On November 2nd, I headed out into the school to take part in eight classes. I tried to pick eight different classes based on grade level and subject. This was a lot of fun and I got a realistic view of how our school functions every day in the most important place - The Classroom.
1st period - Mrs. Lang's government class
Mrs. Lang's students were learning about Gerrymandering. We got up and moved around as she explained how districts could be unfairly and illegally set up to give one group or party an advantage.
They also discussed how Congress is made up and what the powers of Congress are. The students took notes on their lap tops.
On a side note, Mrs.Lang had the students in Government e mail current legislators and ask some questions. One student had already received a response and it was from Tom Hancock, the state Senator from my home district. It's a small world!
2nd period - Mr. Francis' Exploring Tech Class
We started this class off with a quiz. My knowledge of tools is not as good as some of our students. The students seem to do pretty well on this quiz. Mr. Francis was checking the knowledge the students had of all the different tools. After the quiz the students began working on their different projects. See the great pictures below.
3rd period - America At War - Mr. Clark
This is a new class this year and I was excited to see how things were going. The class began by watching part of film about the Mexican American War. There was good information about the generals and battles as the United States took on Mexico. Mr. Clark was able to use his overhead projector and computer to project the film on his overhead screen. The class then used their lap tops to answer questions about the Mexican American War. Mr. Clark had loaded the documents to Sharepoint and the students had information sources to draw from in order to answer questions about the film and the war. Check out these students working together with their laptops.
4th period - English 9 - Mrs. Winter
Mrs. Winter is our new English teacher. Our freshmen are reading Animal Farm. I was able to join a group and read Chapter 2 of Animal Farm. Thanks to Nicole and Logan for allowing me to be in your group! The students worked in small learning groups as they read through the Chapter. I'm a big fan of Animal Farm, as a history major, the ties to the Russian Revolution are very intriguing.
5th period - Independent Office Projects - Mrs. Kudej
This class was working on a business project in a virtual world. This was a neat way to work through some of the business concepts they are working through. Some of the students were working a graphics project for the Quarter final game against Lemars. This class has done the programs for the whole year. They have done a great job. Below Lance Hillenga works on his virtual job!
6th period - American Literature - Miss T.
These students were discussing literary terms realism, regionalism and naturalism and they tied into three stories that they were reading or had read. The class had great discussion and got into some good higher level thinking. We also discovered what some of the records were for the coldest temperatures were in the history of the world. These students are reading a Jack London story on line in Miss T.s class.
7th period - Physics - Ms. Carlson
Acceleration, Velocity and Distance are all terms that were used in Physics today. The students are figuring out problems using math and science together. They seemed to be working well together. I figured out why I was a Social Studies teacher and not a Physics one! The students are working with challenging problems.
8th period - Biology - Mrs. Schoenwetter
The biology students were working on a lab. They were discussing movement from high concentrations to low concentrations. They were using the logger pros and computers to chart their results. The students worked in groups and seemed to be doing well on the lab.
This was a great day! It was fun to take in a whole day in the classroom and see what great things our teachers and students are doing. Thanks to all of the teachers and students who made me feel welcome in their classrooms!
