As long as you laugh with me and not at me...

So, I fell today in my classroom for the second time in two weeks. My students are pretty used it by now, because I learned early on in my teaching that I am a clumsy teacher. Notice that I did not say a clumsy person; normally I am not very clumsy (I leave that to my sister) but being in front of a bunch hormonal teenagers does something to me, I guess.

No only did I trip, but I was also getting observed by one of my principals at the time. WAY TO IMPRESS! She said I "recovered beautifully" which is a compliment, I guess. The kids got a kick out of it though, and they know to laugh with me and not at me. :)

That's all for now. How many people actually read this thing, anyway?

Real life application!

So, it's nice to know that all this talk about stereotyping and tolerance is actually getting through to my students. The following conversation happened a few days ago with one of my students.

"Hey, Miss C, I have to talk to you." (She seemed really urgent)

"Okay, about what?"

"Well, it's about everything we've been talking about in class."

"Yeah, well, what happened?"

"Well, my mom had a Tupperware party and the woman was from "insert southern town" and the moment she told everyone that, all the women's faces instantly fell. They weren't very nice to her after that, and I knew it was because they were judging her. I couldn't believe that I was seeing them stereotype her in front of my own eyes! I didn't realize it happens THAT often!"

While this was a very small instance, it makes me feel good that students are taking what we do in class outside of my classroom.

"Scarecrow" Pictures

Here are some pictures from the "Scarecrow" activity (see previous post).

Stereotypes and To Kill a Mockingbird

Because we are getting ready to read To Kill a Mockingbird, my 9th graders have spent A LOT of time talking about stereotypes. Some are getting sick of it, while some really enjoy the discussion.

For the first lesson I showed about 10 different pictures of various people and asked my students to write down their primary thoughts about the person (they were stereotyping, even though they didn't know it at the time). I included Ted Bundy, Timothy McVeigh, a 10 year old who kidnapped and brutally killed a 2 year old, a successful woman who stole over $100,000 from her mother, a cheerleader, a young African American male, and more. Some of the pictures were just ordinary people, while others had stories to go along with the pictures. We talked about each picture and what their impressions were, and then I revealed the identity of some of them (the ones that weren't ordinary people). All in all, they were shocked! It really got them thinking though and it proved to them that they stereotype "at first glance" even if they aren't conscious of it.

Today we listened to Melissa Etheridge's "Scarecrow." It is about a boy who was beaten and left to die (but I didn't tell them what it was about). It is a really sad song. I had the students listen to it once and asked them to draw whatever they were thinking and feeling. We had a good discussion about the song, and then I revealed half of the story (just that a boy was beaten and left to die). We listened to the song again, and this time knowing more about the song, they drew another picture. After their second picture, I revealed that the boy was beaten and killed because he was gay. Most of my students couldn't believe it and were really shocked; in fact, many were speechless. One boy had the nerve to say, "Well, he was gay...no wonder he got beaten and killed." This made my blood boil and several students immediately got on him for his comment. Needless to say, I still kicked him out of class and talked to him privately. He didn't understand why his comment was wrong until I asked him "What if someone in our class was gay? How do you think that would make him or her feel?" It turned out okay, but I couldn't believe his comment. His comment made me realize one thing though: because there are people out there that feel that way and openly voice those attitudes and opinions, it is still important to teach things like the Holocaust and books like To Kill a Mockingbird.

I'm going to post some of the "Scarecrow" pictures later!

And lastly...I made a movie! Before you get all impressed, I made it from Microsoft's Movie Maker, so it's not stellar quality. I wanted to give my students some background information on the Great Depression before we started reading To Kill a Mockingbird. It took me three hours, but here is the final product (there's sound!)

Darfur

Because the second part of English 9 has Night and To Kill a Mockingbird in its curriculum, I decided to revolve the entire trimester around human and civil rights. We start out the first few weeks of the trimester studying nonfiction and we've read things like Rosa Parks' "My Story," Nelson Mandela's "Glory and Hope," and Charlayne Hunter-Gault's "In my Place." We analyzed Sam Cooke's song lyrics for "A Change is Gonna Come." We've also read a few more current newspaper articles about people standing up for something they believe in, and one of them was about IU students trying to raise money for the genocide in Darfur.

This website is a great resource and my students seemed very interested in the issue. In fact, when I asked, most of them had no clue about Darfur. I also used the following YouTube videos. 1) 2) Overall, I think I really was able to get my students to THINK. Hopefully, talking about all of these issues now will prepare them for Night and To Kill a Mockingbird.

New Trimester, New Students!

Two trimesters down, and only one to go! I can not believe that this school year is going by so fast! Only a few more months, and I'll be completely finished with my first two years of teaching!

Starting a new trimester is always so tedious. I do not really like going over rules and classroom procedures, but since 90% of my students are new to me and my classroom, I have to do it! One rule that my students hate, in particular, is my "No IPods" rule. They think it is absolutely ridiculous. I turn it into a joke and say that it has been scientifically proven that IPods are not necessary to succeed in my classroom. While they giggle a bit, they still hate the rule. I told them not to argue or complain about it and that if it was that big of a problem they could go down to guidance and get switched out of my class. When I was in high school, which wasn't all that long ago, students DID not complain this much to their teachers or question their authority. What's up with that?

Anyway, my new students are pretty good, and my fifth period class is almost identical to the second period class that I had first trimester. They are a good group, but they came in yelling and screaming with excitement on the first day. I had to "throw it down" and say that just because I liked them before doesn't mean I have to like them again. I think they got the point, and they've been pretty good the past few days. They do like to joke around a little bit more than my other classes, but they also know me the best, so I guess it's okay.