Today I taught three lessons. So I actually didn’t have time to take notes. It’s challenging to teach something that I actually don’t have enough background knowledge of. The second class went well. But the third one started with a mess. Quite a few students were not able to work in a group. Mr. Stark rang his bell and caught everyone’s attention. He decided to give them a quiz as punishment. It did make a huge difference afterwards. I was thinking at least taking a quiz is another form of learning. It’s more than simply a punishment. At the last block, we started to talk about slavery. I tried to push them to think deeper about the issue and connect it to our daily life. Both my teacher and I were astonished by the comments they made. I can feel everyone in the room’s attention. It was intense. There was one black girl who said “Dang." I realized that that was the moment of learning, a shift of thought. I can write 5 pages of what education is to me. But such a natural expression from a 13-year-old girl tells all.
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Those journals reflected my experiences interning at a 7th grade social studies classroom. I worked with an excellent teacher and around 100 respectful and loving children.
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