Day 10 at Classic City High School: 4/20/2015

This was my last day at Classic City.  I had mixed feelings about it.  Part of me was happy because I didn't have to get up early anymore, but then part of me was sad because I wouldn't be able to grow as a potential teacher.  I showed up a little later than usual because I decided to get munchkins for the class as a thank you.  When I walked into class Mrs. Smith was shocked that I had brought donuts for everyone.  This surprised me a little bit because most people I have interned with in the past have also brought a little thank  you gift to their site on their last day.  After telling the class they could have donuts I went with Becca to work on her annotation log again.

This time Becca was having to read for comprehension and look for critical passages.  I knew this would be hard for her and that this would slow the process down quite a bit.  I did the same thing that I did the first time by picking out the critical passages for her and have her think about them.  It was harder to keep Becca focused this day, but I think it had a lot to do with it being a Monday instead of a Wednesday.  She was frustrated because she was so behind and she knew that she had more to do after finishing the log and reading the book.  I understood where she was coming from because English is a hard class to catch up in, but I also know that she doesn't try to work at home.  I felt so torn because part of me thinks that she could read five pages at home every night and get a lot done but she also works and probably has a lot of responsibilities at home to deal with.  We didn't get as many annotations done because she had to read as well as annotate instead of just going through the pages trying to find annotations.

After class I talked to Mrs. Smith some more and told her thank you for letting me work with your class.  She responded with a no, thank you.  She told me that if I ever needed anything to contact her and that she would be willing to help.  I learned a lot from Mrs. Smith and respect her very much.  I am very blessed to have worked with such an amazing teacher.

Day 9 at Classic City High School: 4/15/2015

This day was a really good day for me.  I showed up to Classic City, waited for Mrs. Smith, then got my student right away.  At first I was nervous working with this student because Mrs. Smith had talked about her with me telling me that she doesn't like to do her work, but then as I started to work with her it all went away.

We needed to work on *Becca's annotation log.  She was very behind in her reading and even farther behind in filling out her annotation log.  When Mrs. Smith told me that she was using the annotation log more as a vocabulary log I knew that Becca did not understand how to annotate.  I remember being told to annotate, but was never really taught how to.  When Becca and I got to the media center and I explained that we would be working on her log she was not excited about it at all.  She told me that she didn't know what to do.  I did my best trying to explain to her what to do, but I could tell it was going in one ear and coming out the other.  I decided that working with her and helping her find passages would be more beneficial.  Becca's last log was on page 36 but she had read to page 76 so I told her that we had to go back and find passages from past pages and get caught up to where she left off.  I think this was a good thing for her since she had already read the pages and looking over them again with a more critical eye is easier than reading and trying to find critical passages.

I was the one who would point out different passages and then have her analyze them.  One passage I picked out was because the author utilized anaphora.  I knew that she did not know what anaphora was, but I thought it was a simple rhetorical term that she could find on her own easily.  I pointed it out and told her what her meant and then moved on.  As we continued the assignment I would ask her if she has any questions on what was said.  At one point she wondered how the sheriff knew a gun was not shot by smelling the barrel.  I told her that asking the question and then looking it up was a perfect annotation.  She wrote the passage, asked the question, and then googled it to find out the answer.  By the end of the class she was still not able to pick out passages, but she was able to think critically about passages that were given to her.  I felt that that was an important step in learning to find the critical passages herself.

At the end of class I talked to Mrs. Smith about Becca and how she worked very well with me.  Mrs. Smith told me that she is a great worker one-on-one but in the class she has problems focusing because of friends.

Day 8 at Classic City High School: 4/1/2015

Unfortunately this day I did not stay very long at all.  I got to the school at 9:00 am like I usually do and waited for Mrs. Smith to come to the door around 9:10 and then have a little chat and then get a student to tutor.  This did not happen though.  Another woman, Mrs. Kell came to open the door.  Mrs. Kell is a different teacher at the school and it turned out that Mrs. Smith was not there that day.  I stayed in the classroom to see if maybe one of the students I usually tutor would show up and work with him or her, but none of them came.  The other students did not want to work with me, which I understood because none of them have ever had a tutor because they are always in class and on task.  Finally Mrs. Kell told me that it would be okay if I left, so after thirty minutes I left.

Day 7 at Classic City High School: 3/25/2015

This day I was excited to give my book to Mrs. Smith so that she could read it and then talk about it.  I got to Classic City early and was just waiting for class to start as usual.  Not many people were in the classroom which I had experienced before so I was not too shocked by it.  Mrs. Smith came into the room and told me that it was a half day because everyone was having parent teacher conferences. This surprised me, because where I grew up parent teacher conferences were done in the mornings or after school so we never got a half day because of it.  She told me that first period would only last until 10:00 instead of 10:40.  I didn't think much of it and just asked her who she wanted me to work with.  Bill was still not at school, but Starla was. I worked with Starla again.

I enjoy working with Starla because she is friendly and hard working. I never have to really push her to do her work because she wants to get it done.  She also talks with me, which is a huge bonus.  We started working on the assignment which was just writing a paragraph or two, and then we had to watch a youtube video.  I am not able to listen because there are not two outlets to put in headphones, but I watched with her.  We then went over a powerpoint over annotations.  Starla is smart so a lot of the powerpoint seemed obvious, but she still took notes over what she thought was really important.  We went through a few slides, but then class was over.

I enjoyed working with Starla and hope to continue to work with her.

Day 6 at Classic City High School: 3/18/2015

This was the first time back at Classic City for a month.  I wasn't able to go for so long be the school was closed for two of the weeks and I needed to study for an exam one of the weeks.  I was really nervous when I walked into the school because I was worried that Bill wouldn't want to work with me since I had been gone for so long.  I wouldn't blame him if he was mad and didn't want to work with me because I did leave for a long time.

I walked into Mrs. Smith's class as usual and waited for class to start.  The students that were always there, were in their seats working away by the time class had started.  I remember thinking that these students are more productive than most students I have worked with.  Mrs. Smith was talking with another teacher so it was about five to ten minutes into class before I was addressed.  Bill wasn't there so Mrs. Smith had be work with *Starla.  I was nervous because the last time I had worked with a girl was my first week and it didn't go as I had planned.  Luckily Starla was very welcoming to me.  She opened up to me a little bit talking to me about work and everything she had to do.  She said she loves to read outside of the classroom, but doesn't really get the chance to read as much as she would like because of work.  I was really impressed by this, because, even though I am an english education major, I have not loved reading at home until this year. We got through the critical thinking part of the assignment and then we had to do vocabulary.  Starla did not like to do vocabulary.  She said that it was really repetitive and that she didn't really learn much through the website.  I was impressed, once again, by her because of her want for higher level thinking tasks.  She doesn't like just looking at vocabulary on the computer screen.

Class ended and I waited for the students to leave before I talked to Mrs. Smith.  Talking to Mrs. Smith at the end of the class has become my favorite part of going to Classic City.  I think she is so insightful and can tell me so much about being a teacher and all of her different experiences in the teaching profession. We started talking about Starla and how open she was with me and her wanting to learn on a higher level.  Mrs. Smith wasn't surprised at all and was saying how she doesn't like that she can't really push her students as much as she would like.  I then brought up the book that I had read in class: America's Unseen Kids/Teaching English/Language Arts in Today's Forgotten High Schools. The more we talked about the book the more Mrs. Smith agreed with it and wanted to read it.  I offered to bring her the book the following week so she could read it and she was thrilled.  I was excited to give her the book so we could talk about it more.

Day 5 at Classic City High School: 2/18/15

     Sorry this is so late! Its been a busy month, but trust me I couldn't forget this day even if I wanted to. (which I don't!)  I started the day as usual: I walked in the room about five minutes early and just hung out until class started, then Mrs. Smith gave out instructions and then I was to work with Bill.  The only problem here was that Bill didn't want to work with me today.  I was so disappointed because I though after he had said thank you that we were starting to build a relationship and maybe we would start to talk about things other than school, but I guess I was wrong.  Because Bill didn't want to work with me I started working with *Brittney.  She was open to me being her tutor and we just started on the work.
     The assignment was to answer questions that related to the book that they were getting ready to read.  The questions included: "Are killing and murder the same thing?" and "Should a person's childhood be put into consideration when sentencing?"  I thought the questions were telling about the person who answered them.  Brittney did not think that killing and murder were the same and thought that someone's childhood should be put into consideration when sentencing.  I agreed with her answers, not that that matters, and I found that interesting.  Before I could continue to work with Brittney, Mrs. Smith came over and told me that Bill did want to work with me.  I was shocked but excited that he had changed his mind.  When I went over to help him he was just staring at the computer not doing anything.  He pulled up the assignment and continued to just stare at the screen.  He then went to the bathroom for a while.  Mrs. Smith told me to start the sentences for him so that when he got back he could just answer the question.  I didn't really understand how that would help him, but I did it anyway.  When he came back he slowly but surely started to answer the questions.  His answers stuck with me because they were not what I was expecting.  He said that he though that murder and killing were the same because a life was lost in both.  He did not think that childhood should be taken into consideration when sentencing.  These answers showed me that he believes in will power to an extent because he didn't want to account for childhood experiences.  He then had to watch two youtube videos that the teacher had chosen and by the time that was done the class was over.
     After class I talked to Mrs. Smith because I wanted to ask her how she wanted me to deal with Bill when he just stared at the screen or put his head down.  I told her I am not supposed to act as the teacher or counselor and that I was there purely to tutor and help any way I can.  She then told me that with Bill I need to be the teacher to an extent.  She said that I will have to constantly push him to do the work and even start things for him and then have him finish the work.  Then she preceded to tell me that Bill had asked for me to come over which meant a lot.  She told me that him wanting me to tutor him meant that he valued our relationship even if he never opens up to me or shows interest in me while I am there.
     This really stuck with me.  It made me realize that people do not have to outwardly express their feelings in order to have them.  Bill does not have to tell me that he likes having me as a tutor or tell me about his home life to show that he likes me.  I am a very expressive person so realizing this made me think about how I cannot expect everyone to express feelings like I do, and when they don't to not get my feelings hurt.

Day 4 at Classic City High School: 2/4/15

     I walked into Mrs. Smith's class and it was practically empty.  There were only four students in class. Two students started doing their work before class had even started and then the other two were on their phones before they had to put them away.  Mrs. Smith was shocked by how little students were in class because she typically has around eight students on average on any given day.  One girl was new and it was her first week at the school.  When Mrs. Smith went to talk to her she didn't really listen or look at Mrs. Smith.  It was surprising to see because all of her students respected her so much, but this girl was new and didn't know how the classroom worked yet.  Mrs. Smith had to tell the girl to look at her while she was speaking and to respond so that Mrs. Smith knew that she understood what she was saying.  Then class started and Mrs. Smith told everyone to start their assignments and to put their phones away.  A different girl, *Clare,  would not put her phone away.  Mrs. Smith recognized that something was wrong and that it was not just Clare trying to be disrespectful, so she let Clare work on different work that she had to do and listen to music.

Watching Mrs. Smith interact with her students amazes me.  She never once lost her temper or raised her voice.  She kept calm and talked with a serious tone to let the students know she wasn't messing around with them.  It seems that the students know that she won't deal with nonsense and when she gets serious with them they respect it.

After she dealt with the two girls she told me that I would be working with Bill again if he showed up to class.  Although he was a few minutes late, he did show up.  I didn't want to be quiet like I was the first time I was with him so I made a more conscious effort to talk.  Our assignment was to write the standards in our own words and then send them to Mrs. Smith, then we would make a poster about the standards.  Bill was very quiet at first and I had to ask him multiple times what he thought and would help him with what to say.  He seemed to be more receptive to my advice as the period went on.  I would tell him to fix a few grammatical errors or to add a period to the end of a sentence.  We then started the poster, but only got done with one standard by the time class was over.  Before we went back to the classroom Bill said "thank you" to me.

I was ecstatic.  I was so happy that I had to try to act casual and not smile too hard as we walked back to class.  I feel like I finally made an impact.  Hopefully I will start to have Bill more and more as the semester goes on because I feel like we will start to talk about things other than school.  He is a quiet guy, but he is very smart and I think he has a lot on his mind that I would be happy to talk about if he felt comfortable.  I am excited for my next day at Classic City so I can carry over this optimism and continue to do well.

Day 3 at Classic City High School 1/28/14

     My third day at Classic City with Mrs. Smith was spent observing her teach class.  I enjoyed watching her teach class because I was curious on how she taught.  I got to class a little bit early, but most of the students were already set up and ready for class to begin.  Mrs. Smith had to remind the class that we had five minutes before class actually started.  I took this time to look at her white boards to see what she had written on them.

     One white board had two lists of names of students that had perfect attendance or was recognized for academic achievement.  The names on the board would be awarded a gift certificate to a local restaurant or business, such as Zaxby's or Target.  I thought this was such a neat idea.  They use positive reinforcement rather than negative reinforcement.  I prefer this because I think awarding those who did what they were supposed to do is more effective than disciplining those that don't do what they were supposed to.  Then on the other board there were two lists. One list was positive actions and the other was negative actions.  Mrs. Smith had decided to start a class dojo where the students choose which actions get points and which actions lose points.  The points would then be added at the end of a week and depending on the amount of points you had you got certain privileges.   The positive actions included participation, not being on the cell phone, and helping others.  The negative actions included being gone from class too long, not being on task, and being on your cell phone.  I thought it was a great idea for the students to choose the actions because then they were able to say what they felt was important to recognize.  The students seemed to really like this idea and were eager to start the program.

     Mrs. Smith then started a powerpoint about clauses and phrases.  She was very good about not going too fast or too slow.  She made sure everyone had the notes before she went to the next slide.  She also made sure that everyone understood what the slide meant.  It was fun to watch the dynamic of Mrs. Smith and her students.  I could tell that they really respected her and wanted to please her.  It was also apparent that she respected them as well.  She would give them a hard time if they used words like aint while talking to her.  She told them that college professors wouldn't give them the time of day if they talked like that, but she also told them that it was okay to say it in informal settings.  She didn't condemn  them for using words that they were raised with.  It was things like that that made me realize that they respected her because she respected them.

     I really enjoyed observing her teach because it made me realize that I want to be somewhat like her.  I want to be able to joke around with my future students.  I want them to respect me and I will respect them.  Mrs. Smith is an incredible teacher who I hope I can be like in the future.

Day 2 at Classic City High School: 1/21/14

     A couple of days ago was my second day at CCHS.  As I was on my way to the high school I was thinking about everything that I needed to do when I got there.  I thought about signing in, then walking to the classroom, and then receiving my student.  I thought about what Mrs. Smith had told me the week before: they won't want your help, but you have to just give it to them anyway.  She told me not to get discouraged if they didn't open up to me and to just keep going.  I then walked in the building and signed in and went to Mrs. Smith's room where she told me to work with *Bill.

     I had gotten to her class relatively early so Bill was still hanging out with friends before school started.  I started to really look at her classroom and I realized that they had so much technology.  The class had a computer for each student and then some.  Not only did they have the technology, but it was a crucial part of her teaching.  She put the assignments on the projector for everyone to see.  If a student missed a day and needed the powerpoint that she had taught with earlier, she would send it to the student via email.  The students have to log in to a Clarke County web server that then lead them to their school emails.  It was incredible to see how much technology played into their daily lives at school.  Everything was done on the computers: notes, quizzes, tests.

     Bill came in when school started and he and I went to the library so we could work in a quieter environment together.  Mrs. Smith told me to review grammar with him and then assist him with the quiz that he had to take after.  The first part of grammar we looked at was capitalization.  I let him review the grammar and then told him if he had any questions to ask me so that I could answer them before we took the quiz.  He told me he didn't have any questions so we started the quiz.  He knew majority of the answers without me having to help him.  The ones that I had to help him with had to deal more with making a word that was already capitalized lower case.  Once we finished the capitalization quiz we started to look over a powerpoint that went over commas, semicolons, and colons. This was a little trickier.  We had to talk about when to use a comma versus a colon when it came to lists, and when to use a semicolon a little more.  Once he told me he was ready we took the quiz.  He struggled at the beginning, but he then started to recognize what he was supposed to do as he took the quiz.  By the end of the quiz I didn't need to help him at all.

     When comparing my first and my second time, I think I did much better at helping the student with his work.  I made sure he understood everything and would guide him when he needed help on the quiz.  I would also explain why he was getting something wrong.  I still need to work on trying to build a relationship with the student.  I think this is going to be my biggest challenge because I will be working with a different student most of the time, if not all of the time, I am there.  Regardless of having the same student or having a different one, I need to work on trying to connect to the student.

Day 1 at Classic City High School: 1/14/15

Today was my first day at Classic City High School.  I was so nervous that I got to the school 30 minutes early.  I just sat in the car and thought about how the next hour and a half would go. When I walked into the building I didn't know where the office was.  I saw a small room right when you walked in, but it seemed so small that I didn't even think of it as the office.  When I determined that the small room was the office I went inside signed in and talked to *Mrs. Melroy where she took me to *Mrs. Smith's class.  On the way to the classroom Mrs. Melroy pointed out all of the different rooms of the school.  I was surprised that the school was made up of six classrooms.  It makes sense because the school has very little students, but it still surprised me.

Mrs. Smith teaches language arts across multiple age levels.  She has multiple tasks that all of the students can do regardless of grade level and she makes adjustments to them so that each student is getting the appropriate amount of work.  The classroom was small but each student had a computer that he/she was able to work on.  I was told to work with *Maggie on her writing assignment.  I did not know what was expected of me so I spent majority of the time just watching Maggie write.  I knew I should of interjected, but I didn't know how and even if Mrs. Smith would want me to. I talked to Mrs. Smith after the class period was over to figure out what she expected from me so that I could improve next week. She told me to interject and make sure that the student stays on track and doesn't lose sight of what the assignment is.  She also told me to stop them if there are any grammar mistakes being made.  Mrs. Smith warned me that the student will push back and that I just have to continue to interject.  She also told me to try to relate and even lie if I have to and tell the student that I made the same mistakes too.

 Although I didn't do the best job on tutoring today, I found out what was expected of me and can plan accordingly for next week.  Next time should go must better!

*names have been changed for privacy purposes