Week 5 Lab Project

This week was my first activty in the computer lab. It went really well and the students were on task the whole time. First thing I noticed would be a problem is some of the students completing the worksheet and others just copying. I did not make a big deal of this I just moved the student to a different computer. This was good because I did not have to call any of the students out in class. The first day went smootly but I did notice that my 3 worksheet project was going to take the students more than two days in the lab. I was lucky because no one had schedule the lab for that Thursday and I was able to have students do make up work in there. The 2nd day the students were given a bit harder of a worksheet. Most of the class finished on time, but a few decided looking at homecoming dresses was a better option. I found that telling the students that the worksheets are due at the end of the period even if they aren't really gets them working.

Week 4

After reviewing the test I realized that most of the students did fairly well. There were a few issues in 7th period. This class has problems paying attention and some of the scores on the test have shown that. Many of the students that did bad were confused why. I went over the test with the class and answered questions on the test after the students began working on their homework.

I started giving the students homework last week and it is going terrible. The students do not care if they lose points for not turning in their homework. I only made the first homework 5 points and it hurt a lot of them, because they are not many points in the class. On the next homework assignment I give them I am going to give the students time to start it in class. I am hoping that if they start it in class they will continue it at home.

Next week I am going to the computer lab for the first time this year. The activity is well planned and it is about The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. I find the topic interesting and the students will to, because it is a major disaster in New York City.

Week 3

In my third week at North Marion High School I got a chance to start giving the students grades and homework. After 3 weeks I am getting used to the whole process of waking up, driving here, and teaching for 8 hours a day. I am really enjoying my time, and I enjoy doing lesson plans every week. One thing that I have learned about lesson planning is every lesson cannot be fun for the students. Every day some of the students are going to complain that they do not like what you have planned. Also I've learned to manage my time better during my plan periods. I also realized last week your lesson plans are going to change a lot from what you had planned at the beginning of the week. Also today I am giving my first major test it is on one chapter. It should be very easy for the students and I'm expecting most of them to do well.

2nd Week

My second week at North Marion High School went a lot smoother than the first. I have taken over full time for my teacher and got the chance to get to know the students. I find it interesting that the students look at me as way older than I actually am. This is important because unlike before when I was closer to their age they tended to cause trouble and wanted to be my friend. Now that I am a little older you get a lot more respect from the students and they listen when you lecture. A few of the students still think they can get away with anything they want in the classroom. I have no problem telling them to be quiet but I have yet to write one of them up for their actions.

7th period is by far my worst class. The class has 30 students in it and many of the students are very talkative. To make matters worse it is at the end of the day and the students are ready to go home. I am having trouble keeping the students on task. I believe that I am going to have to write someone up to set an example in the classroom. Also another idea I have had is embrace the talking by using discussion in the classroom and letting the students do group work. One day in 7th period I told the students to work alone. I offered the students a deal if they could work alone quietly next time we would work in groups. The students were quiet and giving them a deal really helped keep the class under control.

My First Week

My first week at North Marion High School I was exciting and was an eye opener. The 6 other interns and myself came the week before school started to participate in meetings and to get a head start in the classroom. I found the meetings to be very informative but unnecessary for us interns. It was good to see everything a teacher does prior to the start of the school year. Every teacher is the school was on edge because it was the beginning of the year. Most of the time during the meetings was spent arguing over non major issues. I was glad though I came in early because I got a chance to talk to my teacher before the students came. It was good to get to know her and she could explain to me how she runs her classroom.

My first day with students was Thursday. The students were very excited to be back and we started the day with a pep rally in the gym. My host teacher was not there the first day but she explained everything very clearly to me on how the first day would work. My homeroom students came in the classroom and I began to read off the names. All the students just looked at me until someone said "hmmmm none of those people are in here". Then I begain to panic, and try to figure out what the problem was. I quickly learned that two homerooms mine and another one needed to switch rooms. Once this was taken care of the rest of the day went without an issue. Friday my teacher returned and everyone went along as planned.

Practicum Plan Feedback

I found parts of the Practicum Plan useful and others not as much. The most important part of the plan was the dates and setting due dates for yourself. All of the other parts of the plan I did not use as much as I thought I would. I found the learning goals to be not very effective and as the year went on I did not use the Practicum Plan because I had so much other work and assignments due. I think the plan was a good idea for keeping track of when things were due but other than that it could use some modifications.

Artifacts

We believe that the novice teacher should have in depth knowledge of content.

I think this is one of the more important characteristics of a novice teacher because one never knows what a student is going to ask them. As I have learned throughout the semester you can never be fully prepared for what a student is going to ask you about the subject. I think a good artifact for this would be my History 153 paper. Even though the paper is from freshmen year it is one of the better papers I wrote for any of my history classes. It is basically a full summary of the class which starts in the time period after the Civil War.

We believe that the novice teacher should be an effective communicator.

For this characteristic I plan on using a clip from my video which I recorded this year. After reviewing my video I found many times throughout the video I displayed many good qualities in communicating effectively with the students. I think this will be a very good artifact for my portfolio because it will show how I teach and communicate in the classroom.