Reflection 8

Classroom management class was really good again this week.

So this has been an interesting week for me. First I went to observe Amber in her business writing class. It was really interesting. I actually got to help her enter grades and it was also interesting because most of the students in the class were seniors. I was a senior only 4 years ago. I don't know if I could handle that, I feel young still. And a lot of them are taller than me. That's something I'm having a hard time understanding: how to set yourself as the authority figure. I don't feel like I am better or more smart than anyone else. That's why I sometimes freak out in front of everyone. I feel like everyone is doing a better job at this teaching thing than I ever could. Why am I the only one who's freaking out? Gah! It's just like high school... I hated presentations and I hoped by now I would be over it, but apparently I'm not. I still feel like passing out... What am I doing wrong? Like, with that STL lesson... I was totally ready for that, I even had an activity and an extension. I didn't expect that you guys would finish it so fast (it took a good half hour in my landscape class) and I didn't have anything else planned. I'm not very good at coming up with things out of thin air...

Reflection 7

So it's been awhile since I posted last.

These past few weeks have been crazy, with midterms and me being kinda tired. I started my classroom management class yesterday and I think I'm going to like it. She talked about her story in education. Right now she teaches part-time her and is a vice-principal at Salem Hills, but she was all over the place at first. Her teaching jobs followed her husband's (he teaches over in the college of engineering right now) and after getting a bachelors at BYU, they went to LasVegas for his masters. She taught dance aerobics there. Then he was offered a position/paid for PhD in Oklahoma City. They moved out there 3 days before school started and her older kids were ok, but her youngest was a mad little 7th grader. He decorated his door and walls with hand written signs saying, "I hate Oklahoma". It's hilarious to me, but his whole world was gone. They next day she got a call from his english teacher saying that he had screamed, "I hate you all, I will never be your friends, you're all hicks."

Now Sister Burr actually said that this teacher knew how to call home well.

1. She showed she cared by seeing, "I am concerned about your son"
2. She softened the blow, didn't tell the whole story at first, prepped the parent
3. She had ideas how to resolve it
4. Followed through with it

This teacher was able to help Sister Burr's son find a place he belonged by finding out what he was interested in. Then she said, "the football team would take him" because that's what he liked. His behavior improved. So this had a bunch of lessons in it, but here were a few that stand out to me.

• misbehavior is an attempt to fulfill a basic human need (i.e. sleep, hunger, loneliness)
• if you care about the children, the parent will be on your side
• always have ideas on how to rectify the situation
• make the students feel comfortable and safe in your classroom

She also talked about being a vice-principal at Salem Hills when it was brand new. She was worried she wouldn't be able to help students as much as when she was a teacher, but she discovered that she could. On that first day of school there was a girl sitting outside the office crying. Instead of telling her to just go to class, she sat down next to her and found out she had had a baby just the day before and wasn't sure she could start school again. She took her into her office and helped her have confidence to finish out the year.

Hearing how she enjoyed caring about the students in all of her stories made me feel more excited to actually have a class on my own. That's what impresses me with good teachers, like Shum or Mr. Wigre, they care about the students more than/through the material they teach. The classroom feels safe and you can bring up any concerns with them. It's been interesting so far applying things I'm learning now to my past experiences. It all comes together through this lens of education. I can't wait to help others reach for their dreams.

Reflection 4

This week I read a book by Gong and went to Oak Canyon junior high to observe Terry Hunter.

Terry Hunter is a drafting teacher at Oak Canyon Junior High. His first period drafting class looked like it was mostly 7th graders. (They were all so tiny) We came on a day where he had a quiz on many aspects of drafting. He even gave us copies of the test to do along with them. I took drafting in high school and could remember many of the terms. But if I had paid attention before we started I could have gotten more right. Before the test he reviewed everything the test covered. I thought this was really cool, because I always appreciated this as a student, especially first thing in the morning. He had them put up folders for walls while they were taking it. Afterwards they started designing MagCars and me and Kevin graded their tests. We got done pretty fast and then started walking around. One kid was grabbing these curve templates and had a collection on his table. I joked with him that he should totally start collecting those. He laughed. It was fun joking with them. The classroom had a very comfortable feeling to it. A crazy thing was, Mr. Hunter is in the same school district as the previous teacher I visited and the school had the same layout AND THEY WERE IN THE SAME CLASSROOM! It was crazy to see the same room with a totally different setup. Mr. Hunter's was so full of stuff (drill presses, computers, desks, drafting materials, student projects and decorations) and Ryan's was not. It gave they classroom a totally different feeling even though the rooms were the same.

REFLECTION 5

I just got back from doing observations at Wastach High School in Heber, it was crazy! The school is really nice and the class we went to was the best tv broadcasting program in the state. It was neat to see the kids so into learning! A lot of it was self directed. The teacher takes his best students to New York every year to tour tv studios and he brings what he learns and implements it into his classroom. He said the more real you make it, the more excited the students are. They even have a window behind their anchors like on the Today Show (the silly people in the background), which i thought was a great touch. Apparently Blake took that class when he was at that high school, but they apparently got a new building since he graduated. It sounds like the most exciting thing that happen to a teacher (classroom wise) is to have a new school built. They actually get to design their classroom! I didn't know that was common practice, but it makes total sense.

It also happened to be where Scott Silver was student teaching. I personally am a little nervous for student teaching, but the kids actually seem to care about him and respond well to him. Now that I think about it, I did treat my student teachers with just as much respect as my actual teachers. But it was interesting hearing how it's been. It sounds pretty intense (a lesson plan everyday? But then I saw his mini lesson plan and I felt better). Also I forgot that the whole period is not talking at the class, most of it is work time (which is the part I'm really good at). We also got to meet the digital media teacher next door who was studying animation (like me) before he went into teaching. He had a couple of neat projects hanging on the walls.

Project one: he split up a movie poster into enough pieces to spread amongst all the students and had them paint it using photoshop. So each square had a different coloring style than the next. Then they would reassemble the poster on the wall.

Project 2: for basic photoshop stuff he had them make a little "all about me" collage. It had a picture of their face and things they liked. Super easy, but a fun way to teach lasso, type and other tools in photoshop.