This week in Mr. Gwozdz's was much like the rest except for the fact that he was absent on Monday to go to a conference and on Thursday since the seniors won the Shorian Shield I took my excused absence to stay home and work on school work. On Monday the students watched a video and wrote a paper to compare it to The Crucible. The kids were a little crazier than usual but they managed to get their work done so it wasn't too bad. On Thursday I took my excused absence and did some school work at home which was nice but what I wasn't expecting that I would miss the class so much. I did miss them though.
On Thursday I spent some time doing my school work before I had to go to Lake Shore when the school day was ending so I could go to Musical Auditions and work Parent Teacher Conferences for NHS. As I sat around doing my work I released how weird it felt to not be in school, which is how I typically spend my summers so that wasn't much difference but what else I released that made it different was just how much I missed going to Mr. Gwozdz's class. I really enjoy going to his room and watching him teach. I'm really grateful to have this experience and I don't think it will ever be possible for me to thank him enough for all he does for me. This class is one of the best things I have ever experienced in my life and it really has stabilized my decision to go into teaching, but I still think my next step is to experience a different grade/teacher so I can get as much experience as possible before I go to college for teaching.
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This week in Mr. Gwozdz's class I started to teach daily lessons. Typically it is just a writing warm-up prompt but slowly both of us hope to turn these five minute writing warm-ups into full lessons. The students seemed to be a little nervous talking to me about what they wrote but slowly they have started to be more vocal with me. On Friday Mr. Gwozdz's was out to go on a hike for cystic fibrosis so there was a sub in the class. I didn't give a warm-up since he was out but I did help the sub with whatever she needed (She actual kind of passed part of the class over to me since he left a note in his sub folder that I was his student teacher which was very nice) and I walked around the room like I typically do to help the kids with their comparison papers that he left for them to write. He asked them to compare some news programs and an article about girls recently having twitching fits that are almost like tourette's to the hysteria that was going on with the girls in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. All the kids finished and turned in their papers about five minutes before the end of the class so since we were all sitting there in an awkward silence I decided to break it by asking if anyone wanted to talk about what they just read and saw. I figured that maybe a class discussion might be better than silence and I was shocked by how many of them actually engaged in the conversation with me. I am still working on trying to make connections with every student, making sure I call them by the right name and I think that with that short five minute conversation I really made a huge step forward with the students.
I think that by doing this program with Mr. Gwozdz I have reached the goal I set for myself when I first started. I am no longer questioning whether or not I want to teach, I know I want to teach. Sure I still have some areas too improve in which Mr. Gwozdz's has so nicely let me know with an evaluation, but at least now I know for sure I want to be a teacher which was the goal I set out on accomplishing.I think my next goal is to try and figure out if I have a grade preference. I really like Mr. Gwozdz and the tenth graders but I think I would like to try a different grade with a different teacher so I can figure out if I prefer under or upper class man. I would really like to continue on with my experience in this CFE class but I think I would like to maybe see what it is like with eleventh graders and ninth graders as well so I can get as much differed experience as possible. So this past week was Homecoming week so it was a little different than usual. The kids seemed to get more energized throughout the week about Homecoming and all the fun that comes with it. But regardless of all that they were still very into reading The Crucible. It's very interesting to see how Mr. Gwozdz is teaching them the book. He has them read it out loud since it is a play and he will stop every now and then to comment on what was just read if he feels that something needs clarification or he will just stop to ask questions so that there can be a class discussion on the material to make sure the class is paying attention. He also encourages them to take notes about the characters and he gives them homework every once in a while so that he can make sure that they understand the material.
For this week we were given a list of character quotes to choose from and the one I have decided to choose is by one of my top 3 favorite Winnie the Pooh Characters, Eeyore. Eeyore says that "A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference." and I believe that Eeyore could not be more than right with this declaration because caring for others really does make a difference. I think my employer Mr. Gwozdz would agree with Eeyore too because when I had the chance to interview him for a feature article in my writing publications class I asked him what he thought was most important when it came to teaching he said that connecting with the students is the most important thing when it comes to teaching which is certainly some of the best advice I think I have gotten about teaching. Sure I didn't ask him advice on what would make me successful in life I asked him about what is important when it comes to teaching but I feel like the answer would be the same for both, make connections with people, which is certainly some advice that I have really taken to heart. This week the class started to read The Crucible by Arthur Miller. It's nice to reread it with a different class and a more mature view point. It's also nice to see how a class discussion is conducted by a teacher. On Friday I taught my first lesson. I gave a PowerPoint on some vocab words that are related to The Crucible. I am not sure how the class felt about it seeing as how it was my first lesson, I assume that it was a little different for all of us. I do hope they enjoyed it and that all the awkwardness of me teaching instead of Mr. Gwozdz will die away soon. For this week I read an article in The New York Times about the difference in resume and eulogy virtues. A resume shows what you bring to the marketplace where as a eulogy is something talked about at your funeral that shows who you truly were on the inside. While reading this article I learned that even though yes resume virtues are in important for the now, the eulogy virtues are always important. You should always try to work towards having an inner light for those eulogy virtues. Who cares that society only seems to care about resume virtues because when you reach the end of your life the only thing that truly matters are your eulogy values. So with this knowledge that I have now gained from this article I am going to try to maintain my resume, but I am going to focus more on my eulogy for sure because it is more important. |
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