Author: ethan_varzeas

Journal Entry 10-7-19\

Today the students in my Pre-AP English 2 class began a new short story titled “Shooting an Elephant.” The entire lesson was set up on the students iPads where they could annotate the passage as they also filled out an analysis form. During my fourth period class, a group of administrators and Apple representatives came to observe the lesson. The class had around ten adults as well as thirty students occupying the room at the same time. Although the room was crowded, the students continued to focus on their work and to complete their assignment with only a few distractions.

Journal Entries 10-3-19

The students began their definition essays today based on their reading and analysis of “Man in the Water.” The essay had very few regulations except for a minimum count of body paragraphs, 5 specifically. I purposely chose to give the students less specific regulations on content to help encourage them to write what they wanted. At first, many of the students did not know how they wanted to define their work, but after encouraging them to choose what they felt strongly about, many of them chose meaningful words that engaged them. For the first day, my goal was to get students to decide on their word and to finish their first paragraph.

Journal Entry 10-2-19

As the students continued to analyze “Man in the Water,” I had the class try a form of analysis called “DIDLES.” To help the students process the information in the article, I had them complete a SOAPStone activity with me as a class before they began their work. Having the class run through a similar form of analysis helped get the students attention focused on the task at hand. When teaching this lesson in the future, I want to have the students work through the SOAPSTone analysis on their own as well as the DIDLES. Going over both at the end to make sure students having the correct information.

Journal Entry 10-1-19

Continuing with my full teach, I decided to introduce my students to a news article from the 1980s titled “The Man in the Water.” The article focused on the heroic acts of a man who saved others from a plane crash by giving his own life. I had the students read and annotate the article with me, and I had them create their own summaries and analysis. The main objective was to get the students hooked into the story. While many of the students did enjoy the article, around a quarter of them had to little to no interest in the topic. In the future I want to have my students more engaged by including different activities that encourage students to move around and manipulate the material.

Journal Entry 9-26-19

Today for my Pre-AP students I decided to create a day solely dedicated to writing. At the beginning of the class I introduced the students to a new form of free writing where they had complete confidentiality and complete freedom, in an appropriate range, to write whatever they wanted. The students were hesitant at first and many of them did not know what they wanted to write about. After some encouragement and brain storming I had students writing creatively for a thirty minute period. I want to continue incorporating at least one day each year where I give the students this same opportunity to discover their own enjoyment in writing.

Journal Entry 9-25-19

After testing with my Pre-AP students the day before, I decided to give my students an opportunity to free write. I had them take most of the class period to write whatever they wanted to with the only stipulation being that their work had to be school appropriate. Many of the students were anxious about the freedom, and they wanted to have a specific prompt to write about so I gave some example options for them. My regular students did a test review over the two short stories we had read in the previous week and a half. The students were attentive to the review, and I was able to give it without my mentor teacher present.

Journal Entry 9-24-19

I got the opportunity to give my students my first test today to see if I was able to teach the material well. The students ended up doing very well on the exam, which was encouraging to me as an educator. I was unsure about my ability to teach the material, but seeing my students succeed on the test helped me solidify some of my teaching ability. I finished reading “False Gems” with my regular students today, and I began having them work on an analysis sheet. One of my student, who typically pushes boundaries, refused to work on his assignment today, but after I had a conversation with him, he started working.

Journal Entry 9-23-19

Today I decided to do a test review with my Pre-Ap students. I handed them a Cornell notes sheet and I listed the different topics they would need to know on the white board. After giving them most of the class to work on the notes, I pulled them together and I gave them the essential information that they should have for each topic. My regular students began reading the story “False Gems” today with me. the class was far more into this story than they were the last one, which helped me create more engaging class conversations during reading.

Journal Entry 9-18-19

For my Pre-Ap students I created stations for them to analyze different aspects of Animal Farm. The students enjoyed the stations and it took them the entire period to complete all of them. I felt very effective as a teacher today because students asked tough questions about the stations that I was able to answer and help them through their tasks. With my regular students we finished reading the story, and I gave them to activities that required them to answer analytical questions about the story. I also delivered a mini-lesson on precise adjectives, which went very well and the students were much better than they had been earlier in the week.

Journal Entry 9-17-19

the students worked on a new foldable activity during my Pre-Ap classes where the students make historical connections to the novel’s characters. The students needed the directions reexplained a few times before they completely understood them, but by 4th period I was better able to deliver those instructions. I am developing better relationships with my students, and many of them are quicker to speak to me first. In my regular classes we began reading the “Monkey’s Paw” short story. The students in my 7th period are still difficult for me to corral, but my eighth period is beginning to respond more positively to me.