Almost half way...

So everyone... I'm such a bad blogger. I wish I could say its just out of sheer laziness, but its because student teaching has been kicking my butt. I've never experienced something so challenging, so time consuming, and yet so rewarding.

I've taken over my two classes, English 10 and Critical Writing. In English 10, we have about three weeks left of our poetry unit where I've been teaching students how to explicate poetry by using the TYPCASTT method. It's an easier way to go through a poem to mark tone, shifts, theme, connotation, and analyze the title. It has been a challenging unit because each student is required to TYPCASTT a poem and present it to the class. Some students choose not to do it or they are only looking at the literal level so they are having a hard time finding theme. And since this is in preparation for the MCAS test, I'm a little nervous that they won't do well.

In my Critical Writing class, I finished the teacher's unit on The Merchant of Venice this past Monday and started a unit on Brave New World which I developed myself. I used the same routine as my SP (supervising teacher) but created my own pace, my own study and discussion questions, and sprinkled in a few activities that go along with the text.

The next class I take over is Lit and Film at the end of March. I'll be starting the unit on The Color Purple so that should be fun.

The most challenging part of this whole semester for me was taking over the correcting from the teachers since they have more experience correcting and know what they are doing. But as the weeks pass, I've become more comfortable with correcting vocabulary, essays, and other assignments. Another issue I've been dealing with is classroom management. One class in particular hasn't liked the idea of me taking over and there seems to be an issue each week. This past week I had two girls playing sudoku during a student's presentation and I had to ask them three times to put it away. Looking back at the situation, I should have given them detention. Instead I had them stay after class and talked to them about their behavior. My SP's goal is for me to give a detention next week to show the class that I'm serious about holding them accountable. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, that's it for right now. I've started applying for jobs, but it will be a while before I hear about interviews. Keep your fingers crossed!