Posts Tagged teaching

Date: February 2nd, 2008
Cate: The Teaching
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Stupid Things That Happened Today

Today, Mr. Sir demanded that the students STOP SHARING. He bellowed this out to looks of incredulity and I nearly had to leave the room because I was going to go all hysterical with laughter. It was totally surreal.

Another stupid thing is that I have this brilliant kid who can teach Algebra better than Mr. Sir, and I recommended him as a tutor for some of the upstairs kids who are having trouble. My principal liked the idea, and recommended him to the math teacher upstairs. The math teacher is apparently offended. When I asked why, another teacher said, “Well, she’s probably thinking how she has a degree and he doesn’t. I would be.”

They seem to be missing the point that there is an opportunity for some one on one instruction here that would benefit the kids, whom we are presumably there to assist. Also, the math teacher upstairs sucks.

I asked a stupid question at the teacher inservice today. We were learning better ways to teach vocabulary to our social studies students and hearing facts such as “students only fully learn 2-3 new vocabulary words per day”. I asked why wasn’t anyone working to reform the system so that instead of rushing through 36 chapters, students would have time to learn the vocabulary and concepts. The room was silent. I just shut up.

Date: January 12th, 2008
Cate: The Teaching

Crocheting Genius

I’m so jealous. You know I’ve taught the kids in my class how to crochet. Some have really taken off with it, while others have more or less given up. Today, at lunch, we sat around the table talking as usual while the kids messed around with the yarn. I looked over at one kid, and I’ll be darned if he wasn’t holding a hat in his hand! One that he’d made! Without a pattern! I wish I’d had my camera. I haven’t even taught the kids any circular stuff because they are still working on making squares. Shoot, I’d be doing good to make a hat (one that fits!) without a pattern. It turned out really good, especially since he used a variety of stitches to make it. Lovely. I really wish I had that kind of natural talent.

Date: January 9th, 2008
Cate: The Teaching
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Am I Already Homeschooling?

Sage is not doing his work at school. He just brought home a “project” on earthquakes that he got a 50 on. First of all, he shouldn’t have received a 50. All that was on the posterboard were the headings. It was ridiculous.

The other part of this thing that is ridiculous is that the teacher wrote that they had been working on the project for three weeks. Holy crap. The “project” consisted of telling three types of earthquakes, listing some earthquake vocabulary and telling some locations of earthquakes. Then there were supposed to be some drawings. He did it in under an hour with me at the library. He will color it at home. Three flippin’ weeks?!?

I am aggravated with both Sage and the teachers that make learning (?) drag out to fill time. I wonder if the problem is that he is bored? He told me all about plate tectonics, so he did learn something, I suppose.

I do not see the school thing working out with Sage. He makes honor roll, but that is because we do 70 percent of the work at home. I feel like we have daycare + homeschooling.