subjects and actually wants to teach it? I am a history teacher, not an Economics teacher. Give me World History, or US History and I rock. My 4th period and my 5th period are the two classes I dread most, the students are talkative and generally just a pain. I use to love teaching, this year I hate it. I do not want to be here, I do not like the administration of my school, she makes the school enviroment feel horrible, and this is her second year here. I am glad I am not doing Stu Co this year, it keeps me under her radar and I get to stay away from her. Although I have lots of Stu Co kids that come in and complain about the way Stu Co is being run, they do not like it, they say that they are never prepared for events like pep rallies and homecoming and things are half done. I try very hard not to say anything, even when I really want to. I try not to remember that I was stabbed in the back, and not supported by a co-worker, because the Stu Co kids did not like her and she blamed it all on me and not on herself and the way she treated them. I had absolutely nothing to do with whether or not they liked her or not. I guess I am still bitter about it. Oh well, there is always next year right?

Tired

I began this new workout group with a trainer and a group of teachers yesterday right after school and today I am so tired I can barely stay awake and I am so sore. I really want to go home and go to sleep. One of the coaches is holding this new class three times a week, at three different times on those days. I think I may just go home today and rest and pick it back up on Thursday.

Gone

I have three kids in alternative school all ready, two that are pregnant or on Maternatity leave and one that I have only seen once. This seems way to early in the year for this to me. Why do so many kids have so much trouble. As the year moves on more and more will be out and I have to provide them with work, make sure they are passing, and making my phone calls home to check up on them.
On another note, my kids just cannot seem to have a class room discussion with out breaking in to side conversations with their friends. If they cannot behave then we will have to stop having them.

Dreary Monday

It is Monday and it is raining. I do not mind both separately, but together it makes for a blah Monday. Today we are watching The Outsiders for culture and values in Sociology. So not to bad of a day. After about the second time though of watching it I get bored. I prefer to mix up my day, otherwise it just becomes so hard to stay focused.