Steadily Climbing

My habits are getting better and better. I'm looking forward to some of the lesson ideas that I have planned for this unit. However, the in-class reading of the play (Julius Caesar) hasn't been going well. The class talks the whole time. Today, I had to have them sit in silence for the rest of the class and assigned the rest of Act I and the first scene in Act II for homework. And they are getting quizzed on all of it tomorrow. And it's going to be a HARD quiz.

In an ideal class, I would have started the year out better. Now I know how it feels to be Mrs. Vollmer, my choir teacher. All we did was talk. We never listened to her, and it didn't mean anything when she got angry. We were good for maybe the rest of the class period, but it never lasted long. I always thought that she started out too nice and ambitious at the beginning of the year. I can't wait to start over; to try at it again. But I'm not shrugging off this year. My student teaching supervisor told me that teaching is like parenting: it's one day at a time. Every day is a new day. Hopefully, tomorrow is a good day.

My goal: To have next week planned in it's entirety by Friday at 7pm.
What that entails: all handouts typed and copied, all lesson plans written out, all grading caught up (hopefully by Wednesday night for Parent-Teacher Conferences). Speaking of those, I'm so excited! I want to meet parents. I'm also excited for the parents to get the passwords for their students' Gradebook online. That might motivate a couple students to start participating more in class.

I'm thinking about designing the culminating activity for this unit in a condensed, adapted version of the "leveled instruction" procedure that I learned about on Friday, where the lower-level cognition activities will be worth less points, and the higher level will be worth more. I'm curious to try it with this class and see how it goes.

Student Teaching Workshop

All of the Secondary student teachers met today in the student center to attend different workshops about beginning teacher topics. I didn't know whether it would be boring or not, but it ended up being very inspiring.

The third session I went to was called "Leveled Instruction," and it was an introduction to a unit design that involved student choice, where students earned "points" towards a number goal, and all of the activities that they can do are presented in a "menu". The students are held accountable for their own work, and their own learning. The classroom becomes a workspace instead of a lecture hall, and there are 3-5 workstations or groups in action at a time. It sounds so interesting! I really want to learn more about it.

Substitute again today.

Mrs. D has had three subs the last three days due to conferences, homecoming, and such. It's been good practice for running a whole day's worth of classes. The school day goes by quicker when you're a teacher than when you're a student. 6th hour always comes around faster than I expect it to.

Today, the class and collaborated to set the Rules for Discussion. I just need to type them out now to be able to hand them back to the class. We're going to discuss drama tomorrow, so I needed to get the class thinking about discussion and how they are going to react to each other. It took the whole period to come up with the rules and the consequence for breaking those rules. I was actually surprised how many students supported taking away points for breaking the rules.

One of the students had some disruptive behavior in class today, so I finally chose to send her to the hallway after waiting patiently for her to quiet down. The entire class was telling her to be quiet, but she still continued to mumble a long, ongoing rant. I got a little firm with her, and called her mother. Here's the clincher: her mother called me out and asked me all these questions about my disciplinary style. Parents have every right to do this (especially because I'm a student teacher); I just didn't expect it. Overall, the conversation was very productive.

I'm starting to become more confident. I'm growing. I'm learning. The proper reactions/responses are coming more naturally to me now. I am going to be a "hard" teacher one day--I know that. But hopefully I'll challenge students to better themselves and to grow intellectually. The good days make the bad days worth it.

And, I still need to work on:
-Planning further ahead.
-record keeping
-having optional work for the students with special learning needs
-having available late work ready to give to students who are absent.

Half-Day

I want to start off by thanking everyone who has read at least a part of this blog. I'm so glad I have friends like Ms. Smith and Ms. Price to give me feedback about being a new teacher.

We're currently in the midst of Homecoming Spirit Week at the high school. Today was Wacky-Tacky Day, so everyone wore the most ridiculous mis-matched outfits they could find. It was hilarious. Not quite as hilarious as Monday, Switch Day, in which girls dressed as boys and vice versa. Today was a half-day, something that occurs often in the district for professional development purposes. My CT got out of it, however, which is why I'm sitting comfortably at my favorite coffee shop, The Ugly Mug, reflecting about my experience so far.

One student in the class I'm teaching has been making a habit out of coming to the classroom after school to work on homework instead of going to football study tables or practice. He's nice company, so I don't mind. I just hope his coach isn't mad.

News in Brief.

I payed the steep emergency fee to take the MTTC test in two weeks. Cross your fingers for me.

The second student teaching seminar was today. It stressed me out and inspired me all at the same time.

I'm one of those people that needs a constant change of scenery in order to get things done. I need to start setting mini-goals and not letting myself do anything else until that goal is completed.

All the students are asking for grades and, in doing so, asking for the work they haven't done to make up and raise their grade. It's annoying, but I guess it's better than them not caring at all.

I think I'm going to do an indirect lesson as a way to review what the students should know about drama.

I feel insecure about my skills as a teacher. But I LOVE the students, so there has to be something that makes me a likely teacher candidate. Right?

End of Personal Narrative Unit

Half of the class has handed in their personal narrative, which makes me sad because it's worth a large chunk of their grade, so if they don't do it, they don't pass. The reason for this is that it's part of the 10th grade curriculum for the district.

I've been slowly reading this book called Making the Journey by Leila Christenbury, and she writes a section about failure being a consistent reality for teachers. Teachers are unsuccessful over and over again, and you need to know it going in to the profession. I'm learning it firsthand right now; I feel like I didn't inspire them to want to write their essays. I feel like I don't plan activities and units that are engaging. But my sensitivities are slowly reaching reality. There's always another chance to teach. Teaching isn't all or nothing. It's doing the best that you can.

And I'm not worried as much because I know I want to improve. I want to do better. And I want to help these kids make it into the world.