ELVIS!!!! It was some sort of special on Elvis movies and there were about 3 minute clips for all of his movies, in chronological order! It was wonderful...
Anyways, so back to how wonderful my job is (since you all know how I could spend hours going on about how wonderful Elvis is). Teaching these past two days have been really interesting. I don't really know where this school was located. My hotel was in Waynesboro, but the school was a 20 minute drive outside of the "city limits." Looking on a map, though, there is no town name near the school. The drive to the school was beautiful, through rolling farms right there in the Shenendoah Valley. Fall colors seemed to be peaking with super deep reds and golds.
The beauty of the scenery was broken up by about half a mile and three houses that had these really bizarre signs in their front yard (beside the McCain/Palin signs, ha ha). Two-sided, the signs had religious messages like "Walk in the Light" and "God Knoweth Your Thoughts." Another house had a two-sided sign that read "Thou Shalt Not Judge" and "Live for Jesus, He Died for You." And finally the house across the street I was able to snap a picture of (it reads "You Will Leave Your Wealth to Others" and on the other side there was a harsh message about repenting):
Oh, and when I got lost on the way back to my hotel I was able to turn around on this street:
The neighbors looked at me funny when I pulled over my state van to take a picture of their street sign, but I could care less. I love Loudoun!!
So on to the kids. The hilarious kids of Hugh K. Cassell Elementary School. I spent yesterday with fourth graders, and today with fifth graders. The classroom environment at Cassell Elementary was something that I haven't yet experienced--such an open teacher/student relationship where it wasn't expected that the students raise their hands, or even ask permission to get up and leave the classroom. This was so different from anything I've had to deal with so far in my teaching. The students were extremely well-behaved and respectful...of their teacher. Now that there was this new girl giving a "special presentation" instead of their usual social studies class, the excitement levels were through the roof. I didn't quite know what to make of it or how to handle this situation. My programs are completely inquiry method, meaning I ask a ton of questions and just guide the students to the correct answer. Letting them problem-solve and come to their own conclusions has been proven to be the best learning method where they will retain the most information. But asking a ton of questions to twenty-some children who have no classroom rules of raising their hand or even staying in their seats?! Whaaaaaat an experience! I had some on-the-spot program adjusting, that's for sure. It wasn't a total bust. Like I said earlier, the kids were very well behaved and respectful to their teacher and after the first 10 minutes of my program I think I earned their respect as well (probably about the same time I pulled out the ever-impressive and dangerous looking steel axe from my artifact kit).
This teaching experience reminded me that my questioning always needs work. For some of my questions, I am looking for specific answers. Sometimes the students get the answer I am looking for right away, and sometimes they don't get it at all. That doesn't necessarily mean that they don't know the answer, but maybe there is a problem in the way that I asked the question. A great example: we are talking about the West-Central African culture, and how they are growing cotton for their clothes and crops for food. I ask, "What does this tell us about the Africans?" Answer: "They are vegetarians." That answer just threw me off! That is the first time I've ever gotten that answer, and I've asked that question hundreds of times (this is a topic that I've talked about with my job on-site interpreting even before I started teaching). I usually get the kids to tell me that the Africans are good farmers, or they know how to farm, and I've even gotten a kid to tell me the ideal answer that "they are an agricultural society."
Another cute experience with the fourth graders...part of my program is a role-play to teach about indentured servants. I am a rich landowner back in England, who wants lots of gold and wealth from Virginia, but I don't want to leave my big house and my comfy bed. A student plays the role of a poor Englishman who has no money or job or land or anything back in England. I tell the student that I'll pay for his passage to VA, and while he is in VA I will pay for his house, his clothes, and his food. The student gets all excited and signs his name to the piece of paper that I put in front of him. Then I make a big deal to the class about, "Did John read this paper before he signed it? I told him what I promised to do for him, you know, pay for all those things. But what does John promise me?" And so we go in to what it means to be an indentured servant, and how John is now indentured to me. We usually negotiate a term of service. I always start out high with 10 years, and the student almost always says something along the lines of "one day" or "one month." This particular fourth grader was very hesitant and considering my every offer ("Ten years! No? How about 8? Okay, I won't go any lower than 7...." and so on) Finally this kid from the back yelled up, "She's hustlin' you man! Don't fall for her games!" I just burst out laughing getting this response from a fourth grader!!
My fifth grade classes were very rushed today, being about forty-five minutes long when the average program is an hour. I don't recall any specific gems during those programs, but the kids were still great. I had a few minutes in between programs, waiting for them to get back from music class or P.E. During that lull, I was able to look around the classrooms. One bulletin board had the heading of "Goals for the Season" and the students had written their personal goals on football cutouts. I thought it might be bad form to take pictures of the footballs, but I decided it was morally okay to whip out a pen and paper to jot down some of my favorite goals:
1. Get almost straight As in math. [I like how this kid is realistic...other footballs mentioned getting all straight As]
2. Perfect attendance at least twice.
3. Wake up the first time Mom tells me to.
4. Have a lot of friends. [that's just cute]
5. I want to move out of my house. [possibly my favorite!!]
The bulletin board in the next classroom had a bunch of canoes made out of construction paper, that were decorated by each student, mostly with different tribal designs. Written on the canoe were haikus. One really good haiku: "Oh little canoe/ Take me to my home now/ Stop we are here now." Easily my favorite haiku was found on a canoe that wasn't decorated with tribal symbols, but instead with what looked like lunchmeat: "I ride in my ham/In the shape of a canoe/ Down the rapids blue." I think these bulletin boards let you know what kind of students I worked with today!!
And the 3 hour car ride home...boring as usual until about 40 miles outside of Richmond when I see this car:
A very old man was in the drivers seat, and printed on the side were the 10 Commandments. Innnteresting.
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