Today has been a relaxed, restful day -- much needed after a rough week.
Thursday and Friday at school were tough days: we were all short on sleep, the kids are always rowdier at the end of the week, and now that they've gotten to know us, they are testing us. It's no longer a just a blast; it's really hard work too. (but still fun and rewarding.) We've had a lot of disrespectful behavior and several fights lately. The kids are great in Week 1, devious but well-behaved in Week 2, and in Week 3, they start to test us and show their true, not-so-angelic, colors.
A girl who put no effort into being at Breakthrough (no homework or participation in my class and enough attitude to go around) was expelled on Thursday after beating up a younger girl. I - and everyone else who taught her - was happy to see her go (is that too harsh?), but she really hurt the other student and couldn't care less about our program. We've had some severe "play fighting" amongst the boys and an increase in shrugged shoulders, rolled eyes, and sneers. It just makes it that much tougher, but at the same time, it makes me appreciate the quiet, well behaved, inquisitive students even more.
My students are becoming experts in specific parts of the brain and are presenting for 60 seconds about their expertise regarding the function and location of their assigned brain part. The first group to share was not great, so I will now talk with each one before to prep them, and encourage them to stand up straighter and talk more clearly -- behavior becoming for a true expert. The presentations continue this week along with our much anticipated sheep brain dissection. About half the kids are excited and half are reluctant, but I hope I can pull more of them in -- I was grossed out in the corner my first time with a brain dissection, but now I love it (excluding the pungent smell of formaldehyde...)
I have absolutely no internet on my computer now, so I will have to post from school or a friend's computer (like now). Adios...
[update at 10pm: although my wireless internet died, my LAN now works, so I have resurrected the internet. additional highlights today include: talking to the super cool Travis lots and lots (choquack!), eating a mango and talking with Albert.]
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Fourth of July
I slept 12 hours today! It was fantastic. We went grocery shopping, had an awesome barbeque, watched a movie, and I'm catching up on work rather than catching up on fireworks, but I know I'll appreciate it tomorrow!
Tomorrow I'm teaching my kids about brain localization; how certain parts of the brain are specialized to do certain things. I'm using snazzy images from fMRI machines; it's doubly cool because the lab I work in at Harvard does a lot of work with fMRIs, so I am excited to explain it to the kids.
Happy Independence Day!
Tomorrow I'm teaching my kids about brain localization; how certain parts of the brain are specialized to do certain things. I'm using snazzy images from fMRI machines; it's doubly cool because the lab I work in at Harvard does a lot of work with fMRIs, so I am excited to explain it to the kids.
Happy Independence Day!
Monday, July 2, 2007
Lacking Internet
Not be whine excessively, but a technology-infused school shouldn't spontaneously lose its internet connection across campus for a full day.
Half of my lesson plan required taking my students to the computer lab to research for a presentation, but upon arriving at school to turn in my lesson plan, I discovered that we had no internet. No researching, kids.
Teachers must be flexible. We talked more about writing lab reports and helped the students revise their first draft. The average grammar, spelling and punctuation is abysmal. "Gunna" "you know", unnecessary "right?'s" and many more inappropriate terms are popping up. Instant Messenger and poor education will doom these kids. But, we're here to do our job, and if correcting lab reports includes brief lessons in subject-verb agreement, so be it.
Hopefully the tech works tomorrow. I'll be discussing the localization of brain function using images from fMRI machines (part of your brain does THIS and part of it does THAT...)
Wednesday is off (July 4th), so we'll see if the out-of-towners find a thing to do for the holiday. Back to writing my lesson plans for next week.
Half of my lesson plan required taking my students to the computer lab to research for a presentation, but upon arriving at school to turn in my lesson plan, I discovered that we had no internet. No researching, kids.
Teachers must be flexible. We talked more about writing lab reports and helped the students revise their first draft. The average grammar, spelling and punctuation is abysmal. "Gunna" "you know", unnecessary "right?'s" and many more inappropriate terms are popping up. Instant Messenger and poor education will doom these kids. But, we're here to do our job, and if correcting lab reports includes brief lessons in subject-verb agreement, so be it.
Hopefully the tech works tomorrow. I'll be discussing the localization of brain function using images from fMRI machines (part of your brain does THIS and part of it does THAT...)
Wednesday is off (July 4th), so we'll see if the out-of-towners find a thing to do for the holiday. Back to writing my lesson plans for next week.
Cuban food, South Beach, Coco Walk
Sounds a lot more tame than last weekend, eh? Yet, exploring Miami with Travis this weekend was a blast. He's off to the airport (alarm clock: 4:45am), but here's the rundown of what we did.
Needing a change of scenery after a rough day in school on Friday, we went to Little Havana for a monthly cultural festival, complete with food (yay maduros!), dancing on the sidewalk, browsing art galleries, and bumping into the folks I live with. Saturday found us at South Beach after taking the "scenic" route to get there. After about and hour on the beach, a fantastic Florida storm attacked, sending us retreating to a gelato shop. After a night beach stroll and dinner, we came home and cleaned up, and headed out to a bustling area of college nightlife in Coconut Grove. On Sunday, we explored the CocoWalk commercial district of Coconut Grove - very quaint with a lot of French restaurants! Fantastic food, including a crepe avec Nutella and some great sale shopping completed the afternoon. A night run around my trail here avec a GPS measuring thing tells me the distance I'm running (which I did not know previously).
Now, to prep for school...
Needing a change of scenery after a rough day in school on Friday, we went to Little Havana for a monthly cultural festival, complete with food (yay maduros!), dancing on the sidewalk, browsing art galleries, and bumping into the folks I live with. Saturday found us at South Beach after taking the "scenic" route to get there. After about and hour on the beach, a fantastic Florida storm attacked, sending us retreating to a gelato shop. After a night beach stroll and dinner, we came home and cleaned up, and headed out to a bustling area of college nightlife in Coconut Grove. On Sunday, we explored the CocoWalk commercial district of Coconut Grove - very quaint with a lot of French restaurants! Fantastic food, including a crepe avec Nutella and some great sale shopping completed the afternoon. A night run around my trail here avec a GPS measuring thing tells me the distance I'm running (which I did not know previously).
Now, to prep for school...
Thursday, June 28, 2007
What I Taught Wednesday.
Here's an outline of what I taught yesterday. A random day.
Throughout the week, we've been looking at how to DO science and how to WRITE about science (as contrasted with the LEARNING science we did last week.) We were discussing Reaction Time; I tossed an orange to every student and they each returned it to me. They had no idea what I was doing, and I had their full attention. We defined RT and discussed how quickly the brain can process the outside world.
I then introduced a lab - one that I did in high school. A partner holds a meter stick vertically, and student 1 puts an open hand directly below the ruler. Without warning, the partner drops the ruler and it falls toward the ground, through the student's open hand. The student squeezes his/her fist in order to catch the ruler. The distance that it falls (measured by where the student's hand catches the ruler) is a measure of reaction time.
Each student did this 5 times, then calculated their personal drop-distance (the average of their five catches). Then each student put their data on the board and all students copied the class data. Before we started the lab, students had to make predictions about their own drop-distance, the class average, and whether there would be gender differences. After they gathered the results, they calculated the averages and for homework, they each had to write a 1-page mini lab report addressing the hypotheses they made, their own/class results, and draw conclusions.
We've DONE two experiments and WRITTEN two lab reports this week; Friday in class we'll discuss issues of experimental error and sample size and data/graphs. Several of the kids has profound difficulties doing long division on paper, so it may be a challenging topic.
No class today; kids are on a field trip and there are a few of us left here to do work. tata!
Throughout the week, we've been looking at how to DO science and how to WRITE about science (as contrasted with the LEARNING science we did last week.) We were discussing Reaction Time; I tossed an orange to every student and they each returned it to me. They had no idea what I was doing, and I had their full attention. We defined RT and discussed how quickly the brain can process the outside world.
I then introduced a lab - one that I did in high school. A partner holds a meter stick vertically, and student 1 puts an open hand directly below the ruler. Without warning, the partner drops the ruler and it falls toward the ground, through the student's open hand. The student squeezes his/her fist in order to catch the ruler. The distance that it falls (measured by where the student's hand catches the ruler) is a measure of reaction time.
Each student did this 5 times, then calculated their personal drop-distance (the average of their five catches). Then each student put their data on the board and all students copied the class data. Before we started the lab, students had to make predictions about their own drop-distance, the class average, and whether there would be gender differences. After they gathered the results, they calculated the averages and for homework, they each had to write a 1-page mini lab report addressing the hypotheses they made, their own/class results, and draw conclusions.
We've DONE two experiments and WRITTEN two lab reports this week; Friday in class we'll discuss issues of experimental error and sample size and data/graphs. Several of the kids has profound difficulties doing long division on paper, so it may be a challenging topic.
No class today; kids are on a field trip and there are a few of us left here to do work. tata!
I Adore the Continuing Craziness!
Week Two: the Craziness Continues -- An Overview
Monday: A deceptively normal, quiet day. No tantrums, no spilled milk, no tears, no major disciplines.
Tuesday: Family Night (we all stayed late to present to and meet the parents/guardians/god mother etc). Relatively low turn out, but very rewarding when I learned that my students had talked about my class to their family and parents were particularly interested to hear about the upcoming sheep brain dissection!
Wednesday: Math Department Day (each dept has a day, well, an afternoon really, to organize events or stations or a carnival or whatnot to have each Village (aka "Advisory group") get pumped to do math or whatever the topic is). We chaperoned our Village through four stations, competing for points, and in the end, my Village triumphed. Surprisingly!
Thursday: Lesson Plans due for week 3 - which will be the best week yet. Drawing brains on swim caps, dissecting a sheep brain in class, and 20-Questions for brain functions. Also due: our student evaluations (aka 'report cards'). The kiddoes are all off-campus today for a field trip for Career Day; all dressed in Sunday-Best/Professional wear to shadow businessmen and professionals in Miami
I have a visitor coming for the weekend! Yippee!
Friday: Another day of normal classes; turn in my Peer Observation form. Celebrate another week completed! Adventure to find Cuban food with Travis (shouldn't be too hard; Little Havana/Calle Ocho is not far from where I live/work).
Typical days this week: up at 6:30, to school by 7:30, leave school at 6:00, back to the dorms for a run, then scavenging or foraging for dinners. Cup Noodles, PB&J or semi-stale Cheeze Nips have consisted of meals for some of us. Grocery shopping never felt so good!
A note to readers: I am deliberately NOT writing much about the content of my lessons. If you'd like to know more about what I'm teaching, drop me a Comment and say so. I'm happy to share, I just don't want to scare you off.
Monday: A deceptively normal, quiet day. No tantrums, no spilled milk, no tears, no major disciplines.
Tuesday: Family Night (we all stayed late to present to and meet the parents/guardians/god mother etc). Relatively low turn out, but very rewarding when I learned that my students had talked about my class to their family and parents were particularly interested to hear about the upcoming sheep brain dissection!
Wednesday: Math Department Day (each dept has a day, well, an afternoon really, to organize events or stations or a carnival or whatnot to have each Village (aka "Advisory group") get pumped to do math or whatever the topic is). We chaperoned our Village through four stations, competing for points, and in the end, my Village triumphed. Surprisingly!
Thursday: Lesson Plans due for week 3 - which will be the best week yet. Drawing brains on swim caps, dissecting a sheep brain in class, and 20-Questions for brain functions. Also due: our student evaluations (aka 'report cards'). The kiddoes are all off-campus today for a field trip for Career Day; all dressed in Sunday-Best/Professional wear to shadow businessmen and professionals in Miami
I have a visitor coming for the weekend! Yippee!
Friday: Another day of normal classes; turn in my Peer Observation form. Celebrate another week completed! Adventure to find Cuban food with Travis (shouldn't be too hard; Little Havana/Calle Ocho is not far from where I live/work).
Typical days this week: up at 6:30, to school by 7:30, leave school at 6:00, back to the dorms for a run, then scavenging or foraging for dinners. Cup Noodles, PB&J or semi-stale Cheeze Nips have consisted of meals for some of us. Grocery shopping never felt so good!
A note to readers: I am deliberately NOT writing much about the content of my lessons. If you'd like to know more about what I'm teaching, drop me a Comment and say so. I'm happy to share, I just don't want to scare you off.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Drag queens, Chicken and South Beach
Now, that is what I expected when I thought about Miami. Waitresses in leopard print bikinis, "men" in make-up and pink skirts who will kiss a girl's boobs for cash (yes, the ladies pay to have a photo taken with this strange she-man kissing/grabbing her) and banana yellow thongs...on a European man at the beach.
So that's not WHY I came to Miami this summer, but it is a bit more exciting that the territory around where we live in Coral Gables at the U Miami dorms. Relying on buses, it took us an hour and a half to get to SB, then we strolled along Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive - two of the main streets in SB, enjoyed a coffee, a bit of crazy window shopping, and hit the flat, flawless, fantastic white sand beach, the sun winking off small waves as the tide came in. We enjoyed the sun, the sand, the water, and the view for about an hour until the afternoon lightning storm hit; through blasting megaphones, the lifeguards demanded we all exit the bathtub-esque water.
With an hour to kill as the heavens angrily opened, we had lunch at an old-timey, over-priced deli. Meandering through the main strip, we took macabre photos at the Versace Mansion where the clothing mogul was shot on his front step a decade ago. The blood's gone nowadays.
Returning to the beach, we had a tournament of "Chicken". I had never played, and lost my first match but won the second. We had a peanut gallery of thirty-something men watching and betting on who would win. One exclaimed "I've got my money on the pretty one." As we all glared at him for such a rude comment, we added "so I can't lose- they're both pretty". Gathering what was left of their vanishing maturity, they departed.
Finishing our homage to the beach, we sought out a tattoo/piercing shop with ease. (Some parts of SB are similar to the trashiness of Myrtle Beach in SC). On girl in our group wanted a belly button piercing, so we found the least sketchy place (it's all relative) and she did it. We all watched and engaged in conversation with the tattoo-covered store owner. I never knew the s-word could be a synonym for so many basic English words. Our friend is fine, happy, and stylishly displaying her new addition.
Sunday is passing with a much more domestic scene: a 90-degree run, tanning at the pool while grading papers, and a much-anticipated shopping trip at the local mall down US-1.
So that's not WHY I came to Miami this summer, but it is a bit more exciting that the territory around where we live in Coral Gables at the U Miami dorms. Relying on buses, it took us an hour and a half to get to SB, then we strolled along Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive - two of the main streets in SB, enjoyed a coffee, a bit of crazy window shopping, and hit the flat, flawless, fantastic white sand beach, the sun winking off small waves as the tide came in. We enjoyed the sun, the sand, the water, and the view for about an hour until the afternoon lightning storm hit; through blasting megaphones, the lifeguards demanded we all exit the bathtub-esque water.
With an hour to kill as the heavens angrily opened, we had lunch at an old-timey, over-priced deli. Meandering through the main strip, we took macabre photos at the Versace Mansion where the clothing mogul was shot on his front step a decade ago. The blood's gone nowadays.
Returning to the beach, we had a tournament of "Chicken". I had never played, and lost my first match but won the second. We had a peanut gallery of thirty-something men watching and betting on who would win. One exclaimed "I've got my money on the pretty one." As we all glared at him for such a rude comment, we added "so I can't lose- they're both pretty". Gathering what was left of their vanishing maturity, they departed.
Finishing our homage to the beach, we sought out a tattoo/piercing shop with ease. (Some parts of SB are similar to the trashiness of Myrtle Beach in SC). On girl in our group wanted a belly button piercing, so we found the least sketchy place (it's all relative) and she did it. We all watched and engaged in conversation with the tattoo-covered store owner. I never knew the s-word could be a synonym for so many basic English words. Our friend is fine, happy, and stylishly displaying her new addition.
Sunday is passing with a much more domestic scene: a 90-degree run, tanning at the pool while grading papers, and a much-anticipated shopping trip at the local mall down US-1.
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