Choosing What’s Important October 28, 2007

The title of this entry is the main question I struggled with this week when try to put WWI into a week and a half.  This is the first time the time constraints are slightly binding because the test must fall on this coming Wednesday (HALLOWEEN!!!).  After Wednesday our students are recieving  four day weekend, due to parent teacher conferences, and I do not want them to come back and test the following week.  So, everything must be complete by then and there is so much to cover.

My CT is letting me run the show, and with this means I am picking out the main points of the topics and going with what I feel is important.  I like this freedom, but at time I feel inexperienced.  I am not exactly sure what it will take for the students to get the BIG picture.  I am having a difficult time deciding what to leave out.  As we talked about with textbook bias last Monday, our textbook does not cover any battles in WWI besides the ones Americans fought in.  This is upsetting because the war was going on for nearly three years before we joined it.  Obviously the book is not placing an importance on this time period.  So, in order for the students to get it they need to use other resources.  I have to give them these because our library and traveling computers are signed out for the next two months straight (this is anothe source of frustration).  I ended up cutting it down to the two major battles before the U.S. entered, but even now I do not know if that was the right answer.  Also, I am having a tough time fitting the geography into the work.  I tried to cover it with an annotated battle map, thinking I would kill two birds with one stone, but the students did not do well with this.  They were very vague on locations (if that is possible).  The whole geography in general is difficult to fit in, because on our wrap up day we should cover the League of Nations, Reparations, Wilson’s Fourteen Points, Post WWI Maps, Treaty of Versialles, and more.  It is just so much information to fit into a lesson. 

I guess these types of questions are answered with experience and as I continue in these semester and next, hopefully some of the kinks will be worked out.  It is amazing looking at a lesson plan you thought would go so well and take a certain amount (usually I am thinking of what can be done in case the lesson runs short ) of time and then after you are saying….”what the heck happened to the 72 minutes.”  I am working on understanding the motto, “Practice makes Perfect”, or at least semi-perfect.

So Much to Do, So Little Time October 27, 2007

I will use this blog to vent some of the feelings many of us Teacher Assistants are currently having.  I am loving my classroom.  I truly enjoy being at the school and feel like I have settled in well.  I have completed the teaching we are required to do, but am excited to continue.  The students are so much fun and I have developed closer relationships with many of them.  When I was in high school I enjoyed it when I saw my teachers at my extra-curricular events (sports, plays).  My problem with this semester is that the College of Ed. puts us in these schools and ask up to impress and do a good job, yet we have so many things to do that it becomes very difficult to get everything done in a quality manner (without staying up until 3 in the morning after I return from the students Regional Final soccer game). 

I am trying to write papers, complete lesson plans, do observations, get to games, make a classroom management plan, and get enough rest to be on top of my game in the classroom.  I am not even trying to work, which I know some of my fellow students are.  I do not like to fail, or not do the best quaility work possible, so I will get things done and they will be to the best of my ability.  The problem is, it has been at the cost of my health and stress level.  I am not sure that is a great thing to have happen to make a point about how busy we will be as teachers.  We are still college students and have to pay to live.  I don’t even care that I have no social life, but it is everything else.

Don’t get me wrong I feel some of the things we do for College of Ed are very relevant to the Teacher Assisting and our next semester.   I think we can all admit there are things which seem to be rather unnecessary.  I am glad we now have student representative to help with the planning and hopefully improve on what is happening.  I am really enjoying my experience in the classroom, but feel like I am being asked to be half at my placement and half at GVSU, which does not give off a great image at my school.

Besides my frustrations with that issue, the week has progressed well.  The students seem to be ready for a break, but they get a four day weekend next week, starting on Wednesday.  It is parent teacher conference week.  I think I am just as excited as the students.

A Great Debate October 20, 2007

I am lucky enought to say that I had a great ending to my first full week of teaching.  As I stated earlier, my topic for the week is Imperialism.  I have warmed up to the topic, on that I didn’t think would be much fun.  I thought it was one of those units I would want to whip through to get to the WWI.  Suprisingly enought it has went great mostly due to the culmination activity on Friday.  On Thursday we went and researched for a Pro/Anti-Imperialism debate.  I wasn’t sure about using a debate activity because the students in my U.S. History classes are majority sophomores and I didn’t know how well they would be able to stay on task and really create a solid argument. 

 I was pleased to find out I underestimated their ability to get passionate about a topic as bland as Imperialism.  They did a wonderful job with the debate.  I had students getting pretty fired up at each other (that was not the goal, but at least they were getting into the debate).  After a little bit of handholding by me at the beginning the students settled in and started adding detail and examples to their points.  I also made it worth enought points that every student felt as if they had to participate (they had to make a point to get any of their participation points).  I truly enjoyed watching them learn as they were completeing this activity.  I was able to sit on the side and let the students take control of the class and idealy I think this is what should happen (as long as a significant amount of learning is still occuring).  I had all I could do to not chime in and agree with points or sometimes elaborate on them.  I didn’t want to though, I wanted it to be theirs.  Also, there is a response paper they must turn in by Monday, but as I observed I was many students doing an excellent job taking notes.  This was their whole paper was basically wrote for them.  They have all the research they need and only need to fill in the holes.  It should be a great assignment to get some of the students back on track.

Overall, I was very pleased and I wanted to find out if the students felt the same way about the activity.  I allowed some time at the end for me to ask for some feedback.  The student feedback was also overwhelmingly positive.  They really enjoyed the activity no matter which team they were on.  They thought that this made the topic more real to them and they were able to use real life examples with Iraq to describe what they were trying to say (yes there were both positive and negative examples involving Iraq).  I thought the connections they mad took the conversation to a much deeper level and I wasn’t sure they were going to be able to go there with the debate.  The students did ask if they could have more than one day to research and prepare.  Many felt their arguments would have been even stronger had they known what to expect and known more about their topic.  I thought this was a good suggestion and if I use a debate again I will definatly take it into consideration.

I was very impressed with this activity and my students went above and beyond with this lesson.  I thought it was a great ending for them and the paper will really help them pull it all together.  I am looking forward to reading their responses.

Flying by… October 19, 2007

This week I began my unit of teaching.  I am covering Imperialism.  I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy the topic and I was having a rough time coming up with different activities.  Like it always seems to do, everything came together just in time for me to finish planning and the week has really shaped up.  The best part about it is that the students really seem to enjoy what we are doing and I believe they are grasping the concept.  Because I was having a difficult time picking what activities I really liked I think I came up with more than needed. 

On Monday I used a wide variety of activities.  The students did some brainstorming and worked with documents and charts.  I thought they truly grasped the topic of imperialism.  On Tuesday the students began a cooperative learning assignment.  I had them do News Broadcasts.  Each pair had to study an example of Imperialism in the late 1800′s to early 1900′s.  They had to find the five W’s and then create a two to three minute broadcast with a visual.  They presented their portion to the rest of the class who need to take notes for the quiz that would follow.  I was not extrememly happy with the use of their class time.  The seemed slightly under prepared to me.  The broadcasts were decent, but I thought the students could have rehearsed more.  I had to fill in more holes than planned.  This did reflect in their scores and I hope this becomes a learning experience for them.  When I graded the quizes I thought the scores were average to above, so I know they got the information, just not exactly the way I had planned.

Today the students recieved a prompt for the debate they will do tomorrow.  I think this will be a good activity because they seemed to work hard on the research portion in the library today.  This may be because I scared them about the use of their worktime.  But whatever gets them moving.

Besides the actual teaching I feel like there is so much to do.  I am constatly grading and entering grades into the computer.  I am creating nearly every assignment, so even constructing them is taking a considerable amount of time.  I am finding that I am trying to squeeze all of the different college of ed assignments in.  I am not happy about that right now and I think my quality of work in the classes is going down, but I think my focus should be in my school classroom.  I think I need to be superb there.  This balancing act is definatly not fun.

A Couple of Problems October 15, 2007

Last week seemed to end as a crash and burn.  Not necessarily in the content/teaching area of the classroom, but a couple other discouraging events occured.  The first event didn’t invovle me personally, yet I think I learned a few things by watching the event unfold.  On Thursday, my CT was chatting in the hall with a collegue.  The collegue happened to mention why alternative ed students or dropouts should be set to the military.  He said, and I quote, “Once an idiot, always an idiot.”  My CT brought this idea into the classroom to open up the discussion.  She thought it would be a good topic that the students may have an opinion on (I should preface this with the fact that this is an upper level class with juniors and seniors).  I thought the conversation was appropriate and fit there age level.  Well, unfortunatley this was not a great topic to bring into the class.  My CT did not pick a side, but did mention what she would do if one of her kids dropped out at 16.  She said she would not support him and he would be finding a job.  She did mention one particular student in our systems alternative ed. class and this was done to make mention that all alternative ed students should not be out there.  The problem came because his sister was in the class and she only made mention of it to point out that you cannot generalize all students. 

The point of the message went home, and was misconstrued to the parents and the brother.  On Friday, while we were at lunch someone place a letter on my CT’s desk.  The letter was very vulgar and not at all nice.  It involved profanity and many accusations which he wasn’t even there to hear.  The situation has worsened because the boy’s best friend is in the class in which the conversation occured, but was absent the day of the conversation.  He apparently found out and on Sunday my CT recieved an email relating how wrong she was and so on.  This whole situation is a result of comments taken out of context.  I mention this situation just to reflect on our role in the classroom and how the different topics we discuss and what we say on these topics can have an incredible impact on many people.  I think teachers must be careful about what they say, as situations and comments can clearly be taken much further than they were meant to.

Another situation which I was directly involved in was the finding of information which I am required to report.  I was preforming a weekly binder check in one of my classes and while I was going through the notes I discovered a conversation between a student in my class and somebody else.  The conversation started by saying how funny she was when she was F****** high.  This conversation went on to say that her pops was her supplier and he mother didn’t know about it, but it’s o.k. because her father wouldn’t tell.  There was much more, but that was the basic theme.  I turned the binder over to my CT who consequently had to take it to the Vice Principal.  The V.P. didn’t act all that suprised or worried though.  He said, but talk to her about it and then give it to the guidance counselors, it’s really all you can do.  I thought this was an interesting conclusion to the whole situation.  Today that conversation occured, but the student didn’t have much to say.  She broke down crying.  Right now I am not sure how the situation will turn out.  This is interesting because it deals with many legal issues and what a teacher is obligated to do when situations such as these arise. 

Anyway, this was an interesting Friday and I just thought I would share some of the lovely occurances in my building.  I think these are real situations that all of us must deal with in some way or another, no matter where our placement is.

I Hate Charter October 13, 2007

Just thought I would let you all know why I have been able to post this week until now.  I think I have spent at least 5 hours on the phone with Charter this week and they still have not solved my internet problems.  I am at the Portage Public Library posting this (in between my two teacher certifications test).   So, I have developed a new disdain for Charter.

Besides that the week went by very quickly.  My CT returned Wednesday and if felt like the rest of the week involved playing catch-up.  I now realize how important it is to be there as a teacher.  There is so much you are out of the loop on when you return.  Now, I know there are certain circumstances in which you must miss, but I now know to avoid it at all cost.  I think it made it worse that she was gone for a week straight, so when she returned she was slightly behind.  I have never done as much grading as I completed in the past week. 

Also, I was able to observe other teachers around the building this week.  I found this to be very beneficial.  I saw quite a few teaching techniques which I would like to implement in my classroom.  There were many other actions or techinques I had to sit back and question.  In part it comes down to what you are comfortable doing, but the other part of it is whether or not the students are learning as you are using these methods.  I will have some interesting points when we talk about PowerPoint this next Monday.  I was able to watch a teacher make good use of the technique and I was able to watch another teacher use it in an incredibly unproductive way.  Looking at other classrooms caused me to want to develop my own.  I would compile the many different strategies I have found effective over the years.  It made me want to jump right in, doing my own thing.

I hope everyone is getting the chance to view other classrooms in their school.  I think this is an essential tool in really developing a sound classroom.  I am excited to come and watch one of my peers in action and hopefully pick up some good pointers from them also.

I’m looking foward to next week.  I am getting ready to take over with a unit on imperialism:)

Another Week Gone October 6, 2007

Another week has come and passed. We are moving into our sixth week of school already. The trimester is nearly half over at Otsego High School. When I look back at think about how many years we have covered in my U.S. History class, and how far we have to go, I can’t believe we are going to get it all in. It is amazing how much information is cramed into two decades in history. And of course, all of it is so important.

There is one thing I am questioning at the end of this long week. For the last two days, and the first two days next week my CT wanted to show this video on Teddy Roosevelt. It will take four days of class time. The truth is, it is a pretty good video. The kids are really enjoying it and they do find it fascinating. I am just wondering if four days is too much. It seems a little overkill for me. It isn’t my call, but the biggest problem comes from this “team” teaching. The other US History A class watched the entire video. That particular teacher thinks it is all valuable and that is fine, but by the forth day I will be wondering if it is necessary. I don’t know. Right now I think I should just go with the flow and not question this decision. I just wanted to get all of that out.

Also, as you know I have had a substitute in the classroom the last few days. This man truly means well, but it has not went well. He ALWAYS has something to say to the students that does not pertain to what they are doing. He gets them so off topic. He is interupting me as I am going over things and it was really getting to me today (this was the second day we had him). Bless his heart, he went home last night and did research on the topics of the two classes just to have something to share, but the students are not reacting well to it. I don’t really know what to do with the situation. They are constantly laughing and not paying attention, but I know that they are trying to work on their assignments I have distributed. This was just a really different situation and I don’t know if I handled it in the best way.

Today was also homecoming Friday and we took two hours of school to do a school wide assembly in the gym. It was so, so, so, so hot in that gym. When I was in high school we did the homecoming games at night, so this was new to me. I thought it was a long time for the entire school to sit and watch different games. I loved that stuff, but when it was at night, the people who came were the people to wanted to be there and participate and there were a lot less problems that way. I know it is nice for the entire school to have the opportunity to participate, but I do think it was a little chaotic trying to keep everyone sitting and paying attention for two hours.

I hope everyone else’s week finished up nicely. I am sure everyone is settling in greatly and hopefully getting ready to do some full-time teaching! See ya on Monday!

A Week Without the Teacher….AHHHH! October 4, 2007

As planned, my CT was gone today.  Her grandfather had surgery.  I created the lessons and ran the classes.  It went well, while the substitute sat and basically got paid for doing absolutely nothing.  At this point I was wondering whether or not we can be paid to be the subs.  If anyone knows let me know.  Come to find out, I have a whole week of this.  My CT’s grandpa passed away during his surgery (please say a prayer for her and her family even though you don’t know her).  She called upset and told me I would be running the show the next week, which I had not planned on for all four classes.  I guess I am looking at this as a wonderful opportunity to deal with a crazy planning schedule.

What I am semi-excited about is the fact that this is homecoming week.  I love homecoming.  The students are so excited and many of them have been willing participants in the school spirit days.  I have always been huge on school spirit.  I would be interested to see how the level of school spirit is connected with the grades of students in the classroom (it might be a fun study).  Anyway,  I was super involved in high school, doing everything with this event, as I was student council VP.  I was even out of school all day on Friday to make sure everything was set.  My CT is head of student council and consequently I will be taking over the events for Friday.  I know it is an unfortunate situation for her, but I am more than willing to help because I love this stuff.  It brings me back to my high school days.  So Friday I will be helping with the school wide assembly, filled with fun fun games.  And the big football game will be equally exciting.  Actually, Otsego has the longest losing streak in the state (36 games) and so a win would be giganitic on this festive occasion!!!!

So, as you can see, the rest of this week will be incredibly busy.  I am looking foward to all of the excitement!!!