Letter to Self - Online Reflection 4

Dear 2013 Self,

              Hey! This is 2016 Megan writing you a letter. Read this letter and pay very close attention because I am about to give you some valuable information and advice from someone who knows you best: yourself. But first, congratulations! As of right now, we have officially survived student teaching. We have our KPTP results back, we are about to start our last day with the kids we have been with for the last year and more importantly, we have an actual paying job for next year. Sound unbelievable? Well, you better believe it girl because it is 100% true!

              I know right now you are feeling overwhelmed with starting new classes with all of them having huge papers due around the same time in April.  I also know that you are feeling inadequate around all of these other education majors. When everyone introduced themselves at the beginning of the semester and finding out that a lot of them have always wanted to be teachers, it’s hard to feel like you belong when you have recently decided that this is what you want to do. But trust me, you do belong there and do not let anyone make you feel any differently.

              With all of this comes a lot of work; I mean a lot of work. Forget about your very small social life and your regular amount of sleep during the week because that will be all messed up for the rest of your career, so you better get used to it. You will soon learn that high school and middle school has changed in the very little time that you have been out of it. Not every student is as hard working and focused on their education as much as you were. But I guess that is why you wanted to teacher, is it not? To hopefully get through to the students who do not believe education is the most important part of their lives? Well, believe me, you have your work cut out for you. But I know you can and will become someone else’s ‘Ms. LaFever’ and inspire them to work hard so they can become successful in life.

              Now, here is where I leave you with a few points of advice to keep in mind. Number 1: take a copy of any assignment your merely think you might like or want to use in the future. Number 2: write down every single piece of advice or information anyone gives you. Number 3: buy all of your English and education textbooks used instead of renting them; you will need them in the future. Number 4: remember that it is okay that you make mistakes (and believe me, you WILL make mistakes and plenty of them); you are not expected to do everything perfectly. Number 5: when others are giving you advice or critiquing you, they are just trying to help you grow as an educator and not trying to put your down.

              Well, good luck in the next two years. You will do great, so do not worry. You will be stressed quite a bit, but it will be worth it in the end. Trust me. 

Finally Being the Teacher - Online Reflection 3

Online Reflection 3 – Finally Being the Teacher

              11 weeks later and I am finally treated like the classroom teacher (most of the time). I have been struggling, like most student teachers, to make the students see me as the teacher and person in charge of the classroom. At the beginning, when my mentor teacher was still sitting in on every class, students would ask her to use the restroom, get a drink, etc. and I would feel kind of sad because I was the teacher and they were supposed to ask me for those things! However, 11 weeks later I am extremely grateful every time they try to ask her for something because it is one less time they are bugging me!

              One way, according to Bomer, that teachers can create a relationship with their students as well as get to know them is to focus the in-class assignments and literature to focus on your students’ lives so they can create connects between their lives and the texts. “We need to know what students know and how they think about literacy in order to help make connections to new ideas and practices” (21). That is what I was trying to do in my KPTP unit on diversity; I wanted to read a story that my ESOL and Latino students could connect to. They were embarrassed to contribute to discussions, but their quick writes and individual reflections were very thoughtful and reflective because they were able to read and write about a topic they were familiar with and could relate with.

A couple weeks ago, I aired my struggles in class and my classmates gave me some really great feedback. They assured me that everything will work itself out. One classmate suggested that I let my students know that I am the person who creates and grades their assignments because they do not see the work I do before and after class. My mentor teacher also gave me some advice to improve this relationship; she told me that I need to hold each and every student to my expectations. When I show them that I will not budge on what I am asking them to do, they will continue to learn to see me as the adult in charge, not my mentor teacher. It is hard because my mentor teacher has had the whole year to develop the relationships she has created with the students.

With the advice and support of my classmates and mentor teacher, I have come a long way since the beginning of the semester. I have learned to use my voice and presence to show the students that for the time being, I am in charge of the class. I know I will continually grow and grow as I move from student teaching into a full time teaching position. 

Teaching Discussion Techniques to 7th Graders - Reflection 2

As we all know, students love to talk. They can find just about anything to talk about to distract themselves from the ‘boring school assignments.’ But when it comes to class or group discussions, it’s like pulling teeth to get them to talk on topic! Thank goodness for those rare students who like to talk AND are focused enough to respond on topic. How do I get every student to answer my discussion questions without having to make everyone write down their answers to the questions?

              When my students and I were reading “Harrison Bergeron” the last couple weeks, we would have a little review session each day about what we read the day before. My struggle at the beginning was getting the students to actually take the 30 seconds I gave them to look over the last section to be able to have a small review discussion. I finally figured out that if I put review questions on the board and told them that at the end of their review, they should be able to answer these questions. And then I would use my phone app to pick random students to answer the questions on the board. By doing this, the students were able to remember the important main points of the last section so they can move onto the next section with better understanding. This was also a perfect time for students to ask questions if they were confused about the last question.

              Another aspect of discussion that I have been working on is getting the students to participate in discussing the section they just read by themselves. Harrison Bergeron has many conflicting points that the students like to debate about. According to Bomer, focusing on these differences are a great way to facilitate a discussion that more students are willing to participate in (139). His technique of using the differences of a subject to facilitate a discussion is using the very common fact that when students asked to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’, they usually agree with the majority of the class. Bomer suggests playing the devil’s advocate and asking them to consider another, less popular point of view. This worked well for me during our class discussions.

One specific time this worked well for me was when I asked them if George going to jail for two years and paying $2000 for messing with his handicap was appropriate consequences. Most of all three of my classes said no because they were unfair consequences. I asked the class to consider the government’s point of view; ‘Why would the government actually give him those consequences?’. With that, they agreed that George did break the law and everyone who breaks the law has to face the consequences.

One important aspect of the teaching great discussion techniques Bomer talks about is “eliminating the evaluation part of the initiation-response-evaluation talk pattern” (138). This is a part that I need to work on; I struggle with getting across to the students who refuse to participate that it is a requirement. I feel like the only way I can guarantee that everyone will participate enough for me to evaluate them all is to have them all write their answers down THEN to have them get up and share with a partner to get that discussion aspect in the activity. What I have seen work well with my MT is to not necessarily threatening per-se, but giving them the opportunity to choose what they do in class. She likes to do little class discussions and tells them that they choose what they are going to do: either everyone participates and shares their two bits or she will stop the discussion and make everyone write down their responses. This usually works in motivating everyone to participate. When I go to try this technique, what I have to work on is holding them to my expectations; if the discussion really is not going well, then I need to stop and have them write. Hopefully, in doing this the future discussions can and will get better over time.  

Letting off Some Steam - Online Reflection 1

Letting Off Some Steam

By Megan Rodriguez

You will have those bad days.

Just accept it right now.

You will wake up one morning in bed from 2 hours of sleep.

Okay, to be honest you weren’t in bed.

You were at your home desk with papers sticking to your face.

Do you remember how young kids thought their teachers lived in their classrooms?

From time to time I could be okay with that.

It would save me gas driving to and from home.

It’s not just the lack of sleep that is the problem though.

Remembering you are a STUDENT teacher is hard sometimes.

I think that I must work and teach at the same level as my MT

With a ¼ or more of the experience.
But things will get better.

It is also hard remembering you also have a class (or classes for some) to attend.

Like I have time to do homework when I am busy creating it for my students.

I guess this multitasking is what experts call ‘adulthood’.

If I knew back in kindergarten a real job would be this hard,

I would have worked harder at being a professional colorer.

-Back to being a STUDENT teacher-

This semester is meant to be my experimental time.

Do I have a strategy or idea that I want to try?

Now is the time to do that, but it is hard to accept that in doing this I will make mistakes.

Don’t be fooled, the students know exactly what you are.

You are a student just like them who is getting experience

 and they decide that they (all 200 of them) need to be that one difficult student

a student teacher can learn from.

At least that has been my experience so far.

Okay, I might be exaggerating a little bit (okay a lot).
But things will get better.

 I guess I shouldn’t be complaining too much.

I have it good compared to others.

I don’t have a husband or children to take care of on top of this.

Which is fortunate because I still cannot take care of myself.

But I better get a move on because in less than 6 months

I will have at least 100 kids to take care of.

Thankfully it is easier to take care of someone else than it is to take care of yourself.

I have many things that I need to work on.

Slowing down is one of them. Being impatient is a weakness for me.

My fear is that I will move too slow that my students lose their attention from my lesson.

I am also afraid of wasting valuable class time.

This semester is about learning balance.

Balancing my planning time and social life.

Balancing instruction time with think and work time.

Balancing my emotions between classes and students.

 But things will get better.

Not now.

Probably not next year.

Probably not the year after that.

But eventually. 

Experiment #3: Getting Through to a Difficult Student

            I don’t mean to brag, but my class this year is amazing. I was lucky enough to choose an hour that has a high percentage of higher level students. On top of that, they are a pretty quiet and hard working class. Because they are comfortable in the classroom and with each other, they have come out of their shells. But for the most part they are awesome. About a month ago they added a new student to this class. I’ll call him Jacob. I feel bad, but I kind of dreaded adding him to our class because we already had a flow going in the class. Putting that aside, of course we welcomed him to our class.

            It did not take long for his work habit to become apparent to me and my mentor teacher. He enjoys our daily ten minutes of reading at the beginning of class, but he has issues putting his book away to focus on the daily assignments. And other days, once the reading time is over, he just lays his head down and does not work. It takes poking and prodding on my part to get him to do any work. Which is hard when there are a couple other students in the room who actually try to work and need my help.

            Another issue is that he very rarely brings a writing utensil to class. So, when he sits there for ten minutes not working, his excuse is that he does not have a pencil. Why didn’t you ask for one when we started working?! Fortunately, as of last week, he at least asks for a pencil when we start working. My mentor teacher had a talk with him about the fact that I cannot just stand around and push him along in doing his work. She mentioned that I will not always be there to make sure he is doing his work.

            He has been working very well on his own this week. He has to still be asked to get his work out, but once we start working, he is usually on pace with rest of the class. And because I have been the one constantly talking with him, he feels comfortable asking me for help when he has a question. Last week he was complaining about how the books he wants to read in class is always missing when he wants to read them. So I reminded him that if he found a book he enjoyed, he could always check it from our classroom library. I am hoping that if we stimulate his enjoyment of reading in class, hopefully he will become more engaged during class. “One thing is especially clear from research on readers is that those who achieve on tests at a high level are also those who read a lot, and those who don’t spend much time reading do not do well” (Bomer, 2011, pp 81). If I can help him be interested in our class work, then he will pass the class and hopefully do well on his state testing. I know he has it in him because I saw him work today, he just needs to keep up the hard working attitude during every class. 

KATE Conference Reflection

Walking into the Marriot on Thursday was kind of intimidating as a student teacher. This conference would be full of English teachers with a lot more experience than I have. I know I will gain experience in the future, but right now I felt sort of out of place. Fortunately, checking in and sitting down for breakfast with my fellow student teachers calmed my nerves. Also, seeing many teachers I work with at North High School seemed to validate that I belonged there.

The first breakout session I attended was Mary Harrison’s, one of my fellow student teachers. She presented on how authors inspire empathy in their audience. I have seen this presentation in its infancy this summer during a class, but it was awesome to see how the other teachers in the session enjoyed recalling the themes of the book used, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The audience of this session did not care that Mary was a student teacher; they loved her idea about having the students try to guess who the narrator of the book is. Hearing this brightened my spirit about attending this conference.

Of the two days, the session I most enjoyed attending was the Music and Language Arts session presented by two first year teachers. They presented different lessons they used with their students that incorporated music in the language arts classroom. Out of the session, I learned about defining and describing mood while listening to a song. For my unit plan, I am using Into the Woods and “The Most Dangerous Game” as reading material and I heard a teacher say that the Jaw’s Theme song these two presenters modeled would be great for “The Most Dangerous Game.” I am going to incorporate this example into my plan.

When the schedule of sessions was released, I was happy to see that among my colleagues who were presenting, many of my teachers I worked with at North were presenting and even co-presidents of the conference. From that, I knew I would not have any issues finding sessions I would like to attend. But because of that, it was hard to choose because I wanted to support all of my colleagues. It was also fun to converse with other teachers across Kansas and find out how far they traveled to attend the conference. At one time early in the day on Thursday, someone was talking to a group of us and asked what schools we worked at, and we got excited because we looked like teachers instead of student teachers.

I really enjoyed attending this conference. Attending both days was a little much, but I received a large amount of resources and ideas to take back and incorporate into my lessons. 

Genre Reflection 1

Dear Ms. LaFever,

            Can you believe it has been five years since I was last in your class?! I can’t. Sometimes I miss high school because it was simple; all I had to do is show up to my classes and do the work. I remember how you used to interrupt my easy daily routine by challenging me in your class. I could not just come to your class and breeze by each semester; you always made us think about everything we did and talked about. You are the main reason why I decided I wanted to become a teacher. I want to become just like you: challenge my students and teach them valuable lessons (not just the state standards) while still respecting them and treating them like adults instead of just pesky juniors and seniors. And if we ever had any problems or just needed someone to talk to, you were always there for us. And what was great was that you not only listened to us, but always had great advice or resources to give us to help.

            I did not go into this thinking it would be easy; I knew it would be challenging. When I first entered college, I thought I wanted to major in just English. Boy, am I glad I changed my mind. Yes, I love reading literature and books and whatever else, but I am not the best at analyzing it or writing big papers. I love listening to others analyze and discuss a text, but I cannot contribute. And who is to say I would get a job after graduation?! But with English education, I can take what I know and have learned about literature, grammar, and any other skills having to do with reading and writing and share them with students. I can put all of my schooling into helping others learn, improve their lives, and prepare them for adulthood.

            I wish you were still here so I could tell you about me teaching my first mini unit. I have a great class; they are well behaved and actually do not mind being in class. Of course there are a couple who need more attention and work put into them, but they are still great kids (I started the semester out with 30 kids, but now I am down to about 25. Thank goodness!) I taught my first class yesterday. Yes, I taught the whole 45 minute class! As you would probably guess, my voice was not loud enough. You know that because I was never much of a talker and never developed a loud, annoying voice! But that is what I am working on today: talking louder so my whole class can hear me and follow along. I also need to slow down. I know this is an issue that I have to work on. I am just scared that I will not be able to get everything in in a day that I want. But I have to remember that if I rush, yes I might get covered what I need to, but how much of it will the students understand and remember? Not much. So I need to slow down and take my time and not rush the students, and give them enough time to absorb what I am saying.

            Yesterday I had my first issue; it was not that big of a deal, but it was a problem during my lesson. I was pairing students up to partner read and one boy did not like the partner I choose for him so he would not get out of his chair and move over and sit beside her. Thankfully, my mentor teacher was there to help me. We could not get him to move so they both read by themselves. If my mentor teacher was the one teaching, he might have still put up a fight, but he probably would have moved eventually. It’s hard to start teaching when the students are used to you being a teacher aid-type person in the classroom, not the one giving direct instructions. To insure he receives the same reading experience as the other students, next time they pair up, he will not be put with that girl.

            I really miss you and I hope everything is going great up in heaven. Just so you know, you have tons of students down here missing you. Just imagine all those juniors and seniors at Kapaun who have not gotten to be taught by you. They are really missing out!

Sincerely,

Megan Rodriguez