Life without a Smart Board

So the projector on the smart board went out a few days ago. We are suppose to be getting a new one, today, we shall see.

This has forced me not to rely on technology to aid my instruction. The students had to look at their worksheets and follow along on the page as I explained it, rather than look off of the document camera-shocker! *laughs*

The timer for timed tests was on the Smart Board (I had to improvise last second, because I didn't think of that until it was too late). Good old fashioned clocks work just fine, though!

My biggest adjustment was writing on the white board (which had been covered by the Smart Board). I slant my words upward unless I am really thinking about it. My students call it "the wave". As I tend to get writing, forget about it, then remember and come back down. One told me yesterday, "Good thing we are so smart we can read the wave", I'm glad my students have a sense of humor-because they certainly need it with me as the teacher. I'm not sure what my new student thinks of me. Probably that I am either a big goofball, because of the projector missing or that I am a Nazi, as the students have been rowdy of late.

Job Hunt

I attended the Illinois State University Job fair yesterday. It was incredible how many districts were there! Too bad there weren't more closer to where I am wanting to teach. Oh well. I have decided that I have put my resume out there, and it is now up to the administration to pick the teacher that will be best for their schools. I would rather wait than be in their positions (Lord, give me patience). I can't imagine interviewing hundreds of applicants, even one hundred would be daunting, in an attempt to find the one that is the correct match for the schools.

Good Luck to the administrators out there. I will be waiting to see if I am lucky enough to be considered for a position in your schools.

Blogging and Podcasting in the Classroom

So I am planning on integrating blogging and podcasting into an activity post Illinois State Achievement Tests. It will be in conjunction with our unit on regions of the United States of America. Hopefully the integration of technology will excite the students and give them that drive to want to learn (that is so hard to achieve sometimes).

How do I feel about this? I had a professor that required us to respond regularly on a wiki and blog as a part of the class (the blog was apart from this one, and actually inspired me to begin this one). So I feel I have some experience with this. But enough to teach students how to do it? I will do my research, set everything up ahead of time and all will go well, I hope. I do realize restrictions will need to be placed on the blog so that all the postings are monitored. But all in all, this should be an exciting endeavor and I will keep you updated as to our progress in this exciting step forward.

Jan 25 Reflection

As of this point in my student teaching I have taken over math, word (similar to spelling, yet different), and this week I began with writing workshop.

Today in math the goal was to learn about similar and congruent figures. I started off the lesson with a video clip from United Streaming (a wonderful resource if you have access to it through your school). This short video clip (2 minutes and 15 seconds) is great because it introduces similar and congruency through the use of something the students see every day: flags. Then we went into a SMART board lesson next, which did not upload correctly, sorry (you may email me at brspeer@ilstu.edu if you would like it). All was well with both of those activities, but then came the challenge. Next on the plans was paired practice using geoboards and rubber bands. After an adequate explanation of safety rules, we began by one student making a shape and the other making a congruent or similar shape, depending on my direction. Part of my expliciate directions were to keep voices at a whisper, which the class had a hard time doing. I had to stop them several times in order to bring them back down to a reasonable level. Don't get me wrong-they were excited about the activity, their excitement just got a little out of hand.

Word was next. We were looking at January's words and breaking them apart into root woods, prefixes and suffixes in order to better understand the meanings of the words. The students took right to this activity and enjoyed discovering the meaning of larger words this way. Normally, the students have some in between talk during word time, but today they were completely engaged. I love that feeling when they are all on task and I can see their little minds turning.

Later in the afternoon came the first time I had taught writing workshop completely on my own (planning and teaching). Today we began a new unit on essay writing. When I told the students what we were going to begin learning, I got about 5 groans. Not the best way to start out a brand new subject for me and a brand new unit for them. After the groans, I deviated from my lesson plan to find out the source of the groans. It turned out to be the result of prompts the students had a hard time writing from. Good thing we are not starting out with writing prompts. we will get there, but we will spend time writing about ideas that hit home with the students first. My hope is that after we learn how to write good essays we can branch out and come up with ideas from other people's ideas. I think Lucy Calkins Writing Workshop book will lead me, and the students, in the right direction, and get them back to loving essays.

So, all in all, a good day, with a few rough patches. But hey, isn't that what teaching is all about?

Ready, Set, Go!

I feel as if I just ended my spring semester (and I did, last week), yet I am embarking on a new journey. Tomorrow I meet my mentor and the person I will be co-teaching with in the fall.

So many things are running through my head. Yet of all the advice others have given, one thing stands out: BE YOURSELF. Although I have ideas about my future classroom and many lesson plans swimming around in my head, I need to remember what this encounter is about. Getting to meet this wonderful teacher (he/she must be wonderful for my advisers to have paired us up) and obtaining a glimpse of what next year might look like for me.

I am "readying" myself tonight (through preparation). I will "get set" as I get up in the morning, do devotions eat breakfast and drive there. Then I will be expected to "go". Go meet my mentor. Go meet the principal. Go set up the classroom. Go meet the students. Go co-teach. Go teach children to learn. Go: make in impact during my short time on earth.

Professional Development

Last week I went to my last classes at Illinois State University. This upcoming week I will complete my last set of final tests and move onto the Professional Development School portion of my learning.

Although technically I will be taking classes in addition to getting a jump start on student teaching this fall, I will be in an entirely new environment experiencing different things. It is a strange (but good) feeling to be moving beyond college into my professional career.