Discover the growing movement in Russia where neo-Nazi groups are brutally attacking immigrants and spreading their hate by posting violent videos online. Over half the neo-Nazis in the world are in Russia! Much of it is supported by the Russian government. My family personally knows a person involved in this movement!

Here is a video I made before leaving to New York for NYCTF. It is about my classroom observation for my NYCTF Independent Study Guide at Ypsilanti High School. Enjoy.

It is difficult to imagine the school year is almost one third done. I feel like I am finally understanding how to teach my students. For instance, when I taught about diffusion, I would start by explaining, “Diffusion is the flow of particles from high to low concentration.” Now, I start by explaining, “What is concentration? It’s the amount of particles in a liquid.” Concentration needs its own whole day. Each single vocabulary word needs its own day and some words need several days. The best teachers expound much on a single concept.

There are about 440 vocabulary words in the Regents Living Environment (LE) curriculum. I found lists of all the LE vocab in two formats: topical and alphabetical. These lists are extremely useful. I’m thinking of having my students paste these lists (in a modified format) in the back of their notebook and use it as an index. The students would write the page numbers for the notes that use each particular word.

There are about 165 full school days after you factor in Pep Rallies, afternoon parent-teacher conferences, assemblies, field trips, low-attendance days before holidays, a dozen mandated fire drills and the October 16 PSAT. Since 1200 minutes of lab are required to take the Regents LE exam, that is about twenty-four 50-minute periods. In reality, there needs to be at least 30 days for labs, because many students will be missing some labs they need to make up.

Hence, there are about 135 days to teach 440 concepts! It is necessary to narrow the 440 concepts down to about 100 while still covering the whole LE curriculum. It is possible.

Other than instruction, classroom management has been interesting. Although I kicked students out, called homes and reprimanded students for through objects, it is difficult to stop this problem entirely. Even in excellent veteran teacher classrooms, I’ve seen objects thrown at students covertly.

A few weeks ago, my classes started to get completely out of hand and no instruction was happening. I got paper balls, spit balls and writing utensils thrown at me.

I instituted a participation half-sheet the students fill out daily. Before, I would punish and give checks on a chart only for misbehavior. Now, students earn points and I give checks only for good behavior. Positive and negative reinforcement work better than punishment, as I learned in Intro to Psychology years ago.

Although it is a lot of paper work for me to grade the participation half-sheets, my classes are far more manageable and I’m teaching again. Now, my students know my expectations clearly and reflect daily whether he/she followed the rules. Moreover, the participation sheet gets every person to speak in class and answer a summary question.

Over 70 percent of my LE students are currently failing. About 85 percent of students fail the exams and about 20 percent of the students do their homework. However, these last few days, some students started performing better on the Regents LE questions, which is promising. I hear that during the approaching third marking period, students work the most, which is also promising.

Furthermore, Kevin Young, the director of NYC Student Venture, the high school ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, has come to my school twice to meet with me about starting a Bible club at P.A.T.H.S. There is one teacher, one staff member and one zealous P.A.T.H.S. student I’ve been in contact with about making this dream a reality. I’ve also been hanging out with Kamil and others, which has been amazing.

Lastly, I am returning to Ann Arbor for Thanksgiving and will see Rob Bell with Kamil in NYC Sunday, November 25th, 8pm for the gods aren’t angry tour.