To Teach is to Learn Twice

Go Warhawks!

The other day, Dr. Bill asked me how teaching was going. I think I responded with something like, "Uh...WONDERFUL!" What a silly question, Dr. Bill! Another week is down, and I'm feeling stronger and more encouraged as time passes. I cannot believe how fast my time at Northwood is going. We're already a couple of weeks into the school year, and I will be teaching three of my five classes full-time in just about a week or so. During my first week, I jumped right in and began co-teaching with Mrs. D. Since then, I've been teaching a class at least once a day, and it's great! Mrs. D decided that it would be good for her to teach first period and for me to model after her and teach the other two eighth grade classes by following what she did. This has been working really well for us. I find that as each period passes, both Mrs. D. and I find ways to strengthen and change our lessons as the day progresses. This is not to say that first period is at a loss; rather, it means that I am able to assess how Mrs. D. and/or I taught and then make changes so that the lesson becomes more meaningful, time efficient, and lasting for the students. The only downfall I find in modeling after Mrs. D. is that I am not given much time to prepare for what and how I am going to teach. Personally, I find it best to plan a couple of days in advance so that I know exactly what I am going to do with the students. Since I am not teaching full-time yet, I have not been planning ahead of time because Mrs. D. has been planning the classes. While I am not nervous to teach second and fifth periods, I feel that I am not one-hundred percent prepared, and that is not fair to the students. But ultimately, I am grateful that Mrs. D. has enough faith in me to allow me to take on two classes in such a short amount of time.

My lesson on there. I also taught their and they're
over the course of three separate days. 

In my last blog post, I explained the S.P.I.N. activities that I created to take place during Channel 1. With the death of Neil Armstrong last weekend, I felt it necessary to read about and discuss the great contributions he made to further space exploration. I had planned to talk about space exploration for only one day, intending to end the week with Woodstock news and the controversy over Lance Armstrong's use of steroids. But students showed such great interest in space that I pushed my intended plans aside and created two additional activities that focused on v space, the first relating to the Virgin Galactica (the first spaceship airplane that will take human tourists up to space in 2014) and the second relating to life on Mars by 2023 and it being televised as a reality show by 2033. In my post-instructional reflections, I wrote about how proud I was of myself for creating this sort of mini unit on space. It was also interesting to look at space from a number of perspectives (historical, tourism, and entertainment). As time progresses, I am also learning how to create my S.P.I.N. activities in ways that allows students to really succeed (i.e., allowing students more time to complete their written assignments without having to do it for homework, giving one main writing prompt rather than multiple shorter ones, etc.). The first writing unit that I will be teaching is on Narrative Writing, and Mrs. D. and I decided that instead of requiring students to complete one giant writing assignment, it would be better to have them complete 3-4 smaller writing assignments so that they are given multiple occasions to work on their narrative writing skills. The first writing assignment that students will be completing is a newspaper article, so by exposing students to how and why newspaper articles are written through our S.P.I.N. activities, students should be successful in writing their own newspaper articles. I then intend to have students submit their articles to the school newspaper which will give them an opportunity to have their work displayed and published for others to read.

The students signed our classroom rules
and consequences poster.

While it is one thing to learn about IEPs and 504s in a textbook, it is completely different to see them in action. I have about six students who have either an IEP or a 504, and it is both challenging and rewarding to work with and accommodate these students in class. On Thursday, it was brought to my attention that one of my students, Tom, was having a hard time keeping his hands to himself. A number of other teachers brought up this concern, which was surprising to me because I had not noticed this as being an issue. Tom is in my first period class, and he is a good student who completes his work and generally receives good grades. He is also new to Northwood, which makes this issue even harder because he is trying to find his place among the students. During our Team meeting period on Friday, we had Tom come in for an intervention type of meeting. Each of the teachers took turns, stating what they were noticing in Tom. We began with stating many positives we see in Tom - good work, participation, etc. Then we began discussing the issues. Mr. C. explained that one day, Tom is going to touch the wrong person and potentially end up in some trouble with the law. Mrs. P. explained that, unfortunately, there is a difference between girls and boys. Tom explained that he poked a couple of girls in the side because they poked him first. Mrs. P. explained that, while it is okay for a girl to poke a boy, it is not okay for a boy to poke a girl because girls do not take actions like that the way boys do. Mrs. H. then went on to explain that we all have bubbles of personal space around us. A boy's bubble may be relatively small, but a girl's bubble is extra large, especially in the region from the neck to the knees. After answering any of Tom's questions, we sent him back to class. He was very responsive, listened sincerely to our concerns, and promised that he would work better at keeping his hands to himself. I must admit, at the beginning of the meeting, I was somewhat afraid of how it would go. But since Tom was so cooperative, I think it was successful.

Ms. Noonan :)

And I suppose I'm officially a real teacher when I go through the drama of experiencing the first fire drill of the school year. Wow. It's hard to take attendance when the kids are celebrating to be out of the classroom and not paying attention to any single thing in particular. Of course, it doesn't help that I have over thirty students to keep track of. I'm also a real teacher, too, when I'm referred to as Ms. Noonan. Ms. Noonan, I want you to see us win a football game! Ms. Noonan, did we have homework last night? Ms. Noonan, can you help me with this assignment? :Happy sigh: I could get used to this. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Finally, I'm beginning to see how my personal life and my professional life blur together. During the first couple of weeks at Northwood, everything I thought about pertained to student teaching. But lately, if I don't get enough sleep, have an argument with a family member, or lose hours at work, my focus is taken away from teaching, which is currently my number one priority. One of my goals is to learn how to balance teaching, planning, working, and spending time with my family, and it's tough. Unfortunately, as much as I would like to keep my personal and professional lives separate so that I can completely focus on teaching, it is impossible to do so. I will continue to work at spreading my efforts and concentration evenly over the different areas of my life.

While I'm glad for the long weekend, I'm definitely looking forward to another week of teaching.

*Names of students have been changed in order to protect their privacy.