Flowings of Your Everlasting Taffyman

school report # 3

Small Successes
Well the plan was originally to observe for two weeks and sort of help out where needed. This meant a lot of down time, running errands and eyeing the students whenever they got off task. It was fun, but not quite engaging. It also meant that I have had to do a lot of planning for the weeks to come but that will probably be my other journal entry.

Two teaching moments:
A)These were not set out lessons so I haven’t written lesson plans, in reality it was more like a moment where something needed to fill in the space and help students who were not relating to the material.
In Modern Global (world history) we have been discussing genocide, a topic I am rather familiar with as a student of history and anthropology. During the unit the students were asked to read 1 of 4 packets concerning a specific genocide and then fill out a table with relevant information concerning the topic. They were then asked to jigsaw with students from the other groups. As I walked around during the first hour, I noticed that the students were doing the bare minimum so that when I asked them questions about the reading they wouldn’t be able to answer. There were also several students who were attempting to lighten up the mood by making jokes about the topic (which I assume is because of their ignorance to the situation rather than actual disrespect of those who were hurt). I continued to walk around asking simple questions of the students, “Who was the leader?” “What groups were involved?” “Was it a conflict between ethnic, religious or political groups?” the students did not respond well. Towards the end of the hour I put up extra instructions on the board, asking them to make sure to discuss these issues while sharing the information with their peers. Overall it was a frustrating period. During the time in-between classes I decided that it would be necessary to give further instructions at the beginning of the next class period. I wrote additional questions on the board, gave specific instructions to read the entire packet rather than just find the answers, and reminded the students that they needed to be sensitive and respectful about the topic. This second class responded much more positively and I believe a large part of their response had to do with simply laying out the expectations for them.

B) Having had a lot of experience traveling and studying conflict in the world, I decided that much of what these students were missing from the exercise was some way to relate to it. I decided that it would be beneficial to bring in pictures (I took) from various locations, which I presented along with a spoken word recording from a popular band, and some stories about my time traveling to these places. I believe this description reminded the students that these were real places, with McDonalds and normal people like them. Many of the students responded very well to this demonstration though I had put little effort (due to time) in putting it together. There were no fancy transitions or videos, just slide show pictures a normal person would take with a camera… this realism reminded them that many of these events happened during their lifetimes, and that many of the people affected by these tragic events are still living (and suffering) today.
-Had I had more time or prepared for this unit, I might have made this into a power point presentation, but I was surprised how little extra effort it took to impress the students.

I ended up presenting it two both my history classes and another teacher's class... all the students now say hi to me in the halls... smile at me more etc.

Its cute how being real and honest leads to good responses... this is the kind of teacher I want to be. Not afraid to discuss the serious things, willing to relate, willing to give and open up, -willing and understanding enough to push students to do the same.