Saturday February 28, 2009

My coop was not in class on Thursday. This made me feel a little excited and somewhat apprehensive at the same time. I was excited to see how I was going to be able to handle a hundred students myself. Well, not entirely myself. I had a was a sub with me. I was also apprehensive because my coop had not miss an entire day since I started teaching and I was not sure what was going to happen. Over all, the day was a success. There were some minor issues and interuptions that probably would not have occured if my coop was present especially in period three. They are good students but they like to talk when my coop is not there and they pretend I am not there. The problem I have had since I started student teaching here is I feel like a "guest". And when I feel like a guest, I "act" like a guest. Since I have been acting like a guest, the students in this class noticed this and respond by chatting with their friends. This obviously had to stop. And I had to stop feeling like a guest. During this class, I had to unleash the same voice and set the same tone I use when I have to remove someone from my restaurant. This not only change the tone of the class but it also made me feel less like a guest and more of the feeling of belonging here. Since this got their attention, I finally realized these are "my" students and this is "my" classroom when I am teaching in it. The most valuable part of the week for me was when I rid myself of the feelings of a guest and replaced them with the feeling of belonging.

I started teaching a computer applications class last week but the entire week consisted of a week long introduction of content with a test on Monday. I began teaching skills on Wednesday. I thought I was well prepared. My lesson plans were good and I reviewed all of the material more than once before Wednesday and Thursday. I began teaching Microsoft Word 2007 on Wednesday. After an introduction to the lesson, the students were supposed to continue working on their own following the step by step instructions in the text. But something went wrong. Some of the students were lost. Others were trying but progress was slow. As I continued I realized there was some confusion. The text was not exactly accurate with the Microsoft Word on the student's computers. These inconsistancies made the students think they could not understand the lesson. By the time class was over, most of the students had completed the lesson plan I had prepared for the day but the confusion lasted until the bell rang. I knew my problem immediately after class was over. I did not complete the exercises in the book step by step as the students were supposed to. Sure, I knew the material. I could do these exercises in my sleep. But I should have completed these exercises exactly how I expected the students to complete them. I should have opened the book and begun with the first step on the first page. If I had done so, I would have noticed the inconsistancies in advance and would have been better able to make the students aware of the problems with the text. This is the part of my week I would like to go back and change.

Most of us have been on a see-saw before and we know the principal of how something reacts when something else weighs more. Well, when I started this semester, the amount of work and uncertainty outweighed everything else. This was the “fat” kid sitting on the see-saw as it remained stationary on the ground while the small kid, the teaching aspect, was on the opposite end screaming to get down. I wondered how I was going to get all of the work done. After a while, I wondered how I was going to complete acceptable work. This weighed more than anything else. I was, and still am overwhelmed with the work and creating exciting lesson plans. Now, after teaching here for a few weeks, I have noticed important changes in the way I feel about teaching here. The increasing hellos from students in the hallways and the increased positive interaction with the students in the classroom are really having an effect on me. When I started student teaching I was nervous. Now, I am excited to be there in front of class. On Thursday, one student exclaimed I was his favorite teacher in school. How can this be? I have only been there for a few weeks. As I sat in class the rest of that day, I began to realize teaching is truly more of an honor than just a job. Teaching, now, is like the “fat” kid with all of its honor as it outweighs the incredible amount of important work screaming to get down and be completed. This is not only the most valuable feeling of the week, but I think this overwhelming feeling of being honored to teach will last throughout my teaching career.

I know this is going to sound redundant, but I would like to change and revise my lesson plans. Because preparing lessons in order to connect is so vitally important, I would like to go back and make them more exciting in order to give my students a "wow" moment. Yes, my lesson plans and my presentations of them have improved considerably since I started, but it seems only after I have finished presenting my lesson plans, I realize I could have made them better. As I look back, I could have enhanced each and everyone. Fortunately, I appear to be organized as I teach, but on paper my lessons and my presentations of them don’t always meet my objectives. Other times, the standards I choose have no reason for being part of my plan. This is the area I am going to concentrate on improving. I am going to concentrating on preparing accurate and exciting lessons.

February 9-13

My co-op let me teach my classes without her in the room on Thursday. This was an eye opener for me during my second class. The first class has always been very quiet and needs little or no discipline. The second class I teach, however, can get loud and rowdy without my co-op in the room. As soon as my co-op exited the classroom, the students acted as if they had permission to talk loud and misbehave. I was able to control the class the entire period but it was difficult to concentrate on my lesson plan while I had to continuously raise my voice in order to get their attention. After about fifteen minutes of this, it became evident I had to do something other than raise my voice. I stopped the class immediately and stood directly in front of the boisterous students and said, “Although I am a student teacher, I have the same authority to ‘write you up’ or send you to the office”. I remember that line from our previous Monday night class and it seemed to work for most of the class period. The noise level started to increase toward the end of class. I was about to stop class again when my co-op entered the room. It was amazing how the students eventually calmed down after my co-op returned to the room. This is valuable to me because as a teacher and especially a student teacher, I realized I have to be ready to be ready to manage the class effectively in order to create a positive learning environment.

I introduced driveofyoulife.org to both of my classes this week. It was a fun and interesting activity for every student. I used this web site many times this week in order to prepare for any questions the students might have. However, the minor problem I would like to changed would have been the introduction of the web site. When I first logged on to driveofyourlife.org at home, I was asked to register my name, name of school, city and state of my school and my user name and password. But every other time I logged on I simply had to type in my name and password. Well, I logged on to the web site so many times with my user name and password I forgot to explain the registration directions to the students when I started class. The students looked lost for about thirty seconds until I realized my mistake. I quickly backed up and began with the registration page. This was not a major mistake but this experience proved to me I must to pay "attention to detail".

February 2-6

This week became increasing comfortable teaching the two class periods of Career Exploration. I teach the two classes back to back which seems valuable to me because I do not get a chance to loose any momentem. Three minutes after concluding with one class, I begin my introduction to the next class. Another valuable distinction I have noticed is that student teaching is begining to be fun and rewarding. Yes, we can all agree the preparation of the work is long and tedious, but the interactions with the students is begining to outweigh the work involved.

I am getting more aquainted with the students. The other day I was walking through a crowded hallway in between periods and I heard a voice say, "Hey Mr. Cardone". I could not see the student who offered me the hello, so I extended a "good morning" back to the voice in the crowd. It was a great feeling to have a student recognize me after only being in the school seven days and go out of his way to say hello.

As I continue to observe the computer applications class, a student sat near me in order to finish discussing his upcoming wrestling meet. We began this conversation the previous day but did not get a chance to finish. I thought this was cool because he went out of his way to sit near me and finish the conversation. It seems as if I am making a positive impact on the students. And as this week concludes, I believe getting to know the students in this way is going to be what helps me become a better teacher.

Most of the classes went well this week with the exception for Tuesday. At first, I was not sure what went wrong. As the students exited the room at the end of the period, I just stood there wondering, "what happened"? I told my co-op something went wrong and unfortunately she agreed with me. First, I thought it was my lesson plan, then I figured it had to be the students, but as I looked back on it I knew it was me. As the class started I noticed they were not interested in being in school or listening to what I had planned for that day. As I continued, the students were not responding to any of my questions or the fact that I can be funny sometimes. I noticed this and instead of trying to really engage the students I told myself I was doing a poor job. My confidence level began to diminish and my lesson plan followed. And this was the cause of the lesson I would like to re-do. The lesson I learned from that day is not to let my feelings get in the way of my teaching.