Today I was a para at one of the senior highs. I often wonder what the point of having a para sub is. Usually they only have subs for one on one paras, and this works because you are with one student the whole day and you have a purpose. But when you are a para to multiple students, it is difficult to know what to do, and usually I am just recording what the student’s homework assignment so the para knows what the student is supposed to do. Part of the problem is the student won’t talk to you to ask a question because no one introduces you to the student that you are working with. I kind of think that there should be a resource hour at the beginning of the day so the para and students can check in with each other. This could help the student get prepared for the day. I think the middle and junior highs do this durring SSR which is the first period of the day. I really think that all students could benefit from 20 mins or so to prepare for school, like a homeroom class.
The first class I sat in on was world history and they were studying world war I. As the students came in, REM’s “Its the end of the world as we know it” was playing (was that significant to the lesson? or just a song that the student teacher liked. And if it was significant, why didn’t the he discuss it with the class?) and there was a question of the day on the board. After some time he turned off the music and asked for some students to volunteer their answers. He had two students give an answer, then he restated the answer. Next the students played a game called war. The students were divided into “countries” and each country had a ruler, an ambassador, and some subjects. when they went to war any of the subjects could be captured and taken to a new country if they were not able to answer a question related to what the class was studying. The students had fun and the information they were accountable for grew day to day.
After the game he passed out the new worksheet and the students found the answers in their book, there was no instruction that I saw, though he may have presented the information previously.
Later in the day, I sat in on a science class. The teacher had a quote of the day on the board, though it didn’t seem to have anything to do with science or what they were studying. The students seemed to understand this as they didn’t really pay any attention to it. The teacher did discuss the quote, but once again it had little to do with class. This was a special education class, so I think it is slower than the other science classes but by the time he talked about the quote and explained an extra credit opportunity, the class was over. I was a little confused about what his goal for the day was, did he accomplish what he planed to teach?
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