Letter to Myself from Myself Past, Present, and Future.

Dear Jason (me),

            I know you probably cannot imagine it now but you will make it through the next four years and graduate with a degree in English Education. I know you are going to think it impossible to make it in four years after changing majors the first year, but no matter how bad some semesters seem (especially the 21 credit hour one you will face) it will all be ok.

            It will be a long journey that will come to an end in the best way you could never have imagined. You will meet the best woman on the planet in one of the worst classes on campus (abbreviated as HEL), and you will never been happier. Even though she drives you crazy most of the time asking for help on assignments when you have much of your own stuff to finish and are way behind on, you have never been happier than you are now with her. Hold her tight and never let her go.

            Student teaching will become overwhelming at times. Just remember all the instances where you have specifically made a difference and keep your head high. There will be days when you question your career choice but you will always come back with a stronger devotion of knowing this is what you were meant to do.

            As you go through the first few years of teaching, don’t stress out or become discouraged. The first few years are always the hardest, and this will be when you learn the most about teaching. Take some time for yourself, since schooling, wedding planning, and married life will consume most of it. Don’t forget who you really are when you’re wrapped up in the first few years with Steph, and remember that she always means well even if it doesn’t seem like it.

            Remember that anything worth doing in life is never easy. All the stress from job searching during student-teaching has finally paid off and you and Steph are on your way to a happily ever after. After all the time and effort you put forth at WSU, don’t forget where you came from and where you are going.

            Sitting behind that teacher desk these next few years, take time to think back to your days as a student. Remember all the projects, the stress from having Dr. Mason sit in on your lessons and critique your teaching methods, the long job search, and the day everything finally came together. Remember that each of those times that everything seemed so far out of reach were only stepping stones that brought you where you are today.

            Throughout your career as an educator, remember where you came from and that everything you went through lead you to where you are today. Remember the friends you made through classes and your co-op position at Marshall, and cut Steph some slack when it comes to Mike. Remember that Mike and Jackie mean quite a bit to her now, and that sometimes she becomes jealous of how much you and Mike share. Just kindly remind her that she has secrets with Jackie and she shouldn’t get mad. That will be your biggest struggle, and everyone knows it.

            During the late nights grading papers, take some time and spend it with Steph. The two of you will make it through anything that comes your way. Work together, not against one another, and remind yourself every day why you love one another. Even though these next few years will be stressful for both of you, remember to take the time for each other. Work together through the hard times, and learn from your mistakes. With the help of one another, you will make it through anything that comes your way.

            Relax, breathe. You made it this far, and with the continuation of hard work and dedication, you will make it even further.

                                                                                                Jason

                                                                                                (Me)

             

Spring Break

   Spring break is finally here! However, it hasn't really been much of a break. As many of my peers I imagine my break has been filled with working on my KPTP, lesson planning, and stressing over finding a job. On the plus side I finished teach my Romeo and Juliet unit last Friday and for the most part the lessons went well.

    I finished the unit with the movie Romeo + Juliet. Though most the teachers show the older version I found the updated one helped to keep my students interested during the movie and they had fun listing the differences and similarities between the two.

    I also had 2 observations in this unit. What was interesting is I scheduled my February one at the end of the month and my March on at the beginning so I ended up with the same class being observed two class periods in a row. I wish I could say they both went well... The first one went awesomely and I got some great feed back; however, the 2nd one the students decided to throw a monkey wrench into my plans. Through a combination of the students acting out and me becoming frustrated the classroom dynamic quickly spiraled into an environment that was not optimal. I felt I was trying to talk over a few key students and that once they saw it was bothering me they continued to push my buttons. I know a plethora of different strategies for situations for when this happens unfortunately is seem I forgot them all at this moment and focused more on thinking "of all days why are they doing this today!" On the upside this helped me to take a closer look at my classroom expectations, how they are implemented, and what I am doing on a daily basis to keep the students mindful of them.

     My CT kept reassuring me everyone has days like this and not to let it get to me. This led us to talking about what can lead to these issues, what do to when they start, and how to prevent it from happening in the future. It may have been one of the worst days of the year for me at the time in my mind, but overall it ended up becoming a great learning experience and I would of definitely wanted it to happen while student teaching than when I was on my own without the support of my CT and instructors to help me learn from it.

    For the coming weeks I am looking forward to teaching a unit on how individuals can make a difference in society and Death of a Salesman. For the individual change unit I am highlighting individuals such as Dr. King, Susan B. Anthony, and Jamie Nabozny to name a few. I am excited to implement the Bullied video we watched as a class last week. I feel this will help with teaching tolerance along with showing how one person can make a difference with the bonus of using a different medium and an issue that is more current. I feel this will be a nice closing unit for the year and will cover a number of issues students in my classes will be able to relate to.

    It is hard to believe this semester is coming so close to an end. Not only is it the semester but the culmination of my 4 years of college education. I remember when I started it seemed like 4 years was so far away; now that it is almost here it feels as though it has all went by in a blur. I'm ready to start the next chapter in my life, yet at the same time it is a bit bittersweet. For the last four years of my life going to campus, seeing friends in class, and talking with professors has become a routine and now the dynamic is about to change dramatically. Then again I guess it is time to grow up again. I hope everyone else is having a great spring break!

   

Learning Experiences

Over a month into student teaching now and it seems to all be going by too fast. This is the first semester where I couldn't wait for it to be over and at the same time wished I had an extra month.  In my mind I had an idea of student teaching. I thought how planning for everyday would be a huge challenge; however, I didn't realize how all of the out of class items would stack up at the same time.

 As with everyone else, I’m sure, the KPTP is always looming in my mind. On top of this there is the constant pressure to be interviewing and finding a job. Between these activities, lesson planning, and the other normal requirements to my time I feel as though I am always pressed to be doing something from the moment I wake until the moment I fall asleep. Speaking of sleep, that has become a missed luxury; I feel I would need at least another ten hours in the day to accomplish what I feel I need to and still be able to get a decent night’s sleep. Thus my new motto is “I’ll sleep when I graduate!”

This probably seems like a rant on how terrible this semester is, but in reality I love this semester even with all the pressures. When I’m actually in the classroom with the students helping them grasp concepts, lecturing, joking with them, or just basically teaching I have a great feeling that I have made the correct choice for my career. There is no place on earth like the inside of a classroom from the instructor’s position and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Over the last few weeks I have had complete control over teaching Romeo and Juliet. My CT has been a huge help with offering advice and things she has done with the play in the past. I love being able to come up with original material and tweaking proven to work material. When the students make connections to the text or seem to be genuinely enjoying what I have planned gives me a great sense of accomplishment. There are challenging days, but overall it is a highly rewarding experience. The issue I keep running into is time. With 80 minute classes, I still feel like I never have enough time to incorporate everything I want to into a day’s lesson. More than once I have spent hours coming up with an activity only to later cut it when I realize there is not time to incorporate it with everything else that needs to be done.

              After Spring break I will start teaching Death of a Salesman to my seniors. This lesson will encompass the rest of the school year for the seniors and I find this is adding extra pressure. Knowing this will be the last school assignment some of them ever take gives me a driving pressure to make the unit a memorable experience that will help them improve on their skills and grow. This has also been a text that I have been taught in class as a student on a number of occasions, and thinking back to all the activities I was able to experience as a student with this work gives me a plethora of ideas for the unit. Unfortunately I am running into the same problem of what to cut and what to keep. There are so many ways to approach the text that deciding on one path over another brings greater challenges than I had originally anticipated.  

                Overall I am pleased with the choices I have made thus far. I have learned what works really well, what does not work, and have grown from my mistakes.  I think the key thing I am taking away from student teaching is not to only be evaluating students but to also constantly be evaluating my own teaching. I realize every lesson will not go exactly as planned, that sometimes I will have to improvise lessons during the lesson, I will need to scrap lessons that are not working and give more time to those that are to benefit my students.  

New experinces

                Starting my student teaching this month has been a great experience thus far. I had eagerly awaited the start of student teaching and am ready to make my last semester the best one yet!

            This is my first experience with teaching seniors and though I was a little intimidated at first I have found my college prep classes to be the highlight of my day. Currently they are reading Oedipus Rex and the discussions in these classes are on a completely different level than I have experienced in the high school setting thus far. Being able to delve deeper into symbolism, motifs, etc. really inspires me to make more varied and challenging lesson plans.

The sophomore classes are a little more challenging than I had anticipated. A large proportion of this class tends to be lax on their assignments, and a number of students seem to not care about their grades at all. When planning assignments for these classes a vast amount of time must be allotted for competition and this I feel is disadvantageous to the few students who are excelling and able to quickly finish their assignments. I would like to find a strategy that would better help every student in this class reach their full potential instead of limiting the information and holding back those that could obviously take on harder challenges. Any suggestions or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

            The honors freshman classes are going as expected as I have been working with honors freshman with this CT since core 2. Soon I will begin to teach Romeo and Juliet within these classes and am greatly looking forward to it. This will be my first opportunity to teach Shakespeare and planning for it has been a great experience. There are so many different avenues and ideas to approach and selecting which I feel will be best is sometimes be stressful. It seems I always have to cut things I wish to do.  I remember thinking planning for 80 minute class periods everyday would be challenging now I wish classes were longer.

            I had an interesting experience earlier this week as Monday my CT lost her voice. I was thrown into teaching every class for the day and had no preparation time. Though everything went remarkably well it was a bit jarring at first. The first class I gave a lecture with the aid of PowerPoint over Archetype. Though I had not previously seen the PowerPoint I feel this is where understanding our content area really helps come into play. By already having a strong grasp and knowledge of different archetypes, I was able to lecture on them without feeling lost or worried. Tuesday my CT had to take the day off and I was once again thrust into teaching the days lessons. Luckily I was given a sub that didn’t interfere and spent the day reading at the teacher’s desk. These two days of being able to have complete control helped reinforce my belief that I truly want nothing more than to be a teacher.

            Though I know I will run into some bumps this semester and it can’t possibly continue to go as smoothly as it has thus far I am enjoying it while it lasts. I look forward to finishing my lesson plans, seeing what goes well, and what does not, and most of all from learning from my mistakes.

 

Genre Reflection #2

Fitting In

Laughing loudly at all the right times,

Lost in the days of their prime,

Hoping Someone would notice by the bell,

Waiting for something that only time would tell.

Forced in the class by Mom and Dad,

Some know that things will end bad.

Trying their hardest from day one,

And knowing that in the end what’s done is Done.

Teaching the willing was never a chore,

And helping the Hopeful was never a bore.

But some kids were never cheery,

And somehow always seemed dreary.

Yet day after day, and week after week

They all seemed to meet a peak.

In the end, they all have their way,

Never knowing just how things will pay.

Nervously they watched for the freak,

Who would knock them from their peak.

The cheery kids became the Weary,

And the Dreary ones became the cheery.

When all the needs came before,

All would drop and help restore.

As the going got rough, they made some fun

Hoping to return to their days in the sun.

Rebelling against Mom and Dad,

No one knows what they might have had.

Standing alone they could only yell,

But together all seemed well.

Working as a team, they climb

Reaching for the stars in their prime.

 

Respect in the Classroom

     The last month in the classroom has been awesome! we have just finished reading Animal Farm and besides a few behavioral hiccups all is going well. The students have enjoyed the novel though they did struggle with the link to communism at first.

     The only real issue we have had is one week when I was gone for the KATE conference and my CT was sick. This was the first time this year the students were left without one of us and they tried to take full advantage of it. The principal had to be called in 3 times and 5 students had to be removed from the classroom.

     The next class when we returned we lectured over classroom expectations even when a sub is there. Also, we assigned a two page essay over proper classroom behavior. This assignment I felt was unfair to some of the students whom most likely were not involved in the mischief; however, we did not want to show any favoritism.Though a few students complained at first they were able to see why we made it a classwide assignment. I wish we would have been able to come up with a better option, but I am still not sure what that would have been.

Expectations vs Reality

     I recently had the opportunity to attend the KATE conference. I had high expectations going in with hopes of gaining a plethora of knowledge to apply to the classroom. I don't know if it was the buildup for it or the fact I set my expectations so high, but I left the conference feeling a little let down. Not to say it was all bad there were some great moments, it just wasn't what I had expected.

    The breakfast both days was awesome and this also allowed me time to get around and talk with peers about theirs plans for the day at the seminar. Also, the initial key note speaker was great. She had planned activities that made me look at things from a different view point, showed a new way to look at poetry that I will be able to use in the classroom, and never seemed to be bragging or trying to sell me something. Had my seminars I attended all went like this the conference would have far surpassed my expectations.

     The first seminar I attended while interesting had a focus towards the elementary levels, while interesting I felt I really wasn't gaining much of value from the lecture. The books on poetry they had brought to showcase were aimed at a k-5 level and much of the lecture was about getting young children to write poetry.

    The next session seemed to be hit and miss for me. It was suppose to have a focus towards young adult literature, which at the beginning was the case. however, as the lecture progressed it seemed to deteriorate into a Common Core Bashing session. Had the session been able to stay with the initial topic I feel I would have really enjoyed this session; instead I left thinking about what it could have been.

    At lunch I headed out with friends to get some food and we rushed back to see the lunch keynote speaker. I really hoped it would be inspiring like the one I had witnessed in the morning. What I found was a man giving the opposite speech of what I had heard earlier in the day instead of bashing common core he was touting how great it was. This was followed with what seemed to be a sales pitch for his books.

     I know common core is a hot topic right now and I hope that is why the conference was plagued with seminar after seminar debating the merits of it and going off topic from their initial presentation. This is not to say all the sessions ended up this way/ I went to one very enjoyable session where the presenter commented jokingly that his presentation would be common core free. This presentation showcased a history lesson on "The Little Red School House." During the presentation he gave the history of the little red school houses across the US and showed pictures from a trip he had taken to see a number of them. This provided a much needed break from the common core debate and was very enjoyable. Likewise I was able to attend a session that showed how to relate the importance of protecting our past through archeology and how to relate it to the English classroom.

     I do plan to attend next year and hopefully after some of the excitement of common core has started to die down we can have more seminars that focus on teacher development and less on common core positive and negatives.