Online Reflection #4: OMG what do I do now!!??

It is done. My teaching unit is done. WOOT!

Sorry. I was wary about the unit as I had to build it around The Catcher in the Rye which I dislike. I was also on a restricted diet during my planning. My CT had things planned already. Some of it I was able to re-vamp or create, others I was not. She did give me a free hand to create and administer a comprehensive quiz. I was like, hey I have to do that for my methods class anyhow! Awesome. So I built myself a unit inside my CT's unit and tried to inject as much actual teaching time as I could. I get the handouts and test done and get a thumbs up. I send her the files so her para can make copies. I am on a roll.

The week before my unit, my CT is giving a quiz over chapters 1-18 of CITR and I am observing and redirecting. Then a student question clues me in that they have a question, from a chapter beyond 18. I bring the issue to my CT and she grabs a copy of the quiz and has them cross out 4 or 5 items. Somehow I wander on and I catch another question, but as I am answering I read another question on the quiz and I am like “huh, that sounds like the essay question I created...”

Yup, it was my comprehensive quiz that got handed out by accident. Neither I nor my CT realized it until a hurried over to her at that moment, 10-15 minutes in. Panic mode.

We quietly conversed over options. We couldn't collect the tests and hand out the correct one at this point. In the panic pow-wow we thought maybe I could re-write or tweak this test and see if they improved. Oh, the students will love that. Then I thought, “hey, I don't think I am actually required to do formal assessment for my unit...” I mentioned that if I didn't need the test for my requirements, I might just create another assessment, like a worksheet project. She said that would be fine. I told my CT I would email Dr. Mason as soon as I got home and get back with her. A few hours later I emailed her that I didn't have to redo the test and I would create something and send it to her in the morning.

I was truly rescued when my husband suggested I do something like a facebook page for the main characters. I thought it was an awesome idea and I thought I could connect it back to the coming of age themes the CT's unit was focused on. So I created my own little paper “facepage” for Holden Caufield, complete with period ads on one side.

I have skimmed over my video but have not done my deep reflection yet and I see many mistakes. I know I was thrown off from having to make last minute changes and nervous because I know the students really like to talk over adults. I had trouble keeping them quiet enough to do my lecture and class segments, I tried a few things, even my CT's “snap once if you can hear me” technique. One huge problem I had was projecting my voice, which in the real world I don't have. I must have been even more nervous than I thought. Of course my teacher, is a recognized awesome teacher and I am not. The students are seniors and for the most part smart and/or headstrong. Not to mention, I felt unprepared because of the little prep time me and my CT found.

Another minor issue is knowing I have no recourse if a student acts out, and I am sure at least some of them know it as well. I can tattle to my CT but that is all the power I have been bestowed and she is pretty laid back and flexible in her rules. So I never quite know when a student is breaking a rule today or not. I am not sure what she set up with them before I got there, as far as expectations and rules but some rules I have gotten from her are flexible. They can text if they are sort of paying attention or not being rudely blatant about it. They can't have food unless they are half-way done before she catches them. However, for her they are quiet when she finally has to ask, in part because they like her very much. It kind of leaves me in the cold though.

All in all though, the students were very supportive and polite during my lesson. It is just that once they start talking it is like trying to stop a train. I am going to miss them if I don't get to student teach in the spring.

Ooops...KATE Conference Post

     I had a pretty darn good time at the KATE conference. I ended up with more questions than answers, but isn't that the way of education. The first morning I sat at a table with some teachers from an area community college and was joined by some area teachers and then fellow students. It was a nice mixture and we all chitchatted and nibbled until the keynote program started. We even squeezed in an extra chair when the allotted seating ran out. Our local author Clare Vanderpool was entertaining and inspiring. She certainly made me want to read her book.

     Wandering the halls trying to pick between, Survivalism 101 and Using Socratic Circles I heard “In the Jungle” creeping around the halls. I was drawn in like a moth. Imagine my please surprise when the room with the tunes was the Survivalism 101 breakout, AND the dynamic due in jungle camo in the room were Monica Swift and Amanda Torbett, the Derby High teachers from my breakfast table! Serendipity at its best. I stayed of course and the information was great for me, an unblooded-not-yet-teacher. I loved their packet, which is going to be a useful reference, but even better it had a picture of retro Pitfall on the cover. Monica and Amanda played off one another perfectly as well, one a techie and one a veteran, old-school organizer. I plan on blended their techniques they discussed, because come on, who doesn't like color-coding??

I spent the whole conference torn between one or two break-outs, and I never had such a clear cut choice victory as the first one. There were no more tunes to lure me onto the right path. Of course, there also were no absolutely wrong choices. Poetry Out Loud, wasn't what I thought, but I can out with awesome FREE materials. I did feel a bit deflated when my session D choice on that first day promised I would leave with “both short-term assignments as well as long-term projects” and left with neither. C'est la vie.

     The continental breakfast on day 2 was epic. A buffet of real, hot food, fruit, cereal, pastries, and juices to tempt any palette; if you didn't mind sitting next to abandoned dirty place settings. Then we jumped right into our day. I ended up in a few of Curtis Chandler's break-out sessions and he is a pistol. What I really liked though, since there was an overabundance of interesting looking break-outs, was the presenters amazing attitudes. I got papers and emails from many sessions I couldn't make it to. It was very nice. The YA Lit in the CC Classroom session was lead by a teacher I know from my placement and I liked when we posted classic curriculum reading on the walls and tried to align it with popular YA fiction. I got some cool ideas, but like I said earlier, many more questions.

     I sadly missed most of Jay Asher's presentation, due to a lunch SNAFU. The part I heard/saw was funny, the part about the different book covers around the world. I did get a picture with him and some signed books! How awesome does that make me feel about building a lesson plan around the book.

It was an awesome experience. I got lots of materials, or ideas for materials and planning, and I have more coming via email. I will be distilling all of this data for another semester, hahaha.