"Hi, what's your favorite color?"

Today marks my second day teaching a middle school class. I have to say, I'm really surprised at how much I like it! As I have mentioned before, I really admire the way that my CT interacts with her students and uses humor with them. Today she decided that instead of being annoyed at the ringing of the classroom phone (which often interrupts her lessons) she would use humor. She asked the kids how Buddy the elf answers the phone (from the movie Elf) and proceeded to answer the phone by saying "Hi, what's your favorite color?" The students LOVED this! She told them that she would answer the phone this way until Christmas and gave them permission to answer the phone in a similar fashion. In one quick silly statement, she was able to turn an annoyance into something funny. I suspect that the person on the other end of the phone was taken aback, but it's good to be taken aback every now and then. It's instances like this where I really feel like her students love that she shows them her "human side". 

The first day my TP and I taught went really well, but I felt like the students were hesitant to open up to us and volunteer answers. It was a TOTALLY different story today! The students walked in and they were all very excited because it was snowing outside. I promised them that if we got through our lesson, I would give them time at the end to talk about the snow (this actually worked and they got on task!!). I was taken aback by how welcomed I felt by the students today. They were all eager to share their work, answers, or thoughts. We chose to start off our lesson with an activity called Two Truths and a Lie, where each student comes up with three statements about themselves, two of them are truths and one is lie. We modeled this for the students and much like how they like seeing the "human side" to our CT, they loved hearing three statements about us and our personal lives, even if one of them was a lie. We used this activity to start to introduce the students to unreliable narrators. We asked the students how they knew which statement was a lie and they responded with "you were talking fast" or "it took you a while to come up with it" or they mentioned our body language! These kids totally understood that these were techniques that might be used when someone is being untrustworthy or suspicious. This was an activity that they could not get enough of! Almost every student wanted to volunteer to read their three statements! The only problem that arose from this was that I learned the importance of quickly reading what a student wrote before they share it with the class! One student chose to tell the class that he USED to like to torture frogs and butterflies (if I had looked over his shoulder as he was writing his statements or asked to read them before  he got in front of the class, this could have been avoided). Live and learn. 

We started reading The Tell Tale Heart and asked the students about whether they felt that they could trust the narrator of the story. A majority of the class felt that this narrator could not be trusted, because he was suspicious and stated that he was "mad". There was only one student who felt that the narrator could be trusted, because he was "honest". We will work some more on the unreliability of the narrator tomorrow, and we will see if this student changes his mind. 

The main thing that stuck out to me today was the atmosphere of the classroom. The students came in happy and eager to learn. This made our lesson so much easier and more fun to teach. Students were engaged, followed directions, and weren't afraid to ask questions! They didn't even want to talk about the snow at the end of the class, instead they wanted to keep doing the Two Truths and a Lie activity! The best part about this is that they related the techniques used in this activity (pacing, body language, word choice, etc.) to determining if the narrator was someone who could be trusted to tell the truth and tell the story honestly.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Teaching Middle School: A Pre-Teaching Entry

I would like to start this blog post off by saying I'm nervous to teach the middle school class that my TP and I have been observing for the past couple weeks. I am nervous that the students won't respond well to us, as we have not formed any bonds with them (except for a couple students who we have seen in classes other than the one we are teaching). Our first two lessons require a lot of student participation and if they don't accept us or respond well to us, then are they still going to participate? We'll find out. 

I am nervous about executing wait time (one of my biggest weaknesses as a teacher!) but I'm excited for another opportunity to practice (after all, practice makes perfect!). I think that this time, I am more aware of the fact that I need to work on my execution of wait time, so hopefully this awareness is the first step to becoming good at it! 

One of the things that I am NOT nervous about, however, is our lessons. My TP and I have planned some really good lessons that we think will captivate the attention of the students as well as help them use their prior knowledge to build upon the knowledge that they will learn! We are teaching them Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell Tale Heart" and relating this story to building suspense and knowledge of unreliable narrators. Planning this was a little hard for my TP and I, simply because our background knowledge of suspense and unreliable narrators was from texts that the students would not have read or media that was not age appropriate for the grade level we were teaching (for example: Holden Caulfield or the shower scene from Psycho). 

We want the students to go home on Friday of this week, having read "The Tell Tale Heart" and understanding it on a deeper level of "an old guy was killed because a guy didn't like his eye". It is through the instruction on building suspense and an introduction to an unreliable narrator that we plan to get to this deeper level of comprehension. Wish me luck!

Frazzled.

On Tuesday, I saw something that shocked me: a teacher who was visibly frazzled! This is somewhat of an urban legend to me. I’ve heard about teachers being overwhelmed and acting frazzled, but I’ve never seen it. It does exist! Teachers are not emotionless robots who are immune to daily stresses. At our practicum site, our CT was visibly frazzled from the minute we walked into the classroom on Tuesday. She was frustrated because she was supposed to teach a mandated literacy lesson from a program that she did not like. This was a scripted lesson that she felt did not teach the students in the way that they best learn. She was frustrated because on top of having to plan and prepare for this, she is scrambling to make up for all the missed days of school (due to the weather or holidays). It was really nice to see that even an experienced teacher can become slightly overwhelmed. 

Now, like a true pro, our CT did not let the fact that she was frazzled take away from her classes or her lessons. She put on her “teacher face” and taught her students as she normally would have. If she had not personally told us that she is not a fan of the literacy program that is being adopted by the school, we never would have known she felt that way. It was awesome to see that even experienced teachers can become overwhelmed, but that this does not affect their lessons, the show must go on!

            I felt like it was good to see that even an experience teacher gets frazzled, because I know as both a student and a future educator that it is not realistic to be completely calm and in control at all times.

            One of the things that stuck out to me from our observations this week was how much I admire the relationship that our CT has with her students. Her students know when to settle down, focus, and be serious, and in turn, she knows when it is okay to joke with them. She uses humor a lot in her classroom, but not in a “corny joke” kind of way. She uses humor to motivate her students, to inspire them to do their work or answer a question. Her relationship with her students may stem from the fact that she has the same students for two years, but I like to think it is more of her personality. She constantly uses positive motivation and praises the students, but not so much that it does not seem sincere. 

Things That Are Specific to Middle School

            Today marks the end of my first week in a middle school practicum placement and I have survived! I’ll admit that I was absolutely terrified to enter a middle school. My middle school years are not something that I look back fondly on and I don’t have much experience being in a middle school classroom. These students are foreign to me, they are so short and so different from the high schoolers that I am used to observing. But like I said, I survived, and I have a better outlook on middle school.

            There are a couple things that I noticed and classified in a Specific to Middle School list in my head. This list was started with the fact that the CT told my TP and I that her students were ALWAYS leaving their belongings lying around the classroom. As she said this, she picked up a stray sweatshirt and placed it in a pile with a huge green binder that was waiting for someone to claim it. Apparently this happens quite frequently in middle school that belongings are left behind. I also noticed that a majority of the students were writing in pencil. In my observations at many high schools as well as in my college classes, pen seems to be the preferred writing utensil. The students in middle school also do a lot more “self-policing” than in high school. By this I mean, students are more willing to enforce the rules to their peers or make sure that their peers are doing what they are supposed to be doing. For example, in the class that I observed, one student was being gently teased by a classmate, and a third party classmate shouted “don’t undermined his confidence, he has feelings too!” This made me smile, because it was nice to see students being kind to one another. My TP and I also noticed that at this age, cell phones are not an issue. It is actually uncommon to go into a high school class and not see one cellular device, but in middle school, this seems to be the norm. The final thing on my list was that I noticed that students do not need a bell to signal their dismissal from class, they wait for the teacher to do it. This may be because the school I am observing in does not have bells, but I’d like to think that the students are just polite enough to wait for the teacher to finish her thought and tell  them that it is okay to pack up to leave. 

Everyman and Teachers

Today marked my last day of my practicum placement at BHS and I could not be sadder to be leaving. My TP and I were able to teach at least one class every day this week, and this was my first time teaching for a week straight! As I approached this week I was nervous and unbelievably anxious. The only thing that calmed my nerves was that my TP and I had interacted with our students and had the opportunity to teach them numerous times prior to this week. These were students that we made connections with and looked forward to observing and teaching. We taught a senior EEP class and we got to teach them the morality play Everyman. Our CT advised us to do some outside research about the play because these students were extremely intelligent and she wanted us to be as prepared as we could be. Thank goodness that we did our background research, because the questions these students asked were on such a high level of Bloom's Taxonomy.
For our first lesson, we had the students do a tea party to introduce them to the play. At first the students were hesitant because despite our assurances that they did not have to have read the play or be familiar with the characters to successfully engage in a tea party, they did not grasp this at first. This reluctance prompted my TP and I to further clarify how Everyman is an allegorical play and that the characters in the play embody their names (ex: Good Deeds is literally good deeds that are done). Once we clarified how allegory related to the characters/play they were much more eager to engage in this activity! It could not have gone better! The students were so creative with how they chose to embody their characters, for example one student was Confession and she told her peers that she was at a party with her friends and she played truth or dare, but she only chose truth and refused to choose dare. Another student was Beauty and he could be overheard telling his peers that he was "too pretty to play sports" and that he would rather look at himself in the mirror instead. The level of creativity that was displayed made me so happy and proud. For the next two days we had the students reading the play in class. After the first day, we noticed that the language in the play was an issue for the students. We had made frequent stops to check for comprehension, but we needed to do more to help the students with the play. Our second day of reading we passed our a vocab sheet to the students so that they could have the definitions of some of the commonly unknown words in front of them. I noticed that they had a much easier time with this.
On our fourth day of teaching, our professor came to observe us. It was on this day that we chose to have the students engage in a discussion in the literary salon that our CT had established. We had broken the students up into small groups of 4-5 students to have them first discuss the questions among themselves. Some students were absent on the previous day, so this was a great opportunity for them to be included and catch up on what they had missed. We then entered the salon and engaged in our discussion. These students had some amazing points that they wanted to make. One student compared this text to the two previous texts that were read in class! Reflecting back on this, I wish that my TP and I had stepped back a little and given our students just a little more control by not jumping in with our own comments as often. But overall, I loved how this went. The students posed some great questions to each other, everybody was respectful, and they took the discussion to levels that I could not have even imagined.
I did not want to leave today! Our students were sad to see us go and I was sad to be leaving. I have learned so much about myself as a teacher and what my strengths and weaknesses are as a teacher. I had previously thought that wait time was not something that I needed to walk on, but I was wrong! I learned how much planning goes into every single aspect of both planning and executing a lesson! But most of all, I learned that this is something that I REALLY want to do and love to do. Teaching is my passion and I have been very lucky to have had these opportunities at such an amazing placement!

Music in the Classroom

            I had a really interesting experience at my SPED Practicum placement that I would like to share. The two teachers that I observed both incorporated music into their lessons. This is not something that I am used to observing, but the students responded really well to this.

            The first classroom that I observed is a 10^th grade English class which is co-taught by an English teacher and a Special Education teacher. The students are doing a unit on Poe and had just finished The Masque of the Red Death. The teacher made a connection between John Mayer’s song “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” and the story. The students were prompted to “compare the song to the text using a line from the song, connect to the text through the theme, character, or setting. How does this relate to the “real world?” Write 5-6 sentences.” The song was played for the students and they were given a handout with the lyrics on it. The students made very basic, surface connections between the story and our society via the lyrics. They were really excited about this assignment and because it counted as a quiz grade, they took it seriously.

            The second classroom that I observed in was a 12^th grade English class that was co-taught by an English teacher (different from the first class) and a Special Education teacher (same one from the first class). The English teacher in this class is actually the RI teacher of the year, so I was really looking forward to observing her. This class had just finished reading Boccaccio’s Federigo’s Falcon and answered 14 comprehension questions on it. At the end of the class the students watched a video by the group Straight No Chaser doing a mash up of “Bad Romance” and “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga. These students found it easy to make connections between the lyrics and the story. This was shown at the end of the class so there was a quick discussion about the connections, but I would have been interested in knowing where the discussion would have gone if they had more time.

            When I was in high school, my teachers never incorporated music into the lessons. I very much enjoyed watching how the teachers used music in their classrooms and the reactions of the students. Music is a medium that is not often used in classrooms but when used correctly, can be extremely effective. When the music was playing, the students were fully attentive and quiet. I love observing new things! This is something that I want to use in my classroom but would like to observe it more in other classrooms first.

 http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/johnmayer/slowdancinginaburningroom.html

Teaching Lower Level Comprehension Students

            Today my Teaching Partner (TP) and I had the opportunity to teach a class that was a bit different from the four classes we’ve been observing and teaching. This class was a lot smaller in size than what we were used too, with only 15 students. What makes this class different from the other classes that we have been observing/teaching is that this class is lower level comprehension and has more behavioral issues. This is the type of class that I have been dying to observe/teach!         (As you folks already know, I am a Secondary Education major with a concentration in English but I am also getting certified to teach Special Education: Mild to Moderate.)

I have experience being in classrooms that are considered lower level comprehension, that are filled with kids who have IEPs or behavioral issues (and I am not saying that these are the students who are always in lower level comprehension classes, I am merely saying that these are the classrooms that I have observed/taught) and it is so different from teaching/observing a honors or college prep class. These are the students who challenge me, test me, and remind me of why I want to be a teacher. I get so much out of these classes and I always leave with more knowledge than I entered the classroom with. The class that my TP and I taught today was not any different.

            These students did not approve of the disruption of their daily routine that was my TP and I, but still we carried on. We were warned that the students in this class were going to be very talkative and this proved to be true. I used my “teacher voice” and started reviewing the homework with class while our CT walked up and down the aisles checking it. Then we started filling out a worksheet filled with 9 questions meant to help the students review for their test on The Crucible. I noticed that there seemed to be the same five students raising their hands to volunteer answers, so my TP and I encouraged the other students to talk by saying “Let’s hear from somebody who hasn’t given an answer yet” and this worked! When we started reading Act 4, the students became a little antsy. From my background in Special Education, I know that this can sometimes be curbed simply by standing next to or near the desk of a student who is particularly antsy or off task. You don’t have to embarrass the student in front of their peers, you simply just stand near them. My TP stood between two aisles on one side of the room while I placed my copy of The Crucible on the desk next to a student who was off task. This helped us regain control of our classroom and kept everything pretty calm.

            These students tripped over words that the other classes had not and they read aloud at a much slower pace. We often stopped the readings in appropriate spots to check for comprehension, which is not something that we did with the other classes. I loved the opportunity to teach The Crucible through the eyes of reluctant learners. I enjoyed observing the literacy skills that they employed to sound out words or gain meaning from the text.  These students aren't bad students, they just require us to use different techniques. They certainly kept us on our toes, but we did not falter. I hope to have an opportunity to work with these students again. 

My First Practicum Week!

This week was filled with early mornings and long nights spent with lesson plans (and I wouldn't trade it for anything!).  I was nervous as I approached this week, but I think that a little nerves are healthy. My CT had emailed me and said that she believed in giving teacher candidates immediate hands on experience, which I loved. We observed for a little while and then were given the opportunity to work with the sophomores as they read The Crucible. My teaching partner and I were given roles to read in the play and I was taken aback at how excited the kids were to read their lines. This excitement fueled me to use my strongest reading voice and to make sure that I projected and expressed emotion as I read my lines. The senior classes that my CT teaches started reading Buried Child when we first went to observe. I am excited to observe and co-teach the students from start to finish with this play!
            My teaching partner and I were given an awesome opportunity to chaperone a field trip with the two senior classes to see King Lear being performed! There were 40 students who went on this field trip and their excitement was palpable as they got on the bus. These students were so mature throughout this whole experience and there was not one instance where a student had to be reprimanded. The play itself was filled with talented actors who put on an amazing performance.  The discussion that the students had after the play demonstrated their maturity and understanding of King Lear on a deeper level of reading comprehension than just the literal level.

On our third trip to the school, my teaching partner and I were given the opportunity to teach the senior class about SDQR charts and lead them through Act 2 of Buried Child. Our CT let us lead the reading of The Crucible with both of her 10^th grade classes and for one of the 10^th grade classes we were able to lead them through their vocabulary as well! I found this a great opportunity to practice writing on the whiteboard (which is one of my weak areas that I need to work on) and I was surprised that my writing was straight for the most part! The 10^th graders needed some direction/scaffolding to get them to read with emotion, so we had the students evaluate what emotion their characters were feeling and then made them reread certain lines with that emotion. Once the students got going, they were really into it!

The senior class was the one that we taught the SDQR chart to. We lead them through most of Act 2 of Buried Child and then modeled how to use a SDQR chart. Our CT liked this and assigned them homework based around finishing Act 2 and completing an SDQR chart with it. The thing that I was most surprised by was the level of enthusiasm with these students as well as their demonstration of critical thinking skills. I think that they felt more comfortable around my TP and I simply because we had spent three days this week with them, as opposed to the 10th graders who were only seeing us for the second time. 

Both classes had a blast reading their respective plays and that felt so rewarding to me! I loved knowing that we were able to make this fun for them. I loved that the students liked our lessons and it inspired to me continue striving to make lessons that were informational as well as well received. I'm really excited to see what next week holds for me! 

My First Blog Post!

So this is my first blog post on a blog that I have created in order to reflect and grow as both a teacher candidate and future teacher! This is so crazy to me, because it makes me feel like such a grown up! I'm going to use this as my outlet to express my experiences in the classroom, gain insight into ways to improve and just reach a new audience in a way that I was unable to before.
I'm really excited to go observe and do my practicum at Burrillville High School! I am a little nervous because this is more high stakes than my previous experiences observing and teaching in classrooms! I have only heard good things about my practicum teacher, from my professors and from students who have attended Burrillville themselves. I have heard back from my practicum teacher and I am looking forward to working with her and observing her as she teaches. I can't wait to see what I can learn from her! I think the thing that is helping to alleviate my nerves is the fact that I have a co-teaching partner. It will be nice to have somebody to bounce ideas off of and to go through this experience with. Teaching is in my blood, running through my veins. It is all I have ever wanted to do. Even though I am a little nervous, I'm more excited and anxious to get started! Thanks for following my as I embark on this journey, I promise it will be an interesting and fulfilling one!