19th Week: Goodbyes...

Well, this is my last week at Poudre High School. It's been so nice. I've only come in to teach my Entrepreneurship class in the afternoons. I've spent a little more time here and there trying to get caught up on my grading and making sure that Mr. Long is in the loop on the students in my class.

I had one student this week who was in danger of not graduating because she was failing my class and several others. She turned in a lot of work, and completed her final business plan and turned it in. She passed, but she is still failing some of her other classes. She's a sweet kid, but she has missed a lot of class. She was gone at least half the time. She is smart, and she does good work when she is in class. I hope that she turns things around for herself.

I have a couple of other students in my class who are failing as well. They just don't seem to care. One is sleeping in my class, and the other is playing games. This has been ongoing throughout the semester. Their attitudes have been less than stellar. I've talked with them and told them the consequences of not getting their work in to me by the end of the week, and neither of them seemed to care much. There is one more student who is failing, and the same thing is happening with her at the end of the semester as was happening throughout the semester. She is apathetic and doesn't really care about the class or about learning. Now, all this being said, I've connected with these kids in different ways throughout the semester, but now that the end of the semester is over, it seems as though they have given up. I still have one more day with them next week for finals week.

We took finals this week. Our final was at the beginning of the week with the seniors. Seniors are gone. It seems awfully quiet around here without them. I wish them the best of luck in college and beyond. Graduating high school is such a huge stepping stone, from childhood to adulthood in a matter of weeks it seems. I only hope that as a teacher, I have helped to prepare them for what awaits them in the future.

As I move into this summer and the fall, I plan on continuing this blog, but I'm going to change it a bit. I may post weekly updates, but I will mainly post "lessons learned" and "successes" and "failures" from my lessons. These are the big takeaways that I want to continue to reflect on throughout my career, and the things that I want to share with others. Education is so much about experiences. We learn from each other, and we learn from the world around us. I want to bring that into my classroom as much as possible. I look forward to Rocky Mountain High School being my home even for a little while. Saying goodbye to Poudre High School is bittersweet. I really enjoyed the people that I worked with - especially Mr. Long, but I'm also ready to move on and begin this career that I've been working for the past year.

18th Week: Whew! I made it!

It's not over yet, but I'm feeling the pressure lifted and excited to be almost finished! I have one more week at Poudre High School, and then I start teaching summer school at Front Range Community College. Then, I have Summer Institute for Poudre School District for the job at Rocky Mountain High School. Then, I get to take a break for a while and just teach summer school. I'm so excited about having my summer (life) back. I'm looking forward to spending time with my family and working out and working in the garden. I don't think I'm going to have time to do everything I want to do, but I hope to make a good dent in it all.

Focusing more on the present, though, I had really great classes this week. Everyone worked on their final business plans, and we reviewed for the Final Exam, which will happen on Monday and Tuesday of next week. The final business plans are looking good, and I'm all caught up on my grading. (Grades are turned in at FRCC, by the way.) The Jeopardy game in Entrepreneurship 5th Hour for the review went over very well. I was excited to see so many people engaged.

UPDATE: Rocky Mountain High School

INCOMING UPDATE...

So, six applications, three interviews, and one job offer later... I was offered the job at Rocky Mountain High School! I know that it is only a semester, so I hope that I'm not "shooting" myself in the foot by accepting it. I just really enjoyed the interview, liked the other business teachers there, and looking forward to a good experience. Moving forward, I plan to stay positive and see this as an opportunity for growing my teaching experience. After all, it is another challenge along this crazy journey...

I'm making the arrangements to get paperwork and schedules set up now. It looks like I'll be starting some training in June, and then I have to start back to school in August before the other teachers start.

GO LOBOS!

17th Week - Final Evaluation and Moving on...

We completed my final evaluation this week, and it turned out very well! I made an "A" in my student teaching experience, with which I am very happy. Mr. Long seems to be happy with the results as well.

Anyhow, I had an interview at Mountain View High School with both Mountain View High School and Thompson Valley High School. The Principals were both there and the heads of the business departments. The interview didn't go as well as I would have liked, but it didn't seem like a good fit anyway. The high schools at Thompson Valley School District are changing their schedules to a full class schedule on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday with block days on Wednesday and Thursday. I wasn't very excited about going back and forth between the two schools throughout the year. I really wanted to be in a place and stay there. The interview itself was very stuffy as well. I didn't get a very good vibe from it. I didn't get the job, and that's okay.

I was called later in the week from Rocky Mountain High School's assistant principal, and we set up an interview for Friday of last week. This interview was fun. It was relaxing, and the questions weren't stuffy or difficult to answer. It was more of a "getting-to-know-you" session, and I really liked all the people there. Long story short, it seemed like a good fit. The drawback is that it is only a semester job. They don't know if this job will turn into more than one semester or not. They won't know until October if the job will open up for the following semester.

At Front Range Community College, I finished up the Spring semester with my two classes taking finals and completing their projects. Now, to finish grades and write my lessons learned from the semester. It was a good semester overall. I had a great group of students, and I'm looking forward to this summer. I really love teaching these classes.

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.

9 News Denver http://www.9news.com/

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.

www.berea.edu

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.

An Inspiring Video About WHY?

My seminar teacher showed the following video in our final seminar last night. It really hit home for me in finding purpose with what I'm doing. One of the popular interview questions is, "Why do you want to be a teacher?" So, I sat back and asked myself, "Why do I want to be a teacher?" My answer, while simple, is always the same: I want to help people to find their best self. Really, this has been my purpose for a long time now, but teaching has been the most direct method of reaching this purpose or intention. As a teacher, I have an opportunity to help students to learn about business, economics, computers, and marketing. These subjects can help students to discover a clear path for themselves and their future. Whether they go on to get jobs or careers just out of high school or if they go on to college, it is my intention to help these students find their best self through discovery and inquiry and education.