"Something Wicked This Way Comes"

     "When at first you don't succeed, try and try again".  This seems to be the motto for my unit on Macbeth.  I have labored over this text for days and figuring out how in the world I was going to teach such a challenging text.  When I first found out I was teaching Macbeth I was overjoyed.  I love Shakespeare and this is one of my favorite plays.  Little did I know that liking a play and teaching a play would be completely different!  I'm still not entirely sure what went wrong with the comprehension on this play.  Could it have been the names of all of the characters?  Perhaps, it could be the language?  I even considered that it may have been that they simply did not like it.  Little by little each day I tried new ways to approach this text.  These ways included: reading No Fear Shakespeare, watching a modern version of it, watching an older version of it, the graphic novel,  performing it outside, and the literature book version.  It seemed as though every way I taught it caused more confusion and perhaps even made the understanding go backwards.  Regardless, I settled on teaching acts IV and V through the older movie version and discussion.
     This leads to the day that Dr. Mortimore came and observed this Academic IV class at the end of the day.  Fist of all, one might note that this situation and circumstance of time is not the most ideal.  These students have senioritis PLUS it is the last period of the day.  Anyhow, the students came walking in and picked up a graphic organizer on the desk.  I decided to start the lesson with an activating strategy that picked up where we left off yesterday, the three apparitions in Act IV.  I wanted them to answer questions about the apparitions and predict what the significance was of them.  This turned out to be quite the catastrophe that I didn't expect.  They seemed to be very confused on how the graphic organizer worked and asked an abundance (excuse the alliteration) of questions that took up way too much time.  Even once we got on the same page, I still didn't get the discussion that I hoped for.  It was mainly me telling them what I THINK and them not understanding how I came to my conclusions.  So as a reflection, what could I have done differently?  The answer is quite obvious and simple.  I needed clear and concise directions with perhaps a model for them to see.  I wanted them to create something on their own, but I left it too vague.  I think it is hard for me to do graphic organizers because I was never one that really appreciated them.  I liked taking my own notes and writing down my thoughts on lined paper.  Naturally, everyone is different and I need to constantly remind myself that graphic organizers can only help and that they never take away from learning.
     Once that activity was over and I was still in an panicky mood from the results, I explained the post-it note activity to these students once again.  Each student got five post-it notes and there were five posters on the wall.  They had to answer or do the tasks that were explained on each poster on theit posrt-it note.  In the middle of the movie, if they had a post-it filled, they would stick it on the wall.  After awhile I would stop the movie and go over the questions.  This activity actually worked out prety well for doing it for the first time.  The reason behind doing this was that I needed more participation.  This ensured that every students was participating and keepting them engaged while watching the movie.  The only issue that I had was that I wanted them to ask deeper questions and their answers were not always that deep.  Perhaps I should have used the higher-level thinking words on the poster for them to answer.  Either way, it kept their attention and it went as good as any other lesson had gone so far in Macbeth.
     One thing that was a struggle during this unit was the technological resources for it.  I had to resort to using a youtube version of the movie to show these students.  Not only was the quality terrible, the acting was also not the best.  I think that there should be more tangible copies of movies rather than trying to rummage around the internet for one.  Furthermore, there needs to be a more engaging movie.  Someone should make this movies geared towards students.  Perhaps there should be questions on the movie after each scene and sort of go through elements that were just shown in the film.  I am sure that there are versions like that out there; however, I would have liked to get my hands on it for the unit.   Lastly, I was VERY impressed by the behavior of the students.  They were not on their phones and they did not talk during the movie.  The all perticipated and followed directions.  This was quite an improvement and I was very very proud of them for their behavior.
      I suppose now is a better time than ever to wrap up my thoughts and reflect on student teaching as a whole.  I have learned so many things that this blog cannot possibly contain them all.  One of the most important things that I have learned is that preparation is the key to a successul lesson.  If everything and every detail is planned out then it leaves little room for error.  I learned that you should never give up after a lousy lesson.  It is a chance to try different things and will prepare you for that unit if you ever teach it in your own classroom.  Finally, I learned that teaching is not a job or just a career but a lifestyle.  After most jobs people go home and go about their business.  As a teacher, your job goes everywhere with you.  I don't think I ever stop thinking about teaching during the day.  My gears are constantly going about what I am going to do about this or that and it never stops.  It truly is a career in which you keep learning new things.

Blog 3..The Beginning of the end

"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade" is what they say.  However, what happens if you don't have sugar, ice, a cup, etc.?  That is exactly how I was feeling the day that Dr. Mortimore decided to stroll into my classroom.  The class she decided to observe was the one that I thought I could make a differnce in.  As my placement started, I thought I could make this class relevant to the students and they would enjoy coming to class everday.  Needless to say, I feel as though that would all be fine and dandy had I been given the resources to make this a success.  I should mention that is an elective intro. to film course that any student from 9th to 12th grade can take.  Therefore, you can see that there are many different types of students with different bakckgrounds and have been given different amounts of tools to be successful in an english class.  Shannon decided to come in towards the end of the first class and just in time for the intro. to film students to file in.  As they walked in I had a polleverywhere poll on the board for them to vote what type of movie they would like to watch.
I thought long and hard about doing this because cell phones are a HUGE issue in this class.  So far, they have been permitted to have their phones out at any given time in class, except during a test.  Coming in as a student teacher I knew I had my work cut out because they were too far along for me to implement no cell phones in class.  Therefore, I decided to use it to my advantage...or so I thought.  Over half of the students did NOT even partake in the poll as they walked in.  Some stated they didn't have phones while others just didn't do it.  Did they know that I couldn't tell who took the poll and who didn't?  Did they simply misunderstand my directions?  Were the testing me? 
     This was the first thing that did not go to plan that day.  How is it that I tried to turn something negative into something positive in the classroom and it didn't work out?  This is where I stand with this class and what to do.  How can I turn something that I cannot change into something that will benefit the class?  Another situation that is not in my favor is the seating arrangement.  They can sit wherever they please.  Therefore, the ninth graders gravitate towards each other and so forth.  They sit with their friends and can be on their phones all at one time.  This has been ongoing struggle and I can't seem to figure out how to fix it.  I could simply assign a seating chart; however, I don't think that that's going to stop the problems in the class.  I have been spending a lot of time trying to figure out who to fix this situation so that the next three weeks run smoothly.... (suggestions are welcome!).
     As for the actual instruction. I decided to show them a parody of Les Miserables that was a song that used the tune from a popoular song.  This went over quite well and I was pleasantly surprised.  Everyone seemed attentive at that point and it was a good way for me to address problems that I have been seeing with them identifying character traits.  All was well with this and I got some feedback but not as much as I would have liked.  The rest of the class they were asked to create a facebook page for any fictional character in a tv series, a movie, or a book.  This was an assessment to see if they could identify characteristics of characterizations.  I wanted them to use the character's dialogue, relationships, emotions, actions, motivations, and traits to depict this character in their facebook page.  The students, once again, seemed responsive to this and worked quite diligently.  The only issue that arose was staying on task and listening to directions which is a struggle every day.  Most of them didn't finish and I collected them to work on the following day.
      Although my content and instruction seems to be evident, I am simply having a struggle with behavioral management.  I need to get them to stay on task, follow directions, and to listen to one another.  Dr. Shannon luckily had suggestions that I am working with.  Perhaps I could set up expectations at the beginning of class.  I could move seats and follow through with the things that I say.  It seems as though this is an exact science that needs careful planning and proper implementation.  What can I do for an elective class with all grades to be successful and work in a way that makes the class structured?  Right now that is where I am and I am constantly thinking about the best way to approach this.