Hopefully all of you reading this are enjoying your practicum week-- I am realizing that my time in the classroom is the best time of my week. I think its interesting that when I thought that "Practicum Week" was going to be really stressful because of the hours spent in my school, it is more stressful because of the things going on outside of school.
There are still just as many demands from outside forces and I think that as a teacher, hopefully there will be a more steady schedule.
I really liked seeing my school on a Monday-- there are more procedural aspects of my homeroom, like seeing how jobs are assigned and different "Monday Tasks." I asked my teacher at lunch duty today if she could notice a difference in behavior between Thanksgiving and winter break. Her perspective was that at Lafayette there wouldn't be as much acting out as there is excitement. Her past experience in PG county was that students would act out because they did not want to spend time at home. I realized that there are a lot of students who (as much as they resist and dread school) enjoy the stability and predictability of the school expectations.
Language arts in my class has been overtaken by social studies. Students are asked to respond to "diary entries"for our unit on Westward Expansion and there are not very many writing techniques or scaffolding modeled.
My class has recently started using Cornell Notes to read the textbook, but many students read and define the key terms and don't comprehend the lessons and chapters they are reading and taking notes on.
I know my teacher (like so many) is pressed for time because of holidays and special events. Tomorrow my class is visiting the middle school to shadow students for next year. I find it interesting because I know of at least 3 students who are planning on going to private school for 6th grade. My teacher is interested to see the different expectations and hopes to shadow a teacher in reading (to get a feel for expectations). I am interested to hear her perspective as well as to see a different environment than Lafayette.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Holiday Parties and Language Arts
I think the downfall of teaching will be the afterthought of holiday parties. Because we didn't have school on Tuesday, I went to my practicum on Wednesday which also happened to be Halloween. The morning was close to business as usual, but the afternoon was madness.
My teacher decided before school even started that our class was going to be distracted-- they were surprisingly on task. This predetermined idea that they would be distracted naturally led our class to get distracted, playing right into the "lesson" my teacher wanted to do. Upon arrival, my teacher asked me to compile a list of halloween words that we were going to have a fun spelling test with. I did a google search of halloween spelling tests. My class would be bored with the typical words like "witch" and "ghost," but I included them anyways. My teacher was going to pick the ones she wanted and continue from there.
My teacher divided the teams to boys v. girls (bats vs. ghouls) and we played reverse hangman. The students were not allowed to write the words, but they had to spell it out-loud correctly without help on their first try in order for it to be counted. Some words included harvest, vampire, werewolf, creative and jack o' lantern. I included Ichabod Crane as my own personal challenge because of the folk tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Most of the students have not heard of the story, and neither team spelled it correctly. One girl in my class came up to me afterwards and knew the story and was also able to spell his name. I decided that I wanted to see if i could find a version of the story to read to connect where that name came from to halloween and our class.
I went to the school library and found a copy of a book that had The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in it. After the parade, I started to read. According to my teacher, half the class was not interested, the other was. I was cut off quickly by parents trying to plan the afternoon party, and my idea of learning something in the midst of the halloween party was gone.
I think that with more planning, the morning could have had a relevant halloween theme and not have been lost to non-instruction. Especially with stories and history. Language arts and social studies are so easy to connect with traditions and relatable materials. I was so stressed out being in the presence of chaos without any plan. I don't know if it is easier to just let the parents "supervise" the afternoon, but I know that I was wanting to have some kind of organization in the afternoon. I think students could learn that even things they really enjoy for the non-academic purposes can be related back to academics in a way that doesn't take much effort.
My teacher decided before school even started that our class was going to be distracted-- they were surprisingly on task. This predetermined idea that they would be distracted naturally led our class to get distracted, playing right into the "lesson" my teacher wanted to do. Upon arrival, my teacher asked me to compile a list of halloween words that we were going to have a fun spelling test with. I did a google search of halloween spelling tests. My class would be bored with the typical words like "witch" and "ghost," but I included them anyways. My teacher was going to pick the ones she wanted and continue from there.
My teacher divided the teams to boys v. girls (bats vs. ghouls) and we played reverse hangman. The students were not allowed to write the words, but they had to spell it out-loud correctly without help on their first try in order for it to be counted. Some words included harvest, vampire, werewolf, creative and jack o' lantern. I included Ichabod Crane as my own personal challenge because of the folk tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Most of the students have not heard of the story, and neither team spelled it correctly. One girl in my class came up to me afterwards and knew the story and was also able to spell his name. I decided that I wanted to see if i could find a version of the story to read to connect where that name came from to halloween and our class.
I went to the school library and found a copy of a book that had The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in it. After the parade, I started to read. According to my teacher, half the class was not interested, the other was. I was cut off quickly by parents trying to plan the afternoon party, and my idea of learning something in the midst of the halloween party was gone.
I think that with more planning, the morning could have had a relevant halloween theme and not have been lost to non-instruction. Especially with stories and history. Language arts and social studies are so easy to connect with traditions and relatable materials. I was so stressed out being in the presence of chaos without any plan. I don't know if it is easier to just let the parents "supervise" the afternoon, but I know that I was wanting to have some kind of organization in the afternoon. I think students could learn that even things they really enjoy for the non-academic purposes can be related back to academics in a way that doesn't take much effort.
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