navajoland was fun today. it was fun yesterday, too, but… we got to teach today. i'll be taking over mrs. tom’s freshman english I class in a couple of weeks. two periods, each an hour and a half long. there are only four periods in the whole day. one of them is planning, and the other is mrs. tom’s native american lit class, which she’ll be teaching (and which I’m extremely stoked about).
mrs. tom is awesome. she’s very organized and up-to-date on teaching techniques and methods. thumbs up for sure.
the kids are very quiet. they all wanna be rap stars or something, too. se got to see their AIMS scores from last semester… all classes gained a few percentage points but sophomores dropped about 5% (in terms of number of students at grade-level in various subjects). percentage of freshman students at grade-level in reading? fifteen. the school has a plan called “55 x 8” to help motivate students. they're is shooting for 55% of students at grade-level in all subjects by may of ’08. that means we have a ton of work to do.
anyways. the big thing i’ll be doing is romeo and juliet. shouldn’t be too bad. there are so many resources for it. i just have to wade through the suggestions and find the stuff that will help me design an effective strategy for reaching my kids.
after school, maggie and i came back and served dinner. then we played with some of the girls, mostly string games. cat’s cradle style. the kids, boys and girls, know so many different string things. they all wear wraps of string around their wrists so they have something to do. i’ve got mine around my wrist. the kids were trying to teach us some tricks but they’re crazy fast and complicated. it’s fun, though, because the stuff has different names. jacob’s ladder is four diamonds. they have one called navajo rug, one called two coyotes, one called open gate. i tried learning two coyotes but it’s way hard. i did manage to learn two diamonds, though!
OK. i’m going to go get some rest, friends. hopefully i’ll have some pics this weekend because maggie and i are going to flag(staff). hopefully i won't get invaded by skinwalkers. maggie is sure she heard one in our room last night, in the bathroom, breathing. luckily i have my necklace. as for maggie... i guess i'll have to find her a medicin man.
2 comments:
It sounds as though you are having a good time at this point. I am glad your cooperating teacher is one you admire. Where are you staying? Are you in a house yet? All is going fine here in Canton. Today is Pam's birthday and Wendy and Pam and I are celebrating tomorrow because Wendy has to work today. Are you able to get email? Which address works best?
Love and hugs!
Mom
Great blog! I've been reading it with great interest, you are a wonderful writer. I've just written you out a lovely long letter and will hound you until you give me an address to send it to. If it's easier for you though, I can send it out in email form. Miss you!
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