"It's a man's world..."

My Grade 4 class is dominated by the male species and as we all know, (ok, i didn't know this, but was informed by my roomie who is a psychology major) that boys have an inherited, biological tendencies to be aggressive. Perhaps this explains the behaviour of the boys in my class. There was a main group of them who were very aggressive, argumentative and controlling. However, despite my negativity, I did enjoy these boys for their sense of humour.
On with my story...
As I have mentioned in a previous post, one of the things which I did on my block was create and teach the dance unit to my students as part of their phys ed. curriculum. I knew going into this that I would have problems. Boys don't like to dance. It's a fact. Sure there are the exceptions, but young pre-pubescent boys do not like to dance! Perhaps this mixed in with this Freudian theory of inherited, biological aggressiveness explains why these boys chose to give me such a hard time in dance class.
Resistance. Maybe that's the right word to use. The boys resisted as much as they could and just complained and complained whenever they were to participate in learning a new dance. I had boys running and sliding across the floor instead of participating in warm-ups. I had boys fighting with each other... it was just ridiculous! Halfway through the unit, after one particularly awful class (it was like pulling teeth trying to get them to learn the "cotton-eyed joe") I had a talk with the students. I told them I was disappointed in their behaviour in dance class. I realize that some students don't want to participate but this is something that has to be done so let's just grit our teeth (for some reason I like to make teeth references... hmm... weird...) and get through this.
I knew that having a "stern talking" with the class would not be enough. Yes, I needed them to smarten up, but I also needed to make this more fun for them. So back to the drawing table I went...
Friday's gym period arrives and is greeted by the newfound "boooo gym class" which was never an issue before. However, I had a few tricks up my sleeve which I was hoping would engage the students some more.
I decided to do a "dancing through the era's" with the students. Their warm-up was to the "time warp". That, in itself, was priceless because clearly with the age of these students none of them knew what the heck the time warp was! However, they gritted their teeth like I asked them to and they got through it.
So on to the lesson...
I took my usual spot on the stage and the students lined up in their usual formation on the floor facing me. I started the lesson completely different though. I asked for two volunteers. One great thing I loved about this class was that there were always volunteers! For this class, my strategy to make it more fun was to involve the students in my explanations of the different dance eras. Being a retired competitive dancer, (retired at 21... sounds like something Britney Spears should have done!) I have an abundance of dance costumes collecting dust in my closet. I made arrangements (which became even more difficult after we were hit with a whole bunch of freezing rain... but nonetheless the costumes got here) to ship the costumes from home all the way to me at school. My two volunteers came to the stage and one was dressed up as a flapper girl using one of the costumes I danced in (a black and gold swing dress with a matching head piece) and the boy was dressed in my old charlie chaplin costume (a sequined black suit coat and an old 1930's style sequined hat). The class LOVED it! I had the students model the costumes as I explained the dance era back in the 1920's and 1930's. Then I had the class stand up and learn some of the moves from back during this era (can-can and charleston).
The next time I asked for volunteers I've never seen so many eager hands fly up in the air! My next two victims were dressed up in a 1950's get-up. I had a girl in a poodle skirt with sequined records on it and a kerchief in her hand. The boy was a greaser with a leather coat and sunglasses. Same routine followed- modeled the costumes, explained the era and then the students learned how to handjive and twist!
The final era is the one they had been waiting for... FINALLY the students were going to learn some hip hop. I pulled up two more volunteers (and what made me happy was that the boy who came up was the boy who had given me the most problems). The lil' girl was dressed in my longest sweatshirt which goes down to my thighs so it was almost at her feet, with the hood pulled up and her hat on sideways. The boy had on my bosh jersey (CB4!) which is way too large for me so it went past his knees! as well as dark sunglasses and a backwards hat. It was amazing. The class was so into it. My favourite part was when the boy decided to pose "gangsta" for the class. It was awesome!
So the students learned about hip hop ... both old skool and modern. They learned a routine which they absolutely loved! I was on recess duty a few days later and I had students run up to show me they had been practicing! I loved it!
Near the end of the period, the class formed a circle in the middle of the gym and the kids just free styled. I let the hip hop music play and one at a time the students would enter the circle and just show off their stuff! These kids were fantastic! I had kids breakdancing, doing the worm, just lettin' loose! It was very cool to see them finally excited about something which I love to do! The final performances of the students which they were to choreograph on their own the next class were also a hit... the dance unit ended quite nicely!
So to those boys who are aggressive, demanding, controlling and love to complain... thank you! You turned something that you hated so much around and did a wonderful job at it! You also forced me to re-think what I was teaching and become more creative. This lesson pretty much just made my block for me!

"Crank dat Soulja Boy..."

Has anyone heard of the song "Crank Dat" by Soulja Boy?? Well if you haven't, let me give you the low-down on the lyrics...

[Chorus: repeat 2X]
Soulja Boy off in this hoe
Watch me crank it
Watch me roll
Watch me crank dat Soulja Boy
Then super man dat hoe
Now watch me yuuuah
(Crank dat Soulja Boy)
Now watch me yuuuah
(Crank dat Soulja Boy)
Now watch me yuuuah
(Crank dat Soulja Boy)
Now watch me yuuuah
(Crank dat Soulja Boy)

Appropriate for a students in the junior grades? No? I didn't think so either! Warning bells went off in my mind when I heard the word "hoe"... and don't get me started on what a "superman" is! However, this song has become the newest hip hop craze taking over the schools. I taught a dance unit to my students as part of their phys. ed curriculum. I had lessons planned for them which would cover all of the expectations; Movement, Folk Dance, Line Dance, and then a bit of Swing and Hip Hop. Despite my efforts to make these lessons enjoyable, every single dance class I was bombarded with "Miss. Lennon can we learn the Soulja Boy dance?! Miss. Lennon teach us the Soulja Boy!"
If I have to hear one more person say "crank dat" to me I might just lose my mind!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLGLum5SyKQ

3 confessions of a student teacher

“I'd like to be a bigger and more knowledgeable person 10 years from now than I am today. I think that, for all of us, as we grow older, we must discipline ourselves to continue expanding, broadening, learning, keeping our minds active and open.”

-Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood is a famous actor and I'm sure this quotation refers to his discipline, however i find it extremely applicable to teaching as well. I learned throughout this block that i'm not going to be perfect the first time around. i would describe myself as a perfectionist but my biggest mistake going into this placement was assuming that every lesson i worked hard on would go well. this does not happen! i work hard on every lesson, however no matter the amount of preparation i put into it, sometimes it'll just be a crappy (excuse my french) day! but these are the days you learn the most from. and it's important to understand that right now i'm at the bottom. i'm working my hardest, but i have little experience... and this is ok! as i continue on to my second block, and start my teaching career i will get better and better. like clint said, the important thing is to allow ourselves to continue to expand and learn and keep our minds open to new experiences. teaching is also a learning process and i definitely learned that i'm nowhere near perfect!

“Be yourself. No one can ever tell you you're doing it wrong.”
- annoynmous

there are days where everything that could go wrong will go wrong. however, one thing that will always go right is you being the teacher you are. if everyday you go into class as yourself and run things and teach the things the way you want to, then you can gaurantee that you're doing at least one thing right! holding yourself back and teaching the way you think the "books" say you should teach, or imitating another teacher robs the students because they are not getting the chance to see your real personality and you are robbing yourself of time to shine. just be yourself because no one is as good at it as you are!

“As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others.”

teaching is a profession which allows you to work with a variety of different people. respecting each and every person you work with is the key to building successful relationships. respect your students- each one will be different. they will each have their strengths, weaknesses and special talents. praise each of them and show them respect as they will show you respect too. respect your colleagues- often you do not have a choice of who you work with, but if you can respect other colleagues and value their opinion then you can form a professional relationship. finally, respect yourself- have confidence that this is the right profession for you and that you can teach the students to the best of your ability.

One Bad Experience

A- Allowing self to be flexible when coming to school in the morning and having 2 lessons changed on you

T- Tears formed at the end of the day after feeling useless and wanting to go home!
E- Everything goes wrong in math as well as art AND social studies!
R- Repeat this day? No thanks!
R- Running back and forth from the class to the photocopy room to the computer lab to draw up new lesson plans and photocopy new materials because the plan has been switched
I- I am very hard on myself so when students do not understand a concept, or when I do not perform to my own standards I take everything very personally
B- Blew my math lesson! Blew my art lesson! Blew my social studies lesson!
L- Learning from this day- learn from the mistakse in math class; that preparation when working as a big community circle is more than i though, learning how to model properly for students in art class, and learning that an overhead projector is much more difficult to use than i originally thought!
E- Expecting things to be perfect but learning they never are

D- Down on myself for the whole day
A- A new day will come and I should just remember this one as a learning experience.
Y- You can do it! I just need to keep telling myself that instead of letting myself get discouraged!

Introducing: "Miss. Lemon"

First day of School:
Gas money for car ride to school: $35
New clothes to make a good impression: $60
Teachers College Education to succeed in life: $4000

Having your students refer to you as "Miss. Lemon": Priceless

Teaching is stressful, but it's the little things which students do that bring a smile to your face :)