Entry 5

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 8/29/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Sports Medicine - (2nd and 4th, long periods)

Today I collected projects of most of my students, although, I also encountered a few rounds of excuses. Since I clearly stated my homework policy on day 1 and it is posted on edline at every students convenience; I showed no pity when it was assigned all week. I followed my stated protocol (10 point deduction for every day its late) and after the second missing assignment, I'll contact the parent. After projects were collected, the students were instructed to get in their groups from the previous lesson and present their findings to the class. Since they each divided up into 3 different groups, a lot of information was collected and presented, but next time I think I'll make different people present just to get them comfortable. After the presentations were finished, I try to balance out the class with factual information with a little compassion and humanitarian, so we watched a 15 min. video (E:60) on the ever so popular ALS. However, this video was made before the Ice Bucket Challenge, and it was about the diagnosis, demise, and death of a 28 year old soccer player. After the video, I didn't even have to say anything, the students wanted to take part in their own research to learn more which was really powerfully for me observe. 

AP Statistics -(6th, long period)

After I checked every ones homework (all had completed) we went over the answers. I called on different people to supply an answer and I was happy to hear that most everyone was on the same page. It took about 10 minutes to go over the answers, I really want to try to limit that to 7 minutes next class period so I can have more instructional time. Once homework Q&A was over, I jumped right into the lesson of the day - Probability and Statistical Inference. I used my combination presentation once again and got through it pretty quickly. However, it was the end of the preliminary chapter and it was time for the Case Closed Assignment (chapter review) and we didn't get to finish it in class, like originally planned. I really need to make sure I'm staying aligned with my statistics pacing guide, so I might have to take out a few bells and whistles to make sure all content is covered. 

Middle PE - (7th )

Tuesday-Friday Class. Daily exercises, but with a lot more variety of stretching. Since it was Friday, and a holiday weekend; I was emotionally and physically spent. So I just went with the feel of the class, we did more of transitional yoga for the whole class instead of physical fitness testing (which now got moved to Tuesday-Wednesday of next week). There were quite a few injured middle school athletes, so I taught them a series of stretches to keep their bodies healthy throughout their season. 

Reflection about Today’s Activities:

As a college prep school, it is hard for me to rationalize contacting the parent over missing homework assignments. It is a school policy, so of course I follow it. Another school policy of not allowing any zeros, the maximum penalty a student can receive is a 40 even if he/she chooses not to complete the assignment. I believe if we are preparing them for college, maybe we should design our classroom and our policies more towards a college standard. I've heard many professors say that incoming freshman do not have what it takes to be successful in college; ie: accountability, responsibility, time management, etc. However, I do know that Carlisle School has 100% college acceptances every year, but I'm more concerned with the following statistics: How many successfully complete college? Most students at Carlisle are self-intrinsically motivated, but what about those who need an extra push? Are we helping them by hand-holding all the way through high school? I have often pondered on this idea of college prep school but with old high/middle school policy.