Do I stay or do I go now?

Well, technically next Friday May 6th is my final day student teaching and I am not required to go back to the "old job" until June 6th because I can't seem to answer this question.. "Do I stay or do I go now?"

I guess I could of expected that it would be hard to say goodbye, because well I have been with all these students since January and have gotten to know them.  I am completely involved in each students academic and social career at the school.  My 3rd block, the honors students are having the hardest time.  I have been teaching them the longest and I really do like them.  They told me the other day that "its not fair you are leaving you have been teaching us for a long time and we dont want to have to adjust to another teacher (meaning W)" And for that I  feel like i should stay atleast for their class.
But then there is my side, I completely drop everything next Friday that means there is a chance I wont feel that feeling I get every day I stand in front of the classroom like "duh! you are suppose to be here"  until maybe even next year.  Now hopefully in August I will have my own classroom and start my own journey in education, but we all know thats not for sure and I guess that is what scares me..... that it will be awhile before I feel that natural euphoria.....
HMM? so
"Do I stay or Do I go now?"

ISL, Portfolio, Check this, Do I have that?

So spring break has come and passed -- this break was well overdue.
I finished up my ISL project and feel very proud of it.  I assume everything is fine and dandy with that, but we will see.  My portfolio is bigger than ever and I feel weird walking around with out my big bag with it in it..oh and also I have backed my USB port twice.

I am seeing more and more with this student teaching extravaganza that students have a real issue with reading comp.  This is something that can be worked on but should we when they are in 10th grade really be worried about this and having to "fix" or "adjust" this issue???

We started doing biology review after school with the essential standards and so far so good :) We had 10 students and 5 of those students were mine :) which makes me feel good that they are wanting to put in the extra mile to make sure they are going to pass that EOC.

Exit interviews are in 2 weeks, this is bittersweet its coming to end.
(wrist is killing me today -- will expand soon)

Impact on Student Learning.

My Impact on Student Learning aka ISL project is due tomorrow.
This project has taken a ton of time outside of student teaching... and personally I am terrified of of getting not met on something and completely failing it. UGH the stress!
Its one of those things you work so hard on and just to have someone say umm nope not good enough could break me.

Oh well. Done, over. Now time to wait

Midterms.

Well, everyone took their midterms yesterday.  Averages are normal-ish I guess you could say, mid 70's.  Classes on Thursday and Friday of last week were dedicated to review for both Biology classes.  I set up gallery walks for both classes as lets get brains thinking about all the topics that may on the midterm.  First block, the standard biology students, absolutely loved this idea!  They used it for what it was worth and got alot out of it.  Honors on the other hand went horribly wrong, they are just way to chatty for more than pairs of "unorganized" thinking.
Still working on why that happened.

Also we had review stations set up and a practice test.  Even though I was going out of town and had some car issues and couldn't stay after school as much as I would have wanted to (partially because gosh its hard planning with someone to pick you up/drop you off with an opposite schedule lol )  I pulled another review for those who were wanting to stay after school and I couldn't stay as long as we both wanted.

I just wonder tomorrow how many students are going to come up to me and ask why did I get what I got?
my answer did you use time wisely?

ps: I was proposed to on FRIDAY :) 3.25.11 had to add that in here b/c I am rather excited

Busy

Wow, its hard to believe that its actually been so long since I typed a blog because I am now IN student teaching -- every aspect of the word -- I feel like I have now assumed the role of teacher.  My classes/lessons are constantly on my mind.  Tate actually asked one day "did you bring your work home again?" I said "Yep, and I love it"  we were out riding around and i was strategically planning groups for the DNA replication activity my honors class was going to be doing later that week.

I had my first parent teacher conference last week.  The student is in my 3rd period class and he came up to me in class and said "I apologize for anything my dad says and if he is rude." -- which of course made me nervous.  I was a bit shocked with this conference because this particular student while he had made a 48 on his first test changed study habits and had accepted tutoring opportunities and his test score on the next test was 85.  This was a unique conference to say the least his father was there, mother was not b/c she works 2 full time jobs, and an advocate.  Usually advocates are court ordered for one reason or the other, that was not the case here... we thought maybe it was because the father is ethiopian and there may of been a language barrier.. Nah, didnt look like that either - just that he wanted one we assume.  This lady had very different views on what high school was these days -- she was also dead set on having us answer her questions about the after school activities this student was participating in.  In a nutshell we all decided that this student needs support from us (which we have been giving) and he will be just fine.

I have had my second observation and my nervousness about doing well in this practorium is subsiding.  I am doing really well to say the least :) I mean personally I feel like I still have a bunch to learn and wont learn somethings until I have my class of my own, but as for now I feel I am a Damn Good Teacher haha!

I am going Tuesday to visit the Fletcher school (again) which is a school for LD and OCD students.  It is private in the sense that tuition is paid but public in a sense that it follows the NC Standards.  I really would love to have an opportunity to work here and hopefully by visiting with them when it comes time to interview I will have a good chance :)

But honestly with this job market thanks to the lovely budget cuts I am going to make myself known and will gladly accept any school who would like to have my talents and help them flurish

welcome to biology

Over the last week I have had the first interactions with parents and students.  Two students are really concerned about their grade and they have come to talk to me along with contact with their parents.  I however had an issue with how do you tell a student the reason they are doing poorly in the class is because they are not putting any effort into the class at all.  You just tell them. Ha, I told them that I felt like their effort in the class was not where I expected and grades were reflecting that.  I also explained to them that part of their issue could be understanding how the questions are worded.  I feel like that there is always a way to say something, that there never should be you did this and you didnt you you you..  I feel like I need to give hope -- yes these questions are hard so we need to not only work on effort but understanding how questions are worded.

I was observed over this last week.  Things went great! I am very happy with how I am progressing, I just hope that I can show growth because I was rated rather high which is a little worry-some.

Really nothing super exciting this week, we started cells which is exciting because I really like cells and what cells lead up to.  :)
here's to go things....

I refuse to use red pen....

So the last few days I have been grading out a ton of stuff, Lab Write ups, Warms-ups, Exams with Essays,  and tomorrow the students are turning in bottle ecosystems.  I have been thinking though and personally always had a negative relationship with my graded papers and red pen.

so I bought markers :) all sorts of colors and I enjoy it.  I dont know if the students appreciate my lack of red pen, but I sure do.
My philosophy on grading is to help that student take that piece of work that they put some sort of effort in and then I am going to put an effort into grading and helping them understand why they messed something up.

So why do we have those associations. Red pen meaning you really screwed up or that you always tell a person in theater to break a leg instead of good luck.  Why?  If teachers used many colors for grading all through school would there ever be and association with oh no look at the purple pen or green pen? Its funny all my life I have always thought red = bad/wrong

On the other hand we had a faculty meeting yesterday where a certain guy from central A.B. came and discussed Pay for Performance.  This is something that is not if it's coming it's when it's coming.  In a nutshell all teachers start out at same baseline pay (without taking into account board certification or advanced degrees or time) and based on what your students make on the eoc is what you get paid.  BUT! you are also in some competition with other "team" members with your content area but yet are evaluated on colaberation??? then you are also compared to other schools through out the district???
this is a little disheartening and concerning to me a student teacher who has just started her journey.
hmm questions, concerns, worry.

3rd Block

3rd Block is Honors Biology and it is also the block before lunch.  Wow, they are chatty and always saying they are starving.  I have used all techniques that I have discussed in all my education classes, but Monday a pop quiz is coming out.
Granted they are more of a "standard" preforming honors class they still should show the respect I know they have the capability of.
update from 2.11.11
I am having a hard time with the fact I feel hardly any of the techniques thus far have helped with my student teaching.  Why yes I feel some of it is very pertinent  I am glad I didn't just jump into a classroom and I am having this time to learn what to do how to do it and how to adjust.
I am having a hard time breaking through to my 3rd block that this stuff - biology is important and you can't just breeze through this class, I mean shoot it's an honors class come on put at least half amount of effort into it.  I feel like they don't care because it's ecology and most of these concepts they have done in middle school and are pretty straight forward.  So why half ass it??? I would be use this "adjustment" easy into biology period to my advantage completely.  I guess I dont think like a high school sophomore though.

Today they had their pop quiz. They hated it because well they had homework that they would of had time to finish in the computer lab and a study guide to finish on VALENTINES DAY!

On a side note though: I truly love being an "almost" teacher

Getting into it...

First full week down and things I believe are going very well.

I have practically taken over all of 3rd block honors.  I gave them an intro quiz on scientific method, variables and lab safety.  As a majority the class did remotely well.  They also have been doing bottle ecosystems as a side activity from other ecology discussion.  We have discussed food webs, food chains, food pyramids, intraspecfic and interspecific interactions within species.  I have learned some classroom management and still working on it.  I need to work on raining them in when they come into the classroom, I feel like when they come in they run straight back to their bottles and the "structure" is misleading.  Today we did a vital commodity lab where the students were different organisms and they meet up with students and eat or be eaten or nothing.  They used beans to show transfer of energy and if they ran out of beans they died.  Out of all the days today was the most stressful I was a bit frazzled.  Today was good learning though.  I mean I can't expect to go in and have perfect day everyday because that is what student teaching is for to realize what I can and can't put up with and set boundaries for things and realize that these are basis of being an educator. Monday I am going in starting with structure, students must sit down and start warm up as soon as they are in the classroom, not waiting for the bell to ring.  Also I graded their energy pyramid quiz and I need to do some relooping with direction of energy flow.

W is great she is very constructive, but with a past that I have had with observations (at a previous job not to be named:) ) I am very reluctant to them.  The past observations have been nothing but criticizing and a period of time where you have to completely defend yourself.  So when she starts to constructively criticize I start to get really nervous and defense mechanisms start to build.  Ive told myself it's a learning process.

Monday at seminar they assigned our ISL project which is all based on improving student learning.  I have to administer a pretest teach a min of 5 lessons and then give post test and show growth in every student.  So now I am preparing for that.

I may be only posting one post a week since I am getting into the thick of things... but I AM LOVING IT!

The New Semester Has Begun...

The first week is down.  This is how my schedule goes:

First: Standard Biology

Second: AP Biology

Third: Honors Biology

Fourth: Planning. 

The first day was the lovely syllabus and intro day.  W introduced herself and I introduced myself.  In first when I started talking about Rural Retreat they were completely dumbfounded that my town had 3x less people than MP.  I didn't do the "intro" to the AP class because I have "already met them".  I am looking forward to next week doing a lab with them and starting to interact with those students.  It was such a wonderful first day.

The second day in Standard/Honors we did a living vs non living lab to help introduce the characteristics of  life.  It was to help understand the differences between observations and inferences (assumptions), but is also was to have students come up with a definition and stick to it, for example if they believe move means to use your body to move like a human moves their arm then stick with it and put that dirt can't move with wind or water. Both classes really seemed to get into the this lab, they both go in "arguments" about what they believe and they stuck to what they believed it. It was very nice to start to get to know the students and their specifics.

The third day, Friday I got to do a lab demo after the notes on Characteristics of Life.  The lab demo was Pasteur's experiment where he disproved spontaneous generation (where living things come from non living things).  Both classes responded well to it and even W said they responded well to my instruction. After doing it with the standard babies and seeing the time length I decided that I needed to do some filling for the honors class and figured some more leading questions out for them.  Well, ha! I didn't need any of that at all.. the honors kids took longer to grasp the concept.  I have a feeling they are not wanting to expand out of the box yet, they are the students must make grade etc.  It will take a bit but we are slowly seeing a difference in them, slowly seeing them open up some.

Out of the classroom every Wednesday we have a meeting of some sort: faculty, department, biology crew.  In these meetings a topic that has been brought up a lot is a policy NC is taking on Pay for Performance.  It is not if NC will adopt this policy its when.  I am still learning about this, but pretty much what it is in a nutshell a teacher is paid on the growth and passing of EOC's that students have.
-more to come on this topic when I learn/understand more-

Monday we are giving a pretest and then Tuesday is my first lesson.  Ecological relationships here I come.  

Tomorrow is only a day away

Tomorrow is the beginning of the New Semester, new standard biology and honors biology students and I start really getting to know AP.
Gotta go in not being a friend, easier said than done.  I mean I have a bubbly happy personality to hopefully let shine after respect is earned.
Tonight isn't a long post, gotta get a good nights sleep in preparation for the big day and a department meeting afterwards.

I do get to send home my first letter to parents tomorrow along with video consent forms.

Maybe Wednesday.

Wednesday is suppose to be the first day of the new semester (but the weather is calling for ice and snow early this week too) and I am super excited.  These last few days have been good, but I'm ready to get busy.
Thursday was 4th period exam and Friday was a teacher work day so we had a lot of time to get planning started and final grades finished up.  W worked on AP exam essays, wow it took her practically all day on Thursday (7:30-12:00).  We ran the scantrons too and did an item analysis.  W told me that she would use this analysis to see what questions were missed the most and then be able to reloop with those topics.  She also uses this in her Standard and Honors Biology class to help prepare students for the EOC.  Another topic that is big in the Science dept at MPHS is topic of layered curriculum.  This is where for each unit/lesson there are different assignments students can do to achieve points and learn the material.  EOC's have been finished for the semester and each teacher have calculated points of growth and needless to say this layered curriculum has pros and cons.  I worked on W's growth points.  This is found by using the predicted scores that students come in to the class with (a # that is assigned by higher ups - but not every student has one b/c of private school transfers, out of state transfers etc) and then the actual score made on EOC.  In W's one EOC class she had +21points of growth, which is pretty good.

Thursday I experienced my first Faculty meeting which is was interesting.  General topics were discussed: budget, morale, discipline, etc.  I was introduced along with one other student teacher which was nice.  Then on Friday morning W had to be at an appt so she was going to be late, I worked on some things and then they were getting breakfast for all the teachers.  I went up and helped set up: did the whole meet and mingle thing which is important piece of the puzzle.  I also met the Principle.  Just walked right up to him and introduced myself.  Kinda felt like I wanted to vomit lol but it was good and we a small but nice conversation.  Friday I also finished up my seating charts and in the afternoon when W returned we got the ball rolling on planning.  We are even using two of my assignments that I found in a class last semester :) I brought them in because I knew in the beginning we'd have to discuss scientific method and lab safety.  One activity is a Variable Activity that is a little more honors level than the one she had and another is a lab safety poster activity.
on to starting lesson plans....

badge and lanyard: I'm Official

...and the never ending exam schedule continues

I have been at MPHS since last Thursday and all I have really gotten to experience is review days and exam days.  While I know this is a part of the job, but I am still anxious to see the classroom for what it's there for.  I did get invited to lunch with the science department today which was fun! Didn't join in much conversation because of professionalism ;)

W is a great CT and I am really excited to mentor under her.  I have not seen her teach (because of the strange week) but I do have a lot of faith and confidence this is going to be good.  Since this week has been a test of key characteristic a teacher must have: FLEXIBILITY it has allowed W and I to have some good conversations.

One conversation we had was about differentiation.  Differentiation among classes such as standard/honors/ap  and between stronger/weaker students in a particular class.   W uses some ways of differentiation: in her classes she looks at predicted scores that come with a student (these scores are a prediction done by CMS on how they will do on their EOC aka SOL (for those VA people reading)) and their transcripts and then in her seating charts she sets predicted "high" students with "low" students. This allows students to feed off each other "high" helps "low" and in helping retains more.  W within classes does stations for particular topics that help pinpoint different learning styles and teaches to the senses.  W said she would show me different assignment that honors gets vs the standard class because even though there is no "qualifications"/"application" for a student to go into an honors class and particularly if they are receiving the honors credit then they do the work.

I did however get to meet her Advanced Placement class which needless to say is a way different atmosphere than the standard class.  Its a different type of student.  I even tested my classroom management with them because she had to run up to the office after they finished their midterm and students didn't have a task because they just finished a midterm and it was almost time for bell.   Students started playing a game  and a group of 6 just ran across the room out of the blue.  Sounded like a stampede! I announce "listen you can play but you HAVE TO WALK! no more stampeding" and they did! They listened and walked as soft as feathers.  Now this isn't much, but I haven't even had much interaction with them and this is one of the first "HEYS!" I've done.. sooo.. I was impressed.

I feel like this semester I am suppose to learn how to be a science educator.  NOT just a science teacher, my goal for this semester is well of course to get a passing grade b/c without that I am screwed.... but my personal goal: become well-rounded meaning content knowledge, management, flexibility, confidence, etc.

Day Number 1

Day 1 - Check!
     Today was very interesting because not only was it a 2-hour delay for CMS but it is also the jumbled around because it was suppose to be an exam day, but without review days there are no exams.  Today we had 1st block then 3rd then 1st again because 1st period has their final tomorrow.
     I arrived at about 7:00 and W got there about 7:30.  Until 9:15 it was very here's where the copier is, do you remember at VT, joint planning?, what semester going to look like? etc.  No the biology dept does not have joint planning.  They have asked for it and its just can't be "fit in the schedule".  Then at 9:15am bell rang and day began.
     Greenhouse Biology is a biology class that students take before biology.  They take this in hopes that hearing the information twice will help them understand it and help the students pass their EOC (standardized test).  I will not have this particular class, I will be teaching standard Biology.  The students in this class will start Jan 24th along with about 10 other students.  This class will help me a lot with classroom management and help me find my own, I predict.  I actually received a nickname from a student in class, Ms Beverly Hills.  While he couldn't remember Baggerly he remembered the "B"  It was a little concerning because I didn't want to loose all teacher/student respect on the first day, but I was able to strike up conversation with him and turned it into talk about his study guide they were working on.  Once that conversation happened I started feeling more comfortable and started questioning others.
     Honors Biology was the other class I got to observe today.  I will not teach any of these students.  Honors biology is a semester only class so I will be getting a new "batch" of students but it was nice to interact with them.  It was interesting to compare the two class and the types of students that were in them.
     I am very excited to get started in the teaching process when the semester starts and picking up responsibilities.  QQA is something the W uses for a warm up activity it is: Quote, Question, Agenda - Quote- is self explanatory she picks a quote that she feels is appropriate for the day/topic etc Question- question about topic/goal of day or where do I need to review Agenda- is self explanatory too its the agenda for the day which includes the standard course of study goal.  I will not be taking over her Advanced Placement class (AP) this is because a teacher must be certified to event teach this class.  W is very excited about having a 2nd teacher in the room though.
     The next week is going alot of long periods because of the exams and standard testing that will be going on, but starting the 24th the fun begins.
Go Mustangs!

one of my desk-ish like areas

ceiling of the classroom - haha if this isn't another sign

So it continues

... and to add tomorrow 1.12.11 will be SNOW DAY #3.  

Today was CMS Closed Code A - optional teacher workday

Well in orientation the supervisors told us Snow Days - follow your system Teacher Workdays - must go even if your CT doesn't.  They never really said what to do on optional teacher workday snow day.  

So I call my supervisor - no answer with what to do.  My CT decides she was going to maybe go in for a bit and we decide that we will meet about lunch time. Ah I was so excited to at least see the room figure out where kids will be starting etc

          Didn't happen.  Roads were not in any shape to be driven on and she had her daughter with her (it was a good idea because I went out for a few errands and the back roads are rough)

Tomorrow is another CMS Closed Code A - optional teacher workday

will I go? I dont know, I received an email from my CT and she said she wasn't planning going into tomorrow but that if it changes she'd let me know.. 

oh well, maybe by the end of the week I will get to meet her and learn the names of students in my class for Jan 24th and the beginning of the new semester and when I hope to be picking up responsibilities.

Snow Day.

I was so ready for this morning.  I had my lunch packed, bag packed, had my parking spot planned out and even where I could get coffee on the way into school haha!.  Like I assumed I didn't sleep very well, fell asleep about midnight woke up at about 3:30am looked outside no snow and said ok well 5am is coming soon.  Then 5am rolled around, alarm clock went off and I looked outside SNOW! ahh! tons of snow! (about 1-2inches - which for Charlotte is a ton)

Even though I figured CMS would be closed I still was worried that we weren't.  The news had to say it about 3 times for be to actually believe it.

So there it is, my first day as a student teacher: SNOW DAY!

Orientation #2

Well, if I wasn't nervous before I am know.  I heard in orientation today about 10 times "just think of it as if you're on a job interview everyday" ha! yea! Because that is suppose to make things easy.
Today was UNC-Charlotte's student teacher orientation and it was a lot to take in.  I have to get a 3 ring binder and set it up to be my life for the next 5ish months.  This is to hold everything from lesson plans, samples,  to my video reflection.  Yes, that's another thing I have to video tape myself along with 3 observations throughout the semester from my "supervisor" and there will also be  a couple other individual projects "outside" the classroom do be done.

Now I am sure this was not meant to completely terrify me and make me feel overwhelmed already.  I know this because today I received a pin to wear to remind me that I am not in this alone that at one point all teachers were there, its in a circle shape to show that education is ever changing.  Also, found out that on May 14th (day after my 25th birthday) if I choose I could walk in commencement ceremony to receive my license.  While this is super exciting for me I am scared that somewhere along the line something may have been missed and I wont qualify.

I have a list of things to do including a stack of about 5 different forms to fill out, a walmart trip, have my TB test read, and find a faculty member to sponsor me in the masters program because after this semester Phase 1 is over and Phase 2 can't be completed with out this sponsor.

I AM EXCITED!!! AHH!!
be timely
be organized
be fun and exciting
be up to date
be confident in knowledge
be professional
those are my goals for student teaching

Orientation #1

     I am starting this blog as a reflection of my time as a student teacher.  From January to May I will be student teaching at Myers Park High School.  I wont be using any names for reasons we all know and understand, but a person you will hear about a lot is my CT - W.  The exciting thing about W is that she did her undergraduate at Virginia Tech and was an Animal and Poultry Science major like me!  BK at the Animal Hospital seems to think she is a client as well.  Wouldn't that be crazy!

     My first email from W seemed very positive and helpful.  She stated that the new semester doesn't start till January 24th which gives us some time to get to know each other and for me to get adjusted.
     My mom came down over the weekend and helped me get a few things together.  I have lost about 25lbs and needless to say wearing scrubs every day for the last 3 year I have not really put a lot of thought in to wardrobe.  We went and found not only one but FOUR pairs of pants that looked awesome on me.  Only 2 pairs need some hemming - Thank you New York and Company.  It was some of the best days I have had with my mom in a long time. 

     Today was my first orientation.  It was CMS specific, which meant drug test, finger print, paperwork, id badge pictures, and specific employee handbook stuff.  I thought for sure I would know someone in the room, but I didn't.  I chatted with some people and its amazing how I feel the same nervousness, anxiety, and excitement that others feel.  

     I still don't know what time to be where Monday morning, but oh well I have my official paperwork in and my I's dotted and T's crossed.