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.

Week Six of Student Teaching

This week we continued the poetry unit. I also quizzed them on the vocab sheets they did last week. And it was Parent Teacher Conference. Hooray! The main focus this week was pre-writing.

The first activity I did was one I'd been thinking about for a long time, in terms of pre-writing. I made up a bunch of little vials that had common scents in them, vanilla, baking powder, baby oil, etc. I had them pass the vials around and write a memory they had attached to that scent, or if they didn't have memory to do word association with them. I was really pleased how it went. I was clearly not a 100% success and I need to do more teaching before hand, more modeling, in the future. But I think it is an exercise that I can recommend to other teachers who are having their students do pieces on memories. I also had them do a free write. I explained the purpose of these exercises, to loosen the brain up, get a new perspective, dislodge a memory that may not come so easily just sitting and thinking about it, that type of stuff.

In the future I still need to plan more. I believe in having my students do alot, but I am not teaching enough. I need to give them less time to begin an assignment and teach them more about it and how to do it well. I also have noticed that I have a good report going with these students but I am too lenient when it comes to talking. I still need to be better about jumping on those earlier. I think that I am afraid of the students not liking me. I'm pretty vain and want to be admired so I am not as hard on them as I should be. Although I did move a few students this week who were talking, so I am getting harder but if I were clearer in my expectations and jumped on problems sooner then moving might not be necessary.

Week Five of Student Teaching

This week I asked my cooperating teacher if she would teach so that I could observe her. I know the students really like her and I was impressed with what I saw at the beginning but I never saw deliver new material. So I wanted to observe her teaching so I could get some ideas on how to work on my pacing and to see how she handled classroom management problems. We also continued our poetry unit and she taught them about metaphors and similes. I picked teaching back up on Friday and taught about inference in writing. Our department is requiring we have our students write some six-word memoirs, so I used inference to teach those.

Watching Aubrey teach showed me that even though it's my style to let things go, I need to jump on management problems right away. I noticed that she can come across pretty harsh but the kids still respect and even like her despite that. So I tried to do it but I try to give them the benefit of the doubt and think that they must be talking about the assignment or the lesson. But I also found that the problem perpetuates if I don't jump on it, even if they are talking about the assignment. Another thing I learned is that the students behave better when they are comfortable and understand exactly whats coming, or know how a teacher operates. Aubrey has been teaching these students for half a year so there is an atmosphere already established, so it is weird to have this student teacher come in and mess it all up. So when I have my own classroom I think my style will work better because that is what the students will expect.

In the future I have decided I need to focus on consistency as far as classroom management is concerned. Even though I am a new teacher doing things in different ways if I am consistent and clearly state my expectations then they will quiet down and get in line (not that I have had any huge problems, just talking and the like). I also learned that I am still under planning my lessons. I need to be including more instruction and give less time for students to accomplish assignments. I think it was a good decision to have Aubrey teach a few days, I think I realized some of the weaknesses in my teaching and now I have plans to overcome them.

Week Four of Student Teaching

This week was a very interesting week for teaching, we proctored the UBSCT test for the sophomores, tue through thur, and then had an assembly fri. What that means is that for most of the week I had forty minute classes. That made it easy to fill up the time but I haven't been teaching long enough to fill up my full schedule so now I am even more lost as to how much time I have and how much time things are going to take.

This week we continued talking about inference and poetry. It is interesting to deal with the dynamics of each different classroom. I had an activity where I posted six word memoirs on the board and asked each of them to try and determine what the writer was inferring when they wrote it. Some classes seemed to enjoy it and get into the guessing and others were constantly rolling their eyes. Do I write different lesson plans for each classroom, with the same objectives? I don't know yet.

I'm finding that the whole "give and inch" saying is true, for the most part. I try and treat them like adults and let them do some things on their own or let them talk a little when there is down time, but they don't seem to let up when I start talking again. I'm gonna have to be more strict I think.

The poetry introduction went very well, they all seemed to like writing their first poem, but the effect is wearing off. I will use the intro in the future. I taught about alliteration and I think I will change that. In general they didn't seem to like writing the class alliterated poem. I used to be really excited about teaching poetry, and even still I can tie it directly to the state core, but I am wondering what the point is? I see point for myself because It is something that I love, but very few of them seem to truly enjoy it, so am I wasting the rest of their time? Poetry both in the reading and the writing, teaches us how to express ourselves, how to explore our feelings understand them, and then let them out. It also teaches a type of analytical thinking. The ability to extrapolate and infer is a social skill that many miss out on, maybe poetry can teach students that. One point in favor of it is that I like to teach it, and that makes me a more effective teacher. I've noticed in the short time I've been teaching that my interest does not translate directly to good teaching and student interest but it sure does help.