BHL week 6

I arrived to BHL at 8a.m. on Wednesday, April 14, ready for another monotonous day. Since the CRCT is fast approaching, all the classes are in test-prep mode. To give the students some break, ELT was just a free day; students played chess or read or worked on stuff from another class. I got to learn how to grade scantrons (it's not really that exciting, but since it was soomething to do besides sit there starring into space, it was relatively entertaining). The scantrons were from practice CRCT tests students had taken the day before; Corley was going to analyze them to pinpoint what he needs to cover over the next week.

Mr Corley had a computer lab reserved for students to go to for free time once they finised the practice CRCT. In second period, I stayed in the classroom and helped those who were still finishing. I ended up focusing my attention with two girls, helping them get through the thing and explaining concepts they didn't understand. And there were alot of them. It was as if they had notbeen present the entire year, they didn't understand the basic concepts, and this lack of understanding just got more and more vast as the year went on. One of the girls confessed that it's hard to pay attention becuase she doesn't get it regardless; the other girl said the class went way too fast. I agree with both of them, I also think class sizes are too big. These girls were not stupid or anything, they weren't disruptive like alot of students, they just didn't get the time and attention they needed and deserved. We didn't finish before the bell rang and they were scared of Mr Corley "exploding" because their test was incomplete after two days, but MR Slovert said he would explain to Corley the circumstances.

Third and fourth periods were pretty much the same, I stayed in the classroom while students finished their tests and sent them to the computer lab upon completion. During lunch and planning, the other teachers were almost trying to scare me away from teaching. Their stories are hilarious, but also frustrating when it's the same crap everyday. Ms Jordan did point out, however, that if I could survive at BHL I could survive anywhere.

Sixth period was the easiest and most boring, everyone was done with the practice CRCT so they just went straight to the computer lab for the period. Mr Corley did let me look at an interesting book, The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. It was pretty cool, about Francess Glessner-Lee, a pioneer in criminal investigation. She made dollhouse replicas of crime scenes, called Nutshell Studies, that help train investigators to search for visual clues. At the time, mid 20th century, many murders were unsolved due to forensic blunders; Glessner-Lee created the nutshell studies to help investigators properly handle evidence and better asses crim scenes. She made them with exquisite and persice detail, the photographs were creepy. She made 18 nutshell studies in all, using the most peculiar cases as a basis for her diaramas. It was very bizarre and intriguing.

Because of the CRCT, the next two weeks I will be going to BHL on Friday (4/23 and 4/30)