Today I was finally able to meet with my cooperating teacher and get a feel for the teaching and school environment. The building itself is older and not nearly as nice as other schools I've attended and observed at. The first thing I noticed about my teacher's classroom is that it is quite small! There were several computers along one wall and the students desks were clustered in groups of 4 around the room. The hallways were decorated but my teacher's classroom was very brown and blah. There was some leopard/leopard print decor but it wasn't much. I was happy to see that the room did have a smart board.
My cooperating teacher herself was very nice. She is an older and slightly frumpy woman. An interesting thing I discovered today is that my teacher co-teaches with another teacher for certain class periods of the day, so I will be getting the chance to work with two teachers! The other teacher was younger and also very polite. My main cooperating teacher has over 30 years of experience and seems very professional. She didn't seem to have a distinct classroom management style. She basically just tells the kids to be quite, talks to the out in the hall, or writes up the kids when behavior is unacceptable.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
LISD Orientation
Today was my district orientation for student teachers. There are officially 87 student teachers in the district which includes 60 different schools.
I arrived about 10 minutes early and there was about 10-15 people waiting to sign in. We then went back to take pictures for our I.D. cards and find a seat in the presentation room. It was incredible how many people showed up past the start time! What's with people and their inability to make appointments? Apparently I'm one of the few who takes these things seriously. Anyways, we ended up waiting until 9:30 to begin the actual presentation. Apparently the 8:30 start time was so that the people who actually show up on time would show up, get their pictures done and out of the way, while they waited for the late people to show up and do the same. Thank god for smart phones otherwise I'd have to stare into space or listen to other people's conversations to pass time.
The presentation itself was cute and only mildly informative. Basically the big message was not to be a half ass teacher and that the district might hire you. The woman in charge of staffing the secondary teachers informed us that their primary means of hiring teachers is by interviewing student teachers. So basically I'm going to do my best this semester to kick ass at student teaching and hopefully I'll land myself a teaching position. The job openings should be posted sometime in late March or April so I'll be sure to check up on that.
Other than that nothing interesting occurred. We got a free pen, highlighter (which was dried up), and caramel corn. We watched lame videos that offered student teaching tips. It's not that the tips were irrelevant, but is just another reiteration of everything our professors have repeated to us in every education class I took.
I'll update again next week and report if my university's 8 hour orientation and 3 hour seminar is any less boring than the one I attended today. My guess is not so much.
I arrived about 10 minutes early and there was about 10-15 people waiting to sign in. We then went back to take pictures for our I.D. cards and find a seat in the presentation room. It was incredible how many people showed up past the start time! What's with people and their inability to make appointments? Apparently I'm one of the few who takes these things seriously. Anyways, we ended up waiting until 9:30 to begin the actual presentation. Apparently the 8:30 start time was so that the people who actually show up on time would show up, get their pictures done and out of the way, while they waited for the late people to show up and do the same. Thank god for smart phones otherwise I'd have to stare into space or listen to other people's conversations to pass time.
The presentation itself was cute and only mildly informative. Basically the big message was not to be a half ass teacher and that the district might hire you. The woman in charge of staffing the secondary teachers informed us that their primary means of hiring teachers is by interviewing student teachers. So basically I'm going to do my best this semester to kick ass at student teaching and hopefully I'll land myself a teaching position. The job openings should be posted sometime in late March or April so I'll be sure to check up on that.
Other than that nothing interesting occurred. We got a free pen, highlighter (which was dried up), and caramel corn. We watched lame videos that offered student teaching tips. It's not that the tips were irrelevant, but is just another reiteration of everything our professors have repeated to us in every education class I took.
I'll update again next week and report if my university's 8 hour orientation and 3 hour seminar is any less boring than the one I attended today. My guess is not so much.
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