As reported earlier, I have taken a teaching job in Savage, MT. It is a small school, with a total student population of about 116 K-12. I teach English, grades 6-12. I probably have about fifty students or so. My largest class has eleven students. Lucky me, it's my eighth graders during the last period of the day. This first week, I think they've been itching to get out the door. Hopefully, in time, they'll learn to like what we're doing in English. Or at least tolerate it.
I'd love to tell you that the first week went smoothly; that there were no bumps in the road. Though, anyone that has taught likely knows this isn't the case. Trying to get students on Google Drive proved to be a bigger headache than I had thought it might be. There were tired eyes as we went through some literature today. Questions meant to generate discussion were met with long periods of awkward silence.
I've told myself that it's the first week. The students are adjusting to a lot of change (there are several new teachers this year, a rarity at Savage). It might take them a little while to warm up to me and learn to take part in discussions, to think outside the box, and really apply what they've learned.
I was inspired by a post that I saw in which the author wrote a letter to her first-day-of-teaching self. I decided to do a bit of a twist on it. I wrote a letter on my first day of school. I hope it serves as a reminder of why I'm doing this and how to keep it all together. That's the plan anyways. The letter is as follows:
Dear Mr. Hoffmann,
Today is your first day of teaching. Not just of this year. Not just in Savage. But ever. It is kind of awesome. It is kind of terrifying. It is all sorts of emotions bundled into one.
You have no idea what to expect this year. How will the kids be? How will parents be? It is all new. But, you’ll get there. You’ll make it happen. You’ll get these students to a great place with their reading and writing.
Don’t forget to take time to grow yourself. Keep reading up on the profession. Never be afraid to use new ideas. Ask the students what’s working and what isn’t. Listen to them. Listen to other teachers. Listen to administrators. Listen to parents.
And don’t forget to take some time for yourself. Read books. Write a little. The more sane you are, the better the classroom will be.
You will make mistakes. You will forget things. You have syllabi printed off for the first day. This is a most excellent start. Try to work ahead and stay organized. The more on top of things you are, the better things will be. But still, best laid plans of mice and men and all that. Don’t let ruin your day. Stay even keeled, take it one day at a time, and do your best. That’s all you can ask for.
This promises to be one the most challenging, most rewarding years of your life. Make sure it lives up to that promise.
In my review of Godzilla, I mentioned that there was bigger news coming. Most people already know this, but I landed by first teaching job. I actually did this over a month ago. Thinking it to be the best present I could give myself, I signed my contract on my birthday.
I will be teaching English (obviously) grades 7-12 in Savage, MT. As you might gather from a first year teacher being given six grades, that Savage is a small school. My largest class will probably be around 10 students. Though, its sure to be challenging. Planning and prepping for six different classes will be time consuming. Remind me to not have large projects due at the same time in multiple classes.
Kodi (my wife, as I think the blog didn't mention the wedding. It was fun, you should have gone.) landed a job as a librarian in Glendive, which is 30 miles south. One of us will commute, though we are still working out exactly who.
The planning process will begin shortly, at least in broad strokes. I'm sure to keep you posted on the happenings in that.
Hey there! I haven't written here in a while. But, let's fire it up and do a movie review. I'll write up more important things laterish. But, for now....Godzilla.
Full disclosure: I haven't seen the original Godzilla movies (which I need to rectify) nor the 1998 version (which, from what I hear, I do NOT need to rectify). So, I'm not exactly the greatest source on this, but eh, you're in it now. Also, there are spoilers ahead, so....
First off, I enjoyed the movie. I really did. I thought Godzilla looked fantastic. I thought the MOTUs (the other creatures that Godzilla fights) were well done. I thought, all in all, they did a good job.
But....
I have two main qualms about the movie. One was, there wasn't enough Godzilla. This seems odd in a movie titled "Godzilla", but it's true. Maybe it was for budgetary reasons, maybe it was to save up for the final act, but Godzilla rarely is the focus until near the end of the film. The humans in this film aren't even trying to find Godzilla (they actually act more or less as an escort for him at one point, which is kind of adorable if you think about it). Godzilla is treated as an ally for the humans from the minute the first MOTU escapes. This isn't a misunderstood anti-hero. Godzilla acts as a force of nature FOR humanity. Now, he does this in the original films (I know a little), but I think in this re-boot, it's ok for Godzilla to start off as the bad guy. The first thing to cause major damage is a MOTU. It is a nice little fake out, because after all, we're here to see Godzilla and the first monster we see isn't him. But then, when Godzilla begins his "hunt", we see a little of it. His first major fight in Honolulu was seen briefly on TV. His major battle in San Francisco is spliced up a bit. We continually see Godzilla through a restricted lens (a window, goggles). This prevents us from getting a real idea of the true scope of Godzilla (other than huge), and prevents Godzilla from truly taking center stage.
My second major qualm is (and this is a big spoiler) is that they kill of Bryan Cranston's character fairly early on. Cranston plays an engineer who, in 1999, knows that something's not quite right with these seismic anomalies. When the nuclear plant he works at is destroyed and the surrounding city is quarantined, Cranston devotes his life to finding out "the truth". He eventually does when the MOTU that had nested in the plant wakes up, but he dies shortly thereafter. Which is a waste of great actor. Maybe it's just the Breaking Bad fan in me, but come on, Bryan Cranston could (and does) act circles around Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who plays the part of "generic hero #1" in this film. Cranston's character is motivated to finding out the truth. Taylor-Johnson is just sort of there. His entire character's motivation is to protect his family. So, when he knows that a MOTU from Nevada is coming towards his family, does he tell them to high-tail it to literally anywhere in the world BUT San Fran? No. He says, "wait for me, I'll be home soon."
All that said, I did enjoy the movie. Godzilla looks fantastic. The destruction scenes look fantastic (numerous reviews point out that the film evokes images of the tsunamis that have damaged Asia). Whenever Godzilla was on screen, it was awesome. When the people were on screen, it was less awesome. One thing that Pacific Rim did right was it said, "people want to watch monsters and robots fight each other, so let's do that." Godzilla said, "People want to see Godzilla smash things, so let's put in the most cliched hero story ever just to smooth it out."
Other fun observations from the film....
~A MOTU that had been dormant and put away in Yucca Mountain comes alive and burrows right out of the mountain. This is not noticed until Army personnel literally open up the vault where it was contained. I mean,the US stores it's nuclear waste there and there are no seismic sensors? It's not like this thing ninja'd out of there.
~Biggest hero of the film for me was a bus driver transporting kids. The police and military have decided they need to stop all traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. When all the monsters show up, they fire missiles at the monsters....which means they are firing at the bridge. The bus driver, who is nameless, decides that this is dumb, and slams on the accelerator, getting the bus to safety.
~Taylor-Johnson does get some credit in the film when he is literally the only person to recognize eggs when he sees them. When soldiers find the MOTU's nest, none of them say, "Holy geez, those things reproduced, we should do something about it." Instead, they take a nuclear warhead and leave. Taylor-Johnson, deciding to not make the situation worse down the line, lights everything on fire.
~I loved the scene where a military commander says that his number one concern is people's safety and a Japanese scientist just shows him a watch that stopped when the Hiroshima bomb was detonated. It was a classic "show, don't tell". "Yeah, yeah, you didn't care about OUR safety." All in all, this movie does a nice job of breaking the classic "The Army will fix it!" trope. Even Pacific Rim (which I really enjoyed) falls into this. Guns don't do anything against the monsters and they literally feed on nuclear energy, so humanity has to take a big gamble that Godzilla won't decide to eat everyone.
~At the end of the movie, Godzilla swaggers on back to the ocean after a long, hard day of being awesome. And yes, he kills the MOTU. But, the fight destroys literally all of San Fran. As news crews show footage of Godzilla strutting back home, the chyron on the screen says, "Savior of Our City?" and the crowd at a stadium cheers. You're telling me that there isn't a faction of the country that wants that monster killed now? Like, mere hours after he wrecked an entire city, everyone loves him? Given that this is when the movie ends, we don't get any resolution on this. This ties into what I was saying before. Godzilla is treated like he's Batman in this film from the get go. No one questions his motives. No one thinks that maybe Godzilla is bad news. And while he pretty much is the savior of the city, it would have been nice to see a little more doubt. That would have made this movie a lot better. Maybe the sequel begins with the Japanese scientist in front of a Congressional panel being grilled about what he knew when and where Godzilla is now.
~As noted above, we see Godzilla through different lenses in this film. But, a lot of action takes place this way. You've probably seen the scene in the trailers where Cranston says good-bye to his wife through a window in a sealed door. In Honolulu, Taylor-Johnson watches the MOTU attack through the windows of an airport tram. His son watches Godzilla and the MOTU fight on television (but we see little of the fight). Naval officers watch a team of soldiers close in on a Russian sub through satellite. This happens so frequently in the movie that it has to mean something. My guess is that this is meant to symbolize that this is going to be a new generation of Godzilla. We can view the old Godzilla movies, but we can't experience them. Not the same way. Film making technology, special effects, and audience expectations have changed drastically since 1954. And so, while we can still watch those films, they can't have the same impact on us as those original films did. This new Godzilla though comes with expectations, and is going to be viewed through our own personal lenses. We may have high hopes that he will live up to his best, and we may have reservations that he will be a retread of 1998. And even if you're like me and this is your first true go-around with Godzilla, your perception of the monster is influenced in some way. Showing Godzilla through all the screens in this film may represent that we bring our own lenses to the theater.
Or maybe it just represents saving some money.
Either way, it's a good time. You should check it out and decide for yourself.
I'm into my third week of student teaching, and I have taken over two classes. I have the freshman and juniors. Once the sophomores finish up ToKill a Mockingbird I will get them as well.
So far, so good up at Harrison. The freshman have begun their mythologies unit. I started them out with an introduction to the Greek gods and goddesses. We went through the pantheon. I was happy when one of the students knew the myth of Hades and Persephone. After that, we read some Aesop's fables and other short myths. I gave the class an assignment on the last myth. They were to answer a few questions about it, to gauge their comprehension levels. They did fairly well with this, though I want to see a little more depth going forward. Still, a good start.
Tuesday week went over the hero's journey. The students seemed really engaged and were able to apply the concept well to stories they were more familiar with. I had them take one of those stories and explain how it fit within the hero's journey.
Today we started the Odyssey. I think it went well. Students and myself took turns reading aloud, and sometimes I'd ask them to reflect on what they had read. I think they are a bit hesitant right now, because they don't really know what to expect out of me. But, the students are pretty sharp and they were able to think critically and answer questions. I'm hoping as we move forward, they'll develop these analytical skills.
For the juniors, we are giving them a bit of a break after semesters. We watched The Help. The film related well to some of the readings that they did, such as Huck Finn this year and To Kill a Mockingbird last year. We've started a discussion on it. As this week wraps up, we'll start in with their research paper unit. The students aren't very excited about it, but I think it will go well. I've got a plan and good support.
In my previous career, I was a radio news journalist. Having worked in two small towns, this meant that I got to go to one of the few surefire news events each month: the school board meeting. When I worked in Illinois, I had the pleasure of going to at least four per month. We covered two towns, and each town had a high school and an elementary school district.
So, when I saw that I had to go to a school board meeting for student teaching, you can imagine how excited I was.
School board meetings, are ironically, the thing that pushed me out of radio. I don't like covering them. This is not to say that they aren't important. School boards do a lot of hard work and are often not recognized for their service to the community and the students.
Its just that the meetings are boring.
I attended Harrison's January meeting. Here's what I came away with:
~The science teacher gave a "staff report" in which she brought the board up to date with her classes and her professional development. Especially at a school the size of Harrison's, I thought this was a great way to keep the board (technically the public, they are invited) up to date with these things. I had seen teachers come in and share work and projects before, but this was unique to me. It was a planned part of the meeting and presumably takes place every month. I think there was also to be a student report, but the student that was to make it was sick that day.
~RESA 4 U was there. This is a professional development group for Montana schools. I don't know a lot about the issues facing rural teachers for professional development, but a professor candidate came to MSU and talked about that topic, so I'm a little familiar. From what I gathered, if Harrison joined the group, they would have access to some professional development opportunities. They might be also to get help with supply purchases and other things. RESA 4 U seemed to be a catch-all for education support.
~There are a lot of MHSA proposals. The meeting my mentor teacher went to last week where I got to watch over classes by myself was where this came from. I can't remember all of the proposals, they ranged from getting rid of the master schedule for basketball to whether or not students could wear jewelry during golf. There were some controversial proposals, such as allowing all 8th graders to play high school sports, regardless of school need. As of now, 8th graders can play at the HS level, if the HS team needs them in order to make up a team in a contact light sport (such as basketball, volleyball or track). This proposal would open it up to all sports. The Harrison Board felt that this was a good system. They were worried about player safety (if a smaller 8th grader went out for HS football) and foresaw a lot of problems with this.
Outside of a few executive session items (which I did not stay for....no sense hanging out in an empty room just to get to the end of the meeting) that was it. A light meeting as far as business items went, but I've been to quite a few board meetings and know what to expect from them normally.
I meant to post this last week, but then I got busy. So, you get it now!
Last week (and this week as well) I had the chance to witness a Lit Circle in action. The sophomores are reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and my mentor teacher is having them do a Lit Circle for it. I have heard of Lit Circles and I think I was sort of in one for a class last semester, but this was the first time I'd seen one executed well (my lit circle got off topic...oops).
The class has about five students in it and so a lit circle is a pretty good way to make sure that everyone stays involved. The students read on their own and then each one has a job. There is a connector, someone who makes connections to their life (and probably other works), a summarizer, who summarizes passages, a word finder, who looks up certain words that they are not familiar with, an artist, who draws out (stick figures are great, stresses my mentor teacher) certain sections, and a questioner, who asks questions of the text, and if possible answers them. Each student has an assigned role and must make six entries in a reading journal to complete the assignment for the designated section. Then, on lit circle day, the students get together and share their observations and questions.
I think this is a great way to get students to engage in the text. I think with most roles, they have to closely read the text and think critically about it. By rotating the roles, it helps to give the students a new perspective on things.
This is something that I will definitely use in my classroom. In a traditional lit circle, students have a choice of what to read in a group. Obviously, with five students, that won't work. But, I think in a larger classroom, this would be a way to introduce differentiation and choice.
It was very nice to see how a lit circle is supposed to operate. I had heard that they work well, but I think there's always a bit of hesitation before introducing something into the classroom that you haven't seen before.
It's time to update you on my first week at Harrison High School. As I noted earlier, Harrison is a small school...very small. On Tuesday, I went to a faculty meeting and found it very interesting that there was a lot of talk about teachers covering for each other. I figured I would do my part on Wednesday.
With my mentor teacher off to a regional principal's meeting, I got to cover some courses on day 3 of student teaching. This began with supervising the last fifteen minutes of an elementary PE class. That teacher was also going to the principal's meeting, so I watched elementary kids play basketball. No one got hurt, so I considered it a success. After that, there's advisory. This is sort of a study hall. My mentor teacher has the junior high (all 18 of them) and has them read the whole time. I was a bit nervous that they might not want to read, but it went well aside from a few short conversations
Third hour, I got to go teach English, as I led the seniors in a reading and discussion of John Keats poems. We all read aloud and discussed his life and poems a bit. Then the students started writing their own odes. 4th hour, I made sure the juniors turned in an assignment and we started watching Huck Finn.
Granted, none of these activities are all that taxing, but I did think about this being the first time I was alone in a class with students. It seemed to go well. The students did their work, there were no disciplinary issues, and the discussion that I led went well, with many students participating and adding input. If anything, it was a nice step up from the observing that I've been doing. That's been useful, but I did enjoy taking an active role.
This covering will happen again....I might be covering Spanish next week.
Some other notes:
~The title comes from a quote from my mentor teacher on Monday. She used it to describe the freshman class (five students). I think it could apply to the whole school.
~There's been a lot of catching up this week with the students coming back from break. Next week is also semester tests, so....good luck, kiddos!
