march eighteenth

This is my last day at FAMS. Next week I'm transferring to a job at Ryan McGinley studios.

In Ms. Ohle's class:
The students are working on persuasive essays. From what I can remember those essays are a little monotonous, but that doesn't seem to be the case in this class. One of the student is considering writing about Facebook, which is encouraged by the teachers. If the students are allowed to and encouraged to write about things they're truly interested about, then they are introduced to writing as something that can be related to one's life. It doesn't have to be "should schools have uniforms?" SAT style, but it can be something that is very related to one's life.

In Ms. Ohle's second class, there is a new student. It's kind of an interesting curve to be thrown in terms of teaching. Ms. Ohle talks to him casually adn asks about the cirriculum at his old school. It makes him not "off limits" and not off limits to talk to him, while still being the teacher. Too much talking to him and it makes him seem like a teacher's pet, and diminishes his chance of ever becoming accustomed to the new school and new students.

march eleventh

this is nearly my last week at FAMS.

my first class was cohen's. we played a word video game. the game gives directions in very sophisticated language, about a magic forest, in which you are the main character. the object of the game is to get out of the forest and reach any sort of "next step". It's a great tool that both employs the new technology and embraces it as a way for the "digital natives" to learn about how story is written. Even the student who said that she didn't "like video games" was pulled into the project.

During Mr. Cohen's last class, I tried my hand at teaching. It's very difficult to do I must say--to keep their attention, and have plans to move if the said lesson plan does not work the way that you'd hoped. I think mostly what I hadn't accounted for was that these students are not my age. These are eighth grade students, and the maturity/interest level might not be the same as what mine might be. It was definitely an interesting thing to try and I think that maybe with a little more practice in the future it could be something I would consider for a job. I suppose before I go making big career decisions, I have to continue to study what I love, and explore things I think I might.

march fourth

Today, in Mr. Cohen's first class, a student didn't understand what "logging your reading" meant. She wrote a record of the amount of pages she'd read, and the time she'd done it in! It's funny, the kind of clashing there is between what the students have been taught up to this point, and what they are expected to do. A lot of the elementary and middle school cirriculum is about organization, rules, and having forms and folders. It's funny because, before they've entered Mr. Cohen's class, they are used to having one assignment, completing it the exact predictable way, and then getting the next assignment. This catches a student off guard when, they are handed several assignments, all due by the end of the month, and for the first time in a long time, they are asked to think.

The seventh graders are a difficult breed of people, especially since this is their first year of being exposed to this.

I stayed at Mr. Cohen's second hour, wrote a little bit, and helped a teacher organize some of her papers.

Third class, I visited Ms. Ohle's class. She's teaching a lesson about connotation. She's really getting really good at keeping them in tune, especially when you have to teach a lesson about connotation. She began the lesson with giving them names of different kinds of 1950's, 60's, 70's cars and asking them to name what they thought of. After sharing, they looked at pictures of those cars. She talked about what the names had implied, which is a great way to keep them in tune about word choice.

february eleventh

today was just another day at the office.
the kids are giddy and ready to be on their break

We will have to hold off on my paper mache lesson until after break because of their giddiness, and mostly because we haven't gotten to a point in what needs to get done to do that lesson yet. It will be soon, but also it must be well planned. It's good that I get some extra time; it will give me some time to think about what I want a room to look like when I teach as well as prepare myself mentally.

I know that I want to teach, it's just not going to be easy that first time. Thrilling, but not easy at all.

Today I visited both Ms. Ohle's classes and Mr. Cohen's classes, both of which are filled with students ready to jump out of their skin with anxoiusness to sleep in, go skiing or go to the beach for the next week. I don't blame them it's just difficult to know what to do with all that giddiness. How do you turn the energy into something constructive for class? Short of taking your class bungee jumping, there's not much that can be done to salvage your students--the warp of winter vacation has already sucked them in. You could always take them outside, or have them write about what they're excited about. The vacation next week is the elephant in the room--you can ignore it, or you can channel it into something positive.

february 4th

i'm preparing to teach any time now. currently, the students in Mr. Cohen's class are reading a book called "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" by Salman Rushdee. The book addresses the common question of "what is the point of stories that aren't true" that I even struggle with as an artist and a writer. The book is really imaginative and plays with language.

In that book, there is something called "process to difficult to explain" or a P2D2E. Next week, or the week after break, when a few things clear up in class, we will be building some of those out of paper mache.

First class (Cohen): I find that I really observe everything differently and perhaps a little more closely when I know that I'm going to have to be up there speaking soon. Today the class was really rowdy, as I'm sure they often are around this time of year when everyone is restless for a break. They had a double period. I just don't know how much can be done for a group of students like this--what can you really get out of it? Short of playing tag, is there anything you can do to channel that energy into something useful? Not even productive, but just useful?

Second class (Ohle): There was a substitute teacher in class today. Students really do a lot to try and get the substitute teacher to give them more of a break, but less so in middle school than in high school. Today there was grammar followed by the start to a new class book called "Cheater" by Michael Laser.

january 21st

I looked in on three classes, starting with Mr. Cohen's. I am really distracted with trying to think of something to teach. Mr. Cohen gave me some really helpful advice thoug--it's not about giving them information, but about creating an environment in which learning can happen. It's about encouraging learning, not writing a script for it.

The second and third class were both Ms. Ohle's language art classes. In both of her classes they're reading book reports. I really enjoyed listening to these, and I'm not sure why we don't do them as adults. They seem to get everyone involved and keep the class in a discussion format. To make sure the kid's aren't falling asleep, there's a quick quiz at the end of three things they learned or liked from the presentations. What I learned about this is that the kids really enjoy it and it really pulls everyone in, talking about literature.

In the third class, Ms. Ohle had a few students finish up their book report presentations. Then the students wrote about their parents and their own reaction to the recent inauguration. I think a lot of lit classes could learn from what's going on in Ms. Ohle's. Lit doesn't have to be something that's distant and foreign to the students--it's essentially the study of how we express ourselves with words. That leaves little excuse for boring lit curriculums that may have forgotten what it's about. It's about involving the students in learning about themselves--that's what 8th grade was for me anyway. I think a lot of the time there is distraction in the form of bombarding students with standardized tests and numbers. There's no bubble for what you should learn in an English, literature or language arts class.

december 10th

Today I observed both classrooms. It's interesting to see how different teachers will approach the same project. For example, before Mr. Cohen's class was working on a book called "Inherit the Wind" and now Ms. Ohle's class is doing the same. The book is based on the scopes trial that took place in 1925 in Tennessee. The differences in the two approaches toward this book are so incredibly different although both include the students reading the play aloud, which really gets some of the rowdier, more theatrical students involved.

In Mr. Cohen's class, they're working on video projects using an online video maker, which is a website that produces videos from tracks of your music with pictures. The website is really remarkable, and a useful tool for getting the students to really be part of the imagery in the literature. I'm gonna get registered so I can make a video from the pictures of the students fingerpainting.

The fingerpainting projects were designed to have the students "make a conversation in the paint." This communication through solely image is intended to strengthen the thought processes behind communication From their work, they will bring poems from image. This translation of media is supposed to enhance their ability to understand the relatability between what's happening in the different forms of communication. It's really deep stuff for eight graders, but very cool.