In my freshman year of high school, I spent two weeks in some sort of English class that wasn't remedial, I don't think, but wasn't an honors class. We spent the two weeks I was there learning to conjugate the verb "to be." Each student would stand and recite one (one word per sudent): am, are, is, be, was, were, been, being, then sit. So, a little like doing the wave. No subjects, and alphabetical order (as the teacher explained). We did this daily for a few rounds (24 students, 8 words, maybe twice or three times through the class?). Then, the teacher passed out worksheets where you had to fill in the correct tense of a verb in a blank in a sentence. She taught, and the worksheets were meant mostly as homework, I think. She transferred me out pretty quickly, but to this day, it was one of the weirdest classroom experiences I have ever had.
In college, I had a prof who gave incomplete class notes. His explanation was that he spoke too quickly for anyone to take good notes, so he provided most of the information but left out key details so you needed to attend lecture and take notes, but he didn't need to change his rapid delivery. It seemed like a pretty reasonable strategy. In our first lecture, after 20 min., he paused an told the class we could exhale. Everyone did, then he said, "OK, onward!" and started again.
I love how high school teachers (and all teachers really) can get into the interior-mind stream of consciousness and do or say things that sound completely bonkers if anyone in the class should re-tell the story later.
re: 1
Not really a directly similar story (re: the lecturer) but my 2nd year philosophy class on David Hume, the lecturer* was keen to emphasise that attending lectures was essential to pass the exam, and that anyone who attended would be provided with the information they needed to have. He then covered the "missing shade of blue" in about 3 minutes in one lecture, while spending multiple lectures on some relatively obscure part of the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Then, in the final exam, he set, I think, 4 or 8 questions on the missing shade of blue and related issues, and the square root of F-all on the stuff he'd devoted most of the lecture series to.
I'm pretty sure he was deliberately being a prick.
* I just googled him, and the first hit seems to be some kind of anti-Semitic site, which is fucking depressing.**
** he's a prominent Jewish community leader in Scotland.
Zhou Jing's son also earned special recognition for pursuing enemy forces into the hills and bringing severed heads back for display.
I mean, that could be on topic.
Maybe you could make an app? "Bring me the head the past participle."
6: We didn't cut our enemies heads off when I was in school. That must be part of the new curriculum.
This is what comes of "reform".
Just for the record, I am in favor of decapitation should it result in correct use of the apostrophe.
Teaching young people things is just the worst.
"Bring me the head the past participle."
Head of the noun phrase, surely.
Teaching things to old people would almost certainly be worse, but fortunately hardly anybody tries.
Dr. Skull is also subbing in our local schools. Occasionally in the high schools he actually gets to teach, but mostly he hands out work sheets and then plays Madden football on his iPad all day.
Yesterday he suffered. The student teacher in the class he was subbing for was trying to teach The Great Gatsby without knowing anything about America in the early 20th century, or Fitzgerald, or (apparently) literature in general.
"She was one of your students," he told me, when he got home. "SHE KNEW YOU."
That book should probably have a warning on the cover. Something like, "If you find these people admirable, either your reading comprehension or personality are for shit."
14: What is a student teacher? Is this like a less qualified version of a TA?
Is any comment about kids having difficulties in school on-topic here? Yesterday Cassandane got a call about another kid throwing a chair at Atossa during naptime. (Atossa is 3 and a half, this is a public preschool if anyone is confused about details.) The thrower has a habit of this kind of thing. Atossa herself was not actually hit, unharmed except for missing her nap, and matter-of-fact about it when we could distract her from the TV. We just scheduled a meeting with the principal Monday in hopes of getting the violent kid more help or out of the class entirely.
It's funny, based on home prices, the neighborhood around the school is pretty well gentrified. But the school is a non-charter school surrounded by 3 public charter schools, and just north of one of those schools is a homeless shelter, so our school has a disproportionate number of "underserved" and "at-risk" children. I assume that's what's going on here. Cassandane is assuming the thrower has developmental issues, and based on other details I'm thinking more about abuse of some kind. Who knows, though, neither of us are professionals. The kid has given one of the professionals (i.e. the teacher's aide) a black eye so far.
No matter the school, there is always that one kid.
But the school is a non-charter school surrounded by 3 public charter schools, and just north of one of those schools is a homeless shelter, so our school has a disproportionate number of "underserved" and "at-risk" children. I assume that's what's going on here.
I feel as if I'm being a jerk saying this, and I don't mean to be, but really not a safe assumption. Kids that age can be awfully violent regardless of exposure or disability or anything. The kid who bit Newt hard enough to leave a big bruise at that age was a developer's kid. (And then they were friends for years afterward. The kid wore the same stuffed orca costume for Halloween for five years straight.)
The effect was comic in later years. And Ben was a small kid.
That was me. My netnanny just let me back in here at work a couple of days ago, after months of blocking.
On the veldt, whales that were small had to be aggressive to defend themselves.
19: Nice to know. Not about him so much but about minor-to-medium behavioral issues with Atossa herself. As I've said, parenting is more work and more stressful than my job.
When I put it like that, of course it is. Maybe I think it shouldn't be because some friends make it look so easy? Or because the first couple years of it were easier, or harder in different ways? Or because Atossa seems so easy with everyone other than us? Or because I don't remember enough of when I and my sister were kids?
You'll be good. Just make sure she's paying attention the first time you grab the seal off the beach.
22: Honestly, it's hardly even obscene around here these days.
It's been weird. Comfortingly, I did not get significantly more work done.
My netnanny just let me back in here at work a couple of days ago, after months of blocking.
And here we were worried that you'd developed a busy and fulfilling life that was keeping you away from the blog.
Yes. There's no way to ask that without being rude, but I was curious.
I don't know if I mentioned that when I was on Arrakis Airways using their in-flight wifi it blocked Unfogged.
Our anti-monarchical tendencies are well known.
re: 19 and 24
xelA could have crazy tantrums up until about age 4. He was never violent towards other children -- singled out for kindness to other children by both his nursery and his school teachers, in fact -- but he could easily flip furniture around, and he could be violent towards us as his parents.
Cyrus: Most kids are great with people who aren't their parents, and horrible to their parents. That's the standard operating model. Don't be fooled by appearances from other people's kids and from what people say. Most parents are bullshitting it half the time, sometimes just because people don't want to admit when things are not great, and sometimes more maliciously, because some people are heavily invested in bullshitting you.
xelA has a kid in his class who is quite often violent, and he has had to go hospital once. He has been surprisingly tolerant of it (she has Downs syndrome and a full time carer in the classroom with her much of the time).
Last I checked it's not blocked on my wifi at home (I'm almost always on a VPN here).
The OP reminded me of those color coded SRA reading cards from elementary school. Do schools still use those, or are they a vanished relic of the 70s and 80s?
BTW, googling informs me that among other things, SRA stands for Sexual Recovery Anonymous, a sex addiction treatment program, and Superhuman Registration Act, which is apparently something from Marvel Comics.
35.1: Haven't seen them since I was in 3rd grade.
I forgot about SRAs. I had some early confusion between SAs and SRAs before learning that the former was spelled "essays".
33 is us too, except the violent tantrums ended at age 7ish, or rather switched to screamy obscenities, which really is progress, although we have to remind ourselves of that often.
It's been weird. Comfortingly, I did not get significantly more work done.
I'm oddly comforted to hear that. I haven't been commenting here much lately. I've been feeling worn down, and tired enough that when I have the impulse to comment I get distracted and never end up writing or posting my comment. I'm vaguely worried that I'll lose the habit of commenting entirely, so it's good to hear that you did not find that a period of being unable to comment caused you to direct your attention to better pastimes . . .
He was never violent towards other children -- singled out for kindness to other children by both his nursery and his school teachers, in fact --
This part is also not us.
That was supposed to be italicized, too.
On the OP -- that sounds joyless for everyone involved. I think you're right about the beatings will continue...
Mossy, student teachers are 5th year of school teachers -- equivalent to a masters. They tend to take classes one semester, then student teach (attempt to put into practice what they've learned) the second semester, with classes scheduled to not conflict with student teaching schedules. It gives them a chance to learn in a monitored/mentored environment, though different full time teachers may give them different levels of control and input into the day's lessons.
Our Montessori school had SRAs! In "lower elementary" (1st-3rd grade), which for me was I guess 1990-93.
I think I had SRA cards, but it was just one weird control-freak teacher. They taught me the word "parentheses".
My phone is messing with me because I keep breaking the screen.
Thanks for the reassurance on the parenting front, everyone. Also, 28 is thirded. I've periodically worried about addiction or other mental health issues, until I'm away from the thing I usually focus on too much and have no problems except for wasting an equivalent amount of time on something else. I don't have ADHD or gaming addiction, I'm just lazy.
The best way to worry about addiction is to be sitting in a bar one night, talking to a guy who is trying to get into contact with his high school-aged son he hasn't seen in a decade, and then come back the next week and find out the guy died because he needed emergency surgery and then alcohol withdrawn killed him in post op.
Now that's a malpractice case if there ever was.
I have no idea if his family sued or not.
On topic, I now know why this port was half the price of the other one.
I don't have ADHD or gaming addiction, I'm just lazy.
One of us. One of us.
(Tho I do have ADHD).
Student teachers (at least here in Arkansas) are senior English Ed students who teach for a semester in the local schools, usually under the supervision of an actual teacher. But the actual teacher was absent, so this one was teaching under the supervision of the sub, Dr. Skull.
I take no blame for the ineptness of her knowledge -- all I taught her was grammar. I bet she could have explained to them what a nominative absolute was.
It's actually getting kind of awkward because my son is now in middle school and asking grammar questions which I can't answer until I google them.
If I tell him to google them, he says he can't get the internet to work, which I think is because he's got too many tabs open in Chrome.
In case there are some lawyers still looking at this thread, is there any reason to expect that a large jury pool means a likely to be long jury selection process? Like around 100 prospective jurors? Asking for someone who is not a party to the (criminal) case.
I've mentioned it before. It was years ago and I hadn't talked to him expect the once.
63: Either they expect they would need to screen a large number of people to get a jury or they enjoy inconvenienced strangers.
Or they want their hypergeometric to converge to the binomial.
Because I'm not one to keep quiet just because I wasn't asked and have no real knowledge, let me add that when I was called as a prospective juror, they called over 100 people to find a single juror. They were looking for a black person willing to give the death penalty. They failed to find one.
to pass out Guided Notes, which are basically joyless MadLibs
A very apt description.
Standardized testing culture emphasizes brief excerpts and short passages. The point is not to read, and reflect upon, a longer piece of literature. It is to quickly scan, with the aim of filling in the blanks, or pencilling in the correct bubble, in a zero-sum, multiple-choice game devised by Pearson.
42/44/49: thanks - haven't had experience with them before.
I guess my question is more about how to estimate time. Although if I'm being completely honest, I want it to take right up until just after a meeting scheduled on Wednesday.
Regarding the OP, #1b: I do guided notes sometimes, for the reasons the professor gave. My students uniformly say they prefer it, but it's a ton of work for me. Two of master teachers do it always. The idea is that it's better than just a handout b/c they have to engage their hands and pay attention to make it make sense, but it's less taxing on all of us than straight up notes, and the drawings are better. It's not supposed to be filled in just by them or just by me but by me in dialog with them, using the document camera, and there's a lot of talking that goes with it. I would never give my guided notes to a sub. I would also not use it with middle anyone younger than 8th graders. I think the students have to have some level of motivation knowing that they need to know the material in order to do the homework and take the quizzes and tests.
Not defending it since I uniformly feel like a shitty, shitty teacher these days, just explaining it.