Captain Awesome in disguise...
Thursday, March 31, 2011
They call me Captain Awesome!
The title pretty much speaks for itself, I've successfully convinced one of my classes to call me Captain Awesome. If 6th graders will say it its true right?
Captain Awesome in disguise...
Captain Awesome in disguise...
Sunday, March 27, 2011
its always better with sausage and beer
Weekend was spent in the glorious beer gardens of Munich, Germany. Saturday was a blur of delicious food, top of the line beer and some great friends.
Full mug of strong beer, Kraut and sausage does the body good!
When the Polka music starts you get up on the table and dance.
Drizzy Drake made the trip down from Sweden
Its easy to make friends when everyone is awesome
A fantastic weekend, but of course it ended to quickly. We overnight bussed Friday and trained out early Sunday afternoon, its all to sad to leave so quickly. Germany I'll be back, but for now its back to the classroom for the week.
GO DAWGS!!!
Mike
Full mug of strong beer, Kraut and sausage does the body good!
When the Polka music starts you get up on the table and dance.
Drizzy Drake made the trip down from Sweden
Its easy to make friends when everyone is awesome
A fantastic weekend, but of course it ended to quickly. We overnight bussed Friday and trained out early Sunday afternoon, its all to sad to leave so quickly. Germany I'll be back, but for now its back to the classroom for the week.
GO DAWGS!!!
Mike
Friday, March 25, 2011
ARGH...
A day like today makes me wish I was back at Patrick Henry, a day like today makes me wish I was back in Duluth and a day like today makes me wish I was an accounting major (no actually screw that).
This was my second week taking over 3 of my CT's classes and sort of was a culmination of assignments for the 7th and 8th graders. Reviewing a written piece for the 7th graders and an geographical advertisement for a region of Spain for the 8th graders. In each class a healthy proportion of the students did not finish the assigned task and many others put forth a real cruddy effort. Holy crap I never expected stuff like this to piss me off so much, but I really had to express my disappointment to each class. Almost every student had a bullshit excuse that I had to shoot down over and over again. I'm beginning to see the challenges of bring the students back to a structured class when they are so entrenched in the chaotic bitch your way out of assignments style that my CT has. At times like these all I can do is appreciate all the things that I've learned in my previous placements that help me everyday and to those teachers who let me into your classroom I thank you. Hopefully the students realize that I'm not messing around, my expectations of them are a lot high and I'm not going to take any of their crap. I think their grades on these projects will help reflect this. Wow, just writing this is making me feel different, its like I'm becoming a teacher or something.
Besides the classes I taught I observed my CT teach each grade the period before I took over and having him in front of the class before me just gets them all agitated. 7th grade had a test and I don't think I've ever observed more cheating in my life, hidden sheets, talking with their neighbor, passing the sheet around and probably a few others. All I wanted to do was take the students work tear it up and throw them out, but its not my class and all I can do is follow what my CT does. Between the blatant cheating, complaining that they never learned something when they just were not paying attention and bullshit excuses for HW I've spent the last few hours thinking back to if I attempted these things while in school and if so shame on my teachers for putting up with this shit because damn is it obvious.
I'm still don't fully get it, but I'm starting to see that students really do want to learn, but they want to see that they are learning and if you cannot help the students to see their learning they won't accept your teaching or respect you and when you loose that its hard to bring the student back.
Its frustrating and tiring, but I hope that if I can stick to my guns and keep the pressure something will click with the students and they will begin to match up to the expectation that i set for them. Fingers crossed eh...
Besides the 7th and 8th graders I also taught the 6th grade (preparing for a debate on the fall of the Minoans) and 5th grade (recycling). Both seemed to go really well the 5th graders are an awesome group and its fascinating to watch and listen to them. The 6th graders a great group, extremely motivated and interested in history, but we will see how they do with the debate (my expectations are high, but after 7th and 8th IDK).
We went on a field trip yesterday with the 6th, 7th and 8th grade to a coal mine museum. the Museum was located 200 meters below the earth in an old coal mine (next to the new one) and it showed a history of the life of coal mining and the people involved. It was interesting learning about the mines, but it was way more interesting watching the interactions of the students outside of the classroom. Its like a social interaction experiment, watching the interaction between the grades as well as the interaction between the boys and girls, totally hilarious. I'm going to bullet a few things now
- Middle school kids run funny (growing into their bodies I guess)
- There is a village in the town call Kunta Kinte in honor of the character from roots (Not sure what to say about that)
- The country side is crazy beautiful (pictures in one of my next posts)
- Teachers who think they can drone on on a microphone the entire bus ride about random stuff are completely insane and must just enjoy listening to their own voice
- All students can think about is eating (they are like hobbits, breakfast, snack, second snack, 1st lunch, second lunch and they still want more food)
-Middle School gossip is ridiculous
-Field Trips should not take place on Thursdays
Long week, but its all worth it because in a few hours I will be on a bus to one of the best places on Earth... Munich, for the Strong beer festival. WOOP WOOP! I've watched BeerFest multiple times this week in preparation for the weekend. Good people, good beer and Polka what else could someone ask for?
We have began planning for our 10 days of travel and here is a sneak preview of where we will be going at one point in time. CHEA CHEA CHEA!
http://www.np-plitvicka-jezera.hr/eng/index.php
(Scope the gallery)
Make the most of your weekends people! Peace and Love!
Michael D
This was my second week taking over 3 of my CT's classes and sort of was a culmination of assignments for the 7th and 8th graders. Reviewing a written piece for the 7th graders and an geographical advertisement for a region of Spain for the 8th graders. In each class a healthy proportion of the students did not finish the assigned task and many others put forth a real cruddy effort. Holy crap I never expected stuff like this to piss me off so much, but I really had to express my disappointment to each class. Almost every student had a bullshit excuse that I had to shoot down over and over again. I'm beginning to see the challenges of bring the students back to a structured class when they are so entrenched in the chaotic bitch your way out of assignments style that my CT has. At times like these all I can do is appreciate all the things that I've learned in my previous placements that help me everyday and to those teachers who let me into your classroom I thank you. Hopefully the students realize that I'm not messing around, my expectations of them are a lot high and I'm not going to take any of their crap. I think their grades on these projects will help reflect this. Wow, just writing this is making me feel different, its like I'm becoming a teacher or something.
Besides the classes I taught I observed my CT teach each grade the period before I took over and having him in front of the class before me just gets them all agitated. 7th grade had a test and I don't think I've ever observed more cheating in my life, hidden sheets, talking with their neighbor, passing the sheet around and probably a few others. All I wanted to do was take the students work tear it up and throw them out, but its not my class and all I can do is follow what my CT does. Between the blatant cheating, complaining that they never learned something when they just were not paying attention and bullshit excuses for HW I've spent the last few hours thinking back to if I attempted these things while in school and if so shame on my teachers for putting up with this shit because damn is it obvious.
I'm still don't fully get it, but I'm starting to see that students really do want to learn, but they want to see that they are learning and if you cannot help the students to see their learning they won't accept your teaching or respect you and when you loose that its hard to bring the student back.
Its frustrating and tiring, but I hope that if I can stick to my guns and keep the pressure something will click with the students and they will begin to match up to the expectation that i set for them. Fingers crossed eh...
Besides the 7th and 8th graders I also taught the 6th grade (preparing for a debate on the fall of the Minoans) and 5th grade (recycling). Both seemed to go really well the 5th graders are an awesome group and its fascinating to watch and listen to them. The 6th graders a great group, extremely motivated and interested in history, but we will see how they do with the debate (my expectations are high, but after 7th and 8th IDK).
We went on a field trip yesterday with the 6th, 7th and 8th grade to a coal mine museum. the Museum was located 200 meters below the earth in an old coal mine (next to the new one) and it showed a history of the life of coal mining and the people involved. It was interesting learning about the mines, but it was way more interesting watching the interactions of the students outside of the classroom. Its like a social interaction experiment, watching the interaction between the grades as well as the interaction between the boys and girls, totally hilarious. I'm going to bullet a few things now
- Middle school kids run funny (growing into their bodies I guess)
- There is a village in the town call Kunta Kinte in honor of the character from roots (Not sure what to say about that)
- The country side is crazy beautiful (pictures in one of my next posts)
- Teachers who think they can drone on on a microphone the entire bus ride about random stuff are completely insane and must just enjoy listening to their own voice
- All students can think about is eating (they are like hobbits, breakfast, snack, second snack, 1st lunch, second lunch and they still want more food)
-Middle School gossip is ridiculous
-Field Trips should not take place on Thursdays
Long week, but its all worth it because in a few hours I will be on a bus to one of the best places on Earth... Munich, for the Strong beer festival. WOOP WOOP! I've watched BeerFest multiple times this week in preparation for the weekend. Good people, good beer and Polka what else could someone ask for?
We have began planning for our 10 days of travel and here is a sneak preview of where we will be going at one point in time. CHEA CHEA CHEA!
http://www.np-plitvicka-jezera.hr/eng/index.php
(Scope the gallery)
Make the most of your weekends people! Peace and Love!
Michael D
Monday, March 21, 2011
Taking over classes
So at the end of last week I made the step of taking over half of my cooperating teachers classes. The half involve 6th grade myp history class(Ancient Greece), 7th grade history(Middle Ages) and 8th grade Geography(Spain). I will also teach a few 5th grade pyp classes which have me a little worried, I've never taught that young of a group and I really have no idea how to pace a class for that age. I'll be figuring it out when I teach my lesson on "Why its important to recycle", going to be interesting since I'm not the best recycler out there and have no clue how to teach. Better start googlin! The 2 of the 3 classes I'll be taking over shouldn't be too big of a problem the students are intelligent and motivated which makes working with them a blast. The challenging class is the 7th years, they seem to enjoy being difficult and seem to be a challenge for the entire school. Hopefully I can make the Feudal system interesting enough to keep their attention for 45 minutes twice a week. If you have any suggestions feel free to let me know (I'm looking at you Rowdy). Besides teaching a few classes, we are also taking the middle school students to the coal mines. I think that I am definitely more for the mines then the students. Ohh damn, I'm that teacher.
The weekend was a mixture of restful days and epic nights. Hit the club, something I rarely if ever do in America. We took a trip out with an American we met in our building and a friend of hers from Latvia. Its nice to go out with some new friends (not a saying I don't like going out with Megan and Chris, but I think they might need a little break from me more). and yes they dance like idiots in Slovenia just like in the American clubs (and boy did I dance like and idiot), not for me, but I still ended up staying out till sunrise. Along with the club we took a trip up to the castle which I totally forgot to bring my camera for. I guess another time you will be graced with pictures of Ljubljana in all its glory. Until next time,
Hick
Sorry Tina for the low blow about the Wolves, but I might add that they just recently had their second worst loss in team history, makes me happy to be away from Minnesota sports for a bit.
ohh wait, I guess I can throw up a couple pics!
A picture of what Charlie Sheen would call 3 rock stars from mars!
The awesome challenge of Inquiry put on by the pyp (grades 1-5). I helped the 5th years and they did a great job presenting their experiments on oil spills.
Apparently even Slovenians are Irish on St.Patty's day.
The weekend was a mixture of restful days and epic nights. Hit the club, something I rarely if ever do in America. We took a trip out with an American we met in our building and a friend of hers from Latvia. Its nice to go out with some new friends (not a saying I don't like going out with Megan and Chris, but I think they might need a little break from me more). and yes they dance like idiots in Slovenia just like in the American clubs (and boy did I dance like and idiot), not for me, but I still ended up staying out till sunrise. Along with the club we took a trip up to the castle which I totally forgot to bring my camera for. I guess another time you will be graced with pictures of Ljubljana in all its glory. Until next time,
Hick
Sorry Tina for the low blow about the Wolves, but I might add that they just recently had their second worst loss in team history, makes me happy to be away from Minnesota sports for a bit.
ohh wait, I guess I can throw up a couple pics!
A picture of what Charlie Sheen would call 3 rock stars from mars!
The awesome challenge of Inquiry put on by the pyp (grades 1-5). I helped the 5th years and they did a great job presenting their experiments on oil spills.
Apparently even Slovenians are Irish on St.Patty's day.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Slovenian Basketball... ehhh I'd go again for the half-time show
This evening the three of us (three musketeers or maybe the three amigos) attended a professional basketball game. After watching the competition I find it call it professional basketball, but it is what it is. The game was between Union(local beer) Olimpija vs. Radnicki, but before we made it to the game we went on a bit of a journey to make it. In Slovenia you purchase event tickets at your local petrol(gas) station. So we picked up our tickets for a professional sporting event for the one time cost of 3 Euros a pop. I picked up the tickets with the idea that the basketball game would take place at this new stadium complex within walking distance from our housing. Thinking this we made our for a 20 minute walk in the rain. When we arrived at the arena we were surprised by the lack of cars and or people in the vicinity. Walking around the stadium we see few lights on. A deep gut wrenching feeling begins to grow my stomach "oh shit this is the wrong stadium". We wondered around a bit longer until we found a security guard. The Slovenian only speaking man must have got quite a laugh looking at the three of us completely drenched without a clue of where we needed to be. Our savior the security guard explained to us (in Slovene) how to get to the stadium. Once he finished he noticed the look of total confusion in our eyes and told us to wait. He returned with a lady who was none to sure of her English, but managed to explain the process of making it to the correct stadium (27 bus till it takes a right then the 7 bus for 4 stops in case your ever in the same situation). We thanked the two profusely and made our way back into the now down-pouring rain. The transfer to the other stadium was filled with the thought of how ridiculously dumb it was of me not to double check which stadium to go to. Ah a rookie mistake if I've ever seen one. It wouldn't have been all that bad except for the rain and the fact that I had taken the other two on a wild goose chase, but we made it to the stadium before half time and as Megan said "the game doesn't get good until the second half". We were wrong about the game getting good, but halftime is what made it all worth it. Almost as soon as we sit down a group of what seems to be teenagers begin setting up trampolines and pads under the basket. I have a video for what ensued.
These guys were dunkin fools one even dunking while another was doing a handstand on the rim. Quite an enjoyable half time show, definitely better then the crap the twolves have. The second half proved to be a blow out as home team Union demolished the away team 92-65. Ben if you don't and anything to do with yourself might I suggest moving to Slovenia or another former Yugo country and make an attempt at pro ball apparently there just aren't that many Vlade Divac's around. All in all can't complain about the game and gets me pretty excited for the Handball game I'm planning on attending this weekend. Its all good though, I know which stadium that game is being held.
A few pictures of the game
Handstand and a dunk
Tonights refs brought to you by Kia, Union(beer) and Goodyear. Who need a blimp when you have refs.
Home team in white, away team in red. Damn that red team was awful
Besides the game the week as been pretty time thus far, I taught a short 5th grade lesson today on liter and waste that went quite well. Tomorrow I'll be teaching 6th grade history about the Minoans and Friday I'll teach the 7th graders about the Feudal System and the 8th grade on the Geography of Spain. Monthly conferences tomorrow evening which will tone down and real fun for St. Patty's day, but oh well I'll just make up for it over the weekend.
Laterade foolios
Hickel
These guys were dunkin fools one even dunking while another was doing a handstand on the rim. Quite an enjoyable half time show, definitely better then the crap the twolves have. The second half proved to be a blow out as home team Union demolished the away team 92-65. Ben if you don't and anything to do with yourself might I suggest moving to Slovenia or another former Yugo country and make an attempt at pro ball apparently there just aren't that many Vlade Divac's around. All in all can't complain about the game and gets me pretty excited for the Handball game I'm planning on attending this weekend. Its all good though, I know which stadium that game is being held.
A few pictures of the game
Handstand and a dunk
Tonights refs brought to you by Kia, Union(beer) and Goodyear. Who need a blimp when you have refs.
Home team in white, away team in red. Damn that red team was awful
Besides the game the week as been pretty time thus far, I taught a short 5th grade lesson today on liter and waste that went quite well. Tomorrow I'll be teaching 6th grade history about the Minoans and Friday I'll teach the 7th graders about the Feudal System and the 8th grade on the Geography of Spain. Monthly conferences tomorrow evening which will tone down and real fun for St. Patty's day, but oh well I'll just make up for it over the weekend.
Laterade foolios
Hickel
Sunday, March 13, 2011
It has been a pretty laid back week and weekend, early on in the week our UMD supervisor made the trip over to check that everything is going over with the school and observe each of us for a couple lessons. Apparently we are doing a pretty bang-up receiving nothing but compliments from the teachers and administration to the extreme pleasure of our supervisor (I think he just wants it to go well so he can take more trips to Slovenia). The two lessons went really well, I taught one 8th grade geography lesson (Mediterranean Sea) and a 6th grade History (Ancient Greece). Other then that the week went along with much happening. All three of us got a little sick (I blame 5th graders and below) so we spent to weekend resting up trying to get healthy for the next few weeks shenanigans. We went to the mall which word on the street might be the largest in Europe. I don't like shopping in America and found out that being in Europe doesn't change any of that.
As for next week I think I will talk to my CT about taking over a few of his classes for the remainder of my time here. He teaches 6th, 7th and 8th Geography and History. I think I'll ask to take over a class from each grade maybe one Geo and two History. It will be nice to get some consistency in planning. The difficulty will be getting the classes under control considering their current teacher has absolutely no control over them while he teaches. Each class has their difficulties, but the 7th is by far the wildest and I know that I'll have to unleash my inner asshole (as my former CT calls it) to bring them back to reality.
The following next few weekends should be packed with fun and excitement, next week we plan to head outside of the city and climb a good sized hill/mountain (kind of fun). The weekend after that is what I'm getting the most excited for, Munich for the Strong Beer Festival.
Thats all I have for now and I don't have much for new pictures so I'll just post a couple randoms, mmmmmk.
Monstrous pizza in Venice NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM
Mountains from the car
Makeshift Ironing board, can't teach in wrinkly shirts homie
First off a flashy toilet seat, but most important is the image that says not to pee standing up! needless to say I did not follow that rule.
As for next week I think I will talk to my CT about taking over a few of his classes for the remainder of my time here. He teaches 6th, 7th and 8th Geography and History. I think I'll ask to take over a class from each grade maybe one Geo and two History. It will be nice to get some consistency in planning. The difficulty will be getting the classes under control considering their current teacher has absolutely no control over them while he teaches. Each class has their difficulties, but the 7th is by far the wildest and I know that I'll have to unleash my inner asshole (as my former CT calls it) to bring them back to reality.
The following next few weekends should be packed with fun and excitement, next week we plan to head outside of the city and climb a good sized hill/mountain (kind of fun). The weekend after that is what I'm getting the most excited for, Munich for the Strong Beer Festival.
Thats all I have for now and I don't have much for new pictures so I'll just post a couple randoms, mmmmmk.
Monstrous pizza in Venice NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM
Mountains from the car
Makeshift Ironing board, can't teach in wrinkly shirts homie
First off a flashy toilet seat, but most important is the image that says not to pee standing up! needless to say I did not follow that rule.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Winter Sports Day and the great search for an working ATM
So today was Winter sports day for the school and maybe all of Slovenia, but before I get into that I would like to take you on a Journey (not quite as awesome as Dans. It all started once I got into Slovenia. In Austria I had begun taking out large sums of cash daily in order to pay my first months rent which originally was suppose to be somewhere between 400 and 450 euros (ended up being 208! Balla!). So I had a fair amount of money in my wallet and didn't have the need to withdraw cash until a few days ago. One ATM after another turned me down. Running through my mind was the thoughts "did I forget my code" "did the bank freeze my card" "am I just an idiot who doesn't know how to work an ATM" each of these I checked before I left (even the idiot one). After a couple of lengthy skype calls (skype is bomb account=mdhickel) the bank told me that my card was not being read (obviously) and that i needed to find specific ATMs that work (Plus or something like that). So, the next day after classes and a long talk with Jim (our UMD professor who came to observe us) I embarked on a journey to find the mysterious ATM. With my trusty sidekicks Chris and Megan we embarked on what ended up being one hell of a trip around the city center with many curse words along the way. It was sort of a game to the other two "hey there is an ATM try it" then they would laugh as I tried it and it failed (they each have pictures of this). We would find plus ATM, Visa ATM and any other ATM imaginable and none would work. By this time I was bitching pretty incessantly. During this time I would go into banks, Tourist info and other types of places and ask about my situation. Each place would tell me of an ATM that was off in some random direction that they were "positive would work". So we would head off in the direction only to be disappointing by signs similar to this...
Jeeze, was I getting pissed and I felt bad that the other two had to follow me around.I kept telling them to ditch me, but I think they thought is was greatly entertaining watching me fail miserably. In the end I managed to find a bank where I would withdraw money from the teller, for a substantial fee of course. Nonetheless I finally snagged some cash and did the only thing I could do after an event like that... went and got a drink. Considering one of the founders of jagermeister recently passed away I decided to buy the three of us a shot in his honor as well as a thank you for their sticking with me. And then I found 500 Euros... well not really, but I began to realize this story was getting a little lame sorry, but its already typed and I can't go back now.
Winter sports day was an interesting day. Megan and I were put with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd,4th and 5th graders for sledging and hiking. Yes I wrote sledging and not sledding (look it up). It was a fun but hectic day as I soon came to see that I would never want to teach elementary school. Holy crap little kids are all over the place and they try and test you every step of the way. I also realized that field trips are a ridiculous amount of work if you are in charge of those on the trip (Its like herding cattle). I apologize to any teacher that I made life a living hell on a field trip, I now know. It wasn't all for not, they took us to the mountains where it was crazy b e a u tiful and they also had the worlds largest ski jump (so I hear). Here is a pic of the little rugrats after some epic sledging (only minor injuries).
Little ones
Ski Jump
Watch out for bears
-Hickel
Jeeze, was I getting pissed and I felt bad that the other two had to follow me around.I kept telling them to ditch me, but I think they thought is was greatly entertaining watching me fail miserably. In the end I managed to find a bank where I would withdraw money from the teller, for a substantial fee of course. Nonetheless I finally snagged some cash and did the only thing I could do after an event like that... went and got a drink. Considering one of the founders of jagermeister recently passed away I decided to buy the three of us a shot in his honor as well as a thank you for their sticking with me. And then I found 500 Euros... well not really, but I began to realize this story was getting a little lame sorry, but its already typed and I can't go back now.
Winter sports day was an interesting day. Megan and I were put with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd,4th and 5th graders for sledging and hiking. Yes I wrote sledging and not sledding (look it up). It was a fun but hectic day as I soon came to see that I would never want to teach elementary school. Holy crap little kids are all over the place and they try and test you every step of the way. I also realized that field trips are a ridiculous amount of work if you are in charge of those on the trip (Its like herding cattle). I apologize to any teacher that I made life a living hell on a field trip, I now know. It wasn't all for not, they took us to the mountains where it was crazy b e a u tiful and they also had the worlds largest ski jump (so I hear). Here is a pic of the little rugrats after some epic sledging (only minor injuries).
Little ones
Ski Jump
Watch out for bears
-Hickel
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