Feb 2

Today was the first official day of a new semester for “B” days. In Freshman English, I got a great introduction to certain instruction and classroom management skills.  The class, which is studying and reading through Julius Caesar, spent the first part of class taking a vocabulary quiz, and the majority of the class was spent watching Caesar’s murder and Brutus and Antony’s speeches in the Marlon Brando movie. The classroom management skills that were demonstrated in the class were plainly laid out in the class – no talking was allowed. The first offense led to a warning, the second led to being moved, and the third would get you sent out of the classroom. In addition to the rules, Natalie clearly stated the expectations of the class – the movie is not just a time-filler. The class had to pay attention to what the characters were saying. The fact that the students had already read this part of the play aloud really gave them a chance to focus on the language. Between the murder and the funeral orations, Natalie asked the class about what they thought about Caesar’s stabbing and the portrayal of the scene. I might have gone a step further and paused the movie for a longer discussion. 

Feb 1

Today was the beginning of a new month. It was interesting to see exactly how the transition between months works. One thing that I noticed was that some of the disciplinary systems are reset between months, such as “pass abuse.” My mentor seems focused on treating this as a true clean slate. I’ve heard some teachers talk in the halls, joking around with “frequent offenders” about how long it’ll be until they’re back on “pass abuse.”

I think the joking around, although probably not very harmful, definitely does project teachers’ expectations onto the students.  Even if it doesn’t directly push students to misbehave, I can’t see it having no effect on students’ behavior. Is it better to joke in such a way or to not joke at all? 

January 31st

Today was the first day back from the in-service day. The students seemed more refreshed than usual by the three-day weekend – the difference in energy between a three-day weekend and a two-day weekend really is clear for the students. There is a complex that this is a symptom of – the “school isn’t cool” complex. With a good number of exceptions, there is a sort of self-defeating mindset that affects many of the students, causing smart kids, who have the knowledge and skills to demonstrate their understanding, to make little or no effort. I think it’s probably an oversimplification to say that they consider “smart” to be “uncool,” and therefore dumb themselves down, but it’s also not entirely untrue.

The class makeup of the elective, “Borrowing the Bard,” is very interesting. This five-student class is a mixture of very quiet students whom I’m having trouble reading, and outgoing, outspoken, and energetic students, who incidentally all have theater backgrounds. I’m excited to see exactly what happens in this class – the curriculum is interesting and varied, but so far the reading is a bit thick. Also, in general, it seems this class is going to assign more reading than the students are used to. However, they all signed up for it instead of a study hall, so they must be interested in the topic. 

January 28

Today was an in-service day. It was really good for me to see this side of teaching. I learned a lot of names over the course of the day, and I also got a really good idea of many staff personalities. While all of the teachers I talked to knew and discussed how some kind of accreditation is important, but a lot of them resented the specific types of work that went into this accreditation, and the process itself. To be sure, the “indicators” that the school had to justify, one by one, were sometimes poorly worded or even horribly grammatically inaccurate. And nobody was excited about spending their Friday in a stressful library meeting. Tensions were definitely running high at certain points.

I’ve gained immense amount of insight about the accreditation process itself. The school had to form a list of core beliefs. One issue that came up was that we were paring down a list of core beliefs that had been decided upon by both school staff and community members. Because of the narrowing the staff had already done, we had to work on a way to reassure that the core values were still a collaborative project. All-in-all, it was an incredibly valuable experience.

January 27

Today was the first official day of a new semester for “B” days. In Freshman English, I got a great introduction to certain instruction and classroom management skills.  The class, which is studying and reading through Julius Caesar, spent the first part of class taking a vocabulary quiz, and the majority of the class was spent watching Caesar’s murder and Brutus and Antony’s speeches in the Marlon Brando movie. The classroom management skills that were demonstrated in the class were plainly laid out in the class – no talking was allowed. The first offense led to a warning, the second led to being moved, and the third would get you sent out of the classroom. In addition to the rules, Natalie clearly stated the expectations of the class – the movie is not just a time-filler. The class had to pay attention to what the characters were saying. The fact that the students had already read this part of the play aloud really gave them a chance to focus on the language. Between the murder and the funeral orations, Natalie asked the class about what they thought about Caesar’s stabbing and the portrayal of the scene. I might have gone a step further and paused the movie for a longer discussion. 

January 24

Today was the first day of a new semester! The classes we had today were Senior Writing Seminar, Freshman English, and Current Authors. I got to observe a lot of pedagogical skills today. The Current Authors class was fascinating - the class was read The Giving Tree aloud, and then had to break down the symbolism in the book. The discussion got really deep - it's clear to me that this class doesn't pull any punches. The reading list makes this doubly clear - Speak, Monster, and a bunch of other books. I'm not sure exactly the age group of this class - I think they're mostly seniors.
Today we discussed my first teaching moments that I will have. Sometime this week, I will be doing the vocabulary activities in the Freshman English classes (and maybe the Senior writing classes too).
I also talked with Natalie about another professional obligation that I'll be taking as a teacher - I'll be chaperoning at the One-Acts Festival in early March. I'm really excited to see what the extracurriculars are like at Mountain Valley High School. I've already asked about Debate Team (there isn't one), and I'm excited to play a role in the drama group.
We stayed after again for another accreditation meeting. I think this is a really interesting process. I'm particularly interested in the focus on semantics in the meetings about their prepared statement.

January 21

I got a call on the emergency alert system around 5:00 this morning - a voice message from Superintendent Dr. Tom Ward informing me that due to inclement weather, RSU10 will not have school today. It's good to know that I'm already on their alert system. Sleeping in is nice.