The One Where It Wasn't Me
Sometimes, when you are a teacher, you have to wonder, "is it me?" Today was a perfect example of this.
My 8th grade civics class is reviewing for their final exam. It is a little early to start reviewing, but when I took over this class, the teacher already had them 3 chapers past where the final ended, and they had all failed the midterm, so I thought... these kids can't get too much review. So I found this awesome "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" template for PowerPoint, and it has the music and everything. In short, it's awesome. Here is the screen for the blog-pertunity* in question:
So we get through the first 3 quarters of the review, and this question comes up. Each time we did a question, I'd ask the kids what key terms in the definition they used to figure out the answer, and if the term needed explaining I would do so. So the student got this one wrong, and I go up to the board and do this whole chalk-board likeness to a voting booth, and have Democrats on one side, and Republicans on another, and little squiggles for candidates underneath with boxes next to them. And I explain to the kids that if you vote each person separately, you might have checks on both sides, but that if you vote a straight ticket, all of your checks would go in a straight line down the column. Sounds easy enough. There is a visual. The kids nod their heads. Moving on.
The next question comes up:
"General ideas and attitudes about government and political issues" with the same options as in the slide above, but now "public opinion" replaces "open primary". And so the kid says...
"It's either public opinion or straight ticket..." And so I'm just rolling my eyes, and I look at my aide, and she says, "well it's obvious he doesn't listen..." And the kid picks "straight ticket". Sigh. So I have to go through and reexplain what a straight ticket is, and also repremand him for not paying attention when I did it the first time. What else is new.
And so now slide number three of this little episode comes along. It reads: "Government attempts to censor material before it is published." Same answer options as before. The kid goes through each of the answers... "A. prior restraint." Is that your final answer? "No. B. straight ticket." Is that your final answer? "No." etc. So he gets through all four, and when I tell him that it's time to make a choice, he says...
"B, straight ticket, final answer."
Oh yes, he did.
And I just had to wonder... is it me? And I looked at my aide, and she said, "No, it's not you." And the next question came up, and the girl got it correct, and I said, "Michelle, how did you know it wasn't straight ticket?" And she said, "Because you did it on the board, we used it already, and you just explained it to Ken and Pat."
Phew. Okay. So it's not me.
*Blog-pertunity n. an event or situation which insights blogging.
My 8th grade civics class is reviewing for their final exam. It is a little early to start reviewing, but when I took over this class, the teacher already had them 3 chapers past where the final ended, and they had all failed the midterm, so I thought... these kids can't get too much review. So I found this awesome "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" template for PowerPoint, and it has the music and everything. In short, it's awesome. Here is the screen for the blog-pertunity* in question:
So we get through the first 3 quarters of the review, and this question comes up. Each time we did a question, I'd ask the kids what key terms in the definition they used to figure out the answer, and if the term needed explaining I would do so. So the student got this one wrong, and I go up to the board and do this whole chalk-board likeness to a voting booth, and have Democrats on one side, and Republicans on another, and little squiggles for candidates underneath with boxes next to them. And I explain to the kids that if you vote each person separately, you might have checks on both sides, but that if you vote a straight ticket, all of your checks would go in a straight line down the column. Sounds easy enough. There is a visual. The kids nod their heads. Moving on.
The next question comes up:
"General ideas and attitudes about government and political issues" with the same options as in the slide above, but now "public opinion" replaces "open primary". And so the kid says...
"It's either public opinion or straight ticket..." And so I'm just rolling my eyes, and I look at my aide, and she says, "well it's obvious he doesn't listen..." And the kid picks "straight ticket". Sigh. So I have to go through and reexplain what a straight ticket is, and also repremand him for not paying attention when I did it the first time. What else is new.
And so now slide number three of this little episode comes along. It reads: "Government attempts to censor material before it is published." Same answer options as before. The kid goes through each of the answers... "A. prior restraint." Is that your final answer? "No. B. straight ticket." Is that your final answer? "No." etc. So he gets through all four, and when I tell him that it's time to make a choice, he says...
"B, straight ticket, final answer."
Oh yes, he did.
And I just had to wonder... is it me? And I looked at my aide, and she said, "No, it's not you." And the next question came up, and the girl got it correct, and I said, "Michelle, how did you know it wasn't straight ticket?" And she said, "Because you did it on the board, we used it already, and you just explained it to Ken and Pat."
Phew. Okay. So it's not me.
*Blog-pertunity n. an event or situation which insights blogging.
posted by Jess at 6:23 PM
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