Week 13

I had wondered this week what I would write about, and thankfully, Neal has given me some questions to think about. First, I could go on and on about what I have learned from middle school. Most importantly, I have learned that this is an age-group that I could teach. I have never pictured myself teaching middle school because I had always envisioned myself as an elementary teacher. I thought that middle school kids would be so disrespectful and older than I would want to teach, but I have grown to realize that these preteens are still children! They still love to learn when the learning is fun and relevant to them. It may take a little more to motivate these students, but they are worth it. Similarly, middle school students still love to play review games and participate in hands-on activities. I thought that I would miss doing the "cutsy" activities that would normally be used in the elementary grades, but middle school students are just as hungry for them.

Second, I feel that I am the best at engaging in conversation with the students and making them feel comfortable around me. I have carried on conversations with all of the students that I have, and I feel that they are comfortable enough around me to talk to me as both a friend and a teacher. I think that this trait has helped me to build relationships with the students.

Finally, I know that I have a lot that I can improve on with teaching middle school. The first of which would to be more assertive in the classroom. I know that I can be more stern with the students and should cut off the talking a little bit more. This will definitely be an area that I will work on if I decide to teach middle school. I am glad that I now have another option for when I start my job hunt!

Week 12

This was my last week of full-time teaching. Next week, Mrs. McCutchan will start teaching the sixth grade again. It will be strange just being an extra body in the room as opposed to being the person who is running the class. It's crazy how much that these kids have grown on me. I was just telling my family about some of the students that I have and realized how much I'm going to miss them in a few weeks! I wasn't too sure about middle school at first, but now I see how misunderstood these students often are. Just like elementary students, they also need love and support.

I was telling my mom earlier that sometimes it's hard to know where to find the balance between being firm with the students and having enough of a sense of humor so that they actually care about what you have to say. I think that I'm still trying to find that balance and am definitely more on the sense of humor side. I try to be firm with the students, and I know that they respect me but think that some of them still try to test their limits sometimes.

On the other hand, we finished the six traits of writing this week in seventh grade. I was so proud of the ice cream sundae that I made as an illustration of the traits. I hope that the students will remember the six traits and apply them to their writing.

Week 11

The weeks are winding down! I have one more week left of full-time teaching to go. I was really productive this week because I have a busy weekend ahead, so all of my lesson plans are already finished for next week. On top of that, I have everything graded. If feels good to already have that accomplished. We have three seminars at WVU next week, so I know next week will be busy. To answer your question, Neal, we had to make an outline of the artifacts that we will use in the exit portfolio already. We also had to write one of our narratives. While it's hard to think about next semester already, I know it will be here before we know it, so it's good that we're starting to work on the portfolio already.

Action research is still going well. Their quiz scores on nouns were okay, and a lot of the students said that some of the grammar activities were their favorite this week. I just don't want to imagine putting all this data together to make some sense out of it!

Everything is going well overall teaching wise. My biggest problem with the middle schoolers is how chatty they are! I am constantly trying to figure out the best way for them to sit so that they don't talk so much. I know that they're at an age where all they want to do is socialize, but they need to realize that when they talk so much, it is disruptive to the rest of the class and me.

We finished the novel in seventh grade. They all seemed to really enjoy it. I wish that students had the opportunity to read more novels in school because it's books like Nothing but the Truth that keep students interested in reading. I had a few students, some who were very surprising to me, that went home and read the book on their own before we were finished with it in class. I was thrilled that they were so engaged in the novel that they couldn't put it down. How can we as teachers have our students doing that all of the time?

Week 10

I'm halfway through full-time teaching. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with how it's going. I do my lesson plans on the weekend for the entire week so that I'm not as overwhelmed during the week. I also make sure that all of my papers are graded by the end of the day so that they don't pile up. I'm staying organized, and it's definitely helping me stay sane.

My action research is going well. I gave the students their weekly questionaire today, and a lot of them reported that their favorite activity was the noun activity. I was hoping that their engagement and enthusiasm about grammar would change, and I am happy that it is! I hope that the remainder will go as well.

There were a lot of interruptions with the eighth graders taking the ACT Explorer this week, but next week should be back on regular schedule. I have learned to be flexible with my lesson plans and know that they aren't set in stone.

I'm really enjoying these middle school students, and I hope that they are gaining as much from this experience as I am. The end of this semester will be bittersweet. I'll be excited that I completed this semester but at the same time, sad that I won't see the students anymore.

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!