Friday 13/06/08
Prac Block Day Twenty Four

Ahh… after 5 weeks of remembering everything and being super orginised, I finally forget stuff. Firstly, lunch and secondly, the kanji bingo cards for my lesson. *sigh*

Yesterday was the best day ever in C2. I was amazed! So much work got done in the morning maths lesson which then flowed on into the literacy lesson next. It was honestly stellar.

Some of this could possibly be credited to the fact that two of the boys who notoriously do no work, were sectioned off from the class in their own little boxes of working environments. Literally. The boys had their desks up against the front walls of the class room and then they were boxed in on two other sides with sections of moving walls. Amazingly – they both did work (one of the to a greater extent than the other)! The older boy had “You can do it!” and “Do your work!” signs stapled to the walls of his little study room.

I know it could never be replicated in a senior school classroom where students come and go, but it was an excellent idea to see.

After this they had science (most of them working on making their volcanoes), which meant that they were in group activities. There was some productive work, and other not so productive work during this time.

After lunch the students had rich task. For some unknown reason, Boat E wasn’t allowed to do rich task this day, but F and C2 did theirs anyway. Through this miss communication I found out that some of the students do cooking for their rich tasks. So when they left, I followed them. Half of them were cooking sushi (in a way that made me cringe) and the other half were making potato and corn fritters.

After watching these students for a while, I visited the art room (really boring, students sitting around everywhere chatting and every now and then “working” on their art). Then I headed back to C2 and watched the dancing people some more.

I was wearing a yukata but the students in C2 are obsessed with Russian at the moment and kept asking me if it was fro Russia. One of the boys commented that he thought it was stupid and got a long talking to by the teacher of C2 (who loves to monologue) and subsequently apologised to me when he saw me next.

Friday. Today I forgot my lunch and the kanji bingo cards, so when I got to school, I sat down and ruled up some more. The lesson went pretty well (despite the bingo cards). I challenged the students with another long sentence at the start of the lesson – I think they are finally getting it! Hooray!

Then we reviewed the kanji and played snatch – the girls were pretty good. Then I had them do “Who am I?” for a kanji each – which would have worked a lot better had the five of the students not chosen the same kanji.

After this there was music – students worked on their compositions in the computer labs. Then maths and more maths. My supervising teacher had to leave early (just before lunch) to take her son to the doctors, so I was left running Boat F’s maths lesson. Pretty challenging, but overall a good lesson. Most of the students did nothing, some of them even wrote that on their trail sheets.

Another day, another lesson. Quite a few of the prac students finished today, so there will be less around next week. I’m one of the few that will still be here. Lucky me.