Pep Rally

Interesting methods I learned today: reflecting on the Grade 10 honors class.

This week (October 25^th) Geoff handed me a stack of post cards mad for Lindsay Thurber to be sent home to kids, he then asked me to read over them and deliver them to the office to be sent away. I noticed that one post card was sent to a member of each class Geoff teaches, and that the note were filled with positive reinforcements to the attitudes and assessments of each child. He later asked me why I though the post cards were a good idea? I felt that it was a good way to let students know how important they are to a teacher, and how important it is to us that they are succeeding and growing in our classes. It’s also a good note for the parents to see that the school is involved in their child's education.

Today the school had a pep rally to start the school day, because of this and also being a Friday the kids were very eager to get out of school. The attendance of the class was much better than Geoff had anticipated though, and we had a productive two classes. In reaction to the day being shifted around Geoff decided to do a "dice reading" method, where a large dice is rolled around the classroom, and the number it lands on, is the seat number that reads next. Incorporating this interactive activity into a stagnant exercise like popcorn reading really gets the kids involved. Especially when they can’t sit still to begin with; Geoff's experience really paid off in the planning of this lesson in regards to the day that was scheduled before the kids entered his class. We also watched clips from the film "Shawshank Redemption", the class is learning a brief lesson about film studies. I was surprised how in depth a grade ten class got into the analysing of the scenes, some of the responses they came up with challenged my own answers! It's wonderful to see how engaged they all are when we can relate the topics back to films and topics they are interested in.

I always enjoyed learning film studies in my high school classes, after reading the book, and discussing the many angles this was yet another way to show understanding of the main points and emotions of the characters. I feel that the kids in Mr. Parker’s class showed this same interest. The conclusions that they made not only reflected on the understanding of film studies, but the story itself. And for the kids who might not have made some of the connections, maybe some understanding was established. I believe this was a really good way to follow up on watching the movie in class. Because it draws attention back to a learning experience, rather than the slack feeling of just watching a film in class and not paying attention. I really enjoy observing many of the techniques the Geoff implements in his variety of classes.