Week 2 - Training for a Marathon

     I apologize that this is going to be a lengthy post! There is a lot of information I want to share, but I don’t even know where to begin! This week has been vastly different from last week. I already felt as though I had more of a presence in the classroom last week, but this week, I’m really starting to feel like a real teacher! Students are starting to ask me more questions, share more of their interests and extracurricular activities with me, and I’m starting to build these positive student-teacher relationships that we’ve been discussing in our education courses.

     Before I go more into my experiences this last week, I forgot to tell you about my cooperating teacher in my last blog post! I get to spend my internship with Ms. Shaye Leopold at Moore High School, and our (eep!) classes consist mainly of sophomores and juniors, with a few freshmen and seniors sprinkled here and there. We have two Algebra 2 classes, two Pre-AP Algebra 2 classes, and one Math Analysis class. Shaye graduated from OU in 2013, and she also completed the TE-PLUS program with a Mathematics degree instead of the Math Ed degree. This has been so exciting for the both of us because we’ve been able to geek out on math.

     As we go through our internship this semester, I think that many of the things on the checklist just come about naturally. When I visited my teacher at the beginning of the month before school started, she gave me a tour of the school, noting the most places that we will visit often (teacher’s workroom for copies, bathroom locations, etc.). She also introduced me to the office staff, the four different grade principals, and also the head principal. I also met the math department chair that day, and she informed me that I could come observe her Calculus class sometime if I was interested. I have also spent time with department colleagues because a handful of us eat lunch together in the classroom. Since the classrooms aren’t separated by subject, we have teachers all around us that teach a different subject than math that I have been able to meet. For example, in our hallway alone, we have Computer Education, Biology, English, and Anatomy & Physiology. My old Physics teacher from high school is one of the Biology and A&P teachers! It was really exciting to reconnect with her because I remember how her class was one of my favorite classes in high school.

     One thing that surprised me this week was how much more comfortable I am getting in the classroom. I would consider myself someone who is obsessed with having a plan and trying to stick to that plan, so when things go awry, I normally get stressed out about it. That is one thing that I have learned very quickly about teaching – being flexible is essential! There will only be a few times when things actually go as planned. On Monday during lunch, my teacher got a text that her son was sent home from day care because he was running a fever. Since day cares have a 24-hour rule, she informed me that she most likely was going to have to stay home the next day. She had planned for three of the classes to lecture and have them take notes and the other two classes would be working on homework, so after school that day, we spent a couple of hours going over what topics I needed to cover for the first three hours. While I was putting on a brave face, I was extremely nervous inside! I wasn’t concerned that I didn’t know the content, but I was worried about my delivery and if I could convey the concepts clearly enough. It ended up going so much smoother than I expected it to! As I was teaching the students about inverse functions and how to find the inverse of exponential and logarithmic functions, they (for the most part) were actually listening and engaging in the material! I didn’t need to handle any behavioral issues that my teacher had warned me about. All the classes were really respectful as I was teaching. After I had taught all three hours back to back, I really felt like I had run a marathon! My throat was dry from talking, and I had been standing the whole time!

     Although my week has been positive and great, I don’t want to paint a picture that my experience is going perfect so far. My teacher did make me aware that out of all three high schools in the district, our school is probably the lowest ranked academically. She told me that many of the students won’t go off to graduate from college because they have been considered a working school, so the students often enter the work force straight out of high school. I wanted to share a story that happened last Friday (Kate, Cacey, or Dr. Brugar: If this breaks any rules on sharing info, let me know, and I’ll edit this post!). When I arrived at school, my teacher’s door was closed and I heard people talking inside, so I assumed it was a meeting and waited on a bench right outside the classroom. Essentially what happened was that the head principal and math department chair came to my teacher to tell her that there was an incident with another teacher and that teacher would no longer be with the school. They came to my teacher saying they wanted to take me from her classroom and basically place me in the other classroom to teach with a sub to babysit. My teacher immediately informed them that that was not going to happen, it wasn’t an option, and to never mention that again. After school that day, my teacher sent me a long text message apologizing to me because she doesn’t want me to get the wrong idea about why she agreed to having a student teacher, and that she wants me to know that she is going to do everything in her power to ensure that I have the best experience under her wing. This made my teacher and I’s relationship stronger because it showed that she has my back no matter what. When I first began my internship, my teacher informed me that the high school was desperate for teachers, and that us math teachers are really a hot commodity. I was initially excited in terms of being able to acquire a job next year, but this event worried me on the intentions of administration and those higher up.

     I think that my teaching practice has slowly been improving since last week. I think I confidently know 75% of the students’ names so far, there are some students that have been absent or are just very quiet in class, and those are difficult to remember. Also, I’m improving on being able to better predict or understand what students struggle on most by grading because on the questions that students miss the most, they often make the same mistakes.

     For next couple of weeks (since I will be gone Tuesday – Friday), my plan is to start taking over both classes of Algebra 2 and the one class of Math Analysis. I really want to incorporate varying instructional strategies by trying out more engaging or interactive lessons. I think this will touch on Standards 7 and 8. I understand that there are some days where there needs to be a lecture to get the information to students, but I want to see them work with their peers in groups more often. 

Whew, that was a lot to get through!