The 2-day week - week 4

This placement sure is teaching me flexibility! I thought I had a plan and then school was cancelled... for three days in a row. So everything had to shift, and I had to figure out how to still get everything accomplished in a decent time -- and, most of all, before I go back to Illinois! Once I did get back to school, the lessons in flexibility didn’t stop. I’m learning to bend as assemblies intrude, or when I might’ve a been a touch over-ambitious in the assignment. Being a girl who always has a plan, I think it’s good that I’m being forced to reorganize my thinking and go with the flow. It’s definitely a characteristic that’s needed when I have my own classroom next year.

Since we had three snow days, I only taught two days this week. But they sure were a full two days! Thursday, I taught for 5 periods. I talked about evaluating sources and taking notes in my freshman classes, and started to introduce Romanticism to the seniors. I only taught about forty minutes to the seniors, and didn’t get through my whole lesson, but again, I’m being flexible, and adding what I didn’t get through to my Monday lesson (the students took a test on 18th century literature Friday). The freshman lesson had mixed feelings; it grew in strength as the day went on, and I felt more confident by 7th hour than I did in 2nd hour, but there’s still elements to develop.
Friday became the real test of the effectiveness of Thursday’s lesson for the freshmen, as they now started researching and taking notes as I had instructed on Thursday. Overall, the kids worked hard on the research and I was proud of them for that. As far as the effectiveness of my lesson, it was understood better by some hours than others.  I ended up taking a few minutes to re-explain the note-taking methods again to the whole class for each hour, and after that (and for some students a second or third explanation), they were off and running. I could tell 2nd hour, the one I thought went the roughest, was probably the one hour that didn’t understand note-taking as well and needed it re-explained more thoroughly, so I was right in my post-assessment of my teaching the student learning in that class -- they needed to be more engaged. Now, the students seem to grasp at least how to research. We start with the more detailed parts of writing -- thesis statements, outlines, topic sentences, transitions -- next week, interweaving those mini lessons with more work days on research.
I was doing a lot of walking around Friday, answering many questions, but I actually loved that. I got to talk to students one-on-one that I haven’t interacted with much. I was able to it “click” for some students. Writing is the area I feel most comfortable in, and feel I am strongest in teaching writing papers. I hope that at the end of the unit, the final products come out strong and show evidence of a good ground-level of writing ability, as these students will continue to encounter more and more writing as they continue on in school.


Monday, barring another snow day, nothing stands in my way of full-time teaching. The 12th graders have officially finished their unit, and it’s Romanticism time. The 9th graders continue researching and writing. As I begin this full-time teaching, I know there are things I want to work on and grow in. The main area is classroom management. It’s always been my weaker area, and I know these classes will challenge me to grow and develop in this area. It isn’t always about keeping the chaos at a minimum either. It’s also about seeing who’s participating, and who’s tuning me out in one way or another. This is what I need to work on, in both grades.
Also, my goal for the senior classes is engagement. Unlike the 9th graders, they don’t have a project they’re working on. I do have some time planned to give them a brief lecture, mostly on the background of some of the authors or poems, but I want to see them participating too. A lot of my lessons hinge on the discussion portion. My goal is to really have the students leading the discussion, bouncing ideas back and forth, while I act as more of a facilitator. I don’t know if they’re used to that, so it may not get there right away, but I hope at the end of these three weeks they're closer to that point. Furthermore, I want to connect this material to students’ lives. “Romantic” already probably turns people off. I want to show those guys who hunt, or play sports, that this isn’t just some mushy, gushy, love poetry -- Romanticism actually doesn’t really relate to that connotation of the word. I want them to see what is interesting about it, and to at least participate in discussions about it. I want to make this unit have at least a little fun sprinkled into every lesson. Some people may think I’m hoping for too much -- this is poetry, after all, and these are seniors who just want to graduate. Call me weird, but it’s my goal to peak their interest in something I say or do in class, and in turn in some of the poetry itself.

 So I’m looking at Monday, again with the anticipation of jumping in with both feet. I’m also hoping for no more snow days; I may be working on flexibility, but with only three weeks to go, I still have to abide by time’s laws and get it all in!