Day 267

Thursday September 10


I hate teaching writing! The students don't understand what I'm saying. I don't know how to "dumb" it down any more!!

I had to teach writing in my first class. We were talking about staying on topic. They didn't understand. I try to explain it the best I can. I'm not a writing teacher! We were talking about statements and questions today also. They didn't know how to turn a statement into a question or a question into a statement. I gave an example, but it didn't help. I just had to tell them the answers. For example: My favorite ride at the fair was the ferris wheel. (thats the statement) To make it a question you would say "what was your favorite ride?"

My 2nd class is so silly. There are two boys in the class. I let them goof off all the time because I don't have enough material to fill the whole class. They were laughing during the whole class today! They did a good job on the review activity from last class. They knew what a sentence was. They know how to put the words in the correct order. Today we talked about naming parts of a sentence and writing sentences about themselves. They grasped the concept of the naming part. I think we had a productive class today. I try to add lots of review so I can fill time. How am I suppose to make 2 pages last 50 minutes? And the activities are extremely short! I can't cover too many lessons in one class or I will finish the book too early.

I had to take my 3rd class to the computer lab. I have the first set of students twice in one day. Once for writing and once for the ENIE.I got them all to go to the website and open the articles. I told them to read the article and answer the questions then move to the next article. They were actually reading it instead of going straight to the questions. Then one of the students figured out a way to cheat.She found out that it shows you the right answers after you complete it so then she goes back and memorizes the answers and does it again. I told her not to cheat. There needs to be a way so they can only take it once. I can't watch every student to make sure they are doing the right thing. When i would be watching her she would tell me to go away. This class is just a waste of time. Then when she was done she was begging me to let her listen to music on the computer. I said no other websites. Only the newspaper.

My middle school conversation class is a waste of my time! There is one boy in the class who is constantly telling me to talk fast and rush through the lesson. Him and his partner rush through the practice and talk gibberish. Everyone else actually does the activities the right way. One of the boys laughed when I called his name. Last semester we used his Korean name. This semester he wrote on the notebook that he wanted to be 'John'. So I called him John and he laughed. I showed him that its what he wrote in my notebook.Today we were talking about family members and describing what someone looks like. We finished early. The 4 boys were playing rock paper scissors and the person who lost got thumped in the forehead.

I taught writing in my last class. We had a good class, but I dont think they really understand. I'm trying to explain it the best I can. We were talking about revising sentences to add more detail. I have to tell them how to do it and come up with sentences for them. I asked them to add more details to a paragraph that we wrote in last class. They were confused. Oh my. If they can't understand the simple things then how will they get the harder material? Do they not learn how to write in school? They act like topics and ideas and sentences are all foreign concepts.

I have to teach the newspaper class in 3 of my 4 classes tomorrow. I don't know what we will do in one class. There are 7 people and 6 computers. Someone will have to share. I also have to teach spelling to the lower level. I've got to get them to quit rushing me through the lesson and we arent playing a game.