Aspects of the week I found most valuable:
This week has been very enjoyable for me. PSSA testing made the schedule relatively interesting; however it was nice seeing the students at different times during the day. On Wednesday, I taught my sixth period class during the second period time. It was interesting to see how a normally energetic class can become so lethargic. This week I also chaperoned a pep bus for the Benton students since the girls basketball team made it to states. This gave me a chance to see how the students interact with each other out of school and I also felt that it helped the students connect with me. It will be a sad day when I am done student teaching. I will miss the students greatly and hope that they stay connected with me over the Computer Applications and computer project’s blogs I created. I think it would be great to have them answer questions even after I am done teaching them!
If given the opportunity to start the week over I would:
If given the opportunity to start the week over I would wait an extra day to start the March Madness activity I created. The tournament teams were chosen Sunday and the web sites that I had the students visit changed from the time I visited them Sunday night to the time I demonstrated how to use these sites on Monday. This flustered me and made me have to think on my feet. I learned to never rely on a web site to be the same the next time you visit it, especially a sport’s web site that is updated frequently.
Hope you all had a great week ten. See you all Monday night!
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We had PSSAs this week as well but they don't change the schedule at all which makes it hard for some students because they missed 3 days of class. I agree with you about connecting to the students in different ways. I'm looking forward to the FBLA State conference next week to connect with students and see them in a different light outside of class. I think this is one of the best parts of teaching by getting to know the kids better. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool you are doing a March Madness activity with your students. My co-op does something simular with her kids too. They seem to love it! And I agree that it is so frustrating when web sites change, or they are randomly blocked on the surver when you go to use them!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you learned a lot of great lessons this week Shawn!
ReplyDeleteHaving students at different times of the day is a tremendous factor in delivering content to students. Do you know that the last district I worked with switched math class from morning to afternoon every other day for students? The research shows that math is better learned and understood in the morning than in the afternoon, and they accommodated the schedule to best practices for rich, meaningful student learning.
Connecting to students' in their environment on their level is also incremental in building respect and appreciation for both teacher and students.
Finally, web sites can change from one twenty-four hour period to the next. Additionally, since we don't control the content on these web sites, we, as teachers, need to check them frequently for appropriate content for school learning.