Last Day!!!

Today is our last day here at our wonderful high school! As i think back on this past semester… there are so many wonderful memories. Above all, my best memory would have to be my first video teach in Mr. I’s class. I was so nervious and scared, but at the same time really excited to be getting uo in front of the class for the first time. I knew i was prepared but i had no idea as to how the students would react to me. I feel like my lesson went well, althought not as successful as I would have liked for it to be. The reason that is my favorite memory is becasue after i taught my students responded so positivly to me. It really made me feel good, even though I know i didn’t do as well as I could have. It just goes to show that those kids really do care, and that first time in front of that class will be something i will carry with me for a long time to come. I feel really blessed for all the time that i have had here at this high school, and i know that my experiences here will help me grow and develope as i progress through my career.  This school  is definatly one of a kind, and I know that i will miss it… everything except waking up at 6AM 

1 comment April 22, 2009

set backs

this has been as AWFUL week for me. I have been so sick lately, dealing with horrible stomach pains. on Tuesday night i was in so much pain, my boyfriend wanted to take me to the hospital. I refused to go, and promised to go to the doctor instead. Good thing he is so concerned, I know I really was not… turns out I Have a stomach ulcer! The combination of bad diet and way too much stress can really get to you, who knew? So now I’m on this way strict diet and taking three different medications. The doctor said we caught it pretty early, so I should be fine, I just need to watch my diet and stress level in the future. With the school year winding down, and my stress level increasing by the day, that could be a little difficult. I’ll do my best and just get through it… I always do.

1 comment April 17, 2009

Guest Speaker

This morning, we had the pleasure of having a first year teacher come in and speak to us about her experience. It was really great to hear from someone who has been in our shoes. She was fun and energentic, and I could really see her passion for teaching. I really appreciated that she was so honest with all of us. She made it clear that there will be hard days and difficult students, but you just have to keep reminding yourself that you are still learning and each new experience helps you grow. It also helps to know that the teachers she works with are so willing to help. Im hoping that I’m lucky enough to find myself in the same situation. I really liked her method of singing, when she get frustrated or wants her students to do something. It’s funny because I do that too when I’m nervous or want someones attention, but I never thought to apply that to a classroom. It was really nice to get to see someone who has survived thier first year and still has a smile on their face.

1 comment April 1, 2009

First Video Teach!!!

Description:

I taught my first lesson in my 9th grade geography class on Weds. Honestly i was not nervous at all, with one very huge exception… i’m deathly afraid of cameras for some odd reason. leading up to the lesson i talked with my co-op teacher and he wanted me to do a lesson relating to the Iraq War. That also made me a little nervous at first, I had no idea what to do. So i did some research and ended up finding a web quest activity that was very easily adaptable to the time frame and subject matter. I was totally prepared. The lesson covered propaganda usage by different countries in the Irawq War. The lesson went pretty smoothly, although the students were a little more shy than I expected them to be when it came to class discussion.

Analysis

Looking back on it there a few things i could have done differently in my lesson to make it more effective. I should have clearly stated the objective of the lesson right from the beginning, because as we moved into the activity, I think some of the students were a little confused. Along with the objective, i should have come up with some kind of an opening activity rather than just jumping straight into my powerpoint presentation. I think I was so focused on time, and being sure that i avoided the thinking about the camera it just jumped ahead of myself. another thing i would have changed was before the activity showing the students an example, or modeling, to avoid some of the confusion. I ended up having to walk around to almost every group to explain what to do.

Reflection

My problem is not being in front of a class, i’m defiantly confident in my ability to speak in front of a group, i think for me its all about time management. I was so worried about needing to fill up the time but still make sure that i covered everything that i wanted to. It is a delicate balance, I know it will come in time with practice. I got some good feed back from my co-op teacher and my students. Im defiantly my own worst critic, sometimes i just have to step back and remember that no one is great at something immediately and for every mistake i’ll make i’ll do something right too. I really want to be an effective teacher, i just need practice… and next time I know i’ll do better, and not worry about the darn camera so much!

1 comment March 13, 2009

Dynamic teaching at Akins

Describe:

Last week I had the pleasure of being able to observe a teen leadership class. The teacher started off the morning by asking all the students about the good things that were going on in their lives. So one by one the students would share something that was happening and then all the students in the class would clap for the student that was sharing. It was amazing to see that right from the beginning how all the students were so engaged not only in the class activities, but you could really feel the sense of community in the classroom. After the sharing time, the class reviewed the lesson over family dynamics. There activity for the day was to finish up the skits they had been working on to display various types of family situations. The students had been placed into groups the week before and wrote scripts, rehersed, and now it was time to do the recording. The skits were pretty funny, and it was obvious that all the kids were pretty into it. After each group went the teacher asked the students what they had just seen. It was definatly a fun atmosphere, yet it was productive and engaging atthe same time.

Analysis:

As I sat in the classroom, watching in amazement, I began to wonder what it was about this teacher that made her so engaging to the students. Was it her youth and vitality, her subject, her creativity, or a combination of all those things? I began to look around the room and one thing i noticed that really stuck out was the rules on the walls. each class had been allowed to come up with their own rules, the things they thought were important. that made me think, what a great way to built repport with students by allowing them to come up with thier own rules. Each class was individual and unique. that made me think, maybe thats why the students are so responsive to her as a teacher, she respects them, and they respect her.

Reflect:

So thinking back on the time I got to spend in the class, half the battle of teaching high school students could possibly be building a good relationship with them. When students are excited to come to your class and they respect you, they will automatically be more engaged and willing to learn. when i compare her classroom to the others i have been in, thats the one major difference that has stuck out in my mind. good relationship, mutual trust and respect between teachers and students can make all the difference.

Add a comment March 13, 2009

First day with ELL student

description:

Last Wednesday, I met the ELL student that I would be working with during the semester. To be perfectly honest, I was really nervious to meet with him for the first time. As I waited in the cafeteria I was going over what I was going to say and how I was going to use my “Me Poster”. When the students came in we were each paired up with a student, and went our seperate ways to talk. Since it was the first day, it was all about building rapport with the student. So i told him a little but about my self using my “Me Poster”, and then I just started to ask him questions. I was pleasently surprized to find that he spoke english very well and was easy to carry on a conversation with. There were very little lulls or pauses in our conversation during the half hour that we were together. He told me about the places he had lived and how long he had been in Texas, and then we got on interests and i found out that he was a motocross racer and i was blown away. So at that ponit I just wanted to know more and more, and he had no problem just talking as much as he could about it. before I knew it, our time was up, and I was still sitting there with so many other questions that I still wanted to ask him. I’m really looking forward to working with him throughout the semester, he seems like a really great kid.

Reflection:

For the short amount of time that I got to spend with my ELL student I feel like I really got a sense of his interests and his personality, but there are still so many other thing that I wanted to know based around school. Before we met, I was coming up with all these questions in my mind that I was going to ask to get a better sense of where he is acedemically. However, I got so into our conversation about personal interests, that I never got a chance to ask any of the other questions that I had in my head. I think that next time we meet, on Monday, I’m going to try to throw out more of those acedemic focus question and try to figure out the areas that he may need help with and how I can help him.

Analysis:

I think what this process really illustrated to me was the importance of time management and in a round about way the idea of  “Time -on- Task”. I had certian goals in mind going into this meeting, and rather than focus on the goals that I wanted to accomplish, I allowed my self to be side tracked with other information. In a way it was a good thing, because I feel like I’ll be able to develope a better relationship with the student throughout the semester based on what I know about him. I definatly believe that I’ve established some repport and have a good base to start from. This experience did help me learn that I can be very easily side tracked and I need to watch out for that in the future.

1 comment February 25, 2009

first day with my class

Description:

I was very nervious as I entered the classroom for the first time. I could feel the eyes of about 25 students staring at me all at once. The teacher introduced my partner intern and me to the class and we described a little bit of our background information to the class. As i looked around the room I observed that the student body was majority Latino, with one white student and two african american students. On the walls were the classroom rules, consequences, and a board of bell times lunch schedule and holidays. Since it was a geography class there were maps and posters of places from all over the world also covering the walls. The teacher in the class also had a display set up with maps of all the places that he had lived. For the beginning of the period students worked on filling in physical and political maps of Europe. I had the oppertunity to walk around and help syudents with any questions they had. After the maps, the class watched videos to introduce a little bit of European history before getting started with the geography lesson.

1 comment February 11, 2009

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1 comment January 28, 2009