High School Days 1 and 2

 

First things first, I am ecstatic that Amanda and I are going to be working with seniors at our high school placements. I have been wanted a chance to work with seniors since I began my education courses. I wanted to see how teachers prepare their students for the big senior project while managing to find time for reading and writing for their curriculum. I want to see students working on their projects and seeing what they come up with. I may not be the biggest fan of senior projects, but I am always amazed at what students can accomplish.

What I noticed immediately about this school was its size. Not only is the school big but so are the classrooms. This is great because the students have so much room to move about, the classes do not feel as cramped, and the students have a chance to be a little livelier and build a comfortable community. I also love all the art showcased throughout the building. There is an art gallery in the school! That is so cool!

So, as I mentioned, Amanda and I will be working with high school seniors. We will be observing two kinds of English classrooms, a college prep and an inclusion class. We will also get to observe a couple of her senior project prep classes where students complete their binders and work on part of their senior projects. Each class is about an hour long.

One thing these students are told about their senior projects is that they must strive for perfection. Senior project goes to 30% of their final English grade and not completing it means they will not graduate high school. As always, there are those few students who like to question and challenge what is asked of them. One student claimed that college does not use MLA to format their essays. We did get to correct him, seeing as we are still in college ourselves. MLA is everywhere! A math component was also added to the senior project under the basis that “math is everywhere”.

I did notice a great use of cell phones. Everyone has a cell phone. They try to hide it under their desks, behind backpacks, nothing drastically different than when I was in high school. The only difference is that the cell phones got a little bit bigger.

After the senior project prep class, we got to see her English class. She shares a classroom with another teacher, but I was in awe of the set up. There were so many comic book things and geek culture references. It was the kind of set up I would love to have my own classroom look like. It was also pleasant to see that students were allowed to paint on the class walls.

We got to introduce ourselves to our cooperating teacher’s college prep class and they got to tell us how they felt about their classroom. In their words, they said that their classroom was a “comfortable environment”, less of a focus on “just getting the work done”, and they were taught valuable life lessons. They claimed their teacher was motherly, understood them, and had their best interests at heart. I loved the environment created, and I hope I could also create such an environment and relationship with my students.

Afterwards, we spent most of yesterday and today working with the students as they fixed and finished their essays for the senior projects. Amanda and I asked what each student’s topic was, where they thought they would need more help, and worked with them from there. I found myself helping students a lot with citations and MLA format. Many of them used easybib.com and, from personal experience, that website is not always the most reliable. It is better for someone to check for you. Their biggest struggle was formatting dates within their sources.

We may already have a lesson in mind as well for when we teach. We were given the idea to make a lesson on presentations. This would include how to present oneself, how to create a good PowerPoint, how not to read off the slides, practice, etc. I talked to a couple of students myself after class and asked them what they would like and they all agreed that some preparation with making PowerPoints and such would benefit them greatly.

SO for two days a lot has happened. I am so happy to be working with such brilliant students and I look forward to seeing them again.

Week 4 Mythology

 

I decided to post at the end this week instead of every day. Tuesday was observation day. That morning we taught sixth grade and, overall, I think our lesson went pretty well. We handed out their vocabulary words on a sheet and asked them to read the words and definitions out loud. What we wanted was for them to learn to pronounce the words and, collaboratively as a class, say the word and definition. Every class afterwards we would either ask to review the vocabulary or point out the words in their text. They had four vocabulary words for their reading of Ceres and Proserpina. After reviewing the words, we asked the students to construct sentences using context clues. Some students wrote their sentences on their board and the class would work together and add context clues to make the sentence as perfect as possible. Unfortunately, we did not even notice that one of the words was used out of context. This is something to remember when doing work like this.

The purpose of giving them their vocabulary instead of rewriting the words and definitions on their own was to both save them time so they can work on their sentences and so they would have a word bank when working on the crossword puzzle. They were given a crossword puzzle with sentences we created that includes context clues and (blanks) where the word would go.

Since they did not have that extra time taken, we started reading their story right away. We seemed to transition well. It is difficult to make sure every student is on task, so we try to ask a lot of higher thinking questions. The same situation occurs though where some students just do not want to participate. It is crucial not to take these things personally and do your best for your students.

They seemed to enjoy the story and, after receiving their crosswords back, seemed to get the vocabulary. Some students missed one word though. Their crossword had a repeating word, which was mentioned in the directions and joked about in one of the clue sentences. I found it more amusing and confused than anything else. These three students all missed the same clue too! 

Seventh grade gave us more of a challenge than we expected. They were reading the story of Narcissus and the original plan was they would write a paragraph, creating a myth using their vocabulary words. They had seven vocabulary words. They were also given the crossword and a vocabulary word bank. Unfortunately, they had a LOT of energy within the past couple of days. We tried our 5 minute rest exercise and it was still difficult to keep their attention. Today, however, they finished their reading and started working, in groups or solo; however they felt comfortable, and started writing. We saw a few examples of the writing and they looked good. The sixth grade worked on some writing too which I was ecstatic to see!

As with most times I teach, classroom management is always difficult, especially when you are not used to your students. Overall, we did what we could in keeping the classroom calm and collected and on task. Sometimes, you have to change your plans and work with what you have. We were not able to follow our initial lesson for seventh grade but sixth grade we had excess time. I am personally grateful that I got to experience both circumstances and learn how to deal with each one in the future. It is okay to cut a lesson down. It is okay to start on other stuff early. I know not to let kids off three minutes before the period ends. I learned that sometimes students just need five minutes to sit and calm their bodies down.

Today was fun, as we continued reading Ceres and Proserpina. With permission, we gave students fruit snacks to symbolize the pomegranate seeds in the story. Jokingly, we told them that the fruit snacks were from Pluto (Roman god of the Underworld) and that they could never leave the classroom. Their reactions were fun and they got a kick out of it.

It was sad to say bye as we move to high school. I am grateful to our cooperating teacher for the work and time she put in with assisting us. I loved the classes we got to teach. The students are taking PARCC tests soon so I hope they do well!

This was a great experience.

Day 7 and 8

 

*Phoenix Wright from Ace Attorney (c) Capcom

Tuesday was a fairly productive day. Students prepared for their big debate day on Thursday. Joey and I chose names at random to see who was going to be on which side. Either they were going to support immigration and who was going to argue against it. They were allowed to continue writing on whichever side they felt they wanted write about, but were required to have evidence to support both sides. After the debate, they are going to write about the other side anyway.

I was surprised at how many students were against immigration! I know, as a teacher, we cannot say that their opinions are wrong. But deep inside me I was surprised, even a little scared. I wanted to tell them, “NONE of you would even be here if not for immigration!”

They briefly looked over the rough drafts they had about the topic with one another. There was not as much time as I would have liked. We did not go Wednesday so I am unsure if they had more time then.

We also had a wonderful opportunity to attend a teacher meeting. They went over test scores and were collaborating with one another. They separated students by class and subject to see who needed help and where. They were all very adamant about giving the best for their students and were surprised or sad when discovering a student did not perform well on the recent NECAP scores. It was enlightening to see where teachers saw problems and how closely they pay attention to students. They know and understand their students so well and genuinely care about all of them. I wish people who wrote those “teacher does something wrong again” articles got to see these teachers and learn a thing or two from them. One teacher was concerned about an advanced placement student not doing work and how they wanted to help. They did not gossip about what the problem was, but how they could make her school life easier and get her back on task.

I was unfortunately losing my voice that day and was not able to teach and talk to the other teachers as much as I would have liked to, but I am still glad I was able to attend this meeting and see students in action again.

On Thursday, the sixth grade had their debate. I cannot tell you how amazing it is to see young students professionally dressed up, folders in hand, and ready to get into action. They were all lawyers that day and I was positively giddy at seeing so many prepared students. The sixth grade debate was supporting or arguing against excavating Egyptian tombs.

I thought that we were going to have to push questions on the students to get them talking, especially since the sixth grade had never done a debate before. Not needed. They jumped right in and really kept the debate going. Neither group “finished” their debate that day. I was amazed at the questions, the responses, and the preparedness. I was rendered speechless at moments. I remember last week we told the students to dazzle us. I was indeed dazzled.

RIWP 2014

 The Rhode Island Writing Project this year was a pleasant experience. I was grateful that I knew more people attending the event in years previous. And although I have attempted in the past, I was actually able to talk to outside teachers this time, some from the middle school I am at currently! I also enjoyed the keynote speaker, Tom Newkirk. I love how he approached Common Core and how to view narrative. I felt I was really able to connect this time around. I think my favorite quote of his was “Untrust of teacher knowledge is Dangerous”  and I am so glad he said it, I only wish it was not just teachers who heard it.

He focused a lot on narrative, and I found it fun that he included a narrative of his own about a call that was made to his home. Police were called into his office claiming that someone broke in. In reality, he just had a messy office. And this supposedly happened to him twice. I wish that writing his narrative was equally as funny as him telling it. According to Newkirk:

Narrative is a central way in which we understand the world

o   Original Ideas are those where we forgot the source!

o   The reader has to see the narrative no more than we need to see the intestines of the writer

I also liked how he transitioned Common Core and narrative into his presentation

“Common Core: What is in our core? Core: heart. Narrative is at our core”

Here are some notes I took during his talk about common core so you can see where I pulled information out and when:

è Common Core:

o   What disturbs me about the common core is the distance/ the absolute lack of questioning

o   High level thinking unless it’s about the common sore “Alignment”

o   Students aren’t reading hard enough things? NO EVIDENCE!

o   “Standard” Texts

o   Investing in spark notes!

o   Students give up reading. They don’t read enough of any kind.

o   They fake it

o   How many kids are ‘fake reading’?

o   “If high level thinking is important we should do some high level thinking about the common core”.

o   “Smarter Balance” sounds like dog food

After Tom Newkirk’s presentation, I attended the Poetry Speed Dating workshop. Most of our class was there which I thought was hilarious. The workshop consisted of the group writing various kinds of poems based on a given prompt. Here was how the workshop was explained:

How it Started:

·         RIWP Summer Writing Camp

·         Skilled and Engaged Writers—but still possessing different abilities and interest levels

·         Instead of one activity, the “Speed dating” angle exposed them to multiple formats

The Process:

·         Gather several (4-6) poetry formats/activities

·         Create stations with copies of one format/activity at each station

·         Divide students into groups and assign each group to a station

·         Set timer (8-10 minutes) and begin first “dating” segment

·         Rotate students to next station each time an 8-10 minute segment expires until all students have visited each station

Some of the prompts for these poems include Epigraph Poems, a short motto or quotation placed at the beginning of a literary composition to help set focus, theme, of tone of the piece. (Favorite quote or a provided quote); or “When I…” poems, poems contrasts current expectations, realities, or prohibits with a collection of behavior changes.

Here is an example of one of my poems:

Packet 4: Fire-Line Emotion Poem (emotion, color, “It happens when…”, “It sounds like…”, Closure)

Eagerness (Fan girl)

Eagerness overwhelms my entire existence

Bursts of color in all directions, like a leprechaun barfed up a rainbow

It happens whenever I hear a story or a quote I have knowledge of

Sounds like a brass band in my heart as I try to bite my tongue before I spoil the story on everyone

Spewing out my entire vocabulary in one sentence as I run on overdrive in eagerness

I have to say I am rather proud of it.

The second workshop was Dizzy Drama. I joined this one mostly so I could be a little foolish. As a teacher, we sometimes have to make fun of ourselves and it can be pretty difficult. I have to say I am a fairly outgoing person but purposefully being silly or acting in front of others can be a little nerve wracking!

I like that the start of the workshop featured the activity ‘an emotional journey’ which we have done in practicum. We each had to write from a student perspective explaining why we may or may not want to work on an assignment. We each dramatically read the quotes we had aloud, mine being, “I need evidence? But I thought this was about my opinion?”

Afterwards, we were grouped up and told to create characters. These characters were created using a character development sheet, which asks for their name and personality. In our groups, we were given a prop and a ‘setting’. Then, we had to develop a conflict for our characters to be in and how they were going to interact and solve the problem. I might have made my character a teen and present day version of William Shakespeare? He ended up taking form of his own once we started acting. As stated during the workshop, “a perfect character is BORING” and William, my character, was far from.

 I think students would like to create their own characters but may be a bit reluctant to act them out. This is why I believe that if a teacher were to use this assignment, they would also have to be involved.

“Most comedy writers work in pairs or groups probably because when you laugh alone too much they take you away in a little white room and let you only eat boiled peas. Comedy is also very personal, and more personalities who agree something is funny, the more chance it really is.” –Barry Lane

è Edgy?

è Music dictate the mood and action

è End of year assessment

è Bring characters together

Overall, the experience here gave me a few new assignments to consider once I start teaching on my own. And that time is getting closer and closer. Already, I am working with students. But what is it going to be like when I am on my own? When I have my own class?