Initial Impression: A3

http://www.athree.org/
The new term/year began with everyone meeting up in a gym in the community center across the street, being the only room the school has access to that is large enough to fit the entire school. The lead teacher welcomed everyone and gave instruction. For the few minutes prior to the announcements however I was able to observe the general interaction at that school, and the student body. High energy. Many of the kids were very excited to be there, however their greetings and excitement weren't limited to just the other students, teachers were also greeted with hugs and enthusiastic welcomes, and a ton of questions of a fairly personal nature. Anecdotes of vacation were traded in all directions, with a level of detail and honesty on the part of the teachers that surprised me. It is unsurprising that at A3 everyone is on a first name basis, no Mr. or Mrs., so I am Ruth, not Ms.Ames. Another thing I've noticed is the prevalence of minor swear word by both the faculty and the students. Now, no one is dropping f bombs or anything, but it is commonplace for hell, damn, shit, crap or bastard to be used not only in conversation between classes, but even in the vocabulary of the teacher during discussions. I have mixed feelings on this issue, and it took me a bit to get used to, especially since at Briggs were were asked not to say crap or sucks in front of students, or where students might overhear. I personally have no problem with so-called strong language. Word have the power we choose to give them, and if you say fudge instead of f**k, people still know what you mean, and what your intention is, so how is it different? On the other hand, I know that a lot of parents don't want their children to be exposed to that sort of language, and many students may be uncomfortable with it themselves. By using strong language a teacher might set up a barrier between themselves and a student and loose someone's respect. I've been told that you can gain student's respect either by being their friend, or being their authority figure, or mentor. Some people can walk the line and be both. So far, from what I've seen these teachers are doing a great job of treading that thin line.

A3 has a J term for the month of January, their students get to pick from one or two classes to take, which they are in all day, from 8 to 4:15. The options for the J term classes are quite varied. I'm currently working in the Science/Science Fiction class, which is taught by my cooperating teacher Danny Ramirez, and another teacher named Scott, who teaches humanities normally (Language Arts and Social Studies). So Scott handles most of the lit stuff, and Danny takes more of the science side of things. The class is run much like a college film study class, with reading as well. It reminds me a lot of the freshman seminar I took called Tokyo:Cyberpunk where we watched, discussed and wrote about a variety of cyberpunk films, a sub-genre of Sci-Fi. Another surprising thing to me is that several rated R movies are on the list. This decision I support wholeheartedly. So many of the quality Sci-Fi films out there are R, the ones that are pivotal, and set trends. One notable subtlety in the language and culture of the class is the use of the word 'geek' as a title of honor, and something strive for.

The format of the class, as I said, resembles that of a college film seminar with one huge difference. Unlike any other class or classroom I have ever been in, their is no sense of "NOT ENOUGH TIME!" The class moves along at a leisurely pace, class starts about 5 minutes late each day, allowing for students who missed the bus to the U of O (where our class is held, we use a room in the Science Library). Scott and Danny recently decided to shift to beginning class with an episode of either The Twilight Zone or Firefly, hopefully to motivate students to arrive on time. There is some discussion of the different elements and then we move onto the reading for the day. This was the most strange, foreign thing to me the first day. We spent an entire hour silent reading, and they only had to cover 15 pages in that hour, though they were free to read farther if they needed to. And everyone was so relaxed about it. No sense of rush, no worry that we weren't going to get through the material. It was a much nicer way to run class. Now that might be unique to the J term, but getting to feel how it is to be relaxed and take time during a class session will help me to strive for that sort of ambiance in my own classroom, even if I can't achieve it in whole.

One of my student's projects

I was totally impressed by this kid's science project. I was impressed with a few others too (especially a couple from some of the boys who are really quiet or often off task in class). But this student's video was really clever and funny. The assignment was to present their [abstract] 'vision' of science. I would love to share lots of student's work, but since this guy put his video on youtube.com, I feel ok linking to it. This is the same student that asked me the question about evolution.

Long busy day

Today was the first day of my classes, and I anticipated a bit more stress then usual. Today was particularly unique, however, because Mrs. Keener was unexpectedly sick. She came in long enough to leave a lesson for me and the sub, but that was it. She was gone by the time I got there at 9:30. I also didn't realize that she was not in the building until the sub walked in, five minutes before the kids arrived. I figured she was at a meeting, or off in another part of the bulding taking care of something. When the sub suggested that I teach the lesson, since I probably under stood the math better then he did, I readily consented, but I didn't even get to fully read the lesson plan before it was time to start! Talk about teaching on the fly. I made up a warm-up off the top of my head, with a little input from students as to what they wanted to practice, and set about teaching the lesson on using rectangular arrays to factor. Fortunately this is something which I am pretty familiar with, so the lesson was no problem. Although I originally made the mistake of handing out the square 'chips' before I went over the worksheet, so a lot of kids lost out on the instruction because they were playing with the manipulatives. I did that differently when I taught it in the afternoon. Kids also were having a hard time interpreting the analysis questions on the back (heck, some of those questions were complicated for me!) so I am concerned that they will be unable to complete it by tomorrow. I think I did pretty well with the teaching considering the total lack of preperation. The kids like me and respect me, and follow my directions pretty well. Being at a middle school, I am clearly 'one of them' to the kids. They don't identify with me as a young person, they identify with me as an adult, although I'm sure they recognize that I am younger then Mrs. Keener. Especially some of the more 'problematic' boys seem to have taken to me. I'm not sure what it is about that. If it's the fact that I take the time to give them some appropriate attention, if it's that I laugh at their jokes (when it's the appropriate time and the jokes are good) or what. But three boys in particular who give Mrs. Keener (and their other core teacher) a lot of trouble, behave pretty well for me, though they do need reminding from time to time. Perhaps I'm just new and exciting? One particularly good lesson for today is that I need to pay more attention to time when I am teaching. I accidently spent nearly half of math on the warm-up, and the science lesson took way longer then Mrs. Keener had indicated it should have. Although when the sub taught science, in the afternoon, it took them the same amount of time it took me.

Mrs. Keener has told me, and other teachers have confirmed this, that one of my strongest traits as a pre-service teacher is my confidence. Someone asks me if I can do something, and my response is nearly always "sure, no problem". I hope that this confidence I have doesn't balloon into over-confidence though. I would hate to get in over my head.

I had one other really interesting interaction today. We were working in groups on math and one boy came up to me with two questions. He's a kid who is pretty quiet and is often sort of zoning out. His first question had to do with the requirements for a science project that is due on Wednesday. The second question totally took me by surprise. He asked, " If humans evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?" A very analytical question from a person who I hadn't given enough credit! ( Not to mention compleatly off topic, and having nothing to do with anything we were doing in class, science or otherwise). I took a second, and told him about a story I'd heard about butterflys changing their spots to match thier environment when a factory producing lots of ash was built in their habitat, while the butterflys of the same speciies that didn't live near the factory didn't develop spots. I don't remember where i heard this anecdote, but it's always stuck with me. So, I explained, perhaps the monkeys that are still monkeys didn't have something making an evolution necessary. I wish I'd come up with something better, evolution isn't something I am terribly familiar with. My knoweldge steming a little from Freshman biology, and a little from the book Sophie's World, where they touch on it from a philosophical point of view.

All in all a full day. I can't wait to see what the rest of the week has in store. We are going to 'sky camp' on Thursday to do some team building. Sounds exciting!