This school year.
I shouldn’t jinx it, but we’ve only got a short day tomorrow (and teacher torture in the afternoon — it’s called early release), and I’ve got a tutoring session on Saturday.
But man did I need that spring break. I’ve finally been able to enjoy my CS students. I didn’t realize how overwhelmed I felt. Imagine going from 2 preps to 5 preps (for the non-teacher, a prep is a subject you teach). Imagine getting a whole new set of faces and behavior to learn in the middle of the year.
The AP kids are the most fun. We have the most outrageous conversations. Most generated by them == a bit of avoidance behavior, but I love the way they think. The key to teaching AP is to point them in the right direction, stay out of their way, and dig them out of their holes they did. (Remember, they were supposed to have PreAP the year before … and I did at least teach 4 of them PreAP and one of them Webmastering — only 3 are new to programming and they are good).
I do have to teach PreAP and regular Computer Science. That involves introducing each concept (I’ve been doing that on computer-less Friday), assign them programs and give them a chance to solve them on their own, and then on the day they are due showing them how to do it. The really good kiddos — the ones that will go on to AP, will have solved the problem the day before it is due. The normal kids will take notes and figure it out about the day after it’s due, and the ones who don’t care never will. That’s the fun thing about teaching CS, you have three bell curves, not one.
My philosophy, which I shared with them this week when I told almost everyone they were getting a failure notice, is that they can come and ask for help anytime and I promise I won’t make them feel stupid. And if I do, they have my permission to head me upside the head. I watched their formal teacher in action for a year, and his favorite thing to do was to make people feel stupid so they are afraid to ask me.
The worst I ever say is — “gee, you can’t spell, but then I can’t either, but at least I spell it the same wrong way every time”. Or “Gee, don’t you hate that I saw that within two seconds of glancing at your screen? Don’t feel bad, it would have taken me hours if it were my program. I often make mistakes when I do solve a problem in class, a few times on purpose to show them how to dig themselves out of that particular hole. But most of the time, they are truly honest mistakes, and I think it helps them to see me make them AND for them to catch them before I do.
My Algebra I kiddos are getting better. My 1st period group rarely gives me any guff anymore. I am still having problems with the 7th.
Their favorite thing to do to torture everyone in the computer lab and every room on our hall is to turn up the sound as loud as possible. Well, I found a little program called Wizmo and it has an option to turn off sound. So I installed it on their computers and used Lanschool to set it up. I can actually turn off the sound on every computer with two mouse clicks.
It was so cool. Had the math coach with me who feels the same way about this group as I do, and I just started laughing hysterically. They would blast the room with sound, I’d hit two mouse clicks as she was watching, and shut off every speaker in the room. They blast again after a minute or two (fumbling to turn on the volume), I’d hit two more mouse clicks, and shut off the sound again. That went on for 5 more minutes, I showed them how I did it even, and reminded them to BRING HEADPHONES! I also reminded them, it might take a few days, but I always win. Besides, I have the power of the gradebook on my side and they are NOT passing.
This are the same little darlings that spent two weeks of flashing laser pointers in every one’s eyes including mine while I was teaching — they didn’t realize that laser pointers have nothing on the light from an overhead … and got that the #$#$# that had it and turned him in. Of course, the administrator didn’t do anything to him, but I got the laser pointer.
Lovely children. Everyone should be blessed to have a classroom full of them. Do realize that I like most of the students in the class, it’s just about 6 of them who have to torture everyone around them. And I despise people who keep others from learning.