Hopeful!

A few individual goals I have for myself this week are connecting with my students, giving clear directions, and respecting the classroom environment that the students have created. It's been a tough couple of weeks trying to connect with the students in the classroom. I think part of the difficulty connecting is because of the rotating schedule. I remember having a rotating schedule in middle school. It was a very good idea because not all the students are ready to talk about history at 8:00 every morning. When you switch things up each day, you will see a different student each time you meet. However, in the short amount of time we are in our middle school I need to find a way for the students to like me and enjoy my teaching. This week I'm going to make this work! Clear directions are definitely going to be part of the challenge in the middle school this week. High school students take directions in a very different way than the middle school students. Clear directions are not easy to come by. There always seems to be a room for error. I'm hopeful that my partner and I can make it clear to the students what they will need to do, how to do it, and why they need to do it. This also blends in with our classroom management in a middle school. The amount of energy 7th grade students have is AMAZING! IF we can hone that energy in on the lesson and not side chatting, we'll be good for the week. My last individual goal is to make sure I am respecting the classroom environment that the teacher has created. The students have specific classroom management rules, as well as, community building actions. These actions include classroom points for the day, shutouts for students, and a system called tracking (giving all of your attention to whomever is speaking in class). I guess you would call these the classroom norms. In high school the classroom norms are pretty standard: no cell phones, no talking in class, ask for a pass, and respect the teacher. In middle school, community is the center of the classroom norms. They are used to create a comfortable feeling within the classroom. A collaborative goal I have for this week in the middle school is embracing what my partner had=s to bring to the table. Emmanuel is a great teacher candidate, however, we haven't had many teaching moments in the middle school. We've done a great deal of observing and monitoring the classroom. I can't wait to see his reactions to certain situations, as well as, his overall presence center stage in the classroom. We seem to have a lot of fun doing mini lessons as a pair so I can't imagine anything less during this week of teaching. I'm hopeful that this week will continue on a good note like it did on Monday of last week. We made a break through connecting with the students. We gave directions and helped with explaining point of view. They seemed to enjoy our leading the class and I hope that continues for this week.

Is it me?

Another week has gone by at ASFMS and I'm still not sure if it's the place for me. I feel as though I have been trying to get to know the students and really work on getting in their heads but I don't think it's working. It's obvious that they don't know it all, however, I don't know if it's me that they don't need. I guess what I'm questioning for the middle school student is territory. This week the students were working on a language lesson with their teacher regarding point of view. The teacher did have a pretty interesting lesson for this, as well as, frightening. She decided to ask for help from the teachers on her team in tricking the students into thinking that their teacher was in trouble with the school. They played the "bad guy" card during the first five minutes of class. While the students were working on their vocabulary words the interruption occurred. A neighboring teacher came in through a side door and began yelling at my CT. The students had shock written all over their faces. This lasted for about 3 minutes. Once the "fight" was over, the door slam came... The next 5 minutes were wrapped up in making sure my CT was okay. Once she "calmed down" and collected herself for the class, she asked the students to write down everything they saw. She told them that she needed them to write a letter to the principal explaining the way both teachers acted. She explained to the students that she needed this letter on file for her own protection. The students agreed to write the letters and some even shared with the class. I thought this was an interesting way to develop the lesson on point of view. The students had no idea that the fight was staged. It slightly broke my heart seeing her lie to the students for the remainder of the class but I didn't want to ruin the lesson. You could see the amount of loyalty the students had for their teacher through their letters. This goes back to my thoughts on territory. Maybe the students aren't really a fan of having a student teacher in the classroom because they have a teacher. THEY HAVE THEIR TEACHER. I don't want to think of it this way but it's hard not to think that the students are brushing me off because they know I won't be there after the month ends. I can't help but respect their distance, however, I want them to know I'm not replacing their teacher. This week has left me feeling a little frustrated and defeated. I'm hopeful that this week will be different. I'm hoping to gain some of the resistors respect. I'm hoping that I'm just being paranoid because I do enjoy the middle school level.

Can I call you Fire?!

Middle school thoughts - WHAT?!?! The amount of energy these kids have is absolutely amazing. What comes out of their mouths is even more amazing. I recently had a student ask what my name was and when I replied with Miss Burns she asked if she could call me fire.... Thankfully the girl wasn't disappointed when I gave her a flat out no. There was no shame in her game either when she asked if she could call my partner rainbows. I really wonder where these kids get their ideas. The verbal comments weren't half as entertaining as the students’ narratives they were writing. I never realized the amount of kidnapping, blood, and murder middle school students could write about. While helping edit narratives I couldn't help but feel like I was in the middle of a murder mystery series that was never ending. The imagination that these seventh grade students have is INSANE! One narrative I really enjoyed could have been the first chapter of a James Patterson novel. The student made it very clear that he wanted to leave the reader with a cliffhanger. He put so much time with dialogue and describing his setting that his narrative really did come to life when I read it. I told him to make a few minor changes just so the reader doesn't get confused. The student knew why I suggested the changes and was happy that I could help his masterpiece. I do feel it is a bit harder getting to know the students at the middle school because they are so use to their teacher. Here come two complete strangers that want to know what makes them tick for the next four weeks. I can't help but feel a little frustrated going into our second week. I want them to bring their wall down like my high school students did last month. I'm hoping that this changes and they start to feel a little more comfortable with my partner and I.

Middle School Madness!

I feel like the middle school as a whole deserves a week like basketball teams do in March. MIDDLE SCHOOL MADNESS! It has a great ring to it. Not to mention all the students have such a different energy than students in high school. The kids in middle school are "creating" who they want to be for high school...I think. I could be completely wrong about that but I remember that's what I did in middle school. Then again, it's been 11 years since my middle school days so I take that back. I guess what I'm hoping to do with my middle school students is teach them that creating who you are never stops. I want them to understand that who you are in middle school isn't necessarily who you'll be in high school or in the future. This is where my idea of MIDDLE SCHOOL MADNESS comes in. We spend so much time with standardized tests, exams, and papers that we forget WHO our students are. We forget that they don't know who they are. It we could dedicate a week to showing the students we care about who they are then maybe high school won't be a battle of egos and attitude. My undercover job which in the middle schools is to really understand who the students are and what makes them tick. Of course, teaching the curriculum will also be high on my to do list but I want the students to know that I understand how crazy middle school can be. After 11 years away from the middle school experience I want them to know they aren't alone.

Being observed isn't so bad

Tuesday was the big day. Period 1 felt like it was over in 5 minutes. I felt like I wasn't given enough time to gather my thoughts but it didn’t matter. Quick on your feet was all I could think. I looked at Miss Harrington with nerves all over my face I'm sure. Ready GO! Monday was definitely a successful day with our introduction to Macbeth. We had a great discussion about fate, free will, and curses. We wanted to give the students 3 themes Macbeth has to offer. I felt great doing the lesson because it wasn't being observed. When I think about being observed I think my nerves are noticeable. I feel like everyone can hear my heart beating out of my chest. I sometimes think nothing I say makes sense because half the time it never makes sense in my head. I guess all these thoughts are incorrect because went well for the most part. Tuesday was day 2 of Macbeth but it was really day 1 of teaching. We assigned books, went over homework from the night before, and clarified and confusion the students had with the background reading from the night before. It was a typical recap. Our objectives were to start reading scenes 1-3 together. While reading the scenes, Miss Harrington and I modeled how to take notes while reading a specific text. We wanted the students to question what they didn't understand or record what they thought was interesting at that specific moment in the play. Before we could dive into Macbeth we needed some help. Asking for volunteers was almost as bad as getting your wisdom teeth taken out. There were about 5 students that volunteered before I had to pull out my on demand teacher voice, "The more willing you are to volunteer the less of a change that I pick you myself." In the words of my grandmother, "That went over like a fart in church." If you don't know what that means here is the short hand: NO ONE WANTED TO READ! Our second objective was to break the students up into groups and begin out Macbeth Jigsaw; however, time wasn't on our side. We were able to make it through to the middle of scene 3 before the bell rang. This was the part of the lesson we were hoping to get to because it would have been a bit more engaging to the students. Although the lesson took a little bit of time and patience I think it went well. When the students came in the next day they were excited to get into their groups and find out what happens to Macbeth and all the characters. Would I take a different approach to begin the reading next time - Absolutely! Not to say our approach was bad but it could have been better. I learned that sometimes what works for one class doesn't work for all of my classes. Period 1 had a great time with the way we started reading Macbeth. Even though period 2 wasn't into our approach for the lesson doesn't mean they were turned off by the play. Thankfully Miss Harrington and I had this in our favor. We switched up our thought process for the second part of the lesson in hopes that they would understand Act 1 and appreciate what we planned for them. Some of the students understood it and appreciated the Jigsaw. I think they appreciated it mostly because they were able to get out of reading the entire Act but they still learned what happened. Teaching isn’t set in stone. I can always go back and switch up whatever didn't work. Looking back on the lesson I have no complaints. I know what I need to work on to enhance student engagement - change my reading approach, look to the master students in reading, and maybe do an inquiry with my students on how they want to read the play.