How do you improve schools? --Tom

In my recent reading of the news I came across some of the following articles or websites all dealing with the question of how do you improve our schools.

The first article is from the New York Times, Next Test: Value of $125,000-a-Year Teachers.

In it the author says,

"The school, called the Equity Project, is premised on the theory that excellent teachers — and not revolutionary technology, talented principals or small class size — are the critical ingredient for success. Experts hope it could offer a window into some of the most pressing and elusive questions in education: Is a collection of superb teachers enough to make a great school? Are six-figure salaries the way to get them? And just what makes a teacher great?"

I love those questions, particularly that last one. I just finished a year of study and training to become a teacher in which I wrestled with that very question. I don't want to be just a good teacher. I want to be a great teacher, but how exactly do I do that?

I also came across another New York Times op-ed article entitled, Five Ways To Fix America's Schools. In brief the author says that we should:

• raise the age of compulsory education up to 19 in all states
• borrow high pressure sales tactics for use in reducing casual truancy in schools
• advertise more effectively to get students to college or post-secondary education
• make the college accreditation reports from the Department of Education available to the public
• produce more qualified applicants for higher education

I don't necessarily agree with all of these points, especially the last one, which seems to be saying just teach students better. If it were that easy I think schools would already be doing it.

Finally, the last bit of information I have stumbled across is from the New Teacher Project and their report entitled The Widget Effect. It was mentioned in an op-ed in the Philadelphia Enquirer written by the head of the Philadelphia School System. The overall premise is that school systems need to change the way they evaluate and measure teacher performance because teachers are such an important part of the educational process. It cites information from a study showing that less than one percent of teachers receive unsatisfactory ratings each year, even in schools where students are doing poorly. I invite you to check it out in more detail.

How to Stop an Insurrection (controling your class)

One of my 'aha' moments during student teaching came after a particularly challenging class period, which of course happened to be observed by my university supervisor. The whole period had been a struggle to keep the class focused, on task, and engaged with the lesson I had so painstakingly prepared. I felt like I was on the losing side of a tuck of war. The end of class was in sight and I was trying to squeeze in just a little more instruction before the bell. With about three minutes to go in class a student decided he was done, stood up, and began packing up his stuff. Trying to get in the last little bit of instruction I just ignored him and kept teaching. That was a big mistake. Once some of the students saw him stand up, they also decided it was time to pack up. Any further instruction was not going to be effective.

Sitting down with my university supervisor afterwords to debrief the lesson he mentioned to me that I could have prevented this occurrence if I had simply stopped what he called the "ringleader" from doing it first. By letting the first guy stand up I was sending a subliminal message to the rest of the class that what he was doing was acceptable. If I dealt with the first person who was being disrespectful then I would be sending a message to the other students that the behavior was unacceptable.

A few days later I had a chance to put this technique into practice and it was successful. Lesson learned.

That Darn Yankee and the Almost Mistake

Now, teaching about the Civil War in Virginia as a New Yorker is daunting. But teaching the Civil War for my CT who is an expert and has written books about it, is scarier. In my public school education up North, we spent maybe a week on the entire war. We are spending four weeks on it now. I’m in a whole new ball game.

Before Spring Break, I was teaching the differences between Northerners and Southerners in the Civil War. I came up with a way to creatively teach this in my own unique way. Since my CT was a true Virginian and I am a born and bred New Yorker, we decided to role play a Union and Confederate soldier. As Johnny Reb, my CT put on a confederate costume and talked about missing the plantation and his lack of education on his father’s tenant farm. As Billy Yank, I talked about how my father was an Irish immigrant and my sister worked in the Lowell textile mill. We both refined our accents and spoke in the true regional style.

By the fourth period doing this, my CT and I had this act down pat. I was comfortable with my old “non-teacher Sara speech,” relishing in the fact that my students were getting to see a new side of me. However, I got way too comfortable and turned off my teacher sensor. Somewhere in our act during fourth period, I began to say, “Us New Yorkers like to read magazines, newspapers, and all that other shi… stuff.” I almost cursed in front of the sixth graders. I almost died. I quickly pretended nothing happened and my CT and I continued with the act; on with the show.

I say this was an almost mistake, but really I am horrified that some of the students may have caught on. Luckily, no one said a word and we never heard from a parent. This was one of my biggest lessons that week. I learned that I must always assume the role model position and realized how easy it may be to slip out of it.

Homework: The Numb Factor

I had a conversation with my CT this very morning regarding homework, which has prompted me to expand on my thinking. My CT asked me when I would be giving homework on a daily basis. I responded by telling her I did not believe that homework should be assigned simply for the sake of assigning it. Homework needs to serve a specific purpose and be very meaningful. I just don’t believe in busy work. She disagrees.

I have read article upon article about the usefulness (or uselessness) of homework. In fact, the theme of November’s English Journal issue is homework. The question the issue asks is “Does Homework Help?” The literature consistently points to a resounding no, at least if it is just busy work. Furthermore, teachers have difficulty getting most students to do it. My students have been assigned so much homework, which accounts for only 10% of their grade, taking a zero for an assignment means nothing to them. Through the end of third quarter, they had racked up over 90 assignments. Yes, 90. You do the math; it barely affects their grade. So why would they do it? And yet some teachers persist.

Tonight I will be planning homework for the rest of the week to accommodate my CT’s request, but not without reservations and grunting, much like my students when I give them homework. I had been giving very little homework because I only assigned it when it was necessary, namely, when it would further student learning. Also, my students are required to read every night for the Accelerated Reader program, and usually I would assign extra reading. Reading every night is a perfectly viable and reasonable expectation for English homework.

If students are expected to do homework on a nightly basis, without rhyme or reason, they become numb to its benefits. I like to call this the “numb factor.” They are no longer learning but simply going through the motions. Homework becomes simply busy work, or, as students might say, it becomes torturous and meant only to inflict pain and agony. Plus, I prefer not to have students do anything unless I believe it serves a valuable, reasonably justifiable purpose. This includes every aspect of my planning and teaching, and homework in within that realm.

Because teachers assign so much homework, and because it accounts for so little of students’ grades, they do not benefit from it at all. Of course, the intrinsically motivated still do it. Others, however, just don’t care. I would much rather reserve the homework battle for moments when the homework really matters—not when it would be purposeless and deleterious to student learning.

What Happened!

So our blog took a little hiatus so that we all could finish up our student teaching. Spring break came, everyone went on vacation, and at least in terms of the blog, never came back. I know for myself that once spring break was over, responsibility of planning and teaching a full day worth of classes consumed all the spare time that I had.

Now that we are all graduated the blog is going to take a slightly different form. Since we are all officially teachers and no longer student teachers this blog will be a place where any of the authors can share about anything related to teaching. The lot of us were part of a strong community during our teacher training and it is hoped that this site will allow us to continue sharing what we are doing and learning about teaching. We will no longer be posting once a day like we were prior to spring break. Instead the posting pattern will become totally irregular. You might get no posts for awhile and then a burst of writing. Only time will tell. So keep us on the RSS feed and keep a weather eye out for updates.

As always thanks for reading.

A Colorful Glimpse Into the Soul -- Kyle

How can I reconcile the sheer number of possibilities? How much fun can I have trying to mix and match the limitless options? How many of my students will think I’m crazy because of my choices? These are just a few of the questions that plague my mind every morning when I start to plan out my day. But am I talking about all the instructional decisions I have to make over the course of a day? Don’t be silly! I am, of course, speaking of deciding what to wear to school everyday.

Each day I wake up, confront my wardrobe, and coolly pick out an outfit, which will invariably be described as some member of the animal kingdom as soon as I walk into my room. “Mr. Minner, you look like a turtle today.” (Green shirt, orange tie) “Today you look like a dolphin!” (Light blue shirt, periwinkle tie) “Hey, you look like a blue jay. But a brown one. Yeah, you look like a brown blue jay!” (Gray shirt with multicolored stripes, blue tie, and a brown sports coat). And you know what? I love it! I revel in trying to be as flamboyant and colorful as possible every day without seeming like a crazy person. It brightens up my day when I feel like I’m having fun just because I’m wearing fun clothes. Even if my day is on the brink of disaster, I simply have to look down, admire the unique choice I made, and smile.

Having an interesting wardrobe has more benefits than you might think. Not only does it ensure that I enjoy at least a small part of every day, my students are able to see a part of my personality. They are able to know me as a person, not just as their teacher; so far, this has resulted in increased motivation, a safer classroom environment, and an overall sense of jollity and enjoyment in my room. Having a personality and, most importantly, showing it to my students makes me a real person—a real person who they like. And from my experience thus far, if students like you, they are much more likely to work for you. They are much more likely to enjoy being in your classroom. Most of all, they are much more likely to learn from you because they want to pay attention.

Of course, I do not believe that everyone should suddenly start wearing neon green and bright pink (now there’s an idea…), but I do believe that your wardrobe should mirror your personality. If you can give your students just a small glimpse of yourself, your time in the classroom will be much more enjoyable—especially if you go out and get a brand new seersucker sports coat.

How to Handle a Million Things At Once, or, the Life of a Normal Teacher --Clifton

This past week I was in the middle of planning a lesson when my CT says, "Stop whatever it is that you are doing and get these done." He drops a pile of papers marked confidential on the desk in front of me. Progress reports for all our students with IEPs. Immediately I start second-guessing myself. Does this student have preferential seating? Have they been using it? Or whether or not one student took tests in small groups. A large part of my nervousness is from this being a new task. But I also realize that I was not as familiar with these students' needs as I thought I was.

Later last week as our class draws to a close, and I tell a student that he needs to "pick up the pace," because he needs to turn work in. As I start to move on, the student says something that makes me turn around: "What do you mean?" I don't know what to think but answer him anyway. "You need to work faster because class ends in five minutes and you need to turn that in." As I walk away he says in a joking sounding voice, "Figures of speech won't get you anywhere with me." I remember that this student has Asperger's Disorder and so has trouble understanding figurative language.

I might not always understand when a student is telling me how they need me to teach them. This is not a straightforward task. It's hard to tell what a particular student needs. It is difficult to teach each student in the class the way they learn best. I have been trying to provide students with a variety of different tasks so that they can take advantage of their strengths. No one expects us to be experts yet, but it is frustrating to be constantly confronted with my own shortcomings as a teacher. I'm ready for spring break. The break will give me extra time to think about how I can accomplish everything that I need to in my next unit.

Does Anyone Have Nancy Atwell’s Phone Number?

Lined paper: $3. No. 2 pencils: $2. Colorful pens for revision and editing: $6. Paycheck: $0. The experience of learning to teach writing: priceless.

Being an English teacher, naturally I was excited when I discovered that the first unit I would ever teach was persuasive writing. I love writing, and I love to help others find their voice in writing. The opportunity galvanized me into creating a unit rich with writing workshop activities: writing time, peer reviewing, conferences—the works. Now I know why teaching writing can be an uphill battle. Crashing and burning, and then quickly recovering, in the course of this unit was an invaluable learning experience. I could write extensively on this, but I’ll stick to only a few lessons I learned. Let’s just say I really wish I had Nancy Atwell’s phone number.

The greatest obstacle (not including classroom management) was time. Especially considering that students are not really taught to write these days, I did not anticipate just how much there was to elucidate. My unit of seven days quickly became a unit of ten days. Even then, another week would have done my students well. For example, they did not understand that they had to fully explicate their statements. It was very difficult to articulate to them how to present an idea and exhaust it fully. I finally discovered that telling them to pretend they were explaining their position to a two-year-old child works wonders. Of course, I had to tell them not to write like a two year old.

Also, conferencing always takes far longer than expected. With minimal writing experience, it takes a significant amount of time to help students correct their challenges, even if selecting only the most important aspects of the paper. They all needed a great deal of assistance with composing a good thesis statement, organizing their arguments, fully explaining each new idea, supporting their position, writing topic sentences, using transitions, and writing good introductions and conclusions. Please note: that list does not even begin to touch upon better word choice (they still think “good” and “bad” are acceptable!), spelling, punctuation (commas in particular), verb tense, pronouns, sentence structure (run-on sentences are especially popular), and innumerable other mechanics and usage challenges.

Another challenge in teaching writing was trying to get students to just write. They all wanted to sit and think of the perfect sentence before writing it down. It is as if they think that writing something down is setting it in stone. But then I had an idea… I brought in several of my papers: one revised and edited by a professor, a tenth draft that still had marks all over it, a very first draft, and one that was a first revision. The last was the messiest of them all. I projected them one by one with the document camera while explaining how messy writing is. All I heard was, “wow!” and “ooooooh!” and “geez!” Several students asked if I failed the paper that the professor had marked up, which made me giggle. They were shocked to find I had received an A. It seemed that everything was beginning to click. I highly recommend this strategy, and it would have been most valuable had I thought of it for the very first day.

All in all, I think the unit went very well. My students and I learned a great deal.

Wider Views -- Beth

Something we talked about earlier this week in my seminar class was response to various issues like cheating or disruptive behavior. Our class had several experienced teachers (like over 40 yrs of combined teaching experience) in the room telling us how they have dealt with these types of issues. One experienced teacher stated that we as incoming professionals need to decide what we want our students to walk away with at the end of the semester -- which is hopefully much more than just a better understanding of our content material. In the examples the other teachers gave us, what was clear to me was the ability to listen and be patient with the students and not just assume that the issue’s solution would be black and white. This is not to say the teachers were push-overs. For example, one teacher told us how he responded to irresponsible lab behavior. Instead of banning labs for the rest of the semester (a threat that perhaps was warranted after the poor behavior), the teacher the following day informed the students that he expected adult like behavior in the lab and knew the students could handle this opportunity and that they would be repeating the same lab they did the day before until they could do it correctly. The students then performed as the teacher expected. During my student teaching time I often feel “busy” with all the planning and grading, but this class caused me to reflect on the broader reasons of why I want to be a teacher, to encourage student’s creativity, inquiry, and enjoyment of the scientific world around them, but also the feeling of what it is like to be in a respectful classroom (which I hope I maintain).

The Anti-Snow Dance --Raggs

I had a great idea. I was teaching the Great Depression in my Advanced American Studies classroom, and I realized the excellent educational opportunity that exists given our current economic conditions and the stage of the recovery effort President Obama is in. What a great chance to examine the impact that history has on society today, I thought. And more importantly, it’s an excellent opportunity to relate history to students’ current life, which is the key to motivation for many students. But, if I was going to try to explore the connection, I wanted to do it right. This meant it would not just be a question here and there, but an activity, ideally even a full lesson. This would give students ample opportunities to explore the connections there and see how history really does affect them today.

I was so excited. As per my last entry, I at first had some issues creating interesting and exciting lessons and was ecstatic I had come up with, if I may say so myself, a brilliant idea. I combed the internet for articles exploring the comparison of Obama and Roosevelt and found an excellent New York Times article that outlined many of the similarities between the two men and their eras, as well as a Time magazine cover that had Obama photo-shopped to look like Roosevelt. And while I did feel the students had a decent grasp on the current economic climate, I figured some reinforcement of the situation couldn’t hurt, so I added some graphs and charts on employment, the stock market, and income and savings. And to top it off, I provided the cliff notes version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan of 2009 to see if it looked similar to the New Deal. My brainchild was complete (although I do not pretend to think others had not thought of this idea for a lesson as well).

Then reality hit. Two snow days. Then two days of Standards testing. I all of a sudden had lost two days (as English and History alternate days in my American Studies classroom). We were already a little behind, and this only complicated things. When I sat down to re-plan, I was devastated to discover the easiest way to solve things. It meant mauling my brainchild, which I creatively titled “The New New Deal.” In the course of re-planning my exploration into the current economic climate went from a full lesson, to a half lesson Socratic seminar the last day of the unit, to limited discussion in the second half of the period in which my students took a test (where their attention will surely be minimal). And after creating a test that could accurately measure the learning of my students I realized in all likelihood there would not even be time for a minimal discussion. It now looks like it will be a homework assignment with little to no discussion.

I have loved my student teaching experience thus far. But if there is one frustration I have it is time and standards. On the whole I think standards are both good and necessary. But they are limiting. I think the lesson I had planned would have been very beneficial to students and would have allowed them to make important connections between history and their lives. But, the standards test, which comes before the year is even over, will not have a question of Obama’s stimulus package. And we have to make it to a certain point by the time of the test to ensure our students will receive a passing score. I think everyone, even those who preach the importance of standards, would agree that the goal is to move beyond the standards. Unfortunately, when things have to be cut back to account for unexpected circumstances, the extension activities are usually the first to go. As a teacher, I will try as hard as I can to always move beyond the standards and to teach my students concepts and ideas that connect to their lives, as I have done in this instances as I will at least be able to introduce the similarities and get my students thinking about their current world. But it is not what I wanted it to be, not what I had envisioned. And the standards are not totally to blame (and again, standards are needed), it is simply the time. There is never enough. And this means though that I will likely never do the snow dance with my students. As much as I would love to sleep in, I will be doing the anti-snow dance.

The Station Sensation -- Sara

Last Friday, I taught my first lesson using stations. We had a lesson on the Underground Railroad and the Abolitionist Reform Movement. I divided the classroom into 7 stations. At these stations, students were analyzing images and abolitionist propaganda, taking a Underground Railroad adventure on a National Geographic website, holding and analyzing artifacts that resemble life as a slave, and listening to a speech made by Frederick Douglass. I even had them read an excerpt from the slave narrative of Harriet Jacobs and created a simulation using a few blankets and a table where students had to crawl into and pretend they would hide there for seven years.

Although the preparation and the administration were exhausting, it was the best lesson I have taught yet. I recommend teaching stations because the students can focus on many different skills during one day. It is also a great way to accommodate for students with disabilities. There was a very limited amount of reading and writing. While working in cooperative groups, they were able to interact at the same pace with their peers.

Working in stations also got my students excited about learning the topic. They have never worked in stations in my CT’s classroom before. They were eager to identify with the historical persons we studied and asked many questions that showed they were thinking critically about the material. They were so excited after their class, they told other teachers about the lesson. Word spread around the school. By my fourth lesson, I had the librarian and media specialist taking pictures for the school newsletter, and four other Social Studies teachers came to check it out. One teacher even requested a copy of the lesson plan so they could use it next year! All my hard work had paid off.

Here are some recommendations I have for using stations in the classroom. Some are ideas I thought of, and others were hard lessons learned!

· Assign cooperative groups ahead of time. I was lucky to have thought of this before the lesson. As one person, it is hard to run around to seven stations discussing content, as well as worrying about discipline problems.
· Invite volunteer parents or other teachers into the classroom. I had one station where the students were so excited that they got a little silly. I was told after my lesson, that there is a volunteer list made of parents who are eager to come in and help. Our librarian also came in to help and she was delighted to be working in the classroom.
· Have something to do if students finish their station task early. I kept a list of discussion questions at the table that were relevant to the station content. This encouraged their learning and identification with the material, as well as kept them from finding something else to do for themselves (which is usually off task or bad behavior!).

I motion to end debate, er, move, er … what? -– Abri

I am going to have a class full of disappointed faces tomorrow morning. It’s not that I want to make the legislative process more difficult. It’s not that I am trying to prevent the 1st Session of the 111th Congress from passing any key legislation. The fact remains that I am the President of the United States of America (at least, for the next week) and I need to protect my citizens, even if my Senate believes that they should be able to restrict some rights. You see, my class full of 28 Senators just passed a bill to require mandatory driving tests for Americans over the age of 65. Technically, that is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. More on that later …

We are a third of the way through our Model Congress and it is even better than I anticipated that it would be. I have served as a student representative in the past, but none of those experiences reached the level of engagement that I have seen over the past week. Our Congress is more limited because of its size and time restrictions, but we’re still getting some quality work. All of our students have been assigned to a committee and more than half of our students are serving in a position of Congressional leadership (such as the Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader, the Minority Whip, etc).

Our students are quickly picking up on parliamentary procedure as well as the ins and outs of committee work. They are also discovering that passing a bill through Congress is a lot more work than they thought it would be. In the real world, only 4% of bills that go through Congress actually make it into law. One of my students (let’s call him Daniel*) stopped me in the hallway last week and asked, “So, is this really what it’s like? My bill is stuck in committee. Is there any way that I can get it out? How does Congress ever manage to get anything done?”

It is a fair question. How does Congress ever manage to get anything done? Daniel and his fellow students are discovering that the key is compromise, compromise, compromise. They are also living the legislative process instead of just reading about it. They are seeing first-hand how our government is structured to allow everyone to express their opinion, to allow only the best bills to go through, to restrict those who would try to harm a section of the American population, and to make sure that one governing body does not wield too much power.

Which brings me back to my role: I am the president. It is my job to check my own students and ensure that they are working for the best interests of the American public and not just for themselves. Of course, they can still override me, if 2/3 of them decide that I am wrong. In that case, the bill will go to another teacher in the school who acts as the Supreme Court. There is no way to override him!

Regardless of if this bill sees the metaphorical light of day, this simulation is providing my students with a window into the real world. They are living government, an experience that will hopefully stick with them for years and that might change how critical they are of their representatives in the future. I have discovered that the key to a good simulation is providing students with an authentic experience that they can make their own, and I can’t wait to see what else my students come up with.

By the way, the title of the post is supposed to be “I motion to move the previous question.” The students are still working on that one! But I think that they will have it down by Friday.

* Name changed to protect the student

The Importance of Language -- Kare

When giving a unit mastery test earlier this week, the importance of language struck me. As an English teacher, I view the English language and communication as the heart of my curriculum. I believe that literature should come secondary to these broad-based language communication skills. Yet, due to standards and department-wide curriculum guides, what I teach is the literature and its corresponding history and literary connections. On my unit test, then, I asked questions in various formats to assess student understanding of the various literary components. Thus, the language skills become secondary with regard to assessment.

During the test, several students finished within the first half hour—keep in mind this is a test designed for a 90 minute block. Though I have not graded the tests I somehow assume these super-quick students did not perform at their best. The majority of students took about an hour or an hour and twenty minutes to complete. The last four students to finish included two foreign exchange students and two Korean students. All four had at some point throughout the test asked clarification on questions—particularly questions regarding abstract concepts like “significance.” It dawned on me that these non-native English speakers were perhaps the last to finish the test because of language issues. While I did not intentionally develop question phrasing or vocabulary that would “stump” students, I did use typical English vocabulary and specialized language to talk about abstract literary concepts designed for the college-bound junior class I teach. I want my students to demonstrate their knowledge of literature but also their language skills. I am facing a debate now regarding how to balance these two demands with particular concern for non-native English speaking students. My teaching beliefs value language while my mandated curriculum values literature. And I feel stuck.

Feeling Happily Possessive --Cati

I’m about to sound selfish and like it’s all about “me”—but honestly, one of my favorite things about student teaching is feeling like these are my students, and we are together in my classroom. I feel like I have been given a huge, brightly wrapped, shiny present and get to open it every day all over again.

Part of the reason why I feel like these things are mine is because my cooperating teacher gave me three classes at once, my first full week as a student teacher, and started directing student questions to me and leaving the room sometimes. Students saw that overnight I had apparently become “their teacher.” My cooperating teacher was also absent for family reasons for three days in a row that first week. Students saw me running the show and a sub sitting in the back of the room. Yup, I’m their teacher.

And I simply adore being their teacher. It is amazing to me how quickly I have connected with these students. Having sat and observed them all year, for upwards of one hundred hours, and having taught them several lessons, I thought that I already “knew” them and had connected with them. But this feels entirely different… cracking up at the creative ways that they try to call me “Ms. Schwenkler” in Spanish (the last name is hard enough, and for Spanish II kiddos the “Ms.” part often comes out as “Mrs.” or even “Mr.”)… giving them pep talks about how they can do better on the next quiz… getting high-fives when I pass my boys in the hall.

Every time a student smiles at me, I feel my heart glowing, and when they laugh at me because they think I’m being “too enthusiastic” or laugh at my laugh because it sounds like a fire drill is about to start, I know I’m doing something right. I get to be “that” teacher who’s weird and quirky and hey, holds your attention as a result. Students keep looking at me funny as they get back quizzes and written work covered in red ink as I celebrate their progress, note their areas for improvement, and use some combination of exclamation points, stars, and smiley faces. Yes, that took me forever. No, I can’t imagine giving you back anything else.

I love feeling like a teacher. And while that means that I’m sick (I already had to stay home one day), and I’m starting to wonder what kind of mauve eyeshadow would best complement the growing circles under my eyes, it also means I get out of bed at 5 a.m. every day so, so happy to go in and interact with my students. I share Kyle’s surprise at how fun it is to work with ninth graders, having also thought that I would only want to work with the “older, motivated students.” My AP students are quiet and boring compared to my hilarious, endearing ninth and tenth graders who vary greatly in terms of achievement and motivation, but they all make my heart sing.

Black Stuff All Over My Fingers --Eric

It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. I use the dry-erase board. No matter how carefully I distance my hands from the pen's felt tip as I write, or from the eraser as I wipe the board clean, at the end of the day my fingers are covered in an inky grime that turns the sink black when I finally wash my hands. Teaching is about getting your hands dirty. The strongest and most valuable moments in my teaching are often the messiest, as they involved a whirlwind of activity and places which call my attention. However, these are the moments in which the most honest-to-God teaching takes place.

Sometimes my weakest moments in the classroom are when we hold whole-class “discussions,” such as when we analyze John Donne's metaphysical conceits and his sonnets broken up into discrete arguments. The text is Donne's “Holy Sonnet 10,” a poem in which the speaker challenges death itself. “Death be not proud,” it famously starts, “though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful.” I thought I did everything right. I had them anticipate his poem through their own experience (e.g. “How many of you know someone who died?”); I even activated some schemas by having them discuss a thematically related painting (Sir Thomas Aston at the Deathbed of His Wife). Both of these went well. I taught them the Italian sonnet rhyme scheme and had them discuss the pros and cons of poetry that follows a strict structure. This went well, too, because they anticipated what I intended: by being familiar with a poem's structure, its meanings become more accessible to the reader. When we went to actually trek through the quatrains to see the Italian sonnet style in action, however, I could feel their enthusiasm alchemize to lead and sink lower and lower on their shoulders and eyelids. By the end of the activity, leaving the poem behind for good seemed about on par with candy at an end-of-the-year party.

In the same lesson, ironically, we shifted gears completely and the students did a writing workshop for a creative writing assignment they have been working on. I set the students to move forward on their own, critiquing each other's writing in a loosely structured format (“praise/question/suggestion”), while I moved around the room and addressed specific needs.

I have never felt so needed in so many places at the same time. Many of the students had incredibly deep questions that demonstrated an amazing understanding and concern for the task at hand. Many of my students who need the most love and attention to be successful in the classroom had worked their selves ragged in the name of the assignment, producing amazing work. I wanted to be everywhere at once. I wanted to spend the entire period with the same students at the same time to give them the help and the attention that they deserved. In the same instant I wanted to be hovering over the students who could not stay on task to save their lives. That comes with the territory.

These were the moments where I felt the most connected to student needs and student learning. It was the messiest, because of all the activity happening at the same time, and all the specific needs that need to have been addressed at the same time. Yet these were the moments in which I could attend to students individually and help move them significantly forward. Real learning took place here. It's ok that at the end of the days I got my hands dirty with the work. Tomorrow I'm ready to do it again.

Sometimes, it takes two -- Abri

One reason I want to be a teacher is so that I can make history, government, and other social sciences come alive for my students. Beyond just learning dates, important people, and events, I want to help students experience the past and present, and imagine the future.

I’ve been around teachers all of my life. You could say that it’s in my blood; in fact, my mom says that I used to come home from preschool, arrange my stuffed animals in neat rows, and teach them what I had learned each day. I rarely got bored in school growing up, but whenever I did, I would think about how I would have presented the material differently. Last summer I could hardly wait to apply my own life experience to classroom theory and be able to get to student teaching as soon as possible.

But if I have learned anything from life it is that things rarely turn out the way that you plan, and often that is a good thing. I realize now that my original grand plans for student teaching were missing one essential element: the influence and support of my cooperating teacher. I dreamed about all the wonderful things that I would do with my students, and of how my ideas could make the difference their lives. I knew that my cooperating teacher would be around to offer me advice and to critique my performance, but I was expecting that our roles would be kept separate. The downside to this premature vision was that I would have to navigate a great deal of my student teaching alone.

Thankfully, this is not the case. Not only have my cooperating teacher and I forged a successful working relationship, we have also been able to co-teach our classes. Co-teaching can often be a tenuous process because every teacher has a different style, yet it is becoming more popular in the era of IEPs and individualized instruction. A true co-teaching experience is a collaborative effort in which both parties fuse their skills and expertise to enhance classroom learning and make it better than it would have been if only one of them were teaching. Each teacher has a different concept of their ideal classroom and co-teaching challenges individualism for the good of students.

My cooperating teacher and I have been co-teaching for several weeks. Some days this looks like one of us leading a discussion while the other adds comments to illuminate parts of the discussion. Other days this looks like us switching back and forth with different activities throughout the class period. Most recently we have started simulations in our government classes – a Mock Election and a Model Congress. Now, co-teaching is both of us walking around our classroom or the computer lab to take note of student progress and help groups as they have need. I have even been able to lead one of the classes in the computer lab by myself!

To me, the most important benefit of co-teaching is the ability to offer individualized instruction to more students. Some of our students have had trouble with the bill writing process for Model Congress. Co-teaching has allowed me the freedom to guide one student in research about Roe v. Wade, help another improve her writing, and edit a bill on nuclear fusion written by a third, all the while knowing that my cooperating teacher is looking at the big picture. When he sits down with a student, I do the same thing.

These simulations are helping the government process come alive for my students. I do not think that co-teaching is necessary for a successful simulation, but it certainly helps. I hope that having the opportunity to work directly with my students will make them more successful when we elect a president and open the 111th Congress this week! Stay tuned!

Flexibility: Plans? More Like Guidelines, Methinks! -- Amelia

Ah, yes—that stunning word we’ve heard since day one of our teacher preparation classes: flexibility, flexibility, flexibility! The extreme necessity for flexibility was my first rude awakening in the realm of teaching. Now I know why all the other teachers sweetly smile with shaking heads at my neatly organized and dated lesson plans nestled in their shiny page protectors. My poor naïve lesson plans, gleaming with expectation, structure, and punctuality.

While I was quite aware of the need for flexibility, the term was much more surreal and distant, like a tropical island—until now. You’ve heard that Jamaica has beautiful beaches, green luscious landscapes, and warm weather, all of which you can picture in your mind’s eye. However, you can’t quite fathom its impact until you experience it for yourself.

It all began with the rescheduling of Benchmark testing, which ended up being a month ahead of schedule. So I planned accordingly. Then came the rescheduling of the SOL practice Writing test. First, it was March 4th. I planned accordingly. Then it was March 11th. I planned accordingly. Then it was March 18th. I planned accordingly. Then it was back to March 11th. Yep, you guessed it. I planned accordingly. Then back to March 18th. Yes, it was finally given on March 11th.

I must admit: I’m a sucker for schedules. I plan and prefer that things go according to plan (at least the big things). So in the beginning of all this, I was having quite the panic attack. Somehow, I managed to rearrange my brain. I realized that I was viewing lesson planning as some sort of code of rules. Once planned, lessons are immutable procedures that have been set in stone, probably because I invested so much time in them. Then I heard a voice echoing in my head… It was Captain Barbossa. He was saying, “The code is more what you'd call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules. Arrrrrg. Matey!” Okay, I added that last part.

But I realized that I have to view my schedule and lesson plans as mutable, flexible guidelines. Perhaps teachers are more like pirates than you might think at first glance. (Not the pillaging and plundering aspect, of course.) As teacher, we must ride the waves, or go with the flow, or whatever cliché works for you. Just like pirates, there is a greater force guiding our sails. We can either work against that force or work with it. Personally, I’ve learned that working with it is much more sane.

Cross my heart and hope to die, I will never be absent again! -- Lizzie

Recently I was out because I had a job interview. While this should be something to celebrate and I should hope for more days like this in the coming future, I am absolutely dreading ever having to miss a day of school again. Who knew how much work it was putting plans together for a substitute?! Every little detail has to be explicitly stated and every minute occupied in an effort to lose as little time as possible. It takes lesson planning to a whole new level!

Usually I like to come home after school and take a little breather before jumping into planning for the next day, but when you are going to be absent, everything must be taken care of before you leave school for the day. Everything planned. Everything explained. Everything sequenced and paced. Everything copied. When I plan for myself, of course I take all of those things into consideration, but things don’t have to be so set in stone yet. Often times I even think of better ways to do things while I am in the middle of them and end up changing things around. Even just explaining all of my ideas for one class and explicating them on paper takes so much more time than I ever would have imagined!

Even though I’ve spent the last two paragraphs basically complaining, part of me is rather sad about missing school. It will be my first day away from my students since beginning my student teaching. While I know that they will all be fine in the capable hands of my cooperating teacher and probably will not falter at my absence, I will miss them. When I was putting together my plans, I couldn’t help but think how fun and engaging some of the activities were and how it really did sadden me a little that I was not going to be able to be there to see my students engaging in them. As much as this disappointed me, it also made me smile because I realized that even though I’ve known them for a short time, they are becoming a part of me. I am falling in love with teaching and with my students. I never thought that I would actually look forward to getting up at 5 am, but I truly do. I am eager for each new day with my students and never ceased to be both amazed and entertained by them. So for now, I might be away from them for a day, but I will be thinking of them and will be ready to get back and pick up where I left off on this crazy journey known as student teaching.

A Student in Need; I’m a Teacher Indeed -- Kelly

The math department offers lunchtime tutoring in my classroom every day. Members of the Math Honor Society, as well as a few teachers, come and help students study. Wednesday looked like any other normal tutoring day; the rowdy clique of honor society students came in and circled up, eating their lunch. One or two timid math students approached and nervously asked the teacher on duty for help. I sat off to the side and worked, munching on my lunch. Then, one of the honor society students walked in with a girl I hadn’t seen before. “Guys, this is Rosa.* She’s a new student here; she’s from Honduras and doesn’t speak much English. I’m showing her around and she wanted to come eat with me.” Rosa seemed shy and hesitant, as many do when immersed in a completely foreign culture. The math clique asked her a few questions in broken Spanish but for the most part let her be. I speak mediocre Spanish and briefly considered jumping in, but hey, I guess I still find it hard to break into the cool kids’ clique at lunch.

Later that afternoon I got an email forward from fellow blogger Cati, who is also placed at my school. Rosa is a recent immigrant and, beyond speaking very little English, has had little in the way of math education. She can add and subtract but has not been taught multiplication, division, fractions, basic shapes and their properties, etc. The Spanish department head had sent this email to a number of teachers in the school asking them to brainstorm ways they could collaboratively help Rosa succeed.

I was appalled that a high school student could be so critically behind. Add that to the fact that she does not speak the dominant language in the school, and the number of people who are able to help her is limited. My heart naturally bends toward students who are faced with big obstacles, and I feel acutely for Rosa. I wish I had more skills to offer help to her. I did what I could; I emailed my math advisor to ask about Spanish recourses, but beyond that I don’t know how much help I will be able to offer.

Rosa’s situation caused me to reflect. Her case is the first one that has really made me feel that gut-wrenching “Ah! This is terrible! What can I do?” feeling that teachers get when they desperately want their students to succeed but are at a loss as to how. Certainly I care about all my students and hope they all will achieve something in my class, but it is those special students who are faced with so many more challenges than their peers which makes me feel like a teacher. Rosa was my first case. I’m sure I will come across many more such students in my career. They will each have their own unique heart-wrenching story and seemingly insurmountable challenges. I only hope I am able to help as many as I can.

*Name has been changed.

Where a kid can be a kid -- Kyle

Imagine a place where students actually perk up when they are asked to do something in class. Imagine a group of students who are so motivated to learn about seemingly boring texts like The Odyssey and Great Expectations that they finish their books weeks before the final reading is due. Imagine a classroom that is actively engaged for an entire ninety minutes in pursuit of an education based around discovering deep and influential meanings of literature. Now imagine that I have been given such a class for my student teaching experience.

Unbelievable, I know, yet I have proof! This Monday, obviously a day when students do not want to be awake at 7:20, let alone working, I taught a lesson on archetypal theory in The Odyssey. Archetypal theory is essentially the universal idea of the hero’s journey, which is wonderfully modeled by Odysseus’s quest to return to Ithaca. Needless to say, the ideas presented were highly sophisticated, and I worried that my students may be turned off by the difficult content on an unfortunate day. My worries proved groundless; the class jumped enthusiastically into my planned activities. To make the concepts easier, I presented the theory to them through “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strips, and my students immediately wanted to assume the roles of the precocious youngster and his imaginary, yet oh-so-real, stuffed tiger. When I introduced markers and chart paper, the lesson practically ran itself. They were even excited to stand in front of the class and present what they learned over the course of the day.

No one is more surprised than I to discover that teaching the 9th grade is a wonder and a delight. When I first engendered the idea of being a teacher, I wholeheartedly believed that only the upper echelons of the high school strata would do for me. I wanted to teach 11th or 12th grade literature because I was under the impression that those students were the only ones who could discuss the merits, or lack thereof, of the literary works that I studied in college. I am quickly discovering, however, that while my AP 12 class is challenging and exciting, I am having far too much fun with my 9th graders to dismiss them to the void of subjects that I will never teach.

I have found that 9th grade lies in that strange time between the social awkwardness of middle school and the stratified society of high school. As such, my students are willing to act like children, yet conduct themselves with a surprising sense of maturity. Because I myself am a child at heart, I await every 7:20 AM with great anticipation and excitement. That is the time that I am forever surprised and forever overjoyed that I find myself teaching the 9th grade.

Planning in a Pinch -- Bex

In my short time in the student teaching experience, I have fallen in love with teaching. I love seeing my students every day and planning for them in the evenings. I spend so much time thinking of ways to make the literature interesting and the activities engaging. I do not mind the time it takes to plan elaborate lessons, but I am often plagued by the idea that my careful work may have to be thrown away at the first technology glitch or unplanned fire drill.

I experienced such a moment this past Monday. I had carefully planned a reading quiz and discussion questions about The Great Gatsby. My students and I were going to explore the role of women in the text: how they act, how they dress, and how they are viewed by male characters. I wanted to show the opening scenes of the film version of the novel to reinforce the decadence of the Roaring ‘20s and the freedom of the flappers. I had found a great viewing guide online and made thirty-six copies (five pages each) for my students. On Monday morning I was so prepared and excited to teach. Then the blow came.

My cooperating teacher was unable to come to school. I was to teach the lesson without her guidance and more importantly, without her key to the cabinet where the film was stored. I immediately sat at her desk and began redesigning my plans. I created new activities and formed more discussion questions so we could use the extra twenty-five minutes constructively. In the meantime, I made frantic calls to the media center and various offices trying to locate a copy of the key.

In the end I was able to retrieve the film and show my students the wild behavior of modern women of the 1920’s, but this experience reinforced my understanding of the need to be flexible in my planning. I now over plan my lessons and make plans B and C just in case. In all of the madness of that Monday morning, I was able to remember that I was not just planning to fill up time, I was planning so that my students could meet the objectives I had laid out for them. Even when planning in a pinch my students are foremost in my mind.

Meta-Reflection--Clifton

In our classes in our teacher education program, we are constantly reminded of the value of reflection. Even when we are skeptical of its value, it is still something that we do, because it is required for our courses. But when do you reflect when you need all of your time to do something else? Time is something that, as Tom points out, we have too little of. When we are trying to focus on everything else that we need to do, it is very easy to lose track of the practice that our professors have been trying to hammer into our brains.

My cooperating teacher (CT) frequently asks me questions that sound rhetorical but are not. Or he will ask me a question that I think I can get out of by answering with a simple yes or no. He doesn't let me get away with a yes or no, and he presses me to elaborate and to give every little detail. "What weren't you happy about in that lesson?" is not a question that he allows me to answer with one or two sentences. I am very thankful that my CT is there to ask those questions. Like so many things, reflecting on your teaching is something that we need to make automatic.

Very soon we will be all but left to our own devices in the classroom. Once we finish our student teaching and have our own classroom, there will rarely be another adult in the classroom to ask us why we did something the way we did. Student teaching isn't the same thing as having your own classroom. It's a chance to hone those skills that we will have too little time to work on once we start teaching in our own classroom next year.

The Precious Commodity -- Tom

If there is one thing that I have taken away from my limited student teaching experiences thus far, it is how much more you begin to value your time.

How teachers spend their time each day is very important. The teaching profession demands many of those oh-so-precious hours each day. It starts with the instruction, which in my case will be four and a half hours a day. For every hour of teaching in the classroom there are numerous hours of work that go into supporting it. Not having taught a full load yet I cannot accurately guess how many additional hours go into supporting one hour of actual instruction. I think a conservative guess is three. Now that I have been doing the teacher routine for a few days I understand in a whole new light why my cooperating teacher is constantly muttering, "If we only had more time."

Time is also important when looking at instruction over the course of a school semester or year. I look at all the material we have to cover for state standards and wonder how it will fit into approximately 180 days. That does not even include all the other information I want to share with my students. This issue of coverage is particularly astute for history classes. I cannot think of another subject where new potential material is created as each day moves from the present into the past. Ten years ago history classes did not need to talk about 9-11 or the genocide in Darfur because those events had not happened yet. Now history classes are expected to discuss those items in addition to all the historical events they taught before, while the time frame in which to teach it remains constant. What it means is that things get cut from the curriculum or items get just a passing mention. Just the other day I lamented to a co-worker that the three greatest classical composers collectively got three minutes of time in a world history class. There is just not enough time for both depth and breadth of coverage in the classroom.

The issues surrounding time appear overwhelming, but there is hope. All I need to do is look at the example set by the teachers around me every day. They manage to find a way to fit it all in so they must be doing something right. I need to study what they do and learn from their example to find their secrets, their tricks, and their time saving tactics. They have learned to make the most out of a teacher's most precious commodity, time.

YES! -- Beth

"Yes," such a commonplace expression, but a word I feel has described my first few days of student teaching in a way that has made me feel like "the" teacher.

Do I have a great cooperating teacher? Yes! I have to say I have the best cooperating teacher / mentor in that she is creative, integrates technology at any chance she can within the classroom, and I admire her flexibility as a teacher. At the start of my student teaching, she challenged me to take over the class I felt the least ready to take over. This class was the largest of our classes, contained the liveliest students, and was also the class I had been in the least due to my graduate course scheduling so the students did not know me as well. What did I answer to that challenge? “Yes,” of course I’ll do it! I would have to say the student teachers in our program are all “YES” people when it comes to immersing ourselves in our school experiences (just read all the other blog posts).

Probably the best thing my cooperating teacher did to get me feeling like a teacher was to leave the room. Over the past few days, I have seen a slight progression by the students as they begin to ask for my assistance instead of seeking out their regular teacher. At first the students asked for their teacher, but by Friday when we did a lab in class, the students (when they needed assistance) were calling my name. At one point, I found myself answering “yes?” to students who needed help with calculations, to students who needed help with a lab step, to a student that was absent the day before and needed help with the notes. Though every class will not be as free flowing as Friday’s lab day, I feel that the students are seeing me as their teacher. As I settle into student teaching, I find I am loving being in the school and around the students. The day flies by when I am interacting with the students and enjoying what I do. I have been in the work force previously where I watched the clock tick slowly by until I could leave. It is not like that at all now. For this, I exclaim “Yessss,” being a teacher is awesome!

And Here We Go -- Raggs

After 20 weeks of observing and teaching a lesson here and there, student teaching is finally here. It really didn’t dawn on me until right before I went to bed the night before my first full day. In a way, I thought, the next day would be the start of my career. After all this time in graduate school and watching so many of my classmates in undergraduate enter the work force, it was finally time for me to enter the exciting but terrifying “real world.”

I had a lot of mixed emotions as I drove to school the next morning. But the overpowering emotion was nervousness. Was I ready for this? Was I ready to take responsibility for the educational well being of my students? Would I be able to come up with interesting ways to engage my students or would I have to become “the lecturer”? This last one really made me nervous as I had hit some roadblocks trying to lesson plan the night before (which was not a good sign). I think though that nerves are natural feelings to have entering such a stressful time in the profession of teaching. There is so much to do and you are teaching in a classroom that is not yours. That is what makes me the most nervous. It is not my classroom and at least from a legal standpoint not my students. These facts make student teaching a difficult and nervous undertaking as I have never actually taught full time before.

But along with this nervousness came excitement. I cannot wait to become a teacher. I have loved every experience I have had interacting with kids, whether it be coaching the neighborhood swim team or substituting in the local middle school. It is finally time to see if I would enjoy teaching as much as I thought I would and had so far. In addition, I have put so much time into preparing for this moment that I was excited to put the skills I had learned to practical use. And I cannot wait for that moment when I make an impact on a student in academics and realizing their potential. I realize I have these students for a limited time but my goal is to help them accomplish something they did not think they could. I think many teachers enter the profession for that moment and I cannot wait for it to be my turn. As for those nerves, I know that I will be able to overcome any of the obstacles that come my way because I have an excellent support staff that includes my cooperative teacher and my fellow student teachers (as I am lucky to have four others at my high school placement). And that lesson that was giving me trouble the night before embarking on my student teaching experience: my cooperating teacher and I discussed it, and it is going to be awesome.

Está Sobre La Magia - -Sara

On my first Friday of student teaching, we have an assembly to promote the student’s participation in the PTA fundraiser. They are going to sell magazines! There is a guest speaker from the company who is showing the students a bunch of different laser beams and stuffed pigs that walk around and oink which they can win for prizes. However, the ultimate prize is that if the students sell at least three magazine subscriptions they get to attend a magic show!

I am sitting next to a student during this assembly who is originally from the Dominican Republic. He and his mother moved to the United States just two years ago. The guest speaker plays a clip showing the magician throw a playing card that slices a carrot. Amidst all of the oohs and ahs of the student crowd, the boy sitting next to me grabs my arm. His eyes are wide open and a smile stretches from cheek to cheek! “A magic show!” he exclaims. “I have never been to a magic show!” He is so excited, and it seems like his dream has come true.

On the way back to the classroom, I see my Dominican student softly crying. I ask him what is wrong. He replies, “Last year, I couldn’t do the fundraiser because my Mom did not know what to do. I won’t get to the go to the magic show.” I did not have to ask that she would not know what to do because the directions are in English. She only speaks Spanish. It broke my heart to see his good spirits fall as he moped like a lost puppy down the hall. During my lunch break, I wrote out directions for his Mom in my best Spanish. I sought him out in the hallway and gave them to him. He was so happy and the light filled his eyes again! This magic show meant the world to him.

This experience was my own personal magic show. In school we learn about curriculum, instruction, and assessment as essential parts of a good instruction. I got so caught up in the important technicalities of teaching that I forgot why I wanted to become a teacher in the first place. It is the wonder and fascination that light up a student’s eyes that thrill me. It is moments like these that remind me why I wanted to be a teacher.

This is my calling! -- Sam

It is here! After nine months of courses, hours upon hours of observations, and many cups of tea while lesson planning, student teaching is here! I walked into the first day with warnings still ringing fresh in my ears. “Don’t dive in too quickly!” “Pace yourself!” “Be prepared to feel exhausted!” Yet, these warnings seem to have fallen on deaf ears. I am swimming in the deep end!

Although I had spent hours in the classroom, I felt as though my eyes were open to a whole new reality. I saw needs all around me: children getting suspended, disorganized closets of math materials, low benchmark scores, and an unfilled position for a head of the Intramural soccer program. No longer was I a sporadic visitor to a largely unfamiliar community: I was a helper, a mentor, and a problem solver. I was a teacher!

The first few days were rife with activity. I was asked to fill the IM soccer position, volunteered to organize the closet, agreed to take on three periods starting this coming Wednesday, and had to give several heartfelt lectures on lessons in life in an attempt to quell the rising disciplinary problems that characterize the third quarter. Yet it seems the more I take on, the more need I see. It is easy to see how one can become consumed by this profession, or, dare I say, this lifestyle.

Yet, the days have seemed to fly by! When I hear the 3:05 bell ring signaling the end of the day, it is not excitement that floods my soul; it is what I will describe as sorrow for lack of a better term. Sorrow that the students are leaving. Sorrow that the hallways, which moments before rang loudly with middle school drama, are now silent. Sorrow that my job is done. Truly, this is a profession like none other! Truly, this is my calling!

Those oh-so-anticipated “teachable moments” -- Kare

I am excited to say that I am now an official “student teacher.” While the first few days were challenging, they were also exciting, motivating, and, of course, insightful learning opportunities. I have learned about the challenge that is co-teacher collaboration and how to be flexible in the classroom.

Day 1: I introduced The Great Gatsby, our main unit text, by way of discussing the parallels between Fitzgerald’s life and his fiction. Lesson 1: students care far less about Fitzgerald’s college literary magazine and football dreams than I do! As a teacher, it is challenging to balance your personal love and interest in literature and learning with what your students are reasonably inspired and capable of exploring.

Day 2: I used the universal appeal of $$$ to attract student attention. The students discussed money and high/low society in The Great Gatsby…and they really got into it! I was so pleased to see every student talking and finding what I considered “slippery” quotations from the text to explore the concept of money and class. I am, however, in a unique situation in that my class is not all mine. In fact, it is not even shared by me and my cooperating teacher. No, I share a class with another student teacher and two cooperating teachers. Lesson 2: be open and flexible. To make a long story short, I felt like I had to stop my first-ever teachable moment because the clock told me to hand over the reigns to my history student teacher counterpart. I understand that teaching is being flexible, but I wish that this flexibility was driven by the STUDENTS and not by scheduling and a shared classroom. My goal now is to somehow figure out ways to develop these “teachable moments” in finite scheduled-ahead time blocks. More to come on this…

Bring on the Adventure -- Cati

When I think about starting to student teach, I feel a combination of curiosity, openness, and excitement. I am curious about both the big picture of what this will look like and the small. What will it be like to take over someone else's already established classroom? How do I initiate the many conversations that I need to have with my cooperating teacher about what tests to use, what pacing to use, what kinds of management policies to use? What will I do when students misbehave? Will the ones that misbehave when my cooperating teacher is teaching misbehave for me, too? What on earth will I wear on week 3 when my school-worthy wardrobe has run out, and will students notice if I just start again from day 1 and recycle everything from there?

I am open to what comes, in part because I know that I will never get the answers to these questions until I just "do it." I feel like this is the next part of this crazy, intriguing adventure called teaching, and it will evolve and unfold as it does. I'm feeling relaxed and open to what will come and I'm trying not to get caught up in the black hole of the unknown. So much is outside of my control! It's more fun to go in trustingly and remember that hey, I'll figure it out when I get there!

It's much more fun to look at what's exciting. I'm very excited to be at school, every day, for the full day, for ten weeks. I'm big on rhythms and this graduate program effectively precludes a rhythm to our days, as we juggle classes, observations and teaching, and in many cases jobs. I'm glad that I will get up at 5 a.m. every day, not necessarily because it will be at 5 a.m., but because it will be the same time every day. (An added benefit will be that I will show myself that I can get up at 5 a.m. every day.) I am excited to see that I can be a teacher! I look forward to the chance to continue building rapport with my students, to keep interacting with other teachers at school, and to try out ideas and practices we have learned about in classes. The long-standing divide between theory and practice is about to be overcome! That, following months of classes, is inherently exciting.

The Students are My Goal -- Eric

Going into student teaching, I'm excited about having a consistent schedule and face-time with students. As we move closer to that point, I have the growing sensation that the students embody my main goal as a professional. They are the reason. I grow tired of the litany of small assignments and reflections that I have to do as a student myself. My students are waiting, and I want to be there.

Of course, I am worried that this student teaching will quickly consume my life. But on the other hand, I have tasted this life, and I will willingly offer myself.

Here's another concern: I want to give my students work that challenges them and pushes them to a new level of achievement, YET in trying to navigate that road I don't want to either give them an impossible task or insult them with baby work. I guess no teacher wants their class to be the dreaded point in some poor student's day.

And another concern: Will I be so enveloped in trying to stay on my feet during this formative experience that I will miss the chance to connect with students on an individual (dare I say personal) level? Obviously I hope not. Yet I want to give my twelfth graders a final semester that makes them feel recognized and challenged.

Best wishes to all of us. May isosceles triangles and war-torn Europe and atomic numbers and sonnet rhyme schemes and estudiantes desafiante y los bombaderos be topics with which students wrestle and never forget.

More Amazing Teachers

Abri is teaching twelfth grade government. She is most looking forward to being in the classroom every day so that she can learn more about herself as a teacher and experience what it is like to teach something beyond a single lesson.




Kelly is teaching Algebra II and Math Analysis to grades 9 through 12. During student teaching she is looking forward to trying out ideas like Parabola Playtime, getting to know her students, and building confidence as a teacher.






Tom is teaching tenth grade World Geography and ninth grade World History. He is looking forward to finally getting a true taste of what the teaching profession actually looks like as well as being able to help all these students learn about history and being good citizens. He is also excited to share those experiences with all who will read this blog.

Sara is teaching sixth grade Early American History. She is mostly looking forward to working with her students all the time!

Kyle is teaching ninth grade English and twelfth grade AP Literature and Language. He is most looking forward to beginning his professional career, which in the case of teaching is improving the lives and futures of children.




Johnny Mac is teaching eleventh grade AP U.S. history, the social studies portion of eleventh grade Advanced American Studies, and Law and Society for students in grades 10-12. He is co-teaching the American Studies class with Bex. Johnny Mac is most looking forward to being a good thief and finding a lot of resources related to his content area to expand his repertoire during student teaching.

Bex is teaching AP English Humanities Enhanced and co-teaching Advanced American Studies with Johnny Mac. It has been a long journey to this point, and she is excited to finally be in the classroom. She is most looking forward to getting to know her students better and learning how to best teach them. Bex is eager to explore different areas of teaching and to hone her skills so she can become an awesome English teacher.

Clifton is teaching eleventh grade US History, IB twelth grade Geography, and IB eleventh grade History of America. He is most looking forward to teaching students with different skills and abilities while trying to meet their needs.

Bios of Some Amazing Teachers

Sam is teaching math to sixth graders. He is looking forward to the chance to consistently be in the classroom and see his long term goals and units come to life during student teaching.




Kare is teaching two blocks of Intensified English for tenth graders and one block of eleventh grade Advanced American Studies. She is looking forward to seeing her students everyday and interacting with them in a more direct manner. She hopes that teaching them everyday as compared to once or twice a week will help her develop a better rapport with them and allow her to better see their academic progress.


Beth is teaching chemistry to grades ten through 12. She is looking forward to spending every day with the students because chemistry students are awesome. She also looks forward to not having anymore graduate classes.



Eric is teaching 12th grade English. He is most looking forward to developing a consistent professional relationship with his students. He also wants to be a fixture in the classroom and he wants a more panoramic view of their learning as compared to the spot-visit view he has been receiving.



Cati is teaching Spanish II to 9th and 10th graders and AP Spanish to 11th and 12th graders. She is most looking forward to having a regular schedule of interacting and working with her students. She is also excited to continue teaching so she can grow more confident in her skills and more trusting in the workability of the best practices for foreign language instruction that she has been learning about this year. She is excited to be in school every day and to be on the same schedule as the students so through that continuity and regular interaction her rapport with students can grow to the point where she can learn how to best teach those particular students



Raggs is teaching the social studies portion of eleventh grade American Studies. He is looking forward to putting into practice the skills he has learned in a more direct and constant way in order to develop better relationships with his students. He is also excited to see if he will in fact enjoy teaching and helping students learn as much as he thinks he will based on his past experiences.




Amelia is teaching three regular English and one intensified English for seventh graders. She is most looking forward to working with her students because they are delightful.