If You Ever Need Something to Buy Me

I Didn't Do My Homework Because...

* I didn't do my history homework because I don't believe in dwelling on the past.
* I didn't want the other kids in the class to look bad.
* A sudden gust of wind blew my homework out of my hand and I never saw it again.
* Another pupil fell in a lake and I jumped in to rescue him. Unfortunately, my homework drowned.
* Our furnace broke and we had to burn my homework to keep ourselves from freezing.
* I'm not at liberty to say why.
* It was destroyed in a freak accident involving a hippo, a toaster, and a bag of frozen peas. You don't want to know the details.
* I have a solar-powered calculator, and it was cloudy.
* I made a paper plane out of it and it got hijacked.
* My mom used it as a dryer sheet.
* My agent won't allow me to publish my homework until the movie deal is finalized.
* I was abducted by green-skinned, three-eyed, pig-snouted space aliens, and they incinerated my homework with their death rays.
* I felt it wasn't challenging enough.
* My parents were sick and unable to do my homework last night. Don't worry, they have been suitably punished.
* We had homework?!
* I see your lips moving, but all I am hearing is "blah, blah, blah."
* I didn't want to add to your already heavy workload.
* I spent the night at a rally supporting higher pay for our hard-working teachers.

Week of 10/23-10/27

Interesting week. I definitely did a lot more teaching recently and I am enjoying that. This week I had TESA 4 with Tim Oster, I made some interesting observations about his class that I can definitely relate to myself. At our ages I think it becomes very easy for us to want to just get into a banter with the talking, trouble making students. Maybe in the back of our minds we think that we can beat them at their own game, but just because we have joined the game they have already run. In the backs of their minds all they really want to do is to derail us from what we are trying to do. At one point he sent a student out of the room because they were being too disruptive, and then later went out and spoke to them. His guide teacher was not in the room at the time, so while he was gone he lost the rest of the class to some level of chaos. It makes you wonder if talking to that student was worth losing the attention of the rest of the class.

My guide teacher made an important observation that I am definitely taking to heart. She noticed that we were both becoming far too lax with our students, and they were beginning to take advantage of that. She also made the point that it was really her fault because she was modeling what she normally does, which is to go pretty easy on her students, being a nice teacher, which I agree with. However, since there were two teachers in the classroom doing this it just slipped down the slope a little too far. We tightened the reins throughout the week and it has definitely made a difference in the students' attention. Proof once again that classroom management is truly important.

I am a little angry that I was not able to do my Synergy class as planned. Mike Wegenka told me that they were unable to get the room that would be needed for a swing dancing class, and that he is hoping to be able to work me in for the next session. We will see how that goes though.

Week of 10/16-10/20

Interesting week. I taught a lesson literary analysis terms and did WOW words. However, the best part was Friday when Mrs. Johnson came in I was ready for her. Had a great lesson planned that I developed originally on my own, but then I went to my guide teacher for some guidance and edits. Mrs. Johnson said that it was an "impressive lesson." Just like what I learned from my TESA evaluation, you have to find things that the kids can relate to. What I had them write about in the lesson was what they like about City Heights. Because of this there was not a single person in the class that had absolutely nothing to say, it was great.

We had Gates MacGinitie testing on Thursday in our second period class, my first experience in administering a standardized test. I still do not approve of the use of standardized tests, but realize that they are going to be part of my professional life whether I want them or not. The students were well behaved, I almost get the feeling that these tests scare them. One student could not stay awake during it. I asked him if he had gotten enough sleep and he told me that he had, but he doesn't like tests. Sometimes I wonder if the importance of these tests on the students' educational future is stressed enough. If you just tell them, "no worries, just do your best" it may not ring strongly enough to take it seriously.

The most important thing that my guide teacher keeps reminding me about is circulating throughout the classroom. I keep fearing that I will fall into that ridiculous habit of being unapproachable and hiding behind my desk. Not only does it make the students less likely to ask for help, but it makes me seem aloof and uninterested. Kids need to see me moving around the class, checking if they need help, even if they don't look like they do. Most of the time they seem like they would rather get an "F" than ask me for assistance. Maybe they equate that to cheating for some reason? I don't totally understand it all. But, no chair time in class, gotta get up and move, and that's my plan from now on, no matter what is going on.

Journal Week ending 10/13

Wow, Friday the 13th, nothing really spectacular happened though. Our week went pretty much like clockwork. Ms. Hoehnstein taught the class and we remained most of the time for some extra supervision. The sex ed. class was very educational. I think the one part that I could have lived without was the slideshow of sexually transmitted diseases. I went to Tim Oster's class to do his TESA evaluation for Unit 3. I think that this TESA is a little more difficult than the others. I think that it is hard for Tim and I to relate to our students, especially since we both came from much different backgrounds than they do. But, I am looking forward to making my attempt at it on Monday, maybe with my reflection of his work I can do better on mine. We shall see.

Journal Week Starting 10/9

This was definitely the start of a not too exciting week. Ms. Hoehnstein came in this week and taught sex ed. During this time Mrs. Perez and I took the liberty of attempting to do some planning and catching up on some grading that we had gotten a little behind on. It was probably the best sex ed. presentation that I had ever seen, much better than the one I had received in high school. Ms. H. incorporated foldables into the lesson and I think that the students really enjoyed that, it gave them something physical to hang onto. The students were surprisingly well behaved and receptive. It was a good experience.

Journal 10/2-10/6

Well, I am getting a lot of great experiecne in my classroom. It is interesting to figure out all of the things that you take for granted when you are planning. Like should the kids keep the handouts or pass them in? How am I going to prove that they learned anything while they were doing their reading or listening to a lecture? My guide teacher has been really helpful in pointing these things out. I know that she has a great knowledge of all these things.

I have definitely been teaching more lessons in the class, which I like. I am not doing nearly everything, but I am enjoying getting more time to instruct the students. This week I gave my first quiz, made by myself. It went great, except for a student stealing the quizzes from me at the end of 1st period, lesson learned, the top of my desk is not safe for such things. But, back to the quiz itself. It seemed to go over really well with the students. It seems like quizzes and tests are not as looming and scary for them if they are presented through a media like powerpoint. In addition, I created a Jeopardy game for their Words of the Week, which they became very competitive in. There are some bugs to work out with the system in playing it, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Everything appears to be going well and I am looking forward to next week.

Another one from O.K. Go

These People Entered the href="http://www.myspace.com/okgo">OK Go href="http://youtube.com/group/okgodance">Dances With You(Tube) Contest. You should, too.

I was right, a boring week of sex ed.

This was definitely the start of a not too exciting week. Ms. Hoehnstein came in this week and taught sex ed. During this time Mrs. Perez and I took the liberty of attempting to do some planning and catching up on some grading that we had gotten a little behind on. It was probably the best sex ed. presentation that I had ever seen, much better than the one I had received in high school. Ms. H. incorporated foldables into the lesson and I think that the students really enjoyed that, it gave them something physical to hang onto. The students were surprisingly well behaved and receptive. It was a good experience.

Boring week of Sex Ed.

This was definitely the start of a not too exciting week. Ms. Hoehnstein came in this week and taught sex ed. During this time Mrs. Perez and I took the liberty of attempting to do some planning and catching up on some grading that we had gotten a little behind on. It was probably the best sex ed. presentation that I had ever seen, much better than the one I had received in high school. Ms. H. incorporated foldables into the lesson and I think that the students really enjoyed that, it gave them something physical to hang onto. The students were surprisingly well behaved and receptive. It was a good experience.

The days are a changing, but in a good way

Well, I am getting a lot of great experiecne in my classroom. It is interesting to figure out all of the things that you take for granted when you are planning. Like should the kids keep the handouts or pass them in? How am I going to prove that they learned anything while they were doing their reading or listening to a lecture? My guide teacher has been really helpful in pointing these things out. I know that she has a great knowledge of all these things.

I have definitely been teaching more lessons in the class, which I like. I am not doing nearly everything, but I am enjoying getting more time to instruct the students. This week I gave my first quiz, made by myself. It went great, except for a student stealing the quizzes from me at the end of 1st period, lesson learned, the top of my desk is not safe for such things. But, back to the quiz itself. It seemed to go over really well with the students. It seems like quizzes and tests are not as looming and scary for them if they are presented through a media like powerpoint. In addition, I created a Jeopardy game for their Words of the Week, which they became very competitive in. There are some bugs to work out with the system in playing it, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Everything appears to be going well and I am looking forward to next week.

Which Video Is Better...You Decide

Week ending 9/25-9/29

Well, I got a realization on Thursday, and I bet a lot of the student teachers that are just out of college got the same thing; you have to engage the kids to be active in the learning process. You go to college, you sit, you listen, you talk when appropriate, but you are always engaged. If you are not engaged, then you figure out something to get by. In high school, the teachers are the ones who are expected to do the engagement. I think that straight out of college we forget the type of environment that we are going into. Once you learn to get the kids interested, to give them some sort of liability, then you get their attention. My guide teacher and I had a very good conversation about this; I kind of wished that she could have told me before I taught my lesson, but I guess that experience can be the best education.

I think that Tesa went great. Tim Oster and I did it on Friday 9/29. He came into my room during first period while I was leading the students in an art project as a culmination of our unit on narratives. When he came in I had the kids broken into groups of 4-5 people. Each group then created a poster that had an "artist's rendering" of a character, then they would explain why they drew the character that way, and provide 5 quotes/objects from the story that had significance for their chosen character. I moved about the room, trying to get to everyone. Two of my identified students decided that they would form their own two person group. In order to facilitate their cooperation I allowed it to happen. Almost surprisingly they were very productive and almost completed the art project. Sitting in with them quite a few times not only kept them on task, but I was able to give them direction. One of my most troubled students in the class was with a group that really helped to pull her along. When I went over to the group I tried to get her to participate and offer some ideas. She seemed to be coming out of her shell a little bit and providing the group with some insights. When I conferenced with Tim after second period I told him that I noticed that one of my particular students was in his class as well. We both agree that she is a good student, but definitely needs a lot of time and attention. All in all I think it went well. Since the project required them to be loud it was hard for Tim to really hear what I was saying. I'm pretty sure that I was affirming and correcting them, but I don't know if it came through.

Week beginning 9/25

Well, this week felt like it was dragging along all the way until Friday. I don't know, I was beginning to have some reservations about my abilities to be an educator. It seems like I had all of these great ideas and lessons for engagement of the students in college, but now that I'm here they are all gone (should have written some of them down). But, there are always ups and downs in everything, I'm probably just in a slump. I do know that I have very good support at home, so that is really helping. Also, I can tell that as the weeks go on I am getting more and more tired, I don't know if I should be worried, but I'm sure that I will pull through.

I get the feeling that the kids are starting to respect me more as their teacher. I probably say this every week, but I notice more and more them knowing my name, asking me for help, first, and looking to me as an authority figure. Maybe it is because I wear a tie?