11th Week: TCAPs Testing Week

This week was a testing week for the 9th and 10th graders at Poudre High School and the last year ever that the TCAPs (Transitional Colorado Assessment Program) will be given. The TCAPs provide the state with assessment data from each school district to determine how well a school is doing based on those scores. The unfortunate part of the testing is that TCAPs don't provide the student with any incentives to do well or to even show up. The TCAPs are solely for statistics purposes; they do not go on the student's transcripts or help the student in their grades in any way. Students are asked to do well as a reflection of the school, but in this narcissistic world, there needs to be more.

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The TCAPs took up three days: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The tests were given in the mornings, and the schedule for the week was changed to accommodate the tests. It was the week after Spring Break, so the staff and the students were feeling a bit ragged trying to get into the swing of things. Upper class students (juniors and seniors) weren't required to be at school in the mornings because of the testing, so they often didn't make it to class at all. Many of our classes had half the students there.

For me personally, the week was long. Proctoring a test is not fun, and we had more free time than usual built into the schedule. It was great to get caught up on planning and grading. I also provided Mr. Long with an observation opportunity, so I only have one more observation to complete for both Mr. Long and Mrs. Hixon. Whew. The semester is flying by. My teacher work sample is about finished, I only have two more seminars, and two more observations. I need to be finished by May 1st with everything, so I'll start reviewing everything this week and next week and finish a week early.

It's also job hunting time. I've been looking at school districts in the area as well as school districts in Texas. As of now, there are no business teaching positions in any of the districts that I have seen. Disappointed and overwhelmed, I'm going to keep searching and stay positive that something will come up.

5th Week: Experimenting

My fifth week of student teaching was really about experimenting. Mr. Long was gone on Tuesday for a Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) event in Greeley. With his absence, I took over all of the classes for the day. In International Business, Mr. Long had me show the North Korea Frontline film and answered some essay questions at the end. Because this class is often chatty, I had to move one person to another seat so that everyone could pay attention to the movie. It achieved its purpose, and the class was quiet for the remainder of the movie. The 4th hour Economics class was a bit more demanding. I went over the productivity part of the lesson and de-briefed the pizza activity from the previous week as well as reviewed for the test. Because I had time at the end of the class, I reviewed the worksheet the students were completing. I felt that the students were sufficiently prepared for the test. And, after the test on Thursday, the grades showed that they were prepared. More than half the class made A's, and no one failed the test.

Last Fall, Mr. Long had given me all of the lessons for the Entrepreneurship class, and I began to go over them during the Winter break. Upon going over them, I found some ways to improve some of the lessons. In particular was the Market Research section that had students creating surveys on paper and distributing them via paper. To streamline this section and make it more like real-life, I changed the lesson so that the students made the survey in a GoogleForms and distributed it via email or social media. The 5th Hour class had no problem with putting their surveys into electronic form and distributing it, but I did have problems with the 6th Hour class. Instead of giving into the 6th Hour's requests to print out their forms and distribute them, I stood by my lesson. As a result, the students received good responses, and their results are all put directly into a spreadsheet and graphs are created for them. Now, all they have to do is analyze the data and make recommendations based on the analysis.

One thing that I'm frustrated with is getting some of the students motivated to do the work in the class. It's so fascinating that there are students in the 6th Hour class that would rather just sit and stare at the walls than do the assignments. Of course, they get zeros on the assignments, but they don't seem to care. When I started assigning zeros in the class, I only got one student response via email about the zeros. The others haven't even looked at their grades. I have one student who is in class every class period and simply refuses to do the work in class. She sleeps or has earbuds in her ears to listen to something on her phone (I assume it is music). She claims that she is tired from her club volleyball practices. My question: are her parents so concerned with volleyball that they don't look at her grades and make sure that her grades aren't suffering from practicing so much? In the same class, I finally separated two students that were disruptive and not getting work done, and it seems to have helped. One thing that I am experimenting with is taking the time to go around and talk to the students individually and find out what is going on in their lives that they aren't able to get the work completed. Most of the responses are generic: "I'm too tired," "I'm going to get caught up this weekend," "I already turned it in." So, as another way of ensuring listening, I have decided to have everyone turn off their monitors and take out their headphones while I'm talking. It isn't foolproof. Students still pretend to be apathetic and not listen to me, but I stand a better chance of getting them to listen if I follow through with this action.

One of my students in 6th Hour who is falling behind to get his work in has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). He seems to be disorganized, procrastinates, and generally, has issues getting his work done. Knowing this, I sat down with him today to find out how I can help him to get his work done. I have decided that I will differentiate instruction for him so that he can build a website for his business plan instead of doing all of his work in a Word Application. He enjoys building things, and he seems to learn better by doing so. After talking to Mr. Long, I plan to move forward with this action and determine if this strategy will allow him to learn more from this class.

Because the Market Research lesson requires the students to wait to get responses to their surveys, I'm having the students complete a virtual simulation on the computers in their spare time. This is the sponge activity that provides for learning while we are waiting and before they can complete their Market Research project. I'm excited about some of the projects. Some of the students are taking the projects very seriously and taking the time to format, check it over, and do it well.

In my Front Range Community College classes, I have also done some experimenting. In the Intro to PC Apps class this semester, I have moved the PowerPoint section to the beginning of the semester. I did this because I require the students to give a PowerPoint presentation on a procedure of something they are interested. In this way, we can all get to know each other at the beginning of the semester instead of at the end. It's been a fun experience. We got to see some of the other sides of the students and where their interests lie and who they are. This was so effective that I will continue this into next semester.

In the Social Media Applications class, we are currently creating and publishing blogs, and because this class is new, I'm constantly experimenting. It is a continual process of balance between those students who know how to develop software and are already using social media and those that are still learning how to use some of the applications. They all have the same goals in mind, to learn how to effectively use social media. I have been walking that balance to determine what pieces are most important and what can be set aside. The blogs are the starting point for the projects, and we will build upon these blogs throughout the semester in each section of the course. Their blogs can be viewed on the right side of this page. I'm excited to see the results!

4th Week: Comfort Zone

My fourth week student teaching has been much more comfortable. I am feeling more settled, and I'm beginning to find a rhythm with my classes and my students. I still have my challenges with classroom management, but it is getting easier as I try new things and stay consistent.

I have been forced to get out of my comfort zone this week. Monday was a full day. Carol Ann, my CSU Supervisor, came to my 5th Hour Entrepreneurship class to observe my SWOT Analysis lesson, which went delightfully well. The students participated and kept their phones put away. It was a pleasurable class, and I would do it all over again. I used the same class to practice the Market Research Lesson that would be observed on Wednesday in 6th Hour, and it also went well. Students were receptive to the lesson and worked diligently on their projects. I had a few chatty students, but with high school students, I think that is to be expected. One thing that I did differently that worked really well was to ensure that the students weren't logged on to the computers during class. Because they weren't logged in to the computers, there was less distraction.

The 6th Hour Entrepreneurship class, however, has been more of a challenge. There are very strong personalities in this class, so that's the first struggle. I find myself trying to find new ways to communicate with students and find new activities that may help them to engage and learn. Many are distracted by their cell phones and by the computers, so I'm constantly trying to keep them focused and on task. This was the class that was difficult during my observation. Most were unresponsive to my lecture and didn't participate when called upon during discussion. Again, I'm looking for new strategies to reach these students so that they will learn.

Monday was also our first Colorado State University Seminar. Marc Buffington, a Poudre High School Social Studies teacher, is the leader of the seminar. There are fourteen university students in the group. We all introduced ourselves and then talked a little about Response to Intervention (RTI) from an educational perspective. This service allows teachers to report a student that is failing or may not be doing as well as he/she thinks that they should. In reporting these students, educators and counselors can intervene if necessary and put the students on a comprehensive schedule to help them reach their goals. We went through real-life scenarios in groups. Our group read about a girl who had failed the 10th grade. She was missing a lot of class and had some pressure from gangs, but she did want to finish high school. The RTI team put her on an attendance contract and had her favorite teacher mentor her through the rest of high school, and she was able to graduate with A's and B's. In this case, RTI really helped a student to accomplish her goals. While this process doesn't always work, it does give teachers and counselors insight into a students' life and how to help ease some of their frustration along the way.

Mr. Long, my mentor teacher, has been giving lessons all week based on activities that relate to the objectives for the class. One of the activities was a paper airplane making activity in Economics. There were required to create paper airplanes as a group that would fly through a hula hoop. There were three or four rounds. Another activity was a Play-Doh activity in International Business. The students were divided into four or five groups, where some of the groups were Less Developed Countries and others were in Industrialized Countries. They were given specific products to make with prices on them. There were three rounds and some of the groups were able to change into an Developing Country or even an Industrialized Country. These products were made with Play-Doh. The final activity was the Pizza Productivity lesson in Economics. There were four or five rounds; the students were divided into groups of five. Each round was a little different in the way that they made the pizzas. Each round was judged by the teachers for quality, so pizzas were thrown out for not being perfect. There were some formulas that they had to calculate in order to determine the cost of each pizza and how much profit was earned. It was fun and inspiring to see all of the students participating and excited to work on these activities.

2nd Week: Better than the First

It was a full week at Poudre High School, so I was able to experience the complete five day week schedule. It was challenging trying to determine what classes I would be teaching on the appropriate days. Next week is another short week because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so the schedule changes to a four day week schedule.

This week went better than the first as I expected it would. I finished the Power Point slides in Entrepreneurship and had students work on the project for this section during class time. The project required the students to describe their business in terms of image, ownership type, and types of products and services their business will provide. Part of the assignment had the students make a logo that was placed onto business cards and letterhead. This worked out well and most of the students worked at the same pace. I had a few that completed the project early and a few that straggled behind, but overall, it turned out to be a good lesson. After completing the assignment, he students are beginning to get excited about their businesses and want to complete the assignment. Next week we will work on the Personal Development part of the business plan. I had thought about including a section on resume writing, but Mr. Long and I discussed it and decided that it would be too much additional work with all of the projects that are already required as part of this class. The following week, I will begin the lesson from my Teacher Work Sample, which is the Market Research section. I have included some of my own plans for this lesson. We will begin by talking about SWOT Analysis and then moving on to Marketing.

Mr. Long's Economics class participated in several activities over the past week including discussions, group discussions, and a special activity that he and Mr. Johner both used in order to show what utility and value meant. The special activity was a trade game where each of the students is given a brown paper bag at random and asked to sit with their bag without opening it. The instructions are given, and then the students can look inside their respective bags only. After looking in their bags, they rate their happiness level of the gift they were given on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the happiest. Now, they are able to show a neighbor and trade only with a neighbor without alerting the entire class. At this point, they also rate their happiness level of the gift they were given. Finally, they are able to trade with anyone in the class. They walk around, bargain, and trade for something they want. At the end of this trade, the happiness levels were then rated again on the board for everyone to see. From the beginning of the lesson, the students' happiness rating improved as they were able to trade for what they wanted. It was a fun activity, and the students did learn and understand the concepts of utility and value.

The Opportunity Cost discussion was also interesting. Mr. Long used time as the measurement where each student was required to rank a list of activities as to what they wanted to do most. It was important to show that by doing one activity, you are giving up doing another. The choices we make are always at some cost. The discussion about college was interesting, too. There were questions that Mr. Long had the students answer true or false and decide why they are true or false. The question about the most expensive part of college is tuition, room, and board allowed Mr. Long to show what students give up in order to receive a higher education. Once again, the opportunity cost of going to college is that you don't make money for those four years, and you will likely be in debt at the end with no guarantee of a job.

In International Business, Mr. Long was really just introducing some key concepts on what it takes to open and operate a business in a foreign country. The largest part of this week in this class was the project the students were assigned. Each student or group of students is assigned a country to research. Students were in the computer lab putting together their country's information about language, exports, imports, religion, etc... The students will give presentations at the beginning of next week that will include all this information.

Finally, there was a Promotional Night this week on Wednesday when all of the teachers were required to be at school to talk to prospective parents about Poudre High School. I attended the event, which had a good turn out of parents. Students guided prospective parents through the halls of the high school to talk to teachers and coaches about programs and activities that their students would be able to participate. The majority of the parents were interested in the International Baccalaureate program, Advanced Placement programs, and sports. We did have a few parents stop by the business department to see what kind of classes were offered and how they might help their student to get into college or narrow down their fields of interest to decide on a major in college. I was able to get a bit of PHS Schwag to wear on Spirit Days (Fridays).

Overall, the week went well. I observed how to incorporate activities into lessons effectively, I was more comfortable and confident in interacting with the students, and I got a good start on my Teacher Work Sample. I worked with Mr. Long in reviewing and planning future lessons, and I even did a little bit of housekeeping in the classroom. With the three day weekend, I plan on relaxing before I go back to school at both Poudre High School and Front Range Community College next week.

1st Week: Lessons Learned

As I document my semester of student teaching at Poudre High School in Fort Collins, Colorado, I am reminded how difficult teaching high school is compared to teaching at the adult education level. I'm convinced that planning is key. You have to fill each moment that they are in class, so I can't just let them go after I'm finished talking and they've completed all their work. There's the bell system that keeps them in my classroom for approximately 82 minutes for each period. I've run short in each meeting of my 6th hour Entrepreneurship class. While the same class, I seem to be doing better in the 5th hour Entrepreneurship class.

I've gone a little different route with the Entrepreneurship classes than my mentor teacher did. He provided some fun activities for the first couple of days of class, while I jumped into the lessons anxious to get started. The benefit of the fun lessons was to build those all-important relationships and give the students a sense of creativity and openness in the class. They enjoyed the artwork that they created and talked openly to their peers and even displayed their work on the wall proudly.

Because I thought that introducing the topic of Entrepreneurship was fun, I started in with the lessons. They worked out okay because the first lesson is really about what it takes to be an entrepreneur and putting names and faces to some successful entrepreneurs. However, let's call a dog a dog and be done with it. It was still an assignment, and while the students didn't squawk and carry on about having to do it, they did it, but I didn't get the opportunity to get to know the students better except by walking around and making them nervous by looking over their shoulders. Lesson learned.

Finally, the cell phone debate. It seems that I lost a student yesterday because I asked her to put her cell phone away during a pre-assessment test. My mentor teacher isn't convinced that it was because of me (maybe I'm being a little narcissistic here); however, as soon as the pre-assessment was over, she asked to go to her counselor and switched out of the class. Her reason was that the class would be too much work. So, with no official school policy on cell phones, and my own dismal outlook on them, how do we navigate these touchy waters with attendance waning and interest lacking? My approach for now will be with expectations and confidence. I have to stand behind my classroom policies and expect that students will put away their cell phones while I am talking and be confident moving forward.

It's been an exhausting first week, but overall, I think that it is going well. Every day is a new day when you're teaching.