Updates

I thought I’d post some updates on the goings on I’ve discussed previously.

When my class created bulletin boards about the 1920s for The Great Gatsby, things did not go exactly as planned. Being literal-minded students, almost everyone basically created the exact same research piece–exactly as I had written up the assignment. A couple kids worked outside the box, and I used their research findings as examples for new bulletin boards about the 1930s for The Grapes of Wrath. Each student has a political research item and one from popular culture; plus, the students are split into three groups and each is responsible for a bulletin board in the room. Take two! I hope to have some pictures to share.

The day after the entire staff was subjected to ladder training during finals week, we walked through the library and watched a district employee doing some duct repairs 20 feet in the air. It was an almost exact replica of a picture used to show us what not to do. A couple of us are thinking of taking pictures of these instances with our cell phones and creating an office bulletin board. Should be fun.

My Mythology and Writing classes took their first unit test, and the first class had an average of 82% while the second class scored at a 92% average. The difference: the first class did not follow directions. Since I figured they knew the information but moved too quickly, I let them sit with me one at a time and make any corrections they could within 2 minutes. The overall average jumped 5% because of this. They will know better next time (and they won’t get the extra opportunity). We have a mini-project upcoming, which includes poetry, a short analysis, a painting, a collage, and a film poster with a symbol. It should be fun to see how they create these. Their maps of the Underworld were wonderful!

I still have some difficulties with my American Literature class when it comes to turning in work. However, it is getting better. I plan to call the parents this week to ask them for some help. Other than this, the class is going pretty well. It’s not the most motivated group, but I’m optimistic. We have started The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and this weekend is the first time the students had to read outside of class. This will be an interesting test of industry and motivation.

Our intervention work has taken an odd shift. While we were being forced to create small learning communities (SLCs) instead of an intervention system, the district officials have told us to stop working on SLCs and create interventions. This is exactly what I wanted. However, at the very next meeting the ideas generated will not mesh with the current contract because of extra preps, extra students, and extra duties. Since these are all negotiated and bargained, I voiced this but was told they’d figure it out later. Well, now those ideas (all involving working with students during our lunches) are all we have and the union has already said it will not alter the contract language for this. My suggestion was to ask for volunteers and pay them extra for extra duties. We’ll see how that goes.