First Day Back

Well today is the day when our blog url is due. Just thought i would add one more post before i sent mine to Sharon. I had a great day in the classroom. The students were glad to see me back since i had been gone for awhile. I used the Think-Pair-Share strategy in my classroom and it again worked well. The students enjoyed it, which made the class run smooth. Does anyone else have good strategy that i may be able to try. Hope teaching is going well for everyone.

Films/Graphic Organizers

I am going to show a film in my class this next week and was trying to figure out how to assure students are paying attention and getting the proper message from the film. I was thinking of requiring them to complete a graphic organizer about the film. What do you think of this strategy? What do you guys do when you show films in your classroom?

Business Simulation

Someone was telling me about a business class that was actually ran like a real-life business. Each student was given a different role in the business that they were in-charge of during class. I think my students would enjoy this if i implemented it into my class. Does anyone have an idea of how to get this started, or the steps to take?

Fish Bowl

So I was thinking about do the fish bowl activity in by Personal Finance class. I was just wondering if anyone has tried this activity and if so, what did you think. Did it work well for you or what recommendations do you have for me. Thanks

Health Conference

So it is now lunch time of our second day of this health conference thing we are required to attend. I have had a tough time gaining any new, useful knowledge from the ladies presentation. I feel it was kind of a waste of time, and would have been more beneficial if just health people would have attended it. They could have gotten more one on one time and there would have been so many other people in there to distract. But, what can you do now, there is only three and a half more hours of it and then i am on to finishing all our other homework. Just thought i would see what everyone else thought about the last two days. Good luck with all the homework. See ya

Engaging all students

Today was a rough day in my Personal Finance class. The students seemed to be very tired and did not want to particapate in the lesson. I had a hard time getting responses from most of the class. There was a few kids who were fully engaged, but not the whole class. We were discussing life insurance in this lesson. Does anyone have any ideas of how to get more students involved when they seem to be tired or not interested? Any strategies or tips. Thanks all

Grades

My school just started a policy this semester for those students who do not turn in their assignments. We had a number of students who were missing 10 plus assignments at the end of last semester, so the school wanted to implement something to try and help the issue. So, now if a student does not turn in an assignment on the due date they are then required to attended 8th period which is after school. If it is a student who rides the bus they will be taken out of their 7th period class and complete thier missing assignments for the day with the principal. All 7th period classes are electives, so they figured it is better the students complete the work for required classes. The students will be in 7th/8th period until they complete their missing work. If students are still struggling in classes and are still not completing their work they will be assigned Friday school, since there is no school on Friday's in Arlington. On Friday's the students will come in a receive help from the teachers on their assignments. This policy seems to be working thus far in the semester and there are a lot less students who have missing assignments and failing classes. What do you think of this policy?