A Month Gone September 29, 2007

I can’t believe it has been one month already! It seems like we just got started, and by that I mean I am as tired today as I was during the first week. But really, what a difference a month has made. I wasn’t incredibly nervous going into this experience, but I am having so much fun as I have got to know the students. I have had the opportunity to develop a strong repore with a group of them.

I am excited to be at this point because I am only one week away from taking over the class (as a tenative plan anyway). I will be starting the U.S. History class on the rise of American power. It will all lead up to WWI. I actually like this time period and hopefully that will pull me into the twenties. I am really excited about that unit. During the twenties we are thinking about doing a multi-genre. I did one in my English for Secondary teachers last semester and really loved the mulitple persepectives you can create on a topic. I am excited to try this.

As I move into my teaching I am begining to wonder how much homework is too much. I have been hearing that a ton of my students are sent home with at least two-three hours of homework between all of their classes. I am not a huge fan of this. We have to remember these are kids. They have family lives. This is their time to be young. By the time some of them get home it is four, five, or six for some athletes. They have dinner and then by seven or earlier they need to get their homework done to get to bed by ten. What about students that have jobs? Anyway, I know this is a rant and I am not against homework. We send it home consistently, but most of the time it is a fifteen minute thing. We also do not do homework on the weekends (a policy I particularly like). Just thought I would pose a question.

Also, on Thursday Prof. Collier came to visit Otsego! This was a rather exciting event. It’s always fun to look at a new school. Oh, and the lesson went well too. We were covering discrimination by race of the late 1800’s early 1900’s (voting restictions, lynchings, Jim Crow). I think the students got the objective and they were given time to use computers for research. They also had to be creative and make an persuasive poster against Jim Crow. I felt the day was rather successful. The cool part was that on Friday we had a very involved classroom discussion about the repercussions of these laws and actions today. We talked about numerous recent race issues. The students really got into it and had many intellectual comments to say. I think it was a amazing wrap-up to the day before.

This week was a great ending to a month of firsts. Hope the next month is just as fun!

A Busy Week September 28, 2007

What a great week.  I get to get two observations done.  Sounds fun, but that meant that I had to be ready to do the two observations.  This took a little bit more time than I had anticipated.  I quickly found out that nothing works according to plan.  The good thing about my class and CT is that she pretty much gives me free reign in regards to the way I would like to do my lessons.  Everything is up to me (besides the topic) and that is nice.  I was worried I would be required a certain amount of lecture and worksheets but it is nothing like that. 

On Tuesday my College of Ed supervisor came in, Art Sweet.  He is a nice guy and always brings presents (like different teaching materials for me to keep).  This time he brought me a few posters and two different DVDs and booklets.  They contained lesson plans and videos for highlighting minorities in different time periods.  They are interesting and I hope I will be able to incorporate them in the class at some point.  My lesson was on New Entertainment during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  I had a fun time putting together the presentation.  I used a Charlie Chaplin clip and some different music samples.  I also was able to talk about the development of the major sports.  The students had some fun with sports trivia.  I was nervous, because it was my first observation and I didn’t know how the students would react to a visitor being in the room.  He came in a class that has 13 boys and 4 girls.  It could have been ugly because as we all know sophmore boys have a tendency to show off. 

The students did a great job though and gave a ton of feedback to the different questions.  At the end of the class they began working on creating their own silent film or a new invention.  On Wednesday they had to perform or explain these.  I had some groups do a great job and really use their time wisely, but others were not quick on their feet.  It showed during the presentations on Wednesday.  Overall, the lesson went well and I felt confident in that the students accomplished my objectives.  The thing I hated the most was the ITEP format of lesson plans.  I understand we will all have to use some sort of plan and be prepared, but the set-up seems a little over the top. 

I know my situation is much different than some of yours.  I am fortunate to have decently behaved students in my school.  They are respectful and many of them have a desire to succeed.  I am really blessed to be in a great learning enviroment.

I Know We Covered That!!!! September 22, 2007

Wow. As I finish up with the essays for the first unit test of the year I am amazed with the small amount of information the students are able to regenerate. They didn’t even have to have everything memorized. We allowed them to use a notecard (obviously in hopes that they would study through the process of looking for information to put on the card). I will say that only about 50 percent of the students actually made a useful notcard.

Looking back on this first large assessment I can see why the students struggle. I didn’t like the giganitic amount of information which the test covered. I didn’t really like the way it was set up. As I have said before we are working with another teacher who has to keep the same pace as us and collaboratively the test is made. Actually that means, each teacher created 20 multiple choice questions and emailed them to each other. My CT doesn’t even like multiple choice questions but they agreed to do the test this way. She convinced the other teacher to use at least an essay to make them apply what they learned on a deeper level.

The next problem comes with the exact terms or issues on his lessons were not covered in our class. He used different terms which our students had not heard. I think some planning issues fell through the cracks. I am assuming his class may have the same issue with our questions. Also, I don’t know how fair some of the questions and options for answers were. I thought that multiple questions had two correct answers. I could have understood where the students were getting confused.

So, after I ran through the multiple choice portion I figured out the most commonly missed questions. I found about ten that more than 75 percent of the students missed. We looked back at the them and discovered the flaws. So, we went through all the test and awarded a few more points. We also gave an analysis of a political cartoon for extra credit. I see this as balancing out some of the other teachers questions that our students were very confused by.

I have been thinking about what will help the students more next time. We did give review sheets and the students didn’t do particularly well on them. We should have taken more time instead of being worried about a crammed schedule. Also it would have helped to have the test created earlier for a careful review by both teachers.

My CT and I have talked and we are trying to decide what to do with the results of this test. I wonder if we need to backtrack and retest after the information is covered again. It may help to do more mini-assessments throughout the weeks. We did have three weeks and four chapters of information crammed into this unit. I think this type of situation happens with teachers sometimes and I am interested in seeing how it all works out.

How do you check student reading… September 22, 2007

This week was only the third week of the year and I cannot believe the lack of effort the students seem to be putting in.  I could understand it a little bit more if we were later in the year, or close to Christmas break.  It seems slightly more normal for students to check out at that point, but three weeks in!  My biggest disappointment was the lack of student preparation for class.  We only asked them to read THREE pages!  It would have taken 10 minutes at the most. 

The next day we obviously did a short reading check quiz, just to see how many of them read.  After I checked over the quizzes I would guess that possibly two of them actually read the material.  The questions were very simple if the reading would have been read.  They were not in depth.  So, I am wondering what strategies anyone has to encourage reading or just to get a higher percentage actually doing it.  We try not to read in class because we like to gear toward activities, but that often takes student preparation out of class. 

I did get the idea of the reading for pleasure style in the content literacy class.  I spoke to my CT about using a chart and having the students record connections they personally make to the reading rather than have them write terms.  I would like to see how this works.  If anyone has any other suggestion I would be open to them. 

I think what I am really disappointed in is the lack of outside effort given by the students.  Simple homework was not turned in this week.  I do the students weekly progress reports and on average the students dropped at least 3 percentage points this week. 

A Successful Lesson September 16, 2007

Friday was a great end to the first full week of the year. I was lucky enough to run both the U.S. History classes on Thursday and Friday. When I left the class both days I felt that the lesson went particularly well. I was pleased to find out my CT felt the same way about the Big Business portion of the chapter.

With time running short, the kids had to read the section at home and instead of taking regular notes, they made concept maps. On Thursday I was pleased to see that a large majority of the class had attempted to make a complete concept map. I wanted to test their understanding, so as a class we made a massive map on the board and the students contributed all of the points. The good thing about the map was that it wasn’t just terms, but the students came up with causes and effects and I really think they understood what happened during this time period. Also, everyone in the class contributed at least on point. The second block class had to be pushed a little to answer, but I was particularly happy with the willing participation of third block. For many of the terms we found a way to relate it to events in the business world today. This exercise took about twenty minutes.

The most confusing parts of the chapter dealt with vertical and horizontal consolidation. So on Friday we started with an activity. The students partnered up and I asked them to pick a real world company/product and figure out how they would vertical and horizontally consolidate that industry if they were a CEO of a powerful country. They need to use picture and arrows to illustrate this. They were given nearly 25 minutes for this. I was suprised at how well the groups went to work. I didn’t have to nag them and they had great ideas for their products. When they were finished they quickly presented their products/industry to the rest of the class. I recieved some great pictures and unique ideas and I really think the students understood the two terms and the differences between the two. Following this we did a review of the Moving West unit to evaluate where the students were for the test next Friday.

I was super pleased with my last few days. I was so excited to get the chance to lead the students and I couldn’t be happier with their willing participation. I think there are very good things coming!

Nothing Ever Goes According to Plan September 14, 2007

This week has been a real eye-opener for me.  I have always know that teachers have a small amount of time to cram a large amount of information into.  This last week in my classroom has been a great example of that.  Before school started (two weeks ago)  I sat down with my CT and the other teacher who would be teaching U.S. History A.  They have to coordinate their schedules because with the new trimester set-up there is no guarantee you will have the same teacher for the B portion.  They also have to create the same assessments and obviously leave off the end with the same final.

Well, during the week before school started the plan we laid out look great.  We had used a draft of the upcoming Social Studies standards and planned accordingly.  We were going to get through nearly 30 years in the first two weeks.  The test was set for this Friday.  When I looked at the plans I thought we were asking a lot of the students in such a short time period, but I have not taught the subject for ten years, so who am I to say. 

Well, I do not think there is a single day in which we finished everything previously planned for that hour.  The test was moved to Tuesday.  Obviously, we won’t be ready for that.  The test is now moved to next Friday.  I am beginning to wonder if that is even possible.  We have to take Monday out of the equation because that day will gear around the Constitution, which is not really a part of our current unit.   During conversations with my CT, I have found out that the teachers are having a difficult time adjusting to the 70 minute hours instead of 90 minutes.  Twenty minutes is a big chunck of time to give up.  I would assume that this would be very difficult when you have taught with the long blocks for years. 

Anyway, I am learning what it is like to adjust and then readjust.  Nothing goes according to plan.  I have been waiting for a couple of days to teach a lesson that I had planned.  It was going to occur on Tuesday, but I finally taught the first portion of it during the second half of the class today.  I am going to finish it up tomorrow.  I am interested to see how much the students prepared for the planned activities.  We’ll see how it goes!

A Disappointing Test September 10, 2007

I have been pleasantly suprised by how outgoing the students have been to this point. Nearly all of them have turned in every assignment and I thought to myself, “Wow, if these kids really want to learn this will be a cakewalk.” This assumption was slightly premature. On Friday I was a little bit disappointed by the scores of the 50 states map test the kids took. They had known since Tuesday that this would was occuring on Friday. They had plenty of time to study. I even ran a review game on the board before the test was taken. After each class I went through the test and the scores were much lower than they should have been for sophomore level U.S. History students.

I tried to shake this off but I couldn’t stop thinking about how important it was for the students to know the locations of the states. When you start taking about different historical events they need to have a clue where that would be. My CT and I decided that the best thing would be for the students to retake the test until they got all of the states right. I am not sure how long this will take but I do think it is necessary.

On Friday I stayed around long enough for her fifth hour planning. What I noticed was how hard it actually was to cram in the information that was planned for the week. We were about three lessons behind were we had expected to be. The job of staying on task is difficult because even as we started to plan we were interuppted and she had to leave for a meeting. The difficult part about her planning is that with the new trimester set up there is U.S. History A and B. The kids may not have the same teacher for both, so the two U.S. History teachers need to make sure they leave off in the same place and their assessments have to be similar. So, it is a bigger deal when we fall behind because the other U.S. History teacher is trying to keep a similar pace.

I think this has to be one of the most difficult parts to teaching. The planning and figuring out correct time periods will take some getting used to and I will have to learn to be flexible. Things will not always go according to plan and different instances prove that everyday. I feel as if the fist week already gave me my fair share of those.

It’s Nine O’Clock and I Want to go to Bed September 7, 2007

What an exhausting first couple of days!  I don’t know if many of you share the same feelings, but I am so tired.  I was not one to sleep in and this summer I was up at seven each day.  I don’t know if it is the on my feet the whole day and being attentive that has made me more tired, or if that loss of an hour of sleep is killing me.  My CT likes to be at school at seven so getting up and getting around has become difficult.  For the first time in my life I am packing a lunch (who knew that takes an extra ten minutes in the morning).  I know I will be fine once my body gets used to this new scheduale and going to bed a little bit earlier will help. 

Other than being dead tired at the end of the day I am really enjoying this first week of school.  I feel as if I am settling into the classroom very well.  On the first day she let me pick and run the community building games, so most of the hour was spent with introductions and everyone in the room got to know each other better.  I picked the three truths and a lie game, and the kids had a lot of fun with that.  Also, because we are in a brand new HUGE school I acted as a tour guide for the first hour students and showed them around the building.  We ended up in the auxilary gym and the principal presented the students with a banner for them all to sign.  It was the “Otsego Promise”.  It was made to the community:  to keep the respect the new school.  It was also made to the staff and to the students themselves.  It was a neat idea because the students did not have to sign it, only if they were willing to make the commitment.

Basically my first day invovled the games I had planned and going over classroom rules and expectation that my CT and I had previously drawn up and agreed on.  I are getting along well with her because she always includes me on classroom decisions and is really letting me be a part of the learning and planning process. 

I am thankful for such a good start and right now the students are wonderful.  She makes jokes about how long this honeymoon period will last.  I said I hope at least twelve weeks:)

Mixed Feelings September 5, 2007

As the first week of school is upon us I am getting more nervous.  I have the same worries as others.  I want to be of help to my CT and be involved, but yet I do not want to be thrown into a situation I am not ready for.  I feel like I need the time to ease into what I am doing.  I have talked to my CT and on the first day I will be in charge of the welcoming games.  This is good because I will be able to get to know the students while doing something fun with them.  It will not be something I feel any pressure about.  I will also be leading the kids around the school for their first tour of their new building. 

After my first week of classes at GVSU and talking with my CT, I was beginning to feel slightly overwhelmed.  I feel like there are so many things to do for my classes and then I want to be available for the students at the school.  I really want to get involved in the school activities to get the full experience.  I think that as I get going this overwhelming feeling will go away and I will see that everything works out.  I know that I will be able to pace my work and space things out, but as I look at everything altogether right now it seems like a ton of work.  Right now I do not have a job so I feel like I have extra time, but in a couple months I will start coaching at my school.  I would like to have most of my coursework done by them so I can enjoy what I am doing and not be spread too thin on time. 

I am very excited about this year actually starting and I am am reassuring myself that everything will be fine.  I have a wonderful CT and she is so willing to work with whatever I am comfortable with.  I know I worry too much and everything will go great.  I don’t think I could have been placed in a more beautiful building and the staff at Otsego has been very welcoming.  They are all very kind and it is a great atmosphere to be working in.  The school has great things going for them and they are definatly there because they love the students.  I think this is not necessarily a given for all schools. 

Hey Fellow ED 331 Students September 5, 2007

I would like to start by saying how excited I am to finally begin this portion of my college education.  I wasted no time getting invovled in the legalistic side of teaching and attended the first three inservice days the teachers at Otsego High School were required to participate in.  During the first inservice much of the focus was on getting aquaintted with the new school.  Otsego had a high school which had been in operation for over 45 years and on August 26th they had a grand opening/ribbon cutting for their brand new, gigantic high school.  I am incredibly lucky to be in such a great setting with top of the line technology. 

So, as I said most of my first day was spent looking around, tooling with the new equipment, and finding out the dos and don’ts for the school system.  During the second day the teachers spent time hatching out the school-wide rules they would establish for the students.  Later in the day some of the teachers did a presentation on different forms of assessment and the positive and negative sides of both.  The third day of inservice was interesting.  The school brought in an attorney who has defended numerous schools when lawsuits were brought against them.  He explained the new and old regulations regarding special ed students in general education classrooms and what teachers must do according to the laws.  I learned so much about proper procedures, CA-60, 504’s, and IEP.  This presentation sparked many heated debates between the teachers and the presenter.  Overall my first week was incredibly successful and informational.