On Friday, my teacher gave me homework. "Figure out a way to get them to want to read Lord of the Flies. Figure out what we are going to do with them."
I will take that challenge!
I have no idea what my teacher is looking for. I haven't read Lord of the Flies since my junior year of high school and even then, I probably didn't actually read the book. Clearly, I am not an expert in it. But I'm gonna do my best with it.
I read the wikipedia page for the book (I'm sure English teachers everywhere are shuddering right now. Stop it. Wikipedia is legit. Chill out.) and then got a copy from the library. I opened the book and read the first paragraph. I put the book back down and got out my clipboard to start taking notes on all the things in that first paragraph and on that first page that would confuse students (and confused me too).
This is where I am starting. Imagining that I am a student reading this book for the first time and trying to figure out what could confuse them or make them not want to read it. One benefit experienced teachers have is that they know what has confused students in the past. I have to guess. I have no idea what my teacher has done with this book in the past and I have no idea what she plans to do with it now. I am very curious to see how she gets our students interested in this book.
I have ideas that are tailored to this specific group of students. They don't like to read. They get bored easily. So far they have read literature that is very distant from them. My goal is to make it relevant. To force them to see themselves inside this book. I think this is actually a good book for this.
I remember not liking Lord of the Flies, but I can't remember if I actually read it or not (sorry Mrs. McDowell, I didn't actually read everything you assigned) or why I didn't like it. So I am reading it suspicously. I am looking for whatever made me not like it. It may have been the action of the book. Children running around wildly and trying to make adult decisions was probably not something 17 year old me wanted to read about. But it may have been something else. I may not have felt connected to the characters. I may not have understood the story or the been able to see why the characters behaved the way they did.
I intend to find out why I didn't connect with this book and how I can help my students connect with it.
Ultimately I think the power of a story is its ability to allow one person to see the world from someone elses point of view. This is part of why I read. I want to experience the world the way other people do. This ability to see the world from other points of view is one way to grow as people. My students need to grow. They are ignorant. It sounds mean, but most high school students are ignorant. They have lived in the same place with the same people for most of their lives. They hang out with people who believe the same things they do and live similar lives as them. My students need to see the worlds that other people live in.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Coffee Day, But a Struggle
Thursdays are Coffee Day. YES! It's hard to explain how important things like Coffee Day are. That is not what this post is about.
Yesterday (Biscuit Day) was a struggle in one of our classes. Students were very disengaged and very resistant to reading The Canterbury Tales. Granted, I have never read The Canterbury Tales, but I don't see why they were so resistant. They said it was boring, it was hard to understand, they weren't interested. Yeah, well you can't love every single thing you do in school all the time.
I don't think their attitudes are due solely to them being bad students or unmotivated students. I think it has to do with the style in which they are being taught. Yesterday so many kids had their heads down or were asleep or were doing other work. I think it was because they were bored and had no part in what was happening.
The teacher read to them. For a long time. Sometimes she would stop reading and summarize what she had just read for them. That is it.
The students were expected to listen and pay attention. Well they have no reason to. They have no reason to listen because they are not responsible for any of the information. She didn't ask them questions or give them the opportunity to share or get involved. I think this is more (or equally) to blame for them hating the reading.
I had to opportunity to talk to a former student of my teacher's. He told me when she did that he fell asleep every time. It didn't matter what they were reading. If she read to them, he went to sleep.
My goal for Hamlet with them: Make it more involved. Not in an annoyting "here is a worksheet! Do it." sort of way, but in a "let's make meaning of this together and try to figure stuff out as a group" sort of way.
Maybe it is because today was Coffee Day and maybe it was because I had someone else to talk to all day who affirmed the fact that sometimes that class just sucks, but either way I got very impatient about these students today. I want them to learn. I want them to want to learn. I want to help them work toward being self directed and thoughtful individuals. I want to do things really differently and give them the chance to actually enjoy what we do and read.
Yesterday (Biscuit Day) was a struggle in one of our classes. Students were very disengaged and very resistant to reading The Canterbury Tales. Granted, I have never read The Canterbury Tales, but I don't see why they were so resistant. They said it was boring, it was hard to understand, they weren't interested. Yeah, well you can't love every single thing you do in school all the time.
I don't think their attitudes are due solely to them being bad students or unmotivated students. I think it has to do with the style in which they are being taught. Yesterday so many kids had their heads down or were asleep or were doing other work. I think it was because they were bored and had no part in what was happening.
The teacher read to them. For a long time. Sometimes she would stop reading and summarize what she had just read for them. That is it.
The students were expected to listen and pay attention. Well they have no reason to. They have no reason to listen because they are not responsible for any of the information. She didn't ask them questions or give them the opportunity to share or get involved. I think this is more (or equally) to blame for them hating the reading.
I had to opportunity to talk to a former student of my teacher's. He told me when she did that he fell asleep every time. It didn't matter what they were reading. If she read to them, he went to sleep.
My goal for Hamlet with them: Make it more involved. Not in an annoyting "here is a worksheet! Do it." sort of way, but in a "let's make meaning of this together and try to figure stuff out as a group" sort of way.
Maybe it is because today was Coffee Day and maybe it was because I had someone else to talk to all day who affirmed the fact that sometimes that class just sucks, but either way I got very impatient about these students today. I want them to learn. I want them to want to learn. I want to help them work toward being self directed and thoughtful individuals. I want to do things really differently and give them the chance to actually enjoy what we do and read.
Teaching All Day: Actually Teaching
After the quiz, students went to lunch. When they came back, it was time for me to actually teach them. I didn't get to choose what I taught them or the method in which I taught them. My teacher gave me the transparency's and information to present.
Sometimes the best you can hope from that class is that they will listen and stay awake. I worked extremely hard to get kids to listen, stay awake, and engage. I asked them questions and made them raise their hands and volunteer information. Anything to make sure they were actually listening to me. One time I called a kid out who was sleeping. Other than that, they did pretty well.
My lesson was admittedly boring. I would have done it differently with different technology and different circumstances. If I had had time to plan I think there are ways I could have made it more interactive (more 'inquiry' based for those EDU peeps reading this), but time was not available to me.
In a few weeks, I have to take over completely. I am teaching a unit on Hamlet in one class and a unit on King Arthur in the other two classes. Sometime in the near future I need to figure out what the poo I'm going to do with these.
My goals for these kids involve more than them staying awake and being quiet. I don't want them to be quiet. I want them to talk about the material. I want them to be involved in it.
I don't believe that teaching is merely one person standing in front of the students telling them information. That is not teaching. That is throwing information at them. What does that teach them? To sit around and wait for someone else to do intellectual work for them and then hand them the product. I'm not about that at all.
Standing in front of the class giving them information is one of the most boring things ever. I want teaching to be an adventure. I want to learn too. I don't want to do the work for them. That will not help them later in life. When they get jobs or go to college they will not benefit from believing that it is acceptable to sit around and wait for someone to tell you everything you need to know. Some things you need to find out or make meaning from on your own.
Sometimes the best you can hope from that class is that they will listen and stay awake. I worked extremely hard to get kids to listen, stay awake, and engage. I asked them questions and made them raise their hands and volunteer information. Anything to make sure they were actually listening to me. One time I called a kid out who was sleeping. Other than that, they did pretty well.
My lesson was admittedly boring. I would have done it differently with different technology and different circumstances. If I had had time to plan I think there are ways I could have made it more interactive (more 'inquiry' based for those EDU peeps reading this), but time was not available to me.
In a few weeks, I have to take over completely. I am teaching a unit on Hamlet in one class and a unit on King Arthur in the other two classes. Sometime in the near future I need to figure out what the poo I'm going to do with these.
My goals for these kids involve more than them staying awake and being quiet. I don't want them to be quiet. I want them to talk about the material. I want them to be involved in it.
I don't believe that teaching is merely one person standing in front of the students telling them information. That is not teaching. That is throwing information at them. What does that teach them? To sit around and wait for someone else to do intellectual work for them and then hand them the product. I'm not about that at all.
Standing in front of the class giving them information is one of the most boring things ever. I want teaching to be an adventure. I want to learn too. I don't want to do the work for them. That will not help them later in life. When they get jobs or go to college they will not benefit from believing that it is acceptable to sit around and wait for someone to tell you everything you need to know. Some things you need to find out or make meaning from on your own.
Teaching All Day: Giving A Quiz
Last Friday my teacher was absent. I knew ahead of time and she left me lesson plans. In two classes all I did was journal sharing at the beginning of class, giving instructions on an assignment, and pressing play on the movie they were watching. That was the easy part.
In the other class I had to give a quiz and teach. Giving a quiz does not mean hadning out the sheets and sitting down. Not with seniors who could care less about vocabulary. With those students giving a quiz means: sneakily walking up and down each aisle looking for cheat sheets, watching them all to make sure they aren't talking to each other, and in the case of last Friday, running to the back of the room while pretending to see a bug on the wall.
Now that I have retold this story multiple times, I realize how crazy it makes me sound, but I don't care. I don't know where to draw the line on talking to the students about cheating. I did walk up and down the aisles with the purpose of catching cheaters and I found one cheat sheet. This was fairly obvious, but I didn't feel comfortable camping out in the back of the room behind the students. I didn't want to make them feel uncomfortable or to think I was suspicious of them.
So I told them I saw a bug on the back wall. Yep. LIE. I walked back there every couple of minutes and pretended to look at the shelf while really looking at all of them to see if they were cheating or not. I felt really good about this choice. I have no idea if it worked or not.
Cheating pisses me off like few other things. Particularly when the students get 10 minutes to study in class right before the quiz and there are only 15 vocab words on the test. I want to slap 0's on assignments that I think students cheated on and send them to ISS ("the Hut" at my school). But proving that a student cheated is really hard unless you actually catch a cheat sheet on them.
Other than that, it just looks like you are accusing them of not being smart enough to make the grades that they make. And that sucks for everyone.
When I have my own classroom and can arrange the desks in any way I want, I will probably have them arranged in a way that allows me to circle the room constantly. That way I can monitor students during tests, quizzes, activities, and I can move during lecture. It would also prevent me from clearly being in their area to make sure they aren't cheating.
In the other class I had to give a quiz and teach. Giving a quiz does not mean hadning out the sheets and sitting down. Not with seniors who could care less about vocabulary. With those students giving a quiz means: sneakily walking up and down each aisle looking for cheat sheets, watching them all to make sure they aren't talking to each other, and in the case of last Friday, running to the back of the room while pretending to see a bug on the wall.
Now that I have retold this story multiple times, I realize how crazy it makes me sound, but I don't care. I don't know where to draw the line on talking to the students about cheating. I did walk up and down the aisles with the purpose of catching cheaters and I found one cheat sheet. This was fairly obvious, but I didn't feel comfortable camping out in the back of the room behind the students. I didn't want to make them feel uncomfortable or to think I was suspicious of them.
So I told them I saw a bug on the back wall. Yep. LIE. I walked back there every couple of minutes and pretended to look at the shelf while really looking at all of them to see if they were cheating or not. I felt really good about this choice. I have no idea if it worked or not.
Cheating pisses me off like few other things. Particularly when the students get 10 minutes to study in class right before the quiz and there are only 15 vocab words on the test. I want to slap 0's on assignments that I think students cheated on and send them to ISS ("the Hut" at my school). But proving that a student cheated is really hard unless you actually catch a cheat sheet on them.
Other than that, it just looks like you are accusing them of not being smart enough to make the grades that they make. And that sucks for everyone.
When I have my own classroom and can arrange the desks in any way I want, I will probably have them arranged in a way that allows me to circle the room constantly. That way I can monitor students during tests, quizzes, activities, and I can move during lecture. It would also prevent me from clearly being in their area to make sure they aren't cheating.
Monday, August 29, 2011
University Supervisor, Coffee Bets, and Biscuit Day
In case I haven't mentioned it yet, it would be nearly impossible to get through this internship without the other intern working in the English department with me, riding in the car with me each day, eating lunch with me, and fake shooting me in the hallway to put me out of my misery when I am getting too close to the water (See Sassy Gay Friend Shakespeare Hamlet to get that comment).
Today I had a meeting with our University Supervisor. I bet that she would be at least ten minutes late, but no more than 30 minutes late. FoFo bet that she would either be at least an hour late or not show at all. The bet was on a cup of coffee. Loser buys the winner a cup at the Starbucks around the corner from our school. I won. (She was about 20 minutes late.) Coffee day is Thursday.
We also decided that one day we need to stop and get biscuits from Chick Fil A. In part because who doesn't love CFA chicken biscuits, and in part because we need fun treats to make our lives better. So biscuit day is Wednesday.
It is tiny things like biscuit day and coffee day and Miley Cyrus in the car in the morning that makes the 5:30am departure time slightly more bearable.
Today I had a meeting with our University Supervisor. I bet that she would be at least ten minutes late, but no more than 30 minutes late. FoFo bet that she would either be at least an hour late or not show at all. The bet was on a cup of coffee. Loser buys the winner a cup at the Starbucks around the corner from our school. I won. (She was about 20 minutes late.) Coffee day is Thursday.
We also decided that one day we need to stop and get biscuits from Chick Fil A. In part because who doesn't love CFA chicken biscuits, and in part because we need fun treats to make our lives better. So biscuit day is Wednesday.
It is tiny things like biscuit day and coffee day and Miley Cyrus in the car in the morning that makes the 5:30am departure time slightly more bearable.
After a Full Week
After a full week of work, I was not nearly as tired as I thought I would be. Part of this is probably due to the fact that I basically sit behind a desk all day and grade papers. I probably only spent 15 minutes in front of the class every day this past week. That will soon change.
First, I want to talk about the pep rally we had on Friday. I remember pep rallys at my high school and I remember the obnoxious competition between the senior class and the junior class. What I don't remember is the huge possibility of an outright riot. That is how I felt at this pep rally. I spent a majority of the pep rally scanning the crowds waiting for shit to hit the fan.
Too many kids in too small of a space with wayyyyyy to much energy. I guess technically as a teacher I was supposed to be watching the kids for any misbehavior that might be happening so that it could be brought to the attention of the administration. Instead I was watching for shit to go down so that I could get the hell out of there.
I don't do well in enclosed spaces and I definitely don't do well in enclosed spaces that are overcrowded with kids possessing that much energy. Claustrophobic people should not be required to attend pep rallys.
Also, they had some local rappers come in and sing a song. The chorus (or bridge) consisted of the following "Splash Splash Splash. Juice Juice Juice." Yeah. When I wasn't worried about a riot breaking out, I was wondering what the eff the person who approved this song was thinking. From the perspective of a 23 year old who listens to a minor amount of rap, but goes to bars occassionally, I questioned the appropriateness of both "splash" and "juice." Luckily I'm not the only intern so I didn't have to be the one to awkwardly point this out to the teachers who had no clue that this might not be appropriate. (Ps. Most of the English teachers knew that this was not appropriate. Way to be socially aware English Department!!).
Post pep rally, my teacher and I discussed the potential romantic pairings of students in our fourth block. This was way better than the pep rally.
I can't remember anything productive I did because basically everything was overshadowded by the pep rally (catastrophe). In no way is this supposed to be a negative comment against the school in which I am interning. They did an excellent job keeping the crowds under control. Clearly the students knew that they were not going to get away with anything. Well done School I Intern At. Not so well done for me and my ginormous fear of rooms with shit tons of people in them.
First, I want to talk about the pep rally we had on Friday. I remember pep rallys at my high school and I remember the obnoxious competition between the senior class and the junior class. What I don't remember is the huge possibility of an outright riot. That is how I felt at this pep rally. I spent a majority of the pep rally scanning the crowds waiting for shit to hit the fan.
Too many kids in too small of a space with wayyyyyy to much energy. I guess technically as a teacher I was supposed to be watching the kids for any misbehavior that might be happening so that it could be brought to the attention of the administration. Instead I was watching for shit to go down so that I could get the hell out of there.
I don't do well in enclosed spaces and I definitely don't do well in enclosed spaces that are overcrowded with kids possessing that much energy. Claustrophobic people should not be required to attend pep rallys.
Also, they had some local rappers come in and sing a song. The chorus (or bridge) consisted of the following "Splash Splash Splash. Juice Juice Juice." Yeah. When I wasn't worried about a riot breaking out, I was wondering what the eff the person who approved this song was thinking. From the perspective of a 23 year old who listens to a minor amount of rap, but goes to bars occassionally, I questioned the appropriateness of both "splash" and "juice." Luckily I'm not the only intern so I didn't have to be the one to awkwardly point this out to the teachers who had no clue that this might not be appropriate. (Ps. Most of the English teachers knew that this was not appropriate. Way to be socially aware English Department!!).
Post pep rally, my teacher and I discussed the potential romantic pairings of students in our fourth block. This was way better than the pep rally.
I can't remember anything productive I did because basically everything was overshadowded by the pep rally (catastrophe). In no way is this supposed to be a negative comment against the school in which I am interning. They did an excellent job keeping the crowds under control. Clearly the students knew that they were not going to get away with anything. Well done School I Intern At. Not so well done for me and my ginormous fear of rooms with shit tons of people in them.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Day 4 cont: In Which I Mention Day 3
On Friday (day 3) my teacher asked me to do journal with the kids. It's a pretty easy thing. The kids come in and answer in a paragraph some question that my teacher has written on the board. Fridays was "what do you look forward to in the future and what do you fear about the future." Kids voluteer to share after they have had time to write if they want. Many kids had things to say about this. They look forward to not living with their parents, to having jobs, to getting married, to having kids. They fear being homeless, not having a job, beign alone, and being parents. It was an interesting discussion to have with these 9-12 graders (two of my classes have a mix of grades in them).
Today I did journal again with the same two classes. Todays question "Is doing the right thing its own reward? Explain." Woah. This question led us to some festive discussion. Kids said everything from "only do what you want, don't worry about rewards" to "always do the right thing no matter what because you should." Towards the end though, I had a kid start talking about evil people. He said something along the lines of "Evil people don't start out thinking I want to do something really evil to these other people. They are just thinking I want to do what I want to do, what benefits me. They probably never really meant to be evil in the first place. They just weren't thinking about what would happen to other people, or were more focused on doing what they want." I thought this was insightful and presented a different perspective from ones I had encountered with these particular kids and talking about 'bad' vs. 'good.'
Unfortunately we were out of time and did not get to pursue this course of discussion further. I was really unsure of what to say to them though. No one asked me what I thought, although I did say multiple times that this was a complex and complicated question. In my new role as a teacher, I have no idea what I am supposed to say about things like this.
Today I did journal again with the same two classes. Todays question "Is doing the right thing its own reward? Explain." Woah. This question led us to some festive discussion. Kids said everything from "only do what you want, don't worry about rewards" to "always do the right thing no matter what because you should." Towards the end though, I had a kid start talking about evil people. He said something along the lines of "Evil people don't start out thinking I want to do something really evil to these other people. They are just thinking I want to do what I want to do, what benefits me. They probably never really meant to be evil in the first place. They just weren't thinking about what would happen to other people, or were more focused on doing what they want." I thought this was insightful and presented a different perspective from ones I had encountered with these particular kids and talking about 'bad' vs. 'good.'
Unfortunately we were out of time and did not get to pursue this course of discussion further. I was really unsure of what to say to them though. No one asked me what I thought, although I did say multiple times that this was a complex and complicated question. In my new role as a teacher, I have no idea what I am supposed to say about things like this.
Day 4: Poster Grading
Today I helped my teacher grade posters. Nothing makes my inner organized, logical, math lover want to kill herself more than grading artistic things like posters. POSTERS?!?!
The assignment was a really interesting one. The students were supposed to find images to represent the different Ages of Man (Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Heroic Age, Iron Age. If you don't know these, don't feel bad. I took notes during the presentations because I had no idea what they were!) The idea was for them to represent the different characterstics of each age. All in all, kind of a neat project. It's useful for the students because they have to really think about the characteristics of the different ages and it's creative and fun to watch/listen to others present their posters.
Grading them however, sucked. Yes. I said it. It sucked. How the eff do you do that? Grade people on creativity? I could easily place all the people didn't meet the required number of pictures or who included things that were factually innacurate into a grade range. But after that, things got murky. By the end I really wanted to just slap random grades on there and be done with it.
Luckily, I was not solely in charge of the grading. My cooperating teacher was there making the final decisions and commenting on what she thought put some people in the A group and some in the B. She allowed me to see her process and this made me want to kill myself a little less. (I did beg her to leave the other classes for tomorrow because I didn't want to do it anymore. There is only so much I can take.)
Again, another really interesting experience with grading. It's extremely hard to stand in front of work that students have done and decide which ones are better and which ones don't quite make the cut. And it seems vastly unfair. Some kids didn't have printers or computers at home. Some didn't know how to draw. Some didn't have the money or means by which to get a poster to begin with. How does all of that factor into the grades you give and the assignments you create? I have no idea.
The assignment was a really interesting one. The students were supposed to find images to represent the different Ages of Man (Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Heroic Age, Iron Age. If you don't know these, don't feel bad. I took notes during the presentations because I had no idea what they were!) The idea was for them to represent the different characterstics of each age. All in all, kind of a neat project. It's useful for the students because they have to really think about the characteristics of the different ages and it's creative and fun to watch/listen to others present their posters.
Grading them however, sucked. Yes. I said it. It sucked. How the eff do you do that? Grade people on creativity? I could easily place all the people didn't meet the required number of pictures or who included things that were factually innacurate into a grade range. But after that, things got murky. By the end I really wanted to just slap random grades on there and be done with it.
Luckily, I was not solely in charge of the grading. My cooperating teacher was there making the final decisions and commenting on what she thought put some people in the A group and some in the B. She allowed me to see her process and this made me want to kill myself a little less. (I did beg her to leave the other classes for tomorrow because I didn't want to do it anymore. There is only so much I can take.)
Again, another really interesting experience with grading. It's extremely hard to stand in front of work that students have done and decide which ones are better and which ones don't quite make the cut. And it seems vastly unfair. Some kids didn't have printers or computers at home. Some didn't know how to draw. Some didn't have the money or means by which to get a poster to begin with. How does all of that factor into the grades you give and the assignments you create? I have no idea.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Day 1
I will admit, I am doing this a little late. Better late than never though. I also will probably not post on everyday of my internship. (We would all want to kill ourselves if I did.)
Day 1 consisted of getting up at 4:37am because my internship is in Georgia. And I live in Alabama. You can probably see why that sucks. (Hint: 4:37am!!!!!!)
But Forrester made us a kick ass mix cd to listen to on the way there -TSwizzle was invovled, singing along was invovled, Fo singing a slightly different version to make TSwizzle preggers was also involved- and I had coffee and we had lots to talk about so it was good ride.
Then we got there. My teacher has first block planning. So we got to chat and talk about the day. She also handed me a stack of essays. On the first day.
These essays were written by her senior English students. They watched "The Blind Side" and then had to pick a character or characters that they thought wer heroic and explain why. This was supposed to be a five paragraph essay.
I told my teacher immediately that I had not seen the movie. (yeah. It's true. Sorry. I'm over sports movies.) She figured I could probably grade the essays anyway. Wait, WHAT?!?! Grading essays on the first day?!!!
I have no idea how to grade essays. I spent a majority of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd block figuring out how to grade essays. This meant coming up with what I thought made a good essay and why and how important each of those aspects were. In short it was a tornado inside my mind. You don't realize how hard this is until you have to do it. During 4th block, I applied the rules I had made for grading the essays and got to it. This was a great experience to show me how to make decisions when grading essays and making rubrics. I thought over and over about how I had graded them for the rest of the day. I did the best I could and I think I was fair, but I definitely questioned myself.
So my first day was spent learning just how much I don't know and doubting myself. And learning a little bit about how hard it is to grade a shortish five paragraph essay. I can't imagine how hard it will be to grade longer assignments or assignments with more components and requirements.
It was a good day though. My teacher is nice. The kids were nice. I have a desk- WIN. And while I felt in no way prepared to do what I did, I think we all felt that way. And all will feel that way for a while. This is new. Classes cannot prepare you for what actually happens when you stand up in front of 30 kids. (Or sit down at a desk with 30 essays.)
Day 1 consisted of getting up at 4:37am because my internship is in Georgia. And I live in Alabama. You can probably see why that sucks. (Hint: 4:37am!!!!!!)
But Forrester made us a kick ass mix cd to listen to on the way there -TSwizzle was invovled, singing along was invovled, Fo singing a slightly different version to make TSwizzle preggers was also involved- and I had coffee and we had lots to talk about so it was good ride.
Then we got there. My teacher has first block planning. So we got to chat and talk about the day. She also handed me a stack of essays. On the first day.
These essays were written by her senior English students. They watched "The Blind Side" and then had to pick a character or characters that they thought wer heroic and explain why. This was supposed to be a five paragraph essay.
I told my teacher immediately that I had not seen the movie. (yeah. It's true. Sorry. I'm over sports movies.) She figured I could probably grade the essays anyway. Wait, WHAT?!?! Grading essays on the first day?!!!
I have no idea how to grade essays. I spent a majority of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd block figuring out how to grade essays. This meant coming up with what I thought made a good essay and why and how important each of those aspects were. In short it was a tornado inside my mind. You don't realize how hard this is until you have to do it. During 4th block, I applied the rules I had made for grading the essays and got to it. This was a great experience to show me how to make decisions when grading essays and making rubrics. I thought over and over about how I had graded them for the rest of the day. I did the best I could and I think I was fair, but I definitely questioned myself.
So my first day was spent learning just how much I don't know and doubting myself. And learning a little bit about how hard it is to grade a shortish five paragraph essay. I can't imagine how hard it will be to grade longer assignments or assignments with more components and requirements.
It was a good day though. My teacher is nice. The kids were nice. I have a desk- WIN. And while I felt in no way prepared to do what I did, I think we all felt that way. And all will feel that way for a while. This is new. Classes cannot prepare you for what actually happens when you stand up in front of 30 kids. (Or sit down at a desk with 30 essays.)
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