- I was really nervous to begin the internship this week because I knew it would be weird coming into the school year after half of the year was over. Rules and relationships have already been established, so I thought I would be playing catch up. On the first day, my teacher made me feel right at home - she set up a desk for me and even started a binder with some resources for me to have! She also informed the classes that I would be coming, so on the first day, they made me feel really welcomed! My first impressions of the school were that the it felt like a community because there were so many students that would come to my cooperating teacher’s classroom just to say hello. Also, during lunch, a group of the math teachers come to my cooperating teacher’s classroom, and we all eat lunch together. This is exactly what I imagined it to be - people who love math and love teaching all in the same place. So many of the students have already warmed my heart. In my previous observation experiences, I always felt as though I was a fly on the wall. I often went unnoticed and didn’t have many opportunities to interact with the students. That is so different already, and it’s only been the first week! There are many students who greet me when they come in and make it a point to say bye as they leave. Also, I finally have students that ask me for help on a problem before they ask my cooperating teacher (I couldn’t believe it)! This is only the first week, but I am already enjoying my internship thus far. I love being in the classroom every day because I can see how the students progress through the material each day instead of seeing the progress once a week. This allows be to have a better understanding of how the curriculum is sequenced. Although this first week is going great, there are a lot of things I hope to accomplish this semester. One of the main things that I want to be successful with is having confidence. I want to be confident in what I know and what I’m doing.
- This week was kind of an interesting one since it was a short week and we started halfway through the day on Tuesday. Also, yesterday, there was a basketball tournament, so I didn’t see any of the afternoon classes. This threw a wrench into my plan of trying to learn all of the students’ names! I’ve began grading papers, so I’ve been able to see a lot of names and be familiar with them, but I haven’t been able to connect the names to a face yet. Also, now that I am here everyday, I’m able to keep up with the class schedule and anticipate what topics are going to be covered the next day. This allows be to look ahead and look at the material prior to the students seeing it.
- For next week, I want to improve on standards 1 and 4 because I want to develop the skills to understand where students will struggle most and anticipate what questions they may have. I feel that in order to accomplish this, I need to better understand the content and material (standard 4). Each day at the end of school, my cooperating teacher will go over what the plan is for all of the classes for the next day. This gives me the opportunity to ask her any questions I may have about the material and activities. We have started discussing which topics I might want to do my unit over, and I’m excited to start working on this with my teacher.
Friday, January 19, 2018
Week 1 - No Longer a Fly on the Wall
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Love the title of this post! Perfectly captures the difference from last semester to this semester.
ReplyDeleteI like that you are grading papers to learning names. Is there anything your are noticing or surprised by in terms of content knowledge or presentation of ideas in the students' submissions?
Think about the ways in which you are going to learn from your cooperating teacher and how those practicing are similar or different from learning from your peers or students.
Hi Dr. Brugar, the main thing I have noticed during grading papers is that if students are missing questions, they are often the same ones by making the same mistakes. I think that as a teacher, this gives instant feedback that there may be gaps in the understanding of some topics.
DeleteIt's definitely a different experience learning from my cooperating teacher vs my peers. From my peers, we are all inexperienced in terms of time spent in the classroom, but we have great ideas about lessons. From my cooperating teacher, she has the experience that I lack and can help me point out where there may be issues in lesson plans or ideas about activities that can be implemented in the classroom.
I'm so glad you're already feeling such a sense of community!
ReplyDeleteSince you want to focus on understanding when students struggle, have you asked your cooperating teacher about misconceptions students have when you talk about the upcoming content and how she deals with them?
Hi Kate, as I was grading papers, I noticed that many of the students often miss the same questions by making the same mistakes. I mentioned this to me teacher, and she noted that that will happen often. She also told me that as we get into more difficult content, she'll try to point out the material that students will struggle most with as we plan together. I hope to acquire this skill of anticipating student struggles that I feel that all teachers seem to have!
DeleteAlexis, I'm glad to hear it was a good first week. You mention that you want to work on building your confidence. Are there any particular you have in mind for how to do this? As you gain confidence in yourself and your practice, you'll have to keep is posted as to how it's going!
ReplyDeleteHello Cacey, I'm still figuring out how I want to build my confidence because I want to stay true to myself (pretty timid personality) and be cautious that I don't pretend to be someone I'm not. However, I think that I can slowly build my confidence by putting myself out there to get to know the students and show them that I am there because I care about them and their education! Also, I think it's important to acknowledge that we make mistakes too!
DeleteI really relate to your title! It's exciting to feel more comfortable in a classroom and actually feeling like your a part of the environment rather than just watching and especially the part where students will come to you to ask a question. It sounds like you're doing a great job getting integrated in the school community and not only with the students, but also with the teaching staff! Keep up the awesome work! I also am learning more names from papers, and was wondering if you had any ideas yet for matching the names to faces.
ReplyDeleteHi Natalie! Thank you so much for the nice feedback. Honestly, I'm struggling to remember all the names because they seem to blend together from hour to hour! I had my teacher print off the rosters so that I would become familiar with the names, but I'm trying to hand back papers as much as possible to match them to a face. Also, my teacher is going to let me take over bell work next week, so I'm hoping to have more interaction with the students when they answer questions.
DeleteI'm glad you are having a great start! You mentioned you like the group of people you are with because of their love for math. What are some ways you think you will try to get more involved in this community? Do they have a way to share their materials with each other? Maybe you could offer some of your own lesson plans or activities from time to time - that might help you start building more confidence in your interaction with students.
ReplyDeleteHi Aaron! I'm hoping to get involved with other faculty members and the community by attending the professional development that the school offers for their teachers. Hopefully, this will allow me to interact more with the teachers and possibly learn to collaborate.
DeleteMany of the teachers have their notes, assignments, assessments, etc. posted on a Google Drive, and they may adapt the notes as they see fit for their classroom. Also, the principal has made it an effort for teachers to use common assessments this year, so for example, my teacher has four Algebra 2 classes, and she gives the same quizzes and tests that the other Algebra 2 teachers give, which they have posted in that Google Drive.
That's a good tip about building confidence in the interaction with students! That would be a good idea because I think it'll let them know that I'm not just a shadow of my cooperating teacher, but that I also have something to contribute to the class.