Excited for the 1950's

Last week Mr G. taught the Korean War. I was disappointed in his teaching to be honest. He did a powerpoint, showed the pilot episode of MASH, and that was it. I had so many ideas about the Korean War being the first integrated war, and also having the students read a story from the average Koreans point of view. I guess I'll just save my ideas for next time. I did learn by watching him do the powerpoint though. And I got to show some of the video The Atomic Cafe on Weds. Mr G. gave me good feedback about commenting during the film, and that was something I really wanted to develop.  That was really helpful.

This week coming up I am teaching about the 1950's. I am going to have the students start out reading a small section from the textbook in groups and developing skits to teach the rest of the class their sections. I know two of my classes will do really well with this. I always worry about 6th period though. After we do the skits, I am going to do a quick powerpoint and have the students work in groups to analyze some 1950s ads. I want them to see how much of our lifestyle today actually came from then. Finally, I want them to see the 1950's from the teenage perspective. I am going to do a powerpoint of teenagers. Then I'll have my students do a compare and contrast chart of their life as a teen now with teenagers of the 1950's. Finally I am having them do an open-note chart quiz about 3 ways life changed in the 1950's. The last day, I'll show them some clips from the movies Rock Around the Clock and Don't Knock the Rock.

2 months into it

Things are going more smoothly now. The kids have been great with giving me suggestions. A few weeks ago one of my students left an anonymous letter recommend changes to how I do the notes and I listened to that. Hopefully that made them see how I am willing to listen to them. My biggest concern is that they put in the effort and learn as much as they can. 

Yesterday Mr G. taught the class and did his style of note taking. It was good to hear that the students liked mine better. Of course mine is less work for them and more work for me, but I am hoping it will allow them to actually process the information rather than writing notes word by word. 

As far as teaching, there are a lot of areas where I need to improve. I realized that I am conditioned by the bell and allowing students to get up even while I am talking. I will work on this next week, so that I can gain better control over the class. The students have been great, but I realize I will someday have students that are much more challenging. Another area I need to improve is in questioning the students and getting them to expand on their thinking. I got to see Mr G do this on Friday and it was super helpful.

So this week coming up is only 3 days. Mr G is teaching to give me a break, and allow me to learn more by observing. This is good since I have a different perspective now. So I will do this while planning out the next couple of weeks.