History Alive

Both of my cooperating teachers have utilized the History Alive curriculum. I have not been super impressed by it. Has anyone had any experience with this curriculum and, if so, what do you think?

Group Poster Project

I assigned a group poster project in my A placement work sample. On the day it was due, I had three people turn it in. I had assigned this as an individual project in one class and made it a group assignment in the other. The individual project was not handed in on time either, but the quality of the posters was much higher, generally, for the individual ones. So, my question: group poster projects, do they work? Or are they done better individually?

Groups

What do you think is best for putting groups together?  Do you go through ahead of time and put them together, taking each student into consideration?  Or do you allow them to form their own groups?  Or do you do it randomly?

Triumph

It is suspected that he has Asbergers, but he hasn't been tested.  He is defiant and sullen and never works in class.  He tried to pull me into a head to head, but I disengaged and asked my cooperating teacher if there was anything I should know. "If he is sitting quietly, that is all I care about".  

A week ago, I walked past his desk and instead of working on the worksheet, he was drawing. I asked him to tell me about it and we got to talking about books and games that he likes as well. It was the first positive interaction we had had.  It was only the second interaction we had had.

He came in during lunch to show me a new drawing and he and his friend stayed and finished their worksheet.

Excellent.

Swearing

I'm at least the third in the cohort to blog about swearing.  What the others have asked is, how do you handle students who swear?  But my question is this: do we have the right to care?  Most of you know that I really try not to swear. I try to be aware of the language that I am using and the impression it leaves on others.  But the fact is that swearing is mostly accepted and rampant in adult society. When I brought it up after class, one person said, "Well, when they enter the work force, they will have to be able to clean up their language." Really?  Because I have had several jobs in the work force, and I can tell you that in none of those places was the language clean (except for my years in Provo, UT.  I bet I could count on one hand the swear words I heard and I'm pretty sure I was responsible for at least four).  

So again, my question is, do we have the right to care?  Isn't it hypocritical to correct the student's language and then turn around and use it ourselves?  Until we're willing to clean up ourselves, do we really have the right to tell them that they can't swear?  

(Of course, I recognize that in many schools it is policy, but if that is the case then they usually have guidelines for dealing with it, in which case, they way we deal with it will be in accordance with that policy.  My question is more of a personal one.) 

What's in a name?

I'm having the hardest time remembering names.  This is often hard for me, but it is even worse since I am out every other week right now and I'm not yet teaching full time.  Every other Monday I have to try to relearn all 130.  I always feel terrible when I have to ask a student to tell me their name.  I have studied the class list, which has pictures, I try to use their names whenever I address them, and I've tried association, but have had very little luck with all the strategies I have used.  

How do you memorize names?  I'm to the point where I'm just going to start making them up...

Civil War

I'm outlining my work sample unit on the Civil War.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Is there a specific lesson you remember, an activity you enjoyed, or know a story I should tell? 

Dirt under my fingernails

I was not a good student.  I made my teachers crazy.  I spent more time at the cafe on 32nd Street than I did in class.  I slept on my desk.  I read novels hidden behind my econ book.  I giggled incessantly.  I talked to anyone within twenty feet, and if there wasn't anyone that close, I talked to myself.  I was my own worst nightmare.

But.

Somehow, some of what was flung into my mind during that time took root.  It lay dormant for a while, but sometime during the first year of college, seedlings started breaking through the hard earth of my brain, perhaps softened by the water of college tuition and fertilized by a goal to get into a study abroad program, which required a higher GPA than my 2.5.  I realized I was grateful for the teachers who had put up with me over the years.  I started to want to learn. I started to be curious about the world.  And then I traveled a bit and realized how precious and rare the opportunity for education was.  I realized that I had lived in an egg carton; fragile and protected from a reality I had no idea existed.  I realized that education could change the world...teach a man to fish, you know...

My hope is that I can be patient and help instill in these kids a desire to learn...or at least keep them from hating it until they figure out how amazing it can be.  My other hope is that I don't strangle them before they get to that point...