Advice for Future Student Teachers

Student teaching is a great experience and you will learn so much. Here is some advice that will help you throughout the semester:

• Get to know your students. The kids are the best part of student teaching and the more you can connect with them, the better your experience will be. Knowing your students interests and learning styles will help you to make the most of your lessons and discussions in the class. Take every opportunity you have to talk with your students and get to know them, you never know what you may learn each day.
  

• Experiment with lessons. No matter how long you have been teaching, there are always new and interesting ways you can present a lesson. Take advice from your cooperative teacher whenever they offer it, but don't be afraid to think outside the box and teach your coop new things as well.
  

• Be prepared and ready for school everyday. Always know what you are going to talk about and do not show your personal emotions to the students. Always show a happy face for them and be there for your students.

Have fun and good luck with your student teaching experience!

The end is almost here!

Well after 15 weeks of lesson planning, working on Clinical Studies and other activities through student teaching, the end is almost here. In a few short days, this experience will be over and it will be bittersweet. After looking back on this past week and having attended the Coop teacher dinner and Bloomsburg Teacher workshop, the most valuable thing I can take from this week was the reaction of the students when I told them that my last day was Wednesday. All of them said something to the extent of "you can't leave yet!" This made me feel so good that they thought that highly of me as their teacher that they did not want me to leave. Through all of the ups and downs that I have experienced over this semester with them, it will definitely be bittersweet when Wednesday comes. Student teaching will be over and all of the hard work has paid off, but it will be depressing not to go into the students everyday and not know what to expect for the day. The students have taught me so much and allowed me to become a better teacher after everything we have gone through together and I am sure that all of you have similiar feelings.

If I could change anything about this week, would I? Not for one second! Every thing that I did this week was good as things are starting to wind down. All of my lessons were good and I am wrapping up things with my classes. The coop dinner and teacher workshop were also great experiences as it was nice to finally put some faces with names of other student teachers' cooperating teachers. Overall, this week was great and I am looking forward to next Wednesday as I am sure all of us are.

Enjoy your last few days everyone and see you all on Monday!

Week 14: April 13-17

The end is in sight!

Overall, this week was probably one of the smoothest weeks thus far for me. Everything seemed to go according to plan with a few minor interuptions that were out of my control due to assemblies and other school functions. The most valuable thing I learned this week is to have fun with your kids. This week we had nice weather the last couple days and the kids are getting anxious to being done with school. Therefore, I went into today thinking that if the students cooperated with the lesson and material I wanted to cover today, I would give them 10 minutes at the end of the period as free time. So all of the kids enjoyed this very much. Also, another valuable thing I learned this week was to realize the impact I was having on the students. I gave out my final survey this week and the kids were all asking me if I was done already. Many of them want me to stay until the end of the year which makes me feel good that they actually like me as a teacher. Lastly, a thought that crossed my mind after speaking with my coop is to substitute. I have been in contact with the district office at Pine Grove about getting onto their substitute list for the remaining month of school. I feel this would give me more experience in teaching, even at the substitute level and I would be comfortable at the school because I have been there for almost 4 months now. So overall this week was probably the best yet.

After looking back on this week and evaluating my student surveys, I wouldn't change many things about my lessons except perhaps Accounting. One of the students came up to me and asked me to slow down in class and I realized that I did go through Monday's lesson alittle faster than normal. So on Tuesday, I took some extra time reviewing Monday's lesson and the student came up to me and said "Thank you for understand." This made me feel very good about myself because she actually cared and took the time to come up and say that to me.

The time is going by extremely fast and I cannot believe we only have 2 weeks to go. Hope everyone has had a good week and have a great week 15!!

Google Docs Podcast

Week 13 : April 6-10

This week was rather short for me. With only a day and a half with the kids, it was a quick week. Therefore, there was not too much going on, but there were a few things that I found valuable this week. First, with it being a short week, the kids were crazy and ready for a break. Experiencing their willingness, or lack there of, to do things in class was very hard to get much done, because their minds were on vacation mode. Therefore, I had to come up with activities that would keep them interested, but they were still being productive and learning something. Also, another valuable experience this week happened on Tuesday afternoon. With it being a half day, my coop and myself attended a YES Schuylkill County teacher meeting in Pottsville. The YES (Your Employability Skills) teachers got together to discuss how the program was going and some upcoming events for the certification of the students in the program. This was very beneficial to see how things ran and get out and meet even more teachers from surrounding schools to get ideas for class.

With this week being short, there was not much opportunity to change many things. However, if I could change one thing about this week, it would have been to try and get my students on task right from the start. They wanted to be chatty and discuss their upcoming break, instead of getting started right away with the activities. If I would change it, I would have allowed some opportunity for discussion at the end of class about break activities, but overall it was a good learning experience dealing with students who are on shut down mode right before a break from school.

Hope everyone has had a great week as well and have a good break!! See you all on Monday... 3 weeks to go!

Week 12: March 30 - April 3

What a week! This week has probably been one of the most valuable weeks thus far through student teaching. As many of us found out, FBLA is a huge deal at the State Leadership Conference. I did not realize how huge the organization was until this week. I learned so much this week at the conference and managing my time there was very important to make sure I was at all of my duties. I got to see many students in a whole new light and got to see how proud they were while they were competing. It was also very valuable to meet so many people that are currently teaching that my coop introduced me to on Sunday already. Networking is very important for us as beginning teachers to find out what opportunities may be out there. Overall, FBLA was one of the highlights and most important experiences that I will take from this whole student teaching experience with me in the future.

Another valuable aspect of this week was when I got back to school. Trying to figure out what my students had done and what they had not yet completed was very important. I spent the end of the week organizing everything and getting things together to regroup with the students, which at some point was controlled chaos, but that is sometimes how it gets. Also, having the students excited to have me back in the classroom was very important to me because that showed me that they really like me as a teacher as they were asking all about the FBLA conference.

If I could change one thing about this week, would I? I can honestly say that this week was probably the best week of student teaching. I would not change anything throughout the entire week because of the experiences that I had. I got to experience a State Conference, which I had never done and got to come back after a few days away and regroup with my students. I can take all of the experiences from this week to make me a better teacher, which I feel that I am really feeling comfortable in the classroom. As you all may say as well, FBLA is truly eye-opening.

Hope everyone had a great time at FBLA and a good rest of the week!! Our time is winding down. Have a great Week 13 everyone!

Week 11: March 23 - 27

This week definitely was the busiest for me thus far. Overall, it was probably the best week as well, because I now have all of my classes that I will be teaching and managing my time was definitely more important than ever this week. With the FBLA Conference coming up on Monday, I spent every night this week preparing and getting things together for my substitute as well as assisting my coop in getting everything together for all of her students as well. This was probably the most valuable aspect of the entire week. Realizing how much planning goes on and how many things need to be organized to go to a State Leadership Conference and make it a success for everyone involved was very eye-opening. I have realized as well that the senioritis is kicking in big time for the seniors as the weather has began to change. This makes it that much harder to come up with fun activities for all the students so they are not as bored and will do the work.

Overall, this week was very hectic, but organized. As my coop likes to explain it has "organized chaos". That about sums up my week. If there is one thing that I would change about this week, it would be in my Computer Aps class. They had the week to research and type up a report about a topic of their choosing. Some of them, even with several explanations, still did not follow the directions completely or still cut and past some of their report. If I were to do this project all over again, I would go over what it means to paraphrase and put things in your own words with the students, as many of them thought it was ok to cut and paste. After talking with them individually, they understood it, but if I would have talked about it with the entire class it may not have been as much of a problem. I realize through all of these experiences that every day we learn something new as teachers.

Hope everyone has had a great week as well. The weeks are winding down and the end at the light of the tunnel is getting bigger. Have a great weekend everyone and have a great week 12!!

Week 10: March 16-20

This week went fast for me. I think that is because it was so busy with different things going on at school. Being involved in fundraisers for clubs, with my cooperating teacher being the advisor, has given me the opportunity to learn about the "behind the scenes" things that go on for a teacher outside of classtime. The valuable thing that I have learned is that it is sometimes more work than you think to be an advisor, but it makes everything worth the while to get to know the students on a more personal level. It allows them to see you in a different light as well, instead of just being their teacher in one specific class.

Another valuable aspect of this week was my lessons. I had created many different activities for the students to do outside of the bookwork that they normally do in the class. They really enjoyed the activities and were eager to give me feedback without me asking as to how they would change it for next time. Throughout our teaching, there are many times when things happen that you don't really plan for. These teachable moments happen all the time and truly make you smile when you think about the things that you can talk with kids about.

Overall, this week went very well. If I could change one thing about this week it would have to be my table lesson in Computer Applications. It wouldn't be a major change either. In my lesson, I discussed tables and the uses for tables and the students did activities by creating activities, but I would have shown the students more about tables. I may have just took a couple extra minutes to explain everything to them. The lesson went very well though so I cannot really complain too much.

Hope everyone else has had a great week and has a great Week 11!! The end is getting closer for us all...

Week 9 : March 9 - 13

Week 9 was a very smooth week for me. Everything seemed to go rather well with my plans and activities for the students. Things are going smoothly in my classes with the lectures as my planning has incorporated some more activities for the students which helps! The most valuable thing I learned this week was to keep your ground. On Monday in my Web Design class, the students were rowdy and anxious at the end of the period as we were wrapping up the activity for the day. I made them stay later after the bell rang because of this and they did not like it very much. However, it was probably the best thing I did because the rest of the week, they stayed in their seats until the bell rang and were a great class to work with. So Monday I took one step back, but in reality I took two steps forward by gaining their respect more. Another aspect of this week that was valuable was the review game I played with my students in Accounting. We did a graffiti review on the material that was going to be on their test. The students were all paying attention and were all active and really into the game. I believe this was a great way to get the students excited about learning how to post.

This week was very good, but there is one thing that I would change about my lessons in Computer Aps. It is a class of freshman and we are going over Word. I am getting used to their ability levels now that I have completed my second week teaching them and I cannot squeeze as many activities as I have tried to. If I would change one thing about this week, it would be not to squeeze as many things into one class period for the freshman.

Overall, this week was great and ran very smooth. Hope everyone has had a good week and has a great week 10 next week!!

Week 8: March 2 - 6

This week was full of ups and downs for me. The most valuable part of this week by far was the midterm review. I got feedback from the students which is very valuable to see what their perception of my teaching is and I know what to improve upon. Also, getting feedback from my coop and Mrs. Wiscount has allowed me to reflect and focus on things that I need to improve upon throughout the rest of the semester. Wednesday was not a good day for me though. It happened to be one of my worst lessons, but I feel that this was very valuable to me because I think I was getting into a comfort zone with the kids. It was a huge wake up call that I need to reevaluate some of my lessons. Wednesday in my Accounting class everything just did not go right and I feel that it is my fault because of the planning. I now know that I need to try different things to really explain the content to the students and connect it in more ways so they can better understand it. I really feel that this was valuable because I know that I have to try so much harder to connect to the students with some material. Another valuable aspect of this week was that EVERY day is a new day. After Wednesday, I was down driving home but Thursday I came in with a totally new attitude and it seemed to be reflective in my lessons. Thursday and Friday were totally different days as I gained a new outlook and got a new energy to create more dynamic lessons for my students. Everyone has bad days, but keep them in the past because every day is new!

If I would change anything about this week, it would be my Accounting lessons at the beginning of the week. By posting to ledgers, I felt it was important to get the students to understand the steps, however I was not teaching them much of the content and WHY they should know how to do this. So what I did on Thursday was explain the entire cycle of a transaction from the beginning sale so they could visualize the entire process again and they seemed to be more understanding of the concepts. Overall, it was a very valuable week and I got a wakeup call. I learned so much this week that I can use and work on throughout the rest of the semester.

If there is anything that can be taken from my week it is that every day is different. Everyone has bad days, no matter how long they have been teaching, but it is important to just forget about it and every day is new! Hope everyone has had a good week but remember to connect to your students and come up with great activities to engage them. Every day is a NEW day!!!

Week 7 : Feb 23 - 27

This week was definitely a crazy week of student teaching for me. I followed a student for a day, had an activity schedule another day and guest speaker in my classes on Monday. So overall, the week was very unpredictable and many of my plans have changed. To me the most valuable part of the entire week was the day that I followed the student for the day. It gave me insight into a student's day and realized what is all truly expected of them throughout the day. Many times throughout the week it brought me back to some of my high school memories which do not seem that long ago. Another valuable thing I have learned this week is to make sure you are prepared for everyday. This week was crazy, because I was helping my coop everyday and every prep getting things organized for the donkey basketball game this Sunday and FBLA fundraisers. Therefore, I made sure that I had all my planning and everything done before I went into school the next day, because we always should expect the unexpected.

Overall, this week was very crazy but it was not unbearable. It was a great learning experience for myself being involved with some many different things. If I were to change one thing about this week, it would be try and keep everyone in my class on task all the time. This is the hardest thing to do in my one class as there are many students that like to get side-tracked. Therefore, in Accounting I have made some changes for next weeks lessons so I am hoping they will work better for my lessons.

Hope everyone had a great week and we are almost half way done!! Good luck in Week 8 everyone!

Week 6: February 16-20

This week was short, but I have probably learned the most this week about teaching. There were many valuable things that I learned this week. I am learning how to manage my time even more, because now that I am teaching three classes, there is much more preparation involved. Another valuable thing I learned is that kids love to learn things about you and take notice to even small details like what color clothing you wear. My coop and I each wore red today and every day this week someone told me that they liked my tie. This just shows you that as teachers we must be prepared even by what we wear, because the kids will know. There was another valuable thing that I learned on Thursday during my Web Design class. Mrs. Wiscount was observing me and the class was working on creating their own resumes. Throughout the class, I had talked about my experiences with jobs and the kids were so engaged. As we were talking about interests, one of the students asked me if I could swim and I said no, even though I can. Mrs. Wiscount had pointed this out to me that I had made an impression on the students by showing that I am vulnerable as well, because in front of the class I told them that I could not swim. This can allow the students to feel more comfortable in class. The funniest thing about that entire lesson was at the end of the period. Telemarketing was one of my past jobs and the students were so interested in it. A week ago, I had to have "the talk" with this class. The same class on Thursday, every single student was silent and they all wanted to ask me questions. I thought it was amazing how a small talk goes a long way with classroom management.

Overall, this week went well. It was a short week with an early dismissal on Wednesday. The one thing I would have changed however during this week is perhaps come up with a better review game for the students to do in Accounting. After viewing the tests, many of the students did not do well, but this may be because they did not study and pay attention either. I feel this may be the tough class, but I feel that after this next week it will be better. This has only been my first full week teaching the class so I'm hoping the students are going to feel more comfortable with me teaching it.

Hope everyone is having great experiences and learning a lot. I'm going to create a Google Doc with Accounting Links and send it to everyone, because it seems like many of us are teaching Accounting. If we can collaborate and post ideas about activities and lessons that have worked, it will help us all out so feel free to add ideas, links to websites, or anything else to the document.
Have a great week 7!!

Week 5: February 9-13

This week definitely offered new challenges for me, which I found very valuable to experience as a teacher. This week I picked up my third class, Accounting 1. I found it much more time consuming and different than the two Web Page Design classes that I have been teaching thus far. In the design classes, it is step by step and I can work along with the students through the process of designing websites. With Accounting, I had to have much more detailed lesson plans and try to make it as interesting as I could. I had the students do several activities related to the topics we were discussing such as finding the Sales Tax rate in a variety of different states. I found this to be valuable, because planning is much more involved with a content class. Another aspect of this week that I found valuable was there was PSSA testing this week for juniors and the students seemed to be disoriented. I felt it was valuable to understand what it is like to work with this schedule and the ability to keep everyone on task.
An aspect of this week that I found very valuable that I think we have all experienced or will experience is having to have "the talk" with our class. This week I had to talk with the students about the cell phone and game policy at school, because many times I have been instructing and there have been some problems with students not paying attention. It was frustrating to some of the students in the class and myself so we discussed in greater detail the expectations I had for the class and they did not seem happy and neither did I, but something had to change with their behavior. That talk was on Tuesday and the rest of the week it seemed like a totally different class. They all worked together and cooperated during instruction. It was valuable to learn when enough is enough.

Overall, this week had its ups and downs. Many more positive things have happened this week than the negatives, but there are a some things that I can change and improve on. In Accounting, I will try and incorporate more technology and real world examples and videos into my lessons to show the importance of Accounting to the students. I see the students can be bored with it sometimes so if I can make them more excited, I feel the class will run more smoothly and the students will be more active. Another thing that I can change and improve upon gaining more confidence in Accounting. I have improved my knowledge but know I can be even more knowledgeable about the subject area that I can pass even more information to my students. I also want incorporate more activities into my classes so the students will get a break every once in awhile from the work, work, work.

I hope everyone else is having good luck with their classes and have a great week 5!!

Week 4 : February 2-6

This week definitely seemed a lot busier than the others so far. I found several aspects of this week to be very valuable. To start, I began teaching my second class of Web Page Design, and it is very helpful to be able to teach the same class twice. I was able to modify my lessons somewhat the second time around to allow the lesson to flow more smoothly for myself and the students. I also found out the importance of planning. On Thursday this week, I went on a field trip with my coop and one of her classes for the entire day. It was a good experience to go out of the school and be with the students for the day and see them and how they react outside the school. The students were well-behaved and it allowed me the opportunity to get to know some of the students better when we sat down and all had lunch together. I have found out that showing the students that you are human is important, because then they feel more comfortable around them. As this week has progressed, I have found myself interacting more and more each day with all of the students and they are approaching me more with questions they may have.

As this week has gone on, I feel things have gone well thus far. I'm not sure if I would change anything from this week other than one class period this week, because I feel that everything I have done has allowed for a learning experience. One class period this week, I had a student react a certain way to an assignment and he did not want to complete it. It was the first time I was in that situation and was not sure 100% what to do. I did the best I could under the circumstances, and after some suggestions from Mrs. Wiscount and my coop, feel that when situations like that may arise again, I will be able to handle it properly while maintaining control in the classroom. The most important thing I have learned this week is that as teachers we have to expect the unexpected and react appropriately to keep the situation from escalating. Hope everyone is having a great experience and have a great week five!!

Week of January 26-30

It's been 3 weeks now, and things are starting to become routine. There are many positive things that I can take from this past week. Through teaching the lessons and working with the students in the classes that I am not yet teaching, I have become more familiar with the students and their interests. They have become very comfortable working with me and do not hesitate to ask me a question about some of the material. I thought this was very valuable and made me feel good as I am beginning to feel like I'm making a difference in the classroom with my students. Throughout the week and my lessons on Web Page Design, I have learned that you have to be there for your students. This week I helped a girl that was getting frustrated with the project. It took some time to calm her down, but finally she worked through it and said "Thank you". That meant a lot to me, because I got her back on task and made her feel good about herself. I also learned through the craziness of this past week's schedule that, as a teacher, we must be very flexible. The snow day this week threw a wrench in my plans for the week, but I was able to modify my plans and we got through everything for the week.

This week was crazy, but overall it went very well. If I was to change one thing this week, it would be not to get frustrated with a lesson. This week while I was working with a Front Page Wizard to create a Web site, the students' template was different than the teachers. Therefore, the kids were so confused and it threw me for a loop, because I had planned it and everything seemed to work fine. So after this happened, we modified their web sites and went through with the lab. Overall, I learned that some unexpected things happen, sometimes everyday, and you just have to go with the flow. The kids will understand and it only makes you a better teacher when you can handle the unexpected with style. Teaching is definitely going well, and I am looking forward to the coming week.

Hope everything is going well for everyone else! Look forward to reading and hearing about your weeks as well!

Week of January 19-23

Finally getting to teach a lesson was by far the most valuable thing that happened to me this week. Planning the lessons for this week was interesting to do with designing a Web site in FrontPage. I felt that by finally getting in front of the students, it allowed me to feel more comfortable as the week went on by interacting with them. As the week went on, I could tell the students respected me more as a teacher, because I was in front of them and teaching them different things about a Web site. I also got to experience a somewhat crazy schedule with testing going on, so I felt that it was good to be able to be flexible with my lesson plans. Normally the periods are 42 minutes long, however two days this week, the period that I taught was only 20 minutes. I felt rushed through my lesson, but I was able to adapt to the schedule and we got through everything we needed to for the week.

Overall, I had a very good first week of teaching experienece under my belt. I'm beginning to feel much more comfortable in front of the class and working with them now that I have spent two weeks in their classroom. The one thing that I have adapted to already is monitoring the students work. In a computer lab, the students are very distracted by the Internet and the first day, I did not have the Internet blocked. However, the school has software in some of the computer labs that allow the teacher to block the Internet so the students cannot access it. I feel this an extremely helpful tool, because the rest of the week, after my cooperating teachers recommending, I used the Vision software and the students were on task and we completed a lot of work together. They also followed along with me a lot better as the week went on, because they realized the importance of doing their work.

I am definitely learning a lot this semester teaching already and I feel that I have already learned some of the keys to becoming an even better teacher as I'm sure everyone else is too. Hope everyone has had a good week and have a great weekend!

Week of January 12-16, 2009

As I begin this journey to the beginning of my career of teaching, I definitely have realized that teaching is what I want to do for a career. Make a difference in lives.

This week was definitely a very eventful first week of student teaching. It is a hectic time period with midterm exams and trying to get organized as a teacher for the second semester. I learned many things as far as getting acquainted with the school and the students. The most valuable aspect of my week by far was completing all the activities to get informed about the school and every aspect that I may be dealing with at some point or another. I thought my find out all the information that we did, I learned many different things to make myself feel much more comfortable with the school and my cooperating teacher. Through observing the students, I also learned many valuable things about each student and different things about them that I can use throughout the semester with different lessons to connect with them on a more personal basis.

After looking back on this first week of student teaching, I really would not change anything about it. All of the experiences I have had thus far at PGHS have been very helpful in making my experience there very positive. Throughout the week, I had an opportunity to communicate and get to know my students and learn many different things about them. I also felt that this week has allowed myself to get acquainted with teaching in small doses while working with the students on projects, grading papers and other miscellaneous tasks throughout the week to assist my cooperating teacher. I felt this week I have created a solid base to build upon with the students through the semester as I begin teaching this upcoming week in Web Design. Therefore, every experience that I have had this week in school has been positive in learning the tasks I will need to be familiar with as a teacher and learn things about the school and kids that I will be working with for the next couple months. Until next week, this is the end...Have a good week!