Jump to content

Stories from the front lines...teaching


LowerCaseRepublican

Recommended Posts

For those that don't know, I'm doing my student teaching right now. We're covering the Industrial Revolution.

 

So I had the kids do a pro/con of the Industrial Revolution. Then I was asking them role reversal questions (if they thought it was good, what if they were a worker? or if they thought it was bad, what if they were a factory owner?) and what possible alternatives could have been and if we treated the owners and the workers equally, what would be the fairest solution.

 

Anyway, the kids said it was hard because there was no answer that they could just look up in the book. I was looking for them to pick a position and back it up with facts.

 

So, at the end of class, this kid comes out and says in a very disgusted tone "I can't believe he tried to make us think."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:lolhitting

 

Very nice!

 

I was sitting in a restaurant once and heard these kids talking about what they got on a test. One of the questions that all 4 of them got wrong was: "What are the first ten amendments called?" This girl was going on and on about "The Bill of Rights! Why do we need to know that? Nobody knows that." Then she saw one of her other teachers (I assumed because she called him Mr.) if he knew the answer. I waited for him to go into a "You need to know this..., it's very important..." diatribe, but alas, he just said he didn't know. :headshake

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE(mreye @ Feb 1, 2006 -> 10:27 AM)
:lolhitting

 

Very nice!

 

I was sitting in a restaurant once and heard these kids talking about what they got on a test. One of the questions that all 4 of them got wrong was: "What are the first ten amendments called?" This girl was going on and on about "The Bill of Rights! Why do we need to know that? Nobody knows that." Then she saw one of her other teachers (I assumed because she called him Mr.) if he knew the answer. I waited for him to go into a "You need to know this..., it's very important..." diatribe, but alas, he just said he didn't know.  :headshake

 

Don't we need those first ten ammendments for the judges to put in courthouses?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Today we bridged from discussion about the Industrial Revolution to the conditions of many production facilities in the developing world being used by different companies. So we were talking about the similarities and differences to the factories during the IR and under what conditions is it moral for companies to leave the US and go to developing countries.

 

The kids are bright -- but many of them are lazy and just have the "You're authority so I'm going to try to be a dick" mentality, somehow thinking that refusal to do their homework is going to hurt anybody but themselves and their own grade/future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Feb 1, 2006 -> 08:26 PM)
Today we bridged from discussion about the Industrial Revolution to the conditions of many production facilities in the developing world being used by different companies.  So we were talking about the similarities and differences to the factories during the IR and under what conditions is it moral for companies to leave the US and go to developing countries.

 

The kids are bright -- but many of them are lazy and just have the "You're authority so I'm going to try to be a dick" mentality, somehow thinking that refusal to do their homework is going to hurt anybody but themselves and their own grade/future.

 

Does it feel like you are looking in the mirror somedays? :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I taught AP Biology and science research at the public high school level, but I also had to take on a couple of sections of 10th grade slacker biolgy to fill my day.

 

That group never failed to amaze me with their lack of effort or evidence that any sort of learning had taken place in the first 10 yeears of formal education.

 

Ond day I had to send parental permission slips home so that the students could see a "sex education" video later in the week. A safe as milk, fairly useless presentation (from a biology curriculum standpoint), more on character development, respect, and responsibility than on sex per se. Anyway one kid (who later in the year came back from Christmas vacation with a gunshot wound in the leg from his cousin :headshake ) raised his hand and asked why they needed parental permission to see the tape. His words: "What are they going to show, some dude eating out a chick's box?".

 

He got a detention, but it was all I could do not to spit-take when I heard what was coming out of his mouth. :bang

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...