I had intended to post here about my experience student teaching at least once a week.
My last post was a rather depressing one, regarding my questioning my effectiveness as a teacher and wondering what I could do to reach my students. Weeks later, I sit here at my desk knowing that today is my last day. My student teaching experience is over. Have I been successful? I’d certainly like to think so. I know more about handling a classroom than I did when I was going in. We’ve had our ups and downs, but for the most part, I have great relationships with my students. I’ve become more comfortable pacing out my lessons and figuring out where lessons and units fit in the “bigger picture.” Am I perfect? Of course not, but I don’t think I could expect that of myself.
I am sitting here before any students get in not…
Two weeks. I’ve been teaching them for only two weeks, and I’m terrified that I’m doing something dreadfully wrong. Today they took their unit exam for The Canterbury Tales. The average score on the objective portion of the test (25 questions, multiple choice and matching) was 63%. At our school, 70% is the cutoff for…
read more »My observation days are over. It was an interesting day to start teaching, but I’m trying to go with the flow. It’s spirit week, 2nd block was a pep rally, and we got out early today because of the projected snow coming with Nemo. In the midst of all that, though, I finally got to…
read more »Mr. T taught this week. He chose the role of the disciplinarian in establishing the classroom expectations. I know he is doing this so the students will welcome me more readily, but the hostile classroom atmosphere worries me a little. Students openly discuss their dislike of him. At the same time, he reminds me of…
read more »My food for thought today: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education. ” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
read more »The high school I am student teaching at has block scheduling and works on a semester schedule, so the students are taking finals this week. Because Mr. T teaches AP Language and most students take the AP test, only one student was in yesterday to take a final. His 12th grade classes took their finals…
read more »I had my student teacher orientation today. I wish I had more to say about it, but I found it disappointingly unspecific. It was great to meet the supervisor who will be guiding me from my university’s end of things, and I had some of my questions answered, but some of the bigger things we…
read more »As I mentioned in my introductory post, I will be student teaching this coming semester as a requirement of my graduate degree and certification process. I just returned home from meeting my mentor teacher for the first time. He will henceforth be referred to as Mr. T. I should start by mentioning how nervous I…
read more »Hi there! My name is Gina, and I am proud to say that I am a Teach for America 2013 corps member! I have been assigned to the Greater Newark region, with a tentative placement in secondary special education (English). I’m not quite sure what that will end up looking like, so for now I…
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