The Student Teaching Chronicles: Day Two

Day two...

Well, this morning I was really looking forward to today. Ann was going to be gone from GL and that meant that I would really be in control of the classroom. I was looking forward to stretching my arms out a bit and establishing my place in the classroom community. I also created a solid lesson for teaching my AW class to write attention-grabbing introductions with solid thesis statements--with the powerpoint to back it up.

GL: I walked into GL and thought it was going to be a good day. Ronnie was in the classroom first and when he saw that we were going to the library in order to get books to read in class, he immediately asked if he could go get his book that he is reading from his locker and bring that. He was so excited to read! Awesome! Everyone filtered into the classroom. Some students were late which caused some disturbances among the other students, but nothing we couldn't get past.

As the lead teacher for the day, I welcomed the class into the room and asked them to get their notebooks from the class crate. Once that was accomplished, I reminded them that from today on their job when they enter the classroom is to get their notebooks, write down the date and agenda, copy the journal prompt (or other activity), and answer the prompt or complete the activity. And that's when it began...after I went over my expectations, I read the agenda on the board out loud. Then I moved on to the journal prompt and began reading that out loud too. Britney then piped in, "Could you be quiet for one minute so I can write this down? I can't write with you talking up there." Now, this startled me a bit but I quickly replied, "Sure thing, I 'll give you a minute to copy the agenda first." I feel like I could have handled that a bit better, but I also know that I need to pick any battles I want to face any of the students in. After a minute I read the prompt out loud--completely--and asked them to write 3-5 sentences in response to the prompt. There were some groans for this entire process, but eventually they all got to work. We discussed the prompt, which went better than I thought. Next we moved to the library to get choice books. This was difficult because most students found books right away and wanted to go back to the room. A few did not and that forced the rest of the class to sit in a section of the library and read--which they didn't want to do. Most ended up reading a few pages and then chatting.

In retrospect, I would have made it clear that once students had found a book they were to sit at a table--no more than two to a table--and read until the class was ready to return to the room. I also would have double-checked with the media center staff who were supposed to set out books for us on tables but forgot...not helpful.

Once we got back in the class, the students didn't want to read anymore. Power struggle with Britney again about reading her book.

Next I handed out a questionnaire and the students really took to it which was great. They got really into the questions and I think they began to see just how many humans are in the world and how the American experience is not the "norm."

Things to do better:

• Establish greater structure when moving from room to room.
• More detailed agenda.
• Move class at a faster pace in order to accommodate the dynamics of the class--different from years past. They need the class to move faster in order to keep their interest.

AW: I thought this class would also go better than it did. We went over some grammar rules...I need to quit rambling during my explanation of these. Then we went over some of the interesting trends from their "20 Question" surveys of the day before. This was fun and it showed the students that I had read through their stuff and made note of common patterns.

Next I introduced the introduction, or how to write an attention-grabber and thesis statement. We started with the thesis. It was during this time that two things happened: one, I got something wrong in front of my students, and two, one of the students mentioned how another teacher had taught them to do something. They had to happen sometime, and I am relieved that they are over now, but I was a bit flustered when it happened. I kept my cool though, told them they were right, I was wrong, and moved on from there. It was not a pleasant feeling, but I don't believe they smelled any of my brief blast fear/embarrassment.

The attention-grabber section was a bit dry--something to improve for later--but the practice thesis writing and introduction writing were good. After lunch, I introduced their introduction assignment and modeled my own examples of the assignment for them. We have been told how it can help to let students know that we are writing and participating too, and they were pleasantly surprised by my introductions--both that I had written them and the information they told about me. For me, this saved a somewhat dry class...whew!

Things to improve:

• More student, less me--this will be easier to do as they enter into the world of writing more and more.
• Be even more prepared for discussion and questions.
• Make sure my oral instructions are clear, repeat myself even more, continue to model, and make sure they are following procedures.
  

Highlights:

1. Talking with Jose about the book he was getting. He was telling me about a show he had seen on the History Channel about a guy who gets his family in trouble and they all get killed. Turns out is was the Russian Royal Family--the Romanov's. He was impressed that I knew about them. the fact that he was looking me in the eye and talking to me was awesome!
2. Blake looking me in the eye and telling me about the book he chose--about a boy whose girlfriend at another school suddenly goes missing.
3. Ronnie getting so excited about reading his book--he stayed in the classroom with Natalia while we went to the library so he could just read. :)
4. Sharing some of my background and swimming experience with my AW students. It helped them get to know me better and hopefully loosen up a bit.

The Student Teacher Chronicles: Day One

Wow...day one and two are both done. I realize that this first post is a day late, but, forgive me, yesterday was a crazy exciting and busy day. Going in to the day I was excited. I was nowhere near as nervous as I thought I would be. I consign this to the fact that I was: one, well-prepared, all my copies were made and my lessons were ready to go; two, that I had experienced something similar during our practicum experience at Crosswinds; three, that I had spent so much time thinking about this day; and four, that I had talked so much with my fellow cohort members--many of whom had already started their complete student teaching experience. I slept better than I expected--of course, the Tylenol PM I took at 6:30 might account for some of my ability to quite literally, hit the sack.

I woke up to my alarm and jumped out of bed, put on my teacher outfit, and headed out the door. I am SO grateful that I have Molly at Hopkins with me and that we are able to carpool. I picked Molly up, and we had plenty of time to talk out our pre-teaching jitters before we arrived at Hopkins. We arrived at school around 6:30 and--neither of us teaching until 9:15--were able meet with our teachers and further prep for class.

Ann and I are team-teaching a lower level literature class together during second block, so she took priority in meeting with me that morning. Together we finalized a seating chart and went over how we would divide the procedural aspect of the first class. (I should mention that Hopkins is on a block schedule and that some of their courses are only one quarter long--both of the classes I am teaching are a quarter long and, thus, day one for me was day one for my students as well.) Ann thought it would be best for me to start out the class by introducing myself and then she would follow along with Natalia (a special education specialist). Then we would take turns discussing class procedure and the calendar of events. We would do a get-to-know-you activity, and then have the students write us each a letter about themselves in their notebooks.

Next, I met with Marty. I am teaching one of her advanced writing classes and she is leaving me to it. She asked me if I had everything set-up and if I knew how I was going to introduce myself. We did a bit of role-playing in which she was a student asking where Ms. Snyder was, who I was, and if I was a student teacher. I really appreciated this and it gave some ideas on how to introduce myself. She gave me some tips about not seeming defensive and to mention my status only if asked.

Next thing I knew, the bell rang and I was off to my first class. I felt that the class went alright. I know some of the students from working with them during my observation, but there are some new faces too. Right away I knew that some of the students will become my favorites--even though I know we aren't supposed to have those. There is one girl in the class named Britney who has a bit of an attitude. Add to this her loudness and dominating personality, and we have a class problem. She questioned many of our procedures, causing others to mirror her statements. The get-to-know-you activity went pretty well, afterward Ann realized that she usually has students do this after they write their letters to us--evident by the extremely specific answers on the sheet, like: find someone who...owns a border collie, works at aeropostle, was born in Chicago. The students still seemed to like it and it helped us get to know them better too.

Many of the students completed the letter assignment within 15 minutes and they had nothing to do while the rest of the class finished their letters. Two students wanted to finish the letters at home, and, therefore, didn't really even try to complete them in class, and several more wrote much less than the required page length.

Overall, the class went well, but it was so obvious that Ann has done this before and I had not. Despite my efforts to open the class and establish myself as one of two main teachers, I felt a little out of place.

Things to work on:

• Getting the classes attention focused on me without adding to the noise.
• Coming across as more assured and confident--part of this might have been nerves about working with two experienced teacher in this setting, but who knows.
• Providing even more structure to the class.
  
• Working with students and getting them to work.

Next was my writing class...I admit I was a bit flustered going into it straight from the literature course, but I know that's something I just need to get over. Many of the students were surprised to see me and wondered where Marty was--some had her for previous courses. I introduced myself, went over the syllabus, and administered some paperwork for the class. All of this was fine, but I think that I rambled a bit, talked a little to fast, and sometimes I found myself saying some things that put me on the defensive--exactly what Marty had told me not to do. Ugh. As soon as I said some of those things I regretted it.

After the maintenance stuff, we did a questionnaire in which we answered questions about ourselves. Then we went around the room and shared answers to some of the questions which helped me get to know the students and vice-versa. Next we went over some comma rules. I had the students work in pairs and read a comma rule, create an original sentence, and then teach both their rule and their sentence to the rest of the class. This went over fairly well, and all the students seemed to understand the different rules. Then we went over how we define the "writing process," I modeled the activity associated with that--which was homework for later in the week--with my own definition of the "writing process," and they had some time to work on the grammar questions due at the end of the week.

I thought the class went smoothly if nothing else. There were no major issues and other than the typical boredom of procedural stuff, the students were invested in the assignments we were doing.

Things to work on:

• Thinking and acting on the fly--quicker more coherent responses.
• Presenting information in a more clear and concise manner.
• Continuing to find ways to engage students.
• Seeking out questions in a more clear way.

Thus ended the first day of teaching. Nothing too bad, nothing really great, but definitely full of possibilities.