viernes, septiembre 29, 2006

 

...and now the nitty gritty

i have two students that are hands-down my biggest challenges. reading at beginning year first grade level in second grade. they were placed. and the thing that KILLS me is that they have been at my school since PRE-KINDERGARTEN.

not to say that i haven't already seen dramatic progress. at the beginning of the year, the girl swore she couldn't read. today she was the strongest reader in her group. still struggles with first grade high-frequency words, but definite improvement nonetheless. however, she thinks a penny is called a dollar. she said the number 27 was "dos siete". she can't structure a sensible response to unscaffolded questions unless i'm next to her the whole time. and of course, mom refuses to help at home.

it's fucking breaking my heart.

 

been awhile...

i know i've been slacking, but i've got an after-school class i've also been neglecting not to mention trainings out the wazoo. i have a few blogs (yup, superdork like that) and realized that i inadvertently posted a teachery post there but not here. so here ya go:


I had to go to a stupid teacher training this morning. I wasn't super bitchy about things and I actually took some initiative in our group work. It was pretty impressive. Then I was assigned to another group to role play a "Writing Sentences" lesson, based on already-prepared lesson plans. This idiot teacher dude kept over-complicating things and wanted to write his own lesson plan, and turn the lesson from independent practice to guided practice. Once I kind of beat to death the point that we were supposed to follow the EXISTING lesson plan, he couldn't get a hold of his character... because, you see, he was an actor in the theaaaaaa-tah before he was a teacher, and acted much longer than he's been teaching, so he really needs to understand where this role is coming from... is he a frustrated student? Did he truly understand the insect book we read? Did it really interest him?

In utter disbelief, I muttered something about how I didn't think a character study was necessary for a 4-minute skit/presentation. Sometimes I really question the amount of intelligence necessary to become a teacher...

domingo, septiembre 03, 2006

 

soooo excited!

recent movies i loved: quinceañera and talladega nights: the ballad of ricky bobby. the former is a great film that reminded me and a fellow teacher friend of our students (back when i was in middle school... she's a high school teacher). the latter is just plain kickass, and i am trying to convince my snobby arty friends of this. i'm not a fan of dodgeball, anchorman, or old school, but i do think will farrell is funny and this movie totally met all of my expectations. plus there's a mos def cameo, and you all know i looooooove me some mos def!

upcoming movie i can barely wait for: the namesake. based on jhumpa lahiri's stunning novel, one of my favorite books of all time.

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