Performances

This past week my students did a project that's basically straight out of our physics curriculum that I never had the guts to try last year.  It goes with our waves unit, with an emphasis on sound (the curriculum specifies it as sound and light, but I left out the light part).  The project involves making a musical instrument and performing for the class, and also writing about how the instrument makes sound and how the sound gets to the listener.

Some of my fears about this project were well-founded.  The vast majority of the instruments were basically paper plate maracas filled with beans.  Some groups just got up and shook their maracas without any particular rhythm for the required 1 minute.  A few people refused to perform entirely.  Most of the performances were unrehearsed.

But I am glad I tried the project, and would probably do it again.  It was nice to have the kids present something for the class (although I probably should have had some form of public speaking or presenting of solutions or something before this to make it more normal and less of an ordeal).  Some of the performances were hilarious, and though they were not what I would call ideal, respectful audience members, the kids seemed to enjoy watching the performances and many said they had fun performing.  For next year I need to think about how to make kids make a better variety of instruments, and how to make sure the presenting takes less time.  I might make it an optional performance next year, so kids who are outgoing and/or creative enough to want to do it can, and the other kids can do a different set of project requirements.  I thought more kids would go with the write-physics-song-lyrics option, but I think a combination of stage fright and laziness prevented it for more groups, so I might make that mandatory next year.  The one student who did sing an actual song (Bruno Mars's Lazy Song adapted with physics lyrics, which he found on the internet) totally brought down the house in his class and won the "most creative" voting by a landslide.

Other highlights included the kid who made his own awesome-looking cardboard guitar (which unfortunately had plain old string for strings and barely made a sound at all) and asked my permission in advance to smash the guitar like a rock star at the end of his performance, the kid who made a really cool-sounding rain stick at home using a fabric bolt tube, nails, and rice, and used it as his group's grand finale, and the girls who made a beat with their maracas and had two enthusiastic (and rather provocative) dancers.

More innocent than I expected

After school today in my classroom:

D: I'm so happy!
Ms. P: Why?
D: I don't know if I should tell you. 
G: It's perverted.
Ms. P: Well, then maybe I don't want to know.
D: I don't think you will think it's perverted.  You will probably think it's sweet.
Ms. P: Huh.  Is it about a girl?
G: (nods) Keep guessing.
G: It's really perverted.
D: She is married.  She probably does it every day.  Every day!
Ms. P: Umm, OK.  You know what, some things are personal.  We don't need to talk about it.

It turns out that D kissed a girl.  On the lips.  But he is still too scared to sit with her at lunch.

D was right.  In the end I found the whole thing really sweet.

Good and Bad

L is quickly becoming my favorite homeroom student.  He's hardworking and smart and goodnatured and he gets along with everybody.  And every now and then he gives me a look that makes me think he actually realizes that I am a human being, which is pretty rare among high school freshmen, even the ones who like me.  I let him leave his jacket under my front desk during the school day, which is a privilege that no one else has asked for, which is lucky because I am not sure I would say yes to anyone else and then I'd have to confront my favoritism.

Anyway, yesterday I was covering for another teacher last period and the kids weren't really working, and I didn't feel obligated or able to force them to, so I was watching and listening to their social interactions.

First I fell in love with L all over again: a group of kids was gossiping about a fight and S, a goody-two-shoes who lacks social graces and social standing, butted into the conversation to say that she didn't see the point of fighting anyway.  The other kids turned and looked at her like she had two heads, and had just opened their mouths to mock her when L basically saved her, saying matter-of-factly, "She's a pacifist.  That means she doesn't believe in fighting."  Then as kids were mulling that over, he followed up with, "I actually agree with her."  And I don't know what happened next, because I had to walk away so I wouldn't grin at him and reveal my schoolgirl crush.  Love.  That.  Kid.  So impressed by his maturity and kindness.  And vocabulary.

Then, not five minutes later, one of the girls said something I've already forgotten and L replied with a lame macho comment about how big his dick is.  I perceived it as a not-very-funny joke, but the girls saw me hear him so I had to make a big show of walking away and pretending not to hear it (which is favoritism again... if it had been another boy I would have likely started a mini-lecture about being appropriate).  So I had to scale back my impressions of L's angelic nature and incredible maturity.

He's still my favorite, though.

Magic Cupcakes

Lots of ups and downs this past week.  More downs than ups, actually, and the major up was that a bunch of my kids cut class on Friday, mostly kids who normally stir up behavior problems, and then Friday was a relatively calm day.  But cutting class en masse is hardly something to celebrate.

Anyway, one highlight of the week was my second period artists, the ones who draw cute pictures for me on the backs of their quizzes.  One girl was trying to get me to tell her my favorite kind of cupcake during the quiz (NO TALKING, ya know?) but I wouldn't talk to her and she got frustrated so I thought she drew me an angry picture.  Turns out she drew me a "magic cupcake," complete with a little note about how it is magic and will be any flavor I wish for.

Unfortunately I handed the quiz back without even photocopying the picture, which is a shame because I ought to make a folder of kid things that make me smile so I have something on reserve for the days when I really want to quit.  Maybe I can get her to give it back.

You look like...

As a white teacher of black and Hispanic students, it is interesting to hear how they perceive me.  I am not talking about deep discussions about racial issues, because I don't normally get into those.  More like, another white woman stops by my class and the kids ask if she's my sister because they say we look exactly alike.

Today we went on a field trip to the aquarium and while watching three aquarium workers scuba diving in the big tank, a group of my students asked me if I ever worked at an aquarium, because, "Miss, you look like a person who would work at the aquarium."  I pressed them a bit about what they meant by that.  I think they just mean that I am white.  I asked them if they would want to work at the aquarium and they all said no.  I'm wishing for more diversity in what my kids see as their options.

Evaluated

Today was not only the last day of the first term, when I have my kids do self and class evaluations, but also the day of my annual observation/evaluation.

I haven't gone through the class evals yet, but from flipping through it appears that 1st and 2nd period mostly like me and my class, and 3rd and 4th not so much.  Not shocking.

I didn't know what to expect from my administrator evaluation, since last year my principal basically pasted my name into a document written about someone else (I don't know who, but someone who runs a very different class from mine).  This year I had a brand new Academic Director doing mine and he actually had a pre-conference with me and then spent an entire class period, bell to bell, in my room.  And then after school we sat down and had a nice, productive, encouraging half hour post-conference about what he saw as strengths and "deltas" (gosh I hate that euphemism).  It was actually 100% awesome and I went home smiling after an exhausting day.

Last year, whenever visitors came to my class and chose a student to ask about what we are studying, how class works, to show their notebook, etc, they had the uncanny ability to pick a kid who has no idea what is going on and/or actively dislikes me or school enough to portray the class in an unfavorable light.  Not today.  Mr. W. sat down next to R, one of my absolute favorite students, who DEFINITELY made me look good.  So, big thanks to my buddy R for convincing Mr. W that I am organized, offer useful feedback to students, and have class procedures that run smoothly.  I should probably buy you a whole bag of Kit Kats.

Pushups

Last year I sent kids out to the stairwell to collect walking and running data, so we could calculate work and power.  This year the principal vetoed the activity since things have been a little crazy around the freshman academy lately.  I really think my kids could have handled it (well, OK, I would only have sent the ones I can trust) but she's the boss.

So we collected data for pushups instead.  In 3 of my classes I had a dozen volunteers clamoring to be one of the 3 kids who got to come up and do pushups on my front lab table with the entire class watching.  And an impressive mix of boys and girls.  But in my second period class, where the kids are more academically oriented and apparently more self-conscious, I only got one volunteer.  With a bribe of extra credit points, I got another good sport.  But nobody else was willing.  So I took off my sweater and my lanyard of keys and climbed up on the table myself.  The activity required 5 good form pushups.  I managed 3 with decent form, then the fourth was weak, and I barely made it through the fifth.  The kids were rolling and I was laughing too.

And the best part was, the data in that class came out GREAT for proving the difference between work and power.  I did the most work because my weight was the biggest, and the two students had the same weight but one moved a significantly larger distance, as measured by my meterstick-brandishing volunteer, so their work values were different too, despite the identical weight.  And my power was much smaller than theirs, despite my larger work value, because it took me almost twice as long to get through the pushups.

I could not have rigged the data any better if I had tried.  I guess that's the hidden benefit to being sadly out of shape?