Observation PLUS School Wide Writing Assessments

I know I haven't been blogging much-- observing/assisting in two periods a day at WGHS, plus 15 units at SJSU, and 12 hours of dancing a week has not given me much free time.  Today, I am hunkered down at my parents house, sweats and slippers on, trying to get caught up on...well, my life.  On top of all these hours, I am still grading papers for LGHS.  A few months ago, the students participated in a school-wide writing assessment.  The prompt was essentially "Which is worse for society- a few people breaking grave laws or everyone skirting the trivial ones?"  Here are just some of the humorous comments made by these high schoolers:

Several ideas pooped into my head.

A bottle of soda might fall into a lake full of animal species and one of the animals was currious so they decided to try it. In the end, they end up choking to death in a painful matter and all the time the animal thought that was food.

People are very upset when they find out their loved ones have died

The only result of speeding is an early arrival at your destination.

Maybe a year after running a yellow light, they run a red light and BOOM!!! A crash occurs.

The only thing about breaking the law is that you get a new house- jail.

In your car, laws are broken...like DUI (drinking under the infuence)

I'm not saying while jay walking you will be killed by silently approaching Priuses. 

Pollution today has clogged the air so much so that in places around the world such as china you need gas masks to breathe. 

Imagine your music is too loud or your garbage doesn't go in. As you're going to walk away and leave it be... BAM police officers grab you out of your house or drag you out of the park.

When I am speeding fifty in a thirty five I am trying to get my little sister to the hospital because she has had a diabetic related accident and has passed out. 

There is no need to rape because sex should come with love.  

In India, it is almost considered socially acceptable to urinate in public on any wall that is found. 

Modern day is probably 67% of the population.

The passion of the phone leads to carelessness.

We have ten amendments in the United States.

   

People who break the law would be considered lawbreakers. People who murder people would be considered murderers.  If you obey the rules, you wouldn't be considered a murderer. 

I dont think the American mindset is "you're a tool because you threw your trash in the trash can!!"

Laws place us above beast, because they keep humankind from spiraling into a chaotic existence where values such as family, honor, and brotherhood are disregarded. 

Things still happen. Car accidents occur, people get caught pocketing earrings.

Breaking the law is not a problem. Breaking the spirit of the law is. The law states you are not allowed to kill another person. However there are certain times when killing is necessary. 

In Africa, more than 50 crimes occur.

Americans are all a bunch of scheemers.

His argument is true because people do committee minor crimes everyday.

The new slogan of the day could be "slow down and you wont get a frown".

Everyone can agree that rape and murder are wrong.

Thank you high school students for providing me with such an interesting post :)

  

And so student teaching BEGINS!

Well a summer off was nice, but it really wasn't "time off". Three hours a day at SJSU for credential courses the whole summer put me on track to start my student teaching this academic year. I was placed for the year at....

That's right!  I'll be in Ram Country for the next nine months working in two teachers' English classes.  I'll be getting a variety of observational experiences this semester: writing workshop, Freshman, Juniors, and Seniors.  They have yet to decide what I will be taking over in the second semester.  The only problem is student teaching is the modern-day slave labor, plus I'm taking 15 units at SJSU and teaching dance part-time.  The only other way to make decent money (in my pjs with a cup of cider) is to keep grading papers for LGHS- I'm already on my first batch.  Check back in soon for the best (and the worst) of Willow Glen High.  Go Rams!

String Bikinis, "500 Days of Summer", and TOTORO!

It has been awhile since I’ve been able to blog.  Blame it on the 80 senior research papers I’ve been grading- time suck indeed!  Not that I haven’t had all sorts of goodies to share with you all…let me catch you up!

The Friday after our big teacher talent show, I subbed 3 periods of P.E.  Talk about an easy day!  The kids were required to spend 45 of their 90 minutes in the pool- not swimming any specific stroke, just being in the water.  Then they could spend the rest of the time laying out in the sun.  Most goofed off on our two diving boards- low dive and high dive.  Girls opted for the baby pool to keep their hair dry and promptly got out to tan when their 45 minutes were up.  But maybe the most interesting part of this class was seeing the swimsuit choices.  There is something about developing 14-16 year old girls that gives them the thinness of a child-like body with the curves of an adult…and they were ready to show it off!!!  They paraded out to the pool deck in the skimpiest Victoria’s Secret string bikinis I’ve ever seen and the boys noticed!  Call me old-fashioned but don’t you think a dress code might be appropriate for these swim days?  The last period of the day, I was supposed to teach a short dance but no one seemed to care.  It was Friday, seventh period, and 3:00pm so I gave up and made it a “free period”.


The next week I was fortunate enough to sub for the Special Ed sweeties.  Nothing much to write, as they were angels like always!  A great day and always a fantastic way to spend a Friday :)


This Monday, I subbed for a teacher who had a first period English class, a third period prep, and a fifth period student teacher so I was looking forward to an easy day.  I impressed the first period by memorizing all their names in an hour and passing back all their work without any issue.  I hadn’t planned on bringing/buying lunch since I had about 3 hours to go home between classes.  Then I got a call that I was needed to run to another teacher’s room to sub for her third period seniors!  It was an easy class- we just watch “500 Days of Summer” and it was senior ditch day so I only had about 30% of the kids.  Luckily my awesome mom dropped off some frozen food for me to have for lunch or I wouldn’t have made it thought 5^th period, which consisted of me disciplining when necessary.


Today, I subbed another favorite class- Japanese!  The first two periods of level three honors watched an animated film called “Totoro”, which was mostly a bunch of screaming and had a weird “cat bus” that looked a lot like the Cheshire cat from “Alice in Wonderland” and some giant animal that looked like a bunny but roared.  VERY odd but it took the whole period and I got to just work on my computer.  Fifth period level 1 is a different story.  They are not as well focused as the level 3Hs and they didn’t seem to enjoy their movie, a documentary on high school baseball in Japan.  They were completely out of line for the first ten minutes so I told them I had the authority to turn off the movie and have them write an essay instead (which I did not actually have) so they quickly quieted down and I had the rest of the period to compile attendance, write sub notes, and blog.  In fact, I still have an hour left in the period and I don’t have anything to do!


As a side note, I was accepted into San Jose State’s new Yearlong Residency program.  This program allows 30 students in the credential department to take a large chunk of their academic classes during the summer so that their next two semesters of student teacher are less stressful.  Also, these students spend an entire year student teaching at the same high school, seeing a set of students from beginning to end.  However, don’t be fooled.  This is certainly not the easier option.  The yearlong program allows students to get their credential in 2 regular semesters, making the process extremely intense.  The benefit?  I will be ready to look for a job this time next year to be in the classroom in Fall 2011, whereas I would not be able to be in a classroom fulltime until Fall 2012 if I were to take the regular SJSU program.  I am excited at the prospect of having a full-time job in only a year!  I know it will be rough from now until May (classes for summer start in only 4 weeks), but I can do anything for a year and I’m ready for this challenge.  Student teaching, here I come!

To Kill A Mockingbird...according to some misinformed students

After reading 230 TKAM essays in the last 2 months, this is what I have gained about the novel:

To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel about a black man named Atticus Finch who wins a trial when he defends a black man named Tom Robinson.  Atticus has two children-- Jem and Scott.  They spend most of their summer trying to get their neighbor, Boo Bradley, to come out of his house.  He doesn't because he killed his mother.  Scott (a boy) is apparently a cross-dresser because his aunt, whose name is Aunt Alexandra in case you weren't sure she was their aunt, wants him/her to act more like a lady.  One day, Atticus has to shoot a rabid dog.  He tells them he does so because you should do something even if you are licked from the beginning.  Even though Atticus goes on to win his case for Tom Robinson, Tom gets shot 17 times by local security guards.  In the end, Scott and Jem learn an important lesson: you can kill any bird for fun, just not mockingbirds because they sing.  Just like Mrs. Dubose sang to Jem and Scott.

English, Japanese, and English Again!

I'm a little behind on my sub blogging.  A few Thursdays ago, I got an early morning call to sub for one of my closest friends.  Luckily it was an easy day...only two periods of English.  The kids wrote an in-class essay and then moved on to watch a movie.  Nothing very interesting happened, except for one little incident.  The kids had 50 minutes to write their essays.  After about 45, a kid raises his hand as asks, "Are you an English teacher?"  I say yes and he asks for help.  I walk over to find him on his intro paragraph saying, "I don't know how to write a thesis for this book."  They were allowed to prepare an outline and use it for the essay, but he failed to do so.  I said, "Well what do you think the theme is for this book?"  It was Steven King.  He said, "There is none."  I said, "Then prove it in your essay."  He responded that he didn't know how and basically asked me to write the thesis for him.  After 5 minutes, not much more progress was made.  Needless to say, I was frustrated.

Last Friday was an AWESOME day!  I subbed Japanese for another good friend.  The students were so incredibly respectful...I was literally in awe.  They spent the whole period writing a manga (or a Japanese comic strip).  After two periods of the best classes I've had to deal with, I decided to let my last class do their work on the front steps and enjoy the lovely sun.  I got lots of grading done while they worked and my mom was even sweet enough to bring me a mid-morning pick-me-up....my favorite: a soy Dark Cherry mocha!

Today has been quite interesting.  I'm subbing for sophomore English and the first period was a riot.  They were loud...but the kind of loud that isn't annoying.  After my first few sassy remarks to zip it and that I didn't care if his book was bent, they started to really light up and enjoy class.  We discussed poems and songs about social issues, which was very interesting, and they kept saying, "SERIOUSLY!  Sub for us more often!"  I felt so loved.  The girls don't seem to react as well to my sassiness.  They take it as me being a witch.  The boys love it though.  It was a great class and I really had fun with them.

The next period was much more disruptive and chatty...in the annoying way.  I asked the same kid to shut up twenty times over the period and he just kept giving me the stink eye.  Other girls kept talking, even when they saw me staring at them!  They didn't feel like discussing anything, so I had to probe them a little more to get them interested.  At the end, one of the louder but more respectful boys raised his hand and said, "Ms. Ryder, you are a GRADE A Ball Buster....it's awesome!"  I thought that was a good thing!  I'm all about being stern with my kids.  I'm writing this at lunch so 6th period is next.  I've heard from everyone (including the teacher) that they are hell.  Let's see how it goes....

My Spring Break "Project"

So it has been spring break this week which means no subbing and my inevitable "break" sickness.  While feeling like I'm dying, I have had some time to gather what is necessary for a new project I am taking on.  I bought fresh copies of the books that I would like to/might have to teach for high school English.  From now on, there will be no "pleasure reading" until I read and annotate each of these books.  I've started on my first one...here are the ones on the list:
*To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
*Lord of the Flies by William Golding
*I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
*Life of Pi by Yann Martel
*Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
*Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
*Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
*Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
*Death of a Salesman by Aurthur Miller
*Animal Farm by George Orwell
*The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
*The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Luckily I have a few others from my senior year that are well annotated, such as Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin, The Stranger by Camus, Demian by Hesse, and If I Die in a Combat Zone by O'Brien.  On the list is 12 books.  My hopes are to finish them by the end of my first year at state.  Think I'll make it?  We'll see!

Spirit Rally...and more!

Today was the day I have been looking forward to since I started subbing at LGHS...spirit rally.  I started my morning off feelin' good in my "vintage" LGHS seniors shirt from fall of 2005 (which I designed...thank you very much) but then had trouble getting the keys to work at my classroom.  After several long treks back from my classroom out in the middle of no where to the main office, I finally got in and settled.  The first period was like yesterday- they were quiet, respectful, and diligently working on their classwork.  I got some solid grading done within that time period, as well as designed T's for this years super secretive Fractured Follies performance, as well as put last year's up on YouTube.  At the end of the period, it was time to take them to the rally!

Senior Tshirts: the old and the two new!  Who knew how much could change from class of '06 to class of '10!
Everything seemed a lot more loud than I remembered.  Markus began with a great speech about how we are competing against our classmates but we are one united school and one united student body.  I guess the seniors, who were continuously flipping the bird to the juniors, missed that part of the speech.  It went down as normal- the ever-so-violent balloon stomp which inevitably ends it screaming profanity and injuries, then a relay race that involved potato sacks and giant inflatable hamster balls, and finally the tug-of-war.  The big upset here was that the FRESHMAN beat the SOPHOMORES!!!  A few faculty members and I discussed how next year the winning team (usually the seniors...since half the football team looks like they are on steroids...I'm just saying) should have to take on the "teacher team" which would include our share of beefy men!  Wouldn't that be ridiculous!  The whole thing ended with the seniors winning (even though they were not the best sports) and a fantastic sing-a-long of our alma mater (thank goodness the words were hanging up in the gym).  In the end, it was fun but I was glad for it to be done.

For my last period I actually got to TEACH something- the difference between a phrase and a clause!  It was so rewarding when the entire group could correctly determine which examples were which...I honestly felt awesome!  A fellow special ed teacher caught me on my way out for the day and commented that I must have had to work for my money with that last class.  I don't know if he was underestimating me or exaggerating how difficult the kids could be but I made it clear to him that I did JUST fine with them and that they actually learned something (SO THERE!).  Regardless, I was extremely anxious to get out of there and on with my spring break!  No, no Mexico or Hawaii....just a comfy couch, an April storm, and lots of catching up to do.  We'll see how that goes....