Student Teaching Part Two

My time at the middle school ended with excellent final evaluations, three going out celebrations with teachers and fellow student teachers, and several notes and letters from students, including a song and dance routine by two of the seventh graders. That said, I have and continue to want to teach at a high school. Mostly because of the greater selection of literature that you can or are allowed to teach high schoolers.



I just finished my fourth week at the high school. Unbelievable. After next week we have spring break, then only two more weeks (three weeks total). High School is going great. Here is a snapshot of my schedule during this student teaching assignment.



I arrive around 8:00. There are five periods, each 70 minutes long. Third period is longer and includes the lunch schedule which is staggered. The school year is split into trimesters and schedules change with each trimester. That sucks if you have a great schedule, but it keeps it fair for those that have a sucky schedule during any given trimester. Ideally, I prefer two semesters. I was a little worried about the 70 minute class period, and it can be long, and I might prefer the 50 minute period, but it is proving to be not so bad.

OK, so my first period is planning. On one hand, it is nice to have the time in the morning to prepare for the day, but then that only leaves lunch until the end of the day. Second period is senior composition, then I have lunch at 10:36, the earliest lunch in the world, called "A" lunch - this is the suckiest part of my schedule right now. My mornings are a breeze, but the afternoons can be taxing. After lunch I have a class of freshmen. 4th hour is another class of senior composition, followed by fifth period, which is a class of freshmen that require a little extra help and a slighter slower pace. I am usually walking out at around 3:25. There is an occasional meeting and sometimes the schedule is slightly altered.

The middle school certainly has a much better schedule and the facilities were vastly superior, however, I much prefer the "act of teaching" at the high school level. Some highlights of teaching that I have been able to develop and attempt include: a short story segment focused on plot and characterization using the short stories: "The Open Window" and "The Birds." This culminated with a viewing of The Birds by Hitchcock with a subsequent compare/contrast essay. With the seniors, I did an exercise in which we tried to prove how individual perception of a sensory experience inspires written expression, because, after all, it is a composition class. Basically it was a four part exercise that began with the viewing of five clips (ranging from three minute clips from movies such as 2001, Princess Bride, and Time Machine) and the development of words or phrase to describe what they were exposed to. Then, we disconnected ourselves from the clips (or the sensory experience) and used the words or phrases to develop sentences, then paragraphs. Ultimately, the students traded their paragraphs and attempted to trace the words back to the original clips with a discussion regarding inspiration - in other words we tried to track inspiration. It gave them an opportunity to write several sentences and paragraphs with a different kind of prompting and to talk about their own writing. I also tried to connect this with thinking on your feet and how to answer questions in interviews - drawing from personal experiences and working it into the task at hand.

Lately, and unfortunately, I've been working at JCP on the weekends - that sucks. I applied for my teaching license this last week, confirm my graduation this May (I may need something from Iowa State - I am hoping for no nasty surprises).I still need to get CPR certified, finish my Vigo County application, and continue doing what I can in terms of trying to get a job. The pressure has been mounting as the time is getting closer and the funds continue to deplete beyond depletion.

I wanted to share a little bit concerning the second half of my student teaching, which ends April 24th!

From a paper from me Irish class of '08

More Tech Help Please - Aaron?

My camera. Not a bad little camera. Really like the view screen and such, but the drawbacks . . . you have to hold the button down for a really long time to get a picture, it does not record sound with themovies, and the movies it does record are Quicktime.

My question: does anybody know of any (free) software that can convert Quicktime movies into other formats?

Aaron came to mind as someone that due to his Mac knowledge might know, but please, if anybody has any ideas - I would appreciate them.

Do your cameras record movies in different formats?

Thanks!!!

Don't Worry, we are in good (and cool) hands!

Precautions: Sgt. Frank Shahadey and Vigo Co. school superintendent Danny Tanoos watch the wooded area around Meadows Elementary school Monday afternoon as parents arrive to pick up their children in the wake of a cougar sighting in the area.

Thank You!!!

Puterdusky!!!!!!

Thank you for your IT assistance.

You are truly an amzing human being!!

Blog Help Request

I have the option of adding a "gadget," but not a new page element. How do I do so?

I am trying to add the Good Reads widget to my blog. Cannot.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Frustatedly yours,

MT

Student Teaching Part 1

I am in a two-day stretch of snow days and I thought I would write a little about student teaching. So far so good. Cory may find some of this more interesting than others.

It has helped that I worked with my host teacher once before and was not only familiar with the school and the novel that I would be teaching. So really, so far so good.

After tomorrow I will be a quarter of my way through student teaching. There are nine periods at Sarah Scott Middle School. My schedule is as follows: 1: advisory (basically homeroom, not sure why they call it advisory). 2: advanced lit. 3: team meeting (when the seventh grade team meets, daily) 4,5,6: regular lit. 7, 8: lunch and personal prep. time (12:55 until 2:23) sometimes I go out, sometimes I go home, sometimes I stay and read, 9: last class, reg. lit. The schedule is awesome, the students are released at 3:15. My host teacher prefers to begin her day early and so leaves very soon after the students leave. I usually arrive at the school at around 7:15 and leave around 3:20 or 3:30. We've had one faculty meeting so far, that lasted until around 4:30. My host teacher is also the team leader, of which Cory knows something about.

The school is in a socioeconomically disadvantaged area, but, as my experience in 2007, the students continue to upend the middle-school stigma. There are moments, of course, but so there are at any stage. The most basic observation is that of the wide range of maturity levels found in a middle school. There are students that look like fourth graders sitting by students that look like first year college students, but the behavior and academic levels are deceiving.

Cory, any dissension between reg. ed. and special ed. at your school?

It is interesting to see how a school operates. This particular school has a very good principal and I think that helps immensely.

I plan, as discussed with Cory, to write a little more often and with more specifics regarding education. But let this be a preliminary look at my experience so far. So much happens everyday. It has been going very well so far. More soon.