This week was tough for me. I came into student teaching telling myself that I would form my own opinions about all of my students; not allowing anything that my peers said about them affect my feelings toward them. My second period class is what you might call a handful, not only are the students unmotivated, some of them are just downright disrespectful. I truly tried my best to have as much patience as possible, telling myself that they know they are the “bad kids,” and I need to do my part to not treat them that way. I spent the entire period trying to help these particular students out; I even went as far as sitting down on the floor with them attempting to write myself into their group to help with a project. Unfortunately, in the same way the teachers have labeled these students, the students have labeled all types of authorities, especially the teachers. Even though I really attempted to help these students out, they were not having it. They ripped up the paper I was working on, yelled at me, broke my marker, and even told me they hated me. All the while I was sitting on the floor only trying to help. As soon as the last student left my classroom, I LOST it. I couldn’t even begin to fight the tears. I wanted so badly to be the change for these kids and I have realized very early on that there is going to be a chance that I might not be able to make as much as a difference as I would like to. On a positive note, students heard very quickly that I was upset. I returned to my classroom to a desk and blackboard full of notes from students in my other periods apologizing for second hours’ behavior. The notes said things like, “You’re the best,” “We love you,” and “Second hour sucks.” Ha. Anyways, it was after that I realized that maybe I am making a difference and that I might not realize that every day. The difference might not always be some HUGE alarming incident, but I know that I have shown my students that I have a ton of faith in them and by the notes and the letters I have realized that they too have a lot of faith in me.
This week wasn't necessarily tough for me, but it wasn't easy either. In addition, I had a ton on my mind with graduate school decisions coming out, so I certainly realized how hard it was to "hold it all together". Something that has been harder then I realized was teaching seniors. I guess I thought I could relate to them more, however it was much the opposite and my second period class was extremely difficult to deal with. This past week on Monday though, everything started to smooth over for some reason, and by Tuesday when Taylor came to observe my class, the seniors I once worried about were on task and behaved during our music presentations. This week we also worked on projects with our freshman class, and I had my first instance of thinking on my feet and being flexible.
On Friday my cooperating teacher took a conference day so I was alone with a substitute who acted much more like a student then actual teacher. During all my freshman classes I had given them two work days with our mobile lab to start and finish a poetry presentation that they are to present on this week. During my 3rd period class, one of the student accidently ripped the internet connection out of the socket, but a piece of the connector was still stuck in the wall. Apparently, since everyone is on a "school "system" (kind of like a google doc for the class) everybody lost all their work. A kind of pandamonium broke out, where the good students freaked out because their work was gone and the not so focused students delcared that all their work was gone so they were revolting. Since I had no idea who the tech guy was, or have the support of my cooperating teacher I was a little frazzled but calmed everyone down, told them they could have an extra day, and had them complete a reading assignment/we discussed the tsunami and it's overall impact to society. Looking back, I think I handled it the best I could, but should have learned who the support staff were so I had all my resources avialable to me.
Each class is certianly different, and although some of my students test my patience, there's always that small "I get it" moment that lets me know I'm at least connecting with some students.
Seniorittis+impending spring break=absent kids. They are either physical absent because they have left for spring break early or they are mentally absent. Either way it has been a struggle to reign them back in to doing work. Some of them looked at me incredulously for actually passing out a quiz. I am very thankful that it is just disbelief on their faces instead of damnation. I have been in classes that have absolutely hated me. I do not enjoy being in a class that hates me any more than they enjoy having me for a teacher. However, I am starting to relish my relationships with the students of Delphi. I have several students who have just proved to be amazingly sweet. Many have been very considerate and asked about the well fair of my family in Japan. (They are all very safe!) I have classes that I enjoy more than others just as I am sure they have teachers that they enjoy more than me.
These experience are starting to ratify in me a thankfulness that I have chosen to become a secondary educator. I prefer working with students in this age group and developmental phase very much. It is neat for me to see the spectrum of development and maturity that varies from class to class, student to student. Some of my students are already adults and some of them are still little children. For this reason I now have a pet names for them; they are my “adult-children,” my grown-up-kiddies.”
I love them. I am already attached and it has only been a month. It is going to be hard to graduate now because my personally momentous accomplishment will be meet with their glaring absence. Bittersweet paradigm.
Ok so I had the biggest shock this week. I had my 8th graders doing a game. They had to hold a card on their forehead. Then they had to ask questions about the word on the card until they thought they knew what the word was. Then they had to find the person that had the same word on their card. The class that I have the most problems with was the class that loved the activity. Usually they don't want to do any of the things I have them doing. My other class usually enjoys the activities we do and they hated the game. It was like being in the Twilight Zone. I guess you can never really know what your students will like until you do the activity.
I have been having a pretty good time with teaching. Most of my classes are really quiet and well-behaved, but this week I did feel out of control for the first time. This week I took over what other people call the "bad" class. It is full of boys, and many of them are spohomores that are taking English for the second time. I don't think they are really bad kids, they are just really hard to focus. The second day that I took over, there was a period of a few minutes when they would not listen to anything I said. They only calmed when my mentor teacher came back in the room. Later I told my teacher that I felt bad about how the class went, and he told me that he would help me. Now every time we have class he sits in his chair or stands in the doorway menacingly. He has already taken one student out of the class. This student would not listen to my directions, and when he also wouldn't listen to my teacher's directions, he was taken out in the hallway anmd reprimanded. I am very appreciative of my teacher's attempts to help me and I feel more at ease when he is there, but I also wonder if I am being too reliant on my teacher. I think that the class has gotten better, but I'm not sure if it's because my teacher is there or because we now do everything together in the class, even vocabulary crosswords.
Week 4 has been my best week so far of student teaching! I am beginning to feel more like myself with the students and more like myself when I am up front teaching. I am gaining more confidence in my teaching abilities and my demeanor in the classroom shows that. This week I actually had to send a student down to an in-school 'detention room'. I did not want to do this, but my 4th period has been my rowdy class and it was getting more and more difficult to gain the respect of the students. They consider me the 'nice' teacher, too 'nice' to get anyone in trouble, so when I sent the disruptive student out of the class, the entire class was silent, and it provided an environment that was much better for the lesson and teaching. I am teaching in a small school, so now the whole school has heard I 'send people out' for not behaving or not respecting me, and I can already see a change. Also my relationships have been growing a ton with my students. I love when they come before school to talk or stay after the bell rings to talk with me or even when they just say hello to me in passing in the hallways. I realize my relationships with the students and their interests definitely push me to want to become a better teacher. It is very difficult at times to keep them engaged in the texts we are reading, but when I can give an example or when we can have a discussion about why the text is still relevant today, that is when they become more engaged and interested. So, overall week 4 has been pretty good, I have had many tests and trials but I feel like I'm pushing through okay, and beginning to feel like I really can do this. I am very happy for this realization because my next test is coming at the beginning of week 5. My mentor teacher will not be at school for the next two weeks (his wife is having a baby) so I will be on my own for the next two weeks. I am super excited about this challenge but also a little nervous. We'll see how it goes!
Week 4…where to begin. This week was one of my most difficult weeks of Student Teaching so far. For the first few weeks the students have been in and out of the computer lab working on a memoir. They turned in their memoirs on Monday and were back in the classroom all week, which proved to be an extreme test of my classroom management. I had students talking while I was talking, talking while other students were talking, and walking around the room instead of doing their work. I guess you could say my class was like a zoo. I also had a student in the Accelerated class pass around a note saying, “Let’s all get lunch detention because then it could be fun!” The little bit of “fun” that I was having with the students has now turned into evil stares, be quiet hand movements, and lots of stern “I said stop talking.” Needless to say this week was not enjoyable. However, I am working on a few changes in order to improve my classroom management. I have 10 to 15 seconds of silence before I start class, and I frequently give lunch detentions to disruptive students. As the week progressed, my classroom began to take the hint that they need to take me seriously. Well, enough with the negative and onto the positive things. Like I said, the students have been doing a memoir since I began teaching. My teacher wanted me to use his material for the memoir since he has been teaching it for many, many years. This week was the first week I brought entirely my own handouts/ideas into the classroom. I got to see how the students reacted to my lessons and enjoyed it when students were engaged with what I was doing. This had to be the highlight of my week.
This week was tough for me. I came into student teaching telling myself that I would form my own opinions about all of my students; not allowing anything that my peers said about them affect my feelings toward them. My second period class is what you might call a handful, not only are the students unmotivated, some of them are just downright disrespectful. I truly tried my best to have as much patience as possible, telling myself that they know they are the “bad kids,” and I need to do my part to not treat them that way. I spent the entire period trying to help these particular students out; I even went as far as sitting down on the floor with them attempting to write myself into their group to help with a project. Unfortunately, in the same way the teachers have labeled these students, the students have labeled all types of authorities, especially the teachers. Even though I really attempted to help these students out, they were not having it. They ripped up the paper I was working on, yelled at me, broke my marker, and even told me they hated me. All the while I was sitting on the floor only trying to help. As soon as the last student left my classroom, I LOST it. I couldn’t even begin to fight the tears. I wanted so badly to be the change for these kids and I have realized very early on that there is going to be a chance that I might not be able to make as much as a difference as I would like to.
ReplyDeleteOn a positive note, students heard very quickly that I was upset. I returned to my classroom to a desk and blackboard full of notes from students in my other periods apologizing for second hours’ behavior. The notes said things like, “You’re the best,” “We love you,” and “Second hour sucks.” Ha. Anyways, it was after that I realized that maybe I am making a difference and that I might not realize that every day. The difference might not always be some HUGE alarming incident, but I know that I have shown my students that I have a ton of faith in them and by the notes and the letters I have realized that they too have a lot of faith in me.
This week wasn't necessarily tough for me, but it wasn't easy either. In addition, I had a ton on my mind with graduate school decisions coming out, so I certainly realized how hard it was to "hold it all together". Something that has been harder then I realized was teaching seniors. I guess I thought I could relate to them more, however it was much the opposite and my second period class was extremely difficult to deal with. This past week on Monday though, everything started to smooth over for some reason, and by Tuesday when Taylor came to observe my class, the seniors I once worried about were on task and behaved during our music presentations. This week we also worked on projects with our freshman class, and I had my first instance of thinking on my feet and being flexible.
ReplyDeleteOn Friday my cooperating teacher took a conference day so I was alone with a substitute who acted much more like a student then actual teacher. During all my freshman classes I had given them two work days with our mobile lab to start and finish a poetry presentation that they are to present on this week. During my 3rd period class, one of the student accidently ripped the internet connection out of the socket, but a piece of the connector was still stuck in the wall. Apparently, since everyone is on a "school "system" (kind of like a google doc for the class) everybody lost all their work. A kind of pandamonium broke out, where the good students freaked out because their work was gone and the not so focused students delcared that all their work was gone so they were revolting. Since I had no idea who the tech guy was, or have the support of my cooperating teacher I was a little frazzled but calmed everyone down, told them they could have an extra day, and had them complete a reading assignment/we discussed the tsunami and it's overall impact to society. Looking back, I think I handled it the best I could, but should have learned who the support staff were so I had all my resources avialable to me.
Each class is certianly different, and although some of my students test my patience, there's always that small "I get it" moment that lets me know I'm at least connecting with some students.
Seniorittis+impending spring break=absent kids. They are either physical absent because they have left for spring break early or they are mentally absent. Either way it has been a struggle to reign them back in to doing work. Some of them looked at me incredulously for actually passing out a quiz. I am very thankful that it is just disbelief on their faces instead of damnation. I have been in classes that have absolutely hated me. I do not enjoy being in a class that hates me any more than they enjoy having me for a teacher. However, I am starting to relish my relationships with the students of Delphi. I have several students who have just proved to be amazingly sweet. Many have been very considerate and asked about the well fair of my family in Japan. (They are all very safe!) I have classes that I enjoy more than others just as I am sure they have teachers that they enjoy more than me.
ReplyDeleteThese experience are starting to ratify in me a thankfulness that I have chosen to become a secondary educator. I prefer working with students in this age group and developmental phase very much. It is neat for me to see the spectrum of development and maturity that varies from class to class, student to student. Some of my students are already adults and some of them are still little children. For this reason I now have a pet names for them; they are my “adult-children,” my grown-up-kiddies.”
I love them. I am already attached and it has only been a month. It is going to be hard to graduate now because my personally momentous accomplishment will be meet with their glaring absence. Bittersweet paradigm.
Ok so I had the biggest shock this week. I had my 8th graders doing a game. They had to hold a card on their forehead. Then they had to ask questions about the word on the card until they thought they knew what the word was. Then they had to find the person that had the same word on their card. The class that I have the most problems with was the class that loved the activity. Usually they don't want to do any of the things I have them doing. My other class usually enjoys the activities we do and they hated the game. It was like being in the Twilight Zone. I guess you can never really know what your students will like until you do the activity.
ReplyDeleteI have been having a pretty good time with teaching. Most of my classes are really quiet and well-behaved, but this week I did feel out of control for the first time. This week I took over what other people call the "bad" class. It is full of boys, and many of them are spohomores that are taking English for the second time. I don't think they are really bad kids, they are just really hard to focus. The second day that I took over, there was a period of a few minutes when they would not listen to anything I said. They only calmed when my mentor teacher came back in the room. Later I told my teacher that I felt bad about how the class went, and he told me that he would help me. Now every time we have class he sits in his chair or stands in the doorway menacingly. He has already taken one student out of the class. This student would not listen to my directions, and when he also wouldn't listen to my teacher's directions, he was taken out in the hallway anmd reprimanded. I am very appreciative of my teacher's attempts to help me and I feel more at ease when he is there, but I also wonder if I am being too reliant on my teacher. I think that the class has gotten better, but I'm not sure if it's because my teacher is there or because we now do everything together in the class, even vocabulary crosswords.
ReplyDeleteWeek 4 has been my best week so far of student teaching! I am beginning to feel more like myself with the students and more like myself when I am up front teaching. I am gaining more confidence in my teaching abilities and my demeanor in the classroom shows that. This week I actually had to send a student down to an in-school 'detention room'. I did not want to do this, but my 4th period has been my rowdy class and it was getting more and more difficult to gain the respect of the students. They consider me the 'nice' teacher, too 'nice' to get anyone in trouble, so when I sent the disruptive student out of the class, the entire class was silent, and it provided an environment that was much better for the lesson and teaching. I am teaching in a small school, so now the whole school has heard I 'send people out' for not behaving or not respecting me, and I can already see a change. Also my relationships have been growing a ton with my students. I love when they come before school to talk or stay after the bell rings to talk with me or even when they just say hello to me in passing in the hallways. I realize my relationships with the students and their interests definitely push me to want to become a better teacher. It is very difficult at times to keep them engaged in the texts we are reading, but when I can give an example or when we can have a discussion about why the text is still relevant today, that is when they become more engaged and interested. So, overall week 4 has been pretty good, I have had many tests and trials but I feel like I'm pushing through okay, and beginning to feel like I really can do this. I am very happy for this realization because my next test is coming at the beginning of week 5. My mentor teacher will not be at school for the next two weeks (his wife is having a baby) so I will be on my own for the next two weeks. I am super excited about this challenge but also a little nervous. We'll see how it goes!
ReplyDeleteWeek 4…where to begin. This week was one of my most difficult weeks of Student Teaching so far. For the first few weeks the students have been in and out of the computer lab working on a memoir. They turned in their memoirs on Monday and were back in the classroom all week, which proved to be an extreme test of my classroom management. I had students talking while I was talking, talking while other students were talking, and walking around the room instead of doing their work. I guess you could say my class was like a zoo. I also had a student in the Accelerated class pass around a note saying, “Let’s all get lunch detention because then it could be fun!” The little bit of “fun” that I was having with the students has now turned into evil stares, be quiet hand movements, and lots of stern “I said stop talking.” Needless to say this week was not enjoyable. However, I am working on a few changes in order to improve my classroom management. I have 10 to 15 seconds of silence before I start class, and I frequently give lunch detentions to disruptive students. As the week progressed, my classroom began to take the hint that they need to take me seriously. Well, enough with the negative and onto the positive things. Like I said, the students have been doing a memoir since I began teaching. My teacher wanted me to use his material for the memoir since he has been teaching it for many, many years. This week was the first week I brought entirely my own handouts/ideas into the classroom. I got to see how the students reacted to my lessons and enjoyed it when students were engaged with what I was doing. This had to be the highlight of my week.
ReplyDelete