First Friday

Today was a blue day meaning I had plan, enrichment (homeroom), and then two back to back U.S. History Core 40 classes. I am start to feel that like I would rather have Plan later in the day because it seems like I have more energy at the beginning of the day than at the end. However, it is nice to be able to get some stuff done before the day officially starts and get the plan together for the rest of the day. I made it a point today to start looking at the seating charts in my various classes and remembering names.

During homeroom I worked on remembering some of the kids names and looking up some resources for when I take over the history classes. Mr. Carl and I took the kids down to the rules meeting and then I made some copies in the teacher workroom. The enrichment period went well and I think some of the kids were surprised I was remembering their names already.

The first U.S. History class went rather well. I think it is still hard to get kids as motivated during a split class. The class started out by watching some videos over the Civil War, and Mr. Car explaining some of the significances of Lincoln's Gettysburg speech. The Civil War in 4 minutes is an interesting depiction of the Civil war using battle on a map and a casualty ticker. Mr. Carl would stop the video at certain points in order to explain parts of the Civil War. After that the students looked at the Gettysburg Address and got into pairs where they tried to put it into their own terms. This exercise went pretty well, but some students did not put as much effort into it as I would have thought. Mr. Carl allowed me to put together some homework where kids would visit the Ford's Theater Virtual Tour website and do a short activity. Looking at the people on the website and John Booth's artifacts and then completing an online worksheet/activity. We did not have much time to cover the activity and there were some problems using My Big Campus.

The next class also went well. They are a much smaller class and there are a few kids who do not pay attention, but overall I enjoy the class and I think I will like the challenge. I made the suggestion that we should divide up different parts of the Gettysburg Address and have groups of students take a section. That way they could all get done with at least part and it would save some time. I am excited to take that role on my own with the Honors classes on Monday. I was stunned at the lack of knowledge the students possessed on geography when looking at the states. I think this is a point that students struggle with and definitely something that I want to try and address in my future lessons.

Overall, the day went really well and I was glad that I got to have some input in the class assignment as well as help out with the different groups. The first week of school went well and while it was only three days I am pretty tired. I am looking forward to the next week and starting to begin teaching certain parts of the class.