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!!