Relationships with Other Staff

In my past years of working with the staff in my Professional Development Schools (Taylor County Middle School and University High School), my relationship with other faculty didn't really go beyond my mentor teacher and coordinator/coordinators. The only individuals I talked to during my time at school were the people I was required to speak to.

This semester has definitely been different for me in this manner. Every moment I have to spend with another member of the staff is so valuable; I truly regret never creating these relationships in the past. Even during "down time" like lunch in the faculty lounge is useful to me. During this time I can talk to the other teachers about their tutors or participants to see how they are doing, ask for advice about how to manage different students, and to stay aware of things going on at the school.

My most useful interaction with the faculty is during our weekly seventh grade team meeting. We usually hold these meeting with all seventh grade teachers and our principal. Sometimes other individuals come into our gatherings to talk to the group about technology integration, new policies, etc. These are wonderful moments of calm to talk about our concerns and see what's going on with students in other classes. Though these meetings are held during our only planning period, I think this time for staff development is extremely valuable to me as an intern. I already know most of the 7th grade staff's names and subjects, so if I have any questions about how to integrate another subject into my curriculum I will know who I can go to for this.

Applying New Policies to the Classroom

On Thursday this past week Taylor County Middle School faculty assembled for a meeting on the county's three hour early dismissal day. This would be my first faculty meeting with the entire school's faculty, and to be honest I was somewhat nervous about participating in this meeting. I was concerned about feeling overwhelmed by policies I don't really understand, and I knew that I was probably being watched by both the faculty and administration to see if I was behaving professionally. However, I now know I didn't have anything to worry about. By being at this meeting I truly got a better idea of what was going on at Taylor County Middle, and I also strengthen my professional raport with the other teachers and administration.

During this meeting one presenter discussed the school's new initiative to integrate physical activity into the classroom every day. According to this presenter, some sort of physical activity every twenty to forty minutes increases student performance. My mentor teacher has already integrated some physical activity into lessons. For example, we had students move around the room to complete puzzles of the continents of the world. We have also been posing questions to the class and having the students answer by standing. We recently talked about the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, and how the position of the sun affects our seasons. Ms. Cooper had students stand if their favorite season occurs when the sun is positioned on the Tropic of Cancer. This does many things at once: this allows students to move around, offer their opinions on a topic and encourages students to learn why the Tropics are important to geography. I always like the take aspects of teaching from my mentors to include into my own practice, and this will definitely be one of the strategies I use in the future.

Prompt - My First TCMS After-School Experience

On Thursday of this week I experienced my first middle school dance as a teacher chaperon. To start off this entry on a positive note, I will say that the experience was greatly helped by my constant presence at the school; students behaved respectfully towards me, and I was familiar with much of the staff and faculty. It really does make a difference to be at the school all day every day from the beginning of the year. However, I must really applaud teachers who help out at after-school functions that require manual labor. Working at the concession stand of this dance after being up and around the class room all day was exhausting. We spent a solid, non-stop two hours filling drinks for the students and handing out pizza. Needless to say, the 50 minute drive back to Morgantown from Grafton wasn't easy.

As much as I can complain about spending a total of 12 hours at the middle school, I really think that my participation in this dance really did a lot for my professional integrity as a student teacher. I met several other faculty members, talked with the school's vice principal, and most importantly I showed the students that I cared about being there even after school let out. I'm truly glad I made the choice to participate at this dance, because only two hours of help truly made a difference that will last the rest of my internship.

Reflecting on the Practicum Plan

Thinking back on the Practicum Plan we used this semester to organize our assignments and learning goals, I don't believe it had a huge effect on my performance as a participant this semester. It was very rare that I actually even looked at my plan; I usually look to my checklist. I do suggest that Benedum continue to use the plan for the participants next year, mostly for organizational purposes. I would also suggest that the learning goal aspect of the plan be changed, because I feel it wasn't really a useful place to put learning goals or dates to complete them.

The most successful aspect of the Practicum Plan was allowing us to put a "target date" for completion. I believe this leads to my conclusion that the Practicum Plan was best for organizing our time at the beginning of the semester and making the number of assignments seem more do-able, rather than making our teaching better in any way or assisting the work done later in the semester. I feel that my work load this semester seemed less overwhelming and I think I was more organized with completing my assignments on time. However, I feel that it's possible this change could be do to my smaller class load or the move from TCMS to UHS.

Two Characteristics of the Novice Teacher

Characteristic 3 of the Novice Teacher pertains to the ethical and moral duties we have as educators. It is of great importance that every classroom has an environment that exudes professionalism, and makes our students feel that they will be treated in a fair way. We must also integrate these values into our teaching in order to transfer these values onto our students. I feel that the best example of this characteristic in my teaching is the Holocaust unit I recently taught in my 11th grade class. In this unit, I asked students to understand that the eleven million who were persecuted should not be thought of as a number, but remembered as individuals who had their lives changed forever by the events of the Holocaust. To encourage my students to learn more about different people affected, I had my students make "passports" that contained a picture of a victim of the Holocaust and their birth date, country of origin, and personal history up until the 1940s. After this unit I gave my students more information on these victims, if they lived, and what their lives were like after liberation. My students truly got a understanding of how dangerous it is to dehumanize others, and how important it is to look at individual lives.

Characteristic 6 requires the novice teacher to show an in depth knowledge of the content that he or she will be teaching. This characteristic is particularly important for secondary educators, who must have a great deal of knowledge of content. As I am a social studies teacher, I feel that it is most important to show my knowledge of history. My best example of content knowledge would be a analytical paper I wrote about the Renaissance era literature for my Italian history class. In this analysis, I discussed how the culture of Italy in this era had an enormous influence on the presence of women in literature. This essay is a wonderful example of the content knowledge I have that is require in a social studies classroom.

Practicum Plan Progress

One of my most important learning goals listed in my Practicum Plan was my aim to increase control of my classroom to ensure that students respect me as a teacher. I feel that this could be best accomplished by establishing a better relationship with my students that makes them feel comfortable in the classroom when I am teaching and allows them to bring their questions to my attention. I tried to do this by learning student names as soon as possible to be able to call on specific students during lessons. I also decided to add more discussion activities to my curriculum so my students understand that I respect their thoughts and opinions so they will learn to also respect mine.

In my plan, I originally included a lesson that includes Creative Arts in relation to social studies to be completed in February. Although I have not removed this from my plan, I have not been able to complete this lesson in February. I will have to change the target date for completion to a date in March.

Looking through my plan, I have already completed every activity that I planned to complete in February. At the moment I am also already planning my activities for March. Though I feel good about my organization and completion so far, I am extremely worried about the about of activities and lessons due in March. March is going to be the biggest problem in my plan, mostly because we have very few days of school in March. Our county has a Spring Break in addition to an Easter Break of three days. I will definitely have to buckle down to complete everything required for this time.

Two Characteristics for the Novice Teacher

Characteristic 2 for the Novice Teacher emphasizes the importance of being an effective communicator. This communication can occur in various forms: a teacher may communicate in a written manner, through speech, or even in a non-verbal way. These exchanges often occur between the teacher and student, but it is also important to note that a teacher must also communicate with parents, faculty, and other individuals in the school community.

My most important artifact associated with communication is the student blog I set up at Taylor County Middle School. I created a blog through a website specifically made for student use to ensure student safety and ease of use in order for students to answer critical thinking questions. With this website I was also able to reply to the blog entries with comments and suggestions. I find this to be my most notable artifact because my students were excited to complete this assignment, and were eager to use blogging again in the future.

Characteristic 4 relates to the essential duty of each teacher to ensure learning for all students. Being a facilitator to learning for each students involves a commitment to meeting students needs in various ways.

I believe I best met my students' needs in a lesson dedicated to differentiated instruction. I designed this lesson specifically to meet the different learning styles in my classroom. In this lesson on the French and Indian War, students used a RAFT to complete a writing activity. I also played traditional Appalachian music to help my students who work better with sound in the room. I find this to be a great artifact because my students were more equipped to complete a writing assignment than in past lessons.

These characteristics important to teacher development are connected by emphasizing a clear understanding of the student and his or her needs. Communication with the student is essential to understanding needs and thoughts. By becoming receptive to our students, we as novice teachers can improve the quality of our teaching and therefore the likelihood of student learning. Furthermore, without effective communication with our students' parents and our own colleagues, it is much more difficult to learn the details of student needs and specific strategies to use.