I took a video of myself teaching, I watched it, and I've got 3 comments:
Or A summer camping trip with my dad.
This past weekend, my dad and I went to the North Carolina mountains in the Wilson Creek Wilderness to camp. Here are some pictures of the trail. The middle one is a set of waterfalls and swimming pools. I don't have pictures of them, but we encountered two snakes on our second day. One was at Hunt Fish Falls and one was in the middle of the trail as we were hiking back to base camp. My dad had to take a stick and knock it on the ground near the snake to get it to go somewhere else so we could get by. Neither snakes were rattlers, so that was a plus.
Our campsite is only about 30 minutes in from the car. It sits at the bottom of this huge rock which the middle picture is taken on and is to the right of the far right picture. Above the rock is a great little swimming hole (the first picture) that is one of the reasons why we like the campsite so much. The other is that it is so far off the main trail that our dog, Max, can't hear hikers as they pass by. A constant background noise is the sound of the waterfall.
Hunt Fish Falls is the thing that originally brought us to this area around ten years ago. It is this humongous swimming hole. It is an easy 1.5 hour hike from our campsite to the Falls. There is road access from another side of the wilderness that keeps many hikers off our trail. When we got here we were the only ones. But after a while a family and a camp showed up.
The first night of our stay we were rained on on our drive up, during dinner at the campsite, and as we were sleeping. The result was that 90% of our stuff was wet be the first morning. Good news there was that our second day was beautiful and there wasn't a cloud in the sky until 5pm. We were able to dry out some stuff that morning before we went to Hunt Fish Falls.
[All of these pictures can also be viewed by clicking on this one.]
Although we typically post on Team Vox to let you know about things that are going on with Vox (to, uh, state the obvious), once in a while, we like to let you know about other cool things that are happening around the blogosphere. And we think the idea of four hilarious mommy bloggers traveling across the U.S. on their way to the BlogHer '08 conference - all the while blogging and video blogging the journey - is one trip you will not want to miss.
Four adventurous bloggers from the Silicon Valley Moms Group were selected to participate in the Summer Road Trip '08 and blog about their travels, hotel stays, media appearances, time away from their families, and life on the road. Six Apart helped them partner up with General Motors, who provided the blogging mommies with a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid SUV to help make their journey comfy, safe, and a little more green.
In case you're not familiar with them, SV Moms is a group of over 200 bloggers who showcase the ups, downs, outrages, struggles, victories, and everyday humor of motherhood. There are currently nine regional and demographically tailored sites that give mothers from D.C., New Jersey, the Deep South, Rocky Mountains, L.A., and Silicon Valley a powerful voice and sense of camaraderie across the country. Whether you're a mother, a child, or just a person who enjoys a good blog, you'll really love reading the words of these amazing women.
The moms buckled into their Chevy Tahoe Hybrid SUV on July 11th and even got an encouraging message from Katie Couric to kick things off! They are currently somewhere in the middle of America making their way to San Francisco where they'll attend an SV Moms Group Party, as well as BlogHer '08.
You do not want to miss these entertaining and irreverent bloggers -- or their spontaneous contest giveaways! -- as they blog from the road. Experience the journey at MomRoadTrip.com.
And let us know about your summer road trip - or plane/boat/bus trip - in the comments! (I like to live vicariously.)
Or How NC has turned me into a bookworm and I love it.
Some interesting things I have learned this past week and weekend. In this time I have almost read two great books: The World Without Us and The Pixar Touch. The first is a thought experiment about what would happen if we (humans) dramatically and instantly left the Earth. The second is the story of the guys behind Pixar who pretty much made computer animation and computer animation film making.
1. North America used to have 15 species of megafuana (species of large animals that have very few natural predators). Most of these species were killed off within 1,000 years of early humans entering the continent.
Here is a wikipedia article about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene_megafauna#North_America
2. Tires are a single molecule. I will say it again, Tires are a single molecule. Here's an exerpt from the book.
Here is a wikipedia article about vulcanization.Goodyear's process, called vulcanization, ties long rubber polymer chains together with short strands of sulfer atoms, actually transforming them into a single giant molecule. Once rubber is vulcanized - meaning it's heated, spiked with sulfer, and poured into a mold, such as one shaped like a truck tire - the resulting huge molecule takes that form and never relinquishes it.
Being a single molecule, a tire can't be melted down and turned into something else.
3. There are seven gyres in the world's oceans. They are depressions in the water created by currents and winds and they house lots and lots of trash. in 2005, the North Pacific Gyre was 10 million square miles of trash floating on the top of the water - almost the size of Africa.
Here is a quick wikipedia article on the oceanic gyres.
4. Here are several of Pixar's first movies. They are shorts. They are all completely computer animated.
Tin Toy (1988)
Gerri's Game (1997)
Red's Dream (1987)
Luxo Jr. (1986)
And a great job at it, if I don't say so myself. Everyone who knows me knows that I am my worst critic. So, when I say that I've improved, I must have been motivated to say so. Need proof? I have 50 minutes and 18 seconds of footage (footage that is STILL painful to watch...read "Picture Me Teaching" for more info) to prove it!
The video recording of my lesson for July shows that not only has the delivery and break-down of my content improved, but my entire demeanor in front of the classroom has changed. I appear more comfortable and confident and I do a sort of "half-turn" when writing on the board, so my students don't even dare talk lest they want to see my evil stare (moo ha ha ha!). Also, my students appear more comfortable interacting with me when I ask questions; whereas before, I had to randomly call on students for participation.
Another improvement I noticed was in my transition from different activities during the class period. Before, I would leave too much room for classroom management problems because the students weren't working while I was getting prepared for the next topic/activity in the lesson. Now, I can notice a definite change in the flow of my, where free time is a minimum and working/learning is are occurring. I'm still a little shaky in this area, but I have almost eliminated any down-time from my class periods.
All in all, I'm on my way to being what I consider an ideal teacher!
The numero uno thing I need to improve on... tough call.
Biology I has been rocking all summer long. Allll summmmer longggg we've been a pretty sweet class. Different people from different places with different teaching styles. But somehow it has worked. For the month of July our team teacher has been awesome. She doesn't pants pop, but she does know her stuff... some key points I have taken from her expertise:
1. BE ORGANIZED or figure out how to GET ORGANIZED. There is a binder that sits on her desk in the Biology I classroom. It is approximately eight (8) inches thick. Eight inches. It is full of every lesson she taught throughout the year. Every worksheet she handed out. Every activity her students did. Every test she gave. It is eight inches of GREATNESS and I dream of the day I can have a binder put together so well and full of so much information. Eight inches thick! Picture that!
2. HAMMER IT HOME. Go over a small tidbit of knowledge/a specific concept/a fact/a diagram over and over and over and over and over. Go over the information you really want them to know over and over and over and over. Hammer it home. Make sure they get it. Over and over and over. It might feel like you are being a broken record. The students may be irritated by the end of the day. But you can rest assured after a lesson like that, the students will know exactly what you taught them.
3. UTILIZE YOUR RESOURCES. The internet is full of great activities, great lessons and great information (although, not ALL of it is great). Don't be afraid to use some of those already-planned and perfected activities that are posted on the web. Don't be afraid to show a clip of a video to help you teach your lesson.
Organize. Hammer. Utilize.
Okay, okay. I'll be the first to admit that I can be a beast at arguing a particular point, and a house cat when it comes to formulating the correct questions to support that point. The basis of my teaching stems from my own accounts of the relevance of the material. And I just ask my students over and over (and over & over...) again, whether or not they comprehend what I've stated. So, how do I know my students understand? Most of the time, I don't know. And most of the time, they don't understand.
My team leader for the second session of summer school at Holly Springs High School, Ashley Johnson (aka- AJ), is awesome! She's just as great as - if not better than - my self-proclaimed OCD team leader from the first summer session (thanks J. Fiel!). Truthfully, I have learned much of the same aspects of teaching from both teachers, which reiterate the importance of mastering these skills:
One Conversation:
1.
-Well, I was in a relationship with a boy, but I think he was gay.
-When did you figure this out?
-During the aftermath.
-The aftermath? After you had sex with him?
-No. We didn't have sex.
-Without sex, there is no aftermath. It's just pre-algebra.
