Although this was a very busy week for me, I took out a chunk of time last night to write my formal lesson plan for my writing lesson for today. I have not had much feedback on how effectively I teach writing and I wanted my CT to evaluate me on this subject. I gave my CT the formal lesson plan and a camera because I wanted her to capture some of the lesson in pictures (to include in my portfolio, of course!). She took some pictures but did not really take many notes on my lesson. When I asked her about it, she said that she totally for got to take notes on my lesson and that she would do it right then (3 hours after my lesson was taught). I was a little frustrated because I know that she was getting her sub plans for Monday together during my lesson. The comments that she did end up writing were very generic and her simply affirming my success with the things that I said I wanted her to pay attention to. How can you give me feedback if you are not even watching the lesson?
So, I’m going to do my own self-evluation:
I taught a lesson on Persuasive Writing. We read Hey, Little Ant earlier and the week and came up with reasons why the kid should squish the ant and reasons why he should not squish the ant. Today, I wanted students to write a paragraph for one reason why the kid should not squish the ant, using ample secondary support. We reviewed the story an the reasons we came up with for both sides. Then I had students determine which two ideas they felt were most important about why the kid should not squish the ant. I told them that they would choose one of those reasons and write a paragraph, but first I wanted to model it for them.
Prior to the lesson, I chose one reason to support why the kid should squish the ant and wrote a paragraph modeling the incorporation of a topic sentence and support. We read it aloud and students helped me identify the examples for support I included. Next, I had students select partners. One partner would “talk long” about reason #1 (which was selected earlier in the lesson) for two minutes. After two minutes the other partner B would talk about reason #2 for two minutes. While each partner was talking, they were to discuss support about why that reason justified not squishing the ant. After they discussed with a partner, we shared out some of the examples they used for each reason. Then I sent students back to their desks to write 1 paragraph about one of the reasons, reminding them of the topic sentence and supports that needed to be included. After 15 minutes, students shared out their writing whole class and we gave Thumbs Up to that person when they were able to identify the required components within their paragraph.
Self-Evaluation:
*I think that allowing students to choose their partners made their conversations have more substance because they wanted to talk to the person they chose to work with. I have learned that if I want students to focus on a certain skill when working in partners, they are more likely to engage in the skill if they are able to choose their partner (of course with the expectation that all talk and behaviors are centered on the focus of the lesson)
*Creating a paragraph to model the focus of the lesson helped students to understand what I expected of them when they wrote their paragraphs. It also helped me to think about what aspects students may struggle with because I went through the entire process myself.
*I gave each partner a letter (A or B) so that they would know which reason they needed to talk about with their partner. If I were to do this lesson again, I would have had the paper letters prepared ahead of time because it took about 3 minutes of my time to find the paper and marker to do it during the lesson.
*I feel that by incorporating the conversational piece in the lesson and modeling the paragraph for students made them feel more confident and prepared to go back and write their own paragraphs. I was so pleased to see all of my students engaged in writing when they went back to their desks.
*Overall, I think the lesson went well. I prepared quite a bit for it and I think that preparation resulted in my students being able to apply the skills and focus of the lesson in their own writing.
~In these last few weeks of my student teaching experience, I am doing my best to turn every negative situation in to a positive. I want to end this year, walking away with as much growth and preparedness to teach and this is a great way for me to ensure this happens~
Showing posts with label evaluations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label evaluations. Show all posts
Friday, April 9, 2010
Monday, November 23, 2009
Wrong again!
My CT in my Spanish class was out all last week, and consequently was unable to complete my Field Experience Evaluation. I talked to her today while the students were taking their Spanish test and asked if she could fill it out at whatever time was most convenient for her. She decided to fill it out during class and discussed it with me when she finished. She checked high marks for all areas except: “Written communication is free of grammatical errors” and “Displays positive interpersonal skills with staff”. WHOA!!!! WAIT A MINUTE!! These are among the many thoughts that flew around in my head in a span of 15 seconds. I had a look of wonderment on my face so she decided to explain her rationale.
The lower mark for written errors was because I do supposedly do not use standard script when I write on the board. By this, she is referring to the fact that I write my lower case “a” like it is printed here on the computer rather than how it was taught in kindergarten. Now keep in mind, in all of the in-service and orientations I have been to this year, no one has ever mentioned to me that writing in script was mandatory, but maybe I dazed off during that talk. My 5th grade CT, who would be more entitled to make this critique than this lady, never talked to me about this and I wrote on the board every day! I guess my frustration stems from my belief that how I write my a’s in 8th grade is of very little overall importance. To me, they should and do know that there are at least 2 ways of making this letter and both should be able to be recognized. I would say my CT made this critique because she didn’t have anything else to comment on, but boy was I wrong!
The second critique she made was of my interpersonal skills with other staff. I asked her to clarify what she meant by this because I was totally flabbergasted!! She told me there was one instance. At the beginning of the year, there was a team planning meeting. The interns expected we would discuss the goals and mission of the team and what the expected of us. Instead, we were welcomed with about 120 manila folders and 120x4 progress reports which we first had to alphabetize, then stuff in their appropriate folder- all while the CT’s explained to us that this is what teaching is. Mind you, I have already spent an entire quarter teaching, meeting with parents, conferencing, grading, filling, organizing, decorating, etc. My CT refused to let me get involved with the students (which is the heart and soul of teaching), but instead put me in teacher boot camp with filing and alphabetizing for conferences that I would not even be attending!!! Any who, the system of alphabetizing that my Spanish CT wanted me to use was incredibly complex. Call me slow, but I just didn’t get how she wanted me to do it. So I simply and what I thought was respectfully said “I don’t really understand how to do it this way, so I’ll just use my own system”. All of the papers got alphabetized and filed without a hitch. I thought education was distancing itself from the “there’s only one way to figure this out” mentality…guess I was wrong again! This CT never made any reference to me about my tone or disrespect any day during the 3 weeks since this meeting, but clearly she was bothered by whatever did or did not exist in my comment. I think it was very unprofessional for her not to address this issue to me when it happened, but then turn around and write it on probably the only evaluation I will have from her during this experience. I’m trying to focus on the positive comments she made (my great enthusiasm, preparedness, and eagerness to teach), but I just find my self sweating the small stuff.
Tomorrow is my last day before break!! I teach Language Arts all day tomorrow so I’m pretty excited about that! I am leaving the stress of my evaluation ordeal write here on this post…I feel a huge weight lifted off already!
The lower mark for written errors was because I do supposedly do not use standard script when I write on the board. By this, she is referring to the fact that I write my lower case “a” like it is printed here on the computer rather than how it was taught in kindergarten. Now keep in mind, in all of the in-service and orientations I have been to this year, no one has ever mentioned to me that writing in script was mandatory, but maybe I dazed off during that talk. My 5th grade CT, who would be more entitled to make this critique than this lady, never talked to me about this and I wrote on the board every day! I guess my frustration stems from my belief that how I write my a’s in 8th grade is of very little overall importance. To me, they should and do know that there are at least 2 ways of making this letter and both should be able to be recognized. I would say my CT made this critique because she didn’t have anything else to comment on, but boy was I wrong!
The second critique she made was of my interpersonal skills with other staff. I asked her to clarify what she meant by this because I was totally flabbergasted!! She told me there was one instance. At the beginning of the year, there was a team planning meeting. The interns expected we would discuss the goals and mission of the team and what the expected of us. Instead, we were welcomed with about 120 manila folders and 120x4 progress reports which we first had to alphabetize, then stuff in their appropriate folder- all while the CT’s explained to us that this is what teaching is. Mind you, I have already spent an entire quarter teaching, meeting with parents, conferencing, grading, filling, organizing, decorating, etc. My CT refused to let me get involved with the students (which is the heart and soul of teaching), but instead put me in teacher boot camp with filing and alphabetizing for conferences that I would not even be attending!!! Any who, the system of alphabetizing that my Spanish CT wanted me to use was incredibly complex. Call me slow, but I just didn’t get how she wanted me to do it. So I simply and what I thought was respectfully said “I don’t really understand how to do it this way, so I’ll just use my own system”. All of the papers got alphabetized and filed without a hitch. I thought education was distancing itself from the “there’s only one way to figure this out” mentality…guess I was wrong again! This CT never made any reference to me about my tone or disrespect any day during the 3 weeks since this meeting, but clearly she was bothered by whatever did or did not exist in my comment. I think it was very unprofessional for her not to address this issue to me when it happened, but then turn around and write it on probably the only evaluation I will have from her during this experience. I’m trying to focus on the positive comments she made (my great enthusiasm, preparedness, and eagerness to teach), but I just find my self sweating the small stuff.
Tomorrow is my last day before break!! I teach Language Arts all day tomorrow so I’m pretty excited about that! I am leaving the stress of my evaluation ordeal write here on this post…I feel a huge weight lifted off already!
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