11/12

I am so glad it's Friday.

All of those intra-group-fighting girls were in Choir today with absolutely no recourse taken for anything.  The other students are so frustrated that they passed around a petition (which Mrs. D saw and stopped) to the administration to deal with the persistent and pervasive disruptions.  We were able to rehearse, and then...well, I need to censor details here for the sake of anonymity...the administration wants to blame our classroom management instead of addressing the infractions already reported.  Just before we left the HS for the day we heard that one of the girls just about started a fight in a hall and had to be restrained by multiple adults.  Are they waiting for someone to get punched?

There is some serious reflection that I have regarding this issue, but I need to take a break before writing it out.  I'll include it as part of a "Music Education Pt. 2" post that I hereby promise to write this weekend.

I put an extra credit question on the Theory test for today that stated, "Draw something," and I got to see some funny illustrations (one of them had a picture of me yelling "Pupil!" which is funny if you remember that story).

I had some success in the General Music classes today (I taught the basic history of western notation), except the last class hadn't taken yesterday's quiz yet, so I had to try to get that out of the way.  Too bad for us that two minutes after I handed out the quiz, a fire drill began.  The drill took the rest of the class.  Now they're two days behind!  Sweet.

10/7 - Meetings and Movies and Drills, Oh My!

We began watching a movie in GM that will take a couple of days.  Those who compete in international whistling competitions tend to be pretty weird people — weird people with an amazing skill.



During the last class, the fire alarm went off.  We went outside and found out that this was one of the monthly fire drills (they don't tell teachers when they'll be).  There was a hitch, though.  Some miscommunication occurred between the school and the fire department, so when the alarm was pulled, the department sent a truck.  Thanks to procedural rules, we had to wait for the department to check the building before we could return to class.  Smooth, eh?

We also attended this odd faculty meeting after school during which we were shown a demonstration of a not-Smart Board® smart board and a couple other things.  The demonstration revealed almost nothing but how cumbersome and time-wasting these boards can be.  There was also this ritual of giving carnations (dyed with a school color) to people who did something laudable recently, and Mrs. D took the opportunity to introduce me to everyone and give me a flower.  That was sweet.

Technology............can provide one with tools that make teaching more effective.  I recently was in a college class that had a presenter do a very good job of showing us examples of technology being used to accomplish an educational goal more effectively than the non-tech alternative.  However, these smart boards just don't yet do the trick.  Maybe for a subject or two in a lesson or two, but not as any sort of universal "now we can teach better" magic wand.  Fundamentally, it takes longer to demonstrate something on one of those boards than it does to use markers or chalk, thus nullifying their value.


Ti Na Na - Clifton Jenkins