Between placements…

And between work samples!  I turned in the 118-pg beast a week ago, and spent this week enjoying Christmas and waiting for feedback and confirmation to upload the electronic copy for permanent storage to the school’s server and to Task Stream, for easy access for TSPC.  I’m proud of my rubric score, especially for the first time around.  On the scoring guide, 1-2 is emergent, 3-4 is proficient, and a 5 exceeds.  For the first try, we’re definitely not expected to exceed, and I didn’t overall, but I did get 5’s on five out of eighteen sections.  I also got three 3’s.  The rest were 4’s and my overall score was a 4 (highly proficient).  My cohort leader wants to use my WS as an example.
I’d write more, but there’s a Blazers game on in 17 minutes….

High School Placement

Apparently I haven’t posted since early October.  Yikes.

But today there is news!  I had a meeting after school (well, actually, I snuck out a little early) with a teacher at THS.  He is a fairly young, fairly intense dude, and I like him.  He gave me some syllabi to look over and we talked about what the classes will look like and his “coaching” style with student teachers.  It all sounded lovely to me.  He teaches advanced sophomore English, co-taught junior English (this means there is a high percentage of IEPs, so a learning specialist is present), and regular senior English.  I have a list of literature to review or become familiar with.  Winter break reading?  Here’s the (partial) list:

1. Lord of the Flies - I’m pretty excited about reading this again.  I have only read it once, and it was in 8th grade.  I can safely say I didn’t get much out of it.

2. The Canterbury Tales – Only the introduction and two stories, thankfully.  I actually have not studied this piece yet.

3. Hamlet – Ah, Hamlet.  Read this in AP English my junior year of high school.  It will be good to review it.

4. All Quiet on the Western Front – a novel about a German solider in World War I (written by a German WWI veteran).  I’m very excited about this one, although I have never read it and don’t know much about it.

5. The Stranger – French existentialism at its best. (Also never read.)

Tomorrow is day three of my Anne Frank work sample.  Grading has been tedious but I’ve stayed caught up.  The hardest part was giving specific written feedback to every single student on the first journal entry so they will have an idea of what to do better next time.  Tomorrow will be fun – we are “speed dating” with all the characters from the play, and then we’re reading Act One: Scenes 1 and 2.

The worst part of student teaching is the work sample reflections.  There are a lot of best parts!  I have grown to really like the middle schoolers I have, even though I am still pretty sure I’ll like teaching high school more.

Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen

I just had a delightful little 3-day affair with this novel – a really easy, pleasant read for 330 pages.  It’s the story of a young man who loses everything and joins the circus, but the real beauty of the story lies in the way Gruen juxtaposes the young and old voices of the narrator, Jacob.  It’s an obvious commentary on the way the elderly in our society are relegated to nursing homes or “assisted living facilities.”  The story is narrated entirely in the present tense, and the chapters switch between Jacob’s 23-year-old voice and his 93-year-old voice.  93-year-old Jacob is still sharp in many ways, but forgets his age often and seems to be in denial about his abilities.  The way he describes shuffling in his walker, every effort moving him a single floor tile closer to his destination, is at the same time funny, precious, and devastating.  The real devastation, though, is that we see Jacob’s perspective as he waits for his family to come see him – whichever family member, that is, whose turn it is.

Jacob’s young voice carries us through the glamorous and seedy underground of depression-era circus culture, complete with plenty of elements we can only hope human and animal rights organizations have done away with.  And yet, if the authorities had known how many people got “red-lighted” (thrown off the moving train in the middle of the night) I’m sure they would not have been fine with it then either.  After reading Gruen’s story I understand a little more why circuses have such sketchy reputations – clowns and carnies are creepy for a reason.

The love story, while not the most honorable, is moving.  The love story between the human and animal characters is even more so.

I recommend this book, but with a warning:  the novel contains some very graphic “adult material,” so please, if you struggle in this area, try something else.

A stunning visual…

As I prepare for my Anne Frank/Holocaust unit, I thought it would be an interesting idea to try to fit as many dots as I could on one page, print it, and then photocopy the result so my students can actually visualize the amount of people killed in the Holocaust.  I am disturbed and amazed by what I found.  The image below is a copy of the image I made – 64,000 dots on one page (click the image to open it in a new window and see it all on one screen):

How many copies would I need to make?

For the 6 million Jews killed alone, I would need to make 94 copies.  For the 11 million estimated total, including Jews, Gypsies, handicapped people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and others, I would need 172 copies of this page.

11 million is a big number.  It’s much bigger when you can see one of that 11 million and imagine it is you.

Work Sample in progress!

I have now been at my school for three Thursday/Fridays in a row.  The kids ask about me, and seem happy enough to see me when I am there.  The little boys even arm wrestle each other in front of me and ask me to make bets on who will win. (I don’t give in!)

I’m beginning to write my Work Sample for this authorization, and I am planning my unit around The Diary of Anne Frank (the play) and the Holocaust.  So far, section 2 of my work sample (my unit plan) looks like this:

There will be edits, of course, and no one else has looked at this, and I’m new at it!  Those are my disclaimers, for all you very experienced lesson plan writers.  Suggestions are welcome.  And for those of you who take issue with the word “tolerance” like I often do (*please don’t assume anything about me based on this – that is for another post…), know that the school district used that word, and so it must become part of my goal.

Now I’m feeling self-conscious about my disclaimer, so here is a short tangent:
I do not like the word “tolerance” because I don’t think it is far-reaching enough – I think I would be offended if someone different from me told me they were “tolerating” me.  I would much, much rather be loved.

I will be teaching this unit beginning in mid-late November, so I have a little while.  That’s good, since I haven’t actually written any lessons yet.

Other news:

1. Eric got a new job!  He is studying to become a certified financial adviser.

2. I am doing Fantasy Football this fall, and I am SO out of my element – but enjoying it.

3. My running is on hold.   I had a good excuse for the first week or two, but now I have a little bit of time I can use for exercise.  Actually, I plan to start swimming on Tuesday evenings after I get out of class, and I’m pretty excited about that.

The leaves are turning colors and falling, the air is getting cooler and crisper, and a myriad other Autumnal clichés.  I am enchanted by fall every single year, and I’m always so disappointed when it turns into winter.  I’m savoring it while it lasts.

A minute to myself…

This week has completely escaped me.  Suddenly it’s Friday.  I have officially been in a classroom with actual kids for 3 whole days, and “prepared” for teaching for 4 days.  I have been contributing little pieces throughout the day -  A will find small teaching tasks for me, like explaining an assignment or going over answers with the class.  I have my own teacher desk in the back of the room, and I spend my down time entering grades, filing, cataloging the classroom library, and helping kids with whatever they need.

The biggest struggle for me so far has been feeling like I have completely neglected what I need to be doing in the way of hanging out with Eric and keeping up with my house.  Some of the most noticeably absent elements of my pre-pre-service teaching life are decent meals.  Convenient food is good, but I really wish I had the time to cook or even go grocery shopping!

Summer to Fall

I’m getting ready to start the fall semester on Thursday.  “Getting ready” means fighting the urge to stay up and sleep in really late, especially now that Eric’s home with me for the time being.  It also means I’ve been working out a lot more.  I had a little bit of a slowing-metabolism-wake-up-call, so I’ve been trying to eat food that is good for me.  I’ve been running a couple miles every other day and on the in-between days doing strength training.  Through all this I am reminded how totally not hardcore I am when it comes to fitness goals, athletic ability, etc.  But this is the best I’ve EVER done in the area of athletics, and I’m so pleased that I am actually capable of exercise since my surgery.  (Longer story than I want to explain, but I used to have absolutely no athletic endurance due to this condition — although not nearly as crazy as that picture!)

My class list for this fall is as follows:

Classroom Management

Action Research II

Special & Diverse Populations

Rethinking High School

Language Arts Pedagogy

Issues in Human Development

Teaching in the Middle

This is in addition to my Practicum – part-time student teaching at L.O.J.   I met my teacher, Ms. E, last Wednesday and I’m so excited to get started there.  The school seems so high-energy.  It also just so happens that the principal’s assistant is the mother of one of Eric’s childhood best friends – she has known their family since before Eric and David were born, and she recognized me from the wedding.  I got to meet the office staff, principal, vice principal, and a couple of the custodial staff.  Next week is the inservice week and I will be hanging out with my teacher and the other teachers in her team, attending meetings, and generally learning about the way the school runs.  The week after that, the kids arrive.   We have plans to try to get me up in front of the class teaching soon -  Ms. E suggested that if she teaches the first 2-hr class period (block schedule), I could teach the second or third after observing her.  I told her that sounds like a wonderful arrangement.  Also, I found out I will most likely be teaching my work sample during the Anne Frank unit, which sounds like an awesome unit to teach.  It’s especially cool that, since Ms. E is a language arts and social studies teacher, there’s a good chance the social studies curriculum will be integrated into the language arts unit.

Now to the shower and to bed (hopefully before midnight).

A month off.

Now that I have completed my 30 hours helping out with summer school,  I am “free” for a month.  Of course, “free” means I have to complete a 3-week-long unit plan I began during the semester, as well as writing several reflections and a “case study” on the students in my summer school classrooms.   I think when I am finished with my unit plan, I may post it on here, but I haven’t decided yet.  It is a unit on the American Dream and The Great Gatsby.  I know, I know, not the most original novel to choose, but it is one of my very favorites and I know it well, so I thought I should start with a strong base of knowledge.  After all, I have never actually taught a novel; I may as well start where I’m comfortable.

I chose The Great Gatsby because:

1.  I have a horrible habit of choosing to do things academically that are way over my head just because I don’t want to choose the “obvious” route.  A good for instance (and the most tragic example, probably) is my choice of topics on Richard Wright’s Native Son in 11th grade AP English.  I should have chosen color symbolism, or weather, or anything basic.  Instead I wrote some nonsense on the 1930’s black community in Chicago and their dependence on the church and how that was somehow symbolic (?)….  I don’t know.  But I got a C, because I didn’t really know what I was doing.

2. It’s a darn good book, enjoyable on the surface but with layers and layers of depth.  It’s all about how far you decide to go.

3. I’ve read it at least twice in the last few years, including an extremely thorough reading/re-reading for a research paper I wrote, which is currently my proudest academic achievement.

During this month off, I also plan to take a few little fun vacations.  Tomorrow Eric and I are going to Cannon Beach for a few days, and then toward the end of the week we will mosey over toward Rockaway Beach for Burk and Lydia’s wedding, which is going to be wonderful.   Also, next Wednesday is Eric’s 24th birthday!  I will post on that after the fact, in case he reads this and discovers all my secret plans.

(A picture of us at Cannon Beach this Spring.)

Me and Ralph Nader.

Who am I?

This week I volunteered in Mrs. V’s class, which is a delightful change of pace from last week. Mrs. V teaches freshman English at the summer school program, and I had a great time helping out. She is having the students write narratives from their own perspectives, and to help them become reliable narrators she had them take the Myers-Briggs/Keirsey temperament test. Out of curiosity, I took it just now, and I’m rather pleased to announce that even after SO many changes in my life over the last couple years, I am still an ENFJ: Extroverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging, or the “Idealist-Teacher” temperament.  (Mr. Nader is also a “teacher.”)

I don’t know why this is so satisfying for me. As I was taking the test, I was very conscious of the questions it asked and started worrying I’ve become boring, too grounded and not imaginative enough. (“Enough” for what? I don’t know.) I’ve been very aware of my lack of creativity lately, and the fact that I used to spend all my time creating – writing, playing music, designing graphics and web pages. I hate this “real world” (and by real I mean so much less real so much of the time) sometimes. I wish I had the _________ (time? inspiration? desire?) to do more.

At least Ralph and I still have our ENFJ.

Yesterday I officially completed my 30 hours at B. High helping out with the summer school program. I went Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of this week and last week. I spent the first week in one class with Ms. M, and the next with Mrs. V. Verdict: I far, far prefer Mrs. V’s teaching style, but I liked Ms. M’s kids a whole lot more. Here are some overall observations from the two weeks:

1. Showing endless media clips is not teaching.

Showing one episode of The Daily Show would have been sufficient for teaching satire.  The kids definitely got it.  And just in case they didn’t, maybe ONE more episode would have been sufficient.  But trust me when I say we spent the vast majority of our time looking at a screen instead of actually learning or applying learning to literature.

2. Divas need to have their butts kicked.

However a teacher is comfortable doing it.  But this exchange should never, ever fly in a classroom:

Girl: [swats boy in front of her] “Hey, what’s your name?  Uh… Damian.  Staple this for me.”
Damian, nice kid, get’s up and takes papers.
Girl: “Make sure it’s neat.”

Thankfully, Mrs. V told him to sit down, and her to get her “lazy butt” up and do it herself.  That kind of thing really happens?  Really?

3. Kids have seen a LOT more than I think they should.

I was astonished at the list of movies Mrs. V’s freshman class was producing, for watching in class.  Friday, American History X, Fight Club, Goodfellas, Cheech and Chong: Up in Smoke, Harold and Kumar, etc., etc., etc.  Now some of these (particularly American History X) are GREAT movies, worth seeing albeit disturbing and hard to watch.  But 95% of the movies they suggested were rated a very strong R, with gratuitous violence, drug use, sex, etc.   Every hand went up when the teacher asked whose parents would sign a permission slip to let them see a rated R movie in class.

I was also amazed that “a stripper with no butt” was offered as an example of irony.  Conversation ensued about the strip clubs in a couple of the kids’ neighborhoods.

These kids are 14, 15.

4. As a teacher, it’s extremely important to listen to the whole class, not just the vocal majority.

Mrs. V handled this fairly well; Ms. M did not.  Some kids are going to talk any chance they get, and others will never, ever talk even if it’s important to them.  This is part of the reason I’m so interested in Kessler’s use of anonymous questions in class (giving students the opportunity, daily, to write questions that will be read and answered anonymously).  Mrs. V kept track of which students had spoken, and would say things like “I need to hear from Johnny, Mary, Frank, Paul, and Carl” and would give those kids opportunities to talk before the more vocal students were allowed to share again.

The only kid Ms. M ever quieted was a kid on an IEP who tended to say irrelevant things.  In contrast, a very vocal girl with incredible leadership skills – she had the whole class listening to her every word and could easily manipulate adults – was never told to let others have a chance.

The saddest thing I heard out of a kid’s mouth in the 2 weeks was from the first student:  “At my other school everyone already thinks I’m an idiot, so I don’t care if they think that here.”

5.  Rushing assignments has pros and cons.

Giving kids a lot to do in a little time keeps them on task, but it also may sacrifice work quality.  I don’t know what the best balance is.  I definitely don’t want my students turning in work that is less than their best.  Maybe for certain assignments that are more labor-heavy in nature I could do a more rushed time frame, but for things like writing assignments I want kids to take their time.  Maybe I could give plenty of time but also clarify that the grading standards will be high, so the students should be thinking and writing with all the time they are given.

6. Environment affects learning a lot, but is also not a good excuse not to learn.

The last two weeks, the weather here has been incredibly hot.  This week it has been in the 100’s every day.  Consequently, I saw a lot of leniency on the part of the teachers, which I think is good.  But the students took that kindness and ran with it.  I saw several students literally refusing to do their work because it was too hot.  I overheard a few kids, who were in the D-F grade range and required to stay after school for extra help/credit, say, “I don’t care if she tries to keep us.  I’m going home, it’s way too hot to be here.”  I don’t know where those kids planned on going to get out of the heat since one said he never goes home anyway and usually hangs out outside, but in any case, I have learned that most summer school students will take any opportunity they can get to not work.  And they will complain about the work they have.  Is this all kids, or just summer school?  Who knows.

I got my fall student teaching placement yesterday and I’m very excited to be at a middle school nearby.  I will be teaching in an 8th grade language arts class and I can’t wait.  The school is supposed to be very good.  The one drawback is that it’s known as being a very white, very rich area.  I’m hoping that, because that is the demographic I have spent the most time around, maybe this environment will help me learn teaching where I’m more comfortable, and then I can move into more diverse climates to practice the methods I have learned to use.  One step at a time.  My high school placement will most likely be an inner city public school, which could be just that change.  God is faithful.

Giant Steps

So, this has little to nothing to do with English, or teaching.  But could it maybe pass for language arts?  I say yes, because it’s awesome.  Enjoy!  Posts on my summer practicum next time.