Friday, November 30, 2012

Teach Week Round 2? Check!


Teach Week Round 2 is already over. I have 3 classes left in Senior Seminar. Next up, a semester of student teaching. Woah.

Now for some thoughts from this whirlwind week, in no particular order…

Kids are blown away when you know their name even if you haven’t necessarily interacted with them before.

When the times get tough, your relationships with your students will help get you through.

Students need a voice in the classroom. However, some students genuinely like to hear themselves talk. It’s difficult to balance these things and make sure that a few voices don’t dominate or intimidate others. Also, when thinking about the students who merely repeat what their classmates said before them, how do we make sure that students are actively listening to one another?

Though I think non-fiction is important in every content area, I don’t want to let David Coleman and his Common Core State Standards suck the creativity out of me or my students:
·         “As they stared into my eyes, I could feel my heart thump and thump, it felt as though my heart was sticking out of my skin.”
·         “With the small strip of moonlight coming through the blinds, I can make out one meaty hand clutching a stake knife.”
·         “Suddenly, the dragon looked up from where it landed, and slowly, slowly raised it’s head to stare at me.”
I literally gasped aloud while listening to the students read their work. Though when I sat down to read them, I noticed some common spelling and grammar mistakes, I could tell who understood the concepts of suspense, suspicion, and unreliable narrator that we had been learning all week.

I’ll feel flattered if students choose to eat lunch with me in the classroom rather than take part in cafeteria shenanigans.

Finding the just right movie clip, poem, theme song, etc. to supplement a lesson is not easy. It’s a challenge I’ve had during the two Teach Weeks and the TCMWS. Often I can imagine what I want to use, but can’t find it. Or, certain movie clips aren’t exactly how I remember them or a TV show would be appropriate for high school but not middle school, and I need to start my search over again.  Frustrating.

Although I had been feeling disappointed and skeptical about middle school during our observations, being Ms. Richer this week felt good. This is not to say that everything during student teaching will be hunky dory. Things will be even more complicated and messy and political. But I think I’m ready. January 23, I’m coming for you!

3 comments:

  1. Those sentences are amazing!! It is amazing to see, first-hand, just how creative kids can be when given the opportunity.

    I agree that the kids were blown away when we knew their names but this goes both ways. When a student actually called me Ms. Carroll today I nearly fell over.

    January 23 ... this winter break is going to FLY. Here goes!!

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  2. Britt, those sentences are awesome and demonstrate that you TAUGHT them about suspense and suspicion. They got it! And you "got it" too when you say that relationships will carry you through. It's about big concepts like trust and community, but it's also concrete actions like making sure your classroom is a safe space to have lunch. This is incredibly generous of teachers to do, because they have so little time to themselves during the school day. Can't wait to hear about your student teaching adventures!

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  3. "Students need a voice in the classroom. However, some students genuinely like to hear themselves talk."
    And need CONSTANT approval from us! Holy cow, did you have that issue too? There's got to be some simple balance thing to this that's too close to see. It's wonderful hearing voices, but the same voices at the expense of others? I don't know. If you find the trick, let me know! :)
    Despite this obstacle, you got it! No doubt you taught your kids to write some fantastic, eery sentences. Awesome!

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