Lake Trail Middle School, district 71 – grades 6-9

Well, first week is down, and I think it went quite well. Here is a little recap:

Arriving at the school, I had yet to find out who my SA (‘s) was (were). Travis and I went to our FA’s home on Sunday for a meet and greet, but he likewise had no info on that front. I met the VP Zale Darnel, and we had a great chat about the school and recent developments therein, before being joined by the FA Craig Basset.  The remainder of that morning was a little tour and getting some scheduling issues out of the way.

Schedule: Wow, what a convoluted maze the schedule at this school is. It literally took Zale 3 tries to help me understand the 6-7/8-9 flip, linear/semester/quarter system that they run on, partially due to (I think) the recent inclusion of grade 6 to the school. It makes perfect sense after the fact, but seems to be a little inside joke within the entire district (the schedule, not the school).

First class: WOOD SHOP! Perfect way to start the day. I attended wood shop with Zale’s 8-9 class, and they were a very interesting bunch! The full spectrum was realized here, from the hyper overachiever to the excuse laden slacker who can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to losing his entire binder of “work”. It was a fun class though, and it felt great to get back into the sights, sounds, and smells of the shop with some cutting, drilling, and turning projects. The class was pretty relaxed, and several students came up to me for assistance which I was very pleased to offer. I was also happy to hear that this would be one of my blocks in the long practicum. Great start!

Nancy Lawrence: My second SA, Nancy, was an excellent, patient, and informative advisor. I spent several classes with her during the week, mostly in foods 6-7, which is a fun, if a little loud, class. I think this one is going to be a real exercise in classroom management. The kids are willing and eager, but there are a couple of loose canon’s who are very effective at toppling the entire rhythm of the class (hard to tell if they take pride in this, or are completely unaware. Ms. Lawrence had also partially lost her voice the day before, so was struggling extra hard to hold attention. The kids are pretty good with her for the most part. I spent quite bit of time with this class, but unfortunately will not teach it in the long practicum (can’t have everything). The foods class I will be teaching with Ms. Lawrence is a new one that we get to co-develop: Cooking with fire (8-9). I anticipate lots of fun with this one, but very heavy front loading on the prep.

Makerspace: Another long practicum block I’ll be co-teaching with the art teacher Mr. Trembley. Not a bad space, huge, with 2 migs, a 3d printer, several M-bots, and a slew of breadboards, components,and what have you. They also have a vinyl cutter which was a very popular item during the week. The mood in here is very relaxed and self paced, with very little interjection by the teachers. I had a bit of a hard time with this one as I’m not used to such a Laissez-Faire approach, but will tailor it to suit our needs in February. We are going to offer up themes to choose from, likely metal, electronics, and some ornaments or wood and art, having the kids keep a portfolio and or visual record of their progress. I will be co-ordinating with Mr. Trembley over the next few weeks, deciding on what amount of teacher guidance will be needed to keep this from lapsing into a do-nothing chill-out period for the inhabitants.

Community Connections: There are quite a few kids in the school who are obviously compromised somewhere, somehow in the home environment. I only receive bits and pieces of the info here, but did work with a large group of them in a “Community Connections” class that happens on the Friday flex/core day at Lake Trail. My day with them was a bit overwhelming, we had a T.O.C. that had some experience with the group, and another EA who told me right away to watch out for one of the kids – he was kicked out before we even finished attendance for telling the T.O.C. to F-off. Half of the group is working on welding up a go-cart frame, so I was charged with supervising them, and the other half went to the gym with the T.O.C. I spent the morning in Makerspace with my half, and found them to be very talented individuals. Their group was a little hard to break in to, but by the end they were asking some questions, getting some grinding and cutting done on the frame, and generally engaged quite well. Having said this, I could see glimpses of the volatile personalities, and will have to spend some time researching pedagogy on teaching high risk youth. This class closed out week 1, and gave me a lot to think about over the weekend.