The Monster of Testing

It's not like I didn't know the frustrations of testing before I started student teaching. My mom has been a teacher my whole life practically, and recently became the go-to person for her school's computer and testing, since the main state standardized test is now all computer based. She's always frustrated about this thing or that change.

But now that I'm in the thick of it, and also listening to other teachers at my student teaching and how they're frustrated, I get it. I really do. And if I wasn't 100% committed to teaching, like you ask me what else I want to do and I don't have another answer for you, that kind of committed, the climate at my school yesterday would have driven me away for good.

I still don't know what the hell I'm going to do in my own classroom, in charge of everything. I freak out about it at least four times a day. But I'm still going strong, and I've gotta keep it up.

Dory can be my spirit animal this week :)

4th period reflection

We got a new student today. Before he arrived, we were "warned" about him; he's a discipline problem, he's coming from a tricky school, he's got all these discipline reports on his file, etc. etc. etc.

He did just fine in our class today. He was a bit overwhelmed, as to be expected on his second day in a brand new school, but he handled class well. He was attentive, didn't talk out while my CT was talking, and actually wanted to finish an assignment that we had just given him today, when some of his classmates didn't strive to finish it even after having over a week to finish it.

He's an excellent example, so far, of how teachers can skew their perceptions of a new student with reports from a previous school, often for the worse. We'll never know about what happened at that other school, and what that student was going through at the time, so there's no sense in letting that affect how our students come in to our class. Everybody should be given the chance to start fresh, and we as teachers need to give that opportunity (least dangerous assumption anyone? It's totally applicable outside special ed... :D ) to our students.

So, that's that. We've also been trying to plan for the rest of the semester, and I need to step up my game planning for Romeo and Juliet. I also need to make sure I leave time for pen pal letters in there, for 4th period at least. Not sure what to do about 3rd period pen pals because they're writing to deployed Marines who may not be able to write them back. Any suggestions for that would be welcome. :)

That's it for now. See you tomorrow!

Romeo and Juliet planning, 3rd period.

Today we start The Odyssey. Yahoo! I wonder though, how well will this epic tale go over. Honestly, I don't think they're going to see all the action and adventure. They're going to get tripped up on the funky language and format and not be able to get past that. But we'll see. Sometimes they surprise me, and that's the fun part of teaching. At least, that's one fun part about teaching so far.

My CT started with a slideshow lecture, while they took notes on what she said was important. She used the incentive of "you can use your literature journals and anything you have in them on quizzes" to encourage them to copy down the notes. I like this idea, and am probably going to use it when I start Romeo and Juliet. Yeah, lecture days suck, and my CT even said that today was going to be a lot of her talking. Some days you just have to lecture, and that's ok. I'd rather have one solid day of frontloading Shakespeare, then move on the fun stuff, than have them stumble through Romeo and Juliet without any contextual knowledge of Shakespeare and the times he lived in.

I'm also going to start talking to them about what they want to get out of reading Romeo and Juliet. I've asked some already, and they've made suggestions like watching the movie Gnomeo and Juliet (which I was going to show pieces of anyway) as well as a repeat or variation of the statues lesson we did with F. 451 last semester. I want to make sure we do some things that will interest them; they're more likely to retain pieces of what we talk about that way.

So, aside from that stuff, what else could I do for an intro in to Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare? Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?
 :)

New Semester, New Blog

Hi BlogSpot!

So this is my second semester in student teaching, and I'll be keeping a journal of how it goes. So far so good, minus the frustrations and anger that always is connected to standardized testing and being made to do things with your grades that comes down from the district.

(Wordpress is also not my favorite blogging platform, so I'm switching to this one.)

See you Monday!