Day 8-10: Recovering enough to rest.

Somebody mentioned in regards to my intended strategy that "the best laid plans often go awry." How true it is. Monday was so bad that I can't even remember what happened. It's been roped off in my brain as too depressing to revisit. Maybe it's just Mondays, because Tuesday and today were both a bit better. We got through about half of the presentations today which actually puts us on the schedule I'd intended. Grading presentations is harder than I thought it would be. I'm glad I taped it. I also figured out today that I needed a rubric which would have been helpful from the outset. Again, this reinforces that effective teaching is all about upfront planning and rapid improvisation. If the planning isn't thorough, the improve will break down. End of story.

In class I'm continuing to see the need to be upfront and direct. I had to confront a group of girls who had been "working" on an assignment for a day and a half (that's over two hours on the block schedule) and hadn't even read the chapter–the looks they gave me (shudder). I know I can't afford to be afraid of students, but again it points to planning. It's surprising what they'll throw back at you in a confrontation.

I'm typing this now because I can't sleep. I don't think I'll be able to tie up all the loose ends I wanted to before spring break, but I'm glad that I've at least made progress in that direction. I'm coming to the frustrating realization that I don't have enough time to ensure each student makes some progress. There are those who are determined to not learn and instead roam round the periphery of my attention. It's a game they can play all day long. What a waste.

I think these group projects are as ambitious as I can afford to get during this experience. After spring break, I really have only two weeks of teaching left, and there's this Teacher Work Sample to be addressed. It's a requirement from my University and, as far as I can tell, has no other use or purpose. It's just heavy handed documentation that I can set, teach, test, and adapt objectives. If I'm smart, I'll cheat the system and actually use it in a way that's helpful to my teaching. On paper it's just a tree killer.

I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad that these are just the beginning of my thoughts...

JB: Rare is that funny kid in high school who was great to hang out with and had great plans and a scholarship but then made a few missteps, was parsed and absorbed into a monolithic system. However, Perfect Dark (64 era) has been re-polished and released on the 360.

The taping idea is an interesting one and would at least be useful for students who missed class and may indeed be the instructional method of the future. However, I just happened to look at my older sister's high school yearbook which was published a scant six years before I went there. It was remarkable to see how much younger the teachers looked than they did when I would know them. This observation tells me that it would be weird and depressing to watch myself present information from a few years back, and ideally the teacher needs to gauge student comprehension on the fly anyway and would need to vary information based on their own learning over time.