16th Week: The Norovirus Attack and On My Own

This was my 16th week student teaching. I am almost done! Wahoo! I feel a lot of the pressure starting to release, but it's also job hunting time, so some of the real work is about to begin.

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This week brought its own challenges. Mr. Long went to Future Business Leaders of America state conference in Vail this week. I took over all of the classes without a sub, and it was awesome! I had some of my best teaching moments then. Unfortunately, Mr. Long ran into trouble when a few of his students came down with the Norovirus while there, and he had to take one student to the hospital. He had to stay home from school for two more days to make sure that he wasn't contagious himself. There's more about this story in the link below from Channel 9 News. This is the second time this has happened this semester. It also happened at an FCCLA (Family and Consumer Sciences Competition) event in Denver.

http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/2014/05/02/test-results-indicate-norovirus-at-conference/8639311/

Otherwise, I started to wind things down in all the classes. We're coming up on the end of the semester and beginning to think about finals. Entrepreneurship is finishing their last project. I'm getting caught up on grading, and Economics is finishing up their Macroeconomics lesson. It's all peacefully coming to a close as it should.

I'll continue to be at Poudre High School through the end of the school year teaching the Entrepreneurship class and observing other teachers. It will be a good experience to stay on until the end and see how the last few days of school are received by both teachers and students.

15th Week - Last Observations and Goodbyes

This week was a week of goodbyes. We had our last Student Teaching Seminar on Monday, so I will probably not see many of the student teachers in there again. I did discover that one of the student teachers in my group may be moving to Houston, Texas, which is also a possibility for me and my family. I also said goodbye to Mr. Maxwell, who will be missed by me and by his students. I stopped by his office several times to talk about problem students and ways of getting through to them, and we collaborated on some lesson ideas as well. He really did build relationships with his students, and because of his youth, it seems he has a bit less at stake in his experience, which provided him with a true learning experience. That brings up an interesting point, which I will delve into deeper as I continue my career in education, but does stress and pressure play a relevant role in how we learn? The obvious answer is yes, but exploration into that question will be regarded in the future.

Wednesday was the ACT test for the Juniors, so the schedule was a little different. We had the morning to take care of planning, grading, or, in my case, applications. I have put out five applications for actual job postings. It is a tedious and arduous task to put out applications. It was more difficult than my applications at NASA, but hopefully, something will come of these opportunities. I'm still teaching at Front Range Community College in the fall if a full time position doesn't present itself.

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I had my last observation on Thursday in the 4th Hour Economics class from my mentor teacher and from my CSU Supervisor. I planned a Play-Doh activity for learning about the GDP in the Macroeconomics section. I was actually a little nervous, and I haven't really been too nervous in my observations until now. However, the students did terrific, and we had a lot of fun learning about the GDP and how some less-developed countries really struggle to change their situation. Using cooperative, direct, and inquiry methods, the students were able to determine how the GDP connected to the activity, and learn from their experience. This was a fantastic segue into Poverty, which I linked to the lesson.

The entrepreneurship classes are going well. The students are still working diligently to get their projects completed. We are down to the last two projects, and we will be putting our business plans together and reviewing for the final. Seniors will be leaving a week or so earlier than the rest of the grades, so final exams will be given as a class. I am going to have the rest of the class present their business plans to the class, so I need to put that lesson together to present to the students after May 16th.

While I am one of the last remaining student teachers, I also have an opportunity in my last few weeks to observe some of the other teachers in the building and how they teach. This is the part that I'm looking forward to in my last days at Poudre High School.

12th Week: Spring is Here!

You can feel the school buzzing from the excitement of warmer weather and spring activities! It was another regular week at Poudre High School, but we had some fun activities planned in Economics. We started talking about rations, and we actually gave the students rations for things that they could/could not use in class. So, the students could use a desk but not a chair; they could use paper one day but not the next. They had to have a ration for water, bathroom breaks, and food. Mr. Long made the ration cards and based them on order of importance by the students. It was a fun activity, but proved to be challenging for classroom management. The last activity we did for the week was the soda taste test. We talked about the different types of market structures, which included perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopolies, and monopolies. In order to show how a couple of companies can control the market through advertising and imagined differences, we did a soda taste test. It was interesting because some of the students were brand-loyal to Coke or Pepsi, and those were the students that got the taste test wrong. The students that didn't drink much soda seemed to score better. The kids had fun, and we related the activity back to the market structures.

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In Entrepreneurship, the students continued their work on Promotional Planning. Project 6 was due on Friday, April 4th. Most of the students were able to complete the project and turn it in. I'm still having trouble with one student not coming to class. She hasn't attended class since Spring Break, so I called home to find out if her parents were aware of her absences and failing grades. I also wanted to see what I could do to help her understand the material or make up missed work. I had a stern talk with her before Spring Break, and apparently, she didn't like it. She stopped coming to class instead of talking with me about her concerns. This has been a trend with the high school students I have worked with thus far. Many of them would rather quit and fail than resolving any conflict or issues that may have arisen.

I'm looking forward to next week. It's Impalapalooza Week! The week before prom is traditionally set aside with activities and fun to celebrate spring, the warmer weather, the end of the year, and, of course, prom. Unfortunately, I'm missing most of the activities because I teach at Front Range Community College. There's a fun activity on Thursday called Mr. PHS, which is a "beauty" contest for the boys. It's staged and funny. The best part about next week is that I get a full day off. My daughter is in school, and I can get ready for the CSU Teacher Job Fair the following week and run some errands. That really does constitute excitement in my busy schedule.

9th Week - Diggin' Deep

My 9th Week student teaching has been really positive. In Entrepreneurship, I've been working closely with a few students to get their work complete, and they are getting caught up and doing well as a result. It is so gratifying to see the students successfully accomplishing the tasks assigned, especially those that have been struggling along the way. They are all starting to get excited about the projects.

In Economics, I struggled a bit with the material, but I made it through with the students having a good understanding of the concepts. After the students completed a worksheet assessment over elasticity, I reviewed and graded them to ensure that the students were understanding, and according to the answers, the students were doing very well with their understanding.

Last, but absolutely not least, the Poudre Girls' basketball team is in the final four for the state basketball championships! They just won to Cherry Creek last night at the Denver Coliseum. Next week they play the top team in the state at the CU Events Center in Boulder. Congratulations to the Poudre Girls' Varsity Basketball Team for their hard earned wins!

It's the second week before Spring Break, so I'm feeling the need for a break, and I can tell that the students are also feeling this. It's time to "dig deep," as Mr. Long says, and stick with it for just one more week.

7th Week: Successes and Failures

My 7th Week student teaching was better than the previous. I was still sick on Monday, which was an in-service day. I went to the doctor and got some medicine, and I even made it into school on Monday for about an hour to talk to Mr. Long. Although, the medicine didn't really start to help until the end of the week, but I muddled through the week with a hoarse voice and low energy.

In the two Entrepreneurship classes, we watched a movie, Ten9Eight, on the Tuesday back, so I didn't have to talk with my hoarse voice. I did, however, teach in the Economics 4th hour class. It was miserable and challenging, but I got the job done. It felt a little awkward to be back after being gone for a week.

The next day, I was able to get in a review of the Market Research section in Entrepreneurship and gave the post-assessment for my teacher work sample. I can now complete my teacher work sample before Spring Break as I had anticipated. We also started the next unit, which was the pricing unit. Some of the students will have more work than others on this section. Those that do retail will have to price out all of their inventory and their equipment and supplies; whereas, those that are doing service businesses will only have to price out their equipment and supplies. It seems to be getting more and more difficult to get the students to be motivated and engaged in the projects. Some of the students don't need any prompting but get the work done easily; however, I have to continually prod a few students to work during class.

A success I had last week was when one of my Entrepreneurship students came up to me after class and apologized for his behavior toward me and in my class. He was respectful and said he was working on getting caught up and doing his work. Just like the Grinch, "My heart grew three sizes that day." I don't enjoy having to stay on top of students to get their work done or having to reprimand students in class. It disengages the class as a whole. This particular student has stayed true to his word for the week, and he paid attention when I was talking and he got his work completed and turned in on time. It was a happy moment for me, and I hope that he continues with this behavior change through the rest of the semester.

On the other hand, I have a student that has been doing other classes' work in my class and not getting his work in my class completed. He is behind on all of the projects, and he is disrespectful to me. He keeps his headphones in his ears when I'm talking to him and he plays with his cell phone. I moved him away from the front of the room to sit next to me where he will have less distractions, and I can keep an eye on him. When Mr. Long returns, I will talk to him about the issue and see what further steps need to be taken in order to get this resolved.

This week was also the Career & Technical Education Advisory Board meeting and breakfast. All of the departments involved including Business, PaCE (a work study program), ACE, and Family and Consumer Sciences were all present along with the advisory board members, who gave input to the programs and how we can improve our work with the students. The Poudre High School catering team made the breakfas, and introduced themselves to the meeting.

A new week is a new opportunity to work on improving. Teaching is a work in progress, and I am continually finding new ways to communicate, engage, and motivate students.

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.

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.