Final Thoughts From September

My September experience wrapped up with me getting a chance to have a little more responsibility in the classroom. One of my cooperating teachers was sick for two days, and there was a substitute in the classroom. Being an intern and pretty familiar with the classroom, I was given an opportunity to take more of a lead role. While the sub was still the person in charge, I was able to take attendance, go over homework, and answer more questions. This was a very cool experience for me, as I got a chance to apply some of what I have learned through observation to actual practice. Ending my September experience was bittersweet. I am looking forward to beginning my UW-Bothell classes and also excited about the opportunity to observe in a middle school. On the other hand, it was hard to say goodbye to the students at Mariner. Even though I know it will only be temporary, many of the students were confused as to why we were leaving. I really felt like I was starting to get to know the students a lot better. One teacher talked about some of the issues the students at Mariner face. From the beginning, we were encouraged to get to know the students, but not to get to close to them since we would be leaving at the end of the month. We were warned that some of the students may read our leaving as just another example of an adult in their lives turning their backs on them. This was a powerful and profound revelation to me, and really opened my eyes to the fact that many of the students have stories of struggle and hardships that I will have to always be sensitive to. With that said, I am excited about my future at Mariner. I look forward to my return in late October, and the chance I will have to begin teaching and continuing to build relationships with the students and faculty at the school.

A quick Friday evening blog update

Up until today, much of what I have learned and observed at school has been student centered. I have been picking up techniques and ideas for maximizing the learning of students. However, today I got my first introduction into some of the real politics associated with being an educator. I won’t go into details but it is worth noting that there does exist a political realm to education, and this is not always at the forefront of a young prospective educators mind. I learned today that as I continue to grow as an educator, I will need to develop my own strategies for dealing with some of issues that I might face in the future.

Week 3

As I wrap up my third week at Mariner High School, I have found myself continuing to learn new things every day. One noteworthy technique I learned that I could potentially see myself using was the way my cooperating teacher made a seating chart. He had everybody in the class find a partner that they thought would be there opposite. So a boy had to pair up with a girl and a Latino had to pair up with a White person, etc. As people began to find pairs, he had them sit down next to each other. Once everyone had a partner and was seated, he told the kids that this would be their new seating chart. I thought this was really cool. This past week was also picture day, so that was a fun experience. I helped walk kids down to the gym to get their pictures taken and assisted them with directions on what to do when they got there. I was able to get a staff badge which makes me look pretty official now! This week was also the first chance I got to grade some papers. Basically, there wasn’t much to grade, other than make sure the students did the assignment and had a grasp of the topic, but for someone who has never graded papers, this was kind of cool. I then entered the grades into the grade book. Tomorrow, it looks like I’m going to be chaperoning a school dance so that should be interesting. I’ll be sure to blog some updates on that later. Overall, this has been a great experience thus far and I am really loving Mariner. It seems to be a great fit.

Early Observations

Much has been observed and learned in these first two weeks at Mariner High School. The first few days before school began for the students were filled with meetings and planning. It was very interesting for me to observe just how much collaboration took place. Departmental meetings where content and assessment were discussed was fascinating to me. I really was able to take away a sense of the importance of collaborating with others. As a new teacher, it will be important for me to look to my colleagues for assistance in planning. It was during these first few days that I really began to become accustomed to the school. I met so many people and learned how to navigate my way around. I was very excited for the students to finally arrive. I must admit, it was a little overwhelming at first walking down the halls with so many students. I made an attempt from the get go to start getting to know students. Just doing simple things like saying hello to them as I walk down the hall or greeting them at the door as they walk into class. While observing in class, I found that there was just so much to take in and I was learning new things almost nonstop. It’s exciting because my cooperating teachers both have given me the freedom to circulate the classroom during group work, allowing me to check in on and challenge the students. This has been great because it has allowed me to get to know some of the students better and it helps me feel more comfortable being in the classroom.

I'm Back

My blog is back. Coming shortly, I will be blogging about my September experience at Mariner High School, so look for new updates soon.

Weekly Blog 10 - Final Post

Thursday marked our last class of the quarter. It was sad to see this quarter come to an end but I’m excited for the future. In class, we had two guest lecturers. One talked about a technology that she felt could be beneficial to teachers. It used a Nintendo Wii controller to work the mouse on a computer that was projected onto the white board. I found this to be a cool little piece of technology. The second lecturer was a astrobiologist who talked to us about his field. This was an interesting presentation to me, as I have always been a bit of an astronomy and astrobiology enthusiast. I learned a lot from both lectures. There are classroom applications to both of these lectures. The first one is obvious. The tool discussed it something that could easily be used in a classroom as a cool and innovative way to teach ones students. The second lecture was important because it emphasized the importance of a variety of fields. Astrobiology utilizes geology, astronomy, biology, and other fields. The lecture served as a reminder that in the real world, it often takes a variety of areas of expertise to solve problems. This is most likely my last post on this blog. It was fun blogging throughout the quarter and it really helped me digest some of the issues talked about in class. It’s been fun.

Weekly Blog 9

Today’s class was dedicated entirely to working on digital story projects. Still, even though there was no lesson, I was able to learn some valuable information. For my group’s digital story, we are focusing on a program called VoiceThread. I had no prior knowledge of how to use this program, so by playing around with it in class, I was able to gain a better understanding of how to use it. Voice thread allows one to create a digital story with still images, video, and sound. What is cool about this program is that users can leave comments on videos in a variety of ways, be it through text or narration. This site has some definite classroom applications. VoiceThread could be used as an alternative way to present projects. By using this format, a teacher and other classmates could comment digitally on the video. Or a teacher could have their students watch history-related digital stories, for example, then leave comments. By doing this, students would be engaging in an online discussion of sorts. I do have questions about this program still, notably, just technical things that I find confusing. I still don’t think I realized the full potential of this program, and would like to become more familiar with all the possibilities of using this site.