The Last Class

I was unable to teach them Monday and Tuesday due to all the interviewing. I left them with an assignment to create a presentation of a famous innovator of the Renaissance. I wanted them to use outside research to learn more about the early life, accomplishments and death of each person. When I came back Wednesday I asked the psycho lady whether they finished the assignment. She said they did some work on it but she had to stop them because there was more important work they needed to complete (ie. the crap in the back of the textbook). The students were eager to share their knowledge with the class. As they each gave their presentations I displayed images of each of the people and their major works such as the Pieta, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, David, etc. I asked them at the end of class to provide feedback on my teaching. I started by asking them what they liked the most of the class. Most of them said they liked the videos and giving presentations. I asked what they liked least and the same pain in the butt who flung the rubber bands said that I spent too long on each chapter and she is used to finishing them much sooner. Another student was quick to speak out and got on her case, upset she would say that and I thanked her for the feedback. I said that I wanted to make sure that they learned the material on a deeper level beyond the textbook. I appreciated their feedback. It made me more confident in my methods. They learned best when they knew the material well enough to teach the class. I learned more in this placement because I had more freedom to explore different methods and it was easier to learn differentiation working with a smaller group of students. I'm happy about the way this placement ended.

She left me alone...

On Friday afternoon the psycho lady left me alone in the class while she was showing a Poe video. She didn't say when she was coming back. I thought about leaving the room if things became too hectic. Initially a few students were throwing rubber bands. I went over to remove the bands, but the student would not hand them to me. Then the rubber band flinging stopped. Then things settled down, a little chatter but most of them were paying attention. The movie ended and the psycho had failed to return. I handed out the reading, but there was only five minutes left of class and no one was in the reading mood. One of the students jumped up to the IPad, and my first thought was that she would put some horrible rap video, something bad and inappropriate. Instead she put on Sesame Street. It was awesome. I was taken back to my childhood. It was a happy ending to the day. The psycho lady returned during the last minute of class to all the silly singing puppets. It was great. She thought it was so uncool, and that's why it was cool. A weird rebellion against this angry woman.

Good Lesson, Bad lesson

I taught two periods today. Ever since that easy test I've been wanting to challenge the students. I spent a good amount of time creating a three page guided reading that provides questions from the chapter. I don't like the easy questions the textbook provides. I spent the morning reviewing the spread of Islam and then I went back into the Crusades. We had a lively discussion while watching the BBC special. One student could not figure out why people listened to the Pope and believed that they would go to heaven. I explained the differences between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in terms of the mentality of the people. It was awesome. They loved it. I felt like a teacher, a good teacher. For the second lesson I had the students answer the guided reading questions. If they remembered anything we learned in the first class they should have had the answers to the first five questions. They were upset. They were so unhappy and rebellious. "Why we gotta do this?" I guess they loved watching the video and discussing the material. It's easy on them, and they are less accountable for their work. The problem is that they are so resistant to reading. They hate it. Tomorrow I think I will have them read the textbook aloud and do the questions along with them. They need the support, even if they don't want to admit it. I may show a short funny video about the Crusades to break up the reading and give them something to discuss other than the book. The major challenge is getting the material to stick in their brains. They forget it the minute they learn it. The only reason they knew the last test content is because we went over it so many times. I can't move at the pace that I want. I also can't get as in depth into the content. I'm learning that teaching self contained sped kids is more about methods than content. I have to decide whether I want to be a counselor/mentor type teacher or a mini-professor. That's one basic difference between general and special Ed.

A Bad Review

My plan was to get a recommendation letter from the two teachers in WP in addition to psycho lady. It takes a while to get a response. I hear back from Mrs. B, and I almost regret asking in the first place because it was not was I was expecting. She rejects sending a letter and says that she feels that she could not write what I would want for my portfolio. I'm getting scared about my evaluation. I worked so hard in that placement and gave these kids actual instruction. I didn't bore their lives with packets. I found ways to make the content interesting. I feel so unappreciated for my efforts. I also don't understand why she would feel that way about me. I guess she wants people who are carbon copies of herself. It also could have been something weird like a bias she had against me from the beginning. Maybe she felt I was too young or gay or something that made her not like me having nothing to do with my teaching ability. Also, I feel that she should be realistic that I am a new teacher and look for potential rather than ending results. The teacher that I will be in two, five, ten years will be so different that who I am right now. Now that I had some time to cool off I cannot let her reject affect my view of myself as a teacher. I believe that I will grow into a fantastic teacher. I've come so far in such a small amount of time. As long as I keep that drive to grow further I will certainly rise above my current ability and probably surpass this woman's 50 years of experience, and it may only take half that time or less!

Student Centered Instruction is so Rewarding!

So today I was missing a few students, but I had students today that I didn't have yesterday. I had plans to show a video clip about the black death, and play a jeopardy game as review for the test tomorrow. I had to scale back those plans when I realized that half the class (two students) didn't show up for Thursday or Friday and missed a lot of instruction. I spent the first class reviewing the vocabulary and giving them the quiz. For the second class I did the same exercise I did with the boys on Friday. Let's see how this works with the girls. A another huge success. Instead of passively writing the notes these students were searching the textbook for the answer to a series of questions on a topic and presenting that information to their peers. They did a great job, I was so proud of them. I think they enjoyed teaching each other. This method of instruction seems to help them with retention as well. At one point one of the girls said to the other, "you're so smart," after she made her presentation. It is so valuable for them to demonstrate their knowledge. It is also rewarding. Why should I stand in front of the class and tell them the content as they sit there passively. The next step I want to eventually go with these students is to have them write questions about information that is not included in the text, especially if they are curious about the answer. I can have them fond the answer on the internet or through another source. They can start to learn how conduct research.

Reflection time

So I shed some wasted tears over this situation. I thought I was getting stronger. The only thing I wanted was to not react emotionally. I'm glad that I didn't cry in front of the students. I'm also glad that one of students stood up for me. That makes me feel good. My psycho lady teacher has set the situation up badly from the beginning. The only thing these kids respond to is her yelling and ridiculing them. I will never stoop to that level. I will never "join them" as she has and curse back at them. I'm not sure of the appropriate way to deal with an obnoxious kid. The only tactic that I have seen work is to do everything that is the opposite of who I am. It seems like the only thing stopping them is fear, fear of looking bad in front of other students or fear of an intimidating adult. There must be a way to handle these kids without becoming one of them. To some extent I might have to accept that I may not be the best person for the job when it comes to aggressive students.

That annoying thorn in my side

I had a great day, I was planning on walking out happy and proud of myself. Instead I walked out crying. It happened again. A situation went down and I couldn't stop myself from getting emotional. Let me start at the beginning. After that awesome class, the English class begun and it had most of the same students. She hit play on the audio book and walked out. I thought she was returning soon, I had no idea where she went and this obnoxious kid Irwin starting roaming around the room distracting students. A student asked if I was going to wait until she came back and then I said something to Irwin. He said, "Was I asking you?" I had to address that. I said that he was being disrespectful and it was no way to address an adult. One of my 9th grade students said he was acting mean and he shouldn't do that. I agreed with the student and by this point everyone is laughing, and this laughter is the only thing I can hear. I just went back to my seat and went on the computer and ignored him. Psycho lady came back, I told her he was disrespectful to me and she said, "that's how he is to everyone." She didn't do anything. I was so mad at this point I went into Mr. C's class and spent the rest of the period there. I cried a little as I was surfing the web trying to get my mind off of what happened.