High Road or Middle Road

At the beginning of the ETEP program, I was certain of my desire to teach at the High School level. During the first semester, we spent a week visiting different schools, after which I said that if I were to teach Middle School it would have to be at KMS or another Expeditionary School. Now that I’m in, and slowly becoming a part of, the school, I am not so sure what level I prefer. It is early in this placement and I’ve not yet seen too many classes. I will begin teaching in the coming weeks and that should provide the necessary experience to determine which I like better.

My thoughts right now about the different levels are:
In High School we can really dive into a text and get our hands dirty - words and language all over them. The conversations are good and the kids have the cognitive ability to make inferences and critically examine and interpret a text.

The Middle School kids, on the other hand, enjoy reading!. Big tip of the scales there. The kids haven't been stripped of or had their curiosity and enthusiasm for school squashed. It will be interesting to see what kinds of discussions we have surrounding the book Speak. I'll be teaching literary terms as we read in addition to the heavy topics of Rape, Friendship, High School social structures, and anything else that comes up for the students.

With that said I think I'll continue my re-reading of the book and making notes for myself. I'll soon have to start creating lesson plans, ugh. I dislike planning in that way. I much rather have an organic classroom experience, though I see the benefits of having a plan. I've just had too many of my plans get thrown out because of how the class was going or how (un)prepared the students were.

Honor the Role

Homework Club/Detention. Students can voluntarily come for help, each teacher has a day that they stay after school specifically for this, I suppose these kids are part of the HW club. Other kids are made to stay after school when they do not have their homework done so that they can complete it, these kids are in detention. I think that it is a weird dichotomy to have. My mentor says that some kids use the time as a quiet time to get work done. Whether kids are in detention or members of the elite HWC the result is the same, kids are getting work done. This was in evidence when, during a house meeting, High Honors ( all grades above 93), Honors (above 85), and effort/conduct (a 1 in every class, one teacher prefaced the distribution of these by saying that it was a great achievement and in some ways more impressive than the ‘honors’) certificates. A large percentage of kids received at least one of these certificates to the applause of their York house-mates.

During the house meeting (just the teachers) Progress reports came up. It was mentioned that many of the students who were on the honor roll were not at the moment. Particular kids were discussed. At this point the Special Education teacher interjected a reminder of a students learning disability and what that meant for the work load of that student, particularly work involving reading. My mentor and the SE teacher discussed possible accommodations, including my mentor volunteering to read aloud to the student after school, to help keep the student up to date.

It is really amazing to see the comradery of the teachers. They support each other in many ways and all seem very invested in the kids, their colleagues , the school, and what the school stands for.

Building a Sense of Community

Today is the third Tuesday of the month, that means Community Service at KMS. The entire house participates. In groups of seven or so, along with a teacher, they were bussed to PROP, Preble Street Resource Center, Ronald McDonald House, Nathan Clifford School, Reiche School, to help out in whatever way they were needed. I think that it is fantastic that the school fosters this sort of community service.
The group I was with went to Preble street and helped organize the clothing 'store'. They have a room that is filled with unsorted donations and another that is set up like a big walk-in closet with donations that have been sorted. We helped to straighten up and organize the closet portion, this is where clients come to pick out clothes: shirts, pants, coats, hats, gloves, shoes, etc. The kids did a great job, one in particular was really motivated and worked at motivating his classmates too. He and two others tackled the mountain of shoes, matching them up and organized them on the shelves. He stepped up and made sure it was being done right and called out those who were not doing a good job. I was very impressed by this seventh graders involvement in what we were doing.

Lunch room and beyond

During lunch duty on Friday I noticed that the vast majority of tables were grouped by gender. A couple tables had boys on one half and girls on the other but they were not interacting. One table however had two boys and 8-9 girls. There was a boy at each end and the entire table was talking to each other. It was this table that made me notice the gender split. I was not surprised at the majority of students sitting with kids of the same gender, it was this table with it's two boys that caught my attention.
Back in the classroom: Today was catch up day again. But let me tell you the thrill I had when kids who were finished asked "Can I read now?" and towards the end of class a students suggested "Lets read now!" seriously- goosebumps. What a different attitude about reading than what I experienced at the High School level. I wonder, is it the age group? the environment? these particular kids? Will they lose this enthusiasm for reading? I hope not! This makes me even more excited to begin Speak with them. It also puts pressure on me to make sure that what we do with the novel is exciting, I don't want to be the one responsible for squelching their love of reading. I have to make sure that my own excitement about reading and this novel comes through during class.

The Big Event! (day 3)

Ok I've caught up, I have a feeling that my blogs will come in groups like this.

The Culminating event today was very cool. The posters were beautiful and the kids were full of knowledge about phytoplankton and climate change.
One thing that I was impressed with was the parents. Many came and many were interested in what the students had done and what they had to say about what they had done - not only for their own child but others as well. I think that the opportunity to present their work (and they did a great deal of work) to an audience of their parents and peers is important. The other seventh graders, from Windsor house, came and took the role of an audience of peers. I thought that the entire event, an hour in the morning, was very successful and people from outside York house made comments to the students to the same effect.

The kids had class in the afternoon. I was able to observe a 'regular' class, the first since I arrived three days ago. They were given time to blog, Ms. M went over missing assignments, papers were returned, and preparation for tomorrows class was discussed, they are finishing up presentation during which students present a mini lesson on some issue that interested them while watching An Inconvenient Truth. Then the students had time to work on getting caught up. If they were caught up they read or practiced for their presentation.

We had a planning period last block. We talked about Speak, I'll start it in 2, maybe 3, weeks. We are going to teach literary terms before and during the reading of the novel too. I'm in the process of creating a blog space exclusively for the Speak work, I'll give you the link when it's ready.

The Day before (Day 2)

The day before the culminating event! Very busy.
Here is what I noticed:
The students are given a good deal of trust and, therefore, freedom. Kids sign themselves in and out of class to use the bathroom without needing to ask.
Kids are in and out of classrooms as the need, I imagine that this is mostly due to the Expedition project. They need to see each content teacher before they can digitally drop their product as a PDF into the digital drop box to be printed, assembled, and laminated.
Yesterday during the house meeting the teachers arranged the schedule, no classes met today. We prepared for a dry run and then went for it. The practice went well, I think that the rehearsal is helpful for some students. Afterwards kids were split into groups based on how close to being finished they were. By 12:30ish only a handful of kids were not done yet.
Those who were done began a movie before lunch and returned to it after lunch.
Some talk about the next expedition arose, possibly around Civil/Human Rights and/or peaceful protesting and avenues of change. Pre and post war times would be the focus rather than the war itself. The second expedition will start after February Break.

I am still amazed at how well behaved the students are. Very small problems only, but mostly good-natured - I saw no real meanness between students. I wonder what, if anything, will chang when regular classes begin again.

In the Beginning. . .Day one

I've begun my internship at King Middle School here is my thoughts on the first couple of days:
At the front of each room are four large posters - each with one word,:Compassion, Perseverance, Responsibility, Respect
On Tuesday (Monday was a snow day) there was lots going on. The Culminating Event was two days away for their "Warming Waters" Exhibition, the focus is climate change. Everyone was scrambling to get things finished, organized, and together. Here is how the day went:
First, of two, bell rings
Homeroom-announcements are read in class, the PA system is only used for emergencies.
House meeting- teachers and students get together and talk about the next couple days and the goals for those days and of course the looming culminating event.
Class - One student practices her speech that she will deliver during the event. The class is amazingly quiet and attentive during this. Students entering the class wait patiently by the door for her to finish, minimizing the disruption they cause.
Then the students are given blog time - they read and respond to posts from . M and each other.
After that work turns to essay they wrote related to the Warming Waters and getting an ecerpt ready for their product ( a poster showcasing their experience and all the content areas)
Snack time - a 10 min break
Class - work on essay and poster
Lunch - Ms. M hosts a Writers Group. Students come to her room and, while they eat lunch, share written work and give feedback on it.
House Meeting - Each house has the freedom to arrange their schedule as they wish. In this meeting of all the teachers in the House they talk about the schedule for Wednesday. It will include a run through of the event and then support for students who have not finished their product.
Second, and Last, Bell signifying the end of school

I enjoyed not having bells ringing throughout the day.
I spent most of my time helping kids edit their L/A portion of their expedition product. Many were very good, not what I expected from seventh graders, especially compared to some of the work I saw in my twelfth grade placement. To be fair, the work I saw was 3rd, 4th, or 5th drafts of their essay.
I'm amazed at how well behaved the kids are.
I like the collaboration between disciplines.
I think I'm really going to like this placement.

One Semester Down

So one semester is down, six classes and an internship. Two more classes and another internship to go. I thought that less courses and more time in my placement would mean a small break from course work. After the last couple days however I'm realizing that this semester is going to be a great deal of work. The portfolio will be a big project but useful to have for interviews and as a professional display of my teaching experience and philosophies. Designing a dream curriculum should be very interesting, once I decide what to focus on - right now I'm thinking about The Road I think that it would be a very interesting semester long class to focus on this single text. It is certainly rich enough textually to spend that much time on.