Grey Owl vs. Miss Wells

I'm not gonna lie. Its the second week of my practicum and even though this entry should be talking about my FIRST DAY’S experiences: anxiety, stress and the reapplication of my deodorant stick...
I have something more interesting to share.
(Plus, its still fresh in my head, so let me get it out before I lose it).
I had my very first disciplinary talk with a student in the hallway this afternoon, as in...he was bad enough to merit a stern Miss Wells look, followed by,

    “Student-who-will-remain-nameless, do we need to go out into the hallway and discuss this matter further?”  To which he replied (to my utter disbelief),
    “Okay.”

REALLY?!?

That was my first inner monologue reaction. Then, Ohhhhh shit! Now I have to back up that up...What did I just say again? Ugh! Okay, okay calm down Lauren, you can do this.  What am I going to say? Ummm? UGH!  This is kinda fun but, NO-NO its not. Focus. Keep it together teacher...

And to top it all off, my wonderful TC or AT or CT or BV (can never get it right), Ms. Garda, joined us as well. (I admire my TC very much, so now I am really sweating...)

Okay but wait a minute, back up...how'bout I tell you HOW it reached this magical moment, right?

Miss Wells teaches a core Grade 7 enriched history class...among other things. This unit covers First Nations People, specifically in today’s class, debating the HISTORICA MINUTE called Grey Owl. Grey Owl represented and still does, a symbol our Canadian history which I found interesting seeing that Grey Owl wasn’t exactly Canadian. In fact, the man was British but only claimed to be born in Canada and aboriginal because he felt closer to that group of people than Europeans. The real story was that “Grey Owl”, also known as Archie Belaney, moved away from home at 17 years old, obsessed with Canada and was adopted into a tribe of First Nations people. While growing up he there he learned the language, mastered hunting skills, learned more about First Nations people and developed a love and appreciation for nature. It inspired Archie to write books about his stories&experiences and as suddenly his work became really popular.  Grey Owl soon came to be someone that European wanted to meet, learn from and hear from...which was a little stressful for Archie because he was lying about who he really was.

My question was simple: Should Grey Owl be remembered as a hero or a fraud in Canadian History?

OHHH let the heated Gr. 7 debates begin I must admit, the class did get out of control a couple times. I even got in trouble from a student for not keeping EXACT time between the groups....holy crap guys, really? Maybe you guys should just settle down a bit and be a little LESS ENGAGED?!?  Of course I didn’t really say that but even for me it was INTENSE!

This was only supposed to have been a minds on question people....turned into a FULL BLOWN debate with evidence from article and even some people saying
    “I object!” or
    “ I respectfully disagree with that last statement!”

Really, it was truly a thrill to watch and to hear some of the responses from my students...wow! I was amazed by their insights and I found myself saying....yeah, really good point. I didn’t even think of that! (how embarrassing, I know)

Which brings us back to student-who-will-remain-unnamed...classic ticket out the door was all I wanted. Not even a paragraph, two to three sentences MAX. He refused to write anything because it was already summarized in the article for him, in paragraph 3 page two. 
    “That’s great student-with-no-name, but I’ve already read the article.  I want to read what you have to say.  And if its the same as what paragraph 3 on page 2 says, then write it down in your own words!”
    “But why would I do that? Its already DONE IN PARAGRAPH 3, PAGE 2!”
    Thus why I had to give the stern look response (already explained before) and the assertive-aggressive-authoritative demeanor....

End result?

It all worked out. Turns out there was a lot more going on with this kid then just his lack of cooperation with me in class.  He had been to a funeral, had missed a lot of school already and was just feeling really overwhelmed thus taken out his frustrations on a silly task like this. Don’t get me wrong, I still had him write his ticket but the talk outside was necessary and I think we both felt better after having it.

Lesson plans never go as planned...well almost.

Yay Midtowners almost halfway!

BOOM!

lauren