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.