Spring Break!

This week was Spring Break! No teaching to reflect on.

Week Eleven of Student Teaching

This was a fabulous week of student teaching. We have started a unit on narratives. The student haven 't started writing them in earnest, but we did an exercise in voice and some pre-writing to get them all set to write. I also did a vocabulary review and we continued to read "For One More Day."

All of these lessons went well. Not extremely well, but well. The lesson in voice was a fun lesson for the classes that got involved. We used a page from Where's Waldo and they chose some characters on the page and then wrote what the student thought they were saying or thinking. No action no describing just talking and thinking. Then we would read them out loud so everyone could guess who they thought it was. CRTs are coming up in not too long so I am reviewing so that they can be up to speed on their root words. Finally we started some pre-writing for their narratives. I had them read a few examples of good narratives and we discussed what made them good. I would also condense the stories into about two sentences to demonstrate how borring the stories could be. Then we made some lists with themes. Like best times you've had with family and friends, embarrasing moments, painful moments, funny moments etc. Then I had them choose one that might make a good story. Finally we used a garphic organizer to analyze their moment, breaking it up into portions like motion, suspense, who was there etc. That is as far as we got.

These were all effective techniques that I plan on using in the future. The vocab review is something simple but it was a partner activity that could be done without taking up much time and be effective. I think maybe in the future I would like to do more than jsut recall, but alot of them couldn't jsut remember them so they had to figure them out by thinking of words that have the root in them. The voice exercise I will use again but I might find something different for classes which aren't very good at getting involved. The list making was by far the most effective and enjoyable exercise we did this week. I could tell just about everyone got involved and seemed to be enjoying themselves. It also prepared them for writing their stories. And finally I think the analyzing process is going to make it easier for them to organize their story and give them alot of options for making it interesting.

Week Eleven of Student Teaching

This past week was the beggining of the fourth term, and I think things have started off on the right foot. I started out reminding them about some of my expectations, acaademically and behaviorally. We also soent a few moments going over some of the procedures regarding late work and the like. Then we started a novel which we will be reading called "For One More Day" by Mitch Albom. I also had them write a letter to someone who has influenced them for good. Thanking them for that.

I think that students often need to be reminded about behavior. I think both the student and the teacher can fall into casual habits of letting things go and acting out if the rules are not revisited every once in a while. This book that I'm having them read is an excellent book that deals with important issues that I think can really influence the students. One major theme is alchoholism. I am fairly sure that several of the students in my classes drink already and I think it could be good for them to see how drinking can effect their lives. It also deals with making sure you are spending time and honoring those people who are important to you. Some day they wont be there and you need to take time for those people when they are there.

I think I need to review the rules more often then I am in the future. I think it could seriously benefit my classroom managment. I also plan on using this book if I can get copies of it in my future classroom. I think it is an excellent book for getting the students attention, and I am planning to use it in conjunction with a narrative unit. Get them writing about some of the emotions which they are feeling while reading such an emotional book. I need to go finish unpacking now, we just moved this weekend.

Week Ten of Student Teaching

(forgive any rambling my niece was diagnosed with leukemia, I've had little sleep this weekend)
This was a fabulous week. I really enjoyed myself. The first two days we had a small lesson to brush them up on commas for CRT's, which are rapidly approaching. It was a simple lesson but covered seven or eight good comma rules. It was nice to put together a power point for it, it's been a while since I have used it and it makes things nice, captures some attention. Get a little differentiation in there.

The lesson consisted of showing a rule with some examples then having them write their own sentence which employs that rule. After that we spent a while working on a puzzle. I separated them into groups and gave them some slips of paper that comprised a paragraph when put in order and joined with commas, coordinating conjunctions, and periods. It really seemed to challenge them. They griped a bunch but it was good natured and I think its good for them to stretch. And I ended it with a multiple choice quiz, which we reviewed as a class after they took it.

This is the kind of one day lesson plan I will use in the future. I think it was a good refresher but went deep enough for those who didn't understand the rules to learn them well enough to apply them. I think its something that I could share with other teachers, but in reality I borrowed and combined them from other teachers. Thank you other teachers!

Week Nine of Student Teaching

This week we worked on a found poem. I meant to use my webquest, which I got a good grade on but for some reason now it won't open. It's like it changed formats on me somehow. Anyway a found poem is a poem that is comprised of stolen lines from other works. So I combined reading and writing poetry. They had to get onto Poets.org and read a few works from sixteen different authors. All the while stealing lines that they liked from the poetry. Then after they had completed their reading assignment they had to organize poems out of the lines which they had stolen. (giving credit to the original authors of course) I led the first day off with a discussion about how to be good at something most people study people who are good at that. I.E. a basketball wannabe studies Michael Jordan etc. That is one reason to read poetry, so that you can get better at writing it. The second day I discussed finding themes in poetry. We did a short exercise which consisted of infering meaning from "The World is Too Much With Us". First only knowing the title and trying to get meaning from it, and predicting what the poem would be about, then interpreting the poem using key lines and phrases.

It seemed like the students groaned about the assignment as I discussed it with them, but as I walked around the computer lab suggesting different authors or poems to different students, and offering help where needed, I heard alot of students talking about the poems. They would even say things to me like, "I really liked this one." or "Mr. Strong these are weird." Which I took as a good sign since they were paying enough attention to them to understand that they were written differently, and lets face it, Sylvia Plath and Ezra Pound were weird. I would maybe like to read more of the poems as a class and evoke some class discussion in the future.

This is something I plan on using in the future. I read a few of the poems and the students really seemed to do a good job. They also groaned about the assignment but when it was time to actually write the poem many of them got really excited and enjoyed the way their poem turned out. I also think that many of them found a poem or two that spoke to them and hopefully helped them realize that all poetry is not stupid.

Week Eight of Student Teaching

This has been an interesting week. I teach English to Sophomores and this is the time that they register for the next year. At Spanish Fork, instead of having the students do it all on their own they come into the English classes (because they know that every sophomore will be in an English class) and teach them how to do it. Then the next day, after the students have had a chance to talk to their parents and get their schedules organized, the counselors take all the students to the computer lab and help them register for all of the classes themselves. It seems like a pretty good method except for students who are absent. Anyway because that was going on we had to keep delaying our presentations, and the students even got extra time to work on them. The main thing I did this week was a vocab sheet. I know lots of teachers look down on vocabulary but since vocabulary is one of the biggest indicators of intelligence I can't ignore it. I like the way my co-operating teacher does it.

She has a worksheet which has a a grid on it. At the very top right is the root we are studying and its definition. Then below that are four words which have that root in it. Then moving across the page are the following boxes which they must fill in. Definition, Connotations (they need three), sample sentence, drawing (they do a quick illustration which defines the word), and finally personal connection (a sentence which somehow ties the word into their personal life) There are two sides, each with its own root word. They complete the worksheet and then we take a quiz.

I plan to use this method in the future. I think it hits so many levels of learning, and the students also seem to think its pretty fun. They aren't cheering when we bring them out but they don't complain a whole lot either. One big thing I would like to change somehow is for them to use the vocab words in their writing more. I haven't decided on how I wan't to incorporate that but I know that it will be an important aspect of their learning. I am on the lookout for more vocabulary ideas, I really think it is so important and is something that they will use for the rest of their lives.

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Week Seven of Student Teaching

The fact of the matter is I need to get more organized. I'm a good teacher, its not like I'm totally slacking or anything, I just like to play things by ear too much. And the funny thing about it is I've seen the difference in my lessons when I take more time to study them out and get them solid, I notice that they flow better, that I feel like I'm actually teaching something which is actually being learned. But I seem unwilling to let go of my impulsiveness and my ability to shoot from the hip. Which is a talent by the way, something to be desired in many situations. I just can't let it dominate my teaching. Planning, planning, and over planning is the name of the game.

This week we spent a good deal of time in the computer labs. As I said in a previous post we're working on memory poems, and I had them get into groups and those groups are going to present their poems in a creative way. Most groups chose to do a power-point. One chose to do a blog and a few others chose other creative ways which didn't require computers beyond typing and printing.

I have been really impressed with the students knowledge of power-point. In general they know how to do a basic power-point and make it look pretty. Many knew how to do small animations with their transitions and even how to add sound clips. The presentation day should be fun and it will be good for these students to get in front of each other and present. I expect to get some guff about making them read their poems but I can deal with that.

This has been something the have been pretty excited and up-beat about. They are not exstatic in anyway but there has been limited complaining and a good amount of smiles and talking about them. I think this is something I will do in the future. Although one thing I would like to do when I have another chance is to have them get into groups at the begining of the unit and have them make a blog or a website, they will then be required to post all of their poems to the blog or website. And the final will be to make a digital story of their favorite blog. I was going to ahve them do something like that at this school but they have almost all of the blogs blocked to students and all things google blocked. I also can't install photo story on the computers so...there you have it.