Week 11

The aspects of the week I found to be most valuable was planning and creating lessons for the three days I will be absent this next week. It’s even more work than planning for school when I will be there. Making sure your lessons are perfect for the substitute or whoever is covering your class knows, so they know exactly what to do. Going through each class lesson by lesson making sure the students are prepared for your absence. I hope that when I get back the students will be on task and up to date with the information for the class.
If I could change one thing about this past week it would be to teach the introduction lesson to access slower than the manner in which I taught it. Access is something students are not familiar with and most have no idea what a database is, as a result when the students received their quiz grade they were disappointed. I blame myself for their poor quiz grade because they are the first class to get each lesson in access, as I teach it more and more the lesson becomes much better. My forth period class did terrible on their quizzes but 5th and 10th did excellent. I create a new quiz add more material and allow them to retake it and allow them to choose the better score.

Week 10

The aspects of this week that I found to be most valuable is picking up a full schedule of six classes. The amount of preparation work that goes into a full schedule is something I never expected. It is a lot of work and if you are not prepared for your class you will be lost. Its a lot of fun when you are well prepared because you are so confident in your content. Having the ability to move from one class to another and not worried if you missed anything becuase over preparing is better than not being prepared.
The aspect of the week that I would change is an activity I did in my International Business class. The directions of the activity were not as clear to the students as I had hoped and they were very confused. I should have made a PowerPoint or a handout on exactly what I expected from them rather than just telling them. A visual is always better than a verabl for students. In the future I will always be overprepared than underprepared becuases the confidence level is so much higher and things run much more smoothly.

Week 10

The aspects of this week that I found to be most valuable is picking up a full schedule of six classes. The amount of preparation work that goes into a full schedule is something I never expected. It is a lot of work and if you are not prepared for your class you will be lost. Its a lot of fun when you are well prepared because you are so confident in your content. Having the ability to move from one class to another and not worried if you missed anything becuase over preparing is better than not being prepared.
The aspect of the week that I would change is an activity I did in my International Business class. The directions of the activity were not as clear to the students as I had hoped and they were very confused. I should have made a PowerPoint or a handout on exactly what I expected from them rather than just telling them. A visual is always better than a verabl for students. In the future I will always be overprepared than underprepared becuases the confidence level is so much higher and things run much more smoothly.

Week 9

The aspect of this week that I would change was viewing the content of students PowerPoint’s before they presented to the class. I did this with all my students however for to check this one student’s PowerPoint because I really needed him to present. In my computer apps class this student had to present his PowerPoint topic on Thursday. Well before he presented it he added a video that he did not get approved by either me or my co-op. It was irrelevant to his topic and used the word “ass” and on the video someone actually said, “I want to tap that ass”. Needless to say I was in shock and furious at the same time, not to mention the stare I received from my co-op. Class ended just as his video ended, I told him he can’t do that and we will talk later. Well, he left school early that day and was absent on Friday. This talk will have to wait till Monday. I forgot to mention this was a class of 9th graders who thought the whole this was so ridiculously funny, so I will have to talk to the class and let them know what he did was not funny, it was against school policy and he is going to be punished for it.
The aspect of the week that I found to be most valuable was picking up two sections of International Business. This is my first content class and it is much different from the technology based classes that I currently have The planning is much longer than the technology having to create the lessons, notes, and the test take a long time to accomplish. The first couple classes were a little difficult for me however by the second class of the second day I felt really comfortable with the content, understanding that I need to repeat myself often and give students more time when I ask questions. I had a habit of asking, then if I did not receive a response to give them the answer to quickly. Allow the students more time to think and giving them key words that could trigger their response.
On another note one of my students created a PowerPoint rap that was absolutely hilarious, I actually snorted in class I was laughing so hard. The student then gave me a copy if his rap and I want to share this with everyone on Monday.

Short Week

The aspect of the week that I would change would be switching the the way I presented the to the student's about presenting PowerPoint. Teaching them how to speak and act professionally while they are presenting is something they should know but I don't believe they will do. I want them to be the best presenters possible and what I taught them was good but I should have explained this through a PowerPoint presentation explaining what I expect to see. Showing them what I expect rather then explain what I expect would have been much more productive.
The aspect that I feel most valuable would be managing my time effectively. Having a lot of work to accomplish before leaving for the weekend was very challenging. Getting all my work completed and still creating good lesson plans was hard but eventually accomplished. At fist spending all my time and effort doing work is hard but it is worth it. Allowing myself time to relax is something that I should work on. Being ahead of schedule allows me to do other things which makes me more relaxed. Teaching has become so fun that I really enjoy going to work. The one thing I wanted in a job is to have fun and found that. I am very happy from what I choose to do with my life.

Week 7

The aspects of this week that I found to be most valuable were being able to teach a full day of school. Being able to change and update my lessons from class to class to teach the best lesson possible. I was very sick and just did it anyway because I wanted to see what it was like and I am very happy that I did. It showed me that I want to become a teacher that I have fun in my job and that is want I really want. It also help me see how planning and preparing is so important to the teaching profession.
The one thing I would change this week would be one of the lessons I taught in webpage design I was allowing the students to work a project as I went over various things that they already accomplished. I loved seeing them so interested in their work and wanting to learn more tags that I let them work while I was teaching. I didn’t think anything of it at the time but now when I look back I should have had their attention on me then let them do work.

Week 6

The aspect of this week I found to be most valuable was teaching the first class of the week. It was terrible, the kids were unresponsive, they were talking all the time, and it was first period. I feel in that class I have been focusing too much on getting the content down that I forgot to engage these kids. After a talk with Mrs. Wiscount I feel I understood what she was saying to me. I took a step back that day, looked at all my material and noticed that from the first lesson I taught this year to now I got away from the initial engaging of the students. I don’t know why, maybe due to how busy I was or the fact that I was coaching but it was a good wakeup call for me. From now on my lessons have had a good introduction and I am incorporating my personality into the classroom. I am a goofball sometimes, which the students seem to like when I goof around with them in class and do strange things to them. Today a student wanted to a certain topic that I said someone else already chose for a project, he pleaded with me until in the middle of class I said, “How many pushups can you do?” (This is one of the kids I coach on the wrestling team.) He looked lost, he said, “I don’t know?” I said guess, how many pushups in a row. He replied, “80 I think.” I gave him an option right now in the middle of class if you can do more pushups than me I will let you have your topic. I even offered to go first, the student behind him was laughing historically, he contemplated then said, “No.” I am ok with my topic. One thing I would change about this week again is the first class, I don’t know what happened but it was bad. I would change the whole lesson top to bottom, think harder about getting their attention and have a different review game ready for them.