North Marion High School Week 5

My last week at North Marion went well, but I am sad to leave. I attended an after school seminar to learn more about edline and different things you can do with it. It was very helpful to see the different components it has. I believe that some of its capabilities could even help in action research like some of the graphs and statistics it can create for you. I attended another IEP meeting, which is always beneficial to be a part of. I have attended several at this placement and they have all been a little bit different. I have seen some dealing with freshman and their plan for the next four years, students on home bound, and students who are planning the transition to college. The meetings were on topics I would not have gotten the chance to see in any elementary placement and I am glad I got to be a part of them here.
My overall experience at North Marion has been wonderful. I believe that I grew a lot as a teacher and learned more than I ever had as far as special education goes. I believe my weakness at this placement was teaching math. It is difficult to teach a subject well that you have not had in many years. While in my collaborative settings, I heard other math teachers explain things so well and have such good examples to help illustrate concepts to the students that I would have never thought of. I know that being an elementary teacher involves teaching every subject, but high school math is much more difficult and I wish that I could have explained some concepts better to my students. I believe as I grow as a teacher and with more years of experience, I will gain the resources and ideas to convey concepts to my students. When I do get a job, I need to make sure that I am 100% comfortable with the material before I teach it, and that I go above and beyond to find the best way to teach and explain it.
I am really going to miss driving down the Husky Highway each day and being welcomed by all the faculty and staff. I feel like I have become part of their Husky family and hope that I can do some of my contract hours here, or at least get on the sub list and be able to spend some more time here.

North Marion High School Week 4

This past week at North Marion went well, however, there are a few things that I learned to help me become a better teacher. This placement has been very different than my past experiences and it has been interesting trying to adjust. There are many students who don't come to school for many days in a row. This week has taught me how important it is to stay organized with missed assignments and what they need to make up and what they can't. I not only need to be organized with their papers that they missed but also be organized and keep up with edline and make sure I immediately mark things that can not be made up and mark things that can be made up but do not have a grade yet. My mentor teacher keeps folders in the classroom for the students to keep their papers in and I usually put their missing work in the folders, but I need to make sure I only put in what they need to make up and the date that we did it on. I got a little mixed up this week with a few make up papers, but in the end it all worked out. I think in the future I will try to have a more organized way to keep my papers for myself and my students to help make make up work go more smoothly. I would like to have a filing folder or something to keep each chapters papers in with the dates on the tabs or something along those lines. I would also like to have a 'mailbox' for each student that I could easily put what they missed in it. I am also having a difficult time with knowing how to handle a student that has already missed 10 days of school. It is hard to move on with everyone else when you have a student who has no idea what you are talking about. There is usually a few minutes at the end of class for students to start homework and I can spend time with the students who were absent, but you can't make up 10 days in five minutes. This is an issue that I think has to be dealt with differently in different situations, but I am currently struggling with what the best option is.

North Marion High School Week 3

This was my first week to fully take over all the classes. I got to take advantage of some resources like algebra's cool. Some of the students took very well to it, while others preferred me teaching instead. I also had the students play interactive computer games to help with the order of operations. Now that we are getting into more difficult material, I am really seeing how much time some things can take. I feel as though I moved too fast through a few concepts which resulted in poor quiz grades, but they students will be given the opportunity for corrections and more practice. This week has also taught me that lessons can and will be changed. Nothing that I have planned has to stay set in stone. I was nervous to steer away from my plans, and I think that I should have spent some more time last week and maybe the quiz grades would have looked a little better. I am becoming more comfortable with everything and am finally starting to develop my own routine. I am looking forward to this upcoming week to see if I am getting any better at pacing myself.

North Marion High School Week 2

My second week in my high school placement has been even better than my first. I have had the opportunity to begin teaching applied geometry. At first I was a little unsure of the lessons I created and my time management skills. After the first day I had to adjust a few things in order to have my lessons flow from day to day, but it all worked out especially because I didn't realize how much review and practice was needed. I believe my lessons went well, it is just hard to adjust to having half the class absent one day and try to catch them up the next. I believe that will be an ongoing challenge at this placement for me. My lessons consisted of things like lecture, guided notes, and review games. The students seemed to really enjoy the Jeopardy review game we played the day before the quiz. They all really worked hard and remained engaged with it, they even requested to play again the next day! For my future lessons, I want to take advantage of some of the resources offered at North Marion. Next week I plan on using Algebra'sCool. It has an interactive video with guided notes, guided practice, and independent practice. I am looking forward to seeing how the students will respond to learning math in a very non traditional way. Algebra'sCool, is one of many resources I can use at my placement. I am thankful there are such interesting things to do, but it is hard to take advantage of them, when I am still learning what many of them are.

This school has done a really nice job with making the students from WVU feel very welcome. I can't say enough how nice almost everyone has been and how they want us to feel like a true Husky! They have even asked the interns to be a part of the Thuse today, by having us lie on the gym floor and be a part of the spelling of HUSKIES with human bodies, all being faculty. I am becoming much more comfortable with this placement and am really taking a liking to working with high school students.