Week Two

Hello All!



I can't believe the second week of student teaching is already over. I think that this is going to go a lot faster than even I imagined. The best part of my second week was that I was able to start teaching the Myths and Folktales class. So far its been going well. It's an elective so most of the students who are in it actually want to be there and have an interest in what we're learning. Right now we're working on creation myths from Greece and soon we'll move on to Egypt and then the Mayans and perhaps an Asian one as well. Next week I'm going to be taking over the college prep class and I'll be working with them on a speech unit. They will have to research and prepare and deliver an information speech on an aspect of world culture. The honors classes are currently delivering their speeches and after they are done I'll start working with them on Julius Caesar.



I think that things have been going well during Myths and Folktales. This week some of the things that I did with them were a little boring so I'm currently trying to find some more unique ways to present some of this information. Luckily my students are well behaved and they've been good sports even when they had worksheets to fill out and stories to read aloud. Next week I have them doing some more creative work like drawing and stations so I hope that they gets them a little more excited. Mr. Massara has been very helpful with writing comments of things he observes. Overall the comments are fairly postive and constructive. I enjoy getting the feedback so I know what to correct.

Today I had an interesting experience in study hall. Mr. Massara was at a meeting so I went to study hall and another teacher covered. The students wanted to move around and talk a lot since it was a Friday and their regular teacher wasn't there. I'm sure that they didn't like hearing that they had to move back to their seats but they know the rules for study hall.

All in all my week has been very positive. I haven't had any real problems yet and I hope that it continues to go smoothly. I'm looking forward to next week and starting to teach more classes. I've even come up with some new ideas for Julius Caesar than I orginially had so I'm really excited to try to work those into my lessons.

I'm starting to get to know more of the students names. I have abput 110/120 students so learning all their names when I'm not the one teaching them right now is a little difficult. They really interest me though. Their conversations, questions, and comments crack me up sometimes. Most of them are very friendly and I try to say hi to them in the hallway as well so that I can put names to the faces.

I think that's all for now. I'll let you know how the start of speeches and Caesar goes next week. I hope everyone's second week was just as good as their first.

peace
Ellen

Shippensburg: Week 1

Hello all! I hope that all of you had a wonderful first week. At Ship H.S. things were very good. The students are used to working hard in Mr. Massara's class since he demands that they take class very seriously. He has virtually no classroom management problems and in the rare event that students get out of hand he is quick to correct it so that no one is derailed for long. His first rule is essentially give respect, get respect and it seems to work. He also is friendly and ask students about how sports games went and other things that show he cares about them not just their grades.

The class routine is the same everyday. Students first read the minutes which helps remind students what they did the day before and helps absent students know what they missed. The students take turns writing and reading the minutes so the responsibility of paying attention falls to them. They also play The Game which is a question put on the board that students answer using voting cards. The grammar questions were just finished and I started with the literary terms questions today and will continue with them during my placement. Students are used to doing several things in Mr. Massara's class. They often work in groups or pairs on questions or something else concerning their current novel. If they are in the middle of big projects they usually get some notes to help them (this week it was outlining for a speech) and then they get work time.

Mr. Massara's teaching style is a mix of direct instruction and discussion base. The students are often put in groups or pairs to explore something in a novel as I said before. At times he also gives them power points and notes that have fill in the blank so that they are forced to follow along and aren't just sitting idle during a lesson. He has a pretty good rapport with his students and usually brings a lot of energy to the lesson. He also has high standards for his students (college prep and Honors and even his elective, Myths and Folktales). Students are expected to respond to questions to the best of their ability and if they don't know the answer or if they don't answer completely Mr. Massara will try to help them get to the right answer by asking more questions.

This post is getting rather long so I'll try wrap it up quickly. I don't know much about the socioeconomic status of my students and so far I'm not sure what kind of outside pressures the kids are facing. I hope as I spend more time with them I'll get to know these things better and then I'll be able to help the students if I can.

Shippensburg is a friendly and inviting school. I've met several of the teachers and I feel comfortable and welcome there. They are used to getting student teachers so its nice and relaxed.

I would also like to add that I will be starting to teach Myths and Folktales next week and I'm very excited and I'm looking forward to the experience. When I taught the game today I tried to improve every time. There were things that I could have done better but the biggest help was that Mr. Massara wrote down some things I did well and some things that I could improve. I'm looking forward to continued recommendations and suggestions.

Have a great second week! Sorry to make this so long, I apparently had a lot to say :)