Posted by Rob on March 9, 2010 – 6:56 pm
Filed under School
Tagged as art, autism, chorus, english, french, learning disability, math, naruto, newton, remus, rome, romulus, russian, School, science, Simpsons, social studies, spanish, sub, substitute, TA, teaching assistant
So as some of you may know, I have been on the sub list in the area since January, waiting to be called in. From then til last week, they had called me a total of three times, always in the late morning (like 10:30am) expecting me to get there by 11:00am. Well, last Friday morning I had my first call that I was able to do, and then yesterday and today this week I was also called in, so I’ve been working for the past three days. It feels good to finally be out there getting paid and getting some additional classroom experience. However, none of my assignments have been “normal” teaching assignments…
My first day (Friday), I was assigned to a school about 35-40 minutes away from my apartment. I was told to go to the high school, but when I got there they told me my assignment was subbing for a middle school Teachers Assistant (which I will henceforth refer to as a TA). So I went down to the classroom and discovered that I would spend the day working one-on-one with an autistic student. The student was very pleasant, and was not shy or over excited. We worked pretty well together. I taught him some basic math addition and subtraction through word problems (ex- if there are twenty students in the class and twelve are girls, how many of the students are boys?), helped him write a simple essay about Naruto, and read some books together. One of the best parts was when he pulled out a Simpsons comic that the regular teacher and him had been reading together! While I did enjoy working with him, as I have the patience to help him out, I did get kind of bored remaining in the same room most of the day. Granted, we got to leave the room when I went with him to art and chorus, but the majority of the day was spent in the resource room. However, I did enjoy it, and would do it again if the opportunity arose. With the difficulty I have with finding work, I’ll take what I can get.
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Posted by Rob on January 29, 2010 – 12:36 pm
Filed under Books, Randomness, School
Tagged as amazon, big bad bob, bigbabob, book store, buy back, college, credit, isbn, oneonta, text book, trade-in, video games
Well, I went through Amazon previously to sell some games, and yesterday I noticed that they also buy back text books. I took one look around my room, which is full of old text books, and said “why not?” It was a pretty simple process.
Once you get onto their trade in books page, you enter the ISBN of the book. The book will come up, and if they are currently buying it back, they will display how much its worth. Many of my books were not available to be traded in, but in the end I sold twelve books for $135. Most of the books were the usual couple of bucks you would expect from the college book store, but a few got $20 or so, and some of these were from Oneonta, which was like three-four years ago. And to sweeten the deal, Amazon pays for shipping. All you do is select the books, print out a postage-paid shipping label, and drop it off at your post office. Once they receive and verify the books are what you said they were, they credit your account with Amazon credit.
It was pretty sweet, and now I have $135 to spend on video games!!!
Posted by Rob on November 25, 2009 – 3:30 pm
Today was the last day of my student teaching. I still have about two weeks of college classes left, but at least the daily grind is over for the time being!
I had bought my teacher some Civil War books as a thank you present. He was a great mentor, and I learned a lot from him. He encouraged me to treat the class as if it was my own, and I was able to do anything I wanted. I had heard horror stories from other student teachers whose teachers were pretty restrictive, which led to them having a bad experience.
I also spoke briefly with the head of the Social Studies Department, so that he could give me some advice on interviewing and my portfolio. He was a little help, but I realized that each district has different hiring policies, and some schools look for things that others don’t, or emphasize some things more than others. Still, he gave me some really basic information that should be helpful.
Overall, it was a good experience, and I am now totally confident that I would be successful in my own classroom.
Posted by Rob on November 24, 2009 – 5:23 pm
Today was another boring day. Just like yesterday there were only two classes, so the rest of the day dragged. I read a little of my book, and spent the rest of the time writing up blogs. I can write my blogs in word, and then when I get home I copy and paste them to notepad, and from notepad I copy and paste to my actual blog.
Tomorrow is the last day of my student teaching. I bought my teacher two books that I think he will enjoy, as a way of thanking him for all the help and guidance he gave me the past few months. After tomorrow I am free to sit home and relax, until I find a job.
Posted by Rob on November 24, 2009 – 5:22 pm
Today was a pretty slow day. The AP kids have meetings at Guidance today and tomorrow, so there are only two classes during the day. The 11-3 kids are watching Dances with Wolves this week, so at least that’s something to do during those two classes. The rest of the time I spent getting college work done.
I had to fill out a survey about my teacher and District Supervisor, and I also had to write up an evaluation on both of them. I had to write an 8 page essay in which I pretty much reflected on how the student teaching experience was, and compared it to last semesters placement at the middle school. I took advantage of my teacher’s printer and printed up all these papers, to save my home printer paper and ink. To kill the rest of the time, I read more of my Life of Johnny Reb book.
There are only two days left. I don’t know what Im going to do these next couple of days, but once its over I will be mighty happy.
Posted by Rob on November 24, 2009 – 5:20 pm
I spent my day completing my portfolio. I had a hard time developing a lesson plan for 9th grade and for economics, but I came up with some ideas to make some interesting, engaging lessons. I finished printing everything up at the school, so I think that part is set.
I also started the process of applying to be a substitute teacher. Upon graduation in December, I can begin to look for a substitute teaching job. To do this, I have to register with the local BOCES building. Once I make my way onto their lists, I am pretty much on call daily to fill a job at any of the schools near the capital district (I think the furthest school is an hour away.)
So that’s how I spent my day…basically getting stuff done for college and beyond. I don’t know what Im going to do tomorrow. I have some papers I have to write for college, so I might just do that.
Posted by Rob on November 20, 2009 – 6:47 am
I spent my day completing my portfolio. I had a hard time developing a lesson plan for 9th grade and for economics, but I came up with some ideas to make some interesting, engaging lessons. I finished printing everything up at the school, so I think that part is set.
I also started the process of applying to be a substitute teacher. Upon graduation in December, I can begin to look for a substitute teaching job. To do this, I have to register with the local BOCES building. Once I make my way onto their lists, I am pretty much on call daily to fill a job at any of the schools near the capital district (I think the furthest school is an hour away.)
So that’s how I spent my day…basically getting stuff done for college and beyond. I don’t know what Im going to do tomorrow. I have some papers I have to write for college, so I might just do that.
Posted by Rob on November 18, 2009 – 6:44 pm
Today was my first day of freedom. While my teacher did his thing, I either watched and listened, or worked on my portfolio. Now that its getting closer and closer to get into the job market, Ive been having to start creating a portfolio, which I will bring along with me to interviews. Its actually a requirement for my Thursday night class, which is good, since its something I can use after to help me get a job.
Once I get some feedback on my portfolio from him, I am going to bring it to one of the teachers at the school Im student teaching at for further advice. He might give me a mock interview too, so I get a feel for how the process is and what kind of questions I will be asked.
The portfolio contains quite a few things…my resume, my philosophy of education, references, a unit plan, and several additional lesson plans. All the lesson plans also include all the worksheets, quizzes, and tests that go along with it. It’s a lot of work, and is definitely going to be over 75 pages long in the end. To break up the monotiny of working on that, I have also been reading Johnny Reb, a book about the life of the common Confederate soldier during the Civil War.
Posted by Rob on November 17, 2009 – 7:42 pm
Per. 3
Class went very well today, especially for being my last class teaching them. I started the class by collecting their DBQs. After that, I jumped right into the lecture. Since the test is tomorrow, I couldn’t waste any time whatsoever, so I skipped the intro question.
I was able to get through all the material I needed to. I finished up the Compromise of 1850 about 30 seconds before the bell rang. I covered quite a bit of ground there, and was happy that I accomplished the goal of finishing up the unit. I also started the class by backtracking from yesterday, and reviewing the beginnings of the Mexican War, which is what had the kids confused. I used two different maps to drive this point home. One thing I noticed is that I use maps a lot more these days, and I refer to them quite often even when talking about things that are not necessarily important.
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Posted by Rob on November 16, 2009 – 8:04 pm
Filed under School
Tagged as aim, America, american, battle, class, classes, DS, ea, end, ex, fighter, final, fly, friday, goal, good, han, he, Home, ice, IM, kids, map, mexican, nes, online, quest, quit, rent, sign, student, student teaching, teach, teacher, teaching, test, thing, tween, used, well
Per. 3
The class went pretty well today, but I think I might have been going through material to fast for them, and they might have been getting confused. I started the class by handing out their DBQ assignment, which is an essay they have to do at home tonight and hand in tomorrow. I then started the class by asking a basic question to get them thinking, and then went on to the lecture.
The classes are all about a day or two behind. They should have taken their test on this unit last Friday, but because I was covering material at a slow pace, we got behind. The test had to be Wednesday, so I was intent on getting through as much material as possible so that I could accomplish this goal. I think I might have gone a bit too far and covered too much ground, because towards the end of class the students were looking confused.
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Posted by Rob on November 16, 2009 – 8:01 pm
Per. 3
The class went pretty good today. I started by foreshadowing the upcoming election (1840) by having them brainstorm the strengths and weaknesses of Martin Van Burin. After that, I asked them to figure out how the Whig party (opposed to Van Burin) could create a campaign similar to Andrew Jackson’s.
After that introduction of sorts, I dove in to the material. I wasn’t sure how much I would cover today, but I covered less than I anticipated. I wanted to get through the annexation of Texas, but didn’t even start it. I got the class pretty far behind, and I have to fly through material now to make it through to the end.
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Posted by Rob on November 12, 2009 – 11:10 pm
Well with only a few weeks left in the semester, its crunch time. I have a lot of work ahead of me, not just for student teaching but for my college classes as well. I came home from my 12-hour day today pretty burned out. I should have used the two hours to get some stuff done, but instead I crashed on the couch in a heap. The fact that I have had a raging headache the whole day doesnt help either.
Just two more weeks…
Posted by Rob on November 12, 2009 – 9:38 pm
I ended up not teaching at all today. My teacher has taken over both Per. 2 and 5, and today he taught Per. 3 and 6. Every few days he jumps in to teach the AP classes, so that was good. The day went pretty slowly though, with me just sitting there the entire time.
Tomorrow I will be teaching the AP kids again.
Posted by Rob on November 11, 2009 – 12:29 am
Per. 2
The class went very well today. I had my last observation today as well, and I think the class went very good, and I think the District Supervisor will be happy. I started the class by formally going over the class overview that I had on the board. I then introduced the idea of Manifest Destiny, something I did not do as well yesterday. I had them take notes on it, and then moved on with the activity.
I used the power point with westward expansion, highlighting different points in history where America gained more land. They would color in the new section on their maps, and then I would go to a slide of notes, and they would copy those down as I discussed them. I asked a lot of questions as I went over the material, either so they could guess what I would mention next or to reinforce something I already mentioned. We covered the Louisiana Purchase through the Adams-Onis Treaty.
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Posted by Rob on November 9, 2009 – 3:27 pm
Per. 2
Today went pretty well. I started class by giving them a quiz. I made a fill in the blank quiz on U.S. foreign policy that pretty much comes right out of the packet they have been filling out in class for notes. I also gave them a word bank, so that all the words that would be used were there, and nothing extra. I don’t like the idea of putting extra words in the word bank, or making it that one word could be used more than once. I don’t want to trick them…just check to see if they learned anything.
After the quiz I jumped into the final foreign policy that I didn’t get to cover, which was the Monroe Doctrine. I gave a brief five minute lecture on it, using the map to kind of show them what was going on with it.
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Posted by Rob on November 8, 2009 – 9:46 am
Per. 2
It went pretty good today. The students were relatively into the lesson and made for some good discussion, which was good. I was still attacking that packet on foreign policy, but wanted to present it in a way that was different from me just writing on the board. So when I came into school this morning, I spent the first period whipping up a quick power point that they could copy the notes of off, as opposed to me writing on the board.
Normally I would have loved to find some images and maps and such for the material to break it up, but it was difficult to find anything appropriate for them on the Embargo Act, Non-Intercourse Act (which I did have one kid snicker at), and Macon’s Bill #2. There is a really good political cartoon I used for the AP kids on the Embargo Act, but the 11-3’s would not have gotten it.
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Posted by Rob on November 6, 2009 – 6:40 pm
Per. 2
The class went pretty much the same as yesterday. I didn’t accomplish as much as I wanted to due to class discussions, but this one was a lot more important and involved. I started off by finishing up lecturing about the treaties signed under Washington.
I then moved on to Washington’s Farewell Address. I had taken excerpts from the Address and popped them on a sheet along with some questions, and wanted the kids to break into groups and work on it. However, the text proved to be too challenging, and after three minutes I decided to just go over it as a class. Basically we interpreted the basic ideas of the Address, and then compared Washington’s foreign policy ideas to how today’s foreign policy is conducted. Basically Washington warned against alliances and being involved in the affairs of Europe, which is totally different to how American foreign policy is today.
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Posted by Rob on November 6, 2009 – 6:38 pm
Per. 2
The class went pretty much the same as yesterday. I didn’t accomplish as much as I wanted to due to class discussions, but this one was a lot more important and involved. I started off by finishing up lecturing about the treaties signed under Washington.
I then moved on to Washington’s Farewell Address. I had taken excerpts from the Address and popped them on a sheet along with some questions, and wanted the kids to break into groups and work on it. However, the text proved to be too challenging, and after three minutes I decided to just go over it as a class. Basically we interpreted the basic ideas of the Address, and then compared Washington’s foreign policy ideas to how today’s foreign policy is conducted. Basically Washington warned against alliances and being involved in the affairs of Europe, which is totally different to how American foreign policy is today.
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Posted by Rob on November 5, 2009 – 6:37 am
Per. 2
Class went pretty good today. I had some good discussion going on, and got off topic a little but it was still good discussion, and I was always able to use it to bring it back to what we were talking about, so it worked out good. I started out by guarding the door with flashcards, and making them answer questions about Jefferson and Hamilton’s views and polices before they entered. Only one kid got one wrong and had to go to the end of the line…all the others got it right on their first attempt.
After that, I did a brief review on Monday’s class and then started discussing Washington’s foreign policies. I had created a packet that would help guide their notes about foreign policy. The packet will cover foreign policy from Washington to Monroe, and should take a few days to cover. So my basic plan is to keep them busy writing notes through the packet, and hopefully I will think up some other activities to support the packet.
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