Student teaching could be one of the most awkward most frustrating experiences. While the cooperating teachers and the students and pretty much everyone involved at the placement site and at Warner are very supportive and open to new ideas, I can’t help feeling like I am always stepping on my CT’s toes. I hate having to try and suggest changes in his plans. I don’t know how to ask to plan a lesson without him feeling like his lessons aren’t reaching all the students. I know that when I get my own classroom I will be able to create lessons that reach most students. It’s just very hard to do it in someone else’s classroom. No matter what I do, I’m afraid of making somebody angry. It doesn’t help that many teachers at the school talk about students and the system as though they are the complete problem without taking into account that they aren’t giving students a variety of ways to learn. We read about how the blame often gets placed on the students and I have seen it in action. I feel as though if I try any lesson plans or classroom management styles that I believe should be in action in a classroom, I will be told the students need more order, more structure, more discipline, more respect for authority (when the authority doesn’t respect them). While I truly believe in the methods I would use, I am not convinced that others in the school would be as well. I feel as though I do not have any defense for why I would try these methods. If it were my own classroom I could simply say, “This is my classroom and this is how things go here.” Being in someone else’s classroom on the other hand makes me feel like I have to follow the same classroom management even when it’s not my style and even though sometimes I think it just creates more tension and makes the students more angry.
I just keep telling myself there are only four weeks left. Then, the next classroom I will be in will (all things positive) be my own
While watching the Syracuse men’s basketball team take down Villanova tonight, the commentator made a comment about a few of SU’s players that struck a chord with me. The announcer pointed out that most of Syracuse’s players were smiling. They were having fun. They were truly enjoying playing the game. That doesn’t mean it was easy, it didn’t mean they weren’t working hard, they were just having fun while doing it. When I was in high school, my coach used to tell my friend Liz and I not to smile when we played. He thought it meant that we weren’t taking the game seriously. Honestly, we took everyone of our games seriously. However, we enjoyed the game BECAUSE we were playing well and working hard. Winning was fun for us. BEING SUCCESSFUL WAS FUN!
This idea must carry over into the classroom. Some coaches (and teachers) want their players/students to have fun in their class. Well I have a newsflash. Nothing is fun if you’re not accomplishing a goal. In order for students to have the most fun in a classroom, they must be successful. “FUN” is seeing your hardwork pay off. Sometimes fun and working hard happen simultaneously.
So as a concluding thought. Don’t think that making your students work hard will make school less fun for them. It should, if you allow them to be successful and see their own success, be way more “FUN” than allowing them to simply do whatever they want.
So…I’m sitting here…doing nothing. I think I am easily distracted by pretty much anything other than school work. So I’ve devised a list of five things I can do to help get motivated:
1) Skip the TV….by not turning the TV on, I can’t get distracted by anything but work or housework, both of which are things that need to get done.
2) When on a roll don’t take the option of a break….take advantage of getting the work done.
3) Get out of bed when I wake up…or set an alarm…Rather than staying in bed just because it’s nice and cozy, I need to get up and get to work.
4) Eat healthier….by eating healthy, I will be able to be more focused and get more done.
5) Take advantage of working with colleagues and classmates. They are invaluable.
I was searching for videos to use in my placement and I came across this website. It’s called DNA tube and contains may videos that could be useful in the classroom.
Here is one of the videos I used, it’s a little dry, but displays the idea of transcription very concisely. I will update this blog if i find anything more interesting.
Is it possible for my head to explode from thinking? Although I feel better and I feel as though things are starting to come together and makes sense, the sheer amount of information (while relevant and useful) is beginning to build up and almost become overwhelming. My first week of student teaching is completed and as I begin the second week, I realize the amount of time that I will be spending planning as well as doing my own work. I am just thankful that many of the assignments and “to-do’s” overlap in all my classes and student teaching.
While looking for pictures for my Literacy Circle graphic organizer I cam across these flow charts that compare traditional and inquiry-based learning. I think it is clear, the most important difference is that students get to interact and observe the natural phenomenon while participating in inquiry rather than hearing about it from the teacher. Just a little something that could be hung in our classrooms to remind us always that it is important for students to not only learn about it but to also discover the learning themselves through their interactions with the phenomenon.
For my inclusion class (ED452 Instructional Strategies of Inclusive Classrooms), I was required to present an instructional strategy and how to implement it in the classroom. I chose Brain Based Activities which basically try to focus instruction in ways that promote brain development and growth to enhance the learning process. I found an article on specific activities that can help in science classrooms. It focuses on “energizers”. These are activities that encourage and promote blood flow to the brain to help students focus. Below is the citation for the article. Some of the activities sound very fun!
Almarode, J., & Almarode, D. (2008). Energizing Students. The Science Teacher, 75(9), 32-5.
So I’m going to start off with a rant. Trying to do inclusion and get my initial science certification should not be as difficult as it has been. All of the logistics are driving me crazy. They say we’re to find our own inclusion CT but they give us our content CT. They say we have to teach at least two classes that have multiple students with IEPs in them, but we can’t leave our content CT’s room in order to accomplish this task. How can we get two certifications when the program is not providing the placements and support needed to do it? How can they tell us that they need us to teach in inclusive classrooms if they don’t give us a CT that has inclusive classrooms. How are we supposed to practice teaching in inclusive settings if the schools aren’t inclusive. I feel lost like nobody has the answers to these questions and nobody know where the real problem lies. It becomes a major frustration for those of us that truly want to be inclusive educators but aren’t given the opportunity to practice and without practice we can’t become certified. I’m sure everything will work out in the end….but for the time being it is a distraction that can’t be ignored.
I was a little disappointed that only one of our students showed up. However, I cannot be too disappointed because I knew one student was on vacation, another was having a birthday party, and the third had mentioned she may not have a way to get there.
I really enjoyed all of the videos rather than power point presentations. They were much more engaging and if people had questions about the investigations the students still had time to defend their work. However, I wish there had been more time for the students to help in the creation of the video.
The debrief after the STARS conference was very helpful. Although many of the suggestions we made won’t directly affect us, it felt good to vent and tell the people in charge how it felt to be overwhelmed while participating in STARS.
I think if there was one thing I could tell next year’s cohort, it would be to make a timeline for STARS and understand what you need to have a successful conference in December. For example, understand that there are two videos: one video assessment and one video presentation.
Here is one of the videos I used, it’s a little dry, but displays the idea of transcription very concisely. I will update this blog if i find anything more interesting.