I had fun in Ninth grade this week. We are reading Animal Farm. Since I was out all week last week, I took the first few days to have them teach me what the learned while I was gone. They were doing their reading and work at their own pace and I was pleasantly surprised by the level they understood. Many even finished the book and were simply reading their independent library books. I kept pretending I didn't understand what was happening in the story and would express the wrong notion of what was going on in the book. It was fun to see them "put me on the right path" and tell me what really was going on. Especially since this book has so much foreshadowing and underlying meaning behind it. I am glad they were able to read between the lines. I also had them up and dancing to Rasputin on Just Dance 3! That was fun!
We just finished reading Animal Farm this week. I decided to use one of the action strategies that requires the students to act from the point of view of one of the characters. It is so great to see your students show how much they have comprehended and they probably don't even realize it themselves.
The absolute best part of my day was during sixth period. It oddly had nothing to do with my class, but with my students. I was walking down the hallway when two of my students pulled me into their Spanish class and asked me to pronounce the word on the board. I said, “mueranse.” And all of the students fell over as if they died! “Mueranse” is the command in Spanish telling someone to die! It was hysterical.
This week has been a whirlwind of excitement. Last weekend I took my first job offer and my mind feels like it has been in fifty different directions. This week was also fairly easy in the classroom. All of my students were taking common assessments and watching movies the whole week. Because it was a slow week, I took the last two days to travel up to Cumming to sign my contract. Forsyth has a specific class that all of their new hires are required to come and take. I decided since my classes were all watching movies that it would be a good time for me to go get the class out of the way. I am really struggling with the way common assessments are created and given. Teachers are forced to give common assessments and many teachers are trying to incorporate informational texts into all of their tests. While this may sound good in theory, informational text was all that was on my tenth graders test. This aggravated me a lot because the majority of my students don’t have good comprehension skills and they struggle with reading long passages. I was confident that all of my students knew the material and they were very active in their learning before the test. I didn’t have a say in helping create their common assessment and if I would have I would have advocated for my students. Because my students were only being judged on their comprehension skills I feel like their test scores will not represent their knowledge of the King Arthur unit. Everything on the test was a cold read and many of my students gave up before they even finished. How do I create common assessments that include informational texts even though comprehension is not the skill that is being assessed? Help
This week was AMAZING! We are preparing to read To Kill A Mockingbird and the week was focused on building background knowledge. All week was spent with students doing experiential exercises dealing with racism, segregation, stereotypes, discrimination, and poverty. While all of these topics are very controversial, I thought my students did a great job placing themselves in someone else's shoes. Students had to interact with stories of real people and act on them. They also were assigned specific races and had to experience a day in their lives during the Great Depression. Students also experienced a photo journey during the Great Depression as well as racism in the south. This week, students really enjoyed getting to interact with the material and I think they handled the information much better than if I would have simply taught them the information instead of letting them experience it for themselves.
I had my first sick day this week! Though this may sound pretty unremarkable, I learned a valuable lesson: DON'T GET SICK. Missing just one day can throw off plans in a major way. Though I e-mailed my host teachers activities for the students to complete, they did not feel comfortable going forward with my lessons so they gave the students something else to do. My students are fortunately smart little cookies who had no problem picking right back up where we left off when I returned.
I had fun in Ninth grade this week. We are reading Animal Farm. Since I was out all week last week, I took the first few days to have them teach me what the learned while I was gone. They were doing their reading and work at their own pace and I was pleasantly surprised by the level they understood. Many even finished the book and were simply reading their independent library books. I kept pretending I didn't understand what was happening in the story and would express the wrong notion of what was going on in the book. It was fun to see them "put me on the right path" and tell me what really was going on. Especially since this book has so much foreshadowing and underlying meaning behind it. I am glad they were able to read between the lines. I also had them up and dancing to Rasputin on Just Dance 3! That was fun!
ReplyDeleteWe just finished reading Animal Farm this week. I decided to use one of the action strategies that requires the students to act from the point of view of one of the characters. It is so great to see your students show how much they have comprehended and they probably don't even realize it themselves.
DeleteThe absolute best part of my day was during sixth period. It oddly had nothing to do with my class, but with my students. I was walking down the hallway when two of my students pulled me into their Spanish class and asked me to pronounce the word on the board. I said, “mueranse.” And all of the students fell over as if they died! “Mueranse” is the command in Spanish telling someone to die! It was hysterical.
ReplyDeleteThis week has been a whirlwind of excitement. Last weekend I took my first job offer and my mind feels like it has been in fifty different directions. This week was also fairly easy in the classroom. All of my students were taking common assessments and watching movies the whole week. Because it was a slow week, I took the last two days to travel up to Cumming to sign my contract. Forsyth has a specific class that all of their new hires are required to come and take. I decided since my classes were all watching movies that it would be a good time for me to go get the class out of the way.
ReplyDeleteI am really struggling with the way common assessments are created and given. Teachers are forced to give common assessments and many teachers are trying to incorporate informational texts into all of their tests. While this may sound good in theory, informational text was all that was on my tenth graders test. This aggravated me a lot because the majority of my students don’t have good comprehension skills and they struggle with reading long passages. I was confident that all of my students knew the material and they were very active in their learning before the test. I didn’t have a say in helping create their common assessment and if I would have I would have advocated for my students. Because my students were only being judged on their comprehension skills I feel like their test scores will not represent their knowledge of the King Arthur unit. Everything on the test was a cold read and many of my students gave up before they even finished. How do I create common assessments that include informational texts even though comprehension is not the skill that is being assessed? Help
This week was AMAZING! We are preparing to read To Kill A Mockingbird and the week was focused on building background knowledge. All week was spent with students doing experiential exercises dealing with racism, segregation, stereotypes, discrimination, and poverty. While all of these topics are very controversial, I thought my students did a great job placing themselves in someone else's shoes. Students had to interact with stories of real people and act on them. They also were assigned specific races and had to experience a day in their lives during the Great Depression. Students also experienced a photo journey during the Great Depression as well as racism in the south. This week, students really enjoyed getting to interact with the material and I think they handled the information much better than if I would have simply taught them the information instead of letting them experience it for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI had my first sick day this week! Though this may sound pretty unremarkable, I learned a valuable lesson: DON'T GET SICK. Missing just one day can throw off plans in a major way. Though I e-mailed my host teachers activities for the students to complete, they did not feel comfortable going forward with my lessons so they gave the students something else to do. My students are fortunately smart little cookies who had no problem picking right back up where we left off when I returned.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned in my previous reflection, I left my student teaching post. That being said, I have nothing real to report.
ReplyDelete