glowing young ruffians

finished quarter three.

for everything i obsessed over coming into the last quarter, and all the changes i made, i came away discouraged, more or less.  i had many students improve in the second quarter, but a ton of them regressed in the third.  i can't allow myself to tie it directly into my performance, but it's hard not to..

my big thing in the third quarter was competition.  an increase in competition should lead to increase in quality.  unfortunately, the point system i had meant several extra hours of work for me each week, and i didn't see enough improvement to justify continuing it.  i have a new approach to finish the year, though.  

i've always been fascinated by how memory works.  my experience as a teacher has only furthered my interest.. i can tell my students something involving history DOZENS of times over the quarter, and they don't remember it.  on the final test, i had multiple students try to tell me that democracies have kings.  even worse, one put labeled Athens to be in Persia on the map portion.

on the other hand, i can mention something else in passing and it seems to stick with 75 percent of them! one day in 8th grade, a student noticed i was wearing a silly band (a rubber band molded in a particular shape) and asked me what it was.  i told them it was a seahorse, and we moved on.  over a week later, i asked them about the silly band as a bonus on a quiz. EVERY SINGLE STUDENT remembered.  i bet they would remember now, and that was months ago.

what do i learn from this?  well, we remember things out of the ordinary (i knew that — it's part of the reason i'm so ridiculous. to spice up other people's lives/be remembered).  it's not normal for teachers to wear silly bands.  that fact alone turns on a new section of their brain.  also, i think the students in our school are starved for pop culture.  they latch onto anything that resembles the modern world.

we aren't permitted to discuss pop culture at school.  every teacher has their own interpretation, but generally the rule is followed well.  for the students, it's like being suffocated.  it's good for them, though.  most of what people rely on for entertainment is shallow and destructive.  one negative effect, however, is that they will go nuts if you so much as acknowledge something they relate to.  i mean, if you say "Hunger Games" in class right now, you'd have 24 students talking in milliseconds. it's absurd.

so, my new approach?  i'm going to spend my extra time trying to find ways to present material that makes it stick.  a few events at the end of last semester drove this home.  first, i told them to think of Socrates --> Plato --> Aristotle as SPA (our school's initials).  no one missed that. really.  when i taught them Plato's Cave, i drew my stick figure prisoner with a baseball cap (to highlight that he's facing the back wall).  the cap was replicated by a majority of them in their version on the test.

you can't expect most junior high kids to flat out memorize information. if it sticks, it sticks.  well, i'm going to trick them into remembering.  they won't have a choice.  suckers.

by the way, the title is taken from The National/Racing Like A Pro. my favorite song currently..
"one time you were a glowing young ruffian, oh my god it was a million years ago"