I haven’t ranted for my blog yet, so here it goes…

I really have grown, and my husband pointed out the other day that I have gone through every stage possible. I have gone from being so mad, it made me cry; being so sad, I cried some more; to feeling angry again. Now, I’m at the acceptance stage- I can’t change other people, I can’t change the rules, and the only thing left in my power to change is…
ME!

I feel as if I have become better at putting everything into perspective. Even though life may suck now, it will be so sweet in a few months. Also, life is too short to only think about the negative things, while the good things go unnoticed. It’s graduate school- it supposed to be hard (my mantra).
On more of a rant note- the Bursar is not supposed to suck! They are in charge of thousands of dollars, yet they have no clue what they are doing! Every term, I have had to talk to financial aid, then talk to the bursar, then talk to financial aid again (because apparently they do not have telephones to communicate with each other). This has been such a painful process arguing with them to fix my account, that now, I just laugh about it. I’m now in the process of returning two refund checks and trying to remove a late fee that they said would not be applied because I should not have a balance (but still do because they calculated the numbers incorrectly). Just tonight, I was informed that my friend, who was brilliant enough to get the Noyce Scholarship, is having $4000 dollars stolen from her by the school! How does this happen? What is so difficult about adding and subtracting and typing those numbers correctly into the computers? This is the end of my rant. The bursar office is so not cool.

This week has been great. Not only am I getting to know new students and teachers, but I get to watch a colleague teach. It is very helpful to observe a teacher with similar theories and ideas. Mike has really been connecting with the students and making sure they are understanding the material. Between classes, I hear him asking the students how he could make the material more understandable for them.

Just the mere act of showing students that you care about them and want to help them succeed makes a difference. The students seem to perk up and ask more questions. I have gotten to know a few students so far, and they are so interesting. There is such a wonderful mix of personalities, interests, and styles in each classroom. I am also in love with the school. I mean, what school has professional art in every corner? I think that everyone should incorporate art into the main curriculum. Students need that outlet of creativity.

The discussion that we had this week about modifying cookbook labs was very useful, but will be more useful when I actually plan a lab again. However, I can use the ideas from the readings when I am using a hands-on activities in the classroom. As long as you keep the following quote in mind from Peters (2005), your instruction will be effective: “A worthwhile goal of a science teacher is to allow students to think and behave like scientists rather than solely learn or replicate what other scientists have already done.”

I can’t wait to start my innovative unit. These concepts are right up my alley (ecology)! I’ve taken so many ecology classes, I wonder when I had time for other subjects! Another exciting development- a librarian asked me today if I would be interested in getting students to create an Earth Day display in front of the library. What an awesome opportunity! This is going to be so much fun!!

This was my last week at my four-week placement. I am so sad to leave, but I know that this means I’m closer to being a teacher. On the last day, the students acted so sad to see me leave and demanded that I come back to visit. I plan to write an email to all the classes, so my CT can read it to them.
This week’s readings in Wiggins and McTighe made me think more deeply about “coverage” versus “uncoverage”. I really like the distinction between these two terms that emphasize the importance of students gaining understanding through their own exploration, and not just regurgitating what the teacher has taught in class. I struggled with this problem the entire time during my four-week placement. Just as many student teachers, I was torn between what my CT wanted to be taught and what I felt the students needed for their learning. It was amazing how much material had to be “covered” to prepare the student for their exams. Instead of spending adequate time on activities that helped the students take ownership of their own learning, I felt forced to move the lesson along to teach all of the material. I do feel confident that I did my best to provide experiences in which the students can take more ownership of their learning while keeping a faster pace. I also think that the students and my CT were satisfied with my teaching.
Another concept that I enjoyed reading about this week was the realization that the teacher should not be using the same teaching style all the time. Just as you should not lecture every day, you also should not expect that the students can discover every concept through exploration. In my placement, I tried to have a combination of everything- open, inquiry, activity sheets, and taking notes. Overall, I feel that this was an awesome experience, and I have truly grown as a teacher.

This week was hectic, but the students and I have had fun. Yesterday, I began a lesson that is all about the Sun. We just finished the unit on stars, and this was a good way to narrow the topic to a more relevant subject. Yesterday consisted of seven stations to which groups of three rotated every five minutes or so. Each station had hands-on investigations for the students to learn about different aspects of the Sun, instead of me just giving them notes. Everyone loved it, and their final comments on the ticket-out-the-door revealed that they learned a lot from the lesson. Though the preparation for a lesson with stations was very demanding, the work during the lesson is cut in half for the teacher. I just had to circulate, ask deeper questions, and answer questions from the students.
The readings this week about assessment were very useful during my planning and implementation of my lesson. During my planning, I kept in mind the goals that needed to be met before creating the assessments. Before the lesson, I thought about questions that needed to be asked in order to make the students think more deeply and arrive at the conclusions that met the objectives of the lesson. The questions at each station aligned with the objectives and will enable the students to be successful on the assessment.
The next couple of days in this Sun lesson will involve the students becoming “experts” at specific stations of their choice, and presenting their findings to the rest of the class. I thought it was important to give the students a station in their top three preferences to motivate them to dig deeper into an interesting subject. During the presentations, to make sure the students are paying attention to their peers, they will be given a “capture sheet” to guide their thinking about specific concepts (the concepts on which they will be assessed). Each groups’ presentation will be graded according to a rubric that they will be given before presenting. This is another important aspect of assessments that I learned from the readings- making students aware of the criteria by which they will be assessed and making the assessment fair.
Knowing what to keep in mind while creating your assessments makes the task of lesson planning much easier. I like Lisa C.’s saying from class: “It’s one thing to know how you’re going to get somewhere, but it’s more important to know where you’re going.” It makes no sense to plan a lesson without keeping in mind your objectives. Though it takes a little getting used to doing this “backward design,” it makes a teachers life easier in the end and is more beneficial for the students.

This week has been hectic. I have a little over a week to prepare the students for the second astronomy exam, and the February break falls in the middle. How do you teach on the day before the break when no one wants to pay attention? I found very interesting videos from the History Channel about the life cycles of stars. The video was perfect to clarify and wrap up the concepts that we have been discussing the past week. I would never make it a habit to show videos in place of my lessons, but sometimes videos can show (better than we can) amazing images and representations of concepts that help the students learn (i.e. star supernovae and star life cycles). The students payed attention and were very amazed by what they saw.

In topics class this past Wednesday, visiting teachers came in to give advice for teachers about classroom management. One of their tips was to find balance in your life when teaching. They said teaching should not be your life- just part of it. It was hysterical when Kim said, “You don’t mean student teachers do you?” Everyone laughed, but this is a real issue that  I have been dealing with, in addition to many others in our program. Though this week has been very exciting, I am ready for the February break. This will give me time to plan even more awesome lesson plans for the next few weeks and to get caught up in my graduate work (and life). I’m struggling with trying to find the balance between life and school, but I’ve accepted that graduate students are lucky if they have lives. In short, this will be a much-needed break!
I especially found my mentor meeting very helpful this week. Lisa went over tips for having a good job interview. I got some good ideas for interviewing responses and resume edits. I plan to visit some schools soon to give them my resume  and check out the job situation. I’m starting to feel the anxiety about the status of our job market. It’s hard to swallow how many people are competing for teaching jobs in our area. In addition to the mentor  meeting, I thought that Lisa’s class was very helpful to help me with my planning. This week during my lesson planning, I’ve kept in mind that the major understandings should be visible in my objectives. Overall, I feel that this term has been the most helpful because I am truly practicing what I am learning during the same time period. This has been very valuable for improving my professional practice.

     This week, I had my three innovative lessons and was observed twice. I always get so stressed when I’m being observed, on top of having the stress of being a new teacher. The night before, I jumped up out of my bed five times thinking that I had overslept. However, I was very happy with my first innovative lesson. I feel like I blended the Warner style and my CT’s style nicely. I still feel like I don’t have a style yet because I am restricted by someone else’s overarching scheme. Once I’m a teacher, and I’m in charge of planning the sequence of units, I will enjoy the freedom.
     I started the astronomy unit this week, and it is such an exciting subject. Not only have I recently taken astronomy, but I have always been fascinated by it. However, no matter how much you enjoy and study astronomy, a teacher is never able to answer all the quetsions that students come up with about the universe and what’s out there. In fact, this week has helped me to master gracefully admitting that I don’t know the answers, and that I will look them up. Already, this has happened four times. I also wrote their overall question, “What’s out there?” on the board and continue to tie all the lessons into this big question.
     I am definitely exhausted, and, I hate to admit that I am looking forward to the February break. However, this is not because I dislike teaching- it’s because I’ve been staying up too late working on lesson plans and barely getting homework done. In spite of this, I am not going to complain. Instead, I’m going to see it as something that I will be proud of in August. I will look back at all my hard work and say, “Wow, I did all of that!?”

This past week has been very hectic, but I have learned a lot that will help me as a teacher. It was midterm week at my high school, and I have never graded so many papers! My CT said that I saved him 8 hours of grading, and that he had never been this ahead during midterms week! I was able to walk around and check on our students during their midterms. Their hands were shaking, eyes were bloodshot, and they looked as if they could have a panic attack at any moment! I can’t believe how high stakes Regents midterms are for students. It isn’t right! Kids shouldn’t have this much stress on them. I think that many schools would benefit from a portfolio approach to grading. Based on these grades, teachers will recommend students to move up to the next level (more intensive courses next year) or to stay at a level that will “help them improve”. It’s a shame that so much time is spent to prepare students to make good test scores. On a happier note, I was able to get to know other teachers better this week. We ate lunch together, and one teacher helped me think of fun ideas for my lessons next week. Teachers at this school are so helpful, and there is a sense of community there. The most valuable resources really are other teachers in your school.

This past week has been so exciting! The students are such sweethearts! I’ve never realized how much students want to get to know teachers. This past week has been fun with students coming in and out of the office to talk to us before and after classes and during lunch. My CT oversees the radio station, which is attached to his office, so we get to listen to the students doing the radio show after school. He also coaches three sports- lacrosse, field hockey, and the ski team. There are always students running in and out with questions about their sport schedules and equipment. On the first day, the students were anxious to meet me and find out about my life. I love the high energy! The students seem refreshed and ready to work. They are able to focus and realize that midterms are only a couple of weeks away. My CT has been so helpful. I’ve gone over homework and taught one review session, one lesson, and a whole period so far, and he gives me helpful feedback. Here are some things that I need to work on:
- transitioning from conversations to beginning the lesson
- moving around the room
- giving more time for the students to process and critically think about my questions
- helping the students transition from my CT’s teaching style to mine
My CT told me that much of this will come naturally when I am more comfortable with teaching and the class. I was so worried about learning 80 students’ names, but I already know them all after a week! The other teachers and staff are also so friendly. They’ve welcomed me and made me aware of the tremendous amount of resources. I attended a faculty meeting today and was surprised at the number of teachers in our school. There are so many committees and projects going on in the school, and it is obvious that the teachers really care about the students. It’s also amazing how involved the parents are. My CT spends most of his morning replying to emails from parents. Though it can be demanding, this is a good problem to have as a teacher. I can’t wait to take on teaching full-time, and I wake up excited to go to school!

This week was the last day of STARS with our girls. I was very pleased at the way things went, and we accomplished all of our objectives. I was a little disappointed to see that M was the only student from our half team to show up, but she represented FS well. It was so sweet when the two girls from ES cried because they were going to miss us. We had a very nice group hug. What will stay with me forever, though, is the bonding that M and I had over the poor decisions of our mothers. I wanted to call her guardian to invite them to our final presentation on Saturday, and I asked M who I should call. When she told me that she lives with her sister, I mentioned that I used to live with my sister, too. We both found out that it was for the same reason- our moms chose their new boyfriends over us. I told her that moms sometimes make bad decisions, and we have to make sure not to do this to our daughters. Some people may feel uncomfortable with sharing personal information with their students, but I think that this was a “real” moment that benefited both of us. I hope that our students take from their experiences that they can change vicious cycles of poor decisions and become what they want to be. It might just take one moment like this one today.

Our lesson was successful because each of our objectives were met, and our students had very thoughtful responses during their video interviews. Though their answers were not perfect, our students had obviously been paying attention during our discussions and they were very reflective during their answers. While the students were being pulled out one at a time, the other students were working on the Power Point presentation for our final presentation and were drawing on chart paper to put on the tri-fold poster. We were able to discuss what the questions would be during their interviews, and we had a conversation about possible ways to answer the questions. Though we had trouble with S during most of the lesson, she ended up participating and contributing to the presentation. I had a much-needed discussion with the girls about having respect for me just as I do for them. They seemed to understand, and they refrained from being inappropriate as they were before. Overall, I am pleased that we were able to make it through all of the interviews and that they got a good start on the final presentation. I have a feeling that they will be proud of their hard work at the end of STARS.