My Internship so Far...

In response to Mrs. Stevens' Blog, below is an update on my internship.

I am in Lexy Smith's 7th grade math class at North Ridge Middle School. I am there for 2 class periods, one On-Level class and one PreAp class. She has been teaching there for 3 years now. Click here to go to her webpage.

Walking into the classroom, I felt a little nervous. It is always intimidating walking in for the first time and meeting a whole new class, but I was very excited to get back in the classroom. When I am at the middle school, I can do anything I want. I have already taught 2 lessons, and I work with the students one-on-one and in small groups almost daily when they are struggling. Since they do flipped classroom, I am usually helping students understand the notes and figure out homework problems. I am looking forward to teaching more lessons, and getting to interact with the students even more this year.

There are many difference from my experiences last year to this year even though I am in the same grade with the same teacher. Last year I had an inclusion class, so the students were all below grade level and very slow learners. They all needed constant help and explanations. This year, the On-Level class still needs some help, but the PreAp class usually understand concepts quickly and they behave better than the other classes. Also, all the TEKS have changed for math, so the material is completely different from last year.

TAFE Region Reflection

In response to Mrs. Stevens' Blog, below is my reflection on the competition.

I competed in both Inside Our Schools and Lesson Plan STEM at region. 

The hardest part of both events would be the preparation. Both competitions required a video and presentation. My lesson plan video had to incorporate the teaching, activity, and assessment of the lesson and had to be less than 10 minutes. Because my entire lesson was 45 minutes, it was difficult to cut down to make the video. For Inside our Schools, the video was simple to put the images and videos together, but it was difficult to voice over at the right length. Some clips required a 20 second talking clip, so we would have to add or take out information accordingly. 

From competition, I learned not to get fluster when something doesn't work out. I couldn't upload my lesson plan video while competing because the video could not be played on the certain video player. I had to remain calm and try to figure out a different way to pull up the video. The judge even tried to help me play it, but he was not able to figure it out. Thankfully, I had the video in my Dropbox, so I was able to upload it from that. I also learned to stay calm through the chaos of competition. Our first event was running an hour behind, so it was difficult to wait, then my second event was moving the order around and lost a judge. Before I could present, they had to find a replacement judge, so it was extremely chaotic. 

Next round, I will take in a rubric and storyboard for Inside Our Schools, so the judges will be able to actually read it. Also, I will figure out how to play the video on a non Macbook computer. If my lesson advances, the judges suggested that I include a stronger introduction to the lesson, so that would require to redo that part of the video. I would also have a more organized reflection presentation. At region, I rambled on and didn't have specific speaking points. I just talked my reflection out load and skipped over some parts, so I would have more of a presentation. 

The best part was interacting with the judges after presenting the videos. It was fun to reveal my passion and explain the videos in a non formal way. The judges were smiling and laughing with me and I enjoyed playing off their energy and getting feedback on teaching that I will use in the future.