Wednesday July 18^th 2012

Day Eight at Mountain Creek State High School

Just noticed day 8 never posted, so here it is!!

            Last night I attended a staff meeting. It is a Professional Development presentation that the teachers are required to attend regularly to ensure that they know the most up to date teaching strategies. I felt quite impressed with my previous knowledge on the topics being discussed. Almost the entire time was spent with the Principal being the teacher and us teachers being the students. She wanted us to see different effective teaching ways to engage the students. I learned some new strategies, but mainly I was reminded of my own learning from Cortland. It truly amazes me how these strategies are trying to be enforced here as well, because it really shows the common care for student learning. I even felt comfortable enough to explain a way to test affective domain at the end of a written exam. It made me feel really great inside knowing I understood what was going on during the meeting. Today in school I had a great day. In session 1 my year 11 health students were working on their laptops with a worksheet assignment my teacher and I planned. It was not until later in the session that FINALLY the students started to ask me questions. Every class I ask if anyone has any questions and I try really hard to have them engage with me in a more personal way, but they have been shy thus far. We got to talking about all the differences from my high school with theirs and once they started they had question after question. My teacher actually enjoyed this as well and she allowed us to talk for the remaining of class. I am now feeling better because this is a class I will begin teaching tomorrow. Session 2 today was one of my aerobics classes. I taught lesson 2, which I have already taught to my other class last Friday so I had a good base of how the class might run. This class is larger than my other aerobics class so it is more difficult to manage. I am learning a lot about working with older students and how they are less scared of me. I am trying very hard to come off tough so they know not to mess around. But even with my teacher, they still misbehave. For Friday I decided to come up with a behavior plan that will help me in deciding what to do when these typical boys misbehave. I think other than the occasional mishap; personally I think I did a well job in giving the information. I am really enjoying teaching this to the students and I am so eager to see improvements as the weeks go on. After my planning session, I had my very first year 9 Sex Ed. Class. Oh man is this going to be interesting for the term. We started with an introduction by putting the word sexuality on the board. We had all the students call out any word they can think of that relates to our word. We gave no help and at first they were shy, but once they started, it started to flow. Of course there are lots of giggles and talking on the side during this first day because it is all very personal. However, my teacher did a great job out lining the rules and expectations regarding this topic. I am a bit nervous to take this class on, but I am able to wait until the kids are more comfortable with the subject, therefore I believe I will be as well. It has been so great to work out in the gym here, I love it! Today after school I went to have my usual workout and then biked home. School is fun, but I can tell how tired I am each night.