Tests

So for one of my classes, our project is to create a test (with so many objectives written and everything) but we have to have a certain number of questions, so i based the objectives around something that i would be interested in, the gothic and transcendentalist periods. it's becoming more and more clear how difficult it is to come up with a set amount of multiple choice, true and false, etc. for a unit that would be fit more iwht a few essay questions...it's just a little frustrating to try and stretch it to fit the assignment guidelines he gave us -_-

Is it a bad sign that i still get nervous talking in front of people?

I don't get overly nervous or anything, and i always make sure that I'm prepared for what ever i'm doing, it's just the fact that giving a formal presentation in front of people makes me cringe. I don't enjoy getting in front of people who expect me to have every word that im going to say planned out, it just bugs me. I like the setting of informality in a class, it makes it more relaxed, i can't be the only one, right? I know that you still have to have control over the class, but there has to be a way to mix informal and formal class for a high school, because high schoolers are a little more difficult to control than a college class. It's just something that i've been thinking about lately, I like informal classes because they're more relaxed, but at the same time, i don't want every class i teach to be hectic if i can't control them.

Satire

This is more or less for fun, i saw my friend post a link to this site http://scoopertino.com/ which is just a bunch of fake articles about new products or events, much like the onion for those of you who are familiar with that. I guess the way i'm relating this back to a teaching point is how important would you guys feel a satire unit would be? did anyone have a class where that they talked about satire in? The few days that we got to study satirical articles in high school was probably my favorite topics we covered, i feel like it's important to understand the background of satire and early works of satire, so i'm just wondering if anyone thinks they would spend more than a couple days covering in a school context

mixing styles

I always feel like it's a really good idea when you attempt to to do kind of hybrid between two different styles of activity, as in using two types of activity in a single class. I feel like it really helps the thinking process when trying to comprehend a concept or story or even dialogue when you get to look at it in multiple angles. I feel like when i'm teaching in a school, i'm going to use as many of these activities in my class, so this class is particularly helpful in that like. what do you guys think? how often would you use most of the things we've gone over? once a unit, or more or less?

I hate to be that student...

...but i usually am that guy that always forgets to keep up on assignments like this. For instance, i don't even remember when the last blog i wrote was. I don't deliberately ignore these, it's just when i have time to write them i usually forget all about them and when i remember that i have to write something still, i have no time to write them or i'm already working on something else.
So i guess when i end up teaching that will help me, i have always been forgetful about this kind of thing, and i remember having teachers that just refused to accept that fact that i forgot to do an assignment, and i know that i don't want to be like that. I want to be the kind of teacher that's accepting of the fact that students will make mistakes like i do, because being called out in the middle of a high school class because you forgot your homework is one of the most embarrassing feelings

writing

I know i talk about it almost every chance that i get in class, but writing has always been important to me. the reference i wrote our past paper on is about exactly that as well. it spoke mostly about how little writing is done in the classroom anymore, to the point that it startled me. i didn't realize the extent to which writing has been kind of blown off to make more time for the other two "R"'s (reading and arithmetic) mostly because of the standardized testing that takes place in schools now. i feel that's really wrong to do. so i pose a question: does anyone else feel we need to have a revolution of the standards? because writing properly is one of the most valuable skills someone can have no matter what feild theyre in.

just a random thought

As important as i think keeping ourselves updated on trends online with students as we grow older, I feel like it's important to keep something in mind: the students are probably going to know a lot more about the technology they grow up with than we are. We even encounter it ourselves, i know i've mentioned it in a past blog, but a class i'm in now almost assumes we don't know anything about basic programs we've used to write papers and make presentations since middle school, but we're basically talked to as if we don't know anything about what we're dealing with.
i feel like if we're going to try to incorporate a "new" tech into a classroom, we shouldn't assume that the students know nothing about it, but instead inquire through a survey or class discussion what they DO know about it, so that we don't spend an entire class explaining how to use something that they have been using for years.
just a though though.