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)!