Week 10: GRADES CLOSED!

So this will be a very short post, sorry for those who enjoy reading something a bit longer and more descriptive.  This past week flew by and the aftermath is about 100 tests and 33 essays to correct by Monday so I can submit my term 3 grades.

Image - occasionalpiece.blogspot.com

Overall, I'd say the week was a success! I was able to review with my classes and give them a final assessment for the term that I think was a pretty good measure of their knowledge and most did really well.  Now begins a series of countdowns for which I do not believe I'm adequately prepared mentally, emotionally, or in paperwork...

• 2 weeks: April vacation and my deadline to submit all of my PPA paperwork to my supervisor
• 2 weeks: My brother's wedding, which while completely separate from anything having to do with student teaching, definitely on my mind!
• 5 weeks: My last day of student teaching - its approaching so quickly and really only means 4 weeks of class-time left!
• 6 weeks: Graduation - a moment that has been 4 years, countless hours, and many awesome days in the making!

Needless to say, everything is coming to a close way to fast for my liking... Now I'm on to a weekend full of correcting and paperwork submission so HOPEFULLY I can breathe a sigh of relief come Sunday afternoon.

-MB

Week 9: Parent-Teacher Conferences, a New Insight

 

I had the opportunity to participate in my first-ever parent-teacher conferences this week.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't apprehensive at best and terrified at worst!  To my pleasant surprise they went very well and I realized that one of the best ways to get to know your students is to know where they're coming from.  I found out that some of my quietest students have a sense of humor that could have the entire class in stitches.  Other students who seemingly only love joking around are actually huge fans of history and of the class.

It feels good to know that I'm at least making enough of an impact that the students tell their parents about the things they are learning in class.  Not every student will like history, or even the class, but I hope I can reach as many as possible and make a positive impact.  In my own experience in high school, a few of my history teachers made the largest impact of my life (the reason I'm where I am today) and I hope to be that positive force for students down the road.

-MB

Week 8: March Madness

This past week included a whole bunch of March Madness fever!  Between dress-up days, shamrock scavenger hunts and two, yes TWO afternoon assemblies where competitions ranged from sumo wrestling to "Don't forget the lyrics" I have to say it was a very exciting week.  It's always good to let off a little steam and have some fun with the students. 


Next week is back to work though. It's difficult sometimes to find the balance between hardwork and a little bit of socializing time.  While the amount of information that needs to be covered seems daunting, I've received some good insight this week that it all gets done, and it's more about quality than quantity.  So whether or not the students skim from the beginning of civilization through to the Industrial Revolution all in one year doesn't make too much difference so long as they have a really good understanding of what they've covered.


I've also tried to find the balance between teacher-centered and student-centered activities.  I think this will be a work in progress for the rest of my career.  There are days where it seems the only way to get across the information is through lectures and note-taking.  Other days there's an activity that takes up the entire day.  It's not too often that I've been able to find a middle ground or consistency with these and often find myself giving notes day in and day out.  Hopefully through continued work and some help from my very helpful and supportive colleagues I'll be able to find the happy medium and keep it going.


I had a wonderful opportunity last night to be a judge for a pageant/talent competition for the senior guys at my high school.  It was very entertaining and I really felt like I've become a member of the community.  It's amazing how in such a little amount of time you can make connections with students, faculty and staff on many levels and I look forward to having a long-time career in a high school much like this.


Now, it's St. Patrick's Day so I'm going to go and enjoy my afternoon! 


-MB

Week 7: Professional Development, So THAT'S what they do on days off...

I had my first opportunity to attend a full-day professional development at my school this week.  As the teachers rolled in around 8am it felt like the roles had reversed, the faculty were now the students, all sitting to one side towards the back of the auditorium (I don't think people sit in the front of rooms until after retirement...) awaiting whatever enthralling lecture would be taking place, our topic: the new teacher evaluation system.  This abstract topic that I have been reading about in the news finally became a semi-reality for me.  And at the end of the hour-long session I can accurately and confidently say, I don't have a clue what she was talking about!

Image - www.educationworld.com

Luckily it wasn't our only task that day, we spent a chunk of time looking at the Common Core standards.  While history isn't a major component of the Common Core (much to my chagrin) we were able to find some varied assessments that can be incorporated into the world history classes next year.  It felt good to be able to provide some of my own insight, however limited, to this discussion.


Lastly, our day ended with a guest speaker from the MARC center (Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center) which was extremely informative and well done.  Not that you'd ever expect to laugh during a presentation on bullying, our speaker Dr. Englander, had a few humorous quips that helped lighten the mood on this topic.


Overall, with the mystery of PD days finally gone, I have to say I'm a little disappointed...  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the day was very low-key.  One thing I wasn't disappointed with was having a day during the week to regroup before a few more days of teaching, can't ever complain about that.


-MB

Week 6: Get Out That Bag of Tricks

Anyone who has ever taken an education course has probably heard something like this; "make sure you keep this activity and use it when you're in a pinch, add it to your bag of tricks" or "add it to your toolkit" or "keep it in your back pocket."  As I get further along into my teaching experience I have had more opportunities to open this "bag of tricks."  

image - translorial.com

This week was a perfect example of that: Upon my arrival to school, I realized that my fantastic lesson on Renaissance artwork, which was entirely reliant on the use of very colorful and entertaining Renaissance artwork postcards, would have to be post-poned; I left the postcards at home!  My first reaction was utter panic - I had about 50 minutes to either re-work that lesson or scrap it and make up something else.  As I was really proud of my work on the original lesson, I decided to whip up something else instead.  So I did an introduction to some of the great Renaissance thinkers Francesco Petrarch and Leonardo da Vinci.  Now lecturing and having students take notes is straightforward, but the "bag-of-tricks" idea was pretty great.  As most historians know, Leonardo was famous for mirror-writing, or writing all of his letters and words backwards from right-left across a page.  So I demonstrated this for my students on the board (being left-handed myself I used to practice this when I was bored in class, I've developed a certain skill) and they were fascinated.  So I told them to try writing a sentence using this mirror-writing technique.  Then, as I knew would be the case with adolescent females, a few girls whipped out their mirrors and they were passed around the class so people could see how well they'd done.  A simple fun fact turned into a 10 minute activity that truly engaged the students in the subject matter - DEFINITELY keeping that in my bag of tricks.


While I usually try to keep my posts to one major topic, I just can't help but mention my first experience with  student assemblies. Today, each grade met during a different period to receive information about their course selections for next year.  Most teachers didn't remember this was occurring until yesterday afternoon, and most thought it would last the entire period.  


Fast forward to this morning, teachers find out that the assembly only lasts about 20 minutes and I am teaching a class in 15 minutes that I have NOTHING prepared for... (might I add this is only my 2nd time teaching this class)  Luckily, my cooperating teacher opened up her bag of tricks and saved the day. 


 So, I guess I really only had one topic, but I finally understand why my teachers in high school would get so frustrated and dread assembly days; not even a math teacher can formulate how to lesson plan for a class period that is lasting x amount of minutes starting at t time with a 50% margin of error...


-MB