The 2-day Week

**student teaching week 4**

This placement sure is teaching me flexibility! I thought I had a plan and then school was cancelled... for three days in a row. So everything had to shift, and I had to figure out how to still get everything accomplished in a decent time -- and, most of all, before I go back to Illinois! Once I did get back to school, the lessons in flexibility didn’t stop. I’m learning to bend as assemblies intrude, or when I might’ve a been a touch over-ambitious in the assignment. Being a girl who always has a plan, I think it’s good that I’m being forced to reorganize my thinking and go with the flow. It’s definitely a characteristic that’s needed when I have my own classroom next year.

Since we had three snow days, I only taught two days this week. But they sure were a full two days! Thursday, I taught for 5 periods -- both in the freshman and senior classes. The freshman learned about taking notes on their research and evaluating the sources, while the seniors got some of their introduction to one of my favorite literary periods -- Romanticism. Friday was less of structured teaching; the seniors were taking a test on the previous unit and the freshman worked on their research. Despite not having a structured lesson for the freshmen on Friday, I was still doing a lot of teaching. I was doing a lot of walking around, answering many questions, but I actually loved that. I got to talk to students one-on-one that I haven’t interacted with much. I was able to it “click” for some students. Writing is the area I feel most comfortable in, and feel I am strongest in teaching how to write papers. I hope that at the end of the unit, the final products come out strong and show evidence of a good ground-level of writing ability, as these students will continue to encounter more and more writing as they continue on in school.

Monday, barring another snow day, nothing stands in my way of full-time teaching. The 12th graders have officially finished their unit, and it’s Romanticism time. The 9th graders continue researching and writing. As I begin this full-time teaching, I know there are things I want to work on and grow in. The main area is classroom management. It’s always been my weaker area, and I know these classes will challenge me to grow and develop in this area. It isn’t always about keeping the chaos at a minimum either. It’s also about seeing who’s participating, and who’s tuning me out in one way or another. This is what I need to work on, in both grades.
Also, my goal for the senior classes is engagement. Unlike the 9th graders, they don’t have a project they’re working on. I do have some time planned to give them a brief lecture, mostly on the background of some of the authors or poems, but I want to see them participating too. A lot of my lessons hinge on the discussion portion. My goal is to really have the students leading the discussion, bouncing ideas back and forth, while I act as more of a facilitator. I don’t know if they’re used to that, so it may not get there right away, but I hope at the end of these three weeks they're closer to that point. Furthermore, I want to connect this material to students’ lives. “Romantic” already probably turns people off. I want to show those guys who hunt, or play sports, that this isn’t just some mushy, gushy, love poetry -- Romanticism actually doesn’t really relate to that connotation of the word. I want them to see what is interesting about it, and to at least participate in discussions about it. I want to make this unit have at least a little fun sprinkled into every lesson. Some people may think I’m hoping for too much -- this is poetry, after all, and these are seniors who just want to graduate. Call me weird, but it’s my goal to peak their interest in something I say or do in class, and in turn in some of the poetry itself.

 So I’m looking at Monday, again with the anticipation of jumping in with both feet. I’m also hoping for no more snow days; I may be working on flexibility, but with only three weeks to go, I still have to abide by time’s laws and get it all in!