I am student teaching at Triton High School [a pseudonym to protect precious identities] with Ms. Harvey [yet another pseudonym]. Triton is a 6-D high school that is full of life and energy. Past observation courses brought me into Triton and I was elated to hear that I would be back as a student teacher. There is just something about Triton that makes it feel like home.
Ms. Harvey has been teaching at Triton for about fifteen years and she has been in the profession for twenty-one years! She is an eccentric individual who is very passionate about her work. Her warm and caring personality put me right at ease and her blunt nature eliminates any concerns that I might have had about faulty communication.
My first day at my placement was January 3rd which was a district in-service day. Ms. Harvey and I felt that it would be best for me to begin coming on the very first day of the semester so that my presence would be less jarring for students. That first in-service day enabled me to get reacquainted with the building and I was able to begin professional networking by meeting many of the faculty.
The second day of my placement had me jittery with excitement. I was going to meet my students! Triton ran an unusual schedule that day. The school usually has block scheduling where each class is eighty minutes in length. However, in light of the beginning of the spring semester, all eight classes were squeezed into the same day so that the students would be able to get acquainted (or re-acquainted) with all of their teachers. Needless to say, it was a little mind blowing to meet the 100+ students that I will be working with, but I set to work immediately learning their names and memorizing their faces. Now that I am working on week four at my placement, I have succeeded in learning the names of all my students!!!
I work with all four grade levels. Ms.Harvey and I have three Honors English 1 classes [freshmen], two English 3 classes [juniors], and one Creative Writing class [a mixture of sophomores, juniors, and seniors]. With this variety, there is a lot going on!
-Our freshmen are currently at the beginning of their Shakespeare unit. They just completed a large research project over Shakespeare and Elizabethan England, and are now working on understanding the language and style of Shakespeare. Soon, they will begin to read sonnets and then they will transition into Macbeth. Ms. Harvey wants us to team teach Macbeth. She will lead the reading and I will lead the activities and assessments.
- Our juniors are currently working their way through a poetry unit. Thus far, they have explored the writings of Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. Next, they will begin their research project over a famous American poet which will include a literary analysis of that poet’s work. Once the research project is completed, the junior academies will begin. These academies are designed to help prepare the students for the upcoming state reading assessment. [Mind you, this is a very simplified explanation that is meant to maintain the privacy of the school.] Once the academies are through [they will last for about four weeks], I will teach the juniors a two to three day lesson over The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot. This poem is usually taught in Honors English 3, but Ms. Harvey agreed to let me teach the poem to our juniors. I am very excited about this upcoming lesson because I feel that the poem is something that my students will be able to find meaningful and highly scholastic.
-In Creative Writing, students are developing their skills as writers. Thus far, students have written personal poetry, object narratives, short stories, and character templates. It’s a very interesting class that I love to be a part of. I will not be teaching this class, but I do assist students with their writing by offering constructive commentary.
My current goals are to get focused and begin formatting formal lesson plans. I already have tons of ideas and lots of notes scrawled in my notebook. It’s time to start bringing those visions to life.
And the KPTP makes me feel a little queasy, but I am going to tackle that mountain one task at a time.
