Burritos for Thanksgiving

I teach a Spanish Language and Latin Culture activity for 9th to 12th graders two times a week. They always tell me they want to try more Latin food. Today for Thanksgiving, I made food to assemble burritos, a food which my students had not heard of, let alone tried.

They loved them and we went around the room and said what we were thankful for.

They loved the refried beans.

3rd Place in Volleyball tournament

I somehow became the coach of the 7th grade girls' voleyball team a few weeks ago and took a bunch of students up to Taipei last weekend for an all day tournament at Taipei American school. Four teachers and about 40 students took a 5-hour bus ride up to Taipei on Friday and we spent the night on the floor of a school's gymnasium. On Saturday, the day of the tournament, there were 6 schools from all over Taiwan and there were 99 games played over the course of the day. The kids had a great time and my team won third place in the tournament (out of 12 schools). Fortunately, when we left Taipei on Saturday evening, the kids were so tired that they slept oo the bus. A really fun but completely exhausting weekend. I really bonded with many of my students and have already seen the positive effects in my classroom. Photos below of my silly, quirky and weirdo children.

ISHOU volleyball tourney oct 2012

Teachers teaching teachers- Rarely an engaging experience

Professional development is an experience that CAN be very useful for educators. It allows for the acquisition of new thoughts, ideas and ways of thinking about teaching and learning. In my experience, the instructor spends a significant amount of time talking about the importance of "engaging the student". We NEED to meet kids where they are. We NEED to understand what prior knowledge our students are bringing to the table. We NEED to tailor our presentation and curriculum based on student interests. I strongly believe that these are essential to ensure an optimal learning environment for students. I want to deeply help connect the world of mathematics to their own experiences so it feels important, relevant and interesting. However, in every workshop I have attended where the the instructor talks about the NEED to do all of these things, the instructor, who is usually a teacher, does not meet our needs!!!! He talks at us, he asks obvious questions, looking for obvious answers because he wants to move on with the material in the workshop. He comes to the table not willing to understand where we are, what we know and what questions we have. He clearly sees that everyone is falling asleep and just keeps yammering on. This is a big problem particularly in workshops for teachers taught by teachers. One of the ways students learn is by seeing modeling. If instructors want teachers to meet the needs of their students, the instructors need to be demonstrating what that looks like with the teachers they are instructing. GOOD TEACHING IS NOT TALKING!!!! GOOD TEACHING IS FACILITATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!