Book Outline w/ Chapter Synopses

Chapter 1 - The Long Haul

Who knows who your student teacher will be? Perhaps it will be your new best friend. Perhaps it will be a person on the opposite extreme of the political spectrum as you. Accepting a student teacher into your classroom means understanding that you will keep a professional relationship, aimed at benefitting the student teacher's future performance in his/her own classroom, with any student teacher placed underneath you. Of course, this is a two-way street, but it is in your best interest, and the student's best interest, to provide the best education you can to your student teacher.
It is likely that you will be spending more time with your student teacher during the student teaching semester than you spend with your wife/husband/significant other. This can create a strain between any two people, so as you can imagine, it could certainly strain a relationship between two strangers. The following chapters will help guide you into a successful relationship with your student teacher, as this is not only important for the education of your student teacher, but also for the well-being of your classroom.

Chapter 2 - The Essentials

Often times, the logistical needs of a student teacher can be over-looked. Perhaps, a CT would never direcly think, "My student teacher can get by without having all of the classroom amenities that a regular teacher has." Nonetheless, red tape and other shennanigans can stop a student teacher from being able to acquire the basic things they need to do their job successfully. A few of these are: reliable internet connection, a desk/workspace which is consistently available, and the ability to connect to a printer network. If a first attempt to make sure a student teacher has internet goes sour, don't stop at "Sorry, we can't give you internet." In the modern age, visual media teaching is essential - often required. How can we ask this of our student teachers without allowing them some sort of internet while in the classroom? The same goes for connection to a printing network. If a student teacher is required to be printing, they should not be doing it outside of school. It might be difficult to make these amenities available to a student teacher, but they are a must, and a student teacher who lacks these things may be forced to over exert themselves to accomplish basic tasks. Essentially, if you, as a CT, would find the conditions and accomidations for your student teacher to create an unaccecptably unproductive work environment, consider that the student teacher may feel the same. After all, during student teaching, the student teacher has directly inherited a large portion of the job.

Chapter 3 - Feedback

Feedback should be regular. If you give your student teacher advice, and you don't think he/she follows it to the "T," remind him/her what you meant. This means you may have to give the same feedback more than once. In fact, you might expect this. It is common that a person might think they are furfilling a requirement when they are not. It is best to deal with this upfront and directly as opposed to assuming that the student teacher is intentionally defying your expectations.
Take time to listen to the student teacher's reasoning for his/her decisions. There are mental processes that one goes through to in order to reach any outcome. Thoughtful patience concerning a student teacher's explanation of their thought processes may help both the CT and the student teacher to understant why the original goal was not met, and what specific elements need to be changed. Furthermore, make sure that you are physically present in the classroom for the lessons you are providing major feedback for. If you are giving "big picture" advice for lesson fluency, and you were out of the room for a large portion of the class period, your analysis might be omitting important details. This can cause frustration between CT's and student teachers. Make sure that in the scenario where you do not have a full-lesson-viewpoint, you are granting feedback and advice pertianing to what you did see, not what you didn't see.

Chapter 4 - Interactions with Students

Genuinely encourage your student teacher's involvement with students. If you have problems with being territorial with student emotions, then having a student teacher is not for you. Surely, this quality exists to some degree in most teachers, but you need to be able to logically override - your student teacher needs to create bonds with students in order to learn how to implement this effectively in their own future classroom. Also, if a student teacher reprimands a students, you must support your student teacher. If you negate consequences pertaining to a student which has been reprimanded by your student teacher, your student teacher will cease to have any authority in the classroom, making them unfit to lead, which is the opposite of what you want to accomplish.

Chapter 5 - Communication

Professional communication between the CT and student teacher should be direct and clear, and should avoid hinting or subjective tones. State what you mean and what you want to see, and your reasoning. Transparency is the key. Also, make sure feedback is constructive. Blaming, or taking credit, does not help anyone if it is not tied to constructive feedback. For example, if a lesson by your student teacher goes particularly well, telling them "That went well because I established [concept, idea, or skill] previously," does not do anyone any good. This is not feedback, it's establishing credit. You may be totally correct in why the lesson went well, and the student teacher may not be aware of this and thus, takes the classroom environment forgranted. Nonetheless, discrediting or establishing blame is not, in itself, a form of feedback.

It’s all downhill from here.

Have you ever realized that the above idiom has two opposing meanings? If all of your hardships are over, and you’re on your way towards completing a goal you might say, “It’s all downhill from here.” On the contrary, if one was describing something they were doing which fell apart, they might say,  “Once Jason punched Sally, my lesson was done for – it was all downhill from there.” Food for thought.

Anywho,

I've heard current students, graduates, and teachers alike describe student teaching as rite of passage, a struggle to be seen by each teacher-to-be.

Each day begins with two adult professionals, talking theoretically about the techniques and practices, and must-dos and don’ts, of this day or of every day’s lessons. Maybe they don’t talk about these things each morning, but there’s an assumption of professionalism in the air between these two teachers. Then, these people transform, and lower their defenses and attempt to emotionally connect with a classroom full of youngsters. They each do this one at a time, separately from the other. The other professional watches, and consciously or subconsciously critiques the delivery of the other’s real self. Then you unwind it, you come back. You act as if you weren't just pouring yourself out. You’re back to the theoretical.

This seems to breed awkwardness at best, miscommunication at worst. I salute those student teachers who made it through this year unscathed. You're going to do great. 

I suppose this is all part of the balancing act, and I agree that student teaching is a necessary initiation. 

I used to say, “Why don’t we begin student teaching in Core 1? It’s surely the most valuable part of our education. We should get as much of it as we can.” This is true, but I probably would have bailed on teaching as a whole if I would have experienced this early on. It’s like that episode of Community, where Abed watches too many Nick Cage movies in too short of a time period, and gets in too deep too quickly. If you’re not an expert at jumping rope, you should wait for the rope to come around a few times, rhythmically clicking against the pavement. Then you jump in. Sometimes the watching from afar doesn't help enough, but at least you're committed enough once you get there that you cannot turn around.

If one general idea could represent what I've learned from student teaching this semester – it’s that teaching seems to be more of a “how” question than a “what” question. Techniques and practices approved by motivational speakers and highly regarded by our teaching heroes are only as good as our classroom environment and our students’ ability to accept these ideas actively and genuinely. This isn't to say, "ignore them," it's just that everything needs adaptation. I find myself asking, "Is it real? Or does it just look good on paper?" Not everything “real” looks good on paper. Not everything that looks good on paper is “real.” How do we deal with this? I don’t know yet. Drop me a line if you figure it out. Turns out, learning is hard to measure. Nonetheless, thinking about this has been useful. We all have to find ways to reach the standards. I think it's important we're focusing on actually meeting them, instead of focusing on showing that we're meeting them.

Bomer says, "A reader's knowledge about a topic, feeling, or domain of experience includes memories related to it from her own life" (106). The standards repeat the importance of capturing this real-world relevance throughout the reading, writing, and listening portions of our lessons. However, I think it can be easy to print off a worksheet which is designed to exactly cover the basis of the standards in a fakeish, checklist-like manner. I've become cautious cautious of the phrase "There's no need to re-invent the wheel." Sometimes, it's creating something from my own brain which really makes me connect to the students in the lesson. Maybe it's just a personal thing, but it seems to help me. 

Bein' a Student Teacher.

It's a struggle being a student teacher. Most everyone I've talked to seems to agree with this. It's a right of passage, it seems. A struggle to have two mother hens in one classroom. I think, at this point, it's best just to accept that we're all almost there, and we're all certainly past the point of no return. So, essentially, it's temporary.

I took the 5038 English Content exam recently. It wasn't too bad. I wouldn't suggest going in without preparing - but it wasn't too bad. It seemed to me that a couple nights of focused studying went a long ways. I will say, when I first looked at the practice test, I kinda panicked. In the end, I just refreshed myself on every term I came across on the practice test which I couldn't remember. It seemed to do a ton of good. There weren't very many literary identification "know the author" type of questions. There were a good few comprehension questions, but there's hardly any way to study for that.

Anyways.

The PLT is next. I'm worried. It should be okay though.

That KPTP's been rearing its ugly head at me, here and there.

Austin Mann said something about "a light at the end of the tunnel" the other day before class, I wrote a poem about it. It's still in the works, let me know if you have some suggestions. The poem feels like its kinda trying too hard right now.

Something to Orient Ourselves Against

We talk of lights,
And ends of tunnels,
And ask aloud,
If they're there,

Perhaps there are some lights,
Which aren't plugged in near the stairwell -
For an unbelievable length of time,
At your Grandma's house,
Classic White, holding out in a hemisphere,
Against floral wallpaper,

Or when you were young-
Green opaque,
Ninja Turtle shaped,

Lets thank our friends and family,
For the comfort we have received,

But no,
Not all lights,
Are nite lights,
Posted 12 inches from the floor,
There to help you, near the obstacles.
We cannot see.

Moving forward, we can't tell where we are,
Like Oedipus, We may suffer our deeds,
More than we act them.
'till the day breaks,
And the room is illuminated and new again,

And you might not be,
In the place you thought you were,
While stumbling with your hands out,
In the darkness,

there are still some lights,
Motion sensored,
Which flicker on,
Once you've hit them,

Useful,
By the time you've passed them.

Something to Orient Ourselves Against, extra poem, inspired by Austin Mann

Something to Orient Ourselves Against

We talk of lights,
And ends of tunnels,
And ask aloud,
If they're there,
"Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?"

Perhaps there are some lights,
Which aren't plugged in near the stairwell -
For an unbelievable length of time, decades, years,
At your Grandma's house,
Classic White, holding out in a hemisphere,
Against floral wallpaper,

Or when you were young-
They were green opaque,
Ninja Turtle shaped,

Lets thank our friends and family,
For the comfort we have received,

But no,
Not all lights,
Are night lights,
Posted 12 inches from the floor,
There to help you, near the obstacles.
We cannot see.

Moving forward, we can't tell where we are,
Like Oedipus, We may suffer our deeds,
More than we act them.
'till the day breaks,
And the room is illuminated and new again,
And you might not be,
In the place you thought you were,
While stumbling with your hands out,
In the darkness,

It seems, something has to separate everyone,
It catches us.

But perhaps there are still some,
Motion sensored,
Which flicker on,
Once you've hit them,

Useful,
By the time you've passed them.

"Relax" Copycat Poem

Every lesson you teach,
Will split at the seams,
As though the stitching,
Was never there to begin with,
Each question hanging in silence,
And confusion,
Like water soaked up in a ceiling tile,
There will be a leak up there you didn't, couldn't, see,
And your talents will break beneath their own weight,
And collide with the floor,
It will look as if you didn't try,
As hard as you did.
And there will be those who wanted,
To see you taken down a notch or two,
And they will see it,
And you will see a sigh of relief,
From the faces watching,
As the last drops of water,
Go down the drain,
But there's an old story -
About the burning of Troy,
And Aeneas - The loser who left,
Knowing something was ahead,
For the sake of what was behind,
And thus Troy moved on, and became Rome,
And the Romans we do remember,
They are still measurable, you've seen their buildings,
In person, or in pictures on glossy magazine pages,
They existed outside the will of the gods,
And outside the tales told,
Before humans wrote,
And you too will remember,
For the sake of what is ahead.

Genre Reflection #2

My CT assigned her class to write "found poetry" this week. This activity consists of opening a book randomly and connecting words to make a poem based on a pre-determined theme. I decided to do one for my genre reflection. I cheated, and added two words. If you can't read it, that's understandable, I typed out a copy below. Shout outs to Walt Whitman.

The fluid movement of the population,

Unconquerable and simple,

And the hands to protect it,

He incarnates its geography and natural life and rivers and lakes,

For the expression of the American,

Is to be transcendent and new.

The Teacher.

He is their referee,

He spans between them,

and reflects what is between them.

On him rise solid growths,

That offset the growths of - 

hemlock, and locusts.

Tangles as tangled as any forest.

He is the arbiter of the diverse and he is the key,

He is the equalizer.

If the time becomes slothful and heavy he knows how to arouse it,

He can make every word he speaks draw blood.

Always calm.

He grows men and women.

He is no arguer, he is judgement.

As he sees the farthest,

He has the most faith.

He sees eternity in men and women.

He does not see men and women,

as dreams,

 or dots.

Call me B. Robeson, Lost in the Tundra

I believe Plato is first credited with coining a variation of the phrase, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” But what happens why you invent something you don’t need, isn’t applicable, and you use it anyways? What happens when you get a little overly ambitious, and make things more complicated in the name of pursuing a more dramatic effect? What if the blueprints look better than the duct-taped-together reality? This is the story of my week, and the unit plan I taught to a sixth-grade class. (Note: Duct tape can be spelled ‘duck’ or ‘duct’, both variations are correct. During different time periods the adhesive material went by different names, for its ability to repel water and also its ability to fix air ducts.)

I over estimated everything. This isn’t to say I didn’t plan, I just planed wrong. This caused me to go home and rethink my entire unit every night, only to show up the next day realizing that I didn’t salvage as much as I thought I could. It’s safe to say that this week took me down a notch or two. But that’s okay. This is where we learn. This is how we get better.

I’m now thinking back to about a week and a half ago, when I first started planning this lesson. What was I thinking? I had this grand idea, for a rap students would write about the novel Hatchet, and I would come in and apply beats and melodies to their lyrics. This way, the whole process would imitate the process of musical composition and also display how the student’s are receiving Hatchet’s Brian Robeson. It seemed like less of a heart attack when I first thought about it. It seemed like it could work. But I completely underestimated the prior knowledge of the students. Completely.

Things I took for granted:

-I thought students would be able to write lyrics in sets which resembled poetry lines. (i.e. there is a rhyme at the end of the line). Almost all students wrote their rhymes in paragraph form, which I completely did not expect, and I had a very hard time getting through to students that the rhyme was supposed to go at the end of a line. This was a major indicator of how far away I was from my goal, yet I was too far in to jump out. How do I get to final presentations? We haven’t even thought about rhythm yet!

- I also wrote my writing prompts for the week in a paragraph, unnumbered or separated, assuming that this was comprehendible. The sixth graders did not take well to this. They didn’t know how to voice questions, so instead, they just didn’t do anything. Smagorinski says that on average, a student will ask one question a month (87-88). This means I need to come to them before they come to me, and I failed to do this.

Clusters of questions aside, I had a really hard time asking any critical thinking questions which asked the students to apply their own knowledge. I should have phrased things better. I can’t help but think that a young adult novel such as Hachet has no point if it’s not applied to one’s own life. Otherwise, it’s just the story of a kid you don’t know who probably really would have died

I think that I need to do a better job visualizing conceptual questions from a 6^th grade perspective, and then attempt to create them more in line with this point of view. Practice makes perfect. 

I need to not make any excuses. If you take the bait, this profession will lend itself to constant excuses and the largest of blame games, more than any other profession I can think of. Teacher’s could blame a new influence every day, never run out of targets responsible, and never be the target themselves.

Though somehow, my final lesson came through. It wasn’t perfect from a management perspective, there was a ton of excitement with the rap, but it wasn’t too shabby. However, I swear I saw the ghost of Biggie Smalls possess a short, soft spoken sixth-grade girl.  I walked into class not expecting, but knowing, I was going to fail - yet I was in too deep to turn around. I knew they didn't get it, and would continue to not get it, it seemed like they couldn’t. Then it clicked, and they saw how a real song gets written, and they spit rhymes about their boy B. Robeson from Hatchet. I don’t think I’m supposed to share student examples on here. But I really, really, want to. I’m restraining myself.

So if I were to sum up my week, I'd say: It wasn't the tightly woven plan, but it came through in the end. There is a ton of cleanup I could have done, which I did not foresee. However, I didn't fail, and I did do something out of the ordinary. There is much to be learned, and I hope I will make the mistakes I made less frequently in the future.

Smagorinsky, P. (2008). Teaching English by design: How to create and carry out instructional units. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.