balance

There's definitely a balance to be established in every classroom. As much as Mr. Cohen is somewhat free-thinking (understatement of the year) and has a unique classroom (that's more of an understatement), there is still a structure there that I'm not sure I noticed when I was a student. With the classes that are not that cooperative, he reminds me of the how the waste time affects them. In teaching I don't think there's any room for shyness ( a person would get stepped all over). Two things that are hard to describe are the following:

1) The ability to speak in a way that they can understand while still inspiring
2) Striking a balance between structure and keeping interest.

There are a few technique that vary with the style of teaching but a few principles nontheless.

Today I got to sit in on Ms. Ohle's English classes. In another journal, I get to critique and compare the teaching styles of the two teachers, which is really interesting to me because I never thought of there being more than one way of effectively teaching.

So we've begun the journal, which I think should prove somewhat useful. I also got to sit down and listen to discussion between Mr. Cohen and Ms. Ohle about the commonts written in there as well as qualms about starting ina new school (ergo: discussion flowed to a lot of different things).

They read Oranges (which is a poem by Gary Soto) and then illustrated pictures to go with the reading. I'm really intro art and literature so I love activities that use each to enhance each other. It made for new interests and learning about perspectives of these kids. In hearing the mentor/mentee discussion, I saw certain things that might be modified in a lesson to enhance it like reading the whole poem--then in parts later, instead of beginning with reading it in parts--to prevent unwanted behavior (also singling-out or questions to reduce talk-backiness).