Day 11: The Evaluation That Wasn't

Today the 11th grade studied one of the Coyote Tales as a way of learning and analyzing the Trickster archetype. Their homework assignment is to take a modern day trickster like Bugs Bunny, Spongebob, The Joker or some other and do a brief comparison and contrast essay comparing the two tricksters.

The 12th grade read Beowulf's speech before King Hrothgar where Beowulf states his purpose for coming to Denmark and boasts of his past victories over enemies and monsters. Their homework assignment is to write a similar boast telling of their past accomplishments and those that they hope to accomplish in the future.

Today we had a faculty meeting where we were supposed to be told about the new evaluation system using the Marzano teaching model as its basis. However, at the meeting we were informed that the evaluation had NOT been developed, and that we would be evaluated using the old model that has been in place for several years now.

In education, we are used to things like this.

The First Weekend

I spent most of my weekend relaxing, but also preparing for the next week and the rest of the year.

Saturday, Cat, my wife, and I went on a date. We were finally able to see the final Harry Potter movie, afterwhich we went to a nice Italian restaurant. Cat teaches English also at another Oklahoma City school. (We steal ideas from each other on a regular basis.)
In addition to some great together time, I began reading a book on education entitled Unschooling Rules: 55 Ways to Unlearn What We Know About Schools and Rediscover Education written by Clark Aldrich. Can't say that I'm all that impressed with the book or the author's program. He takes the standard line that our schools, as they now exist, were designed for a more linear Industrial Age and don't fit today's non-linear world. Many of his recommendations seem to be more doable for home schoolers. (In fact, he seems to feel that only home schoolers are doing a good job of educating.) Aldrich recommends having children work with live animals, and not just pets! He also calls for children to work as apprentices or interns to get real world experience. One could do that if one had one or two children to education, but it's not really something I can use in my line of work.

Next week I begin to add more content to the curriculum. I'll still be working on the Rituals and Routines, but the 11th graders will be working on study skills like note-taking and graphic organizing. The 12th graders will start on early British literature. Beowulf here we come!