Dear Me,

Dear Amanda,

You are about to embark on a journey. This journey isn't as epic as those you read about, but it is close. You are on a journey that will shape an important part of your life. You are making the choice to shape your career.

As in every journey, you will need a few things.

1. Confidence. Confidence is key to success, if you aren't confident in yourself, why should your employer, teacher, or mentor?

2. Patience. Congratulations, you are not the smartest fish in the tank. College is a new playing field, you will meet many people who will do better on essays, tests, or presentations. It is okay though, you live and learn. Try to succeed and try to do better, it will pay off. Patience is also key in meeting new people. You will be dropped into  the pool of education. You will go into several classrooms and observe. It does get boring, and some teachers will forget your name. Don't fret. You are working your way to your own class.

3. Motivation. You are paying a hefty sum to embark on this journey. Do not foolishly choose to gyp class. You miss things when you gyp class. You miss building relationships with colleagues and important lectures. Not only are you a college kid, you're aiming to become a teacher. You're a role model now. Plus, Cs aren't exactly fabulous on a transcript. Trust me, you'll regret sleeping in after your first few Cs are Butler.


Those are just a few things you will need. Other tools will be forged and discovered as you advance your career. You picked your college wisely. WSU will offer a wonderful experience. You will have teachers that will inspire you, motivate you, and encourage you.

I would suggest avoiding the Elementary Education route. You will hate it and waste valuable time and money dabbling in it.

Don't forget to keep in contact with your family. They worry about you just as much as you worry about them. Don't wait for them to call, be proactive and call them. They are there for you. You will need them during the final leg of this journey.

Also, enjoy being a college  student. I never participated in many social activities. Get off the computer, take a day off of work (they will lay you off anyway), and simply enjoy the activities the school has to offer.

Good luck!

Amanda

"Shut up" "You're stupid" "This is dumb"

I think I gained a new super power through my experience student teaching. That super power isn't the ability to shoot spider webs from my hand, nor is it the ability to move things with my mind. No, my super power super hearing. I often hear my students say extremely negative and hurtful things to one another. The most typical phrases I hear are: "shut up", "you're stupid", "you're gay" and etc. Students say this stuff to each other EVERYDAY. I hear it, even when I am not listening for it. I do not believe students have malicious intent when they say these types of things to one another. I do not believe they consider their friend, or someone else could easily be offended by the words they speak.  

When I hear students use negative phrases to one another I generally ask them to not use the language again because it can be offensive. Well, asking does not appear to be doing much. A few days ago I was teaching an intervention course and one of the students continued to say "shut up" or "you're stupid" to his table mate. After asking him to discontinue saying those words he continued to do so. I was a little frustrated at this point. I begin to wonder a few things:

1. How much will this problem escalate?

2. How much more class time will this continue to waste? - Things obviously aren't working.

3. How can I get him to be respectful to his peer?

After hearing this student utter another "you're", I turned to him and sternly said, "I do not want to hear this again. You are being disrespectful to your peer." I did not ask, I told. After I got his attention through sterner voice I then proceeded, "You need to say something positive about your peer instead of something negative." This proved to be effective. The student was a little thrown off his game. I don't think he has ever been asked to say something directly positive as a result of negative behavior. After he thought a moment he replied and said, "Student A is nice." 

I hope to try to employ this tactic other situations. I often hear students have negative attitudes about their day, a class, etc. I think I will ask them to say a few positive things, to help put the brighter side into perspective. 

I am not sure how effective this method will prove next class. I am willing to try it again if the situation arises. 

Things are going well in my other classes. We are finally finished with Kaffir Boy. I really enjoyed this unit, but after all of the snow days, things were way too extended. Students were able to write a 3-5 page essay over character traits the author exhibited. Students absolutely ROCKED this essay. Many of these students openly said they have never written so much in a paper. I am not sure if I should feel proud that they were able to accomplish this or if I should feel a little like the Wicked Witch of the West for having them strain their fingers and minds so much ; ). Each day we worked on the essay I provided a little piece of paper with the day's goals on it. By the end of the class period the student should ideally have the goal completed. This visual really help pace students. Many students placed the visual card on their keyboard or on their monitor. I will definitely use this technique for my future students. While students were working in the PC lab I was able to work with them one on one. I absolutely loved getting that personal time with each student. I went around the room one student at a time and looked over their paper and gave advice or answered any questions they had. 

I am at the grading point right now. It is hard grading student essays. I don't mean the process of reading and assessing is hard. I mean simply cranking out one paper after the other. I typically make comments and correct minor grammatical errors on every paper. They add up!! I am enjoying the overall process. It is wonderful seeing the connections the students made and how diverse they can be with the same prompt. I am proud of them. 

If I had any doubt that teaching was not the profession for me, it has long since vanished.

Happy teaching!

Ms. Hays

One Day at a Time

I have been teaching for over a month. I am currently teaching 4 classes. I am nearly done with my KPTP unit, but still working on that beast of a document. Things have been going smoothly. I love being in the classroom. I am getting to know my students and I think they are getting adjusted to my teaching style, direction, and attitude. I am learning so much about classroom management and lesson designs.

I have been teaching my unit over Kaffir Boy. This autobiography takes place under apartheid in South Africa. My CT originally handed me the textbook and said, "You're teaching this book." This has proved to be a pretty good idea on her end. This has enabled me to create my own lessons using a text she has never taught. This also allows her to make suggestions, praise, and critique without using her own lesson for the unit as a starting point. 

Teaching this unit has been invaluable. I am nearly done with the unit, we will be starting the graphic organizers for the essays a week before spring break. What I like with this unit is the established routine. Everyday students can expect to come in, take a quiz, review, learn a new note taking strategy, and ultimately apply that strategy to the day's reading. 

What I don't like is how large the book is. The book is over 500 pages. There simply is not enough time to cover the entire book, so I have had to snip and cut out chapters to teach. The school I am currently student teaching at does not have a large enough set of books to allow students to take them home, so work must be done in class. While this has been working, I would hate to do it again with another book. I believe I have been able to capture the most important and insightful chapters, but it does not make up for the amazing quality of the entire book. I would have liked to have done something smaller, but this is not a poor experience. 

I have been struggling with homework turn ins. Many students are not used to having homework. I have assigned a few (literally, like two) homework assignments and I saw extremely poor turn in rates. It kind of swept the floor from under my feet. I am learning to adjust my lessons to incorporate more in class activities. I assigned a small homework assignment today, so hopefully this may see better turn in rates. I will keep my fingers crossed!

On a side note: I recently went to my first inservice, and it was enlightening! I learned a bit more about my colleagues and I was exposed to new teaching methods I hope to incorporate into my own classroom. I also experienced my first set of P/T conferences, and that was something in it's own. It is disappointing to see that many parents do not come to P/T conferences when their child could so easily benefit from the five minutes it would take to talk with the instructor. 

Happy Teaching!

Ms. Hays

Back to School!

I am back in the teaching saddle! I have been at my high school for a week. Many of my peers started back as soon as the semester started. I wish I could have done so, but I am still working. I am really enjoying my time back at the school. The students are very kind and always greet me with a smile. I have completely taken over my CT's scripted Language courses. I am able to work with the class I worked with last semester as well as a new bunch of students. They seem to like me well enough and this class makes me smile each time we meet. 

Tomorrow I begin teaching my KPTP (which is the laaaaaaast thing on my mind) unit to Seniors. This unit is based around Mark Mathabane's autobiography, Kaffir Boy. This autobiography follow Mathabane's life while living under apartheid in South Africa. I read it in December; it was captivating, informative, and quite horrifying. I hope my students will gain a new understanding of the cruelties people can inflict upon one another and the ability to forgive and look past racial stereotypes. 

I am pretty excited about this unit, but I am also pretty nervous. This unit is eating up all of my free time. When I am not teaching, working, or sleeping, I am working on this unit. I keep changing days. I try to work on a few days at a time so I do not over extend myself, but even working a few days out is stressful. I have the chapters I want to cover and an end goal, the more concrete lesson plans I work the week and weekend before. My CT suggested not to plan everything at once because there could be changes in class, snow days, and etc. I think this has proven to be good advice.

My CT has been such a wonderful mentor. I am able to bring lesson plans to her and she will give me advice and pose questions that I may not have thought about. She is truly helping me grow as a professional and I am very thankful for this experience. 

I worry over time. I am so engulfed in lesson planning, classes, job hunting, and work, that I haven't even started tackling my KPTP. It will get done, it is simply another stress looming in the back of my mind.

One week down... only ... well, I am not going to count. Each day is a new surprise and a new opportunity to grow.

Push yourself beyond your own expectations,

Ms. Hays

Things are starting to wind down.

We are almost halfway through November. Soon Thanksgiving will be here and a few days later, the end of my pre-student teaching.

I have taught my required lessons for this semester, but I am still co-teaching with D. She offers wonderful advice and pushes me to be a better instructor. I wish my other CTs would have put in half the effort D. has put in with me, I have grown so much in this class.

We have started Unit 21. The final unit before the semester ends. D. and I switched our parts around a bit during this class. I teach for the first portion, she teaches the second portion. I cover phonemics, spelling, and vocab.

This stuff is known to me in an overview. This class breaks down that overview into smaller pieces. I must say, I have learned SO MUCH  in teaching these lessons alone. I did not realize how much of an overview I had over English. This class addresses the little 'nuts and bolts' of English. It truly shows the students how to break a part the English language and to make sense of it.

I think that has been a pretty large struggle with this class personally. I felt as though I should have already known most of this. I didn't. I never studied what a predicate nominative was, I never studied vowel digraphs. These (and many more) terms were foreign. I felt like a big joke. I felt like my college career was a joke.

While I was teaching myself the basics of the English language, I also learned something that every teacher should learn, humility. I learned that I will not know everything, and I will learn something new everyday in my classroom. I learned not to be ashamed of what I didn't know and to strive to better myself. It is okay to say "I do not know", "I will find out", or "That is a great question, I will let you know!". It is important to provide the reassurance that you too are a person, not some sort of English whiz there to break a part your incorrect use of a word, your funky sentence, or to chastise you on spelling. We all are people, we all make mistakes, simply be honest with yourself, improve, and strive for success. Isn't that what we ask our students to do anyways?

-Ms. H.

My thoughts regarding the KATE Conference.

I recently attended the KATE (Kansas Association of Teachers of English) Conference. These are my thoughts regarding one of the days I was able to attend.

The conference started at 9:00 AM sharp. I car pooled with a friend and we made it there a little after 8:30. We quickly jumped in line and loaded our plates with heaps of food and grabbed some tea. It was pretty good! At 9:00 A.M the first Key Note speaker, Kathleen Blake-Yancey began. Kathleen is an established author and instructor. She didn't begin by throwing around her title or try to persuade us to purchase her books. She instead, lead the lot of us (current and former English instructors) in new activities that would allow the reader to connect with the text better. THIS WAS AWESOME! Seriously. I learned about pop-up poetry, similar to the pop-up video that occasionally pops up on MTV. I cannot wait to use this in my classroom.

Next we were allowed to pick and choose 2 different 45 Minute sessions to attend before lunch.

The first session I chose to attend was one regarding LGBTQ in today's schools. I felt like the topic was really relevant in today's classroom, especially in Kansas. There was a lot of information in this session. I really enjoyed hearing about different teaching experiences regarding LGBTQ in the classroom. I thought cracking down on the phrases, "That's so gay" was important. I also enjoyed how the presenters did not specifically single out LGBTQ, they also crack down on things like, "That's retarded", and etc. I really enjoyed the message that this presentation offered. I also liked the book suggestions and the safe place signs. I felt that this is what we should be doing with our classrooms. We are so much more than subject instructors.


I decided to attend a session over alternative book reports. I am pretty familiar with ABRs because my instructor, Dr. Mason, has shown us things like this session. Unfortunately this session turned into the instructor bashing the Common Core State Standards. Her partner tried to real her in and refocus the session, but the primary instructor really just went off and that was how the entire class was spent. I was really disappointed in this session, I had hoped to learn a few things about ABRs or get a few new ideas for ABRs.

Lunch time!!
Lunch was an extra fee, and being the poor college student that I am, I opted for the cheaper route. A group of us went to a local sub shop and scurried back to catch the next Key Note featuring Alan Sitomer.

I expected Alan Sitomer to be inspiring and bring new ideas to the table, much like Kathleen Blake-Yancey. What I got was someone simply trying to sell me his books. I wasn't really happy being a part of a sales pitch, but I dealt with it. I lost my temper when he made the remark or joke (I am not really sure the truth behind it), about a child who had sent him an e-mail. To summarize this, the child sent him an e-mail saying that he really liked his book but he found his instructor annoying. The child misspelled annoying and Sitomer replied along the lines to find a dictionary. I was rather surprised, I thought this was in REALLY poor taste and I couldn't believe KATE participants laughed at this. I do not think this story was real, but despite that, why is this funny? Shouldn't you be happy the child is reading? After this remark I left. I was done.

I ran into a few other participants and presenters after I left that really did not care for Sitomer's presentation either. I felt a little better. I was worried I was the only one who questioned it. I do worry that I looked too much into this.

The last presentation I was able to attend (I had to go to work after it :( ) revolved around the development of the one room class room and how it developed eventually developed into the public classroom. There was a lot of information about Horace Mann and a lot of pictures of one room classrooms across the United States. This class was refreshing and the CCSS were not mentioned at all. I got to learn a little history, look at fascinating pictures, and learn from people who really embody teaching and what it stands for. It was a good note to end the conference on.

Unfortunately I had to go out of town the next day and was unable to attend the conference.

Overall, I thought the conference was cool. I enjoyed learning new teaching strategies and meeting people from across the state of KS that have the same interests that I do. I felt that many aspects were tainted by the CCSS rift among the attendees. I also did not appreciate trying to be sold stuff (books, schools to go for my masters, and etc). I hope to possibly attend the conference in a few years, after the CCSS issue has calmed down.

Today.

8:00 A.M.

 Drowsy students saunter in

They are greeted with warm smiles and hellos

Students quietly shuffle towards the cubbies of need

Materials are ready

The bell rings

Students salute the flag that represents a nation

An anonymous voice projects the school day

8:05 A.M.

Let the lesson begin

8:06 A.M. – 9:14 A.M.

Reading, Writing, Spelling,

Vocabulary, Grammar, Speaking

80 minutes to span them all

Will we complete it all in one day?

Going through step by step

Eyes glaze with the sheen of boredom

Eye rolls

Attitudes

A fight for education

Students soon stand up to learn

The sheen disappears

Attention and learning fill their eyes

9:15 A.M.

Quiet shuffles

Students attempt to pack their items

5 minutes remain

Anxious glances at the clock

4 minutes remain

The lesson continues on

Attempting to reengage the the lesson

“Why can’t we just pack our things?”

2 minutes remaining

9:20 A.M.

The ending bell rings

Students reanimate

They scurry out the door.