Field Journal 2.3

Rachel Lorenzo

10/01/11

LAE 4530.001

Tara Payor & Nina Graham

Field Journal 2.3

Yesterday I spent the entire day at Sickles and got a feel for what it's like to be teaching and working for a full eight hours. It's been a long time since I've been in school for so long and it was difficult not to feel sleepy. Previously unbeknownst to me, it was Spirit Day yesterday and the school had a pep rally at the end of the day. All the students and teachers were dressed casually and in school colors. The halls were nicely decorated in school colors and poster drawings.

My host teacher is very school spirited and had students face the "gauntlet" if they were not dressed in school colors. This meant students had to write their names on the board under the heading "Wall of Shame," recite a proclamation saying "I submit myself to the proclamation of shame," then ask "May I be worthy to call myself a Sickles Gryphon?" At this point the rest of the class either gave a thumbs up or down. If the result was negative the victim had to lead a school chant, and later be decorated with green paint on the face. This was all done in front of the class. Students had a lot of fun with this and despite it being what was done in the beginning of the class, Ms. Rich was easily able to settle them down for their work.

Ms. Rich's sophomore classes were doing independent silent reading. After some time had passed, Ms. Rich had them write in their journals about their reading. She showed me their criteria for the novels they were to read which were selected from a list of 14 Utopian or Dystopian based novels. 

While they were silently reading Ms. Rich showed me her gradebook and how she complies grades, absences, etc. She also showed me how it's all done on Edline, explaining that now parents receive everything through there. She said this has greatly cut down the number of calls and complaints she gets from parents because they see when everything is due and what grades their kids got for each assignment. With this it seems that more responsibility falls on the students and parents rather than on the teacher. I was very happy to hear this. When I was in high school Edline was just being introduced and parents did not have access to it unless students decided to share with their parents. Even though I was a good student, I never shared my Edline grades with my parents so I know that unless parents have a personal login as they do now, few kids would show them their grades.

 

During her conference period I got the chance to interview Ms. Rich. I had just enough time to ask her five questions and was glad I recorded it instead of writing down her answers. The interview helped me a lot and I was glad to know that she felt the same way I do when she first started.

Seniors were given a lecture on the Tudor monarchy as they were about to begin working on the play they read over the summer, A Man for all Seasons. Ms. Rich had a power point presentation for them which went over the people related to the play. It especially went into King Henry VIII and his six wives. This was important because the play is centered around the king's infamous divorce and Sir Thomas More's opposition to it. To become familiar with the work, I watched the movie A Man for all Seasons. I would have read the book as well, but Ms. Rich said they would be moving onto other novels by the time I would be teaching my lessons. Ms. Rich's lecture was very casual, she was seated while she gave it and held a conversational tone. When she talked about Henry VIII's wives and affairs, she seemed as though she were gossiping with the class. The students felt comfortable asking questions without having to raise their hands, something she explained she only allows with her senior classes. 

Later we went to have lunch at "Chef's." The "cooking class" makes food for teachers and students to buy. Those students who do not want cafeteria food are welcome to pay for their food there. While it is usually set up as a buffet, because it was Spirit Day, it was a "grab and go" setup. When I walked in through the teacher's line I was stopped by "Chef" and asked what I was doing - he thought I was a student! I was very flattered and saved by Ms. Rich. Later we went to eat in the English department so that I may be familiar with it and what it's like to eat their with colleagues. I met some of the other English teachers although they were not all there and we got to chit chat.

At the end of the day came the pep rally. I felt nostalgic for my own high school and one of Sickles's rivals, Gaither. The energy felt in a pep rally as a student amongst friends is very different to that felt as a teacher, especially for myself since I didn't really know anyone. I felt a little out of place and like a lost puppy following Ms. Rich everywhere. I immediately felt the importance of making friends with your colleagues, otherwise you end up standing by yourself at school events like this. Like Ms. Rich told me earlier, it's not easy to make friends because you don't get to walk outside the four walls of your classroom very often as a teacher.