Last Week In The Field

This week was filled with some more testing. On Monday the students took the diagnostic test that predicts how well the students will do on the Keystones. Then Tuesday and Wednesday were 8^th grade science PSSAs. So my students did not take the test but the schedule was cut short because of the two hours in the morning that were taken out for testing. During the two hours in the morning we just showed movies until the two hours were up. On Tuesday during class time we introduced the students to a new assignment. They will be completing a book review to end their persuasive unit. They have to convince their classmates to read a certain book. So on Tuesday we took them to the library. By the end of the period they had to have a book chosen and one reason why they think they could persuade another student to read the book. On Wednesday, the students watched videos of the mock trial presentations. They watched a class different than their own class and judged who should get the free heart transplant. They had to fill out a paper during the video and write out why they felt a certain group was more persuasive than the other groups. Then on Thursday we finally got back to a normal schedule. The students did some work with making simple sentences into complex and compound sentences. Then they worked on filling out a graphic organizer for their books. The graphic organizer will help them to remember the plot, characters, setting, etc so that they can better brainstorm for their book review papers. On Friday, I had the students write a free write based on the prompts turned in by fellow students. Then to review the lesson they learned on Thursday on making simple sentences into complex/compound sentences, I had them pick out simple sentences in their own writing to change into a complex/compound sentence as a formative assessment. To end, they just worked on their book review assignment. 

I also got to sit in on an IEP meeting for a student named Zeke. This week I finally got Zeke excited about reading by introducing him to a graphic novel. I read the graphic novel with him and so he got excited to come to class and tell me what page he was on to see if he was “beating” me. I was so happy to see a kid who hated reading actually start reading every free minute he had during class. The sad part is that I have to leave just as I was starting to make a difference for Zeke. Anyway, the IEP meeting was interesting. The meeting was basically just to update his IEP and make sure his parents were satisfied with everything the teachers were doing. Zeke is getting Cs and Bs in school right now and his parents seemed to be okay with that. Personally, I think there is more the teachers could be doing to make their lessons more engaging. Zeke is a kid who hates school and probably because learning is hard for him. If they did more to make him more invested in learning I think Zeke could do better. It is also hard because Zeke is absent a lot. He is gone almost every Friday because he goes to Hershey medical for some sort of tests for his vision. The teachers stressed that Zeke has to become more responsible for making sure he makes up the work that he misses.

 The last day at the middle school was so bittersweet. While it will be nice to have a break from getting up at 5:30 every morning I am really going to miss the kids. They made cards for me and some even gave me hugs. I might even go in next Friday because they were begging me to come back. I am truly lucky to have had such a great experience!