Done with My Final College Assignment!!!

Today my CMU professor came to observe my teaching for one last time. Now that it’s done I have finished all of my college assignments and am basically just waiting to graduate. Of course I will still be in my classroom here and will be teaching government for the remainder of the week, but it feels so nice to have everything else done! I think that my lesson today went well, my professor had some very nice things to say about it, as well as some helpful ideas.

My 12th Grade Government Class at St. Thomas School

One thing that we talked about was how facebook is used in the classroom. I know I mentioned it before, but I still think it is a really good use of technology. Each grade has a private facebook group (only students are added to the group and no one else can see it) where they can talk about class, ask the teacher questions, find assignments, and download powerpoints. Everyone in the states is so afraid of using social networking as a classroom tool, but I see it as a wonderful resource.

After we walked home from school (it was so hot today!) I relaxed a little and then got to work on some museum lesson plans. I officially start my new position as a Museum Educator on the Monday after graduation (not much of a break for me!) but I am working via email right now. I am really excited for the things that are coming up and I can’t wait to get home to work on new exhibits and play with the little kids! Even though my degree is in secondary education (grades 6-12), I love working with young children and have learned a lot about teaching them throughout my CMU education. A big part of my job will be to align our programs and exhibits with the topics and education standards that are being covered by our local schools, so I’m glad I learned all about the Common Core, Michigan GLCEs, and Next Generation Science Standards in my education classes. I have also learned so much about classroom management during student teaching, so I will be able to apply that to museum programs to make the experiences as enjoyable as possible. I also had my graduation party invitations sent out today, so it is starting to feel like “real life” is coming up really soon!

Day Two!

Today my teacher only had 3 class periods – 11th, 12th, and 8th grades. I taught the 11th grade class about the Progressive Era in the United States. I think that it went well, the students had some great questions and seemed interested in the topic. The 12th graders gave presentations on government. The 8th graders have a test later this week so they worked on reviewing information on geography in North and South America. I’m looking forward to teaching more in the 10th and 11th grade classes, since the other classes will be doing presentations for most of my time here.

Some other observations from my second day of school:

-They do not speak English or Spanish, they speak Spanglish. Everything is a mixture of the two. For example they might say: Canada is bigger than the U.S. pero less people y cities. My teacher explained that they just use whichever word comes to mind first whether it is Spanish or English. I am glad I already know some Spanish!

-I learned that the majority of my students come from very wealthy families. They all have iPhones and macbooks.

-The teachers described Saint Thomas as kind of a soccer boot camp. Soccer is a huge deal.

-My students are all part of facebook groups where they can communicate with the teacher. She posts all of their assignments and powerpoints so that they can access them from home. I would love to be able to do this in my classroom at home, but everyone there is so afraid of using technology such as facebook as part of school.

 

Overall, I think today went very well. After school we had another delicious dinner, went swimming, and a few of us went out for a snack at a local restaurant.