Observing Students in the School

I will teach ALL DAY today.  yippee! 

I am now tutoring two students with separate issues.  One student lacks motivation.  Another needs to change his study habits pronto.

More peer review.  I am shocked both at how good students can write and at how awfully.  The things we think they know, they don't.  So many students will say they understand something that they do not.  So, whenever I advise them about their papers, I'm constantly asking does this make sense, tell me how, where do we go from here.  A lot have forgotten the terms we assume they've grasped, like "quote".  In writing their rough drafts, most will not seek help regarding concepts but turn to me for help regarding grammar.  I try to stress to them that it's not important at this stage of the game and that we will cover it when it is time to edit.  This seems to frighten them.   I will be giving feedback on their first paragraphs this weekend and will be corrrecting zero grammar mistakes and only stressing content.

Later in the day, I'll review vocabulary worksheets with two classes.  Wow, these vocabulary worksheets require a lot of time and at the end of the day, some of the students can hardly pronounce the words, let alone know the definition.  My mentor teacher says I can do something else.  But, since this is my first time "teaching" them, I stick to the program and wonder now about alternatives like making our own sentences using the vocab and/or drawing pictures.