Pedagogy and Praxis

Today I handed out the 5 vocabulary words to the kids. They are imperialism, sovereignty, monarchy, despotism, and revolution. The definitions were long and the students complained about them, but the words represent big ideas and concepts and they need to understand them so that we can talk about the things that I want to talk about. The students are smart but they lack the vocabulary associated with the social sciences. But of course they don't have the vocabulary, they are only in high school. I hope that by supplying them with the words and concepts now they will be ahead of the curve when they get to college. In addition to the dictionary and encyclopedia concepts, I also gave them definitions in my own words and tried to simplify the words for them.

Yesterday I got popsicle sticks and wrote all the students' names on the sticks so that I could randomly call on them. I used the sticks in all the classes today and found a lot of people weren't prepared to answer the questions I asked. The idea of the popsicle sticks is to keep kids paying attention because they might get called on in class and look silly when they get called on and don't know the answer. This system was widely used at the elementary school that I worked at and I think it's a good one. Also, students won't feel that I am picking on them if I randomly draw a stick.

This is also the second time that I did SSR today. Students aren't used to the agenda that I've given and hopefully by the end of school they will become accustomed to it.

My Weekly Agenda
Mondays: SSR
Tuesdays: Journal Writes
Thursdays: Teacher Read Aloud
Fridays: Vocabulary Quiz

Since we just got back from a week long spring break and the agenda is relatively new, I expected the students to not have books to read. Hopefully next week (with me reminding them) they will bring books to read. Right now a few kids were just staring off into space and perhaps some are not used to reading, but after they get used to the system they will start to do what they are supposed to. I find it interesting that while the students may complain about structure and order, they really actually crave it. Most people crave the security of what they know and want more structure in their lives. I look at my own life which had very little structure and order at home (cause my parents were always fighting) and see how much I needed martial arts. I needed the discipline and order and someone that would just kick my butt.

In my Asian-American studies class, we continued reading "Streets of Gold" by Curtis Chang. Before that I used the popsicle sticks and asked review questions on the perception of the model minority and what we had read so far. Some kids had no idea, but a bunch of them really know what's going on. I have to find a way to get to the kids that have no idea. I'm using a KWL (What do you know, What do you want to know, and what did you learn) on Asians and the model minority, and I find it to be really useful. I believe that KWL is a really valuable pedagogical tool and will definitely use it for other things. It activates prior knowledge, puts questions into the students' minds, and finally is a list of things they learned as a result of whatever reading or activity is done. I really like this class a lot. While there are some space cadets (in all my classes), by in large they are a good class.

In my US history class, we started with the vocab and the SSR and I used the popsicle sticks to ask review questions. We then finished up "War is a racket" by Major General Smedley Butler. This took to the end of the period. Tomorrow, I'm going to go over the L part of KWL with them and teach them the classic outline format. While the classical outline format is said to be restricting, I find it useful and use it myself... so I'm gonna teach it to them. I'll also introduce them to semantic mapping and other formats, but first the classic outline. I'll also have them use index cards to make study questions on the reading. If there are some good questions, I'll use them on the test.

In my multicultural education class, we started off doing the same things as the other classes. This is my most challenging class, in part because it is after lunch and also because it is filled with freshmen. There are so many hormones running through this class I want to get a hose to spray them down. This is a real touchy feely class. After the SSR, we finished the video "Real Women have Curves". Of course with my luck, the principal decides to stick her head in during the one semi-"love" scene in the movie. But it's an excellent movie that explores the life of a teenage mexican girl in the months before she goes off to college. The movie is filled with teenage themes such as body image, coming of age, what it means to be a woman, exploitation of labor, working class Mexican family resistance to college, exploitation of labor, and crossculture and class relations. I'm thinking that the journal writeup for them tomorrow will involve one of the themes from the movie... I just have to figure out which.

Even though I am sick with a hacking cough and had a crappy spring break, I'm happy to be back at work. The thing I fear this week is my Latino Experience in the US class. I have to give a 10 minute presentation on Haiti. Fascinating country and history but I'm just overloaded.