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!
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