One more day...

Get ready for a sentimental blog post...

I have one day left of student teaching and, although it's been stressful and hard, I don't want it to end. I definitely never thought that I would say that but it's true.

Student teaching has been the experience of a lifetime. I learned more these past twelve weeks than I ever imagined. No sum of education or English classes could ever have taught me the things I've learned about how to be teacher. I can see so much growth in myself in terms of my content knowledge and educational strategies.

There was a time in my life where I suffered (and I do mean suffered) from anxiety and panic attacks and the thought of sitting through a block class, let alone teaching one, seemed too great a challenge to even consider. The fact that I just taught for over 320 hours is sort of mind boggling to me right now. I can honestly say that I am so proud of myself.

Tomorrow will be a bittersweet day. I'll be thankful that I've made it and it's over and I can relax somewhat but I will truly miss going to school everyday. I have formed such connections with everyone that I've encountered over these past 12 weeks. First and foremost I have to thank Colleen and Drew (who will tease me endlessly about how sentimental I am). I cannot imagine going through this experience alone. Having those two to vent with, bounce ideas off of, eat lunch with, etc. made all the difference in the world. The three of us have, in my eyes, become so close because we've shared an experience that no one else will ever truly understand. They kept me sane on days when I wanted to cry and celebrated with me whenever I triumphed. We shared books, ideas, worksheets, laughs, frustrations and near-tears. I am so grateful for the two close friends that I now have in them. Also, Mary and Aubrey, the other two in our carpool. I definitely won't miss having to sit in the middle of the small backseat crowded with five student teachers but I'll miss our car chats and the fact that we heard Rihanna's "S&M" every single day on the ride to school. I'll even miss our "agreement." I'll especially miss our morning routine: Park, walk upstairs, bye Aubrey, walk more, bye Mary, drop off lunch, head to Gangi's room, put coats in closet, etc. Seems simple and stupid but I'll miss it. That brings me to Mr. Gangi. He sort of felt like our protector over at AHS. He had our backs and he had the answers to all of endless questions. He let us steal tests out of his recycling bin and even bought us a cake with our names on it to celebrate our student teaching being over. He is a wise man and someone who I hope to keep in touch with and continue to learn from. My cooperating teacher, Ms. Giggie, was beyond amazing. She helped me grow and develop as a teacher more than any other single person. Her guidance allowed me to succeed and blossom. Her criticisms were constructive and helpful and her praise was meaningful. My other cooperating teacher, Ms. Emory, was the kindest soul and provided much needed relief and personal encouragement whenever I needed it. The entire English department at AHS took us under their wing and guided and supported all of us. Mr. Pellerin, Mrs. Waylan, Mr. Shea, Ms. Parsons and Ms. Percival seemed to take a special interest in us and we all learned so much from them.

But of course, I'll miss my students more than anything. I am proud of the fact that I formed personal connections and relationships with literally all of them and I will truly miss seeing them everday. The thought of someone else teaching them for the rest of the year makes me sad. The hardest part of teaching for me will definitely be the end of the year when my students have to move on, yet it will also be my proudest. I know that they will succeed and I hope to keep in touch with them to keep track of their successes. I almost can't even write about them right now because I'm still dealing with the fact that tomorrow is my last day with them.

As for my plans after student teaching, I was accepted into a Teaching Fellowship Masters Program through Merrimack. I will be placed in a school (I'll find out what one on April 28) and teach for a year, earning my M.Ed. I plan to continue with my blog to keep everyone updated on how things are going.

Thank you everyone who has been keeping up! Sorry I lagged in the middle, I never expected to be so busy!

With love,
Katie

First Evaluation!

Today I got observed and evaluated by my college supervisor for the first time! I surprisingly wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be, partly because I had a busy morning (which included fixing a copy machine by myself! Which I will brag about forever).
The class went very well until the end when they complained by saying that I give too much homework. They tried to vote against my homework but I shot that idea down quickly!
Anyway, my supervisor really praised my lesson and thought I was off to a really great start. Hearing that was really nice and such a relief.
Third block was a bit crazy. My cooperating teacher fainted and had to go home which really shook the kids up; totally understandable. She will not be in tomorrow so I'm not sure what will go on for that class.
After school we all went to a teacher job fair right at Merrimack. It was good, I gave out a bunch of resumes to different school districts.
And my outfit...black pants, black camisole, silver shirt with black stripes, black flats and my hair half pulled back :)
I'm off to lesson plan!

Katie

First day in charge of Modern American Lit!

Today was my first day in full control of my lower level Modern American Lit class. Actually, Ms. G needed them for the first half hour so I had them for however much time was left. Not going to lie...it was sort of a disaster.

I had given the TA a short story to copy yesterday to give to the students today. She did them, I put them away, great. Well, today I passed out the story for the kids to read and do an activity with and one of my students came up to me and said "There is a page missing." I thought maybe it was just his packet but no...every single packet was missing a page (which just happened to contain the main pieces of the story). Wow, big fail. I don't know what happened to that stupid missing page...I had it in my original copy of the story and I don't know if I didn't give the TA all the pages or if she lost one in the shuffle...either way I should have checked the packet over and I didn't. Lesson learned. Luckily there were booklets for a different class in the room that had my short story in it so I passed those out to the kids and they were able to read the story from there. Apparently, though, I'm not very good at judging time because I gave them about 20 minutes to read the story and I guess they didn't finish. Ms. G said these students will typically need about 40 minutes to read that sort of thing, even if it seems like a short piece to me. I also finished with the activity early, probably because I didn't give them enough time to read, so they had 10 minutes at the end of class doing nothing. Needless to say I felt sort of like a failure after that class, although I know I was just being too hard on myself.
So hopefully tomorrow will go more smoothly. I am teaching 2nd and 3rd blocks because Ms. E will not be there. Busy day!

Always check things twice!
Katie

Holy Cow it's been so long!

Oh my gosh I have gotten SO behind on updating! Things have been going so well! I love student teaching and I love AHS! I have taught about 5 classes so far (some for the whole 82 minute block and others for part of the block). I love my students to death! I was really nervous about my lower level students but their class is the one that I have been teaching and they are so great! I have to keep them on task and tell them to take off their headphones every now and then but they really do try hard. They are so full of personality and they make me laugh everyday. They have been extremely respectful (so far, at least!) and I see so much potential in them. My honors kids (whose classes I've only been assisting with thus far) are also great but I really connect most to my lower level kids. I'll be picking up their class full time the week after February vacation (which I'm beyond excited about having!) and although I'm nervous, I'm excited and I feel ready.
I have sat in on several IEP meetings at school, too, which are really interesting. Tomorrow I get to work one on one with a student who I identify with on many levels. I'm so happy that I have a chance to work with her. I hope I can help her, but, more importantly, I can't wait to see what I learn from her.
Drew has taken over one class full time already and seems to be doing well. I find myself really proud of him for some reason. He, Colleen, and I have grown really close through this experience and I want the best for them, as I know they do for me. No one else can possibly know what this experience is like, other than them, and I'm so thankful that we all have each other.
Tomorrow I'm teaching some of first block then working with that student that I mentioned and then I'm not sure about third block yet. Then I'm going home to visit my Mom and puppies because I miss them so much! Friday marks the start of February vacation which will be a welcome break, even though I'll be lesson planning through most of it.
Thanks for reading! I promise I'll update more!
Katie

Days 8 and 9: Falling behind in my blog!

So I have fallen behind in my blog and don't have much time to write today! But I am teaching my Modern American Lit class tomorrow and will definitely post about how it goes!

Katie

Day Seven: 2 Hour Delay

Today we had a 2 hour delay because the walkways were still being cleaned up form yesterdays huge snow storm. It was so nice staying up a little later and getting up a little later, too. I woke up at about 8:25 and we left here around 9. Classes were only 45 minutes each, except third period because of lunches.

First period we went over symbols from Allegory of the Cave and then the students started to work on their modernization skits of the story.

Second period we went to the computer lab and the students did a webquest about Ernest Hemingway. It had all kinds of questions about him, his life, his work, etc., that they found online then took a quiz about.

Third period the students performed their modernization of the Allegory skits and then we started a documentary called "To Die in Jerusalem." To be honest, I'm not exactly sure where the teacher is going with the documentary in terms of what it will tie into but I guess we'll see.

At lunch I was informed that the student teachers all have to perform together in the faculty talent show in March...oh jeez!

Fourth period I brainstormed some activities to do with the kids next week on 2 Hemingway short stories with Ms. G then we made photocopies of the stories. The day flew by with the delay and short class.

My outfit today: Gray pants, silver flat shoes, a long sleeve white cotton shirt and a black shawl thingy over it :)

Now I'm relaxing and watching GH and will start solidifying my Hemingway lesson later!

Katie

Day Six: Snow Day!

YAY!!!

Day Five: Early Release

So I didn't blog on Tuesday after my school day. It started off pretty badly. I overslept and Mary woke me up at 7:02 (our carpool usually leaves at 7) and I got ready super fast and was in the car on my way to school at 7:06. I didn't get to eat breakfast which sucked! I was starvinggg half way through 1st period but I luckily had some fruit snacks in my bag and ran to get more form my lunch between 1st and 2nd periods. To top off the rough start, the button to my nice jacket fell off in the hallway when I got to school!

I don't completly remember what we did during each period but during first period they interrupted with an announcement that we would be let out at 12:45 due to the snow, which was already falling heavily. So the day came and went and we were soon scraping off the car to go home. The drive was pretty treacherous but we made it. Then I just hung around here with Lindsay for the rest of the night.

Today, Wednesday, we had a snow day. I figured we would but of course they left us hanging and didn't call it until close to 9 pm. Today was a super lazy day but I did do some organizing in my class binders in terms of handouts, etc.

Tomorrow we have a 2-hour delay so I don't need to go in until 9 with school starting at about 9:30. The periods will be shorter (around 40 minutes) with the exception of third period because of lunches.

And of course...my outfit! On Monday I wore black pants with my flat black shoes, a black cami and a pink shirt with black stripes and gold buttons on the shoulders. It sounds weird but it's super cute! I have a gray and black one too :)

Now I'm off to bed!

Katie

Day Four: "What are you doing, bro?"

Hi everyone! Today was my fourth day of student teaching and it went very well!

My first period humanities class was good...the kids in there are definitely high powered students. They were sort of quiet today but it was basically their first day since Ms. G was absent on Friday. We played an ice breaker with them where they picked a term, defintion, or example out of a hat then had to find the two other people that went with them. Then they introduced themselves and gave their own example of the term they had. It went very well. Next they broke into groups and went over a poem called "Thesaurus" and we discussed it as a class. Finally, Ms. G introduced Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," which they will read for homework tonight.

Second period was Modern American Lit with my lower level students. After going over classroom rules and policies they played the ice breaker Student Bingo. They bingo cards had things like "Born in a state other than Massachusetts," "plays an instrument," etc. on them and they had to go around and find people to fit each square. It went well and they did not get out of control or too loud which I was pleasantly surprised about. Next we did a Jump-In response to the short story "The Father." A Jump-In is when the desks are arranged into a circle and the students sit on the desks facing the middle. Someone starts the discussion and whoever wants to respond or bring up a new idea literally jumps into the middle where they get to talk. Only one person is allowed standing at a time. They were sort of shy but several students took turns going in and out of the circle.

My third period Humanities class is a great group! They are already comfortable and talkative with each other which is great. Before lunch we went to the computer lab to look at a comic strip that was a great illustration of "Allegory." The students seemed to like it and said that the visual component helped them understand the story better. Then it was lunch time which is always fun because a great group of teachers, including Drew and Colleen, have lunch at the same time as I do. I feel like all the teachers have really welcomed us and include us in their conversations. Then it was back to class where the students were broken up into groups of four and were given directions on making a skit, story, visual, etc. on a modernization of the "Allegory." They could choose whatever scenario they came up with and some of them sound really interesting so far. They had half the block to prepare today and will get half the block tomorrow, taking the second half to present their stories to the class. I look forward to seeing what they come up with. When I was observing in the fall I saw students in a different class do the same activity and they did such a great job!

Fourth period I had off and I was planning on doing some prep work for my mini unit on Hemingway but I ended up just talking to Ms. G the entire time. That was okay though because we got to know one another better which I think is important.

Oh! And my outfit! Today I wore black pants, flat black shoes and a white button shirt. Somehow (I literally have NO idea how) during first period, my pen got stuck in my hair (I know, right?) and I ended up getting blue pen on the front of my crisp white shirt. So I spent the rest of the day making sure my hair was covering it. I think I succeeded in hiding it all day but I KNOW someone must have caught me with a pen hanging from my hair. Oh well!

So now I'm home listening to the weather and trying to figure out if I'll have another snow day this week!

Day Three: First Day With My Students!

Today was my first real day of school! I have 3 classes, 2 Humanities and 1 Modern American Lit. My first 2 periods I have with my cooperating teacher who I will call Ms. G. Ms. G. wasn't there today so there was a sub which was sort of annoying. I didn't really get to meet the kids since they were left some silent assignments to do. First block I had Humanities, which is a Level 1 Honors class. Since they were only writing reflection papers I couldn't get a good sense of who they are but they seemed to be working hard and staying on task. I read their response papers and was able to get some background information on them and their families, what they like to do, etc. I love learning that stuff about them. I want to do my best to try to bring their interests into my lessons and connect with them about stuff that we have in common.

Second block I was in the same room, this time for Modern American Lit. This class is a lower level 2/3 course which will be somewhat of a challenge. They also only did silent work since there was a sub so I didn't get to know them much either. I have only made it through some of their response papers but a lot of them have talked about how they don't really like English as a subject and don't like to read or write. I even have an ESL student so that will definitely be a challenge but I'm glad that I will be exposed to all different types of learners and personalities.

Third block I had another Humanities class, this time with my second cooperating teacher, who I will call Ms. E. The class read Plato's Allegory of the Cave and responded to it in a class discussion. They did really well with it and so many different kids were raising their hands to talk, which was awesome! They had second lunch so after meeting for 20 or so minutes they headed off to lunch and I went upstairs to the English lunchroom. A great group of teachers has lunch that block so they were all there AND Drew and Colleen have that lunch too so it's perfect. After lunch I went back to Humanities for 40 minutes then class was over.

I have fourth block off so I went to grab the keys from Drew to use the restroom then spent the rest of the time in the English workroom reading my students' reflection essays. Before I knew it it was 2:05 and the bell to end the day was ringing. I went to Mr. G's room (he is our supervisor who we had as one of our ed teachers and is one of Drew's cooperating teachers). I met Drew and Colleen there and we got our coats, which we left in Mr. G.'s closet. Then it was off to the car to meet Mary.

All in all it was a reallyyy good day! I love having last block off and I can't wait to start really diving into the material and interacting with the kids. And I didn't even need a nap after school! Yay! Oh, and I figured I would fill all of you in on my new adorable teacher clothes! So today I got to wear jeans because it's Friday, then I wore a light blue collarded button down with flat blue shoes. The other day I wore skinny black dress pants, an off-white cami, and a purple sweater over it with flat black shoes. And, oh so cute, me and Drew have matched both days so far! And he definitely hates me for saying that :)

Now it's the weekend! Tonight Josh and I are going to the Merrimack-UVM hockey game here at school. Tomorrow they are playing again and it's on NESN which is really cool! We are going, obviously, and so are my mom and dad and Josh's dad. It should be really fun!

Enjoy your weekend!
Katie

Day Two: Snow Day!

Just got the word that there is no school today! Unfortunately, I'm wide awake since I went to bed so early. Oh well. I'm suuure I'll fall asleep again soon :) Today I'm going to relax, stay in my pjs all day and get some planning done!

Katie

Day One: DONE!

Today I started my student teaching journey!

It was not a regular school day today; it was the make-up exam day, so basically anyone who missed an exam last week came to take it today. So there were only about 20 kids in the building all day which was good because it gave us a whole day in the school to just get stuff done, meet people, etc.

Colleen, Drew, Mary and I carpooled in this morning which was good. When we got there Mary headed off to the science wing of the building and the three of us went to the main office where we met some lady who brought us to the English Chair's office. She wasn't there so we looked around at the English work room (where we can go during our prep period) and the English lunch room. We then went over to our coordinators classroom, who is Drew's cooperating teacher. We hung around and chatted with him for a while until the English Department meeting at 9. The three of us sat in on the meeting then afterwards we each went to see our cooperating teachers. We went over a few things with them in terms of the units we will be teaching and how the first few days will go. After a while of meeting we all met for lunch and discussed all the things we are nervous/excited about. I am SO glad that Drew and Colleen are with me; I would have felt so much more overwhelmed today without them. I'm excited that we can share ideas and work together on lesson planning. It's also good that we can have 2 other people who know exactly what we are feeling and going through.

After lunch we each met with our second cooperating teachers. We each have 2 classes with 1 teacher and 1 class with another teacher. My meeting with my second teacher didn't last very long so I went back to first teacher. Drew happened to be in the same room because his second teacher and my first share a room. His teacher decided to take us to the copy room to get us used to using the machines so we did that for about a half hour then went back to the room for a little while. Finally, we met Colleen in the library and got our stuff together to head home.

All in all it was a good day and I'm glad we had such a quiet day to get used to being there. I'm not nearly as tired as I expected to be, although I'm sure there will be days that I am beyond exhausted. Tomorrow is the first day of the new semester so I'll get to meet all of my new students which I'm super excited about. It is supposed to snow tonight though so there is a chance that we have a snow day. We'll see.

Katie

Only a day away...

I begin student teaching tomorrow and I'm supposed to keep a journal so I figured I would share my experiences with everyone. I will be teaching 11th and 12th grade English at Andover High School. 

I am nervous yet excited. I'm nervous about the logistics, like getting up on time, getting to school, what to do with my things when I first get there, etc. I do not take over the classes until mid February so I'm not super nervous about that stuff...yet. On Day 6 I will, however, be presenting a mini lesson for one of the classes so I'm sure I'll start to get nervous about that soon. 

As nervous as I am...I think I'm going to be really good at this. Maybe that's naive or unrealistic but I've never wanted to be anything but a teacher and now taking the first step to making that dream a reality. I'm sure I'll be overwhelmed and exhausted at times but I know I can do this. My professor gave me a great piece of advice: "Don't make little things into big things." I'm sure that will come in handy the first time I have something go wrong in class like a lesson or activity that doesn't go well or a student who constantly acts out. 

I always get nervous about changes in schedule but I'll have to get used to not being home for lunch with my roommates and not texting my boyfriend constantly throughout the day but I know everything will work out. 

So...this blog is a place for me to vent about and discuss what is going on in my student teaching. I hope that this blog will not only benefit myself but all of you, my wonderful family and friends who I know I won't be able to keep in touch with over the next few months as much as I wish I could. Everything in this blog will be anonymous, that is I will not reference students, teachers, administrators, by name. I hope you enjoy going on this journey with me!

Katie