Thursday 1/10/13

Dear Journal,

They say you've got to get back on the horse that throws you.

Well, today I did.

That little scripture song that's my ultimate favorite in canvassing kept running through my head.

The Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed. For the Lord God will help me, Isaiah 50:7.

He said it. And I hold Him to His promises. In the end, the one who leans on the Lord cannot and will not be confounded.

And class went much better today.

I am sold on having an established bellwork routine for the beginning of class. Something that gets them busy the moment they walk into class, keeps them quiet, and benefits them. By the time it's over, you have everybody in learning mode and ready to go. No goofing off. No helpless struggle to gain their attention. No stress. I'm DEFINITELY repeating this in the future.

The routine I told them was that they will come into the classroom, go directly to their computer, sign in to Scripture Typer and work on their typing/memory for the first fifteen minutes of class (I have an 80 minute class period so I have time for that, I am so utterly blessed!) I stressed the need for quiet, framing it by telling them it was because people would be trying to memorize.

I knew that since today was the first day of implementing the routine that it was going to be very critical to establish the proper protocol.

As usual, they came bounding into the classroom in high spirits, jabbering and laughing and shouting to each other. I met them at the door with "Shhhhhhhh, quietly find your computer and begin working on your scripture typer."
They found their computers, sat down, and promptly forgot all about being quiet. So I kept repeating it. Practicing the technique I saw Ms. Wanda use yesterday, I continued to repeat my instructions and called out individual names when necessary. The more conscientious of my students started helping me out with "Hey, she said to be quiet!" Within 3 minutes, the entire class was seated and quietly working. Yay! Some still hadn't quite figured out Scripture Typer, so Mr. Sarr and I floated around trouble shooting. By tomorrow everything should be in place for them to get right to work immediately.

After gaining that initial control of the classroom, everything went MUCH smoother than the last class. I realized on the spot that I needed a good way to focus everyone's attention at the end of the 15 minutes of Scripture Typer, so I impromptu told them, "When you are finished with the current verse you are working on, press windows key+D and turn your attention toward the front." That didn't work out so good, because they got confused about what windows key+D was, so I told them,  "If you don't get that, don't worry about it, you can still turn your attention toward the front." I got them all after a bit. I think a better procedure for next time would be to have them raise their hand when they are finished. That way I'll have a good visual of who is finished and who isn't, and the people having to hold their heavy arm up in the air will pressure those who aren't finished to hurry up!

Since my previous explanation of databases had miserably failed, I began with a brief review/explanation in which we talked about how a telephone book was an example of a non-technological database and compared it to the database they had created in their exercise in the last class. We established what a field is and what a record is, and then they completed another practice exercise. I then told them they would have a quiz.

For the quiz, they would work in groups to create a poster explaining the steps of creating/naming a database, creating tables and entering the fields and records. The poster that has the most complete steps and is the most "poster-like" will be posted on the wall as a resource for the class. They were allowed to use their computers, but not their books.

Making the groups was a challenge since I don't know the kids hardly at all and have no idea who works best with who or what kind of "bad history" might be between somebody. Mr. Moody is a tough one to place in any group. He has anger challenges. His group was the only one unhappy with their team.

He didn't much participate in the making of his chart either... though I asked him once "Mr. Moody, how's your poster coming?"
"Oh, it's coming great Miss Beth! It's looking really pretty from what I can see!"
"Don't let her do all of it!" I warned.
He made a half-hearted attempt after that, but pretty soon was back to sitting on a chair and socializing.
I got up and wandered over to him, and he stopped socializing, but getting him to really do anything was challenging. His dear teammate tried her best too.
I guess I'll have to do something to his quiz grade... :-/
Maybe I should talk to him about it, and help him see the tough position he's put me in --that I want to give him a good grade on the quiz but I can't for that kind of work-- and give him an opportunity to redeem himself by writing me out a list of step-by-step instructions.
Doing the "quiz" that way, was really just a right-brained activity to get them to engage in what they learned in a meaningful way. So if he did that, then he'd still be getting the benefit the others did.

They didn't quite finish the posters by the end of class. One group was done, but the others weren't. So I'll give them some time at the beginning of the next class to finish it... I just got to come up with another activity for those who are already finished to work on during that time.

My take-away from the day is that the things that made the biggest difference between today and the last class were:

-I prayed more and leaned harder
-I prepared more
-I smiled my face off
-I held firmer control of the classroom (amazing how kids like a controlled environment so much better than an uncontrolled one in spite of everything they think/say to the contrary)

And today three of them lined up at the door to hug me on the way out.

Awww....!!