AuburnChick's Adventures

Week 29 was the last week of the nine weeks.  The kids were scheduled to take their finals; however, I, in my wisdom, had planned ahead and had assigned final exam essays to all of my students.  The essays were due on Monday.

I spent over six hours grading their papers on Monday night.  Nearly everyone did well.  When I passed out grades to my sixth graders, one of them did fist pumps.  He had made a 100.

Folks, I have never given a 100 on an essay.

Ever.

I had used a writer’s workshop format to help them learn how to write their essays (I also did this with my ninth and tenth graders), but the sixth graders were the students who had taken the lessons to heart.

One of the things I have learned from my certification classes that teaching is a profession that requires much reflection.  Teachers can gain much insight by querying their students at the completion of lessons.

This is what I did with my sixth graders when I asked them what they liked about the essay assignment and what I could have done to make it better.

All of the students told me that they loved the writing assignment.  They had really appreciated the feedback I provided as I worked one-on-one with students.

One student, though, astutely commented that he wished I had been able to devote more time to each student individually.  I am fortunate in that I only have seven students in that class, but time was still very limited.

I asked the students if they thought adding an extra week to the length of the workshop would have helped, and they agreed.  As a result, I have decided to include a two-week writing lesson next term.

This is probably something I should do for my ninth grade class as well.  I will have to consider it, although I believe that my focus needs to be reading comprehension skills.  I will pray about how to balance these tasks.

Because my classes had completed their exams early, I did not want to start a new unit with Spring Break around the corner.  Thus, I gave my students time to study and/or complete assignments for other classes.

On the day of each class’s respective exam, I showed a movie.

My juniors and seniors watched King Arthur.  I like the way it tied into the unit we had just covered, which was medieval England.

My sixth graders watched Sahara.  Although it did not tie in with the nine weeks of poetry we had studied, I liked the movie because it was clean, full of adventure, and incorporated history.  What was neat about this class was watching them as they watched the movie.  Much of this movie takes place in middle Eastern countries.  The kids sat up straighter when they recognized landmarks from their studies.

My ninth and tenth graders watched Letters to Juliet, which tied into their Romeo and Juliet unit.  Although this movie is typically billed as a “Chick Flick,” the ninth grade boys seemed to enjoy it.  The movie was clean, and the scenery was gorgeous!  They had a chance to see footage from Verona and to listen to Italian being spoken.

One of the boys asked if there was really a group of ladies who answered letters written to Juliet, and I immediately did a quick search on the internet.

I found this site, which explains that there is, in fact, a group of fifteen unpaid ladies who do answer letters!  My students were astonished, as was I.  This was another example of how education is relevant to real-world experiences.  Everything we do in our lives provides opportunities to learn more about the world around us.

The "real" group of volunteers

I was glad when the week finally ended.  The last few days, although easy as far as my workload was concerned, were difficult in other ways.

The life of a first-year teacher is difficult.  The workload is overwhelming, and the learning curve is steep.  There are challenges that prior work experiences do not and cannot prepare you for.

Teaching is like trying to juggle a dozen objects.  Sometimes, teachers unexpectedly get extra items thrown in, and what was previously somewhat manageable all of a sudden gets thrown out of whack.

That was how I felt this week when a couple of things happened that seemed very out of the blue.

I ended the week feeling very discombobulated, discouraged, and misunderstood.

I am so thankful that I have a week to regroup and reflect (remember that I said that teaching is a profession of reflection).

Although my certification classes are teaching me how to be self-reflective, I began this school year by writing this series…naturally doing what I am now being “instructed” to do.

I think this is evidence that teaching is what God had for me to do all along, as I chose, intuitively, to reflect in my weekly teaching-themed blog posts.  These posts will serve as reminders of mistakes made, lessons learned, and the thought processes behind everything.

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: teaching |