Student Teaching: Week 2 Review New Teachers by Joel Wagner - January 18, 2009June 30, 20105 So most schools have started their student teaching by now. If you know someone who has a blog and is student teaching this semester, please encourage them to contact me (or leave a comment) so that I can add their blog to my list. I was encouraged to read some of the great comments that came out on some of the posts from last week. Hopefully you can keep doing that this week. Here’s what I found in the world of student teaching this week. Saturday January 10 G Broaddus was Reflecting on student teaching , week 1. He also writes about Myths in the teachers’ lounge. Some good reflection, and some not-so-good reflection happens in there! Wish him luck… Monday January 12 calebteaches writes Jan Term Day 6. Yeah, I missed his first week, but just found his blog this afternoon! He discovered the joys of teaching sixth graders — occasional real conversations and occasional all-too-personal questions. Monday January 12 Teacher Mom enters the student teacher blogging world with Goals for Student Teaching. Admirable goals they are too! Monday January 12 G. Broaddus writes There’s the blasted time thing again… The name says it all. This can be a tough process. He seems to have what it takes to persevere and hang in there. Tuesday January 13 Mr. Spurlin tells of his process of making a Motivational Folder. My motivational folder from my first two years probably would have included things like “The thing you do well is when you stop talking and two things I think you could do better in are being sick more often and not yelling at us.” Oh well. Tuesday January 13 calebteaches writes Jan Term Day 7. Looks like he’s dealing with more questions. This time from 7th graders. If kids ask me how my day went yesterday, they know they will lose about 5-10 minutes listening to me tell them about how boring my life is in an interesting way. Sometimes teaching is as much about personally connecting with the students as it is about teaching the information. Tuesday January 13 Teacher Mom writes about Setting Behavioral Expectations In Student Teaching. Great advice in the comments. As a student teacher, I think the best thing to do with this regard is observe as much as possible. Ask as many questions as you need to, but do not criticize the way the Cooperating Teacher is handling things. Discuss, but also undestand you might possible be wrong about a few things. You also might be right. Tuesday January 13 G. Broaddus writes Fairness in assessment. He isn’t the first person to mess up when coming up with a test. Once again, he is confronted with the time issue. Wednesday January 14 Mr. Spurlin apologizes for wasting paper in I’m Sorry Trees. I also love to reduce paperwork. Wednesday January 14 calebteaches writes Jan Term Day 8. He got to work with 4th graders. And he got to see a grown woman acting like a third grader. How fun is that? Thursday January 15 calebteaches writes Jan Term Day 9 and he observed that high school generally requires less behavior modification, while elementary requires less repetition or explicit procedures. Generally. Thursday January 15 G. Broaddus notes I guess it is winter, isn’t it? He finally gets a break and hopefully got to catch up on some of his work. No students tomorrow, plus he has Monday off. How exciting! Friday January 16 calebteaches writes Jan Term Day 10. He’s finished two weeks! Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. The kids wrote about their dreams. Fun stuff! Friday January 16 G. Broaddus writes Teaching differently where he notes some of his observations from what might possibly be his first inservice. Looks like it was a good one. Enjoy it while it lasts! Friday January 16 Magister L. writes Class Differences (Or: Magister L. and the Unlikely Alliance) and he begins to notice that, as he has been told before, every class really is different even when presented the same material. Sunday January 18 Teacher Mom writes Podcasts and History. Do you use podcasting or internet audio in your teaching? If I taught social studies, language arts, government, or economics, I know I would definitely find a way to use these technologies in my room. Sunday January 18 Mattie finally has a chance to blog and writes Fridays & My First Teacher Inservice! Hopefully her inservice tomorrow will be as useful as G. Broaddus’ was on Friday. See also HELP!!!!! New Teacher Wants To Regain ControlSo there’s week 2. If I left you off or if you know someone who is student teaching, let me know! As I get more people involved in the project, I may change the format of summarizing, but for now, this is working. I have a work day tomorrow, so most of you can enjoy your day off knowing that I am up cleaning and wading through paperwork while you’re sitting at home watching soap operas and eating bon bons. Joel WagnerJoel Wagner (@sywtt) began teaching band in 2002. Though he had a lot of information, his classes were out of control. He found himself tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting. He had had enough. He resigned from his school district right before spring break of his second year and made it his personal mission to learn to be a great teacher. So You Want To Teach? is the ongoing story of that quest for educational excellence.
Hey Joel, thanks for the link(s)! I will have one more update from Los Angeles this week, and then I will be back to my high schoolers to begin my full-time student teaching. I hope to be able to continue blogging about the experience, but if my archives are any indication, the semester can get fairly hectic :)
No problem, man. I know when school gets up and running for most of us, things will get crazy and posting will be much less frequent. :)
No problem. This week’s one will probably come out tomorrow. Things just get so busy for me and I fall behind!