End of the School Year Rush

I apologize for not posting as I should have been....in the midst of finishing up our last unit, preparing my portfolio and final presentation, and all the end of the school year activities, I've neglected this blog. Sorry!

Last week was seriously a blur. I had my students work in groups on an activity called Making Comparisons. There were six groups and each group had a specific topic to research regarding islands in Oceania. All my classes do really well working in groups when they have to research information, organize it, and display it on a poster board.

Friday was really frustrating because my students went on a field trip to watch FD's production of High School Musical and when they got back, all they wanted to do was talk about the musical. I had to find ways to move the conversation from High School Musical to Oceania.

Yesterday was the only day I have class time with my students because they have SAT10s for the rest of the week. We had roundtable discussions about their unit projects and I'm really excited to see their final products!

How are you guys doing with your portfolios and final presentation?

Games Work

In summary, games in the classroom work.

From the end of the first quarter to the present, I have been having struggles with my 7th period.  This period   has many issues: its at the end of the day, many of the students are of the naughty variety, and many of the students are of the immature variety.  Due to the time issue and student chemistry, teaching this period has been pretty painful so far until yesterday.  I played a brainstorming game with my students that I found on the link below.  

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/learninggame/learninggame002b.shtml

This game was successful and showed me that the students can work well together. At the end of the lesson, one of my students came up to me and said he wanted to play the game again next week.  Whew! I must admit that having some success and making progress with this period feels pretty good.  Use games! It works!

The troubled student

Some good news to share with everyone. My student that has had problems throughout the school year has finally broke through the mold. I am getting to him as far as teaching is concerned. I just wish that it  didn't take him this long to realize that education is important. He finally admitted to me that he just did not want to do the work. But lately, he has been turning in all his assignments. But there is another story to that. A couple of my other students, are slacking now. I am still so agitated and I have feelings of failure. But then I tell myself that it might not be me, because I know I am doing many things right, perhaps I need to work on my motivational skills. But as the school year comes to an end, I feel like I have a lot of work to do in regards to classroom management (in all aspects) to better my teaching for next school year.

Selective Attention Test and Monkey Business Illusion

Hey everyone!

I wanted to share these videos that I found on you tube  which can help to prove to your students why its important to pay attention fully in class.  The selective attention test and monkey business illusion found at these links respectively.

Selective Attention Test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
Monkey Business Illusion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY

Both tests are a segue that you can use to approach the topic of paying attention to the teacher in the classroom.  If one's attention is split between multiple activities, then that person may missing some other important event.  I also use the law against using your cell phones while driving as a another example of these tests  Enjoy!
 

Presentations and Projects

Since last week was a 5-day week, we had our regular 75-minute classes on Tuesday and Thursday and then had 40-minute classes on Friday. Thursday was a lesson on Russia. Since Friday classes were so short, I took it as an opportunity to let my students work on their public speaking/presentation skills and had them present their current events to the class. I've noticed that more and more students are becoming comfortable speaking in front of the class.

I'm excited to start the next unit on Oceania. I plan on assigning a unit project with different options such as essays/other written work, videos, songs, or artwork. Any tips on grading rubrics?

Long Week Woes

Buenas! This week is the first 5-day week we've had in a while. It doesn't help that I had a church retreat all weekend and got a total of 4 hours of sleep. Dr. Rivera came in for a surprise observation. My lesson was just a simple lecture on two major issues that plague Europeans today. My classes were receptive for the most part. They really don't like traditional lectures but there's just no way to completely eliminate them from classes, especially since ND is a college preparatory school and most teachers in college just lecture the whole time. I have a couple issues with students wearing their uniforms improperly or just wanting to have side conversations but that's nothing new or difficult to deal with.

I hope everyone has a good week!

Scheduling issues

Hello group,

Lately, I have felt bombarded with work other than teaching.  I feel the scheduling for these activities were not well thought out nor were they very conducive to allowing teachers the time before SAT-10s to focus on teaching.  This week is Chamorro week at IMS.  Monday is a shortened schedule day because we have a Chamorro week opening ceremony that we have to attend.  Wednesday is a mini-course day.  Thursday is PTC, and lastly, Friday is also a fiesta day for the kids.  Tuesday is the only day that we have a full day to teach.  The students are not focused in the classroom because of the constant shortened days and activities.  I am so frustrated. 

Differentiating Instruction

Last week Thursday made me realize that differentiating instruction based on entire classes is just as important as differentiating instruction based on individual students. I had my students use a graphic organizer to organize information on the human geography of Europe and encouraged them not only to use bullet points but also to draw or create symbols to help them remember the information they read. Each student had their own graphic organizer to complete and then they were tasked to fill in poster-sized graphic organizers that I prepared for them and posted on the walls of the classroom. My fifth block loved this activity! They were really enthusiastic about gathering the information and were really creative when creating symbols to represent the information they gathered. My sixth block was not so enthused. I've realized that they perform really well with traditional, structured lecture and note-taking but do not do so well when the activity has more freedom and requires creativity. My seventh block was a mix of students who really liked the activity and students who just wanted to finish the block so they could go home.

I've learned that I have to be more creative when planning activities for my students and that sometimes, I have to plan different activities for each of my classes based on what keeps them engaged and the style of learning they are most comfortable with.

Student Exchange

There was an island wide high school student exchange today amongst the public schools and it was a great experience for many of the host students as well as the visiting ones. Many of the visiting students were brought into my class by some of my former students who wanted to show them how Chamoru classes are conducted at Southern High as opposed to their respective schools. I was surprised to hear them say things like, "Oh, we don't really do that much Chamoru speaking.", and, "We usually just sing or cook Chamoru food."

Needless to say, I was shocked. At the beginning of the year, the content standards for Chamoru classes were revised and issued to all of us. This shows me that many teachers are not following the standards and these kids fro other schools are being robbed of their cultural education. I felt horrible about the situation, so I decided to include them my lesson and have them participate with my class in the chanting activity. I gave them a short history lesson on the importance of oral traditions (which was a good review for my students who had heard the lesson prior) in the Micronesian islands and how it can be seen and used in these modern times. The visiting students said that they usually just learn the song and sing it, but there really isn't any explanation or lesson to help support it.

I was glad to hear the visiting students say how much they enjoyed themselves and how Southern High really isn't as "scary" and "ghetto" as they had heard it was. I felt that they were welcomed with open arms by the Southern High community and made new lifelong friends here. I just now hope that they take their positive experiences back with them to their schools and share about the hospitality they received and the fun they had at our school. Here's to hoping!

Post-Spring Break Surprise

Based on all my years as a student, I was mentally preparing myself for the worst first day back from Spring Break...imagining students who just wanted to socialize or who were just checked out of the school year. I was pleasantly surprised when my students came to class ready to start their new unit. I planned for the class to work in groups and, for the first time, grouped the students rather than allowing them to choose their own groups. I got a couple of complaints but was able to settle everyone down and explain their assignment and the rest of the class time went smoothly.

I also implemented "Entrance" and "Exit" tickets yesterday. The entrance tickets helped me gauge what my students knew about our new unit and the exit tickets gave me immediate feedback on what they got out of the class period.

This week is week 1 of the last 7 weeks of classes. There are a number of activities planned for the rest of the year and I just hope my students will continue to cooperate and work diligently until the end of the semester.

Professional Development

We had our 2nd Professional Development Training today. I must say that it was a very productive one. Our administrative team treated us to a great hotel and ballroom and breakfast and lunch. It was a great way to kick-off "back-to-school" after Spring Break. I learned quite a bit today, from special education and the proper IEP process and the possibilities of mainstreaming to the implementation of the Positive Behavior Intervention and Support System (PBIS); this had to be the most important part of the event for me, because it was all-encompassing of the laws of the department, the School Resource Officers (SRO's), Character Education, and Discipline (Referrals). I thought that everything I learned was detrimental to the smoothness of my classroom and the environment. Southern High School is trying to implement the "PBIS" for the sake of creating a more positive environment for everyone involved in the success of education.