Chelsea+Stanley


 * Student Teaching 2011**

**Reflections** **Week two:** **This week I have been introduced to the professional side of teaching. I have been bombarded with stacks of paper labeled "to be graded", and a line of students wanting to know if you have gotten to theirs yet. I have officially attended my first department meeting, faculty meeting, design team meeting, and my very own parent-teacher conference. I have made lesson plans, worksheets, power-points, reading guides, and rubrics. I have taught two grammar mini-lessons, and I have introduced Greek mythology and //The Odyssey//**. ** Come to find out, teaching isn't always exciting lesson plans, group work, and smiles, but sometimes it involves the inevitable. I have experienced my first fight with in the classroom resulting in a write up. I have forgotten that though these students are my angels that they have a little demon in there that makes appearances occasionally, and they must be dealt with promptly and fairly. On the other hand, I have slowly stepped into the organizational side of my teacher identity, and I have created files, made turn in trays, bought high-lighters, sharpies, pens, pencils, calendar, and paper, and I have set up my desk in a way to reflect the teacher I hope to be. Now, I am anxiously awaiting my phase in period where I will begin teaching my first block which will begin on Monday. I have my seating chart arranged, students names learned, and my guiding questions assembled, and I am teacher ready to embark on my own personal "odyssey". **

**Week one:** **After being in my student teaching placement for a week, not necessarily a whole one but a week none of the less, I am already starting to feel the overwhelming creep of anxiety as I realize how much work has to be done. Not only do I have deadlines from KSU, but now I am in a real classroom with real students and real consequences. Its not just making sure all of the work is done by the time my supervisor comes, but the bulk of the material has to be taught before the Graduation Tests (for juniors) or the EOCT's. The students are depending on you for their success, your department is counting on you for success of the students and the department, your principal is counting on your department for AYP, and the superintendent is counting your principal to meet accreditation and receive funding, and the government is counting on the school board for improvement of test scores! It is a lot to take on, but the most positive realization I had this week is that I am not alone. I have arms, legs, hands, and feet to depend on which are my colleagues and not just in my school, but my fellow teachers and friends. I came to the conclusion that the only life lines I have are determined by the connections I make with people. Do not get me wrong; I am so excited to be in student teaching and to be in a classroom and to sit at an actual desk that I can call my own and observe the precious minds that are mine for molding. I just can not ignore the welling up of anxiety I feel when I think about all the work that is to be accomplished. For now, I am still the student watching from a safe distance like the quiet before the storm.**


 * TOSS 2010 **
 * Refl ection **
 * Week one: After being in my TOSS placement for a week, I have learned how much I knew and still need to know about education. I was kind of surprised how comfortable I felt working one on one with students about their writing. I taught a girl, who was struggling with figurative language and how to use it in her paper, how to use a simile to describe her sister and an onomatopiea to describe sounds that the monster in her closet made. I think my biggest weekness is classroom management because I want to be liked, but I don't want to be that laid back easy teacher who doesn't discipline their kids. However, I don't want to be the authoritarian-type teacher who is very strict and one way all the time. Where do you find the balance? I was nervous going into a middle school classroom because I was certian that middle schoolers were evil and hard to control, but I have been delightfully surprised how endearing and sweet kids are at this age. Yes, I do have that class that is hard to maintain control and structure; however, at the end of the day, they want to please you and want to do well because you smiled at them or you remembered their name. The smallest things mean the most to them. Plus, it does help when they think every thing you do is "AWESOME!" I have even caught myself thinking maybe I will teach middle school, even if its only a few years, because I am just enjoying my placement so much, and I love my school, my CT, and ofcourse, my kids. I am really excited about teaching the narrative writing unit, and I can't wait to read what they write. I have some imaginative students, who amaze me, when they can write 385 words in 20 minutes of journal time. **
 * Genre Reflection 1 October 13, 2010: **
 * Word Photos **
 * Classroom **
 * The walls are covered with tacos, garfield, pancakes, and ham that capture the essence of the six traits of writing. The desks are aligned for flight into the realm of questions, raised hands, discipline, homework, and tests. This is a place that words are turned into sentences, sentences to paragraphs, and paragraphs to pages, and the tasks are group work, peer editing, and brain pops. This is a place where minds are molded, thoughts are challenged, questions are answered, character is built, and humans are made. The blood to the veins of writing circulate through the cracks in the floor to the holes in the ceiling, to the curves of the desks, to the backs of the chairs, and into the hearts and minds of the bodies. The house of complex, simple, and compound sentences reside, and vocabulary words like sham, infuriate, and sarcastic come to life. The computer screens are the windows to the outside world that enriches the understanding of concepts and unites the old with the new. A classroom is the hub of education where the real learning is committed. **
 * Students **
 * They come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and the little feet fill the floor with sneakers, flip-flops, crocs, and cow-boy boots. They carry the latest gossip in one hand, and the most popular young adult literature books, the real text books, in the other. They are the ones that challenge you to knew heights on your mountain of furry with those questions that consently are repeated: What are we doing today? (When the board says it all) Is this for a grade?(When you clearly explained that this is a quiz) Can we work in groups? Can I go to the bathroom? and the new question of the day, Can I go to the media center? Then you find yourself repeating, Please sit down, Please! Stop Talking, David for the third time please stop bothering Heather. She clearly doesn't want your Mountain Dew/ Urine that you are trying to make her drink, by the way can you please take out your behavior card so that I can write you up, oh and did I mention STOP TALKING!!!! But then you have those moments when those little feet, little eyes, and little smiles look at you and you remember that they are indeed human beings, and when they raise their hands, get quiet and do their warm-ups with out you asking them, when Johnny who never talks gets excited about an adverb song, and Kells looks at you and says, "Ms. Stanley you look pretty today." You totally forget all their transgressions and for a moment, they are heavenly bodies balancing their way through the orbit that is your galaxy, the classroom. They are the reasons I want to teach, and even though they can be, "Satan's Spawn" (Wink Wink Dr. Dail) they are humans that need to be guided into the next life, high school, college, and then, the real world. **
 * Pseudonyms were made for students names to protect their privacy.* **


 * Genre Reflection # 2 October 25, 2010 **
 * Metaphor Piece **
 * As I walk into the room, I hear voices stirring and simmering around the room. Some are the familiar, "What are we doing today," and some are the hussle and bussel of a charmed middle school life, "He said he liked me!" "Oh really!" "That Haley chick is hot!" All the while I am trying to remember what it was like when I was in middle school. **
 * Like a grandma reminicing on her front porch **
 * Like a slave remembering where he came **
 * Like a child struggling to breathe **
 * Like a hunger trying to remember to starve **
 * That's when I realized all little eyes were staring up at me waiting for me to go over their warm-up. What I was then doesn't matter now. I have become that person that I once referred to as the authority figure. I am the one who makes decisions, plans lessons, facilitates group work, grades papers, makes seating charts, and writes on behavior cards. I don't know how I became this person, but my first day teaching I slipped into the role **
 * Like a snake shedding skin **
 * Like Diana Ross teasing her hair **
 * Like a butterfly breaking through the cacoon **
 * Like the adolescent turning 21 taking the first sip of Bacardi **
 * Though I may not recollect where I came to where I am now, the important thing is that I am here, I fit, and I would not rather be anywhere else. Just Like the bride putting on her veil **
 * Like the boy reaching out for the girl's hand **
 * Like a kid flying a kite **
 * Like the senior full of life. **

** Genre Reflection #3 **

 * Becoming a teacher **
 * Day by Day **
 * Grading papers **
 * Narrative Essays. **


 * Writing lesson plans **
 * Making worksheets **
 * Adapting what works **
 * Changing what's weak. **


 * Reviewing material **
 * Assessing their growth **
 * Raising their hands **
 * Writing down notes. **


 * Seeing understanding **
 * In one little face **
 * Means I reached them **
 * Somehow in this space. **


 * Gaining their trust **
 * Pushing them forward **
 * Reaching new goals **
 * Challenging their words. **


 * Peer review and **
 * Rough drafts **
 * Teaching them how **
 * To critique their crafts. **


 * From student to teacher **
 * In such a short time **
 * From a rowdy class **
 * To making them mind. **


 * Not ready to let go **
 * An amazing five weeks **
 * Thanking God for **
 * The privilege of letting me teach! **