Week of November 12th

Hello all!  Sorry I have been a bad blogger, things have been so busy.  I would like to talk about my Monday and Wednesday classes this week which went well although I had to play "mean teacher" a few times.  All in all, Monday went well.  We started a new unit on film and music which are two things very near and dear to me, so I like this unit thus far.  On Monday we focused on reading and it was a very long passage for the students.  It was about the behaviors of British teens when talking about downloading music, movies, going to the cinema and listening to the radio.  Although my students are very bright, they sometimes answer questions simply based on whether or not they see the same words written in the question in the text.  I have been trying to get them to focus more on critical thinking and decided to devote more time to the reading activity than usual.  I think this worked out very well because even though we had to read parts of the text several times, it forced them to find the crucial information.  I have repeat students, and sometimes you can just see the lack of enthusiasm in their faces.  It makes me sad because they are so intelligent, but just frustrated.  Overall, Monday was a successful class.  I am still having trouble with a particularly chatty row in my class, but they facilitate a lot of conversation within the class as a whole so I try to focus their chattiness into productivity.  Wednesday was a good series of classes.  We talked about Glastonbury and Woodstock and completed an activity in which they had to fill in the lyrics for the song "Woodstock."  I showed them pictures of my dad when he was in his "hippie phase" (see attached photo) and they all thought this was hysterical.    I really love the times when I can just talk to my students conversationally.  That sounds redundant, but there is such a difference between talking to them as a teacher and talking to them as a friendly mentor who really has the time and energy to listen about their lives and be able to give them insight into things they are interested in.  Whenever I include personal things like photos of my family or home it really creates a whole new layer to the classroom that I really enjoy.  Anywho, I kind of got off track there, but I enjoyed Wednesdays lesson for this reason is my main point!  I had to take away some break time because of talking, but overall a good day.  Let's see what Friday has in store for me!