Shout-Out

Here's a shout-out to a friend and fellow education student also going through the student teaching experience now. He is currently teaching German to sixth-grade students and has two classes, in particular, of 30-some-odd students. Thus, he's beginning to make the observation that one possible difference between high school and middle school is the amount of classroom management needed. Obviously, you would tend to use more in a middle school than in a high school setting--but that isn't always the case. :) I've always thought food was a good motivator to learn. In one of my middle school French classes, my teacher brought around a tray of jelly beans. We were able to have a few if we could correctly say the colors we wanted. That was a start.

It's hard to believe that only five weeks ago we started student teaching! Tomorrow I will assist in parent-teacher conferences for the first time. I'm sure it will be more of an opportunity to observe for me, but nonetheless, it will be more 'on-the-job' training for me.

The AP students are either beginning to get very excited or very nervous about running their mice in next week's race as it represents the culmination of their research and work throughout the past few weeks. I have included a few more pictures and a few videos. In one video, a spotted mouse-Dotty-successfully runs the maze. In another video, a tan mouse-Bernard-doesn't do so hot in the maze. Finally, of the last videos, one consists of the new babies now a week old and growing fuzz! The other is a funny video I took of Iron Hide trying to get out of her new cage after finding her freedom over night and devouring part of a bag of mice food! She was a naughty mouse to say the least... and she doesn't like to be in her own cage alone. Enjoy!