Final Reflection

What have I learned about teachers during this quarter?

           
            I have had a lot of great experiences this past quarter with a lot of different teachers.  From the parents of the kids I coach, the teacher-candidates in our program, the teachers in my placement school, and my cooperating teacher – each one of them has been able to add a bit more to my excitement about teaching. 

            As many know, I coach a couple competitive soccer teams in the Spokane area and a number of the parents this last year were teachers and principals at local schools.  As we struggled earlier this year to find placements, I communicated with many of them and found them all to be extremely helpful.  They were not just parents on the sidelines anymore, but were genuinely willing to help me accomplish my goals of becoming a teacher.  It was great to get to know them on a bit of a personal and professional level and see how they were able to help me.  That’s one trait I think a lot of great teachers share, their willingness to help others succeed.

            The other teacher-candidates have really kept me motivated about teaching.  The enthusiasm they showed on a weekly basis about teaching was able to help lift my spirits when I was feeling overwhelmed.  I hope I was able to do the same to a few of them as well.  The group we have been going through school with is a fantastic group of young people and those with a bit more ‘experience’ and I think that adds a lot to our discussions. 

            The teachers and administrators in my placement school have been fantastic as well.  Because I am in such a small school, and I eat lunch with them every time I’m out there, I get to know them.  The school’s principal has been great in helping me feel welcomed – outside of the first interview when he tried to scare me – by showing me around the school and introducing me to all the teachers, he even gave me a good face-to-face interview amidst his busy schedule.  The other teachers have been fantastic to see too; obviously I do not get a lot of time to see them in front of their classes, but I do learn a lot about the inner-workings of the school.  From scheduling the MSP tests, the way they cooperate and work with each other to try and reach some of the more ‘difficult’ students, and how they interact with one another on a personal basis is awesome to see.  The school I’m in has a great ‘team’ atmosphere where the group are generally friendly with one another – getting invites to bbq’s and children’s graduation – it really shows in how the students interact with each other as well.

            My cooperating teacher has really taught me a lot this quarter.  Although I do not see myself teaching in the same manner as he does, he has FANTASTIC classroom management skills.  The way he interacts with students is incredible.  He has a great sense of humor, and that helps a lot with what he chooses to do when problems arise.  He is quick with a joke but knows which students need a stern talking to in the hall or an arm on the shoulder in order to motivate them. 

            His style of teaching history is generally just reading out of the book, but sometimes that is important as well.  There is a reason for the textbooks in the classroom and he makes use of them and the resources those textbooks provide.  I have gained an appreciation from that.  The breadth of information to be covered in 8^th grade U.S. History is staggering and would be too difficult to cover in depth.  The student’s reading is improved by it, and they gain an appreciation for listening to their classmates.

What have I learned about myself?

            This quarter has been difficult for me; 17 credits, coaching as a part-time job, school placements, and trying to be a husband and a social life have definitely taken their toll on me.  I have come through it though, and I believe I am going to be a better teacher for it.  I have learned that my teaching style is very much dependent upon the material we are covering.  Jigsaw learning, direct instruction, and collaborative assignments have all been part of my lesson plans this quarter and each of them has been (in my opinion) successful. 

            I have found that I am much better in front of the classroom and working with my students than I am in putting together my TPA lesson plans on paper.  I think there is a bit of a disconnect between what I do, or plan to do, in the class compared to what I am able to convey on the paper.  My lessons work well with the students and they grasp the learning objectives and comprehend what is given, but when I turn in my TPA’s and get my grades back, I don’t see my grade reflecting the efficacy of my lesson.  That is one thing I will need to improve upon before I really take on Pearson. 

What have I learned about schools during this placement?

            The school in which I am placed is a fun school to be in.  The students and staff all really get along because they are cognizant of the fact they all share the same community.  They go home and see their teachers in the neighborhood and the students of the classroom play sports with the children of the teachers.  It is a great atmosphere to walk into. 

The school is still a complicated place though.  This quarter has been dealing with a lot of MSP tests and working to get the 8^th graders in a position where they can go on and graduate to the high school.  The people inside are working together to finish of the year on a high note.  It is almost as if the school is alive, with so many moving parts, individually operating but still part of a greater whole.  If one part does not perform its function, the students suffer and so does the community.  Each portion of the whole does its job, working with the other pieces around it.

What is one lesson-learned to share with another student just beginning their 341 placement period?

            This is a difficult question, as I said above, my quarter has been difficult on me.  One thing I might suggest is to be wary of time management.  Although the requisite hours in a classroom is only 9, it generally takes up more time than that because you are helping to grade papers, create assignments, and be part of the school community as well.  I loved being in the classroom, and would be there much more than needed, usually in excess of 14-15 hours per week, and I found I was loosing focus on my Eastern Washington University work because I would much rather work on stuff for the middle school.

Weekly Blog #8

This last week at school was interesting.  My cooperating teacher was called in to be part of an interview panel all day so I was with a substitute.  Basically, my coop teacher gave me the run-down of the day and it was my job to take over the entire class schedule.  It was a lot of fun to be in front of the classes and instruct them on their final assignments.

The 7th graders were to create a powerpoint presentation on bridges.  History, definitions, materials, etc, and then they got to choose a famous bridge from around the world and give its details on construction, height, width, span, etc.
8th graders had a similar project, but they get to do it on roller coasters.
Each grade level was put into a group the last week and each individual discipline in the school was to contribute to part of the project.  History and English classes had them do research and powerpoint, science and math had them study the structural parts.  The 8th graders even got to build their own roller-coasters using marbles!  It was a pretty fun week.

I liked seeing the entire school come together for the students and help them finish with a fun project.  That really made me see the school year differently.

Weekly Blog #7

Man, I wish I had something to put here.  The holiday weekend stole my entire week at the school because I am only there Fridays and Mondays.  Hopefully something great will come about this upcoming Fri/Mon and I'll have plenty to write about next week!

Weekly Blog #6

I'm writing this as I sit in my classroom on Monday.  It's been an extremely boring day as each class is working on their long-term projects and finishing up their reviews before a chapter test tomorrow.  There is also one class finishing up "Gettysburg" movie.  So I feel comfortable posting about my highlights and such this week.

Friday was a pretty awesome day.  I had my supervisor come in to watch my lesson and I recorded myself to create the presentation for a few weeks from now.  The lesson I had observed was about the Gettysburg Address.  In short, I had them re-write the speech for themselves, sentence by sentence, and see if we could address the same themes and topics that Lincoln wrote about in November 1863.  The supervisor was astounded at how well I worked with the class.  He said my voice was great, in that when I needed to be louder, I just got louder but didn't sound mean.  The students were engaged in their groups as they re-wrote their sentences and I got a lot of participation when I asked for the themes/topics.  The Supervisor said the lesson really grew on him and he got caught up with what was going on; not a typical situation for such an experienced teacher/evaluator.  As we talked about the lesson afterwards, he gave me a lot of praise for my control of the classroom and my interactions with the students.  The only thing he told me I needed to do, was an entry task.  I feel as if I will have entry tasks in my classroom, but for the kids who have never done one before, it would be a bit strange to have them start it for just one lesson.

I'm becoming more and more comfortable in front of the students and more confident with my lesson plans.  I am starting to think differently about having them read from the book after talking with my supervisor and seeing the high school teachers last week.  I had been thinking I would assign book reading as homework, still keeping it part of the curriculum but not taking up as much class time for it.  My supervisor said it was important for the students to work on their reading skills and to hear their own voice, and the high school teacher had them read silently for the opening 10 minutes of class.  The high school teacher knew that if he assigned it, they would not read it on their own time.

No real problems were faced this week in class.  Unless you count your supervisor not being able to come up with anything to work on!

Anyways, that's my week thus far.

Weekly Post #5

A fairly boring Friday turned into an interesting Monday for me.  Friday's highlight included me geting a little face-time with the principal as he came in to do an observation on my cooperating teacher.  I got to see what he looks for in his teachers and how he assesses the progress each class is making.  A lot of the principal's notes were on one student.  He's been a bit of a difficult child all year and they were going to brainstorm ways to keep him engaged at their post-conference.  I did get to teach another lesson to the 5th period U.S. History.  Basically just reading with them and adding to what they were reading.

Monday turned out to be one of the most interesting days I've had all year.  I showed up at my normal time expecting to just work with much of the same.  The twist came in the form of MSP testing.  My cooperating teacher knew I wouldn't be doing much that day so he had it worked out for me to go across the street and join the high school classes.   I went for the first three periods watching a couple different teachers and classes.  First period was a world history class with mainly seniors.  He gave a lecture on the start of WWII.  I found his techniques for teaching a bit awkward, he was pretty 'gruff' with the students but they seemed to respond to him pretty well.  Senioritis had hit pretty hard and many of them seemed to be off task but they got the material nonetheless and answered his quiz questions.  2nd period was U.S. History and they watched a movie and filled out a guided note sheet.  I then went into another teacher's room and got to watch him teach a senior class about consumer law.

Each teacher I spent time with Monday morning had 30+ years of experience in teaching.  They are looking for an easy way to transition into their retirement.  They gave me a lot of good advice.  They said to stay involved with the kids and not try to be pushed around by them.  A large classroom of seniors can be pretty intimidating.

I liked how the high school teachers interacted with their students.  They were fairly tough on them and didn't put up with them not working.  The first teacher did have an air of playfulness about his taunts and criticisms and I think the students picked up on that and didn't take it too personally.

I will take what the high school teachers did by being able to push their kids a little bit, and give them a bit more challenging tasks, but make the note-taking and quick questioning a firm aspect of how I want to teach.

Weekly Post #4

Okay, so this week I was only really involved with the kids on Monday.  Friday was a "work-day" as my teacher called it.  Since they only have a few more weeks left of school and their big project is just a about due and Friday they worked on it.  It was a bit boring that day, I just walked around the room and watched them put together their "Webquests" or Prezi presentations.

Monday was my the day I worked with the kids the most.  I taught 3 out of the 4 history classes based on my teacher's lesson plans.  His plans mostly just consisted of reading out of the book and then answering questions out of the back.  It was nice to be in front of all the classes for the whole day though.

One thing I did begin to think differently about was just how much time I should give to the students to complete their long-term assignments.  To me, I feel like the students get a lot of free-time to work on it, but the time is spent in spurts, 5-15 minutes at a time.  I think the 7th grade project is putting together a presentation based on information about Washington State.  I can't imagine it would be that difficult but they are given a lot of time to work on it.  As it is, the students enjoyed the time to work independently with music playing and the sun shining outside.  I really don't think the students would have put much attention towards anything else on a Friday afternoon.

I will be putting into practice some of the time that he gives to his kids, but I think I will change the structure in order to make best use of the time I have available to give them.  The time was very unstructured and did not seem to be used wisely.

I really enjoyed being in front of the groups on Monday.  I wish it had been more involved than just having them read from the book, but it was cool anyway to add my own insights and experiences into the reading.

Looking forward to this week and next as the school year winds down and I become more involved with the lesson planning.

Weekly Blog #3

An interesting week out in my school.  I went out Friday and Monday again for the full day.  I definitely feel as if I get a lot more of what the whole teaching experience is like when I'm there the entire day as opposed to just a few hours at a time.  Last Friday had probably my biggest highlight.  It was one of the first really nice days of the year: this meant the kids were wanting to be outside playing, and the girls began to wear a bit more 'scandalous' clothing.  The rule for shorts/skirts is to have the bottom of the shorts be longer than the kids' fingers.  There was a group of girls who wore some short shorts and were caught by one of the teachers.  She asked them to change into their gym shorts or get another option.  It turned into a big deal; there was dissension among the other teachers.  Some really wanted the girls to change, and others didn't think it was too big a deal b/c their gym shorts are generally shorter than the shorts they wear.  This showed me just how much the rules in a school can be interpreted. The weather on Monday was not quite as nice so it will be interesting to see what happens next time it is really nice.

I have begun to think differently about how I will be interpreting the rules when I have my own classroom.  My cooperating teacher, a male, had 2 of the girls in his 1st period but chose not to say anything to them because he didn't want to get himself into trouble.  I can appreciate that sentiment because I know how sensitive it can be to try and tell the girls their shorts are too short.  I think I would leave it up to a female teacher to approach the girls.

I did get to teach my TPA lesson on Friday as well.  It didn't go as well as I would have hoped, but I still feel like the kids had a good time with it and learned a bit more about John Brown and his raiders.  I had to implement a bit of my cooperating teacher's program by having them read from the textbook first.  This took away some of my time and I was forced to change it a bit.  Not as great as I would have hoped, it was still a quality lesson.  My cooperating teacher then asked for my papers so he could use it in the future.

There wasn't much that I felt I would use in my future classrooms from my cooperating teacher.  If I really had to choose something, it would probably be how he interacts with his fellow teachers in regards to the girls' shorts.  He was aware of the student's complaints about how not everyone was treated equally, and he understand the rules as they stand.  He does a great job of working with the entire school to try and appease everyone.