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!!!