The week began like every week at NorthPointe -- with small group prayer time with the other teachers. It’s such a blessed way to begin my week; not only do I get nourished through prayer, I get to know the other teachers and their hearts for the Lord in a particular way as I pray for and with them. It’s these moments that are set apart from my other field placements that remind me how much I was blessed to grow up in Christian education and how I still love it today. It’s two chapels a week, with singing and speakers who make the real world connections to the teenager’s lives as Christians. It’s student-organized and student-led Wednesday morning worship, because these kids really want to have some extra time to worship the Lord. It’s being able to ask my students to include a section of their research paper that ties in the Christian perspective, or asking students to compare the piece of literature to what the Bible says. It’s knowing that in all I do, I’m working for Christ, and asking my students to do the same. I’m prepared for and comfortable in a public school setting; I have no objections to teaching in a public school during my career and am fully aware I can let my light shine in that setting. But there’s something about Christian education that holds my heart, and I’m grateful to once again be in that setting.
There isn’t too much to report from the classroom when it comes to my teaching this week. Monday, the 27th, I’ll be teaching full time, both the 9th and 12th grade units. This week I was still mostly observing as the semester drew to a close. I have almost all the names of the students in all three 9th grade sections memorized, but 12th grade is harder mostly because there’s no seating chart for me to study. I know some of the students who participate a lot, but I’m going to have to think of something creative to learn all of their names.
That being said, I did actually start some teaching this week! The 9th grade finished their unit, and I started the research paper unit on Friday. However, the beginning to the unit ended up being a strange start. I was on my 1st hour plan period, making copies of my materials, and contemplating what I might add into the lesson to lengthen it; as I reviewed it, I realized I might have some extra time to fill, and didn’t want it to turn into social hour. As I was thinking about this, the announcement was made that we would be releasing early because there was a blizzard coming; therefore, all classes would last 25 minutes. It actually worked out well, and I was able to get in what I needed to say. Some adjustments were made -- a short assignment was added because we didn’t have time to do it in class, and one activity’s writing portion became just a conversation portion -- but overall it went well and I still feel confident it was successful.
I have noticed a couple of things management-wise that my teachers do, and I’m evaluating what my approach may be. In the talkative, energetic 9th grade classes (which is pretty much all of them), the teacher usually raises her voice to get their attention. This might work for me, and I certainly have used it with teenage groups before with effectiveness, but I’m thinking of other techniques I may try out. The teacher also adjusts the assignment, based on if they get everything finished in class or if they don’t because of interruptions. For example, she may not have an assignment planned, but because she was being interrupted too much, they didn’t get through all of what she planned for class, so it becomes homework. I think the assignment policy makes sense. For most of what I’ll be doing with the 9th graders, they’ll be able to complete the research in class so I don’t have a lot of assignments planned. However, if they aren’t using class time wisely, it makes sense that they then will have work on that outside of class. I’m creating benchmarks for where I expect students to be weekly, so if they realize they don’t have enough work done to reach the benchmark, they’ll be doing it at home in order to reach that goal (barring the exceptions of students with different abilities, which may have reasonable accommodations made). As I transition into teaching these classes, I will be testing management styles to find what gets through to the students; this may change from class to class or even day to day. However, in my one lesson I’ve taught, on Friday, all of the classes were pretty well behaved and quiet; maybe that will continue! Even with those hopes, I am fully prepared to have more management that needs to take place.
In 12th grade, they are much more settled down and so not as much class time is wasted. That isn’t too say there aren’t students who are disengaged during class, because there are. As I’ve observed these classes, I’m mulling over in my head what I notice about those students that I can use in my lessons that might help to engage them more; it’s still a work in progress, and I may just have to do some trial and error the first couple of weeks. The main thing in this class that weighs on my mind management-wise is a policy on homework that I’m contemplating re-doing while I teach, but am struggling to figure out how. Students who don’t complete their homework on time are allowed to finish it in the hallway during the discussion time, getting half-credit for late work. I see pros -- they have to read it still and not just complete the answers given during discussion, plus they still get some credit rather than a zero -- and cons -- they miss out on the discussion time, which is important for the lesson and their learning. Since most of my lessons are based on discussion, I’m sad they’ll miss out on this time if they continue this policy. The teacher also recognizes this drawback, but this is what he has set in place. I don’t want to change this suddenly, plus I can’t figure out at the moment another policy that might still hold the same benefits. So, I may end up sticking with it until I think of something else.
As far as my teacher’s support as I transition into managing the classes, they each are supportive but have different plans for being present (or not) in the classroom early on. In 9th grade, my teacher has said she’ll remain in the class to support me for the beginning, and then ease out of the classroom eventually to give me full control. In 12th grade, the teacher believes it will be beneficial for me if I’m in control of the class without his constant presence; he plans to sit in on half of the classes the first week to see how I’m doing, but transition out rather quickly so I can really have full management control. Either way, this will be the first time I’m left completely in control of a class on my own. It’s exciting, because I can hardly wait to be a teacher, but also nerve-wracking. We’ll see how it goes!
I also got a new toy to help me teach lessons this week... a Mac book! First of all, NorthPointe has a one-to-one initiative they just began, so all of the 9th graders have Macbooks. So it’s also beneficial that I have a computer I can use to view their work (like on a shared drive) and so I’m familiar with the system they’re operating. Moreover, these classrooms don’t have classroom computers; rather, they have an Apple tv projector that syncs with Apple products and displays that screen on the projector screen in the classroom. Thus, in order to show the videos, slides, and pictures I hope to include in lessons, I needed my own Macbook. I was lent one from the school just for the remaining time I’m here, but it’s felt like I have to relearn technology because I’ve never worked on a Mac before. Even so, it’s fun and a good learning experience for me, and just goes to show how integral technology has become in education. I’m very grateful I was given this opportunity to be trusted with school property, and it does make me feel included in the teaching community at NorthPointe.
In the middle of the week, I had the opportunity to go to a staff meeting. NorthPointe is in a middle stage of accreditation, so they were discussing next steps. It helped me to learn some about Christian Schools International (CSI) and the accreditation process; since my dream would be to teach in a CSI school, this was beneficial for me. More importantly, NorthPointe staff are doing a wonderful job of including me as a pseudo-staff member, which makes me feel much more professional and more like a teacher. It is also teaching me about collaboration and the outside-the-classroom work I’ll be participating in.
It was a good week, overall. It was a week with a little more participation, but still allowing me to be an outside participant. However, now it’s the real deal. My teaching begins tomorrow, Monday, and continues daily until I return to Illinois to start over in a new placement. The overall feeling? I’m pumped; I’ve been planning for so long, and now I get to apply it. know not every day will be fantastic, but I love what I do and can’t wait to do some more of it.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Observing the Mustangs - Student Teaching Week 2
The beginning of the week was filled with the hype of the “big
game.” I heard a couple senior guys my first day of being in the
classroom discussing the opposing team. There were flyers spread over
the halls declaring the “neon out” the students would participate
in for the game. There was announcements at the end of the day about
it. Even in Tuesday morning's chapel, they briefly discussed
positive cheering versus negative, the negative example being a chant
of “Calvin sucks!” (meaning they would not cheer that way). Ms.
Straayer glanced back at me during that chant, giggling. Later, she
asked,
“When should we tell them where you graduated from?”
I graduated from Calvin Christian, the school NorthPointe now claims to be a big rival.
“I'll wait until after the game.”
Being my first week in the actual classroom, this week was focused mostly on observation and getting familiar with the students. Attending the game – in neon – was one of the ways I worked to integrate myself into the life of the school and form a connection to the students. Also this week, I attended a rehearsal for the school play. Ms. Straayer is the director, and since I've involved in theatre for 8 years and already miss it, I eagerly picked her up on her offer to attend any rehearsal I wished. I also attended a night set aside for parents thinking of coming to NorthPointe, spending time in the classroom with my teacher as parents and prospective students toured the school. Though my focus is on what goes on in the classroom, I want it to be evident I'm interested in students' lives outside of the school day as well.
There were also plenty of things to note from inside the classroom this week. First of all, I noticed both of my teachers have classrooms in which much of the hour is taken up with students doing work in class, applying the concepts they just learned or starting on work for the next day's topic. There may be some lecture time, but a lot of the time students are working independently on something that carries those concepts out. I like that students are involved in their learning in the classroom, and not just listening to a 45 minute segment of the teacher talking. As I plan, I'm trying to give time for the students to work in the classroom. In the 9th grade unit, which will be researching and writing papers, this isn't hard; most of what they do daily will be researching sources, organizing materials, and writing the paper, with mini lessons to guide their researching and writing. In 12th grade, which is Romantic literature, I have to be more aware, as those lessons could start to get focused on me talking all the time rather than students participating. One thing I do hope to change slightly in 12th grade, which still gets students actively involved but isn't just about independent work, is more lengthy discussion times. From what I've seen so far (and 2 of the days were watching a video), they discuss the assigned reading and questions, but I hope to nurture this discussion period more. We'll see how they respond.
Speaking of thinking about and planning lessons like those for the Romantic period, that is the majority of work I've been doing this week and I have to say I'm pretty excited and pleased with it. I have multiple lessons written for both classes, and a rough calendar written out that I just have to put into formal lessons. I've gathered pictures, videos, and websites that will enrich the lessons. Both of these units are on topics I love, so I look forward to sharing them with the students. However, as I plan, there have been a couple of things that have been brought to my attention. First is a consciousness that I have to remember what it was like to be in high school when creating an assignment schedule. While reading five poems that are more than three or four verses is no big deal to me, to high school students, even seniors, it may be a bigger deal. I don't want to underestimate the students, but I don't want to push them away by giving them too much either. With this awareness, I've revised my original schedule a couple different times. The second component affecting my planning this week was a requirement one of my cooperating teachers shared with me. He mentioned that for students with IEPs and 504 plans, most of them need the whole unit's notes before the unit begins. So for a day or so, I worked further ahead than I was, writing notes about each of the poets we're studying and what terms I plan to cover in conjunction with those poets. It actually wasn't too much work, since the note-taking and lecture time won't be the main part of the lesson, as I aim to use the time for class discussions of the works rather than lecture. The 9th grade has a similar request, but those notes are posted on the website weekly, so I only have to have them finished before the week begins. Even though it ended up not being a big deal for me to do, this reminded me to be aware of accommodations as I continue planning. In my pressing full-steam ahead, I am reminding myself to be flexible and always have a back-up plan on how to revise as needed.
I was also able to foresee challenges that may arise and how they were handled. Many of these challenges come in the 9th grade classroom. The students are very talkative, which affects the focus and work in the classroom. Classroom management is probably the area I need to work on the most, and these students will certainly push me to do so. I can tell I'm going to need to be firm with some of them in order to be respected and for the class to be productive. Moreover, at the end of the week there was an issue with students using their school-given laptops to cheat or for non-educational purposes. Since most of the work for 9th grade will be using the computers, I'm going to have to have a radar up to make sure students are doing what they are supposed to be doing, not goofing off. 12th grade does not seem as rambunctious, but their age itself may pose the biggest issue. I have a brother who is only a year older than them, and I am only 4-5 years older. Though I know this may help form connections, I have to be sure that the line between student and teacher is still apparent.
In the midst of all this observation and planning, I did end up getting to (unexpectedly) lead classes for both teachers a little this week. It all happened on Thursday, actually. In 9th grade, the lesson included reading two pages from the text aloud and covering those terms before students started an online activity finding colloquialisms. Just before the first class began, my teacher asked if I'd like to lead the reading and cover the terms. I ended up doing that for two sections of the 9th grade; being that was the only instructional time for the period, I was really the main instructor at the time.
For the other teacher, I became the primary facilitator for half the day. The seniors had already been scheduled to watch a video of “Gulliver's Travels” for the whole class period, and my teacher was unexpectedly needed at home that afternoon. So he asked me in the morning if I'd be in charge of the class, starting and stopping the video and keeping them all in line. I was also asked to lead an honors course for juniors during his last hour, where they were to work independently on something they started the day before. There was another teacher next-door who was aware of the situation, and who I could have gone to with any problems. However, no problems arose, and it became a fun experience for me. I got to interact with the seniors a little before beginning the movie, chatting casually with them and sharing a little bit about myself (including where I went to high school). In last hour, I got to interact with students I won't see very often, as I'll be teaching a final section of 9th grade on most days during last hour; that became a fun way to end the day. The students finished relatively quickly, and since I wasn't aware of what they are studying, I came up with a not-so-educational-but-still-entertaining activity to do for the final ten minutes (a game I played with the high schoolers I was a counselor for this summer). Even though I may not have been teaching them, even building those connections and allowing myself to show my personality was good for me to do. The whole day allowed me to be flexible and think on my feet, which is useful when looking to become a teacher.
Overall, the week was productive and useful. I have a good head-start on planning, which also allows time to revise as I learn about students needs and learning styles. I'm being incorporated into the staff well. I'm starting to get to know students. I even got involved in attending some extra-curricular activities, showing my interest in student life (and they were also fun for me to do). As I look into next week, there will be some more observation as both classes finish up their units before I start mine. I hope that I will be able to lead the class more this week, though, even for brief periods. Most of all, as I look ahead, I feel confident and eagerly anticipate what's to come. It won't be easy, but I seriously love what I'm doing, and hope I can make an impact in the life of these students before I return to Illinois.
“When should we tell them where you graduated from?”
I graduated from Calvin Christian, the school NorthPointe now claims to be a big rival.
“I'll wait until after the game.”
Being my first week in the actual classroom, this week was focused mostly on observation and getting familiar with the students. Attending the game – in neon – was one of the ways I worked to integrate myself into the life of the school and form a connection to the students. Also this week, I attended a rehearsal for the school play. Ms. Straayer is the director, and since I've involved in theatre for 8 years and already miss it, I eagerly picked her up on her offer to attend any rehearsal I wished. I also attended a night set aside for parents thinking of coming to NorthPointe, spending time in the classroom with my teacher as parents and prospective students toured the school. Though my focus is on what goes on in the classroom, I want it to be evident I'm interested in students' lives outside of the school day as well.
There were also plenty of things to note from inside the classroom this week. First of all, I noticed both of my teachers have classrooms in which much of the hour is taken up with students doing work in class, applying the concepts they just learned or starting on work for the next day's topic. There may be some lecture time, but a lot of the time students are working independently on something that carries those concepts out. I like that students are involved in their learning in the classroom, and not just listening to a 45 minute segment of the teacher talking. As I plan, I'm trying to give time for the students to work in the classroom. In the 9th grade unit, which will be researching and writing papers, this isn't hard; most of what they do daily will be researching sources, organizing materials, and writing the paper, with mini lessons to guide their researching and writing. In 12th grade, which is Romantic literature, I have to be more aware, as those lessons could start to get focused on me talking all the time rather than students participating. One thing I do hope to change slightly in 12th grade, which still gets students actively involved but isn't just about independent work, is more lengthy discussion times. From what I've seen so far (and 2 of the days were watching a video), they discuss the assigned reading and questions, but I hope to nurture this discussion period more. We'll see how they respond.
Speaking of thinking about and planning lessons like those for the Romantic period, that is the majority of work I've been doing this week and I have to say I'm pretty excited and pleased with it. I have multiple lessons written for both classes, and a rough calendar written out that I just have to put into formal lessons. I've gathered pictures, videos, and websites that will enrich the lessons. Both of these units are on topics I love, so I look forward to sharing them with the students. However, as I plan, there have been a couple of things that have been brought to my attention. First is a consciousness that I have to remember what it was like to be in high school when creating an assignment schedule. While reading five poems that are more than three or four verses is no big deal to me, to high school students, even seniors, it may be a bigger deal. I don't want to underestimate the students, but I don't want to push them away by giving them too much either. With this awareness, I've revised my original schedule a couple different times. The second component affecting my planning this week was a requirement one of my cooperating teachers shared with me. He mentioned that for students with IEPs and 504 plans, most of them need the whole unit's notes before the unit begins. So for a day or so, I worked further ahead than I was, writing notes about each of the poets we're studying and what terms I plan to cover in conjunction with those poets. It actually wasn't too much work, since the note-taking and lecture time won't be the main part of the lesson, as I aim to use the time for class discussions of the works rather than lecture. The 9th grade has a similar request, but those notes are posted on the website weekly, so I only have to have them finished before the week begins. Even though it ended up not being a big deal for me to do, this reminded me to be aware of accommodations as I continue planning. In my pressing full-steam ahead, I am reminding myself to be flexible and always have a back-up plan on how to revise as needed.
I was also able to foresee challenges that may arise and how they were handled. Many of these challenges come in the 9th grade classroom. The students are very talkative, which affects the focus and work in the classroom. Classroom management is probably the area I need to work on the most, and these students will certainly push me to do so. I can tell I'm going to need to be firm with some of them in order to be respected and for the class to be productive. Moreover, at the end of the week there was an issue with students using their school-given laptops to cheat or for non-educational purposes. Since most of the work for 9th grade will be using the computers, I'm going to have to have a radar up to make sure students are doing what they are supposed to be doing, not goofing off. 12th grade does not seem as rambunctious, but their age itself may pose the biggest issue. I have a brother who is only a year older than them, and I am only 4-5 years older. Though I know this may help form connections, I have to be sure that the line between student and teacher is still apparent.
In the midst of all this observation and planning, I did end up getting to (unexpectedly) lead classes for both teachers a little this week. It all happened on Thursday, actually. In 9th grade, the lesson included reading two pages from the text aloud and covering those terms before students started an online activity finding colloquialisms. Just before the first class began, my teacher asked if I'd like to lead the reading and cover the terms. I ended up doing that for two sections of the 9th grade; being that was the only instructional time for the period, I was really the main instructor at the time.
For the other teacher, I became the primary facilitator for half the day. The seniors had already been scheduled to watch a video of “Gulliver's Travels” for the whole class period, and my teacher was unexpectedly needed at home that afternoon. So he asked me in the morning if I'd be in charge of the class, starting and stopping the video and keeping them all in line. I was also asked to lead an honors course for juniors during his last hour, where they were to work independently on something they started the day before. There was another teacher next-door who was aware of the situation, and who I could have gone to with any problems. However, no problems arose, and it became a fun experience for me. I got to interact with the seniors a little before beginning the movie, chatting casually with them and sharing a little bit about myself (including where I went to high school). In last hour, I got to interact with students I won't see very often, as I'll be teaching a final section of 9th grade on most days during last hour; that became a fun way to end the day. The students finished relatively quickly, and since I wasn't aware of what they are studying, I came up with a not-so-educational-but-still-entertaining activity to do for the final ten minutes (a game I played with the high schoolers I was a counselor for this summer). Even though I may not have been teaching them, even building those connections and allowing myself to show my personality was good for me to do. The whole day allowed me to be flexible and think on my feet, which is useful when looking to become a teacher.
Overall, the week was productive and useful. I have a good head-start on planning, which also allows time to revise as I learn about students needs and learning styles. I'm being incorporated into the staff well. I'm starting to get to know students. I even got involved in attending some extra-curricular activities, showing my interest in student life (and they were also fun for me to do). As I look into next week, there will be some more observation as both classes finish up their units before I start mine. I hope that I will be able to lead the class more this week, though, even for brief periods. Most of all, as I look ahead, I feel confident and eagerly anticipate what's to come. It won't be easy, but I seriously love what I'm doing, and hope I can make an impact in the life of these students before I return to Illinois.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Student teaching week 1
It was the first day of going to high school again.
Well, sort of. It was my first day of student teaching, which is at a high school. The fact that I am 22 and going to teach high school for these 7 weeks, not attend, didn't stop my parents from taking the “first day of school picture” before I left that morning.
So, here I am, off and running on this student teaching adventure. For the first seven weeks (ending February 21) I'll be at NorthPointe Christian High in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's a private school on the smaller side, around the same amount of students at the high school I attended. After being at schools for previous placements with multiple stories, even when they only have three grades, a smaller school was a welcomed change.
I'm working with two teachers at NorthPointe, and teaching two grades - 12th grade for two sections, and 9th grade for three sections, with two planning periods. Though it's a bit of a jump, I'm excited to work with both of these groups. As planned with my teachers, I'll be teaching one unit on writing research papers to the 9th graders, and a unit on the Romantic period in literature to the 12th graders. Both of these units really excite me, because they're both topics in English that I am very familiar with and truly enjoy studying, explaining, and teaching.
This week, however, was different for NorthPointe. Not only did they not begin right away due to two snow days, but it was also j-term. All the students pick three 2-hour classes to take for the day, each of which is teaching on a topic that is not a normal piece of the curriculum. One of my teachers, Ms. Straayer (9th grade), was the coordinator of j-term, so didn't teach any courses. Being that my desk (yes, I get a desk) is in her room, I spent the most time with her so didn't see many classes.
However, I did have a somewhat productive week in other ways than observation. The two teachers and I discussed a plan for the seven weeks, what units I'm teaching, and when I will start teaching full time - in about 2 weeks or less! I also got to know my teachers, and the other teachers in the school, by spending a lot of time chatting in a relaxed manner. I did attend three of the courses that I thought would be interesting, so got to know other teachers and some of the students that way. Furthermore, with extra time on my hands at school, I've started getting a headstart on my planning, completing a rough outline of how long I expect the unit to take and writing two lesson plans! So, though it may not have been a traditional week, I feel very good about it as I now already feel more comfortable in the school.
I can already tell this is going to be a wonderful fit for me. It's nice being back in a Christian high school, a setting I am initially quite comfortable in, but it's also a very welcoming staff and students. I look forward to meeting my classes this week and observing both of my teachers as they teach and care for these students.
Well, sort of. It was my first day of student teaching, which is at a high school. The fact that I am 22 and going to teach high school for these 7 weeks, not attend, didn't stop my parents from taking the “first day of school picture” before I left that morning.
So, here I am, off and running on this student teaching adventure. For the first seven weeks (ending February 21) I'll be at NorthPointe Christian High in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's a private school on the smaller side, around the same amount of students at the high school I attended. After being at schools for previous placements with multiple stories, even when they only have three grades, a smaller school was a welcomed change.
I'm working with two teachers at NorthPointe, and teaching two grades - 12th grade for two sections, and 9th grade for three sections, with two planning periods. Though it's a bit of a jump, I'm excited to work with both of these groups. As planned with my teachers, I'll be teaching one unit on writing research papers to the 9th graders, and a unit on the Romantic period in literature to the 12th graders. Both of these units really excite me, because they're both topics in English that I am very familiar with and truly enjoy studying, explaining, and teaching.
This week, however, was different for NorthPointe. Not only did they not begin right away due to two snow days, but it was also j-term. All the students pick three 2-hour classes to take for the day, each of which is teaching on a topic that is not a normal piece of the curriculum. One of my teachers, Ms. Straayer (9th grade), was the coordinator of j-term, so didn't teach any courses. Being that my desk (yes, I get a desk) is in her room, I spent the most time with her so didn't see many classes.
However, I did have a somewhat productive week in other ways than observation. The two teachers and I discussed a plan for the seven weeks, what units I'm teaching, and when I will start teaching full time - in about 2 weeks or less! I also got to know my teachers, and the other teachers in the school, by spending a lot of time chatting in a relaxed manner. I did attend three of the courses that I thought would be interesting, so got to know other teachers and some of the students that way. Furthermore, with extra time on my hands at school, I've started getting a headstart on my planning, completing a rough outline of how long I expect the unit to take and writing two lesson plans! So, though it may not have been a traditional week, I feel very good about it as I now already feel more comfortable in the school.
I can already tell this is going to be a wonderful fit for me. It's nice being back in a Christian high school, a setting I am initially quite comfortable in, but it's also a very welcoming staff and students. I look forward to meeting my classes this week and observing both of my teachers as they teach and care for these students.
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