Student Teaching: Hard days, and hard days you are grateful to miss

Week one of student teaching finally came to a close.

I got a phone call Thursday night from Mr. G, one of my cooperating teachers. He had a horrible toothache (late found it was in pretty bad shape) and was calling in a sub for the next day. He took a moment to let me know what the plan was for the next day so I could help support the sub. When I arrived Friday morning, no one else was in the classroom. And no one came. Turned out the school was short 6 subs across campus. Eek. So I had to step in and take over his classes all day. By the second class, I had to send two girls to the office with referrals. Refused to do anything. Disrupted other students. Talking back. I think one girl really thought I was going to cave, back down, and give her what she wanted. If you cave on day one, they'll walk over you all year. I sent the first girl but kept the second for a while so they wouldn't think they were getting rewarded and sit and hang out. The second girl I sent to the back of the room, without her iPod to listen to, until I thought the other girl was in the Assistant Principal's office. When I walked the other girl to the office 15 minutes later, I found the first girl in the hall. She still had not found her way to the office yet. The next class is usually pretty loud, but I was so relieved to see them after that.

In the midst of the fiasco came a very sad moment. Mrs. G got an email from the administration. A boy at a nearby middle school brought a gun to school. Not just any middle school, but the one I am assigned to continue my student teaching at in a month and a half. He intended to kill himself, but a staff member talked him down before anyone was hurt.

Student Teaching: Lesson Plans, Week 1

Below are links to the lessons I taught during the first week. The class was a combined Advanced Theatre class (Theatre II, III, IV). I have 15 students. Some are extremely shy, while others are anxious to do EVERYTHING. It's a great place for a student teacher to learn. The other classes are an entirely different universe. The students are there to get their required fine arts credit, and it's a battle to motivate them. But when they get it, it's all worth it.

The main objective this week was to read through the script that will be used to UIL One Act Play this year, get the students familiar with the show, and generate an interest in auditions. Go team.

Below are the lesson plans I used along with reflections on how the lessons went:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts, suggestions, or experiences!

Student Teaching: Me and my big mouth

Before school started, I wandered onto campus during staff development hoping to find my cooperating teachers. I was introduced to the Dean of Instruction, Mr. B. He was really kind, showed me around, and helped me find Mr. and Mrs. G, my teachers. During my first week I stopped by to say hi. I found out that in his teacher days he taught theatre at a middle school. I let him know I was already taking over one class. He asked what period and said he'd stop by the next day to see how I was doing. Nice one.

Lucky for me we were just finishing reading a script when he stopped by and discussing it afterward, so it wasn't the worst time to have an observer. Phew.

Student Teaching: I really don't care...because I care

I still need to write about the first week of student teaching, but I had to write about a moment that happened today. I used to think I'd struggle with students not liking me. Today I realized I didn't care. I took away a student's cell phone. I moved another from sitting next to a friend. I sat next to a student silently until they got to work on an assignment. In each instance I realized, "You don't like me very much right now," and then realized, "And I don't care." Now don't get me wrong. I care very much about my students. I care about their success. I care that they work hard. I care that they get an education. And because I care, I don't care if they don't like me.

Student Teaching: Finding your way and making a place

What can I do?

It's a great question to ask others. It's an even better question to ask yourself. Yesterday I sat in on a long day of Staff Development meetings with my cooperating teachers. Very enlightening. In less than a day, I was able to get a feel for the administration, the staff, and the teachers at my high school. The teachers were divided into departments for breakout sessions, and the fine arts and electives group are pretty vocal. They really are fighting for their jobs, their disciplines, and most importantly their students.

Today I spent the day talking with my cooperating teachers and helping them get ready for the first day of school on Monday. Requisite tours, making word walls (yes, at a high school...even theatre teachers have to go along with administrators), lesson planning, and plotting for and against the students. :)

First stroke of genius came from a little inspiration from the space itself. I wish I could adequately explain the bizarre setup of the theatre building. On the left and right side of the audience are two "pods" of 100 seats each that can be rotated around and become a classroom on the other side. It's a pretty steep angle for a classroom once turned around. Looking up into one of the rooms, all I could think of was how awesome it would be to use the "audience area" for a puppet show, with puppets popping up in different parts of the room. The tech teacher got a huge smile on her face when I mentioned it...and we are already plotting on doing a unit on puppetry with her tech class for Lily Plants a Garden by José Cruz González. I absolutely love that play, and it would be a great opportunity to work with it. We also found out that there may be a way to get supplies donated from Walmart to help make the puppets. Returned socks, fabric scraps, anything they were just going throw out. Fingers crossed.

The second stroke of genius came from really listening. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to really hear teachers. When you do, you start seeing where you can help. The program is experiencing a lull in dedicated students. They have a few core students holding things together. What they lack are stage managers. Well I have good news for you. That is something I can help with. While I can't be there for them through UIL One Act Play Festival, I can do what teachers do best--Prepare someone who can. I'm going to be there after school for rehearsals anyway. So at the beginning of the semester, I will act as their stage manager, while training two students to do it. Then as we go, they can slowly take over until they can do it themselves. It will allow the director to focus on directing and give me a chance to really mentor a small group of students. How lucky am I?

Curriculum

A sometimes dreaded but potentially exciting word. In many school districts, central administration provides teachers of "core" subjects a curriculum framework.

Welcome to the world of theatre. Where you are given a list of competencies (TEKS in Texas), a smile, and a "good luck." It can be daunting with so much material to cover and so little time. The flip side of so much freedom is learning to decide what is most important, what you can let go of, and what you feel students are missing in their other classes that you can bring them through drama work.

So this is my first attempt at creating a semester long curriculum. It's designed for a Theatre III class, mostly 11th graders. I am a big proponent of teaching across the curriculum. Theatre is a great way to bring to life and provide real application to what students are learning in their other classes. This course bridges the second semester of Modern American Theatre with US History Post World War II.

You can view my curriculum here. It includes six sample lesson plans.

As always, it is subject to review, suggestions, improvements (we hope), and complete

overhauls.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and what has worked for you!

Student Teaching: Unexpected drama and rolling with the punches

A few days ago, I finally found out the remaining details of my student teaching placement. Two months at a high school starting next week, then two months splitting my day between an elementary and middle school.

Then I got a phone call from my cooperating teacher at the high school. He has been horribly ill, had surgery, is recovering, and will not be returning to the classroom until the end of January at the earliest. I'm relieved that he is on the mend...and I love that I have an amazing mentor who is already taking care of the situation.

I also opened my email this morning to find a message from the university. It said I was missing a class in child development and could not begin student teaching (which is supposed to start next week) until I provided a transcript for the course...which I took two years ago. Ugh. Luckily transcripts are easy to get. :)

On the bright side...I totally rocked the TExES Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities EC-12 exam. :)