Lessons for Final Week

 

Our lessons this week focused on technology and preparing students to compose their introductions for senior project. For our first lesson, we composed a Prezi presentation with examples of several kinds of digital tools. We also included the criteria they needed for creating their introductions including the time limit and not saying “Hi my name is ___”. We also included the rubric piece on introductions and asked they always try to exceed the standard. Over the last few weeks, we have seen the projects these students were working on and have been helping them a little bit every time we visited the high school. Personally, I went around the room asking students one-by-one what they were working on the day we started observing so I could get to know them and know what they were working on.

When we prepared this lesson, Amanda and I felt that with the videos and the presentations that our lesson was going to take a substantial amount of time, which we would be going into the next day. Our lesson for the day after was to discuss how to use each of these tools. The first lesson was to give examples of the types of technology they could use for their introductions (or their presentations in general) and then, seeing which ones they responded to, elaborate on only a few the following day. We prepared to teach about all of them though, since technology is not something we have discussed a lot in the class.

However, when we started teaching, we still had a substantial amount of time and were almost done with the presentation. This had happened to me in the middle school too, and I tried to think quickly. I saw that the students liked Animoto so I began showing and explaining how it worked. Unfortunately, the projector we were using cut off part of the screen and made it very difficult to see what I was doing. I think that, in a classroom of my own, I would have either a projector of my own or would ask for another projector from the school. I think that the computer and projector was more of a visual example and that, regardless, I would be able to explain the program.

Despite time management difficulties, I think a lot still went well. Students LOVED the twitter exit slips. I was also amazed at the attendance rate that day and the amount of enthusiasm the students had. They genuinely seemed excited about our lesson and were willing to share their thoughts and questions. It was amazing; even other students saw that the classroom was very outgoing that day. I am grateful and happy that they enjoyed the lesson and were able to get something out of it.

The day after there was not as many students. I was able to see some students from our cooperating teacher’s other classes in the computer lab so they were also able to hear our second lesson. We originally were going to explain how to use each of the tools we talked about the day before. We decided to go over Animoto only since almost all of the students wanted to use it. We had them create accounts and went over how to choose a template and add their own photos and videos to the presentation. One student added their own music to the presentation and we taught the students how to choose a certain part of the song to play in the thirty seconds they had.

The students looked a lot more confident and relieved about starting their presentations. Many of them told us that we were very helpful in preparing them for senior project.

Despite our emphasis on technology, we did not deter them from creating a poster board. In fact, they could use the told we gave them in addition to a poster board. Our lesson was an example of the many ways they can approach their senior project. I have said numerous times that these students are very capable and very intelligent, and I stand by it. Hopefully, I will get the opportunity to see how their projects bloomed and see the final projects on presentation day. I am confident that the students we worked with in the last three weeks will pass senior project and graduate with their heads held high.

Blog Prompt: Teaching and Teaching Role

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I am always excited about teaching. I love being up there sharing what I know with ready ears and minds, and even those reluctant learners. Every student wants to learn something, and I want to be there to do so. To be a teacher, one has to always prepare and know their students. Unfortunately, we only got to see students for a few weeks. However, I think all of us can agree that we still learned a lot about those students even with the short time we were there. We got to see those who struggled more than others; we got to see who spoke up a lot and who stayed quiet. We got to see fantastic groups of learners who accomplished something in the time we were there.

When I first started the teaching program at Rhode Island College, my biggest worry was classroom behavior management. This was one of my worst nightmares that my classroom would be unmanageable and I would be flustered in trying methods to calm my students down. After being in the classroom for a little while now, I feel more confident about my abilities to keep my classroom a safe learning environment and a productive one as well. I think I have gotten much better with my teacher voice and that I can read a classroom better than I was able to in years past.

My biggest fear now is making sure curriculum requirements are met without losing my creativity. I also worry about time management. I thought I was doing okay with that, but twice this year I encountered lesson time miscalculations. Both of the lessons my fellow teacher candidates and I did ran too short, and we had to think quickly to fill up time. It was terrifying both times and I did not want students to see this worry.

I think that both of my fears are always going to be challenged. There will be some good days and some bad days. One part of teaching that is both exciting and terrifying is that you may never know what happens. You know your students, you know your school, but something can come up. There could be a new student, there could be a vacation coming up, a surprise observation, a teacher conference, etc. the day always changes. I think, with time, a teacher learns to face these challenges and learn from them, and prepare for them. Already I saw improvement in the way I teach, as I mentioned about classroom management. In the middle school, I found a method to keep noise level down with a simple hand movement and a gentle “shh”. Had this happened two year earlier, I may have been more vocal about asking students to keep the noise level down.

I am very excited about student teaching. It will be the first time that I will be teaching on my own. Am I afraid? A little; I think a better term would be nervous though. It can be, like I said, this will be the first time I am teaching alone. I will still have their main teacher though, which I am grateful for. Otherwise, I think I will be good. I am ready.

Project Presentation Preparation

This week the class got a new student! Many of the students already knew him so he was able to transition, socially, pretty quickly. I asked what he was going to do about senior project, since where he was before did not do senior project. He is required to complete half of everything and has an extended due date. So far, he has completed most of the early requirements including the topic, an idea who his mentor will be, and the start of his research. 

Speaking of senior projects, the rest of the class is required to set up a day and time for their practice presentations. Their cooperating teacher felt it necessary that each student practiced their presentations at least once. Most of their practice times occur after our lesson too, so, hopefully our lesson goes well and assists them with creating their presentations. Most of our lesson is about digital media, however, I think the overall idea that we want to teach students is that they have a large amount of tools at their disposal.

In addition to our lesson, their teacher also wants to discuss attire, links and learning stretches, delivery and vocabulary.

The next day, we were around to see their morning announcements. I love that their announcements is on a television because there is so much you can do with that. They showed the trailer for Catching Fire, you can see the students doing the announcements, and they can visually display times for any upcoming events. Amanda and I also found out that in addition to prom they have a class trip at the end of the year. After working hard on their senior projects, I think they deserve the trip. It sounds like fun and teachers even enjoy it.

A lot of our time was preparing for our lessons. However, we always are willing to assist students. We went over presentation ideas with a student who was wondering about her own. I realized we may not be able to conduct our lesson to the other class, which saddens me a little. However, since most of our presentation is online, our teacher can reference and utilize with her other class. I’m excited too because I love teaching others about stuff like this. I love YouTube and think it’s a great tool. I am glad they’re lifting the YouTube ban for their senior projects.

April 7

Today we observed two of the senior skills classes. Today was very busy with students fixing their senior project binders and making any last minute changes. Today, we did not bother any seniors due to the high energy and the scramble to get things done. Their binders for senior project are due tomorrow.

 I noticed that a lot of students were mentioning missing letters from their mentors. This was also a reoccurring problem when I was in high school finishing senior project as well. I wonder what could be done to remedy this?

We are planning ahead of time to see another teacher’s class as well, for, as our cooperating teacher claims, seeing other teachers in action and seeing various classrooms is only going to prepare us better when we enter student teaching and, eventually, have our own classrooms.

We then moved to her college prep senior class. Today they began watching the movie for the text they were reading Speak. Due to senior project, they were unable to finish the book; however, there was brief discussion before the movie to help students briefly talk about what they read and what happened during the end of the book. Apparently, the book and movie have different endings.

They have a worksheet to fill out after they watch the movie which will be their first grade for fourth quarter. They will be focusing on the strengths of the character and build connections from their own lives when addressing the questions on the worksheet.

We also discussed what we are planning to do for our lessons next week. I am pretty confident. This means I am going to have to familiarize myself with Vine. I am pretty excited. As our cooperating teacher states, “The first two minutes of your 15 minute presentation are the most important” so I am glad Amanda and I are here to get them started.

This Week (3/31-4/4)

 

This week Amanda and I worked with our seniors again on senior projects. We also got to work more with the inclusion class. I actually enjoy this class because the students are a little more of a challenge in terms of motivating them to work on their projects. I found that the biggest obstacle for the college prep class and the inclusion class is MLA format. Many students also struggle with explaining the quotes they use and tying it back into their thesis. I spent time with one young lady who was absent for a few days due to being sick. She was an excellent writer but needed some help with elaborating on her quotes. We worked together on two and she did one on her own. She later went to fix other paragraphs on her own as well. The day when we came back, she came up to be and declared that she was done with her essay and was glad I was able to help her.

Another young man who was daydreaming most of the time needed some assistance on his introduction. So I sat down with him and we read over his introduction. He was a fantastic writer; he had a difficult time believing me when I told him that his introduction was fine as he wrote it. But he was grateful that I was willing to help.

It is moments like these that make me love teaching and why I am glad I stuck with it.

On the day we came to observe early and got to listen to students who wrote in their writer’s notebooks. Apparently, because of senior project, they were not able to write in them for a while. The prompt was for them to write about the year so far, their worries or concerns, and what they hoped to accomplish by the end of the year. They were asked to look at their writing from the beginning of the year as “seeds to write from”. I was beginning to think the students were seeing this task as a chore rather than a form of expression until one young lady started reading hers. She eventually started sharing some poetry of hers as well. It was one of those moments where a student just needed to talk, to share, and have people listen. So we did. We let her share.

Other students wrote some poems for fun. We only got to hear from three students. But knowing that other students wrote, I think that maybe they did get something out of the assignment.

Amanda and I also got to observe three other classes. One was a media relations class where they had recently watched the movie “Spirited Away”. The class worked in groups as their teacher gave out central themes relevant to the movie such as transition into adulthood or greed. They could also be symbols such as the importance of food. The class was a little more rowdy than our cooperating teacher’s but being able to see another type of class was interesting, especially since this was one of those classes that works similarly to English content. In fact, many English professors and teachers use movies in their class to teach similar themes that would be present in a play or novel.

We also got to see a low states tenth grade class. Although I have seen a class like this, it still is interesting to observe again. These students hardly stay in their seats, they do not follow directions, despite their teacher providing them a handout and stating the directions for them out loud, and they are easily distracted by one another. The girls in this class sat together, probably because there were only six of them and around 13 boys. Despite their lack of focus, they were AMAZING writers. They love writing narrative and some of the stories we heard where just simply beyond anything I could imagine.

I have seen SO MANY amazing writers since I began observing at the high school and I am excited to hear and see more!