Reflecting on your week 10/18
Hi Everyone,
I hope you are taking good care of Chris on her visit! She asked me to post this prompt for you.
"I would like all of you to reflect on your week so your blog post is your week in review with a highlight and a stretch. Since I am here, I just need the journal reflection because I will see all of you!"
Enjoy your week!
Heidi
posted by Heidi @ 10:20 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Today when grading our 7th grade students’ homework it was clear they did not grasp the topic they were supposed to over the weekend. We decided to push back all the lessons in order to review the topic (mean, median, mode) and give the students a chance to re-do the homework assignment. The mid-chapter test got pushed back a day because of this which would be when Chris visits my class. Instead we decided we will do the lesson that was planned for that day originally and do the test after the visit. Pushing the test back won’t hurt the students and I decided I would also review mean, median, and mode during the lesson in order to tie it in and give the students more practice with it.
Last week my highlight was definitely all day Thursday. It was my birthday and my students loved celebrating it with me. First period my mentor teacher had a scavenger hunt for my students and me to complete. They enjoyed it a lot and so did I. Then every period after, my mentor teacher described the hunt and had the students sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me. Another intern also had their birthday and we took one of the periods over to the high school to surprise him. We didn’t get a whole lot done school-wise (we tried!) but it was a lot of fun. The students really enjoyed being able to share that with me and I enjoyed sharing it with them.
This past Thursday was easily my most challenging day of student teaching so far. On this particular day, there was a subsitute in the room who had a very different perspective of how a classroom should be run. Our classroom is a busy, lively place where students are able to take charge of their learning, and this particular subsitute had a more traditional viewpoint. After school, I heard from other teachers that he was complaining to them about how "terrible" my students were and how they were "out of control" and he would never want to go back again. Not only did I feel upset because I worried that it was a negative reflection of me, but I felt defensive because my students were learning and did just fine that day. We do have a few rowdy students and some special education students, but I love them and think they make the day more exciting. It ended up being a good learning experience for me and helped me realize that not everyone will agree with what you do in your classroom, but you need to do what you feel is right for your students.
Other than that, my week was fantastic! Chris' visit went well. I enjoyed having the chance to show off my class and all the learning and fun that goes on in here :) The highlight of my week was definitely when I taught my two-day lesson on erosion. The students each had a pan filled with dirt that they shpaed into a hill and tested the effects of "wind" and water erosion on their hill. On the second day, we talked about ways they could keep their hill from eroding away and why it may be important to do that. I loved watching how engaged my students were in the activity and how excited they were about learning science. Even some of my more difficult students totally came alive during this lesson. They keep asking me if we can work with erosion again because they have thought of some new experiment ("What if we freeze the hill?" "Can we try it with rocks instead?"). At the end of the day, things like this are what teaching is all about :)
This past week went really well. I was nervous for my PPA formal lesson since my day kept getting pushed. I have been taking over a lot more responsibilities in my classroom and starting to feel like I really have a handle on my kindergarteners.
We went on two field trips in the last week and a half. One day to the library on base. The kids were so excited to go on the walking fieldtrip even though it was freezing! The librarian showed them around the library and then read them a story called "Bats in the Library". They loved it. Then we went and played on the "Burger King Playground" which was the highlight of the kids day for sure. It's funny how kids don't even notice the cold when they get to run around and have fun.
Later we went to the recycling center on base. Again this was a walking field trip, and it was raining. Here in Germany recycling is a really big deal, so it was great to get the kids interacting with why and how we recycling here in Germany. This was also the day that Chris came to observe so things were a little hectic. In the end it actually turned out perfectly and Chris was able to see all the morning and afternoon activities.
I really enjoyed having Chris in my classroom. SHe got to see that 5year olds can be independent and how we teach that in the classroom, as well as see how we enforce behavior with positive re enforment, like the "safe place".
This last week seemed to fly by between preparing for the PPA, Chris’s wonderful visit, and doing full-time planning and instruction for all my freshmen classes! While Chris was here, she was able to observe my 4th period freshmen class as we studied “The Scarlet Ibis.” This short story is full of inferences, foreshadowing, and symbols, so I used this mini-unit to incorporate my mathematical and scientific reasoning lessons. Incorporating math and science into the English Language Arts classroom was much easier and smoother than I anticipated and the lessons went really well. My freshmen classes are now starting a novel by Dominican Republic author, Julia Alvarez, partly in honor of Hispanic Heritage month and partly just because it is a great novel! After some detailed, but necessary background information, the students seem to really be enjoying this book. Most of my students are so interested in the book they have been reading ahead and wanting to know more information about the Dominican Republic and this time period. Reading this novel gives me a chance to bring in some fun cultural activities too and allows students to learn about things they are interested in.
A highlight of this week would definitely be how enraptured my students were while we were discussing the dictator Trujillo (the antagonist in our story) and the things he did to brave and innocent Dominicans (like the main characters). I am glad the students are really engaging with this unit and the novel we are reading, and that I get to create my own unit plans and day-to-day activities now that I am teaching the 9th graders full-time. A challenge this week was actually in today’s first hour. Between the fact that it’s a Monday morning and there is a football game this afternoon due to scheduling conflicts, the students were really off-task all period. Usually after a couple reminders, they will get back on track, but today even my teacher couldn’t quiet the students down or redirect their attention. The Vice-Principal pulled out the couple students who were instigating most of the distractions, and after that the class really settled down. Though I felt like I had failed in classroom management, both my teacher and the vice-principal said I handled the situation well and that I should never be hesitant to ask for help as the vice-principal handles all sorts of behavioral problems. It was still a downer for me, but it was a good growing experience. I’m excited to see how students react to the rest of our novel and this unit. We have writer’s workshops, discussions, and more fun cultural activities coming up in the next couple of weeks!
The week after Chris had left proved to be a refreshing one as my mentor teacher's class switched with the other PE teacher in order for them to do a skateboarding unit. This meant that I was to take over a whole new group of students for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.
The kids seemed to respond well to me as I think they were excited to see someone new teaching their class. It felt like starting all over again not knowing any students names or personalities/behaviors.
We have been introducing the students to their 5 health-related fitness components by working on conditioning and team handball. In addition, we covered the FITT Principle Guidelines while using separate fitness components. Having taught my mentor teacher's classes and the other PE teacher's classes, I ended up teaching the same 2 lessons 11 times in a row! This definitely has allowed me to improve the lessons with each class. However, I began to grow tired of teaching the same thing over and over.
After Chris had observed my class on Tuesday morning, I was able to see how far I have made it on the PPA. There is only one or two aspects involving mutli-cultural experiences that I need to cover, which can easily be done in the health classroom when I go on to the high school.
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