Today, I had a student tell me she doesn't read. This same student claimed she knew every single thing about the Twilight series and later admitted she only finished the first book of the series because she couldn't get past the first chapter of New Moon.
Other
than that, today was another good day. I interacted a bit with my
cooperating teacher's advocacy period by doing some brain teasers with
them since they finished today's activities early. That was fun! That
particular class is freshmen, but they're pretty well behaved, which is
nice.
Oh! Also, I finished Touching Spirit Bear. Tomorrow I'm going to start re-reading The Crucible so I can start planning my lessons I'll be teaching in about a month.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Teacher Internship: Day One
Well, my first day of my teacher internship went well. I got an
official ID, observed all of my cooperating teacher's classes, who from now on I'll refer to as Mrs. Smith, and
started reading this really awesome book called Touching Spirit Bear.
She gave me lots of resources to use for my lessons when I teach them and said she has more too!
I think this semester is going to be just fine.
She gave me lots of resources to use for my lessons when I teach them and said she has more too!
I think this semester is going to be just fine.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
A Happy and Sad Discovery
As you all know by now, one of the students that has stood out to me the most semester, Kyle, has been a foster child his entire life. In my last post, I mentioned I hadn't seen him around, then edited my post later on saying he was back. I also mentioned he had gotten his grades up to the point where he was passing.
The past couple of classes have been unusually quiet. Last Thursday, I thought maybe he was gone with the rest of the majority of class to the JROTC or the band event, both of which were taking place that day during the period I'm pre-student teaching in. Today, I noticed he was still gone, so I mentioned to Mrs. Paxton that I hadn't seen him in a while.
It turns out that he was going to be moved whether he got his grades up or not. Up until recently, he had been living independently while still under the supervision of the foster care organization he has been a part of for so long. Originally, he was very reluctant and did not want to move in with another "stupid" family (i.e. one that had adults that he believed to be less intelligent than him). However, after meeting the foster father, he informed Mrs. Paxton that he was excited to be moving and that the father was cool and needed him. Plus, he doesn't have to share him with any other foster children.
While it saddens me that he is no longer around, the fact that he is happily living with a parent-figure instead of on his own now makes me happy for him. I hope he continues to keep his grades up at his new high school and that his new family is everything he could ever hope for and more.
The past couple of classes have been unusually quiet. Last Thursday, I thought maybe he was gone with the rest of the majority of class to the JROTC or the band event, both of which were taking place that day during the period I'm pre-student teaching in. Today, I noticed he was still gone, so I mentioned to Mrs. Paxton that I hadn't seen him in a while.
It turns out that he was going to be moved whether he got his grades up or not. Up until recently, he had been living independently while still under the supervision of the foster care organization he has been a part of for so long. Originally, he was very reluctant and did not want to move in with another "stupid" family (i.e. one that had adults that he believed to be less intelligent than him). However, after meeting the foster father, he informed Mrs. Paxton that he was excited to be moving and that the father was cool and needed him. Plus, he doesn't have to share him with any other foster children.
While it saddens me that he is no longer around, the fact that he is happily living with a parent-figure instead of on his own now makes me happy for him. I hope he continues to keep his grades up at his new high school and that his new family is everything he could ever hope for and more.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Online Reflection #4: Vanishing Fostered Gamer and Other Issues
Well, as you all probably remember, one of the biggest "problem" students I have dealt with this semester has been my fostered gamer, Kyle. Recently, I've noticed something. He's missing. I can't help but wonder what happened to him, especially since I heard him say a couple of weeks ago that if he didn't get his grades up, they were going to move him... again.
My biggest fear is that this has happened. Am I the only one that thinks this is not the way to go about solving his grade issues? Isn't moving him just going to cause him to care even less about school? He had already said at least once, if not several times, that he had given up. How is moving him somewhere new going to make him care again?
Oh my goodness, that is a lot of questions! I'm so sorry. They've been pounding against my skull recently and I just had to let them out somewhere. I have one more! Should I ask Mrs. Ellis or Mrs. Paxton where he is?
Anyway, on to another "problem" student I've been dealing with this semester. We'll call him John. John is very crude and inappropriate, flipping people off during class (including me) both openly and under his Cookie Monster hat. There is nothing to prompt it, he just does it because he thinks it is funny, I suppose. He also is obnoxious and recently had a couple of his friends moved away from him because they could not stay on task sitting together. I have given him warning signs several times and I feel like that is all I can do. It's not like I can send him to the office or otherwise punish him; I'm not his teacher. How can I get him to behave? What will I have to do in the future to get my students to behave if they are like him?
Finally, I would like to re-address the topic of showing videos in class. A couple of class periods ago, we finished reading Into Thin Air (finally). This past class, Mrs. Ellis showed two videos associated with the book and the second one she showed was filmed by one of the teams that climbed Mount Everest with the author of Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer. The students are bored with this topic. I can tell because several of them nearly fell asleep, perhaps even did, during the videos. The entire class period was spent on these videos with the lights off and the students were expected to fill out a worksheet about the second video. All of the lights were off, so how were they supposed to see to write?
Alright, I'll stop asking questions now. I feel better now that I let all of that out. I hope to get great tips from all of my readers and I thank you in advance for offering any advice.
[EDIT: Kyle was back in class today, November 2, and he informed us that he has all A's and C's in his classes with the exception of Mrs. Ellis's class, which he currently has a D in. A week or two ago, he apparently had six F's, so I'm proud of him for getting those up so quickly! I'm also thankful he didn't have to move again.]
My biggest fear is that this has happened. Am I the only one that thinks this is not the way to go about solving his grade issues? Isn't moving him just going to cause him to care even less about school? He had already said at least once, if not several times, that he had given up. How is moving him somewhere new going to make him care again?
Oh my goodness, that is a lot of questions! I'm so sorry. They've been pounding against my skull recently and I just had to let them out somewhere. I have one more! Should I ask Mrs. Ellis or Mrs. Paxton where he is?
Anyway, on to another "problem" student I've been dealing with this semester. We'll call him John. John is very crude and inappropriate, flipping people off during class (including me) both openly and under his Cookie Monster hat. There is nothing to prompt it, he just does it because he thinks it is funny, I suppose. He also is obnoxious and recently had a couple of his friends moved away from him because they could not stay on task sitting together. I have given him warning signs several times and I feel like that is all I can do. It's not like I can send him to the office or otherwise punish him; I'm not his teacher. How can I get him to behave? What will I have to do in the future to get my students to behave if they are like him?
Finally, I would like to re-address the topic of showing videos in class. A couple of class periods ago, we finished reading Into Thin Air (finally). This past class, Mrs. Ellis showed two videos associated with the book and the second one she showed was filmed by one of the teams that climbed Mount Everest with the author of Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer. The students are bored with this topic. I can tell because several of them nearly fell asleep, perhaps even did, during the videos. The entire class period was spent on these videos with the lights off and the students were expected to fill out a worksheet about the second video. All of the lights were off, so how were they supposed to see to write?
Alright, I'll stop asking questions now. I feel better now that I let all of that out. I hope to get great tips from all of my readers and I thank you in advance for offering any advice.
[EDIT: Kyle was back in class today, November 2, and he informed us that he has all A's and C's in his classes with the exception of Mrs. Ellis's class, which he currently has a D in. A week or two ago, he apparently had six F's, so I'm proud of him for getting those up so quickly! I'm also thankful he didn't have to move again.]
Sunday, October 30, 2011
KATE Conference
This past Thursday, I attended my first ever KATE conference. Not being an early bird, I planned on arriving shortly before Clare Vanderpool was scheduled to begin her keynote so I could grab what was left of the continental breakfast they provided and find myself a seat. Well, since I have never driven to the hotel that it was held at on my own before, I got sufficiently lost on my way there and didn't get there until later than expected. Luckily, I snatched up some fruit and a yogurt cup right before one of the hotel workers took it all away. Grabbing a seat from along the wall, I squeezed in between two of my fellow PSTs. Shortly after, Mrs. Vanderpool began her keynote speech.
While I found her speech to be both funny and educating, it also caused me to realize that her book Moon Over Manifest focuses a great deal on historical things. I really do not like history, so my chances of ever reading this book are slim. Well, at least right now they are. That could always change. After she was finished with her speech, I headed to the breakout session that I think just about every other PST did: "Survivalism 101: Navigating the Jungle of an Unfamiliar School and Making it Through the Critical First 5 Years of Teaching."
As I entered the room along with Mr. Whitman and Ms. Elena, we were all handed a leaf to write on. On one side, we were to write why we were entering the profession of teaching; on the other, we were supposed to write three positive things about our (future) career. My three positives were so cliché that Ms. Elena said I should have written "A Lesson on Clichés" in the top corner of my leaf. Haha. Anyway, these two presenters from a high school located in a nearby town were very helpful and also enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge with us. We were provided with several templates, including one we can use to prepare for unexpected absences where we'll need a substitute! One of them also recommended something I probably would have done on my own anyway: color-coding everything. And I mean everything. Make assignments for one unit blue, ones for another green, etc. It seems insane, but I think it could work. We'll see if it works out for me.
Once we were finished with our survival unit, Mr. Whitman and I walked across the hall to our next session: "Poetry Out Loud." After sitting down for maybe a minute, a fellow PST came in and said there were cookies down the hall. This led to almost all of us leaving the session's room for cookies, which made us late, but it worked out because our presenter was still working on some technological issues when we returned anyway. While certain parts of this presentation gave me goosebumps because I now have a way to possibly get my students interested in poetry, it was mostly promoting a national poetry competition. I would like for some of my future students to participate in this competition, but I am unsure if I will have the opportunity to help them along if they do.
Lunch time! Off to sit with Dr. Mason, Mrs. Hart, Ms. Hollas and a couple of Dr. Mason's friends. While Dr. Mason chatted with her two colleagues, Mrs. Hart, Ms. Hollas and I chatted about the sessions we had attended and showed each other our free stuff we'd gotten from them. I learned that a session that Ms. Hollas went to was awesome and I plan on looking into the program (Write Source®) that was discussed in the session. Hooray for technology helping us teach students writing and grammar skills! As most of us finished eating, Jay Asher began his keynote after being introduced.
Jay Asher gave one of the most hilarious speeches I've heard in my life. I'm not even kidding, guys. This man made me laugh so much, but he also made me realize something. I kept telling myself I didn't want to read Thirteen Reasons Why anytime soon. Guess what? Now I do. And it's all thanks to Jay's speech and how he gave so much context about the book out to us. For example, he told us about the girl he knew that tried to commit suicide, the one that I believe inspired him to write this book in the first place. Once I get paid, I think I'm going to see if I can find the book somewhere online, or I might just go to the library and check it out. It's been a long time since I've checked out a book. I should do that.
Unfortunately, I missed the last part of Mr. Asher's keynote because I had to leave around 2:00PM to get to work. Anyone care to tell me what I missed? Also, any information that you're willing to share about Thursday's afternoon sessions and Friday's sessions would be appreciated as well!
While I found her speech to be both funny and educating, it also caused me to realize that her book Moon Over Manifest focuses a great deal on historical things. I really do not like history, so my chances of ever reading this book are slim. Well, at least right now they are. That could always change. After she was finished with her speech, I headed to the breakout session that I think just about every other PST did: "Survivalism 101: Navigating the Jungle of an Unfamiliar School and Making it Through the Critical First 5 Years of Teaching."
As I entered the room along with Mr. Whitman and Ms. Elena, we were all handed a leaf to write on. On one side, we were to write why we were entering the profession of teaching; on the other, we were supposed to write three positive things about our (future) career. My three positives were so cliché that Ms. Elena said I should have written "A Lesson on Clichés" in the top corner of my leaf. Haha. Anyway, these two presenters from a high school located in a nearby town were very helpful and also enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge with us. We were provided with several templates, including one we can use to prepare for unexpected absences where we'll need a substitute! One of them also recommended something I probably would have done on my own anyway: color-coding everything. And I mean everything. Make assignments for one unit blue, ones for another green, etc. It seems insane, but I think it could work. We'll see if it works out for me.
Once we were finished with our survival unit, Mr. Whitman and I walked across the hall to our next session: "Poetry Out Loud." After sitting down for maybe a minute, a fellow PST came in and said there were cookies down the hall. This led to almost all of us leaving the session's room for cookies, which made us late, but it worked out because our presenter was still working on some technological issues when we returned anyway. While certain parts of this presentation gave me goosebumps because I now have a way to possibly get my students interested in poetry, it was mostly promoting a national poetry competition. I would like for some of my future students to participate in this competition, but I am unsure if I will have the opportunity to help them along if they do.
Lunch time! Off to sit with Dr. Mason, Mrs. Hart, Ms. Hollas and a couple of Dr. Mason's friends. While Dr. Mason chatted with her two colleagues, Mrs. Hart, Ms. Hollas and I chatted about the sessions we had attended and showed each other our free stuff we'd gotten from them. I learned that a session that Ms. Hollas went to was awesome and I plan on looking into the program (Write Source®) that was discussed in the session. Hooray for technology helping us teach students writing and grammar skills! As most of us finished eating, Jay Asher began his keynote after being introduced.
Jay Asher gave one of the most hilarious speeches I've heard in my life. I'm not even kidding, guys. This man made me laugh so much, but he also made me realize something. I kept telling myself I didn't want to read Thirteen Reasons Why anytime soon. Guess what? Now I do. And it's all thanks to Jay's speech and how he gave so much context about the book out to us. For example, he told us about the girl he knew that tried to commit suicide, the one that I believe inspired him to write this book in the first place. Once I get paid, I think I'm going to see if I can find the book somewhere online, or I might just go to the library and check it out. It's been a long time since I've checked out a book. I should do that.
Unfortunately, I missed the last part of Mr. Asher's keynote because I had to leave around 2:00PM to get to work. Anyone care to tell me what I missed? Also, any information that you're willing to share about Thursday's afternoon sessions and Friday's sessions would be appreciated as well!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Online Reflection #3: Help!
This past Thursday, I taught my first lesson in the unit the class is working on focusing around the book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. Starting the class with a journal entry, I quickly realized that was a horrible idea to start the class with even though I had seen Mrs. Ellis use the same type of activity as bellwork successfully before.
While trying to make sure all of the students present had notebook paper to write their journal entry on, the class was a bit noisy and disrespectful. Then something amazing happened: Kyle, my "fostered gamer," said something along the lines of "Come on! Can't we just be good for her? Show some respect. She's finally getting to teach us!" I was so proud of him. Normally he's the class clown, distracting students from their work, but right now he was the only student in class that stood up for me and I realized that maybe I have started to make that connection with him that so many of you mentioned in your thank you notes to me.
Once the students had been given a bit of time to write their journal entries, I started the tape so we could all listen and follow along to chapters four and five of the novel. Listening to the author read his story, I found that several of the students were beginning to doze off, but I could not think of any part of either chapter that warranted stopping the tape to discuss more. All of it was so cut and dry, I did not see any reason to stop, especially considering the time to listen to the two chapters was limited to the class period. I did stop between the chapters and offer to read the second chapter aloud myself, but the class seemed to prefer the tape of the author.
One of the suggestions I received from Mrs. Ellis was to stop during the chapters I teach in the next couple of weeks and discuss what is happening and ask questions about the content of the chapters. Hopefully the next few chapters I teach will be easier for me. Have any of you read this book? Taught it? I need all the help I can get!
Tonight while grading the journal entries from last Thursday, I realized that the students in this class are very different from one another. Only a handful made a successful response to the prompt that was given, which was to imagine they were climbing Mount Everest with the novel's author, Jon Krakauer. Others pointed out the obvious: "I would be cold." "I would be scared to die." "I wouldn't be on the mountain in the first place because I'm afraid of heights." I couldn't help but wonder: were my instructions unclear or did they just not care? I tried to make my prompt broad enough that it would be possible for both those in the special education program as well as those who were not to respond to it successfully. I also did my best to make it relevant enough so the students could relate back to the novel, while still making it a personal narrative. Where did I go wrong?
While trying to make sure all of the students present had notebook paper to write their journal entry on, the class was a bit noisy and disrespectful. Then something amazing happened: Kyle, my "fostered gamer," said something along the lines of "Come on! Can't we just be good for her? Show some respect. She's finally getting to teach us!" I was so proud of him. Normally he's the class clown, distracting students from their work, but right now he was the only student in class that stood up for me and I realized that maybe I have started to make that connection with him that so many of you mentioned in your thank you notes to me.
Once the students had been given a bit of time to write their journal entries, I started the tape so we could all listen and follow along to chapters four and five of the novel. Listening to the author read his story, I found that several of the students were beginning to doze off, but I could not think of any part of either chapter that warranted stopping the tape to discuss more. All of it was so cut and dry, I did not see any reason to stop, especially considering the time to listen to the two chapters was limited to the class period. I did stop between the chapters and offer to read the second chapter aloud myself, but the class seemed to prefer the tape of the author.
One of the suggestions I received from Mrs. Ellis was to stop during the chapters I teach in the next couple of weeks and discuss what is happening and ask questions about the content of the chapters. Hopefully the next few chapters I teach will be easier for me. Have any of you read this book? Taught it? I need all the help I can get!
Tonight while grading the journal entries from last Thursday, I realized that the students in this class are very different from one another. Only a handful made a successful response to the prompt that was given, which was to imagine they were climbing Mount Everest with the novel's author, Jon Krakauer. Others pointed out the obvious: "I would be cold." "I would be scared to die." "I wouldn't be on the mountain in the first place because I'm afraid of heights." I couldn't help but wonder: were my instructions unclear or did they just not care? I tried to make my prompt broad enough that it would be possible for both those in the special education program as well as those who were not to respond to it successfully. I also did my best to make it relevant enough so the students could relate back to the novel, while still making it a personal narrative. Where did I go wrong?
Monday, September 26, 2011
The Fostered Gamer (Genre Reflection #1)
It was my first time in my new practicum for the semester. After getting thoroughly lost in the winding halls of the high school, I walked into the classroom only to find that we would shortly be turning around and leaving for the computer lab. Mrs. Ellis informed me that the students were working on résumés, cover letters, and follow-up letters to help them when they began to search for jobs. She also introduced me to her para-educator, Mrs. Paxton, who is there to aid the students in the class that are part of the special education program.
Once we were in the computer lab, I noticed one student in particular, we'll call him Kyle, who was not working on anything pertaining to the class. Instead, he was focusing on playing one of the games from The Legend of Zelda series on what I believe was a Game Boy Advance emulator. Mrs. Paxton and I approached Kyle and asked him to work on the assignment, but he ignored us even after I told him, "Link will still be there when you're done with your work." Needless to say, he did not work on any of the assignments for the remainder of the class period.
Fast-forward to the next class period, where Kyle is once again playing The Legend of Zelda. I notice Mrs. Paxton having a chat with him and overhearing bits and pieces of it, I realize that it is a conversation I should probably stay out of. I heard Kyle say things like "I give up" and it broke my heart a little. Once Mrs. Paxton finished talking to him, I asked her if he was just having a rough time. She explained to me that he's been in foster care his entire life and that the number of homes he has been in is crazy. Every time he gets into any kind of trouble, he is moved to a new home.
This information hit me like a ton of bricks. I have come to realize that I honestly have no idea how to handle this. He's practically given up on school, but he tells me things like, "I'm smart, I just procrastinate a lot." What am I supposed to do? I have no experience with students that have such a rough home life history. I hate watching him waste his time in class by sleeping, playing video games, or distracting other students, but I don't want to push him too hard. Ever since that day when I found out about him being a foster child his entire life, I have left him for Mrs. Ellis and Mrs. Paxton to deal with. I just hope I'm doing the right thing.
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