First Day, New Unit

So today, my student teaching "officially" kicked off. Up until now, I've done a few class lessons in isolation, graded a few papers, worked with students individually. But now, and for the next few weeks, my mentor teacher's English classes are mine.

How did I do my first day?

.....Eh. Ask me that a month from now, and maybe I'll be able to give you a better answer.

In all seriousness, my first day went well. Certainly as good as could be expected. I had no major disasters, no sudden shortage of copies, no one threw up or rebelled outwardly. For the most part, I managed to keep both myself and my students on the topic at hand and accomplish everything I wanted inside our 50-minute time block.

I left at about 7:15 this morning, mostly out of nervous tension. I wanted so badly to get a solid 7-8 hours sleep last night, but I couldn't do it. My body would not shut down until sometime after 1 AM. Sigh. I decided to go ahead and videtape myself right off the bat during first period (I'll do so again at the end of winter block), so I lugged the camcorder and stand to MHS with me. It is amazing how much an early morning Bible study calms your nerves and reminds you that God's in control even if something goes tragically wrong. I got to my room, set up the camera, and made some more copies of the syllabus that I planned to hand out to all my students. Since I'm not their regular teacher, I feel they need a better idea of what to expect from me.

So...1st period. Incredibly, pre-class jitters weren't much of a factor. The initial transition from my mentor to me went as smoothly as could reasonably be anticipated. I started off by asking them how their four-day weekend went, and what all they did. Some of them even asked about mine, which was nice. Then I introduced the bellringer activity, which involved analyzing a Langston Hughes poem ("A Dream Deferred"). Had to spend a few minutes clarifying what "deferred" means. Might want to remember that word for vocabulary tests. As they answered the guiding questions, I passed out the syllabus and spent some time going over my expectations, contact info, evaluations, and a broad overview of the next few weeks. I tried to keep it very straight-forward and easy to understand; I guess I succeeded because all in all, there were very few questions (and I made sure to repeatedly ask for questions or any request to clarify a point). I pondered the decision to put my cell phone number on the syllabus. I do want to be accessible, but my mentor cautioned me that some students can abuse that to pull pranks. So I stressed that they use my e-mail address if they needed to get in touch with me; I mentioned that they'd be much more likely to get a response if they e-mailed. There were a few giggles here and there, but I think they understood.

After we went over the poem, I introduced the topic of dreams. I worked to relate it to the students by asking about their dreams; whether those of the nighttime variety or lifetime dreams (career goals). They were very enthusiastic about that part, and they gave me some great answers. With the time I had left, I tied that into the idea of the American Dream and left them with an assignment of writing their own personal definition of what the American Dream is. Since it's such a subjective issue, I had them reassured that there was no right or wrong definition. All I wanted was to get their insights and thoughts on the topic, with some attention paid to the sources of their comments. So hopefully that will generate a good response in their assignment.

I repeated this agenda for 3rd, 5th, and 7th periods because they're all English II Honors as well. The only tough one was 3rd period, which I more or less expected. I have observed some notable behavior problems in that class from a select number of students, and it has caused them to lag behind the others. Some have a tendency to talk out of turn, loudly, and a few exhibit a challenging attitude that is tough to let slide. You just have to resist the urge to take the bait because they're doing it to test you, and also because they like to be the center of attention. Usually, they'll give up when you don't surrender that high ground. 5th period was good, but rather quiet and subdued at first, nearly the exact opposite of 3rd. I had to work a little to get them to open up, but once we started discussing dreams, they began to warm to the topic. By 7th period, I felt more comfortable and seemed to relax a bit. I've known that class moreso than the others, and so I think we fed off each other's comfort levels. Both 5th and 7th periods had plenty of profound things to say about their dreams. Some were pretty deep, and others were...strange, to put it mildly.

6th period is English IV Honors (World Literature). While the class in general went well, I'm going to need to work a little harder to challenge them or at least keep them occupied. I feel like I've spent too much time on my other four classes and not enough on that since it's so far outnumbered, but hopefully I can change that. Our main topic in there is women's roles in literature, relative to their time periods. I'm having them read three short stories dealing with prominent female characters to build their knowledge (alongside some background research on the historical context of the works). For each story, they will complete a character trading card on female characters, which in turn will give them information they need to create an original script bringing all three women, plus a fourth "contemporary" woman, together in one setting. If all goes well, this should be a fun and rewarding assignment. If not,... well, let's not think about that now. I get nervous enough when the going is smooth.

I spent the end of my day helping a boy in 5th period with his rough draft from the Scarlet Letter unit. I ended up taking off for home around 4:15 because I wanted to make certain to put my directions for tomorrow up on the dry erase board. Don't like to be rushed in the morning. Old Man Winter is finally giving us a look; there's a chance for sleet & freezing rain late tonight through tomorrow afternoon. Nothing on the order of recent years' ice storms, but I certainly wouldn't mind the benefit of a day off :) Still, I'm now convinced that students enjoy them more than teachers. At least they don't have to be in their rooms to report for work by 8:00...

All in all, a positive start to what will hopefully turn out to be a positive unit. More updates to come! God bless :)