Sorry for..

One of the things that I have had trouble with thus far in my student teaching is how I grade essays on tests. Being in a small school, I know which students live in a tough situation, and which do not. This leads me to grade those students who do come from a poor background more lenient. This is unfair to higher achieving students with more advantages, because I am grading them harder. If I could do it over again, I would grade just as hard no matter what the situation, because I do not want to give my students a false sense of success either. I want them to achieve above and beyond mine and their own expectations.

Action Plan

Using comments from my curriculum unit plan, I have found three areas in which I can adapt my instruction and hopefully improve upon.

The first point to address is making lessons meaningful to students. I think this is important because it is difficult to gauge interest from a majority of students that do not have the same interests as the teacher. Of course I have an interest in social studies and U.S. history, but how do I get students from all kinds of different backgrounds to appreciate the same things I do? I will try to adapt my instruction by finding out what sort of activities students respond to best beyond the standard note taking. This should tell me how to make lessons more meaningful for students.

The second point to address is reducing the amount of standard lecture. Granted a good portion of history simply needs to be explained in depth, but I need to find other ways to present material. History is difficult to do this with because it is not like a chemistry class where you can do experiments or a math class where students can actively engage in working out problems. I know I could use Google Earth more in the classroom and I also could try to implement more photostory.

The third and final point to address is working on my objectives. My cooperating teacher informed me how to write objectives more efficiently as far as displaying them to my university supervisor. I do not think addressing my objectives is a problem, but I do think I need to work better on using assessments to test for student understanding of the objectives. I plan on doing this through a variety of methods. I have used exit slips and think writes, which are both easy forms. But to tie these assessments back into making a lesson meaningful for students, I would also like to find some more fun methods of assessments to gauge student interest.

South Carolina Council for the Social Studies

The South Carolina Council for the Social Studies is affiliated with the National Council for the Social Studies. The SCCSS provides opportunities for members to share their development of ideas with other educators from the state and southeast region. The goal here is to provide a closer relationship among social studies teachers among the state of South Carolina. I did find one instructional site that focuses on teaching American history in South Carolina that would help immediately in student teaching, and I did notice that they have an annual conference each year that I could attend. I think anyone teaching in the state would find this organization useful simply for its devotedness to unify social studies teachers. I especially think that the organization would be good for first year teachers so that they do not feel like they are going into their profession alone.

Philosophy of teaching

My philosophy of teaching has been refurnished a little bit since the beginning of my observations in the school and my first few days teaching. First, I had this vision that I would go in and blow the students away with the "amazing" lessons I had planned. Visioning teaching and physically teaching are two entirely different things. I have learned thus far to keep it simple at times, simply to keep student interest. I have also learned that students will tell you what direction to take your next lesson. You can have a rough idea of when and how you want to cover things over the semester, but sometimes you have to adapt, adjust, and retool your next lesson. Therefore, my philosophy of teaching has become one that says you have to handle things as they come to you. You can never know one week from a particular Monday what you will be doing on the next Monday.

In order to match my vision that I would be able to spark student interest and have a very participation-oriented class, I will need to find alternative methods for how I present the material to students. I hate to say this about students, but a good majority of them simply do not care about what it is I have to say, nor what any teachers have to say for that matter on any particular subject. There are a few in my classes that participate regularly and show a vested interest, but I do not want those students to be the only ones I hear from.

I will keep testing these alternative methods of presenting my information to students. I think the method of trial and error is my only option right now. I have to find what works for the majority of the students that I teach. I know that if I do find what works best for the students, student teaching should begin to sail by much faster, and I will feel more confidence that teaching is something I can do for my career.

This I Believe

I used to believe an individual's true character and work ethic shows best by what he or she does when no one is watching. I used to believe individuals with great character use these times as an opportunity to strengthen their character and abilities. This belief could apply to any aspect of life: sports, school, church, work, etc. In my life, sports have been where I learned this lesson most.

This belief grew on me during my days in middle school when I played "C" team basketball. We had a coach that absolutely ran us to the point of total exhaustion. He was after all, a cross country coach at the local high school. Our coach was determined that even though we may not be the most talented team, we would be the best conditioned team, giving us an extra edge at the end of the game. While he did not teach directly to my belief, I formed my belief based on his method of coaching. I had a desire to make my hard work in practice mean something once we were in the limelight. The gut-wrenching amount of sprints, "suicides," and agonizing defensive sliding drills did pay off in the end, as we won the first conference championship for our middle school in its ten year existence at the time.

This lesson carried over into my high school sports. I began to form the idea that no matter what I was doing during practice, I would do it going forward with one hundred percent effort (if only I applied this same belief to my school work!). I knew I would have to put forth a great amount of effort in order to play at the high school level. I was short, slow on my feet, and lacked a natural God-given talent for basketball. Because of my lack of a basketball physique, I flew under the radar as far as a recognizable player that could make an impact on the court. Practice, when no one was watching, was my time to show who I truly was. It paid off with two years starting on varsity with great successes on the court despite my lack of size. I played defense inside with the big boys and ended up winning the hustle award three out of four years of basketball -- an award I cherished much more than a most valuable player award because of my belief. I used to believe that no one was watching, and success was for my own personal glory. With success, I came to realize, someone would always be watching, and for that reason, I must work even harder, for people value your hard work above most anything else.