Check out what’s going on at Rose High. The following paragraphs are teachers’ responses to the question: what was your best teaching experience today? They were accumulated over only a few hours.

My first period class (I’m sooooooooo proud of them) have learned how to love and affirm a particular student in the class and, as a result, have developed a higher level of tolerance and understanding for one another…. (I believe, too, that it’s part of because of how I treat the particular student)… D— has become very dear to our hearts…. his theatre nickname is “D-fresh”….  and; when he comes in the room the entire class heartily greats him (he comes in a little late each day, and we’ve usually started)… they cheer, call his name and applaud…. You should SEE his face light up!!!!!  It’s awesome!!!!!   And it has really helped his self-esteem and his willingness and ability to participate!!!!!  What more can we ask for?  Everybody wins!!!

Today, my 9th graders settled down and participated successfully with our daily grammar mini-lesson.  When I said, “Praise…” ( I stopped before I said “God”),  they said, “ You sound like Mrs. Moore; she says ‘Praise.'”  I felt that was a great compliment.  Then they did their practice work quietly so that I could conference with individuals and do so me one-on-one review of the tricky “lie-lay”  verb forms.  It was a great day.

In 4th period we disected raw chicken wings. We are covering the muscular system and students were able to identify the skin, muscle, fascia, tendons, ligaments, joints, and parts of bones from our last unit on the skeletal system such as the medullary cavity, red and yellow marrow, spongy bone, &compact bone. I think seeing it up close and personal helped them understand how muscles and bones work together to produce movement.

A student, B,  who has skipped my class often and whom put his head down during the quiz the first 15 minutes of class, settled down, raised his head up the rest of the class, and was the lead responder to questions during 4th period. He answered questions a lot of the others could not figure out.

Today we started a new chapter in Spanish I.  A student that I’ve had trouble with getting interested in the language (usually falls asleep during class, forgets his materials, skipped class a few times, and missed a few other days for OSS for other classes, etc.)…well, he’s actually trying to get more involved in class.  He normally “zones out” during the new vocab practice, saying the words aloud and writing down the new vocabulary, but he actually participated.  I’ve had one-on-one discussions with him over the past few weeks, encouraging him to stay involved and just put forth some effort.  I feel like I touch “at least” one student today and I’m headed home pretty happy!

Teaching Civil War battle tactics: army maneuvers and flanking movements. Took US history class to the Commons to simulate a frontal attack. Then, put one line perpendicular to the other and set them in motion. Best way to show how maneuvers in battle and flanking battle lines is always what battlefield commanders try to do. Frontal attack is always brutal – high casualties. Flanking demonstration shows how the compromised line RUNS instead of fighting. Students get to see how battles are won – make the other side run. Also did the difference between rifled muskets vs. smoothbore muskets. Demonstration plan was to show the difference between the two. After explaining what rifling is and how it works, take students outside and have an athlete throw a basketball and a non-athlete throw a football. Football wins every time in distance and accuracy.

I told my Algebra classes that if anyone would make up a rap/song about the ‘rules’ learned in Chapter 8 about polynomials I would add 5 points to their test grade. I have offered this before in previous years but no one has ever taken me up on it…until now. P__ B__ wrote a rap in a matter of minutes. She included vocabulary we learned in the chapter as well as what my student’s call ‘Mrs. Moore lingo’. I encouraged her to partner with another student who is very good at ‘beat boxing’. ( I really don’t know if that is the correct spelling or words:) but it’s when a person makes a beat using sounds made with their mouth) J__ G__ is very good at it. They stayed after school Tuesday and planned to stay again today to finish it up. With a few tweeks it will air on Rampant Report (thanks to Johnny Armstrong!)on Tuesday…now maybe Wednesday. Praise!! Learning is actually fun!!!!Who’d have thunk it??!!

Conclusion: Rose High is a great place to learn.

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 and is filed under General Interest. Both comments and pings are currently closed.