Woke up early this morning to go to work. After rolling over to turn off my alarm, it hit me that the fun-filled weekend was over and it was back to the real world. . . the real world where we were going to be setting big trusses all day out in the wind, after which I would come home to homework and a 9:00 deadline for which I needed my textbook which hadn't arrived yet.
Needless to say, neither of those things made me feel ready to start my day. I kind of wished I could go back to sleep for awhile. But I couldn't. I'd already told Larry I could help him on his big truss-setting day.
Rolling over one more time, I asked God to give safety while we were working up high and to help my textbook come in the mail. Why? Because if there's two things I wanted for that day, it was safety and my textbook . . . and if there's two things I don't control it's accidents and the U.S. postal service! =)
Later during devotions I was reading in Mark where Jesus reminds the disciples that if they pray believing, they will receive, even if it involves things like commanding a fig tree to die or moving mountains. I knew these requests weren't anywhere as dramatic or unusual as those, but did believe God had heard and as I went through the rest of the day I kept wondering how he was going to answer.
Long story short, the concrete walls we were working on were pretty high (it's for a gym after all) and it was pretty windy at first, but setting the trusses went faster than we thought and without any accidents. The wind slowed down for the second part of the day and we were able to get all the trusses up by just before dark – something we hoped we could do but really didn't think would work out.
During our short lunch break, I called home to find out if I needed to go pick up another textbook from Millersville so I could keep up with my classes in case my ordered book didn't come for another week (which it very easily could have) and found out that it had arrived, and only because the sender was nice enough to ship it expedited and very quickly after I ordered it – and all that without him even knowing that I needed it quickly because I had forgot to tell him when I bought it.
Anyway, I was encouraged to see how God answered two simple prayers. They weren't really out of the ordinary and could easily be explained by perfectly natural causes, but God used them to remind me that he does listen and act when we pray.
There was no reason we shouldn't have had a safe day at work since we were being careful on a tough job, but there are many people who didn't have a safe day at work today. There was no reason why my textbook shouldn't have come in the mail seeing as it was shipped on time, but not all sellers are nice enough to ship before they absolutely have to. I am thankful for both.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Field Journal
I recently completed four weeks of field experience. It's part of the teacher program and state law that prospective teachers spend at least 35 hours observing and participating (interacting, teaching, etc.) in a real life classroom before student teaching. The following is from one of my many field journals I completed and handed in to my professors at the end. . .
The culture at this High School appears very professional. They are considered a high achieving school and want to maintain that image. Because their reputation is good, their code of conduct is set pretty high, creating that professional atmosphere. The teachers do cooperate and the first day in the school I saw teachers cooperating to time their lessons to each other and create a common final assessment. At the same time, I could see that their reputation also puts some pressure on teachers to have their students perform well, creating some competition among teachers. It wasn't much, but there are politics that go on among the faculty and there was some whispering that went on between cooperating teachers.
Teachers here are expected to help a the tutoring center, do cafeteria duty, help with bus duty, and oversee study hall and home rooms. Teachers often have duty together and the conversations during these seems to be somewhat informal and pretty friendly. The faculty room doesn't get used much by teachers and most of them just eat in their classrooms by themselves. The one conversation I heard in the faculty room (I don't think it was even between two teachers) was about a celebrity scandal. Aside from being somewhat crude, it had nothing to do with school and I got the feeling that not much of anything happens in the faculty room.
I asked about support for first year teachers and was told that there is a program for them, but I gathered that it isn't always comprehensive or terribly relevant to the actual needs of new teachers. It meets about once a week at first and then gradually weans new teachers off. They meet and discuss theories of teaching and some procedures, but I was told the the best support comes from finding another teacher who will take you under their wing for a little and tell you about how the school works.
The classroom I was in is mostly project based so the structure was pretty loose. Kids had a lot of in-class work time and were given a lot of freedom about how and they wanted to complete their projects. A lot of the classes were AP classes and this structure seemed to work fairly well for them and some kids made the most of the freedom to go above and beyond. However, for students who weren't highly motivated, it gave them time to procrastinate and socialize. In these cases, the teacher would usually come over to the table to try to get them back on track. Intervention was informal and usually consisted of a quiet comment or simply waiting till the class was quiet enough to continue with the instructions.
The less formal environment led to a lot of interaction between students and the teacher, and I think most students found her to be down to earth. They were pretty comfortable talking with her and viewed her as someone who was enough like them to understand them. Some of the students really liked and respected her for the freedom she gave them, and some didn't. In each class, there were a few students who didn't like her because they wanted more direct instruction than she gave them and felt that she wasn't teaching them enough.
Special education wasn't a big part of the classroom. Four of the six classes were AP classes and there were some gifted students in them. The teacher told me that the biggest difficulty with gifted students was getting them to take risks instead of just worrying about the grade. Since the assessment was project based, the teacher told me she set it up specifically so gifted students could make their projects as complex and thorough as they wanted to.
There were a couple kids in class with IEP's and they had a special ed teacher who would come in during those classes. She would walk around the classroom, checking in on the tables where they were to make sure they were on task. Again, the project-based assessments were naturally scaffolded to allow students to achieve at the level they were comfortable. Other than that, I didn't see a whole lot of accommodations that were made to the classroom. Students with special needs were simply allowed to do projects that were simpler than other students.
The student I shadowed was definitely a case of a smart student who is underachieving. He excels in the classes he likes, but he is doing poorly in all the others. As I watched him, it became apparent to me that one of the biggest reasons for this is his social life. It's not that he was not against or disinterested in learning, but he was more concerned more interested in being cool. He would participate when “forced” to (and I was surprised at how good his answer was when he was specifically asked) but he wouldn't give the answer of his own accord because it is cooler to not participate. If I was going to teach him, I think I would sometimes “force” him to share with the rest of the class – as long as I had checked up on him and knew he had a good answer. It is a way to let him be involved without hurting his social status. Also, I think I would let him work in groups as a reward, but let him know that if he gets off track he will be switched to another group or have to work by himself for a little.
His favorite class was construction and he was anxious for me to see him in this class. As I watched him and the other boys in shop class, it became apparent to me that they all liked working with their hands better than with a pencil and paper. The same went for physics class, although there he was working with a group again and spent part of the time goofing off because it made the others laugh. However, overall he was naturally more excited and eager to learn when there was a hands-on project to do. I think if he was in my class, I would give the option of making something (maybe a monument for a particular event) for one of the assessments. I would also try to bring in tangible artifacts for him and the rest of the class to put their hands on and get them interested.
Unstructured time was not a good thing for this student. There were two classes where the students were expected to work on their own and weren't given specific instructions or in-class-deadlines. This was when he would zone out. It wasn't that he couldn't follow instructions because I observed him following perfectly when there was a teacher stepping the students through a process in Econ, but when the in clas work time was totally self-guided, he didn't seem to know where to start so he just didn't. I think if I was going to used a project based assessment for him and allow in-class work time, I would need to structure the class so they do the project in small steps and need to report to the rest of the class at least once or twice during the day. Being told where to start and just knowing that the teacher is going to call on several random groups to show what they have accomplished that day would do wonders for providing motivation. It would also help students who are falling behind because they can listen to what their classmates have done and imitate it if they are at a loss for ideas or direction.
The culture at this High School appears very professional. They are considered a high achieving school and want to maintain that image. Because their reputation is good, their code of conduct is set pretty high, creating that professional atmosphere. The teachers do cooperate and the first day in the school I saw teachers cooperating to time their lessons to each other and create a common final assessment. At the same time, I could see that their reputation also puts some pressure on teachers to have their students perform well, creating some competition among teachers. It wasn't much, but there are politics that go on among the faculty and there was some whispering that went on between cooperating teachers.
Teachers here are expected to help a the tutoring center, do cafeteria duty, help with bus duty, and oversee study hall and home rooms. Teachers often have duty together and the conversations during these seems to be somewhat informal and pretty friendly. The faculty room doesn't get used much by teachers and most of them just eat in their classrooms by themselves. The one conversation I heard in the faculty room (I don't think it was even between two teachers) was about a celebrity scandal. Aside from being somewhat crude, it had nothing to do with school and I got the feeling that not much of anything happens in the faculty room.
I asked about support for first year teachers and was told that there is a program for them, but I gathered that it isn't always comprehensive or terribly relevant to the actual needs of new teachers. It meets about once a week at first and then gradually weans new teachers off. They meet and discuss theories of teaching and some procedures, but I was told the the best support comes from finding another teacher who will take you under their wing for a little and tell you about how the school works.
The classroom I was in is mostly project based so the structure was pretty loose. Kids had a lot of in-class work time and were given a lot of freedom about how and they wanted to complete their projects. A lot of the classes were AP classes and this structure seemed to work fairly well for them and some kids made the most of the freedom to go above and beyond. However, for students who weren't highly motivated, it gave them time to procrastinate and socialize. In these cases, the teacher would usually come over to the table to try to get them back on track. Intervention was informal and usually consisted of a quiet comment or simply waiting till the class was quiet enough to continue with the instructions.
The less formal environment led to a lot of interaction between students and the teacher, and I think most students found her to be down to earth. They were pretty comfortable talking with her and viewed her as someone who was enough like them to understand them. Some of the students really liked and respected her for the freedom she gave them, and some didn't. In each class, there were a few students who didn't like her because they wanted more direct instruction than she gave them and felt that she wasn't teaching them enough.
Special education wasn't a big part of the classroom. Four of the six classes were AP classes and there were some gifted students in them. The teacher told me that the biggest difficulty with gifted students was getting them to take risks instead of just worrying about the grade. Since the assessment was project based, the teacher told me she set it up specifically so gifted students could make their projects as complex and thorough as they wanted to.
There were a couple kids in class with IEP's and they had a special ed teacher who would come in during those classes. She would walk around the classroom, checking in on the tables where they were to make sure they were on task. Again, the project-based assessments were naturally scaffolded to allow students to achieve at the level they were comfortable. Other than that, I didn't see a whole lot of accommodations that were made to the classroom. Students with special needs were simply allowed to do projects that were simpler than other students.
The student I shadowed was definitely a case of a smart student who is underachieving. He excels in the classes he likes, but he is doing poorly in all the others. As I watched him, it became apparent to me that one of the biggest reasons for this is his social life. It's not that he was not against or disinterested in learning, but he was more concerned more interested in being cool. He would participate when “forced” to (and I was surprised at how good his answer was when he was specifically asked) but he wouldn't give the answer of his own accord because it is cooler to not participate. If I was going to teach him, I think I would sometimes “force” him to share with the rest of the class – as long as I had checked up on him and knew he had a good answer. It is a way to let him be involved without hurting his social status. Also, I think I would let him work in groups as a reward, but let him know that if he gets off track he will be switched to another group or have to work by himself for a little.
His favorite class was construction and he was anxious for me to see him in this class. As I watched him and the other boys in shop class, it became apparent to me that they all liked working with their hands better than with a pencil and paper. The same went for physics class, although there he was working with a group again and spent part of the time goofing off because it made the others laugh. However, overall he was naturally more excited and eager to learn when there was a hands-on project to do. I think if he was in my class, I would give the option of making something (maybe a monument for a particular event) for one of the assessments. I would also try to bring in tangible artifacts for him and the rest of the class to put their hands on and get them interested.
Unstructured time was not a good thing for this student. There were two classes where the students were expected to work on their own and weren't given specific instructions or in-class-deadlines. This was when he would zone out. It wasn't that he couldn't follow instructions because I observed him following perfectly when there was a teacher stepping the students through a process in Econ, but when the in clas work time was totally self-guided, he didn't seem to know where to start so he just didn't. I think if I was going to used a project based assessment for him and allow in-class work time, I would need to structure the class so they do the project in small steps and need to report to the rest of the class at least once or twice during the day. Being told where to start and just knowing that the teacher is going to call on several random groups to show what they have accomplished that day would do wonders for providing motivation. It would also help students who are falling behind because they can listen to what their classmates have done and imitate it if they are at a loss for ideas or direction.
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