Week1 Post

I feel like I have nothing left to write right now. So for now I'll be brief. Tomorrow is the last day of my student teaching. The experiences and lessons I've learned these past sixteen weeks are things that I will hold and use the rest of my life. No doubt in my mind I've gone from wanting to be a teacher to becoming an actual teacher. I've experienced the highs and the lows. I've also experienced the swine flu (extra points for that!!), so count me as a seasoned rookie. I must say though that I am completely spent in all facets and cannot wait for my time off to clear myself and recharge for next semester.

Week 2 Post

This week has been an interesting one. In my eight weeks at Suncrest I've become comfortable with my class but haven't had many times where I've gone home fully excited about my day. Now I've had many days where I leave thinking it was a good day and saw improvement, but I hardly ever leave feeling excited about a part/the whole day. On Tuesday my social studies class read a book and discussed Pearl Harbor (this was Mr. Steel's class, so they have SS on TR so we were unable to discuss Pearl Harbor on it's actual day-Monday). Nevertheless we went through the book. Now the day before I read the book with my class during social studies. I completed all areas of the book-the reading of, discussion, etc in about twenty minutes. So going into Tuesday's class I had a couple other activities planned that we ultimately never got near! It was great reading the book because any time I turned a page, paused, or coughed I was bombarded with a ton of questions all relating to Pearl Harbor. I was lucky if I could read and turn a page in five minutes. Students were asking questions left and right; when I was reading, when I wasn't reading, when another student finished their question, and so on. And to be totally honest I loved every second of it! It was awesome seeing these kids take a legitimate interest in this topic and want to know more about it. Now kids can ask some pretty silly questions and say some pretty interesting things that don't relate to the topic whatsoever. However, these "peeps" were on fire! The questions they asked were engaging and showed they wanted to know everything there was for it. Like I said before, I loved every second of it. This is one of the reasons I wanted to teach-to have these kind of days where my students want to learn at all costs. Just being able to furthur their knowledge and more likely their curiosity made my week...and then some! I know that I'll have these experiences in the future but it was great to have one this week. I've been frustrated with the lack of drive and interest my class as a whole shows and I was definitely getting down about it. What a great thing to bring my hope back up.

Week 3 Post

As we get closer and closer to the end of the semester, I am slowly getting closer and closer to finishing my Action Research. This past week was the first week that I used written prompts for the students. Before starting the week I was almost postive that this type of prompt would be the most effective of the prompts that I've used. As the week has progressed I do believe that the written prompts have had more of an impact with the students than the oral prompts, but the visual prompts are a lot more challenging to keep track of then I thought. Each student has a sheet with a list of generic ways to be better in school (i.e. paying attention, following directions, respectful, and encouraging others). The students were aware of the prompts and tried to show proper behavior to gain points for the prompt, but as a teacher I found out how hard it was to go around and continually give points to the students who deserves it. As well I found out when I started to check a prompt I would notice others getting quiet, acting the way they should, etc. and it became harder to decifer who really deserved a tally and who didn't. Because of this I've decided to switch up my written prompts next week. I plan to make a modified chart for each student based on certain behaviors that Mrs. McLaughlin and I have narrowed as ways to improve each students learning. Granted it take time to do but I think will be a lot more successful than the general prompts that are currently on their desk. When the students see that their sheet is different than the others and realize that the prompts on their sheet are certain skills that they lack or need work on, I think it will encouage them to work harder at those needs. I think it will help because I've had conversations with numerous students about those skills. If they see it in writing and see when they've been successful, they might be able to improve their overall learning (that is my hope)!

Week 4 Post

This teaching thing never seems to get old. Just as I thought I should be getting used to my surroundings, my students, etc it all goes haywire and I get chewed up and spit out by teaching as a collective whole. This past week was the first time that I was visibly "defeated". It was an awful, awful feeling! I had a good first two days of the week and then Wednesday just fell apart before it started somehow. It felt as though everything was off. Students weren't listening to instructions, it seemed as though I was a half second to slow on lessons, discussions, instructions...everything! I was disrupted throughout the day and was finally crushed in the afternoon by a student.
I guess we're expected to have these kind of days from time to time. I work with twenty 8-year olds so I guess that is to be expected but it sure wasn't any fun. I was lucky that after the day was over I was able to discuss and reflect my day with my mentor teacher. We discussed a lot of different issues ranging from how I let my classroom management go, to how my instruction in lessons could've been different and better, and how I shouldn't ever show the defeat in my face because my students will jump on that. A couple of them did and I guess I would've done the same back in the day.
The fact of the matter that I was able to have that discussion with her after school really really helped me. Not only the rest of the day I was a little more stable because of the thoughts and ideas that were moving around in my brain but also the simple truth that these days happen and to get over it.
With how bad that day was the next day was almost that good. How amazing the change in everything. Now I'm not sure if it's because of me doing something differently in my teaching or the students just sensing that they needed to show up for a day and prove to me that they can do it. Whatever it was it was a big win for me after such a bad loss the day before.

Week 5 Post

Well this week definitely had its ups and downs. Loved the day-off in the middle of the week and had some great moments with students this week. Unfortunately I also had some moments I'd like to forget from this past week with students as well as myself.
For this week I've been working on prompting my students through verbal prompts only. It's been very different for me because I've grown accustomed to prompting students more through written prompts than verbal prompts so it took me awhile to get used to. As the week went on I tried different techniques in my classroom management, such as maintaining a quiet voice so that my students would have to be quiet to listen as well as encourage my students any time that I prompted them.
The encouraging happened today (Friday) and how quickly I failed at it. Before the day started I had asked Mrs. McLaughlin to interject any time I addressed a student and didn't encourage them sometime in the discussion. It just so happened that the second time that I talked with a student about staying on task and getting through his work do I hear Mrs. McLaughlin go "now was that encouraging?" Man I failed quickly today. It was a let down because I feel that I am great at encouraging students and really look for opportunities to do it. However, I found out that only after thirty minutes of instruction time I'm unable to do what I set out to do and encourage my students.
Even though it was only one day I think this was a great idea because I spent the rest of my day really checking myself to make sure that I did encourage my students when they needed some direction. I failed to encourage a couple more times today and looking back on it I understand why I didn't. A couple time I had lost my patience and was truly annoyed and it showed. In the future I need to practice being the encourager at all times, not just when I see something positive. I think encouragement is more valuable when something needs to be fixed and you get that vote of confidence from someone. Hopefully in the future I can be that person who really encourages and motivates others to get going.

Week 6 Post

Well another week is in the books. Another tough week due to sickness, substitute, and crazy children but again I'm looking back at the week and thinking "ok, I can still do this..." This week has been kind of eye opening to me. For the past couple weeks I've been observing my students as well as starting my Action Research without my students really knowing it. I've been taking notes and watching them to see how they react in an everyday classroom surrounding. However, lately I've been looking at those observations in a completely different light. This week my notes, observations, and AR journal have seen quite a new tone in my writing. Instead of "this student doesn't do this well" or "they seem to struggle with these qualities and charactersitics in the classroom", it's turned to "this is where I need to do this with a student" and "what can I do to possibly prevent this outbreak/situation in the future?" Instead of looking at the students and placing the responsibility solely on them I've now realized that this is partly, if not mostly, lying on me now. I know that what I do or don't do will not prevent or cause everything that these students do over the next couple of weeks but I do know that a lof of what they do will be influenced by me. My goal is to find a suitable classroom management style that really creates a great environment for learning for all students. I now know that relying on the students to make those changes alone will cause no success. It's my time to use those observations, notes, and ideas in my teaching to hopefully come up with a plausible answer.
I just hope I have a good enough idea of how my students will handle situations to work with their behavior to create that new environment.
Now's the time, the gloves are off. Time to get down and dirty!

Hi Joel,
I appreciate your being able to help Mrs. McLaughlin out during her absences. And...you did learn a lot about the students realizing that the "easy guy" from WVU might have some rules and procedures himself. I believe that next semester when you release the mentor teachers for their own professional development you will gain a lot more experience and confidence in your classroom management.
I am looking forward to observing your math lesson tomorrow (Fri.). And..if I can help you with classroom management techniques, let me know. I still have a few "up my sleeve."
Kaye :-)

Week 7 Post

Well this past week was a tough one for lots of reasons. First off, Mrs. McLaughlin was sick four of the five days making me the leader of the class outright (even if I wasn't completely ready). Secondly, I had not been feeling all that great as well the whole week. The third and probably worst of the reasons was the fact that it was the week building up to Halloween. After experiencing my first Halloween week at school, I now have a new appreciation for teachers working to maintain their classroom weekly, especially weeks that have a holiday somewhere stuck in it.
Now I had planned to begin teaching full-time this past week. I felt that I was up for the challenge and thought it would be tough but I'd be just fine. These feelings were before I found out that I would be without my teacher for the greater part of the week. It was unbelievable to me to see how crazy they were without her being there. The week before when I said "I thought they were too quiet" had definitely passed. The students were completely different. Talking all the time, not getting focused when they needed to, disrupting others, etc. Funny for me my AR is all about classroom management and trying to find what type of prompting elicits the best response. I didn't think I'd be thrown into the fire so early on in my study.
The first three days, Monday through Wednesday, were just flat out tough. I had a lot of trouble with maintaining the classroom rules. Throughout the day, they'd show me periods of time of constraint and responsibility, but for the most part they just liked to talk talk talk. It wasn't just a couple of the students, either, but instead was most of the class. I was really struggling to keep my composure while trying to discover ways that would pull out better classroom behavior from them.
On Tuesday I started taking minutes away from recess for the entire class. That didn't go over well and I understand why. On Wednesday when we were in for our time before they went out we had a class discussion as to what we could change or how we can become more responsible and respectful in our class and around the school. It was a good time because it allowed the students what they wanted to say; upset about missing recess, talking about ways to prevent all the talking, ways to being more respectful, and so on. We also came up with disciplining only the students who were causing the inconvienences. So on Thursday instead of having a class recess time, we had a student recess time. If the student had their name on the board it was warning, their name and a check took away 5 minutes of their recess, and their name with 2 checks took their full recess away.
I'm not sure if this is educationally sound but I saw much better results from the students on Thursday than I had the previous three days. I think I will continue it but get the opinion Mrs. McLaughlin before making any big decisions.

Hi Joel,
We are glad to have you back at Suncrest. Thank you for volunteering to help with Fall Festival. That should be fun. Glad you are getting readjusted to our little ones. Kathleen Dyer

Week 8 Post

Well, this week was the first week back to Suncrest Primary. I must admit I wasn't all that excited at the beginning of the week-sad about leaving Clay Battelle and apprehensive about the big age difference. However, as the week has progressed I have slowly begun to warm up (again) to this teaching thing.
This was a week where I'd be doing nothing but observations for my Action Research-what are the students like? who are the trouble makers? what is the genereal classroom environment like? etc. etc. As a whole, I am thoroughly impressed with this set of third graders (both classes). On Monday or Tuesday I told Mrs. McLaughlin that I thought the classroom was TOO quiet which is kind of hard to believe. These students are well behaved, well trained, and very polite which is a bit of a difference compared to Clay Battelle.
As the week progressed, however, I begun to help lead and teach some of the daily work and classes. As I got into it I became more and more comfortable with myself, with the age group of students, and the students themselves. I was wondering how long the transition would be for the two different age groups. It is nowhere near complete but I'm happily suprised with how well week 1 went as a whole.
I'm very much looking forward to the next seven weeks for many reasons. I'm real excited to have students for the whole day-relationships with these students will be completely different than the relationships that I had with my students that I had for only one or two periods. Another benefit to these upcoming eight weeks is to see how comfortable I am with elementary school. Before teaching at Clay Battelle I had only worked with K-3 students in a school setting. My time at Clay Battelle was great because it gave me experience with the older students as well as the desire to work with them in an educational environment. These next seven weeks will hopefully be a reminder of how much I enjoy working with younger students as well as the older students.
I look forward to these next eight weeks!

Joel,
Thank you for all your help with the Art Club today. Couldn't have done it without everyone's help! See you at the Suncrest Faculty meeting tomorrow morning.
Kaye :-)

Hi Joel,
I have to agree with you. I don't think it's any way to treat a professional. Perhaps you were a little too casual with them during the 8 weeks? It was probably their way of wishing you well, but it really was "over the top." I don't imagine they would have done that to someone they didn't like. It's a good lesson, however, for everyone!
I don't think the third graders at Suncrest will give you that kind of a send-off....perhaps having a substitute teacher didn't help the situation either.
Kaye :-)

Last Day at CBMS

Well today didn't go nearly as well as expected. In fact, it turned out to be quite tumultuous which really stinks. The first couple of periods were OK, I had to remove a student from both of the first two periods because of doing things that they shouldn't have down.
Fourth period is where it all "hit the fan". The students in my fourth period class are probably one of, if not my favorite class. They are good kids who have responded very well to me over the past eight weeks. I can joke around with them and just be goofy, and they like that. Today they decided to give me a "celebratoriral" shaving creme bath. So as the class started a number of them came up with shaving creme and got me pretty good. After I got doused with it I got up and left to clean myself off. I was upset so I decided to take a good walk for awhile (we had a Substitute in class today so he took care of the class). When I came back in towards the end of class I told the class what I thought about it. I was upset, sure, but what got me was how disappointed I was with the whole situation. Not just the fact that they got me with shaving creme, but also the timing of it. I would've been upset any other day, but couldn't they have chosen a different day to get me? I was looking forward to having them do their required work and then just spend the rest of the period talking to them and such but couldn't do it because of this.
The rest of the day was tough. I appreciated the words, cards, etc. that I received the rest of the day from my student but was still sooooo bummed about the time lost with this group. I know that there was no ill-intention or meanness directed to me at all but instead it was just a way to have one more good day with me. It just really stinks that this is a memory that I have from my last day there...it really does.
I think I handled it well. Discussed problem with students and did what I should informing my host teacher, but I know that doing that doesn't help whatsoever with my disappointment.

Hi Joel,
Oh....how pleased I am for you!! What a wonderful blog to read tonight! Have fun tomorrow with your last day there...but know that Suncrest Primary is equally happy to have you join them again.
Are your parents able to read your blog? If not, I think you should include them as a recipient if possible. They will be so proud of you!!
See you Monday. We'll need your help with the art projects on Monday. :-)
Kaye

Week 9 Reflection

Well the eight weeks is finally coming to an end here at Clay-Battelle. Never in a million years did I expect to see so many different things from a school out in the country. I really have enjoyed my time and will truly miss it.
Today was a great victory for me...a victory that really solidifies my desire to become a teacher. All of my paperwork is done, my grade is in for the eight weeks I spent at Clay-Battelle so I have had nothing to prove this week. Getting the grade was great to see and knowing that I did everything expected of me was also a great thing. However, that pails in comparison to the joy I experienced today.
Today I gave my second test to the 8th graders. This exam was on the European settlers coming over to America. The previous test I gave the students collectively bombed it. There were some A's, some B's, a good number of C's, and the majority of the grades were D's and F's. That was a big downer and was a reminder to me that I do not have the teaching "thing" down. I felt responsible in some ways for the poor grades and was also disappointed with the students lack of effort throughout the chapter.
So yes, my first test that I administered to the first chapter I taught was a complete collapse. They bombed it. However, this test they didn't!!! I still had some low scores but the group did so much better this time around. For example, my 8th period (honors class) did pretty well last time; some A's, lots of B's, some C's and a couple of D's. Today though, there were NO F's, NO D's, AND NO C's! The majority of the tests were A's and a few had B's. Another class had similar improvements, granted there were no where near the number of A's but a big improvement in pulling up grades from the last tests (students who got D's last time got C's or B's).
Now back to this solidifying me as a teacher...like I said, everything is turned in, the grades for me are done and I'm proud of them but it doesn't even come close to how excited and proud I am of my students for a valliant effort that they showed today with the test!

Joel,
You are so very thoughtful in your blogs. I enjoy reading them and especially to learn of your high dedication to your students and their education. Your attitude is wonderful in wanting to continue to help those students who don't seem to want it themselves! There may be other avenues for them rather than graduating from a typical high school. Perhaps technical and/or vocational education would be more appropriate for some of them. I have never had the experience that you are having with this age students. Most of my experience has been with PK-4th. grade children, who for the most part still like school and even though they struggle, they haven't usually given up yet.
Have these particular students been identified as needing extra help, are they not getting reinforcement from home, or have given up because they have not been successful in years past?
Keep up your good attitude. I have some inspirational books that teachers have written about these type of students...if that would help keep up your morale.
Kaye :-)

Week 10 Reflection

My time has almost come and gone at Clay-Battelle and these eight weeks have taught and shown me a whole lot more than I had expected to see. I know I still have one full week left so this is not the time to get caught up in reminiscing.
One thing that I will take away from my time here is wanting and hoping for more than what my students want and hope for. Many of these students here have had an attitude that almost guarantees them failure before they even start. Seeing that from my students hurts my heart. I'll only be with them for eight weeks but I have a good idea who'll succeed and who will have much more trouble at it.
Looking towards the future, this time has really got me thinking about the ways that I can help promote success for my students. What are ways that I can get content to stick to their brains and have them find it relevant to their lives. Before teaching here I'd say my philosophy for teaching was a lot different than it is now. Reflecting on what I've done and see the past seven weeks I'd have to say that seeing my students want to learn and strive for success is my one and ultimate goal. Granted I know that this might not be an attainable goal because there will be students down the line that will plain not want to be there in school, but I hope that those students will not make up the majority of my classes. It breaks my heart knowing that some of these students won't graduate and accomplish much of anything in school...not because of just knowing a certain subject(s) but because of the inability of them to try, at all!
I really hope in the future that I can help influence them in a way that they look at education as a mode of transportation to a successful destination. I'll be a car, van, bus, plane, whatever, as long as those future kids get to the destination they want through hard work and desire to succeed.
So in the upcoming days/weeks/months/years hopefully I'll find ways to help guide my students on that destination because I know I will not be able to handle and more importantly accept an accepted failure mindset...I just can't.

Hi Joel,
Sorry to hear you are having some problems with behavior in your classroom. I hope you can get some good pointers from your mentor teacher and perhaps others at your school. It's hard for me to respond when I don't know more specifics. Does the school's behavior system work in most cases? Can you pull those disruptive students out sometime and ask for their support?
By the way, are you available for the intern seminar with me on Tues., Oct. 13 from 4:00-5:00 in 606 Allen Hall.
Email me if you have questions,
Kaye :-)

Week 11 Reflection

This week has definitely been a tough week for me...and it's only a four day week. Students have been disruptive and rude, making this week the first time I've had to fight myself to not lose my pantience with them. In the past I've never been to the brink of getting visibly upset at my students. What's even worse is that I've found myself numerous times this week walking that tight line between in control and losing control.
I've been running scenarios through my head all week of what I could do better and how I could prevent this from happning; this meaning why are my students acting up so much and why do they not respond to my directions and prompts. There are a couple different ones that I've thought of but the one that truly stands out to me is the fact that maybe I should've been all business with the students for a longer period of time. I came in and took about a week or two before joking around and enjoying my time with them, maybe too much. I observed another teacher teach this past week with a set of students that I also have in class and they were completely different with him than with me. They didn't talk when they weren't supposed to, they were into the discussion that they were having and didn't need prompting to answer and were respectful to the teacher as well as each other. While watching him I kept thinking how great it is of this teacher to be able to have his students so engulfed in the discussion that they didn't have to blurt out and talk all the time. As well as having their attention, he joked around with them like a champ! He was funny, entertaining and you could tell the students liked that but when he expected them to be ready to learn they came through for him. Watching him like that made me want that. After I asked him how he could be so loose with them but expect so much and he flat out told me to give them expectations right away and hold to them. I feel as though I've done that but obviously not to the extent that demands the students full cooperation.
Something definitely to work on in the future!

Joel,
It was so good to read your positive blog tonight. Success!! You really did do some action research about the situation last week. Congratulations! I imagine your students benefited from a well-prepared and time-managed lesson as well.
Keep up the good work!
Kaye :-)

Week 12 Reflection

This week I tried another review game in class. This time I was prepared.
Two days ago we started a unit on prehistoric cultures-the cultures that settled in West Virginia before the the Europeans settled there. We had spent two days on the four types of cultures-Paleo, Archaic, early and late Woodland cultures discussing about their culture, similarities between the groups, differences, and improvements in technology between them.
For gameday, I desgined the class to have the first ten to fifteen minutes being spent on discussing the late Woodland culture. After we finished discussing them I then broke them up into groups and got things going. They created team names, talked about the rules of the game, and began the game.
The game was similar to jeopardy-I asked them a question and the first group to raise their hand got a chance to answer the question correctly. If they answered it right, they had the opportunity to shoot a hoop for additional points. At the end of the game we tallied up the points and the winner was announced.
Amazing to me was how much better it went because I planned other activities before playing the game to make sure the game didn't last to long. In some of my classes I wasn't able to ask all my questions due to time constraints. I was much happier with not finishing at the end of class rather than finishing and doing the same thing over and over.
Planning for this made things much smoother and less stressful for me. Such an easy thing as alotting fifteen minutes to go over other things made the game playing much better. Amazing how one thing can totally change the appearance and opinion of a certain activity.

Hi Joel,
Well...don't think you are alone in not having enough for a class period! That has happened to the best of teachers. My problem often was I had too much for students to do so became exasperated because the students didn't work fast enough or didn't grasp the lesson well enough to move it along.
I think you certainly did some "action research" with this experience in you always need to have some other "tricks" in your pocket for those kind of occasions. It would be good for you to have what we elementary teachers call "sponge activities". I have hundreds of them for the elementary level. So...if you would like to have some, let me know. They might come in handy when you go to Mrs. McLaughlin's class in a few weeks.
Good luck the rest of the week!!
Kaye :-)

Week 13 Reflection

This past week I had discussed the different climate zones and types of weather with my seventh graders. The day after a long day of notes and reading I thought I'd reward them the following day with a fun activity that has them utilize the knowledge they learned while doing something other than notes. I came to the decision of using the game of BINGO as my learning activity. The day before BINGO I had talked it up and got the kids excited for the fact that we in fact were going to play. I thought it was going to be a big success and that everything was going to go great. Unfortunately for all parties involved, it didn't.
I have three seventh grade classes right in a row, so I got to read BINGO for a wopping 135 minutes in a row. That wasn't bad except for the fact that by the third period I was ready to tear up the questions as well as every BINGO card in sight...here is problem #1. Problem #2-? was that I didn't plan anything else for the period. Just BINGO. As it turns out, 20 minutes of BINGO is impossible to do with seventh graders, let alone 45 minutes.
What my biggest problem was the fact that I didn't plan anything else for that period. I immediately thought that they'd be interested in playing the whole time. Seeing the students drag halfway through class until the end was bad, however, me being bored out of my mind as well told the story of the day. During the second period of BINGO I saw that it was becoming a bear to do and no one wanted to do it. I tried to think of something else to do but I just couldn't get any ideas.
Looking back at it and looking toward the future I now know that a single activity, even something sounding as great as BINGO BONANZA will not cut it in a class period of 45 minutes. I need to plan more activities that allows my students to learn but in different ways.
Even though it was a tough day for me, this was a great lesson learned. In the future when games are being used in the classroom as a learning extension, I'll now know that more than that game is needed.

Hi Joel,
My recommendation would be to observe how the other teachers at school interact with the students and follow their lead. Also ask your mentor teacher if he/she thinks your interaction is appropriate - that is allowing the students to be too chummy...
It's even difficult at the college level because in my EDUC 401 class, I really like my students and want to be friendly...but have to draw the line in also requiring good work from them.
Kaye :-)

Week 14 Reflection

Building rapport with your students is one of the most important things that a teacher can do with their students in my opinion. Throughout the first three weeks I feel as though I've put myself out there to show to my students that I'm interested in building trust and a relationship with all of them. I feel confident in my methods and behavior towards them, however, I'm still figuring out where the relationship ends and the role of the teacher begins. I value the relationships that I've begun to build with my students and I hope they see that, but I know that it would be a disservice to them to just end there with it. It is my responsibility and desire to be a teacher to them as well. In the first three weeks, I've been able to teach, discipline, handle situations fairly well but I wonder how much more effective could I've handled them and with how much more professionalism. There are times when my students will walk by me in the hall and kid around with me which I think is fine, but there are also times when they come and give a nudge or a shoulder as a joke. This is the point that I'm uneasy. It's not because I'm upset or afraid of what just happened, but I view this as them feeling comfortable with me as more of a "friend" role than a teacher role. I don't know exactly what to do. Do I let it go and continue to be chummy with my students or do I shrink back from that role and become more stern and serious with them? I personally think a little bit of both with more in the chummy end of it but I'm not certain as of yet. I guess it'll come with more time with them, discussions with teachers about their feelings as well as my own comfortability with it all.

Hi Joel,
What a nice thing you did by going to the game!! And the students noticed! This will gesture of yours will go a long way to gain their confidence. I'm so impressed with your attitude this year. I know you are going to do an excellent job in your internship.
Keep up the good work!
Kaye :-)

Week 15 Reflection

Yesterday (Thursday) I went to the middle-school football game as an after-school activity. I thought it was a good way to show to my students (the one playing, cheering, cheerleading) that I am seriously interested in getting to know them and supporting them. In the long run I know that this could help my rapport with the students as well as the trust with my students. Little did I know how appreciative they'd be. Today all throughout the school day, I talked to a lot of them about being at the game and how the game went, etc. What was suprising to me was how much they thought of that. They were excited and told me how pleased they were that I was there. I never realized that just my showing up at the game would cause that kind of response. It is my desire to really show these students that I am interested in seeing them succeed in all arenas of life and am wanting to be a big encourager to them in these eight weeks.

Joel,
Yes...it will be very different with the older-age students. Hopefully your mentor teacher will be some help to you during these next few weeks.
Thank you for the good advice you gave to the tutors yesterday at the Tutor Orientation.
I enjoyed reading your very informative blog this morning,
Kaye :-)

Week 16 Reflection

The first eight weeks of my internship will be completely different than what I've come to expect over the past two years during my tutor and participant years. For these eight weeks I will be in a different school and in a completely different age group. I will be at Clay Battelle for this time teaching seventh and eighth grade history. I've grown accustomed to elementary students at Suncrest Primary. Even though I've only been with students for two days, I already seen monumental differences between the two groups and I expect to see more throughout the rest of my time there. One of the largest changes is the attitude and behavior of the students. At Suncrest my students have been very young and more inclined to like school. Granted I've only been at Clay Battelle for two days, but the behavior of the students and their attitude is almost brand-new to me. The students at Clay Battelle are much more vocal, disrespectful, and inappropriate as a whole. Over my eight weeks there I'm thinking to myself how can I account for these behaviors during my teaching. It's going to be completely different than any teaching that I've experienced before; I've had discipline problems in the past teaching, but usually after addressing the situation that student or the problem ceased to exist. At Clay Battelle I feel like these problems will not just disappear after addressing it once. I'm nervous but even more than that excited to teach in this environment because I know that I will learn and polish many skills that I don't have or need to grow in. I think one of the biggest things that will be tested will be my patience with the students, especially if they're off task most of the time. It'll also challenge me in finding the different learning styles of my students. Even though they might get in trouble or cause problems I really hope that I can reach the students somehow that will benefit them.

Ordering the posts

Joel,
Check the tutorial on the website....because I believe you need to list each week's posts as Reflection Week 15, Reflection Week 14, etc.---start from 15 and go backwards. Then do the same thing for Action Research Week 15 and work backwards.
I'm in the blogging seminar right now--believe me...I am learning along with the others....but maybe you should go back and separate the posts. It helps when we all get on.
Kaye :-)

Hello Joel

Thank you Joel! You get the gold star for being the first intern to set up your blog. I will be interested in your work at Clay-Batelle as well as when you return to Suncrest Primary.
Have a great semester!
Kaye :-)