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 9^th 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 12^th 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 12^th 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 9^th 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 9^th 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 9^th 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. 12^th 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 9^th 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 9^th 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 9^th 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.