·:[ Mike Sweeney says: ]:·
• • • • •

Taking a break from my IUP (ugh… what a pain) to answer a few questions…

Where did I start?
I started at the Warner School the day after graduation. I didn’t even decide to come here until the end of last March. I suppose the “start” could go as far back as Fall 2004, as I slowly came to the realization that maybe a life as a Chemistry PhD wasn’t for me. My application to the Warner School could almost be seen as an afterthought, a failsafe in case I didn’t get into chem programs, if it wasn’t for the fact that that Fall was a period of the most intense soul-searching of my life. It was very difficult being honest with myself and considering the kind of life I’d lead as a chemist vs. a teacher. It basically came down to the realization that I didn’t have the kind of dedication and zeal necessary to do lab work, and I needed to be in a profession with lots of people interaction.

And

that’s where it started. No years of planning. No dreams of becoming a teacher since I was a little child. My quest to be an educator is barely a year and a half old, but what a year and a half.

Where have I been?
Whooo! Loaded question… I’ve been everywhere in the past year. I’ve been on the beach running a summer camp. I’ve been in one of the toughest schools in the city. I’ve presented in front of other educators. I’ve been in a private, alternative high school. I’ve been stretched out to the limit. I’ve experienced the most amazing highs and some of the deepest lows. I’ve made connections to people that will hopefully last a lifetime. I have entered into an academic setting that almost feels like family. We’ve been through so much together! I’ve been constantly encouraged to push my thinking to the next level, to become a true professional in every since of the word. I have been busy, so very busy. But as I look back I have also learned an incredible amount of information in my short time here… it’s kind of amazing actually. Really, we’re all amazing. Go us!

Where am I going?
Entering the home stretch here… applying for jobs, finishing large projects, doing my portfolio and getting my degree… and then the REAL work starts. Areas that I will be focusing on in the near term include my organization skills and my ability to make learning relevant to the students’ lives. In the long term I hope to learn to balance a truly professional teaching career with a rich, rewarding personal life. As much as I love and believe in education, there’s so much more to life to see free online craps,free craps game online,craps free online playfree video poker downloadsonline roulette gambling,roulette gambling,best gambling online roulettecraps online,online casino craps,online gambling crapscasino link online suggestkeno gamefree kenoslots gameskasino on netroulette kostenlos online spielenbest online casinoautomatic video pokerkeno spieleeuropa casino bonus codekostenloses online kasinobeste online casinovideo poker spielenslot machinescasino online kostenloskostenlose casinospielewww casino gamescasino online comonline casino foruminternet gewinnspieledas beste casino onlinekasino spielenkasino gameonline spielkasinoroulette taktikonline jack blackcasino spiele spielencasino net,www casino net com,www top internet casino netechtes casinospielgratis kasino spiele,kasino spiele,kostenlose kasino spielehoyle casino games 2006advanced video pokerkasino roulettecasino club pokerpoker downloadenpoker regeln straightкомпютриpoker spielen um sonsttexas holdem blatttexas holdem straightpoker texas hold spielenstripp poker gratisonline poker ohne registrierungonline poker anf�ngerholdem poker spiel downloadeuro poker bonuspoker echtgeld bonus and experience and enjoy.

One other major goal for the next few years and the rest of my life is to become acquainted with the diverse cultures present in an urban setting (hopefully Rochester). As an urban educator who grew up in the sticks, I have a lot of learning to do. The sheer number of different ethnicities and cultures present in an urban classroom is at once intimidating and exciting.

I guess that’s it for now. Until later-

The Quality School Teacher by William Glasser.

This book was the companion volume to the book The Quality School, also by William Glasser. I think it may have been beneficial to read this book in conjunction with the other book, but there was still some useful information.

I’ll preface this by saying I read through this a couple weeks ago, and so it’s gotten a little hazy since then.

It seemed to me as I was reading this that it shared many similarities with Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory (SDT). In fact, the theory upon which a quality teacher focuses their practice is called “choice theory,” the autonomy component of Deci & Ryan’s theory.

Some of the big, take-home points that I found most useful in the reading:

—Always create assignments that involve doing useful work. Everything you assign should be meaningful and useful. If the students see the value in an assignment, then they will be more willing to put in the effort to do quality work.

—Get into the habit of having the students self-evaluate their own work.

—Teach the things that interest you most. The students will pick up on your enthusiasm and they will be more intested. Also, use examples that are of interest of students. The example he mentions in the text is to use AIDS/HIV to explain biology. It could be used in the context of many different topics. Of course, in a quality school, there is no memorization… but still.

There are other things, maybe I’ll add more. I don’t think that this book really said anything that I haven’t already seen elsewhere. It was also geared more towards elementary education, so it was less useful to me.

Until later-

I couldn’t help but thinking as I read this article that if I had gone to another school of education, this would have been the only kind of thing I would have read. The article offered concrete suggestions about a number of different ways to implement cooperative learning into a classroom, all of which were geared towards improving test performance. I had to forcibly stop myself from railing against the article for its focus on testing and grades, and instead actually consider what the methods would look like in the classroom. As I believe Greg may have said in his blog, the extrinsic motivation that pervades the ideas in the article are disconcerting, but are unfortunately a given in the current educational system.

…

Actually, after having sat here for several minutes trying to think of good things to say about the article, I’ve decided instead to just voice my concerns about it. I think one major thing missing from the article is how to make the learning meaningful and relevant to the students. I understand that is something that can be done by the teacher during the instruction period before the group work, but the article does not even bring the point up. Also, the entire focus of all of the activities is improving scores on exams. I just can’t seem to get over this point. There are other goals to this kind of activity (building social skills, teach once = learn twice), but in the end it is always tied towards a numerical grade. I don’t like it.

Of course, complaining about something is easy, finding a better way to do it is not. And that’s where I run into trouble. “How would you do it then, Mr. Smart Mouth, huh?” And the answer is probably not whole lot different. I guess this is a reflection of the battle that is still being waged within me, between the true ideals of education and the practical realities. I know that cooperative learning is a large step up from traditional teaching methods, it’s just hard not to compare it to true inquiry style learning.

I believe it is possible to reconcile these ideas, but it will just take time and experimentation within my classroom to find a solution that works practically but still satisfies my desire for more authentic and relevant learning. Yeah.

Until later-

…surprise, suprise. I’m focusing this afternoon on getting as much coursework done as possible so I can focus on planning tonight and tomorrow (and monday after the superintendant’s conference day). So far I’ve posted twice to the Topics forum and started the final paper. So yeah, it feels good to be productive.

It also feels good to have gotten a good night’s sleep last night, the first one in a week. I really think that my current lack of sleep and poor nutrition is adding to my low spirits and poor performance in the classroom. On the Topics forum another student mentioned how he went through a breakdown while at a long-term subbing placement, and much of what he was saying hit home for me. As my time at Marshall comes to an end, I look forward to having a bit of extra time to myself. I am going to use this time to really focus on organizing my life and thinking about the things I will need to have and need to do as a first year teacher.

I’m going to leave it at that for right now. My week at Marshall was not so hot, but I’m going to wait a week or two to compose a thoughtful post on it. I believe these last few weeks deserve a very deep and thorough reflection, but one that is separated by a cushion of time.

Until later-

I’m at school right now. Just got done teaching. It may be a bad idea to be posting in this state, but I need to vent. No, not vent; reflect.

Regents chem just went fairly poorly. I did not accomplish several of my objectives. The reason for this was because the students received their grade reports for last marking period, and many of them were not pleased. They received them at the beginning of the period, and that set the tone for the rest of the time. They were not happy, and they showed it in their behavior.

What could I have done differently? I could have had an interesting activity to start with to take their minds off it and get them back with me. This would probably have been best. Instead, I was starting with some notes on a brand new topic.

I was thrown for a loop by the constant muttering and discussing of grades. I lost my focus and as this happened I also lost my confidence. I was at a loss as to how to get them to stop their behavior and get them to engage with the material.

Besides having a better activity to follow the bad taste of the grade sheets, I should have been more firm with the 1 or 2 students who continued to go on about it for most of the period. I should have asked them either to stop or to leave, as it was seriously affecting my teaching. And then enforce it.

I’m worried now because this throws my plan for the week back, and I’m not sure how to prepare them for the electrochemical cell lab on wednesday… we didn’t even get up to half-reactions, much less the parts of a cell! I guess I’ll have to talk to my CT about what he thinks… great.

In order to reassure myself, to buck myself up, I need to remind myself that classroom management is one of the biggest issues that confronts teachers, and I am far from an expert when it comes to doing it effectively. I can only get better, right?

On the bright side, I guess, there wasn’t open hostility towards me as a result of their grades. Personally, I feel that their lower scores are due in part to my performance, and I feel guilty. However, they have enough of a like of me as a person (if not as a teacher) to not be openly calling me out or yelling at me during class. That’s something, I suppose.

I just wanted these two weeks to be different! I wanted to start it well and finish strong. I did so much this past weekend in order to try to accomplish this goal, and I made great progress. And yet I still have yet to have a truly successful lesson in that class. It’s a tad frustrating. Just a little.

Ok, I need to get back to class. I will do my best to not let this get me down, to retain my positive focus and always look at how to improve. Wish me luck.

Until later-

Yup, the title says it all. Sitting at Greg’s house, a Molsen on the table, Greg, Orlando, Eliany and I all in the living room doing our work. Greg’s working on a Topics post, Orlando is writing his Topics paper, and Eliany is knitting. Now if this were a normal post (well, normal for the last couple of months) I would complain and be negative about how I still have 4 posts to go and the paper is barely a glimmer in my eye. But this isn’t one of those posts!

I’m tired of being upset and stressed and depressed. I got observed by Brian earlier this week, which went well enough, but the talk afterward was really helpful. I basically unloaded on him a little bit, let him know some of the turmoil I was going through. He was able to take that, comfort me, and then turn it into very constructive criticism. He basically got me to frame my situation in such a way that the focus is not on all the negatives, but rather what can be done to improve things. So now I’m focused on the following things:

*Making lessons more relevant to students
*Working on how I plan for whole units and individual lessons
*Reaching out to others and reflecting my beliefs about the social nature of learning in my professional practice.

And that last one is what I’m doing right now. Having these guys around, bouncing ideas about the teaching profession off them (just now I took a long break from writing to debate with Orlando the merits of dressing up for school), and having somebody else there with energy that I can leach off of when mine run is running low is already making a huge difference in how I feel.

Having only two weeks left at Marshall may be helping too :-p

In any event, this has been an overall positive week, the first one in a while. The mock interviews on Tuesday went well, and even though I can’t work there, it’s great to know that Lisa was interested enough to want my resume. Also, the UTL seminar went really well tonight, probably the best one this year. We had some great discussion as well as a true feeling of community and togetherness.

And now I’m sitting here doing work. On a Friday night. And I’m not complaing about it. Really, I’m not. What I’m doing is accomplishing what needs to be done before it gets to the point where I go insane.

Also, before I sign off for the evening, I apologize again for the rambling, stream-of-consciousness, ungrammatically correct form that I use for this blog. If anybody is really offended let me know, otherwise this is how it will be until I have time to care… hahaha

Until later-

It’s late, so in a nutshell:

-Huge day today
-Brian observed
-Done focusing on negatives. Instead: how to get better?
-The answers: buy a planner and use it
get back to basics with planning
make lessons relevant
reach out for support from others

-So far, I’ve done the planner, back to basics with planning, and reaching out for others… and this is all the same day!
-There is a LOT that I have to do in the next two days: teach tomorrow; write two quizzes; write a reflection for UTL; complete my application for RCSD. This is all by the end of tomorrow night. Wow.

But I will not get overstressed. I will just work diligently, one thing at a time, etc.

This post will be fleshed out at some point in the future.

Until later-

Thanks for the comment on the last post Sarah; I appreciate it.

Also, I’ve found something that seems to cheer me up: thinking about the kids. When I stop worrying about the million miles I have left to go to be a good teacher, about all the assignments and deadlines I have coming up, about the pressures of finding a job for next year and a place to live- all the things hanging over my head- and I think about my kids, I feel a little better. Focusing in on them, and then on what I can do for them to facilitate their learning, frames my job in a much more positive light. I’m going to try to keep that in mind as much as possible in the next three weeks…

Until later-

Plusses and arrows:

+Mom’s bday was Thursday, got to go home Friday and see the family. The love and support they give me has really become a huge factor… for most of college I was asserting my independence and moving away from them, but now I appreciate the time I have with them a great deal.

+I liked my lessons for environmental science at the beginning of the week. They seemed to go fairly well and the kids were more engaged than they had at times in the past.

+My Regents kids quiz scores were up for the most part this week, although there were still a couple kids that bombed it.

–> Regents kids quiz scores have dropped on average 10-20 points since I started here. Pause for a minute to let that sink in. At first I thought it was because of the material being covered and the abstraction of some of the math involved, but I have come to believe it is due in large part to my method of instruction. I talked to one of my students, and he told me that Awad makes this simple and easy, straight-forward, whereas I always seem to make things complicated. I need to do something like come up with a simple, bulleted list for them with things to remember. Oh, and when I speak I need to be clearer and not so scattered.

–> I still don’t have any good ideas for my innovative unit. I get so stuck in the day-to-day (and lately questioning this whole endeavor), that I don’t have time to look ahead and plan something like the innovative unit. Along this same vein, I have yet to take any pictures or collect any student work from this placement, besides the questionnaires I gave the Regents kids before break.

Meanwhile, I’m stressing about making a good resume, classwork to complete, and putting in applications. On top of making good lessons. STRESS!

I think I need a coach right now. Or a cheering section. Or something. I wish I had the fervor that Orlando showed in his most recent post, but I don’t. Bah.

Until later-

Yup, the title says it all so far. I came into the week with a renewed resolve and sense of purpose, and then promptly crashed back down into frustration-land. The source of the problem this week was my lesson on Monday with the Regents kids. See, their quiz scores have gone down the last few weeks and I’ve been trying to find the reason why (mainly how much of it is because of me). One of the things I noticed on their quizzes was their trouble with the problems involving math, so I resolved this week to make sure that the required math parts of the acid/base unit get presented early and then reinforced throughout the week. It was a boring approach, but I thought it was necessary.

Of course, most of the things I presented on Monday aren’t even really a part of the NYS curriculum, will never be on the curriculum, and the kids never really should have to know it.

I won’t go into it, but Monday was pretty much a waste of a day (besides going over the quiz from the week before). Not only was it a waste, but it may have served the purpose of intimidating the students and turning them off from the topic before we even got started.

Mr. Awad sat me down and talked to me about it after the period. Basically along the lines of “What were you thinking?” I let him know that there was a reason to my madness, and he let me know that it was almost all unnecessary.

So now the problem is not that I don’t have focus, not that I don’t know what I want to do; it’s that now I’m focusing in on the wrong things. This place has got me going against my instincts to the point that I’m not even trusting in my most basic ideas of teaching (like starting off with properties of household acids and bases, etc.).

I was able to recover the next day. I started off the period with the cabbage juice indicator demo… it went over pretty well, although it didn’t have the “wow” factor that it had with my 7th graders at SOTA. Mr. Awad had to step in near the end when I fumbled during an example problem (I would have gotten through it, but it was awkward- mind blanking, losing train of thought, yeah). But whatever. Today we had fun with a titration lab, even if it was cookbook.

My environmental science class is a challenge, as usual. Today we had only 4 students to start off with, and only two of them were “regulars” (there almost every day). By the end of the period we were up to 7, but they came strolling in at all times. It’s frustrating, to say the least.

Eh, I’ll go more into it later. Sorry this post is short on reflecting, long on listing. I’m just trying to get it out, so I can have it to reflect on later.

So yeah. Three and a half weeks left. I’d like to be able to do something here that I’m actually proud of.

Until later-

Hello hello, here I am again. It’s Sunday morning, I know (not Friday), but it’s been a busy couple of days. In any case this past week is still pretty fresh in my mind.

I fell into a funk this week. Somewhere around Tuesday or Wednesday as I was at the library planning, I just started getting really down on myself and this whole teaching thing. I was questioning everything about it; my ideals vs. real world, my abilities, and what good I was doing the students. A lot of it stemmed from the juxtaposition of what Warner teaches and the realities of urban education. I was having a very hard time reconciling the two, and as a result was experiencing some intense turmoil.

I was in this state during Dick’s observation on Thursday. I wasn’t particularly happy with either of my lessons, and there was just this feeling in the pit of my stomach all day. It wasn’t that I was being observed, it was just the physical manifestation of all the storms inside my head. Anyways, the first lesson wasn’t great and I knew it, and during the lab with the Regents kids, I felt almost like I was watching myself going through the motions. I just couldn’t find the motivation to be that positive, energetic force. Bah.

However, afterwards Dick and I had a talk, and he helped me with some of the issues I’m facing. He was just relentlessly positive, “This is what you have to do,” providing me lots of ways to make things better. Shining through it all was an outlook that I am now trying to adopt- which is to stop getting so caught up on my ideals and do what I need to do to educate my students. If that means activities that don’t fit into my theoretical framework for best practices in education, so be it. I can still try to shape things so that inquiry and all that can be added in, but I need to recognize where my students are, and meet them there with what they need.

I think another source of my negativity comes from the fact that I’m not a good teacher yet. I’ve always been the “smart” kid, I have always been able to succeed at something if I really set my mind to it. Academically, at least. And it’s really hard to throw myself into this new endeavor, working my butt off more than at any other time in my life, and to still be so crappy. Now I know, I know, I’m not awful, but right now I’m not living up to my expectations, and that frustrates me.

These are all issues that I must wrestle with myself, to come up with an answer that satisfies me. However, it’s good to know that everyone else is right there with me, and going through the same things I am. I don’t know if it’s a “misery loves company” kind of deal, but it’s good to know that other people understand.

I just wish it was easier.

In any case, I must try to STAY POSITIVE, to find the small victories in the day-to-day, and save worrying about being an amazing teacher for some future year when I’m not struggling with things like “how do I structure an 80 minute class?” A negative attitude will not help me or anyone.

MELIORA!

Until later-

Flurry of posts? ha! Obviously I am a big fat liar. It seems like I always get bogged down in the day-to-day stress of planning something decent for the kids that I never get around to doing the whole reflecting bit.

And that’s something that’s a little stressful. I can sit down and plan for a whole week ahead of time, setting down broad goals and outlines for different activities on the days… y’know- a real plan for what I want to do- and then I sit down a day or two before to plan the nuts and bolts of the lesson, and it takes me FOREVER. I am still having a difficult time putting together a good, cohesive 80 minute block of time for my students (x2).

Another issue I’m faced with is getting the students to engage in the classes. I have one student who absolutely refuses to participate; she won’t even look at me when I talk to her 1-on-1. It’s just frustrating because no matter what I try, nothing gets through… there’s not even a crack in the wall. Now I know that there are just some circumstances I can’t change, past experiences this student has had that have shaped how she is, and I can’t undo it all. Still, it’s hard not to take personally.

On the other hand, I have another student who seemed like she was in the same boat, but I kept working on her and she’s finally started to show some chinks in the armor. She has actually admitted to liking some parts of science (marine biology), and I’ve kept open a dialogue about her participation in class. It’s almost a joke now (”Mr. Sweeney, I told you I don’t participate in class,” “Well I’ve told you that I’m going to keep trying to change that.”). When I met individually with the students about their ideas for their science fair projects, she came to me with no idea at all. I started with a question about her favorite part about science… and eventually she got to point where she (almost embarassedly) said that she had liked when she had looked at water under a microscope in another class. I then helped her to come up with several questions she could study that related to observing microorganisms in water, and by the end of the meeting she seemed almost happy. I think what may have been going on (and this is just my simple psychology working) was that the idea of a SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT was very intimidating, seeming scary and hard. At the end of the meeting, she was relieved and happy as she realized that she could actually be spending her time working on something actually thought was cool. It was a great moment.

And then she stopped by the classroom during a free period later that day to show me her report card in math (85%, B) and it just made my day. The fact that she came to me to show that off made me feel like all my efforts were worth it. Even though it is still often a struggle to get her to participate in what we are doing in class, the progress we have made so far gives me hope.

And it’s those kinds of things that I need to hang onto. This experience is a struggle. It is often difficult for me to remain optimistic and retain hope. In the last few weeks I have been questioning the system I am going to be entering into, and comparing it with my own personal beliefs of what education should be. And I get depressed. Bah. Whatever.

It is by hanging onto little victories that I can hold out and persevere. That is the goal anyways.

I apologize for this stream-of-consciousness, unedited post. Maybe sometime I’ll come back to this to clean up and clarify (but if past posts are any evidence, probably not- eh?)

Until later-

So I’ve obviously been neglecting this blog, but that’s something I want to change. I think that part of my problem these last couple weeks has been that I’ve kept everything inside and tried to do everything myself, without relying on outside help- and that has not gone well. My goals for this post are to iterate the things that I need to focus on this week and during the rest of my placement-things I can do to feel better about my teaching. I hope to write two subsequent posts about my plusses and minues so far from Marshall.

Here are things I need to do, in no particular order:

-Stop wigging out
-Focus on getting things done
-DO THE THINGS THAT I HAVE BEEN TAUGHT TO DO
–what do I want the students to know?
–how will I know this?
–what do they already know?
-Get excited about science and what I’m doing
-GET AHEAD IN MY PLANNING
-Be more confident in myself and my ideas and not feel demoralized
-GET EXCITED ABOUT SCIENCE AND WHAT I’M DOING
-Use the resources I have available to me (namely people)
-Start geting (and continue to be) organized

Yeah, so that’s it off the top of my head. I’m going to write two posts later this week detailing the experiences that led me to these conclusions. Until later-

This post is going to be short and hopefully cleaned up in the future. Of course, you see how my last posting went, so we’ll see how it goes.

Tonight in class we discussed Gardner’s 7 intelligences (linguistic, spatial, kinesthetic, etc.), differentiated instruction, and how the heck we can try to incorporate these ideas of the best way to learn into a situation that pretty much runs opposite of what we believe.

When I think about these topics it depresses me, and I develop a bleak outlook on the future. I will come back to this topic later in the week (probably weekend) when I am a little bit less stressed and tired. Until then-

Hello everybody.

I’m sure you’ve been checking here constantly, anxiously awaiting my next post. Well the wait is almost over! I promise at some point in the next week before I start my next placement, I will write a post or two reflecting over my experiences at SOTA. Stay tuned!

Well hello again folks. Here I sit, the day after Thanksgiving, feeling sad because I left a lot of materials to help me do my work back up in Rochester, which means I’ll probably have to leave home tomorrow morning instead of on Sunday… ah well. Anyways, I felt like it was time to update my blog before too much more time passes and I get all caught up in the end of semester blitz (which I am quietly dreading).

On Monday (11/14), I took over teaching the three classes I’ve been observing all semester. My overall sense of the experience of my first week was that it was hectic, stressful, and very informative. I learned a huge amount about the art of teaching in a very short amount of time. I will also say that I enjoyed it a great deal, even if it did not go as well as I would have liked (but nothing ever does).

Part of the problem was that I got behind the 8 ball with planning. While I had planned a few days ahead, and had a general idea for the last few days of the week, I still had to do a decent amount of work at night to get ready for the next day. I would have liked to have had a more concrete plan at the beginning of the week so that I had a bit more time in the evenings.

Planning at the beginning, however, would not have saved me from some of the troubles I ran into. I overestimated my students ability to work with such abstact ideas as the structure of an atom and filling in electron orbitals, concepts which they had only learning a few weeks before. I overfilled my first day, which threw off the plans I had made for the next couple days, which changed the whole week. Whew!

Lessons learned: Start small and simple, and build off it, especially if it is new.

Be clear and explicit about what you want and how to do it! Have written materials to give to the kids! -On the second day, when I covered electron dot diagrams, a reeeeally abstract concept, I did not provide clear instructions on the homework (the first I’ve ever made), and they came back to me the next day with a lot of questions and not a lot done. I had to take time to go over it again in class, but this time I also gave them a sheet I had made which explicity said what to do.

Make sure the work you have them do is worth it! - One day in class I gave them a worksheet from Mr. Wolf that gave them practice with ionic bonding. I had looked the worksheet over and found it acceptable, but it turned out that it was awful. It was confusing and frustrating to the kids, using old notations and talking about elements the kids didn’t need to know about. I ended up not having the next class even do it, which gave more time for a demo I did that day.

Another thing I learned was that field trips make my job tough. On Thursday, one of my classes was gone for a field trip, but I still had two classes. I assigned a two page homework on Wednesday and had 4th period do the whole thing for homework, and I was going to let the other two classes work on the second page in class (the afore-mentioned disaster). However, I also wanted to do a demo (charged balloon bending water) and introduce polar bonds. This turned out to be the downfall for 4th period, because I had to spend time not only on Friday to tell them to disavow the second page and to go over the HW (which cut into lab time), but it also cut into review time on Monday when I had to quickly go over polar bonds. It was frustrating for me that I was not able to do a proper job in teaching it to them. The missed day also affected their lab and quiz grades, as I had less time to go over questions on the lab or to adequately present material for the quiz. ARG!

But what can you do?

However, there were bright spots. I got positive feedback on my teaching from some of my students. I also got positive feedback from my CT, completely unexpected too. As we were walking out on Friday we were talking about administrative things like keeping copies of worksheets and labs and stuff, and he said that I should be sure not to take all my materials with me, that he wanted copies. I asked him why, and he said “I really liked your lessons a couple days ago on ionic and covalent bonds. You took what they already knew and kept building off of it, scaffolding them to new understandings.” We had not really had a chance to talk about the lessons themselves prior to this (I had assumed the “if its broke, he’ll tell me” mentality), so this surprise compliment felt really good, and validated my work.

So, overall, very stressful but very informative. I would like to say that I think next week and the week after will be better, but I’ve got just way too much work to do for Warner to think that they will be pleasant. Hello stress, good bye Thanksgiving.

It’s late, I’m tired, and I’m stressed.

I just spent a great deal of yesterday and today finishing up all the stuff I need to hand in tomorrow for my STARS experience.

I still need to get in some planning for this week in school (not to mention my six Warner lessons before the end of November). As I said, I’m tired, stressed, and generally in a bad mood.

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So I open up the textbook, see the topics we need to cover- and suddenly the stress lifts, I’m not so tired, and I start to get excited about the sheer possibility of what I can do. The freedom to teach the subject I love to the best of my abilities is truly awesome. I come to this realization that, really, it’s all worth it. All this work, all this stress… it’s all so that I can be in that room doing what I love with a topic I love with students who I care greatly about.

Awesome!

(sorry for the present tense)

So my Science STARS lesson has come and gone. The build-up to it was of medium-short length and medium-high stress. Of course, as usual, keeping in character and other such phrases, I waited to do some things until the last minute. Part of the problem was that I had a hard time shaping the idea that I had in mind into a workable Science STARS experience, one that contained science but also made connections to the girls’ lives. It wasn’t until I shared my somewhat sketchy ideas with the rest of the class on Tuesday that I got some really good ideas for what to cut and what to add to the lesson. And then, it wasn’t until Friday night when I met with Martha that I really nailed down how I wanted the lesson to go.

This is a lesson for the future, one that I’ve learned many a time but have never seemed to translate into action: DO NOT PROCRASTINATE.

Unfortunately, this hurried rush right before Saturday afternoon did have a couple of negative consequences. Almost all of the problems I had in my lesson stemmed from procrastination: pre-brainstorming ideas for the brainstorming activity in case the girls get stuck, coming up with a carefully worded objective to sum up the day (rather than the sometimes hazy, multi-sentence ramblings I ended up using), and a better journal question that gets more at what I wanted the girls to learn from the experience. Also in the ways to improve section- a bit stricter on management. When the girls were all on the computers, they were easily distracted and maybe not paying as much attention to me.

Ok, enough of the negative end of things. It’s time to get POSITIVE! I really like how my lesson turned out. My favorite things about the day, in no particular order:

The lessons I take away from this experience are numerous. The main ones are that when the material is made relevant to the students’ life, they really dig into it. Also, the power of planning cannot be underestimated. It is the single most important way to ensure the success of a lesson, and the proper time must be afforded it.

Ok, that’s about it for now. Thanks again for everybody’s help and encouragement! I’ll post pictures when I can get my hands on some

Here are some bits from my reflection… I may add to this with specific instances if I have time later…

Activity Overview

On Thursday, October 27th I shadowed “K”, a student from Mr. Wolf’s 4th period Honors Science class. I picked K for several reasons, the first and foremost being that she was something of a mystery to me and I wanted to find out more about her. Her background is very different from mine: her parents are from Barbados, she grew up in Brooklyn before moving to Rochester, and last but not least, she’s female. Her classroom demeanor is also foreign to me; while she is obviously smart, she often does not pay attention and talks with her neighbors. However, like some of her friends, she is not loud and disruptive to class. When I asked K if I could follow her, she said “Sure” and didn’t think too much about it. We were not close before this experience, and we remain the same now. I was in the background for much of the day, and I only occasionally got to ask her some questions in between classes, but when I did I got some interesting responses. The day was also enlightening because it wasn’t just K I saw in different settings, but all my students. Kids in Honors Science are in Honors everything else too, so I was able to observe how many of my students acted throughout the day.

Reflection

Observing K throughout her day led to some new insights, but I was also left with some of the same questions I had before. Her behavior in class seems at times to be very contradictory- one minute she can be intently writing a note to a friend, and the very next she can be raising her hand to answer a question. It seems like she’s not necessarily disrespecting the teacher or the class out of some spite, but rather she simply cares more about her interactions with her friends. And boy, were those interactions frequent.

What struck me most about K was that her attitude did not vary too much throughout the day, even in vastly different classroom climates. There seemed to always be this sense that her mind was elsewhere (most likely with the most recent soap opera that her group was embroiled in). In every class she would tune out and tune in to class at will. I believe that for K, school is a place where she can be with and talk to her closest friends, and occasionally engage in whatever classroom activity she is currently present for. I asked her if there were any classes that she liked, and the only one she mentioned was Visual Arts. I don’t think she viewed what was happening in any of her classrooms as being relevant to her life, so she paid the corresponding amount of attention.

One of the things I observed teachers doing which really helped shape K’s day was that they singled her out for reprimand in class, and several times spoke to her afterwards. They must have pegged her as a problem-student early on in the year and now keep a constant eye on her, because she was getting called out for doing things which I saw other kids get away with all day. Sometimes teachers would misinterpret innocent actions through a negative lens, and unjustly chastise her… She seemed to be unfazed by all the negative attention. I’ve got to think, however, that the teachers’ actions and attitudes can’t be helping her view of school, and most likely are the main contributors to the disconnect between her and the school environment.

Ok, that’s it for now. Until later-

So today I would like to talk about my experiences with the parent-teacher conferences we had on Thursday night. First off, I was surprised at the very low attendence. The conferences are not mandatory, so I suppose that explains some of it. Still, of the 130ish students that Mr. Wolf has, we saw only seven or eight parents. That’s less than 10% participation. Of course, most of Mr. Wolf’s students are doing well in his class; there’s less than ten who are failing, or just barely passing.

The thing of if it is, it wasn’t necessarily the parents of the kids who were failing that showed up. For the most part, it was parents of kids who were doing quite well. Now this tends to make sense… parents who care about their kid’s education, who make sure that they do their homework and study hard, would also care to know their student’s teachers. Or some parents would, at least.

Highlights from the evening:

Student: very bright, doing well in the class. Tells her mother everything that is going on in class. Mother seems very smart, and very much an advocate for her daughter. She discusses with Mr. Wolf how her daughter’s class tends to get off topic (asking a lot of questions, but not necessarily on topic), and how this results in Mr. Wolf rushing to get through the material at the end of class. There have been several times when her daughter did not fully understand the concepts, and would have liked more instruction. Mr. Wolf seemed very open to the woman’s comments, and mentioned that was it was one of the issues that he and I had discussed before. He emphasized that it is important that students learn to ask questions in class if they don’t understand something, but that he would try to monitor his time management in that class to make sure he got throught everything.

So that’s what we did the next day. We stopped questions, and made an announcement about the situation in the class. And we still rushed to finish. They have so many questions!

One question this raised is how much a teacher should change the way they run things based on the feedback of one person. While I do believe that it is important to take suggestions into consideration, if something seems to be working for a majority of students, and the student complaining is still a top student, how much change should be made? I like the questioning nature of that class, even if does result in less direct on-topic instruction. It is often the case that Mr. Wolf will cut out a piece of the lesson to accomadate this, and it is often the least important part. So in a way, it’s encouraging enthusiasm while at the same time streamlining the lessons.

Another interesting occurence came in the only conference where the student was with the parents. It quickly came to light that the student had forged her mother’s signature on a grade report that had been sent home earlier that week. It was somewhat awkward as the parents realized they had been lied to and were a little upset. I know if I were in that situation I would be uncomfortable, possibly feeling that the teacher was accusing me of bad parenting, or something. However, Mr. Wolf was very good about explaining to her that her grade report was nothing to be ashamed of, and she should be proud to show it to her parents. I guess it was just a case of her just forgetting to get it signed and doing it quickly in class to get the credit, but it could have been a lot worse.

Actually, overall the evening could have been a lot worse. Mr. Wolf said that he felt lucky that there weren’t any parents there to attack him for their kid’s bad performance. I feel like this will be one of the least pleasant aspects of being a teacher. The solution, I think for me, would be to just let them know about why I teach the way I do, that I care about each and every student’s learning, and these are ways that both the parents and I can help the student achieve.