Authority in the Classroom

I've always wanted to be the nice teacher allowing students to learn with freedom and not restricted will so many rules it becomes a burden. The more interaction I have with my students the more I realize that I have to rethink my authority in the classroom.

My mentor teacher started a research based project in our class requiring the students take all the articles, speeches, and other pieces of literature that we have studied and put them together to give a skit dealing with the essential questions. The students seem to enjoy the group work, but at the same time social problems arise. She told me to watch the students and work with them through their work and she would be there for backup. She felt this would help me and give me experience.

First period everything went according to plans. I had no trouble at all, but second period was a whole new ballgame. First of all, I have a lot of boys in that class and separating them is hard to do. I had spread them out over the groups to the best I could. My mentor teacher looked at the list and had made some modifications, but even at that, we had four boys together that would social more than work. I knew this before class even started and I was prepared.

At first I just used my presence as a way to control them. My other groups worked efficiently without my need for the most part. All of my time was consumed by this one group. As the class wore on, I realized that I had to assert authority or I was going to lose all that I had hopes of gaining in the classroom.

I begin by explain that what they were doing was a huge part of their grade and that each time they got off subject points were being deducted. This had a calming effect, but at the same time I had to make them understand I was in control. I tried my hardest to show this and at the same time not feel like I was an authoritarian.

Today, Monday, was much better. I feel as though I got somewhere Friday, but I feel that I need to work on this skill to become a better teacher!

Teaching for the Students

Thursday and Friday last week, I got the opportunity to teach everything in both classes of my internship, all morning long. I quickly found out some minor things teachers struggle with -- almost counting students absent because they were not sitting in their correct seats, trying to find and organize graded papers to hand back, and thoroughly explaining each assignment. I also forgot about certain "small" details, such as reading the morning announcements. Our school limits morning announcements, which is good because they don't cut in to class time, but sometimes teachers can forget to read them because they want to get started with their lessons!

The students had two major activities to complete. First, they had to complete a test on tone...even though they could use their binders, I had a lot of students asking questions about different parts of the assignments. I had a stack of papers to grade and could barely get through them! Also, time was an issue...they had 35 minutes to complete the test, but even though they worked diligently, they struggled to complete it in time. I wanted to give them more time to finish, because I felt bad for them, but they needed time to complete the second assignment, a book assessment. I gave them about five extra minutes but then had to force myself to pick up some incomplete tests.

Then, it was time for the book assessment. I explained every page, but the questions kept coming. Some students thought they only had to do the first page. Nearly every student missed the "use diction" part of the directions for the first page, and thought they only had to list character names and tone words. Once again, I spent the majority of the class period answering questions and hardly got any papers graded. I was beginning to feel a little frazzled and wondering if my teaching skills were going to be up to par.

Then, I realized something. All those times the students came to me individually asking questions were learning experiences for me. I got to know a little more about these students' strengths and weaknesses, and found myself doing a better job explaining one-on-one. I learned part of why teachers are constantly busy and why they value their prep periods, but I also learned one of the most rewarding parts of being a teacher -- actually getting to know your students and seeing their progress. Sometimes, we do this and find that we have to backtrack and review concepts our students should have learned before. Sometimes, this whole process stresses us out. But ultimately, if we can reach out to each student individually and make them feel like they can ask for our help, we are doing our jobs right!

First Day Teaching

The long awaited day--teaching all day long for the first time--came to me Thursday. I had taught little lessons that never seemed to fit into the plan the teachers working for them. I would just show up as some college student and figure out some wonderful lesson and teach.

Earlier last week I begin to look at lesson plans and the general idea of the thematic unit that my intern teacher is working on. I begin to put together a lesson that I thought would be out of this world. Indeed it turned out great for me, but I also learned a lot about myself in those three periods of teaching.

Giving directions to a large class is a one of my weaknesses. It my third period class of thirty to tell me that I had to work on this. I could not survive as a teacher if I could not answer all of their questions and detour some of the confusion before the assignment started. Because I had repeated the directions twice already that morning, I kept forgetting what I had told them and not told them. I had great directions, but I could not remember what class knew what.

The second thing learned in the class is that I talk a lot. My class, each period, went way over the bell. I had planned a lesson that needed an hour and a half to each and work the assignment. Determined to not let this be a reoccurring thing, I am going to try and work out a time schedule with each activity in my lesson.

Over all it was a great day and truly a learning experience. I will never forget the queasy stomach and the slow recovery as the morning progressed. I am confident that I can do this and enjoy my future job!

An Unforseen Influence

I had several topic ideas in mind for my post this week, but I decided to completely change my topic today, on the due date. As experienced participants of English classes, we know that this normally is not a good idea. However, today's experience in my first period class taught me a valuable lesson about being a teacher.

In this particular class, a student had been absent all week last week with a bad allergic reaction. This student, we'll rename her Jessica, was naturally concerned about her missing work and even came in to class early to ask about it. Mrs. Gillmore asked me to put together the handouts and worksheets we had gone over in class, and explain to her what we did. She had missed two class sessions working through the use of tone and metaphor in two different texts, so she had missed a good deal of information. Her class was also taking a test on appositives that morning, and judging by the look of relief on her face when Mrs. Gillmore told her she didn't have to take the test, she needed some more practice on appositives.

So, in order to help get her caught up to the rest of the class and not make her feel rushed, I decided to go with Jessica to the library while the other students were testing and go over all the material with her. I gave her copies of the teacher models of the graphic organizers we covered in class, explaining each part to her and connecting the information with the text. Working one on one with her, I could really see her progress in going through the material and I was really impressed with how quickly she learned it. I asked her questions periodically to make sure, and not only did she answer them correctly, she seemed confident working with me. Not to bombard her with information but simply to help, I asked if she needed more practice on appositives before she made up her test. She admitted she did and seemed grateful that I asked, and worked with me on some practice sentences that seemed to help a lot.

After working with Jessica, I saw firsthand the great lengths that a teacher's care and attention can reach. It reminded me why I want to be a teacher -- I want to influence students in this positive way and show them that it is okay to ask for extra help. Sometimes we do our best teaching this way.

Hidden Treasures

Last week Mrs. Sandy sent a file to me in Google Drive containing essays written by students in our 1st hour 10th grade regular English class. The night that I received them, I skimmed through them, expecting some grammatical and spelling errors, but nothing too bad. What I saw, however, exceeded my expectation. When looking through the essays, I saw that one student had underlined his entire essay; another student wrote his essay in such a way that it looked like he had never used a tab button; yet another student had so many spelling errors I wondered how she had made it this far. Needless to say, I was very worried about going in and grading these essays.

A couple of days after sending me the file of essays, Mrs. Sandy and I co-led a day of revision and editing of these essays. The students spent the last have of class and about fifteen minutes of the next day's class revising and editing their essays. She had them review the grammar notes they had taken a couple of days before, and go through their essays and make any corrections they saw necessary that paralleled with their notes. Finally, Mrs. Sandy had them use spell check on their documents. In the end, this helped their papers dramatically.

Two nights ago I began grading these essays. Surprisingly enough, the couple of half days they used to edit their papers paid off. The best help they received was that from spell check. Even though it is not genuine spelling help, it saved many of their grades. After grading about half of them so far, I am very surprised at their edits on their papers, and the good those edits have done. Not to say that they don't have any mistakes, but that is natural; we all make mistakes. Even English majors. I look forward to seeing further improvement in their writing.

Overly Concerned Students

This week in the classroom I had a flashback to my high school days, but I was on the other side of the fence this time. When I was in the 10th grade at Mountain View High School, the school bought in on a program that published grades online so that students could login and see their grades. It was a great program that was constantly check by me--a concerned student. If I experienced any problems with my grades I would confront the teacher and try and figure out why it was so low (since 80 was just the pits).

This week a student came in class and was concerned about one of her two grades she had completed so far. She had not completed the assignment as she should have. Mrs. Miller talked to her calmly and explained that she would have to do the future assignments according to the rubric laid out to receive full credit. Needless to say the student left the room sobbing because she would not change the grade.

I thought about this situation, my history, and the reaction of my teacher. I thought about how I would have treated the situation and what I should have done if it was me talking to the student. My first reaction was to feel sorry for the student and change the grade. I realized though that this make that student lose confidence in my ability to stick to my word. She probably would not have played that card to change future grades, but I could not open that possibility up to her.

I realized that I had just experience one of the hardest lessons as a teacher. I would have to be "heartless" and teach the students lessons that were not planned in the classroom. Responsibility plays a huge role in each of our lives and the students need to learn this as quickly as possible. I understand there are situations that need different treatment, but for the most part a teacher needs to stick with what he/she has required of all the students.

I also realized that there were going to be students out there that were going to be worried over every little grade and be in my face about those grades continually. I had never planned for this and was quite shocked there were other students like me when I was in high school. This little conversation that happened so quietly that I got to observe really opened my eyes to a different kind of student in the classroom. Not all students are going to want to float by on D's, but some are wanting the best!

Sharing the World

Ever since I was a young girl, I have always felt captivated by the world of words. My parents used Dr. Seuss' ABC to teach me how to read, and I learned at a very young age. Growing up, I was always that nerd girl who spent long hours in her room reading whatever she could get her hands on. I never really thought about a career involving reading until I got to high school, when my 9th grade English teacher Mrs. Schutte and my 10th grade English teacher Mrs. McCuien both pushed me in that direction. They showed me that I could write well also, and helped me develop a love for writing both academically and creatively.

I integrated my love for writing into my love for the arts, and I found out that the same creative energy I used in countless hours of dance classes after school flourished on paper. I also began volunteering to teach lessons to the younger kids in my youth group at church. In high school, I had heard the words "verbal-linguistic intelligence" and "right-brained learning" thrown at me without really understanding their meaning, but Mrs. Schutte and Mrs. McCuien really helped me understand how to use this knowledge to grow intellectually. They encouraged me to develop my love for reading and writing, and at that time I had thoughts about becoming a teacher, but never really had a definite idea of what career path I wanted to pursue.

When I came to Lyon, I knew I wanted to take English classes but still did not have a definite career choice in mind. When I took my first class with Dr. Tebbetts, Intro to Western Lit, his passion for teaching and love for the art forms he shared with us really moved me. I wanted to carry that same spirit into the career field I chose, and I began to think more and more about teaching. That first semester of college, I got the opportunity to teach a young kids' dance class every week at Concord School. The kids' enthusiasm for learning gave me so much joy, and I realized then that my calling was to share the things I love with young people. I thought the secondary age group would be best for me to work with, so I declared Secondary Education as my concentration with my English major. As I have progressed through college, adding a creative writing program in England as well as many experiences in classrooms to my resume, that calling to be a teacher has only grown stronger.

While I was in England, I got the wonderful opportunity to take a master poetry class with David Morley, a very talented poet and acclaimed professor at the University of Warwick. He led us through many exercises to give us inspiration for writing, and one of the best pieces of advice he shared was to "create a universe out of anything, and that is where you can write." I have carried this philosophy with me and I believe teachers can use it to benefit their students. As a teacher, I want to create my own "universe" where my students can learn, and not be afraid to make mistakes. I want to inspire my students like the teachers I have named inspired me, and I want them to learn that the world doesn't have to be a frightening place. When you create your own universe, you create a myriad of possibilities along with it, and I want my students to learn to do this with their own lives.

"To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."
-William Blake

Only Option in Life

Unlike most, I knew the first day of Kindergarten what I was going to be when I grew up: a teacher. My classmates named the classic answers while the teacher inquisitively looked at me and shook her head. I know it is weird for me so young to know what I wanted to be, but I knew looked at another option.

My parents quickly begin to realize that I was in love with school and built a school room for me behind our house and furnished it with everything from an overhead to desks. I had it made! I would "play" school every afternoon until Mom would have to call in to eat and do my homework.

In High School I realized that I had to actually take this desire and push it toward a career. I left my childish antics and started working on colleges and what degree I actually wanted. My sister graduated in 2000 from Lyon with a bachelor's degree in English. Since I worshiped the ground she walks on (and liked English) I decided on a bachelor's degree in English.

The double major in history was sparked by a very interesting man teaching my 10th grade world history. Mr. Sullivan was an extraordinary guy. He never taught the traditionally boring ways, but he always had the class involved. His lessons involved drawing out the lessons on the board (since was a fairly good artist) to having a paper ball fight to reenact World War I. There were never dull moments in his class.

When I arrived at Lyon my freshman year. I thought about all of these things and realized I wanted both of this options when it came time to teach. Starting in my freshman year, I worked towards a double major in history and English with an Education concentration. Seventeen years after that first initial day in Kindergarten I am still looking at my only option in life!

Good Manipulation

I've always been that kid who liked the teacher(s) that no one else liked. My favorite teacher, however, was my AP English teacher, Ms. Pemberton, a teacher disliked by no one. She was one who spent the first day of class showing her mean self  so she could "get it out of the way" and continue the rest of the year in her normal personality, which is exactly what she did (give or take a few classes). She was just THAT teacher, the "cool" one, the one who made everyone anticipate her class every morning. Her class alone is the one class in my high school career that made me want to become an English teacher. Ms. Pemberton still motivates me today to become as good of a teacher as she is.

I started becoming a news junkie when I was in about the 9th grade, finally forcing myself to sit through World News with Charlie Gibson. Just a couple of years later I started becoming interested in politics, an interest primarily driven by the 2008 presidential elections. Since then, I've worked with several different local campaigns and look forward to helping with others in the future. Politics are very important to me and, I believe, should be very important to everyone else, as they affect everyone daily. My interest has continued growing every year, overcoming every political debate I've had with friends and family members. These friends and relatives who encourage or attempt to discourage me in my beliefs are the ones who have contributed greatly to who I am today.

Finally, the person who has caused me to be who I am today is my mom; she and I are basically the same person. We share the majority of our interests, and are always looking for things to share with each other while she is at home and I am at school. Her constant pestering of me to do my homework or make sure I do this or that, annoying though it is, has helped me become a much more responsible adult. All of the advice she has given me throughout my life will stick with me forever and continue to help me for the rest of my time on Earth.