Rant

I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but my philosophy on modern education has definitely been skewed, if only because I have seen real-world education on guilty adolescence, or my previous mindset, which I know was going to be a naive one on my part, has finally vanished.

Everyone can learn physics, that was the old one.

Everyone should make their own choice to learn physics, is sort of the new philosophy. It needs to be taken upon themselves to have a focus. Physics will help with problem solving skills. You dont realize it, but they are word problems, the worst type of math problems, and I got use to them and like them. Kinda odd.

A physicist has a great skill at problem solving. A problem is presented and they set a method of solving it. The solution is not presented in ABCDE FGHJK format like in ACT style tests. No, its the way we have to administer tests in the school which is ridiculous. There are famous problems the students need to see, and i want them to do the work on those problems, not give them an answer with other possible answers. I didnt even do well on the ACT myself, so i dont think this really matters.

I was afraid to take Physics, and it turned out to be one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.

The courage should be summoned try new things. Im not sure about trying scary movies, not until its been out for a couple years. I try anything at least once, then gain from that experience.

You don't really understand something until you can explain in to your grandmother! - Einstein

If i try to keep that in mind, I may develop a new type of dialect when I talk to my actual grandmother.
Test review today, since the school changed into a College Prep (joke) they came up with a plan to give all tests in ACT format. every odd problem goes A-E and all even problems goes FGHJK.

What to do with our regular physics tests? Solution, transform to practice exams. I remember some practice exams being brutal so the test was no problem, and vice versa. I hated the vice versa exams. Those were very tricky when the test came. they made the practice exams look like cliff's notes.

I was able to establish a form of classroom management by turning themselves against each other.  I was willing to give the answers to the practice exam only when the room was quiet and they had my undivided attention.  The ones who try to make the least amount of effort in the class were yelling at the ones who even worse just take up space.  The Good vs. Evil.  I sort of had them cut out some of my work for me.  All they want is the answer.  Usually I would tell them in a higher order thinking form, and they just look dumbfounded.  "Explain it to them in bite-size pieces" - Steve

That's all for now.

"It's Like Herding Cats!" Steve Farr

I realized yesterday that the students in this type of setting are harder to manage because they have thousands of thoughts going through their head in a split second. Anything can happen in that moment whether you want it to or not. My last period yesterday was probably the first time I noticed that everyone was on the same page (mentally) and had no problem keeping them on task. How do you herd cats? They never want to be near each-other nor head in the same direction! That's funny, but that happens sometimes when you get them to do work outside the class. Should I keep them in the class? NO. It's too small anyways to do proper physics experiments, like the one for yesterday. So I actually had the students only have one thought go through their head, and it was to collect data. Everyday is different, as of now the moments either make or break me. Overall I think I have been doing fine with plenty of space for improvement.

Wasn't a bad day, thank god it's still nice out.

forgot the important thing I wanted to say. I think this was it. Maybe four weeks I have been going over Linear Motion with the students, and I think they understand 40% of it. My mentor is commenting on the despair I have FINALLY come to grips with when realizing how much time has been spent, and how far we have gotten (very little). "Dont worry, it's not your fault.", then who's? I taught 2 of the classes today and was able to get one to run smoother than the other only because I could see problems happening for the second class that could be easily taken care of. I wrote the questions I was repeatedly asked and put them on a Power point slide along with the answer underneath. Now I only had to take care of Classroom Management, and I guess I can be a painful pistol if I have to be. Same student who's parents I called is almost back to where he needs to be, but it will be a bit of work for this guy to play catch-up.

Oh Well,

I kinda lost some of my students. They were doing well, and now they dont care. Time to make some parent phone calls. If you THINK you need to call a parent, seriously call a parent because you want to let them know how you feel, but I would never intend on being so dramatic about it.

Side Notes

When you have no income, you never get full. Eat as much as you can while student teaching, so you spend less money on food.

Stupid TV quote, meaning not from MASH: Anything worth trying for is never easy.

First Full Day

My foot hurts, but I think I strained my arch from running this weekend.   It made me walk a lil funny around the classroom during the afternoon . Though today was different in another way.  Right at the beginning of the morning bell to the end of my seventh period, I was in charge, teaching.  For the first time I had all five periods to teach, each with a set plan.  Some worked better than others.  The bad news is that I feel fine.  The good news is that it gets better!  I even had a few of my own announcements.  One started with a story, telling them where I lived (Palos Heights) and that one Saturday I rode my bike from my house all the way to Uptown which is a mile north of Wrigley Field.  On the way I took a professional teacher's exam here at Bogan.  The announcement was that this weekend I found out I passed that exam so as long as student teaching runs smoothly for me, I should be able to teach anywhere I want in January and actually get paid.  This brought a lot of attention to the students to make them realize that I dont get paid.  The sympathy moment lasted only as long as it took for them to realize it, which im not surprised.   A substitute could have walked in and he could get paid to sit there while I taught the class.  Funny how the system works.

I have been grading a lot, I like it.  Be sure not to overwhelm yourself because it could happen.  I would be able to give everything back tomorrow if only I was able to get on the grading system at home would then all my work be finished and cut out for the next couple of days.  Oh Well.  I will catch up.  As of now its just punching numbers into a computer.

   The inquiry based teaching is not cutting out as well as I hoped,  Luckily I am in my beginning naive style of teaching, so it gets better!  It's not that I am getting to them, but it is a little harder for them being underdeveloped to comprehend full inquiry-based physics, so in the end I give a little more information than I should when they ask a question.  By a little more information, it's almost the answer.  There is just not enough time for them to get through all of it when I demonstrate concepts that way.  Hopefully this is only going on with the regular students and not my IB (International Baccalaureate).  They have to receive a more open-ended type of education.