I did it. I got a job.
And so far, I love it! I love my school, and I love my department. I feel very blessed to be where I am.
Week 1, consisting of 3 days, is done. And it was a success. I say this to remind myself as much to tell you. My first day was great. My second was just fine (I only had one class), and I went home that night with a great lesson idea for the following day. It wasn't until that night that I realized that the lesson wouldn't work.
I scrambled for new ideas. 45 minutes later, I had an even better plan in the works. This plan was perfect, brilliant, and I loved it until I realized that it wouldn't work either. Panic rising slowly, I formulated a third plan for a few anxious minutes before realizing that I didn't have the materials I would need. Defeated, I simplified some ideas that I had and stumbled to bed too late with an acceptable plan.
That next day, the lesson went just fine. It worked. But, throughout the day, I couldn't shake the feeling that I had failed. You see, I had seen, as if in vision, those other plans, each more perfect than the last, each tantalizing out of reach. I looked upon my acceptable work for the day, and all I saw was shambles in the shadows of my previous ideas, now mocking me in my defeat.
I went home determined to work harder. The shadow of shame followed me home. "Can I keep it?" I asked myself. Like the little child with a wandering dog, I wasn't fully aware of the responsibilities inherent in keeping such an animal. Fortunately, I got to see a few friends that evening who talked some sense into me. "You won't have any time to feed or take care of this new pet if you want to continue to work your big-boy job." They figuratively said. "Besides, you like your new job. You're good at it too, you just need to allow yourself to have a few bad days." Wise words. Kind friends.
The trick, I think, is not what I have always tried: working harder. When I feel defeated, "working harder" just becomes another unattainable goal, mocking my efforts as I grow more weary and more deadened to life. Instead, I need to work smarter. I need to figure out how to balance all that I need to do. Thus, plan "Work Smarter" was born.
Daily lesson planning will be done daily during prep periods. I will try to plan a week ahead of time at all times, whenever possible.
Reflection and emails will be done after class ends and before I go home. I will reflect on how to improve each day's lessons, make some notes for next year, and then leave those worries in my files at work before heading home.
Larger scale "big picture" planning for upcoming units will be done on Saturdays. I need to feel free of deadline induced stressed for this more conceptual planning to be effective, so I will reserve it for Saturdays when I have no other work responsibilities.
Grading, thanks to my team's innovated and heaven blessed checklist system, will mostly be taken care of in class, but I am no fool. I plan on doing whatever other grading I need to do in the evenings, with the assurance that my other responsibilities are being taken care of at school. I will try to keep these graded assignments to a workable, manageable level, for my and my students' sake.
Well, that's plan "Work Smarter," and I think that she will treat me much nicer than my temporary stint with "Work Harder," that shaming sneak.
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Thursday, April 9, 2015
The End of the Beginning: Finding a Job
I always considered myself luckier than my other undergraduate friends; whenever they were worrying about what they would do after they graduate, that question for me was answered simply: teach! As spring break wears on (and what a glorious thing to be a BYU student and have a spring break), graduation is fast approaching, and I remain, for the time, jobless.
I never really worried about getting a job, trusting that I was being properly prepared. I planned on crossing that bridge when I came to it. Well, here it is, a rickety rope ladder on its side, spanning a wide gap between graduation and my first "big-boy" job. Every position I apply for is getting between 60 and 90 applicants, and somehow I need to stand out.
Standing out in person has never been a problem for me (being 6'8" has its advantages), but I'm still learning the knack of standing out when my potential employers can only view my resume and a few letters of recommendation. Fortunately, I feel that my paper work is in order and that it highlights my skills and personality reasonably well. I plan on improving them as much as possible as well. Unfortunately, these employers don't get the full "Mr. Jones" experience without meeting me in person.
Which brings me to my two-part plan: receive professional advice on resumes and the like from BYU's career services, and visit every school that I have applied to; if I can meet a principal from these schools, then I have a great shot at standing out.
After I tidy up my resume a little bit and get a few more professional tips, I plan on flooding the valley with my resume. I will apply online of course, but brief, personal visits are, in my opinion, what are going to really help me in the job market.
That being said, I need to take a moment to address you, my casual reader.
This blog will continue to be updated, as writing is important and helps me learn. This will continue to be a place for me to reflect on what I am learning as a new teacher. Tune in if you like, don't if you don't.
Mr. Jones
I never really worried about getting a job, trusting that I was being properly prepared. I planned on crossing that bridge when I came to it. Well, here it is, a rickety rope ladder on its side, spanning a wide gap between graduation and my first "big-boy" job. Every position I apply for is getting between 60 and 90 applicants, and somehow I need to stand out.
Standing out in person has never been a problem for me (being 6'8" has its advantages), but I'm still learning the knack of standing out when my potential employers can only view my resume and a few letters of recommendation. Fortunately, I feel that my paper work is in order and that it highlights my skills and personality reasonably well. I plan on improving them as much as possible as well. Unfortunately, these employers don't get the full "Mr. Jones" experience without meeting me in person.
Which brings me to my two-part plan: receive professional advice on resumes and the like from BYU's career services, and visit every school that I have applied to; if I can meet a principal from these schools, then I have a great shot at standing out.
After I tidy up my resume a little bit and get a few more professional tips, I plan on flooding the valley with my resume. I will apply online of course, but brief, personal visits are, in my opinion, what are going to really help me in the job market.
That being said, I need to take a moment to address you, my casual reader.
This blog will continue to be updated, as writing is important and helps me learn. This will continue to be a place for me to reflect on what I am learning as a new teacher. Tune in if you like, don't if you don't.
Mr. Jones
Monday, March 23, 2015
Planning and Adjustments
Finishing off my Teacher Work Sample this afternoon, I was able to look back at my student teaching experience as a whole, and, luckily, I learned a few things.
The first thing that I learned was that planning day-to-day is HARD! There is so much to do on a daily basis with grading and instruction that having to plan an entire curriculum from day to day becomes WAY too much to deal with.
That's why I plan on planning ahead of time as much as possible. The sooner I can find out what I'm supposed to teach next year, the sooner I will be able to get a head start this summer. I want to talk to my new department at the end of this year to learn when they are teaching what, and to steal their best ideas.
The second thing that I learned, was that grading a final assessment where the majority of the students did very poorly is EXTREMELY discouraging. I don't like going through that. In order to prevent that, I'm going to plan some good formative assessments, and adjust my teaching as the unit is in progress; reteaching, adjusting deadlines, and providing intervention and help in a directive way towards my students needs.
When I know how they're struggling, then I can help them overcome their struggles, when I help them overcome their struggles, then they preform better on their final assessments, and when they perform better on their final assessments, they are happier, and I am happier (how's this for a run-on sentence?).
If you know me, then you know that keeping things short can be hard for me (pun intended), but here goes: I've learned from my mistakes to plan ahead as much as possible and to use formative assessments.
The first thing that I learned was that planning day-to-day is HARD! There is so much to do on a daily basis with grading and instruction that having to plan an entire curriculum from day to day becomes WAY too much to deal with.
That's why I plan on planning ahead of time as much as possible. The sooner I can find out what I'm supposed to teach next year, the sooner I will be able to get a head start this summer. I want to talk to my new department at the end of this year to learn when they are teaching what, and to steal their best ideas.
The second thing that I learned, was that grading a final assessment where the majority of the students did very poorly is EXTREMELY discouraging. I don't like going through that. In order to prevent that, I'm going to plan some good formative assessments, and adjust my teaching as the unit is in progress; reteaching, adjusting deadlines, and providing intervention and help in a directive way towards my students needs.
When I know how they're struggling, then I can help them overcome their struggles, when I help them overcome their struggles, then they preform better on their final assessments, and when they perform better on their final assessments, they are happier, and I am happier (how's this for a run-on sentence?).
If you know me, then you know that keeping things short can be hard for me (pun intended), but here goes: I've learned from my mistakes to plan ahead as much as possible and to use formative assessments.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Late Work
Somehow, I managed to grade all of the late work in the mad rush of papers that came in at the end of the term. I had a few students that gave only perfunctory effort, but many of them cracked down to get things done, mostly out of fear. After grading everything and reflecting with my mentor teacher, I realized that some of the kids who had (I'm being honest here) a bad grade in the class ended up with quite a good grade in the end.
I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. I like that the students were able to obtain a good grade, but I also feel that by letting them turn in everything late, with minimal points docked, that I am teaching them that consequences don't really matter. Or perhaps I'm teaching them that the consequences don't add up to what I say they will. "You can be lazy all term long and still end up with a good grade by putting in a burst of effort at the very end." Even though this may sometimes be true, is this a perspective that I want to be teaching and training my kids to adopt?
My mentor teacher suggested working out a late-work policy that I like, one that I would use if given the directive to do as I wish in this regard. As with so many things in student teaching, this has been hard to conceptualize because I simply don't have the experience. I don't really know how things would pan out. Regardless, here is my current plan for late work:
I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. I like that the students were able to obtain a good grade, but I also feel that by letting them turn in everything late, with minimal points docked, that I am teaching them that consequences don't really matter. Or perhaps I'm teaching them that the consequences don't add up to what I say they will. "You can be lazy all term long and still end up with a good grade by putting in a burst of effort at the very end." Even though this may sometimes be true, is this a perspective that I want to be teaching and training my kids to adopt?
My mentor teacher suggested working out a late-work policy that I like, one that I would use if given the directive to do as I wish in this regard. As with so many things in student teaching, this has been hard to conceptualize because I simply don't have the experience. I don't really know how things would pan out. Regardless, here is my current plan for late work:
- Any assignments where the deadline has been previously given must be turned in on the assigned date regardless of absences, excused or otherwise.
- If a student has an excused absence, then they have a week to make up any in-class assignments for that day before it is considered late.
- Late assignments turned in within a week of the original due date will receive a 10% dock in credit.
- Any assignment more than a week late will receive half credit.
- No assignments may be turned in more that 2 weeks late.
- Extenuating circumstances may allow a special contract to made on a case by case basis, according to my judgement.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Contacting Parents
While the rest of the school was celebrating Pi day. I had a few Parent Day activities. I'd been meaning to contact a few parents for a while now - and the right opportunities finally came.
First, as I greeted students while they walked in, I had one of them greet me back with a pleasant "It's nice to see you too, Mr. Jones." This student was usually very quiet, and I was glad to hear that she enjoyed the class enough to be glad to be there. During that period I checked her grade and found that she was doing fairly well, and thought - "hey, here is an opportunity to have positive contact with a parent!" I wrote a little note to her parents, explaining how she is doing well in the class and how she is always respectful. I hoped that writing it in her parents' native language would be helpful as well, and provide good rapport. I then thanked the student for her attitude in class and asked her to hand the note to her parents. She seemed glad to do so.
My other experience with a parent was a little more nerve-racking. I have one student that has continually been giving me trouble. His attitude in the class can be perfectly described as flippant. His disruptions in class are consistently distracting and, frankly, highly annoying. Even the other students have mentioned this. I have called him out several times, with varying degrees of effectiveness. A week or so ago I gave him an official warning, mentioning that I would call his parents if he persisted. His behavior temporarily subsided, but began to ebb towards obnoxiousness again today. He called another student stupid in front of the entire class. I had him move to the back of the class and write a note of apology. His note apologized for him making fun of her "dumb, blonde comment." He did not participate in group work that day and had to read alone. I spoke with him and told him I would be calling his parents that afternoon.
After school, I was pretty nervous about calling his parents. I didn't know how they would react. I sat down and planned out what I would say, opening with the positive (he is doing well in the class) and how I would transition to the negative and explain the exact nature of his "crimes" and how I had dealt with it. It didn't help my nerves that no one answered the first two numbers I tried, but his father finally picked up. His father was actually rather pleasant. I explained how his son's attitude has had a negative effect on the learning and on other students. He seemed to take the news well, and the only question he had for me was how he could reach me if need be. Luckily my mentor teacher was there to give me the school's phone number, and we were on my way. I don't anticipate any major problems from the student in the future. Wow. My first phone call to a parent!
On another note, the student whose parent sent me the angry email the other day told me that his dad had found the questions I had used on the study guide online and was helping him complete them. I said I was glad that his father was helping him. Huh.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Reading!
We're beginning reading! Writing was a little rough, but I learned how to help them understand the concepts better and will do a better job on it next time. Reading, though, is going to be more fun, IMAO (in my arrogant opinion - let's be honest: if I have an opinion about it, then I feel fairly strongly about it).
I've already started setting the stage this week for the context and setting of To Kill a Mockingbird, and I feel that the students have really responded to it. It has been fun to see them thinking about segregation and what life was like in the Jim Crow South. Some of them even seem interested in this mysterious Boo Radley character, and that makes me glad.
My honors class is doing really well and I have a unit plan, a variation on lit circles, that I'm really excited about planned for them. I really like it, but I'm going to need to do something a little different for my regular English 9 classes. I'm still deciding how I want to do it, though...
I've already started setting the stage this week for the context and setting of To Kill a Mockingbird, and I feel that the students have really responded to it. It has been fun to see them thinking about segregation and what life was like in the Jim Crow South. Some of them even seem interested in this mysterious Boo Radley character, and that makes me glad.
My honors class is doing really well and I have a unit plan, a variation on lit circles, that I'm really excited about planned for them. I really like it, but I'm going to need to do something a little different for my regular English 9 classes. I'm still deciding how I want to do it, though...
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Why do I want to teach?
I have realized recently that student teaching has been getting me rather cynical. I don't like that change that has been happening. After grading all those essays, and seeing how poorly my students had done, I started to lose hope that I could help them learn. This past week has been hard because, without the hope that I can help these students learn the material, I haven't seen the point. It's been a whole lot of hard work, and it was just to get things done.
I don't want to become the teacher who does things just because they need to be done. There is too much hard work for me to put up with without my real passion coming into play. So I asked myself, why do I want to teach?
Today, during intervention, I was able to work with some students and help them make some real progress on their projects. It was very rewarding to see them learn, no, to be able to help them learn. Why do I want to teach? Because I want to take part in helping students learn. I love that feeling of connection that comes when a student reaches a new understanding, when they finally get how to complete an assignment, or a new concept enlightens their mind.
That's why I teach. For the personal connection that comes from helping and learning.
Lately, I haven't been getting much of that. Partially because I shut myself off to it - I stopped believing in these students (they did so poorly on the essay), and I began to stop believing in myself. I stopped believing that I was capable of this.
But, that is simply not true.
I need to be the kind of teacher that believes that he truly can help his students, or all the work of teaching is too much for me. I can do a lot of hard work if I feel that I am making a difference. When I don't feel that, it's nose-to-the-grindstone, purposeless, grueling, pointless work. I can't live that way. I cannot teach that way.
I need to find ways to remind myself that these students can learn, and that I can help them. I need to hope in their potential and in mine. Without that, I simply cannot teach.
With that in mind, planning and teaching becomes easier and more effective as well. All I ask myself is: what do I want them to learn? and how can I assess that they are learning that? Anything else can and must go.
I will teach to help students truly learn, and I need to focus on that, and cut away anything that doesn't help with that. If I don't get that personal connection, it's not worth it for me, and it's not worth it for my students.
I don't want to become the teacher who does things just because they need to be done. There is too much hard work for me to put up with without my real passion coming into play. So I asked myself, why do I want to teach?
Today, during intervention, I was able to work with some students and help them make some real progress on their projects. It was very rewarding to see them learn, no, to be able to help them learn. Why do I want to teach? Because I want to take part in helping students learn. I love that feeling of connection that comes when a student reaches a new understanding, when they finally get how to complete an assignment, or a new concept enlightens their mind.
That's why I teach. For the personal connection that comes from helping and learning.
Lately, I haven't been getting much of that. Partially because I shut myself off to it - I stopped believing in these students (they did so poorly on the essay), and I began to stop believing in myself. I stopped believing that I was capable of this.
But, that is simply not true.
I need to be the kind of teacher that believes that he truly can help his students, or all the work of teaching is too much for me. I can do a lot of hard work if I feel that I am making a difference. When I don't feel that, it's nose-to-the-grindstone, purposeless, grueling, pointless work. I can't live that way. I cannot teach that way.
I need to find ways to remind myself that these students can learn, and that I can help them. I need to hope in their potential and in mine. Without that, I simply cannot teach.
With that in mind, planning and teaching becomes easier and more effective as well. All I ask myself is: what do I want them to learn? and how can I assess that they are learning that? Anything else can and must go.
I will teach to help students truly learn, and I need to focus on that, and cut away anything that doesn't help with that. If I don't get that personal connection, it's not worth it for me, and it's not worth it for my students.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Parent-Teacher Conference!
I actually really liked parent-teacher Conference.
It was really good to meet with some of the parents of the students that I teach. The most notable things that I learned was my deeper understanding of where these kids are coming from. As I met with these parents I was able to tell what kind of environment these kids were raised in.
Some parents came in and were very concerned with their kid's A-. "We don't like those in our house."
Others saw a B-, gave an understanding smile, and asked how their kid was behaving in class. They understood their kids and were happy that they weren't failing.
Others still were distraught that the grades had dipped so low recently. Their two biggest assignments (worth about 60% of their grade so far) were recently entered, and many students did not do so well.
It was all very insightful. It wasn't very busy at all, one of the slowest in years according to my mentor teacher, so it wasn't stressful. Chatting with my teacher, planning, and reading in between was nice. The only problem was how LONG it was. I had a 12 hour work day and it was exhausting.
Overall, it was a great experience, and I look forward to my future parent-teacher conferences.
It was really good to meet with some of the parents of the students that I teach. The most notable things that I learned was my deeper understanding of where these kids are coming from. As I met with these parents I was able to tell what kind of environment these kids were raised in.
Some parents came in and were very concerned with their kid's A-. "We don't like those in our house."
Others saw a B-, gave an understanding smile, and asked how their kid was behaving in class. They understood their kids and were happy that they weren't failing.
Others still were distraught that the grades had dipped so low recently. Their two biggest assignments (worth about 60% of their grade so far) were recently entered, and many students did not do so well.
It was all very insightful. It wasn't very busy at all, one of the slowest in years according to my mentor teacher, so it wasn't stressful. Chatting with my teacher, planning, and reading in between was nice. The only problem was how LONG it was. I had a 12 hour work day and it was exhausting.
Overall, it was a great experience, and I look forward to my future parent-teacher conferences.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Grades
I'm started to get genuinely concerned about the state of my students' grades. Many of them have incompletes in the class, and are not working to make up their work. I want to start working more closely with them during remediation time.
Also, I'm grading the summative assessment for argument writing right now and the average score (so far) is a lot lower than I expected/hoped. My plan right now (at my mentor teacher's suggestion) is to finish grading them all, and then I can look at them and decide if and how I may want to adjust the scoring. This certainly is informing my teaching, and I wonder how much of their scores reflects my teaching and how much reflects my students' efforts/ability.
Grading takes FOR-EV-ER, by the way. I don't know when I'm ever going to plan for the upcoming unit if this grading keeps lasting forever.
Also, I'm grading the summative assessment for argument writing right now and the average score (so far) is a lot lower than I expected/hoped. My plan right now (at my mentor teacher's suggestion) is to finish grading them all, and then I can look at them and decide if and how I may want to adjust the scoring. This certainly is informing my teaching, and I wonder how much of their scores reflects my teaching and how much reflects my students' efforts/ability.
Grading takes FOR-EV-ER, by the way. I don't know when I'm ever going to plan for the upcoming unit if this grading keeps lasting forever.
Checks and Balances
Dalen had an interesting idea pertaining to educational reform. We were talking about how assessment is needed in order to inform our teaching practices.
We believe that the teachers, being closest to the students and more directly understanding what they need and how they have been taught, should have the power to write the assessments. They act as the legislative branch of education. They should write the material that students will be assessed on.
The district is the executive branch. They need to ensure that these tests are administered and that the data (whether quantitative or qualitative - the teachers should decide this) is used to inform teaching practices. Teachers need to be held accountable for their instruction, so if the students do not test well in an are, teachers should be required to reflect on why this may be (in some cases because of the students, and in some cases because of instruction). The teacher then should be required to try to improve their teaching in those areas where their instruction needs help, whether through a class, collaborating with a colleague whose students did well on that concept, research, or other means.
I'm not sure where the judicial branch fits into all of this.
We believe that the teachers, being closest to the students and more directly understanding what they need and how they have been taught, should have the power to write the assessments. They act as the legislative branch of education. They should write the material that students will be assessed on.
The district is the executive branch. They need to ensure that these tests are administered and that the data (whether quantitative or qualitative - the teachers should decide this) is used to inform teaching practices. Teachers need to be held accountable for their instruction, so if the students do not test well in an are, teachers should be required to reflect on why this may be (in some cases because of the students, and in some cases because of instruction). The teacher then should be required to try to improve their teaching in those areas where their instruction needs help, whether through a class, collaborating with a colleague whose students did well on that concept, research, or other means.
I'm not sure where the judicial branch fits into all of this.
Autonomy vs. Correlated Curriculum
Elaborated notes from Collaboration today:
The CCSS ensure that important concepts get taught.
How important is it for teachers to teach the same thing at the same time?
What would be the consequence of not having a correlated curriculum?
- A student may miss out on a concept if they change classes at the change of the semester.
- Collaboration of ideas (this is how I teach this concept, how about you?) would not happen AS instruction of that idea takes place for both parties.
- Anything else?
It is important to remember that "nobody knows how long it takes anybody to learn anything." The instruction of pacing should depend on the students.
Solve the first problem by making sure that the same things are taught each term (when students can change their classes). Teachers should each cover the same concepts during each respective term, and term 4 should be left unplanned for any concepts that there wasn't time to cover as well as testing (a large part of fourth term).
Teachers should have the autonomy to choose when in the term to teach the concepts, and how they should be taught. Teachers are professionals who know their craft and who know their students. They are in the best place to make decisions about the educational needs of their students.
As for collaboration, it does not have to take place while both teachers are on the same subject. If two teachers decide to teach something at the same time, that is their privilege to work together in their planning, assessment, and informing each other's practice. But every teacher has the right to teach something in whatever way they feel is best for their students and at the pacing they feel is best. The collaboration of ideas for planning and assessment to inform one's teaching by hearing the ideas of another teacher from the same grade level do not need to take place AS these teachers teach their units together.
Collaboration should mean sharing ideas and using those ideas to inform our own teaching practices. It should not mean teaching the same thing at the same time.
These are my views and ideas on the matter from my experience observing collaboration at my school and listening in on the discussion concerning what collaboration time should be used for. I'm still developing these ideas.
The CCSS ensure that important concepts get taught.
How important is it for teachers to teach the same thing at the same time?
What would be the consequence of not having a correlated curriculum?
- A student may miss out on a concept if they change classes at the change of the semester.
- Collaboration of ideas (this is how I teach this concept, how about you?) would not happen AS instruction of that idea takes place for both parties.
- Anything else?
It is important to remember that "nobody knows how long it takes anybody to learn anything." The instruction of pacing should depend on the students.
Solve the first problem by making sure that the same things are taught each term (when students can change their classes). Teachers should each cover the same concepts during each respective term, and term 4 should be left unplanned for any concepts that there wasn't time to cover as well as testing (a large part of fourth term).
Teachers should have the autonomy to choose when in the term to teach the concepts, and how they should be taught. Teachers are professionals who know their craft and who know their students. They are in the best place to make decisions about the educational needs of their students.
As for collaboration, it does not have to take place while both teachers are on the same subject. If two teachers decide to teach something at the same time, that is their privilege to work together in their planning, assessment, and informing each other's practice. But every teacher has the right to teach something in whatever way they feel is best for their students and at the pacing they feel is best. The collaboration of ideas for planning and assessment to inform one's teaching by hearing the ideas of another teacher from the same grade level do not need to take place AS these teachers teach their units together.
Collaboration should mean sharing ideas and using those ideas to inform our own teaching practices. It should not mean teaching the same thing at the same time.
These are my views and ideas on the matter from my experience observing collaboration at my school and listening in on the discussion concerning what collaboration time should be used for. I'm still developing these ideas.
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Productive Space
I saw another English teacher's room today. I don't remember her name. All the decorations in her classroom weren't decorations, they served a purpose. One wall had the organizers for argumentative and informational writing. There was a reading corner where you could keep track of books read. Everything had its place. Mostly, I just liked the utility. I think I will strive for this in decorating my own classroom in the future.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Things Fall Apart
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the classroom.
Okay, I'm being a little dramatic. Yesterday was rather annoying though.
To start it off, I spent 6 hours grading on Saturday, and by the time that was through I had decided that I couldn't take any more that day and would get up early on Monday to write my lesson plan. By consequence, 5:00 am found me half awake, a growing sense of dread within me, with several half-baked ideas bouncing uselessly around my brain like the day old heaps of oatmeal that slide of your fork at scout camp. The oatmeal, the ideas, the sense of humanity at such an ungodly hour - things were falling apart.
I took stock of the situation and took hold of an idea, forcing it to shape itself into an edible lesson plan. Workable. A workable lesson plan (can you tell that I'm hungry right now?).
First period arrived and my students looked as if they had gotten less sleep than I had, a feat to be reckoned with. As the lesson wore on, I recognized that they were in a more particularly drowsy state than usual. Perhaps they had spent the night either reveling victory or mourning the defeat of their beloved football team (who won again? I fell asleep fourth quarter). I couldn't believe how inactive they were and how useless my lesson plan seemed.
When the morning dew cleared up and my students had wiped it out of their eyes by fourth period (my next lesson), things started looking up. The lesson plan came together and the students were engaged and learning. I love fourth period. It comes as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed; it blesses him that teaches and those who learn. Ahh, fourth period.
Fifth, lunch, sixth: about the same as usual. Fun but chatty, lots of complaining, and extra chatty and distracted. In that order.
Seventh period was something else. The students are usually edgy, distracted, anxious to leave, but today they were the most lazy bunch of chatty chimps I have ever met. In the half an hour of drafting time that I gave them to begin a rough draft ("Just get all of your ideas down, where ever you are. You need to be ready to show your argument to someone else in another 15 minutes") some of the students only got a few lines written.
A half an hour, continual reminders and offers to help, and 3 lines of text.
I don't understand it.
There will be very little mercy dropping from Mr. Jones's desk when he is grading some of these papers, I can say that.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the classroom.
Okay, I'm being a little dramatic. Yesterday was rather annoying though.
To start it off, I spent 6 hours grading on Saturday, and by the time that was through I had decided that I couldn't take any more that day and would get up early on Monday to write my lesson plan. By consequence, 5:00 am found me half awake, a growing sense of dread within me, with several half-baked ideas bouncing uselessly around my brain like the day old heaps of oatmeal that slide of your fork at scout camp. The oatmeal, the ideas, the sense of humanity at such an ungodly hour - things were falling apart.
I took stock of the situation and took hold of an idea, forcing it to shape itself into an edible lesson plan. Workable. A workable lesson plan (can you tell that I'm hungry right now?).
First period arrived and my students looked as if they had gotten less sleep than I had, a feat to be reckoned with. As the lesson wore on, I recognized that they were in a more particularly drowsy state than usual. Perhaps they had spent the night either reveling victory or mourning the defeat of their beloved football team (who won again? I fell asleep fourth quarter). I couldn't believe how inactive they were and how useless my lesson plan seemed.
When the morning dew cleared up and my students had wiped it out of their eyes by fourth period (my next lesson), things started looking up. The lesson plan came together and the students were engaged and learning. I love fourth period. It comes as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed; it blesses him that teaches and those who learn. Ahh, fourth period.
Fifth, lunch, sixth: about the same as usual. Fun but chatty, lots of complaining, and extra chatty and distracted. In that order.
Seventh period was something else. The students are usually edgy, distracted, anxious to leave, but today they were the most lazy bunch of chatty chimps I have ever met. In the half an hour of drafting time that I gave them to begin a rough draft ("Just get all of your ideas down, where ever you are. You need to be ready to show your argument to someone else in another 15 minutes") some of the students only got a few lines written.
A half an hour, continual reminders and offers to help, and 3 lines of text.
I don't understand it.
There will be very little mercy dropping from Mr. Jones's desk when he is grading some of these papers, I can say that.
Dealing with Parents
Last week I received my first email from an angry parent. The student hadn't done as well as he had hoped on his assignment, and the father decided that he had a bone to pick with my grading practices and my choice of topic.
The email was very cordial, and the father explained how he understood the value in the assignment, but, knowing that I was a student teacher, doubted as to whether or not I had been fair in my grading. That part was okay. I was able to explain myself well and quote the common core.
What I didn't understand was how the parent did not like that he child was going to be doing research on racial equality in America, thinking it too controversial a topic for a 9th grade classroom. I explained that I believe that giving challenging topics to middle schoolers shows them respect. It also gives them an opportunity to think through these difficult issues instead of being blindsided by them later in life. Of course, I conceded his right as a parent to choose an alternate topic for the assignment.
Fortunately, I had Mr. Anson's backing and approval with my teaching and grading practices, which helped me know that I was not in the wrong, but it was still challenging to determine how to respond to this parent. I took a moment to think through his email and made an effort to carefully choose my response instead of reacting to the email.
I didn't hear back from the parent, but the student did start doing research on tap vs. bottled water, a much more benign topic to be sure. He'll still get a lot out of the research and writing aspect of the assignment, so I am content.
The email was very cordial, and the father explained how he understood the value in the assignment, but, knowing that I was a student teacher, doubted as to whether or not I had been fair in my grading. That part was okay. I was able to explain myself well and quote the common core.
What I didn't understand was how the parent did not like that he child was going to be doing research on racial equality in America, thinking it too controversial a topic for a 9th grade classroom. I explained that I believe that giving challenging topics to middle schoolers shows them respect. It also gives them an opportunity to think through these difficult issues instead of being blindsided by them later in life. Of course, I conceded his right as a parent to choose an alternate topic for the assignment.
Fortunately, I had Mr. Anson's backing and approval with my teaching and grading practices, which helped me know that I was not in the wrong, but it was still challenging to determine how to respond to this parent. I took a moment to think through his email and made an effort to carefully choose my response instead of reacting to the email.
I didn't hear back from the parent, but the student did start doing research on tap vs. bottled water, a much more benign topic to be sure. He'll still get a lot out of the research and writing aspect of the assignment, so I am content.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Learning and Growing
The emotional roller coaster is real.
Some days this is exceptionally hard, especially when I need to stay up super late finishing my lesson plans. As I predicted, planning is one of my biggest weaknesses. It takes me a long time to figure out what I want to do. I noticed that I was getting really jealous of my student teaching friends from other disciplines who say things like "I have all these ideas I want to try out!" while I'm banging my head against the wall for a few hours trying to put a lesson together.
I've realized though, that the stymieing nature of my planning sessions seems to result from my perfectionism. I seems that I am able to understand that my lessons don't need to be perfect, but I can't get away from perfectionist thinking while I plan. This is actually killing the creative process, because I reject ideas before I can develop them into something very worthwhile.
Also, every time I teach something new, I need to ask myself "what are the underlying concepts of this topic? What do I think is important about this?" As I become more aware of what it is I think is important about, say, argumentative writing or evaluating resources, then I can more easily plan for how to effectively teach those concepts.
I need to take the time before I plan to decide what is important to ME about what I am teaching them. Why is it worthwhile to evaluate our sources, and how do I subconsciously do that? When I consider these things, ideas come quickly to mind of how I could share them. It has become clear that what has stymied me in the past is not that I don't remember how to use proper methods and techniques or activities, but that I haven't allowed myself the time to develop my own approach to teaching that concept.
I should not plan activities until I have considered and decided upon what about the lesson's topic is meaningful and worth sharing. And, now that I'm aware of that, I can feel less stressed about the time that it takes. I now recognize that it is just another step in the process of planning. The difference between how I used to and now think about planning is nuanced, but I feel that it will help (and I hope that it's not so nuanced that I have failed completely at explaining it here).
It's okay that planning takes a while. It's not because I don't have good ideas. It's because I need to take the time to develop my own approach to every lesson that I am to teach before I can plan its logistics and technicalities. Not taking a default approach may take longer, but creating my own will pay off in the end.
I am, as The Aquabats! say, ...
Some days this is exceptionally hard, especially when I need to stay up super late finishing my lesson plans. As I predicted, planning is one of my biggest weaknesses. It takes me a long time to figure out what I want to do. I noticed that I was getting really jealous of my student teaching friends from other disciplines who say things like "I have all these ideas I want to try out!" while I'm banging my head against the wall for a few hours trying to put a lesson together.
I've realized though, that the stymieing nature of my planning sessions seems to result from my perfectionism. I seems that I am able to understand that my lessons don't need to be perfect, but I can't get away from perfectionist thinking while I plan. This is actually killing the creative process, because I reject ideas before I can develop them into something very worthwhile.
Also, every time I teach something new, I need to ask myself "what are the underlying concepts of this topic? What do I think is important about this?" As I become more aware of what it is I think is important about, say, argumentative writing or evaluating resources, then I can more easily plan for how to effectively teach those concepts.
I need to take the time before I plan to decide what is important to ME about what I am teaching them. Why is it worthwhile to evaluate our sources, and how do I subconsciously do that? When I consider these things, ideas come quickly to mind of how I could share them. It has become clear that what has stymied me in the past is not that I don't remember how to use proper methods and techniques or activities, but that I haven't allowed myself the time to develop my own approach to teaching that concept.
I should not plan activities until I have considered and decided upon what about the lesson's topic is meaningful and worth sharing. And, now that I'm aware of that, I can feel less stressed about the time that it takes. I now recognize that it is just another step in the process of planning. The difference between how I used to and now think about planning is nuanced, but I feel that it will help (and I hope that it's not so nuanced that I have failed completely at explaining it here).
It's okay that planning takes a while. It's not because I don't have good ideas. It's because I need to take the time to develop my own approach to every lesson that I am to teach before I can plan its logistics and technicalities. Not taking a default approach may take longer, but creating my own will pay off in the end.
I am, as The Aquabats! say, ...
Saturday, January 17, 2015
The Carpenter's Maxim
My first week seemed like one big experiment. I had a vague idea where I wanted to go, but it kept changing. Each lesson drastically changed what I wanted the week to end up looking like, and I began to realize that I had neglected one of the first principles in teaching: begin with the end in mind. My final assessment kept changing because I hadn't thought it through.
My humbling realizations came to a head on Wednesday, when, after teaching my first period, I realized that my lesson plan simply wasn't going to work the way I wanted it to. I was tired from lack of sleep and frustrated that I had spent so much time planning the lesson and had to completely revise it for the entire day. I pulled my thoughts together during my prep period and found out that the goal for the day was workable and worthy, and that I simply needed a new plan of attack. I planned a new approach, created a new handout and made appropriate copies, and went into fourth period feeling confident.
When talking later with my mentor teacher, I brought up my weakness in planning, my uncertainty of the goal of my week-long unit and asked for advice. His suggestion?
- Determine your final assessment, what you want your students to be able to do.
- Ask yourself what they need to know in order to be able to accomplish this.
- Place the concepts in the most effective learning order.
His words of truth broke over me softly, like a gentle wave. Duh. I had learned this already.
I vowed to fend off future frustrations by planning the big picture before I planned the small stuff. To use the carpenter's maxim: measure twice, cut once.
I'm learning.
Monday, January 5, 2015
Rising to the Challenge!
Today I shared with my students an excerpt from president Reagan's speech about the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
Well, I did, but I also shared this for me. Today I embarked on a grand adventure. I'm taking a chance and expanding my horizons. I want to explore the universe of teaching and discover its truths.
So far, I've had no major disasters. My students' discussions about reading today were sometimes lackluster, and I want to better implement a variety of discussion strategies to get them going, but it's all part of the process of pedagogical exploration and discovery.
It was a good day. I believe that a lot of students learned something, and they seemed to be interested in Reagan's speech and the excerpt from my memoir, despite a few hiccups. And though every day won't be without hiccups, some more disastrous than others, with any luck and a lot of hard work, I'm sure that the rest of the semester will be great. For the future belongs not to the fainthearted, but the brave.
My students probably thought that I shared this for them. My mentor teacher too, probably.For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, 'Give me a challenge and I'll meet it with joy.' They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths.And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them.
Well, I did, but I also shared this for me. Today I embarked on a grand adventure. I'm taking a chance and expanding my horizons. I want to explore the universe of teaching and discover its truths.
So far, I've had no major disasters. My students' discussions about reading today were sometimes lackluster, and I want to better implement a variety of discussion strategies to get them going, but it's all part of the process of pedagogical exploration and discovery.
It was a good day. I believe that a lot of students learned something, and they seemed to be interested in Reagan's speech and the excerpt from my memoir, despite a few hiccups. And though every day won't be without hiccups, some more disastrous than others, with any luck and a lot of hard work, I'm sure that the rest of the semester will be great. For the future belongs not to the fainthearted, but the brave.
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