Week 9

Full-time teaching has begun. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off on Monday trying to get everything ready, but I'm getting used to the responsibility of it all. I enjoy teaching the eighth graders. Other than their eighth grade drama and desire to constantly socialize, they are a pretty bright group, and I think that I will be able to do a lot with them.

I'm still struggling with the absences in seventh grade. I told Mrs. McCutchan today that I feel like I'm doing everything for these kids so that they don't fail, but I don't know what more I can do with them. The two students in particular who are always absent still have a lot of work to make up and will most likely fail this nine weeks if they don't get their work in.

Action research is going fine so far. The students seem to enjoy the activities that we are doing with language instead of using the textbook. I think that my project should be pretty successful.

The sixth graders are doing well, but it's so hard to fit everything in that the textbook has mapped out for us to do. I like that grammar, writing, and spelling are already included with this series, but I feel that I can't get as creative with this class because there is no time! By the time they read all of the required reading and complete the workbook pages, there is no time left. I wish I could pick and choose what to cover in these lessons and give them more fun activities to help them learn the concepts rather than the repetitive workbook pages.

Week 8

Well, we're halfway there! Next week, I pick up the eighth grade and begin full-time teacher, so this will be a busy weekend getting everything ready. I'm excited to see how everything goes next week (and whether or not I will lose my mind!).

We began this week with an IS Day. I wish that these days entailed working in the classroom a little bit more. I think that this would be really beneficial for the teachers to have a day to work on things. On Tuesday, Neal came to observe and videotape a lesson with the seventh grade. I hope everything looked okay in the videotape so that I can use it for my e-portfolio! Mr. Stutler finished up his observation on Wednesday.

On Thursday, I introduced stations to the sixth graders. Naturally, this was also a day that Mrs. McCutchan was not there. The stations were a bit chaotic, but it was a learning experience. I talked with Mrs. Desmuke, the middle school Title 1 teacher, about this. She suggested using her room for students to work for one of the stations and contributed part of the chaos to too many students working in one area. We didn't finish the stations in one day, so I decided to try again today. The stations went a lot more smoothly. I had Mrs. McCutchan take the writing station to Mrs. Desmuke's room, and I sent a group to Mr. Malnick's room. I could now manage the three groups that were left in the room and keep everyone on task. Things are not always going to go as planned, and I'm glad that I had this experience to learn from!

Week 7

Thursday was the 8th grade field trip on the Potomac Eagle in Romney, WV. I'm really glad that I got to have this experience with the students. Not only did I see some beautiful sights, but I also got to know these students better. I haven't started teaching this group yet, so it was really great that I got to have this experience.

I started teaching the 6th grade this week. I have realized that this group is going to be more challenging than the 7th grade class. First of all, there are 20 students in the class, but the biggest issue that I am having is accommodating the special needs students in the class while not boring the higher achieving students in the class. The higher achieving students will finish an assignment in a couple minutes and understand the concept while the special needs students need at least 20 minutes and still may not understand entirely. I think that more group work would benefit these students.

Everything is going well with the 7th grade class. I'm going to try to come up with a late work policy because my biggest issue with this class is students not turning in work/turning work in late. Hopefully a new policy will solve this problem. I start the second half of my action research next week and am really excited about it! I think that the students will enjoy the change of pace of not using their textbook and workbooks so much. I am hoping everything goes well!

Week 6

I feel that a lot has happened in Week 6. First, I graded the language tests over last weekend that I gave last Friday and realized that the majority of the class did terrible! Obviously, I didn't do something right, so I changed my plans around for Monday so that we could have a long review. We went over the topic, the test, and even completed more related problems. I could tell that the students were getting it, and I was pleased. To help the students make up for the lackluster grades, I allowed them to complete similar problems from their textbook for extra credit. All they had to do was complete 20 problems for homework and bring it back to me on Tuesday. To my major disappointment, not one student took advantage of this opportunity! I was floored that the students really did not care about their grades. At this moment, I re-evaluated how I was going to teach this class. I decided that I will no longer give homework if at all possible, other than studying for quizzes and tests. I absolutely do not want these students to fail, and I feel that the only way to prevent this is to do more work in class. Also, I am going to center my lessons around the students' engagement. The more they enjoy what they are learning, the more likely they will be to care about the assignment. Since my epiphany, the week has gone very smoothly.

Tuesday night was parent/teacher conferences. We had nine parents show up, two of whom are in my seventh grade class. One was the mother of the most high-achieving and conscientious student in the class. I have come to the conclusion that most of the parents that attend these conferences and keep up with their children's grades have the most successful students in the school. Students need parents that care and are aware of what goes on at school. Also, I had a parent of a child that I have been having trouble keeping organized. I let her know that his unorganization has been a concern for me, and I gave her the work that he was not turned in. He turned in his missing assignments the next day. I wish I could have done this with all of the parents!

Next Thursday is the 8th grade field trip. I think that I am the most unfamiliar with these students and look forward to getting to know them better on this trip!

Week 5

Wow! Is it really week 5? Time is flying by at Rivesville. I just got back from Fall Festival, and I would say that it was a success (other than me not winning a basket!). I love that Rivesville has something as community oriented as Fall Festival. It seems like everyone in the community comes together for this event. It's nice to see the students enjoying themselves outside of class.

I feel that I'm starting to feel a little more at ease with the seventh graders. We started the novel this week. I think that the students will really enjoy it. I have a lot of neat activities and projects in mind for this book. We also started on the trait of organization today for writing. Mr. Stutler came in to observe part of this lesson (which, needless to say, was a little unnerving). Thankfully, the students were engaged in the lesson which I hope was a result of them enjoying the lesson and not because the principal was in the room. I enjoy teaching writing to these students and hope that my efforts will improve their writing.

One thing that I know that I need to improve on is time management. However, as Mrs. McCutchan commented in my last post, it is better to overplan than not have enough. I have realized that there is so much to cover during the 90 minute block and not nearly enough time. I know that I will eventually get better at decided what is the most important to cover and how much to plan in a day.

Next week will be another busy week with parent/teacher conferences on Tuesday and the WVU game on Thursday. I am just beginning to see how much is involved in the teacher profession. However, it has to be one of the most rewarding jobs. :-)

Week 4

We started off the week with Tutor Orientation on Sunday. I can't believe we were actually the interns at orientation. It seems like we were just in the tutors' shoes--nervous as can be with no idea what to expect of the program and Rivesville. Now, we're supposed to be the wise and experienced ones. I hope that they cohorts below us will come to us whenever they need to because I think that asking people who have been in the same situation has helped me out the most in this program.

I also started teaching the seventh graders this week. They seemed to have been enjoying the writing. The telephone writing activity was a success, and the students are getting really creative with their narratives. I've used the Whiteboard just about everyday and am so thankful that we have so much technology in the classroom! I think that using the Whiteboard makes the lessons more interesting and keeps the students involved. I have used it a lot this week with the workbook pages for language. Doing the workbook pages in this manner is a good way to keep the students interested. However, I am excited to start the second part of my action research where I start to deviate from using the language book and workbook pages. I took an interest survey today with the students, which I will be administering every Friday, and most of the students rated grammar as their least favorite lesson. I think that my action research will be successful and that the students will learn better and be more interested when they are studying language in a different manner. I also taught spelling this week and was really excited that the students did really well on their spelling tests today! I hope that spelling always goes so well.

Next week, I will begin teaching the novel Nothing But the Truth. I am really excited to teach a novel. I read the book myself this week, and I really think the students are going to enjoy it. I have already found a lot of great lessons to accompany the book and think that this will be a great experience!

Neal, as for those sixth graders, it's not really poor behavior that is a problem so much as the variety of learning styles and abilities in the class. The off-task behavior stems from the frustration that comes with not understanding the material. One of the lower students is transferring schools next week. Mrs. McCutchan and I have learned that another one is best helped by using praise and staying in contact with his mother. You are right; understanding why these students act out and knowing the best way to deal with the behavior can really help the students. I believe that the more we get to know the students, the better we are going to be as teachers!

Week 3

Another week has gone by already! This was my last week of observing. Next week, I will start teaching the 7th grade. I feel like I am prepared for next week. I tried to use my planning time wisely this week and got all of my lesson plans finished before the weekend! I think that the students will enjoy the writing activities that I have planned. I am going to be introducing the six traits of writing each week starting with the trait of ideas. They will be developing a narrative next week while focusing on this trait. I found a really neat prewriting activity in a Mrs. McCutchan's 6 Traits of Writing book. The students will brainstorm as a class ten characters, ten settings, ten problems, and ten solutions which will be numbered in four columns. The students will then use the last four digits of their phone numbers so that they have one character, setting, problem, and solution from each column. This will give them an original story to write. I hope that they get really creative with this assignment! I will also be teaching language and spelling next week. Language is a big part of my action research, so I will start teaching it using mostly just the book and workbooks. In week 8, I will start teaching language using other means such as magazines, newspapers, and novels. Mrs. McCutchan is teaching literature next week, but the following week, I will start the novel Nothing But the Truth with the seventh graders.

The sixth graders are constantly keeping Mrs. McCutchan and me on our toes! We have had a lot of laughs this week with this group! Mrs. Morris asked what I found the most challenging about the sixth graders. I think that one of the most challenging things about this class is the size compared to the other two classes. Also, we have a few students that need a lot of individualized attention. It is difficult to keep these students working and to give them extra help while at the same time teaching the rest of the class. Does anyone have suggestions for how to keep these students on task and to help them learn without slowing down the rest of the class?

This week has also exciting because we got to hear President Obama's speech to the students. I think that he did an excellent job addressing the children, and I hope that many of them will take what he said to heart. We had the seventh grade class when the address aired. They were attentive during the speech and journaled afterward about their own goals. I think that President Obama helped them to realize how important it is to do well in school and to set goals in life.