monday, monday

The weekend did go very quickly, although it wasn't near as tiring as last weekend. Last weekend it was go, go, go as I had to go back to Iowa for a birthday party and a bachelorette party. It was nice to be able to sit around the house and be a bum for two days, but I found myself bored at the same time. That might have been because I procrastinated a little. Not that anything necessarily had to be done, but I had things I definitely could have done.

As we speak, I am taking a break from lesson planning. I seem to be on the accelerated plan for student teaching. I have not really started "my" portion of the lesson planning (the unit that is for my TWS), but as I have generally been teaching all of the 7th grade classes I have just decided to start planning most of what we are doing in there. It is nothing too major, for the most part I just follow what my CT has done in the past and am, as we speak, modifying it just a bit.

I am having difficulty trying to decide if I want to keep it how she has done it in the past---delving into 5 themes of geography and going through them all at once--- or changing it a bit and incorporating it into the beginning of the SW Asia/N Africa unit. Maybe a little of both? That is why I am here, blogging, instead of continuing to lesson plan. Tomorrow is figured out, that's all that matters. I've got an awesome rap video to show from TeacherTube (yes, I realize that sounds extremely nerdy).

I taught all 3 classes of 7th graders today. 4th and 5th hour again were a bear. Not the pits of hell, but also not great either. One girl didn't show back up from lunch to 5th hour--turns out she was in the office for getting in a fight during lunch. AWESOME. I think I am devising a way to shut them up without always having to raise my voice (although I'm not necessarily convinced that raising my voice isn't the best way to do it). Eh, trial and error.

My CT and I are struggling a bit with the 8th grade curriculum. For one, it is not finished yet. You might be thinking "How many ways can you teach U.S. History? Doesn't it always start the same way?" The problem lies in the fact that the curriculum is not finished yet, and so we do not know what the first district-wide exam is supposed to be over. Simply put, we don't know how far we need to get by the end of the first quarter (middle/end of October). All we know is that it has something to do with the Constitution. Strictly speaking, we aren't supposed to start before the Articles of Confederation and we aren't even supposed to teach the Revolution really at all. It is here that I (and my CT) throw up a big red flag.

No big deal, the revolution which produced the most free county in the world doesn't matter much at all. How in the name of all that is holy do you expect me to teach 8th graders (who haven't had a lick of U.S. History since 5th grade) the importance of the Articles and the Constitution without teaching taxation and the Declaration of Independence? Not to mention that discussing the roles that the different colonies played economically (manufacturing vs. agriculture) effects the entire story of the U.S. (think Civil War and beyond). It is hard for me to wrap my head around. This curriculum is clearly written by individuals who see history as a culmination of a bunch of facts. What an antiquated view of history.

One of the most important parts of telling the story of any nation, event, or people, is to decide the starting point. It can change the way the entire story unfolds before your eyes. Where do we start?