Weekly Reflection 9

Hello,
This was a strange week. You will see why below:
Monday-
Today was a teacher institute day. The students were not in attendance. What I learned the most today was about a program called Socrative. It is a great online tool that is free for any teacher. All the teacher has to do is create an account and they are give a "room number." The teacher then gives this room number to their students. The students then use their cell phones, electronic devices etc. To answer informal tests as a class. It is a great tool for informal assessment and to check for understanding. I would like to use this during my time at the school. If you are interested in checking out the website is here: http://socrative.com/

Tuesday-
Today was my first day teaching. I was nervous the entire day. However, when it came time for me to teach 8th period, I went way to fast. I finished the notes with the students 15 mins early. This was a mess, I had them work on their reading, but it was hard to keep them on task because I was not clear what they should do next. I realized that my Cooperating Teacher (CT) talks a lot during his lessons. He has tons of stories to talk about while the students are writing. I feel like I have no filler space for notes.

Wednesday-
I taught again today. It was much better. My pacing was better so some of the students didn't just stop writing because I was going to fast. I had a writing assignment based on the notes. However, some of the students finished a bit sooner. I got excuses such as: I'm not in the zone. I was a bit easy on them as I am still warming up to them. However, my CT told me to not let them get away with that. They are honors students and can do more work if I give it to them. This is something I will definitely keep in mind.

Thursday-
Today was good. I had a discussion with the students based on the notes and activity from the previous day.However, I finished with 2 minutes to spare. I informed the students to read their books and work on the writing assignment. However, some of the students just shut down. I realized that I really don't like large group discussion because it is almost impossible to get everyone involved in the discussion at once. I definitely like the small group work better.

Friday-
Today...today was crazy. So, when I got to the school the front doors were locked and their were three students waiting outside looking confused. So, I hit the buzzer. I was informed that the school was in a code red and no one was allowed in or outside the building. I asked if teachers could come in and they said no. So, I was going to walk back to my car and call my CT to see if he was in the building yet. This was around 7:15 am, mind you school does not start until 8:25 am. However, I saw some other teachers going in another entrance and I told them that there was a code red going on. They told me I could not be in the building. However, I told them I was student teaching and they laughed and we all walked to the office.

We all found that there was not someone in the building who was not supposed to be there as that what a "Code Red" means in the educational world. But, a code red meant that the police were handling a situation across the street from the front of the school. Someone fired shots at around 6:55 am and was barricaded inside of a house across the street from the school. When I found this out, I left the office and headed towards the English office.

On my way there, I was going to go through the front stairwell to the office. However, one of the security officers of the school advised that I not go that way. I said ok, but there were still students standing outside the front door (mind you right in the line of a potential cross fire). He informed me that no one was allowed in or out of the building. I said to him, ok, but what are you going to do about the kids outside the front door? The students are still on their way to school. At that moment the school police officer came through and the security guard informed him of the same thing. I guess he handled it and I went up stairs. My CT was wondering what as going on. I told him, he went down stairs and I went to the classroom.

The office announced that they would conduct a two hour late start. They also, started putting students in the cafeteria this was announced at 7:25. At, 8:25 am it was announced that school was canceled for the day. My CT and someone he team teaches with put me in the computer lab so that I could do some work. However, I had nothing to work on because, we do our planning daily. However, I started on a PowerPoint for a possible upcoming lesson. At 10:35 the stake out was over and it was announced that the students would be provided rides, and they could walk home if they walked, and go drive home if they drove. They also told the staff they could leave as well.
I got home at around 11 am that day.
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And that, was my crazy week. A crazy Friday to end my first crazy week of teaching. This has proven to be a bit harder than I expected. I am getting a bit tired, but it is only the final stretch of my education.  I have found that this week was focused on standard 6 Instructional Delivery: "The competent teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students’ development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and performance skills." I am interested to see what comes up in this next week.

Courtney