Crosswinds: Day One

Today was my first day observing at Crosswinds School. Most of my classmates were assigned to the 7th and 8th grade classrooms, but I was by myself in the 9th grade room. The education program wants each of us to have classroom experiences in both middle and high school classrooms, so because I'll be doing my student teaching at Maple Grove Junior High in the spring, I need to do my practicum at the high school level. Strangely, both experiences will be with 9th graders. But whatever.

The class was working on revising their personal narratives today. First the teacher read a Vonnegut short story aloud (frankly, it was pretty boring for a Vonnegut story...and not entirely related to the assignment, either). Then the students who were done with their rough drafts were supposed to pair with another student, read their partner's story, and answer feedback questions on a notecard. The procedure didn't go perfectly, because about half of the students were not prepared with a rough draft. Also, students had a hard time picking partners and once they were paired up they struggled to stay on task.

I, however, had a good time because I sat in on a group of boys who were discussing each others' work. I was drawn in by their evaluation of one story as "The most badass dolphin story you've ever heard," which led me to believe this boy had been attacked by dolphins. He wasn't. It was actually your standard "One time I went to Florida and I went to one of those places where you swim around in a pool with dolphins" kind of story, but whatever. The second story I read was AWESOME. Great pace, great description, great word choice. Super dramatic in that "I'm 14 and I'm trying to be the shit" kind of way, but nicely done. It was about the time he wandered away from his brothers' baseball game and fell on some rusty nails in the woods. You know, that big event in every 8 year old's life.