Well, this was an interesting week.
It started off with Dr. Mortimore coming in for an observation on Monday during my third period class. This is the crazy class, and Monday they were typical. Last Thursday, the students had time at the end of class to read some material from Ben Franklin. On Friday they completed a worksheet that led them through the material again, since they thought it was difficult on Thursday. We reviewed the handout on Monday, but it was hard to get everyone interested and involved. One girl sighed loudly, which is something she does almost daily. She likes to make her dislike known. This is really heartbreaking to me, because this girl does really well on all of her assignments. She is just lazy, and she doesn't want anyone to think that she thinks school is cool.
Anyway, the main issue on Monday was classroom management. I knew that would be the main issue with this class, but there isn't much that really works with them. The biggest problem is that the school doesn't back up the teachers, so I can't call the principal to come down to the office and take one of my students. I found out Thursday that all the teachers in the English department agree that the students actually enjoy going to the office for "discipline." They walk away with candy and not even a slap on the wrist. If I send a student out in the hallway, they'll talk to their friends or text people or roam the hallways. I feel like the best "torture" for these kids is to actually hold them accountable and make them stay in the class and learn. A lot of the remedies for the problems I had on Monday were things that I can't really do until I have my own classroom, but Dr. Mortimore and I had a good brainstorming session about ways that I could establish good classroom management from the very first day.
The rest of the week was odd. My co-op missed Monday, and when I told her about my observation on Tuesday morning, I think there was a miscommunication when I told her about my conversation with Dr. Mortimore and she thought I was insulting her classroom management. She went off on me, spending about 5 minutes during homeroom telling me that I had made class a mess that she would have to clean up in a week. Then she said that I came in with an attitude that I had already had my experience and this placement was redundant. I really don't feel like I presented myself this way at all in the entire eight weeks, and her words really bothered and hurt me. I ended up crying during the AP class first period. She did apologize to me later in the day, but I was still disappointed. She hasn't been super supportive when I've been there: she hasn't looked at my lesson plans or my assignment sheets or rubrics or anything, and during planning or other class periods (even when she's the one teaching and I'm supposed to be observing) other teachers or students will ask where she is, and I never know. It's been frustrating to be so on my own, only getting negative feedback, and never really connecting with my co-op or other teachers at the school.
Our storyteller, who has been stealing my co-op's attention much of the past 8 weeks, returned on Wednesday, and I had an opportunity to break an arrow on my throat (hense the title of this post). Each person in the class had an opportunity to step forward, say something that they wanted to let go and remove from their life, and then say what they wanted to bring into it. Then they chose a word that represented that, which the rest of the class chanted as the person put the tip of an arrow on their throat (in the skin right above the bone) and the other end on a piece of wood with a big carving in it from Ireland. Then, after three deep breaths, you could walk strait forward and shatter the arrow. It was pretty exciting! I ended up breaking three different arrows in two days (since we did this with three different classes). I also saw my co-op and Andrew (the story-teller) bend a 3/4 inch thick piece of steel on their throats. It was pretty exciting. I'll try to get a picture up here sometime!
Anyway, I'm officially done teaching now, which gives me a chance to do observations and catch up on grading. I have 3 different projects to grade, so that should be interesting! Hope you all had a great experience! See you Thursday!
It's almost the end
16 years ago
