Week 8: Observation #2 and Final Reflections

Wow... I can't believe the first 8 weeks are over! Lots happened this week, but I'll start with Observation #2.

Dr. Mortimore came in on Tuesday, but my co-op and I had co-taught on Monday and Tuesday, so Dr. Mortimore only saw me teach half a lesson, using my co-op's lesson plans. Because I told her the wrong time (sorry again!), she saw the highest-level class instead of the lower-level class we both wanted her to see. However, she did comment on how great the students were. Even though this observation didn't provide evidence of my lesson-planning, it still showed my classroom management and teaching style.

Looking back on the past 8 weeks, I don't think I could have enjoyed my time more. Though there were times when I felt like I was having absolutely no effect on the students, or when I felt like I wasn't able to connect with them, I realized at the end that they really did appreciate me and learn from what I had to say. A big part of this was through the journals I had them use. Each student was able to decorate a cover to reflect their personalities and attach it to notebook paper. Over the course of the few weeks I taught poetry, the students completed 13 entries in their journals. They were graded entries, and some kids did the minimum amount of work. Others (I'll bring 2 examples with me on Monday) put a LOT of effort into their entries. On my last day, I sent around a journal for the kids to sign to me (like a yearbook), and I read all the students' notes last night. They really seemed to appreciate the journals and enjoy writing in them, so I was pleased with how they worked. I will continue the journals in my next placement since my Teacher Research Project is based on the journals.

Overall, I feel like I grew as a teacher throughout this experience. My lesson plans have improved a lot since methods, and I have learned how to manage a classroom and incorporate creative elements.

I wanted to finally share one of the best experiences from these past 8 weeks. We had a field trip on Thursday, and there were 5 chaperones on my bus (I was one of them). On the way to the Whitaker Center, I sat in the back to supervise from there. On the way back to school, I parked myself in the front of the bus to talk to the other chaperones, but I heard the girls in the back yelling, "Mrs. Becker, come sit with us!!! PLEASE?!?!?" For some reason, that just made me feel great!

See you all tomorrow!

Week 7

Well, my second observation didn't happen this week (coming next week), and a blog isn't required because of the Student Teacher Self Report Form. However, my school had an inservice day on Friday, so I thought I'd write about that.

The day was focused on common assessments, so the eighth grade teachers from both middle schools in the district got together to figure out the Final Exam for all the eighth graders. I am terrible at thinking of good, higher-level questions, but I was able to provide some input into this discussion. One of the other teachers sent us all a copy of her Anne Frank unit test so we could pull some questions from that for the final, but they were all memorization of facts that weren't even that important in the grand scheme of things. It encouraged me that I was able to come up with better questions than some of the other teachers. It also was helpful for me to be a part of this because it gave me a chance to be involved with more members of the English department of this district and show them (including the department chair) what I am capable of.

Week 6

What a week! I was supposed to be observed on Friday, when my school had a 2-hour delay. However, my whole county was shut down and I tried to get to school, but couldn't make it there.

It was a pretty good week again--my kids were pretty good and we covered a decent amount of material. They can be pretty unresponsive in class when I ask if anyone has questions, and a lot of times they won't raise their hands, but then they all have questions after class. On Monday I collected an assignment from them, then asked if anyone had any questions at all about the material we covered last week. I went over some key terms and topics, then presented them with a pop quiz (or, as I call it, "Unexpected Assessment.") Questions on the pop quiz were word-for-word from their poetry packet or examples they were supposed to copy into their packets, or I said things word-for-word right before the quiz. (For example, before the quiz, I said, "Can anyone remind me what a couplet is?" and took their answers, then restated "A couplet is TWO LINES.") It was amazing how many kids failed or got things like the "couplet" question wrong. That set up a nice talk on Tuesday about following directions and paying attention in class. Thursday we had a heart-to-heart about their behavior in class. A lot of the kids are starting side conversations in class, and I reminded them that their behavior doesn't change because their teacher has changed.

The "best" (sarcasm!) part of the week was hearing from my co-op that a student (W) is intentionally trying to get me off track in class and trying to annoy me by chatting with his neighbors. Another student (T) told a teacher on my team (Mr. H) that W was doing this, and Mr. H told my co-op, and my co-op told me. That will give me a chance to address that on Monday with this student.

Week 5, Observation 1

This was a great week for me. I finally had the chance to spend a whole week teaching my material, and I really enjoyed it. On Tuesday my students reviewed vocabulary for poetry elements and sound techniques. Then they practiced working with identifying those elements and techniques in "The Bells," and they had a chance to become experts on one stanza and teach what they found to their classmates in small groups. Wednesday, the students had a quiz from my co-op's old unit, and after that we reviewed "The Bells" as a class before I introduced an assignment due on Monday and a feedback form I call "Dear Mrs. Becker." This is a form where students can check one of three options (I like, I don't like, or I'm confused) and give me an idea of something I am doing well, something that is not effective for them as learners, or something they still don't quite get. I started this because I couldn't tell by looking out at them whether they understood concepts like onomatopoeia, etc.
I also had to pass back projects on Wednesday, so it was basically a day to review.
On Thursday we talked about rhyme scheme. I had all the students create poetry journals a week ago, and we write in them most days, or they'll have an entry for homework. Thursdays entry was to find as many rhyming words as they could for the words eyes, you, time, sea, and hot. Then we spent the class talking about rhyme scheme, the difference between near and exact (perfect/imperfect) rhyme, and internal rhyme. We also found examples of alliteration in our example poem. They then worked with partners to label the rhyme scheme in a new poem, which we reviewed as a class.

Friday was observation day, and I was freaking out during homeroom, first period, second period (my first class of the day), and third period (which was a team meeting that went over its time slot and prevented me from cleaning up after my first class and prepping for my second. In class we started with a journal while listening to salsa music, which I played since our lesson was about "spicing up" our writing. The lesson was about word choice and how to use the thesaurus on a computer, since that is how they write/type most of their papers for class. We watched a Friends clip, where Joey was using a thesaurus to write a letter to Monica and Chandler's adoption agency. (The clip is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW1lxwsK5_Q). I had to fast-forward from second 38 to second 48 because Joey makes a comment about porn, so to avoid suspicion from the students I paused after the first part, then fast-forwarded, then used the thesaurus to make my journal entry better with help from the students, and then played the rest of the clip, from :48 to the end. No one asked why I skipped ahead or anything, so I felt better.

I got some positive feedback from both my co-op and Dr. Mortimore this week. I got positive feedback about my use of multi-media in the classroom, as well as my poetry packet and my rapport with my students. I really appreciate the comments about the rapport because that is what I was most worried about when I came into this classroom. My co-op also likes my lesson plan format and the fact that I used a Friends clip. I think he also likes my poetry journal idea, as well as my "Dear Mrs. Becker" card.

I am looking forward to the upcoming week as my students begin writing more poetry. I will also be demonstrating my authority as I rearrange the seating chart for one class to cut back on chatter and talk to another student after class about his annoying behavior in class.

Overall, this is a great experience and I really don't want to leave this placement! I truly think 8th grade is where I'm meant to be!

Week 4

Well, this was an interesting week. We had a delay on Monday and Friday, and no school Wednesday and Thursday. On Tuesday and Friday my co-op was out, so I had a sub. I've worked with three substitutes now in the past two weeks, and they are very interesting people. They know that the class is mine and I'm in charge with lesson plans and instruction, but they still feel the need to take over the teacher's desk and displace me to the back of the room. How am I supposed to have quick access to my stuff if it's in the back of the room? Oh well. I also find that sometimes the subs like to take over some aspects to try to help, but it irritates me a little because I can't really "manage" the class by myself if a sub is getting in there, too.

Overall, it was a pretty good week. Students finished taking a test on Monday, and I did poetry instruction to 3 classes on Tuesday while the 2 afternoon classes went and read children's books to 3rd graders at the next-door elementary school. Friday I did poetry for everyone, and I'm glad we had a delay because I realized I did not have enough material planned for a full class period with my second lesson. That works nicely for the afternoon classes, because I can get through that lesson and try to work in the 3rd lesson to get them caught up.

I feel like I am connecting with the kids better. They know from last Friday's dress-down day that I'm a Colts fan, so on Monday there was a lot of Super Bowl talk and Colts-bashing. Then I did an activity where they had to pull pieces of paper out of a hat, so I used my Colts hat for the activity. The kids had lots of comments about that, and it allowed for some less stressful time on an odd Friday afternoon. Also, when I was doing my intro to the poetry unit, I was able to tell the students about myself, and that helped them see me as a real person and not just a teacher.

I'm looking forward to next week's 4-day-week and diving deeper into poetry with some creative activities.

Week 3

Oh goodness. This was quite an interesting week. My co-op was out taking care of his 2-year-old on Thursday, so I was in charge of all 5 classes for the first time. It wasn't too tricky, because I was passing back a quiz and doing a review game with them. I had introduced myself to 2 more classes on Monday, so it was my first time with the last two on Thursday. Things had been going well with my 3 classes throughout the week, but Thursday I wanted to scream. Students had questions about the quiz, and I knew when I was grading them that some of the questions weren't worded well. My co-op took the quiz from another teacher's materials, and it was a T/F quiz with 20 questions worth 3 points each (which seems high to me, but oh-well). So we decided to give everyone 3 extra points because one question was really vague, and a few more were very confusing. One kid in the last class of the day (after I'd been dealing with arguments with 8th graders all day) kept arguing with me about the answers. He thought he should have gotten credit for more questions and that the answers my co-op and I had were wrong and he was right. I decided to take a question from another student, and I was talking with the other student when I hear student A tell his friend, "I could argue this all day long." At that point I looked at the class and said, "Listen. I gave everyone in here 3 free points. You all go the benefit of the doubt, whether you got #10 wrong or not. If you want to argue and tell me that I was wrong, I will take the three points back for the whole class." That got them quiet pretty fast.

In retrospect, maybe that wasn't a good thing to say, but I wanted to remind them that we helped them out a little. I didn't make the test, but I still got a 60/60 when I made the key (which I checked against the actual key that my co-op had). I reminded them that close reading was key and that they couldn't count on class discussions to make up for not doing their homework.

The best part of the day was seeing the sub (an older man, who I believe was a retired computer isntructor) sitting in the back of the room reading a book.

Overall, it wasn't too bad of a week. Taking over more classes was interesting, and having the whole day on Thursday to be in charge is good preparation for this upcoming week when I take over all the classes.

I do have one question for all of you: Have you had any conflicts or disagreements with your co-ops about grading? My co-op gave the kids a bunch of assignments to complete, and I am grading the newest one by myself. It's a notebook project, and in the first part of the assignment they had to include 10 facts about Mark Twain that they learned in class and 5 facts that they discovered on their own. I don't mind doing the grading, but he is taking off 10 points (the assignment is worth 89) if they didn't label the 5 facts about Mark Twain they found themselves. The grading sheet and project description don't say anything about needing to label them, and my co-op said that if students fight it, they can get 5 of those 10 points back, but they need to see me next week and initiate a meeting. Does this seem unfair or off to anyone else for a bunch of 8th grade students?

Anyway, that's basically it for now. I am excited to start my poetry unit on Monday (or Tuesday or Wednesday... who knows after an unplanned early dismissal yesterday screwed up the schedule). More updates after that.

Parents...

We had a nice talk about parents at our team meeting last week, and we talked about how one girl's mom is going over the teachers' heads to the administration because she thinks teachers are telling the student she may not leave their study halls, etc, to take her instrument lessons.

The idea of parents going over teachers' heads really annoys me. Follow the "chain of command" and voice your complaints to the appropriate venue.

This reminded me of something from Ad Lit: I call it the "Anne Frank Issue." Read this article for more!