Student Teaching is an amazing experience. Working with students can be so rewarding. We work so hard in college to get ready to step out and try teaching in the real world, and finally during your professional semester you get the opportunity. Going into the semester I was focusing on lessons, standards, and school requirements. Now from this end I see the whole experience was really about interacting with students. Here are a few things I feel made my experience a great one.
From my first day I was determined to have good classroom control. I wasn’t there to be my students “buddy” and I am so thankful I had this approach. I showed my students right from the start that they would obey me 100% or there would be consequences. I may not have been their favorite student teacher the first two weeks, but it was worth it. After those first couple weeks, except on the rare occasion, I was able to relax with my students and have more fun. They already knew that I demanded good behavior from them, and this meant that I could now spend my time teaching and doing fun activities. I truly feel that if I would have been to “fun” at the beginning that I would have been fighting my classes the whole semester.
The other advice that I have is to take the time to listen to your students. So many of them have home lives that we cannot even fathom. Many times students just need someone there that seems to care about their everyday stories. The most amazing part of my student teaching experience was making connections with a few of my students in this way. When you earn the trust and respect of your students by taking the time to care about them, you not only make a difference in their life, but you will also get so much more out of these students in your class.
Student teaching is very difficult at times, but don’t get so lost in your “requirements” that you forget to take the time to enjoy what is important, all of those kids in your classes.
I really hope you enjoy your experience, as I did. Good luck!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Easter Week
This week seemed very long to me. I don't know what I would have done if it would have been a full week! It was interesting to learn what teachers to in preperation for a break. For example, not teaching new material the last day of class before a break. I also enjoyed having a little fun with my students on Thursday, doing an "easter egg" hunt.
What I would change this week, would be to hurry along my keyboarding students a little more. Mrs. Emery said they are a little bit behind, so I will now be cutting out some of the material for the next few lessons to get them caught back up.
What I would change this week, would be to hurry along my keyboarding students a little more. Mrs. Emery said they are a little bit behind, so I will now be cutting out some of the material for the next few lessons to get them caught back up.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Week 12
I am sure I am not the only one to realize it is easier to be in school than out after this week! Coming back from FBLA posed many challenges. I felt it was very hard to get caught back up on work. I was expecting this to be dificult, but it was more overwhelming than I thought. So I think the most beneficial part of this week was learning how incredibly much you need to plan ahead if you will be absent from your classroom.
What I would change about this week would be that I would have tried to do more lesson planning while at FBLA. I didn't get my lessons in 48 hours in advance at the end of the week, despite my best efforts. Sometimes I feel that keeping all the balls in the air during student teaching is impossible. I would have changed this or course, and I have taken the appropriate steps this week to make sure I am ahead in my classes.
What I would change about this week would be that I would have tried to do more lesson planning while at FBLA. I didn't get my lessons in 48 hours in advance at the end of the week, despite my best efforts. Sometimes I feel that keeping all the balls in the air during student teaching is impossible. I would have changed this or course, and I have taken the appropriate steps this week to make sure I am ahead in my classes.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Week 11
Week eleven went by very fast. Friday grades were due for midterm evaluations, so that process was hectic. It is amazing to see how fast assignments can multiply in a short time. The most beneficial part of this week was getting the experience of entering grades and being able to post comments to all my students. It was neat to be able to give positive feedback to all of my students on their report cards.
What I would change this week would be to set my deadline for assignments earlier in the week. I was accepting assignments on Friday and I had to finalize my grades Friday. This made Friday a little crazy. I could have made things a little easier on myself if everything would have been due on Thursday. My thought process was to give students every opportunity to turn in their work, but I would definitely change this for next time.
What I would change this week would be to set my deadline for assignments earlier in the week. I was accepting assignments on Friday and I had to finalize my grades Friday. This made Friday a little crazy. I could have made things a little easier on myself if everything would have been due on Thursday. My thought process was to give students every opportunity to turn in their work, but I would definitely change this for next time.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Week 10
This week went pretty well overall. I was well prepared for all of my classes which helped keep my stress levels down. Also, I felt my students were connecting well with the content I presented in my accounting course. Vicky and I were able to do some fun activities with the accouting studetns which was a really nice break from constantly using the work book.
I had an interesting experience this week in my accounting class. I had a student get upset with me in class and cause a scene in front of all the other students. My co-ops told me not to take it personally, but the student that did this was a good student! I felt a little bad about it during the day, but then the coolest thing happened. Another student from the class came to my room on my lunch break to let me know she was sorry for what happened. She wanted to make sure I knew that the class did not feel the same way this individual did. She appoligized for his behavior, and also told me she thought I was great teacher. It really ment a lot that the student took the time to do this. The original situation was a learning experience, but it gave me a lot of respect for that student.
I had an interesting experience this week in my accounting class. I had a student get upset with me in class and cause a scene in front of all the other students. My co-ops told me not to take it personally, but the student that did this was a good student! I felt a little bad about it during the day, but then the coolest thing happened. Another student from the class came to my room on my lunch break to let me know she was sorry for what happened. She wanted to make sure I knew that the class did not feel the same way this individual did. She appoligized for his behavior, and also told me she thought I was great teacher. It really ment a lot that the student took the time to do this. The original situation was a learning experience, but it gave me a lot of respect for that student.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Week 9
This week ended great. I had been feeling bad about my accounting class, but today I gave them their test on the current chapter and they did great! It felt good to see them succeed and to be a part of their success. I also enjoyed using positive reinforcement in my classes this week. I decided early on in the week that if my classes behaved well that we would listen to music during class time on Friday. Turns out they all did great, so today we listened to music all day. It was a blast for me and the students. I made sure I only played music with appropriate messages and lyrics and it was great. The student still stayed on task, and they expressed they wanted to behave all the time to get this reward! So awesome!
What I would have changed this week had to do with accounting, again. I made a small mistake answering a question and even though it wasn’t a big deal I feel like I totally loose the respect of the students when that happens. Anyway, I was definitely upset about it, but I decided that all I could do was make sure I know more for next time. I feel accounting is a hard subject to teach the first time around because there seem to be a million details you need to be on top of. I know it is not the end of the world when you make a mistake, but I would sure like to avoid them in the future!
What I would have changed this week had to do with accounting, again. I made a small mistake answering a question and even though it wasn’t a big deal I feel like I totally loose the respect of the students when that happens. Anyway, I was definitely upset about it, but I decided that all I could do was make sure I know more for next time. I feel accounting is a hard subject to teach the first time around because there seem to be a million details you need to be on top of. I know it is not the end of the world when you make a mistake, but I would sure like to avoid them in the future!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Week 8
This week was crazy! I felt very overwhelmed with work not only in the courses I am teaching but also in clinical studies. I do not feel I have enough hours in the week to complete everything that is required. Until this point in the semester I have felt busy, but capable. Now I am feeling for the first time like I might not be able to do it all.
On a more positive note I enjoyed my students very much this week. Giving them the student survey was a great experience. Not only was I able to learn their perspective through the survey, but I was also greatly amused by some of their open comments! In my accounting course I learned that many students feel I go to fast. This was interesting feedback for me since I have not heard this comment from my co-op or advisor. I am taking it to heart though and making sure that I am keeping a good pace and checking for understanding often. This week it was fun to interact with my students as they are behaving well in class.
What I would change this week would have to do with accounting. Our chapter was on posting to ledgers and students do not find it interesting at all. My co-op advised me to just “get through it” and I took her advice. I wish I would have taken a little more time to try to make this material interesting to the students.
On a more positive note I enjoyed my students very much this week. Giving them the student survey was a great experience. Not only was I able to learn their perspective through the survey, but I was also greatly amused by some of their open comments! In my accounting course I learned that many students feel I go to fast. This was interesting feedback for me since I have not heard this comment from my co-op or advisor. I am taking it to heart though and making sure that I am keeping a good pace and checking for understanding often. This week it was fun to interact with my students as they are behaving well in class.
What I would change this week would have to do with accounting. Our chapter was on posting to ledgers and students do not find it interesting at all. My co-op advised me to just “get through it” and I took her advice. I wish I would have taken a little more time to try to make this material interesting to the students.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Week 7
Week seven was chaotic in a word. I feel much busier this week than I have so far. I gave out my first accounting test this week and I learned a lot getting the students ready for the test. I leaned first of all that many students don't find it necessary to study! I also learned that no matter how much effort you poor into reviewing with your students it is still up to them to decide to think about the material and learn. Overall, I was pleased with the test results, there were a few students who did very poorly, but the grades were consistent with their grades from past tests. One student asked me if I felt bad that her grade is lower since I have been her teacher. I responded by saying, I care very much if she does well in the class and I put all my effort into teaching her the material to the best of my ability. It was an interesting question for a student to ask, but it shows they are definitely judging your abilities to teach.
Something I would change for the week would be my Friday accounting lesson. The lesson did not go as smoothly as I would have liked, and my co-op had a few suggestions for me. I feel I am in a strange position because I only observed accounting for a week before I took over the class. Also, I am only in that classroom for one period of the day. This makes teaching accounting difficult for me, because I do not get the chance to observe any content courses being taught during the week.
After my lesson on Friday I got permission from my main co-op to observe my other co-op teach her accounting lesson. This was very helpful to me, and I will be reviewing some of the concepts from Friday’s class with the students on Monday.
Something I would change for the week would be my Friday accounting lesson. The lesson did not go as smoothly as I would have liked, and my co-op had a few suggestions for me. I feel I am in a strange position because I only observed accounting for a week before I took over the class. Also, I am only in that classroom for one period of the day. This makes teaching accounting difficult for me, because I do not get the chance to observe any content courses being taught during the week.
After my lesson on Friday I got permission from my main co-op to observe my other co-op teach her accounting lesson. This was very helpful to me, and I will be reviewing some of the concepts from Friday’s class with the students on Monday.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Weel 6
This week I had a blast teaching. This must be the magic point where I start to feel really comfortable with my students. I was a little apprehensive of teaching the senior accounting class, but it has turned out to be a lot of fun. Even though the students like to get a little chatty, they also contribute to the class and stay focused. I appreciate their effort in class since I am putting so much effort into preparing. It makes my time spent feel worthwhile.
I also had another personal victory this week. I mentioned in another post that I had a conflict with a student. She was very upset about me covering her keys while she was typing, and her behavior was way out of line! I happen to be very amused this week because, despite her best efforts, she is enjoying class. She has three friends in the class who had all decided I am was so lame, but we have been doing some pretty fun activities lately and they are loving it. Hate it when that happens. ;)
This week I would have changed some aspects of the accounting lesson I did today. I decided to experiment with using PowerPoint to review a large problem we were doing in class. The problem was far to long to do from scratch so I used some print screens of the teacher key. I didn't showed the students one journal entry at a time, but the entire line was exposed at once. This is not the typical way I do this, and I felt it wasn't effective. Students were writing instead of thinking all the parts through. I had cleared my PowerPoint with my co-op before I presented it, and we decided to experiment and see how it went. Turns out for this long problem I would rather use a good old fashioned transparency. Luckily there is always Monday and we will finish the in-class problem that way.
I also had another personal victory this week. I mentioned in another post that I had a conflict with a student. She was very upset about me covering her keys while she was typing, and her behavior was way out of line! I happen to be very amused this week because, despite her best efforts, she is enjoying class. She has three friends in the class who had all decided I am was so lame, but we have been doing some pretty fun activities lately and they are loving it. Hate it when that happens. ;)
This week I would have changed some aspects of the accounting lesson I did today. I decided to experiment with using PowerPoint to review a large problem we were doing in class. The problem was far to long to do from scratch so I used some print screens of the teacher key. I didn't showed the students one journal entry at a time, but the entire line was exposed at once. This is not the typical way I do this, and I felt it wasn't effective. Students were writing instead of thinking all the parts through. I had cleared my PowerPoint with my co-op before I presented it, and we decided to experiment and see how it went. Turns out for this long problem I would rather use a good old fashioned transparency. Luckily there is always Monday and we will finish the in-class problem that way.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Week 5
This week was full of challenges! First off my co-operating teacher was away for two days. Also, this week was PSSA testing. With those two elements combined my two classes were difficult to manage at times. I had one particular incident with a female student that tested me. I had just told the student I would be covering her keys with a white paper. She knew she would have to put her hands under the keys as I had explained earlier in the class. The student threw a huge fit and had a horrible attitude through the rest of the class period. I also think I caught her calling me a bad name to her friend! Needless to say I was furious! I didn't allow the student to see how mad I was and I announced at the end of class that she would be staying after the bell rang. After class I told her how unacceptable her behavior was and that I would not allow it in my class (that’s the short version).
My other keyboarding class was hard to control as well. Looking back on the situations I feel that I handled them pretty well. I think it is easy to get discouraged on days your students are not behaving, but I had to remind myself of the many factors influencing their behavior.
Toward the end of the week the students began to behave much better. I used positive reinforcement to reward the classes with a fun assignment for their improved behavior. I took one of my classes a few days to earn the assignment, but in the end they did.
What I would change about the week would be starting my accounting lesson planning earlier. My new class I will be picking up is accounting and planning the first lesson was difficult for me. Looking back I realize the lesson wasn’t hard at all. It just takes time to get used to the material and how to extract the important concepts from the book. I turned in my lessons on time, but I fell I would have been less stressed out if I would have started the planning sooner. Besides that my week was enjoyable even if it did test my patients!
My other keyboarding class was hard to control as well. Looking back on the situations I feel that I handled them pretty well. I think it is easy to get discouraged on days your students are not behaving, but I had to remind myself of the many factors influencing their behavior.
Toward the end of the week the students began to behave much better. I used positive reinforcement to reward the classes with a fun assignment for their improved behavior. I took one of my classes a few days to earn the assignment, but in the end they did.
What I would change about the week would be starting my accounting lesson planning earlier. My new class I will be picking up is accounting and planning the first lesson was difficult for me. Looking back I realize the lesson wasn’t hard at all. It just takes time to get used to the material and how to extract the important concepts from the book. I turned in my lessons on time, but I fell I would have been less stressed out if I would have started the planning sooner. Besides that my week was enjoyable even if it did test my patients!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Week 4 :)
This week was fun for me. I enjoyed interacting with my students a lot. I am feeling a lot more comfortable with all of them, and I think the students are all getting used to me. I have had to "lay down the law" once or twice, but the students seem to respect me now as their teacher. It has also been fun to branch out and add fun details to my lessons. I am only teaching keyboarding right now so the first week was a little dull. This week however I was able to come up with some activities to engage the students a little more.
I gave my first test this week and it was amazing to me to see the answers some students put down. Our test was online in Moodle and I felt it wasn't overly difficult and that we had reviewed for it thuroughly. Most students did well but many of them missed some very simple things we covered several times. I supose I wouldn't necessarily change my test, but I think one of my classes needs more review than the other. This is something I will consider before giving out another test!
I gave my first test this week and it was amazing to me to see the answers some students put down. Our test was online in Moodle and I felt it wasn't overly difficult and that we had reviewed for it thuroughly. Most students did well but many of them missed some very simple things we covered several times. I supose I wouldn't necessarily change my test, but I think one of my classes needs more review than the other. This is something I will consider before giving out another test!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Week 3
This week I felt like I was really able to get my feet wet teaching. I taught two keyboarding classes for the entire week, and it was nice to be able to repeat a lesson twice. Teaching a lesson twice I think helps you learn a lot and get a second chance. Keyboarding is obviously a basic class to teach, so I think it will be interesting when I get a chance to teach a lecture style course. My lecture course will be Accounting so I will be jumping right into the intense stuff! I think that lesson planning will be more interesting in a content course because you can add a little more of your own flair. Adding flair to keyboarding is difficult but of course I am trying.
If I could change something about this week it would be being able to get into my elementary observation. I have schedule the observation two weeks in a row and both times we have had snow days! What are the odds? Anyway I did enjoy the week, and I am getting a handle on the names of the students in my classes.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Week 2
Week1. What aspects of your week did you find most valuable?
This week I personally interacted much more with the students. This gave me a chance to get to know what they are into and give me ideas for how to plan my lessons. Also, Thursday was the first day of our marking period which ment new students and new classes for me. So I feel I am finally able to see who I will be teaching and am getting a better feel for what I am going to be teaching.
This week I personally interacted much more with the students. This gave me a chance to get to know what they are into and give me ideas for how to plan my lessons. Also, Thursday was the first day of our marking period which ment new students and new classes for me. So I feel I am finally able to see who I will be teaching and am getting a better feel for what I am going to be teaching.
It is so interesting finally being in a school and interacting with the students. I think it makes the whole theory of teaching much more interesting/challenging. I am amused by observing them, and sometimes greatful I am no longer in that stage! But it is really cool to see that I can have a positive influence on my students academically and otherwise.
2. As you reflect on the past week, would you have modified or changed any aspects(s) if you had the chance to start the week over?
My co-op and I have two classes that are very quiet (sometimes a good thing) and do not respond to anything we say. So I guess I would like to be able to get at least a facial expression, besides the I hate school and you are torturing me look, out of the kids. I think we will be able to rally these classes in time though.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Week 1
This first week of student teaching was about getting comfortable being in the classroom. I started moving around the room more each day and felt I could interact with the students more comfortably by Thursday and Friday. Also, it was nice to get a feel for what my co-op is like and meet some of the students in the school. I feel I have a little bit of a better understanding of the semester ahead of me will be like.
I would have liked to be able to watch a regular lesson in action this week. However, this week was students spent the class time wrapping up projects and working on their finals. So I feel like I will be going into next weeks teaching a little uninformed.
I would have liked to be able to watch a regular lesson in action this week. However, this week was students spent the class time wrapping up projects and working on their finals. So I feel like I will be going into next weeks teaching a little uninformed.
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