Day 5

9/6/06

I really have to stop this last-minute planning thing. Ok, in my own defense, I create semi-lesson plans one day in August. I have "plans" for up to 9 days (now 10 actually b/c I didn't do anything on the first day according to planned), but I never set up my agenda/homework/"hacer ahora"/date until homeroom, then I'm left with about 15 mins to do all of that plus take attendance plus hand out whatever crap they give me to hand out. Blah. I'm still not in panic mode though.

I have a new homework system that's working for me thus far with my "roll book" (class list printed from the school network because I refuse to waste one of those pretty green books before my class lists are set). I used to put the points in right away (for example, Larry has his homework completely done. I give him 10 points for a 10 point homework. Bill only has about 3/4 of his homework done. I give him a 7. etc.), but now I'm just putting a check if they have it done completely, a check minus (which I have had none thus far) for partial work, and a 0 for incomplete or barely attempted work (only a few zeros so far). This is a lot easier than trying to A) find the student's name on my ever-growing list and B) to move along and check things faster. Yay, one small victory this year, so far!

I think I was able to successfully simplify a somewhat difficult concept (at least to students with pretty limited exposure to Spanish) for my Spanish 3 class today. The difference between "me parece" and "me parece que", which the book just treats like it's not that big of a deal and you can use them both interchangably. Yes, you can use them almost interchangably, but the grammar rules for using them are a little different. "Me parece" must be followed by an adjective whereas "me parece que" must be followed by a subject (can be omitted), a verb, and the adjective. If I'm completely wrong about that, let me know!!

Anyways, I dunno about my Honors kids this year. I only have one class. Last year, I was all gung-ho about having honors classes because it was my silly belief that they'd be more motivated in class when it turns out that they're only motivated to get good grades (at least most of them). Very few are motivated to actually participate in class. Like my coworker says, in a very mechanical voice, "Give me my pencil. Must write down as much information as possible" when talking about how machine-like some of these kids are. Many aren't learning for the sake of learning, but for the sake of looking smart. Makes me CRAZY!!! But I guess that's life. I guess it took me a long time (past high school) to want to learn for learning's sake. Wait a minute. Do I even do that now??? I'm such a hypocrite. Shoot me.

Only 175 school days left!! (Why am I torturing myself w/ a countdown??)