Daily+Reflections+2nd+Semester

25.1.10
Welcome to the new semester. New start, new day, some new kids. I lost a few kids who I really liked and a few that tended to disrupt the class, so it was an even balance. Today was a pretty easy day in terms of control. We just went over expectations and got to know some of the new kids. Team building actually turned out to be really fun for the seniors. I thought it would be a little too childish, but it turned out to be alright. They really took to the information and ran with it. It was great to see them interact with each other so much. Wonderful! I will, also need to be aware of this as well. This could be a potential issue later on :)

26.1.10
Second day of the new semester. Today we got down to more nitty gritty stuff. Students will be writing an essay paper, and I wanted them to be aware of some of the steps involved. We focused on thesis building today. I always find it hard to teach students about how to write and formulate thesis statements. They're easy when you understand them, but when you don't...well, it's hard to describe. The kids were really distracted as well today. It was somewhat frustrating. I was telling so many people to sit up and pay attention. They weren't at all interested in listening to what I had to say about thesis statements. I feel like they approach the topic from an "I already learned it" stance. That may be the case, but it is obvious that they didn't pay attention. So, now I'm stuck in this situation where I have to cover this topic with them as well as find a way to make it meaningful for them. I want all of them to succeed, but am finding it hard to find ways to continually motivate and keep them going while talking about material that they've already learned. Hmmm....that may be my big focus for the semester.

27.1.10
Today was great! We started out the day with two truths and a lie. I explained that I wanted to build up our classroom community and I wanted to do this by sharing information that we may or may not know about each other. The kids were really reluctant at first, but then they got really into the activity. I'm really glad. They actually got into it so much that we ended up spending more time on the project than I had planned. Also, I changed things around a bit today and had students focus a bit on writing and responding to writing. It worked alright, although people's papers got lost in the mix. I think this type of activity could work again depending on what is going on in class. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Overall, good and productive class.

28.1.10
I think today was the first day that I've really appreciated the MSU seniors being here. I'll be honest. There are days when I'm really nervous about teaching because I feel like I have to show them what needs to be done and what a good teacher needs to be. In ways, I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to be as perfect as I can be for them. Today, however, they gave me some invaluable feedback. As probably already noted, I'm always questioning my teaching ability. I work to try and get better and better at what I'm doing. Because of that, I often times find myself questioning my lessons and looking at what I could have done better as opposed to what I did well. Today, when I focused on all of the negative things, the girls actually pointed out all of the positive. The kids were actually on topic and discussing. All of those side conversations that I find so annoying are actually conversations dealing with what we're talking about in class. The girls said that the students were on task a whole lot more than I thought they were. YEA!!! This is good to know. I've found a topic that they enjoy talking about. Now, it's my turn to keep that discussion moving. I love this! Keep the positive feedback coming. It gets me even more motivated to get moving with everything I want the class to do.

1.2.10
I'm wondering how I can be more specific with my kids. I feel like I've talked about the same topic numerous times and yet students still ask questions about what is going on. How can I taylor this situation? I don't know if I can, but that's what I'm feeling right now. We went upstairs to the library today. Most people were on task, but there were a lot of questions about what students needed to be doing. I feel like I've covered this over and over with students. How do I fix this? Also, some students didn't realize that our research papers were connected to Afghanistan either. Where have I gone wrong?! I feel like I need to have step by step directions for them, but its frustrating because these students are seniors! How can I taylor this problem without treating the students like they are young children? This is what I'd like to focus on for the next few days. How do I get my students to connect with what's going on around then without holding their hands.

2.2.10
Today was another library day. I found that a lot of students were changing their topics. I don't have an issue with that and actually gave them that option as well. I just want to make sure that they have the ability to find enough information and to draft their essays accordingly. Most students were on task and I feel that they stay that way when I'm around. I like that they see me as the authority figure but also want them to stay on task when it comes to Christi teaching them as well. One of those things I'll have to work on. I also found today that the kids need a lot of work with their thesis statements. Yes, this is a hard thing to come up with and I still sometimes struggle with it. I just want to make sure that they are successful in everything they do. Because I want them to be successful, I've decided that we're going to do more work with thesis statements on a one on one basis. Hopefully this will help students out a bit more. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

3.2.10
Today was so rewarding! I love having these type of AHHHH days :) I had students walk around the room and do a gallery walk. They groaned about it at first, but got into it once things went underway. They were a bit louder than I would have desired, but they were still good and on task. Afterwards, I had them respond to what was going on in each of the pictures. We discussed what they saw, how they felt and connected it to elements that they knew. It was great!!! I actually had some excellent responses. What a fantastic day!

4.2.10
Today I tried to finish up the conversation from yesterday. NO GO. Students were not at all willing to talk. It was obvious that they were tired for whatever reason and they were just not interested in what was going on. Unfortunately, we didn't get through and discuss what I would have liked to. I just left it where we had it and went on. For individual work, I had students respond to what was going on in a few poems. I'm not sure how involved they were in the assignment. I think that this had a lot to do with the fact that they were disinterested for the day. I need to hold them accountable for the work, so I intend on going over everything with them on Monday. Hopefully this will help me see what they came up with as well as see what I need to do to help them along with their studies. Thesis work went alright. I'm still worried for a lot of students, but its better than nothing. I know that this will be a frustrating thing for everyone. We'll just see how things go.

8.2.10
Today went pretty well. I felt that there needed to be a day to backtrack and discuss some elements that I had assigned in class earlier on in the unit. I felt that I needed to explain why we were reading and evaluating certain elements in class. Although I don't have to prove why I did certain things in class, I felt that it was beneficial to discuss the poems I had assigned to my students during the end of last week. Students were super talkative, but did a fairly good job of participating in the discussion. One of my girls who is often caught sleeping in class had one of the most AMAZING thoughts/ideas about one of the poems. It absolutely blew me away! I am really starting to get excited about these moments and I think that they are cherished even more due to the fact that they are far and few between. I have experienced them a bit more lately. Perhaps I'm starting to get them to think beyond the literal level. I hope that's the case since that is my focus for one of our assignments in my TE class. This was fantastic. I hope that tomorrow is the same as today.

9.2.10
Today was fantastic. I was getting really frustrated with my students because they weren't really getting the idea of essay writing. I feel like not enough instruction was given for writing essays during the course of their high school years, and now, coming down to their final semesters, they have a huge paper that is going to take a lot of time to complete. Christi and I talked about how I could help the students understand the aspect of creating an essay and I came up with an idea that worked really well today. Students had to write down characteristics of Everett High School. We then put them on the board and arranged them in a way that would help them understand how to format their own essays. At first they seemed a little unimpressed, but eventually they came around and got really into the activity. I had a lot of really great conversations and was really impressed with everything they came u with. We spent so much time on this that we have to finish it later. It's GREAT! I'm so happy with them.

10.2.10
Snow Day!

11.2.10
Today we revisited the mock essay. I found that students were really confused with what needed to go on with the essay. They thought they were going to have to write two essays and then have to write their research paper as well. I kept trying to explain that this was a mock essay and that we were just using the essay as a reference. It took them a while, but they eventually got it. We spent the rest of the hour coming up with a topic sentence for the essay. I couldn't believe how long it took us. It does, however, help me gage how much more time we need to spend on this essay. I've decided to revamp some of my essays so that we're good to go with all of the mechanics of the essay. It is very apparent that they have never spent a lot of time learning how to structure an essay, so I feel that it is my duty to help the kids come up with some good strategies that they can take with them to college. So, with a lot of struggles and hashing and hashing, we finally came up with a thesis statement at the end of the hour. Wow! 55 minutes and a finished thesis statement. What a class period. I was just as tired as they were. I'm glad we're doing this though. I feel that it will benefit them greatly. I'm really excited to see what they come up with.

16.2.10
I felt like today was somewhat useless. I think that the kids were really tired from having that extra day off and unfortunately, that impacted what we did in class today. I felt once again like I was pulling teeth to get anything done. We worked on how to format outlines. A lot of the students claimed that they knew how to format outlines, but I feel that they are just covering up any type of lack of knowledge. I started to go over outlining using the picture or the essay we created last week. They, however, were disinterested. So, I just let this one slide. Normally I'd keep pushing it, but it was obvious that things weren't helping them out at all, so I just decided to move on. I checked thesis statements as well today. Things were still looking pretty bad. I'm running out of options as to how to approach this with them without sitting down and writing out each thesis statement for each kid. I feel like this is my biggest challenge right now. It should get better though.

17.2.10
Library day. Phew!!! Actually kids were on task today which was nice. I think the fact that their time in the library is coming to an end helped fuel their ambitions a bit. I had the ability to look at more thesis statements and was really happy with what happened. Most kids were almost there but just needed to tweak a few things. I'm hoping this continues on this way. YEA! I'm starting to feel a bit better about things. I also asked a few students what I can do to help them out some more. They said I was doing enough, so that also makes me feel alright for right now. I may find later that they need more help, but for the moment, it's enough to keep me going :)

18.2.10
I think today's class took more out of me than it ever has before. I feel like I was fighting with the kids for a good portion of the class. They were attentive and having fun at the beginning of class and they participated in discussion as well as a little group building game that we played. I loved it. They were up and interacting with one another. I think my downfall came when I read them a story. It turned into sleepy time and it was hard to get them back from that state. There were so many people with heads on their desks and only three people would answer any question that I posed to them. Talk about using wait time today! ARGH! As soon as I think things are going well, that's the time that they tend to fall apart. I'm wondering what I could have done differently. I could have handed them a copy of the story. Would that have really helped? They don't seem to be interested in doing as must interactive reading as I would have liked. I don't want to put blame on past educational experiences, but I do feel that it plays a huge role in what goes on in my class as well. How can I overcome these issues. I think that was my biggest struggle for the day.

19.2.10
Today was the last day in the library. I feel like the students had enough time to work out all of their information, but I'm still concerned about a few of my students. I have one student in particular who I am concerned about. I feel like he needs a lot of help because he is termed S .E, but I just don't have all of the time that I would like to dedicate to helping with his paper. I know that teachers struggle with this issue all of the time, but I wonder if there is ever a balance with all of the work. I would love to sit down with each student individually and work with them on their papers, but how, or when do I do this? I'm just not sure. I think that is my main struggle right now. The only other struggle that I have is that I feel like some students aren't researching what they should be. One girl in particular concerns me because I think she's been researching orphanages in the basic sense and not in relation to Afghanistan. I don't know how I could have been more clear for everyone. I also find it strange that she is the only student who hasn't completely proven to me that her material connects to Afghanistan. I've asked her about Afghanistan and about the orphanages there, but I still find her to be very vague. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I don't know how else to help her with everything. I think it will just have to wait until I see her final paper. It's sad, but I just don't know what else I can do.

23.2.10
I'm not really sure that I have anything to say about today. It seemed like a pretty strait forward day. We went through vocabulary words, discussed some works cited elements and then began reading //Kite Runner//. I think they'll really get into the book. They seemed really into it while we were reading. I am glad that I'm seeing this contrast in what is going on with the students. I now know which books to really play up and which books I don't need to spend as much time on. It's pretty nice actually. I'm thinking we'll get through this book pretty quickly. At least one class will be on schedule :) I've found it frustrating to get the freshmen involved with their book, so at least I don't have to struggle with the seniors. FANTASTIC!!! Hopefully tomorrow will be just as good.

24.2.10
Today was about the same as yesterday. We went over the importance of using a works cited page at the end of a research paper, discussed other questions/concerns related to paper writing and then dove right into //Kite Runner//. I'm so happy that they are interested in what is going on in this book. I find it really rewarding to have students invested in what they are doing, especially considering the fact that they are seniors and have no desire to even be in the classroom anymore. I have, however found that there is a lot of confusion surrounding the characters in the book. They are pretty straight forward to me, but I'm wondering how I can help them recognize the characters. I'll probably make a character chart, but we'll see how they do over the next few days.

25.2.10
Another day plugging away at paper works as well as //Kite Runner//. Students seem to be interested yet bored with everything going on in class. I think that part of the reason that they're so disengaged is due to the fact that they don't want to be in the school anymore. I'm trying to think back to when I was a senior in high school. I didn't want to be there and I just didn't care anymore. So, with that in mind, I've found that I need to work a little harder to convince the students to stay around and enjoy their last few months of class. I'm hoping that it will work. I'll just have to make class even more worth while than normal :) Don't know if it's possible, but that's what I'm going to do.

1.3.10
First full week of classes in a while. We spent a bit of time today discussing some background history related to Afghanistan. I put together a few pictures of the land in which the story takes place. I found it amazing that the country receives snow. That is one place that I wouldn't have considered having snow fall. Wow! The kids, however, didn't seem that interested in it. I wanted to make sure that they knew everything about what was going on in the book (including geography). They were really disinterested today. I'll give some credit to it being a Monday. I'm hoping that's it. I feel like I'm running out of ideas to help them learn what they need to learn. I guess we'll see if it's more me or if it's them or both. Guess we'll go from there. :) At least they're still interested in the book. I actually have students reading outside of class! YEA! Fantastic! Wonderful!