Oh, I’ll add a recent one.
Mysterious Benedict Society
Great book.
Two of those aren’t remotely recent, but I love them all. Betsy Byars is my hero. (I write middle grade novels.)
I was underwhelmed by this one.
On a positive note, WHEN YOU REACH ME is probably the best children’s book I’ve read in the last several years.
What did you like and dislike about teaching in Chinese schools?
My dislikes:
Lack of planning.
Not telling the foreign teacher important information that the Chinese staff already knows.
Poor schedules that try to be as inconvenient as possible.
Lack of flexibility.
Having to listen to the “school song” loudly twice a day (with me hoping that with this new job, I will not have to listen to any music.)
Lack of creativity. All the students parrot the same information.
All the students say the same stilted English.
Students wanting to sleep.
In China, the students have their own classroom, and the teacher goes to each classroom, does the class and then moves on to another group of students in another room. Each segment of students (between 20 and up to 60 or more) have all their classes in the same room and with each other.
In China, there is very little outside or social activities. In American high schools there are many clubs, groups, organizations, sports teams and other things that students could participate in. In China, it is basically go to school all day and go home.
Were you allowed to fail your students? I wasn’t. The worst grade I could give was 60%. I could not force the student to be in the classroom. I also had to make out three different test papers. The test I would give the students is the first one. The second test must have different questions, this is for the students who failed the first test. The third test is for the students who failed the first two tests.
Did you ever have to “make up” days when there is a holiday?
Did you ever show movies in class as a “listening class”? (Basically a day off.) In the past, the college would mess up my schedule with holidays and what not and I would end up having an extra class.
Were you in a special school district that was faaaaaaaaaaar away from the center of the city?
Was there anything that you saw the students do that you felt were pointless?
放屁！
Yes, but true sentences need subjects **and **verbs.
Mahaloth, do you correct the kids’ essays before the final drafts, or is red ink still considered “stiffling” to the creative process and harmful to self esteem? Back in 1998-99 two of the four teaching methods we discussed in my English Teaching Seminar stressed the importance of not correcting anything until the final draft…which still strikes me as unlikely to teach kids anything. Kids don’t look at corrections on final drafts.
No, actually, the opposition that shows up every time the Legislature considers changing this is the resorts & tourist places up north. They state that their business drops dramatically as soon as school starts, and so they favor delaying that until after Labor Day. And since this is a major part of the economy in those areas, nearly all the elected officials oppose earlier school start dates.
I know; I said as much. I used it as a chance to recommend.
I’ll check it out. Would it read aloud well to 7th Graders?
Like:
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Culture
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Unique experience
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Had a great staff of ex-pats to work with
Dislike:
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Chinese teachers were viewed as ones who teach, while foreign were viewed as the “fun” teachers who have fun only.
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Not being aware of policies that the Chinese knew about.
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Viewing some of the shaming and other kinds of educational ideas I did not like and could not change.
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I use a red pen. It’s not that harsh and if it is a bit harsh, I don’t think it is world ending for kids.
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I do “quick checks”, though the name is rather misleading. This means I come around the room during their planning and drafting and mark things at their desk. It does make a bit of a tough day, while I carefully go around the room and mark things, but it is effective.
I highly recommend WHEN YOU REACH ME as a read aloud. It’ll get kids talking.
I can see both sides of the red pen discussion… I’ve taught college composition, and kids come in hating writing so much because they’ve never done it without being criticized to death. They are paralyzed and/or robotically follow “five paragraph essay” rules. So I am willing to see a lot of free writing/journaling just to get them comfortable with the process. Ideally that would happen earlier, and more often, so that by junior high/high school kids can live with a little red ink without having their spirits crushed. If they just knew how to write grammatical sentences by college then composition could focus on the “composition” and not the mechanics.
I hate to get involved in grammar debates (well, I love to, but it’s an obnoxious habit I dropped upon reaching college), but the preceding sentence is still a sentence fragment. No verb.*
*That’s a joke, son
There has been controversy over having Huckleberry Finn in school libraries, because the book has the word nigger in it. How would you feel about teaching Huckleberry Finn?
Do/have you ever had a student in a wheelchair? Were they effectively mainstreamed?
I guess it’d be fine. If the district assigned it and parents were aware of it, I don’t see the problem.
No, I haven’t actually.
However, I know there are one or two mainstreamed in the district and it’s fine.
The early bloomers or late bloomers? (girls especially)
Well, I’m male, so I don’t get as involved with girls picking on girls. Tends to be the lady teachers in charge of that stuff. I think it’s the early bloomers that have a hard time, though. More expectations.
Some of the guys and girls are 13, but really do look 18(especially the girls at this age). They sometimes get treated older by adults and kids even though their minds aren’t ready.
For boys? It’s really nerds vs. cool people, I think. A little guy who is a later bloomer could be “awesome” and pick on a big kid who is socially awkward.
The other teachers and I laugh about which kids are popular with the opposite sex. More often than not, it’s not who you would guess based on looks. It’s all about reputation and “coolness”.
I’ll take this opportunity to thank you, on behalf of all the junior and senior high teachers who were so good that I still think of them and remember what they taught. Not every teacher should be a teacher, but those that really belong in a classroom really and truly make a difference.
I had some great teachers, but the one that sticks out the most is my 11th grade English teacher. She was tough, but that’s they year that I really learned how to write a paper. I often went back to visit with her when I was in college.
Do your students come back to visit at all?
Yes, if they are still in the school district. I think once college hits, I won’t see any of them again. I guess if they have a younger sibling, I might see them again, but I doubt too many will visit.