My Teaching Experiences

Fourth period ninth grade English is a lively bunch of quirky students who like to chat. Students waste a lot of time in there.

I sat in on a group of four girls who wasted the first three minutes of group time looking through a photo album even though I was sitting there taking notes on their interactions. (I had even asked their permission to join their group.) I thought about intervening, but then reconsidered and allowed them to take their own course to see where it ended up. That three minutes of discussing summer photos ended when Andrew noticed that they weren't working and started walking in their direction. One girl noticed and hurridly brought the group to the topic at hand. Immediately, the album was stashed and the girls started gabbing about their project. However, no one had been listening to the directions or taking notes on the assignment so they started planning a tremendous assignment that did not fit the perameters Andrew had established for the class. Again, I let them work on their own without inturrupting. This planning wasted a good four minutes. Then, Andrew made an announcement clarifying the assignment further and the girls realized that they were working on a made up assignment. That was when they started including me, asking me questions about the assignment and what I thought they should do. They decided that they didn't want to do the assignment the way it was designed at that they would instead be creative and do it their own way. This was Wednesday. The assignment was due Monday and groups were told they would have all day Thursday and Friday to work on the assignments in class. This group of girls decided that their project would have to be done outside of class (therefore leaving them nothing to do in class for the next two days, which one girl did actually realize; to which another girl responded "Cool, then we can just chat and stuff and we'll be fine.") and so they spent the rest of the period (six minutes) planning the time and place they would meet to start, work on, complete and edit the film they were planning on making. They decided on Sunday at three in the afternoon. I asked them if they thought that would give them enough time to do the whole movie and if they were aware that that would, although be completing the project, not meet the original (and much simpler) project design. They saw no purpose in my questions. Total time wasted: twelve minutes out of twelve minutes allotted to work.

Sixth period eighth grade reading is a quiet class full of students who appear to think and don't talk out of turn. They are similar in form to seventh period eighth readng. Eighth period eighth grade reading, however, is full of busy-bodies and students who talk out. But one thing is different with all classes lately that makes them all behave equally well: they love reading The Outsiders. I read aloud to seventh and eighth periods Friday and found myself in front of a captive audience. They love the characters, the story and, I'm sure, the ease of being read to. Some follow along, some sit quietly and listen. I like reading aloud to them because I feel like the visual kids get a chance to read for a length of time and can follow along with an experienced and engaged reader and the audio kids can get the story without the burden of having to follow every single page with their eyes. I found myself getting a little choked up during the part about Johnny and Ponyboy rescuing the kids from the fire. I think that I definitely have the power to cry in front of them or, rather, that I do not have the power to stop myself from crying in front of them. I know that now and I'm prepared in case it does happen. It's just an example of how involved I am with the story and the characters.

My Teaching Experiences
I'm a graduate student at Boise State University just starting to work with the school districts. This no-frills blog is my account of my experiences in the school setting. Archives: January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007	Sunday, October 01, 2006 Fourth period ninth grade English is a lively bunch of quirky students who like to chat. Students waste a lot of time in there. I sat in on a group of four girls who wasted the first three minutes of group time looking through a photo album even though I was sitting there taking notes on their interactions. (I had even asked their permission to join their group.) I thought about intervening, but then reconsidered and allowed them to take their own course to see where it ended up. That three minutes of discussing summer photos ended when Andrew noticed that they weren't working and started walking in their direction. One girl noticed and hurridly brought the group to the topic at hand. Immediately, the album was stashed and the girls started gabbing about their project. However, no one had been listening to the directions or taking notes on the assignment so they started planning a tremendous assignment that did not fit the perameters Andrew had established for the class. Again, I let them work on their own without inturrupting. This planning wasted a good four minutes. Then, Andrew made an announcement clarifying the assignment further and the girls realized that they were working on a made up assignment. That was when they started including me, asking me questions about the assignment and what I thought they should do. They decided that they didn't want to do the assignment the way it was designed at that they would instead be creative and do it their own way. This was Wednesday. The assignment was due Monday and groups were told they would have all day Thursday and Friday to work on the assignments in class. This group of girls decided that their project would have to be done outside of class (therefore leaving them nothing to do in class for the next two days, which one girl did actually realize; to which another girl responded "Cool, then we can just chat and stuff and we'll be fine.") and so they spent the rest of the period (six minutes) planning the time and place they would meet to start, work on, complete and edit the film they were planning on making. They decided on Sunday at three in the afternoon. I asked them if they thought that would give them enough time to do the whole movie and if they were aware that that would, although be completing the project, not meet the original (and much simpler) project design. They saw no purpose in my questions. Total time wasted: twelve minutes out of twelve minutes allotted to work. Sixth period eighth grade reading is a quiet class full of students who appear to think and don't talk out of turn. They are similar in form to seventh period eighth readng. Eighth period eighth grade reading, however, is full of busy-bodies and students who talk out. But one thing is different with all classes lately that makes them all behave equally well: they love reading The Outsiders. I read aloud to seventh and eighth periods Friday and found myself in front of a captive audience. They love the characters, the story and, I'm sure, the ease of being read to. Some follow along, some sit quietly and listen. I like reading aloud to them because I feel like the visual kids get a chance to read for a length of time and can follow along with an experienced and engaged reader and the audio kids can get the story without the burden of having to follow every single page with their eyes. I found myself getting a little choked up during the part about Johnny and Ponyboy rescuing the kids from the fire. I think that I definitely have the power to cry in front of them or, rather, that I do not have the power to stop myself from crying in front of them. I know that now and I'm prepared in case it does happen. It's just an example of how involved I am with the story and the characters.