Day 31 - Friday! Friday! Friday!

Oh, Friday! I was ready to go home before I even left the apartment Friday morning, haha. But you can't act that way as a teacher, and as it turns out, I enjoyed our classes that day. We started our Women's Suffrage unit with Carrie giving an overview of three sections of the next chapter in a one hour lecture. That seemed to be a little long for some of the students, but others seemed to enjoy it. I thought it was interesting, anyway. I planned the other half of the lesson, getting students to start thinking about what it was like to be a woman before the mid 1800s and what was starting to change in the lives of American women after the Civil War. I then wanted the students to use their textbooks and some supplementary materials to list arguments for and against women's rights. I never took classes on this in college and only just started learning about it last week (I planned one lesson on women's rights in October, but that was a while ago). As I was telling some stories to the students, I found myself smiling more than usual and really wanting to convey the information to the students. After doing the activity I think some of them are hopefully more interested in the topic. For more details on some of the anti-suffrage arguments, check out these two sites:
The Arguments of the Anti-Suffragists
Other Fears the Antis' Had if Women Were Considered Equals

Pretty entertaining stuff, or at least I think so. Next week is going to be a mess because of the FCAT (or as a classmate recently called it, the F-That) so we are probably going to show the movie Iron Jawed Angels on the days that are really messed up. It is a powerful movie that I definitely recommend, especially if you are a woman. There are some rock-star women in the past who fought long and hard for suffrage and this movie honors them.

Okay, here was the most entertaining part of the day:
The two students who came to our classroom during third period came back on Friday during lunch. We had some students in the room making up quizzes and other work and didn't really want the boys in there being obnoxious, but we decided to see if they could handle it. After about 10 minutes it was evident that they could not and we sent them out of the room. They whined as they left, but they did indeed leave. Not 5 minutes later, we heard banging on the outside wall of the portable, and a framed poster fell from its perch on the windowsill. I got up and went outside to track down the little boogers, because I knew exactly who had done it. I found them and called them to come talk to me. When one boy tried to excuse himself, another teacher told him to stay because it looked like he "needed to be part of this conversation." I said to both boys, "Stand here and don't talk for the next few minutes. See if you can do that, okay? You can nod and shake your head, and that's it." I asked them if what they had done was considerate and respectful. They of course shook their heads. I said to them, "First of all, your classmate was sitting right there making up her quizzes. Second, you just hit school property who knows how hard. And, third, you made your teacher's poster fall because you hit the building." They looked moderately ashamed, but I could tell that they just wanted to laugh- I guess that's just how they deal with life. Anyway, they were relieved that their regular teacher had not been in the room when it happened. However, on my way back to the portable (after reminding the boys to make smart decisions and to be respectful) I saw my supervising teacher carrying his poster and asking for his mischievous students. He gave them the poster and told them to return it when the frame was fixed. Well, two girls brought the poster back, having fixed it themselves. The boys came and apologized after school, which was proper of them. I feel bad that I had to go all "Ms. St. George" on them, but it was entertaining for me and hopefully made an impression on them. They are good kids and I am in no way upset at them, but MAN teenagers are a handful.