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Saturday, October 27, 2018

My summary of my semester (and yes, I'm turning it in this way, shade and all)

I became a teacher in 2000, earning my MAT at B-----,
and have kept it valid for the past 18 years, which
has required me to take numerous graduate classes.
Although I have not taught full-time since 2004, I work as 
a substitute teacher for --- and have taught at E--- C----
C--- S---- since 2012. I also work as a freelance writer
and have been regularly published for the past eight years.

All of these experiences, combined, give me a number of
strengths as a high school English teacher. While I haven’t
been officially trained as an AP College Board teacher,
I modeled my E----- high school class on the AP
Literature and Composition class, creating lesson
plans that challenge and interest students. As a
professional writer, I know what good writing
is and the questions to ask to get students to produce
their best writing. As a substitute teacher,
I have learned how to quickly assess a room for student
needs and behaviors, as well as how
to de-escalate a situation.

However, not being in the classroom has also led to
some deficiencies in my abilities. Not networking with
other teachers or doing professional development beyond
graduate class has kept me from specific techniques that
have come down the pike over the years (such as
RACE (Restate, Answer, Cite, and Explain) and
FANBOYS/AAAWWUBBIS. Because I only see my cottage school
students on Fridays, and they do the assignments at home,
it has gotten  me out of the habit of thinking about the specific minute steps of teaching writing. 

Since I am not intending to return full-time to teaching
within the next couple years, I will continue to do what
I have done in the past--research things on my own and pick
up assignments/ideas when I substitute teach. I also pick
up ideas when I tutor students. I recently “stole” a neat
independent reading assignment from a teacher at N---
(I tutor an 8th grader in English). I have modified this
assignment for my high school cottage students to use
when we read Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. A smart teacher
recognizes good ideas when she sees them and knows that
you don’t have to recreate the wheel all the time.


I am both excited and nervous about the long-term sub
job I will do at E---- in a few weeks because it is Language
and Composition, and this is not my strong suit
(due to lack of experience teaching it). I am taking
active steps to get myself up to speed, such as reading
5 Steps to a 5 and reviewing logical fallacies and lessons
on rhetorical analysis writing. For me, this is not just
a sub job but an opportunity to get out of my “comfort zone”
of teaching AP Literature and Composition-type coursework
with my cottage school students.

In terms of what elements in schools and about students need
to change, that is a hard question to answer. Cell phones in high schools are a constant battle for teachers, as is a
feeling of ennui among students, a sense of school being
a bore and a chore. I don’t know if this is because of
standardized testing or because of the constant addition
of “new” assessments(like the BoS) without a lessening
of everything else that students have to do. I think we ask
a lot of students without remembering that if education
isn’t enjoyable, it’s not going to stick anyway.


To be completely honest, I didn’t learn very much from
this experience of observing 90 hours. Working with high
school students is not the hands-on “helping” that is
working with elementary or even middle school students.
I basically sat and watched lessons being taught  over and over and over, and it was boring. Sure, I picked up a
couple tips or tricks, like learning about Rubistar or
Wheeldecide, but I don’t know that these snippets justify
90 hours of my time. Perhaps if I didn’t have teaching
experience both in ___ and for the past six years with high
 schoolers at the cottage school and hadn’t gone
through --- and wasn’t in schools as a substitute,
I would have found this experience to be new and engaging.

I think what these 90 hours made me realize is that even
though I’m not in the classroom fulltime, that doesn’t mean I
can’t be a masterful teacher or a masterful substitute.
I am ableto establish a rapport with students, which is
what good teachers do. I do have a pretty solid
knowledge base and am willing/able to do whatever
research/work is necessary to bring that knowledge to students.
I am very organized and “on-top” of things, which is evidenced
by the  fact that I’m completing the work for EDUG 613
before November 1, when I have another month
to complete it.


A masterful teacher is always striving to be better, and
I think I do that as well, recognizing that I don’t know it all.
However, if I’m going to put effort into learning, I’d like
it to benefit me and feel like a real learning experience,
rather than busy work. I’m afraid a good portion of
this class has felt like busy work. It has been a good
reminder of what I don’t want my students
to experience.

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