Jacqueline Marien's Blog – September 2007 Archive (10)

Yesterday was a long day at school as per it was parent teacher day. The day was spent going over graphic organizers and homework. The rest of the evening until 7 I worked on my lesson plans for the next two days. Not being an official teacher even I was nervous about meeting the parents. My cooperating teacher was kind enough to introduce me as I have a role in the classroom. There weren't too many parents who came as my cooperating teacher says that many know the drill. After that night I… Continue

Today was such a better day. I had full attention of the students and rarely had to deal with discipline problems. I think part of that came from the fact that we were all reading the story today. In order to keep the students engaged I had them read and I would ask questions based on the sentences used the day before for the prediction activity. I was sure to read with different voices and emotion so that the story remained fresh in thier minds and so that they would not fall asleep. The story… Continue

Today I had the opportunity to really get into the classroom and teach a lesson that was relevant to the curriculum but it did not go as well as I had planned. Just thinking about it gets me in a tizzie. There was a vocabulary test given today and that went well. Many of the students did well while others did not. After the test I handed out the index cards with the sentences/phrases that were in the short story. The students were put into groups, this was not such a great plan. They were all… Continue

After a long four day weekend, I was back in the classroom ready to get those Monday blues out of my class. Today, we played a review game for the students because tomorrow is their vocabulary test. I designed a word search with the words inside and definitions outside. So the students had to find the words with only having the knowledge of the definitions. Unfortunately, it only worked out that way with one class. The other periods I gave the opportunity for them to have a word bank and really… Continue

So I sit here at my computer in my pjs still on thinking about yesterday at school. I have handed the students a book project and they have to read a mystery. Many of them are not excited because most don't like mystery and I thought to myself, I didn't either. So I took some advice and I am going to read with the students and complete the assignment for myself so that they don't feel I am trying to torture them. Yesterday the we brought the classes to the library so that they could find a…

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Today I meet with my supervisor and after our discussion I am looking forward in having her view one of my classes. We discussed a few things such as joining the students with the Do Now. There might be more efficiency and participation from the students if I model with them. We also discussed graduate school and I recieved some feedback. Still unsure as what I am going to do. After our meeting I jumped right into third period and taught the inclusion class the lesson. I tried working on the…

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The good old Monday mornings. Running late today because I had to put the top on my Jeep and thankfully, I was safe from the rain. I did manage to get to school on time however. Today, I handed out the book projects for the 8th graders to do. Most of them did not seem excited as they find these projects monotonous. The book project consists of students taking on the voice of a journalist and writing a newspaper article on the mystery that they just read. There are five questions that the…

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Today was the day that was making me shake in my boots because I was thrown right into teaching by myself the second day around. My co-operating teacher had some personal family matters to attend to so I had to come up with a lesson and teach. There was a subsititute because I technically cannot stay in the classroom alone. I do not know many of the students so I decided to modify a mini-lesson prepared by one of my classmates in college to give to the middle school students. I call it the Hand… Continue

September sixth was an exciting day as it was my second day but the first day for the students. As I prepared myself during prep first period, I just kept telling myself that I could not give an impression of nervousness or fear otherwise, the students would eat me alive. The bell rang at 8 :30 and class began at 8:32. There were some students who remembered me from my observation last semester. That was a warm feeling. Most of the day consisted of handing out paperwork, looking at the…

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The past two days have been busy with setting up the classroom with Ms. Bolden as well as attending meetings such as union meetings, superintendent conference, tenure meeting, team meeting within my area of study. When I arrived at Peekskill, an hour early, better to be an hour early than a second late, I was filled mixed emotions. I was excited, nervous, and terrified. It finally dawned on me when I pulled into my parkinf spot that this was the next big step in completing my undergraduate… Continue