Day 21...Wanna Get Away (4/12/10)

This whole week the students were testing. There wasn’t a whole lot that went on. The schedules were all screwed up. We only have one-1 hour class a day. All the other ones are about 20-25 minutes long. During the short classes, the students didn’t dress out.

I must say that being a proctor for the test is a very boring job. All I did was sit outside the whole week trying to find the little shade that was out there so I didn’t have to cook for 4 hours. The testing session in the morning is two hours and the one in the afternoon is only an hour and a half. If the students had to use the restroom, I had to escort them to and from. I do have to say that it was some good reading time though. I got through a lot of my Bible readings that I got caught behind on a little bit. I was able to write a few people letters and just spend some good quality quiet time with myself.

For the first and third class on today, we went over how to take our pulses, what target heart rate, heart rate zone, resting heart rate, and maximum heart rate are and why it’s important to know such things. I only had a handful of students turn in their homework that they were given on Friday. It really depresses me that these students don’t even try to do it or make an effort for their learning in Physical Education because they see it as nothing more than just a recess type class where they learn different, traditional team sports. All they want to do is play; they don’t want to learn. I even had one student give me a free homework pass for something so simple. It just amazed me that he would use it on this assignment and not something harder.

It was awesome for these two classes. This is the quietest I heard them EVER!! I had them working out for 45 seconds, taking 5 seconds to find their heart rate and then 15 seconds to count it. Those 15 seconds were the quietest and it was so nice to hear silence! It also helped me to see that these students were interested enough to partake in the activities as I asked them too. Granted, there were a few students who were being obnoxious about it and trying to count out loud or talk, but eventually they came around and did the same.

The adapted class was a nice little escape and getaway. We played scooter basketball outside on the basketball courts. Those kids are a riot and so fun to be around. You don’t have to hear complaints about how parents aren’t fair or they don’t let you do anything. You don’t hear anything about dating and relationships or the sinful natures of students these days. I do agree that kids these days have a harder time living in society because of the way society has turned. It’s all about who you’re with, who you are, what clothes you have, how you look, or seeking the approval of others all the time. It’s nice to be with this class because they don’t care about any of that. Kids these days are so fake and hurtful, but these kids are genuine and caring. Like I said, it’s a nice little break from the rest of the school.

With my honors class, we continued with hip hop dancing. We finished our dance to Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” and started one for Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow.” They were very talkative today and it’s okay because I know that testing can do that to students. Today, however, I incorporated the line changes and the partner changes to those they haven’t worked with yet. This way, I hope to go in and break up or disrupt the “clicks” that are occurring and for the students to see that they should be getting to know each other more instead of always being with the same person. My cooperating teacher even stepped in and was dancing with the class.

If it were me, I would clean the equipment room out while the student teachers were teaching. It looks like a minefield in there and a bomb went off. The room is so disgusting, dirty, and very hard to move to get equipment. I rearranged a few things today (my OCD kicking in) and found equipment that I could have used a couple of weeks ago. I know that they are to be observing us as we teach, but half the time they don’t, so they should make themselves useful and clean the room a little bit.

Things are not exactly where I would like them to be and I guess I can’t complain that much because I am only here for a few short weeks so I can’t expect to come in and change their whole curriculum. That wasn’t my intentions to begin with, but now that I am getting comfortable with being here, I have pushed for my cooperating teacher to realize that there is more than one way to approach and teach a class. Going through progressions is okay. We don’t have to play the actual game every time we have class. That is all I have seen here. Once they start a new unit, they cover the basics and then let the kids play. They never go into skill progressions or development. I think that I am helping my cooperating teacher see that it’s important if you want all kids to participate.

More testing and being bored tomorrow!!