Blog Post 8

If I had to choose one word to describe my last week it would be: Disappointing.

Administered a Quest: (it’s more than a quiz but less than a test,) and most of my students did very poorly. I blame myself.

 

As I approach the end of my student teaching experience, there are several things that I learned, but if I had to choose just a couple then I must choose the following:

1.      I can’t be as friendly to my students as I thought I would be, because they will walk all over you.

2.      Follow through on whatever you tell them (consequences or rewards) otherwise they will not care about anything you say.

 

In order to complete my student teaching requirements I am endeavoring to complete my lesson plans and my portfolio. I hope to get it finished this in the next couple of days.

Blog 7

To ensure a smooth transition from you to your cooperating teacher, I hope to accomplish only one thing. Because, tomorrow we are starting a new unit on Waves and it is a month long unit, I hope to prepare all the lessons and activities that I would have thought, if I was to finish out the unit with my class, so that there is continuity of learning and scaffolding and so that lessons aren’t disjointed.

 

I’d have to say that my greatest growth experience so far during my student teaching time would be learning how to relax and not be so nervous while teaching. My fear of public speaking, while greatly diminished, before the start of my student teaching was ever present, and it got in a way of being a confident teacher. Now I can say that I no longer suffer from that affliction, and I have no apprehensions about standing up in front of my students and teaching.

I’m very excited about attending the April 27^th Alumni Panel. Given a chance I would ask the Panel what was the most difficult part of first day of school on the new job? How can we prepare for it to make it easier?

After spending 17 weeks with the student of 7^th grade, I believe that it is my cooperating teacher who made my teaching experience a pleasant and fairly easy assignment, I will also miss the 7^th grade teaching team who made me feel welcome from day one and treated me like one of them. However, I believe that it is the students that I will miss the most.

Blog Post 6

This teaching experience has been full of firsts and full of challenges. One of those challenges is the technology availability; my school district does not have many technological advantages of other school districts, but I do have some chances to use technology in my classroom. Thus far, the overhead projector has been a life saver and I use it on almost daily basis. I believe that children learn better when they can observe real life situations and then connect them to whatever scientific concept I’m teaching. I use various video clips to engage my students and get their attention, and then when they least expect it I blow their minds by connecting the clip to science. This helps make the lessons memorable and when I later refer to something we studied, I can say “remember when we watched such and such...?”. This would not be possible without the overhead projector. The other example of technology I use in my classroom, on occasion, are the i-pads. I use them in my classroom when my students have to research a topic.

 With 11 weeks having gone by, I still wonder how long it will take me to get good at classroom management. For instance I still have a difficulty with getting students to get into the classroom, sit down and start working on their Bellringer assignment without having to be told several times. This is the one thing I hope to accomplish before my time at this school district is up; I want them to do what they are supposed to without being prompted.

I also struggle with keeping my “inner drill instructor” (who wants to make my class to pushups) in check when my students are talking during class.

Blog Post 4

            I am happy to say that I was able to meet both of the goals I set for myself for the past two weeks. Granted the first goal, “to finish TASK 1 and TASK 2 of my EdTPA” took a little longer and was a bit more difficult to accomplish thank the second, but I did do it. I finished it just a few hours ago and I think it’s pretty good. I hope I’m not wrong. The second goal “to be observed by Mr. Wolff,” was a piece of cake. I believe it went well, and I can’t wait to get my next observation under way. Which brings me to my two new goals.

For the weeks of March 2^nd and March 9^th my goals will be to:

1.      be observed again by my college supervisor Mr. James Wolff, and

2.      to fully take over the classroom so that I can do my 30 consecutive days of teaching as required to meet EdTPA standards.

 

Since I was sick for the most of the past week, I would have to say that the one word to describe it would be MISEARABLE. It had nothing to do with the children, or the teaching part of it, however, having to get up and go, and be active was very difficult. I’m really glad that I had this longer weekend, thanks to our school being off for Pulaski Day, to get better. While I’m still not a hundred percent; I am on the mend.

 The lesson that was most fun to teach in the recent weeks was the lesson on Centripetal Force. It was the last thing I had to teach the students before they had to take a test, and it is usually the most challenging force for them to comprehend; or so I’ve been told by my cooperating teacher. My cooperating teacher Anna and I decided to teach this on a shortened day, so that this would be the only concept students had to learn.  I started by doing research and actually building a model to demonstrate centripetal force. I saw it in a YouTube video and I thought to myself that it would be more effective if the students got to use it themselves rather than just watch it. Here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsqpuRIwxoY. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the model I made, but I will and I will add it to my post on Tuesday. I think it turned out really well.

As usual, I started the lesson with a Bellringer question, but we didn’t discuss the answer right away. Instead I used the model, and had several students come up and demonstrate using it to the class. The remainder of the class was tasked with observation and making inferences. Before the students used the model, I asked the class for some informal hypothesis about what would happen to the bobbers in the jar, and I was really happy that none of the students predicted that the bobbers would go inward (exactly what does happen); this made for a better discussion. The students were amazed to see that the bobbers went inwards, and this was a great jumping off point to teach them about Centripetal force.

While preparing my lesson on Centripetal force,(which was the academic language word of the day) I found the school textbook lacking, so I went on line and found one piece of crucial information that I believe made all the difference in my lesson. In the textbook there was no mention of what “centripetal” actually means. I was able to find that “centripetal” means “center seeking,” and considering that this is a lesson about force that travels inward to the center, “center seeking” made it much easier to remember than “centripetal.” I made a point to repeat that during the lesson numerous times, as I referred it to it when showing the video examples and discussing other examples with students. At the end of the lesson, I asked students to provide examples of Centripetal force they’ve observed in their life, and then explain to everyone why they thought that. This was a very helpful exercise, because it gave students other examples to think about, but more importantly, it showed me that they understand the concept of centripetal force; some of the students came up with examples I would have never thought of, and I ended up using them in my subsequent lessons of the day. I made sure to give credit where credit was due for the examples I used, and they all thought it was really “cool.” (Their word.)

I believe that students really enjoyed the lesson, and what’s more, they remembered it. In the second part of the day the school had a “RAM JAM” day, which is a day of activities for all students throughout the school. As I was walking downstairs, (before any student saw me) I heard one of them refer to “center seeking.” Hearing that outside of the classroom was the best feeling and experience while teaching I’ve had so far.

“Academic language” is important because it prepares students to think and write in language beyond that of their common everyday conversations; it teachers them to think critically.

As I read pages 221 - 245 in “The First Days of School” I found the following quote very striking. “The bottom line in education is student learning. If the students do not do their assignments, no learning will occur.” The extension of this comment goes on to talk about how important it is to design an appropriate and effective assignment to ensure that students understand it and know how to complete it. I see that now. I see how important the preparation process is. In the past two weeks I prepared a homework assignment on calculating force, acceleration, and mass. I tried to have the students do some critical thinking, instead of simply answering questions, so I had them come up with three word problems and then solve them. (They were encouraged to use the class problems as a guide) There was a portion of the class that had a difficulty with understanding this assignment, but a majority did it; not without complaining about how difficult this homework was. In retrospect, I could have made the directions much clearer, and modeled it a little more. In the future I will make sure to put more emphasis on preparation of an assignment and then reviewing it with a colleague before I assign it.

The other thing that stood out to me in this section of the book was the stressed importance of a curriculum. I can’t imagine having to teach in a district that doesn’t have a curriculum, or at least some sort of guidelines for a first year teacher to follow. I am fortunate that my cooperating teacher has her curriculum planned out. Anna is able to tell me what I need to teach and she was able to tell me about how long it should take to teach a certain concept. This is extremely helpful since I have no clue about these things right now. I feel very grateful.

 

 

 

 

 

Blog Post 3

“word of the week”  - ENCOURAGING.

 

             So my goals for the past two weeks were to get observed by my college supervisor, and to film my lessons for EdTPA. I partially accomplished my goals. I did get observed my Mr. Wolff on Thursday Feb. 12^th, and I believe it went well. I had a very positive conference with him afterwards. Unfortunately I was unable to meet my second goal because I’m not allowed to film my lessons; per superintendents’ orders. I guess this is one goal I will not be able to complete at all.  “Such is life.”

My two new goals for the two weeks (for the weeks of February 16^th and February 23^rd) are both EdTPA related. First, I plan to finish TASK 1 and TASK 2 of my EdTPA. I find them a bit daunting, but I have no doubt I’ll get it done. Second, I will get observed again by Mr. Wolff.

My classroom management plan for the class remains the same as the one my cooperating teacher has put in place in the beginning of the school year. She was reluctant to let me change the way things run in her class, because it would be to hard for her to get things back to the way she had them before I took over. She is worried that the changes would eliminate consistency for the students, thus making it hard to keep order towards the end of the year.

            I did however work on making an effort to get to know my students a bit more, and to show them that they can trust me, but that I will also be firm when I have to be. I believe that it is working, because they have been behaving somewhat better.  

My two “takeaways” form reading “The First Days of School” this week are that record keeping is paramount to being a good teacher and the other is that being consistent with procedures will develop lasting results that will make classroom management, and teaching easier.

Last week, I enjoyed the Principal Panel very much. It was very helpful to hear about all the do’s and don’ts of interviewing. I will make sure to keep all of those pieces of “Principal Wisdom,” in my mind for when I go to interview for a teaching position. But more importantly, what I found most helpful from this Panel, is that it’s more important to be yourself, because in the end you want to be a good fit for the school and vice versa. After all, who wants to work in an environment that will make you miserable because your “philosophies” don’t work well together? My one “aha” moment from the panel was “Hey, principals are human too, after all. This interview thing doesn’t have to be as scary, and as stressful as I thought.”

            

Blog Post 2

       In the past two weeks I think I’ve met my goals. I set out to learn all of my students’ names, and as of yesterday (January 26^th) I can say that I do know all of them. I’ve also made some real connections with students that some of the other teachers have written off. I believe that this connection will help me to get them to do more work and to be more attentive and motivated in the class. My other goal for this past two weeks was to find what teaching style works best for me, and what is the most effective way to get my lesson across to my students.  I think that I’m well on my way, however I don’t believe that I’ve got it down pat just yet. Meeting this goal will take much longer than I expected.

My two new goals for the weeks of February 2^nd and February 9^th, are to be observed again by my college supervisor, and to film my edTPA lessons (providing the School Superintendent allows it).

If I had to use one word to describe my past week I would say it was TRYING. However, despite the fact that this past week was somewhat trying, I have recently realized that I can actually be a teacher. It has become a real possibility in my mind. Until now, I’ve learned how to be a teacher, but I wasn’t sure if I was really cut out for this, but now I believe I am. I CAN do this.

I’m not sure if there is anything specific that I have observed while watching my cooperating teacher that showed me how to create a learning environment that encouraged social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation. However, the students did work in groups on various occasions to complete the labs that were part of the curriculum. Students were also encouraged to work with partners on a multitude of exercises, which fostered student interaction and cooperation.

The one thing I’ve noticed of my cooperating teacher is that she expects every student to do his or her best because they are all very capable and smart, and she reminds them of this almost every day. I think that it’s important for students to believe that their teachers believe in them. I think this is something I will definitely incorporate into my daily teaching routine.

Yesterday, my cooperating teacher was absent, and I had to take over the class. There was a substitute teacher in the room, but I did all of the teaching. This experience has taught me a lot. After reflecting upon the entire day, I have realized that I need to work on my classroom management. I’ve also learned that some of the things I do work for specific “problem” students better than what my cooperating teacher has been doing. My question is: Should I allow my students to do things differently with me, than they do with my cooperating teacher? After all, she has worked hard to establish her classroom rules and expected behaviors. Will this hurt her classroom management when I’m gone?

I read this weeks’ assigned pages in “The First Days of School,” and after reflecting and typing up my responses to all the other questions for this blog post. I thought it very serendipitous that this section talks about Classroom Management, since this is what I need to work on.

This weeks’ reading selection reinforced the idea of the importance of classroom management. On page 82, there is a line that really resonated with me. “Nothing will send kids into orbit faster than letting them suspect that their teacher is disorganized.”  I know I have to work on my management skills, but I also realize that this is an ongoing thing. I believe that my organizational skills will be very helpful in helping me become an effective classroom manager – down the line.  

The selection also covered being prepared, and the Sun Tsu quote stood out the most.

This will be my motto for preventing problems before they occur.

“All battles are won before they are fought.”

January 19th 2015

This past week has been an amazing one. So far I really enjoy being in the classroom and getting to know the students. I wanted to teach 7th grade science, because I like interacting with children that age. I thought they would be interesting to work with, because they want to be independent and they can have some interesting conversations, but they also still need your approval and caring.
Let's just say that I wasn't mistaken.

My two goals for these upcoming two weeks (for the weeks of January 19^th and January 26^th) are:
1. To learn the names of all my 127 students. I'm well on my way, but I still need more practice.
2. To find what teaching style works for me best with my students. What is the best way to get my lesson across to them.

 

If I had to use one word to describe your past week it would be - Exciting. But I'd have to add that it was also not as stressful as I thought it would be. I thought I would have a harder time getting into the swing of things. But Anna - my cooperating teacher, has pushed me and made me jump right in. I was co-teaching classes on Monday of the 2nd week. It didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked it, but it didn't go terribly.

 

In the past two weeks I observed that the school is a very friendly place; all of the teachers are very welcoming and supportive. I believe that I could ask any of them for advice or help and I would get it. In fact many of them already offered. My observations of the classroom reveal that students really do come in many "shapes and sizes." What I mean by that is not their actual size, although that applies too, but rather their behavior and their learning styles. I've begun to get to know some of the students; who has an IEP and I've begun to learn which ones are the ones that struggle. I never thought it would be as easy to identify the struggling and the ones who are the higher achievers.  I think that those observations will help me in preparing my lesson plans, to make sure that I strive to meet everyone's learning needs?"

From the very beginning, my cooperating teacher has made sure to set time aside at the end of the day to talk with me and to go over what the instructional plan is. She also gives me feedback on continuing basis, that is she tells me how I've done after I've thought a lesson. That really helps me to adjust and improve from period to period since I teach the same thing 5 times a day.

What are two “takeaways” from your readings in “The First Days of School”.
 
In my preparation for my "edTPA Project" I have taken several steps. I've already downloaded the templates and started filling out TASK 1. I've also sent home with students the Permission slip to film in class, and I've started planning the unit and lessons that I will be teaching. I've also set a preliminary timeline for myself on when I will teach and film my lessons.