Reel Conversations: High School I & II

Reel Conversations: High School I & II

What do you believe the film maker is trying to say about high school?
Why did he choose the school setting that he did?

Watching this I begin to wonder how classrooms, teachers and students were selected.  So based on this criteria, can we believe this to be completely objective ?

Making of a Teacher

I thought I'd share my essay here.

Part 1

My field experience has both challenged and confirmed my prior beliefs about teaching in various ways. What has challenged me is the realization that I will, in a sense, continue to "do school." Although Pope addresses the notion of "doing school" in a negative light, the kind of "doing school" I mean here, is comparatively trivial. From waking up at 6am, carrying books to class, eating cafeteria food, to shuffling through smelly, crowded hallways, I found myself reliving my middle school days. Since I can't say that this environment brought back the fondest memories, I slightly questioned if teaching was the route I wanted to take. Another challenge I faced, was one that was met with the students. Although the majority of the class welcomed me as a part of the daily scene, one student gave me a cold shoulder. As students chatted before the beginning of class, I approached two male students who were enthusiastically talking about the Gangnam Style dance-- a dance made popular by a Korean singer on YouTube. When the one student, Nate, mentioned that it was a Japanese artist, I chimed in to tell him that it the artist was actually Korean. Nate looked at me and said, "Yeah. Ok. Bye. Yep. You can go now," and rudely put his hand up in my face. What was this about? What did I ever do to him? At the time this situation bothered me. However, I realize that it is nothing to mull over. Truth is, students aren't always going to be completely accepting of authority figures. Some may be much more aggressive and frank about their rebellious inclinations. In Nate's case, it could have been that he felt peer pressure or even that his actions were simply a reflection of his personality. Either way, I learned to expect and accept that there will be students like Nate, who may not exactly receive me well.

It was my experience in the ESL classroom that confirmed my desire to teach. It only took my first observation of the ESL class and an interview with the teacher for me to realize my strong preference in spending time with ESL students, rather than with my co-op's English class. Fortunately, my co-op was more than willing to let me "escape" her class, in order to gain experience with the school's ESL program/class. The ESL class I observed only had five students. Because of this, I found it easier to connect to the students by having one-on-one interactions and attending to individual needs. In the process, I was able to learn about each student and their cultural backgrounds and even learn bits of their language. There was an evident sense of community and respect in the class, which I believe resulted not only through class size, but also by the fact that the students understood that they were similar to their classmates. All the students came from and represented different countries, knew a second language, and were here to improve their English ability.  Now, although I've always preferred teaching ESL students, I know that teaching English/Language Arts next semester will give me the basic foundation I need to teach the general population.

Having classmates to exchange stories, advice, and wisdom with has greatly enhanced and shaped my interpretation of the whole field placement experience. My one colleague, Sharron, shared with me a story about her observation on the other student teachers at her school. She told me about a specific female student teacher whom she described as seeming very naive about teaching. She explained how this student teacher would make a loud, silly noise whenever she would fumble over her words. (The exact expression is hard to describe.) In any case, the teacher continued to make this gesture throughout the lesson. Shannon further explained that the student teacher taught an eighty-minute lesson on verbals (a form of a verb). Students began to complain to the head teacher about the student teacher and her lesson. Yikes. Hearing this story gave me an example of what not to do and also made me somewhat more confident in my ability to teach in a professional manner, as well as my ability to create an effective, thoughtful lesson.

My other colleague, Nelly, has also influenced my learning throughout this semester. Nelly and I not only shared many of the same classes, but also met regularly after class to discuss our field experiences, class assignments, and the like. I learned through her that teachers all have different styles of doing what they do. While my co-op was flexible and relaxed, her co-op was more rigid and structured. While my co-op stuck to teaching English, her co-op participated in clubs and sport activities after school. Between hearing from Nelly about her teaching and observing my own co-op and other teachers, I learned that teachers have different levels of engagement within their school and that teachers have different styles of teaching-- styles that can be equally effective. Through Shannon, Nelly, and other classmates, my fears and insecurities about teaching have been diminished due to the support that I was given by them.

Part 2

One of the struggles I faced during my field experience was my inability to be myself in front of the classroom. I felt more that I was performing, rather than teaching. My true personality wasn't able to come out in the class for two main reasons. First of all, I was a guest. I tended to keep to myself and remain neutral; I tended to shy away from the spotlight of the class and remain a bystander Secondly, I am naturally a soft-spoken person. Therefore, being paired with my loud, witty, and boisterous co-op was an eye-opener. I began to realize that I could not be this passive, quiet teacher that I was being. My students needed more. My students needed to see enthusiasm and energy from me; they needed to see my passion.

From realizing all these things, I believe that I am ready for student teaching. I am much more prepared to teach and to teach with passion. Although I cannot completely change my personality, I will make it a goal in the next semester to really push aside my soft-spoken nature in order connect with my students better. I believe that there is only one simple step in meeting this goal-- be myself. Now, that I will be assuming a greater role as a teacher next semester and for a longer time, I recognize that there will not be time to be reluctant and passive. It's time to hit the ground running!

A shocking connection

So on the drive home today I made one of those connections that only an English teacher could make. My roomie and I were rocking out to some Mumford and Sons and she happened to put on the song "Little Lion Man". I can't tell you what made me think of it at the moment the song started to play, but for some reason Hamlet popped into my head. And I realized that the song was pretty much the entire play condensed into just over 4 minutes. My roommate looked at me like I grew a second head because I literally started freaking out, but it was so worth it. Just had to share, even though I don't know if anyone is still on here!

Link: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=little+lion+man&oq=little+lion&gs_l=youtube.1.0.0l10.531.4417.0.5750.19.12.3.4.5.1.246.1259.7j4j1.12.0...0.0...1ac.1.whbNNEFXo6Q

Lyrics:http://www.lyricsmania.com/little_lion_man_lyrics_mumford_and_sons.html

MONEY!

Hi everyone, well I hope everyones last week went well. Here is a website that I encountered where teachers pay teachers for their unit plans, lessons, only if their great of course. I seen a youtube clip of a teacher who sold a lot of her material on this website and she made a lot of money.


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/


-Stay in touch everyone as we enter out last semester at Millersville.

We did it together

It’s hard to believe that we met for our last class. The beginning of the semester always feels like a long, dark tunnel, but once we start seeing the light at the end it’s over.

I know in talking with all of you on one occasion or another, we’ve all had a challenging semester. I know we were told we were the “pioneers,” which was a privilege to pave the way for others, yet at the same time it seemed like a burden. It took a lot of work to complete our hours, prepare for the content and the lesson plans in our mentor teacher’s classroom, keep up with our assignments and expectations of our Millersville professors, and work on very demanding summative projects.

We made it through, but we didn’t do it on our own. There were a number of you who I kept in contact with throughout the semester. We exchanged many phone calls and text messages at all hours of the day and night. We accomplished what we accomplished because we became a support system for one another. We encouraged one another and helped one another when we became confused or overwhelmed. I hope we can continue to do so as we enter into our student teaching, and when we finally become “real teachers.”

 

 

Reflection - 50 Shades of Grey

So after our in depth conversation today about informing parents about what their children were reading, I had much to think about on the way home.  Putting on my mommy hat, I assure you even if my daughter was 18 years old I would want to know if she was reading that book.  I remember my mom finding out that I was reading Christopher Pike books in high school and she flipped out on me.  She only had to read the first page of chapter 1 to know that it was NC17 content.  My parents were good parents and steered me in the right direction about making good moral decisions. 

BUUUUTTTTT - as a teacher, I am somewhat torn.  Yes, under normal circumstances I think it is our moral obligation to inform parents of what their children are reading.  I think that we need to be teaching our students to read "good" literature that is appropriate for their age.  HOWEVER - here is my dilemna....what if it is a student not in a "normal circumstance".  What if we know their home life is not good?  What if we know that their parents could care less that they are reading let alone what they are reading?  What do we do?  Is it appropriate for them to be reading it at school - no...but when do we choose not to send the email or make the phone call and just pull the student aside and talk to them about their book choice?  Thinking about some of the struggling students who do not have a lot of support at home - should we just be happy they are reading?  I have not read this book and have only know it to be "mommy porn", but is it that bad that it is completely hands off to students?  Maybe someone who has read it can weigh in on the details of the book, but again I am torn.  Are there moments when we don't involve parents and try to offer the student something else to read and ask them not to bring it to school? 

SO I am not sure if anyone is still blogging here, but if you are and want to let me know your thoughts that would be great.  I am still stuck on this idea of should we tell ALL parents. 

Final Thoughts

The conversation we had today sparked some thoughts. As we talked about the moral responsibilities of a teacher, I reflected on the experience I had during my field placement.

One day, as my co-op and I were grading, my co-op handed me a student's draft of a memoir and said, "take a look at this." What I ended up reading, was a memoir of a girl's experience with bullying. I don't remember every detail at this point, but I do remember what was probably the biggest blow for her. As she was walking in the hallway one day, a male student behind her said something like, "No one likes you. There's no point of you being here." This is probably not the exact wording. However, I know that I whatever it was, surprised me in its brutality. I sighed as I handed back the memoir to my co-op. The girl that wrote this memoir was a sweet, friendly girl. I would have never thought that she would be a victim of bullying and that she would start questioning her existence. How sad.

My co-op seemed to brush it off at that moment-- not that she didn't recognize the weight of the matter. Looking back, I wished I would have asked how she planned to deal with this. Although, I have full confidence that my co-op dealt with it appropriately.