A Letter to 22 Year Old Me

Dear Theresa,

As you're about to start your final year of college with a year of student teaching, let me offer you some advice:

1. Remember the brush off. For the entire first semester the Junior boys you teach will think they are smooth enough to hit on you, invite you to parties, and pry into your personal life. Remember that they are all very good kids who come from a completely different culture than your own so follow your instincts. Yes, it will make you uncomfortable the first time, but you're pretty good at the brush off. Besides, they don't mean any harm and you know exactly how to put them in their place without putting them down or destroying their self-esteem for all their future female endeavors. P.S. You're boyfriend's pretty amazing; feel free to remind them as often as you like. Some of them need an example of what a healthy dating relationship looks like.
2. Don't sweat the little things. This semester will not be an easy one. Your students will not be models of perfection. They will test you. Most importantly, though, they will prepare you for your future career like nothing else could. Just remember that an iron fist of control is not the key to classroom management. Students are more likely to listen to someone they can look eye-to-eye with and joke with because they share a mutual respect than to someone who freaks out every time they move.
3. Give up. You won't win the cell phone battle. You can only guilt trip them into putting them away maybe twice a week but not on consecutive days.
4. Don't get discouraged. You're going to get a LOT of interviews. You're going to come in 2nd place on pretty much every job you want. But you'll make great connections and get some voicemails from impressed principals that you will keep for as long as your phone is in working order. 
5. Follow your heart. You know why you're here. You know where you belong. You know where to place your expectations. Don't settle for less. Yes, it will be a struggle. But you never have been satisfied with the easy way out. 
6. Remember: This is what teachers make.

Sincerely,
Future Theresa

Prom, Graduation, and the "D" and "F" List

With the end of the year approaching and spring teasing us three days a week, students and staff alike are getting excited with the prospect of warmer weather and freedom has students and staff alike excited for the next several weeks to pass quickly.  Within those few weeks, though, comes the most exciting extra-curricular events of the year: Prom and Graduation. How the students and the staff are preparing for these events are completely different.

Unfortunately, I've overheard many students excitedly discussing the less than approved of sides of Prom and Graduation: The After Parties. They are careful not to say too much, of course, so that no teachers or administrators really know where to point the cops...However, the authority figures aren't going down without a fight.

First and foremost, students cannot graduate or attend prom if they are not passing. Thus, the D and F List.  This week has been an endless stream of students rushing in during seminar, advocacy, and even taking time during their pass cards to try to make up their missing assignments or even retake failed tests. We are gracious, accommodating, and understanding...up to a point. Anything done after Spring Break that is still part of the unit we are studying is fair game. However, if they didn't participate or turn in assignments before Spring Break, they are tough out of luck and unable to make those up. Redoing assignments from Spring Break up til this point MAY get them into Prom, but they will have to turn in every assignment from here on out in order to graduate.  This is not to say that we want our students to fail; but they need to realize there are consequences for their mistakes. Maybe if their grade is so low that they can't make it to Prom, they will realize the seriousness of their situation and focus on graduating.

Secondly, none of the teachers are naive enough to think that there is no underage drinking going on, especially on these particular nights.  As a result, the school's SADD organization hosted it's first Mock Crash in ten years! My old high school used to do this every year and it was extremely successful and had a lasting impact.  Unfortunately, neither school has video recorded their efforts, so I've found this Mock Crash Example. Each school does it a bit differently, but I think that given the visual world we live in where students are so desensitized to reality, this is a great idea.  I know it always made a huge difference on the students' decision at my old high school. 

Assessing Reader Comprehension

The seniors will be finishing up Macbeth this week, which is very exciting because I feel that the unit has been a success overall! Over the past several months of teaching, I've come to like the combination of both a project and a small quiz or test to evaluate my students' comprehension. Just like with the Juniors' Gatsby unit, the seniors had a creative project that included creativity and peer collaboration. I detailed this project in my previous post, though, so I won't go into great detail.  However, each class completed the project and turned it in last week and the results were excellent. After weeks of struggling to keep them motivated during the last stretch of their senior year, the students actually got very into their projects and worked well within their groups.  All three Macbeth storybooks are in the process of being scanned in so I can show them to each class this week.

Although I chose the storybook idea, this document also provides a variety of ideas for Macbeth Projects. There are a lot of options (some of which I had wanted to use had I more time...), but I don't like giving students a dozen different project ideas to choose from. In my experience, it causes confusion and they spend the majority of their time trying decide on which project option instead of actually working on their projects. However, if a couple or few were chosen and rotated each school year, it would keep the unit fresh and fun for the teacher as well as the students.

To compliment my project, I have also written a small quiz (1 page front and back) that asks the students to do the following: place major events in order of their occurrence, multiple choice, short answer, matching terms to definitions. I feel like it has a good variety of question types that are able to assess the students' understanding. While attempting to develop this written assessment, I've run across several beneficial sources that have helped me focus on how to ask questions that follow things such as Bloom's Taxonomy AFT Pamphlet I had always found it a little tricky to develop questions that really assess on all levels so I found this pamphlet helpful.

April Fool

Wouldn't you know it, April Fool's Day is the one and only day of the year that my juniors decide to behave like normal, educated young adults with an eye on their education...As such, I expect Wednesday and Thursday to be horrendous.  In comparison, my usually well-behaved, easy-going seniors were disruptive and testy today.  I feel like I've been in topsy-turvy world!

The seniors finished reading the actual play of Macbeth today.  Since the entire unit has been stretched across 4-5 weeks with Spring Break in the middle, I played this Macbeth Video as a summary/review of the play thus far.  After reading the entire abridged version, they really enjoyed the silly cartoon video, which is brief enough that it did not eat class time or ruin showing the entire film next week.  It was also beneficial because, after spending the last several weeks trudging through Shakespeare's dense language, it was like a breath of fresh air that really aided in clearing up any confusions that they really weren't even sure they had. 

It was also a good transition into my summative assessment project: Macbeth Storybook. I'm dividing each class into 6-7 groups that will be each designated a section of the play to translate and illustrate into 1-3 pages of a children's storybook. I will then scan/compile the pages and show them to the classes next week. As senioritis sets in, I'm hoping this form of peer-accountability keeps them on task and encourages them to at least complete their portion of the project.

On a side note, I've interviewed a couple places in the last week and by far the most difficult question: "What's your greatest strength and weakness?" Other common questions: "How do you feel about technology in the classroom?" - "How will you integrate cross curricular activities?" - "What are your feelings on writing assignments?" -- These are just the most common ones so far in case any of my classmates were curious about the actual questions being asked.  I wish you all the best of luck!