Tg1138block's Blog

Most memorable time at AHS

tg1138block — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:20:05 +0000

Wow! I cannot believe that this semester is coming to an end. While this semester has been extremely hectic, I have enjoyed my experiences at AHS. I have learned so much about classroom management, professionalism, being a teacher, and most importantly about myself. I have seen myself change, and it shows in my coaching. I am learning to loosen up the reigns a little bit and be more sensitive to others feelings and needs. I have to realize that times are changing and not necessarily everyone learns and is motivated the same way that I am (in fact I think most people fall into this category ). My time at AHS has been very memorable; however, I would have to say that today was the most memorable day at AHS for me. It was the last day that we were working with our ELLs and we had a pizza party for them. I asked my buddy if she would like to go sit with some of her friends, and she said no that she wanted to spend her last day with me and asking me some questions. This was a great sign that I had built good rapport with my student. She began asking me about college and the experiences that I have had. She took an interest in my career and what I want to do. She told me that she had a great time working with me, and that she was sad that it was my last day. Most importantly she told me how much I had helped her. She was having a problem with dance, and we talked about some different options that she could take to improve her relationship with her dance teacher and she actually followed my advice. This friday she will be dancing in the spring show on the front line!! We also talked about her trying out for the drill team at school, and I informed her that she needed to talk to the dance teacher about that ASAP because most high schools have the tryouts for the drill team during the last month of the school year prior to the one they would be trying out for. She also said how badly that she wanted to go to college, and asked me more questions about how I got accepted and everything. She was really enjoying talking to me, and I could tell that I had made a real connection with her throughout the semester. This has been my most memorable time at AHS because I was able to overcome a language barrier and take an awkward situation and turn it in to a positive memory that will last a life time.

Video Teach #2

tg1138block — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:53:21 +0000

I recently had my second videa teach at AHS. I taught the AHS volleyball team hitting, and I was pleasantly surprised that they were all very attentive and listened extremely well. I really didn’t think that I would have a problem running this lesson because I have coaching experience, and it comes very natural to me. I was happy that girls were coming up to me with questions about how they can fix their hitting, and what suggestions I had with them. I knew all of their names, so that was also refreshing, and I think that it made the players more receptive to my coaching. They seemed to feel very comfortable with me, so that was a great feeling. All in all my video teach went perfect for me and all of the students were engage 100% of the time (perfect lesson ).

Exhausting semester at AHS

tg1138block — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:50:53 +0000

Describe: This semester has been unusually rough on me. I have taken 21 hours in a semester before, but I have 8am classes M-Th. I am always exhausted, and I feel like I never have any time for me. When I am not doing something at home, all I am thinking about is how I should be starting on my project, paper, homework, or study guide for another class. I have come to dread the weekends because I have to make a list of everything that needs to get accomplished over the weekend and the list is too long for me to even want to look at. All I can tell my self is that I am almost done!

Analyze: I know that it was my choice to take all of these hour in one semester, so I am not by any means trying to cop-out. However, this semester has officially been the worst semester of my life. My volleyball team is doing exceptionally well, and I don’t even have time to take that in and celebrate because I have to scurry off to start on more homework. I really enjoy coming to the block, but lately it has seem like a chore having to come. I know that sounds horrible, but I am always wanting that one extra hour of sleep. Having this grueling schedule will help prepare me for student teaching, and my first year as the head classroom teacher. It just seems so far away!!!!!!

Reflection: I know that I am going to have to push myself through this semester, and I think that it will benefit me in the long run. I am going to have to learn to start working ahead because I never do since I am always completely exhausted during my free time. I am mostly just stressing out because I am the type of student that always has to have “A’s” and I get very upset when I get a “B”. I know that I will push through this semester and everything will be OK. I can’t wait for the week I have off in between spring and my mini-mester because I need it to recoup and rest up for my summer classes.

My time at AHS thus far…

tg1138block — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:52:41 +0000

-Mrs. Z was very informative today in her presentation to the classroom. I really enjoyed hearing from a first year teacher and her perspective on things. I think that I have benefited greatly because my cooperative teacher is a first year teacher which allows me to talk to her about her experiences as a first year teacher. Mrs. Z helped reaffirm what my cooperating teacher has been telling me about what to expect in my first year of taeching. I would most definitely like to go and observe her classroom because she seems like she has a good vibe, and I think that I could learn something from her. I want to learn how to be more open and care-free because I am very set in my ways, and I would like to learn how to let go every once in awhile.

Portfolio Meeting #2

tg1138block — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:12:16 +0000

Describe:
On March 9^th, 2009 the interns at AHS had the opportunity to meet with our portfolio support groups. At the meeting I reminded my group of my semester goal of classroom management, and I talked about my first artifact that would help me achieve my goal: the Harry Wong videos. My group was very receptive to this, and they all agreed that the Harry Wong videos helped them with classroom management skills as well.

Analyze:
During the block, Dr. B has shown us two Harry Wong videos that have dealt with classroom management. One of the most important things that I got from the videos was the concept of rules and procedures. Harry Wong stresses that it is important to only have three to five rules in the classroom because anymore than that nobody would be able to remember them. I found it interesting when he pointed out that you should write your rules in a positive manner. For example, a bad example of a rule would be: No talking while the teacher is talking. This rule could be enforced positively by re-writing it to read: Please raise your hand before you speak. I really like that he pointed this out because all during my educational career I cannot recall a teacher that did not have his or her rules written in a negative manner. This is definitely an idea that I am going to incorporate into my classroom. The next point that Harry Wong emphasized was the idea of procedures. He says that procedures never need to be punished; instead they need to be rehearsed. This is an interesting point because as a coach I am constantly rehearsing plays, drills, and skills with my athletes to help them improve and perform the way that I want them to. I had never thought about the idea of rehearsing procedures with my students until Harry Wong and even Dr. Bond introduced the idea. Some procedures that are really important to me as a classroom teacher are: how to signal students’ attention, turning in paper, and make-up work.

Reflect: My group had a couple of suggestions for me to help achieve my goal, and I also gained some insight from listening to them. They suggested that I look at the AHS library because the librarian had talked about them having some Harry Wong videos. I had told my group that I wanted to find some new videos by him because I find the short clips we watch in class to be extremely helpful to achieve my goal of effective classroom management.. My group didn’t really have any other insight for me which was a little unfortunate because I was hoping they would give me a fresh idea. I told them that I wanted to find videos on classroom management by other people as well because they might have an idea that Harry Wong does not express in his videos. After listening to other people in my group I got the name of some teachers that had effective classroom management as well as some of those that had poor classroom management. I wrote them down, and I definitely plan on going to observe them. I also would like to add our classroom management plan to the list of artifacts that will show my improvement in classroom management skills. There is no better way to show improvement than to put what I have learned to use in creating my classroom management skills. As I go around and observe classrooms, I can always add or alter my plan if I see something this is more effective than my original plan.

I am excited to see my improvement in effective classroom management skills unfold throughout the semester.

Classroom Management Update…

tg1138block — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:51:23 +0000

Describe: This week at AHS I was a little disturbed by a couple of thing that I have observes. First, I was surprised to find that all the coaches left girl in the locker room unsupervised for over 25 minutes. Secondly, I went and observed a chemistry class, and the teacher lacked a signal to grab students attention. However, he did have his classroom rules posted and there were only 3-5 as well as he had consequences posted. I thought other than his ineffectiveness for a signal, his classroom management skills were good.

Analyze: I think that the coaches should be more careful about leaving the athletes in the locker room unsupervised because they are held liable for those students. If something were to happen to one of their students they could get sued for negligence. As for the biology teacher, I think that he was just a little to inconsistent for the kids to take him seriously when it came to grabbing their attention. He did not have a signal rehearsed so the students don’t take it seriously.

Reflection: I think that experiencing these two different errors in classroom management I have come closer to meeting my goal. I now know that I need a signal to get the attention of my students and athletes. I know that I need to work on this because with my volleyball team I become flustered when I am explaining something and they are talking or not paying attention. I am going to work on my signal for getting attention. Last but not least, I hope that experiencing the horrible incident of the unsupervision of students that I never put myself in a situation where anybody could suspect I was being negligent. I think that most of all it was a miscommunication amongst the coaches, and I hope to remember this when I become a high school or middle school coach.

Hist Cooperating Teacher Gets an A+

tg1138block — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:20:51 +0000

Describe: The first day that I was able to go with my history cooperating teacher was a day of fresh air. She had all of the students engaged in the lecture, and she appealed to all of the different types of learning styles. Her room was set up in an orderly fashion that made it easy to navigate throughout the entire class. She had a monthly calendar on the chalkboard which outlined the entire month. There were textbooks in the back of the room and there were different kinds of maps up throughout the classroom.I could tell that this teacher had been trained in disciplinary literacy and classroom management.

Analyze: The class started off with a warm-up activity where the students had to go get their notebooks at the front of the room, and they had two minutes to write about what their favorite New Deal Program was. I was surprised to see that most of the kids began right away; however, 2 minutes turned into 7 minutes. Then the teacher introduced the Dust Bowl, and used the image of the raisin box to portray to the students the image of why people wanted to go to California during the Great Depression. I thought that was interesting because she was able to use something from today to help the students understand why people were moving west. Then she played a 7 minute video on the Dust Bowl, and after the movie she talked to the students about the Dust Bowl, and how it affected migration patterns. Next she immediately turned the students lose to work on their ongoing research paper about the Great Depression. All of the students had chosen a book from her library cart full of books to write their paper on the Depression. Some students were writing about FDR while others were writing about MGM. I thought that was interesting because she was able to provide the students with choice to keep them engaged in their papers. She passed out an outline guide for the students, so that they could get started on picking out the main ideas. The students immediately dug their noses into their books and began writing. I felt that the teacher was very effective in promoting disciplinary literacy in the classroom.

Reflection: I can’t say that I would do anything different than what she did. I can only hope that I am as effective as she is in promoting disciplinary literacy in the classroom. I think that the only thing that I would change would be to teach the students how to use more than just one resource to come up with their paper. However, I realize that resources are limited in a high school library, so it is hard for me to fault her for this. I would also try and get the students into the computer lab for at least one class period, so that they could do more extensive research on their topics. I think that she did an outstanding job at promoting disciplinary literacy and that she is a successful teacher.The key to her success was her classroom management skills and the rapport she built with the students. I am going to be able to learn a great deal from her, and I am excited to do so.

A slow start…

tg1138block — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:44:48 +0000

Describe: Since my last post there hasn’t been really anything exciting that has happened. My first day that I was supposed to be out with my cooperating teacher she wasn’t there, so I went to the soccer coach. That was an interesting experience because they really didn’t do anything for a whole hour. They didn’t stop for reading time, nor did they do anything academic after the students had dressed back into their school clothes. I did learn some classroom procedures from the H.W. video, so that was helpful for my classroom management goal.

Analyze: I think that the coaches here at AHS have a very difficult time balancing classrooom work and coaching. After they did their usual 40 minutes of conditioning the girls got dressed back out, but I found it interesting that the coaches spent that time getting themselves ready for school as well. Just goes to show how busy they really are. This made me realize how important it is for me to make sure that I am organized, and ready for the classroom day.

Reflection: In the future, I hope to ask my cooperating teacher (the soccer coach) how she able to balance being an AP teacher and a head coach. I think that it is important for me to gain insight on how she is able to complete a very difficult job. After the girls were finished dressing out, I think that I would make a mandatory study hall. It is so important that student-athletes make time for school work, and what better way to help them out than to hold mandatory study hall for the last 30 minutes of class as opposed to letting them play hangman and talk.

My First Experience at AHS

tg1138block — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:21:49 +0000

DESCRIBE: This semester I am interning at AHS. We have already accomplished so much in such a short time. One of the things that I have experienced that made the biggest impression upon me was when we went out and observed a classroom. I was shocked to see how poor the classroom management was. The students were not dressed out, on their I-PODS and cell phones, and they were blatantly not following directions.

ANALYZE: AHS has a wonderful group of teachers and staff members. I know that I am going to be able to learn a great deal from them when it comes to classroom management. While some teachers are better than others, I think that every teacher here has something unique to offer me. I have made it my professional goal to work on my classroom management skills this semester. In Dr. B’s class we have already talked about classroom management, and I already feel more comfortable when it comes to managing a classroom that I have the right tools to succeed. I am looking forward to see how my cooperating teachers deal with classroom management, and I look forward to learning from them.

REFLECTION: In the future, it will be important for me to observe a variety of different teachers in order to improve my classroom management skills. I think that observing struggling teachers will show me what the biggest problems are when it comes to classroom management. I will then be able to write down some of the biggest obstacles teachers have with classroom management and go observe a teacher that is successful with classroom management skills. I think that this is important because it is not always helpful to observe a successful teacher without having first observed a struggling teacher because it allows me to see what problems need to be fixed. When I observe a successful teacher it will be important for me to focus on specific areas of classroom management to help me improve in those areas.

Internship

tg1138block — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:03:12 +0000

I will be posting throughout the semester about my internship here at AHS. Stay tuned!