ECS field blog: Nov. 22nd

Well, this week started with my ECS partner teaching a social studies / current events lesson. It was very similar in format to the one he taught last week, where he sort of read a little blurb on a current event of sorts, and the students answered a question sheet. This one was on the Chinese law which stated that families are only allowed to have one child. Honestly, I was a bit shocked about this one, because the students were having just a time coming up with an opinion on this. Like, asking them "Do you agree with this law? What if Canada passed a law like this?" got such a scant response. Usually they just didn't know. Also, personal freedom wasn't really high on the list of priorities with these kids. The idea of a governing body telling you how many kids you can have didn't register as alarming at all for most.

I taught the next lesson. I was trying to follow up on my simile and metaphor lesson by having the students write a descriptive paragraph describing and animal or character they dreamed up, or, well, anything really, as I said they could also describe an inanimate object. One student wrote about a roller coaster. This wasn't the greatest lesson, mostly because I didn't realize that some students might have a bit of trouble just hitting the pen to paper and writing a paragraph. Like, they all had ideas, good ideas, really, but throwing them together in paragraph form was tough. Most of them just talked with each other about their ideas, drew them, discussed them, but writing a paragraph was like, overwhelming. They couldn't organize their thoughts, and didn't know where to start. A lot of kids actually said that to me, lol. "I don't know where to start!" My co op teacher gave me some pretty helpful feedback. I should have put together a little like, graphic organizer on which they could jot down their ideas, and sort of plug them into a paragraph if they needed.

One kid also commented on how fast I read, or talk in general. God almighty I have to work on that. Lessons aren't gonna be much good if I sound like an auctioneer. A seminar instructor of mine also kind of gave me a lecture on talking to fast, and powerfully I guess. She said some students might be like, spooked or intimidated. Mind you, I do speak differently in university than in the classroom.

After recess, it was reading buddies, and then math. My ECS partner and I went looking around during reading buddies, and I guess the band program runs during hte same period, so a slice of kids go off and learn instruments. Man, going in there and watching them was something, indeed. The band teachers seemed so like... crabby and militant. I mean, they obviously had high expectations, but whoof! I honestly thought the one was going to pack up and leave, "I can't handle this performance right now!" or something.

Math was okay. Once again, the different teacher came in, and the kids started acting up. She also has a pretty short fuse, and blows her stack on them pretty quickly every day. I dunno if I blame her, as they act up pretty bad. However, she seems to fuel the fire herself a little bit. who knows.

Next week, we are teaching a phys-ed lesson. Bonus!