Seniors

The units that I have been working on for the ttenth grade on  To Kill a Mockingbird  and the twelfth grade on Macbeth ended with the end of the quarter. When we came back from April vacation I started new units with both grades. It has been hard to start anything with the seniors. They came back from vacation WILD! Especially my college prep seniors.
The sunshine and promise of graduation is hard  for me to compete with. Luckily for me the beginning of this unit involves showing the students advertisements and I brought in an episode of that AMC show the pitch for them to watch. I am doing my best to make lessons that keep them interested. engaged, and laughing because any lulls give them the opportunity to start raving about prom and graduation.
It is nice to be able to relate to their excitement though! Graduation is right around the corner!!!!

Last Week of the Quarter

I am sure everyone is feeling the insane pressure that comes along with the end of the quarter. I feel like I am being pulled in fifty different directions.
I tried to make things easier for myself by reminding the students what they are missing and making copies of things for them two weeks ago. I have been giving students reminders/homework assignments/classwork etc. so I wouldn't be receiving everything last minute. It definitely reduced the amount of late work I will get this week from some students, but I still have a select few who have not given me much work work all quarter. I  am a little worried about getting handed stacks of late work from students on Friday (especially the research papers the seniors owe me).
Another issue I am having this week is coming up with a lesson for Friday...just about everyone of my students has informed me that he/she doesn't plan on being here because it is National Bunk Day and "that means they don't have to come to school"... My CT says that she never plans to do much on that day because it wouldn't be fair to give an assignment or a grade when not everyone is in class and it would count for the third quarter...... but is it fair for the kids who do come to school to not have the opportunity to boost their grade with another assignment. I know I will figure something out, but as of right now it is just adding to my frustrations.

New student

The last couple of weeks have been insanely busy for me. I had to give post assessment essays to all three of my classes- and then grade them, all three classes are doing research papers so I have been receiving those- giving feedback so they can revise, and my CT asked me to teach her tenth grade class because she liked what I have been doing with my tenth grade class (which feels really great to hear...but since we have block periods teaching four of her five classes has left me almost no time during school to do any grading) It is good though because this is how its actually going to be when I have my own classroom so the experience is useful.
Another thing that has kept me busy is figuring out what I am going to do with this new student that started in my tenth grade class. There are only three weeks left in the quarter and I need to make sure that she has a decent amount of grades from me. Her first day was today, so while the class was taking their post-assessment I had her start reading To Kill a Mockingbird. She complained about having to read the book, but we are only a little more than half way through it so it isn't like she cant catch up.
Side note- Her complaints about "how boring the book is" almost started a riot in my class. My students LOVE the book! We spent a couple of classes acting out the court scene and discussing ethos, pathos, logos ( I set up the room like a courtroom and they all had a part) so when they heard her say something negative about it some of them freaked. I didn't laugh in front of them but it was hilarious how upset they got. I had to assure some of them that just because she didn't like the book didn't mean we were going to stop reading it...super funny.
 Figuring out what exactly to have her do though is just another added stress I didn't see coming. I asked her to take the long weekend to catch up to where we are in the book so hopefully she does. Another worry I have is that she isn't going to feel like part of the class...especially after what happened today. This class has such a great community built in and they are so comfortable with one another. I was surprised at how welcoming they were to me, I thought that is how they would be with her but because of the tension today I am going to guess it is going to take some work before they send any love her way.

Wolf Hat

I have been waiting to post because I really wanted to post on this one boy in my 12th grade honors class and I was waiting till today to see if he would finally hand in the writing assignment that was due last week. If i didn't have it I wouldn't have had any writing to bring in with me from this student. LUCKILY!!! he handed it to me at the beginning of class.
This boy drives me nuts! He brings the craziest things with him to class everyday...they aren't really toys...but when I take away the harddrive he took out of his computer to bring with him to class...I feel like I am taking away his new hot wheels from Toys R Us. He is in my Honors class (which for the most part is full of amazing students) and he does deserve to be there. He is super smart but he is just off the wall. He always wears one of those hats with the big furry animal coming off the top of it...his is a wolf. He sits in class and plays with whatever he has brought in that day until I walk over and move it onto another desk or take it. The thing that drives me the craziest is every time he knows exactly whats going on in class. He has the BEST answers to all my questions. It makes it so hard to say something about how he acts in class because he knows more about what going on then the students sitting in class listening. The only thing I feel like I can say to him is that he is distracting his classmates.
He only does in-class work. Any homework I send home generally doesn't make it back and if it does it is not necessarily going to be in one piece. The other problem I have is when it is a writing assignment, like the one I collected from him today, he doesn't follow the directions at all but the writing is good and he clearly put effort into it. The writing assignment he handed in today was suppose to be two TIQA paragraphs (TIQA is this body paragraph thing the entire school uses) what he handed in doesn't have one quote. The Q in TIQA stands for quote the A is for an analysis of THAT quote. Without a quote to analyze there is no Q or A. His two paragraphs are great though...but at the same time he didn't do what I asked him to do. Then on top of that it is a week late and I am pretty sure he only gave it to me so I would get off his back about it. I have been pestering him about it so I could use him as my example in class this week.
I honestly wish you could all see his hat!!! I don't think he ever takes it off. Morning, noon, and night he wears that wolf hat.

Be Flexible

I am quickly learning not to plan to far ahead. In the beginning I was making lesson plans that had really specific time frames for everything I wanted to do in class. Now I am allowing a lot more time for warms ups, reading, and activities. When I originally wrote my lesson plans I thought I would be starting Act 2 of Macbeth today with the graphic novel...so I have all my lessons for that already mapped out and my copies made since last week...but instead today we finished Act 1. I find I am planning that flexibility into my lessons now. I still include where I want to be at the end of a lesson...but I plan for what I will do if that doesn't happen.

I still create a plan that has what I want to get through in the next two weeks but I don't obsess about getting each lesson plan made until it is a little closer to the actual day for that lesson. Between fire drills, assemblies, and other interruptions its hard to get through the entire "plan". Things that I wanted to have finished end up spilling into the next day which is fine I just adjust and make time. The more comfortable I get with teaching though the better I feel about being flexible.

I am also trying to decide how flexible I want to be as a teacher when it comes to taking late work. It seems the general rule in the class is that students can hand in late work right up until the end of the quarter even if it is assignments from day 1 of the quarter. Obviously during student teaching I will follow what my CT does and accept it but I don't know how I will actually feel about it when I am a teacher. I can see giving students a certain amount of time to make things up...but just an example of how students take advantage of being able to do there make up work whenever---I have three girls in one of my classes who still haven't finished a test that my CT gave them three weeks ago...she has completely handed that class over to me so it is my responsibility to make sure they finish it...if they don't finish the test by the end of the quarter it gets graded as is. They have been telling me they will come during advisory to finish it but then never show up. Seriously...How long should a student get to finish a test? an entire quarter seems unreasonable to me. I am willing to be flexible with late work but I still think that there needs to be a time limit.

Two Classes a Day!!!!

So I am teaching a total of three classes so far. There is block scheduling so on odd days I am only teaching one class (twelfth grade honors) and then on even days I am teaching two class (per.3 is a tenth grade honors and per.5 is a twelfth grade cp class). This is the first week that I have both classes in one day. It is stressful but I like it. I am so happy that I am finally getting a chance to get some real "teachery" experiences. The classes are back to back so I have to be ready to transition between the two classes quickly.
Today I had per. 3 in groups so I had to make sure that the class room was re-arranged into a circle for Period 5. I had to change the warm up on the board and the "objective of the day". They are small things...but before this week I have had a whole hour to prepare and double check everything. Now I have a few minutes between classes to get things ready for the next group of students walking in. Things have gone well the the past two days that I have had two classes but I can see why I need to be prepared before the start of everyday. There is not really anytime in between to prepare anything/ make copies. I am always prepared but my biggest worry right now is forgetting something. I find myself counting the copies to make sure I have enough for each class....as if when I made 35 copies only 32 came out....so yeah everything is going fine I just feel like kind of a nut sometimes.

No school...again

Im so happy I have power today!!!!!!!!!!!! but once again no school...which mean both classes I am suppose to take over still have to take thier Frankenstein tests and do their post assessments for the quarter. Between pipes burstings, fire alrams being pulled, snow days, power outages I am learning how flexible plans need to be. I know that there is nothing I can do about it but I still get soooo stressed when things dont go as planned.
I can deal with things getting off track for a couple days but we have been trying to give this test for a week. I was suppose to start Macbeth this week but I know that isnt going to happen now. I am just hoping that we at least have school for the next four days and there isnt an earthquake/flood/natural disaster that puts off these tests for any longer.
I guess this has been good to expereince though, planning for the unexpected. There are so many things that can stop/interupt class from happening and as a teacher I will  need to re-adjust and keep class moving forward as best as I can.

Socratic Seminar

I have read and heard alot about the Socratic Seminar...but I had never actually seen one in action until this week. My CT had her tenth grade honors class working towards this seminar all week. The students prepared open-ended questions to use and worked in small groups to practice being able to keep a conversation going. This Socratic seminar was the classes second one this year and they plan on having at least one more.
My CT split the student's into two groups, one group was in a circle in the middle of the second group's larger circle. The group that was not participating in the conversation were in the outer circle with individual/specific tasks given to them at the beginning of class. Those students were listening for high points, questions, disagreements, etc from the other group.
Without telling the students my CT had split the groups into the quiet students and the chatty students. She said that the first seminar didn't go as well because there are certain students who dominate the conversation and do not give the other students a chance to chime in. As of right now I only have gotten to see the talkative students have their seminar, the other group is going to go on Wednesday. I am excited to see how it works out with the quieter students. They are all really bright and I always think when I am watching this class that it is a shame that not all the students share when they get the opportunity. It is always the same students with their hands raised or shouting out answers. Even today in their Socratic seminar they were talking over one another at a few points. I love that my CT thought to split the students this way, I think it is going to work perfectly for this class but you never know they might come in and stare at each other in that circle so I guess I will see.

Grading Exams

This past week was mid-term exam week at EP. I spent most of my time in the school correcting the exams. There was some multiple choice but the majority of the exam was made up of the essay the student had to write. The 12th graders were given a prompt regarding Frankenstein being a Gothic horror novel and the 10th graders were asked to write about a speech Eli Wiesel gave when receiving the Nobel Peace Prize ( they were asked to focus on language).
I was given a rubric that had 8 different criteria ranging from the fluidity of the text to the student's textual evidence and organizational skills. I had to give them 1-4 on each item listed. 4 meant the student went above and beyond (which I quickly learned from my teacher is not given out often), 3 is proficient (the students need a three to pass), 2 is not proficient but close, and 1 mean the student missed the mark.
I found that the hardest part for me was distinguishing between 2s and 3s. So many of the  12th grade students would start off really strong and then get lazy by the end. The 10th graders seemed to get caught up with writing about their personal feelings towards the Holocaust rather than focusing on language like they were asked to do....what they wrote was great...just not completely following the prompt. It was hard to say those students weren't "proficient".
 I hate that word by the way, if someone told me I wasn't "proficient" I would be pissed.It sounds so cold. I also went to a department meeting regarding these exams where all the teachers were arguing about what it means to be "proficient". The meeting did not end with an answer.
My CT agreed with most of the grades I gave and she said that she was really excited that I was doing so well with grading. By Thursday she was letting me grade on my own. Even though she was happy with the way I was grading I still feel a little unsure when deciding when someone is "Proficient".