Week 7

This week was filled with many school events that I was able to witness and participate in. Because it was homecoming week, each day was designed around a certain theme. It was very entertaining to see all of the students dress up on sock and superhero days. There were also many different activities going on to celebrate homecoming throughout the week; the three most popular undoubtedly being the homecoming thuse, football game, and dance. These activities came at the end of the week, the thuse happening Friday during the last hour and a half of school time. Of course the students were excited; I am sure that they were excited not only because of the thuse’s activities, but also that the thuse affected the school schedule to shorten the day’s classes. For the thuse, the students were dismissed between 1:00 and 1:15 to the gymnasium. Once all of the students piled in, the students and teachers led the crowd in various chants and entertained with different skits and stunts. Each class of students was allowed to perform a skit that they had created and then performed it for the entire school. Although the juniors’ skit was by far the most amusing, the entire thuse was very fervent.

Later that evening, the homecoming football game against North Marion was scheduled to ensue. The weather had cleared up during the afternoon, leaving the evening looking hopeful; but as the beginning of the game drew nearer, the weather took a turn for the worse. By the time we arrived at the game, the storm had died down, but the rain sustained until half time, when Morgantown was already way ahead of North Marion. This break did not hold, but by the end of this soggy game the Mohigans pulled ahead 51-14.

This substantial win was later celebrated the following Saturday night. All of the interns decided to chaperon the homecoming dance; our main responsibilities including looking after the students and shoe duty. At first we were in charge of reminding students to remove their shoes before entering the dance floor. After this was successfully accomplished, we moved to the shoe/item check-in, as students continually needed to retrieve items from their personal bags (cell phones, money, etc). The homecoming activities were a notable way to experience students and how they interact outside of the classroom. It was great to see and to interact with them “out of the norm”. This whole homecoming experience was very exciting and enjoyable.

Week 6

Classroom interruptions unfortunately occur. Do these affect your instruction? How do you get students back on track? (prompt)

Unfortunately, classroom interruptions occur often. I have found that the most disruptive, and also the hardest to refocus the students afterwards, has to be the fire drill. These fire drill interruptions force students to leave the classroom for an extended amount of time, and it is very hard, if you get to go back to the classroom, to get the students refocused on the lesson. Another interruption that I ran into not too long ago was the student picture days. During English class, students were to go to the gymnasium to get their pictures taken for the yearbook. By the time the students went to the gymnasium, waited, got their pictures taken, and returned to the classroom, the class time was significantly diminished to almost half of the normal time. To counteract this loss of time, I rescheduled their activities, for the classes that this affected, so that they were in the computer lab working on an assignment that would only require the allotted time left in class. This seemed to work well, as the students worked diligently on their project, and almost all of the students finished and turned in their work before class ended. Hopefully, you (as a teacher) know when these kinds of interruptions are going to happen, so that you can plan your lessons accordingly. If not, adapt-it’s what being a teacher is all about.

Other more common interruptions that I have dealt with include announcements and student behavior. Announcements seem to happen at least once per class period. The most aggravating factor of this particular interruption is that they happen at the most random times, and often distract you and your students from the current train of thought; this often leads to getting off task, or having to retrace your steps to get your lesson back on track. Student behavior is perhaps the most destructive interruption; mostly, because this often affects other students and can be very detrimental to student-student and student-teacher relationships. Students often act-out to receive attention, and how a teacher handles the situation can often determine the outcome of the situation. The best intervention in student behavior problems is prevention; I believe it is best to have a pre-determined set of rules and policies that are introduced from the beginning and enforced throughout the semester(s). If this procedure is followed, I have found that students are well aware of the consequences to their actions and are therefore less willing to act up/challenge the rules.