Nearly eight weeks in

It's hard to believe how quickly the time is flying! Last night I had the last regular class session for my university seminar. We covered a couple of items, including applying for certification. Is it starting to feel real yet? I feel like I’m ready. Give it another week, though, just to be sure, and together we’ll evaluate my progress. Why one more week, you ask? I have my final observation from my university supervisor next Thursday, and the theater students should be presenting their improv projects. Honestly, I have no idea what the outcome will be.

I could have played it safe for the unit, just sticking to improv games and briefing the students on the history on improvisation in theater. Instead, I have gone big. Thankfully, Mr. Scott was on board from the get-go, and it certainly has helped to bounce ideas off him as we progress. For the unit, I created six teams for each class, each team corresponding to a well-known improv theatre troupe, i.e., Second City, The Groundlings, et al. Each team has to put together a research paper and presentation on their company. I thought it would be a fun way for students to really gain appreciation of the art form, particularly with its strong Chicago roots. Throw in bonuses for integrated technology and collaborative work, and I think I’m hitting all the marks with the project. Part of the struggle is getting enough time for the students to work on computers during class time, since the students are from varying grade levels and don’t have the same lunch periods or much ability to work together after school. They should be doing some research outside of class, but I have to be realistic about how much they are able to do. I assembled the groups in mixed abilities, with even gender arrangements and broken up cliques. The idea is that the groups will also work together for their improv sketch performances, so the collaborative work should yield good results. If all goes well, students should be submitting their papers and projects on Monday, giving me time to at least peruse everything before the presentations.

I have had a couple of small fires which I have had to diffuse. In my first period class, the group studying Second City was fighting because one girl said the other had to do the interview requirement. The first girl was trying to say that she could do her own research for the presentation, and everyone else could do the paper—I had to explain that it was important for each of them to take sections of the project and assemble the same info for both the paper and the presentation. Thankfully that seemed to work.

My other situation involves a student whose first language is not English. I think it may be Polish—we do have a significant Polish population at my school—but I’m not certain. He has refused to work with his group, and he pretty much stated that he thought the theater class was stupid. The only reason why he was still in the class, he said, is his counselor would not let him transfer out. Ironically, he had asked for bookwork and other assignments to augment his reluctance to perform, which I said he couldn’t do—he has to participate just like everyone else or face the consequences. With this project, I had tried to get him to work with his group, but he maintained his refusal, even after I told him that he would likely fail the class if he didn’t do well on the project. When he pulled the same thing again today, I gave him a new assignment: he will have to do his own paper and presentation on Keith Johnstone and his Gorilla Theatre. I don’t have faith that the student will complete the work, but at least his group doesn’t have to plan for the contingency of him actually participating. When I gave the group the news today, at least one of the students had no idea he was even part of their group. If he does do the presentation, it could be interesting for the rest of the class. I haven’t yet figured out what we’ll do for the improv performances, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Three weeks from tomorrow is report card pickup and my last official day as a student teacher. I will likely go back the following day, which is a regular class schedule, just to see the students and aid in the transition back to my respective cooperating teachers. Hard to believe it’s coming up that soon. Aside from not getting my usual paycheck, and the crazy commutes, I’ve really enjoyed this experience. Even the staff development meetings and bureaucracy—it’s a welcome change from the medical billing world. Hopefully it won’t be long before I have a classroom of my own.

Second evaluation is in the books

Today was a busy day. I had my midterm evaluation with my university supervisor, the only evaluation for world lit, and all things considered, it went well. Not exactly smoothly, from my standpoint, but I managed to have things go well enough that my grade certainly benefitted.

While I was presenting to my students how to create a Voki (an avatar) for use in their Epic of Gilgamesh projects, I found I had a terrible time trying to embed the finished product on my page. Each attempt seemed to bring me no closer to a finished product. The last thing I wanted to do was confuse students, but in the end, with a brief reminder from Mrs. Moore, I was able to demonstrate for the students what they needed to do. My university supervisor gave me credit for not getting flustered, so that definitely scored well. In all I think I received exceeds student teacher requirements for the bulk of the evaluation. Now I just have one more evaluation left, in three weeks. That one will be for theater. I'm looking forward to it.

Five weeks down, five-plus to go

While one may think of this as five weeks into the latest Bears season (a surprising 4-1, with anyone's guess how the rest will go), it is hard to believe that I am already five weeks into my student teaching assignment, with little more than five weeks left to go. As Mrs. Moore might put it, I've gotten to see a lot of things so far. Nothing else has been quite as "exciting" as having the principal in the classroom for two consecutive days during the first week of school. My range of experiences, though, will prove more than informative as I transition into this new career.

Teaching three sections of theater and two sections of world literature, I see an array of students. It's only seniors in the world lit classes, but one section is inclusion. Some students are doing really well in the class, and some aren't exactly trying. This next week of assignments (post-progress reports) will go a long ways toward determining who will pass and who likely won't. We have an important study guide project due Friday and a unit project due Monday--not to mention a set of journal entries; there are a ton of points on the table this week, and failure to capitalize will be devastating for the students. At the department meeting, we were informed that a "D-F list" was to be circulated, and teachers are supposed to offer remediation strategies in order to help students pass. Mrs. Moore's philosophy, and I tend to agree, is that seniors should be able to come up with their own remediation strategies. The reality is that if the students have done their assignments, they are passing, and if they haven't been doing the work, they are not passing.

For the theater classes, I have two sections of high school students, each with a very different dynamic due to its placement in the daily schedule. The first period class has a high rate of tardiness and a greater resistance to participation. My fifth period group is much more energetic, but they get too talkative. On Wednesday last week, I had to end an imagination exercise and sit everyone down for a writing assignment due to their collective lack of respect. They did a much better job of participating on Thursday.

The other theater section is nothing short of crazy. We have some middle schoolers at the high school, and my sixth period section is really two groups of students: one that meets M-W-F and one that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are 35 students in each grouping, so it's fair to say there are still a bunch of students I cannot yet identify by name. Same for Mr. Scott. On Thursday, the students did the Edward Albee version of the lesson plan--it was just absurd. As Mr. Scott has said, sometimes you can fight the wave of energy, and sometimes it's better just ride that wave wherever it takes you. Thursday was one of those days.

Five weeks in, I can honestly say I expected more resistance from students and for the overall process to be more difficult. Have I written out all of my lesson plans in the appropriate university format, complete with the state standards which I'm hitting? No, but I have mapped out the lessons for each respective unit, basically using the "backwards" design prescribed. I have appropriate assessments and allowances for remediation. I know what my overall objectives are and know essentially what I hope to accomplish with each day. Some days have gone better than others, which isn't unexpected. What is my biggest success? I can manage a classroom. That being said, these are mostly good, nonaggressive students. Could I handle more combative students? I believe I can, but until that situation presents itself, I just have to hold onto that belief. In the meantime, five-plus weeks to go...

In Midseason Form

Yesterday was finally the initial observation from my university supervisor. Thanks to the crazy testing schedule, professional development days and other scheduling conflicts, I was worried we'd have had to push the observation too far back. We still have a midterm and final observation to go, but at least I have the first one under my belt.

The way yesterday began, I was regretting that it was the day for my observation. I had been reluctant to schedule it for a Friday, but it sure beat the alternative of having a shortened period to work with. The observation was scheduled for my fifth period theater class, and Mr. Scott and I had worked out the plans to incorporate some bookwork with the introduction to the new chapter on Mime, which I expanded into the theme of movement. Because of the schedule, we still had some show and tell performances to wrap up as well. In first period, the students were sluggish. I'm not sure if students were just out of rhythm because of the testing on Thursday or what, but they weren't buying what I was selling.
After the performances and the discussion about the chapter, I took the students to the stage area to play Machine, a favorite theater game. I'm not sure whether it was my directions or the fact that the students were resisting participation, or maybe it was some combination thereof, but the game bombed. There was virtually no energy for a game that depends entirely on physical movement. I was glad that I had the chance to rework some things before the later observation.

My second period world literature class didn't feel any better. We had listened to the audio of parts one and two of The Epic of Gilgamesh on Wednesday; yesterday, I was explicating the story from the beginning, and students put up walls of resistance. You'd think I was trying to extract teeth! While we were listening to the announcements before dismissing the class, Mrs. Moore tapped me on the shoulder to suggest we do a quiz next week. I guess we'll see how effective that is in forcing the students to become actively engaged. At any rate, I did not have high hopes for the rest of the day, including the observation.

Finally, fifth period rolled around, and my supervisor was able to talk to Mr. Scott prior to the class. We had a brief discussion as well, in which I told him about our lesson plans and how the classes had been going so far. I was able to organize the students pretty quickly when it came to finishing the performances, and then we did well with the bookwork. This time, I added a bridge activity before the Machine, and that helped. That, and I think the students were a little more awake. It still wasn't great, but it was more effective than that of first period.

After the period was over, I met with the supervisor, and he had nothing but good things to say. He liked my classroom management and how well I used the time, and he thought I involved the students well. We touched base on my world lit class, and then he was gone. Not bad. Especially considering how the day began. Not that I was that concerned heading into the observation, but it is nice to get confirmation from an outside observer that things are going as well as I perceive.