Week 7

Monday

Frank was back in the classroom today. The kids are designing their own Easter baskets and making a net of the basket and then writing directions so that someone can build it. The kids love it, and I think it’s a great project. Frank is also great with incorporating computers into his assignments. He is very creative with what he asks kids to do. Tonight, I did some planning for both my classes and social life. I had to finish off some of my papers, which are all due on Thursday. Heather was also able to get our trip to the Margaret River area booked. The weekend of March 20th, we will be staying in a Japanese Tea Room Chalet. It’s on a winery and is just a short walk to the beach. I guess it’s pretty rustic—no TV, phone, or Internet, but I think I can manage for one weekend. There is supposed to be a lot of wildlife, which makes me super excited.
I went for a long walk tonight exploring some different streets. It was wonderful.

Tuesday

Well… let’s just say that I had the worst lesson of my life today. Gavin, my principal, came in to evaluate a math lesson today. Brett was trying to make sure that I was prepared, but all he did was make me nervous. The lesson was the epitome of disaster. I was trying to teach the students about percentages (a year seven topic). The students were confused right off the bat. I flopped the explanation, but even after I basically started over explaining step by step in detail, over half of the class just looked at me like I was speaking Chinese.
Basically, long story short, the students are extremely weak in their tables. They don’t know their basic facts, which makes turning percentages into fractions and simplifying those fractions nearly impossible. Gavin was nice in his report to me, but I was frustrated all day at how the lesson went. I’m basically going to have to go back and teach the students what equivalent fractions are and what simplifying fractions means. Overall… today was the worst day at school so far.
Tonight was fun. Being that it’s St. Patty’s Day, Katy and I went out. We went to J.B. O’Reily’s Pub in West Leederville. It was really crowded, so crowded that we waited in line for over an hour just to get in. We had an Irish Cider while we were there. We met a few people and listened to an Irish band play for a couple hours. Eventually, we headed home being the responsible teachers that we are. I drove there and back in Fatty’s car. It’s an ’89 Camry that is just about to fall apart. It doesn’t matter though; it accomplished its mission.

Wednesday

Today was normal again. Brett started out by trying to reteach some fraction stuff. I think we still have over the class though who are completely lost when concerning fractions. The whole schedule was messed up today, but it still went much smoother than yesterday. The kids are designing their own theme park. They have to make a map, make a promotional brochure, and build a model of a ride as a technology and enterprise assignment. They really seem to be enjoying this project, so this afternoon was fun for everyone, because they just worked on that for an hour.
After school, we went to a Smartboard training session for about an hour. It was great, because it really got me thinking about how I want to use the Smartboard. Tonight, I just stayed in and finished off all of my assignments and did a little more planning. I planned a lesson for tomorrow on equivalent fractions using the SmartBoard; so hopefully, it’ll help the students understand the concept.