The "kid who did well on the diagnostic test" in Theory will henceforth be known as "kid who's high on self-importance". When I, after reviewing some material, said something general like "does that all make more sense, now?", he replied "I don't know anything more now than I did before class started." Seriously, kid? This did not mean, "I'm having trouble understanding something," it meant, "I'm too important to have to suffer through solidifying fundamental knowledge and participate in the learning experience of my peers." I almost threw a marker at him.
There are a few notable students that I see at lunch when I get food from the cafeteria (I don't have them in class). On the first day of school they said, "Hey man! You look like you're into metal!" and have since yelled "Hey, metal guy!" every time they see me. Last time I was there I asked them for a recommendation, and they suggested I listen to "Pantera." I returned today with a review and I'm now to listen to the band "Down." This is fun. I don't think they know that I'm a music teacher, though.
I did an observation of the "rowdy" class's math class today. That was very interesting, and I now have the great advantage of being able to say, "Hey, I've seen you in math class and I know you can focus better than this." My day of GM teaching today can be summed up in a hypothetical conversation with a personification of educational theory—
Me: Educational Theory, my good friend, how many times must I repeat an instruction before reasonably expecting 20-30 students to pick it up?
Educational Theory: Well, demonstrating something 3 times is a good habit to have, and it's always good to explain things multiple ways.
Me: That's what I thought. In fact, I got their attention quite successfully today, and after explaining things multiple times I had them run through one of the items with me all together, but after that I think only 2/3 of the students remembered what I had said.
Educational Theory: Um......*shrug*
Oh, and I almost forgot, I experienced my first "incident" today — in the last class. As Murphy's Law requires, Mrs. D was out of the room when I was confronted with this event. One [very small and hyper] boy had poked another [tall and burly, yet quiet] boy in the eye with his finger. How did this happen? Small boy says he and the other were "joking around and mumble mumble mumble it was an accident." Burly boy said that the other was joking around with another boy behind him and then a waving hand put a finger in his eye. Weird weird weird. Through discussion with both of them it seemed that no hard feelings were present and no malicious intent ever was either. I ensured that an apology was made. The burly boy's eye was very red and hurt, so he went to the nurse, and I made it clear to him that if there's anything else he wanted to say to an adult, he could tell the nurse. So...that may be the last of this incident, unless we find out through the nurse that small boy is bullying burly boy. I felt really bad for burly boy.
(A Theory student played a choral piece today, but I don't remember the title. Sorry.)
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