STCBlogPosts

For this week, students were starting a movie after my previous lesson, so there wasn’t too much evaluation in terms of assessment. However, students had been filling out a packet while reading Hamlet, as a method of both formative and summative assessment. Students were able to fill out the packet at their own pace and to go back and make corrections. Students are also expected to turn the packet in once the unit is over. In this way, the packet is a form of assessment as learning, giving students an outline of what they are expected to learn while reading the text, as well as facilitating their knowledge and giving them the opportunity to take agency over their own learning. This was also a form of assessment of learning because their teacher is able to grade it at the end of the unit and assess what they have learned or to what extent they were willing to learn. The packet was also an assessment for learning because the teacher (my mentor teacher as well as myself) could use this as...

18 November 2022 I have not seen much problem based learning implementation in the classroom on the part of my mentor teacher. It appears that she generally teaches content just for the sake of teaching content, without typically using real-world applications. That isn’t to say that she doesn’t address issues in learning, but it, again, does not appear typical of her.  Rather, I have been attempting to implement problem-based learning into my own lessons that I have been presenting to the class. I have tried to introduce real-world applications and ways that Shakespeare still maintains relevancy in the modern world. I have been doing this by introducing modern-day sayings that have their origins in Shakespeare. Additionally, I have been trying to help students understand that I am trying to teach them how to implement independent thought processes, particularly while attempting to help them understand that myself or their teacher(s) will not be around forever to help them, and I am...

 13 November 2022 It has been difficult for me to directly observe data-driven decision making in my classroom. I don’t really see my mentor teacher doing much of any of it. I was able to do it myself during my own lesson that I presented. This was my second lesson and I decided to use the data from my previous assessment to inform my decision making in the second one. I had been asking students to be subjective about learning, rather than looking for the “correct” or objective answer. I then wanted them to justify why they came to the conclusion they did so that they might be able to demonstrate their learning. Many of the students did what I asked them to do, but a lot of them gave answers without giving a reason. I suppose I just wanted them to “show their work,” and that was kind of lost on them. So I did a little exercise/activity during my following lesson. I informed students about divergent vs. convergent thinking, and how I wanted them to think more divergently. To do this...

4 November 2022 I am having a hard time responding to the prompt for this week because I did not see a whole lot of differentiation, if any, that I can identify here. There are a handful of students in my class(es) who are either ELL students or have 504s… However, I have not really seen my mentor teacher differentiate instruction, and maybe only make accommodations, but this hasn’t occurred in any way I can actually identify this week. I gave my first official lesson this week, and I feel as if I differentiated instruction more than my mentor teacher did. I had students respond to a prompt, and they could choose to respond in whatever medium made the most sense or was the most functional for them. Honestly, I did this before I was informed of students who were ELL or had 504s. I did also give special assistance to my ELL students and simply rephrase the question and guide them to have a better understanding of what I meant. I did this by helping them break down the structure of the se...

21 September 2022 In both my classes (on white and purple days), technology seems to play an integral role in the classroom. Students start every day with their “bell work,” in which they respond to a prompt given by the teacher and post their responses in Schoology where the teacher is able to view them. Each student is expected to do this. All the information the students need about assignments and what will be happening in class is on Schoology. These prompts are also given to students via a projection of a word doc that is being displayed on Mrs. Kendall’s desktop. It has been somewhat difficult to make observations about technology in the classroom because both classes are working on the same project. Therefore, there hasn’t yet been a structure to how the classroom typically runs in order for me to see any changes in daily usage of technology and electronics. For the most part, students sit with their laptops open for the duration of the class period, some working on their projec...

13 September 2022 For my classroom observations, I am there on two different days (white and purple days). Both classes on purple and white days are senior literature classes. Both classes are fairly quiet and mild-mannered, but the class on white days is significantly quieter even still. For the purposes of this observation, I was only observing the white day class. The far side of the classroom by the entrance almost never talks, not even amongst each other. Two girls in the middle of the classroom really only interact with each other and the teacher (Mrs. Kendall). There are three kids that sit around me in the classroom that only talk to Mrs. Kendall and sometimes to each other. One of these students has had this teacher for several classes so they know each other quite well. This same student is also very good friends with the boy that sits directly behind her. There is a boy who sits at the very back of the class that isn’t surrounded by anyone, but he is very friendly and intell...

26 September 2022 I was excited to get to this weeks’ prompt because I actually have something to talk about for this. Technically speaking, I don’t have any students in either of my classes who have disabilities that need to be taken into account or even students that are more proficient in certain areas. There is, however, a student from West Africa that does not speak English in one of these classes. Even my mentor teacher, Mrs. Kendall did not know what to do with this poor girl, because no one even told Mrs. Kendall what language she speaks. I offered up the idea of using a translator app that most phones have. However, this app would not work until we knew what language the student spoke. My mentor teacher and I spent nearly an entire class period trying to find out what her native language was, until she thought of one of her coworkers she could ask, so we finally found out that this student spoke French. So, since this happened about a week to a week and a half ago, Mrs. Kendal...

7 September 2022 Because both the classes I sit in are during senior classes, my mentor teacher does not have to worry about much in terms of classroom management. Most, if not all, the students self-regulate fairly well and, while they can often be disruptive, never escalate. Most students’ behaviors are managed by their own peers, classmates, and friends, who tell a student when they need to calm down and the student often listens. A perfect example of this happened today, actually. It was my first instance of teaching a lesson in this classroom. I could tell one of the students was in a bad mood for reasons I didn’t understand and that I didn’t ask about because it seemed like trying to talk about it would just set him off. Before I presented my lesson, he asked me if he could do his math homework while I taught. This made it seem like he was trying to get a rise out of me, because he could have just done it and not said anything. I told him that I couldn’t do anything about it if h...