Day 10 of Unit..it's all over

I have finished my unit! It is over! what an awesome feeling to know that I made it through my first 10 days teaching! It was such a great moment because this lesson showed me that my students have understood everything we have talked about it. From the beginning, I don't think my co-op thought my students would like/do well on this Found Poetry idea I had. Especially when I mentioned bringing in craft supplies for them to use. His face was funny when he saw all the glitter I brought because he hates messes, and lets just be honest, glitter makes a mess no matter how you try.

I let the boys pick their own partners except for 2. In first period 2 of my students didn't bring their quotes in (which is the basis of the entire project). They said they forgot. I didn't think it was fair to just let them go w/ another student who did his quotes and use them so I put those 2 together and they had to get quotes all over again. I then put on 1940's music ( to tie into the setting of the novel). At first I heard a lot of groans about it but by the end they were tapping their feet and even said that they worked well with that music in the background. I have to admit I was blown away by their poems. When they all finished they had to present them to the class and say what theme/character/idea they wrote about and why that it's important. They were SO deep. They totally understood all the themes we have talked about and have made some of the coolest poems. All of them were great! They used theme's like: war, snow/the dawn (symbolic for re-birth), Finny, and the fall. It was just so impressive. I was so so worried that they were getting the plot facts fine but not the deeper meaning, but these poems have proved that they get it.

At the end I collected their poems and told them that I would have their grades Wednesday when I come back in. They were like, wait you're not coming every day still? I explained to them how my unit works again and explained when I'd be coming back. They were bummed I wasn't going to be there every day and asked when i start teaching fully time. It made me fell really great. My 2nd period even said "let's give Miss Rahl" a round of applause. I feel like I have made a great impression these 13 boys. It's been the best experience and I can't wait to teach full time next semester!

The Professor and the MADMAN..muahhhahahahaha

Ok, so when I grabbed this book off the bookshelf I was so excited to read it. Anything that combines English with crazy people has to be good right? I thought about e-mailing Dr. Howard, who I had for History of the English Language and English Grammar because she LOVES the Oxford English Dictionary. If you didn't know what something meant she would say, "Have you checked it on the OED?" We even did a whole project on a particular root and its origins using the OED. I have become pretty familiar with the OED during my time in Satterfield. Dr. Trogdon gave us an assignment in English Studies where we did a library scavenger hunt (something I will be doing with my students for their research papers) and we had to look up words in the OED both electronically and in print. It's important to know how to use your research tools, and the OED is a great source...but onto the book.

This book caught me in the story from the beginning. Yes there were some boring parts but seriously, who would have thought that a Civil War vet and an inmate of an insane asylum created 10,000 of the entries that are in the OED. No wonder we have such a crazy language, 10,000 definitions were submitted by a crazy man! It all makes sense now!

Have you ever gone into the library to see the print version of the OED. They are seriously massive. No wonder they began being known as the 'Big Dictionary.' I love that that chapter starts out with the OED definition of Elephant. It's a great play on words.

I enjoyed the definitions at the beginning of a lot of the chapters (murder, mystery, etc) because it was like a sneak peak as to what we would be reading all the while tying it back to the reason we are reading about this story- the OED. I think this is a book that would be fun to read while doing research papers because it connects with the idea of research but has some fun mysterious elements that students could read about. It is interesting to see what students would think about Dr. Minor and had he not been insane (or if he had been treated) how things would have turned out. It's an interesting topic that would be a lot of fun in a classroom!

And for your enjoyment, here is a hysterical song about the OED and this book thanks to youtube. Oh how I love youtube!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IZYzxNOUtw

Image Grammar

So I think it is pretty cool that I had a class with Professor Noden last semester. When I signed up for his class and he talked about this "image grammar," I just thought it was something he did at Hudson; I thought it was a tiny pamphlet of ideas. Never did I realize his book would be so nationally acclaimed (I've done some research on it) nor were all his ideas so cool. I remember in class doing activities and being like what does this have to do with brush strokes? How do brush strokes teach? But after reading the text I understand completely. We did an activity (which someone actually kind of demo'd in our class) where he would show us pictures and we had to write about that picture. We had to be descriptive and talk about the details and images. It was a great practice in writing but I didn't realize it was conditioning us to look at the images and not think of things as just writing. Mr. Noden's book is FILLED with ideas on how to teach image grammar. Not only does he give written descriptions, but he also gives a CD to utilize. As many of my classmates know, I am a huge Hemingway fan (blame it on Dr. Trogdon). I thought it was so cool that there was a section in Mr. Noden's book that talked about Hemingway's unique sentence structures, in particularly with The Old Man and the Sea. It talked about people re-writing it using his rhythm. I think this is something I can use next semester when I teach this novel. If you understand rhythm of an author (and you have to, to do this assignment) then you are seeing grammar in a whole new way.

I applaud Mr. Noden for his work on image grammar. Grammar is something that our students aren't getting enough of. They get to college and professor's are just astonished by their poor grammar. I think we need to venture away from being grammar police and teach it in a unique and meaningful way like using the idea of brush strokes. Our students will be able to use it in their writing and will help them become stronger writers.

The Praxis II has no right to say who will make a good teacher...

So, I took a day to process my experience with the Praxis II, and I have decided that I hated it. First off, I hate standardized testing. I hate it with a passion. Especially when it's something that I had to a.) pay $220 for, b.) makes or breaks me from getting a teacher license and c.) something that either you know or you don't (it's quite hard to study for).

How can ETS and the Department of Education say that these tests show if someone can teach. These tests show that you can take a test! Ridiculous! When I am in my classroom, I know I can teach, but this test honestly made me feel like I knew nothing and I have wasted 5 years at Kent State. I took practice tests and passed them but when I got to the real thing I felt like it was all ridiculous! There were authors, and poems, and ideas that I haven't heard of. There were questions that I felt were very opinionated. What if my opinion on the summary of an essay is different than the person next to me? Does that make me wrong? What is that showing my students?

Another thing that annoyed me were the people from the other content areas. I sat next to this woman who was probably in her late 40's for the PLT section. First off, she was mad that I was at the same table as her. She kept saying, "this is ridiculous. Why are we all so cramped up in this room? I want my own table." I looked at her and said, "I don't bite," and smiled. She didn't find me funny. Darn. So then she is complaining about her math content section that she didn't finish. She asked me if I finished my content section, and I said yes. She GLARED at me and said "well that's because language arts content is WAY easier than math. All you have to do is read a book." I was trying to compose myself and not get kicked out (again, paid a lot of money to be here) and just said, "it's a whole heck of a lot more than just reading." And she LAUGHED at me. I just stared at her. The whole time I found myself becoming more and more congested. My eyes were getting itchy, my throat scratchy, my nose was running, and began sneezing. I felt like there was a cat sitting on my lap (I am ridiculously allergic to cats). What do I find out? Crazy math lady is ALSO a crazy cat lady! GO FIGURE! She said she couldn't wait to get home to get to her cats. I looked at her and it all clicked why I felt like death. I said how many do you have and she said thirteen!!! THIRTEEN! And she went on to say how they sleep with her and they are like her kids. THIRTEEN!!!!!!! So I felt like the thirteen cats were on my lap as they handed out the tests. The woman still was complaining about me being at her table. I told her to ask the proctor before we started if she could move and the lady was like no they won't let me. SO WHAT DOES SHE DO? The test starts and she raises her hand and says and I QUOTE, " "excuse me, this is unacceptable. This GIRL next to me keeps sniffling, cough and sneezing and it is VERY distracting." At the moment my mouth dropped and I just looked at the proctor who was as shocked as I was. The woman said, " I need to move or she needs to leave." I NEED TO LEAVE!! You crazy cat lady! The proctor looked at me and mouthed "I'm sorry!" and let the lady move to the back of the room. I really wanted to just sneeze on her and her dumb cats.

After the test I was just pissed off. Between the cat lady and the 4 hours of testing I was over it all. Lets see what happens in 4 weeks!!!!

Day 9 of Unit

This morning I woke up at 5:45 AM, like normal. But today I felt miserable. My throat was on fire and my voice sounded so hoarse. But I got myself up and moving and got to Stow by 7 AM. My co-op could hear my voice sounded awful but I knew I could suck it up (isn't that what teaching is all about...taking lemons and making lemonade?). I had to think on my feet and kind of find ways that I wouldn't be doing a lot of talking but still teaching. I gave the students for their quiz the chance to write a summary of the chapter and then write what they thought was the most significant point of the chapter and why. Then we went through the key points of the chapter but I made sure we had time for the students to do a character analysis worksheet. I wanted them to pick a character and they had to make 3 statements about that character then provide 2 quotes per statement of support. It was the light bulb moment for my students. Through these first 7 chapters I worried if they were getting it, if they were seeing the bigger picture. But through their conversations and questions for this character analysis I realized they did! It was such a great moment! As I read through their papers now I am very impressed. They are getting the themes, the symbolism and the parallelism. They are making some great points and I'm very impressed! It was a great way to finish out the week.

I kept apologizing for my voice going out and my students asked if I wanted a glass of water and offered to get one. They truly showed that they cared. It was such a wonderful moment that they really accepted me. Although I am quite different than my co-op, I think my students enjoy it. It's different and it's new which is always fun. I'm not only looking forward to my last day on Monday but also for next semester!

In class demo workshops and writing workshops

I have to say, at first I thought this whole demo workshop/writing workshop was going to be the most boring thing ever. I couldn't imagine reading 2 15 page stories every week and seeing demo lessons. But it has been such a COOL experience. Everyone's stories have been so unique and intersting. I feel I can hear each voice telling the story to me. I have been inspired, amused, saddened, excited, and have laughed out loud to all these different stories. I think this is the ultimate demo lesson. It has shown me that writing workshops are really effective tools to use in the classroom. Not only does it give the author the chance to try out their piece on others but it gives the class the chance to practice their constructive criticism. With the one prompt in my classroom, I had my students critique each others. I see we are going to have to work on this next semster. They just like to say " I agree with everything you are saying! Good work!" I explained that it is good to say you like it, but what is truly helpful is the idea of giving the author something to work on. I liked that in our class we started doing 1 positive and 1 constructive criticism. I think it is very helpful and will make us all stronger writers!

The demo lessons have really given me some good ideas. I have been keeping ideas in a notebook so that when I need to teach a lesson and am having a brain fart as to how to present the topic, I can just look through my notebook and be like "Oh yah Stephanie did a really good demo on writing a play.." (which I might be putting in Wiki, thanks Steph!). I think this has just been quite the helpful experience.

On another note, I am trying to figure out how to work these things. Not having multi-modal I feel really has given me an unfair advantage with these. I feel the rest of the class has fun and exciting blogs but I haven't quite figured out how to do that. I swear, I'm getting there! Patience is a virtue!

Day 8 of Unit

Today just kind of felt like a blah day. Not only was chapter 6 not the most exciting chapter of the novel, but I was exhausted today. Everything (aka life) is just catching up w/ me and it is really wearing me. I was determined to find some way to make chapter 6 interesting for the students, since it really bored me. Needless to say they were quite vocal about how boring chapter 6 was. But I was impressed that they made some mature comments about how it did not seem to develop any characters or further the plot. Gone are the days of them just saying "this sucks..." It was quite exciting to see them being little literary critics even just for a brief moment in time.

We did a reading comphrension quiz like always. Today I made the questions a little more on what they thought. They had to think about the information and respond which I have found many do not like doing. A couple said, "I don't like thinking." My response, " you better start like thinking when you fly those airplanes. That's all about thinking." As I was grading their quizzes this afternoon I got to one students who is probably my most outspoken in 2nd period. He strongly dislikes the book and takes every moment to make it known. He doens't like the idea of symbollism. He thinks that the author really didn't put it in there, that we as English teachers have nothing else to teach so we jsut pull it out of no where. I was like, really? I told him if he thinks this is bad wait till we get to Hemingway next semester. I told him that symbollism is what makes stories exciting and interesting to read and he told me it's what makes them dumb. The one question on the quiz asked them to think about what the 2 differnt rivers at Devon could represent. It was a pretty open question- they could have said good vs evil, the right path/wrong path, Gene vs Finny, summer session Vs winter session..etc. This particular student wrote "I think they are just rivers. We shouldn't think this much into things." UGH! Really? I haven't quite figured out what to do to get this boy to like this. I'm just terrified when we get to "Old Man and the Sea," b/c I am not a fan of that book b/c it drags on, so I just have this feeling he is going to hate it. But I am going to remain positive and think of interesting ways to teach it.

Only 2 more days of my unit left! Tomorrow we are finishing chapter 7 and then Monday is Found Poem Day! I am so excited to see what my students are going to create!

Day 7 of Unit

With the comments I received yesterday from my professor, I went into my class with a new perspective. I was excited for my supervisor to come watch me because I felt very confidant about my lesson and I was excited to see how my supervisor felt. Today, instead of a normal reading quiz I did the snowball game BUT with a cool twist. Instead of snowballs, we made basic paper airplanes, since these guys are aviation students. They LOVED it! They said writing to a prompt and responding not only made them understand the chapter more but it was a lot of fun to just lighten up and make paper airplanes. I was so glad to see their reactions and it put us on a great path for awesome discussion.

First period, I had one student fall asleep. We have been having problems with him staying awake. First I did the walk by him technique; that didn't help. So finally I just tapped my pen on the corner of his desk and just asked him quietly to wake up. He did, for a while. So then I start to call on him more and more. He admitted he didn't read. After class my co-op and I talked to him about why he is falling asleep all the time and he said he is up late playing video games. We talked to him about trying to get to bed earlier because he isn't doing well on his reading quizzes and having one every day for 14 chapters is 140 points, basically what their unit exam is going to be. He said he'd try harder. So I'm going to work on my lesson for the last 2 days to make them more interactive so he is awake more.

My supervisor said that I had a very strong lesson today and that I presented the information well and the students seem to respond well to me. It was nice learning yesterday things I should work on because it helped me feel stronger today as a teacher! I only have 3 more days left- 2 days of discussing chapters and the final day is our Found Poem project day! The students will partner up and work on making poems from their quotes! I'm looking forward to helping them and working with them to make an awesome poem (which I would like to hang up if my co-op lets me).

Day 6 of Unit

Today felt great! Dr. Kist came to observe my lesson and I must admit I was very nervous! My nerves didn't go away at first because 2 of my students ( who come from Hudson) were running very late. So it was this awkward wait time with 4 students. I didn't want to start too much. I waited a little bit then did a skit with the kids there because I didn't want to waste my students time or my professor. The skit went well and they seemed to get why we were doing it. My other 2 students finally showed up and I was able to start their quiz. Now, my co-op likes to do 10 questions, short answer, pretty straight forward. I played by his rules for a while, but today I decided to do things a little different. I gave them a prompt to write on. Then after they wrote on it, they had to pass it to another student and that student had to comment on their writing. I will grade both of their writings. I hoped this will not only give me a chance to see how they write but give them the practice they need not only in writing but in responding to others. We had an EXCELLENT group discussion afterwards. All but one student was engaged and putting forth information. They really read and knew details. I was very pleased by how well it went.

2nd period wasn't as smooth because we had a practice lock down then ended up going for 45 MINUTES (of my hour class). They had the kanine unit in the halls sniffing lockers. From what we could hear (in our locked classroom), they were taking classes into the hallway and the dogs were sniffing the students. It was crazy hearing all the dogs barking. When I left in the morning, the kanine unit was sniffing the student cars in the parking lot. I am sure I will hear ALL about details tomorrow but I have to admit it was frustrating because I had to do a condensed lesson for 2nd period. I ended up giving them a worksheet to do as homework instead of us doing it together in class. I guess that is just what you have to do as a teacher.

Tomorrow my supervisor comes to visit. I am a little nervous because he is coming during 2nd period and they are really hit or miss. Today they were ok but yesterday they all were zoning out. They CLEARLY tell me that they don't like the book and they think it is stupid. So I just hope that I can get them to work well tomorrow!

Day 5 of Unit

I feel today I had a really cool activity for my students. They at first seemed to think it was weird but by the end they thought it was fun. What I did was do a draft lottery with them. Basically, as they walked in I gave them a draft card. I had them write their name, date of birth, height weight, home address, and sign it...basically acted as if this were their draft card. I put a power point up and pulled numbers. Those that got pulled had to say goodbye to their friends and go to the back of the classroom where they were at war. I explained to those left that we had no idea what was going on with their friends and we talked about how that would make them feel. I then had the one student "killed in action." I reported the news to the class and we talked again about the guilt that some of the students felt for not being there and the saddness. The other people at war came back either physically or emotionally injured and I made them go through daily life. I asked them how that made them feel and asked those that didn't go to war how it made them feel to see their friends in pain. We had an excellent conversation on dealing with war in many aspects which I tied into Chapter 3 of the novel

Their quiz scores today were worse than the quiz before. I think a lot of them read earlier last week and then did not look over it over the weekend. They missed very easy questions. I also noticed that many of my students had the case of the Monday's-they were tired, non-responsive, and looked like they were going to fall asleep at any given moment. I was hoping for a better discussion but it was like pulling teeth. I'm trying to find ways to deal with this since they are such small classes and they are so early in the morning.

One thing that kinda annoyed me was in the middle of my lesson, my co-op interjected an idea he wanted the students to know. I felt like a complete IDIOT...like I was not intelligent enough to teach. I know he was just doing it to make sure all the classes had the same information by the time he takes over, but I wish he would have talked to me about it before class or after class and said what he wanted emphasized. I don't want spoon fed but I want more support than I am getting. I just don't know what to do. I feel like maybe he thinks I'm dumb, but anytime I ask how I'm doing he's says "all's good." Ugh! My professor comes tomorrow and my supervisor comes the next day so hopefully I'll get some constructive criticism. Too bad I'll only had like 3 more days to use it this semester.

Oh well, just got to stay positive! :)

Day 4 of Unit

Today was pointless and made me kind of angry. Last week I asked my teacher if there were any field trips during my unit and he said no. However, the science teacher did not tell either of us that most of the boys (all but 5) would be gone for the day for this Ambassador event. So basically we combined 1st and 2nd period, had 5 boys total. THere was NO way I could start chapter 3 without the rest of my class. So I decided to give them the time to work on the projects I have assigned. I turned a negative thing into a positive. I was able to sit and work with each student, answer questions and we still were able to have some kind of discussion about the novel. I still felt like I accomplished something with them even though it wasn't quite what I expected.

The only thing that I am not sure about is how I stand in the classroom in regards to my co-op. He doesn't say much. At first, he told me I would be using his password and entering grades in the Progressbook. But all week he has just been like "give them to me and I'll enter them when I do the rest of the other classes grades." I told him, "no I don't mind," but he keeps say it's no problem. Well yah, it might be when I don't know how to use Progressbook next semester. I feel he doesn't want to let go of the classroom, and obviously I understand. He's worked with these students and it's his classroom. I just don't know where the balance will be. I want the students to see me as their teacher but I am just worried that they will only see me as Miss Rahl, the student from Kent State.

Hopefully next week will go well. I have changed my lessons a little bit to fit the students and their needs based on the conversations we have had in class. Fingers crossed!

Day 3 of Unit

Today was a great day in the classroom! I feel like I am becoming more comfortable in my role as teacher. The students are becoming more comfortable with me; their personalities are really starting to show more. These 2 periods are very sarcastic and funny and the first 2 days I feel they weren't sure how to react to me as the teacher. But now they see that I am open to talking and having good time, but all the while stressing the importance of respect.



Today we did chapter 2. In the novel, the boys go to a tea with their headmaster so I brought in juice and donuts to go along with that. The students LOVED it. They thought it was a really cool idea to tie the book into real life. My co-op never does these kinds of things with them. We had another reading quiz and they did SO much better. I could tell they all read the chapter because they really had questions and comments to make on the chapter. They were interested of why things happened and how it will change the rest of the story. We talked a lot about themes today and they really liked being able to find ones that could possibly work throughout the novel.

During 2nd period, there was a fight in the hall way that my co-op teacher had to go deal with. My 2nd period class wanted to see what was going on. It was very difficult to get them to focus on the novel and not the fight right outside our door. They kept saying that "A Separate Peace" was way more boring than the fight in the hall. They liked seeing their teacher get involved and handle it. I kept having to bring them back to task which was very difficult. It kind of killed the momentum of the class, but I was able to bring it back. The end of class they had about 10 minutes left so I let them work on projects I have assigned and let them ask questions. They were awesome; they stayed on task and worked up until the end of the period bringing things up for me to look over.

So far, things are going so well! They are really doing a great job with the novel. They hope it gets more exciting because right now they are bored with it, but I think as it progresses they will like it more!

Day 2 of Unit

So today went much better than day 1. Today I gave the students their first quiz. My co-op teacher really wanted me to stress the importance of them reading every day so he said he wanted me to give them a quiz on every chapter. So this morning I gave them the chapter 1 quiz. I could tell many of my first period students didn't read because even the easiest questions they missed. Their scores were like 4.5/10 or even 3/10. First period didn't really get involved with my discussion questions, only 2 students. I tried to motivate the other students and tried to keep it up beat but they just were out of it. I did have a moment where I felt dumb. I was going over a very important quote with period 1 and the one part of the line is in french and I said I'm not sure what this means I don't take French. My co-op then asked to interupt, translated it and explained why that translation was important. I can honestly say known of my teachers ever went over that quote with me in HS and no site online that I looked at talked about that french translation so I kinda felt dumb.

Second period went much better. I could tell the students really did read, most of their scores were 7 or 8.5/10. They had much better discussions and asked a lot of questions which I enjoyed. They are very inquisitive and want to know what happens. I keep saying you have to wait and see but I know they want to know. They truly are a great group of students and made me feel much more relaxed teaching.

No feedback yet from my co-op teacher. I told him I thought I did better and all he said was it went beautifully. He is getting sick so I know this is a rough week for him but I wish he could give me some advice. I think tomorrow I will ask him what his thoughts were on my lesson.

Tomorrow we will discuss chapter 2. I have a fun activity with food for them to do so hopefully they enjoy it!

Day 1 of Unit

Yesterday was my first day taking over 2 class periods. I was nervous as all get out! I got to school early figured I'd have time to prepare and THANK GOODNESS I did. First off, my Macbook is not compatible with the smartboard coard. SO my whole lesson, which used a power point and video clips from youtube needed that smartboard. So my co-op said put it on your jump drive and put it on my computer. When I tried to open the powerpoint on his computer, it would not open because my powerpoint is a newer version. SO I tried saving it in a later format and it got ALL screwed up. 10 minutes to go until classes come in and I am frantic. I am trying to fix it and make it look presentable and readable. I get it fixed and then establish that NONE of my links work. I was unaware that youtube does not open in Stow HS. My co-op said that I would have had to embed the links....little late now. SO my video on history that were really cool, I couldn't use. 1st period came in and I seriously had to wing it. Luckily I had an extra worksheet in my unit plan folder than I gave out and we spent a little more time going over their projects. It was terrifying but exciting. My co-op said I did very well for having to fix everything on the spot and make a new lesson.

I guess I really got my first experience as a teacher; teachers are constantly having to revamp, redo, and fix lessons. You can't help what happens especially with technology, but you should always be prepared.

I am now going to go through ALL my powerpoints, re-do them to work at stow. If anyone knows where I can get an adaptor cord for a MacBook that can hook up to the smartboard cord let me know! Today is in-service so tomorrow will be day 2! Wish me luck!