Student Teaching: The Experience

"but i am done with apple-picking now"

2007-05-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

A blog detailing my days of student teaching has seemed more difficult to maintain than a chronicle of adventures abroad, as I have had no quasi-ethnic excursions to document - no gondolas, no floods, no socialist professors, no peristent bagpipers. I have had, instead, a labyrinth of echoing hallways, mountains of papers, and multitudes of procrastination and protestation and prom-invitations (just had to have that alliteration in there!). Every day was an entertaining enterprise, but anytime I thought to myself, "I should update my blog for my patient devotees," I simply didn't know what to write. Did people honestly want to read about how the literature circles inspired Tom and how his grades improved dramatically as a result? Or about how frustrated I was that a student didn't understand how to explain her thoughts through writing and will probably fail the Regents again? Or about Donny's inability to focus on anything academic if I was within a 20-foot radius? Or about the phenomenal job that Jewelyn, Janell, Emily, Amanda & Elise did with their group?

So, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

What else to say?? I don't know. It still hasn't hit me that I'm... done.

still alive & well... most days!

2007-05-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

It appears I have taken an unintentional hiatus from my blog updating! Needless to say (nevertheless, saying), things have been quite busy. I was writing an email the other day in which I wrote, "Aside from student teaching and wedding plans, not too much is going on!" After I had typed said statement, I realized just how absurd that line of thought was, as those two activities consume my existence lately. However, I came to the simultaneous revelation that, at this very point in my life, there is nothing I would rather be doing. Well, besides eating ice cream 24-7, but that's a given.

Student teaching has been treating me well, and some of my young chaps have been treating me a little too well! A gaggle of "gaga" seems to be continually present throughout each day... one has even tried to persuade me to attend prom with him. Thankfully, I have my graduation as an excuse (not to mention my age, status as a student teacher, fab fiance, and overall hatred of all things prom-esque).

The literature circles with Great Gatsby seem to be going fairly well, despite the original disinterest in the book. The biggest issue with the students is keeping their conversations "on task," but a hovering teacher typically seems to cure that disease.

It is strange to think that I will be graduating this upcoming Saturday. I already feel completely removed from campus, having only spent one month there this year. Besides, I still have 2 weeks of student teaching that remain after graduation, and one independent study to complete as well. College graduate... but I'll refrain from being overly grandiloquent or contemplative for now. :)

That's all for now - I just remembered I need to complete my online seminar assignment for the week.

every other day of the week is fine

2007-04-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

Oh, what a dismal day to go back to school!
Snowing/raining, very windy & COLD.
And yet, things are looking up, as it's supposed to be 56 by Friday.

This week (Weds.) I will start taking over some of the classes - or at least the Group B classes. Group C has started their independent studies, so they will only be in the classroom on Thursdays, during which time we will have "All Literature Days." Our first all-lit day is next Thursday, and I am making a lesson plan for that. Since most of the students are working on The Great Gatsby, I figured I'd do some poetry from the 2os. I'm planning on making a poster or handout with the "Events of the Decade," so the students understand the time period during which the literature they're reading was written. Then I'll have them read a couple poems by Langston Hughes, one of my personal favorites.

Today I was mistaken as a student by a librarian. I was walking out of the library with some of my Group A students, and a librarian called after us in the hallway, "What study hall are you supposed to be in?" I turned around, smiled, and said, "I'm their student teacher - we're returning to [my cooperating teacher]'s class." She apologized quickly...

A student at my last placement also thought I was a fellow student. He said hi to me, saw my name tag and did a double take: "Are you a teacher?! How old ARE you?!"

At least this bodes well for my thirties and forties, right? :)

2007-04-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring Break!
I have 2 weeks off in honor of Spring (can't say "Easter" at a public school).
In honor of Spring Break, it will be snowing tomorrow through Sunday. Boo.

My new placement is going very well so far! I get along really well with my cooperating teacher (a female this time), and the kids are great. This past week the students finished up a Holocaust unit, based on Elie Wiesel's Night. Very interesting discussions in all the classes!

My cooperating teacher and I are going to be doing something new this year. All the juniors took the English Regents in January, so we have split each of the classes into 3 groups. Those in Group A are the students who failed the Regents, Group B is students who passed, and Group C is students who got a 95 or higher. I have been working with Group A this past week, helping them revise and type one of their Regents essays. Group B is going to be doing literature circles, which I am definitely looking forward to! Lit. circles seem like they're becoming all the rage in education, so I'm excited to have a long term experience with that. The students in Group C are going to be working on an independent study with a novel of their choice (from a list, haha).

This is a really unique opportunity for me & I'm excited to see how it goes! I will be at this school until May 25th.

In non-academic news, this past weekend I went out to Michigan with a load of personal belongings & started moving into the apartment where Doug & I will be living! We're very excited - it is really cute!! It's the second story of this house in Plymouth:

The bottom floor is a massage business, which is nice because we won't have to worry about noisy neighbors, since they'll never be there when we're home.

I'm off to enjoy my spring break some more! :)

every beginning comes from some other beginning's end

2007-03-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

Well, my first placement has drawn to a close...

Thursday afternoon I drove home qyietly in the rain, simply mulling over each of my students and imagining their lives going on after my part in their lives has ended.

I know it's something that, as a teacher, I need to get used to, but teaching isn't exactly a profession where you can just leave your work at the office.

All that said, I had a wonderful time at my first placement. I learned a lot and met a lot of great kids.

English 3, period 2

One of the favorites :)

English 2

English 3, period 7

Cooperating teacher & some of the guys

me & a student thugged out :)

I will miss all those crazy kids...

Tomorrow I start my second placement. Since it's a small, rural school, I will be teaching ALL the 11th grade students! I'm excited to meet some more students.

PS - Make sure you go back and click on all the pictures so you can see each of my charming kiddos!

all in a day's work...

2007-03-07T05:10:00.000-08:00

Apparently a student stabbed another student outside the school this morning, around 7:15.
It's all the kids and teachers are talking about.
Talk about getting the day off to a good start...

Update:
The student who was stabbed is a girl from Mr's AP class, and the student who allegedly did the stabbing is a girl from one of my junior classes. The victim has already been released from the hospital & has "superficial wounds."

News articles:
WHAM 13 - East High Student Stabbed

Democrat & Chronicle - Girl cut today in alleged fight at East High

RNews - Girl Stabbed in Front of School

monday, monday. can't trust that day.

2007-03-05T16:13:00.000-08:00

Seen & heard around the classroom...

Mr. was discussing Spring Break, and mentioned "Good Friday," and one of the students asked, "What's Good Friday?" Mr. proceeded to tell the class that Good Friday is the day when Christians believe Jesus was crucified. One female student piped up, "Oh - I thought Good Friday was a shopping day."

This morning as I had entered the school, I was walking down a relatively empty hallway, and my shoes were clicking noticeably (teacher shoes!). A middle-aged male teacher ahead of me turned around and commented, "I always know when a beautiful woman is coming because I can hear her shoes a mile away." ... How disappointed he must have been!

Rumor flying around the school is that we'll have a day off tomorrow because the temperature is supposed to be in the single-digits, with a wind chill of -20 to -30. Bring it on, Poseidon.

over 490 & through the alley - to granny's house they'll go

2007-03-04T05:32:00.000-08:00

I started with the junior classes this past week. They've been going pretty well. The 2nd period class, though... it's like pulling teeth to get them to do work! It's a much bigger class as well, so I feel like I'm running a circus act sometimes, but somehow we managed to make it through the week without falling behind the other class!

My sophomore class has continued to go well. The kids were rather squirrelly on Friday, but I guess that's to be expected. We've been reading Raisin in the Sun, and they are really into it! On Wednesday I was going to have them stop reading about 10 minutes early so I could give them some extra essay suggestions (plus it was a good stopping point), and when I told them to stop, they collectively started saying, "No - let's keep going!" And let's be honest, if these kids tell me they want to keep reading?!?! We will keep reading!!

I am starting Catcher in the Rye with the juniors, and I found this great story online to use as an introduction. It's called "Catcher in the Oatmeal," and it's basically the story of Goldilocks & the Three Bears - except it's written in 1st-person from the perspective of Goldilocks, and it's written in Holden Caulfield's voice - hilarious! So I had the kids read that & then I had them re-write Little Red Riding Hood in a 1st-person narrative style & I let them choose what voice they wanted to adopt. A lot of them, not surprisingly, wrote about "Little Red IN the Hood..." which was quite funny. I had one student who wrote from the wolf's perspective:
"So I knocked on the door, and I was like, "Granny - it's me! I got 40s and blunts for you!"
Ah, making real-life applications.....

Overall, things are still continuing to go well & I'm still enjoying it!

unintentional scatology...

2007-02-28T05:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in one of my junior classes, a student was reading aloud. He has pretty decent reading skills; occasionally he'll pause and say, "Miss, what's that word?"

As he was reading, he came to the word "recital."

Without hesitating, he read confidently, "... rectal."

The funniest part? None of the other students caught it. It was all I could do to calmly correct him with a straight face...

I love my students.

lookin for fun & feelin groovy!

2007-02-21T14:06:00.000-08:00

Not only was Valentine's Day a snow day, but Thursday was as well! That day was less exciting because Mom had to go to work, and Ethan & Jayne had school. Good thing Emily is homeschooled.

Friday, oh Friday...
First day back after 2 snow days
+ Belated Valentine's Day for all the kiddies
+ Day before February break
+ A boiler broke so we had no heat
= no learning.

It was a great week for learning flexibility as a teacher!

Mr. decided to show a video about man's landing on the moon in his classes. Here is an interesting discussion before the viewing in one class:

Mr: "Some people say that Neil Armstrong never actually landed on the moon..."
Student: "Yeah, that's cuz he's black!"
Mr: *blank stare*
Mr: "Neil Armstrong was not black."
Student: "Are you sure? I coulda swore he was."
Me: "Are you thinking of Louis Armstrong?"
Student: "Oh... yeah."

Ah, student teaching, you never fail to entertain...

So this week we have February break, which has been delightful. Went to Michigan this past weekend & visited Doug & some friends. I anticipate a lot of lesson-planning in the next couple days.

Also, today is the first day of Lent - I am giving up chocolate...

snowflakes of love smiling down on me

2007-02-14T13:04:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day, indeed!

Ah yes, another snow day for the teachers of the Rochester City School district!

And what a day it has been:

Staying warm inside...

Mom & me, performing in our kitchen band...

From Michigan, with love! :)

snowy day

And snow days obviously give me too much time...

Click on picture to enlarge.

Happy Valentine's Day to all!!

my name's the teacher

2007-02-11T12:12:00.000-08:00

Well, after back-to-back snow days to kick off the week, the sophomores and I are off to a lovely start.

We read AThe Lottery,@ by Shirley Jackson & held our own mock lottery.

[spoiler warning]

I had Mr. draw the slip of paper with the black dot (okay, we cheated and he drew a regular piece of paper then drew a black dot on it while no one was paying attention), and the students Astoned@ him with wadded up pieces of paper. They seemed to enjoy that, perhaps a little too thoroughly? One student suggested using books instead of paper…

I am in the process of grading some book reviews from the AP classes, and I’ve been surprised at some of the finished products. The assignment was to re-read a favorite book and analyze the messages therein. Here are some fun excerpts, with an all-encompassing [SIC]:

·“As a reader “Fallen Angels” is a book that would be read at least about five times. “Fallen Angels” story and story line is so addictive that once the story is finish the reader would start over right then and there.”

·“Pike captures the average teen-aged so well that it is a little frightening that a man can capture a teen-aged girls persona so well.”

·“The troll striking fear in the goats doesn’t seem like a well thought out idea but it true as I stated differently but similar on page, the troll says that “I’m going to eat you up” that statement would creep people out at the same time it sounds scary because no one wants to be eaten by a fairytale type creature.”

·“The morals that G-spot, an urban erotic tale written by Noire portrays that money can’t by you happiness.”

Ah, the joys of teaching…

Good news - I got my Michigan Test for Teacher Certification (MTTC) scores - I passed both English & Music! This means that I will be certified to teach in Michigan upon graduation. Booya.

baby, it's cold outside

2007-02-05T07:48:00.000-08:00

Today is a SNOW DAY!!
I don't know if I'm allowed to say so, but even though I love the students & all... I still get excited about snow days.

My first week of student teaching went well, although I didn't do any actual teaching. I took attendance each day so I could begin learning names, and I helped out with odds and ends in the classroom.

Stories from the week:
-Mr. got a phone call and stared at one male student while he was talking. After he hung up, he said to the same student, "Your parole officer is looking for you." The student started to gather his things, at which point, Mr. laughed and said, "Just kidding. Call your dad at the end of the period."

-One of my first interactions with a student:
"Hey, miss, what's your name?"
"Miss Bannister."
"Miss Bann... can I call you Miss B?"
"Of course."
"Miss B, do you got any food?"

-Thursday afternoon we had two fire drills, half an hour apart. Mr. and I cheated and grabbed our coats and mittens before we went out. Teachers were highly suspicious that these fire drills were not initiated by administration, but rather, by some dubious ruffian...

Other than that, the week was uneventful, fairly routine.

This week I start teaching the sophomores - Mr.'s "worst" class... and my favorite, naturally...

i've only just begun...

2007-01-31T12:04:00.000-08:00

I have started my student teaching!
Well, not the actual teaching part. So far, I have observed & tried to learn names.

On my first day, one [male] student walked into the classroom & remarked, "Oooh - you got a female student teacher?! Your class is gonna be better now."

Our schedule is:
1st period - study hall
2nd period - English 3 (juniors)
3rd period - AP English (seniors)
4th period - English 2 (sophomores)
5th period - lunch
6th period - prep
7th period - English 3
8th period - AP English

I've already learned that it is awesome having a prep period right after your lunch period. :)

The class sizes vary from day to day. For example, the morning session of English 3 is supposed to have 28 students. We have 15 on a good day. The English 2 class should have 20 students, but 8 show up regularly.

I've had a little experience now reading some of the students' essays. . . when they bother to turn them in. I don't even know what to say about the writing levels. "Substandard" would be an understatement.

But I love the kids already. Love them.
They are so funny & helpless & misguided.
What's not to love?

in over my head?

2007-01-25T12:07:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am - back from Oxford, done with J-term & ready to start student teaching.

Or am I?

I met with my cooperating teacher for the first time today. I am going to be student teaching at a public high school in Rochester. The school has about 2,000 students, grades 7-12. I was informed they graduate around 150 each year. Do the math.
Since this is Regents week in NY, only about a quarter of the students were in the building. For issues of privacy, I'll just refer to my cooperating teacher as Mr. Teacher. Not that I foresee it being a problem or an issue, but just to cover my bases. Anyway, meeting with Mr. Teacher went well. He seems to be a great guy, down to earth & full of good information. He has been teaching for 16 years - 5 of them at this school. He loves his job, which is very encouraging. I think I'm going to enjoy working with him. I will be teaching 10th & 11th graders English 2 & 3, and a few lessons in the 12th grade AP English class.

As he was giving me a tour of the school, we passed a police officer escorting a girl out of the school, and Mr. Teacher remarked, "Great way to start the day - with a fight." He later informed me that one of his students had "recently been arrested for murder."

My thoughts?
This is going to be the most intense, stretching semester of my life, but I am confident that it will also be one of the most enjoyable & rewarding experiences as well.

Monday morning, here I come...