Weekly Posting

Evaluation Week: May 28th-May 31st

Weeks of preparation came down to execution this week. I finally had my lessons observed by an EWU evaluator. I felt like I had a superb lesson plan for both periods of classes. On Tuesday morning, I began teaching my English class with an on-going unit/lesson on Biographies, auto biographies, and documentaries. I also included lecture, small group work, short video clip, and a formative quiz at the end of the period. Students really seemed to have enjoyed this lesson, and my evaluator was impressed with my teaching and the nice flow of the lesson. I also taught 3rd period Social Studies. This lesson was also evaluated the same day. We have been working with the Korean War and current North Korea events. This particular lesson focused on the United States military and the United Nations teaming up against communist North Korea, China, and the Soviets. Students also started their group work using I-Pads for researching their topics. The lesson really flowed well and seemed to have a great bonus with the use of I-pads.

It was definitely a great learning week for me. I always critique my lessons and wonder what are the things that I would do different next time. I've been fighting a real bad cold this week, and I tried real hard to hide my fatigue from the students and evaluator.

It seems like keeping student's attention is getting more difficult as school nears closer to an end. I usually need to ask repeatedly for students not to talk and stay on task.


One cool highlight: I got to substitute the class which i am currently doing my practicum in. Being that I am already K-8 certified, I've been employed in the Mead district as a sub for 4 years now...so it was easy to fill in for my cooperating teacher and get
paid for it! $$$

Weekly Bulletin 5/20-5/24

This week was an incredible teaching week. I started my lessons and unit on the Korean War and North Korea specifically. I lectured during 3rd and 6th period social studies classes on the Korean War. First, I had to go over the tail end of WWII and the causes that led to the Korean War. The lecture went very well. i gave students key dates, places, and people to get started with the war.

Students were also able to select their own groups of 3-5 students per group. These groups will be assigned a topic on the Korean War and we will use the "jigsaw" method to teach the other students. Students were able to write down their top 3 choices of various topics that I selected to place in the "pool." Most students were interested on nuclear weapons and north Korea boarder. Some students were interested in Korea timeline and others interested in Korean military.

There were no disruptions in class this week...other than occasional high school student socializing with each other during the lecture portion. LOL. I really enjoy my cooperating teacher's collective approach to teaching. It reminds me that it is okay to slow down and breathe once in a while during my teachings.

5/13- 5/17

I have spent the beginning portion of this week at another local school learning from another teacher to get another perspective on teaching. I learned how lesson plans are developed through collaboration with grade level team members. All department members strive to execute curriculum standards, but do so with their own approaches to learning.
I am getting ready to teach a biography lesson. There are different aspects of this lesson including what students know already, learning tools, and assessment strategies. Students will interview a family member or other person who they can tell a story of their life. The important pieces of this lesson is to get students to see that life has its challenges to go through in order to be successful...and everyone has a story to be told.
This lesson coincides with previous writing lessons and students ability to write an biography about a person of importance to them.
Highlights of this week included students ability to think critically about the person that they will write a biography on. Students are excited about the lesson and eager to share with the class.

Highlight 5/6-5/10

The highlight this week was getting together with my cooperating teacher and figuring out the exact day of my EWU observation lesson. I decided to check out the I-pad cart for these series of lessons later in May. The I-Pads will incorporate the use of technology and research. Students will research various parts of the Korean War and jigsaw different events and timelines to produce a final project presentation. I am excited to teach these history lesson to the students. The Korean War is the "Forgotten War" that offers key issues in American/Korean history. Especially, right now with the threats of North Korea and their nuclear weapons.
I believe I have my lesson narrowed down to May 28th- May 30th at the school. My evaluator will come into the classroom on May 28th to oversee my lesson.

Other classroom activities include a social media debate in 5th period. Students are currently debating the credibility/ lack of credibility of various news sources. Students tend to get carried away with one particular media outlet that reports the news poorly and everybody else in the class piles on. My goal was to explain that everyone has opinions of different sources, and you should be able to examine each with little biases.

Students are having fun with assignments, but seem to be getting restless as the end of the school year draws closer to an end.

No behavior problems to report this week. I enjoy my cooperating teachers relaxed approach to management.