Intern Teaching #12

Throughout my expierence here at Bruceton, I have seen and done many things. Students yelling, cursing, being goofy are just 3 things I have seen in my 4 short months as an intern teacher. I have also expierenced students do extremely well on a project then completely bomb the next project simply because, "they did not feel like doing it." I've never understood that. Then, I think to myself, what was I like in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade? The answer is simple... I was the same way! As a young adult, I can easily remeber my teenage years when I was "too cool for school." Sometimes I need to take a step back as a teacher and realize, not every single school day am I going to be able to work my students. I have realized the value of being patient but also being strict to who students are being lazy on a consistent bases. I have noticed this more so in Science class then in Math. The reason being is because we do project-based learning in Science and it allows the students to do this work in groups and independently. I think it is important that this happens in Science because it makes the students feel more accountable for their own work. I have learned so much this semester in my short time of teaching, I can't wait to learn more and more as I become a teacher on my own one day soon.

Internship Teaching #11

Today I am writing in my blog and have become astounded at something. I have recently finished up the results of the "car lab" and have started the interview process with my 8th graders. I am so surprised at some of my student responses to these 5 questions: 1. What’s your favorite subject here at Bruceton? 2. Why do you like this subject the most? 3. I've taught you in both Math and Science. . . What was that concept? 4. What would you say you learned the most in this project? 5. If you were the teacher, what would you change about this project for the next time? The responses I got for this answer were really independent. Each student had their own understanding of what they learned, and also what they would do to change the project for next time. I’ve got to say, I am also surprised to see how some students who i thought would give me a lot of information on the project, simply got shy and didn't speak much. I was also surprised at some students who had little or no work done in their notebook but were able to tell me a lot of information about their car and the concept they learned in both classes. As I finish doing interviews, I am anxious to see if the rest of the students feel the same way as their classmates or if they have their own opinion.

Intern Teaching #10

As I begin to "wind down" in the car experiments and graphs, one thing is clear to me. Students are not the same. Although a group of students may have done a fantastic job doing the project and their car was a success, some students just simply didnt care to write any information at all in their student notebooks. its upsetting to see this because they had really good ideas. On the flip side of this, you also had students who made cars that did not work so well. But these students also showed that they cared enough about the project because they had tons of research about the car and the assignment as a whole. I am anxious to see what is going to happen in the student interviews in the next few days to see what the student can actually tell me they learned in throughout the entire project and also if they can relate to what was being taught in Math class. My hope in all of this is that students got to enjoy the project and actually learned something from it.