Today in class my Winter Group did a Round Robin reading of an excerpt from Elie Wiesel's book, Night. This book is about the life of Elie, a young boy from Romania who was sent to Auschwitz when he was 15 years old. The following is a hypothetical conversation that Elie and his father may have had on their way to Auschwitz:

Elie: Father, where do you think we are going?

Shlomo (Elie's father): I'm not sure son, but I think we are traveling east.

Elie: I'm scared and I want to know where mother and the girls are.

Shlomo: Don't be scared Elie, we are probably going to be moving to a new ghetto. Your mother and sisters are probably in the next car and we will see each other again when we get there.

Elie: If you say so.

Shlomo: Don't give up hope Elizer, everything will be alright. We'll all be having dinner together in a few hours I'm sure.

Elie: I'm getting worried about Madam Schachter, she keeps screaming about seeing a fire at night. What do you think she is seeing?

Shlomo: Oh, don't worry about her, she's just thirsty, she's delusional. She sees a fire because she wishes we had a fire in here at night because it gets cold.

Elie: I hope we get there soon.

Shlomo: We'll be there soon son, very soon.

Fires Chapter 10

The final chapter of Fires in the Bathroom, Chapter 10 was about reaching out to students outside of the classroom. Teachers can do this by connecting material to real world events, giving students opportunities for internships, and bringing learning outside the classroom.
I thought the idea about bringing learning outside of the classroom was awesome. It is easy to see how teachers could do this for math and science classes but there are also many ways for history teachers (something I hope to be someday!) to do the same. This might include bringing students to historic landmarks, taking them to medieval festivals, living history villages and so much more. I think activities like this cater to almost all of the eight intelligences and make learning even better and more exciting!

Fires Chapter 9

Chapter 9 focused on situations that can arise in a classroom and how teachers and students can use damage control to improve those situations.
This chapter gave me a lot of insight into some of the questions I have been having since starting Practicum. I have been wondering a lot lately how I'm going to be able to handle a class full of rowdy students. How do I keep them under control? What is the appropriate punishment? I really liked what the students had to say in this chapter because it eased my mind a little. One student talked about a first year student being tormented by that class the first semester then left alone the second semester because he was doing good. I really hope my students will cut me a break when they realize I'm there to help them and give them a good education.

Fires Chapter 8

Chapter 8 was totally not what I ever expected to read about in this book. It had to do with teaching students who's first language isn't English.
There are a lot of good ideas in this chapter on how to teach successfully to a classroom full of limited speakers. I never thought about this at all because it is nothing I have ever really been around. Coming from a very small town in Maine, everybody spoke English and no teacher ever had the challenge of teaching kids who couldn't speak English well. That has got to be so challenging and to be honest I do not know if I could do it. I would try my hardest but I'm not sure what the outcome would be. I hope that won't make me a bad teacher.

Fires Chapter 7

Chapter 7 dealt mostly with challenging students. It also focused on how to teach more difficult subjects, like math and science to students.
I could relate with a lot of students in this chapter because I also struggled with these subjects. One student talks about how her math teacher basically left her behind. I felt that way a lot because most of the other people in my math classes did well and never had to ask questions. I was the total opposite, I needed step by step instructions and help and if there was one term that I didn't understand then I became completely lost and behind as the other students were acting like it was a cake walk. I used to get so upset and frustrated that at times I didn't even try, and my teacher never really helped me move along and I ended up failing math. That event in my life motivates me to never let that happen to any of my students.

Fires Chapter 6

Chapter 6 is mainly about motivating students and keeping boredom at bay. It also talked about homework and ways to make it more enjoyable and also how to connect material to the real world.
One of the students mentioned how their teacher invited a Holocaust survivor into the classroom after they read Night. I thought that was really cool. I like that the students became interested in the subject after seeing that it really effected somebody.

Fires Chapter 5

Chapter 5 was really interesting. There was a lot of discussion about students being prepared for class and knowing the material they are responsible for.
In this chapter a student named Lauraliz wrote something that stopped me dead in my tracks and made me laugh out loud. She said that she had a strategy to fool her teacher into not calling on her. She would pretend to be taking notes or re-reading a page, basically making herself look busy. I used to do that all the time in high school, especially in my math class because I figured that if it looked like I was busy the teacher would be impressed and feel confident that I knew what I was doing so that he wouldn't have to call on me. Needless to say my trick usually worked. When I'm a teacher I will definitely look out for students like me!