weekly blog

this summarizes my student's reaction when I tried to get their attention today.

Highlights


*Baseball field makeover and my first assembly
I went to my first school assembly on monday. At it, I found out that the local news( KXLY) is doign an "extreme team" makeover on North Pines' baseball field, which is super old. It's always cool to see community-school involvement for me, especially since it's in my neighborhood and community.

going solo
So today, the school needed a sub for thrid period (due to MSP testing, my teacher was not in her room). The sub didn't come, so the vice principal asked me if I coudl teach the class alone. I said that was fine and I taught the class. So that was a good moment to practice management (without any help or interference) and also I think I am on good standing with the vice principal, which can't be bad. The class went really well and I actually had students who didn't want to quit silent reading, which was a nice and unusual surprise.


one practice

I guess my practice for this week is giving students a chance to correct their own mistakes before the final grades are put in. During my lesson, students finished their work early and I corrected it, handed it back with highlighted errors and told them to correct it.I didn't give them the answers, but told them to double check the specific parts of hte assignment and ask for help from their peers. There were more hundred percents, and studnets actually learned the material. It's not my idea, but I think it's good practice if it's possible.

-students with issues that you can't fix
I guess for me a lot of the perplexing things are issues I "know what to do" but actually doing it is difficult. For me this week, a really great student has been having a lot of personal problems that have been impacting her. (I don't have favorites, but this student is bright, hard working, has good social skills, and is all around a great kid.) she didnt have her homework on friday because she explained that her mother had kicked her out of the house and thrown away all of her belongings. The student is now with her dad, and she will be moving to a different school district before hte year ends (her second time moving this year). There are more issues that have come up, and she seems to be handling things well, but I just feel bothered. A lot of my students have rough home situations or problems that bother me, and I can't fix those for them. I guess I am just having a hard time disconnecting and not finding myself worrying about students I know at night.
-planning lessons and logistics
I am having a hard time planning my lessons. My english teacher doesnt plan ahead often, it will change up until twenty mintues before class. three times she's been like "on friday, we will teach this together, write a lesson." and then friday, it changes. I am also having a hard time getting into my social studies class and I don't know my role there yet. so sometimes co-teaching is weird. it's not horrible, I can improvise lessons like nobody's business now.