Friday Bonanza!

After attempting to find a more exciting 1st period class, I ended up sitting in Amy's class reading the rest of Savage Inequalities as the students took their quiz. During 2nd period, I sat in on a 6th grade math lesson being taught by a perspective teacher. The application process to work at HTH is intense and includes teaching a lesson, interviewing with teachers and students, as well as other requirements I'm not yet sure of. The applicant was a young women in her 20's full of energy. Her lesson consisted of reviewing the knowledge the students had about proportions and ratios and then playing a game. The students seemed to like her and behaved very well. Before the class, they told Mrs. Strong that they were going to act up and see how good she really is, but that plan must have fallen to the wayside when they realized how cool, nice, and fun she was. Other HTM teachers walked in and out to observe her lesson and evaluate her as a teacher. It is my understanding that directors, current teachers, as well as students are a part of the hiring process. They ask for student feedback as far as how well they like the teacher and if they were an effective educator. After advisory and lunch, I helped with Dan's math class. One student took her yellow belt test for the third time, some students learned the new orange belt material, and the final group learned the last of the orange belt material and will take their orange belt test on Monday. Dan's goal is to have all of the students achieve their orange belt next Friday because the following two weeks are hectic and little math will be taught. I helped monitor the student taking her test and answer questions after Erin taught the new orange belt material. In Ms. K's class, after completing the opening assignment students volunteered to explain the homework for the week. The final part of their homework involves listening to their peers present and recording the new or useful information they did not think of. The last half of class was spent taking a quiz on solving equations. There were 6 problems and the students were required to choose 2. So many choices at this school! For the final period, I went back to Dan's room to help the students on their projects. Some students' projects are coming along wonderfully while others wanted to start their Friday a little early.