I was not in class all week. Out with the flu and other sundry maladies so the Dr.'s say. I was able to leave them with their independent reading libraries so I hope when I get back there will be lots of new discussions and comments about all the books they read.
The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson (challenging and referred to as ‘narrative non-fiction’) It is based on true historical events and chronicles the lives of actual people but it reads like a fictional tale
Last week went remarkably well. In my English classes, I taught the story "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury. Though it is a challenging story for eighth graders, I discovered that several of my students really seemed to enjoy it. One student who is usually very quiet really got into the discussion of the story!
I used "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Bradbury on activelylearn.com with my 9th graders and it was very interesting. It was still challenging, but the students really enjoyed the interactive format of the website. It also gives me data to see who doesn't understand and what I need to frontload in the future with a sci-fi tale.
the best part of the day was ninth period because we were actively discussing Animal Farm. The students were excited to learn that I was reading and learning about the book just like they were. I told them I had never read this book before and we were discovering it together. I think the students really appreciated my honesty and it made our discussions much more exciting. I learned that when you tell the students you are uncertain about the answer to something and want to have a discussion to help create an opinion, the students are extremely forthcoming with their answers. I think this is because you have no set expectations of if the answer is right or wrong. So how can we make this attitude something more permanent?
I learned a tough lesson this week. Some kids can be quite cruel. I have a small group in one of my inclusion classes who really seem to have made it a favorite pastime to pick on one of the students who has brain damage. They try to get him to cuss and say things like "I'm a stoner" and they try to get him to dance so that they can laugh and make fun of him. I guess I had always known that this kind of cruelty existed, but seeing it first hand is harsh. When we were assigning roles for readers' theater, there was one girl who suggested the student with brain damage play the main part. I and the other adults in the room knew that this would not be a good idea so I tried to gently suggest that we keep our same roles from the day before to keep it easy to which this girl replied loudly "Why won't you let him do it!?!" On the surface, this would appear harmless, maybe even as if she were looking out for the other student, but she is one of the main culprits in making fun of this boy. This was truly an awkward situation. Fortunately, it was quelled when I was able to give parts to everyone within their abilities. However, I would love to next time take precautions to keep this from happening for a second time.
This week we continued our work with the Harlem Renaissance and focused on the different documents used in the unit. Each day we looked at a different document (usually poems written by different poets of the Harlem Renaissance) and the students answered questions on what they read. I thought the poems were great and the students seemed to enjoy them as well. Some of them were a little humorous so the students really enjoyed that. I have learned that even if the students cannot personally relate to what the poem is about, just having a little humor makes it more approachable for them.
I am glad that I got to do my unit on poetry before they started this predesigned unit. Each document we looked at was a poem and the questions included poetic vocabulary but the unit never called for us to go over or teach these words. Had I not done my unit just before this one, I’m afraid the students would have been quite confused. One activity in particular that I like from this unit is called bucketing. The students are going to write an argumentative essay at the end of the unit based on the essential question: does high art or folk art best express racial pride? This bucketing activity is a sort of prewriting, organizing strategy that has worked really well so far. The students draw three buckets and then come up with categories for each of them. The students look back at the EQ and their documents and decide what categories all the information can fit into. This is helping them organize what they have learned so far and will make it easy for them to locate information when it comes time to write their essay. I think if I did this activity again, rather than just having the students draw the buckets and write their categories on a sheet of paper, I would bring in real buckets and have them write their suggested categories on a note card or something and put them in the buckets. Then we could take each document and physically place them in the bucket they belong to and students could also write pertinent information they have learned on a card and put those in the buckets as well. This is essentially the same thing as we did but it allows the students the physical movement and visual representation that would help many of my active students.
This will be my final reflection for my placement at Veterans High School unless I continue my reflections as part of an alternate assignment. As you are well aware, I am vacating my placement and will be completing the program requirement in the following fall semester. In this reflection, I would like to comment on some of my strengths, weaknesses, and strategies I hope to incorporate in order to be better prepared for my future placement. Though there is plenty that I could have done better with this placement, I do not wish to focus too heavily on them. Not that I don’t recognize them as dire shortcomings at this point in my career… Instead, I know that to focus on them too intently will only further my crippling self-doubt. I am doing everything I can to rewire my self-image and outlook. For that reason, I would like to first comment on my strengths. I feel that I genuinely have a natural presence in the classroom… when I am confident in my materials. If I am not spending each period second guessing my lessons, I am confident and enjoy interacting with the students. Also I am creative. So creative! In the future, I need to incorporate that more heavily in the classroom. I feel that students are naturally more engaged when they are creating. I first have to foster an environment that welcomes and honors creativity, regardless of skill level. For that reason, I am going back to my Sir Ken Robinson readings. I personally feel a lot of my classroom issues are rooted in my struggles with planning. Had I had my lessons together in advance and I felt confident in what I had created, I would have more attention left to focus on other important aspects of class such as classroom management, assessment, and building relationships. It is incredibly hard to do any of those things if you are still just trying to keep pace with the materials. I cannot fault Ms. Wall in leaving me to plan a five-week unit with all the resources she gave me. Not at all. If anything, it is my fault for not asking for additional support or coming to her earlier when I allowed it to overwhelm me. On that note, I need to collaborate! So much more than I did this placement. I am not alone in anything that I do. I am responsible for it at the end of the day, but I have a team of peers that are there for me, and me them. I don’t know where I got it in my head that I had to create something entirely original and without any supports… like I had to prove something. I have to remember this feeling when I plan in the future and never think for a second that I have to do this entirely on my own… Even when I have my own classroom. Teaching, like learning, is a collaborative effort. Lastly, I need to work on my self. And taking care of myself. My crippling self-doubt and willingness to take residence in my defeats will scuttle any future I have in any career. There are so many outside forces trying to tear down teachers and the profession, I cannot be one of those critics. I need to learn to forgive myself and step forward with confidence in myself. I think one of my greatest mistakes going into placement with Ms. Wall, is that I always thought of myself as an interloper in a great educator’s classroom, as if I was taking something from her students. Instead, I had so much to give them if I only had recognized that. I am not defined by my defeats. This departure from my placement is not a defeat… only a strategic retreat to regroup and come back in the fall better than ever.
I was not in class all week. Out with the flu and other sundry maladies so the Dr.'s say. I was able to leave them with their independent reading libraries so I hope when I get back there will be lots of new discussions and comments about all the books they read.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have any suggestions for a nonfiction novel that I can use with 9th grade? I'm creating a new summer reading list.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Bad Boy: A Memoir by Walter Dean Meyers?
DeleteThe Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
DeleteThe Devil in the White City - Erik Larson (challenging and referred to as ‘narrative non-fiction’) It is based on true historical events and chronicles the lives of actual people but it reads like a fictional tale
The Glass Castle is wonderful! I read it last summer and highly recommend it! :)
DeleteLast week went remarkably well. In my English classes, I taught the story "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury. Though it is a challenging story for eighth graders, I discovered that several of my students really seemed to enjoy it. One student who is usually very quiet really got into the discussion of the story!
ReplyDeleteI used "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Bradbury on activelylearn.com with my 9th graders and it was very interesting. It was still challenging, but the students really enjoyed the interactive format of the website. It also gives me data to see who doesn't understand and what I need to frontload in the future with a sci-fi tale.
Deletethe best part of the day was ninth period because we were actively discussing Animal Farm. The students were excited to learn that I was reading and learning about the book just like they were. I told them I had never read this book before and we were discovering it together. I think the students really appreciated my honesty and it made our discussions much more exciting. I learned that when you tell the students you are uncertain about the answer to something and want to have a discussion to help create an opinion, the students are extremely forthcoming with their answers. I think this is because you have no set expectations of if the answer is right or wrong. So how can we make this attitude something more permanent?
ReplyDeleteI learned a tough lesson this week. Some kids can be quite cruel. I have a small group in one of my inclusion classes who really seem to have made it a favorite pastime to pick on one of the students who has brain damage. They try to get him to cuss and say things like "I'm a stoner" and they try to get him to dance so that they can laugh and make fun of him. I guess I had always known that this kind of cruelty existed, but seeing it first hand is harsh.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were assigning roles for readers' theater, there was one girl who suggested the student with brain damage play the main part. I and the other adults in the room knew that this would not be a good idea so I tried to gently suggest that we keep our same roles from the day before to keep it easy to which this girl replied loudly "Why won't you let him do it!?!" On the surface, this would appear harmless, maybe even as if she were looking out for the other student, but she is one of the main culprits in making fun of this boy. This was truly an awkward situation. Fortunately, it was quelled when I was able to give parts to everyone within their abilities. However, I would love to next time take precautions to keep this from happening for a second time.
This week we continued our work with the Harlem Renaissance and focused on the different documents used in the unit. Each day we looked at a different document (usually poems written by different poets of the Harlem Renaissance) and the students answered questions on what they read. I thought the poems were great and the students seemed to enjoy them as well. Some of them were a little humorous so the students really enjoyed that. I have learned that even if the students cannot personally relate to what the poem is about, just having a little humor makes it more approachable for them.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that I got to do my unit on poetry before they started this predesigned unit. Each document we looked at was a poem and the questions included poetic vocabulary but the unit never called for us to go over or teach these words. Had I not done my unit just before this one, I’m afraid the students would have been quite confused.
One activity in particular that I like from this unit is called bucketing. The students are going to write an argumentative essay at the end of the unit based on the essential question: does high art or folk art best express racial pride? This bucketing activity is a sort of prewriting, organizing strategy that has worked really well so far. The students draw three buckets and then come up with categories for each of them. The students look back at the EQ and their documents and decide what categories all the information can fit into. This is helping them organize what they have learned so far and will make it easy for them to locate information when it comes time to write their essay. I think if I did this activity again, rather than just having the students draw the buckets and write their categories on a sheet of paper, I would bring in real buckets and have them write their suggested categories on a note card or something and put them in the buckets. Then we could take each document and physically place them in the bucket they belong to and students could also write pertinent information they have learned on a card and put those in the buckets as well. This is essentially the same thing as we did but it allows the students the physical movement and visual representation that would help many of my active students.
Taken from My Student Teaching Reflections
ReplyDeleteThis will be my final reflection for my placement at Veterans High School unless I continue my reflections as part of an alternate assignment. As you are well aware, I am vacating my placement and will be completing the program requirement in the following fall semester. In this reflection, I would like to comment on some of my strengths, weaknesses, and strategies I hope to incorporate in order to be better prepared for my future placement.
Though there is plenty that I could have done better with this placement, I do not wish to focus too heavily on them. Not that I don’t recognize them as dire shortcomings at this point in my career… Instead, I know that to focus on them too intently will only further my crippling self-doubt. I am doing everything I can to rewire my self-image and outlook. For that reason, I would like to first comment on my strengths. I feel that I genuinely have a natural presence in the classroom… when I am confident in my materials. If I am not spending each period second guessing my lessons, I am confident and enjoy interacting with the students. Also I am creative. So creative! In the future, I need to incorporate that more heavily in the classroom. I feel that students are naturally more engaged when they are creating. I first have to foster an environment that welcomes and honors creativity, regardless of skill level. For that reason, I am going back to my Sir Ken Robinson readings.
I personally feel a lot of my classroom issues are rooted in my struggles with planning. Had I had my lessons together in advance and I felt confident in what I had created, I would have more attention left to focus on other important aspects of class such as classroom management, assessment, and building relationships. It is incredibly hard to do any of those things if you are still just trying to keep pace with the materials. I cannot fault Ms. Wall in leaving me to plan a five-week unit with all the resources she gave me. Not at all. If anything, it is my fault for not asking for additional support or coming to her earlier when I allowed it to overwhelm me.
On that note, I need to collaborate! So much more than I did this placement. I am not alone in anything that I do. I am responsible for it at the end of the day, but I have a team of peers that are there for me, and me them. I don’t know where I got it in my head that I had to create something entirely original and without any supports… like I had to prove something. I have to remember this feeling when I plan in the future and never think for a second that I have to do this entirely on my own… Even when I have my own classroom. Teaching, like learning, is a collaborative effort.
Lastly, I need to work on my self. And taking care of myself. My crippling self-doubt and willingness to take residence in my defeats will scuttle any future I have in any career. There are so many outside forces trying to tear down teachers and the profession, I cannot be one of those critics. I need to learn to forgive myself and step forward with confidence in myself. I think one of my greatest mistakes going into placement with Ms. Wall, is that I always thought of myself as an interloper in a great educator’s classroom, as if I was taking something from her students. Instead, I had so much to give them if I only had recognized that. I am not defined by my defeats. This departure from my placement is not a defeat… only a strategic retreat to regroup and come back in the fall better than ever.