My Teaching Experiences

I was only at West one day today because there's no school Friday.

We rumbled in reading today. Tessa had set up relay races between two teams in each class. One team was given advantages like a plastic egg in the spoon carry and water (instead of crackers) in the whistling relay. The kids were able to tell immedidately which team was the Soc team and which team was the Greasers.

I heard comments all day from the Greasers like:

"This sucks."
"I want to be a Soc."
"That's not fair!"
"I would never be a Soc."

The Greasers would do things like cheer each other on more and help their teammates more. Even though they didn't realize it (I asked them about it in the discussion afterwards), they pulled together far more than the Socs. The Socs mostly stood around watching their team win. There was little encouragement from the Soc side and even less help for each other.

During the discussion afterwards, we had some bitter Greasers and some very satisfied Socs. The Greasers at first said that the Socs cheated, but when I brought up the fact that they didn't cheat, that they used what was given to them, the Greasers realized that the Socs didn't cheat, but that they just had all the advantages in the competition. We then related that to the story and then to a global perspective (looking at war and its purpose or reason). The kids remembered in the end of chapter seven - the last chapter they read - where it said that Greasers will always be Greasers and Socs will always be Socs; that carried the discussion further.

It was great to see the kids thinking and processing things about social norms and social classes and pressures today. It was also great to see them get so involved with the book and its events. I'm excited to experience the rumble in the book with them next Wednesday.

My Teaching Experiences
I'm a graduate student at Boise State University just starting to work with the school districts. This no-frills blog is my account of my experiences in the school setting. Archives: January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007	Wednesday, October 04, 2006 I was only at West one day today because there's no school Friday. We rumbled in reading today. Tessa had set up relay races between two teams in each class. One team was given advantages like a plastic egg in the spoon carry and water (instead of crackers) in the whistling relay. The kids were able to tell immedidately which team was the Soc team and which team was the Greasers. I heard comments all day from the Greasers like: "This sucks." "I want to be a Soc." "That's not fair!" "I would never be a Soc." The Greasers would do things like cheer each other on more and help their teammates more. Even though they didn't realize it (I asked them about it in the discussion afterwards), they pulled together far more than the Socs. The Socs mostly stood around watching their team win. There was little encouragement from the Soc side and even less help for each other. During the discussion afterwards, we had some bitter Greasers and some very satisfied Socs. The Greasers at first said that the Socs cheated, but when I brought up the fact that they didn't cheat, that they used what was given to them, the Greasers realized that the Socs didn't cheat, but that they just had all the advantages in the competition. We then related that to the story and then to a global perspective (looking at war and its purpose or reason). The kids remembered in the end of chapter seven - the last chapter they read - where it said that Greasers will always be Greasers and Socs will always be Socs; that carried the discussion further. It was great to see the kids thinking and processing things about social norms and social classes and pressures today. It was also great to see them get so involved with the book and its events. I'm excited to experience the rumble in the book with them next Wednesday.