Friday, October 13, 2006

Learning Styles Blog

Alright, so I gave the learning styles assessment to my classes back in September and my results favored that of Visual. I didn't find it that surprising really. All they talk about in class are movies, sports, girls/guys, and television. They're taking in so much mulitimedia it's ridiculous. Plus, as we read from the Understanding Poverty book, entertainment plays such a vital role in these kids lives that in order to reach them on an academic level, I'm finding out that I have to be entertaining and animated in order to keep their attention. Another thing that I thought was interesting when I gave out the learning styles tests was how many words they didn't understand. I had to read the questions to them aloud and clarify the meaning of at least one word per question; it was unbelievable.

I actually do think that these tests are beneficial though, and for the most part the kids seemed to enjoy taking them. Oh, I almost forgot to mention; we won the North division in football. We play for the city championship this coming Tuesday. It's going to be amazing...haha.

Monday, October 02, 2006

October Road...

Ahh yes...I love this time of year. October has to rank as my favorite month of the year. The weather starts to get a little cooler, leaves are changing colors, and football is in full swing. It's almost at the point of the year when you can break out that long-sleeve tee and shorts combo....maybe some flip-flops to go with it...I don't know...I don't know if we have time. I've got to say though that I just believe the weather impacts my school's mood so much. When it's hot, we are ROWDY. When it's nice and cool, we are so much more composed. We still act crazy from time to time, but hey I'll take it. I love the general morale at my school right now though. There is such a huge emphasis on humor. I am almost in tears from laughing so hard every other day. It makes the work environment that much more pleasant and family oriented and for that particular time you forget about all the frustrations going on in the classroom. I am a little nervous about the next three days. We have our nine weeks test, and I don't think we are going to do well at all. I hope it's a wake up call to the kids, but I think it'll just frustrate me that much more. I still can't seem to get them studying or doing homework after school. I've called and called and called, but for every week that I don't call a kid's home they go back to acting like they did previously. I guess we shall see if there's a difference once grades go out. One thing that I have had such a blast with though is the coaching after school. We are now 3-0, and we play our 4th game tomorrow night against a mediocre school. We should win that one and go into the last game of the season a perfect 4-0. The parents and faculty are so supportive, and everyone is so excited about the possibility of us winning the city championship. Apparently we haven't won it since 1989, so it would be a huge deal if we actually pulled it off this year. We do play our toughest opponent next week for our final regular season game. To qualify for the city championship game, we have to beat them first....and they are as good as we are. Well, I'm glancing at my clock right now, and the time reads 11:00 pm; I think I'm out. Anyways, that's all I've got to say. Oh, a few parting words.....Weimer, Ward...you guys need to come to Jackson. Jay-Z...you need to get this hunting trip taken care of. D.Doyle, you need to man up and schedule a scrimmage with my middle school team. Ann, it was a pleasure seeing you at the Grove. I'm out.