My dilemma this week is a few things. First, I'm concerned about the CRCT. All of the teachers are freaking out about this test. They are so scared that if they fill one portion out wrong or give the wrong the directions, they will get fired. If the teachers are stressed, the students are stressed, and we're trying to move away from standardized testing... why do we still have the CRCT?
Second, I am still full-time teaching. I mean, this is wonderful experience for me, but I'm not getting paid, I'm the one exhausted, I'm the one still having to complete outside GSU STUDENT assignments as well. I'm sorry, but if I could sit back and watch someone else do my job all day, I would too... But I'm done. I'm ready to be done. These kids are driving me crazy. Your the teacher... be their teacher.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The Final Dilemma (6)
My dilemma for the
final week of our virtual community is continuing to balance my schedule with
all my responsibilities. We must all push through this final stretch because
the end is in sight. One question I had was, were we suppose to attend that
event yesterday April 15th in the classroom south building? I
thought that was for master students in the education program? I don’t have
much to say besides continue to be on time for our student teaching even though
it may seem like it’s so extra. Continue to turn in our livetext assignments,
get those graduation invites out, apply for jobs and master programs, keep your
cap and gown wrinkle free, and stay blessed. I really enjoyed working with you
all for our virtual learning community and I hope for the best in all of our
endeavors and that we all will become the best teachers!!!
The end is so near. My current dilemma is kind of a doozy. I conveniently got broken up with and had pretty darn near a nervous breakdown the week before spring break. A kid at my school also went into critical care under a coma from nearly suffering carbon monoxide poisoning. His dad and little brother did die and the school was such a wreck because they are such a close community. I should have recorded myself and sent it to my instructor for my third observation and I should have edited the video. I am currently behind on these assignments and I am getting very nervous. Because CRCT immediately followed our spring break, that has set me back even further.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Dilemma #6
We are almost finished! I am not currently facing any dilemmas with my lessons. However , I and my mentor teacher are having a hard time motivating the students during CRCT review. They do not seem to take it seriously, and do not seem to be that concerned about it. This is unsettling to me, because I always knew that these tests were important when I was in school.
It makes me think that we have taken too much responsibility from the students and placed it into the teachers' hands. The students have to care about their own performance, otherwise what the teacher says goes in one ear and out the other. It makes me nervous for future generations. If this generation of students do not learn to be problem-solvers and independent thinkers, they are not destined for success. It saddens me and it is not too late to turn around student motivation.
I can't help but wonder if this is particular of the group of students I am working with. Is anyone else dealing with this type of low effort from studs to in your classrooms?
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Dilemma #6
Hi Everyone!!
Hooray for our 6th and final dilemmas!!!!
My dilemma for this week has been technical issues... I don't know what the deal is, but for some reason all of the technical aspects of my lessons have been malfunctioning!!
This has been especially true for movie clips that I want to play. I will save them to my laptop, insert them into a PowerPoint, and then save the PowerPoint to a USB stick and take it to class. At home the PowerPoint works no problem movie clips and everything. When I get to school the movie clips are just pictures and won't play!! It is SO frustrating!! This has happened to me twice now and I'm really getting aggravated...
So, the other day I decided to forget the USB and just take my laptop to school and hook it directly up to the Smart Board like my mentor teachers do. Well, I got to school and my computer doesn't have the appropriate port to connect to the Smart Board!! Urgh! So yeah... I'm not exactly sure what to do at this point, because some of the clips I have are really great and would really help drive home a point to the students. It doesn't help that I have a Mac, because none of my mentor teachers know how to use a Mac, so they are all just as clueless as me...
Any suggestions? Would I get in trouble for uploading the videos to YouTube if they are movie clips from copyrighted movies? (Sorry, if "copyrighted" isn't a real word... it sounds funny, but I don't know how else to say it...)
Help!!
Hooray for our 6th and final dilemmas!!!!
My dilemma for this week has been technical issues... I don't know what the deal is, but for some reason all of the technical aspects of my lessons have been malfunctioning!!
This has been especially true for movie clips that I want to play. I will save them to my laptop, insert them into a PowerPoint, and then save the PowerPoint to a USB stick and take it to class. At home the PowerPoint works no problem movie clips and everything. When I get to school the movie clips are just pictures and won't play!! It is SO frustrating!! This has happened to me twice now and I'm really getting aggravated...
So, the other day I decided to forget the USB and just take my laptop to school and hook it directly up to the Smart Board like my mentor teachers do. Well, I got to school and my computer doesn't have the appropriate port to connect to the Smart Board!! Urgh! So yeah... I'm not exactly sure what to do at this point, because some of the clips I have are really great and would really help drive home a point to the students. It doesn't help that I have a Mac, because none of my mentor teachers know how to use a Mac, so they are all just as clueless as me...
Any suggestions? Would I get in trouble for uploading the videos to YouTube if they are movie clips from copyrighted movies? (Sorry, if "copyrighted" isn't a real word... it sounds funny, but I don't know how else to say it...)
Help!!
Dilemma #5
Hello all!!
I hope you're all doing well!
My dilemma for this week has to do with scheduling...
I don't know if this has to do just with my school or if this is in general a Dutch thing, but my school schedule changes so often it's ridiculous!! I seriously have had alterations to my schedule every single week since I've been in school...
What really makes it a pain though is that I have no way of finding out about these changes until I make a mistake (i.e. show up late, to the wrong classroom, etc.). The way students keep up with the scheduling is through Magister (their version of uLearn). There is an online version, but it also has an App, and apparently here it is not as big of a deal for students to have their phones in school. As long as they don't have them out during class they are allowed to have their phones on them, and use them during class changes and breaks. So, they just check the Magister App to see what the schedule says, which is fine for them, but has been a HUGE pain for me because I don't have access to this program!!
So, I have been showing up late or to the wrong classroom etc. Especially this week because this week was the beginning of their last "period" similar to our nine weeks. It is now 4th period, or spring period, so they have a new spring schedule and I've completely missed the memo several times this week. What is particularly funny to me, is that none of my mentor teachers have bothered to fill me in, and don't seem phased when I show up half way through the lesson because no one told me the time or room had changed!!!
I hope you're all doing well!
My dilemma for this week has to do with scheduling...
I don't know if this has to do just with my school or if this is in general a Dutch thing, but my school schedule changes so often it's ridiculous!! I seriously have had alterations to my schedule every single week since I've been in school...
What really makes it a pain though is that I have no way of finding out about these changes until I make a mistake (i.e. show up late, to the wrong classroom, etc.). The way students keep up with the scheduling is through Magister (their version of uLearn). There is an online version, but it also has an App, and apparently here it is not as big of a deal for students to have their phones in school. As long as they don't have them out during class they are allowed to have their phones on them, and use them during class changes and breaks. So, they just check the Magister App to see what the schedule says, which is fine for them, but has been a HUGE pain for me because I don't have access to this program!!
So, I have been showing up late or to the wrong classroom etc. Especially this week because this week was the beginning of their last "period" similar to our nine weeks. It is now 4th period, or spring period, so they have a new spring schedule and I've completely missed the memo several times this week. What is particularly funny to me, is that none of my mentor teachers have bothered to fill me in, and don't seem phased when I show up half way through the lesson because no one told me the time or room had changed!!!
Dilemma #4
Hey Everyone!!
Again, I apologize for the lateness of this post!!
One of my biggest struggles at this point is making sure I am extremely clear with my students when I try to communicate with them.
I have run into this problem several times, but the time it has been the biggest pain was when I gave them a writing assignment.
My history mentor teacher suggested that I give the students a writing assignment because it would be a good way for me to become familiar with them and the level of their work. He gave me the topic he wanted the students to write about, but that was it. He was hands off with the rest of the process, which I did not realize how involved it can be until I was neck deep in it!!
I did not know what criteria to look for, because I wasn't sure of their writing abilities and my mentor teacher was not clear at all when I asked him for his input. So, I decided I would mark them on: neatness, descriptive, realistic, clarity, and followed directions. For each point they could earn a maximum of three points. In total the assignment would be out of 15 points. This was fine until I was marking the papers and I realized that if students had not handwritten their papers (like they were asked to) then I could not mark them for neatness.. Because about half of them had not handwritten their papers I didn't think it was fair to count this anymore. Also, because their was confusion about the assignment from the get-go because my mentor teacher forgot to post the prompt online (on their version of uLearn) with all the specific instructions...So my rubric was already faulty, but I just crossed out that section and didn't include it. The students could now earn a total of 12 points.
When I went to pass back the papers I explained to the students what they had been marked on and they all claimed that they were not aware that they had been asked to handwrite the papers, so they didn't think it was fair that I counted that portion. Again, because there had been confusion with posting the prompt online I didn't think it was fair to mark them for this... So now they could earn a total of 9 points.
On top of all that, when students got their papers back I attached the rubric which showed where they had either earned or lost points which also had some specific comments of mine about each person's paper. Apparently however, the comments were not specific enough because I had a TON of students coming to me and asking why exactly they hadn't earned points here or there. At that point I had read about 60 different papers over the course of 2-3 days and didn't remember every detail about all of them so I found myself having to re-read all of the papers of those who had questions so that I could explain in great detail exactly why they had earned or lost points.....
Long story short, the marking of these papers was a complete nightmare because the directions weren't perfectly clear...
So, I've slowly been learning this lesson that I have to be EXTREMELY clear with my students.
Has anybody else had this problem? Is this a Dutch student thing...?
Again, I apologize for the lateness of this post!!
One of my biggest struggles at this point is making sure I am extremely clear with my students when I try to communicate with them.
I have run into this problem several times, but the time it has been the biggest pain was when I gave them a writing assignment.
My history mentor teacher suggested that I give the students a writing assignment because it would be a good way for me to become familiar with them and the level of their work. He gave me the topic he wanted the students to write about, but that was it. He was hands off with the rest of the process, which I did not realize how involved it can be until I was neck deep in it!!
I did not know what criteria to look for, because I wasn't sure of their writing abilities and my mentor teacher was not clear at all when I asked him for his input. So, I decided I would mark them on: neatness, descriptive, realistic, clarity, and followed directions. For each point they could earn a maximum of three points. In total the assignment would be out of 15 points. This was fine until I was marking the papers and I realized that if students had not handwritten their papers (like they were asked to) then I could not mark them for neatness.. Because about half of them had not handwritten their papers I didn't think it was fair to count this anymore. Also, because their was confusion about the assignment from the get-go because my mentor teacher forgot to post the prompt online (on their version of uLearn) with all the specific instructions...So my rubric was already faulty, but I just crossed out that section and didn't include it. The students could now earn a total of 12 points.
When I went to pass back the papers I explained to the students what they had been marked on and they all claimed that they were not aware that they had been asked to handwrite the papers, so they didn't think it was fair that I counted that portion. Again, because there had been confusion with posting the prompt online I didn't think it was fair to mark them for this... So now they could earn a total of 9 points.
On top of all that, when students got their papers back I attached the rubric which showed where they had either earned or lost points which also had some specific comments of mine about each person's paper. Apparently however, the comments were not specific enough because I had a TON of students coming to me and asking why exactly they hadn't earned points here or there. At that point I had read about 60 different papers over the course of 2-3 days and didn't remember every detail about all of them so I found myself having to re-read all of the papers of those who had questions so that I could explain in great detail exactly why they had earned or lost points.....
Long story short, the marking of these papers was a complete nightmare because the directions weren't perfectly clear...
So, I've slowly been learning this lesson that I have to be EXTREMELY clear with my students.
Has anybody else had this problem? Is this a Dutch student thing...?
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