Teaching Update

Before you read this, you might want to get caught up by reading the last few posts on http://www.johnhanksblog.blogspot.com/. That's where the pics and notes are for the first two weeks of teaching, from Nov. 13 to 21.

Here's a rundown of my teaching adventures since Nov. 21.

Mon., Nov. 24: OFF

I tried and tried to get a class, but none came up. I guess that was supposed to be a prep day, which it was.

Tues., Nov. 25: FOOTHILL HIGH SCHOOL GEOMETRY. Mr. Paul Ruth.

It was two honors geometry classes and one Freshman/Sophomore geometry class. Big difference. But both quite enjoyable. Luckily they had plans made for them and I didn't actually have to teach them anything. WHEW!! Several students were in Mrs. Ross's English class from last week. They said they were glad to see me. One kid said I made his day. Another said I was the "tightest sub I've ever had." :)

Wednesday, Nov. 26: SIERRA VISTA HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH Mr. Steven Smith.

These were Freshmen and Sophomores. He had me show them three episodes of "The Twilight Zone" and write a paragraph on each. During my break and lunch I watched the other three. :) I LOVE that show! What a job!

Thur. Nov. 27 - Sunday, Nov. 30 - THANKSGIVING BREAK: We had an awesome time in Utah with all the fam. We had breakfast with JD and Stacy and fam, then went to Melanie's for the rest of the day. Linda and I overnighted with Mom and had a nice visit. Then they took me to the airport to go home to work as Santa and school teacher.

Monday, Dec. 1: ARBOR VIEW HS ORCHESTRA STRINGS. Dr. Terry Hill

Dr. Hill had to be in American Fork where he conducts the AF Community Orchestra, this time a Harry Potter concert. I took his orchestras at Arbor View and Centennial HS's. AV was quite good. They knew their stuff and when we ran out of music and had some time left, I had them to the Christmas number they were working on, Carol of the Bells. The solo first violin stood up and delivered the most amazing performance. What a thrill it was to be in the center of that incredible sound. They sure didn't sound like a high school orchestra. It gave me goosebumps.

Tuesday, Dec. 2: CENTENNIAL HS ORCHESTRA STRINGS. Dr. Terry Hill

Another fabulous day on the podium. This time we struggled through some tough pieces and I found out that high schools can be challenging. But we managed to make progress. At one point the beginning class said, "can you play the piano? If you'll just play it on the piano while we play it would be easier." So I played the first violin part from the piano score...sight read it...and they got through it. As a reward, when we did the christmas medley, I fluffed up the Santa hair and sang HO, HO, HO! Who Wouldn't Go, Oh," during Up on the Housetop...and I sang during parts of the rest of the tunes as well. I think they really enjoyed that...they said they did. After they put their music and instruments away, I went back to the piano and had a little singalong. The freshman didn't take to it much, but the older kids really liked it.

Wednesday, Dec. 3 VOTECH MATH. Mr. Mark Jimenez.

These were three sophomore classes...one geometry and two algebra. I don't ever panic, but I had a "stepping off the cliff" moment right after the first period bell rang. I had gotten the job assignment online at 5:50 and due in class at the school at 6:30 and in class at 7:00. I got to the classroom about 6:46 with just enough time to get oriented. The teacher had left no lesson plan, so I had to start the class without one. I was standing in front of the room...had called roll...and though, "oh, boy, now what?" I had picked up some work sheets that were sitting there, but they had already done those in their prior class. So just as I was going over the cliff, an administrator came through the door and handed me the teacher's note they forgot to give me when I arrived. It had instructions to read a section and do the assignment at the end. WHEW! Saved! However, non of them knew how to find the area of a triangle, trapezoid and parallelogram. I had just told them I didn't know a lot about math, but I knew more than they did about what they were studying. You never saw a quicker refresher course in your life. As I leaned over a student to answer his question, I quickly read the page that was open and saw the proper formulas. Amazingly, they looked familiar and I remembered them from my geometry class, which I quite liked and did rather well, by the way. So I went around coaching them through the assignment, the ones who did it, that is.

In the next two algebra classes I stood at the board and showed them how to plot the slope of a line, which was their assignment. I was tickled to re-learn that and put it on the board. As I drew an "x" and "y" axes and the little dotted lines, I thought of the day I watched JD do that in his calculus class. I thought, "he better not slow down, I may catch him!?" Between classes I took this picture.

There was an extra class that day call the Advocacy group. It's a group of random students assigned to specific teacher for all their high school years. They just talk about life skills and social etiquette and stuff like that. I knew they would be bored so I was ready for them. There was a suggested lesson plan involved netiquette and cyber bullying, but I put that aside and took a different tack. They indeed looked bored and with low expectations, so we had a discussion about choice, accountability and making the most of every situation, even though they might not like it. I told them it wasn't the school that "made them bored." It was their choice to react that way and they could choose another reaction if they wanted to. I told them about the prisoners of war who survived being hung from the ceiling by a rope attached to their hands tied behind their back by learning to "love the rope." And we also discussed interpersonal communications skills for life improvement, one of the topics I teach in college. I think they got something out of the discussion. They were quite attentive and participated like they were interested. I suggested to them that they bring topics to the class that they would like discussed in addition to the assigned ones. What an opportunity to change the thinking of young minds.

Overall, it was quite an enjoyable day.

Wednesday, Dec. 3: OFF

Dentist appointment. New Dentist. Gary Earl. Clean bill of health. Crowns to follow.

Another week in Paradise!