November 2008
1 post
Watch
October 2008
3 posts
Permission
I was somewhat surprised that there were so many kids who refused permission to be photographed for the donors choose project. The permission slip was overly vague so I am not surprised. Incidentaly many more 8th graders refused than 7th.
Reading and Quizzing
7th graders were assigned a reading and translating assignement while i was out on Friday, but it got a bit goofed up. So tomorrow I have to backtrack with the other class to catch up. With today’s long classes I whipped through the two reading pieces for Lektion 2. Tomorrow we will be working on the grammar and culture points and moving on in the lesson. Planning on Quizzing at the end...
Long weeks
I’ve been back at school, though I missed two days last week (Tuesday and Wednesday) and since I’ve been struggling to keep up with everything, i haven’t updated this journal. The biggest disappointment has been the way my students behaved on Friday with the substitute. I go one of the worst sub reports that I have ever had when I returned to work on Monday. The 7th graders,...
September 2008
11 posts
Back at it . . .
I’ve been back for three days, and it has been pretty good so far. On Wednesday, I focused on the German Candy that had come in, using an all German lesson to talk about the products, and intorduce some new language adn vocabulary. Of course, as expected I piqued the interest of the students who didn’t participate, so I let them enroll at this point, and will purchase more candy...
Returning to work
Tomorrow (Wednesday) I return to work after a long hiatus during this family emergency. I”m looking forward to getting into some routine, but am anxious about what returning to work will mean. I’ve been having trouble focusing on anything for long periods of time, am easily distracted and generally not tolerating the normal background noises that are usually taken for granted.
My...
German Deli.com →
Language Learning vs. Language Acquiring
8th grade today featured the lesson that I do on language learning vs. language acquisition. I try to explain a fairly complex topic in the terms of that which one does without thinking (acquisition) and that which is done purposefully through grammar, vocabulary and language study. (learning) I try to use real world examples to tie together the ways that acquisition affects them in their...
Blended Schools sharing
Cross posted from mrplatts.com
Our BSN Coordinator asked for answers to these questions — I may have overdone my answer, but it was valuable reflection.
How are you using BlackBoard …
… in the classroom?
… for curriculum?
… in elementary school?
… the tools?
My response:
In 7th and 8th grade German I have faced two main issues, time and lack of current resources. Blackboard is a way...
Interactive Clock →
Random Clock Worksheets →
Computer Housekeeping & Telling time
7th grade spent the whole day racing through the process of logging into the computers to add personal information & most importantly Student IDs. Problems: students forgot binder minders, syncing took a long time, so my ultra-short day six period was entirely consumed.
In the 8th grade period over lunch I implemented a snack on the long day. This period is about 56 minutes, 15 minutes...
First TPRS
7th graders fared pretty well during the first telling of a real TPRS story. All students reported understanding at least 75% of the story. Tomorrow I will review, read and translate the story. The first section is still a day behind, but we will catch up on the long day.
8th graders - Today was all hurry and not much progress. I decided to have the kids change their student IDs, but since...
Introducing a new method . . .
7th grade students need practice on how to TPRS. I couldn’t figure out why my first period was so flat, and then I realized that I needed to backtrack and actually teach how I expect them to learn.
8.My lesson seemed confused by introduction of 24hr vs informal time. I sepnt a lot of effort teaching the 24 hour clock, then told them not to use it in the “informal.” Better...