The Light At The End Of My Tunnel

After a long, stressful week of trying to work around my class schedule, my cooperating teacher’s schedule, and the NECAP craziness, I was FINALLY able to come up with a solution that not only worked, but worked out to my full advantage. Because my CT only teacher two English classes (the other two are reading classes specific to testing) I was not able to see her two classes every time I was available to be at NPHS. However, the solution ended up working to my advantage. During Mrs. Bachini’s prep periods, she has been kind enough to set me up with other teachers in the English department so I can observe their classrooms.

At first I was a little skeptical. How was I going to learn about the class I was going to teach if I was spending so much time in random classes during my observation and assisting time? Truth is, bouncing around different classroom and seeing different methods of teaching has actually given me the feeling that I could stand in the front of almost ANY classroom and teach a lesson. I have seen the period five class that I am going to teach about 3 times now (and will see them once more before I teach) and that is sufficient enough for me. I have learned their names and have learned that there are no extreme modifications that need to be made and I am willing to challenge myself to teach students that I don’t know all that well. That is what teachers do in the beginning of the year anyways isn’t it?

This week I have been lucky enough to sit in on Mrs. Bachini’s English classes a few times each as well as Ms. Masso’s College writing class and Mrs. P’s Writing Workshop class. All of my experiences have given me some great strategies to use in the classroom. In Ms. Masso’s College Writing class, I heard some of the most awesome literacy narratives ever! It is amazing to me how well her students could write. Being that writing is my favorite part about the English classroom, their reading of their pieces was like music to my ears and I did not want the period to be over. Likewise, I heard some journal entries that tenth grade students wrote in Mrs. P’s Witting Workshop class and felt the same excitement.

As I enter my third week and North Providence High School I am excited to begin planning my weeks worth of lessons. Mrs. Bachini and I have been talking a lot about the common assessment the students have to complete and think that it is a good idea to break it up and work on it step by step in class with the freshmen. I am excited to adapt a common task to my own teaching strategies and come up with ways to help students feel that the common task is more than simply something they have to do in order to pass the class. I felt this way about common tasks in high school and wish someone had taken the time to try and adapt them to make them more interesting for me, so that is exactly what I plan to do.