Lines and Strokes and Shapes and Fills

It is now the end of my first week as a teacher. Frankly, I need a weekend. I am tired, tired, tired.

I have to admit, though, that my voice and my body are doing a little bit better now than the first couple of days. I had really sore feet and sore legs the first couple of days, as well as a scratchy voice. These seem better today than they have before.

Today was school picture day, I predict my school picture looks terrible.

Today, I actually started teaching for the first time so far. I am doing a little Graphic Arts Project in each class using Macromedia Fireworks. This is sort of a Pre-Assessment. I taught them about Lines and Strokes (the colored patterns that can cover a drawn line) and Shapes and Fills (the colored patterns that can fill an empty space). The skills are, for the most part, unknown to the kids, but are fun to use. I am trying to see how well kids do with computers, my instruction, using simple menus and dropboxes, and so forth. This will help me tell how their instruction should proceed from here on out.

I have been mightily concerned with the fact that my presentation computer (the one which shows on the overhead projector) is stuck in the corner at the front of the room. If I am sitting at that computer to do overhead stuff, my head is in the corner and I can't see ANYTHING going on around me. On a whim, and because I didn't have any other choice today, I asked for volunteers to be my Demo Person for the class First Period. The most hyperactive kid raised his hand. I have already had to talk with him privately in the hallway for being too loud and talkative in class. "OK," I said, "I'll tell you what to do and you do it for me." It was awesome!

He stayed with me the entire class period, closely following all of my instructions and being a great demo person. And, because he was stuck with his nose in the corner, he didn't bother anyone else!
The cool thing about this is that it allowed me to walk about the classroom and help others. Also, I had to give good instructions to the Demo Person, or the rest of the class wouldn't get it. I have to admit, it worked like a charm.

I continued this trick the next two classes and it worked very well. I have rescinded my request for a change in the presentation machine, because I think that this is a great teaching tool.

It is interesting to see how the kids react to Graphic Art. Some of the kids love it, you can tell. They are off exploring the buttons and menus and trying new stuff. Every couple of minutes, they will say, "Wow, this is cool, come look at this!" Other kids, however, don't seem to like it much and told me that they find it boring. I think such kids are either not artistically or creatively inclined or need more structured practice work to complete.

Anyway, the first week is done. Thank goodness.

Time for a beverage!

I Am Now Done With Introductions

Well, it is now my planning period. I have eaten my lunch and I am back in The Fishbowl typing away.

I have completed two straight days, six straight classes full of the same lecture over and over again. This was my "Rules of the Fishbowl" that I talked about yesterday. I am now done with this. I'm glad, I got tired of all the yelling.

Tomorrow, network willing, we will start doing actual computer stuff. Just as a working pre-assessment, I will be spending the first couple of days or week with each class going over some basic Fireworks Graphic Arts stuff. It will not be anything hard, just creating shapes, using fills and strokes, using layers, transparencies, stuff like that. I am hoping that it will be fun, but that it will also give me a good idea of where different kids' skill levels are and how well they learn new material.

The first assignment is based upon a cool online work of Graphic Art called The Zoom Quilt. We will take a look at The Zoom Quilt and will talk a little bit about what it is and how it works. Of course, the kids won't have the skills to create a real Zoom Quilt, but we will be doing something similar on a 2 dimensional level. Each kid will be given the task of creating a single tile of a fixed size. They are to make the tile using Fireworks and the skills we learn over the next couple of days. There will be a unifying thread to these tiles, just like in The Zoom Quilt, an orange line. The Orange Line will flow from tile to tile when the tiles are all connected at the end of the project. The individual tiles will be personalized by the artist, but each will have the unifying orange line. When all of the tiles are completed, I will print them out, link them together, laminate them and post them up around the top wall of the room. I am hoping that it will be a good opening project.

I Yell at People. A Lot.

Well, the Second Day of Classes rolled around and I was pleased that most kids showed up again. We did introductory stuff on Day 1 and played some games. Today, I outlined the rules of the Lab (or The Fishbowl, as I call it, as it has large windows opening onto two hallways).

For the most part, I was kind of a butthead. I am pretty emphatic about my rules and the examples therein. To be honest, though, there isn't anything in my Rules of The Fishbowl presentation that these kids haven't heard before, lots of times:

-No food and drink, water only in enclosed containers.
-No Hats.
-No Music Players or headphones, no playing music on the computer.
-No Cell Phones, in particular, no Camera Cellphones.
-No email and No games.
-and so forth...

I also go over the late policy (Late work is docked 50 percent and isn't accepted 2 weeks past due date.)

I also talk about inappropriate content on the computers. Mess up in this area and you will lose computer privileges and may be expelled from the class.

We also talked about respect and pride in the classroom.

OK. That was fun.

After that, we went over the course syllabus. I knew that if I was to simply hand out the syllabus, each student would take them home, get a signature and never read a word. So, using the Reading and Writing Training that I got in my weeklong workshop this summer, I made the students pair up, sit next to each other and read out loud. One student follows the words with their fingers and the other student reads. At the end of a paragraph, the kids switch.

Everyone hated it. But you know what? They read the syllabus and were attentive and quiet for 5-10 minutes. Activity successful!

Then, we tried to get the kids their own space on the network. Unfortunately, this isn't too easy. Spencer, the IT Guy, has given me a user login for the Tech Lab, with a supersecret password. At the start of the day, I log in each and every computer in the classroom with this generic password. To create files, I pretty much had to walk around and do the file creation individually. As there are 14-20 kids in each class, all logged on as the same user, any actions done on the network effected everyone. What a pain.

When we were done with that, we pretty much had 10-12 minutes of time left in each class. I gave them some free time on the computers. Using this time as best I could, I went around the room and met with each student and talked with them a little to start seeing what kids are interested in nowadays. At Highland High, there is a lot of interest in trucks, horses and cattle. This may be different in your area, but here, these are the big 3.

The Network

I forgot to mention it, but all of the computers in my room are now hooked up and working. They are even connected to the network.

However, I do not know at all how to log kids onto the system. Spencer, the IT Guy, told me yesterday that he would not be able to establish individual student accounts and that there would be only one Tech. Lab username and password and that each student would simply have to make a folder on the network server for their work.

I have some serious doubts about this system and hope that we can change it soon. I am worried that a kid that loses his computer privileges will still be able to get onto the network and that anyone can get into any other person's folders and mess things up. One kid with a vindictive streak could wipe out a whole ton of other students' work.

I will be in at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning to meet with Spencer to learn how student stuff will be handled on the network. This is 1 and 1/2 hours before school starts, but meets his schedule. It doesn't really meet my schedule, but I need to know what to do with kids 1st period tomorrow.

I Do Better...

Hi! It is now 1:20 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. I have finished all of my classes for the day (except for homeroom at the end of the day.) On White Days, I have classes for 2nd, 4th and 6th Period, which means that I am on the run from 8:15 a.m. until 12:37 p.m. Then we have lunch, then I have a planning period. This lets me relax and eat lunch and get some work done in the afternoon. I might put my feet up, they are STILL killing me, even though I took some Tylenol.

Today went better than yesterday, I think. I hope so, anyway, I have practiced my routine 5 times already. In general, I have been introducing myself to the class, then I have the students form a line based upon alphabetizing their last names. Then, I admit to them that I am lousy with names and will be seating them according to their last name for the first couple of weeks. I then check my roster for each name, shake hands with the student, introduce myself and welcome them to my class, then I show them to their seats.

After everyone is situated, I have been doing a brief introduction to the classroom, showing everyone where things are and how things are laid out. Then, I go through a PowerPoint slide show that outlines some of the things we will be doing in the class, mostly some of the ideas that I have for projects and so forth.

Then, each student picked up a notecard and filled it out for me, giving their name, their computer experience, their interests, etc.

Then, we play Werewolf. This went much better today that yesterday, as I am now practiced at moderating the game. I tell little stories to set the scene, I ask questions to help the students form opinions regarding the strategies of the game and so forth. The kids have been getting into it. So far, the Werewolves have won 3 games and the Villagers have won 3. It has been fun, and I get to keep asking kids for their names, because the first thing that someone has to say when they are playing is "My name is..." I got some names, but not all. I am surprised at how well I do at names in the classroom, but how quickly the names leave me when I am out of the classroom. When I see one of my kids out of the classroom, I have a hard time putting their face into context and I cannot remember names. Argh.

On a good note, I have received an email from Carolyn, one of my good friends and compadres from Project Promise 16. She interviewed for a Middle School position in Windsor at 10:00 this morning and was an employee by 11:00. Yeah for Carolyn!

My First Day- DONE!

Oh, my gosh!

I am a teacher and I have finished my first day!

WOOOOOHOOOOOO!

My feet hurt!

Hard to believe that the 17 year old kid that went to the University of Denver his Freshman Year to become a History Teacher finally made it through his first day of classes at the age of 40!

Wow!

_____________________

On a more constructive and reflective note, things went pretty well for my first day. I could have been better and I could have been worse. I only had the one computer all day, but it was hooked up to the overhead projector and I did get to do my little introductory slideshow three times. I got better as the day went on.

I am assured by Spencer, the IT Guy, that he will have the Tech. Lab computers up by tomorrow morning. He is telling me, though, that he can't set up individual accounts for all of the kids and that there will be one generic Tech Lab Username that everyone will be using. I think that this is a pretty lousy idea, as it means that anyone can get into anyone else's stuff and delete it. Oh, well, I will see how it goes.

First Class Done and I am Still Alive!

It is now 10:07 a.m. on Monday, August 22, 2005.

I HAVE FINISHED MY FIRST CLASS!

I am officially a teacher!

It went pretty well, not great, as you might expect. In honor of my friend Lee Evans, I made it a point to shake hands with every student and welcome them to the classroom. We did some name sorting activities and a quick slide show to discuss what we will be covering in the classroom. We then played a "Game to Help Mr. B. Learn Names." Of course, I don't play your typical game. We played Werewolf. Werewolf is a psychological game wherein players must decided who is lying and who is telling the truth. To help me with names, everyone had to say "My name is XXX" before they spoke in the game. I got some names. Not all. I stink at names.

Because we are going to be doing writing in the class, I then had the students write for 5 minutes regarding the game, what they thought of it, how it was played, what strategies they might use next time they play and so forth. I was pleased that kids actually wrote for the 5 minutes in relative silence.

One guy is trying to push limits early, but I think it will be ok. He just wants to act hyper in a quiet classroom.

Anyway, the first battle is over and I seem to have survived.

One weird bit of news, however, that I got this morning is that both of my classes are actually Year Long classes. I did not know this. I assumed that they were only semester classes. This may change my longterm approach.

The Last Scary Weekend

It is Sunday afternoon, 12:15 p.m. and I just got to Highland High School. I came in to deposit my chair at my desk and to get some last minute work done. This has been a tough couple of days. I have been pretty constantly sick since I left school on Friday. All I have to do is THINK about Monday morning and I get nauseated and weak in the colon. I hate that, but it is part of who I am, apparently, so I have to live with it.

It has helped to work on School Things. I have been putting together introductory slide shows for all of my classes that will talk a little about what we will be doing in class and what the expectations are.

I am slightly (OK, pretty darn) dismayed to find that absolutely nothing in my lab has changed since I left on Friday. There are still keyboards scattered about the floor, cords and cables everywhere, dead printers stacked along the wall, unpacked monitors in most corners of the room, etc. The IT Guy told me that he would have the lab ready to go on Monday, but it doesn't look like it. He also said that he would be sure to have the overhead projector working so that I can do my First Day Introductory Stuff. So far, it doesn't appear to be operable.

Yuck!