Day One

Today went well, for the most part. The students enjoyed the "Muckraker Magazine" activity that I had them do. I gave them the option of working alone or in groups...I think the groups came up with better ideas overall, but most of the lone students did good work too. I entered them as a 10-point daily participation grade. I also assigned a take-home assignment that I entitled "Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History," in which they will create a brief bio of a suffragist. I provided a lengthy list of women to choose from, all of which I pre-screened for content and relevance (that's a lot of Googling!), and I gave them the option of doing a written bio, a cartoon, a song, or pretty much anything that they would like. One of the students in first block asked if she could do a poster...of course! It's going to be worth a 50 point daily grade. I don't have a rubric since I'm offering so many options, but my instructions (verbal and written) should give them a good idea of what I'm looking for. In a nutshell, I asked them to give a little background on their badly-behaved woman along with information on why they made history, including any interesting facts that they can find about her. I even labeled the African American suffragists for the sake of the students who are interested in African American history, along with a white founder of the NAACP. I can't wait to see what they come back with!

As for the actual lesson, I'm working on shortening my PowerPoints. I think I did a pretty good job...it was complete enough to let them know what's important, but brief enough to encourage them to take notes (which most did). There were no heads down during second block today, possibly because of my revised seating arrangement.

The seating arrangement is 95% good. I somehow managed to keep M.P. in the back corner. I tried to move the back row away from the bookshelves but they're not far enough...I still want plenty of room in the center aisle. I took some pictures of the configuration:

M.P. is back there by the map during 4th block. I have to move him tomorrow...I caught him with a sheet of paper, a bottle of glue, and letter stencils. He was using the glue to fill in the stencils. An eleventh grader!!!! Obviously he can't be in that corner because Mrs. F keeps art supplies in that particular cabinet. I'm going to have to take another look at his IEP...I know he has ADHD and I'm pretty sure he's getting an occupational diploma. I need to switch him with another student or create a row in the back. OR, I could just move that row out further, I suppose. He's a challenge...he isn't too disruptive, but he's easily distracted and gets into things. I need to put him where I can monitor him more easily, but somewhere far away from L.N. So complicated!

Anyway, I do like this setup, with the exception of that one issue. I can move around a lot more easily and make eye contact with everyone. I no longer have a student to click the forward button on my PowerPoints (one of them volunteered, but he would have been very distracting, so I declined).

I got off to a good start today by establishing the ground rules. The students responded positively and treated me (and each other) respectfully. I told them that my goal is for all of us to have as positive a learning experience as possible, so I expect them to be considerate to me and each other. I also challenged them to find the goofiest current events stories that they could find this Friday and next...they got excited about that.

Time management wasn't a problem this time. I had extra activities planned just in case, which they didn't get to. That's fine...I'll push them to tomorrow. There's a reading comprehension activity, a Venn diagram that will allow them to compare and contrast the Populist and Progressive movements, and a literature analysis exercise. I might get to one of them tomorrow if I finish my suffrage movement lesson early. I'm really excited about the suffrage lesson...I'm going to use a few clips from the amazing movie, "Iron Jawed Angels." I hope the students like it as much as I do...it's the history book come to life! I plan to interject comments and ask a few questions on the exam too.

Time for me to get to work on Chapter 19!

Oh...here's what I had on the board today:

Update (Tuesday morning): I just went back and looked at my seating chart. I actually had M.P. seated halfway back and in the front row...that back seat was supposed to be empty. That would explain the empty seat. I'm going to make sure that he goes to the correct seat for the remainder of the time. Lesson learned: don't assume anything.