In my opinion, middle school students are much more enthusiastic about learning and being in school than high school students. High school students don’t show that much interest in the presence of student teacher. When I went to the middle school last semester, most students came up to me and asked me what school I go to and stuff, but high school students are more interested in what’s happening in their lives. It definitely took little longer to get to know the high school students than the middle school students.
My cooperating teacher shows a lot of respect and expectation toward the students. She says “ladies and gentlemen” when calling out the class as whole. I think that alone shows a lot of respect to the students. My teacher doesn’t put up the agenda on the board; so many students ask the same question repetitively. When I have my own classroom, I would like to leave the agenda on the board, so I wouldn’t have to answer the same question over and over again. As students are going into the third quarter, my teacher doesn’t accept late work anymore for full credit. She still collects the work, but a letter grade is reduced everyday that the work is late. My teacher starts the class out by doing mini-quizzes.
Out of five periods that my teacher teaches, four classes are co-op classes. It’s just another name for inclusion classes. Most of the students in the co-op classes have learning disabilities. However, there aren’t any huge accommodations needed. Some students need the test read and some need the word banks when others don’t get them. I’ve read the IEPs for all the students who have disabilities. This will be something I should work with my cooperating teacher as well as the students when I start teaching.
The class starts out by 5 question mini-quiz. Most of the time, questions are multiple choice questions on PowerPoint slides. Due to some students with IEPs, my teacher reads the questions as well as the answer choices out loud. The mini-quiz starts students going in the beginning of the class. This is something that I want to implement when I start teaching.
There are about 26 students in each class and most students are 10th grade. It’s somewhat more challenging to keep the students on task and get them motivated in learning Biology. However, I think this will be a great experience for me in the process of preparing myself for the real teaching job.
How does your teacher verify that they have completed their multiple choice questions? Does she grade them for correctness?
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that many have teachers who write the classroom agenda on the board. Do you think it would help? I always wonder if students will still ask. I know the kids in my class never seam to hear the answer or see it on the board.
I definitely agree about the motivation of high school students. It is a little harder to get the students motivated, especially since my class is a 9th grade class and the average age is 16. Many of the students at Giles High School do not give much thought to higher education, let alone leaving their home town. Every day I continue to see the benefits of telling the students we would never give them an activity they cannot do. Also, congratulating them and thanking them for their effort also makes a huge difference. Good luck! Sounds like it's off to a great start!
ReplyDeleteYes, my teacher grades the multiple choice questions based on correctness. However, since students take mini-quiz almost everyday, she would give at least 2 extra credit quiz day per unit. Even if students miss some questions, that won't hurt their grade too much. I'm wondring if they would still ask the same question, too. Since, students are asking for the date every period, when it's clearly written on the board.
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