Short & Sweet: Week 6

It's hard to believe student teaching is already more than a third, almost halfway, over! (insert panicked face here...) This week has been a crazy short one and I think it's fair to say that amongst my cohort I think we are unofficially having a contest to see who can teach the least amount of regular-schedule school days, thanks to everyone's constant changing of schedules due to our winter weather.

This week has been short and sweet; with only two instructional days week 6 was still jam-packed, with one day spent observing another fellow student teacher at his placement center (check for a post about my experiences there), taking a group of students to the Schuylkill County Public Speaking Career Development Event, and another day of professional development with my cohort back in Happy Valley.

So while I only had two shortened days in the classroom this week (thanks record number of two-hour delays), a lot has gone on. First, the implementation of seating charts. As I am picking up the bulk of my classes part-way through their semester or year, and even with the two classes I picked up right from the beginning, at first I let the students continue to sit where they choose. For the most part this has worked fine as they haven't given me too many issues. However, some disruptions are starting to occur in my upperclassmen classes, and while the hectic schedule changes are not helping, it feels like it's the time to shake things up and change around the seating arrangement. Now since I didn't get to see all my students last week, not every class has received their new seating arrangements yet, but students talk and I can already hear grumblings about it through the hallways. But for now we're going to give it a try and see how it works out. Hopefully my students will figure out that I can always change it again and if they're good, they'll get the seats they want.

So that brings me to some of the main things I've learned in the classroom this week:
1) Students do not like change. While I have been here for awhile now, I'm still a change everyone is getting used to, and slowly but surely we'll all adjust to it.
2) Students like to push your buttons. My upperclassmen especially have been trying to find my buttons and figure out what they can do to get a reaction out of me. So far I think they've been unsuccessful but now with the new seating arrangements I think we can nip some of these issues in the bud soon.
3) Students want to see what they can get away with. Now I don't mean behavior, I mean work level and effort. Some of my students clearly work hard and put their effort into even the smallest of assignments while others need a little more pushing. Slowly they will hopefully start to realize this without having to rely on pushing from me, as grades are due soon.

So while those are three of the things I've learned in the classroom this week, I also got to spend some time with my students outside the classroom. First I got to take a group of four of my girls to compete at the Schuylkill County Public Speaking Career Development Event, hosted at the nearby Vo-Tech. Getting to spend this time with my students and other FFA Chapters was great, and definitely a much needed push to get through this section of student teaching. During the competition I served as the manuscript judge, reading the submitted speeches for all three chapters, while also serving as time-keeper, getting the chance to sit in while the students were presenting their speeches to the judges.

It was a great day of laughter, comaraderie, and great food thanks to the Vo-Tech, and a perfect way for me to witness some of my students' potential in a new light. All four of my girls did great, sweeping the Senior Prepared and Conservation Public Speaking CDE's, moving onto compete at the Area level competition in a few weeks. As I told my students after the placings were finished, getting to watch them speak and read their manuscripts was a huge plus for me, but maybe not for them because now that I know how well they write and present they can look forward to more of that in class.

Now after spending a weekend with another group of students at the ACES conference yesterday and today (see another post for reflection on that), while I am physically exhausted, I am looking forward to getting back in and hopefully having my first full week of regular classes since I came down to the Valley.

Looking forward to see what this week brings.