Student Teaching Week of 9/20/13

The word of the day is busy.  This past week I took over the last of my classes.  I am finally teaching six classes in total and it is hectic.  Don't get me wrong; I enjoy what I am doing, but all this work combined with everything I have to do for the college side of things is a bit overwhelming.

So what did I do this week?  My first three sections of sophomores finished working on their character sketches.  I was amazed at the speed with which some students typed and then how slow many others could be.  I'm not knocking the students, but I thought this was the technology generation.  I had to basically teach an entire lesson on how to make an attachment to an email, so the students can save their typing.  Many of the kids got it, but others had trouble.  I would figure that this is something that students would know coming out of K-8.  When I subbed at Bayless the fourth graders knew how to make power points.  How can students understand power point, but now how to attach an email?  It baffles me.

The freshmen finished up their "Most Dangerous Game" setting maps.  Over the weekend I got them graded.  The maps turned out pretty well.

One thing that really is overwhelming is all that goes into grading.  I just cannot believe some times how long the process takes.  I think on Sunday I spend a good six hours working on grading and then getting all my grades put into my online grade book!

Student Teaching Week of 9/13/13

As of this week I now have five classes I am teaching; three sections of sophomore and two of freshmen.  We are doing some interesting projects in both courses.  The sophomore are covering characterization and are currently drafting character sketches.  I'm not going to get into all the gritty details of this project, but it begins with what is called a 'Mystery Person' activity.  With this activity the students work in groups to pull items from bags and identify information about the person who would own such items.  The information might include age, gender, family, work, religion, etc.  The students seemed to really enjoy the activity, and seem to be gaining a good understanding of characterization and character types as they progress through the project.

I find that the challenge with this activity is making sure the students are not stereotyping with their characters.  The initial stages of this project have a definite degree of stereotyping involved.  For example, in one bag the items included cooking supplies.  I noticed many male dominated groups said the character must be a woman, because they feel women cook more than men.  During the activity I did my best to move around the room and ask the groups questions which challenged such ideas.

My freshmen just finished reading "The Most Dangerous Game" and are currently working in groups to create setting maps of Ship Trap Island, the fictitious island from the story.  They must identify passages from the text which describe setting and then use such passages to create their maps. 

I find group activities to be a challenge.  I used to think that group work made a teacher's life easier as it is more student centered learning.  The reality is this is not the case.  It is very easy for students to get off task when working in groups.  To correct this I have been trying a number of strategies.  I'll just explain one here.  If the entire class seems to be getting off track instead of running around the room and telling each group they need to get back to work, I will typically stop the whole class and announce what I'm seeing done wrong.  I won't call out individual groups, but I will explain that such behavior is unacceptable and set a clear expectation for what I want corrected.  So far this seems to work.

Student Teaching Week of 9/6/2013

This week I finally began taking over classrooms.  I have three sections of Sophomore LA 2 and one section of Freshmen LA 1.  I think for the most part the lessons went alright.  With the Freshmen I was pretty good about making sure to run my classroom from bell to bell.  The Sophomore classes on the other hand were kind of hit or miss.  With the Sophomores on two of the days I had so much that I wanted to cover that we barely fit everything in.  The other two days I finished a little early and had to make the decision whether or not to go into new material.  I chose not to and after conversing with my CT she seemed to feel I made the right choice. 

I gave a few presentations, or direct instruction lessons, this week and I feel like everything went alright, but in the future I want to either do less lessons of this nature, or find ways to shorten them down a bit.  The students just look so bored sometimes.  I feel bad.  I do my best to keep the material light and even try to throw in some fun video clips, but it seems no matter what some students are bored out of their skulls.

I think that group work activities will be one of my biggest challenges this semester.  Every time the students are doing group work they always find ways to get of track.  Now it's not so bad that work isn't getting accomplished.  It's just challenging as it seems I need to grow eyes in the back of my head.  Well we shall see what the next week brings.

Student Teaching Week of 8/30/2013

Next week will be the first that I begin taking over classrooms.  I will have three sections of LA 2 and one section of LA 1.  I am both nervous and excited at the same time. 

This past week has been all about the planning in terms of getting ready for the coming lessons.  I find that actual planning, especially in terms of putting together a unit, is much different than the lesson planning that instructors had me do in college courses.  It always seemed like the majority of the time in college courses I was required to write a single stand alone lesson plan, but a teacher doesn't give single stand alone lessons.  Each lesson kind of flows into the next as it is all about the overall unit.  Another bit of advice that I was told a lot in college classrooms is to always prepare more than you can actually do in a given class period.  This way as a teacher I don't run out of things to do in a given period and have free time for the students.  It seems like with planning a unit that I would unlikely run out of activities for a class period as I could just move into the next days work if possible.  I'm sure I'll learn more as I put my lessons into practice.

During the past week I have also spend quite a bit of time working one on one with my students.  On several occasions my afternoon CT will assign group work to the students and then let me be the one who addresses their questions. As with anything the more I work with the students the better I get.  It seems like it's all about asking the right questions.  When done properly the right questions allow me to get the students to come up with the correct answer on their own, without me just giving it to them outright.  The tough part though is realizing what these 'right' questions are; some times I'm spot on, other times I struggle.

Blog Week of 8/23/13

Blog Week of 8/23/13

This week has been a bit of a continuation of last week in terms of my student teaching experience.  I have still not taken over any classes as of yet, but I am doing more in each classroom.  Both of my CTs are big on having me circulate around the room and help individual students as problems arise.  Also during group work activities my afternoon CT has been having me take the lead in terms to helping students and keeping them on task.  One thing I need to remember is to be a coach and not a cop.  Looking back on the last few days of the week I feel like there were a number of times that I was playing gotcha with the students.  I need to learn to listen to my students at a distance and not hover over them.  I want to be available to get students back on track, but also give them the freedom to work independently.

I’m beginning to get down names.  I found when I worked as a substitute teacher that there is a power to knowing the student’s names.  I think it adds a bit of accountability, but it also helps to develop the personal relationships that are so necessary in making this job work.

My morning CT was out one day this week, so I essentially was able to work as a sub.  I enjoyed this and I think it helped to move me one step closer to having control when I fully take over my classroom.

The week after next I begin taking over class periods and I’m excited to see how things go.

Student Teaching week of 8/16/13

This is my first entry in my student teaching blog.  I intend to use this journal to record and reflect on my experience at Seckman High School.  As it is my first week student teaching and I have yet to teach a lesson, I will use this entry to record my observations of this first week.

I work with two different cooperating teachers or CTs.  For the first three periods of the day I am with one instructor, and then the last three periods with another instructor.  In my opening periods I work with Sophomores.  My remaining time is spent with two Freshman classes and one Sophomore class. 

It is interesting to see the varied level of instruction and techniques utilized by my two CTs.  My morning CT opened her first day classes with the syllabus and then did an icebreaker activity.  My afternoon instructor took a similar, but differing route.  He instructed the class in daily routines, gave a brief presentation on himself, and then finished off class with the syllabus.

Both instructors established control of their rooms from the start of each class.  Students who tried to test my respective CTs were quickly shown the error of their ways.  I believe the main thing that I take from this week is the importance of establishing dominance early.  As my afternoon CT told me, it is best to have a firm hand in the beginning of the year and then loosen up as the year goes on.  If I am too nice or let people get away with too much right from the start then it will be very difficult if not impossible to reign my students in as the year progresses.