week 3

I had my third observation on Monday. We are graded on about 10 different areas on a scale of 1 to 4. If you get 3s and 4s you passed. 1s and 2s, you didnt. But, for the first time, I got all 4s. I was so excited. I took the things that she told me to improve on the first time and implemented them this time... and i saw the results. I was really excited. Hopefully I can continue to get all 4s for the rest of my student teaching.

Next Monday, I am being videotapped for my lesson on the holocaust. I've come up with some fun, well as fun as the holocaust can be, things to do in class. I have to go to the curriculum lab at la verne sometime this week though... maybe i will go tonight. Then I have to do a huge write up on it by the next Monday. But once thats done, it's all smooth sailing until the end of my 10 weeks. We are wrapping up the WW2 unit in the next couple weeks and then moving on to the cold war... should be exciting....

anywho - i guess i dont have much to share this time.

first formal observation

So on Tuesday, I had my first formal observation from Lucy (my supervisor from La Verne). They grade us on all different areas of the TPE (teacher performance expectiations). I got all 3s and 4s (passing scores, 1 and 2s are bad). The things she said I need to work on are maintaining a learning environment by keeping the students quiet and she also said that our "beyond" activity wasn't very good. As for keeping the kids quiet, I didnt feel that I could make the kids be quiet because Mr Donovan allows side talking. But apparently, I have to even if its just for the times that she's here. As for the beyond activity, it was something that Mr D and I came up with at the very last minute on Monday.... He doesn't really do beyond activities so its something new for him too.

the rest of this week the students are examing different documents from WW2 (like ads, rationing papers, etc.) to try and get a sense of what life was like in the United States during the war. On Friday, we are going to the library so that the students can work on their research reports that they are supposed to be doing at home.

As for swimming, we had our first meet on Tuesday. We won pretty easily on all levels. Its nice being a part of a winning team. With 200 swimmers and a handful of them being club swimmers, meets are pretty easy for us. Today we have another meet against Walnut, who is supposed to be on the same level as us... So we will see what happens. All the other coaches are super nice. The two girls are really fun to talk with. The rest of them are all teachers so its good to get some perspective from them. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season.

one week down, 9 to go

Well, it was a rather eventful first week. Lets just say that my original teacher and I have very different teaching styles. I talked to my professor and he was able to help me get a new teacher at the same school. So, as of Thursday, I am now with Mr. Donovan. Mr. Donovan teachers 4 sections of honors world history and one section of college prep world history. Its basically the same class for all 5. Then, during 6th period and after school, he is the head mens basketball coach for the school. He is super nice and has been teaching for 19 years. He encouraged me to go and check out the swim team. He is very knowledgeable and easy to get a long with.

As for my teaching experience, I am having a good time so far. Last week I just observed, which was a good thing because I needed to get back to the feel of things in the classroom. Then today, I taught my first lesson. I would say it went okay. Its difficult because I'm only teaching one period a day this week. So, I have to keep things the same for 4th period that Mr. Donovan does with all the other periods. Its weird doing someone elses lecture. The impression I got from him was that he wanted me to do something different than what he does. So, tomorrow I'm going to try. After I write this, I'm going to write up my lesson plan for tomorrow. Tomorrow is also my first observation from my supervisor from La Verne. I'm not very nervous for that because I know that she is there to help me and give me feedback and she doesn't expect me to be perfect. The thing about teaching is that you improve with experience. And obviously, I don't have much experience so I must not be very good.

And then there's swimming. Coach Mount has been coaching swimming for 33 years. He is also a history teacher. The Ayala swim team has almost 200 swimmers. I was thinking that since now I am unemployed and all, I could offer my services. So now, I am a volunteer coach. It's cool to be a part of a big team and to see how organized everything has to be. Coach Mount does a really good job at keeping things in line. I have to work some things out with the district but then I should be good to go. Duncan thinks I'm crazy for volunteering but, its something to add to my resume. Plus, Ayala really seems to like to hire their coaches as teachers or vice versa. It wasn't like that at Santiago. But now I really see the advantage of being a teacher/coach. I think I'm going to enjoy it.

So today, I got up at 515am, left for school at 620, talked with Mr. D until 730, had a department meeting until 830, observed/taught until 120, coached until 4, went to the gym at 530, and got home at 645. Phew. Long day. But at least I have my nights free and will be able to lesson plan and get things organized at night.

Tomorrow Ayala has its first swim meet against Rancho Cucamonga. Won't get home from that until 7 or so but will start updating close to daily.