One down, three more to go!!

Last Friday, 10-26-07, ended the first quarter of this academic year.

How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways… from the first day of school (see earlier post) ‘til the benchmark exams, the roller coaster ride has been anything but exhilarating. The students really haven’t been the problem unless you count the fact that they BOMBED the benchmark. Ms. Perky and I were in tears when we saw our results. We have been assured that our scores were right in the range projected by the curriculum specialist. I wonder how FL is going to react. After much reflection, Ms. Perky and I decided that we did teach the content, but students chose not to study or take the benchmark seriously. Students were reminded by FL that all TAKS tests had to be passed in order to move on to 9th grade. He told them that they could spend another year with us if they didn’t achieve.

I no longer have the 6th grade SS class but I did gain a reading improvement class ~ the last period of the day. That went over like the proverbial ‘turd in the punchbowl’ with students. When you are having reading difficulties, you should have a class like that first thing in the morning when you are more alert. I don’t make the schedules and I wasn’t consulted regarding teaching the class, either. I have played the ‘catch up’ game this whole cycle and I hope to be a bit more successful this next nine weeks. Things seemed to have slowed down just a tad.

Students have told me that they like SS this year ~ they are finding it interesting. Is it because US History is interesting or is it due to the fact that there a lot of hands-on activities not to mention “experiential exercises” and the fact that we hardly use the textbook? This type of teaching requires extra work and believe me the two of us have put in some long hours to get our lessons ready. BTW, I was told that we are unique ~ it seems that it is very unusual for two new teachers to plan together. We are both new to the content and decided that was easier to plan together and have the same lesson plans.

This next quarter we will be studying the Constitution along with the Bill of Rights ~ this ought to hook them in! We will first review the Articles of Confederation and its flaws, and then we are going to act out the Philadelphia Convention! Our curriculum specialist is going to be George Washington and be in costume. How cool is that?

I hope to post more frequently but I am not making any promises.

Adíos,
~ba~