I have been in Arizona for one month now, which is weird. It feels like I just started, but also that I have been here forever. Student teaching seems to be full of opposing feelings like that. For example, I also feel really young, but really old a the same time. I feel young because I am working with people that are older than me and, for the first time in my life, I am not around anyone my own age. However, I also feel really old because I have been working so long to actually be a teacher and now I am finally doing it. It is a very strange feeling.
Anyway, this week was really good. Jodi was only here Monday and Tuesday. She had meetings Wednesday and Thursday; she was going to be at school on Friday, but she got food poisoning! I texted her on Thursday night to make sure she was going to on Friday and I did not need to prepare lesson plans. Thankfully I did that otherwise I would not have been prepared on Friday at all!
I was worried that the students would misbehave on Wednesday since Jodi had been there the days prior and Wednesday is also early release. (We have professional development every Wednesday after the students leave). However, they were surprisingly good and we managed to get through the entire lesson. I think they are really starting to view me more as their teacher and taking me seriously. Plus, I am starting to take myself more seriously and view myself as an actual teacher, which feels good.
Thursday, was another successful day. I struggled a bit in deciding what to teach for the day because Jodi wanted me to start their next writing assignment. I did not really have much more direction other than that so I felt like I had too much to choose from. Ultimately, I found a picture of a crowded airport and had them brainstorm ideas of how they think it would feel if they were in that picture, where the people were going, etc. They did not actually start writing, but we will get to that next week.
Finally, Friday was a kind of crazy day. Woke up on Friday morning and it was storming outside! Not just a little bit of rain, but full on thunderstorm. When it rains in Arizona, everyone goes crazy! Plus, it was a Friday so the kids were extra crazy. However, we had a pretty successful day. They had two tests to take (gross) and we were supposed to do a pronoun worksheet after that. However, I changed my mind since I knew they were really restless and I felt bad after their two tests. So instead, we did a fun writing thing. I gave them a starting sentence: "It was a dismal [vocabulary word!] day in the little town of Buckeye when..." Then they wrote for a few minutes and switch papers, continuing the other person's story. We did this for the rest of the period. Overall, it went really well. This was always something I loved to do in school and it is super entertaining. Plus, it got them writing and it was way more fun than a pronoun worksheet.
Here is a list of common themes in their writing:
1. Justin Bieber
1.1 Justin Bieber's sexuality
1.2 Killing Justin Bieber
2. Hannah Montana
3. Tupac (not sure where he came from...)
4. One student showed up in nearly everyone's story
4.1 That same student wrote about himself getting three girlfriends in each of his stories
5. Teletubbies
6. Giant things falling from the sky (babies, burritos, etc.)
7. Michael Jackson
At any rate, their stories were pretty entertaining and I will definitely do this activity with them again before I leave.
Thankfully, Jodi will be back on Monday and we will start language rehab with the kids! I am not even entirely sure what all that entails, but I will write about it next week after I figure it out. Also, I think this week I am supposed to take over the class full time, which is terrifying, but also exciting. This also means I am going to start picking up the afternoon class, which I am definitely looking forward to. I really need more time with my students in order to accomplish everything I want to do, so another fifty minutes will be great. Looking forward to what I will learn this week!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
A Successful Friday
I cannot believe I have already been out here three weeks; the time is going by really quickly! It is also really strange knowing that everyone else is just starting their student teaching and summer is just now ending for other Cornellians.
At any rate, week three of student teaching was very interesting. The week started off a little rough, but turned out great by the end. Monday and Tuesday felt a little overwhelming and terrifying. Since last Friday was not a highly successful lesson, I started feeling really nervous about teaching again. Jodi had more meetings Tuesday and Wednesday so I was again left to lead teach by myself. Tuesday was not a complete failure, but it could have been more successful. We went over their vocabulary words and I was trying to get them to give me example sentences using their words. However, they pretty much just stared at me instead of participating. I realized later that I should have used puppy biscuits to help with participating. No, not actual dog treats. Jodi uses candy as a reward regularly and calls them puppy biscuits, as inspired from the behavior she gets from her dog when she gives him a puppy biscuit. I don't necessarily believe in using extrinsic rewards because the ideal is that students will be intrinsically motivated. Using extrinsic rewards goes against much of what Jill Heinrich taught me. However, you cannot deny the effectiveness of candy on 8th graders.
Wednesday, Jodi managed to get out of her meeting so she could be in the classroom with me. We did a little bit of team teaching and it was good. Also, Kerry Bostwick, my education advisor at Cornell, arrived in Arizona. That night, we had a dinner with all of the Cornell alums (seven) and Kerry. It was a really great dinner! Katie cooked really great fajitas and it was really fun having a group of Cornellians together. It also made me feel really great about the education I have received and what my future could be like. They are all highly successful teachers and it is fun to think that I might join them out here next year. At several points, they were all talking about certain classes they had to take in order to be certified in Arizona. A large part of their class they took was about writing objectives and effective teaching strategies. They all complained that it was a waste of time because they had been learning these sorts of things since their 200 level education classes at Cornell. Apparently, not all schools prepare their students to be teacher as well as Cornell does.
On Friday, Kerry came to visit me at my school and observe me teach. I, of course, was very nervous to teach in front of her. However, the day was fantastic! It was actually the best day I have had out here yet. The lesson (pronouns) went really well. The kids were engaged and participated. Kerry and Jodi had only positive things about my teaching. Kerry was really impressed with me and with my entire school. She told me multiple times how lucky I am to be out here and to be getting such a great experience. I felt pretty lucky before, but Kerry just reinforced that feeling a hundred times over. I am so glad she got to come out here, see me, and meet Jodi. The beginning of the week may have felt a little rough, but it definitely ended on a high note.
Next week, I will probably start picking up a few of the afternoon classes. Jodi has more meetings to attend so I will be lead teaching a lot. I am feeling good about lead teaching right now since Friday went so well, but I also know that there will be days in the future when things do not go well. I have to be able to accept the good and the bad, learn from both, and change accordingly. Each day is new and different and I am looking forward to what next week holds.
At any rate, week three of student teaching was very interesting. The week started off a little rough, but turned out great by the end. Monday and Tuesday felt a little overwhelming and terrifying. Since last Friday was not a highly successful lesson, I started feeling really nervous about teaching again. Jodi had more meetings Tuesday and Wednesday so I was again left to lead teach by myself. Tuesday was not a complete failure, but it could have been more successful. We went over their vocabulary words and I was trying to get them to give me example sentences using their words. However, they pretty much just stared at me instead of participating. I realized later that I should have used puppy biscuits to help with participating. No, not actual dog treats. Jodi uses candy as a reward regularly and calls them puppy biscuits, as inspired from the behavior she gets from her dog when she gives him a puppy biscuit. I don't necessarily believe in using extrinsic rewards because the ideal is that students will be intrinsically motivated. Using extrinsic rewards goes against much of what Jill Heinrich taught me. However, you cannot deny the effectiveness of candy on 8th graders.
Wednesday, Jodi managed to get out of her meeting so she could be in the classroom with me. We did a little bit of team teaching and it was good. Also, Kerry Bostwick, my education advisor at Cornell, arrived in Arizona. That night, we had a dinner with all of the Cornell alums (seven) and Kerry. It was a really great dinner! Katie cooked really great fajitas and it was really fun having a group of Cornellians together. It also made me feel really great about the education I have received and what my future could be like. They are all highly successful teachers and it is fun to think that I might join them out here next year. At several points, they were all talking about certain classes they had to take in order to be certified in Arizona. A large part of their class they took was about writing objectives and effective teaching strategies. They all complained that it was a waste of time because they had been learning these sorts of things since their 200 level education classes at Cornell. Apparently, not all schools prepare their students to be teacher as well as Cornell does.
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| Cornellians (sitting on Katie's really great couch) |
Next week, I will probably start picking up a few of the afternoon classes. Jodi has more meetings to attend so I will be lead teaching a lot. I am feeling good about lead teaching right now since Friday went so well, but I also know that there will be days in the future when things do not go well. I have to be able to accept the good and the bad, learn from both, and change accordingly. Each day is new and different and I am looking forward to what next week holds.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
They could duct tape you to the chair if they wanted...
So, maybe I lied about that whole "posting tomorrow thing." But, whatev. I'm posting now right? I am currently in week three of student teaching, but this post is about week two (aka last week). This weekend (I might be lying again), I will post about the week I am in the middle of right now. Then, we will be all caught up and life will be happy!
Last week was the first full week of school for the students. Jodi had meetings both Thursday and Friday so I was left to lead teach. I was terribly nervous to be in front of the students and attempt to teach them something. Standing in front of a room of 25 eighth graders that could (as Jodi kindly reminded me) duct tape you to a chair if they wanted to, is terrifying. It is much easier to talk about teaching from a theoretical perspective (i.e. in education classes at Cornell), but it is an entirely different ball game to actually do it.
Thursday went really well. The students were well behaved and my lesson seemed to be effective. First, we played a game with nouns. Students worked in pairs to see who could list the most nouns in five minutes and the winning pair received candy. Unfortunately, two students lied about how many words they came up with. The things students will do for a piece of candy... After that, we went over their vocabulary sentences. Each week, they get ten new vocabulary words and have a test over them every Friday. In order to learn them, they write sentences using the words each week. We were also supposed to work on their writing assignment, but we ran out of time. It is funny how 50 minutes can feel like forever as a student, but it goes by so quickly as a teacher.
Friday was a bit of a different story. The students were not horrible, but they were not as good as the day before. First, we had their vocabulary test (which many of them did very well on, thankfully). After that, we worked on their persuasive paragraphs. I gave them about half an hour in class to work on their assignment so they would not have as much to do over the weekend. Instead of working though, many of them just socialized. I trained to reign them back in, but I could not manage to do it. What I should have done is switched the noun game to Friday and worked on their writing on Thursday. Unstructured time on Friday does not seem to be very effective, particularly when it is at the end of their first full week.
I will be lead teaching even more lessons during the third week- even a few of my own creation (ah!). Plus, Kerry Bostwick, my education adviser at Cornell, will be visiting Wednesday-Saturday. She is planning on observing me on Friday. I am excited for her to be here and meet Jodi! I am also nervous for her to observe me teaching, but I think the feedback will be very helpful. Student teaching is all about learning and more people I have to learn from, the better.
Over the weekend, I spent a large amount of time by myself because Katie works a second job on Friday and Saturday night. This is not nearly as depressing as it sounds, however. I successfully ordered a large pizza for myself and have been eating it for lunch all week. Plus, I skyped with a bunch of Cornellians, which is nice. Sunday, Katie and I went to lunch with my principal, Fred Lugo, which was also fun. Then, we went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. This is not really Katie's type of movie, but I liked it a lot. All in all, life is good in Arizona!
Last week was the first full week of school for the students. Jodi had meetings both Thursday and Friday so I was left to lead teach. I was terribly nervous to be in front of the students and attempt to teach them something. Standing in front of a room of 25 eighth graders that could (as Jodi kindly reminded me) duct tape you to a chair if they wanted to, is terrifying. It is much easier to talk about teaching from a theoretical perspective (i.e. in education classes at Cornell), but it is an entirely different ball game to actually do it.
Thursday went really well. The students were well behaved and my lesson seemed to be effective. First, we played a game with nouns. Students worked in pairs to see who could list the most nouns in five minutes and the winning pair received candy. Unfortunately, two students lied about how many words they came up with. The things students will do for a piece of candy... After that, we went over their vocabulary sentences. Each week, they get ten new vocabulary words and have a test over them every Friday. In order to learn them, they write sentences using the words each week. We were also supposed to work on their writing assignment, but we ran out of time. It is funny how 50 minutes can feel like forever as a student, but it goes by so quickly as a teacher.
Friday was a bit of a different story. The students were not horrible, but they were not as good as the day before. First, we had their vocabulary test (which many of them did very well on, thankfully). After that, we worked on their persuasive paragraphs. I gave them about half an hour in class to work on their assignment so they would not have as much to do over the weekend. Instead of working though, many of them just socialized. I trained to reign them back in, but I could not manage to do it. What I should have done is switched the noun game to Friday and worked on their writing on Thursday. Unstructured time on Friday does not seem to be very effective, particularly when it is at the end of their first full week.
I will be lead teaching even more lessons during the third week- even a few of my own creation (ah!). Plus, Kerry Bostwick, my education adviser at Cornell, will be visiting Wednesday-Saturday. She is planning on observing me on Friday. I am excited for her to be here and meet Jodi! I am also nervous for her to observe me teaching, but I think the feedback will be very helpful. Student teaching is all about learning and more people I have to learn from, the better.
Over the weekend, I spent a large amount of time by myself because Katie works a second job on Friday and Saturday night. This is not nearly as depressing as it sounds, however. I successfully ordered a large pizza for myself and have been eating it for lunch all week. Plus, I skyped with a bunch of Cornellians, which is nice. Sunday, Katie and I went to lunch with my principal, Fred Lugo, which was also fun. Then, we went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. This is not really Katie's type of movie, but I liked it a lot. All in all, life is good in Arizona!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Hey, look! A blog.
So, as I am sure you know if you are reading this, I am student teaching in AZ and I am required to keep a blog as part of my little journey out here. All of my blogs will be on the Cornell Fellows website, but apparently they kind of suck at updating it since my post was supposed to be put up on Wednesday and it is now Saturday with no sign of it. Because of that, I have decided I will do a personal blog as well. This also gives me room to write about some things that might be not be applicable to the Fellowship blog. At any rate, here is my first post about my first week of school. I will post tomorrow about week two.
I arrived in Phoenix on Saturday night (July 31st) and was picked up by Katie Preston, a Cornell alumna that I will be living with for the first two months of my fellowship. We drove back to her house in Buckeye and had all day Sunday to hang out and become adjusted to life out West. Monday was my first day at Bales Elementary School. I met my mentor teacher, Jodi Chesbro, and a myriad of other teachers and administrators. Monday and Tuesday were spent setting up classrooms and in meetings. Monday was an exceptionally long day: I arrived at school at 7:30 am and did not leave until 8:30 pm. Monday night was meet the teacher night where students and parents come to the school in order to, as the name suggests, meet the teacher!
Meet the teacher night was a little complicated because there are basically three different 8th grade language arts teachers. My mentor teacher, Mrs. Bjorklund, and myself. Even though Jodi is my mentor teacher, she technically is no longer the 8th grade language arts teacher. This year, Jodi is an academic coach, meaning she observes other teachers and helps them with their teaching. However, since she had a student teacher, she convinced our principal, Fred Lugo, to let her teach one class of 8th grade language arts. Mrs. Bjorklund is teaching the rest of the classes. Bales runs on a modified block system; they used to have nearly 2 hour long blocks, but some teachers were having classroom management problems with such long class periods. This year, they start the mornings with half an hour of home room and then 50 minute blocks. With language arts, you see the same group of kids twice a day: once in the morning and then once in the afternoon. So, you have the kids for a total of 100 minutes, but it is split up throughout the day. Eventually, I will take over both the morning and afternoon classes of Mrs. Bjorklund's homeroom. Anyway, this is the reason meet the teacher night is complicated because the students will really have all three of us as a teacher at various points throughout the year.
Wednesday was the first day of school. I was really nervous! By this time, I was really comfortable with my mentor teacher and was learning my way around the school pretty well, but the school changes once the students arrive. However, I really did not have a reason to be nervous because, at this point, I am only observing the students. Wednesday-Friday I pretty much followed the students around most of the day: homeroom, Mrs. Chesbro's class, Mrs. Bjorklund's class, math, and social studies. I have also been into a couple of other classrooms in the lower grades. Jodi really wants me to get a well rounded experience, so I will be observing all over the place.
Overall, things are going really well and I am so happy to be here. Jodi is absolutely wonderful and I am pleased that I am getting to work with her. She definitely has really great advice and makes teaching look so easy, not to mention fun! It has definitely been a huge adjustment coming here in a couple different ways. First, I am adjusting from the easy life of summer to the busy life of a teacher, which I have affectionately dubbed "teacher mode." Normally, I would have a few more weeks of summer and then go into "student mode," but this a completely new experience for me. Secondly, I also am adjusting to life outside of the Midwest. The culture out here is very different and I am excited to learn more about life in Arizona. Along with that, I am meeting a lot of new people and making a lot of new friends. Plus, the people I am meeting will be great contacts after I graduate in May; networking is definitely an important part of being out here.
For the second week of school, I am actually going to start picking up a few lessons and then I will be lead teaching on Thursday and Friday. Typically, student teachers will not start lead teaching for at least a month or a month and a half. However, Jodi has meetings on Thursday and Friday, so it makes more sense for me to start teaching earlier. I am definitely nervous about this, but I know that I am as prepared as I am going to get and I may as well just jump into teaching as soon as possible.
To end this post, I have a few obligatory first day of school photos.
I arrived in Phoenix on Saturday night (July 31st) and was picked up by Katie Preston, a Cornell alumna that I will be living with for the first two months of my fellowship. We drove back to her house in Buckeye and had all day Sunday to hang out and become adjusted to life out West. Monday was my first day at Bales Elementary School. I met my mentor teacher, Jodi Chesbro, and a myriad of other teachers and administrators. Monday and Tuesday were spent setting up classrooms and in meetings. Monday was an exceptionally long day: I arrived at school at 7:30 am and did not leave until 8:30 pm. Monday night was meet the teacher night where students and parents come to the school in order to, as the name suggests, meet the teacher!
Meet the teacher night was a little complicated because there are basically three different 8th grade language arts teachers. My mentor teacher, Mrs. Bjorklund, and myself. Even though Jodi is my mentor teacher, she technically is no longer the 8th grade language arts teacher. This year, Jodi is an academic coach, meaning she observes other teachers and helps them with their teaching. However, since she had a student teacher, she convinced our principal, Fred Lugo, to let her teach one class of 8th grade language arts. Mrs. Bjorklund is teaching the rest of the classes. Bales runs on a modified block system; they used to have nearly 2 hour long blocks, but some teachers were having classroom management problems with such long class periods. This year, they start the mornings with half an hour of home room and then 50 minute blocks. With language arts, you see the same group of kids twice a day: once in the morning and then once in the afternoon. So, you have the kids for a total of 100 minutes, but it is split up throughout the day. Eventually, I will take over both the morning and afternoon classes of Mrs. Bjorklund's homeroom. Anyway, this is the reason meet the teacher night is complicated because the students will really have all three of us as a teacher at various points throughout the year.
Wednesday was the first day of school. I was really nervous! By this time, I was really comfortable with my mentor teacher and was learning my way around the school pretty well, but the school changes once the students arrive. However, I really did not have a reason to be nervous because, at this point, I am only observing the students. Wednesday-Friday I pretty much followed the students around most of the day: homeroom, Mrs. Chesbro's class, Mrs. Bjorklund's class, math, and social studies. I have also been into a couple of other classrooms in the lower grades. Jodi really wants me to get a well rounded experience, so I will be observing all over the place.
Overall, things are going really well and I am so happy to be here. Jodi is absolutely wonderful and I am pleased that I am getting to work with her. She definitely has really great advice and makes teaching look so easy, not to mention fun! It has definitely been a huge adjustment coming here in a couple different ways. First, I am adjusting from the easy life of summer to the busy life of a teacher, which I have affectionately dubbed "teacher mode." Normally, I would have a few more weeks of summer and then go into "student mode," but this a completely new experience for me. Secondly, I also am adjusting to life outside of the Midwest. The culture out here is very different and I am excited to learn more about life in Arizona. Along with that, I am meeting a lot of new people and making a lot of new friends. Plus, the people I am meeting will be great contacts after I graduate in May; networking is definitely an important part of being out here.
For the second week of school, I am actually going to start picking up a few lessons and then I will be lead teaching on Thursday and Friday. Typically, student teachers will not start lead teaching for at least a month or a month and a half. However, Jodi has meetings on Thursday and Friday, so it makes more sense for me to start teaching earlier. I am definitely nervous about this, but I know that I am as prepared as I am going to get and I may as well just jump into teaching as soon as possible.
To end this post, I have a few obligatory first day of school photos.
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| My legit (blurry) teacher ID. (I also have a teacher email!) |
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| First day of school nerd. |
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| In front of my school. |
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| Classroom |
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| Classroom again |
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