Pre-internship Weblog

Wow, what a day.  First class was math.  I wasn’t sure how the students were going to do with their homework assignment from last night, but I thought I have to give them a chance.  Sure enough, there were questions.  Needless to say, out the window goes the lesson plan for the day.  We did, however, get to join in on the World Math Day.  Unfortunately, this is where technology is not always good.  The site was jammed with people all over the world trying to access it AND it was jammed with all the students in my class trying to log on.  This backed us up a few minutes.  However, we persisted.  The students were told, in order to participate in this online game, they were to be calculator free.  With slight hesitation, they began to work on the problems that were coming their way on the screen while competing against students from all over the world.  It was great.  The class did not want to leave, in fact, they asked if they could do this again in computer class. I didn’t assign any homework for tonight, so I could spend a little more time with the students on last nights assignment.  I understand how important it is to get the students to understand the material in order to move on.  Hopefully after tomorrows lesson, things will be back on track.

For IP today, the students worked on the exercises on introduction to excel.  Most of the class are close in completing the activities, but one student in particular has a more difficult time staying on track.  I think tomorrow, I might have to move him to a new seat, just to get his work done.  Hopefully this will work.

During study hall, I was suppose to tutor a student in math, but he had to complete a task for another teacher.  Instead, I took the time to talk to the boys about their religion and practices.  It was really exciting to see young men interested in the history of their religion.  I knew some of the history, but they were able to fill me in on a lot more of it.  I was able to spend some time during prayer time with the ladies.  Since prayer time is to be avoided when you are “unclean”, the females who could not participate stayed in the class with us.  One thing I wanted to know was how dedicated they were to their religion.  I was very pleased to hear they followed it quite strictly and observed most of the practices.   I can’t wait until I get the chance to chill with them again.  I learn so much about their culture and religion from speaking to them one on one.

Now, like most teachers, I have a goal for tomorrow.  Simply put, I want to get the kids all caught up on tasks.  I hope this works out since I don’t want to hold back on material that has to be taught on time.