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
Linda,
ReplyDeleteYou sound like you are assimilating to your new classroom environment pretty smoothly! From being a part of Manheim Township's community from last semester, I have got to say that I have never felt more welcomed into a communities of learners, professionals, and staff than here. It makes me happy to see the feeling at the high school is the same.
I LOVE THE LORD OF THE FLIES! Have fun with that unit. One of my fondest memories in high school was completing the summative assessment for that novel. In groups of 5 or 6 we had to role play as the characters from the book in a "One Year Later" episode held on a mock daytime television interview set up in from of the class. I'll never forget the ghost of Piggy that we included in our project! There is so much you can do with that text, so I hope you have fun teaching it!
Hi Becca,
ReplyDeleteI think that for every student who reads Lord of the Flies there is a different fond memory, and for each teacher who teaches the text, there is a different approach to teaching it. I like your idea of interviewing the characters about their experience on the island one year later. You are working collaboratively with me in sharing lesson plan ideas. Thank you for your generosity!