The Maze Master

Today started with another faculty meeting, every Wednesday and Friday. Before I begin telling you about my day, I must tell you about the teacher dress code at this school because I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist. Most teachers are in jeans and a small amount are in khakis. I have worn nothing, but dress capris and I am over dressed so on Monday, as hard as it will be, I will try to fit in a little better. While I was waiting for the meeting to start, I met the other 9th grade math/physics teacher Al. He was extremely friendly and told me I should look at the teachers' online portfolios and then email them to see what interesting events are going on. He also showed me his rubrics and organization for project development. He told me to come back and observe his classroom later in the afternoon to watch the students perform in a maze competition. The beginning of the meeting was filled with announcements about the robot convention and contract renewals. Then we broke up into small study teams to brainstorm ideas on certain topics. I joined the advisory Olympics meeting and discussed events for the Olympics. Each advisory is a team and it is a big event next Friday right before spring break. After the meeting I headed over to High Tech Middle and met Erin. She started out at High Tech Middle as a tutor and now will be taking over Dan's science classes because he is going to be taking over as director while the formal director is out on maternity leave. Confusing! Anyways, she graduated in May with a youth ministry degree and has found herself employed by High Tech Middle as a full time teacher. While we were talking, she was grading the 8th graders' hover-craft carrier projects. If I haven't mentioned before, High Tech High's major philosophy is project based learning which means they are constantly doing projects in every one of their classes. To learn about air pressure, density, force, and gravity, they were required to make a hover-craft that carried a student at least 30 ft. Their projects are amazing and each student can tell you exactly how and why the hover-craft works. By the end of these 4 weeks, I may be convinced that projects are the way to go. I then went to observe Bobby Shaddox who is Dan's team partner and teaches humanities. Erin was explaining that Bobby is more structured and strict than Dan and so I thought it would be interesting to observe the difference in teaching styles and student disposition. When I walked in, they were having a trial because apparently someone had broken Bobby's sunglasses the previous day and failed to come forward. Bobby called students to the witness stand and questioned them about their observations yesterday. It was a great way to get his point across and review for the quiz, which they took about the mock trial. I then wondered around a little more and spent some time in Jade's room and then in the resource room. All of their classes are fully inclusive, but they have two resource teachers, ten tutors, and a resource room to assist students with special needs. I then headed back over to Bobby's room for advisory which come to find out is a mixture of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. They were organizing a skit for next Friday which had to include all 18 members of the advisory but last not longer than 2 minutes. Kind of a difficult task. After lunch, I met and observed Sara Strong teach 6th grade math/science. The students were gathering information on their groups' national park. Then I observed Dan's math class as they brainstormed ways to modified their Judo Math so students would be rewarded for completing the different levels without failing the placement multiple times due to lack of effort. Finally I observed Al's 9th grade team compete in the maze challenge. Let me see if I can explain this with as little confusion as possible. They split the team of 50 kids into four teams of about 12. Two teams were coed, one team was all boys, and one team was all girls. The challenge included figuring out the correct way to get across this grid. There was a grid with about 9 squares by 13 squares laying on the ground. The squares were big enough for the students to put both feet inside the lines. There was also a maze master who sat with the correct path through the grid. The first student would begin on a square. If they had chosen the wrong square, the maze master would say no and the student would return to the end of their team's line. If the student was on the right square, the maze master would say yes and the student would attempt to move to another box. Students would have to remember the correct path to successfully get 7 people across the grid. The whole process was timed and only one team completed the task at a time. They came back together at the end to perform cheers and find out who had won the challenge by completing the task in the shortest amount of time. It was very interesting to observe the team work and participation or lack there of. I am excited to get involved in more projects and competitions.