2001-09-06
Day Three, posted at 3:19 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I wrote a nice long entry yesterday that was sucked away into the Internet black hole somehow, so I'll try to remember the main points from that entry and add the new stuff.The second day of school went great. Today was a bit more mediocre, because my 7th hour is very, um, rambunctious. They're Freshmen, and I think I've been a bit too nice to them so far. While they're not exactly walking all over me, I can see this going somewhere I don't want it to. I need to figure out a better classroom management plan. The class is probably almost all 14-year old African American females, and it brings to mind the research I read last year that talks about how, generally, African American female teenagers don't have the same sort of self-esteem issues that white female high students do. They're outspoken. They're confident. They're brash. I have to figure out a way to corral it, and let the quiet boys in the class get a chance to speak.
The lesson planning has been going well. I was more nervous about day 2 than I was about day 1, because it feels like I've been planning for my first day as a real high school classroom teacher for years. As for day 2, my first day getting into the curriculum, I was back to my seat-of-the-pants lesson planning like late last year. However, I have first hour planning, which really helps out. Yesterday went excellently in all my classes. We did some Native American literature with my sophomore classes (American Lit). Unfortunately, we can only spend about a day and a half on it, since we have to somehow fit over 300 years of American literature into one semester with this course. But we talked about creation stories and I had them, eventually, draw comic book versions of twenty-three different Native American creation myths. It was fun. I tried to catch those artistic learners with that activity. Today, I used a poem that I snatched from a res life Native American bulletin board from MSU, by someone names Karin Peerson in East Lansing. It's a neat poem called "Native Hands," which talked about how she needs to live in two worlds- the one made up of her Native culture, and the mainstream one. Kids seemed to like it okay. Today, we went on to the Puritans, and some Anne Bradstreet (America's first poet, a boring writer IMO but important I suppose) and Jonathon Edwards (a fire and brimstone Puritan preacher). It was dry, but the kids seemed to enjoy translating Bradstreet into Ebonics, which was one of today's activities (I actually just had them translate it in groups to modern language, but someone asked if it could be Ebonics, and I didn't have a problem with it as long as they understood it.)
As for my Freshmen, I played "Thank You, Ma'am" with them yesterday, and the ensuing discussion went well. It sounds bad, but these kids are much brighter than the Freshmen I had last year. But this challenges me, as well. I have to really plan my lessons out with a great deal of thought, when last year I could get by with a bit less. Or maybe I'm just becoming a better, more thoughtful teacher. I dunno.
I gave a pop quiz to my sophomores today on their reading homework from last night. The averages for the two classes were 5.7 and 5.9 out of ten, respectively. That's not very good. That just means I have to quiz them more, if I know they're not doing the reading.
The house is still going well. I had quite a stressful time putting money in my Michigan checking account to cover the first check to my landlord, but finally figured it out last night. I would tell you all the whole story, but I don't want to dwell on it. I'm enjoying my roommates. We're all "Big Brother 2" addicts. I ordered cable today, so we'll be getting more than two channels.
My little sister Heidi, who had made noise about moving to Baltimore with me earlier this year, is moving back in with my parents on Oct. 15 to save money for an upcoming move. She has a whole bunch of furniture (her boyfriend dumped her after 2 years only a month after they moved in together and bought all this furniture together - Heidi at least got all the furniture out of the deal), including a $1200 bedroom set, some couches, and a dining room table. Her new plan is to possibly drive it down to me, since I'm hurting for furniture (I'm still sleeping on an air mattress), to save herself on storage costs and give me something to sleep on. It would be wonderful if she did this. Heidi would then move down to Baltimore in June, when roommate #3 moves out to get married. Of course, she's never even seen Baltimore, so there's no guarantee this could happen. She's just as flaky and indecisive as I am.
In the next few months, I have to somehow acquire a dehumidifier, a carpet, a bed, a vaccuum cleaner, and a lawnmower. Ugh.
The thing I'm most excited about acquiring, though, is a puppy. I think I will get one to celebrate my second paycheck (the first paycheck will only be a partial one, and I'm getting really broke). I'm very excited about it.
Kristin Plater has her show here tonight, and will be at my place within probably an hour. I better get there. I'm excited about the concert tonight. I think both of my roommates will come to the show. Really, who cares about lesson planning anyway? I hope the other artists are decent.
Today I came in early to school and worked out with that guy whose barbecue I went to and the Assistant Principal. It felt great. It'd been far too long. It has probably been at least 2 and a half weeks between workouts here. Since there are no gyms near me (all would be about a ten minute drive), working out at school is what I'll be doing every morning. I didn't think this would be cool, but it was. The facilities were great, and we were the first ones in the school today.