Dear Cohort,

Amongst the bedlam that I sometimes have to describe my classroom as, I found a peaceful moment in my thoughts.  I scanned the room in a focused delirium taking conscious note of the idiosyncrasies about my students that define a part of who they are.  Marissa is sitting with her knee up high (“partial fetal” she would say), Travis’ eyes glance from you to the floor with a smirk he has plastered on his face all day—he has hidden Connor’s books again somewhere around the room, Kyle grunts as he sees the room set up for speeches, and Riley declares, “I love almond joys.  I love to take out the almond and enjoy the joy.” I’m paused in this moment of 28 different stimuli and realize my cheeks hurt from smiling.

Today, we had a lockdown drill with my students as sitting ducks in the back of my classroom. Lights off, blinds drawn, posters to cover the window of our 8^th grade Team Streaks pod.  As I squatted in front of them and studied their faces, telling a few to be silent, I heard Riley’s voice in my head repeating:   “I love almond joys!  I love to take out the almond and...enjoy the joy.”  What a fresh perspective! Simple. Innocent. Wholly original, and irrevocably Riley.  How could I ever not fight for his education, his safety, his ability to voice those kinds of thoughts to the other people who could learn from his perspective as he continues to develop as his own person? Eleven reported school shooting since the 2014 year began and I think this can not be done to him—to any of my students. 

My goal for this semester is to provide my students with opportunities to showcase their idiosyncrasies.  In this sense, I am appreciative of the heavy focus on differentiated instruction that we will be learning this semester.   Now that I am back in my groove and teaching everyday (as opposed to last semester), I feel as if my students are responding to me in new ways that are exciting as I get to see them in even more complex lights.  I am constantly reminded of the enigmatic Hamlet—can we ever truly know a person inside and out? Never and never and never. But there’s a beauty to that uncertainty that I’ve come to appreciate more and more in my classroom. Remember this; it’ll help you carry onward in teaching.

Sincerely,

Becca Fairchild

Linda's First Week

Dear Dr. Shea  and fellow student teachers,

     This week (January 27- 31)  I have been working on several goals:

     My first goal is to learn all of the students’ names. I have a seating chart for each class, including study halls, and these charts are helping me to learn student names. My cooperating teacher, Jen Deibler, has assigned seats for all classes, so if a student is absent it is very easy to confirm this. If a student is not sitting in his/her assigned seat, I have the authority to ask him/her to sit in the assigned seat. 

     My second goal is to introduce myself to the other English teachers and learn their names.  I noticed the first day student teaching that the English teachers collaborate when planning lessons, quizzes, and tests, and they freely share their ideas and  paper  work with each other.  Jen Deibler asked me to bring a new flash drive so that she could share all the lesson plans, etc. with me. This is an example of the generosity and collaborative spirit manifested by the English teachers here at Manheim Township High School.

     My third goal is to become part of the school community by meeting the other teachers, administrators, and staff, attending any faculty meetings, and supporting the students in my classes by attending their sports, music, theater, etc. activities to show that I care about them.  I have attended the LGBT GSA meeting, the Performing Arts meeting, and have attended some sports activities here at the school. I am at the school from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm with Mrs. Deibler. I could easily be here for twelve hours a day if I attend the after school activities.

     In addition to these three goals, I am also working on lesson plans for Lord of the Flies for Honors English and Animal Farm for College Prep English which I will begin teaching next week. I am currently teaching Canto III of Dante’s Inferno to the Honors English class and leading all of the classes’ discussions on the daily writing prompts (writers’ notebook entries).

     I am practicing co-teaching with Jen Deibler and this is a wonderful way of providing differentiated instruction for students with EIPs, as well as formative assessments of student understanding, throughout the class period.

     I am aware of the necessity for organization and preparation, due to the short class periods, and the energy of the students.

     I have chosen my student with IEP and my student receiving ELL services for our DI class’s case studies, with Jen Deibler’s help.  I am hoping to complete that project early next week.

     I have begun my student case study for this class and am looking forward to sharing it with you.

Best wishes,

Linda Carty

Week 1!

So technically I'm into my second week, but I decided to wait to post until I had a little bit more to talk about. I've just started the 7th grade with their Giver unit, and so far, so good! It's really eye opening to see how crazy and spontaneous the real teaching world actually is...I really did think everything could be planned out, but I'm learning that the truth is the complete opposite. Maybe it's different in high school, but it is nearly impossible in a middle school to have an entire week planned out, let alone two days! Already I'm seeing a change in pace and feel like maybe some of the features in my unit plan can be tossed aside for something with better flow and transition. I'm only a few days in, but I'm looking forward to seeing how everything pans out. My mentor says that eventually the unit will take a life of its own and just...work out. Ideas and activities will come naturally, and the reactions of students will really drive the lessons. Maybe it's common knowledge, but I'm excited to see it with my own eyes in my own work.

Aaaaand the 8th grade research paper unit starts on Monday. Yikes. A lot of these kids are SUCH great writers, but hate it so much. I tried sitting down with a few students yesterday to help write their paragraphs for an in-class activity, and I had to pull teeth to get them to write down five sentences. They know how to do it, they just won't. Not sure if it's laziness or something with their past experiences, but I'm really worried about this unit. I don't want to be a bad teacher and end up responsible for enabling poor writing habits.