My second day at the school started off rather awkwardly because I had to go to the cafeteria where all the faculty and staff were for the first meeting with the principal. I walked in and went toward the “sign-in” line and a secretary walked up to me and asked me, “Who are you?” I said I was a student teacher so I probably wasn’t on the list and she told me to sign in anyway and find her later because she needs to keep track of everyone.
The next line, which was very long, was for ID pictures. A lot of teachers mistook this line for the food line. Slowly but surely word spread and most left the ID line for the breakfast line which was provided by the Army for some reason. While in line, some teachers introduced themselves, including the band director who overheard me say who my mentor teacher is and he said that she is excellent and that his wife was a student teacher with her a while ago. When I finally got to the person running the ID machine I told him I wasn’t on the list and I spelled my name for him and then he took my picture. When my ID printed out, I noticed he spelled Kathryn “Katheryn” and asked if it mattered, he said yes, and then he took my picture again. When that card printed out he had just done it on the other side of the bad one so I have a two-sided ID card now… Oh well!
The talk from the principal seemed good. He spoke about the previous year’s test scores and goals. Test scores are up and the goals were met. Good news. He also spoke a lot about teaching and how there are three important aspects; the context, the content, and instruction. Basically, know who your kids are and build relationships with them, connect the content you teach to the real world and their backgrounds, and frame your instruction in such a way that it is based on standards and you can justify your assessment. He mentioned several times that grading cannot be subjective. All of these things I have learned about in my classes or read in teaching books. He also spoke about preparing students for the real world and that they need a new set of skills. He was referring to aspects of “The 21st century learners” which I had learned about last year. All in all, I felt glad there were no surprises in his talk!
At about 9:30 we broke into smaller groups and the group I was in was lead by the principal. In this smaller group he went over a lot of paperwork in a binder. Not paperwork to fill out, just a binder full of information. In this session he stressed the importance of the entire faculty doing the same things. If students get away with music, cell phones, or dress code violations in one class that hinders the aim of the group. He talked about doing things even if you don’t personally agree with them but that you should do them because it was the right thing to do (referring to music in class, dress code, etc.). One thing I did take away from this smaller meeting is that he puts a high value on looking and acting like a professional in all contexts. Also, if he were to ever observe a lesson of mine (or anyone) he will be looking for justifications about why you are teaching what you are, what techniques are you using (like SEI techniques), and how do you know that your assessment is testing for understanding? These are all questions that I feel I would be prepared to answer for any lesson that I do that is designed on the template from my classes.
After this I went back to the classroom. My mentor teacher explained her syllabus to me and showed me her plans for the first day. She said that it might be a good idea for me to attend the first day in other teacher’s classes as well so that I can see a variety of ways of doing the first day of school. I think this is a good idea and perhaps I will do this!
I asked her about how she works student teachers in over the semester. She told me that she starts off really slow. At first I will just observe and then emulate what she does. She says this way I can just concentrate on getting comfortable in front of the class and getting used to doing things with different forms of technology without the stress of designing lessons. I think this sounds good. After I am comfortable I can start running the class on my own. She doesn’t expect me to follow her plans exactly after I get to that point and said that she sees her role as giving advice on what works and what doesn’t work. She said she doesn’t say that things are wrong, just gives ideas about maybe doing things a little differently if they aren’t working well. Also, she was given a period of Earth science. She said that she is not going to have me do anything with that class because it is new content to her too! So, there will be Biology first period and then Earth Science, and then three more periods of Biology. Not too bad, four periods a day!
She explained to me how she usually frames instruction. The unit usually begins with a PowerPoint presentation and video to introduce the content. After that students do a lot of worksheets and labs. She is thinking about doing a current event thing every Friday to really help connect Biology to real life, but isn’t sure about how she is going to do that yet. Before the test she does a big review that includes a study guide that has multiple-choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions. She then models the test after the study guide and the test is all multiple choice. Her justification for this is that it just takes too long to grade short answers and essay questions. Maybe I am just young and naïve, but I feel that from my classes, my readings, and my own experiences as a student that a multiple choice test does not offer ample opportunities for students to show their understanding. I know many times I have understood big ideas and important concepts, but the multiple-choice test is just a collection of facts to remember. Furthermore, as a teacher it does not allow you to design questions that push students’ thinking. It does not help students develop their writing and reasoning skills. Again, maybe I will change my mind about this topic in the future when I have 150 tests to grade, but I doubt it.
After I put up the “Grades” bulletin board that was about it for my second day! Tomorrow morning there is a meeting at 9:00 about using the Making the Grade program that is what the district uses to process and calculate all student grades. She has some appointment at 11 tomorrow, so I expect another short day… the last one!
The next line, which was very long, was for ID pictures. A lot of teachers mistook this line for the food line. Slowly but surely word spread and most left the ID line for the breakfast line which was provided by the Army for some reason. While in line, some teachers introduced themselves, including the band director who overheard me say who my mentor teacher is and he said that she is excellent and that his wife was a student teacher with her a while ago. When I finally got to the person running the ID machine I told him I wasn’t on the list and I spelled my name for him and then he took my picture. When my ID printed out, I noticed he spelled Kathryn “Katheryn” and asked if it mattered, he said yes, and then he took my picture again. When that card printed out he had just done it on the other side of the bad one so I have a two-sided ID card now… Oh well!
The talk from the principal seemed good. He spoke about the previous year’s test scores and goals. Test scores are up and the goals were met. Good news. He also spoke a lot about teaching and how there are three important aspects; the context, the content, and instruction. Basically, know who your kids are and build relationships with them, connect the content you teach to the real world and their backgrounds, and frame your instruction in such a way that it is based on standards and you can justify your assessment. He mentioned several times that grading cannot be subjective. All of these things I have learned about in my classes or read in teaching books. He also spoke about preparing students for the real world and that they need a new set of skills. He was referring to aspects of “The 21st century learners” which I had learned about last year. All in all, I felt glad there were no surprises in his talk!
At about 9:30 we broke into smaller groups and the group I was in was lead by the principal. In this smaller group he went over a lot of paperwork in a binder. Not paperwork to fill out, just a binder full of information. In this session he stressed the importance of the entire faculty doing the same things. If students get away with music, cell phones, or dress code violations in one class that hinders the aim of the group. He talked about doing things even if you don’t personally agree with them but that you should do them because it was the right thing to do (referring to music in class, dress code, etc.). One thing I did take away from this smaller meeting is that he puts a high value on looking and acting like a professional in all contexts. Also, if he were to ever observe a lesson of mine (or anyone) he will be looking for justifications about why you are teaching what you are, what techniques are you using (like SEI techniques), and how do you know that your assessment is testing for understanding? These are all questions that I feel I would be prepared to answer for any lesson that I do that is designed on the template from my classes.
After this I went back to the classroom. My mentor teacher explained her syllabus to me and showed me her plans for the first day. She said that it might be a good idea for me to attend the first day in other teacher’s classes as well so that I can see a variety of ways of doing the first day of school. I think this is a good idea and perhaps I will do this!
I asked her about how she works student teachers in over the semester. She told me that she starts off really slow. At first I will just observe and then emulate what she does. She says this way I can just concentrate on getting comfortable in front of the class and getting used to doing things with different forms of technology without the stress of designing lessons. I think this sounds good. After I am comfortable I can start running the class on my own. She doesn’t expect me to follow her plans exactly after I get to that point and said that she sees her role as giving advice on what works and what doesn’t work. She said she doesn’t say that things are wrong, just gives ideas about maybe doing things a little differently if they aren’t working well. Also, she was given a period of Earth science. She said that she is not going to have me do anything with that class because it is new content to her too! So, there will be Biology first period and then Earth Science, and then three more periods of Biology. Not too bad, four periods a day!
She explained to me how she usually frames instruction. The unit usually begins with a PowerPoint presentation and video to introduce the content. After that students do a lot of worksheets and labs. She is thinking about doing a current event thing every Friday to really help connect Biology to real life, but isn’t sure about how she is going to do that yet. Before the test she does a big review that includes a study guide that has multiple-choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions. She then models the test after the study guide and the test is all multiple choice. Her justification for this is that it just takes too long to grade short answers and essay questions. Maybe I am just young and naïve, but I feel that from my classes, my readings, and my own experiences as a student that a multiple choice test does not offer ample opportunities for students to show their understanding. I know many times I have understood big ideas and important concepts, but the multiple-choice test is just a collection of facts to remember. Furthermore, as a teacher it does not allow you to design questions that push students’ thinking. It does not help students develop their writing and reasoning skills. Again, maybe I will change my mind about this topic in the future when I have 150 tests to grade, but I doubt it.
After I put up the “Grades” bulletin board that was about it for my second day! Tomorrow morning there is a meeting at 9:00 about using the Making the Grade program that is what the district uses to process and calculate all student grades. She has some appointment at 11 tomorrow, so I expect another short day… the last one!
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