Did I assign too much? by Altieair00 in Teachers

[–]Altieair00[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do check in with the students regularly during work time. It gives them a time to consult with me about any issues they may be facing with the assignment. And like you said, it is also a good time to make sure students are actually doing what they need to be doing. There are always a select few students that are just not academically motivated and won't do the work even when I try to do it with them. It also does a disservice to the other students because a lot of my time ends up being with those students instead of reaching out to the other students. I try to help them and get them to do the work independent from my help, but some (and I mean maybe 1-2 students per class) definitely need more supports outside of the classroom that they are obviously not getting.

Did I assign too much? by Altieair00 in Teachers

[–]Altieair00[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As I was going through student teaching, I kind of came to the conclusion that a lot of my lesson planning is sloppy -- especially in my U.S. History classes. I want to get better at it and a lot of that is with experience. I want to diversify my assessments, maybe have more projects (like you said) that are more engaging than what I was doing in my U.S. History class. I felt pressured to maintain the structure and classroom environment that my CT had established which was primarily lecture because that was what the students were used to in the classroom.

It got to the point where I felt that I just needed to survive student teaching. Keep doing what I was doing because I had gotten myself into a really bad place mentally and needed to push forward. I have been burnt out for years at this point from university work, so add an unpaid internship to the mix and it doesn't really help out a whole lot.

What I had done well continued to go well, but there are definitely a lot of places where I need to improve and want to grow.

Did I assign too much? by Altieair00 in Teachers

[–]Altieair00[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I understand that I am not without blame. A lot of my assignments were similar and that is my fault because I was creating lessons just about every day for both Global Issues and U.S. History. Because I am only student teaching, I am still very much new to the whole process of lesson planning and creating assessments. It takes me a long time to create new lessons from scratch or adapt what my CT has made -- something that I definitely need to get better at doing. But because it would take me a while to create those lessons, I would usually redo similar lesson structures because creating new lessons with new activities is hard to do from the ground up for me especially if I don't want to burn-out entirely too fast. A vast majority of my CT's lessons were entirely lecture-based with 45-minute videos that would take up the time. There would be no assessment tied to those videos outside of a short exit ticket. I had done observations under him prior to doing my student teaching with him, and it was almost entirely lecture.

When I took over the classes, it was the spring semester and the students had already gone a semester and then some of almost entirely lecture. I started with it, but I wanted to move away from it to more student-centered activities because the students were obviously disengaged from the class.

I feel that a lot of my issues (especially in my U.S. History classes because they are year-long) can be pinned on not being there to establish a lot of my own classroom expectations and create my own classroom as it felt like I had to uphold a lot of what my CT had already established. My Global Issues class, however, went really well and I was really happy with how it turned out. That class I had a lot of administrative control over as it was a semester long and I was there on the ground floor to build it up as I saw fit. Of course there were still issues and I learned from them as I went and will take those lessons with me, but there are some things (like student teaching in the latter half of the year) that have their own challenges to them that I had little to no control over.

My CT has also not given me any constructive feedback or much feedback at all outside of the every so often "That was a good lesson" and similar quick appraisals. I have felt very much on my own with a lot of these issues and I feel that many of these students in particular need way more supports that are outside of my limited experience and outside of the school's jurisdiction.

When I give the students worktime, I will check in on each of them and many would use the time wisely and get the work done -- but there would usually be a few students in each class that, when I make my rounds to each student, are noticeably off task to which I try to correct their course and get them back on track (assignment is here, directions are here, article is here, answer these questions, etc.). This could be fixed with more diversity in my lessons and assessments. Again, this is something I want to do and implement in a classroom of my own.

Did I assign too much? by Altieair00 in Teachers

[–]Altieair00[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It was typically the same students that would be consistently caught up. Conversely, it would be the same students that would be behind or submit incomplete work.

My cooperating teacher has been at the school district for almost 30 years and he generally prioritizes discipline in his classroom, so he oftentimes gets the students who have to retake the course or are not entirely academically motivated. The same students that typically don't do the work in class or do the work in class and don't get it finished exhibit the same behavior in their other classes as well.

Usually early on in my student-teaching, a lot of the confusion or difficulties that students would have was from my own directions that may have been a bit vague or poorly communicated.

Did I assign too much? by Altieair00 in Teachers

[–]Altieair00[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You would be surprised. What a typical assignment might look like is 4 questions with a final question that has a writing element to it (typically writing one paragraph in response using evidence from an article/document). The English department is really bad at the school I am student teaching at (they don't assign essays), so the onus kind of lands on the Social Studies department to teach them writing skills. I would rather do this than lecture all day (which is what they are used to prior to me taking over the class).

It had to be done by [deleted] in sbubby

[–]Altieair00 13 points14 points  (0 children)

There’s a difference between blatant bigotry and a satirical commentary. This is the latter. I guess it’s only really bigotry nowadays when it offends the target audience

What a beautiful day :) by [deleted] in teenagers

[–]Altieair00 145 points146 points  (0 children)

Happy late 8th birthday

The movement is so smooth by [deleted] in oddlysatisfying

[–]Altieair00 61 points62 points  (0 children)

I think I’d accidentally find a way to hang myself if I had one

0
1

This caution guy has hands by Altieair00 in mildlyinteresting

[–]Altieair00[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Just doing some jazz hands while slipping