Online Reflection #4: Letter to Myself

Dear Me,

As a student teacher, you will find days that are out of this world, and other days where you wish you could crawl under a rock and disappear. When you feel like disappearing under a rock, think back to those days you felt like a rock star teacher and reflect on the things that went well. What did you do to succeed in the classroom? How did students respond to activities and why were the responses this way? Was it your energy? Did you give clear expectations? Did you answer everyone’s questions fully and give clear instruction? As you begin your next life adventure as a fully licensed teacher, keep these questions in mind, and build on them each day.

Also remember the days that do not go so well. Why did they not succeed? What did you do that made the lesson confusing or unsuccessful? How can you change things around to better succeed in the future? 

As you make this journey through student teaching, keep a journal of each day and spend time reflecting on how each lesson went. Make notes of activities that were out of this world, as well as ones that were way off base for students. Why did these activities have such a high success rate? What about this activity did not go as planned? By creating a daily reflection journal, this will show you how to in cooperate these strategies into your own classroom in the fall and help you succeed as a full time teacher.

Another big thing to remember: take notes over advice from your CT and US. All they want is for you to succeed and make your future students successful. Even if you have a bad day, let it go, but remember what it teaches you. Why did things move so quickly in one hour and not another? What can you do to fill the extra time without putting one class too far ahead of the other? 

One other thing: find a list of commonly taught high school novels and read ALL of them! Do this over your summer vacations, your holiday breaks, your free weekends. One day, you will have to teach these novels, and you cannot teach something you know nothing about. You are not Jason- simply staying one chapter ahead of students does not work for you. You need a goal in mind when you begin teaching a unit. Planning things out day by day does not do you or your students any good. Create a unit outline before you begin teaching units- give yourself an end goal to keep in mind, but remember not to teach to your test or project, whichever it may be. Create outlines and stick to them! If you make notes to warn students about a section of a novel, TELL THE STUDENTS! This will save you phone calls and surprises in the classroom later in the unit. 

Remember to take some time for yourself, spend it with Jason and do something that you both enjoy. Watch Netflix, play cards, take walks in the park. Whatever you do, do not lose sight of your love for one another. Remember where you came from in life and how you got to where you are. Do not dwell on the past, but remember what it taught you about life, happiness, and love. 

You will have days that seem impossible, where you want to crawl back into bed and hide under the covers and never come out. But in the end, everything is worth the struggles! You will accomplish this dream that you have held since being a sophomore in high school. You will succeed in life and your students will go on to do great things. 

Finally, take time for yourself. Between wedding planning, grading, and just spending time with Jason, remember YOU. Take an evening every few months and read a book, work on some cross stitch, or write a short story. Do something that you enjoy, by yourself, and relax. You will be under tremendous stress, and it will feel as though you do not have any time to actually do this, but do it anyway. You need to relax and to spend time with yourself. You need to find a time to let everything out and to focus on YOU. Nothing will go well if you do not take care of yourself, so make it a priority.

Breathe. Relax. You will do this. You are almost there, and everything will work out great.

Sincerely,

Stephanie

Oniline Reflection #3: Total Control

As I begin taking total control of the classroom, I am also taking on the responsibility of an additional prep. I have fully taught one unit by myself and am preparing for two units simultaneously at the moment. My CT has been a huge help in the beginning stages of planning, providing me with several resources and ideas for fun and effective class activities. Currently in the honors class, I am having students create a PicCollage showing the events that occurred during the time period of the novel (1940s). In order to complete the PicCollage, students first had to complete a Webquest to find information to include in their PicCollage (Smagorinsky 39). Since these are honors students, some of them tend to over think things and I have found that a smile and nod often gives them the nudge necessary to take an idea and run with it. One example of this is when students researched the 1940s, I asked them to identify a major event from the time period. All students were able to identify that WWII occurred during this time, but were looking for a more specific event. When they raised hands and asked if they were on the right track, I often smiled at them and occasionally pointed at something on their screen saying “that’s interesting”. It was hard not to tell students directly, “yes, that is what I want”; I wanted them to figure things out and do the research and learn from their findings. I feel that this will help students “draw on prior knowledge to connect with new knowledge” throughout our unit over A Lesson Before Dying by Gaines (Smagorinsky 183).

For the regular sophomore class, I am compiling a unit over Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night comedy. Currently, students will be taking notes and completing web quests over the life of William Shakespeare. My CT suggested that rather than having a long drawn out lecture over the material, students would do better by completing projects about the time period and play writer and would ultimately take more from the lessons. I have taken her advice, and am looking forward to seeing how students do with these activities.

With the guidance of my CT, my units seem to be shaping up nicely. I have yet to begin my Twelfth Night unit with the regular sophomore class, but the enthusiasm from the honors students this afternoon has boosted my confidence. I look forward to seeing what my students can come up with and am excited for their final projects.

Online Reflection #2: On My Own

This last week, I finished wrapping up the first unit I have ever taught entirely on my own. I spent the last month working with honors sophomores and the text Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I would assign sections of readings for students, and follow these readings up with a full class discussion circle about the reading and their guided reading questions. My students were expected to participate in the discussion at least twice to earn full credit. This worked out fairly well with students. Everyone sat in a large circle around the room and they would raise their hands to participate in the discussion. This helped me keep track of who all had participated in the discussion and thus allow me to distribute their points for the day. Depending on how long the discussion took, as often times we used the entire hour, students would complete worksheets that would ask them to either characterize Bradbury's characters from the novel, or complete charts about style and the way that Bradbury writes. Students took well to these discussions and the assignments, and often impressed me with how deep they would dig into the story.

Being in front of the entire class and leading the lesson entirely on my own helped me gain confidence in my teaching ability. This unit reinforced my abilities as a teacher to myself, and showed my CT what I am capable of accomplishing with an entire class. My students took their test on Friday, and I am excited to see how well they understood the material and how much they took out of our class discussions.

Online Reflection #1: Getting to Know My Students

This semester is starting out like most other semesters in the education program for me; I am beginning a new placement at a new school, I am getting to know a new CT and students, and am preparing a unit to teach entirely on my own! 

To begin the semester, my CT is gradually allowing me the opportunity to work with students which allows them to become more comfortable with me and get to know me, while at the same time seeing how I teach and allowing me to better understand the students and the classroom environment she has already created. She began by having me take over the bell work activities that begin each class. Each afternoon before I leave, I pose two philosophical questions/statements (one for English 2 and another for Honors English 2) for students to respond to when they enter the classroom. This has been a challenge for me at times, but has also been a great way for me to get know the students. It has allowed me to interact with students at the beginning of each class period, and because of this I feel as though I am getting to know more about each student so I can have an idea of what to expect when I begin teaching full lessons. It has also helped me become more comfortable around students and I have begun forming habits for when I will take control of the entire class.

After bell work, my CT has been taking control of the class while I observe her teaching styles, see how students respond, and occasionally answer students’ questions. There has been several student-led small group discussions where students review their study guide questions together and my CT gives points for the number of times a student contributes to the discussion (Smagorinsky 42). The students respond well to this, as it gives them a chance to discuss their ideas with a group before coming together as a class and reviewing the information. 

When the students have talked about all or most of the questions from their study guide, usually after about 10 minutes, my CT will call the class back to order and begin discussing the importance of each question with the class as a whole. This usually consists of her going through each question and explaining the answer in more detail. While this is happening, some students will add to their own answers while others sit back and listen. 

Although I have not had an opportunity to teach a mini or full lesson to a class just yet, I am beginning to prepare a mini lesson with the help of my CT so that students will continue gaining that confidence when I am in charge. This will also serve as a good practice for me so that I can gain a better insight to how students respond outside of bell work and small group discussions. I look forward to this opportunity this week and am hoping for the best!