Genre Reflection Acrostic Poem ENGLISH

                         Genre Reflection

  Education

kNowldege

  Growth

  Literature

  Ideas

 Student

 Historical perspective

Writings

Genre Reflection

 Writing Poetry

Quiet place to think

Ideas flowing from my pen

Thoughts crowd my brain

I need to get it out

Express myself

Beginning Days in the Classroom

I was so excited to be back at school and in the classroom.  I decided to go by the school the week before classes started for the public schools.  I wanted to get a copy of the schedule of courses and the student planner so I would know what the policies and procedures for the students are.  That day, I was walking down the hall to check in with a couple of teachers that I had worked with last year.  I found myself smiling as I walked down the hall.  I felt happy and comfortable in this place and hope to have a place on the faculty and staff once I graduate in December, 2012.  This school has already hired two students after they completed their student teaching here.  This is very encouraging to me.  I was also very excited to learn that this was also the goal of my CT.  I feel as though I have met some people that care about me and my professional future.  It helps so much to have someone looking out for you and paving the way. 

On the first day classes met, I wanted to be there.  I think it is important to be in the class room welcoming students back and setting the tone.  I was introduced to the students and from the beginning the students have accepted me as part of the teaching staff.  I am learning from them and they are learning from me.  I am also learning from my CT.  She has a great sense of humor that I have not noticed before and wondered where this person came from as I have worked with her in the past.  I wondered to myself how I could compete with her as I am a more serious person.  I need to lighten up!  I know I don’t have to compete with her but I feel as though I am sometimes.

I also discovered how much I have in common with my CT.  We are both organized and can think alike at times.  We color coordinated the students folders and their spiral notebooks so they could be found more easily.  The folders are for homework.  I return graded work to the left pocket and they can keep work that they are doing in class on the right side.  (Returning graded work last year was a mess and piled up way to quickly) The spiral notebook is to write their quick writes.  I use quick writes to help them develop their thoughts and ideas.  While they are doing their quick writes, I am taking attendance.  This allows me to take care of other duties while they work quietly.  These items are kept in a plastic basket (milk crate) which contains an alphabetic card organizer so the students can quickly and easily find their own book and begin working as soon as they enter the classroom.  This helps me to put some of the responsibility on my students to help themselves.  I really struggle with this idea because I feel as though I need to be busy doing something all the time.  I know that I need to let the students learn responsibility.    I am working to improve on this.

Another thing that is new in the classroom this year is the “Noise Level Poster”.  We move an arrow up and down on the squares indicating what the noise level should be at that moment in the classroom.  Since this is new we are trying to remember to do this and inform students of our expectations regarding this issue.  I have seen this method work so effectively that the teacher only has to respond with a “what number are we on for noise level?”  I want my own poster!

I am anxious for the opportunity to be able to take on more responsibility in the class room and become “teacher”.

Ms. Rice's Classroom Lessons and Discoveries

Ms. Rice’s Classroom News

Blog Post 2 (09-07-2011)

 I am discovering that I know more than I think I do about teaching but I am still nervous and scared when asked to teach.  I arrived this morning with about 15 minutes before class was to start and I was told that I would be teaching on plagiarism, tone and mood.  I begin to think about plagiarism and how much information to share with my sophomores.  Would they know what I was talking about when I told them that collaboration on an assignment without giving credit to all members of the group is considered plagiarism?  I also wondered if I should get into the fact that it is possible to plagiarize one self.  My CT advised against that idea.  I moved on to the next concepts of tone and mood.  Tone is what tells the feeling of the story perceived by the audience and mood is provided by the author and sets the atmosphere for the reader.

Clear concise directions are extremely important when asking students to be creative in expressing their understanding of the concepts.  Trying to explain how to fold an 8 ½” X 11” piece of paper into a square and then cut it so that there are four triangles that will open up once glued to the flat square proved extremely challenging.  I had to explain this task to each group separately in order for my students to comprehend what was expected.  Once they understood the idea of the lesson, students were then asked to write down two words that described the tone from the song “Witchy Woman” and then draw four pictures depicting the mood.  These students were very creative and artistic in their depictions. 

I am also developing relationships with some of my students.  I have a few that are willing to share personal information with me.  I have to be careful not to get sucked to deep into these conversations as this disrupts class.  Thoughts/Ideas? 

The Crucible is our next plan of study.  I find it interesting that this coincides with my study of African American Literature.  It is interesting to me to be able to study literature with my students because while I was in high school, I took creative writing.  Therefore, I have heard of these books but have not had the opportunity to read them myself.  Having taken other literature classes and having the Sparks notes and the graphic organizers that my CT is using helps me to feel more at ease and confident about teaching.  I am thankful that my CT is so willing to allow me to teach and is still right there to fill in and clarify when she thinks it is necessary. 

Another item that we are teaching sophomores about is the Annotated Bibliography.  For some reason, students seem to struggle with the ideas and requirements behind an Annotated Bibliography.  We have used a graphic organizer that explains step by step what to do and where to find the information and students still do not comply with the directions.

Finally, we have presented the historical context for the literature that we will be reading.  One student asked, “I thought we were in English class not Social Studies, why are we studying history?”  To this the teacher responded, “That is a very good question, I am glad you asked.  I think that students need to know some background information and history in order to understand the allusion that is present in the reading.”