Classes are over and Parent Night is Thursday

So all three of my graduate courses for the fall term are officially over and as much as I learned from them and enjoyed them, I am glad they are over. It will be nice to be able to put more of my focus on my internship and also on my new middle school placement and being able to put alot of the practices that we learned in these courses in place.
  Tomorrow night is the first day of parent teacher conferences. The first part is being help Thursday evening from 5-8 p.m. and the second part is Friday, 1-3 p.m. How it works is in order for the parents to get their students report cards early, they must come and physically pick them up at the high school. Once that happens they have the option of visiting any of their student's teachers to talk about their students progress. Teachers can also put a comment on the report card, that they request a parent conference to hopefully encourage those parents to attend a meeting with the teacher. The only problem is if the parent or guardian is unable to make it to pick up the report cards, then there is not an opportunity to meet and help the student. So I am hoping I have the opportunity to meet many of my students parent or guardians, to talk about their child's progress and enlist their help where applicable. To encourage my students as well as my mentors students, we decided that if our students attend the parent-teacher conferences, we will give them 3 points extra credit on their 2nd quarter average, which is quite an incentive for some of these students. To have these students come, will allow for a more productive conversation and to make sure everyone is on the same page for what is being done well and for any actions that need to take place. As you can see by the time I am spending writing this section, meeting with the families and my students about their classroom performance is really important to me.
  I forgot to mention, yesterday I met with the Middle School teacher I will be working with starting next week. He seems really nice and has selected two classes for me to observe and then we can decide which class will be the right fit for me to observe and eventually teach a bit. It was a little bit of an adventure to get to the middle school which is attached by a walkway to the high school. I had only been there twice which was the very beginning of the school year. So suffice to say, I walked the way I thought I needed to, took a little detour but eventually got there. The building is uniquely designed where the even number classrooms are on one side of the building, while the odd are on the other. So luckily the part of the building I walked into was the odd side. We chatted briefly, and discussed that he is currently covering Chemistry in his classes and will be moving to Physics after their holiday break. So I am looking forward to speaking with him more and getting to meet the students and see what the Middle School is all about.

2 Classes Down and 1 more to go

  So far I have finished with two classes for the term and the last one is over tomorrow evening. It will be a relief to have a little break from classes and be able to focus even more on my internship. I am meeting my Middle School mentor tomorrow and get to learn what it is like to teach in a Middle School. I found out I will either be teaching organic chemistry or nuclear reactions and most likely electricity, eek!! Not going to lie as a Biology major, even though I took chemistry classes, the idea of those topics scare me! So I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of my free time learning chemistry, hopefully some of it will be relearning, but I am sensing it will be like seeing it for the first time.
  I have registered for me classes for the winter time, most of which start in January except the seminar class. The seminar class starts the first week of December I believe which will run through the winter term, but will give us a class or two off over our internship breaks which will great. Also, the first week of December, we will meet to discuss our Projects. For the MAT program, students have the option to write a thesis paper, which is two terms in length, while the project is one term. I chose the Project because I do not have plans to go on for a PhD in Biology and the project is something that I can develop and actually hopefully implement in my classroom. The winter term is supposed to be the toughest, so let's hope I can grin and bear it and make it through with flying colors. One thing I would recommend if you have the opportunity, is to start taking classes before you start the summer program and doing your internship. I know some of my classmates did that and it means they only have to take two night classes a week or in the spring only have to take a seminar class. Basically the more  you can lighten your load when you are interning the better, so most of your focus is on your internship the less stressed you will feel and the better prepared you will be for your internship.
  This past Friday as I may have mentioned, we held the 2nd installment of our Urban Round Table Series. One of my classmates mentor's from Schenectady High School came to speak with us and did a wonderful job. We overall had a great turn out and hearing from this teacher was great! She was very animated and had some insightful information to share, so I think it was a success. Just booked the speaker for our third installment, so we are keeping the momentum which is great.
  Tomorrow, back to Troy, the 1st Quarter grades are due, so I have been calculating grades and trying to give my students an opportunity to get some points back by handing in late homework for half credit,which created more work for myself as the late assignments trickled in, but it is the 1st Quarter and I had a little leeway to do so. I did explain today that this will not continue this quarter. I also moved their seats today, to mix things up. As you can imagine there were a lot of groans and complaints, but I explained we were starting over and in the real world we may not like everyone we work with, but we have to find a way to get along and get through, so they need to start that adjustment.
  Well I am going to get back to work study. I will check back in again soon!

Can't believe the term is almost over....

As the weekend is wrapping up, this is my last week for two of my classes and next week the last class will be finished. The term has been so busy, but I can hardly believe 10 weeks have come and gone. This weekend I spent quite a bit of time on my final lab for Biological demonstrations. I ended up selected a lab on enzymes, where students test different juices with jello as well as canned, fresh and frozen pineapple in jello. The reason for doing this is certain fruits have enzymes in them, proteases to be exact that actually can act as a meat tenderizer as well as have various properties that can be used for medicinal purposes. Pineapples for example, have an enzyme, bromelain, that has been used to treat third degree burns, arthritis, autoimmune diseases and various other ailments. The enzyme is predominantly found in the stem of the pineapple. Kiwi and papaya have their own enzymes as well. When the juices or fruits with active enzymes interact with jello the jello will not solidify as usually due to the enzymatic activity, really kind of cool. I have practiced it a few times and hope all goes well during the actual lab in class. This week marks the end of the 1st quarter, so it will be my first time fully calculating grades and next week we have parent teacher conferences, where parents can come in, get their students report cards and meet with their teachers. If the parents/guardians do not come in, the grades will be mailed one week later. Also this week is Veterans Day, so I will have Wednesday off, which will be a nice break in the middle of the week. So this week will be really busy graduate class-wise and I am sure a little chaotic in my internship with a day off and it being the end of the quarter.

Below I have included pictures from the egg demonstration I did right before Halloween so you can see what the students saw. So the brief background, eggs have a semi-permeable membrane under the shell, so in all of the below pictures, the egg shell has been removed and has been tested with different substances to show diffusion to the students (molecules moving from high to low concentration). The first two photos, the egg expands and turns orange. The second  photos were not in any solution, but show the nude color egg (nude color is their membrane). The next photo is of an egg in water, it expanded, the next photo is a different angle of an egg not in solution and the last photo is an egg in corn syrup, it shriveled.

The below picture is of an egg w/o it's shell in water with orange food coloring

Same as photo above, at a different angle.












The below photo is of an egg w/o it's shell.

The above photo is of the egg w/o it's shell in water.^

The next photo is an aerial view of an egg w/o it's shell.

 The photo the left is of an egg w/o its shell in corn syrup

Oh how I love days off!

   Hello, hope everyone is having a good week so far and a great Halloween weekend. Today, I had the day off from my internship because it was voting day and Troy was holding a Professional Development day which turns out to be review of information I learned in my Wednesday evening seminar class. It was nice to wake up a little later, get work done and then head into my work study job before class.
   Let's see where I left off last. This past Friday, I had probably one of my best days in my internship so far. I was teaching new information which the students seem to get and I felt I explained it really well and students who don't usually, asked questions and answered questions. My favorite part of Friday was I did a lab demonstration for my students, since it was the Friday before Halloween and my mentor did not want us to start the lab before the weekend. I did a lab demo of an egg. This was something I did in my Methods class over the summer and my fellow classmates really liked, so I was excited to see what my students thought. I set everything up ahead of time. I first soaked 4 eggs in vinegar overnight to remove the egg shell. Once this was done, the next day I put one egg in water, another egg in corn syrup and one egg in water with orange food coloring (in honor of Halloween) overnight. The last egg I kept separate so that I could show the students what the egg looked like without the shell. The reason for doing this activity, is to start getting them to think about permeability and diffusion, prior to the NYS lab on diffusion that they have to do. I created a worksheet so they could follow along and I asked  them a bunch of questions to get them thinking about what might happen and to start to build some suspense. I must say the students were engaged and the most focused and enthused I have seem them in class. It was so great to have their attention, have them guessing what might happen and to have them excited, it truly was an rewarding experience. So Friday, was a great day all around for myself and I hope too for my students.
   Monday on the other hand, was a tough day. The students were coming off of a weekend, it had just been Halloween, they knew they had Tuesday off and the end of the 1st quarter is approaching. Suffice to say, the students were not nearly as attentive and were a little more unruly than usual. They have a test tomorrow so I created a review activity of Jeopardy to make it fun as well as provide them the opportunity to review two units. Due to the fact they were broken into two teams, one team took the lead really early on, which meant the other team gave up, which made for interesting classroom management. Thus, I ended the game early and just did straight review, but ended the class a little frustrated. So I am hoping the rest of the week will go a little better than the beginning.
   This past weekend, on a fun note, was my friend's birthday so we went to the Parting Glass to hear Hair of the Dog in downtown Saratoga. They are a local Irish group, that are absolutely phenomenal and so much fun to listen to. So great food, great company and great music, was a nice way to wrap up the week.
   Things are coming up quickly.... I cannot believe the term is over in two weeks. I will be wrapping up classes and starting my middle school experience, with Thanksgiving in between followed by Christmas. Our second Urban Roundtable Series is next week, in which we have a teacher from Schenectady High School and I am very excited to hear what she has to say. I will also be taking my next teaching exam in December (have to remember to sign up for that this week), which I am not looking forward to, but I am trying to space them out and give myself time to retake one, in case the unthinkable happens.
  Well that is more than enough for now. Please feel free to post a comment, ask a question, or anything, I would be happy to help and hear from those that are taking the time to follow my journey with me.

 I will try and post pictures of my egg demo later this week, so you can see what I was talking about!

 Have a great week!!!

It's a Rainy Wednesday

Let's see, what has happened since I last blogged. Last Friday we held the first of our Urban Round Table  Series, which myself and a fellow classmate are in charge planning. This is an event that is held once a month and each month we invite a different teacher to speak. This past week we had a teacher who is actually a mentor of one of our interns, he is also a graduate of the Union MAT Program and also went through National Board Certification here at UGC, so he was able to provide a lot of insight on both our internship experiences as well as the program. The talk was supposed to last an hour and it went two hours and over 20 interns attended. He was so helpful answering all of our questions and being open and honest with his experiences and how he has dealt with different situations. I think the timing was perfect for all of us, at having been interning for almost two months now, it helped to have a different perspective and also hear how our fellow classmates experiences are going. This weekend I was hit by the change in weather, long days and stress so suffice to say I slept a lot and still not feeling well called in sick to my internship on Monday,which was hard for me to do, because I don't like missing things. What I realized is I would not be at my best for my students and I did not want to get anyone sick. My mentor was totally okay with it and I went back yesterday. Yesterday was a little rough, but today was much better. I am looking forward to doing a demonstration for my lab on Friday, hopefully my students will be as excited as I am. I gave a longer quiz today, which I was glad to see some of my students did much better than they had been, so I was extremely excited to see that. I think my students enjoyed today's lab. They got to look under the microscope at an Elodea leaf, which was still fresh so they were able to see chloroplasts moving around, which they seemed to think was pretty cool.
  My supervisor is coming in again tomorrow, which I am interested to see how it goes. The last time he was in, my students were a little less behaved than they normally are, so I am hoping I can get them to stay on task and listen to the notes I am giving them. I am looking forward to any insight my supervisor can provide to help keep the students more on task and keep the flow of the class go more smoothly. Sometimes it is all dependant on the day and the student dynamics, so you can never quite predict how a class might go.
  Well I think that is it for today. I will let you know how the demo and supervisor visit went next week!

October is Flying By

 I can hardly believe today is October 20th and the month is almost over. One thing I kept hearing over and over about this program is it is a lot of work, but the time flies by. It seems like just yesterday, I was starting my first day of the summer program not knowing what to expect. I just found out last week who I will be interning with at Doyle Middle School starting in December, which I am glad to know. Part of the MAT Program, is you must do an alternate experience, so if you are interning for the full year in the high school, you must spend time in the middle school and vice versa. Due to the fact that Troy HS has a middle school attached to it, for convenience I will be interning there for the month of December, when UGC has its break. Our break is pretty much the month of December, so when we do not have Graduate classes, to best use our time and not overload ourselves, I will be doing a half day with a science teacher at the middle school and still continuing my half day at Troy HS. I am not quite sure what to expect. Some might think middle school students would be easier to deal with, but from what I can tell and what I have heard; December might be an interesting month.
  Halloween is next week, so I am trying to think of something fun, yet on task that I can do with the students. I will have to consult with my mentor to see if he has anything in mind. I have a few options for Halloween for myself as far as plans, just not sure how next week is going to play out, but should probably decide if I need a costume right?
  Something different that I had to do this week for my Biology Demonstrations class was to make a model. It had to be 3D, but could be a model of pretty much anything that could relate to a concept in Biology, except a lung or cell. I chose to make a model of mitosis and meiosis. I know these are areas that students have a hard time with trying to compare the two, plus I am not all that creative, which I may have mentioned, so I thought it would be somewhat easy. As I started to think about it more and started to work on the logistics, it was not as easy as I thought, but I had already committed to it and wanted to give it a try. Originally I thought I would use shoelace licorice and candy buttons, but soon realized this was not as feasible as I thought. So through walking around the craft aisle at Walmart and talking with my professor, I used paper plates, pipe cleaners, puff balls (pom-poms) and yarn that I then attached to a tri-fold posterboard. After many hours of toiling with it, it is now about as good as it is going to get. I have to present it to the class tonight, so wish me luck! I love crafts, but some types of creativity and artistic abilities are certainly not my strong suit.
  Okay, time to get back to work. I will try and post a picture of my project soon, so you can see the final project that is if it travels well to survive.

Short Weeks are Always the Crazy One's

 So even though this week was a shorter week, it has been jam packed. Today I was observed again by supervisor and video-taped. Overall it went pretty well, it was a little hectic, but I am glad it is over for now. I ran another review activity, this time we did Bingo. We are having a quiz tomorrow on Biochemistry, which was a tougher unit for them to understand, so I was looking for an activity that really helped them to prepare. So I talked with my roommate from college who is a high school Biology teacher and she suggested Bingo. So I created a Bingo table and came up with 24 words, and then I either provided a definition, structure or question that would lead them to one of the 24 words. Whoever had Bingo received 5 extra points on the quiz tomorrow. I was definitely not as nervous for today, which was quite a relief. I think I did okay, the students were a little more chatty than usual, but overall the activity ran smoothly and I was able to get the whole class involved and participating.
  Last night I had my seminar course, which ended up really interesting. We had a guest speaker, who was the resource officer at Burnt Hills Ballston Lake School District. He is a New York State Trooper, that his main job is to patrol the school district and schools, to get to know the kids, to be someone that they know and feel comfortable talking to. He is the eyes and ears for the school and I can see why the kids like him. He is very down to earth, will tell you like it is and his main concern is the safety and well being of the ~2400 students that he is responsible for, which is quite an undertaking, but he seems more than happy and qualified to meet the challenge. It was extremely helpful as a future teacher and current intern to hear what he had to say. He was very insightful and forthright with his thoughts and experiences. I was very glad to see that they have this type of resource to help keep the schools safe. New York State after Columbine, allotted $14 million to provide resource officers to school districts in New York State. There are approx. ~100 schools that have received this opportunity and many schools are on the waitlist for one. Some school districts use their local police agencies to provide an officer for their school.
 Literacy Thursday, was a little different than usual, but it was nice to try something different. We had been reading about incorporating picture books/children's books in our classrooms, so we all had to bring in books for ourselves and others outside our content, that another classmate could use. I chose one that talks about what happens to a hamburger (digestion). It has a lot of great pictures and shows exactly what happens in each stage, in a simplistic way, that students would understand. We broke up into small groups and had our classmates make suggestions on how we could incorporate writing assignments for our students utilizing these books. It was a great activity and I walked away with some great ideas as to how to use my books for a lesson plan I have to write this week. This class has really challenged me, always pushing me to think of relevant ways to incorporate literacy into my classroom, which in science is so important.
 Let's see, Friday evening I attended my first Science conference, which was held at Siena College (my alma mater). In NY there is an association called STANYS, which is for science teachers in NY. Our local Eastern STANYS organization held a conference for our region Friday evening, offering a variety of options of sessions that we could attend to learn more about particular science topics. I chose one on the brain and the other on science literacy. The brain one, was very interesting and they distributed a lot of materials that we could take with us to use in our classrooms. Then there was dinner, which was an opportunity to chat with our colleagues. I was able to catch up with my fellow UGC science graduate students, which was a lot of fun as usual. Then there was a keynote speaker from RPI, that gave a lecture on Global Warming.
 Then today, I took my first of the three state teacher exams, required for me to receive my initial teacher certification. This one was the LAST, which is the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test. It is a four hour exam that consists of 80 multiple choice questions and one written response of 300-600 words. Luckily it was an afternoon exam so I was able to sleep in and be mentally prepared. Overall I hope it went okay, it has been a long time since I have sat for a long exam like that, so it was a bit draining. Results come out next month, so wish me luck.
 Well it is time for bed, but thanks for checking in. As I mentioned before, if you have any comments, questions, topics you would like me to talk more about, please post a comment and I would be happy to respond!

*Below I am attaching some pictures I have had, of the new UGC building taken at night. It really is an impressive facility and offers a lot to the Graduate students.

I could get used to these three day weekends!

his week went by so quickly, I can hardly believe it is the weekend already and a three-day weekend at that! So excited to have another three day weekend.... starting to get used to them, which probably isn't so good. I decided like I may have mentioned to take advantage of my three day weekend and work at my old job on Saturday, at the Environmental Lab to make a little extra money which is always good to have.

  As far as school this week, I think things went pretty well. Instead of a quiz Wednesday, I gave my students a Crossword Puzzle which would test them on their knowledge of different Kingdoms, Phylums and Classes in our Classification unit. Overall, the students did really well and I actually made a couple questions extra credit, so some of them were really excited to see they had earned extra credit points. We started a new unit on Tuesday, Biochemistry. This unit has been the toughest so far and the students do not seem to be thrilled with the difficulty and a lot of notes, so it is taking a lot of extra explaining on my part for them to begin to understand.

  Grad classes were pretty intense this week. On Wednesday night, in my seminar class, we had a guest speaker come in and do our SAVE training which is required to substitute and for NYS teachers. The speaker comes in to talk about at-risk students, students who have been abused or are being neglected. She gave us an idea of what to look for in our students and what the intervention steps were and that we as teachers are mandated to report any abuse that we suspect. It was kind of an overwhelming presentation and some of it was kind of hard to hear, but I am glad that I now am equipped with this information so if god forbid, I ever come into contact with a student that needs my help, I know what to do to get them the assistance they need.

  After Wednesday's class I went to the Times Union Center to see Keith Urban and Sugarland. What an amazing concert, I had a great time with great friends and amazing music. Sugarland was phenomenal, Jennifer Nettles is so unbelievably talented, I wish they could have played the entire time. Keith Urban was good as well, didn't have quite as many uptempo songs as Sugarland, but what an amazing voice and not so bad to look at either.

  Thursdays literacy class, was a little different than usual. We had read prior to class the usefulness of Children's books in our classrooms, so we had a discussion and then went through a book in class. We had a variety of tasks to complete, but were shown first hand, how a children's book could be integrated into an adult classroom, even at the graduate level and promote so much thought and creativity, quite a neat exercise.

  Next week will be busy, I have my supervisor coming in again next week, will probably need to videotape again and have a few larger assignments due.

  Time to get back to work!

*Below are a couple of photos from the concert that I thought were fun and worth sharing!

Once again if you have any questions, comments or suggestions of what you would like to hear about, post a comment!

Whirlwind of a week

  Just wanted to check back in and update you on what has been going on for the past week. So far everything is going about the same with the internship. Still getting comfortable with the material again and getting used to classroom management. The past two days in lab have been fun because we are doing a lab on Pond Water which the students seem to enjoy. One of the Biology teachers collected water from a local pond and we have the students prepare slides with the pond water to view the organisms that live in the pond under a microscope. They get really excited when they see things moving like a paramecium, hydra, water mites, and different types of worms as well as algae. When they see something move they get excited and call either myself or my mentor over to show us. They have to observe these organisms, draw them and identify what they are. A student today said "I love this lab, my favorite so far!" Which was nice to hear. It was nice to hear her enthusiasm. Other than that, no tests/quizzes this week. I did create a review sheet for the topic of Classification we have been working on and will be giving it as an in class worksheet grade, kind of like a quiz but they can use their notes. So hopefully it will go well and the students will find it helpful and do well. We started on the topic of Biochemistry, which is an area that I would not say is one of my most favorite, because I am definitely not the best chemistry person, so it is taking some extra review on my own and preparation, but in the end I think it will be fine.
 This week is getting busy; I had to write a lab for my Graduate Class using materials I could find around the house. I ended up finding a lab on the internet whichI tweaked, and made a lab handout with questions. The area I had to pick from was genetics so my lab was on Protein Synthesis. I have a hard time with activities like these because I am not a "think outside the box" type person and that is what this class helps us do, which will be good in the end, but something  I am struggling with at the moment. Hopefully I get better with time, because I think it is valuable and important, but certainly a weaker area for me.
   So excited for tomorrow evening, on a fun note. After student teaching, work study and night class, I am going to the Times Union Center to see Sugarland and Keith Urban (huge country fan)! I bought these tickets before I started classes and it is going to be a super long day, but I am sure well worth it. Everyone needs a break now and again right?
Speaking of breaks, another three-day weekend this weekend! Columbus Day is Monday, so I will have three days to get work done and regroup. I will actually be working at my old job, at an Environmental Lab on Saturday since I have the extra time and can certainly use a little extra spending money (I keep expanding my teacher wardrobe, oops:).


  Okay, time to get back to my work study job, thanks for reading and I will post again soon!

 **PS if you have any comments or questions about UGC or the MAT Program, please post a comment and I will be happy to respond!

Phew, glad that is over....

So today was my first of many days that I was to be observed by my supervisor and video-tape my class. I must admit I was very nervous about today and how it would go, but overall I am pretty happy with it. Today was a big day for review, because I am giving my students their first test of the term so I had to make sure I provided an opportunity to review a lot of the key concepts that will be covered on tomorrow's test. Review days are hard, because it is not new material, so the students sometimes are not as focused or willing to participate because they have seen the material already. So I created two review sheets. One was a conversion handout to help them practice converting millimeters to micrometers and micrometers to millimeters, the other handout was a crossword puzzle. I had them work on the conversion sheet first, which didn't go as smoothly as I had anticipated. The students had a lot of questions, so I was moving from student to student trying to help them. Most of the time they just didn't know the answer off the top of their head and wanted my help, but when I talked it through with them, asking them questions, they realized they did know how to do it, they just had to walk through the steps to get to the answer. Once this started to happen I felt a little better. My first thought was OH NO, this isn't going well, but in the end it worked out okay. So once they got through the conversion chart and moved on to the crossword puzzle things seemed to move along well. They seemed to actually enjoy it and didn't have too many questions. So overall I think these worksheets helped them prepare for their test and were a great first observation for my supervisor because I had a lot of interactions with my students, which I enjoy. After class was over, my supervisor and I met and he asked what I thought I did well in today's lesson and what I thought I needed to work on. After we discussed this, he broke down what he thought I did well and made a few suggestions as to how I could make what I was doing better. So overall, I thought a really good first meeting, took some of the pressure off. As far as the video-taping goes, we have to video-tape ourselves teaching every two weeks and then have to view the video and critique ourselves. We had to do this over the summer as well, and though none of us looked forward to this, I always found it to be really helpful. I was able to see more clearly what I did do well and little things I could do better or try to avoid.

Yesterday I gave my first test, which we did a lot of review for. I was even a little nervous for the students, because they seemed stressed out over the idea of the test. Even though this test was only 10 more questions that the last quiz. Anyways, I was overall fairly pleased with the outcome.

Something that I am currently planning that is in the works, is the Urban Roundtable seminar. This was something that was started last year per the request of a now UGC grad, that was placed in an inner city school district. She wanted the opportunity to hear stories and get advice of teachers who teach in these districts and to be able to talk to her classmates that were going through the same experiences. This year, myself and a fellow classmate, Tricia, were asked to plan this discussion that will be held one Friday every month for an hour in the later afternoon. Our job is to recruit teachers in Urban districts, book the room, invite our classmates and then run the evening. We are currently trying to get the first event planned, so wish us luck! I think it will be a great opportunity to hear from the experts, experiences they have had, and how they dealt with it and handle obstacles they handle on a daily basis. Plus, it will be a nice time to catch up with our classmates and counts towards our required Professional Development.
Anyhow, glad it is Thursday and the weekend is around the corner. So far so good, looking forward to relaxing a little this weekend.

Fall has arrived!

Hi all, sorry it has been a little longer than usual since I have blogged. This past week was very busy. On Monday my mentor was out, so we had a substitute, so I had my first opportunity to teach for the better part of the day. I taught three Living Environment classes, two labs and helped out with AP Biology. I was quite nervous about doing this, but think it was a really great opportunity for me to have a full day teaching and being there without my mentor, to know that I can do this. The students were overall good and we got a lot accomplished. That is the nice thing about me being there everyday and helping out when my mentor is teaching, because the students know me, so they know I am there everyday and won't take advantage like they might if there was just a sub. I for the most part taught my class on my own this week, which overall felt good. I am still getting comfortable with the material, being up in front of the class and trying to master class management skills. I think all of this will come with time and practice. My mentor said it took him 2-3 months where he felt like he had the hang of it and felt more at ease. It is really helpful that my mentor has gone through the Union  Program and has been out 5-6 years now, because he knows what it is like and what I am experiencing because he did it not too long ago. So it is helpful to hear that he says I am progressing as I should and each day I seem more comfortable. Which is good that I appear comfortable because I certainly don't always feel it. 

Let's see, what else happened this week. Thursday night instead of my literacy class, I attended Troy High School's Parent Open House. This was an opportunity for parents and/or guardians to come in and meet their student’s teachers, to learn what their student’s will be doing this year and what the expectations were. I think it went really well and the families we met were extremely nice and asked some great questions. We did not see a lot of parents, but I know it is hard with work schedules, families, games and practices, that parents are usually running all over the place. It was nice to see how the evening went and observe the families changing classes, and being able to see their student’s schedule, which I think many were surprised at how far their student’s had to travel from some classes. The high school is a good size and some students have to travel from the first floor on one side to the third floor on the other. For the most part they try to schedule students classes on the same floor or as close together as possible, but there are usually a few classes, they have to travel a little further for.

This weekend is a three day weekend due to Yom Kippur on Monday, which is nice because it is giving me an extra day to prepare for the week. My supervisor is coming in Tuesday for the first time to observe me teach. I must admit, I am nervous, just because it is another person watching me and I want to do well. Though I know the main reason he will be there is to see how I am progressing, tell me what I am doing well and provide feedback on how I can be better. So ultimately he is there to help make me the best teacher possible for my students, which is a good thing, but still stressful. We also in the program have to videotape one class we teach every two weeks. We then have to watch the video and essentially evaluate ourselves. I have decided to do this for the first time on Tuesday as well, because I am doing a review lesson and thought it would be a good time to get this started. So wish me luck!

On a fun note, I know I am always talking about the internship and grad classes, but I do make some time to have fun and take a break. This morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to head to the annual Adirondack Balloon Festival in Queensbury, NY. This is an amazing opportunity to see over 90 hot air balloons take off at sunrise. I used to go quite often as a child and went a few years back, but because it conflicted with work, I hadn't been in a while. So I was quite excited to be able to go. We were able to see 4-5 balloons this morning, but unfortunately the fog was so bad today, they cancelled the rest of the morning launches. The festival runs all weekend from Thursday-Sunday and has evening and morning launches. So I will have to wait until next year.

Well it is time I get some work done, so I am prepared for the week ahead.

Below are a couple of photos that kind of came out this morning. The fog made the photos not quite as clear as usual.

Officially finished my second week!

It is hard to believe I have just finished my second week at Troy High School. This week was especially busy because I had all three of my graduate classes this week and had my first full week of student teaching. This week I also met with my supervisor. Each intern is assigned a mentor, the cooperating teacher they will work with the entire year and a supervisor. Each supervisor has approximately 3 students that they are responsible for. Their job is to visit their interns every two weeks, for an entire class period to observe their class. They look for many things such as classroom management, use of multiple modalities, keeping the students engaged, and much more. I am sure I will have much more to add to that as time goes on. So my mentor and I met with my supervisor to discuss the expectations of the year. The meeting went well, but left me feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the end, but with the support of my mentor and supervisor I know it will be okay. 

  As I had mentioned earlier in the week, I gave my first quiz. For the most part I was fairly pleased with how it went and was pleasantly surprised how well some of the students did. First quizzes are usually tough, because the students don't know what to expect with the quiz (even when you tell them) and are still learning how best to study for each class and teacher, so it usually takes a few quizzes to get a sense of how it will go. Friday was the first class that I taught almost the full period. It overall went well. I realized that I am really tough on myself, so it was helpful to hear from my mentor how he felt the lesson went. He was able to pick up on a variety of things I did well as well as a few things I need to be aware of or practice. I thought I would take the critique a little harder, but I know it is being said only to make me better and alot of the things he said, I was already aware of that I needed to work on. 

  I did not make it to TGIT this week as I had hoped. I had some lesson planning to do and prep for Friday and made the choice of school first. This weekend, I have a lot of lesson plan writing to do. The reason being my supervisor said, at any given moment I should have my lesson plans written three days ahead. So when he comes in to observe, he should be able to go to my binder and see at least three days out. If he does not, then I cannot teach on those days. The reason being, if we are out sick, we need to have plans established. Also, planning is integral in knowing where we are heading and what we need to do to get there. So I decided each weekend, I would write for the entire week. Except Monday, would need to be written Thursday for Friday, so that my mentor can review it ahead of time to make sure I am on the right track. I have learned so much already about myself, my students and the teaching profession. I am very grateful that my internship is one year instead of the traditional semester. It will allow me to see the entire school year in regards to the curriculum and will allow me to truly establish myself as my students teacher. They will see me as a constant person in their life, instead of me only being there a few months and knowing I am leaving. I am excited to see how my students change over the year and hopefully all of their successes on the Regents exam at the end of the year.

On that note,  going to go work on my grad homework and lesson plans.

Have a great weekend! I will update you on Tuesday!

Getting my Feet Wet

So I have been at Troy now officially for a week and I already feel at home. Each day I become a little less nervous and get a little more comfortable with my role as intern. I have slowly been teaching small parts of my class and it is great to be involved. I also think I know all of the names of my students, which I am really excited about, because I was nervous I would struggle with that, but know how much it means to have your teacher know who you are. Something I forgot to mention is on the first day of class I had my students fill out an index card about themselves. It is a great way to get to know your students a little better, but was something I always grumbled at as a student. If you ask the right questions, you are able to get an idea as to what your student’s are about, or at least be able to find a connection with them. I would certainly recommend to future teachers, if you did not do this to try it when you have your own class, it can certainly help you make a difference. My mentor has been really helpful working with me to team-teach until I feel comfortable enough to take over. Today, I taught for about half a class and I could feel the nerves beginning to fade as I began to speak. I think it helps that I get to observe my mentor first period so that I am that much more prepared for my fourth period class. Plus, each night I review the materials and make notes so that I am more familiar with what is going to happen the next day.
  Today was a review class, so I took the opportunity to get a little more involved. I decided to make a review sheet for my class, because it is always nice to have one sheet that has the important information that you need to know. Plus, it gave the students an opportunity to work together and for me to walk around and to see if they were getting it. It was interesting as I walked around to see which students decided to work together and which opted to work on their own. As my professors in the MAT program always said during the summer, you can learn a lot about your students when they work in groups and when you get to observe them. This was one of my first chances to really observe them, when the teacher or myself was not talking. I am interested to see after their quizzes tomorrow, if their review sheets made a difference. I will be able to compare their grades to the other two sections, as a gauge for me if review sheets help or not. Obviously each class is different, but I wonder if it might help with some of the tougher questions, so I will keep you posted. Today is my first night class for Biological Demonstrations, so I am excited to get a sense of what that is all about. 
  I am currently trying to stay on top of my work for my internship and grad classes, because I am hoping I can attend TGIT, which is an event put on my UGC every Thursday evening at Clinton's Ditch. It is a great opportunity to see friends and faculty in a relaxed setting with some good food and company. This is the first gathering for the year, but I have heard nothing but good things, so I am hoping I can take advantage of the opportunity.
  I think that is all I have for now. Have a great week everyone!

1st Week of Student Teaching

Let me try to recap the first week of student teaching and grad classes. Tuesday, I started my first day at Troy High School, minus the students. Tuesday and Wednesday were Professional Development Days, in which there were various workshops and opportunities to meet in department meetings and get acclimated to the school. My mentor for my internship is also a Union Graduate, so it is extremely helpful to work with him because of his expertise of the program and because he has been teaching for a few years. I was able to work with him to help set up the classroom for the year and also talk about how he grades, does seating, set up our grade books and talk about the materials for the year. The students came on Thursday and you could feel the anticipation of the teachers that morning prior to the students entering the building. I must admit I was quite nervous and excited about the arrival of the students, thus I did not sleep all that well on Wednesday night. I think being an intern, became that much more real, knowing the students were arriving and I was just hoping all would go well.

The students came and it felt like everything truly began. I met the students I would be teaching and all of the other students that my mentor would be teaching. For these classes, I helped pass out papers and interacted with the students, but played more of the observer role. In the classes I would be teaching, I was a bit more active, team-teaching, more talking, with my mentor, to establish my presence as their teacher right off the bat, boy was I nervous. On Friday, I was still feeling anxious, because I knew my mentor wanted me to step in and teach a bit on Friday, so I was brushing up on my Biology and trying to calm the nerves. On Friday, after observing him teach a class, we discussed afterward how I felt I wanted to continue. We decided to co-teach, going back and forth, so I was not teaching the whole time, but so the students continued to see me playing an active role and so I can begin to get comfortable. I felt a little shaky, but I think I did okay. I am just starting out, but know it will get better. The other science teachers are so supportive and helpful as is my mentor (who is extremely supportive and encouraging), that having such a strong support system will certainly make a difference. In addition, there are eight other Union interns at Troy, so it is nice to see a friendly face and someone else who is going through all the beginning steps, together.

As far as Graduate classes, classes started Wednesday, so I had two of the three classes I will be taking. I had Special Needs Seminar (about at-risk students) and Literacy. The professors seem nice and the work seems overall doable, though as always, getting the course syllabus and realizing how quickly the semester will go is a bit overwhelming. The Literacy class is kind of interesting, because it is actually two sections that are taught as one class, which is fun, because I get to see a lot of my classmates from the summer. So far have a bit of work to do, that I tried to get a jump-start on during the weekend, so that I am not too overwhelmed during the week. This week I am starting my work study position working with the Special Assistant to the President and VP of Enrollment Management and Student Services. I am excited about having this opportunity and because of this job, actually had a preview to the new Graduate Building, which is amazing. The Graduate College has almost completely finished a new building, located just off Union's main campus, is spectacular. It will house all the offices for the programs, as well as the curriculum library, classrooms, student work areas and many places for students to do group work or work quietly on their own. So much thought and time went into the design of the building and I would have to say my favorite part is the lounge area when you first walk in. It is a large room, with many large windows, a fire place, a 50" flat-screen TV, coffee area and comfortable, moveable chairs. I am looking forward to its' opening on September 21st and having an opportunity to use this new space. 

Well, I think it is time I get back to my work so I can get so I can then rest up for the week. I will keep you posted on the week's on goings soon!


**Below I have included a few photos of the new Graduate Center. The one on the right is of the lobby, prior to the furniture moving in, but gives you a sense of the size and beautiful windows.

Summer Program

Welcome and thank you for joining me as I journey through my MAT experience. The summer required portion of the program was a blending of experiences and I cannot even begin to explain how much I learned as a student and future teacher. The summer began with a lot of nerves and questions. Would I like my classmates and professors? Did I make the right choice in Union and becoming a teacher? Could I handle the work? What do I expect? We all began the first day quiet, not overly chatty, with a presence of fear and excitement in the room. This all changed after we had a class retreat on the second day. Now I have to be honest, the thought of going on a retreat with complete strangers, being outdoors and in a cabin, left me feeling not too excited and dreading the two days. The experiences and friendships that developed after the two day excursion to Skye Farm, left me feeling extremely thankful at having had the opportunity to have this experience and getting to know my classmates. We returned to class the following week and the professors had to wait for us to quiet down because of the loud chatter and bonds that had been created. I will talk more about our Skye Farm excursion, because it was truly an experience I will not soon forget.

The classes over the summer met Monday-Friday, and often ran from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. These classes taught me so much about literacy, teaching strategies, how to plan and execute a lesson, how to think like a teacher and student and so much more. The morning classes were Psychology of Teaching and Literacy, followed by our Methods class (which corresponded to our discipline), followed by lab where we taught lessons to our classmates. The most nerve-racking part for me was the lab, because I had never taught before and teaching a lesson to fellow graduate students, scared the living daylights out of me. What I found though was endless support from my peers. We all encouraged one another, really emphasized the positive, but provided constructive feedback to each other, to help them better themselves. The professors over the summer were supportive, encouraging, provided so much knowledge, expertise and things to think about, I could not have asked for a better opportunity and professors to help me become the best teacher I can be.

Now I make this sound like the summer was not a challenge. The summer is tough, it is a lot of work and so much information being thrown at you, but it is completely doable. You are challenged. You are challenged to not only think about learning from a student perspective, but a teacher perspective. You are taught to think about what you are thinking about your thinking (if you have not heard the work metacognitive, you will hear it over and over and realize how important it is). The summer is a challenge, or at least it was for me, because I had been out of school for four years and really did not have much background in education, except for my schooling experiences. So I was learning a lot of information and was a student again.

Thanks for joining me on this journey. Much more to come on my internship and my path to becoming a teacher!


*Below, I have included a few photos from Skye Farm of the group and of us canoeing on the last day there!