Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of 2 weeks ago, I got to be a social
studies teacher while Angie was in Anchorage for a workshop. It was
nice considering most of my non-aid experience/subbing has been in
other content areas. My days each consisted of 3 sections of World
History, 1 section of US History, 1 section of corrective reading,
and a section for reading and vocabulary skills. It was a lot of fun
to get back into a classroom and be teaching classes for the entire
day. It's also always fun to teach a class up here, as I get to
practice my own teaching skills, as well as the new strategies I've
been learning from the program that the school uses. It was fun to
get back into the full swing of things and be planning out lessons,
even if only for half a week. I also enjoyed getting to interact with
some students that I don't normally see because of my own schedule.
I'm reminded that I've still got a lot to learn, and that I still can
learn new things. Part of subbing includes testing and refining my
own teaching style, so opportunities to test out 'my way' or new
things that I don't have experience with, are always good for me.
Thursday nights have been meetings for a book that a handful of us
are reading, called “The Art and Science of Teaching”, by
Marzano. 2 weeks ago, John and Misty offered to make chili for the
reading group, and I thought that it would be an equally awesome idea
to make bread to eat with the chili. Besides a bread maker, I've
never made bread on my own (because it's so cheap and accessible back
home). It flopped horribly. First, I didn't give myself enough time
to let the dough rise, or bake in the oven. So it was really dense to
begin with. Next, in order to speed things up, I kept increasing the
oven temperature, which I later found out only succeeds in baking the
outside of the bread quicker than the inside. All of this makes total
sense now, but then, nothing was clicking. I ended up picking off
pieces of the crust and eating it that way, and baking the insides a
second time. I'll have to keep trying to make bread.
Friday the 28th was the last girls home game here at
Brevig, so I worked concessions making pizzas, pretzels, and nacho
chips. I also got to make and buy my own pizza, which covered a
couple lunches and dinners in the week following. This last home game
also signified the ending of the season, and on Monday, the boys and
girls teams traveled to Unalakleet to compete against each of the
other schools for a chance to go on to the State sectionals in
Anchorage.
The teams leaving on Monday (the 3rd) was interesting
because the high school side of the school was suddenly much less
populated than before. A lot of the kids are on the teams, and they
worked hard to keep their grades up to be eligible to travel and
play. Some kids also went to Unalakleet with their families to
support brothers and sisters playing, as well as friends. Back here,
we kept track as best we could of the standings and brackets. Because
so many of the students were gone this week, most class time was
spent helping students to catch up on late work, or reiterate
content, to help make sense of anything that might have been
misinterpreted. Tuesday and Wednesday, we actually watched the boys
and girls games on the smart boards in the rooms, which was awesome
because on Tuesday our boys team pulled a solid win over Golovin, one
of the other schools. The girls team also played really hard, but
couldn't pass the other team because of an injured player.
Unfortunately, both teams lost their second games, which puts them
out of the sectional standings, but they played hard and should
definitely be proud.
Friday of this past week, I got to sub for one of our para-pros,
spending all day working with kids of all ages, with credit recovery.
It was definitely a whirlwind of a day, trying to keep track of a new
schedule and make sure I was doing what needed to be done for a day.
Lets just say, I was glad when the day was over. After school, I was
talking with one of the native employees, Bid, who teaches the
bilingual/cultural class here, and his mom came in with a piece of
art to sell. I hadn't bought anything yet, and figured I might as
well if I like it. I bought a whale vertebrae with ivory and baleen
inlays, that's carved to look like a dancer on one half, and the
spirit of the dancer on the other side. I also later learned that the
dancer is doing the walrus dance. It's a really cool piece, and I'm
really glad I got to get something I really like. I desperately want
a scrimshawed walrus tusk (where a carved image is filled in with ink
to give it color), but that's slightly out of my price range at the
moment. Eventually I'll get one!
Saturday was a paid in service day at the school, mostly a utility
for teachers to finalize quarter grades and papers. I would be doing
odd jobs here and there when I could, and then work more on the
behavioral management strategies that the school uses. I planned to
work the full day, in order to be as productive as possible....until
I slept in till 11:15 in the morning. I was still able to work an
almost full day, and got a lot of work done in the school.
Daylight savings is one of the dumbest things still practiced in
the USA, especially here. Alaska is too big for one timezone as it
is, let alone this seemingly arbitrary game of pretend time travel,
in order to save a few bucks on our light and gas bills (which it actually doesn't anymore). Today,
Sunday, it was still bright as noon here at 8:45, and wasn't totally dark until 9:30. In the summer time,
there are 4 hours of 'night' at it's darkest, but even then it's more
of a continual dusk. It would really be exciting to see a day and
night like that.
Hopefully I'll be able to see this blog through in a timely
manner. I keep forgetting and use my free time to relax and be
unproductive. I also can't believe that it's already March 10th!
This internship has flown by so quickly, I can't believe it's been
almost a month and a half already! Can't wait to see everyone when I
get back!
-Sean
No comments:
Post a Comment