Friday

First thing in the morning I had year seven poetry. Wilma was away again and I had the same casual teacher who was supervising me when they class ran riot last time. This time, first thing in the morning they were beautiful, thanks largely I think to my exceptional organisational skills . . .
In groups they read some poems to each other about school, teachers and being in trouble. Then I read a passage written by a teacher about a kid on detention wanting to write a poem. The students were really attentive whilst I was reading; the passage desribed the process involved in brainstorming and editing a poem and they seemed to understand the gist of it when we were recapping it afterwards. On Monday I’m going to scaffold on this and get them to have a go at writing their own poems.

In the afternoon I had year nine for Romeo and Juliet again. We watched the first scene of the Baz Luhrmann version and highlighted in the text how much he actually used, which led to a further discussion about visual versus verbal literacy. Then I had then choose a scene from Act II and treat it similarly as well as choose a setting to place it in. It involved walking an interesting tightrope between giving them too much time, thus encouraging general chitchat, and not enough time so they felt rushed and stressed about the activity. The class didn’t seem that comfortable with it, but I think it was good to stretch them, though they wouldn’t agree if you asked them. However it got them thinking with and beyond the text and encouraged a closer reading than they may not otherwise have had without spoon-feeding.

To sum up, I feel I’ve had an excellent week. I can see huge progress from Monday to Friday and I’m really excited about the next couple. Fred and I are going to sit down and do some goal setting on Monday; a process I was a bit concerned had fallen through the cracks. But as he said and I realised beforehand, it makes much more sense to do it after the first week when I’ve settled in and the teachers have a better idea of my strengths and weaknesses.