Friday must be coming...

The timed writing went well, however some of the students who finished quicker could not read silently. Some took the extra time to finish their other work from world geography, which was fine. According to Ms. Reese, the vice principal said if any students in Options are behind in their work, we can send them to O-Class. After I look through all the grades, and post them on Monday, I'm sure several students will be spending time there.

I reviewed Flowers for Algernon with the 3 girls today. The boys had not read the story so I'll have to figure out how to catch them up to speed. I'm going to check with their previous teachers, and just maybe give them a clean slate to work from. They've both were responsive to the writing assignments I gave them, which gave the impression they want to succeed. Also, their participation in the sentence activity was very good. One girl imparticular may be a problem. This is someone who told us earlier this week that she wouldn't mind having a baby in 2 years. I was shocked and told her that it's not a good idea to have a child so young...wait till your 25 and finished with college.

A very good day

It started with this horoscope:
The stars want you to have fun. And if you're not already having fun, expect festive interference from unlikely sources. For instance, imagine your door flying open as a pack of giggling children pour into your room. The innocent and naive turn out to be your best teachers. Those who work in education are probably quite familiar with this miracle already.

I picked 5 letters that had compelling reasons why I shouldn't assign any homework this weekend. I read them to the class without naming names. I then handed out an autobiographical narrative and we read and discussed each paragraph. Some students surprised me with their support or disagreement with the essay, which also brought up the fact that if the students take a position and write about it, they will encounter some opposition. I believe some of the students will do well on the writing exam tomorrow.

Two new students have joined the 8th grade class, which will change the environment. They are boys. It has been nice with just the three girls, but now there's an element of innocent flirting. It should be alright though, because the boys know it's their last chance to make good. I already saw a problem when they were brought in earlier. One of them defies authority. He might be a problem, but I left before he actually came into the class.

Better Attitude

I think that word spread that I'll also send students to O-Class after school. Two of the students I sent on Monday acted much better on Tuesday. I gave them part two of adverbs and most of them understood what they needed to do. I'll give them the Holt adverb worksheet on Wednesday and allow them to refer to their previous worksheets and notes. If this works out better than the previous Holts, I'll probably do it this way from now on. Only one person did the plot outline. Some said they didn't understand it, however, Miss Reese commented that many of them use that as an excuse to not do their homework. Most of them didn't write their suspense stories over the weekend because of the same reason and I reminded them that last Friday, when we were in the big circle, I asked them, "Do you understand what you need to do? Does anyone have any questions?" They have a timed writing exam on Thursday. The prompt is to write a persuasive essay either for or against their family moving to Las Vegas. I've been assigning in-class writing assignments that reflect personal experiences emphasizing their need for detail. Their last writing assignment was to write a persuasive letter to me, explaining why I shouldn't give them homework over this weekend. There were two exceptional letters, one used transitions, which I have mentioned but not gone over yet. She even signed off on her letter, "Attentively," which really impressed me. I gave them and went over a handout on formal essay writing and we'll be going over an autobiographical narrative Wednesday. The exam on "The Most Dangerous Game" is on Friday. They're in for a rude awakening if they didn't read, look over, or reread the story.

I met my supervisor and I'm looking forward to his evaluations. Miss Reese has expressed how well I've been handling the students, but it will be good to hear even more feedback. Sometimes I have self-doubts about what I'm doing.

In the 8th grade class we read up to the last couple of pages of Flowers for Algernon. We had discussed the differences on campus between the "smart students" and the "too cool to study students" and the ones in-between. We compared them to the different intelligences portrayed in the story. I'll have to ask them if they know any mentally challenged students on campus or in their neighborhood. I'd never thought about discussing that with them. I had them do the same persuasive letter, and though they made some good points, their letters weren't as detailed as the 9th. (So I think I'm doing something right in the first class.) It was hard to motivate the 8th graders today because they ran in P.E. and were very sluggish.

Typical Monday

Is it the heat, the room, the fact that they have to sit for 3 hours? A little squirrely today and I had to drop the nice guy attitude and assign detention. I think they thought I was kidding. All it takes is a couple students to ruin it for the rest because there are a number of students who want to succeed. I introduced the 9th graders to adverbs today. I plan on working with them for a couple days on adverbs and usage before giving them the Holt worksheet, which in the past seemed a little difficult. The handouts I created help illustrate form and usage. I'll let them use them when they work on the Holt. I asked them to write about the "best day they ever had." I told them to include as many details as they can. They have a timed writing test on Thursday, so over the past couple of weeks I've had them writing, writing, and writing. And they complain, complain, and complain. However, I've noticed a few students improving their spelling and writing skills. Their first big essay is an "Autobiographical Narrative," which I've also been prepping them on.

It was catch-up day with the 8th graders. Two of the girls had to take quizzes and I had them work on the packet that accompanied Flowers for Algernon. We should be done by tomorrow with the story test on Friday. There's never much to say about them because I don't encounter the same problems I do with the 9th graders.

Much Better

I was still a little depressed about how the 9th graders were acting yesterday. So what I did was look back on their journal papers on "Respect." I pulled meaningful statements out of these papers and made a list. I also included some from their "Responsibility" papers. I made copies and at the beginning of the class, I made them put their desks in a circle. I then told them, "A friend of mine told me that for the first time since I've been teaching, I didn't 'light-up' when I was talking about my students." I asked the students if they knew why. Some of them commented that it's because they were bad yesterday. At that point, I asked for volunteers to start reading the list out loud. I would stop them and discuss what was said and they began to realize that it was what they had written. I then compared what they wrote to their actions yesterday. This really sank in because a few times during the discussion later, some students told others to stop talking because they were being disrespectful. We read a good portion of the story today, although the discussion could have been a little stronger, but overall they acted much better today which was a great feeling. I gave them a writing assignment over the weekend and a new homework/assignment sheet that I will be collecting every Thursday and signing off on completed assignments.

In the 8th grade class, we began reading part 2 of Flowers for Algernon. I also had them write about "Respect" and "Responsibility. I know there's only 3 students, but it's refreshing after the morning class.

Restless

The natives were a little restless today. It was apparent most of them didn't read the story. Some are testing their boundaries with me, but I did manage to give them the "disappointing" stare. I then decided to call on the ones that were talking to answer questions on the story. We ended up reading parts of it in class. I gave them a handout on pronouns and after correcting them, I found it interesting that some of them didn't spell the reflexive pronouns correctly even though they were at the top of the page. Today reminded me of the crappy days I had at the other middle school last year. However, I have to keep reminding myself that these are not regular students.

I may have a problem 8th grader. She came in today in a very negative mood. I thought her attitude was such a flip from the student who wanted to do better just a couple of days ago. Again, I have to remind myself that I can't save every child. I can only do the best I can. I handed out a packet that goes along with Flowers for Algernon. We worked on that and prepositions.

Tuesday and today

Yesterday, I used a prewriting exercise from the Holt textbook and asked the 9th graders to write about 3 meaningful experiences. As the students either thought about it or started writing I walked around and gave them ideas to write about, such as their first time at Disneyland, traveling to another state/country/city. One student wrote about shooting a gun, so I asked the class if any of them experienced the death of someone close. Quite a few wrote on this subject. Many were able to finish while others struggled. I was pleased with some of the results. I went over two handouts, one on verbs, the other on concrete, abstract, proper, and common nouns. There are several students who are a little confused about distinguishing between the two.

In the 8th grade class, we read and discussed the first entries by Charlie in Flowers for Algernon.

Today, I returned the experience papers back to the students so they could see the comments I made. I then asked them to write one paragraph each on "pride" and "honor." I asked them to tell me what each word means to them; are they proud of something they do? Do they understand what it means to be honorable? Some struggled with this and I told them to do the best they could and give me something. I explained that soldiers wear their uniforms with pride and they feel it's an honor to serve in the military. A few lights went on and I know some of the students wrote about having a relative in the army and fought in Iraq. They had to turn in the two paragraphs along with the experience paper I returned to them. Basically, they've written a 5 paragraph essay. Some of them can't argue and say they can't write one now.

The 8th graders had a quiz on literary terms and on the previous nights reading of Flowers for Algernon. I wanted to work with them on prepositions, but we got off on a tangent from our discussion and ran short on time. I even forgot to give them a handout, but our discussion about certain events in the book was great. Especially when Charlie realizes that his so-called "friends" have been making fun of him all along. The girls could relate to this.

I went to my first faculty meeting today and I could tell there was a little tension between the teachers and the administration. I can't remember who had commented to me that working with the Options students might turn me off on teaching because of all the behavior/discipline problems I'll encounter. I'm more turned off on the attitude toward the teachers from the administration. I know all schools are different, but everyone I've met so far has been great. It's just a shame if the one who is suppose to lead acts more like a dictator. But I just nodded my head and smiled during the presentation.

Falling Flat

I thought I'd try something new today with the 9th graders. I had them read the poem "My Father is a Simple Man," by Luis Salas. Students took turns reading it aloud and then I read and asked questions on certain aspects of the poem, such as tone, mood, metaphor, and meaning. I then showed them a portrait, "Campesino con Sombrero," by Diego Rivera. I read background information on Rivera and the portrait. I wanted to try to show how these two creative individuals honored their subjects in relation to Capote's A Christmas Memory. I thought that perhaps the students would be able to relate to works done by other Hispanics. Was I wrong! This exercise was taken from the Holt literature supplemental reading textbook. There were four questions, and I read and explained each one. However, further explanation was needed because many did not understand what the question was asking. On the plus side, they did respond favorably to both the poem and portrait. There were several students who came up with some very interesting answers, which showed strong critical thought and analysis. We went over verbs today, and much to my dismay, many of them find verbs hard to identify.

I went over sentence structures with the 8th graders. The difficult part was the subject and predicate identifications. I was even getting confused which meant I was thinking way too hard on the subject. Sometimes I forget and think that students would know and understand what I was talking about. They were able to identify main subjects, objects, and verbs. We started reading Flowers for Algernon. I thought it was amusing when they found it hard to read some of the mispelled words in the first entries of Charlie's journal. I express that I sometimes find it hard to read some of the other student's handwriting and spelling (hint hint).

Friday

The natives were restless! I had to constantly stay on them but they manage to finish each assignment I gave them.
"Mr. H, why are you giving us so much work today?"
"Because most of you don't do your homework."

I worked through a characterization of Buddy's cousin in A Christmas Memory.
"Why are we still reading this story?"
"Because most of you didn't read the story."

They worked on a handout of concrete, common, proper, and abstract nouns. I also gave them a couple new literary terms because there is a quiz on Monday. The hour I worked with them was a little tiresome. I looked forward to my 8th grade class. There was only two and they had a test on Broken Chain. I also did a previous knowledge exercise with them because we are going to start Flowers for Algernon on Monday.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday I tried doing a warm-up exercise using analogies with the 9th graders. This fell flat because many of the students didn't know what most of the words were. I will try this again using easier words and hopefully they'll be able to at least see the relationships. I returned previous work and corrected the spell checker handout with them. It was apparent that most of them didn't read the story, so we started to read it aloud. I could tell that many of them could not relate to the ingredients of the fruitcake, so I asked them "How many of you have tamales around Christmas time?" At this point, the room lit up and almost all of them explained the ingredients and how to make them. I then related what they traditionally do with what was happening in the story.

I took your advice and broke the story up into specific sections: setting/plot, irony, climax, and foreshadow, and had the class form groups to answer specific questions using the literary terms. These questions came straight from the textbook. I indicated what parts they should reread. I plan to have them share with the class what they found. This exercise worked out better than I expected with two of the groups reading through the passages and answering the questions. One group failed miserably even though it had two very smart students who thought talking was more important.

What can I say about my 8th graders? There are only three of them and they work very hard and want to get good grades. I believe one of them might have ADD. I caught her day dreaming twice while I was lecturing. One of the nice things about these girls is that they help each other. We will be starting "Flowers for Algernon" next week. I'm thinking 1 1/2-2 weeks for this one.

The Options Program at Granger is very strict. The students can only come to school and then leave right after their last class. None of them can participate in any extracurricular activities. However, if they pass this semester, they can finish the school year in regular classes. Most are in there because they failed 2 classes or more. Some are in there because they are disruptive. Any violations of the rules in the classroom, the student is sent to O-class right after school. They can spend anywhere from an hour to three hours after school. The teacher that runs O is very military strict, so the students try harder to behave.

Miss Reese is great! She sets the tone at the beginning of the day and for three hours, the 9th graders are pretty good for the most part. There are a few problem children, but I know they're trying. Miss Reese is sweet and nice, but very stern. It's a good lead to follow. Sometimes they try to take advantage of me, but I've been fine tuning my "look," and they get the message.

"Too much work!"

I tried a warm-up exercise with the 9th graders today: combining two small sentences into one. I used an overhead, read the directions with samples, and did the first one with them. I reviewed the literary terms and added 5 more. I gave them a parts of speech handout called, "Mister E an Miss Steaks." It is a paragraph of words that a "pea see" would "knot" correct if they used a spell "chequer." Some found it fun while others thought it was hard. We started reading "A Christmas Memory" aloud and I had them write about their most vivid Christmas memory they could remember.

I reviewed again, the elements of a story with "Broken Chain" with the 8th grade class. We discussed the events in the story that led up to the climax. I had them answer two of the discussion questions at the end of the story. Using the Holt grammar textbook, we discussed compound nouns. I was told by one of the students that she didn't know what a noun or verb was. So I went through a quick lesson on the two terms and will create a plan for them tomorrow, adding prepositions too. I had them create 5 sentences using the vocabulary from "Broken Chain," and then had them write a letter as if they were the main character, Alfonso, asking for advice to deal with his situations.

Prepositions

I went over prepositions with the 9th graders today. Most of them seemed to understand, but there were a few that had trouble. I gave them a handout on nouns, 20 sentences, underline all the nouns. I noticed some difficulty, especially with idea nouns. I started going over literary terms with them and used Disney's Cinderella as the example of plot, conflict, climax, etc. I found out who cannot read very well because the students read a little and then passed the book along to someone else. I worry about some of the harder short stories that we'll be reading from the textbook. Only 6 students turned in their homework.

We have a third student in our 8th grade class now. The department chair dropped off a box of lessons that follow the Holt textbook. This makes my life a little easier because it's for 5 weeks. I discussed the story "Broken Chain" with the two that read it. I'm trying to get the new student up to speed. That is one of the hard parts about this assignment. A new student may show up and I've got to figure out a way to get them caught up with the rest. We had a little extra time, so I talked with the students about college and careers.

End of first week

We both agreed that the first week went really well and told the 9th grade class how pleased we were. Two students were added to our class, so we have 14 now. They finished their last part of the HOLT test, and then I went over some more homonyms. Most of them I found in their first writing assignments. I reviewed parts of a sentence with them; nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The in-class assignment was identifying sentences and fragments. I then had them create a sentence off the top of their heads using the above three parts. I plan on going over prepositions with them on Monday, and a possible quiz later in the week over the terms. The library dropped off all the teacher materials for their literature book. I'll be starting with A Christmas Memory on Monday. The English department chair dropped off a bunch of lessons after I left, which will be a big help. Their homework over the weekend is to write a one page reflection on "Respect."

With the 8th graders, I had them finish the last 10 questions from the previous day's assignment. We then reviewed the elements of a novel and I added setting. I then had them read aloud the story Broken Chain by Gary Soto. I stopped them at certain parts so we could discuss what was going on and apply their knowledge of terms to the story. We ran out of time, and I told them we'd finish on Monday, but they wanted to find out what happened, so I told them to read it over the weekend for homework. (Even though I said I wasn't going to assign any because of the HOLT testing.)

Textbooks

Both classes took part two of the HOLT test. With the 9th graders, I asked them what each one wanted to be 10 years from now, and I wrote the various job professions on the board. I then went through each one and explained how much college each one needed to attain their goal. I kept emphasizing the foundations built now, would benefit them in the future. The ones who wanted to be sports stars never realized that some of the top athletes have gone to college. We started working on sentences and sentence fragments after the discussion. We then went to the library so they could be assigned a textbook.

In the 8th grade class, we reviewed elements of a novel, and I added a few more for discussion. We still have only two girls in the class right now. What I like about it is that they both have my complete attention, so it's sort of like private tutoring. They were also assigned textbooks today.

HOLT tests

Today, I started both classes on the HOLT in-coming tests. According to the directions, I was allowed to break the test up into three parts. Most of the reading/comprehension was done today. After both classes were done, I had them write me a "Dear Mr. H" letter and tell me a little about themselves. This gave me a chance to see what their writing was like. After reading them, I was able to see what areas needed special attention, such as punctuation and sentence development.

With the 9th graders, I wrote commonly misused homonyms, like to, too, and two, and asked them to explain the difference between them and how each one is used. We did 6 sets of words. We then went over the use of apostrophes. Towards the end of the class period, I had them form a circle with their desks and told them to come inside and lean on the tops. As the odd man out, I stood in the center and said, "I need a friend who wears blue pants." Everyone has to move and change to a different desk. The odd student out does the same thing and so forth. My intent was to get the students comfortable speaking in front of an audience because the class will have to do a speech in the future. I was impressed that some of the quieter students wanted to participate.

With the 8th graders, I started going over the elements of a novel. I started with plot, conflict, climax, and resolution. In addition to the Holt Language Arts textbook, I used the movie The Wizard of Oz as an example because, like a novel, this movie has clear examples of the above. As we were discussing these elements, one of the girls (there's only two students right now) pulled out a sheet of paper and started taking notes. The other girl followed her lead. I will reiterate what we went over tomorrow because Miss Reese asked what I was going to do when more students came in. So I might be going over the above a few more times, but add other elements as well, such as setting, characters, subplots, etc.

First Day

I was a little scared because this is a program called Options, which comprises of at-risk students. I felt that it was a good group of students, however, I've been told that the number may increase up to 25, maybe even 30. I'm not sure what Miss Reese will do next semester if that's the case. The staff that I've met so far have been friendly and helpful.

There are two separate class sessions: 9th in the morning, 8th in the afternoon. Each session is 3 hours long. Today the rules, regulations, and expectations were told to the students. I got a first hand look at the security/administration personnel as they sternly expressed what each student is responsible for.

We did a small math exercise, followed by a combination world history/English assignment. Had an hour break before the 8th grade class, which turned out to be only one student so far. That is one drawback to this class because students will be filtering in as the weeks progress. There are a few potential problem students, but I think they just need a little balance and focus. I kept reiterating how important their education is to them now, and in the future, and how all of them will be able to attend college if they work hard.

New school....new challenge.

I've been assigned a new school and I went to map out my route. It's in an interesting suburban neighborhood. I spoke to my new master teacher and we had a great conversation on the phone and I'll meet her for the first time tomorrow morning. She has worked my schedule so that I do my classes, prep, tutorial, and lunch in one block of time. The class size as of right now is 13 9th graders and 5 8th graders.

The students are considered at-risk students, some of whom read between a 3rd-5th grading level. My niece kept singing the theme song to Dangerous Minds as we drove around the neighborhood. One of the great things that my master teacher said she was going to do was introduce me as a "traveling teacher."

She informed me that the curriculum for the 9th graders won't be ready until October! So we will be kind of creating lessons following the old curriculum. I'm looking forward to this new assignment. I know it's going to be a lot harder than my last one, but I'm in a much better place mentally and emotionally.

We will probably do introductions over the first few days. My master teacher teaches math and history and told me that my covering the English part is a big help. I do wonder how hard I can push them and what my boundaries and limits will be, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow.