almost finished

These last two weeks have been our home stretch. I let the students teach last week and the strategy seemed to work. Their science teacher last year had them teach each other in front of the class so it was easy to get them to do it for me (many had been wanting to do this for awhile). It allowed them to put their energy into talking to the class rather than each other and many did a pretty good job. I could tell during our recent review days that many had gotten many of the concepts they taught to the class.

The Pluto debate went pretty well, too. Luckily, I found a site that had middle school debate team resources and used many of their ideas to teach students how to support their reasons with facts. We did a few practice arguments on whether we should eat school lunch and wear uniforms. Many got into the debate including one of my newer students who seemed kinda quiet--he got up during the debate and spoke the best out of all the students in the class. He had a good tone, spoke slowly, and was pretty good at repeating key points. I hope to have more of my classes teach and debate during the next semester as the students seemed to like both and stay focused on what we were doing.

In getting ready for our end of semester tests we had a review day yesterday where we didn't play a points based game. Instead, I had gone to Walmart and purchased this spongy green sea anemone-like object. Each student who saw me with it wanted to hold it and play with it. Of course, each student had to answer a review question correctly. If the student got the correct answer, I would throw it to them and then ask another question. The anemone would then be tossed around the room to whoever got the question right. It made a huge difference in the review game participation and desire to do the work. I had students volunteering who before would just want to do nothing or sleep during a review game.

My roommate had a similar experience with his students where he combined a crazy object and flashcards. His students were not only involved but their retention increased--test scores jumped from the low 30s to the 70s (not an exaggeration). While this was one testing run and other factors could've been at play, it makes sense that a kinesthetic game would work better for our students than a mostly auditory game. While I don't know how each one of our students learns best, it seems that many prefer active/kinesthetic games and activities over listening. Most of school is aimed at either listening or seeing something (pictures, words, some math concepts); we don't have many "doing" classes or components. Some have suggested that this is why there is a strain of low performers--we aren't teaching to their heavily preferred learning style (I hope I got the argument correct as I don't have a strong education theory background). If you were to take a snapshot, though, of what my kids enjoy you'd see a love of drama, rhythmic beats (my room doubles as a percussion section and beatbox somedays), and a desire to be moving about constantly.

We had our Winter Arts Festival recently where the middle school and high school music programs performed along with the dance team. This was the 2nd year it was being put on and it was really well done. The bands have a very good director similar to the one I had in high school--high expectations and lots of discipline. The result was a really good sound from both the middle and high school bands. The middle school band wasn't at all like mine--the one I heard played songs with a discernible melody that didn't sound choppy or out of tune. The high school band had a great performance where they kept their own beat while the director walked off stage (planned, of course, it was a jazz tune). The choirs were small, but good. They have a fellow TFA teacher leading them and they did a solid job. It was just really cool to see a good deal of my students performing and they liked the attention they got at school as we mostly recognize football and basketball.

Our Christmas party was fantastic this past weekend; we made sure to decorate for the event. Our house has garland on the outside and over the area that separates our kitchen and family room. We have lights on the inside of the house near the windows as we don't have an outside plug. The party went well as many brought great cocktails, appetizers, and desserts. It was a really good way to start off the last week before break.

I'm looking forward to a restful two weeks where I can plan the 2nd semester. I should be getting some good books from using some of my professional development money. They cover a wide range of subjects from differentiation to earth science labs. The two week break will give me the perfect amount of time to get supply lists and lesson plans ready so that I can be completely prepared for when I return.

Things are back to normal with most of my classes (including 7th period). Class has been pretty good this week due to our new unit on space. It's held most of each class' attention and I get bombarded with questions everyday, which I find loads of fun. Part of science education is allowing and encouraging inquiry so I have no problem entertaining the questions the students have about space. Tomorrow we are debating Pluto's status as a planet and the debate fits quite well with a few of my nature of science objectives--formulating inferences from scientific data and understanding the process of peer review, et al. Any time we can get "making inferences" and "drawing conclusions" into our lesson plans the better as these are skills that need strengthening for the reading test in the spring.

More of my classes are buying into my class rewards system. Instead of rewarding efficiency and staying on task with minutes for preferred activity time on Fridays I reward the classes with class money (the minutes were replaced with points). The classes can choose to spend part of their money or save it each week. The money can buy a whole list of rewards such as making me learn a dance they know, dying my hair, shaving my head, dressing like a student, etc. Incentives don't always have to be something that costs money (like candy); instead, they can be crazy things only you would do. The whole point is that the class feels special because you are doing something for them. I am dying my hair red and blue this friday for my first period class but I am washing it out during my prep period as it's only for them. Unfortunately my 3rd and 7th period classes haven't bought into the system so I am not sure what I will do to either take a different route for classroom management or to get them invested in the system.

To explain more on 3rd period, the students are quite active and invade each other's personal space during class. This could be something like kicking the bottoms of desks, stretching their arms and putting their hands into each other's faces, etc. Luckily, I only have 7-10 students in the class so tomorrow I am going to create an area in the room where the disruptive students are spread out at least 8-10 ft from each other. This should cut down on students bothering each other or at least allow me to better target the ones that are starting the trouble. We'll see how this plan goes.

The semester is almost over teaching wise. We have a review on Thursday, test on Friday and then another week of teaching. After that, we have a week of 9 weeks test and then break. Luckily, I know my content well (space) for the last teaching week so it should be smooth in terms of planning and teaching.