So I Want to be a Teacher. Can You Help Me?

Chapter Overviews:

Chapter 1:  Hi, How Are You? -

            You have accepted the responsibility for taking a Wichita State University teacher intern, so what do you do next? To tell you the truth, WSU interns have a hard time knowing too. The best thing to do that will be helpful to you and your intern is to start communication as soon as possible. Just by sending a friendly hello e-mail helps the intern feel welcome and more comfortable to keep an open line of communication with you. This chapter will discuss other things to accomplish with the teacher intern before they step foot in your classroom.

Chapter 2: Can I Have Some Space? –

            The teacher intern will be with you throughout the whole semester and may need some space to call their own. Whether or not you have a huge amount of space to offer the intern something would be nice. The intern will have to perform like a teacher while in your classroom and needs to have a space to call their own. If the intern does not have a space to de-stress the experience will overwhelm them. This chapter will discuss ways to make your intern feel comfortable.

Chapter 3: Honesty Is The Best Policy. –

            During your intern’s placement, you will be filling out evaluation forms. Giving the intern good marks is nice, but may boost their ego too much. It will more effective to be critical and honest with your intern. Make sure you are leaving comments on their performance good and bad. Remember this is still a learning experience for the intern. This chapter will discuss past advice and comments from cooperating teachers that were effective and not. This chapter will also include examples of evaluation sheets.

Chapter 4: Resources Are More Than Welcomed. –

            Your teacher intern will be provided with materials that the college expects them to use, but other than that they have NOTHING. They will be sponges that are going to want to absorb every bit of information that you will provide them. They will be building their teacher tool belt and will be appreciative of any resources you will be willing to offer. This chapter will give examples of resources that past teacher interns have discussed would have been helpful to have received during their experience.

Chapter 5: I Need A Little RESPECT!!!

            You will probably provide a very respectful environment for your intern, however some of your colleagues and students will not. Your colleagues may look at the teacher intern and feel threatened by their presence because it is a new person in the building. Try to make them understand that they are part of the interns learning process also. The students will do what they can to disrespect the intern because they will not view them as a real teacher. Back your intern up as needed, but do not interfere with the intern learning classroom management. This chapter will discuss ways in which to help your teacher intern feel respected.

"If I Could Write a Letter to Me"

To the future Mrs. Hart,

For those who have never heard the song by Brad Paisley, I encourage you to give it a listen. A man decided to write a letter to himself saying what he would and would not have change had he knew. This is kind of how I feel now. For all of the student teachers who will be reading this in the future to get a feel for what is in store, I hope your path is less rocky and filled with less sorrow. This is a catch 22 however. As much as I have endured during this process, those who know the whole story of 4-25-12, know that my journey has been filled with situations that I would hope no teacher would ever have to go through and yet without these experiences I would not have become who I am now.

To my past self who will be looking forward at this, I ask you to not forget why you want to become a teacher and why through all the drama and chaos you have a passion for teaching middle school. You will learn that is takes a special kind of person to take on the challenge of being compassionate, empathic, engaging, and positive through each day. Only someone like you will be able to see the best that a student can be through all of the bulls**t, and you will come to know what it takes to keep their light shining or know how to help turn it back on. You will have battles along the way that will make you fell defeated and like all hope is lost, but hold on. Keeping thinking that tomorrow is a new day with a fresh new outlook on how to improve.

Remember there is no such thing as being perfect. You must strive to always be a better person, friend, colleague, and educator. Your students do not need perfection they need YOU! Goofy, encouraging, crazy at times YOU. The way you will learn to relate to students and how to be on their level is what will make you so successful. Keep being you and DON'T ever change.

You will find  that everyone around thinks you are insane for taking on the projects you do. Most of the time you are successful in accomplishing what you set out to do, but procrastination will bite you in the behind. So be forewarned, pace yourself.

Being at the school you will be placed at for your middle school observations and all of your student teaching will help you tremendously in shaping your teaching strategies. You will encounter cooperating teachers and other staff that will make an everlasting impact on you. Not only will they be there for you as mentors, but they will become some of your closest friends that will forever touch your heart. These people you meet, especially your principal, will have your best interest in mind. They will go above and beyond to showcase your assets as an educator to potential employers. (Even though they secretly want you to stay at their school)

Things in the job market look up in April. You will be blindsided with a job offer that you will not expect in a million years. Even though your heart will be set on staying where you are, this other offer is an opportunity of a life time that you must take.

Throughout the journey your advisors at WSU will critique you. At times it may seem harsh, like you were not meant to do this. Keep your chin up and learn from your mistakes. During your last one on one with your English advisor, you will be told that you are what future teachers should be. Your mentors and advisors were right all along; you are a TEACHER!

Sincerely,
   Amy Hart (Spring 2012 End of Student Teaching)

Future High School Teachers, I Need You!

                Words cannot describe everything I will take away from this experience. I have learned what students are capable of, what they can and cannot handle content wise, and more and more about myself. Every day has been a learning experience and I look forward to learning more every day. If this is what it means to be a teacher, I think I have definitely found my calling.

                Right now in my classroom I have the joy of experiencing state assessments. This is an adventure in itself. The day can begin so wonderful and go to hell in a hand basket in an instant. The upside is I have seen how a good CT (or an awesome and experienced teacher) really handles a tough situation. We had computers crashing left and right, testing tickets disappear, and students who finished in 15 minutes. There was a lot of chaos and a few tears were shed but no one lost their cool. We have been prepping for this moment for the last 5-6 weeks and it has finally arrived just for me to wish it was all over. I have 1 final day to look forward to until the madness is over for the year. This is where my question comes in…. Where do we go from here?

                Some teachers (not mine) have said to students, “Oh, we finished state assessments so we are done learning now let’s have fun”. Are we ever really done learning or teaching? I don’t think this is something we should be telling students, and I have started to become offended by hearing it from others. Now I understand students in certain grade levels hit a brick wall. Those of you in a high school setting may refer to this brick wall as senioritis, however in a middle school it is 8^th graditis (not sure on the spelling of that sorry L). As we have begun to plan for the remainder of the year we can tell that the participation and excitement will begin to dwindle. We have completed most of what is required on the pacing guide and are looking at ways to prepare our students for their high school experience during the transition to common core standards. We realize there is going to be a larger emphasis on grammar and spelling so we would like to try to incorporate some review/re-teach of some of the basics. Future high school teachers I need your help!!!!! What is that you see needs work the most? I know from what I have encountered from 8^th graders we definitely need to work on spelling because texting and predictive text has ruined my students ability to sound out words. Are you all seeing issues with grammar like not knowing about proper subject verb placement? What about problems with identifying nouns, verbs, prepositions, etc.? I would like to help prepare my students to be successful when they enter their high school language arts classroom but I really need to know what expectations are being set for them to come into. I would appreciate any advice or suggestions. As for now we are planning out the rest of the semester to be a crash course in high school prep by teaching lessons on etiquette, grammar, spelling, and still doing some literature. One text we are going to reference is The Essential 55 by Ron Clark. We hope by teaching the above our students will be better prepared to succeed in their high school journey and with your help I know we can get them where they need.

It's Mrs. Hart not Amy

              Time seems to go by so fast. I can’t believe I have been teaching for a month now. I am really excited to be teaching a novel study along with doing test review for the state assessment. My students seem to be doing well, but I still have a few challenges. I continue to struggle to reach those few students who need to have the control of the classroom. I try to be the disciplinarian however being so close to their age I am still finding it difficult for them to take me seriously. I am working on when I say I am going to do something, I do it. But what else can I do? I have given lunch detentions, taken pencils away until they had to do their work, sent kids out of the room to be refocused, and even called home. This seems to be a never ending battle and I am starting to feel defeated. I think the worst thing that I have still not been able to correct is one student who finds it necessary to address me by my first name. When I introduced myself to the class at the beginning of the semester I told them my name was Mrs. Hart. I have not told anyone my first name but my id badge says first and last name. This student either just trying to be smart or just plain out being disrespectful refuses to stop calling me by my first name. I have asked and told him my name is Mrs. Hart. Today, when he decided to call me by my first name, I pretended I didn’t hear him. He repeated my name again and I responded, “Does anyone know of a student named Amy because I don’t know of any Amys in this class.” This made the class laugh a little but I am scared to think that this is all he was wanting. I know this isn’t really a serious problem in some people’s eyes but this is a problem to me. If I have a student trying to call me by my first name, I feel that it is not helping my quest to gain respect. Any suggestions on what I can do or say would be greatly appreciated. With all of this drama I am afraid to look in the mirror because I don’t want to find any grey hairs.

                On a brighter note, I am glad to say that state assessments are soon approaching. I have been doing some really fun things to help the students review. We have played a couple different jeopardy games and a lot of different games on our new smartboard. I have a ton of resources for activities with the smartboard thanks to my CT, so shoot me a line if you need any fun things to help with review items for Language arts state assessments. I used most of my materials for 8^th graders, but I know all of them can be adapted in some way to help different grade levels. More and more each day, I am looking forward to state assessment and can’t wait to see how well my students will do. I will continue to keep everyone update and look forward to any and all suggestions.

And the journey begins

                Wow has this journey begun with a bang! I knew what to expect walking into 2 of my classes from last semester but I picked up 2 more. I decided to walk in my first day with an open mind.  However, maybe it was too open. My first English class I had to give a student a written reprimand (PBR) for sexual harassment towards me. He is one of my alpha-males from last semester and he does things continually that keep me asking,” What can I do to get through to him?”  The day did not stop from there. In my next class I had 2 transfer students who felt they had something to prove. These 2 were bright and witty, but had the attitude and demeanor of a drunken sailor. I felt horrible for my CT who tried continuously to control them but they would not let up. After multiple hall visits and even the threat of going to the student center, these 2 just kept at it. This too makes me wonder how I can reach these students. Finally, what I thought would be the highlight of my day, honors English, turned out to be chaos upon chaos. This class knew they were smarter than the others and made sure to act like it. The moment I spoke I could tell that there would be a battle to gain respect.

               

                After my first day, I was exhausted. The only thing on my mind was the idea of returning the next day to the same situations. I felt defeated like I did not or could not find an answer to help me get through to my new and old students. I have talked with my CTs and other student teachers, their suggestions and similar situations have been a huge help in easing my mind. The only other thing that still bothers me is how to get student’s respect when they do not see you as an adult/disciplinarian figure.

                As of now I am going to try to reach my students and gain their respect through the way I teach and what I teach. I am going to start off teaching technical writing to 8^th grade, a CWC group and an honors group. I am going to try to get through to my difficult students by planning activities that engage them and spark interest in the subject matter. One of the first activities I have planned is a follow the directions test. This is a pre-assessment to see how well the students will do with a technical writing example that tells them to read all of the directions before doing any of them. I cannot wait to see how well this will go over when the students read the last direction that tells them to do only directions 1 and 2 (that is if they do not read the first direction as stated above and do all of the goofy stuff in between). I also have some other fun activities planned and hope they will go over well and help to distract those difficult students from acting up. I hope to be able to gain some respect from my students who do not know me, but I am still a little unsure about how to go about it. I don’t want to just be the fun teacher or the mean teacher. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to updating you all on how the rest of this journey goes and I look forward to any feedback or suggestions you may have.

Where has the time gone?

     This semester started very slowly for me. I began with a plan to get everything accomplished a head of time and to keep myself on task. I will be the first to tell you this did not work. I find myself asking questions everyday about why did I do this, or why didn't I do that. I feel like I am so far behind and just can't get caught up. I try more and more everyday to work harder on what I want to accomplish but there are only some many hours in a day.

     To top everything off I feel overwhelmed with useless information from some of my current classes and find myself with the mentality of some of my students. I do not want to say that all of my classes are irrelevant to what I need to know, but I am finding some information going in one ear and out of the other, while the rest of the information is either retained or just stops before it enters even one ear.

     I would have to say I learned the most from English methods and from observations. My observations have been the most effective thing this semester to help me understand how I need to improve. I have been able to teach for extended periods of time where I am in total control of the class and it really hits you hard when you realize you are not perfect.

     This semester, even though harder than I thought, has overall been a good semester. I am sad thinking of it ending. The only thing that keeps a smile on my face is knowing that after a short winter break I will be back in the classrooms, hopefully the same ones.

    

In the presence of a rock star

                Let me begin by saying the KATE conference was AWESOME!!! I received lots of useful information and resources. I also got to meet a lot of fun and knowledgeable educators, attendees/students, and even the keynote speakers. The most useful breakout session I attended was the Survivalism 101 session. This session focused on surviving a new school environment and your first year of teaching. The speakers for this session gave us a survival guide that included templates for permission slips, syllabi, and other classroom logs. Also in this guide were checklists for items we may want to have in our classrooms and how to organize our future classroom effectively. The other sessions I attended were very educational as well, but I feel this one was the most useful for me as my first year of teaching is hopefully approaching soon.

                The keynote speakers at the conference were absolutely incredible. They both were very down to earth, friendly, approachable, and hilarious. Clare Vanderpool was so relatable; she made you feel like you were in the room with her as she received the phone calls that she sold her book and that she was the winner of a prestigious award for it. Since she is from Wichita, it made me feel proud, as a fellow Wichitan, to have someone like her as part of our community. She also made me feel like as a mom I can accomplish anything if I put my mind to it.  When a few of us (my fellow classmates) were in line to get our books signed by Clare, we had an encounter with the other keynote speaker without realizing it. Socializing with Jay Asher and then realizing who he was, was like being in the presence of a rock star. ß(a comment I made in the presence of an Emporia professor, who said that is how she knows I am destined to be an English teacher) The whole event of meeting Jay Asher was quite hilarious because we (us students) were chatting each other up about silly things like duplicate names in class and how I have a library card system for my books that I loan out, all the while he was nodding and making small comments. When we formed the single file line to get our books signed, I spotted the name on his folder. My mouth immediately fell open and I began to point and whisper, “IT”S JAY ASHER!”. I was not heard at first so I repeated myself until my message was understood. Needless to say, I am sure he saw the whole event take place but he did not let on.

                I meet a few new people during this conference, mostly the presenters from the breakout sessions. I did however run into my senior year high school English teacher and that made my day. She remembered me from ten years prior and told me if I ever needed anything to look her up. These kinds of connections are what conferences like this are all about. I hope to be able to attend this conference again next year and in the years to come. Who knows maybe even someday I will be knowledgeable enough to be a presenter myself.