tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post4673867696859144961..comments2023-05-22T10:24:47.725-04:00Comments on Re-Learning To Teach: Day 11: Crash, Burn, Cry, Try AgainJustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309915942161862912noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post-69398243146012604522013-09-12T15:47:38.523-04:002013-09-12T15:47:38.523-04:00Dude, you're teaching 8th graders in 87 degree...Dude, you're teaching 8th graders in 87 degree rooms. Isn't that one of the automatic qualifications for sainthood, right after not decomposing after you die?<br /><br />I dreamed about the McDonald's problem last night, I can't remember exactly what I dreamed but I was explaining to someone that you'd have to run for 4 hours to burn off a McFlurry and were they still going to order it knowing that. And the lady in my dream was like, "really, 4 hours? That's crazy. I guess I won't be needing that..." and then we talked about how many McNuggets a person could eat and someone thought maybe 1000 or 1000000...<br /><br />Noticing and wondering seems to help kids with reading comprehension. I'm also a big fan of acting stories out (with manipulatives or as little plays) and then checking if what was acted out matched the story. Also reading a sentence at a time and predicting what it will be about. Or one partner reads a paragraph and the other summarizes it in under 10 words.<br /><br />Oh, but mostly patience. Kids get better at things they try and then try again and maybe reflect on a little in between, which is exactly what you're doing, you saint, you.Maxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16935784635103701185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post-32668097095861041772013-09-12T09:31:00.850-04:002013-09-12T09:31:00.850-04:00I don't want to make myself out to be a saint....I don't want to make myself out to be a saint. I definitely have my moments where I scream to myself "THEY CAN'T DO ANYTHING!!!" but getting frustrated with them isn't productive, so I take that and try to find what they need. It's better for them and, more importantly, better for me.<br /><br />What I'm discovering is that their math skills are lower than I would like, but they aren't really the problem. The main problems are their reading and comprehension skills. Many of them are auditory learners by default because their ability to read and understand is negligible and I'm not sure what to do with that. I have them practice reading and writing, but it's going to be a long road.<br /><br />I like the idea of spreading it out over several days. Since this was the first project with them, the learning curve for them (read: me) is nearly asymptotic. <br /><br />As far as I could tell, they WOULD have gotten the emotion of the story, if they had understood what we were talking about. I couldn't seem to figure out how to get them to understand what we were ACTUALLY talking about. They were stuck on calculating calories for the food eaten and couldn't get past that.Justinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13309915942161862912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post-41435667388493351862013-09-11T22:03:01.236-04:002013-09-11T22:03:01.236-04:00I can tell from this post how you're not think...I can tell from this post how you're not thinking "oh snap! they don't know/can't do anything!" and instead focusing on "oh boy, I just learned something about them! Now I can think about helping them take the next step!" Well, once you get into a room that's not 87 degrees you can start thinking about that. I hear Friday will be in the 70s... <br /><br />One thing you might enjoy playing around with is doing preview teasers for a lesson like the Mathalicious one, at the end of class for 5 minutes at a time on the days leading up to it. Like if you're going to start one on Monday, show the first video Wednesday at the last 5 minutes. Then the last 10 minutes of Thursday show the video again and have them notice and wonder about it. Use that to figure out what they grasped about the video. Friday show it again and asked what they heard new this time or if there's anything they want to revise. Then ask them to think about which of their wonderings they could use math to figure out.<br /><br />I wonder sometimes (and Karim will come push back on me about this, I know!) if the things kids wonder are the things they're ready to think about. Comparing relationships is hard for people (especially 8th grade people), and so they might only be ready to think about calories <--> exercise and calories <--> food separately for a while. They might be genuinely perplexed by how exercise minutes and calories are related, and how food and calories are related, and struggle to go food <--> calories <--> exercise. Remember the Filling Glasses notice/wonder from TMC? Most kids can think about graph <--> rate and glass <--> rate but struggle to articulate glass <--> rate <--> graph in any coherent way (and that's with high-school students!)<br /><br />Spreading the launch out over a couple days gives you time to gather more of that data and decide if you need to let them play around with the pre-activity concepts like how does the time you spend running relate to the number of calories you burn, and how does the number of nuggets you eat relate to the number of calories you eat. And you don't have a whole day of "oh snap they so aren't ready for this!" because you're just doing 5 minutes at the end of the day and then you have time to go think about what you learned about them.<br /><br />Also -- I'm just curious -- did they get the emotion of the story? Like, did they get the idea that people make dumb choices at McDonald's and Karim wants to help people make healthier choices? Maxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16935784635103701185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post-3250174693857618132013-09-10T20:54:27.717-04:002013-09-10T20:54:27.717-04:00It IS a hard year! Because they grow up so much du...It IS a hard year! Because they grow up so much during the year, I forget that when they come in, I'm basically dealing with 7th graders.Justinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13309915942161862912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post-9528932217214246462013-09-10T20:41:23.081-04:002013-09-10T20:41:23.081-04:00YUCK to the icky temp!
8th is such a hard year, s...YUCK to the icky temp! <br />8th is such a hard year, sometimes they can act so grown up, I forget they still need a lot of hand holding in the beginning.<br /><br />Mrs.Nehilahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13446790876342568219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post-89279733032289469092013-09-10T17:29:09.952-04:002013-09-10T17:29:09.952-04:00I totally get it; I've experienced a lot of th...I totally get it; I've experienced a lot of that over the last week or so, putting something out there for them to pick up and run with, and having them react with varying levels of panic, disinterest, or other ... undesirable outcomes. I can also relate, today, to having unhappy flashbacks to last year. <br /><br />I appreciate your determination, and I appreciate that you wrote, "Maybe I'll even teach myself that in the process." Bull's-eye. Good thing it's so early in the year--we have so much time left to work with this ... crop?<br /><br />P.S. It must be rough without air conditioning--I can only imagine. BWAAA!!Darko Mittmerichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04277138678915717582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post-50695571788667141602013-09-10T16:32:05.931-04:002013-09-10T16:32:05.931-04:00I figured I would. I knew it was hot, but I didn&...I figured I would. I knew it was hot, but I didn't HOW hot until the end of the day.Justinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13309915942161862912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post-89540902408219244872013-09-10T16:27:24.303-04:002013-09-10T16:27:24.303-04:00Even the best teachers and most enthusiastic stude...Even the best teachers and most enthusiastic students will wilt at 87 degrees. Give yourself (and them) a pass for the day.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12738337403351667073noreply@blogger.com