Week 16

Get to know your students. Knowing who your students are, their learning styles, and their interests will help you to make the most of your instruction. It will make it much easier to personalize the content and to reach the students on their level. Also get to know your students outside of the classroom. Take every opportunity to attend games, plays, and school dances. Your students will enjoy seeing you at their event and will help you to earn their respect.

Don't be afraid to try new things in the classroom. Student teaching is your time to experiment while you still have your cooperative teacher there to guide and assist you. Ask for their advice; that's why they are there for you. Often times you both benefit because you as the student teacher are getting help from a veteran teacher's viewpoint and your coop may be hearing new strategies from you.

Work your butt off and manage your time wisely. The Professional Semester is intense. You are not like other college seniors who might have an easy last semester; you are a full time teacher. Time management is essential to this semester because along with your teaching duties, you also have Clinical Studies assignments. Try to do your best to work ahead and don't put those assignments off until the night before they are due.

Be ready for your students-no matter what your day is like. When your students come to your class, they are ready for the show. You can't let your personal life impede on school life. Find ways to mentally prepare yourself for every school day. Also, double check every morning that you have everything for the school day. I found it helpful to stay after school and prepare materials for the next day so you don't have to rush around the following morning.

Have fun and good luck!

Week 15-We're almost done!!

The fact that it's finally week 15 is unbelievable. Even with all the intense stress we have all been through, I have to admit that this semester has flown by. The valuable aspect of my week (along with week 15 being over!) stems from a student behavior issue I have in one of the sections of Computer Applications. There is one particular student who defies my authority as a teacher any chance he gets. My coop and I have taken appropriate steps numerous times in the past with disciplining this student. Finally on Monday after he made unnecessary comments about me, I took a different approach to the situation and called the student into the hallway to talk to him one on one. I explained to him that because I am still learning what it takes to be the best teacher I can and asked him something along the lines of specific things I have done in his class to improve my teaching performance in his class. At first he didn't have anything to say, so I went on and reiterated some of the comments he has made about me and asked him what made him say those things. He immediately said he didn't know why he said what he did and apologized to me. Inside, I was screaming, "Why can't you just act your age?", but I refrained and asked him to help make my last few days positive ones. His behavior improved the rest of the week and I had no issues with him. Hopefully the rest of my time at school will be that smooth!

If I could go back and change anything from this past week, it would be with the test in Tuesday's Money and Banking. I gave them a test which we reviewed for on Monday. We didn't get through the whole I review I planned and I decided to finish it on Tuesday before the students took their test. We ended up taking too much time to finish the review and the students did not have enough time to complete their tests. I gave them more time on Wednesday, but I should have either watched the time better on Tuesday or just pushed the test back a day.

Have a great last three days!

Week 14

My valuable aspect from this past week was with my Business Law students. This is the most recent class I have taken responsibility for and it took me some time to get comfortable actually teaching the students. I have interacted with them all semester, but it is different now that I'm their teacher. Unlike my Money and Banking class where I am familiar with a lot of the content already, I am learning the law content just a few days before the students. My comfort level with them increased this week which abled me to get the content across to them better than the week before. We also had a great review on Thursday for Friday's exam that seemed to reinforce some of the content that was the cause of confusion for the students. The chapter was on contractual capacity and to review, I was the host of the 'Contractual Capacity Olympics.' I split the class into teams and we played three mini games and the team at the end of class who had the most number of wins received extra credit on their exam.

If I could change anything from the week, it would have been to get more work done for our final assessment earlier in the week. I did a few small things, but not as much as I would have liked to get done. I feel overwhelmed which is probably how many of you feel, but I keep trying to remind myself that we're almost done and to stick it out for just a few more days. We're so close!

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Week 13

The ability to be flexible and recognizing when plans need to be changed was my valuable aspect from the week. We had a four day week before having off Friday and Monday and the students' behavior on Thursday definitely showed this. They weren't behaving badly; just extremely hyper, unfocused, and ready for their long weekend as I was too. The day began with only three of ten students in my first period class. I figured it would be more difficult to get over half the class caught up with the new content next week than to do the lesson I had planned. With my coop's approval and help, I figured out a different plan for the class and it worked well. I actually ended up making minor changes for all my classes throughout the day. My little adjustments turned out to be worthwhile. As a whole, it was just one of those days where the students were ready for their break and I think I would have to reteach some of what I would have done today on Tuesday.

If I could change anything from the week, it would definitely be my health. I woke up sick Tuesday morning and had lots of wonderful congestion and a sore throat for the rest of the week. Obviously no one wants to be sick, but it impacted my enthusiasm for teaching and overall performance. Hopefully I'll lose it for the weekend and for next week! :)

Week 12

Like most of you, the valuable aspect of my week was attending the FBLA conference. I was not involved with FBLA in high school and attending the conference showed me how much the organization can benefit students. I couldn't believe how many students are involved! It is obvious that a lot of planning goes into the conference and many people are needed to make it run smoothly. I definitely hope to be taking my future students to it! After returning from the conference, I was very pleased with the sub's report. There were no major behavior issues and each class completed what I left for them. The kids were even happy to see me on Thursday!

On Wednesday after the conference was over, I attend a teaching fair at Millersville University. I was hoping to at least find out about a few possible job openings and leave my application with those schools. Overall, it went ok but I wish I could go back and not even have talked to one of the schools or at least the person I spoke with. After waiting in line to talk to this particular school, I got to speak with the school's superintendent. From the beginning of our talk, it seemed that he did not have much knowledge of Business Education courses or just didn't care for them. His first comment to me was that the district had a BE teacher retiring, but that they probably won't rehire someone to fill the spot. Not very encouraging for me! After more conversation, I just wanted to move on to another school and wished I hadn't even stopped and met with anyone from the school. However, as I was getting up to leave the district's table, the superintendent gave me the phone number for his assistant. He instructed me to call her periodically to see if they have decided to fill the open position. It wasn't the best experience, but at least from now on job opportunities should only get better!

Week 11

The first beneficial aspect I found from this past week was that it went much better than week ten. In my week 10 post, I reported that I felt I was in a planning slump and wasn't thrilled about my lesson plans. This week went much better and I can tell the students were more interested in the content. In the middle of the week, I took a break from Word activities and did a two day mini lesson with Web 2.0 tools. I introduced iGoogle and RSS feed to the students on Wednesday and they loved it. I had some of them tell me on Thursday how they went online at home Wednesday night and added more to their iGoogle account. In Money and Banking, the students completed a lending activity where they took the role of a bank and had to create a lending program for their fellow classmates. The students seemed to enjoy working on the project and gave wonderful presentations of their programs. One of the requirements included creating a TV commercial that promoted their loan and one group went above and beyond and taped their commercial. We watched it then in class during their presentation. I was impressed by the students' effort for the project and was grateful for the chance to have them participating in class in a different way.

As I mentioned, I introduced Web 2.0 tools to my Computer Applications students. For Thursday's lesson, I had a number of websites in mind to show the students and then I was going to let them go online and choose the site they wanted to become an expert about. However, before presenting the sites to the students, I did not check what sites are blocked by the school's Internet filter and, of course, all the sites were blocked. I had to improvise and switched gears to wikis because I knew wikispaces.com is not blocked. First of all, I wish I would have checked on a student's account for the sites I wanted to show them. Second, I wish I could have had more of a plan as to what I would teach the students about wikis. Most of them have some familiarity with the site because they uses wikis in another teacher's class. It turned out all right at the end of the day, but just not as I would have liked.

Week 10

This past week was an uneventful one at Shikellamy. Ironically, one of the most valuable aspects of my week comes out of a complaint about my Computer Applications class. The students are currently learning Microsoft Word skills and complete an activity every day that includes the new skill I taught during the class period. I heard many of the students make comments of how they don't like class. At first I thought it was me and went round and round with myself of how to make the content more interesting for the students. I finally asked them what was so bad about the class and the overwhelming response was that they actually have to do something during the class period. Many of the students named some of the other classes in their schedule and explained to me that all they do is sit and listen to the teacher talk or take notes. I think their views of other classes may be exaggerated a bit; however it made me feel better about their opinions of not enjoying my class. It's not that I am boring them, I'm actually making them do something in school. Imagine that!

My thoughts as to what I would change from the week switch to my other class, Money and Banking. I feel like I am in a planning slump. This past week went slower than any other week and I think it's because I was not thrilled with my lesson plans for the class. We are covering types of accounts offered by banks like checking, savings, certificates of deposit, and loans. The ideas I had while planning seemed like they would go well, but when I taught the class, the students didn't seem to have an interest. I am thinking this week will be different because they will be working on a group project for the first half of the week. Maybe it will be a change of pace for them and for me as well.

Have a great week!

Week 9

After yet another week, the most valuable aspect I experienced for the week was the midterm review. I found the formal evaluation between my coop and Mrs. Wiscount beneficial to me because it left me with their opinion of me as a teacher. I do find their usual classroom observations to be helpful as well, but I am a number person and like to see where I am on a number scale. I guess being in my fourth year of college has made me like that, where everything else I have been evaluated on has included some sort of a percentage scale. The midterm review restored my confidence in myself as a teacher that I was beginning to lose. It also provided me with the areas and ideas to improve myself for the second half of the semester. I have to admit, I was somewhat dreading this midterm evaluation, but in the end I agree with what came of it and appreciate the value of seeing it as a grade for my efforts of teaching so far.

On Thursday, I completed my observation of following a student for our Clinical Studies assignment. For my absence in the classroom, I created a worksheet for my Money and Banking students to complete while I was gone. We are currently discussing services offered by commercial banks, such as checking accounts, savings accounts, certificate of deposits, loans, and so on. I used the activity as a preview; I wanted the students to figure out some of the basics of the services on their own and what local banks offer for each service. I created a generic worksheet for the students, who worked in pairs, but each pair had to research a different website of a local bank in the Sunbury area I provided. I thought it would be a good activity; the students would be working on the computers, they would be discovering information on their own, and getting a preview of the banks that are in their immediate geographic area. I had a different bank for each pair of students so that on Monday, my idea was for each group to share their bank's information with the class. As it often happens in teaching, my activity didn't go as planned. My coop explained to me at the end of the day that some of the bank's websites were blocked for the students by the school's Internet security and that the students had a difficult time finding some information on the worksheet. While planning the activity, I went to each website to be sure it offered all the information I asked for on the worksheet, however I think I just assumed too much on the students' part in that they would understand the questions I was asking on the worksheet. For next time, I simply need to be sure the students can access websites I want them to use and not to assume what they may or may not understand.

Week 8

Week eight provided me with two distinct valuable aspects with one of them being the survey I created for the students about myself. I presented it to the students as their opportunity to grade me instead of me grading the students which grabbed their interest. It was helpful to view the students' feedback of their opinion of me, the effect I have on them, and their suggestions to improve the class. I will definitely do my best to implement this information into my future lesson planning. The second aspect that stood out to me are the non-instructional interactions I had with some of my students this past week. I'm not sure if the students are reaching an increased comfort level with me or what else made a few of them open up to me, but I received a reminder or reality check of what some students experience outside the school environment. I had at least four students share something significant about their lives with me this week. One even included me talking to the guidance department about one of the students. It was an eye opener to me and I sympathized with them because they are good kids-just not so good home lives. From this experience I just want to emphasize to you, my fellow student teachers, that a student's misbehavior is not always caused by the student just not wanting to follow directions or whatever the case may be. Talk to your students; find out what the real issue might be.

From this week, I would improve my lack of thinking through the class period for Friday's Money and Banking classes. I had a test planned for the students which went fine; it was the time after the test I didn't consider. I hadn't thought about the fact that students may not need the whole class period to complete the test, which none of them did, and I didn't plan any other activity. I improvised and added a link to my Delicious account for the students to access. In class we have been talking about currency and coins and the students have been questioning the legitimacy of commemorative coin collections. I found a link on the U. S. Mint site to an article about Obama coins that had been released that aren't issued by the Mint. It helped both with the students understanding additional content from the unit that they weren't necessarily tested on and it saved me from not having something else planned for the period. Now I'll be better prepared for our next test day!

Week 7

Student teaching has continued to improve for me and every day I feel more like an actual teacher rather than a college student. I was just telling my co-op this week that I am finding myself putting more effort into my lesson plans now than I did before when a lesson plan was an assignment for class. My most valuable experience from this week occurred in my computer applications class. The students are currently learning how to type and while they are learning, they are required to use a keyboard cover. When used correctly, the covers students use do not allow them to look down at their fingers. On top of these covers is an image of a keyboard which allows them to figure out where keys are but also need to make the association in their head as to which finger to use. Some of the students try to cheat and look over the top of their keyboard covers at their fingers when I'm not standing right next to them. What they have yet to realize is that even though I may be on the other side of the room, I am still paying attention to what they are doing. One day this week, I had three particular students who would not listen to my instructions to stop looking at their fingers so I took away their regular keyboard cover and taped a piece of paper to their keyboards to use as their cover. They did not enjoy this and realized their old covers were better since they had the keyboard image on top they could look at if they needed help. The next day I allowed them to use the normal covers again and for the rest of the week these students did a great job with keeping their eyes on their computer screens, or if they needed help, at the keyboard image on top of the covers. It was rewarding to see how a change I made help them to fix their behavior and hopefully to learn the keys.

If I could change something from the week, it would be with my money and banking class. I gave them a packet of questions that were taken from a booklet about currency in United States history. It was my co-op's assignment and he would use it by assigning it as a homework then reviewing it the next day in class. I decided to try the same thing. It is a thirty question packet, so I divided the packet over three nights for the students which gave them 10 questions per night. The first day when we were to go over questions in class, I planned too much and didn't have enough time to even begin covering the questions. The next day we reviewed some questions, but again I did not leave enough time to get through as much as I would have liked. Then on Friday, after taking a short quiz, all we did the rest of the period was review questions out of this now infamous packet. The reason I kept trying to push through it is because some of the information is going to be on the students' upcoming test. Also, it has good information in it I think the students should learn anyway because it helps to explain why our money system is how it is today. Long story short, the students were bored and I was bored. We still have almost half the questions to cover and I know I will begin to lose the students if we continue with it how we are. For the rest of it, I am going to pick out the most important questions, have the students conference with each other about those questions, and then review them as a class. Hopefully it will work!

Week 6

This week was a short one for me. We were off on Monday and had an in-service on Tuesday which gave the students a three day week. Tuesday's in-service was a work day for the teachers and I never realized how valuable they can be. There was no teacher training scheduled which left us time to get a lot of extra tasks accomplished. I was thankful to get the chance to sit down with my co-op and be able to talk more than usual about my upcoming lesson plans. Along with the in-service day, I also had a good experience with my money and banking class this week. The students completed a project of redesigning the $100 dollar bill. I gave them the job to create new features and improve the bill. On Wednesday, the students presented their projects to the class. I was really impressed with their designs; many of them went well above what I expected them to do. On Thursday and Friday we talked about United States currency and coin. As a homework assignment, I gave the students an article about the U. S. dollar and a worksheet with questions about the article. I thought the article would be beneficial for the students to learn more about the features of the bill and it turned out to be a hit with them. They were very interested in the content and asked me a lot of questions about working as a bank teller. Usually this class doesn't have the best behavior, but this week went well because they were so engaged with what they were learning.

With this week being so short, I feel like I don't have as much to choose from for what I would completely change about my week. I can say though, that I need to improve on rewarding the students who follow directions and demonstrate good behavior. I sometimes feel I concentrate so much on those who need behavior reminders that I overlook the other students. It's something I've noticed and will be working on in the coming week!

Week 5 Feb. 13

I can't believe we have five weeks completed already in our student teaching. The time is flying by and I'm sure it will just continue to get faster. The most valuable experience I had this week occurred Friday when I was with a substitute. I took responsibility for all the classes which showed me the reality of being a teacher even more. First, I have to admit that I did not do much of actual instruction. All the classes either took an exam or had a project to complete. Friday's experience was beneficial to me because it showed me the importance and necessity of having your whole day planned, activities ready to go, and materials copied. The classes I usually teach right now are all in the afternoon and as long as I'm not helping my co-op with his classes in the morning, I use that time to prepare for my classes or update grades. On Friday, I didn't have that morning time to make sure I had everything together for the afternoon; that had to be done before the students arrived for the day. I was grateful for how the students behaved as a whole; it was as if my co-op was there the whole time. I think this helps to show me that they do see me as their teacher and an authority figure in the classroom.

On Thursday I started with my third class and second section of Money and Banking. Our current topic is our currency and its security features. The students are working on a project where they are redesigning the $100 bill and I wanted them to consider features for people who are visually impaired. I prepared a mini lesson that included a Power Point to get them thinking in that direction. I gave them ideas to include on their redesign for those who are blind and could have better access to using currency. This was my first lesson with this new section of the class and for some reason I was so nervous to have the new group. I don't know why I felt this way; I had already helped my co-op with them and know them all. I flew threw the lesson with them; so much I think I confused them more than helped them. If I could change something about the week, this would be it. I should have just calmed down and not felt that way in hopes of the students understanding the information better the first time around.

Week 4, February 2-6

This week has been another good one for me which I am very thankful for. I've had a great time getting to know the students and my co-op more. Picking up another class has definitely shown me the importance of using spare time wisely. In the past, I have been an expert procrastinator but that has been starting to change with this second class. I did well this week with having more than enough planned for class so if we had extra time, the students weren't just sitting around waiting for the bell to ring. Another valuable aspect from the week was one of my lessons in my Money and Banking class. We started a new unit that is all about currency-security features of it, the changes made to it over the years, and a bit about monetary policy. I was talking about security features with the students and was able to add in some of my bank teller experience with them. They were very interested in hearing about counterfeit bills I've found and what we do at the bank with them once we come across one. They had lots of other questions and we got off track with what I had planned, but it was a great learning experience for them. This was only my first week with this class, but I am definitely excited for it!

From this week I would change how I dealt with a few students in my computer applications class. There are three students who think they don't have to use the same posture technique as everyone else yet still get a good technique observation grade. They slouch really far down so they can peek at the keys below their keyboard covers. (All the students use covers that go up over their hands but there is a copy of a keyboard on top of the cover so if they need to look they can. They just need to make the association in their head of what finger to use.) They kept saying to me that they would sit up if they didn't have to use their covers. Finally I let them try without it but nothing improved. They looked at their hands even more. Now they think they don't need to use the covers at all and type as they please. I wish I wouldn't have let them take the covers off at all and be more stern with them. I'll keep trying with them, hopefully it'll get better!

Week 3-January 31, 2009

The beginning of this past week went well for me-I really had a lot of fun with the students and have a new appreciation for snow days. Last week I reported of the assignment I gave the computer applications classes and I started off the week with them actually presenting them. I learned quite a bit about them that I would not have otherwise and hope to incorporate that information as we continue on with the semester. I think it will help me to personalize the content in the near future for them. As far as snow days go, on one hand it was great to have a catch up day-both on sleep and work I had to do. I used it to get ahead as much as I could with lesson plans and Clinical Studies assignments. However, I have to say it was difficult to have a snow day in the middle of the week like we did for the students' end. On Tuesday it was somewhat difficult to keep them oriented because the talk of the school was the possibility of not having school the next day. Then when we returned on Thursday after a two hour delay, they knew the weekend was coming soon. It was definitely a learning experience on the other side of being a teacher.

This is the first week of student teaching that I would do anything to change what happened. To give a short explanation of what happened, on Thursday (the two hour delay day) I got into a minor vehicle accident-with a student. Everyone is okay, but both our vehicles need repaired. After that fiasco I went in to the school, being late of course, and had to teach the period after the one I got to. No big deal, I kept thinking of Mrs. Wiscount's example from last Monday's class about putting your game face on and being ready for the students. Well, not only was I ready for the students but it just so happened that I was getting observed that day. It was quite the experience, one that taught me no matter what, be ready for anything!

Week 2

At the end of my second week, I can say I feel more comfortable at the school and feel a part of it. Last week I felt like an outsider just visiting but now I think the students view me as another one of their teachers. I've had a great time getting to know them and connecting with them. In the computer applications class, my co-op and I gave the students an "about me" PowerPoint assignment. We wanted to first of all see how well the students know PowerPoint and figure out what we actually need to teach them about it. We also gave them this assignment just to get to know them better-the class is mostly freshmen and it's a semester course so my co-op just meet them this week as well. Their skills pretty much blew us out of the water, we underestimated how much they know how to do in PowerPoint. It was like they had already taken the course!

At the beginning of the week on Monday, teachers had an in-service day. The school district is a part of the Learning Focused program and the in-service was all day training for it. No one seemed to be looking forward to it. I was interested to see what was involved with it, if what we had been learning in our educational classes matched up to what the training was. For the most part, everything in the training involved strategies I had heard of at some point from previous professors. However too much was thrown into one day, the teachers quickly lost interest because the trainer from the Learning Focused program was very elementary oriented. She didn't apply it to high school content very well. I have to say so myself that it was a long day. I think the day would have been much more worthwhile if it would have been only a half day of training then have the teachers collaborate with the others in their department as to how they will implement the strategies they had just heard about.

As for changing anything about this past week, everything went well so I don't feel I would need to change. The only thing that I'm struggling a bit with is learning the students' names. I have a terrible memory and just can't seem to remember who's who. It'll come though!

Jan. 17

At the end of my first week of student teaching, one of the aspects I found most beneficial was talking with my co-op and other teachers about some of the realities of a high school classroom. I have found it beneficial to hear all of their different strategies about classroom management such as teaching strategies, student behavior, organizing, and the never ending list of a teacher's responsibility. My co-op's classes are all semester classes with this past week being the last of the first semester. I will meet my students this coming week, however I did try and get to know the students. I was able to help a student who just got accepted to Bloomsburg by finding a few phone numbers for departments on campus she needed and gave her tips for getting around on campus. It felt good to help her out! I completed my elementary and middle school BCIT observations this week which helped to reinforce my preference of becoming a high school teacher. I enjoy working with the younger kids, but I would rather teach content classes such as marketing or personal finance rather than computer classes. You usually don't find those classes at the elementary or middle school levels. I enjoyed my time at the two schools, I was really impressed to see the fifth grade students learning keyboarding and eighth graders putting the finishing touches on their websites they had created. They are more advanced than I was at their age!

Overall this week went well and there really isn't much I would change about it. It was nice to have a week to get used to the school's operation and my co-op's schedule. One thing I would do though is to take on more responsibility of the little things I could do, like taking attendance or doing homework checks. My co-op didn't have me start that until Wednesday or Thursday when I could have been helping him out earlier. I am hopeful next week will go as well as this one did as the real teaching begins!