For two straight days now, I've been pretty much alternating between work and school, on and off. I'm going to teach at least 11th grade Chemistry, starting this week, which means I'm due to have quite a few weeks like this. Makes up for it, as I blazed through three books last week.
There's a whole lot on my mind, too, but I'm finding that I can deal with that much better than I could last year. Actually, it's somewhat a relief to start to worry and fantasize about the next step. I think it's be really fun to start all over in a brand new place again - but among friends. I have to find that balance somehow.
My extra session today was heavily attended by some of the most vocal students, creating a very difficult lesson, but it reduced the amount that they complain, for the moment. Pretty soon, we'll stop talking about genetics and start in on evolution. Honestly, I can't wait. Not that I don't like genetics, but explaining the very basics of the simplest notions 8 times or more...it's tiring.
I think what would be the coolest challenge here in education would be to teach Biology at the University level. I would have to do some serious studying, but those students are (in theory) the hardest-working and some of the smartest. I just feel like I need to rearrange all of my students into levels so I can have an honors class, normal classes and a remedial class. It wouldn't be perfect, but at least I could discuss some more advanced concepts, concentrate on the basics without boring the others, and hammer in the most basic techniques for those who need them.
In my 8th grade classes today, I gave 15-minute mini-lessons on how to answer a "Why" question. They routinely answer questions like "Why does the earth warm up?" with responses like, "The earth warms up because the solar radiation is one of the forces in the universe.", after I give them a list of forces in the universe. They don't know how to answer the question so they look for a key word, then spit out a phrase that they were given. So I gave them an analytical method: 1) Identify a reason that makes the question true ("The solar energy is hot.") 2) Connect that reason with the original question ("The solar energy is hot and heats up the earth.") One turma even started asking ME to use this method for complicated questions. It was nice to know they understood and knew how to apply it, not questioning why their Biology teacher is telling them all of this.
Soon, I'll be going through some struggles with the 11th graders, I'm sure. I think my expectations will be too high, and I'll have to resort to explaining things 5 times because I'm not making immediate sense to them. We'll see.
My students are always asking me why I just don't let them cheat a little - how unfair it is that I'm so harsh, because what if they just forgot a little fact? or they weren't able to study? or... No is not an acceptable answer. Not at all. And instead of accepting it and moving past it, they try and find different ways to cheat instead of studying and doing very well (as many students have already done).
To hell with "4Mat" which grinds in teaching to the 4 different learning styles - my kids have one style and even when I address just that one style, they still have difficulties because they expect the same old shit - to vomit back the notes I give them. I find that most of them actually understand next to nothing. That's scary.
Peace
John
