Reflection 11/9/12

Reflection 11/9/12 - I noticed that my blogger has re-synchronized with my google+ account. Unfortunately, deleting all of my reflections for the semester. Although thats only  a few posts,  that still deletes some of my observations.

Data - I need to find a better way to gather it. One way that I have thought of is measuring the correctness of certain questions. Before I was measuring just the achievements of students, but I found that because the content got harder, the grades of nearly every student had fallen from before the primary documents had been used to after. Now, I know for my final few weeks that I will need to test the understanding of questions using primary documents compared to just all questions. I also need to start thinking of questions to ask on my students final survey. One thing I may want to focus on is whether or not the Do Now's took up too much time. I've gotten complaints from a couple students and my teacher about how they take too long. This does defeat the idea that a warm up activity should only take about 5 minutes. It just makes it more challenging to incorporate documents into the Do Now because it takes up more time.

Classroom management - Although still an ongoing problem, I think I am improving day by day in this area of my teaching. I still need to be more stern and follow through with my warnings. I left kids off way too often. I think I may just have to give a ton of them out in certain classes to win back all the respect I need.

Unit planning - This is a new challenge for me that I had not really thought of before. I view teaching as too day by day at this point. I really have had trouble grasping the big picture that I am supposed to be leading my students towards. The main trend that I'm seeing is that every thing may come into place too late. This is where I wanted to be in September, not November. But I must make do with what I have.

Inquiry Celebration Reflection

I thought that the inquiry celebration was very rewarding for me this year. I was able to see presentations that covered PBL's and Socratic discussion. After seeing those first two presentations I was able to think of how to fit those teaching strategies in my classroom. The PBL was taught by two guys who had co-taught their entire fall semester. I thought that was a very interesting opportunity. Part of me is very relieved I haven't been asked to do anything that challenging for next year. At the same time, I think it would be very cool to teach social studies in a co-taught classroom, so that would be a cool opportunity.

The other two presenters focused on bringing more culture and vocabulary into the classroom. I thought these were two very important ideas that were brought to the table. I agreed that classrooms needed to be more cultured and that students need to learn a more diverse vocabulary.

Blog Post #2 Spring 2012

   My first artifact will be one of my lessons from my C&I class. I created a lesson that focused on the extraction of Marcellus Shale at Suncrest Middle School. I thought this lesson was a great one to share because I incorporated some science standards and the lesson actually went really well. I think it will be a very good example of how versatile my lessons can be. One of the best parts of the lesson was the reaction of the students to my lesson. I think they got a lot out of it and are more aware of marcellus shale in their community. I thought it was very important for students to have a basic knowledge of marcellus shale in a class like WV Studies.

   My second artifact that is also from the program will most likely be a lesson plan from this semester. I'd like to have a high school lesson incorporated just to show that I've been able to create good lessons at multiple levels. I thought I made a very good lesson that focuses on the Erie Canal. I know I did a good job because I'm from that area of the country. Being able to add personal experiences being from upstate new york was fun for my kids and for me.

Federal Court Facts

District courts are able to hear a multitude of different cases. These include criminal and civil cases. There are seperate courts for bankruptcy cases, though. A case can make its way from a district, to appeals, to supreme court through appeals, if they are granted them. The case usually  only gets to the supreme court if there is a difference of opinion between judges on in the appeals courts.

 Mike

Learning Goals

One of my main learning goals that I set for myself this semester was to keep in better contact with my mentor teacher. I feel that so far I've done an alright job keeping in contact with her throughout the week. I know if I can send at least two or three e-mails a week that I will have a much better idea of whats going on in my classroom. The more organized I am in my preparation for tutoring the more profound my affect will be in the classroom.

Mike Tortolon

Importance of Reflection

Reflecting on what I've learned in my time at my PDS has been rally important and has helped me uncover a lot of ideas and ways to improve myself as a teacher. At this point I still agree with my original blog post. My only problem is that my blog is not really utilized. Luckily, the Benedum program gives me tons of different opportunities to reflect on what has happened in my classroom. It's really important to communicate, not only with your blog partner, but with all sorts of educators. It goes back to my original idea of the entire compiling all our thoughts to create ideas.

Mike

Do you think it would be more beneficial if we had a large group of people following each others blogs instead of only following each others?

Digital Storytelling

I feel like there are a few things that have happened at my PDS school that could help create a story. I have a few interesting and diverse students that could play roloes in them. An interesting take I have is that I have a participant and some days an intern in my class, so it always is interesting to see the kids react with four teachers in the same room.

I feel a good story has to keep someone captivated and want to keep reading. I would never want to bore someone to death with a bland story. What will make this assignment hard for tutors is the little amount of time that we spend in our PDS classrooms. Also, a good story should have a good ending. You don't want it to trail off in the end.

Any time you can incorporate media into a story it really helps it along. If something unvbelieveable happens you have evidence to back it up.