The Health classes were the first three classes of the day. The boys were to complete a quick write which came from the reading they were to complete for the day. I found it odd that the quick write was from a future reading, something they were unfamiliar with, instead of a previous reading or topic from the class. While this will get the students thinking about health and prepared from the class, it doesn’t tie what they are learning with prior knowledge. This is a missed opportunity.
Next we read from the text book. I took volunteers fro the first class, but this was like pulling teeth, so the next two classes I started out asking for volunteers, then if no one volunteered then we just went down the line and everybody got to read. There was a huge difference in time it took to complete the reading between the first class and the second and third classes. This was due to two factors, the before mentioned reluctance to volunteer to read and the student’s interest in the topic. First hour seemed very interested in what they were reading. They were asking questions about words they didn’t know and processes they didn’t understand. There were also some distraction tactics by some of the boys, but I cut those off as quickly as possible as they were related to some of the sensitive topics that could come up in a boys health class. However, most of the questions seemed like genuine interest on the part of the students. I really wish that most classes were like that. It shows that they are following along and thinking about what they are reading. We were reading about diseases and the students were asking about malaria and how vaccines work. When they asked a question I didn’t know the answer to, “What is dysentery?” I just honestly told them that I didn’t know the answer, and they accepted that.
After the kids were done with the reading they had worksheets to complete. These worksheets seemed meaningless. They were worksheets that came with the book. From my experience yesterday, which I understand is just one day in the class,I think that the health curriculum in my district depends too much on the book, these are interesting topics that has a real impact on the students’ futures. I just think that there could be a lot more authentic learning going on with these classes than there is at present.
The second half of the day was 6th grade gym class. The school I was subbing at is connected with the community center, so the gym classes are able to take advantage of the facilities, including the pool. Yesterday was a swimming day. The boys were so excited to get to swim, and for most of them they really got a good work out. I was surprised that the students were allowed do to any manner of flips off of the diving board and jumps into the pool. The it seemed really unsafe. Boys were jumping into groups of boys and jumping off of the diving board in ways that made me cringe. The lifeguards took over the class, but they didn’t seem to being paying much attention. The one that gave the kids instructions and went over the rules was on his phone almost the whole time, hardly ever looking at the boys, and the other life guard made very few comments to the boys. Later in the day there was a shift change, and the new life guard was much more aware of what the boys were doing.
My teacher voice got a good workout in the gym. Noise carries in the gym and it was hard to get the boys attention. I dropped my voice down, to my serious teacher voice projecting without yelling, and the boys all looked at me and did what I told them to do. I really have to work on this voice because my throat hurt a little after three hours of doing this, though the muggy, chlorine filled, pool room sure did not help.
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