Welcome To My Class! I'm Miss Chambers!

This week began my first week as a full-time student teacher. Monday morning I woke up incredibly early and began getting ready for an incredible journey. I went to school and began prepping for my first class. I gave my little spiel about my expectations and discipline policy for the class. I also gave them information about myself. I told them I’ve ran a marathon, skydived, and completed a triathlon. I gave the same speech three times, and quite honestly by the end of the day I was bored. I knew Tuesday I would need to think of something to spice up my delivery and make each time I taught a new creation, something different, and unique.

Five in the morning came awfully early on Tuesday. This waking up extremely early is going to take me awhile to get use to. The lesson I planned required each student to create an individual and personal poem. We walked through a pre-writing activity and they turned in their poems at the end of class. Tuesday went a lot better than Monday, and I enjoyed reading their writings.

Wednesday equaled a snow day! I think getting a snow day as a teacher is better than a snow day as a student. When I realized Jackson didn’t have school, I was beyond excited. Actually too excited; I couldn’t go back to sleep.

Thursday all the classes witnessed my favorite teaching style. Students helping other students learn, while participating in a game. They began with solving riddle poems as a group and moved on to “refrain” musical chairs. I thought the day went quite well.

Today I needed to clear up a few behavior issues that arose yesterday. I practiced my stern teacher voice in the mirror before I left my house this morning. To my surprise the students didn’t realize the trouble and were eager to fix the problem. Jackson students are great kids. In class we played “onomatopoeia” scattegories and ended the class with a quiz.

This week went very well. Even though I’m loving my student teaching experience, I’m really hoping there’s another snow day next week. My internal clock is having a hard time waking up this early! To those who have yet to student teach, practice waking up before the sun. This will help you in the future!

Spring Semester: Bring It On!

Even though my mom wasn’t there to take my picture in my new first-day school clothes, this week was my last “first week” of my college career. After four years, eight semesters, and countless hours of hard work, this semester is what I’ve been waiting for. I can see the finish line. I can see the graduation certificate. All I have to do is complete student teaching, ace senior seminar, and pass Praxis II. It might be tough, but boy will it be worth it.

Tuesday began a three-day senior seminar for all ADED (Secondary Education) student teachers. We sat through workshops dealing with classroom issues we would face in student teaching and in the years to come. After completing day one, I felt a bit defeated. I felt overwhelmed because I realized how much work this semester is going to be. We discussed licensure, interviewing, ESL students, and what to expect this semester. It’s a lot to take in, all in one day.

As I entered the room Wednesday, I felt stressed. Mr. Contini, my student teaching supervisor, came to the rescue. He spoke to my cohort about the Praxis III, and made me feel as if “I can do this!” We broke for lunch, and returned to the seminar with the other ADED student teachers. The speakers spoke on the reality of parent/teacher conferences, and how to achieve successful classroom management. I left the session in high hopes; I now believe I can truly succeed, and live through the semester!

Thursday we learned about legal issues, and our cohort focused on resume writing. Even though I felt overwhelmed at the beginning of the week, I left with my head high thinking “bring it on!” I am truly excited for this semester. Senior seminar shot a lot of issues and ideas our way, but I know now how truly important the information is and how I am better prepared for the next several weeks. I would like to thank all of the outstanding and inspirational presenters who spoke to us, and I wish all the student teachers the best of luck.

Today I went into the high school to talk to Mrs. Mann about my lesson plans and meet with the assistant principle, Mr. Hamm, about my time at Jackson. I feel truly blessed to have such an awesome co-operating teacher. She makes me feel so comfortable and confident. Her comments are guanine and sincere; I know I have a teammate through this experience. My meeting/ orientation with Mr. Hamm went fantastic. He went over the rules, schedule, and paperwork of Jackson. He helped me with an ambitious project I hope to complete with my 9th grade students, and gave me a tour of the gigantic school. Jackson is lucky to have such an exceptional administration. I was more nervous than excited about student teaching walking into the school this morning, but now I’m ready to show them what I got!

Chicago

This past weekend I traveled to Chicago! For four years now I’ve gone on this trip with the Perry High School Speech and Debate team. A national tournament is held at Glenbrooks High School right outside of Chicago. Although I had a blast, this trip felt a bit different. I graduated in 2005 and ever since I’ve spent countless hours at my high school coaching students and traveling with them around the state of Ohio and further to tournaments. This year, since I’m student teaching at Jackson and my cooperating teacher is their head speech/debate coach, I figured I should shy away from spending every weekend with Perry. (If I haven’t made it clear in past posts, Jackson and Perry are huge, gigantic, enormous rivals.) For the past three years I’ve known most of the Perry speech kids; this year I knew only a few. It was an eye opener. Perry speech is the reason for my career choice. I’ve dedicated several hours to this team. I’ve made wonderful friendships throughout the years, and now I don’t know half of the kids. Again I am torn! Some part of me wishes I would have been placed at a different school therefore I could still coach at Perry, but I love, love, love being with Mrs. Mann and the students at Jackson. Ugh, such an internal conflict!
Onto a brighter topic- school’s almost done! One more week of classes and finals week and, my gosh, I’m done. Granted I have student teaching full-time next semester, but no more final exams- that’s awesome! I have a good handle on my classes now and say “bring it on” to the finals weeks of fall semester. It’s weird to think about not attending college next year. I’ll hopefully, with fingers crossed, be teaching my own classroom. I can’t wait to see what the future holds! As for now… Happy Thanksgiving!


(Also as an aside, I received an e-mail from Disney. In an earlier post I talked about my "lie" to the students using a Disney theme. They wrote back! I can't wait to share their letter with the kids!)

What a Boring Week!

This week felt extremely… weird! Since the very first day of fall semester, I’ve gone to Jackson at least two days every week. Well every week but this one! I could sleep in and not dress up, it felt great, but I did miss the kids. They always brought exciting and new stories to class every day.

Even though I wasn’t at Jackson, college classes filled my schedule. Most of my courses had something due this week. It was nice to have some extra time to finish and prepare for quizzes.

I am preparing for a trip to Chicago. Every year I travel with the Perry High School speech and debate team to their Chicago tournament. This is my last year to travel with the team; it will definitely be a bittersweet trip.

Sorry this is such a short entry! Without the students... there's no exciting news!

Goodbye... See you in January!

Wow it’s crazy to think this semester’s almost over. This past week turned out to be my last week at Jackson, well at least until next semester. I spent everyday at the school. It was a bittersweet feeling. I love being there, but it’s time for me to settle down and focus on my grades. I mean this is my last time taking finals- that sentence alone makes my heart jump around filled with joy!

Yesterday brought many schools around the district to Jackson High School for their speech and debate tournament. Mrs. Mann is the head speech coach at the school. Mrs. Kathy Patron, my high school speech coach, is the reason I perused teaching. I owe the past three years of college and my future to speech. Anyways, after taking the dreaded Praxis II exam, I raced over to the school to see how the kids were doing. Turns out, just like the football game, Jackson beat Perry. I’m definitely a Perry girl at heart, but I’m extremely happy for the Jackson kids and, of course, the hard-working Mrs. Mann.

These are some final pictures from the fall semester. I’ll miss the kids, but I know I’ll be seeing them a lot next semester. I thought I would give them a month off from seeing Miss Chambers!

Hello.... See you in January!

For the first time all semester, I met Mrs. Mann’s afternoon classes. On Wednesday, I spent the day at Jackson High School. I did leave before the final bell rang, due to a college class, but from first through tenth period I followed around my cooperating teacher. Next semester I will be teaching four English classes; three of which are Freshman. I taught my unit plan to the second period students, and sat in on fifth/sixth period a half a dozen times. On Wednesday, I waited until the tenth period students filed in and sat down before I left for Kent Stark. I quickly introduced myself before running off to class. I believe I am building relationships with the other English classes except tenth period. I probably will not see them again until January. An optimistic look at the situation, at least I met them once before I start teaching.

Last night I went to see Jackson’s musical: Beauty and the Beast. My classmate, who is also student teaching at Jackson, joined me fifteen minutes before the show started to find our seats. When 8:00 p.m. rolled around, no dimming of the lights, no warming up of the pit band… nothing. A few minutes after the hour, a man made an announcement; the theatre company gave them double the tickets, therefore some seats were sold twice for the same night. A few members of the stage crew brought out folding chairs. Also, they ran out of programs, neither Andy nor I received one. Hesitant to what we were about to see, the lights finally went down and the opening music began about twenty after eight. The show turned out to be very good. The costumes were adorable and the singing was fantastic. Although the show saw a few minor technical problems, the students powered their way through one of Disney’s all time favorite movies. Congratulations cast, crew, and pit of Beauty and the Beast, you were great!

My Advice to You

This past week was absolutely crazy. On Monday I worked and went to class! Kent State suggests you do no work during student teaching, but with traveling between three schools and extracurricular activities, working is a must. Now that I am done teaching, I have been working more. Here is the problem I ran into this week. I only have about 50 hours at Jackson and in four weeks I need to add another 46 more! I am panicking. I was sick on Tuesday, so I did not make it to Jackson and Wednesday I worked again. Thursday I went to the high school but only for two hours because of college classes. I am finding it ridiculously hard to gather up enough time to fit everything into my schedule. School is becoming a bit more stressful, now that I am realizing how much stuff needs to be accomplished before the end of the semester. This blog is geared toward those who will be student teaching soon; therefore I am going to give my top ten advice tips for those who will be doing this at some point in the near future!

ADVIDE TIPS:
1. Complete most of your coursework before senior year.
2. Stay on top of all your class work; a little slip with hurt you more than you realize.
3. Communicate well with other classmates.
4. If you work, schedule hours on the weekends.
5. Do not procrastinate.
6. Have a good working relationship with your cooperating teacher.
7. Keep organized.
8. Save as much money as possible, do not splurge just because you had a bad day.
9. Be a good student; you should be an example for your students.
10. Have fun!

Even though I am complaining, I truly love this major. I love going to the high school. Of course I get a bit stressed, but truly this is fun!