Substitute's Report - December 7

Hi X,

A rather uneventful afternoon.

Period 4 English

I administered the reading tests and you will find the marked papers under this note. I took up all the tests and distributed them randomly for marking. The complained that they should get to decide who marks their tests but I said that they have to learn to trust each other. We started with a little discussion of symbolism and I assigned the subsets which are noted on the blank sheet that contains the tests. A good group.

Period 5 English

I went around and checked their work and all of them who were there had it done except X who didn't have his booklet with him. They read for a while and for a Friday afternoon treat I beat them at Hangman with the word 'aglet'. There were no problems and, for a Friday the day before the Semi, they were surprisingly on-task.

Thanks X for the chance to get a few hours. I have enjoyed teaching your classes and I'm sure I'll see you soon.

Substitute's Report - December 6

Hi X,

I had a great day and I appreciate the thorough notes you left me. I recorded attendance in the book and on Winschool as you asked but when a student was absent I just left it blank in the book so you could enter the number of the absence. I see that you are keeping a running total for each student. Here's how the day went:

Period 1: English

What a great class. We worked through the questions on the last page of the Study Guide as a class. We had a great discussion and I think that they have a better understanding of some of the terms (rhetoric, satire, juxtaposition, irony...), as we discussed examples from the book and from the 'real world'. Also to note that Allison copied and returned the notes you left for that purpose.

Period 2: Theory of Knowledge

Started with a discussion of Kuhn and made some connections to the History class I taught them yesterday. Essentially how the Enlightenment was a major paradigm shift and how this idea of linear progress still holds for many. The students took down the first page of notes and then we discussed each point. Sorry to not have gotten further into your notes but the discussion was good and I think that you will have a good base on which to develop the concept further as the kids seem to get it.

Period 3: Religion

You were right about this class not minding to take notes. After the first board of notes, which was the first two headings from your sheet, we discussed whether 'man' was essentially good or evil. The discussion was really good with a lot of students contributing. We never got back to the notes but I think that the class was well spent as we talked about the morality or responsibility we have to one another. So what is it that would lead one person to jump under a subway to save a stranger and another to take a picture with their phone as someone bleeds to death in the street. That kind of thing.

Lunch

- Duty . Done.

Period 4: Prep

Period 5: English

This class is a handful. I sent X out as he wouldn't shut up and was getting out of his desk. It was obvious that he was frustrating the other students. I let him after about 10 minutes but there was no repentance and I probably should have just kept him out there. Surprisingly we were able to go through all four themes on page 7 and I think that they students will do OK on their test. It's a weird mix as some of the students were really engaged and had good examples while others acted like five year olds. I have a 2.5 year old boy at home so I have lots of patience. So, in spite of the pockets of chaos we had a good review period. Also, X needed a copy of A Christmas Carol so I gave her one. The book number is 11692.

So, a good day with a fair bit of learning happening. I apologize that I didn't administer as many notes as you might have liked but I think that the discussion was valuable in both cases.

If you have any questions about my work with your classes please contact me at the coordinates below.

Cheers,

Kevin

Substitute's Report - December 5

Substitute's Report for Kevin Hehir

December 5, 2007

Hi X,

The day went well and your notes were helpful. You've got some great classes and I had a good day. Attendance was taken and submitted for all your classes. Here's a rundown:

World History

The class settled down and got done the quiz pretty a quickly so I was able to start the DVD before 9:30. I believe that we stopped at around the 34 minute mark. Uneventful and the quizzes are clipped together and will be the first bundle after this note. What was impressive was how quiet the students were when they were done. I always expect the last few writers to be finishing amid hubub but that wasn't the case. You can tell them that.

Prep

French

This class went off well too. I administered the freshly copied quiz and the class worked quietly on it. It seemed that the phrase acceuille-t-il caused some problems so you might want to review it. No problems here and the class was engaged while doing the worksheets. Nice bunch.

History

I had a good time teaching part of this group Macbeth for X last week so They were comfortable with me right away. They told me that they were on slide #109 and not #107 so we finished the unit from there. For review we just had an open jam session where I directed the students along the time-line of the Revolution and made some connections for them. I thought it would be a better way to harness their obvious verbal energy. Using their 'chattiness' for good not evil. This is a really bright group and I enjoyed teaching them once again.

Canadian History

This class was a bit harder to control. Since they weren't going to listen to the video I told them that they would have to sign and hand in their worksheets. Of course then I had to stop the keen from giving their completed sheets to the talkative. Anyway, we watched the first 20 minutes of the video twice as you asked me. I also just want to say that I had to have a little talk with X but after that he was best kind, however X's attitude threw me off and if it wasn't the last class of day I might have made more of an issue.

All in all a great day. As I mentioned above, you have some really good classes. I should also mention that even though my teachable areas are English and Tech I am very comfortable teaching History. My undergraduate degree is in Comparative Lit and Culture which is the history of ideas from Plato to NATO. I also have done straight History courses on Totalitarianism, 20 ^th C History and American History (with a tilt towards the antebellum era). I also have an interdisciplinary Masters Degree in the Humanities where I took two History courses at the graduate level.

Thanks again, if you have any questions about my work with your students you can contact me at the coordinates below.

Humanities Seminar

Every term I lead a lecture in the Humanities Program at MUN. This is the program that brought me to St. John's in the first place and it gives me a chance to talk about whatever I happen to be into at the moment. I've done up a little website for the talk and I hope to make this a little more of a resource as it looks like I'll be doing more of these.