Lynch Meadow School (Centennial Cluster) – Fall 2013

Forums Past Tense Journal (Classroom Log) Lynch Meadow School (Centennial Cluster) – Fall 2013

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  • #353
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Monday or Thursday, 6:00-7:30 pm

    Copy the text below and paste into a comment, then fill it out!

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

    #356
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 10/17/2013
    Day of Class: Thursday
    PI: Todd S.
    SI: none
    Assistants: none
    Module: money
    How Many Learners: 11
    Score:
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): Nice start to this site as we had 11 students and a good mix of foreign language speaker-even Mixteco! Nice big room, lots of markers (!) with a big whiteboard, and Mario (the coordinator) is eager to help us out. I mainly did introductory activities to get to know each other, plus some intro to money terms and a short game to end. Some pointers for this site-call Mario at 503-888-3582 when you arrive because the school will be locked; end the class at 7:15 because they want the school cleared by 7:30 (no later!); attendance sheets are on the shelf to the left of the whiteboard.

    #357
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: October 24, 2013
    Day of Class: Wednesday
    PI: Lisa
    SI:
    Assistants:
    Module: Money
    How Many Learners: 5
    Score: 19.5
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):
    First day back at it! I was a little nervous at first starting back again but then, after doing this for awhile and falling into a routine of how a class usually runs, things just flowed nicely. It’s always fun playing with 13-30, 14-40 etc. number combinations with the class and it always brings out laughs. One thing that I thought was a little strange was when I started the yell-and-spell activity, I told the class that we were going to go around and everybody was going to spell out their name, immediately all the learners stood up out of their seats. I didn’t know whether my directions were misleading them in some way or whether this was something that they’ve picked up from a previous class (all the learners were returning students) but it worked nicely having them mixed up after everybody got a chance to spell their names.
    Because it was noted that we should end class at 7:15, I decided that there wasn’t enough time to do a full dialogue but we did do pair question-and-answer with money, which worked out great because then I could really assess at which levels the learners were at. Because we didn’t do a dialogue, we had time for review with the alphabet, especially a-e-i and b-v, which was awesome and by the time class ended I felt like they were distinguishing the letters better than at the beginning of class.
    *NOTE: There are now alphabet sheets, more attendance sheets, and writing paper for the learners.

    #358
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 11/7/13
    Day of Class: Thursday
    PI: Jacob
    SI: N/A
    Assistants: N/A
    Module: Telephone Etiquette
    How Many Learners: 5
    Score: 6 + 6 + 7 + 6 + 6 + 5 = 35
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):

    What a nice change of pace! I really enjoyed working with this smaller, diverse group. I probably should have moved some people around – and used one of the rectangular tables as opposed to the round table – but it came together okay.

    3 people, two mid and one lower level, came around 6:05, so we did some very simple dictation, and this was timed perfectly to a couple who came in at 6:30, thinking that was when the class started, and we went in to some higher level dictation, which they were more than happy to help the others with.

    After that, I dictated a simple dialogue where you would call a school secretary and ask for their address. After dictating the whole thing, we practiced it as a group, then I asked one of the learners if I could call her, and I left the room and did so. It went perfectly! Unfortunately, we only had time for one more repetition of that, so I had her leave the room and call me, and do the same thing, and it went super smooth.

    #359
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 11/14/13
    Day of Class: Thursday
    PI: Jacob
    SI: N/A
    Assistants: N/A
    Module: Telephone Etiquette
    How Many Learners: 4
    Score: 28
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):

    I had a bit of a tough time with this class. A came after two weeks, which was a big help, because she is very smart, as is M. J does the best she can, but she is also aware of her level; she asked M if she had been to school before, after noticing how quickly she was able to write down my dictation.

    T came very late, and so I had to scramble to figure out how best to let her catch up. For a long time I was sitting at a table with the four ladies across from me, going T-A-M-J on my left to my right, and I realized that A was not catching up quickly enough for T to copy, and so she was looking across the table at M’s paper, which J was also trying to do.

    What I should have done was switched A and T, but instead I switched T and J, and it kind of worked, but it wasn’t as efficient. There was also a moment where T said, I believe, something to the effect of “how am I supposed to learn this if I just copy?” It was in Spanish, so I can’t be entirely sure, but I’m fairly sure. I had some responses in mind, but I honestly was not at all sure what to say to her. She laughed as she was saying this, but I still think it should have been addressed. I’m just unsure how.

    In any case, we built up three longer and longer dialogues about real world situations, practiced them, and then did a brief stint of TPR at the end, and it ended perfectly on time, so I’m pretty happy.

    #360
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 11/21/13
    Day of Class: Thursday
    PI: Jacob
    SI: N/A
    Assistants: N/A
    Module: Telephone Etiquette
    How Many Learners: 4
    Score: 29
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):

    This is a tough group for me. It’s fun, because A and M are so high level and eager to learn, but T’s very low level and sometimes poor attitude drags things down. I’m trying to work on “cheerleading,” getting others to help her out, and generally make the class flow, but it’s a challenge.

    That said, the class itself went well. We talked about Thanksgiving, practiced some telephone dialogues, and a couple students said they would bring some food to the last class. Looking forward to that!

    #361
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 12/5/13
    Day of Class: Thursday
    PI: Jacob
    SI: N/A
    Assistants: N/A
    Module: Happy Holidays
    How Many Learners: 5
    Score: 32
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):

    Solid class today! We had the usual 4 people show up, plus one returning student from near the beginning of the term.

    I developed a little bit in that I am pretty keyed in to the individual skill levels of this group, so I had an idea of how I should place them, but it was really difficult, especially because one of the students has a daughter that HAS to sit next to her mom. So with that in mind, I think I managed to give everyone the support they needed, and get on with the lesson.

    The same student with the child also happens to be the lowest level student in the class, and she often expresses frustration at this fact. I’m not really sure how to manage that, but I just try to be as supportive as possible, and cheerful when she gets things right. That night, we were dictating “Frosty the Snowman,” and she managed to spell “soul” correctly before anyone else did. She was absolutely shocked! I think this made her really happy.

    I also screwed up a little by telling everyone this was the last class. We have one more, but some of the students brought food anyway. The food was delicious, but we didn’t have a lot of time to eat it. I said I should have ended class early — Patrik advised that I could have made the food part of the class, and next time I will, if it comes up.

    #362
    WebMaestrex
    Keymaster

    Date of Class: 12/12/13
    Day of Class: Thursday
    PI: Jacob
    SI: N/A
    Assistants: N/A
    Module: Happy Holidays
    How Many Learners: 5
    Score:
    What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):

    Solid class tonight, I think. We had 5 people (though most of them came a little late), and one brought some delicious champurrado as a thank you.

    We did the usual introduction, and then jumped straight into the meat of it. I downloaded The Ronettes’ version of Frosty the Snowman (for no particular reason) on to my laptop, and used that to dictate the first few verses.

    This actually ended up being pretty much the entire class, but I did get them to sing, and I think they had a lot of fun. I certainly did.

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