East Gresham Elementary – Spring 2014

Forums Past Tense Journal (Classroom Log) East Gresham Elementary – Spring 2014

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  • #1739
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Copy the text below and paste into a comment, then fill it out! Please do not use your last name, or any learner names.

    Date of Class:
    Day of Class:
    Time of Class:
    MC:
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module:
    How Many Learners:
    Score:
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):

    • This topic was modified 9 years, 12 months ago by WebMaestrex.
    #1925
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 4/8/14
    Day of Class: Tuesday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: Maps & Addresses
    How Many Learners: 11
    Score: 6+5+6+7+6+4 = 34
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): So great to be back at East! A few familiar faces, and several new ones. The key thing here is this group loves itself! There is a great bond between folks, and a couple of key people who clearly keep this community running. I can tell that I will be pushing them further in their skills, there was still some significant work to do with j/g/y and the new folks were significantly challenged. Also, the ordinal numbers were a big challenge – both writing and pronunciation, but they will get them!

    #1999
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 4/10/14
    Day of Class: Tuesday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: Patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: Emergency Preparedness
    How Many Learners: 9
    Score: 4+4+5+6+5+2= 26
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):Well, It looks like I totally forgot to do this update! Class was a little smaller than I expected, and it was nice to have a returning learner who is a key bridge because her language skills are quite good.. very helpful. But I also felt like we lost a few folks; and.. the group just didn’t seem to gel. it wasn’t bad, but I think they are def adjusting to my style. Basically worked with single words for disasters, and didn’t have a lot of good visual material.

    #2000
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 4/15/14
    Day of Class: Tuesday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: Patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: Maps & Addresses
    How Many Learners: 8
    Score: 4+4+3+3+4+6= 24
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): Challenging class. New learners; late learners, crying babies, people leaving early, non returnees; a class that seemed to go really slow, and was just echoing in my ears with the repetition.. folks were succeeding at tasks, but it just seemed like there was no joy in the action… and not sure if it’s because I’m pushing them harder, or it’s just some weird full moon thing. One learner spent most of the time on the phone outside the class; two others left early, which totally changes the dynamic. We had another visitor from another site, and her level was higher, so it was a bit of a challenge. And another newbie who was probably making one of the others not feel so good. and a crying baby. I spoke with Laura afterwards, and she thought it was normal, and she said the early downpour would have kept a few folks away.. but I got a sense of uneasiness. Full moon weirdness?

    #2011
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 4/17/14
    Day of Class: Thursday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: Emergency Prep
    How Many Learners: 7
    Score: 4+6+4+4+5+5 = 28
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): Having a tough time with this group.. Today, I didn’t feel like I really lost anyone, we had all returnees, but there are a few things making me feel.. anxious.. One learner helps move things along, but she answers all the questions. The smaller chairs I think also make people feel small and that’s not too great.. it’s true, it might be that the room itself might be dampening enthusiasm a little bit. Folks seem moderately interested, but there are people in the room not participating so it may be making people feel watched.. Today, I kinda did a little review of the program, which people seemed to want to be engaged with.. but I can just feel the holding back.. I might try the boardroom next week just to see if that makes a difference?

    #2242
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 4/22/14
    Day of Class: Tuesday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: Patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: Maps & Addresses
    How Many Learners: 7
    Score: 3+4+6+6+5+3 = 27
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): Very interesting day.. switched rooms on the theory that maybe folks were intimidated by being in the room with other people working.. turns out it was TOTALLY TRUE. they all agreed, and some folks came back we hadn’t seen in a while. The mood was noticeably lighter, almost to the point where, because I can speak Spanish, it was almost a little over-familiar. The group has distractions with kids in the room, but everyone is so supportive.. and I’m pushing them forward too. Two days late on my post pushed down my reflection score.

    #2243
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 4/24/14
    Day of Class: Thursday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: Patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: Emergency Prep
    How Many Learners: 10
    Score: 3+4+5+6+4+6=28
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): Almost the least prepared I’ve ever been – didn’t even take a lesson planning sheet out. Wung the whole thing, though I did make copies.. and then didn’t use them. An activity near the end with flashlight turned into asking about how you form present/past tense questions, which is very appropriate at this stage, and we did some dictations with do you/did you/Is it? etc.. Technique was a little off, found myself thinking and recalculating in the room a lot, and one mom was in and out of the class. Still, numbers back up around 10, with two newbies.. it was nice.

    #2359
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 4/29/14
    Day of Class: Tuesday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: Patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: At The Bank
    How Many Learners: 11
    Score: 4+6+4+6+5+5=30
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): A good size group, a couple of newbies, and several returnees. So far, it looks like almost everyone has come at least a couple of times, so that’s nice, and somewhat unique, as well.. today we reached capacity in the room, and I think we’ll go over it on Thursday. There is a good amount of connection here, but I still have a little bit of a feeling here that instead of creating a fun but firmly facilitated group.. that it’s a little overbearing.. folks are staying with it, but.. .. I don’t know.. I’d really like to see this group reach that level of silliness.. it might be the small room, or when newbies come, it kind of throws the dynamic off.. it also might have something to do with it being early in the morning.. one of the learners asked me about bad words, and similar sounds.. sex/six beach/b*tch.. interesting and useful, but a little.. off. also, one learner’s child is pretty needy, but he calmed down when I paid attention to him.

    #2475
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 5/1/14
    Day of Class: Thursday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: Patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: Homework Helper
    How Many Learners: 12
    Score: 3+6+6+6+5+3= 29
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): The group is getting bigger, and that’s awesome! I liked having all of my matrons in the room.. there are three queen bees, kinda, and they were all there today. One newbie, and one came back again.. Homework helper turned out to be more about exploring grades and their children, and where do they go.. I hope to bring in actual homeworks next week.

    #2513
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 5/6/14
    Day of Class: Tuesday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: Patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: At The Bank
    How Many Learners: 10
    Score: 3+5+5+6+5+6 = 30
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): A good sized group today.. I ran out of alphabet sheets and didn’t have enough deposit slips and as a result, the lesson felt a little flat.. I had to use skywriting to go through alphabet, which wasn’t bad.. one learner was really having trouble with pronunciation, sort of surprisingly.. she would just shut down. I ended up feeling like I had to put random dictations on at the end. This group, though it’s vibrant, always feels a little bit like I”m a big dude teacher walking around.. and there’s funniness, but.. it sometimes feels a little off. Group did say that the number dictation was challenging… ah, also, didn’t have a marker, so that I could do the 13-30 activity. So preparation gets a low score for lots of inadequate materials.

    #2904
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 5/13/14
    Day of Class: Tuesday
    Time of Class: 12-2
    MC: patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: At The Bank
    How Many Learners: 6
    Score: 6+4+6+6+4+5=31
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): Still working with numbers, 13/30.. it was useful, smallish group and interestingly, everyone today was not here Thursday; and everyone Thursday was not here today! We started with a little dictation today, and then moved into the lesson beginning.. they were def challenged by the triplets of the alphabet… also, today: “dash” and “slash”

    #2916
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 5/14/14
    Day of Class: Thursday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: Patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: Homework Helper
    How Many Learners: 12
    Score: 3+7+6+7+6+4=33
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): Ah, a nice size class! Good energy, full group, good connection. We used dice for mathy type writing. Finally feels like it’s coming together!

    #2928
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 5/20/14
    Day of Class: Tuesday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: Patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants: Richard
    Module:
    How Many Learners: 9
    Score: 6+4+6+6+6+3=31
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): It was nice to have another person today, though as usual, I don’t like having to push as much as I did, and I was a little hurried, but it worked out ok. We did find an interesting unexplored corner of the bank thing, talking about check cashing and credit. For this group, I felt like At the Bank was not the best, most useful module.. for the most part, they didn’t have bank accounts and they are probably working mostly on a cash basis, but I’m not positive about that. Still, a good feeling in the group as we continued to work with numbers.

    #2944
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 5/22/14
    Day of Class: Thursday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: Patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: Party/Homework Helper
    How Many Learners: 10
    Score: 4+6+4+5+4+5=28
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): It was a nice day today, but I gave it a low score because I think the loteria just didn’t work, the activity was kind of good (say the word in English, and see if they can find it in Spanish, but there’s a double meaning to the game, and the negrito and apache card, I’m not sure how to roll that into a discussion of racism/colonialism in a fun atmosphere. And the activity went on a little long, as well. and then I think a couple of outstanding learners were feeling a little sheepish for not coming every time – and I think my appreciation of everyone, while heartfelt, was a little flat. Still, a good ending to a good term.

    #2945
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 5/8/14
    Day of Class: Thursday
    Time of Class: 10-1130
    MC: Patrik
    DJ:
    Assistants:
    Module: Homework Helper
    How Many Learners:
    Score: 5+6+7+7+6+2 = 33
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): This class was surprisingly small – around 6 people. And I went off the lesson plan completely and asked them about where they used English.. it was pretty great, despite the surprise turn of events – they told me that they often experience interpreters who don’t interpret what they say. And they talked about a bunch of other reasons why they want to take classes, and the barriers they experience. it was pretty awesome. But it so floored me that.. I forgot to take attendance!

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