Day 89 & 90: The Praxis of Pedagogy

So on Wednesday, I started off watching "The Killing Fields." Note to self: Never watch such a depressing movie at 8:40 in the morning. It was a heavy movie and the one Cambodian girl in my class was sitting up and paying attention to the movie. Normally she always looks completely bored and has her head down but she was drawn into this movie. I'll finish it next week.

For my Capoeira class, it was really small cause people were testing. So I took those kids and worked em good. Making them do the low Angola ground game stuff. It is starting to get cold and I'm wondering where we are going to do this class when the next trimester starts. I don't know if we'll even do this next semester.

So today I was feeling nauseous all day long. I felt faint and wanted to hurl on obnoxious students. I didn't do urban acting cause I passed out coming up with a lesson plan for my 3rd period observation. No time to plan for the urban acting. So after that I talked about Napoleon, the battle of Trafalgar, guerrilla warfare, and invading Russia. The kids were too young to have seen the Princess Bride. I said the reference that Vizzini says to Wesley, "You've fallen victim to the classic blunder! The first is never get involved in a land war in Asia. The second though slightly less well known is never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line!" Nothing. Nada. It's a meaningless quote when only you get it. Anyways... we looked at a map that showed the number of people Napoleon started off with and the number they came back with. I recall it being something like 442,000 and coming back with 28,000. Then there was a temperature chart that had the returning temperature something like -35 degrees Fahrenheit. Reeeeediculous. That's some fucked up weather. Then I tried to get the tv dvd working and had major technical difficulties. It wasn't until 3rd period that I figured out that the video input wasn't working anymore.

In second period, I had them list out all the various ways that one could make change. Then we talked about the components that made up the various ways. It was from here that I introduced change through non-violence or violence. In my opinion, each has its place. Hell the idea of a violent revolution is as American as... the Declaration of Independence. But before I got into violent revolution I talked about non-violent revolution and Gandhi. Then we started in on a reading about Satyagraha.

My 3rd period was what I was gearing up for. I was getting observed by a person from my credentialling school. Since we got about 5 days left of instruction...actually 4 since this class is going to the Dia De Los Muertos celebration, I wanted to start in on more history of Asian Americans. I think perhaps the most well known event was the Japanese internment. So I stuck with something that works. I did the lesson that I did last year for my multicultural studies class. It went over pretty well even though I felt nauseous the whole time. After I showed them the Executive Order then we went through and read bits and pieces that I thought were important. After that I went on to show more of "The Corporation." I ended in the last five minutes so I'll have to finish it up.

After class I spoke to her and she was pretty nice to me about the whole thing. Unfortunately, that's not what I was looking for. I was looking for her to give me some constructive criticism to make my teaching better. Today was also the last day to turn in missing work so I had a lot of students in my class at the end of school turning in missing work. I got a stack of papers that has to be at least an inch and a half thick. Did I ever mention I fucking hate grading?