Marshall

Hello Blog,

I promise I will try to use you more in the future. I definitely know I should be recording what I do from day to day here but there’s so much to do that I don’t find much time to write stuff down.

The first day back after February break was pretty good. I had the Regents students do a lab where they answered the question, “What variables affect the period of a pendulum?” It was surprisingly simple to put together but the results were astounding. I’m definitely looking forward to talking about the lab tomorrow with the students and making sense of what they found.

I think the highlight of my day was when one of my students who doesn’t really keep up on his work said, “I missed you Mr. Hunter, how was your break?” That really made my day.

“What was totally wicked?”, you might ask. My first day of teaching. I don’t think I posted it here but I am a long term substitute for the entire year. I am teaching 3 regents physics courses and an APC section of physics. I’m also doing this between two of there high schools.

So my first day was fun, exciting, and well….tiring. It takes a lot out of you but it is totally worth it. I remember one of the students comments from a class, “And this is just the first day!” I really like all my classes and I’m really looking forward to teaching all of them.

I started off with a survey and unfortunately followed it up with a PP presentation about who I am and what are my goals for this course. I then had them write down two goals that they would like to achieve in this course or as a result of taking the course. These goals had to be more than, “pass the AP/Regents”.

Afterwards we did four demos/discrepant events where I titled the part of the class, “What would happen if…?” This was by far the best part. For the first demo I jumped up on the table with an AP book and a marked and asked, “What would fall faster, a heavier object or a lighter object? I then asked the students to respond and we tested it out. I then asked the students, “Why did that happen?” or just simply, “Why?”.

The next demo was where I flicked a ruler at them and then put a piece of newspaper over the ruler and broke the ruler.

The third demo involved placing a piece of paper on two separated textbooks and blowing under the sheet of paper.

The last demo involved the students trying to pick up a chair while they leaned their head against a locker.

I apologize for not being too descriptive but I’m short on time because I need to look at student responses and get tomorrow prepared. If you would like any more information on the demos I did, please reply to this post. I also plan on sharing some resources and technology uses (with the SmartBoard) that I learned about. Hopefully I will get to do that before the weekend is out.

IDK. So unfortunately I have to get going but my first day went well and I am going to try my best to keep up the excitement and momentum we had from the first day.

I don’t know who will read this but I hope that some of the experiences I write about will help in the near future:

I know that since I’ve had the opportunity to interact with you (and you all are pretty cool), I want to leave with you some of things my cohort has shared with yours.

WARNING!!!! – Once you start STARS and the fall placement, you will probably forget about these. I would encourage you not to! (my cohort did the same thing).

1. TAKE PICTURES of EVERYTHING!!! Ok, maybe not everything…but most things. I’m serious. Don’t forget to take pictures in your observations and have your CT (Cooperating teacher) take pictures of you teaching and your classroom during your four week placement.  Take pictures of student work. Take pictures of student work…..please take pictures (or save/scan) of student work. Take pictures of your students doing activities.

2. Here is a link to one of the most useful pages (besides my blog, hehehehehe, just kidding) that you will use throughout your time at Warner. http://www.rochester.edu/Warner/programs/teaching/info_science.shtml. If you are reading this blog, please go there now and save it as a favorite. This page has all the documents you will need throughout your time at Warner. Well, maybe not all…but most. In case you don’t have the link in the future, this is how you get to that page:

1. go to warner.rochester.edu
2. click on the Current Students link (it is on the left side in the blue area)
3. There is a quick links drop down menu on the top left. Select it and click Teaching and Curriculum.
4. Scroll down on the next page and select Science.

3. Start organizing your portfolio now. Seriously. This might seem like an extra and tedious task but it will literally save you HOURS if not DAYS of time because all of your evidence will be in the proper location. There are ten sections and each has between 2 – 4  proficiencies. You would be surprised on how much evidence you already have. For example, your technology statement that you just wrote for 486 goes into 4.3. Just make a portfolio folder, make folders for each principle and proficiency and throw stuff in there. You have a ton of evidence from camp that you can place in various principles. If you do it now you’ll save yourself a lot of work later.  We were told this by some members of the last cohort and we didn’t listen. Here are two documents to help you do this:

ComprehensivePortfolio_guidlines Science_CP_rubric

They might seem big, for now….just look at the proficiencies and then just throw evidence into the appropriate folder.

4. My cohort is here for you! The cool thing about this is, we’ve been through the program and can literally answer most if not all of your questions. Most of us are still here in Rochester and I’ve spoken with them and we are willing to be available to help you. We also have samples of work and ideas that we used. In the same way, we can get ideas from you for our classrooms as well. This also includes books (since you all are taking pretty much the same classes).

Off the top of my head I can’t think of anything else to really add. If anyone thinks of anything else, please just add it as a comment.

Something that’s been on my mind lately is the question, “How to build positive friendly relationships?”

I’ll be honest, I’ve met this kid that I want to be friends with. He’s cool, fun to be around, and pretty funny. Unfortunately I don’t think that I am good with building solid friendships. I often want to “move too fast” in the sense that I will always want to hang out or am super conscious of what I say and do instead of relaxing and being myself.

I also don’t consider the fact that we might not have that much in common. My personality type is very outgoing and when we did a personality test in April’s class I was the only person in my cohort that has my type of personality. So I wonder if this makes me “care too much” or “go too far”. I know I’m being very vague here but I haven’t exactly figured out when to play it cool and when to move forward with new people that I meet that I want to be friends with.

I guess the best advice I can give myself is to relax, don’t push things, and let them happen naturally. For me, easier said than done. Maybe it’s not meant to be, maybe it is. All I can do is keep smiling and laughing (when I’m not exhausted from staying up late…)

So here I am, 11:52pm on a Saturday night writing a blog post. “Why?”, you might ask, “are you up this late and posting instead of relaxing, out with friends, or at least sleeping. Well….it’s this “FUN” portfolio. I have about 3.5 sections left, it’s due next Friday and although I feel I have it under control I think that there will be one, if not two all-nighters this week.

But that’s besides the point. I’m blogging because this week I got to do something that I really really enjoyed. I got to be a participant and mentor for the GRS (Get Real Science) camp this year. Last year I myself was a teacher along with two others in my group. We didn’t really have any mentors or experienced teachers with us the whole week and so I was glad to step up to the bat and swing. I’m hoping I hit a few homeruns.

Mentoring is very interesting because you have to walk a fine line of doing enough to be a support but backing up enough so that your mentees (is that a word, if it isn’t, it is now) can have honest learning experiences. I was a little sad that I couldn’t run the camp again but this was not my time for that. I think my group had an excellent week and I can honestly say that each day was better than the day before. Zach, Cailin, and Jeff worked amazingly well both in front of the campers and planning. To be honest, I love my cohort but I’m a little jealous that I’m not in this cohort either. Wish I could have both worlds…but oh well.

Lastly, seeing the difference in my growth from last year to now is amazing. The things I would have done in the camp this year would have been dramatically different (right down to the “concise” (but not really, hehehehe) warner lesson plan). I am able to note and reflect on things that happened as they are happening and know how to fix them. Another kudos for the group I worked with…they had the amazing ability to see what could have been better, changed their plan, made it better….and it worked.

I think I was going to talk about something else but now it’s 12:03 and I have a ton of work for tomorrow and Monday. I really hope I finish this portfolio on time and fully complete….

Check this out! I wonder how much this machine costs?

Before you read and listen to this, please note that I am not a poet.

I Can’t Escape

I can’t escape. It’s all around me. It has a hold on my lungs. Squeezing the very air I need to breath. It’s suffocating, nauseating, and makes me dizzy. I need to breath. I need to be free of this tyrannical oppression. This oppression that permeates my entire being. But, I can’t escape.

I can’t escape. Although I’m not black. Although I’m not white. I’m somewhere in between. But my color doesn’t define me! Who says that it should? You do. I do. We all do. I can’t escape.

I can’t escape. Even though sometimes I try to ignore it. I try to suppress it and I try to run and hide from it. It is me. I am it. And we are what you see. Because you see…well you see in color. But the colors you see, they don’t define me. Or so I keep telling myself. I can’t escape.

I can’t escape. I am in a system that defines who I am and what I can do based on the color of my skin. Why is it that I am black when I make a shot from 15 feet away or white when I dance. Am I not me? How come everything I do is attached to the colors you see? My abilities and my qualities are defined and made by me. Not because I’m white. Not because I’m black. But they are, because I AM ME. But unfortunately I can’t escape.

I can’t escape. I can’t escape this system of definitions, of stereotypes and of hidden racism. It’s everywhere I go. It’s in everything I do. And I am not innocent of perpetuating the system that I see. That system that tries to define me. For I have molded, blended, and changed my identity so that I can survive in the system. How can I escape?

How can I escape? I cannot change the way that you see me? I cannot change your views, your criticisms, your ways of thinking. I will not change me to fit into the system. I AM ME. I like who I am and I will not change for you. And so we stand at an impasse. How can I escape?

I’ll tell you how I can escape. The only way I know. The only thing I can think of. The only word that will help the change. Love. Love will be my escape. For I will show you it no matter what you think. No matter what you see. No matter how you identify me. Love will be the key. Maybe….just maybe I shouldn’t be trying to escape. Maybe the answer to the change I want to see …well maybe it’s Love

Here is another reason I’m starting to like blogs more. I can share things that I see and hear even if not a lot of people check it. This is definitely one of those cases. We watched this youtube video yesterday in class and I was absolutely blown away by it. I’ve watched it three to four times already. We were talking about gender construction in our culture and this poem and the way it is delivered is phenomenal.

a student being intoxicated in your class? I’m serious about this one. The student wasn’t being disruptive or unmanageable but the signs were there. The class was working on labs and s/he worked on her lab with her/his group the entire class.

What do I do? Should I call a security guard or send them to the nurse? Unfortunately I didn’t fully confirm my suspicions until the end of the class and I really wasn’t prepared to deal with this type of situation. I know I’m obligated to report this (which I have done, I’ve talked to the main teacher) but if I were to ever deal with this again, what do I do or what should I have done in this situation?

So my job search hasn’t really been extensive to be honest. I’ve interviewed with three places and two of those included teaching sample lessons. I know I need to get my application out there more but I’m literally so busy that I am having difficulty doing this. I need to budget some time to set aside and continue applying  to more places.

However, the sample lessons I did teach were fun. One of the lessons went well and the other went ok. In particular, I did not deliver the lesson in the format that the school wanted. I know that this is a critical error if you want them to hire you. But to be honest, the format and style of teaching is not one in which I have been prepared to teach in. After the lesson, I spoke with the middle school principal and elementary school principal for almost two hours (I didn’t realize how much time had passed). They want me to observe more classes for a week and teach another sample lesson but it doesn’t seem like a right fit. I don’t know how happy I would to be there although they school had a friendly and caring environment. I know that I am really not at peace about relocating back to the area I grew up in.

In essence, I remember some teachers and administrators telling my class that it is important to make sure it is a right fit. I feel at peace about my decision although I know it’s a potential job in a tough economy. I am hoping and praying that more doors open up along the way but I feel it is important to be honest and true to myself and the people around me.