bible swears are okay

My mother always taught me that bible swears are okay. Maybe it's because then she could use them. (just kidding mom) (but I'm not a little).


3. Wasatch High School
-since Mr. Moss’ Broadcasting class is 2nd period, we went to visit a Principles of Technology class.
-the students had been sent out into the school to take pictures that were ‘symbols of Wasatch High’ and then he was teaching them how to compress the photos, etc.
-I have a few things to say about this.
-kids aren’t stupid. And they’ve grown up around computers and they know how to figure them out. They don’t need to be told step by step how to compress photos. Especially because they all probably have myspace accounts too, and that teaches you really quickly the need for and how to compress photos.
-really? Symbols of Wasatch High? If you want your students to get excited about their assignments, have them do things that are relevant to them, in their lives and that they would care about. I’m assuming they’ll be using those photos for something in the future, why not let them take pictures of their best friend? Or symbols of their family or their home or their car or where they work? Have them find a symbol of themselves in their locker and photograph that! The kids in that class didn’t care about the Wasatch Wasps at all.
-I’m very critical
-Another observation from that classroom: all of the students were facing away from the teacher. It was like he was along the north wall of the classroom, with his computer up high but he was facing them. All of the computers were either facing East, West, or South. Which means if the students were doing their work they would be facing every direction but the direction of the teacher (and therefore the projector screen, which was on the North wall behind him).
-He would get frustrated at them for not watching what he was doing on his screen (on the projector), but what if they needed to do it themselves to really learn? I would get a sore neck from turning all of the time like that.
-After that class period was over I asked the teacher about it and he said he set it up that way intentionally so he could make sure to see that all of his students were on task. Which I get. But now that leaves me with a lot of questions. How do I want the computer lab that I teach in to be set up? If I have a projector, do I want the kids facing it and I trust them and their actions? Or do I want to check on them the whole time and make them get bad necks? The way I see it, if my students aren’t paying attention and are doing their own thing, it will be reflected in the work they turn in to me. But then, what if I discover that trust can’t be the answer for every student? Maybe I could get an angled mirror along the back like they have at the grocery store. That’s not a joke, that could actually work. I’m going to write that in my teaching journal!
-The Broadcasting class really did run like a well oiled machine. The kids try really hard to get into that class, so they’re all really good kids. They worked well together. And they knew what they were doing! But I think Mr. Moss was very careful about not letting them “Mess anything up.” He didn’t let anyone really touch any wires or get into the nitty gritty. I think it would be important for students to actually know the hows and whys of the workings of their machines and all of the chords. He’s sheltering them from being too technical with it all, leaving them to do the script and adjust a few lights and mics. I’m not sure if he has learned that out of experience or if it would be better (for the students at least) if he trusted with some more experience, and, I daresay, more knowledge.
-one thing really bugged me. One of the kids said hell, and the teacher totally over-reacted, and in the middle of a broadcast, in front of everyone (in the room) he sent him outside and really embarrassed the kid. I had talked to that kid for at least 10 minutes before and in that 10 minutes I learned that that was probably one of the worst ways to handle that situation. I was so upset by that. I told Geoff about it on Friday and he reminded me to maintain a phenomenological perspective. Which I suppose is true. But really? Hell? Choose your battles bro.