A break from laboring
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Working on: Catching up on school stuff. Already. I know.
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As per state mandate, we get the Friday before Labor Day off. Which makes you wonder, why did we start school Monday, to face a 4-day weekend? My classes all look good. 7th grade will be a struggle, it's a very needy group. Students and parents, based on Open House this past Wednesday night. In that hour I have 29 kids, 2 of them high-functioning autistic (but not so high as to be Asperger's) and one who is so severely LD that he's on a pass/fail grade. "There for the socialization" is what his IEP said. I think someone, somewhere, should seriously reconsider inclusion guidelines. I also have a student who is not certified special ed. but has severe reading comprehension and expressive language issues. Meaning, he struggles to read and write, and can't get a thought out very well. But parents don't want him labeled. At least I do have a paraprofessional in that hour, to help the kids who are more demanding of time and energy.
Ahhh.... however, my elective, after a rocky first day or so trying to explain to the kids what it was going to be about, started rolling on Thursday with an activity called a "Fishbowl." It's a structured class discussion that allows kids the freedom to express their opinions - as long as they have evidence to back it up. I did come across a slight issue we might have. The question they were debating was "should the US get involved in other countries' business?" A new student from Dearborn took the side that Bush was attempting to lay the ground work for a new American Empire by subjugating all the Muslims and spreading out from the Middle East. He said Iraq was first, and Iran would be second - right before a reelection.
The kids wanted to jump all over it, but I reminded them that many people, frankly, feel strongly that way and we needed to understand all sides of an issue. They did pretty good after that. The assignment was to come up with 3 facts that support your argument, and 2 ways people might try to argue against you (to show that they could see both sides). When he turned his reasoning in to me at the end of the hour, Abbas said that he "tried hard" to come up with 2 opposing arguments but he only came up with one "because there's no good argument to prove my opinion wrong." From that little bit, I got this: he's very respectful of adults and others' opinions, but I need to monitor very carefully my own political thoughts and those of the other conservatives in this class. It could quickly break down into racial issues if I don't watch it. What a challenge.
Today, however, Roman is off to daycare and I'm catching up (getting ahead?) on assignments for next week. Also some smaller errands that I've been putting off - balancing accounts, going to the bank, etc.
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As per state mandate, we get the Friday before Labor Day off. Which makes you wonder, why did we start school Monday, to face a 4-day weekend? My classes all look good. 7th grade will be a struggle, it's a very needy group. Students and parents, based on Open House this past Wednesday night. In that hour I have 29 kids, 2 of them high-functioning autistic (but not so high as to be Asperger's) and one who is so severely LD that he's on a pass/fail grade. "There for the socialization" is what his IEP said. I think someone, somewhere, should seriously reconsider inclusion guidelines. I also have a student who is not certified special ed. but has severe reading comprehension and expressive language issues. Meaning, he struggles to read and write, and can't get a thought out very well. But parents don't want him labeled. At least I do have a paraprofessional in that hour, to help the kids who are more demanding of time and energy.
Ahhh.... however, my elective, after a rocky first day or so trying to explain to the kids what it was going to be about, started rolling on Thursday with an activity called a "Fishbowl." It's a structured class discussion that allows kids the freedom to express their opinions - as long as they have evidence to back it up. I did come across a slight issue we might have. The question they were debating was "should the US get involved in other countries' business?" A new student from Dearborn took the side that Bush was attempting to lay the ground work for a new American Empire by subjugating all the Muslims and spreading out from the Middle East. He said Iraq was first, and Iran would be second - right before a reelection.
The kids wanted to jump all over it, but I reminded them that many people, frankly, feel strongly that way and we needed to understand all sides of an issue. They did pretty good after that. The assignment was to come up with 3 facts that support your argument, and 2 ways people might try to argue against you (to show that they could see both sides). When he turned his reasoning in to me at the end of the hour, Abbas said that he "tried hard" to come up with 2 opposing arguments but he only came up with one "because there's no good argument to prove my opinion wrong." From that little bit, I got this: he's very respectful of adults and others' opinions, but I need to monitor very carefully my own political thoughts and those of the other conservatives in this class. It could quickly break down into racial issues if I don't watch it. What a challenge.
Today, however, Roman is off to daycare and I'm catching up (getting ahead?) on assignments for next week. Also some smaller errands that I've been putting off - balancing accounts, going to the bank, etc.
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