This has been an interesting week! I'm updating early because after school tomorrow I am hopping on a bus and joining 150 7th and 8th graders on a retreat in Maryland. I just can't get away from middle schoolers!
In the first week Good Hope, I have done a lot of observations. The students are in the middle of reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, so my co-op is continuing the teaching of that. I will take over in early February with the poetry unit. Next week I will take over teaching one of the five classes, but I will use my co-op's lesson plans since he wants them to all have the same instruction.
This is a good time for me to familiarize myself with the students and learn their names with the help of the seating charts. I am also getting ideas based on what they like to talk about in the discussion. They are surprisingly willing to talk about their personal experiences, and many students have talked about parents' divorce (through well-developed discussion questions prepared by my co-op to help the novel relate to the students' lives) and other sensitive topics, but are less willing to address the material itself.
I was concerned and nervous at first, but I enjoy the other teachers on my team and was able to talk with some of the students this week and begin establishing rapport!
In the next week I have to finish all of my lesson plans for the poetry unit and finish assembling a packet, so it will be a hectic week until I can get everything done, but after that I can just fine-tune the plans!
That's it for now, but I'll be back with more next week!
It's almost the end
16 years ago
Megan, I am excited for you and glad to hear you will be teaching a poetry unit. I was wondering, how did you get the kids to be so open? I jest, but I find that amazing that students are willing to speak about those personal experiences. I think in time this will allow you to gain a background with all your students. I can't wait to here more!
ReplyDeleteMeg,
ReplyDeleteI am so envious that your kids are willing to share personal stories as they apply to class! (Getting 9th graders to do that is like pulling teeth!)
Do you have any say in what poetry will be teaching or are the poems already picked out for you?
I'm glad that you're enjoying yourself at the middle school. I agree with both Krysten and and Edward, I think that it's really cool that your students are so open. As you continue your time there and begin to take over classes it will be nice for you to have that. The more personal connection students make with a text the better. Good luck with your lesson plans. I just turned in my first set. Good luck as you take over a class next week. I'll be taking over one as well so I'm under the same pressure. Have fun this weekend.
ReplyDeleteHey Megan. I'm also teaching poetry, and like Krysten asked, what poems will you be teaching?
ReplyDeleteI've been talking to my co-op, and he hasn't really said whether there are specific poems I have to teach. I am planning materials for learning devices and forms right now, and in the next week we are going to comb through the brand new textbooks to see which poems are in the new books for us to use.
ReplyDeleteAnd to respond to your responses about the students' sharing, I just want to say that their openness really reflects on my co-op. He is the one leading the discussion, and it's clear through their words that they are comfortable in his class---he has made it a very safe environment.
Plus, I've noticed that many of the students are from homes where their parents are divorced, and I think they are just comfortable in class because they know a lot of their classmates have gone through the same thing.
I would agree with Megan's last comment--that getting students to open up is really a reflection of the relationship and environment that the co-op has worked to create with his/her students. This is difficult work! And it will be difficult for you (as the newbie) to garner your student's trust in the short time that you have with them. But it's not impossible! I think the more contemporary and relatable you can make the material to the student's lives, the more impact you will have and the more "output" you will get from your students. Make your essential questions "big" enough that they encompass not only the literature, but the ideas and issues that matter in your students' lives. When they begin to learn that you truly care about them, then they will open up to you.
ReplyDelete