Success in student teaching

I have had many successful moments since I started student teaching. One thing that happened this week which has made me feel super official is that I started taking role and keeping up with grades. I always helped my teacher with grading things in the past, but now I write the grades down and keep them in my binder; they are mine to keep up with. Another thing that happened this week that has made me feel more like a real teacher is that I have pretty much led all of the classes. There hasn’t actually been much instruction time because we are reading Of Mice and Men, and they are doing so silently. But any instruction that needs to be given I am the one to do so.  Something that has helped me to feel more like a real teacher is that the students come to me, or call me over, as often, if not more, as they do my cooperating teacher. It makes me feel like I’m more than just an observer.  One of the times a student asked for my help it was a question pertaining to writing. She told me that she didn’t think that she was a good writer and that she did not think that she could do the assignment. I told her that I never felt like I was a good writer either, and I gave her some tips on how to structure her essay. Then she was able to write her essay and felt more confident in doing so. Something that I have grown more confident in is classroom management. When I first started, I did not feel like the students would really listen to or respect me. But I realize that I have good control over them now. They listen to me and respect what I have to say and follow the instructions that I give them. Another area that I have been successful in is during our weekly team meetings. This past week when we met, the leader said that she really didn’t have anything that she could share. I was the only one who had anything to give to the group as far as ideas on upcoming lessons, and they all liked my idea! All in all, I am really enjoying my student teaching experience and it seems to get better each day!

Reflection 2

Part A

Giving only multiple choice or chapter tests does not allow students to be creative. If they are only answering questions by circling an answer then they are answering the way that the teacher or test maker wants them to answer. If students could answer via short answer they could give the teacher THEIR interpretation of what they are being tested on. We could see inside their minds and know a little better what they think, feel and believe. I was never good at multiple choice type tests because they required a lot of studying and memorization. I hated studying and never felt that I was effective in learning what I needed to learn. I also think that multiple choice and chapter tests are bad for students that have test anxiety. If they could do a project or write a paper instead they would be able to be evaluated accurately.

Part B

We just finished reading The Great Gatsby. As a sort of formative assessment, after every chapter we would give the students chapter questions and quizzes so we could monitor that they were learning what they needed to from every chapter. We also periodically gave chapter quizzes. We assigned a collage project half way through the book to reemphasize the important parts of the book that we had read so far.

For a summative assessment we assigned a motif activity at the end of the book where students were to match song titles with different motifs from The Great Gatsby. We also assigned an essay where students were to state why The Great Gatsby should be taught in high schools. Lastly, we gave a test that was 40 questions (multiple choice and matching) over the entire book.

I think that it is important to have both kinds of assessment in order to monitor that students are learning what they need to learn as we are going and to make sure that, in the end, they have retained that information.

 I want to use projects to assess what students have learned as we move along throughout a unit. I would like to do a project that gives students a list of different things that they can choose from to complete. I want to feed the creativeness that is present in many students. I will do this by assigning one project per unit and make it a major grade to insure that students take it seriously and complete it. I will also use tests that are much like the one I described above because I feel like they are necessary to evaluate whether students got the main points of the subject matter that I am trying to cover. Lastly, I want to use essays as a way to assess student writing in general as well as spelling, vocabulary, and grammar.