life as a fleeting moment

So these last few days have been crazy. Sorry that this post is going to be so morbid, but this blog has helped me become better at expressing myself, and therefore, I have turned to it as a sort of healing mechanism -- somewhere to record my thoughts if you will. So, school ended two weeks ago, end of year meetings a week ago, and then officially summer. It seemed that things were going to begin to calm down, but then the realities of life hit me smack in the face. My family and I found out last week that my aunt was taken to the hospital to have a brain tumor the size of an orange that was found. Unfortunately, the surgery didn't go so well, and she was left brain dead as a result. Yesterday, we joined joined her bedside to let her go. This was my first time experiencing something like this, and it really resonated in me how quickly life can end. It's really something to witness -- certainly not an easy thing to witness, but it really made me think and reflect and appreciate what I have.

In these past hours, I've been thinking a lot about her and how can I model my life after her. She never had it easy, battling such tumors since she was 5. Unfortunately, this was the first one to be cancerous. She was never married or had children, but I always admired the way she put 110% into everything she did. Always cheerful and never hurt anyone, I could only strive to live my life that way. She was only 48, but she has become such a great model for the way I want to live my life. RIP

Types of Teaching

This week's minilesson asked us to think about which of 4 methods of teaching do i use most. The four methods are demonstration, guided practice, explicitly tell and show an example, and inquiry.

I would say that I use the inquiry method the most. I explicitly show students how to do something while constantly asking them questions during my talk. At the end, when they try the work on their own, I go around and ask them questions about their approach -- questions that should help bring them towards a correct response. For me, I like to help students learn how to ask questions in their mind. I believe that if I model for them how to question, eventually it will become a skill they will be able to use independently. Further more, as good students, they should be able to question -- never take anything as fact without questioning!

As for a method that I would like to try out, I would have to choose explicitly and show an example. While there are times I use metaphors to relate to the material being presented, I don't do it as often as I would like. I see many benefits in making comparisons and connections for students. In fact, two of the five standards for foreign language education are comparisons and connections. We have adapted the five standards for our school's program rubric. We want all World Languages students to be able to independently make comparisons and connections (amongst other things) at the end of four years of studying a language.

Graduation

The year is over! Graduation was the other day, so I only have some PD days left until I am officially on summer break. While I am looking forward to it, I'm not at the same time. I actually hate the down time. Too much time to think and veg. I prefer to be active. After about 3 weeks of vacation, I'll be ready to start again. Unfortunately, classes don't start until mid-September -- yikes.

Anyhow, graduation was great. The weather was predicted to be awful with many thunderstorms. Fortunately, the sun was out so we were able to have the ceremony outside under the graduation tree. The kids couldn't be anymore excited because they look forward to graduating under the tree as it is a very special tradition -- something the kids look forward to since their freshman year. Norman Jewison, a film director, gave the commencement speech. Interestingly, he is the grandfather of one of the graduating seniors.

I have some mixed emotions. It's so bittersweet to see the kids leave. This class was particularly difficult to let go, because as their dean this year, I became so close to them. However, I know they are on to new and exciting things, and it is their time to move on.

I'm proud of all of them!

Giving Feedback -- Minilesson

Giving good feedback is something I want to continue to develop. I am certain I will get better at it the more I do it. In fact, I feel that I have improved a lot since I was younger. I can still remember getting called out in drama class as a middle schooler for providing negative criticism. I always tended to point out the "wrong" things. This is certainly hard for me as with my OCD I like everything to be perfect. When things aren't perfect, I have a tough time with it. Recently in the last few years, I have gotten better at this. While there are still some things I like to be perfect, particularly to appease my pride, I find more and more moments when I am okay with letting something be faulty.

As a teacher, it is important that I train myself to give good feedback to my students. Giving bad feedback could totally ruin the learning process for a student; it could have a very bad negative effect. I hope to train myself to give good feedback by appropriately commenting on my peers' blogs. Through this process, I could take the time to learn how to write what I mean to say and to say it with both constructive criticism, but criticism that is encouraging.

Exams

Well, exam week is over! It surprisingly flew by quickly. I'm somewhat notorious for giving difficult and lengthy exams, but I don't mind being known as this because exams are important to me and my curriculum. Exams demonstrate the knowledge my students have gained over the year and show me how they apply that knowledge.

My exams are comprised of four parts: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. It felt very different this time around giving exams as I was able to see how I make a connection between the four areas from what I have been studying in this class. I learned that I may emphasize the writing aspect of the test too much in comparison to the other three areas. Perhaps I need to rethink my exams and focus my energies equally amongst the four areas as we know all of them work in conjunction with one another.

Unfortunately, my students did not do as well as I would have hoped. I realize that I expect a lot from them on the exams, but I truly look at it as an exercise to prove to me what they have learned all year long. I don't believe in exams on the last chapter, etc., but exams that are a comprehensive representation of what was taught all year -- especially in the language classroom as the content material continually builds off of prior material. On another note, maybe I should have prepared them better with a better review, but they did not take it seriously so it was hard to put a lot of energy into it -- especially as I'm running on about 5% power right now.

Well, I suppose I just had to vent a little. Hope you all don't mind.

Minilesson: Time & Space

I've been contemplating the "active engagement" questions in this week's minilesson regarding how ideas come naturally. Frankly, I'm not sure. They seem to come at random moments. Sometimes I am good about remembering those ideas to record later, and other times, I've forgotten the ideas before I get to a place where I can write them down. I definitely hate the latter -- especially when I had a great idea and just couldn't remember it. Often I play through my mind what I am going to say, and sometimes I get it perfect, but then, when it comes to writing it, it gets lost in the connect between my thoughts and on paper. That transferal from brain to paper is something I have struggled with in the past. I'm still not sure how to improve it. Perhaps with more practice and more time spent writing, that process will become easier.

Senior Class Trip

On Monday and Tuesday, I took the senior class trip on a camping trip to Hammonassett State Park and Beach in Madison, Ct. Along with 7 other colleagues, we took the class of 51 students on this overnight trip. What a task! The inception for the trip began back in the fall. After months of planning, the trip finally camp. Certainly I was nervous as I wasn't quite sure what the kids would do (especially so close to graduation), but the kids turned out to be fantastic.

We cooked all meals over fire pits, canoed out in the ocean, swam in the freezing water, and slept in tents. The kids gained a real sense of what it means to contribute help to a community and spent sometime bonding before the year is all over. Overall it was a pretty neat trip, and the kids had a great time.

Here are some pictures: