Break

The "Summer Phase" ended Friday. School began July 27th, and I spent the last month doing several things:

I shadowed/helped teach a documentary film course with Dr. Wolf. The class was comprised of students from 10th-12th grade, and vastly different skill levels. The aims of the course were to study the development of documentary film conventions, view examples of these conventions (Nanook of The North, Triumph of The Will, Fahrenheit 911, When We Were Kings, Street Fight, and Born into Brothels), develop a vocabulary of technical film terms, and for students to write their own documentary film proposal.

This was a very valuable experience in many ways: I have never studied teaching, nor have I ever tried to teach multiple people at once - I quickly became aware of the difficulties of keeping students of varying capabilities on-task, interested, and pushed to learn - all while trying to placate a unruly students. By speaking with other teachers, I have been trying to absorb many of the lessons learned through years of teaching - without having to make those mistakes firsthand. Something I have picked up on is the importance of setting the tone for the course in the beginning and being consistent.

I plan to be strict for the first week (having pre-thought-out reactions for tardiness, walking around the class, being disruptive, etc...). Hopefully I can establish clear expectations for behavior, and not have to waste time disciplining instead of teaching. I do think I have an advantage over some other teachers, though: I will be teaching an elective for upper division students. Also, since Saint Benedict's is a private school, students often have at least one person in their lives who care for them and is willing and able to pay at least some portion of the tuition. This is very helpful in responding to students who know how to play the game (push buttons, disrespect teachers in front of the class, test a teacher's willingness to enforce rules - and sometimes exploit the knowledge that grades are about progress: starting a semester with bad behavior and showing progress at the end can result in a passing grade - and usually requires less actual work than what is required). In these situations, having the ability to call someone's mom is amazingly helpful.


I have also spent every weekday from 2:30-5:15 coaching water polo. It has been nice to get to know kids outside of a classroom setting. There are more than 50 players, about thirty of which are JV/beginning to swim. I work with these younger guys - mostly working on swimming skills. I enjoy coaching in small groups, but addressing the whole team, or large numbers of polo players is taxing for me. Right now, commanding respect and getting everyone to be quiet when I want to give directions is draining - I don't look forward to this part of every practice. Hopefully, over the course of the year this will become a skill I don't shy away from. After practice, I eat dinner with the students living on campus, go to Vespers, and am free at about 7:30.

I have this next week off - kind of. I will be preparing my syllabus, the first two weeks of lesson plans, coaching water polo in the morning. I plan to spend a few days visting Manhattan and Brooklyn this week. Also, in the next few weeks I would like to go to the Jersey coast with some of the monks.

Today, my record of the day is Mighty Love, by The Spinners.