One of my male students walked up to me on Friday and exclaimed, "All I know is that I'm a middle aged black woman; help me out!"
This exclamation, in context, made perfect sense. My class was playing the "Guess Who" game where you post the name of a famous person on your forehead and ask your peers yes and no questions to determine your identity. We were playing with all of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, and this particular student could not figure out that he was Helen Robinson until someone said that there was a song about him and began humming "Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson."
This was all a part of my goal to have as much fun teaching as humanly possible in my last few days of class. I intend to play games, read short stories and children's stories aloud, and do a little creative writing. I am fitting it all conveniently into the curriculum, which only goes to show that the classroom can be a fun place if you try. I am really looking forward to class this week, but I am looking forward to my own class next fall just a little bit more!!!
Saturday, April 14, 2012
My First Job
My posts have been sparse lately because my priorities have temporarily shifted. As a soon to be college graduate, my main goal as of late has been securing a teaching position for next fall. I had been forewarned that this could be a long and tedious process and had thus prepared for the worse. I went to an out of state job fair in March, filled out countless online applications, and attended every seminar I could find on resumes, cover letters, and interview tips. In the month of March I sent job applications out everywhere I could. And I waited. The hardest part was the waiting.
Fortunately for me, the wait was not long. I got a call in the second week of March asking to set up an interview with a district recruiter I met at the out of state job fair. Things with her went well, and a week later, I got a call from a building principal asking to set up an interview. He asked if I could stop by his office the following Thursday or Friday, but the 1,550 mile drive was a little deterring. I asked if we could schedule instead for Monday when I would actually be in his state on my spring break with my college service organization. He said his school was also on spring break that week, but that he would be sure to be in his office long enough on Monday to complete an interview.
The interview went swimmingly. I could not have asked for a nicer interviewer or better interview questions. I answered with confidence everything asked of me, and by the time he asked the final question, 'Why do you want to be a teacher?', I was glowing. That was the easiest question of all. My first hint that the interview went well was when his questions were all asked, we kept chatting. I asked him a few questions, he asked me a few questions, and I stayed 20-30 minutes after my scheduled time slot. My second clue that the interview went well was when I got a call exactly one week later saying that I was the front-runner for the position, but they wanted to be sure that I would take it if it was offered. The next day I called back and said I would be thrilled to be a part of his school district. By Friday I had the job.
The school is perfect. It was my number one choice of schools at the job fair, and it was the first job I applied to. Had I turned it down and waited to hear from more of the schools I applied to, I don't think I could have found a better fit for me. The school is well over a thousand miles from home, but in my estimations it is worth the distance. This is my own little adventure. This is my opportunity to get out and live life and have fun doing it. This is a fresh page in a new chapter for me, and I couldn't be more thrilled.
So I apologize for slacking when it comes to updating my blog, but I've been a little busy landing my first teaching job.
Fortunately for me, the wait was not long. I got a call in the second week of March asking to set up an interview with a district recruiter I met at the out of state job fair. Things with her went well, and a week later, I got a call from a building principal asking to set up an interview. He asked if I could stop by his office the following Thursday or Friday, but the 1,550 mile drive was a little deterring. I asked if we could schedule instead for Monday when I would actually be in his state on my spring break with my college service organization. He said his school was also on spring break that week, but that he would be sure to be in his office long enough on Monday to complete an interview.
The interview went swimmingly. I could not have asked for a nicer interviewer or better interview questions. I answered with confidence everything asked of me, and by the time he asked the final question, 'Why do you want to be a teacher?', I was glowing. That was the easiest question of all. My first hint that the interview went well was when his questions were all asked, we kept chatting. I asked him a few questions, he asked me a few questions, and I stayed 20-30 minutes after my scheduled time slot. My second clue that the interview went well was when I got a call exactly one week later saying that I was the front-runner for the position, but they wanted to be sure that I would take it if it was offered. The next day I called back and said I would be thrilled to be a part of his school district. By Friday I had the job.
The school is perfect. It was my number one choice of schools at the job fair, and it was the first job I applied to. Had I turned it down and waited to hear from more of the schools I applied to, I don't think I could have found a better fit for me. The school is well over a thousand miles from home, but in my estimations it is worth the distance. This is my own little adventure. This is my opportunity to get out and live life and have fun doing it. This is a fresh page in a new chapter for me, and I couldn't be more thrilled.
So I apologize for slacking when it comes to updating my blog, but I've been a little busy landing my first teaching job.
Monday, March 26, 2012
(One of) My First Hard Days
Though I woke up this morning with the confidence that today would be a good day, and even got on the road a solid 15 minutes head of schedule to assure that I would be the first in line for the copy machine this morning, today did not turn out to be a good day. The moment my students arrived, their grumblings reminded me of the severe disappointment that I experienced on Friday while grading their first To Kill a Mockingbird reading quizzes. This trimester, in attempt to align with the new national standards, my school is trying something new. We are assigning literature to our students as homework while teaching them unrelated material in class and assessing them on their reading comprehension on a weekly basis. This differs significantly from the heavy discussion based classroom I am used to and the changes are not being warmly received.
The first quiz was a wake up call. To me and the students. Of my 32 students first hour, 5 passed the quiz with higher than a 60%. This was simply a reading quiz that was meant to assess their higher level thinking skills as related to this novel. It had to compensate for days without discussion or even mention of the novel. As hard as this has been on me to give up my favorite aspect of the English classroom, it must be equally hard on my students. With this being one of the first grades on the books for the new trimester, many of my students are currently failing the class. They, and their parents, are freaking out.
The complaints, both justified and unjustified, were mentally exhausting. I did everything within my power to console them, however, and constructed for them a success strategy. Everyone who did not pass this quiz is required to do a reading guide for the next set of chapters to be tested. If they pass, then they are welcome to discontinue the use of the reading guide, but they may find it helpful for their future success. If they fail a later quiz, the reading guide will be reinstated. This will be true for the rest of the students for the rest of the year. I also showed them an example of a quiz turned in by one of their peers that was done tremendously well. His name was not on it and in no way was he identified, but he set the example for my expectations for the rest of the class. As a last measure, I asked my students to anonymously respond to the following questions:
How much of the book did you read?
How accurate was this quiz in assessing how much and how well you read the book?
Their responses were not surprising. Of my 32 students first hour, 7 claimed to have read every word of every page assigned. That means the other 25 used a combination of laziness and sparknotes to fail the quiz. 5th hour did marginally better. It was a rough day. Students were upset. I was fried.
I had a heart to heart with my students and told them that I did not intend to alter the quizzes. We were going to work harder to raise up to the high bar rather than lower it to met our sub-par standards. This, I think, was the right approach, even if they don't see it yet. Hopefully, one day they will.
The first quiz was a wake up call. To me and the students. Of my 32 students first hour, 5 passed the quiz with higher than a 60%. This was simply a reading quiz that was meant to assess their higher level thinking skills as related to this novel. It had to compensate for days without discussion or even mention of the novel. As hard as this has been on me to give up my favorite aspect of the English classroom, it must be equally hard on my students. With this being one of the first grades on the books for the new trimester, many of my students are currently failing the class. They, and their parents, are freaking out.
The complaints, both justified and unjustified, were mentally exhausting. I did everything within my power to console them, however, and constructed for them a success strategy. Everyone who did not pass this quiz is required to do a reading guide for the next set of chapters to be tested. If they pass, then they are welcome to discontinue the use of the reading guide, but they may find it helpful for their future success. If they fail a later quiz, the reading guide will be reinstated. This will be true for the rest of the students for the rest of the year. I also showed them an example of a quiz turned in by one of their peers that was done tremendously well. His name was not on it and in no way was he identified, but he set the example for my expectations for the rest of the class. As a last measure, I asked my students to anonymously respond to the following questions:
How much of the book did you read?
How accurate was this quiz in assessing how much and how well you read the book?
Their responses were not surprising. Of my 32 students first hour, 7 claimed to have read every word of every page assigned. That means the other 25 used a combination of laziness and sparknotes to fail the quiz. 5th hour did marginally better. It was a rough day. Students were upset. I was fried.
I had a heart to heart with my students and told them that I did not intend to alter the quizzes. We were going to work harder to raise up to the high bar rather than lower it to met our sub-par standards. This, I think, was the right approach, even if they don't see it yet. Hopefully, one day they will.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
My First Field Trip
After weeks of work and pleading, our efforts finally paid off to take our remedial English students on a field trip to see The Hunger Games movie which we had just finished reading in class. The book was used to teach reading comprehension, vocabulary, and literature appreciation. It was the first book many of our students read cover to cover, and our biggest struggle was keeping them from ruining the end of the book for those whose reading pace was slower than theirs. The students completed large projects to wrap up the unit, and their reward for completing two C or better projects was the movie. All but two students from both classes completed the assignment, a record for this class.
We took a bus from the school to the theater, and the concession stand was opened early just for us because we had a special 9:00am opening day showing of the film for just our students. They sat scattered around the whole theater and constantly critiqued the movie's variances from the book. In the end, the student's loved our outing and their 3 hours away from school on a Friday, and in memory, we decided to take a group photo. After we took several shots of the students, one yelled out, "The student teachers, get the student teachers in the picture!" which was followed by a chorus of "yeah" and "get in here!"
My co-student teacher and I joined with huge smiles. This class has become so important to us, and for them to make us feel included in their group was really touching. It was the highlight of my week.
We took a bus from the school to the theater, and the concession stand was opened early just for us because we had a special 9:00am opening day showing of the film for just our students. They sat scattered around the whole theater and constantly critiqued the movie's variances from the book. In the end, the student's loved our outing and their 3 hours away from school on a Friday, and in memory, we decided to take a group photo. After we took several shots of the students, one yelled out, "The student teachers, get the student teachers in the picture!" which was followed by a chorus of "yeah" and "get in here!"
My co-student teacher and I joined with huge smiles. This class has become so important to us, and for them to make us feel included in their group was really touching. It was the highlight of my week.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Teaming
Today I started team-teaching a unit for a remedial English class with a special education student teacher. We are teaching To Kill a Mockingbird which I have taught for the third time now in two months, but somehow it hasn't gotten old yet, especially because this time around is so different. Because this is a special class, it has its own curriculum, and my co-teacher and I have a lot of freedom. We are taking our sweet time making our way through the unit, and we're spending a considerable amount of time reading aloud. Our objective is to convey to our students the severity of the social issues taking place at the time and helping them realize to some extent the remnants of the racist sentiments tainting the modern world. Making the lessons from nearly a century ago relevant to our young audience may be a challenge, but it is a challenge I am up for as long as I have a partner by my side. I am very excited to sharing my newbie experience with this fellow student teacher, and I look forward to what we can learn together and from each other!
Monday, March 12, 2012
New Trimester
Today was the start of a new trimester with dozens of new faces. As my time is coming to an end at my student teaching placement, the education of these students is really just getting underway. A student told me today how hard it is having student teachers in class because the students get to know them and trust them, and then they up and leave. If the students feel the sudden detachment, I can only imagine how I will feel when I have to say my final goodbyes. I have already arranged to stay at least three extra days with my students, but I am afraid this will not suffice. I am busily applying to jobs right now so that, with any luck, after the start of my next school year I will be seeing many faces over and over and over again. I can only hope that I find a school that fits me as well as where I am now.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Extra Credit
Never have so many students inquired about their grades than at the end of the trimester. Something clicked in their brains this week as we were studying for our final exams and everyone suddenly became keenly interested in their GPA. I think mothers had something to do with it. I had students with Ds and low Cs asking for extra credit. I even had a mother of a student email asking for extra credit on her son's behalf! My answer must be a determined, "No!" Extra credit is for exemplary work that in some way stands out from everyone else's in a positive way! If the only exemplary aspect of your work is your astounding lack of effort, I am not going to be so moved as to offer you extra credit to make up for your laziness. You need to be conscious of the credit your are receiving, or not receiving, as the trimester unfolds, and you need to put a little effort in sometime before the last week of the trimester.You must earn your grades, and if you are earning a D or an E, than that is what you are going to get. I am not rewarding your last minute attempts to compensate for your poor work ethic. I honestly believe that I am being entirely fair in letting you, my students, live with the grades you earned. I am in the business of rearing adults and in respect of that I am going to treat you as such. If you want an A or a B, earn it, and I will be happy to deliver.
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