Entry 1

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12

Date: 8/25/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

 Today is our first Monday back to school and also our first day of running a normal schedule. I teach all of my class periods today, but for only 45 minutes each. The first class I encounter is Sports Medicine; the class consists mostly of 9th graders along with 1 junior and 1 senior. Today I went over their blog post and homework that was assigned on Friday. Most kids had it already completed, but some experienced a few edline problems which didn't allow them to view their homework. Since it was considered a short period, I spend most of my time teaching my students how to respond to a blog post through the Internet source on the schools web page. The other half of class was dedicated to assigning a project that will be due on Friday. It was very important for me to stress to the class about the weekly blogs and projects that will be assigned, so they could get used to getting into a routine and complete it to my standards. The next class I teach it also Sports Medicine, but that specific class is larger and more diverse through the grades. It's very fortunate to teach the same class back-to-back so lesson planning isn't so complicated. 

After I teach two sections of Sports Medicine (2nd & 4th), I continue on with 5th period, Physical Education (Grades 9-12). Last week, the class did a series of icebreakers and getting to know each other activities, so they weren't too excited to jump right into physical fitness. The new presidential fitness challenge differs from the known physical fitness tests, so I tested the students in the following exercises today: shoulder stretch, push-ups, and trunk extension. Since it was testing day, I allowed the students to cut back on half of their daily exercises in order to get the best test results. 

Last week I presented two different presentations on the same material in my AP Statistics class because of one big reason: half of my class is Chinese and the other half is American. AP Statistics to most people would be considered a math class, but in reality it is a writing/interpreting class. After taking a class vote, it was clear that the Asian students preferred the presentation with the simple English terminology and the Americans liked the demonstration of the words through examples. So over the weekend, I spent a great deal of time combining both presentations so both of my student population could benefit from the class. So today, I actually presented my combined project and the students loved it. However, on the flip side of that, I just created a lot more work for myself and I'm already drowning in work. But at the end of the day, I would do anything for my students and especially so they can learn. The prepared lesson also incorporated a lot of student engagement activities where they each get a little mini assignment and then try to place all of their pieces to assemble the entire answer to a problem. At the end of class, I assigned them a few homework problems.

After lunch, I teach middle school Physical Education class that combines 6th-8th grades both females and males. Since there is no variation to physical fitness, I had the same lesson plans for the middle school as I did the upper school. 

Reflection about Today’s Activities:

Mondays are always busy, but when you also add in a back-to-school picnic and parents night, they tend to get longer. I've never actually enjoyed a Parent's night until this year, where I was actually identified as a teacher instead of a student amongst the parents'. And even though I have only been in the classroom with the kids of 2014-15 for a week, they parents made such a strong impression on me that I'm actually making a difference in their children. I was told my classes were discussed at the dinner table and that just really stood out to me. Last year, when I hosted a German teenager (that I was really close too), it was a like pulling teeth to get her to talk about school and what was going on in her classes. Knowing that my class is worthy of a dinner discussion really motivates me to keep working on my lesson plans to become a better teacher every day.