Ashley+Woodward

Genre Reflection #2-- Word Photos We wrote Word Photos in 3310, and i thought it'd be the perfect way to capture my first full week of teaching. There have of course been bad moments in the past week, but I am trying to accentuate the positive ones!


 * One**

There is the silent scritch-scratching of pencils in the classroom. Even though all bodies are still, the air is buzzing with energy. Students who normally talk are writing. It is the first totally successful day for the student teacher. Nobody is up and out of their seats, and she didn't yell or raise her voice once the entire day. Being a pre-service teacher is all about being in-between a student and teacher. But this is the very first time when both of her feet are planted on the side of teacher.


 * Two**

Hands held high in the air, the students are eager to share their writing. They've been practicing hooks for a narrative writing unit, and they cannot wait to share what they have come up with for the class. Each student adds something to the discussion and each feels excited about this low-stakes form of creative writing. "Oh, can I write two for this picture?" and "Are there more pictures to write hooks for?" and "Can I go first?" are not things the student teacher ever expected to ehar from a class room. Before writing becomes boring and difficult again, before students have whatever is "done to them" that college writing professors aim to fix, these students are still enjoying writing. It is all summed up at the end of the day when the student says, "That was real fun, not just school fun."

Genre Reflection #3-- Journal Entry

Date: November 7th, 2010

Prompt: Now that you are trading in your teacher hat for that of student for a while, have a taste of your own medicine. Since you made your 7th grade students write so many journal entries, it is your turn. Write a journal entry about your many transitions in the past five weeks. How did they affect you? How have your perceptions of your teacher identity changed?

During the past five weeks, something scary and absolutely wonderful has happened. Before I stepped into the classroom that Monday morning, I felt awkward. Maybe I wouldn't be a good teacher. Maybe the students really wouldn't like me. Maybe I'd get in front of that class and have absolutely no idea what I was doing. Maybe I would crash and burn miserably. But then I walked in. I set my stuff down and got ready to observe. The kids immediately started asking me questions. Who are you? Okay, that's pretty easy to answer. How old are you? Um, maybe we should ignore that one. Why are you here? That one I can answer. Are you going to teach us? That was probably the hardest one to answer. I hope so, I thought. But I said yes, despite being unsure. And it seemed that that one moment of saying it would make it true.

I started learning the names of students and what they were like. Student A loves Twilight and talks about in class a lot. Student B loves baseball. Student C can really draw! Little things that made me realize that this experience was quickly becoming less and less about my personal growth. I went from saying, "The kids in my TOSS placement..." to saying, "Today MY kids..." When they succeeded, that is when I succeeded. I didn't feel like a teacher when they asked me a question and I easily answered it for them. I felt like a teacher when I asked them a question and they answered it for me. Their lives and capablites seemed so infinitely more important than mine. All my worries of Ashley the Student Teacher went out the door. I wanted to make sure that what I was teaching these students would help them succeed. Hoping that it would make them feel like the English classroom wasn't such a bad place.

I was lucky in this. My CT had already set up a wonderful atmosphere for her students. The ten days that I taught three classes, I had big shoes to fill. But I also had kids who were already excited (okay, maybe not all excited, but at least feeling okay) about coming into that classroom. I was very lucky. Once I knew what they were like, they were willing to accept me into the classroom for a little while.

So on my last day, when I walked in to see my little teacher's "desk" covered in cards from the students, I was sad to go. But I am also excited because now I am motivated to go on so that maybe one day I can really have a classroom of kids that are really mine. Though I am still nervous about the future, I am also ready and excited for what may come.

-Ms. Woodward