End of Student Teaching

Actually, I finished my student teaching internship last Friday. Altogether, I taught Mrs. Moore's world literature classes for approximately 9 weeks, covering three units (grammar basics, Epic of Gilgamesh and The Iliad). For Mr. Scott, I assumed control of the classroom for 7 weeks, handling the pantomime portion of the intro to drama unit and all of the improv unit. The minimum requirement was just four weeks, but I'm not sure how anyone could prove he/she was ready to be a teacher based on four weeks. Some may say the same for student teaching for just 10 or 11 weeks, but I'd rationalize that, over the course of ten weeks, one would have a pretty good idea whether he/she possessed the tools necessary handle a classroom. Somehow I managed to fit in quite a few points of interest.

The last two weeks were no exception:

• The student whose stories seemed to be all over the place (among other things, he claimed he had been searched by Chicago police officers because they suspected he had a loaded weapon in his possession) spent most of my final two weeks in a posh psychiatric facility before returning to the classroom on my final day. I guess he's certifiable.
• One of my best students transferred to another school because she and her family believed that she wasn't safe in the building. Hopefully, her transition is going smoothly. 
• The student who refused to participate in the improv research project was denied again in his quest to transfer to a different class, as he had missed three programming opportunities during his junior year. Mr. Scott had another chat with the student, learning that the student didn't want to work with the gay students in his group. Not that either Mr. Scott or myself believe that is an acceptable position, but the greater irony is that there weren't any gay students in the group which he had been assigned. For improv group performances, I actually succeeded in placing the student with a different group, led by one of the school jocks. Of course, I was all but certain that that plan would fail when the first character the jock assumed in their improv game was a gay hairstylist. Thankfully, everything worked out.
• One of the teachers in the music department quit at the end of the quarter, leaving the school in the lurch--especially when it came time to do parent-teacher conferences the following week. While I understand that the teacher felt out of place in this profession, most would agree that there could have been better timing.

Of course, the parent-teacher conferences were fairly "educational" as well. One female student--bright but failing due to lack of submitted assignments--came in with her father. Mrs. Moore and I knew there were some emotional issues going on anyway, based on the student's irrational behavior and what we knew of her background, but the tension between the girl and her father was palpable. At one point, she told him to shut up, and she said there were troubles at home. More discussion led to tears. I played the encouragement card, noting that she was quite capable of doing the work. I will be curious to know how the rest of the year transpires for her.

In another conference, a mother talked about how she starts work at 3 am and calls her son at 6 am to wake him for school. He couldn't explain why he fails regularly to attend his first three classes, including our world lit class, except that he was tired. He works on the weekends, so that shouldn't be a problem--Mrs. Moore theorized that he is participating in some extracurricular activities that keep him out late.

For the theater classes, I found it fascinating to talk with some of parents of students from Mr. Scott's other theater tech I class. One student is considering studying theater in college, so I recommended my alma mater to the parents. I had few parents for my own classes, except for the middle school students, and even they had less representation than I expected. One couple spent 20 minutes wondering what their seventh grader could do to bring up his grade. After Mr. Scott and I detailed some of the extra credit options and what was ahead in the class, the parents finally left. We could only shake our heads at the fact that the student in question has a 92 percent in the class. If only the students who were failing had so much attention from their parents.

The overall experience was affirming. I learned quite a bit from each of my cooperating teachers, and just as much from the 184 (give or take) students I taught and other teachers and administrations with whom I worked. I gave my appreciation to the principal and one of the assistant principals, as well as the head of the English department, and they all encouraged me to obtain my sub card. Too bad CPS isn't currently accepting applications for substitute positions (at least not officially), but I need to make sure I knock on the door and ask. I don't want a potential opportunity to pass me by. And, as Mr. Scott noted, there are some "crazy-ass subs" at our high school. Returning back to my office job this week only reinforced the notion that teaching is my calling. Can't wait to do it with my own classes. 

Last Week

Tomorrow is my last day teaching all five sections, as I am ceding the classroom control of the world literature classes back to Mrs. Moore. It has been a fun ride, but now we are wrapping up the Iliad unit. Altogether, I'd say I taught the class for nearly nine weeks, though Mrs. Moore still played a significant role in setting up the unit projects and has done more grading than I think cooperating teachers normally would. I have done as much as she would allow, but I can understand the desire to maintain control over the gradebook.

At the same time, Mr. Scott has given me complete access to entering his attendance and grades for the three sections for which I'm responsible. I have learned how to create assignments and update grades readily, and it is valuable to be able to view the students' cumulative grades. Mrs. Moore and I reviewed the final grades for the first marking period today, and the numbers are, simply put, abysmal. There are a number of students earning As and Bs--those are the students doing the work. And then there are the rest, most of whom will have great odds to overcome if they are to even sniff a D. I tried to evaluate what I have done over the course of the term, and I compared the numbers to my theater classes (well, the high schoolers), and came to a reasonable conclusion: it doesn't matter the content area, the approach or the difficulty level--students with the willpower to do the work will do well, and those who don't, fail. While it's presumptuous to based statements on just ten weeks in the classroom, it is evident that the students have been passed along, coddled and allowed to get by simply by doing the minimum.

I have given multiple appeals to the students, reminding them that even striving for sixty or seventy percent success won't cut it--those would be the employees who would be laid off first. Colleges won't look at Ds and willl be concerned with Cs. Students have to expect more from themselves. We've evaluated the work, too, and students even admit that the work isn't hard. So why don't they do it?

It starts when the students are younger. My middle school students hardly ever miss school and rarely miss an assignment. Granted, these kids are almost all overachievers, while the high school students in my classes have likely never fit that bill. That being said, I expect more from the students, and I don't put much credence into the low test scores. They suffer from test fatigue and believe the test results don't mean anything, so the students don't try to do well--they just get through it.

The other reason my seniors are not doing the work is that they have too much going on outside of school. They have jobs and sports and familial responsibilities--at least one has a baby at home to care for, and many fill in parental roles for their younger siblings. We have tried to be accomodating by giving students time to do work in class and giving them plenty of notice on more time-consuming projects. Some take advantage of the time, others don't.

I had my final evaluation last Thursday. My university supervisor came back to see the theater class presentations, which were a mixed bag of results. I tried to make sure the strongest presentations went first, and I ended up being a little disappointed with how the students did overall. Perhaps that's because my expectations were so high. Some groups did work really well together; others, well, I think I covered that on a previous post. Now that all groups have presented and the papers have been graded, I am proud that I took the leap of faith and went big for the research project. But after seeing the overall grades, I can understand why Mrs. Moore is struggling in her decision to pursue the big, exciting project she has planned for the spring, or whether she wants to stick with simpler, paint by numbers-type assignments. With such a high failure rate despite manageable, relatively easy work, how can one expect students to succeed with a more challenging project?

My feeling is that we must keep pushing. Students who are challenged consistently will work to overcome those challenges; apathy sets in otherwise. If I can continually push myself to keep the options limitless for students, I believe there will be success. And if nothing else, I'd rather be able to say I tried with my best, rather than settling for just getting by. Isn't that why I'm changing careers to be a teacher?

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...