My Teaching Experiences

Andrew surprised me this week. Wednesday he gave the kids some great tools to help them read poetry (#1: Read the poem out loud...get back to your roots of education before teachers started punishing you for moving your lips while you read...experience the flow and sound of the poem) and then told us at the learning seminar that he really wants his students to get a good, happy feel for poetry and what poetry is and the power it contains. Friday in class he assigned them the two canon poems assigned by the curriculum to read to themselves and answer four questions, the answers to which they were not allowed to discuss with a friend and which he collected at the end of the period. The two poems had nothing to do with each other and were, frankly, boring. The students' first task was to "identify the images" in the poems. OK...And do what with that? How were they supposed to write about that? - which is what he wanted them to do so that he had something to grade. And all they did with the two poems was find the boring poetry stuff that all students hate: alliteration, similies, etc. I imagine the students didn't learn anything from these poems and are no better prepared for their EOCs after this assignment. Oh, and rule #1 (read the poem out loud)? None of that. This was a silent reading activity.

I think this surprised me because his teaching Wednesday and his teaching Friday completely contradicted each other. Did he go the boring route Friday because he was only showing off for the learning lab Wednesday? Did he just not know what to do with those two poems because he also finds them boring? Was he so ill-prepared that he defaulted to the worst possible teaching style that requires no thought on the part of either the teacher or the students? What does he really believe about teaching and effective methods of instruction? Yes, the kids did the assignment and at the end of the period they were all able to turn something in, but they were bored and, I suspect, disappointed. I know I would be disappointed if I had just spent an hour of my life doing that assignment. In fact, I was disappointed just watching it.

Eighth grade was possibly the best it ever has been on Friday. Tessa was out with the flu and we had a sub. So I took over periods 6-8. I felt like I had some semblance of teacherhood in the room - like I wasn't just filling in, but that the kids recognized me as the teacher for the day. I felt like I got to know the kids a little better and interact with them in a way I don't usually get to. I'm worried about student teaching in Tessa's room because I don't think she'll be able to let me just take over like I'm supposed to. She keeps calling it "team teaching" and saying things like that she'll teach third and fourth periods and I can teach 6-8 - that way I know what she expects. Even now she doesn't let me take over the whole class - she starts them reading silently and does the announcements, which she feels are super important and must be done in her own words. That takes the first 15-20 minutes of class. I've also noticed that while she won't pass papers back to students because it wastes too much time that she doesn't have, she spends far too much time every day on the announcements - something that should take no more that two to three minutes. *sigh* Oh well - just another hoop until May, I suppose.

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	Monday, November 06, 2006 Andrew surprised me this week. Wednesday he gave the kids some great tools to help them read poetry (#1: Read the poem out loud...get back to your roots of education before teachers started punishing you for moving your lips while you read...experience the flow and sound of the poem) and then told us at the learning seminar that he really wants his students to get a good, happy feel for poetry and what poetry is and the power it contains. Friday in class he assigned them the two canon poems assigned by the curriculum to read to themselves and answer four questions, the answers to which they were not allowed to discuss with a friend and which he collected at the end of the period. The two poems had nothing to do with each other and were, frankly, boring. The students' first task was to "identify the images" in the poems. OK...And do what with that? How were they supposed to write about that? - which is what he wanted them to do so that he had something to grade. And all they did with the two poems was find the boring poetry stuff that all students hate: alliteration, similies, etc. I imagine the students didn't learn anything from these poems and are no better prepared for their EOCs after this assignment. Oh, and rule #1 (read the poem out loud)? None of that. This was a silent reading activity. I think this surprised me because his teaching Wednesday and his teaching Friday completely contradicted each other. Did he go the boring route Friday because he was only showing off for the learning lab Wednesday? Did he just not know what to do with those two poems because he also finds them boring? Was he so ill-prepared that he defaulted to the worst possible teaching style that requires no thought on the part of either the teacher or the students? What does he really believe about teaching and effective methods of instruction? Yes, the kids did the assignment and at the end of the period they were all able to turn something in, but they were bored and, I suspect, disappointed. I know I would be disappointed if I had just spent an hour of my life doing that assignment. In fact, I was disappointed just watching it. Eighth grade was possibly the best it ever has been on Friday. Tessa was out with the flu and we had a sub. So I took over periods 6-8. I felt like I had some semblance of teacherhood in the room - like I wasn't just filling in, but that the kids recognized me as the teacher for the day. I felt like I got to know the kids a little better and interact with them in a way I don't usually get to. I'm worried about student teaching in Tessa's room because I don't think she'll be able to let me just take over like I'm supposed to. She keeps calling it "team teaching" and saying things like that she'll teach third and fourth periods and I can teach 6-8 - that way I know what she expects. Even now she doesn't let me take over the whole class - she starts them reading silently and does the announcements, which she feels are super important and must be done in her own words. That takes the first 15-20 minutes of class. I've also noticed that while she won't pass papers back to students because it wastes too much time that she doesn't have, she spends far too much time every day on the announcements - something that should take no more that two to three minutes. sigh Oh well - just another hoop until May, I suppose.