Something positive that I will take away from Akins…

Something postitive that I will take away from my experience at Akins is how awesome the students are.  I have had a tough semester with working and trying to keep up with my school work but the students make everything worth it.  Even though not all of them have been on their best behavior the whole time, they have been really receptive to us and when we told them it was our last time in their class last Wednesday they told us that they were sad.  I love making connections with people in general but I think when those people are your students, been connected is not only essential it is fun!  As a teacher, you can have a 4.0 GPA coming out of college and be the smartest in your class but if you don’t connect with your students you have a great disadvantage.  I want to thank everyone at Akins (although they won’t see this) for being so hospitable and especially thank the students that have been my conformation that I can be a good teacher.

My First Video Teach

I though my first video teach went well but when I got to conference with Dr. B it really made me feel much better about my abilities as a teacher.  I have always known that I was a good student, as I have always made good grades throughout school but to be on the other side and be teaching for the first time was scary!  I thought it went well but Dr. B assured me that it went really well.  I felt at ease knowing that someone else thought that I did a good job and believed in my ability to be a good teacher.  I did eventually watch my video teach and I was really happy with how I connected with the students.  That is one of my main goals as a teacher, to build that rapport from day one.  I know there are things I can improve on but I am happy that I have a good base to build off of.

Observations

I had the opportunity to observe twice on Monday, in the first class I was able to see a teacher administer a test which was interesting as we had just talked about tests in class.  The teacher followed most of the advice that we were given in class but one of the things that stood out the most was that she practically told them the test beforehand.  This was something that happened often during my high school career and as a student I did not study for the tests and simply recalled the information given to me on the “review sheet.”  There is a lot of pressure placed on teachers for their students to do well, however, this is not the way to do it as it is doing an injustice to your students.  Students do not learn this way, they simply regurgitate.

The other class, was the opposite.  The teacher asked questions regarding what they had been learning and engaged students at all times.  It is important to keep students engaged so they do not get bored and misbehave.  However, the second teacher that I observed had very poor classroom management skills.  She allowed students to misbehave and have side conversations which she spent the whole time talking over.  Therefore, even though you are asking questions and engaging some students, you have to make sure that all students are engaged.  If you let the side conversations continue it can be distracting to all students.  It is important to stand by the rules that you have set for your students and give consequences for misbehavior.

Mrs. Z

I can see myself becoming a teacher like Mrs. Z, I like that she relates to her students and is extremely honest with them.  It’s relieving to see a first year teacher that is comfortable enough to construct her classroom in a manner that is not “by the book.”  In all the observations that I have done, it is the veteran teachers that have been able to include this tactic in their classroom but it is nice to see a beginning teacher doing it as well.  I think making yourself and your class relatable to your students is one of the most important things you (as a teacher) can do to keep your students engaged and actively learning.  This is the kind of teacher I hope to be!

Teaching Personal Fitness

When my colleagues and I walked into class on monday, my cooperating teacher asked us to teach a portion of the class.  We split the class up into cooperative groups in the gym and did activities with them.  I was in charge of upper body and it was a little difficult to keep all students on-task.

Part of the reason why the class was so difficult is that we did not get to plan ahead.  Also, we were not as familiar with the equipment that was in the gym as we would have been had we had time to prepare.  As teachers, we sometimes have to plan lessons quickly, however, we would usually know the topic that we would be teaching beforehand.

This experience taught me that it is important to have the structured lesson plan in order to keep the time-on-task high.  Even though the teaching that we did was successful, it could have been much better with a structured plan.  The experience also taught me how successful cooperating groups can be.  The students were split into three cooperating groups which I thought worked really well as we were doing circuit training.  I feel that if we had the whole class participating in these activities together it would have been much more difficult.

Personal Fitness Class

The personal fitness class that I am in is not a class that is promoting personal fitness as much as it is learning how to be fit, without actually putting it into practice.  Students dress out only to get the grade and they don’t really seem to care about getting in shape or being fit, it’s almost one of those classes that are the easy classes in high school that we all took just to get the grade.

I realize that the curriculum in the class is important, however, it is really tedious.  He goes over the same content every day and when we asked the other day if we should be teaching them the same thing that he is he said “yes, I guarantee they don’t know it.”  He then proceeded to do an activity in class testing their knowledge on the subject, mostly a review in cooperative groups where they wrote down what they have been learning for weeks now.  They all knew it.

I think as a teacher, you have to know when to move on.  The curriculum is there as the backbone of the lesson but it does not necessarily mean that you have to only teach the curriculum.  The class is very rowdy and I think getting them up and doing activities to learn the curriculum will not only keep them engaged but also maybe encourage them to actually work out and dress out when we go to the gym because they are getting their blood pumping in the classroom.  It is not only important to teach the curriculum but also to actually get them in shape!!

Working with my Cooperating Teacher

We walked into the classroom on monday and our cooperating teacher, Mr. S, told us that we would be teaching part of the lesson today.  I talked for 5 minutes on muscle strength vs. muscle endurance.  Even though the topic was fairly straightforward, I felt a little nervous as it was my first time in front of a real class and I felt a little unprepared to be teaching them the information.  However, I am excited that we are getting this experience as I learn by doing things as I’m sure many of my students will also.

When I was talking in the class, students were not really paying attention to what I was saying.  This relates back to classroom management skills that we have spent much time on during the semester so far.  I did not feel completely comfortable reprimanding students for talking so I just allowed them to continue.  Classroom management skills are clearly a very important part of teaching as if your students aren’t really listening to you, they are not going to understand the information that you are teaching when they are tested later on.  I have noticed in my class that our cooperating teacher spends a lot of time on just one chapter in the textbook that has roughly 5 main concepts that students need to learn.  These concepts are not difficult and I feel that he is simply repeating himself day after day, I think the main reason for this is that his class is not really listening to him.  Also, I think if he gave an oral review and asked the class if they understood the material, he would be able to move on and could spend more time in the gym with the students, teaching them how to live a healthy way of life and putting the concepts into practice.

Having a structured lesson plan is necessary in order to be an affective teacher.  It is very difficult to teach when you do not have any sort of structure or idea of how to effectively explain the message you want to convey.  Also, periodically testing stduents, even if it is not for a grade is important because you (as a teacher) need to know if your students are understanding the concepts you are teaching them.  If they do understand, you assess them, and they ace the test, then you can move on.  As teacher, we only get 180 days with the students so by moving through topics at a good pace, students will be more prepared for next year.

Dr. Raymond

Description: Dr. Raymond came in last wednesday and talked to us about working with our ELL students.  He was extremely enthusiastic about his job and what he does within the classroom to help his students and I think his enthusiasm got us all excited about meeting our first real student. 

Analysis: He was describing to us the backgrounds and stories that some of his students have and I could see how his students respected him and valued him as a teacher just from his descriptions.  He also had a lot of good insight into his classroom rules and procedures as a veteran teacher.  He definitely did not feel compelled to “go by the book,” which I really enjoyed.  I believe that high school students are old enough and have been in school long enough to know what is expected of them and they should be treated more like adults than as children.

Reflection: I really identified with some of the techniques that he was talking about as far as treating his students as equals.  As a first year teacher I think we can tend to get caught up in what we should be teaching and the rules that must be followed and forget that our students come first and should be our primary concern.  It is important to consider how your group of students are going to learn best and try to teach to their needs.  I still think that as a first year teacher I will have to have good classroom management skills but I don’t necessarily think that this means I have to give students lots of rules and procedures to follow.  I think I will try to lead by example more than telling them what to do and treat them more like adults.

The First Two Weeks

In the second week of class we went on a tour with some of the ROTC students at Akins High School.  We walked all around the campus and they were able to show us where everything was.  The cool part about it was that we were able to ask the our student questions to find out all about the school, who the best teachers were and the classes they enjoyed the most.  Our student was really honest with us which was great but I noticed how professional and mature she seemed for a 17 year old.

It was great to have been able to get an insight into a students life at Akins as all we are learning is what a teachers life will be like.  I think as a teacher you really have to listen and get feedback from your students because they can provide helpful information.  Also, this experience showed me that students are maybe more mature and know more than we think and we as teachers should give them credit for this.  I think the ROTC program in particular helps students with this mature, professional behavior as the program is getting students ready to join the military where maturity and respect is a must have.

I would hope as a teacher that I will listen to my students before jumping to conclusions.  I think in order to get respect you have to give it so I would hope that my students would know that in my classroom there will be a mutual respect.  I have always believed that high school students can deal with more responsibility and in my class I will try and give my students more responsibility in order to better prepare them for further education or future employment.

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