Week in Review 2/16 - 2/20 due 2/24
Time for your Week in Review posts.
Entries should be posted no later than the following Tuesday for the previous week.
Remember, it doesn't have to be long and involved just a snap shot and what you are learning.
Chris
posted by Heidi @ 9:16 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
So sometimes the school computers will let me use blogger and sometimes they wont. Today is a good day. This week flew by. This week I took over even more and I really enjoyed it. The more I do in the classroom the faster the weeks go by. I love the kids more each day and I love getting to be such a constant in their lives. I have come across an issue, not with my mentor teacher, but something I realized I would like to change when I have my own classroom. In Delome’s classroom there is a lot of dead time wasted in transitioning. I understand this is her classroom and this is just one thing I think I might like to do differently in my own classroom. I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for this. Each day im teaching I enjoy those moments where I begin to understand what my teaching style is like. Its interesting to look back and see which of those teahers you imitate as well. Any suggestions for this would be great. I hope everyone is doing well!
Alex
Hi Alex-I know what you mean about wasted transition time. One suggestion I can think of is to be really organized and have little activities ready for the kids to be working on while you take attendance or work on setting up a movie, etc. A lot of my Teacher's edition books give "bell ringer activities" that might might good transition fillers. My mentor teacher is not very organized and as a result I think she does have some extra dead time.
Like Hal I continue to have some good days followed by frustrating ones. I guess that is why this is a learning process. I was wondering if anyone else has the BLOCK scheduling system at their school. We have a split block schedule, where Monday has all the classes (45 min each). Then the rest of the week is split up into 1.5 hour blocks with Tues/Thur (Per1-4) and Wed/Fri (Per 4-8).
As a science teacher I always thought that the block system would be preferable as there would be more time for labs. However now that I am teaching blocks I can see there are some drawbacks I had not initially considered. One drawback is the attention span of the average high school student. This is especially apparent in my Environmental Science class where the students are more high risk. I can count on them to take in new information for about 20-30 minutes before they get antsy. They also are not highly motivated for self-directed learning projects so I have to get pretty creative with integrating some of the Smart Notebook interactive games, movie clips, and worksheets. Another concern I have is that the students seem to have a hard time remembering assignments and topics we have covered, as there is not as much continuity from day to day.
It is hard to say which system is better for sure as I have not taught with the shorter period system yet.
This week was full of excitement! Monday we had no school and I spent the 3 day weekend skiing in Austria, it was a blast! Coming back on Tuesday I was slightly tired but it was a great day. I began working on a unit with my third graders. We read a story from the “On The Job” book we have and then answered questions about it. The students then completed worksheets dealing with sentence order and using a, an, and the. They did very well. I was quite pleased. I was able to get through all 6 of our “Frog” groups by Thursday. Mrs. Heit has a great incentive idea that she has set up with the kids. She has a log with 10 pegs on it. Each of the 6 groups that I put together has a log and has a chance to earn 10 frogs of their group color. Each frog is worth 10 points and at the end of the week we total up the amount and add it to the board. The students can then use the points to buy auction items every Friday. It is great for the students to see how well they are doing and that Mrs. Heit and I notice when they are working. This week I did 2 L.I referrals for 2 of my third graders. This was a nice way to touch both my special education side of student teaching and my general education side. Mrs. Heit was pleased with my evaluation and we are set to meet about the students this week so we can start implementing some assistance and services. On Friday morning we made buttermilk biscuits, which corresponds with one of the books the students are reading. In case you haven’t noticed, my third graders cook every Friday, but only if they do not have checks on the board (which they get for misbehaving). 2 parents were able to come in and help bake, which was a big help since biscuits can get a little messy. I also wrote my first field trip request and it was approved. This Thursday my third graders will be going to the Dental Clinic on base to learn more about their teeth. Also this Friday we are having parents in for an awards ceremony in the classroom to celebrate how well the students have done on their math tests and reading tests over the last 2 months. It should be fun. Now after a very relaxing weekend I look forward to an eventful, and probably exhausting, week!
Thanks Heidi-
Katie Corder
This week at Lakenheath Middle School has been really a good experience. I am beginning to complete control of the classroom. It is fun to be at the helm and I am enjoying the challenge. I think my experiences are similar to what many other student teachers are experiencing judging from my conversation, a great feeling of fulfillment combined with many ups and downs. I have been teaching the Bill of rights this week. One of my first classes with this topic I did really well. I had prepared some good activities and teaching tools and the classes were flowing and participation was great. I was connecting the Amendments and rights to the kids lives and they were really enjoying it. That was the up, then later came the down. After a couple of really good classes the other day I had a real snoozer. It was one of those days when you try everything and it is hard to even tell if the kids have a pulse. I have to admit that I was not feeling it all that much myself. It was just like I knew that what I was doing was not working but I could not seem to pull it out you know? I think that this is something that we will all see as teachers and I guess all that I can do is try all the harder the next time . Although Dr. Mills said it was really not that bad I think that I am one of my hardest critics. I hope that I can work on this type of thing and just try to continue to get better and better. I hope everyone else is having a great to though. I am still loving it here. The group is great and the fact that we can just jet down to London for the weekend is something that I am still in a bit of shock about. I hope everyone else is having a great time as well. Till next week. Good luck
Colin
I had a very special week. As usual it was full of ups and downs. A couple days were hard, long, and felt unproductive. Then a couple of days the classes were great, flowed well, and seemed to make up for other days. This teaching thing is a rollercoaster of emotion :)
The reason my week was special is because I had a very important moment with a student. He is struggling in one of my classes. He has not turned anything in for the current unit and is not showing progress. I pulled him aside and had a heart to heart with him. He told me that he was not turning much homework in any of his classes. He is a VERY quiet individual and it felt good to pull him aside, make him comfortable and listen to what he had to say. I was able to help him express himself and identify some fo the problem. I then made an adaptation to help ensure that he would do the work, do it well, and do it on time. He is a very bright student and I think that this may have been one of the first times that a teacher talked to him like a human being. I had a surreal moment of reflection afterwards that made me realize the gravity of the situation. I really hope that I can help this student succeed.
Other than that, Colin and I got dooped (duped?) into painting a parent volunteer room earlier this week...not fun, but I suppose a nice gesture toward a staff member. Also I have been attending staff volleyball games every Wednesday after school. It has been great.
This weekend Colin and I are travelling to Netherlands!
I am realy enjoying reading your comments. It sounds like you all are doing well and experiencing the growing pains that go with taking on more of the teaching role in your classes.
I would agree with Lauren that one of the ways to shorten transition time is to have "in progress" activities that are always handy (journals, reading, unfinished work) another suggestion is to be "over planned" so you are ready with the next planned event and students are waiting for you to get ready. I have seen some amazing classrooms where students know exactly what they are supposed to do when there is a break in instruction. they transition seamlessly.
I'd like to hear from Hal and Colin regarding block scheduling. I tihnk they may have seen it in their practicums even if they don't have it at Lakenheath. One of the real drawbacks is if a teacher tries to teach the same way on the longer days but just do two lessons. As you have already figured out, it takes a lot of planning and varied activities to keep students engaged and learning.
Katie,I love that you are cooking every Friday and the rewards system is a little different than I have seen before. It sounds like it's working! Let us know how the field trip goes.
I will end with Colin's description of the highs and lows of teaching. Everyone loves that feeling of knowing "your plan has come together" but it takes real insight to articulate when you know it's not working and then figuure out how to fix it. The trouble is, it's hard to do that in the moment. Anyway, we all get better with time to reflect.
Thanks for sharing. Chris
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