It's yet another return to a class I've visited before. And believe it or not, the last time I subbed in this class was one year ago to the day -- October 24th, 2017. (I wonder whether today is the regular teacher's birthday, which is why he keeps taking October 24th off.)
You can refer to my October 24th post of last year to learn more about this class. As it turns out, this teacher has exactly the same schedule as last year.
As I've done before, I want to write about this day of subbing in "Day in the Life" format:
6:55 -- Believe it or not, this teacher has a zero period class. This is the first of three sophomore World History classes. I expect there to be many tardies in this class, and there are (about ten).
The students are learning about European imperialism on the African continent and answering questions on two pages in the text. (Last year at this time, the students were learning about the Industrial Revolution.)
8:00 -- First period arrives. This is the only junior U.S. History class of the day. One student is wearing a Dodger shirt and hat, and so I ask him whether he's looking forward to watching Game 2 of the World Series tonight. (Last year, two students wore Dodger shirts.) It's the first class of the day for many of these students, and so there continue to be many tardies in this class too (about a dozen).
The students are learning about American imperialism, from all of the Spanish-American War up to World War I and answering questions on two pages in the text. (Last year at this time, the students were learning about the Ku Klux Klan.) Notice that the last time the Dodgers and Red Sox met in the World Series was in 1916 -- the time period that the students are learning about in this class.
8:55 -- The second World History class arrives. This time, I'm more prepared for the students as I let them know up front that they are to complete both pages before the end of the period. A few students start working on their Chemistry assignment. I ask them whether they know what holiday it was yesterday. One guy knows that it was Mole Day. (Yes, I always sub in this class on October 24th, the day after Mole Day.) I ask him whether his class celebrated it or not, and he replies that only the AP Chem students had a real celebration.
9:50 -- The students leave for nutrition.
10:10 -- The third and final World History class arrives.
11:05 -- Fourth period is the teacher's conference period. As it happens, I must cover another class at this time -- a music class. It's a jazz band class, and many of the students play either guitar or sax.
As you may remember from last year, I like to hand out pencils around the holidays. If I had followed the pattern from last year, I would have given everyone a Halloween pencil in the band class. But it's awkward to give away pencils in a class that doesn't do much writing such as P.E. or music. The Halloween treat I give everyone is, of course, the song that I wrote on Monday. I'll write more about this later in today's post.
12:05 -- In this district, students have a sort of "Interventions" or tutorial class. At all of the other schools in this district the time is embedded into the two-hour block schedule. But the school I subbed at today clearly does not have a block schedule. So instead, Interventions is considered part of lunchtime. All freshmen must attend Interventions, but older students only go if they need extra help or are failing a class. For some reason, Interventions is labeled as an "eighth period" class in attendance, even though there is no seventh period.
(Notice that this is not how tutorial works in my new district. Over there, all students must attend tutorial, and no one is assigned to a particular tutorial.)
Since there are no freshmen in the history classes, only four sophomores show up today for tutorial. (One senior, a peer assistant, is absent -- maybe she's in Boston for the World Series!)
12:30 -- Lunchtime proper begins.
1:05 -- During fifth period, this teacher coaches the JV football team. Last year, the teacher had the students lift weights, but this year he tells them just to have study hall in his classroom. (Next year, October 24th, 2019 falls on a Thursday. JV plays games on Thursdays, so if I sub that day, it would be a game day.)
1:55 -- Fifth period ends. Most students and teachers with a zero period don't need to attend sixth period, and so this ends my day. I go home to type up this blog entry.
Last year, instead of a resolution, I gave myself the following reflection question:
Teachers are always working on improving, and often have specific goals for things to work on throughout a year. What have you been doing to work toward your goal? How do you feel you are doing?
Last year, instead of a resolution, I gave myself the following reflection question:
Teachers are always working on improving, and often have specific goals for things to work on throughout a year. What have you been doing to work toward your goal? How do you feel you are doing?
I should also be on the lookout for times when it's better to make the students change seats before trying to write their names. Today, for example, I could have separated some students who try to play Uno cards instead of doing their assignment.
Last year, I tried to write the names of students who don't do enough of their assignment. Even then, I had problems when students answer questions in a different order, and the same happens this year -- for example, students are supposed to answer questions #2-8 on one page, but then they start with #5 or #6 instead of #2. I've had so many problems during the intervening year with "you must answer enough questions to stay off the bad list" that I no longer use this as a criterion for leaving names. So now I focus on talking and other misbehavior.
Thus it's difficult for me to decide which class is the best of the day. Second period completes the most work but is a bit loud. Third period is the quietest, but they don't complete as much work. (In both classes, I tell the students that I need to see "13 for 13" -- that is, at least 13 students need to complete all 13 questions. Both classes reach the goal, but second period is smaller -- that is, 13 students make a larger portion of that class.) In the end, I name zero period as the best of the day -- they are perhaps in between second and third period in both volume and work completed.
But the biggest problem of the day in this class, like last year, is tardies. First period today has more than double the number of tardies during the corresponding period last year. I tell myself that I would launch another long diatribe on the importance of attendance if it turns out that the tardy students make up a majority of the class. Well, the tardies end up barely avoiding being a majority -- but then more students in later periods are tardy as well. (This is unexpected -- students regularly arrive late to campus first period, but why arrive late to the class after snack or lunch?) Every class (except tutorial) has at least one tardy -- fortunately second period has only that one late student. Even fourth period music isn't spared -- four of the 17 students arrive after the bell rings.
I'm able to restrain myself (which is the correct thing to do) during first period, but I couldn't help myself when five students arrive late to third period. I ask the students why they arrive late, but they give me no straight answer. I shouldn't have asked -- there can be only one honest answer. They're late because attending every single second of every single class isn't important to them. It's the same reason that they ask for restroom passes right after snack and lunch. They'd much rather miss work time than fun time.
So for the sake of avoiding arguments, I write the rest of what I wish to say on the board. Here I give the students reasons for wanting to attend every single second of every single class -- adults age 40+ like young people who arrive to work on time and are more willing to hire them. I also add goals for attendance tomorrow, such as "no more than 2-4 students should be tardy tomorrow."
October 24th is now the day I associate the most with this school and classroom. But two years ago today at the old charter school, October 24th was the day I received a new sixth grade student. This girl would go on to teach me a song from her old school, "Mean, Median, Mode" (set to the same tune as "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"). But unfortunately, her math skills were low, and she ultimately became one of the more talkative students in the class. She reminds me of the importance of establishing strong classroom management before new students transfer in. Otherwise, the new students see a weak classroom manager and decide to play around with the other students.
Interestingly enough, two new students transfer into to the class I sub for today. One new girl is in third period World History, while one new guy is in tutorial.
Chapter 6 of Sue Teele's Rainbows of Intelligence is called "Conclusions." It begins as follows:
"The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future Report (1996) recommended a restructuring of elementary and secondary education in two directions: to increase teachers' knowledge and skills to more effectively meet students' needs and to recognize and utilize teachers' expertise in schools that are redesigned to support and enhance high quality teaching and learning and to achieve their academic mission."
In this chapter, Teele makes suggestions for how to improve our schools. She laments:
"Most schools have not produced the kinds of learning experience required to allow our students to function productively in the 21st century because the current educational system does not support doing this."
It goes without saying that according to the author, schools should incorporate multiple intelligences:
"It has been established that students become actively engaged in learning when teaching methods are directed to one or more of their dominant intelligences. Intelligence evolves though a dynamic of the individual's competencies and society's values and institutions."
Here Teele cites an educational theorist, "Diamond." I believe this refers to Marian Diamond. (She died last year at the age of 90.)
"Diamond (1988) stated that increasing the stimulus through environmental enrichment increases dendritic length and branching. Frequent new learning experiences and engaging mental challenges are critical for encourages brain growth."
According to Teele, multiple intelligences should be a new philosophy of education:
"The focus cannot be only on results, but also on the methods for inputting knowledge. To prepare students for productive participation in society, meaningful learning experiences must be provided for all students."
Now Teele presents her vision for the future of education. Here she refers to differing philosophies of how we should teach -- which I assume includes the traditionalists' debate:
"We must change the course of the discussions from arguing, bickering, and fighting, while holding on to each groups' conviction that there is only one way to view what is right and appropriate for the educational environment."
Once again, the author draws us to her spatial spiral model of intelligences:
"Out of the dark clouds comes a blue horizon that creates a new dawn. If we look at the human potential, it is infinite like the spirals that emanate from the center, or eye, of the circle."
And again, she tells us why this is important:
"Student understanding and retention of information can increase when students are able to process information in ways that enable them to succeed and when the curriculum is taught with interactive and practical methods that allow students to tap into all of their intelligences."
Teele conclude the first part of the book as follows:
"Learning is a lifelong experience. Through a collective endeavor, members of the educational community can create a colorful prism for education that allows all students to develop their full spectrum of learning."
In the second part of the book, Teele will provide us with some actual lessons (or units) that will appeal to multiple intelligences.
But now let's appeal to the musical intelligence. In the one period of band that I sub for today, I try to play the Halloween song that I created on Monday. But since many of the students play guitar, I want to write this song in a format suitable for the guitar.
Notice that in this jazz band, most guitarists play rhythm, not lead (since the saxophonists are the ones in the lead). This means that the emphasis is on the chords. There are nine chords already written on the board by the regular teacher:
G, G7, D, B7, G (alternate), C, E minor, A, A minor
So instead of (white) D, I open my song with E minor. This means that the second measure of the song would need to be F -- but unfortunately, there's no F chord listed there.
Notice that the nine chords in the list are the main "open chords" -- that is, they're related to the six open strings of the guitar (EADGBE). The rule of thumb is that a chord is open if two of its notes appear in the list of open strings. G major (G-B-D) obviously qualifies as all three of its notes appear in the list, as does C major (C-E-G). B major (B-D#-F#) does not qualify as an open chord, but B7 (B-D#-F#-A) does, even though the A isn't played as an open string. Most importantly, no F chord is considered open.
Not all open chords appear on the teacher's list, by the way. D minor (D-F-A) and E major (E-G#-B) are both open, yet only D major (D-F#-A) and E minor (E-G-B) are on the teacher's list.
The 18/17 semitone makes my song sound more Halloweeny. This is the Arabic lute index finger, and it can also be played with the index finger on the first fret of a guitar. But we're looking for open chords based on open, not fretted, strings.
On Monday, I wrote that on one hand, omitting 11 and 13 from our 18EDL song makes it easier to play in our normal 12EDO scale. But on the other hand, I compose in 18EDL because I want to play a song in an exotic scale -- otherwise I'd just compose it in 12EDO. But on the third hand, the reality is that most of the time I won't be playing these songs on Mocha in class -- instead, I'd be playing it on an actual 12EDO instrument, such as a guitar. Harmony isn't as important on Mocha because the emulator can't play chords -- but on rhythm guitar, the chords are all that matter.
Perhaps I should modify the song generator so that instead of emphasizing 18 and 17 (D and D#, or E and F), the song should emphasize notes of chords that are playable on the guitar, especially the open strings E, A, D, G, B, and E. This will make it easier for me to play songs in class whenever I get my own classroom and can bring my own guitar.
I think I'll wait until Halloween itself to post the new generating program. Then it will be easier to find, since it will be the first blog post that appears when we click on the October 2018 archives.
In the end, I show the song to students and just have them play a simple F minor barre chord. Notice that even though only open chords are shown on the board, barre chords are important to jazz. This is because for the lead sax, the easiest scale to play is usually (concert) Eb major, along with the other flat scales. All flat scales require barre chords (unless the teacher is having them use a capo instead).
Meanwhile, today is the second day of the Chapter 4 Review. Recall that Chapters 2 through 6 of the U of Chicago text are short, so we have an extra day to prepare for the test. I use this extra day to find resources related to the test online.
The page I found is from a Mrs. Hester, a middle school teacher. This post is dated 2013, and she hasn't posted anything new on her blog since 2015:
http://mrshester.blogspot.com/2013/09/unit-1-8th-grade-math.html
Notice that Hester begins her eighth grade year with transformations -- as we recall, Kate Nowak does the same. Again, this is due to the CCSS standard connecting transformations to slope.
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