DAYS 59, and 60-63

DAYS 59, and 60-63

I am now attending Henry Ford College full time, going M-Th evenings after working full time (mostly) as a substitute teacher during the day. Therefore – I’m busy! Thus I shall share some of my last week all together in one post.

Friday – Day 59. I was in an elementary grade and it went well – that’s almost all I remember. I did have a bit of a laugh: as I walked alone down the hall, a second grade class was passing by. They were supposed to be single file near the wall, but as is ALWAYS the case, there were those who were distracted, slightly wandering, and/or lagging behind. I noted with amusement that a boy was walking straight towards me, several feet out of alignment, and several dimensions away mentally. So I stopped and stood still. He walked right into me, and the shocked look on his little face was priceless. 🙂 I reminded him that perhaps he should pay better attention, but I chuckled as I walked away.

Monday – Martin Luther King Day – no school, no college

Tuesday-Friday: this week I have been all four days bouncing between two elementary schools in the Westwood District (which is partially Dearborn Hgts and partially Inkster). Mostly I have been supervising kids in the computer labs, and therefore I am now “up-to-date” on how to turn iPads on, turn sound off, connect to the wifi when it’s mysteriously lost, and know at a glance whether the kids are on one of the approved websites or not (funbrain, pbskids, abcya, or coolmath.) In general, it has gone well, if a little boring and repetitive and occasionally frustrating when the littlest ones accidentally sign themselves out over and over again and I have to rescue them.

A few random thoughts:

1. I’m surprised that a teacher’s display of Wolverine from X Men on his door – including long sharp blades – is allowed.

2. Power Point. Sigh. The wonder of the modern computer world. Businesses must have it to look professional, even when all they are doing is putting a small amount of info in front of a group – that could have been written on a whiteboard or poster in way less time than it took to make the Power Point – and WAYYYYYYY less time than it took to have technical difficulties. Educational case in point – today a teacher I was working with made a group of kids wait nearly 10 minutes quietly sitting on a rug while he and another teacher tried to get his laptop/smartboard/flashdrive connection working. It took at least ten minutes of the other teacher’s “prep” time also. The result – he was able to show them four photos – a mountain, a hill, a canyon and a pond. Reeeeeeeeelllllllllllly?  He could have brought in a book (you remember those?) or made a poster, and anyway, his introduction to land formations really wasn’t outside the range of the third graders’ knowledge. So much wasted time.

3. “Punc-punc-punc, punc-punctuation…..” – cute song on a Leap Frog video shown to K and First Grade.

4. I think one of the teachers down the hall is losing it. She looked very flustered and even though my classroom was about 40 feet away from hers, I could hear every word she was fairly shouting at her kids – and that was just during the lesson, let alone when she was angry with them. I have seen teachers manage the room by going quiet instead and I try to emulate that.

5. I see very little “math” knowledge being accomplished by Cool Math.com, and some other educational sites. Another total waste of time. And, it bugs me that this and other sites have ads on them as well.

Another school I was at cut out Art class – but they have a new computer class instead. Not impressed. There are so many school associations raising money to have these options in classrooms, and I wonder how much it really raises the level of knowledge in our country.