The past week I taught two main lessons: one dealing with the Scientific Revolution, and then the logical next step of the Enlightenment. Last week I had planned to be teaching something completely different (the Mugal Empire) and so had planned the entire week’s lessons around that. However, on Monday morning the CT and I sat down to discuss the next six weeks which begins next Monday. We decided that we needed to completely alter the plan for the week, and so I had to scramble for some lessons. I spoke with James and he basically said, “Welcome to the world of teaching.”
Despite having to plan everything a day (or even a period) in advance, I think I had some pretty creative moments this week. In 3rd period, which has basically become my lesson-testing laboratory, I had students literally revolve around each other to demonstrate how the solar system worked. I had previously rearranged the desks so that there was a large amount of space in the middle of the room with the students facing each other. When they first entered, the students were a bit surprised, but I had written “Adapt and Overcome” on the overhead… so that’s what they did. The new seating chart allowed me to move around more freely, as well as fostered a greater deal of discussion.
When it came to students revolving around each other, it didn’t work out as well as I had thought, because the students didn’t really understand my directions. It just ended up being a mess. Fortunately, after the lesson-testing period, I revamped the lesson, instead having students draw how they believe the solar system looked. I drew along with them, only I drew the Earth at the center. When I asked students to explain their drawings the class, I nodded along in agreement. When they finished, however, I placed my overhead up and called all of them “HERETICS!!!!” I argued with them for a while, citing the Bible, and other Ptolemaic/Aristotelian ideas until they finally got out the answers I was looking for. This allowed us to segue very nicely into the discussion of the Scientific Revolution. In the other periods, I also asked the students to describe the Scientific Method as it applied to their biology/chemistry/physics courses. We went step-by-step, and I did the Galileo experiment to model how the people during the S.R. utilized observation and experimentation to come to new hypotheses.
My hardest moment of the week is always managing my 7th period class. There are several students in the class who have already expressed their desire to drop out, and don’t care at all. Unfortunately, 7th period is cut in half by lunch, so every time there are about2 or 3 kids that just don’t show up after lunch. These students also happen to be those who are predominantly ELL, despite their obvious grip on English. I often feel like I am fighting a losing battle because these kids a) already want to drop out, and b) they hide behind their ELL classification which I don’t necessarily think is correct. I also feel like I am real big pushover, because I continuously allow students to go to the restroom, only having them not return.
Posted by flank6a 