Student Teaching Experience
My student teaching experience was a great success! I spent 12 weeks at Lewistown High School in Lewistown, IL teaching two 11th grade English III classes, one 11th grade Honors English III class, and one 12th grade Honors English IV class. In addition to teaching these classes, I also participated with the high school Legend class (a class in which students create their school yearbook along with writing newspaper articles for the local paper). I was very fortunate to have this opportunity because I feel it prepared me to teach a future newspaper, journalism, or yearbook class if I am hired to do so. In this class, I taught a lesson about journalism before I began a newsletter project. The students were given a topic to write about and encouraged to be creative with their content. I proof read and edited all student work and returned the work back to the student to revise. Once all revisions were made, the students then received their grades and uploaded their articles in a folder to be placed into the newsletter. My co-teacher, Mrs. Hatfill, then formatted the newsletter and placed the articles into their respective spots I had previously chosen. The newsletter was titled "The Indian Voice" and it was a newsletter made by students for students. The class was very receptive to the project and they received many compliments once the newsletter was distributed. I also suggested including random facts in with their articles for the local paper, so Mrs. Hatfill decided to call these random facts "Tomahawk Tidbits" and they were displayed proudly in every article that appeared in the "Tomahawk".
If you would like to view the newsletter I created as a project for my students, please click here.
If you would like to view the newsletter I created as a project for my students, please click here.
During my time at Lewistown High School, I took over all of teaching responsibilities from my mentor teacher, Mrs. Lafary. I taught two classes of English III, which consisted of all Juniors. One of these two classes had a makeup of half general education and half special education students. I adapted my lesson plans every day for this class and made special efforts to see to it that these students were successful. I taught with an aide in the classroom at all times, so I mastered a communication level with this teacher and worked with her on what my special education students needed to improve upon. I allowed these students to test in the special education classroom, gave them more time on tests, and required less word counts on paper assignments than my general education students. In these two classes, I also began having students take notes over grammar lessons on note cards and allowed every students to use these note cards on the test. Students took well to this assignment and eventually got into the habit of always taking notes without me having to ask. This proved to be very successful, so my mentor teacher adopted the method and now uses it with her classes. In my Honors English IV class, I taught a Beowulf Unit that was about three weeks long. I also had the opportunity to teach short literature works that gave me the freedom to be creative with. I put students into groups and gave each group a short literature piece to read and report in a news cast. All news casts had to be from this century. I encouraged students to dress up and have fun with their news cast reports. Each students had to play an active role in the report and students were given extra credit if they dressed up. After all of the news casts were completed, students begged to do the same activity again for the next unit. It was a pleasure having a class that was so excited and enjoyed having a fun time engaging in the learning process.
If you would like to view the blog site I created for my two English III classes and my Honors English III class, please click here.
If you would like to view the blog site I created for my two English III classes and my Honors English III class, please click here.
I spent my 12 weeks also helping out with the high school marching band. I have a minor in music and I am able to teach middle school music, but Lewistown High School's band teacher, Mr. Ginglen, allowed me to sit in on his class and help out when I can. I stood by students and taught them to march in step, keep their lines straight, and play with their instruments at the correct angle. I had so much fun being around students who loved playing music because they reminded me of myself when I was playing the tuba in my high school marching band. I helped the tuba player improve on his instrument and I even stayed after school to teach the baritone player how to play the tuba as well. Most of the semester focused on marching band, but towards the end, students began to learn new music for the pep band season. These students received 2nd place in Marching at one of their many competition parades! I also had a medical emergency happen while working with these students outside. The drummers accidentally spooked a horse while we were outside, and the woman riding the horse fell onto the road where she was riding. The students were concerned and asked me to make sure she was alright, knowing that I work for Western EMS. I went over and had a bystander call 911 while I had another hold C-spine for me so that I could go through a rapid trauma assessment. Luckily, everything turned out alright after the ambulance came and she made it to the hospital. My students were relieved and several of them came up to me and said they were happy that I was there because I know what to do in medical situations. My training at WIU and my job with Western EMS prepared me to handle such situations because medical emergencies can arise at any point in time. Students seemed to be very interested in my medical background, so I took the opportunity to teach them what to do if they come upon someone who is having a seizure. As fate would have it, someone in the school ended up having a seizure and some of the students in the class knew exactly what to do because I had taught them everything I knew about seizures. The band students were especially grateful for the medical information and they enjoyed having me around and missed me when I was absent.