Most Memorable Experience

This year my most memorable classroom experience was in my Algebra II class with my cooperating teacher. There is one ELL student in this class who always seemed to never work when it was time to do desk work or quizzes. I decided to go over to him my third day to see why he stopped working once he had to do any math on his own. He tried to explain that he just doesn’t understand math, but I worked with him a little that day until he realized he could get the assignment done correctly. Each day he progressed a little bit until on Monday I went over to see if he needed help and he was already done with the work before any other student. I was encouraged to see that with my help a student was able to go from not even trying to one of the brighter kids in the class. This helped me to realize that confidence in what they can do will be one of the biggest hurdles I must overcome as a teacher. Although confidence is definitely not easy to build up in an adolescent, once you have shown them they can do it, teaching becomes much easier.

What I learned this week

This week my classes have focused a lot on the the writing aspect of literacy and how to teach this to students. Last night in my English block class we discussed the teaching of grammar and how to make it actually fun for the students. We talked about the use of worksheets when teaching grammar, and how this method must be changed in order to properly teach grammar. I see the importance of grammar instruction everyday in my English II class with my cooperating teacher. The students in this class have absolutely no clue when it comes to most grammar structures and rules, and I believe this is due to the way grammar is taught in our schools. Handing out a worksheet does not help retention. In my mind grammar needs to be taught using real world examples from literature and other forms of text. If students are allowed to critique stuff they see everyday as well as their own writing, grammar will become more personal to them.

What I learned 4/8/2009

I learned a lot about grading and assessment this week in both my block and reading classes. I never knew there was so much to cover when creating a test. In my English 3389 class we are now going over types of English assessments so the block and this class are giving me a good dose of how to assess students properly. Whereas I am learning what types of essays and projects should be assigned and how they should be prompted in my English class, I am learning the opposite type of test in the block. Getting all this information simultaneously is very helpful to my career. We are also going over group project assessment as well in my English class so by the end of this week I should have assessment down.

In my C&I class we are learning great ways to build rapport with students. We did a my life in a bag exercise that could be used in any classroom. This project allows the students to create a bag with items from their culture and what they identify themselves with. This is a great project to get to know my students, because even though I may have a hispanic in my classroom they may not identify with that culture, and through this project, I will know what they truly identify with and what their likes and dislikes are. We also created our own chalkboard wall, where we built a display of all the items we would like the students to see and know about us. This was a great exercise in learning what is and isn’t appropriate for students to see.

2/25/2009

D: I observed a 11th grade AP English class that was going over the Declaration of Indepence while looking for literary devices used. The students collectively read the first portion of this document and then, in a large group, discussed the different ideas and literary elements embedded within the document.

A: The teacher wanted to place an emphasis on literature being more than just the non-fiction novels and short stories the students are used to reading, and show that even our nation’s most important documents are written with literary devices such as parallel structure, allusion, and symbolism kept in mind. She used this document to engage the studentsin a discussion relevant to them and helped them understand not just literature, but the founding ideas behind our country.

R: This shows me that teaching an English class does not have to be limited to the literature of the curriculum. Going outside typical English sources like novels, stories, and poems, and using other texts, as this teacher used a 12th grade history text, will allow the students a view into the broad range literature involves itself in. In the future I will think of ways I can implement different written works, especially ones relevant to student’s lives, that are outside the normal genre of English literature.

first experience

Description: On monday I was working in an Algebra II class with my cooperating teacher and started to get a sense of what I’m getting myself into. The class was small with only 12 students present that day (out of 18 total) and they seemed very quiet. The class is a mixture of ELL students and other students, which may help with the quietness.

Analysis: The quietness and ease of working in this room worried me a little as I would like to get an example of a tough classroom. I’m not sure if it is the teacher or the students that cause this nice classroom experience, but since the teacher told me he has a 7th period class that is out of control I’m betting it is more the students than the teacher’s influence.

Reflection: I will probably come back one day when his 7th period class is ongoing to get a feel for a rowdy class, as it is inevitable that I will be thrown to one of these classes throughout my career. I did notice the teacher is very laid back in his approach, and this may help to ease the stress a class like this may cause, but until I see it I will never know.

Weekly learning experience

Description:

This week my English 3389 course reinforced my ideal that teaching different literary theories to a high school english class is a better way to enhance critical and creative thinking about literature than just using the same boring method of using theme, imagery, and symbolism to shape a text.

Analyze:

We are attempting to learn better ways to engage the student when it comes to reading a text. I learned that students, even of a very young age, will become more interested in their reading when given the opportunity to look at a text from multiple real-world perspectives. This relates to our classwork in that it allows numerous opportunities to have an engaged learning environment, and there are infinite possibilities for student tasks related to the literary theories.

Reflection:

This knowledge has opened up a whole world of ideas that I didn’t know would be available as a high school teacher. Knowing that teachers and administrators alike are advocating this transition from a strict analytical view of text to more open ideas gives me hope for our future as educators, and lets me know we are always trying to strive for a better classroom environment.

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