Outdoor teaching

Since I am not teaching in a classroom setting, I have been volunteering to teach science outdoors or away from the classroom. I have learned several things that I could take with me when I start my student teaching again. For instance, a few weeks ago, I taught geology out in the woods to 4th graders. I learned that it is important that I keep my talking to a small amount and allow the students to be actively engaged with the activity. During a 20-minute session, I probably only talked for a total of 7 minutes. I quickly introduced the topic and lesson along with some boundaries because we were out in the field and I did not want to lose the students. At the end of the lesson, I wanted the students to discuss on what they saw while they handed back my equipment. Students would rather enjoy the activity than hear a teacher talk all of the time. In terms of rules, it is important to have relatively few than many. A good number of classroom rules is 3 to 5. If there is too few than the classroom can be chaotic or the students do not know what the expectations are. Whereas, if there is too many, then the students would not have fun or feel safe in the classroom.

National Science conference

The national science conference ran for 3 and half days. Even though that I have been to several other conferences, I was practically overwhelmed with this one. During each session hour, there were so many interesting topics that it was difficult to decide which ones would be beneficial for me to attend. Each day other than the last day ran from 7:30 until 6 PM which is a recipe for potential exhaustion. I came home with lots of neat ideas that I could incorporate into a middle or high school science classroom. My newly acquired materials ultimately weigh slightly over 100 pounds. However, I still have the dreading task of sorting through all of my materials when I get back for my spring quarter. As of right now, I am still trying to recooperate from the conference so that I can do well during my spring quarter. In all, the national conference was good for me and my potential education career.

New life for me

Well, I am back to my joyful self. I had a week to calm myself down. I felt down and out-of-luck but remember what I said what happened to me several years prior to the program. People sometimes make life-changing decisions when they are feeling down. This time around, I will stay in the program and will not change careers.

I love teaching. This coming path of my journey to become a secondary science teacher, I picked up two courses that I felt were beneficial for a general education teacher to know about. One of them is the Exceptional Child, which is traditionally a special education course. However, with students with special needs being in general classrooms, I felt that I need to learn how to meet their needs with my curriculum and lesson plans. I am willing to help them succeed. The other course that I picked up is about victims and bullies. This course would be helpful for me because I was victim throughout my school years. I feel that I can contribute to the discussions.

Sometime this summer, I am hoping that I can pick up coursework that is geared to literacy or the reading endorsement in Oregon. Even though I would be endorsed in Science, reading and literacy do not end when a student leaves their Language Arts/English Literature class. Some of my potential curriculum revolves around literacy and comprehension.

Future posts coming soon.

Half-day student teaching

I am extremely frustrated with myself...my student teaching is not what I hoped for. I felt that I had a disconnect between my college classes with my student teaching experience. I do not entirely know why this occurred. What made matters somewhat worse is that my mentor teacher was rarely around to help me guide through the process. Teaching is very difficult but still enjoyable. A good amount of things go to into the teaching process. The definite thing that I need to work on is my classroom management.

As of right now, my student teaching is placed on hold until 6 months from now. I will not be able to much during the next term if only one class that does not have very many assignments. A month ago, I was on the path to graduate in June with my fellow colleagues in the program. But it looks I will not be able to do so. This makes me pretty upset and burned-out. I have been college way too long....10 years and I need to get out so that I can get a job somewhere.

Halfway done

It has been quite a journey so far...there has been bumps in the road. However, it has been well-worth it. I truly believe that I have found a niche that I will enjoy for the rest of my life....teaching science. It will be a tough life but enjoyable and noble in my eyes. Stay tuned for more updates on my journey in becoming a secondary science teacher.