Final Reflection

I am excited to be moving on to student teaching next semester. I am looking forward to having more time with students and being in the same classroom. I have to say that I look forward to community building activities the most. I think its awesome that we are able to start our student teaching experience in a brand new classroom, it places us in the same position as the students. We are both new to the classroom, and we are not walking into a room filled with forged relationships that have no clue about. I am also looking forward to teaching more regularly. I want to design and implement units and lessons.


As far as fears go, I'm afraid of time management and student engagement. I'm not afraid of student's reactions or reluctance, I'm more afraid that I will not be able to be an interesting teacher who creates fun and entertaining assignments. I guess that is more teacher creativity than student engagement. As far as time management is concerned, I was always afraid of not having enough time until last week when teaching and coming up with an extra 15 minutes. Scary stuff!! It really bothered me for a few days. I finally just accepted it, but I have to admit that I was panic stricken. What would we do for 15 minutes? In retrospect, I realized we could have started with the second day of our lesson, but because we had not appropriately planned it did not occur to us in the moment. I can say with absolutely certainty that I will never walk into a classroom with out a plan B, C and D.

High School Week Three Reflection

Week three was very chaotic in that senior binders were due. Students were scrambling and extremely flustered. Our CT did a great job at helping students to realize that they would be okay, and that the work they did was awesome! It was nice to see a teacher raise her students up and shower them with compliments. Later in the week the students signed up for the senior project class presentations. Miss C spent two days going over the oral presentation rubric and appropriate dress requirements. During this time she continued to build her students up with praise and compliments. The best part of seeing this interaction was the looks on the student's faces, they felt love and confidence.


The students also finished their unit on the novel Speak by L. Halse Anderson. The class was unable to finish reading the novel due to time constraints with the senior projects. Although they did not complete the novel, Miss C still held a classroom discussion in which the students discussed themes and motifs within the novel. It was refreshing to hear several students ask if they could borrow a book so they could complete the reading at home. I feel it was a good experience to see a unit not pan out, and to see that sometimes things have to be cut out to make room for far more important tasks.

High School Week Two Reflection

Our cooperating teacher’s classroom starts out with her talking with all of her students about their lives, their nights, their plans after school, or whatever the student wants to talk about with her until the bell rings. Once the bell rings she begins talking to the students about what they will be doing for the day and what they should have completed by the end of the period. She discusses her expectations for the day and upcoming due dates for papers and projects. One of the big things I noticed is that Miss C. is always positive with her students. She is forever telling them how smart they are, how great they are, how impressed she is with them, and how much she values them. Her stance in the classroom is their teacher, but also a mother figure or maybe an older sister. She cares for them and does not shy away from sharing that information. Miss C. also expects a lot from her students and expects them to exceed. She is their teacher and their disciplinarian. It is unspoken, but practiced by all. No one wants to upset her or be on her bad side. They all love her and joke with her, and she gives it right back to them. I love seeing this!! I love that she does not have a list of rules and regulations. I love that her students know what the appropriate behavior and conduct is for her and her classroom without having to be reminded or without a list hanging on the wall. These students, and even students she does not have this year, want to make her happy and proud. Her senior skills class in particular is a revolving door where students pop in just to say hi and tell her a story or bit of information. I also noticed this is her relationship with her peers and administration. Walking down the halls with her in between classes you can see just how well liked she is by all. Every two steps we were stopping to say hi to a student or peer. She knew everyone’s name, told jokes, asked questions about jobs and life outside of school, and paid compliments to all. She is truly a magnetic type of person—all who surround her are drawn to her positive and encouraging disposition.


By big takeaway this week was to take part and earn student trust in Miss C’s period two reluctant learners classroom. It was our first time being within this class period. The students were a little standoffish, and definitely untrusting of us. Our classroom teacher introduced us and told the students we would be observing their class for a few weeks. Right off the bat the students were skeptic and were unwelcoming. The students were not rude or disrespectful by any means. The students were uninterested in our presence and gave one word or minimal word responses to our questions about their paper topics or if they needed any help. The students were working on their research papers for their senior projects. A lot of the students had quite a ways to go on their papers, but were reluctant to use us for one on one help or guidance. After class our classroom teacher explained to us that this was a great bunch of kids, but that they needed time to feel comfortable with us and trust us. Going in for day two with this class I knew what to expect right away, or so I thought. A few students opened up to us and were willing to have us assist them in their papers. I was pleasantly surprised. Honestly, it felt great to see this transformation overnight. I noticed it was a trickle effect—more and more students were willing to share their writing with us by the end of the period. Day three I was thrilled that students could not wait to have us help them with their papers.

 

High School Week One Reflection

My first week in the high school only consisted of two days, but they were powerful days! My biggest take away from these two days was the teachers relationship with her students, peers, and the administration. This teacher had a truly amazing classroom community built with her students. The community spread to the hall, the lunchroom, and even included students that were not in any of her classes. I was amazed at just how much of a connection was forged with the students. It was awesome to see a big part of my teaching philosophy at play within another teacher's classroom. It gave me hope that it is possible to achieve and maintain in a high school setting.


Another big take away for me was the senior project. I did not have to complete a senior project in my final year of high school, so I did not fully understand the depth of the projects. I had a few brief encounters with them through cousins, but basically just heard the ranting and anxiety around them. It was very enlightening to sit through several Senior Skills class in which students were walked through a few steps and the importance of this piece. I left this week with a new view on senior projects and a better understanding of what this project is exactly.


I am looking forward to the next few weeks of being in a high school environment. Also, I am looking forward to seeing how senior classes are taught and managed. I have to admit that my senior year was one in which I began the senioritis stretch in October. I was never fully engaged or cooperative (in retrospect, this is a huge regret for me!) and it is a huge relief to me that there are senior students who are. I am excited to also be a part of such a strong and comfortable classroom community--this is absolute fuel for my teacher fire!

Week Four Reflection

This week proved to be extremely difficult. With such a profound loss over the weekend I wasn’t entirely sure how things would work out in the world of teaching and observations. Walking on campus for the first time, and walking into the middle school proved to be extremely difficult for me. For the first time over the last month of being in a middle school I wasn’t excited on my drive in. However, being around those kids was uplifting. They made me laugh, they amazed me, and they made me proud. My teaching experience was positive and reinforced my need to teach.

This week we taught our debate lesson on All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury. The first day of debate went well. The students had never covered debate before and were coming off of Socratic Seminars. For the first few minutes of the actual debate the students were leaning more towards a seminar type discussion. However, with a little probing and modeling the students were easily back on the track of a debate. We provided the students with positive feedback and coaching throughout and I really feel it made a huge difference in their perception of the topic of debate.

The very next day the students held the debate and it was truly a work of art for me to see. Students were actively engaged and were following debate rules and guidelines perfectly. I have to say from a teacher candidate standpoint that it was incredible to see such huge improvement overnight. I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment and pride for our lesson, but most importantly for the students. Things went mostly as planned except that we were not able to get to our second debate question. At first I thought this was a bad thing, but after further thought I realized it is much better to have a lively and passionate debate on one question than a mediocre and lack luster discussion on two questions. I am sure I will run into this multiple times in my teacher career and I am sure it will take practice to learn when to appropriately end one question and move on to the next. As for this lesson as a whole I am happy with the turnout and look forward to having future debates!

The Jennifer Cook Project

This project is a way to allow myself, as well as Jennifer Tomich and Kayla Sawyer, to heal through the process of writing. Dr. Cook said it best: "First, I write to heal. The world usually hurts in one way or another and the best way I know how to figure out the whys and hows". This project is a way for all that were touched by this remarkable person to heal. This project follows Dr. Cook's philosophy of working together as a team, a community, to create something beautiful! Our plan is to take these memories/snapshots/writings and compile them into a book to give to her wife and family, but also to give to her RIC family so that we can all keep her beautiful light shining bright.

Week Three Reflection

This week in the middle school students created their foldables for their research project on a famous American. I had never seen foldables done for a paper, as opposed to a traditional outline. It was truly amazing to see this. It kept students focused on an individual component of the paper (hook/thesis, early life, education etc.) without being overwhelmed by the other components of the paper. I have to be completely honest—I will be utilizing this technique to complete my senior seminar paper. Students seemed to really enjoy them too! Students spent four days developing and tweaking their hooks and thesis’ as a class. Alongside our cooperating teacher we were able to work one on one with the students to revise and rework their hook and thesis statements. I really enjoyed working with the students on their writing. It’s a wonderful feeling to witness students excited about writing, especially a research paper!


My partner and I also began teaching our debate lesson this week. Our first lesson was to read the short story All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury. We took turns reading the story aloud, while the students read on in their books. The students were given a handout that allowed them to take notes, as well as define the vocabulary from the story. After completion of the short story students were asked questions that probed the class in to a great discussion! It was amazing to be the facilitator of this class, and it was fulfilling to see the kids excited and enjoying the lesson. This class period of sixty minutes definitely stoked my teaching fire!! I look forward to finishing the lesson over the next few days.

#RIWP14

RIWP Annual Spring Conference 2014

I really enjoyed Thomas Newkirk’s keynote address. One of the first things he said was “Introduce self and students through telling stories”! This immediately made me draw connections to our Practicum Social Identity assignment. I loved his outlook on the act of storytelling and the narrative. I have not read any of his books, and have added The Art of Slow Reading and The Performance of Self in Student Writing to my summer reading list. Newkirk’s statement on CCSS was amazing and true: “CCSS says we need to promote critical thinking unless it’s about CCSS. If higher level thinking is important than we should do higher level thinking about the common core”! I cannot wait to read his books and figure out his awesomeness on a complete level!! 

The first workshop I attended was the Poetry Speed Dating. I honestly had so much fun! We were introduced to five different poetry prompts and given 8 minutes to complete each one. In a little over an hour I was able to produce five poems that I am pretty proud of. They have all been rewritten in my writer’s notebook to be cherished forever. These activities were so simple and fun, yet produced awesome poetry assignments for students. By having these fun little prompts and a different angle to introduce the topic/assignments I feel it would remove that fear of producing and performing for students. It would show students how they are able to produce a poem about anything. I think it is important to approach certain hot topic units with great care as to not deter students from the introduction of the unit. I know for myself, as a high school student, when I heard poetry I began to shut down and ignore. I obviously later became in tune with it, but that was through my own process of exploration. Maybe had I been introduced through a fun activity, or had a teacher like Mr. L, I would have been more apt to pick it up sooner. I loved this workshop and I can say that I will definitely use these activities with my future students.  

The second workshop I attended was the Micro Memoir session. My first reaction upon learning our assignment was AMAZING, FUN, and COMICS! It was a truly fun activity and I can see how it would get students excited to write a mini memoir. The activity was four random objects placed under numbered boxes in the front of the room. Each participant was given a number and as a whole we were instructed to stare at the revealed object, in complete silence, for three minutes and begin making connections. As an example, my random object was a strand of gold beads, and this was my thought process: gold beads, gold doubloons, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Dakota singing and dancing, Dakota says “nine” for “again” at the end of her dance/song numbers, as a child I said “yobster” for “lobster”, and Sunday dinners with my dad at Bassett’s Inn. My 250 word micro memoir was about my Sunday dinners with my father. It was amazing and weird to see me pull that memory for my micro memoir from a string of gold Mardi Gras beads. My other huge take away from this session was seeing the instructor model her thought process and what she expected of us as students. I thought this was such a cool activity and I went home and drew my micro memoir as a six panel comic—I drew connections to my seminar on Graphic Memoirs immediately. I cannot wait to do this activity with my future students!!

Middle School Week Two Reflection

This week the students were finishing up their Socratic seminars. We were able to see this done in three classes, with two being AP classes. The coolest part about seeing this done in three classes was that all classes readily participated. The students were engaged and excited. They were completing the seminars in a complete student driven learning environment. The third IP class was given a lot more scaffolding in terms of Costa’s Level of Questioning and guiding with the questions their groups developed. As far as the seminar piece these students still completed the seminar in a student driven manner. The engagement was like nothing I could have ever thought of in my mind. I expected the students to complete the task because they had to, not because they WANTED to!!!! What an amazing thing to witness as a teacher candidate! Seeing this lesson played out, in all honesty, made me yearn for my middle school certification. 

On Friday we were able to attend, along with the sixth grade classes, a presentation done by two Aquatic Veterinarians from Mystic Aquarium. The presentation allowed the students to see the daily activities and encounters while working at an aquarium. Besides the presentation being really fun and informative, I was able to again see excitement and engagement amongst students. This provided more fuel for my middle school fire. My biggest takeaway from this experience was hearing students answer questions and seeing their teachers’ facial expressions. The teachers were proud! Even a few teachers stated that they had not known that information themselves. It was awesome to see how proud these teachers were, but it was humbling to see them admit to their students that they did not know the information even though the student had. In that very moment my thought was “That’s the kind of teacher I want to be”. I want to feel proud of my students for their knowledge and greatness even if it means they look smarter than me, because quite honestly they should be smarter than me at times. The dichotomy of teacher and student should be one that is on equal playing fields with each providing the other with something to learn!

Middle School Week One Reflection

My first week in middle school was amazing! I spent four days with three sixth grade classes.  As I walked to my car on Friday I was immediately looking forward to Monday morning. I was surprised by my time spent in the classroom in that I didn’t expect to enjoy middle school so much. I knew I would enjoy being in a classroom, but I knew that I was a high school girl so what exactly would middle school have to offer me? The answer is a new teaching desire. I LOVED middle school!! These kids were engaged, excited to learn, they were active participators, and they needed their voices to be heard. A large majority of the class did not sink into their seats when the teacher asked them a question—instead excited hands shot up with hopes that it would be their turn to share their thoughts and opinions. These kids were amazing, truly!!

The classes were being taught a lesson on the Greensboro Four, which would finish with a Socratic seminar. The lesson was taught across four classes and began with the students reading an article, followed by watching a short PBS film. The students were being taught to close read the text with highlighting and underlining important facts, circling vocab, and writing in the margins. The students worked through the text together as a class and then broke into two groups to develop ten higher level thinking questions based on Costa’s levels of questioning, which would fuel their Socratic seminar. These students were excited and they had awesome questions. It was exciting to see children actively engaged! From a teacher candidate standpoint, it was also cool to see how the teacher differentiated this lesson among classes. One class was given a slightly different article, and was required to come up with nine questions made up of three level one, three level two, and three level three questions.

Seeing the amount and types of writing these kids did was refreshing. They had awesome writing assignments that I wanted to do: writer’s notebooks, senses poems on the civil rights movements, and six panel comics! I read a lot of their poems and they were amazing writers. Most importantly, they ENJOYED writing. I am so excited for what the next three weeks will bring into my teaching arsenal and into my writerly soul.

This I Believe [About Teaching & Learning]

I want to teach. I want to open the doors of students’ minds and their futures. I want to allow children an opportunity for a future, for an education, for a life. I want to help children find their beliefs, their desires, and their passion in life. I want to help them find their voice, through literature, debate, poetry. I want to model the importance of an education for students. I want to show them just how far a book can take them. I want to show students how a six stanza poem can lead them through life.  I want to teach children how an education can pave the road to the life they want. I want students to write their way to freedom. I want them to know that every line they write is a shot at changing and molding their future. I want them to find happiness in a classroom, a novel, a piece of their writing, and in their own mind. I want students to know their words hold weight and power. I want students to know there is meaning and purpose in everything they learn, even if they don’t see it at first. I want students to draw connections from their lives and bring them into the classroom. I want students to know that their lives are relevant.

I believe that every classroom is a safe haven. I believe a classroom is a community, a family, a nurturing environment. I believe every student has a voice and has power, even if they don’t believe they do. I believe every student needs an advocate. I believe students need the tools to strengthen and hone in on their voice, their opinions, their beliefs, and their power. I believe teachers give students the tools they will use for the rest of their lives. I believe education breaks the chains of oppression. I believe an education is valuable. I believe education is the way to the life you want.

I am against negative comments. I am against disbelief. I will not put my students down. I will not talk down to my students. I will not stand for negativity towards peers within my classroom. I am against oppression. I am against teaching to the book. I am against not bringing students’ lives and experiences into the lesson at hand or the classroom environment. I am against acting better than my students. I am for teaching, molding, and shaping minds. I am for being an advocate for my students. I am for modeling appropriate behavior. I am for being a human being in front of my students, while still maintaining appropriate behavior. I am for using authoritative power in the correct manner.

CCSS Found Poem