Goals and Reflections

This is the email I sent to Terry about last week and my goals for next week. :)

"Hey Terry. Hope everything's going well.

Goals for this week...

1. Establish myself as more of an authority figure. I'm going to start having them call me Miss Mazzola full time. This was Tim's idea too and I think it's a good thought.

2. Do the video tape analysis.

3. Establish who I'm going to observe at the high school. I'm thinking Mr. Scott Brand, a science teacher (who has won a bunch of awards and recognition) and maybe another female teacher that the kids really like. I'd like to observe how she establishes authority. Maybe the french teacher, Madame Ferguson.

Reflections for last week...

1. I taught my unit all week and I thought it went really well. The unit is over editorial/ opinion and review writing. I think they are learning a lot but there seems to be SO many questions all the time. I can't wait to see their stories and how they come out.

2. I also videotaped myself. (Can you please email me the due date and what not? I tried emailing you earlier this week.)

3. I also went to a senior tennis leadership meeting on Monday that helped me observe Mr. Cleland in his tennis coaching position. I'd love to coach or sponsor an event so it's helpful to see others in that role.

Thanks, Brittany"

Brittany... You look like Minnie Mouse today.

Minnie and Me!

Gosh, I love those kids.

INTASC 10

Oh and I'm working on #10 by attending a leadership seminar for the tennis team tonight. I'm also being oh-so helpful by picking up the pizza at 7.

"STANDARD 10: SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support students’ learning and well-being."

I also hope to observe the student council, NHS and French club while I'm at Delta. These are clubs that I'd definitely be interested in helping with if the opportunity arose.

Unit Planning

These past few school days have taught me A LOT about unit planning.

I have planned many units in college. Every class with Brian Hayes has included a unit. Several of my education classes have included a unit. And onward... My point? I thought I was practiced.

This was until I realized that every day, things change and "mess up" your unit. Every day people are behind, things get in the way, students don't turn in assignments.
But what I've learned thus far is to be ultra flexible and try to go with the flow. I have also learned how to keep learning. Chapter 12 was obviously a review for me but it's an area that I haven't planned for before.

Mr. C has helped me so much with my unit and adapting it to our students. He has critiqued it several times and made it better each time. Every day thus far I feel like my students are getting a good feel for what I'm trying to teach them. This is a confidence booster for sure.

Goal:
To make a better quiz/test.
To finalize my unit as much as possible tonight and tomorrow so that the rest will go as smoothly as possible.

And speaking of my unit, we talked about blogging today and I was surprised to find out that out of both my newspaper courses only about 3 or 4 students had blogs and only 6 or 7 ever read them. Someone tell my BSU professors that because they have been telling us for years now that blogging is the future. But who knows? Maybe the stats just don't apply to my kids.

Finally, I rented the movie "The Ron Clark Story" from netflix. I'm hoping it will get me in a supportive, vigilante, hardworking teaching mood all over again. :)

Goals and Reflection

What I sent to Terry:


"Hi Terry,
I'm sorry but I forgot to send you my goals and reflection AGAIN!!
I don't know where my brain is getting to. I went home to be with and take care of my mom and completely forgot.

Reflections:
As always, you can find my thoughts on my blog at brittanyisateacher.blogspot.com.

Goals:
1. Hope my unit goes as well as possible. I've been teaching it since last Friday.
2. To sell more copies of the Eagle's Eye newsmagazine than the last issue. We're selling tomorrow during SRT. So we'll find out if that's accomplished soon. :)
3. Get another benchmark conference in soon and get back to schedule.

Hope everything is going well for you. You're still in my thoughts and prayers.

--Brittany"

Snow "Break"

It has been a while since I've had something to blog about. We've had an inordinate amount of cancellations and weather delays.

Mon. 2-8: 2 hr delay
Tues. 2-9 through 2-12: Cancelled
Mon. 2-15: President's Day = No School
Tues. 2-16: Cancelled
Wed. 2-17: 2 hr delay
Thurs. 2-18: 2 hr delay

So, we're hoping that is the end of that for a while. Although, I heard there's supposed to be a whole other blizzard coming our way. So I guess we'll see. I can't say that I mind the days off to be honest. :) I'm getting spoiled.

Today we started working on my editorial/opinion unit. I think the kids are REALLY going to like it and find it very useful.

The yearbook deadline has also been met with all 55 pages submitted. Although we were technically 9 days late. Yearbook business stops for nothing. But they were 11 days early, earlier in the semester. So I suppose things like that can work out.

Also, I had my first benchmark conference today. It's kind of late but with the tennis convention and all the delays, that is just how it had to be done. We've scheduled the next conference for sometime late next week so we can get back on track. Overall, I thought the conference went really well. It's nice to know other opinions about you. I plan on also recording one of my lessons pretty soon; possibly tomorrow or early next week. I also need to start observing other classrooms, which is something I completely spaced about. Mr. C gave me some good candidates to watch and I'm pretty excited.

Yesterday, I had my first big issue about content in my announcements class. They let a song containing the lyrics, "brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack..." play under the lunch menu, birthdays, etc. That was the only day that I hadn't reviewed the announcements and that is what happened.
"Are you kidding me?!" was all I could think in my head.
The ONE day.
But, lesson learned I guess.

On My "Own"

So, I wanted to write a post about how I handled myself in Tim's absence before it got too far from my memory.
Overall, I think I did really well. I think the kids took me pretty seriously, for the most part.

Ups

• I had a sense of freedom
• Friday's announcements were one of the best all year. They showed me that I didn't have to consistently be down their throats.
• I had a GREAT visit with Terry, see other post.
• The kids got to know my personal style better.
• Some students still came to eat lunch and socialize with me during my prep, which made me feel good.

Downs

• I probably should be working more with the Web Design kids. I still don't recognize all of them, like I do in my other classes.
• My 2nd period started acting like a gang of wild animals on Friday for about the last 20 minutes of class. They were play fighting nonstop and instead of actually yelling at them, I tried to play it off like they were immature and I told them they weren't in elementary school. Which worked for about... oh, 15 seconds. I should have been far more stern but at some points it's too easy to give up. I mean, who is it hurting if they're playing around for the last 10 minutes of class? Which actually brings me to a whole seperate point that should be mentioned elsewhere, see Work Night.
• I still have a hard time with pacing during 4th period. I'm easily distracted by a good story, which is what about 90% of class on Thursday was. I had the students share their ideas for the Historical Fiction pieces and I probably spent way too much time on it. But I truly do love to get into their heads and see their processes of writing. They are so interesting. There were so many AMAZING ideas. (Which is also a "Ups")

Yesterday was Work Night. I had to stay until after 8 to finish up the newsmagazine. It blew my mind how much had to be done and how many little things can add up to a time consuming mass. There were a lot of kids who stayed after but there were definitely some that were absent that should have really been there.

Also, there was an issue with some stories not getting placed. Which brings up the issue of responsibility. I feel like the staff doesn't feel responsible for each other and don't hold each other credible for mistakes or being lazy. I don't know if we have to work on team building or what but something has got to be done. For example, a student was working on his spread for a few days and just pointed out last night, mere minutes before he left that the page before his had NOTHING on it.

What?!? Are you kidding? I wanted to yell, but I kept my cool, laughed it off and finished the page.

So when I say "Oh, who is it hurting if So-and-So doesn't do his work?" It actually turns out that it is hurting me. And should be hurting the others, IF they had a sense of credibility.

Goals: Build credibility. Remind them that this is a team publication and should be treated accordingly.

Work on INTASC standard 5:

"MOTIVATION AND MANAGEMENT

The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation."

Goals and Inspiration

Yesterday Terry came to visit me during the end of 3rd period. It was so nice seeing her. She really encouraged me. (Especially as I read what she wrote on my eval.) I am trying SO hard and to know that other people can tell is really great.

Goals:
*Finish strong in newspaper and yearbook. Both of our deadlines are coming up next week!
I would hope this applies to Standard 2:
"The teacher understands how children learn and develop, and can provide learning opportunities that support a child’s intellectual, social, and personal development."
*Do really well on my unit. (And finishing it this weekend.)
*Get to know the other teachers better.
*Tim and I also need to schedule a benchmark conference for early in the week.

My achy breaky heart

New goal:
Don't let personal life interfere with school work.
This is going to be hard but I can do it.

In other news:
Mr. C is going to be out on Thursday and Friday so we did a lot of prep work today. Always a good thing to feel prepared. Tonight I'm going to be getting some lesson plans together. I start a new unit on Wednesday of next week.