Post #50 - Home Happily

With a short night, an early morning, and a long flight... well, not that long...

I'm home safely and happily and I've already unpacked some! So glad to be back. My glasses don't fog up, the temperature drops when the sun sets, and my parents cook for me! The smallest tidbits are joyous occasions now, including my carpet and a firm bed.

Twas a great, challenging, enriching and transformative summer. Thanks for sharing it with me!

-Holly

Check in my pocket, I'm done!

The posting hiatus has been rather boring. We've cleaned our site, typed our detailed evaluations for every student, had them edited and revised 4 times and stuffed envelopes to send off materials. That's a run-on sentence.

We also had a catered lunch, various closing exercises and each Teacher and Admin did a Presentation of Learning where we spoke or presented for 10 minutes about what we learned.

I completed all my work on Thursday; today was just helping other people, stuffing envelopes with the evaluations and checking facebook. Oh yah, lots of facebooking.

So, I left today with my paycheck and not too much regret. I was surprised to care SO little; I'm never going to see any of these people again (high probability), but I didn't leave on a sad note. There are a couple of people who I would love to keep in touch with but I doubt I'll actually see them again... and for the most part, that doesn't bother me at all.

Now, I'm back in the room... starting to pack. I know it'll all fit. Yes, Dad, it WILL all fit. I have a ride to the airport at 7:45am... and my flight leaves at 10:45. I'm riding with someone else who has a flight earlier than mine. Whoow. Gotta pack and get dinner tonight and I'm set to be home. So ready to go home. So ready! Mom, can we have lasagna or turkey curry or gazpacho this weekend?!

Thanks to all of you who've been following along... I really appreciate it.

Sick Day

When I came to teach here, I was confident I would catch something from the germy kids or the new Teachers. That whole new germ pool thing. Well, I made it 7.5 weeks...

Today, was spent working on the student evaluations, and when I turned my in before lunch, I was ready to go home. I had a fever, upset stomach and sore throat (Dr. Dad, I know you'll be trying to diagnose me...!). The weather reflected how I felt inside. I got a ride home and after getting a delicious bowl of chicken noodle soup from Panera, I went home (dorms) to sleep and medicate. It was nice to just zonk out for a few more hours and when I re-awoke, I still felt sick, but much improved.

Tonight, I've corrected all 13 of my evaluations for my kids. I've cleaned my - and other - classrooms, I've eloquently praised my students, I've taken surveys and been interviewed by my Director. The last major thing to do is my "Presentation of Learning"... about which I have NO PLANS yet.

We're having a good-bye dinner out tomorrow night -- just those of us who survived Breakthrough Real World: Eaton Residence Hall.

I'm feeling better now: don't worry Mom and Dad! I'll be at work tomorrow.

E-val-u-a-tions has 5 syllables...

So I wrote my first evaluation (aka "comments" from CA teachers). I chose my easiest - which was my top overachiever kid. She's so eager and great.

I turned in my half-page narrative praise. I just met with my peer-editor and here's a sketch of what she said: "this is great, you have good examples, your paragraph flows well. Just... be careful of your wording. Remember that you're writing it to students and their parents."

(I look at the paper, and the following words are circled: sound, meticulous, astute, conscientious)

Me: So what are you saying? You want me to use small words?

Her, smiling: Yes.

Darn - I guess it's not the same at CA teachers... I have to continue to use small words. I miss intellectual stimulation. Don't get me wrong, I loved the teaching, but I miss the challenging, persepective-changing, long talks that people here (Teachers included) consider totally dorky.

Rain Rain Go Away

Sunday, we went to the beach. Only, we didn't make it.

Scorching, muggy air greeted us as we began our pilgrimage to the beach; yet, after our hour bus ride to South Beach, the green-black ominous clouds started to dampen our spirits. Then, they began to dampen then drench us. Closed beach equals time for a meal. Sunday equals half-price menus. Score!

We went to a cool Italian cafe on the sidewalk and my $12 lasagna was good -- Mom's is better -- but certainly not worth the typical $23.99. Too bad for the stomache -- it made a nice dinner in my dorm room.

Dripping, we caught the bus back, bumping into our other half (the dormers who left before us also went to SB).

New distance on my run Sunday, and I'm nearly done with Harry Potter 6 - rereading it.

Countdown: school cleaning (COMPLETE). 1 of 13 student evals complete; 12 more to do, plus a "creative presentation of learning" for Thursday. Home in 5 days. Heck yah! (Now that the kids are gone, I'm so ready to be gone too. I understand how the week after students leave is a boring time for CA teachers. Hey, I'm spending my time in meetings and writing comments too...!)

I'll post about Monday when I get home today... sorry for the two-day absense!

Celebrate, Celebrate, Dance to the Music

Saturday was Celebration, the huge showcase of student work that we've been planning for at least 10 days. There are two parts: the performance and the academic expo. You've heard about the expo - that is what my poster board was for. Every class had a visual presentation of student work to demonstrate all the learning. After parents perused the expo, we corralled them into the auditorium -- this school's theater easily seats 1000 people, and with all the kids (180), Teachers (60), parents and families, we had at least 700 people in attendance. It lasted about 2.5 hours, and included poetry reading, dancing, skits from each department, and a cool set of "hosts".


































































After all that -- we had a parent-provided feast. Of course, all the families ate first, so by the time teachers got food, much was gone. But it was a nice gesture. And we did not expect to feed 700 people...!

I treasured the chance to meet kids' families. I hugged students, shook hands with many parents and grandparents, posed for photos with families. It was heartwarming to see the kids in the hybrid of "school" and "home". It was an ironic role reversal of all those award ceremony nights at CA when my teachers met my parents. I was teacher though. Many parents had beautifully kind things to say to me. One of my favorite students showed up sans family -- he took a city bus across town by himself to attend this 8th grade Celebration, but could not bring family with him. He'll go far in life.

We worked 15 hour days last week. We were snappy to each other. We were glitter-covered. We were sick of Breakthrough. And we were stressed.















The Celebration -- expo, performances, and meeting families -- made it more than worthwhile. With all my criticisms of the program and the people here, I found this one moment, a caccoon of pride, love, respect and confidence nearly enough to decide, on the spot, so return next summer. Yah, it was that intense.

Of course, now as I write this, the euphoria and joy are wearing off now, replaced by melancholy and angst that accompany evaluations, editing, cleaning, and close-out activities.

Say "cheese!"

This is my second period - I love these kids! Roy - navy tshirt on the left - wrote me the most heart-warming note today in class.


















Here is 4th period - more rowdy and sometimes, it was a challenge to not shout at them. They are all good kids -- my one problem child quit coming on the penultimate day of the program.
















Here's what I spent the last several hours working on. It's my poster showcasing student work to present at the "Academic Expo" which is an exhibit of student work before families watch the performances on Saturday at Celebration. It takes a lot of time to set this all up - there are 60+ teachers from both sites all with these exhibits in one room. Like a college fair, only not.

Construction paper, glue, and twelve feet of butcher paper

Today brought out the artsy, glitter-covered side of me. I finished all my packages for students - I went for both the bribery (sweets) and for the sincere (personal letters). All in all, each student received a small pack of candies (I kept the leftovers of course) and I wrote a 1/2 page letter on nice water-marked paper to each kid commending them for spirited participation, diligent work ethic, inquisitiveness and more.

During class, I asked each kid to write a letter to a new student next year telling them a few things they liked and didn't like about the class. In reality, it was my sorta-deceptive way of getting an honest evaluation of the class. One of the top students in the class wrote a heart-warming letter that basically said I was his favorite and best teacher, I was fair, kind, and the material was exciting. What more could I want?! Another girl said I didn't give much homework but I send them to YO! (detention/homework make-up time).

After the typical day, we transitioned from our site at the Middle School to the Upper School (down the street) and we are setting up a series of exhibits to showcase top student work in each class. There are lots of tri-fold poster boards, lots of papers on the walls, and lots of middle school art projects. I came home (at the dorm!) to glitter, courtesy of my fellow Breakthrough Staff and basically, I'm sick of arts and crafts, yet I get to do my own now, for several hours. Hope I don't drown in paint... I'll post photos when I'm done.

Showing the love...

Special thanks to my recent commenters! I don't know how many of you are actually reading this, but I think it's around 10 -- hearing from you gives me strength (almost like we're in it together!).

Hope your summers and your adventures are as rewarding (and more restful!) than mine!

Charades, Art and Enthusiasm

Today we played brain charades, I had words including the brain lobes and actions like "walking" or "memory" or "posture" or "heart rate" and the kids in my second period had a blast! They were very competitive and had a great time. I was so thrilled to see how much they remembered! And I targeted different "intelligences" or learning styles than usual by letting them act it out.

Fourth period was an entirely different issue. How do you show up at school with no pencil, not paper, not even a purse or bookbag? She's been irritating me this summer, but all the rest of my kids are great. I think I got kids in the upper third of the cleverness spectrum, so it's been rewarding to see how a kid can drop "corpus callosum" or "reaction time" or "retina" in casual conversation at... age 12.

Today, after meetings, rehearsals, and art projects I left work around 7:15 and went supply shopping for my parting gifts for kids.

Tonight: I called all my students (which takes longer than you'd expect) to check in on their projects. About half have emailed final copies to me which is awesome. I have to make the little goody bags of sweets to say bye and also write 10 more letters (personalized for each kid with strengths and advice - I'm encouraging a few kids to consider running for student government because they are great leaders.) Oddly enough, I seem to remember someone doing that for me when I was in 9th grade... see how I turned out :-D.... And I have to format and create my newspaper template for the kids. It'll be a long night, but it's not about us. It's about the kids -- and they will appreciate the notes and tokens. Tomorrow is our last day in the classroom, which I didn't think I'd be sad about, but think I actually will be a bit.

Fun Classes, LONG day

I taught for half the class period, and I think it went really well. We started with a discussion of language in humans (sound-meaning connection) and compared it to animal communication (often a physical change). Then I discussed Broca's Area and Wernike's Area (parts of the temporal lobe that control speech production and comprehension). I barely skimmed the surface of the linguistics, psychology, and neurobiology involved. The lab I work in at Harvard researches the evolutionary aspects of animal communication, so I was excited to touch the topic with my kids.

I shared a bunch of awesome YouTube clips as a way to integrate technology. My projector didn't work, but I cannot complain. I had 6 and 4 kids, so my giant laptop screen was sufficient!

Here are links to the clips I used:

McGurk Effect (is speech JUST auditory or visual too?)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aFPtc8BVdJk

Lyre Bird imitating cameras and chainsaws
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y

Bee Waggle Dance
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-7ijI-g4jHg&mode=related&search=


The kids' projects are coming along well - ideally they will be done tomorrow, but that's quite possibly not going to happen. So, we can work tomorrow and turn in everything on Thursday, which is our last day of class. Estimating how long to spend on a project has been a challenge because with three grade levels and a varying levels of enthusiasm, some kids do a lot while others manage to spend a long time doing nothing.

The days are very long because with Celebration coming up on Saturday we have a lot of work to display, skits to rehearse, songs to learn, and all sorts of things. It's 3-4 hours long and includes an expo of all academic work (books written, collages created, posters, student essays all that jazz) as well as a recognition of every department and a 30-45 minute student-written play. It's a big deal, and the kids are psyched, but the Teachers are getting worn out.

"It's not about us. It's about the kids" is the motto continually chanted by our Admin team, but at the same time, we're just not used to this kind of demands on our time. We do it, almost always with a smile, but teaching alone is exhausting, and to add to that 3 hours of staff meeting, painting posters, training and professional development.... sigh. I got home before 6pm tonight, which was thrilling itself!!

Overachievers

My kids all wrote a ton this weekend - I was really excited. Apparently, I had underestimated their abilities. One of my kids had a full page, front and back written out about the brain lobes and their uses in football, another wrote very intelligently about the causes, symptoms and treatments for schizophrenia. I was truly amazed, and very proud!

Today has gone well - no real commitments except my letters to my kids.

We're in the midst of sun shower - it's bright and sunny and rain drops are fallin' on my head...

Monday's Lesson Plan

Because the last time I posted a sample lesson plan, I actually had to print it from this Blog because I forgot to email it to myself the night before. I have successfully emailed it, but here's another example of a lesson plan, but it's apportioning class time to work on our newspaper project.

Holly Metter / Neuroscience

Date: Week 6 / Day 1 / July 23
Subject: Class time to work on project

Lesson Objectives:
By the end of class, students will:

-complete a rough draft of full article and
brainstorm an idea for a picture

-choose a title for the class newspaper

Lesson Procedure:

Do Now: Match the following:

1. Parietal a. personality, social skills, planning, memory

2. Temporal b. spatial reasoning

3. Occipital c. sound and speech

4. Frontal d. connects right and left hemisphere

5. Cerebellum e. breathing, heart rate and connects to spinal cord

6. Brainstem f. vision

7. Corpus callosum g. coordination, walking, posture

Select Newspaper title (5 minutes)

We will brainstorm a list (Daily Dendrite, Brain Bulletin, The Brainiac)

We will vote, majority rules

Review Expectations (5 mins)

I will review with the class what I expect from their assignment:

* 4-5 paragraph essay

* Clever title for article

* an image

Student Work Time (30 mins)

* Students will spend the remainder of the time working on their essays.

* By the end of the class, I will personally check in with each student to answer any questions about their assignment or their work so far. I hope to proofread the work so far.

* By the end of class, each student will have a rough draft of their essay (4 to 5 paragraphs) and a title selected for it.

Homework: Complete rough draft and revise it – spellcheck it. Find image to include. If possible, type essay. Bring revised draft to class Tuesday.

Possible problems:

1. If students only have a soft copy of their document, I will send them to the library with a note asking a Teacher to please print and send the kid back to class

2. If students do not have sufficient information or an adequate outline, I will work with them to develop a better structure. I have given most students outside resources that are appropriate.

3. If necessary, I will pull a kid out of ALA Monday to continue working on this project.

Barbeque at the Beach... in the Rain!

It's been a slow and lazy weekend, and somewhat productive. I've done about 3 hours of work for a club at school, talked to Travis a lot, slept a lot, read a lot (HP #6), and even called all my kids to check in about their assignments this weekend and written personalized letters to several of my kids. On the last day of class, I'm going to give them each a letter and some photos of the class and the brain dissection too.

This afternoon, the Admins all hosted a BBQ at the beach at Key Biscayne today, but sadly it poured all day. We made do and enjoyed our food anyway. Burgers and hot dogs and soda and cookies... all courtesy of our Exec Director. Yum. Oh, and by car it's only 15 minutes away, in contrast to the hour and half by bus. Oh well.. it's always a fun trip. A bunch of folks played beach volleyball and several of us got in the water. It was placid and pleasant, despite the continuous drizzle.

We're back now, and dried off. Here are some photos to tell the tale. Gotta love free food and crazy companions and awesome alliterations!

Feast and Talent Show

We feasted feverishly on Friday - we don't get homecooked food often, but yesterday we had a plethora of food! The culmination of Culture Week was a pot-luck feast with various families donating dishes. In the afternoon, we prepared for and enjoyed the Talent Show. The students were impressively well-behaved. Photos below will tell the story.

A Sampling of the Delicious Foods...














Yum. The gallo pinto (brownish rice) above is courtesy of Amy, one of my Villagers (pictured below with a gray shirt)




















Students enjoying their tasty food (for once! the cafeteria food, which is catered, not cooked on site, is startlingly awful.)















Several of my crazy Villagers - in various states attentiveness. They can be a wild group - especially the monster in the pink polo.















Miss Holly, with the "shin-biters" waiting for the House to open before the Show.















Students in the Theater, awaiting the Show. They behaved so well! We are treating them all to ice cream on Monday!

Comments

I really like comments - yes, it makes me feel special. I've changed the settings so you should be able to post a comment even without a GOOGLE membership or log-in. :-)

What Teachers Make

Maybe I've been brainwashed, but I really love this program. The mission and execution are unbelievable - the growth and joy we see in the kids in remarkable, and the job is intense.

Here is one of the motivational poems that we've seen a lot. Written in 1999 by a NYC teacher and poet.

What Teachers Make, or
Objection Overruled, or
If things don't work out, you can always go to law school

By Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com

He says the problem with teachers is, "What's a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"
He reminds the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about
teachers:
Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

I decide to bite my tongue instead of his
and resist the temptation to remind the other dinner guests
that it's also true what they say about lawyers.

Because we're eating, after all, and this is polite company.

"I mean, you¹re a teacher, Taylor," he says.
"Be honest. What do you make?"

And I wish he hadn't done that
(asked me to be honest)
because, you see, I have a policy
about honesty and ass-kicking:
if you ask for it, I have to let you have it.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional medal of honor
and an A- feel like a slap in the face.
How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall
in absolute silence. No, you may not work in groups.
No, you may not ask a question.
Why won't I let you get a drink of water?
Because you're not thirsty, you're bored, that's why.

I make parents tremble in fear when I call home:
I hope I haven't called at a bad time,
I just wanted to talk to you about something Billy said today.
Billy said, "Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don't you?"
And it was the noblest act of courage I have ever seen.

I make parents see their children for who they are
and what they can be.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely
beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).

Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a goddamn difference! What about you?

Weekends are the end of the week

In college, the weekend didn't feel entirely UNLIKE the week - I did not have classes on Friday last semester, so Thursday night flowed into the weekend, but I still had papers, meetings, and all that jazz to do. Yet, with a regular 9-5 job (albeit that mine is 7:30 to 6), Friday dismissal is so much sweeter. Sure, I have lessons to plan and letters to write to my kids, but in general I can relax and not think about Breakthrough all weekend. And heck, grading papers at the pool just isn't that bad!

Class went really well yesterday and today - I've changed two main things since I received the course evaluations from my kids. I plan less material per class so I can take more questions and pursue more student-generated tangents and I've done a group activity/competition every day. It slows down the pace -- and there is so much I want to tell them about the brain -- but, the kids love the competition or races or activities. It's the essence of "bridgey" -- our buzz word this summer which encompasses all things decorative, exciting, unconventional, and activity-based.

Today we enjoyed the Talent Show - today's big event as well as Culture Week which has been on-going this week. We enjoyed a fantastic, Thanksgiving-like pot luck at lunch today, where students brought in food from their heritage country. We have kids who are either directly from or who's family heritage traces to about 15 Latino/Caribbean nations (about 30-50% Cuban and 35% Haitian, which a smattering from Honduras, Nicuragua, and Argentina) so we had a good mix of foreign and American food. At lunch today, I enjoyed: baked macaroni and cheese, gallo pinto, latkes, banana pudding, and brownies. Oh, and oooodles of mangoes! Did I mention the sliced and diced mangoes? One of the teachers conveniently has a mango tree in her back yard (!!!) and brought us Dormers about 30 mangoes and hand cut about 20 for the lunch today. I was in heaven with all that food -- mangoes and rice and beans pretty much make the whole week better! (Chocolate pecan pie and maduros could have helped a bit...but I'm not complaining!)

Photos to come in my next post. Off for a run - the sun is setting and it's so beautiful to see the palms highlighted against the sky like a performer on stage.

Adieu!

Fantastic Day, Busy Night

I would not change a thing about my 2nd period class! It all worked well.

I guest taught a chemistry class since the teacher was out for the morning - it was fun to see another class and control other students. For me, they were very well behaved and pretty attentive. After that, I went to my classroom to set up for the balloon-pop surprise and it was a hit. I got exactly the result I would have liked.

I am surprised, though, at how little the kids know about mental health -- I thought they would have encountered depression as a topic in health class or seen movies with schizophrenia. Nope - when I asked them to name a mental illness, all I got was ADD, which I allowed, even though there is a sizable academic and medical debate about ADHD/ADD diagnoses.

I'm looking forward to their homework assignments and tomorrow's class. Thanks, National Institute of Health's Curric. Supplements for middle school. I pretty much lifted the whole lesson and it was fantastic.

My 4th period class, normally 6 was only three so that changed the dynamic. Much slower and distracted by neurological disorders (explaining the difference between mental illness and neurodegenerative illnesses is actually very hard!).

This evening, I have to to/ am doing: evaluation journals (narrative report cards) for my kids, finishing my lesson plans for next week (language learning, sleep, and memory), designing a final project for our class, planning tomorrow's lesson, and writing up a report about Science Department day.

My run, which I was - for the first time - looking forward to, was spoiled by construction all along my path, so I got to explore campus on new routes. I discovered the scenic side of UM and several nicely lit fountains. New high milage tonight, too.

Hope tomorrow is another good day!!

Sorry about the formatting...

I have to catch my ride and I'll fix it this evening. But, that is what they look like...

Wish me luck today!