It has come to an end.

So yesterday was my last day, and I had mixed feeling about it. I was happy about leaving, but sad to leave a few of the students. I joined Colleen that morning and she was very happy. As soon I met with my teacher she helped me finish up the final test for the book we had been working on all of the placement. I was also excited because I was doing mock interviews with my third period class. Ms. Goldman was so pleased with how I did she wanted me to come by on my lunch and encouraged me to do teaching and something in human resources. My fifth and eight period watched an episode of the Twilight Zone and needed to complete a venn diagram about the similarities and the differences. My fifth period class loved the episode and were interactive with it. The eight period class did not care at all and only boy Andrue decided to do his work. However the student in both classes were very nice and wished me the est in life. They also asked if they could come to my wedding.
My seventh period class finished up the book and had loads of questions and did great, they were all sad that I was leaving the class. In the end they gave me a hug group hug and surprisingly every student came to class that day.
Both my teachers wished me the best and asked to keep in contact with me for advice and life updates. I think this was a great experience.

To Serve Man

Last Friday I began a story that was science fiction and called 'To Serve Man'. I was with a substitute teacher that day I felt like nothing got accomplished. It was so annoying and I winded up with a head ache. I only got through the first few pages of the story and the students seemed interested in it. The next Monday I was going to attend a brunch for the seniors and I sent everything I was going to cover in class to my teachers. My first teacher Ms. Goldman received everything I sent just fine and she told me about how wonderful the student did while learning about The Girl Who Fell From The Sky. That was the novel they other class was working on. However my teacher Mrs. Dranoff never got my email on what to do for the classes and that really upset me. But when I talked to her she did exactly wanted her to do anyway, just without the side notes. When I can back on Tuesday I resumed teaching about the story "To Serve Man' and the students seemed to not really care. They began working on a task 27 paragraph for the regents. They had two day to work on it, the first was rough draft day and only a few students a 2, other got a 1 and three got 0's. For their final draft almost every student surpassed the first grade they received. The got 1's and 2's which was really good. That next day they were going to watch a movie. And I hoped it would go okay.

The Lottery

So I began this new unit with the students on The Lottery. I wrote around nine different lessons for this but was only able to complete are five of those. The students were uninterested and did not like any the things I did with them. Many of them all rooted for people to die in the story. Yes a lady is stoned but it was just annoying at how much they did not care about learning. I tried to make it fun with different voices and activities but nothing seemed to work. I finally decided they needed to be tested on The Lottery and the results did not surprise me. Only one boy  Khaleel was excited about the book and he got the highest grade.  Almost all of the student failed or just barely passed. And then they realized how important it was to care about what was being taught.  

News Articles & Critical Lens

Before launching into a new unit I worked on the students learning and recall with news articles. Also this was Thanksgiving break week and the student only had three days. I gave each classroom a different assignment so the students could not cheat of one anothers papers in a previous class. My fifth period class got a news article about dog and human interactions. The article focused on how closely related dogs and children acted. I attached different papers to go along with this. Eighth period also worked on an article, but their focused on facebook. Questions also went along with these. Hardly any of the students completed these and it made me very upset.

My seventh period class focused on a critical lens essay, they wrote about a quote and how it applied to two different works in literature. These students had three days to complete this assignment. They needed a three or higher to pass the essay and I am glad to say that they passed the essay with high fours and some fives. I then worked on having them correct errors in the critical lens.

It was an interesting experience before Thanksgiving.

Teacher development day

I was allowed to be present for the teacher development days at Ramapo High School, and it was a learning experience. The first day was a meet the parents day, I stayed with the one teacher Ms. Goldman. I was surprised that only four parents came to see Ms Goldman. I was introduced as her student teacher, however none of the parents for the students I taught came in. It was interesting to see how Goldman praised each student then focused on what the student needed to improve on. Also many of the parents that came in were fathers. I worked on lesson planning the whole time. After that all the English teachers gathered and we talked about different books to use and what to focus on for the Regents. I really felt like a part of the team.
I also was able to attend a half day development day. The students really did not focus on any of the work but they did talk. The next part of the day focused on bullying, learning a new computer program and voting on new things to come in the school. It was really interesting to see how the school did all of this. Also I felt special because my teacher Ms. Goldman showed another teacher the worksheets and tests that I had been on with her. The other teacher love my supplies!

Blind Side

For the first few weeks of my second placement I was finishing up the Blind Side with the students. Yes it is actually a book! I went out and bought the actual book and when I began reading it I was blow away by how in depth and interesting it was. Yes it was all about football and I really had no clue what was going on but it was amazing to see it written. Anyway the students really liked the movie and really wanted to watch it. I said maybe they could if we get through all the materials. I finished the book with them, well an edited book that was posted in the newspaper, and they needed an assignment to do besides answering questions and doing vocabulary. I decided that for three days the students would be in a computer lab working on recommendation letters. I know this sounds really weird but the students enjoyed the project. The needed to pretend to be Michael Oher's coach or teacher and give a detailed report of why Mike could go to college. Many of the students did great on this assignment and were happy they were writing. However some students only focused on the bad things that Mike did rather than the good. It was a challenging assignment but they handled it well. Also before I stared a new book the students I reviewed with them about the entire book.
I really enjoyed teaching a book about football, and it has encouraged me to try and teach any book to students. (They never did get to watch the movie)

Diving into High School

So lately I have forgotten to post blogs with how busy I have been. It is really confusing trying to complete lesson for two different teacher the weekend before I teach. I mix up what class is which all the time. However I was able to plan a whole bunch of lesson for my one teacher Mrs. Dranoff, later i found out her full name was Dranoff-Mackenzie. She wanted me to write up a unit I could call my own, and I decided to find stories that would catch the students attention. My other teacher Ms. Goldman was really focused on making sure we a had a strict day by day plan. We would work out the lesson's aim, do now and activities for the next day at the end of the day. I really enjoyed both styles because I can see how the class run differently.

The second placement.

So this past crazy week involved me changing schools...fun! Besides losing power being cold and trying to work on my home works I have be craving loads of chocolate. It might be because Halloween was Monday but I'm not sure. It was definitely nice having two days off of school, I felt rested and prepared. I also get to teaching at a school with one of my favorite people Colleen! Yay! So my school placement is in Ramapo, not too bad I am prepared for students to be mean. On Friday October 28th my seventh grade class threw me a party it was really nice and I hope that I can get back to see them. Then from there I had to quickly finish up two books for my next placement.
I don't only have one teacher but 2! at Ramapo Highschool. Mrs. Goldman and Mrs. Dranoff. They make me feel so comfortable and help me understand how to teach and I just love it! I really like that I get to create the lessons and my teachers trust in me so much that they will teach the same lesson to another group of students. Working with two teachers is very interesting because they have complete different teaching style. One is very structured and the other no so much. I also really enjoy that fact that I can incorporate different elements into my teaching. Articles, poems, short stories novels and plays. So much fun!
Hopefully I will have the strength to be me and the students will adjust and learn from me.

Improved scores!

Lately when I am teaching the seventh graders at the school I find that when the take a test or quiz they are doing much better! I am so pleased that they are learning English properly. This past week I have worked on filling out the vocabulary book for Mrs. Snyder. I found out almost all the supposedly correct answers on the answer key were wrong. I took it upon myself to fix and make sure the teachers edition to the vocabulary book was correct. The work and words were simple but it took up a chunk of time. Also I was able to help the students as they learned the new vocabulary words and inspired them to complete the vocabulary section correctly.
Besides learning about the parts of speech I focused on teaching the students complete subjects and predicates. The pre-test for this part of the unit went amazing! None of the students failed. Also they reviewed complete subjects and predicates more in depth. They used their text book, created and diagrammed sentences and even played a game. The game went a little long in the lesson but students helped one another to figure out the complete subjects and predicates. The game consisted of all the students getting 2 slips of paper. One slip was used for writing a subject the other slip held the predicate. The slips were placed in two different boxes then one subject slip and one predicate slip would be chosen and read aloud. The students learned what to include in each slip.
All the students passed the final test on subjects and predicate. It made me really happy because I know they are learning from the guidance I am instructing them with!

What are my strengths and the past few days all in one.

How come while taking the strength finder quiz most of the questions disinterested me and/or one topic related to me the most and the other was far outlandish? Also I noticed that my strengths changed since I last took a test, it kind of upset me because I liked to be Futuristic and now that is not even on my list. However these were the top five strengths that I now posses.
1. Adaptability theme prefer to “go with the flow.” They tend to be “now” people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time.
I totally agree with this because I tend to change my personality during the day. I also learn my environment quickly and I am able to be open with all sorts of different people.
2. Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.
I enjoy constantly doing something productive, and I love putting everything I can into my work.
3. Deliberative theme are best described by the serious care they take in making decisions or choices. They anticipate the obstacles.
I always make sure to give a firm answer, or if I am not sure I will give the right answer once I have researched. I am bold in the things I do and say, willing too face consequences.
4. Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.
I am able to change things quickly when I see how events take place around me.
5. Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their life.
I place my faith in God to give my strength to do what is right. Most pf all I believe in myself to get what i need done.

Now in my classroom things are going better. The students are learning grammar easily and are willing to participate in class. Group however is getting on my nerves. The students were overly loud, which caused me to yell a lot at them today. Also this group work was suppose to be easy, reading to one another and helping each other answer questions. I was pleased after the settled down and began there work.
Tomorrow they will finish up answering questions and will be working on outlining a small essay. Hopefully there will not be to many complaints.