Student Teaching...End of Week One

Well, I have just completed my first week of student teaching. This more or less consisted of observing what was going on and doing a bit of work with small groups of students. This was an interesting week. I realize with some of these classes I will have an uphill battle in terms of behavior and getting them to complete their work in a timely matter, actually just to complete their work period. 

The students I will be working with are rather reluctant to complete the work especially the reading assignments. Being that it is an english class the reading assignments tend to be very important. I know that I will not be able to change that behavior in all of them, but I am hoping that I will at least be able to teach them the importance of reading for a grade as well as in life. 

Next week I get to start taking over one of the classes that I will be teaching over the course of the next few months. I will be taking over a class with 12 students. Of all of the classes they will be the most challenging in terms of getting them to do the homework. This class seems to be a group of students that want to do just enough to get pass and nothing more. I want to find a way to motivate them to do their work. If anyone can give me any ideas or advise on how to tackle the the motivation issue or just for student teaching in general, please send it my way.

Valuable Lesssons Learn

This past semester has been an incredible learning experience for me. Not in the sense of material covered in class, but but in life lessons. I feel like this semester I truly grew as a person based on some of the events that occurred.

The beginning of the semester there was a professor that I did not like, I felt like she was just to full of herself and just going to be the type that would give us all a hard time. As the semester progressed things got better for a while, but then took a turn for the worst. It resulted in some complications and disagreements. After looking back on this semester I realized that professor was one of the best things that could have happened to me. She saw that I was giving up on myself and the reason she was giving me a hard time and pushing me was to let me know she hadn't given up on me and she still cared. So, the lesson I took from this was: even when you give up on yourself the ones who still care will keep pushing you.

I was a little concerned mid-semester when it came time for scheduling and I found out that my adviser in my major department had been changed. I wasn't sure really what to expect. When I went in for my meeting to get my registration form for next semester signed she sat down and went over everything and we discussed exactly what I wanted to do and how I wanted to accomplish it. This was the first time an adviser didn't just sign off on the paper and let me go. She actually took the time and went over everything. after much discussion she told me she would not sign off unless I agreed to cut back on the amount of hours I was working (which at the time was 40 to 60 on top of being a full time student). Initially I thought that to be unfair, but I decided to try it. After cutting back I started to see changes in my grades and my attitude, both for the better. At the end of the day she really made me realize that I need to slow down and focus on what is important and take time for myself.

Thanks to a few people really caring this past semester it kept me from giving up on myself and losing everything I have worked so hard to get. You are never to old to learn a lesson and sometimes they come from places you don't expect them to, but it is important to take them when they are offered, it can only be for the better. I hope as a future educator I can have the impact on my students that these professors have had on me.

Action Speak Louder Than Words

After spending time as a Secondary Education Minor I have come to learn that actions do speak much louder than words. I have observed this both in the classroom as a student and as a teacher figure during junior field. This semester I have come across a professor who tells the students one thing and then her action negate everything that she has said. She has this habit of responding to students questions thoroughly with a rude tone in her voice. She also tends to down grade students when they don't understand something. As an education minor I pick up on these things and it has forced me to see the kind of teacher I do not want to become. Even as an adult in that class I am very uncomfortable going to that class in fear of being embarrassed or down graded because of my opinion. It is really difficult to go to a class and know that if your opinion differs from your teacher you will be told you are wrong. I now know how it feels for students in high school to be picked on or given a hard time in class. After being on the receiving end of this, I could never imagine running my classroom like that. I plan to make my classroom a place where students feel comfortable in showing up as well as expressing their opinions.

Special Education

Yesterday we wrapped up the discussion of special education with Dr. Luongo. From that discussion two things really stick in my mind, the substantial amount of time the process for classifying a student takes and the least restrictive environment, especially in terms of the girl in a coma we spoke of. 

This is an exceptionally long process for someone who is struggling and needs help. It seems like it is unfair to this struggling student to have his/her case bounced back and forth between the teacher, the PAC team and the CST. There should be a better system in order to get the student the help he/she needs in a much more timely manner. Even though it will most likely cost more money, it would probably be more beneficial to the student if the testing for special education was done in the beginning of the process. This would allow the school to properly place that student much faster and hopefully have the student on a track to success, rather than keeping the student stuck on this path to failure for a whole year because the process takes so long and the student is not getting the help he/she needs. I believe that the parents should be contacted right in the beginning of the process, this way they can get involved with what is going on. This also allows them time to research special education in terms of their rights, their child's rights and the school's rights. They also can look into different programs. Having the parents involved from the beginning helps them to better understand what is going on, as well as allows them to help their child at home better. If they don't know there is a problem they cannot help the child. 

Granted it is most beneficial for a special education student to be in an inclusion classroom meaning they will be with their regular education peers, but have some modifications, such as more time on work and tests or an aid in the room. In some cases I'm not sure this is always the best way to go. Sometimes it is much better for a student to be in a resource room for at least part of the day or in a special school if their disability warrants it. In the case with the girl in the coma I have mixed feelings. Meeting the girl in the school I do my junior field really made me think. In some sense I feel like it is great that she can be around her regular education peers but on the other hand is it the best place for her? At this point she is technically considered out of the coma, but she is still in a vegetative state with all kinds of machines hooked up to her, such as a feeding machine, ventilator and other monitors. She can communicate to some degree, but you have to be very patient and listen very carefully. I feel like it might have been more beneficial for her to go to a special school rather than needing to have a nurse and an aid go to class with her everyday because she is in a regular classroom. At this point it seems like her peers are alright with this to the point that a lot of them with go up and talk to her, but there are still others that are a bit stand offish because they are afraid or just are not sure what to think. This is a tough case to decide where she belongs. As far as I know and have seen she is doing just fine being in a regular classroom, but it just seems like it would be easier to have her in a special school.

Mock Teaching

The other day I taught my last 40 minute lesson with Dr. O'Brien. This was finally the lesson that broke down all of my fears of teaching and gave me a huge boost of confidence. Even though the internet did not work and I was unable to show the video, I feel the lesson went very well. Everyone was active and had fun. I figured doing a creative project to accompany a story would get the students thinking about the story and coming up with their own ideas. This was also a fun way to wrap up a story. It seemed as though everyone had fun doing this including myself. Prior to the lesson I set up little backpacks with all of the supplies the groups would need to complete the project, such as crayons, colored pencils, glue, markers, pencils, scissors, and other things that would be useful. This idea seemed to go over really well since each group got a backpack with that stuff and did not need to borrow from other groups. Overall, this lesson went great and I feel so much more confident about teaching and having fun in the classroom. 

A Bitter, Sweet Goodbye

Many people do not know that I teach a religious education class one night a week. This is something I have been doing now for seven years. This year I had a third grade class, which is unusual for me. Most other years I have had grades sixth or seventh grade classes. Having such a young class was very different for me. It took a lot of getting used in the early part of the year, but as time went on things began to come together. Today was the last day of class with them for the year, and I left with very mixed feelings about this past year. For the most part I am going to miss my class, but on the other hand I am happy it is over because they were a handful and I already know that I have a sixth grade class for next year. Having such young students taught me a great lesson in being very patient. I'm not always the most patient person, but working with them taught me that I had to be patient because they were still very young and trying the best they could. Some of my students were only on a kindergarten or first grade reading level so this made it difficult for them to complete some of the readings for class. Initially this was very frustrating for me. As time went on I made many of my lessons hands on using different activities and projects to teach them the material this really worked out well. So, overall I am sad to see them leave, but I am relieved that there is one less thing to do on top of work and school.

So Much for Saying Goodbye to the Blog

Although this assignment is over and I thought that would be the end of me blogging, I keep finding things to blog about. When we were "forced" to post for class I found it difficult to post sometimes as I knew that it was part of my grade, but now that it is just on my own for fun it seems so much easier. The last few days I have had quite a few things come up that I have either already blogged about or will be blogging about in the near future. Unlike most assignments in school that end when the semester ends or the due date arrives, this has become something that I want to continue doing. The blog has become fun for me to do, and I have found out that it is impacting other people. So I will be continuing my blog as long as I still have things in education to write about. The possibilities are endless meaning this blog will go on for a long time. I definitely plan to use this with my students, and hopefully they will come to enjoy it as much as I am.