Monday was used to figure out how the class was arranged, what kind of students my master teacher had, and how she managed her classroom.\u00a0 She takes a middle approach to managing noise and activity \u2013 allowing some of each, if kept to a tolerable level.\u00a0 As a result, the classes are at a conversational level of volume during projects, but things never get out of hand.\u00a0 In her five periods of classes, she has three heterogeneous groups, one ELL period, and quite by accident (due to only one class period of Geometry offered at the middle school), one Gate\/Gifted period.\u00a0 She has 162 students over five classes, and then 23 \u201crepeats\u201d for homeroom in the morning.\u00a0 Her class is arranged in nine \u201cquad\u201d groups with seven computers on the wall space for students to use when they have computer projects due, or Study Island to make up.\u00a0 Also, I noticed that throughout the week, independent study Geometry students were sent to her classroom to use these computers.<\/p>\n
Tuesday through Friday was used to further observe, but mostly to try to get to know some of the students.\u00a0 I played the role of \u201cAid\u201d for a day, passing out papers and helping with in-class computer work, and then I played the role of tutor\/homework helper for struggling groups for the remaining three days.\u00a0 During the three days, I worked with 11 different \u201cquad\u201d groups of students, and learned maybe 50 names over all.\u00a0 At the end of the week, my master teacher gave me homework to look over the online teacher resources of the next thee chapters of the class textbook.\u00a0 In this way, I can begin to organize my thoughts about what I will teach in the coming weeks.\u00a0 In the remaining five weeks, we should get through ~2.5 chapters of work.<\/p>\n
As I reflect on the week, the student teaching part was a breeze, largely because of years of volunteer teaching in my wife\u2019s classroom (I taught Art History to her 4th<\/sup> grade students 2-4 times a month, every month for a ten year period), and because of recent substitute teaching experience.\u00a0 Nothing was particularly new, but it was absolutely wonderful to be in the same class setting over a one week period.\u00a0 I do like the consistency, and I look forward to the remaining five weeks (and six more weeks in the next assigned classroom).\u00a0 The difficult part is that I also have three evening classes to attend over this 12 week period and that makes for some long days.\u00a0 I\u2019m really praying for stamina right now!\u00a0 Between student teaching and classes alone, I logged in 65 hours this week, and this does not include any homework time, which should consume every moment of my weekend.\u00a0 I expect this to be the norm for the next 11 weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Monday was used to figure out how the class was arranged, what kind of students my master teacher had, and how she managed her classroom.\u00a0 She takes a middle approach to managing noise and activity \u2013 allowing some of each, … Continue reading