Synthesis 2

Rachel Lorenzo
10/24/11
LAE
Nina Graham & Tara Payor

Field Journal 2 Synthesis

    This second segment has served me in gaining a greater perspective of what it will be like to be a teacher in a public high school. Ms. Rich has given me valuable advice on handling life as a teacher. What I’ve most gained from this segment, though, is getting a feel for what it’s like to spend an entire day as a teacher.

    Simply watching Ms. Rich’s daily routine and how she has to juggle teaching classes, grading papers, and having a social life with her co-workers has served me as a great warning for the future. I now have a greater understanding that it may not be possible to read and grade every journal entry I assign students, especially because I would like them to keep a daily journal! Still, I am more confident in this idea of a daily journal entry for participation and homework with my students after my interview with the case study student. She seemed to like the idea because the journals would pertain more to their personal lives.

    Still, the large amounts of time that have to be dedicated to grading do not discourage me from having my students write plenty. It’s a practice that has to be done regularly to be improved and helps to develop critical thinking. I hope to make my tests written-oriented as well. While I likely won’t have them write too much for an answer, I will better know if they have truly understood the concepts I am testing them on. Of course, for simpler concepts, vocabulary acquisition, checking whether they’ve read a work, and other such things, I will go easier on myself and give them multiple choice tests.

    Each period seems to go by extremely quickly while the school day seems long. It’s strange to think of it this way, but it’s the only way to describe how I felt at the end of the day each time I stayed the entire eight hours. As a teacher there is a lot that you want to impart on your students, but not enough time to do so in a single class period. When I went over the bellwork lesson with the sophomores, I wished I could have had more time to talk about it with them, especially when they were enjoying it and asking questions. Still I had to be aware that this was only bellwork, something that should only take up about 10 minutes. I did gain something from this though, I learned that I could use bellworks as an assessment tool to see how well students are doing on a certain concept and whether I need to dedicate a day or more to teaching them the concepts in further detail.

    Ms. Rich did make me feel better by telling me not to worry too much about time spent on something when you previously planned for it to only last a short amount. Education classes have taught us that while lessons usually take up more time than we think, we should always keep track of time. Ms. Rich says she doesn’t even look at the clock because otherwise you will lose valuable teaching opportunities when students are showing great interest in what is going on at the moment. I have seen her follow through with this philosophy of hers in every class. I have never been one to worry about time so I think this would be a great philosophy for me to follow as well. Time is often irrelevant when considering other factors. It no longer becomes time that is passing, but quality educational moments that are taking place.

    This segment has also opened a small window for me in seeing how I might be as a teacher because of the bellwork lesson that I taught. I’m glad to say that although I felt nervous with the first class, I felt more and more comfortable with myself and the classes as I gave the lesson again. So far I seem to not take things personally when students don’t pay attention to me and are fooling around with each other. This only happened once or twice in all three of the classes I taught the bellwork for, but I calmly asked for attention in an indirect way by asking if “the gentleman in the red would like to give the next answer,” and waiting. This seemed to work more for the rest of the class than for that particular student. He wasn’t interested anyways, but I did get him to leave alone the other two students he was engaging. The rest of the class saw that while I’m new and nice with them, I know how to defend myself. Personally, I wasn’t mad or at all upset, I just pretended to be a little upset with him. I know this is something that will happen with students at any age, I know what it’s like to be a student. Perhaps this is what we should keep in mind when dealing with students who are sometimes rambunctious.

    I believe that what is most important in maintaining classroom discipline is to not raise your voice. If the teacher does this, she or he will only receive a reflection of the behavior from the students, quickly losing control and respect.

    I am glad my second segment of this practicum has gone so well and has taught me so much about what I will have to deal with as a teacher. No theoretic class could prepare me for what I learned here.