This week was a very slow dragging out week until Thursday. Taking the six weeks exam on Monday started the week out slow. The students did not want to take the test, and they felt they had not had preparation for it. They probably felt this way about the six weeks exam because usually we do review for the test, but this week we were too busy reviewing for the TAKS test. On Tuesday it was a little better because we actually did something other than sitting around taking a test. Wednesday was a little better than Tuesday. The students had to walk around the class room and identify historical eras based only on pictures. This was a very impressing day because this was information that the students had learned in August and now they had to remember here in April. Thursday was TAKS Camp day, and that was fun yet miserable. The fun part about it was that I was able to give students that one last push of general information before the TAKS test next Thursday. The horrible part about it was that I had to teach the same lesson fourteen times. After about the twelfth time I was starting to get annoyed by it. Although I was getting annoyed but it, each group of student received my excitements, which lead them to be excited as well. Friday was another good day this week. The reason it was good is because my cooperating teacher and I had not huge idea of what TAKS review we would do today, but when we finally got to school we sat and talked and thought about what students really needed to learn based on the information from yesterday, and we concluded students needed to learn about the Constitutional Amendments. All together this was a decent week, it might have dragged out but it was overall successful for students needing to pass the TAKS test.

This week was probably by far the easiest week I will ever have student teaching and maybe even teaching in general. Monday started off as a normal day and routine as usual. I no longer am given lessons because it is TAKS review time, and my cooperating teacher had already planned lessons, as well would rather give the lessons himself. I think it is a great idea for him to want to teach the TAKS review material because he is more trained than me in doing so and also because it will be his name on the report if the students do well, or do not so well. Tuesday through Friday was when things became extremely easy for me. They had the STAAR testing (State Exams) and all 11th and 12th graders did not have to be at school until 1:30pm. This was great for me because that is all I teach, and also because I am not allowed to administer a test I had NO responsibilities until after 1:30.

This week like a few of the others was an interesting week. First off I did not go to school on Monday because of the cohort meeting, so everything for me started on Tuesday. Tuesday was the start of ending everything about the cold war, and ending everything that the students had to know before the TAKS test. On Tuesday we talked about Neo-conservatism, which many of the students found interesting because the new conservatives had some strong opinions about what many of my students do as in how they live there life, and how they make a living. Wednesday we talked about the entrepreneurs of the 80’s and how they made significant impacts on the United States and world. Thursday was the very last thing, and it was pretty much putting everything together from what they had learned about LBJ, Civil Rights Movement, and Vietnam, to Ronald Reagan. This turned out to be quite successful, and most of the students enjoyed doing it. Starting of next week will be crazier because the 9th and 10th graders will be taking the STAAR test and so the 11th and 12th graders do not have to be at school until after lunch. I have a feeling we will have LOW attendance those 4 days.

This week was a little different than most. It was different because students returned back from spring break with a whole different attitude students this week just did not want to listen on Monday, regardless of what I was teaching. It became very frustrating but I understood it was nothing personal, but rather they had not seen their friend's for a week and wanted to talk. Also this week started a 2 week rush of information. What I mean is that Monday I talked about Watergate and Nixon, and come Tuesday I will be talking about the end of Reagan and starting Bush. 20 years in a week! We have to rush because in 2-3 weeks or so the students take the TAKS test and a week from now it will be all review. Besides that another successful week and from what I think I have written down somewhere only 5 more weeks left! 

This week was as crazy as the week previous. TAKS state testing was on Monday so we missed that entire day to learn. I had no major problem with that because we had already basically finished everything we really needed to know about the Vietnam War. Tuesday-Thursday was when everything started getting crazy, and that is because the schools bell system was off because others who failed the TAKS test in previous years were making them up on those days. With the bells off many students would be tardy to class, and sometimes it was because their previous teacher let them out late, but many times it was students taking advantage of the bells not ringing. On Thursday after some of the same students kept trying to use the excuse of their teacher letting them out late I just started counting them tardy and had them go get a pass. Only ONCE did one student get upset at me about it, and this was because he could not have any more tardies or he would get in trouble in some kind of way.  Friday was a make-up day for students. My cooperating teacher and I wanted to get the students to get some work done in class, and take some home because grades are due on Monday, and we wanted to students to have some good grades. Many students took advantage of this make-up day, but then there were those students who did not want to try to make up their work, and those will be the students receiving 40’s, 50’s and 60’s for progress reporting. Also on Friday, to raise money for the Saint Jude’s foundation there was a dodge ball tournament , and teacher faced students. I joined the teacher’s team and it was fun actually not doing something that involves academics, but rather friendly sporting.

This past week has been a crazy week both personally and at school. Personally it was crazy because my sleeping, and working schedule was off because I had to miss class on last Friday because of the Cohort meeting. The fact that we had a meeting on Friday afternoon meant that I could be up past my usually 9-10pm, so I stated up until 1am, and sleep-in until about 10 or 11am. This was all great then but it would start a downfall of the rest of the week. Monday came around and there was the huge snow storm/blizzard. This cancelled school on Monday, and delayed school for Tuesday. I have no clue how the weather played such a huge role in students behaviors, but for the rest of the week everything was out of place. Besides missing on Monday, and being delayed on Tuesday, on Wednesday the students had to take the SAT which lasted until from 8:3-am-2:30pm. After it was done students were tired and did not want to do any work. This complicated things because any work we wanted to get done with the students could not be achieved for 3 days because of the crazy schedule. Thursday, and Friday ended the week, and although it seemed to be normal days they still were kind of crazy with students having all kinds of roller coaster like emotions. This week should be a little better, but probably not since on Monday the students have the take the TAKS test and basically it will probably start another week of roller coaster like emotions.

This past week was a normal week for me, the only thing different we did this week was took the 6 weeks exam. This exam covered everything from The Cold War and Missile Crisis issues, to Civil Rights Movement. After the exam on Tuesday the students and I went over the test on Wednesday. This was a good idea because students did not have to do much work other than grading their own exams. This also gave them a break before Thursday when we started the Vietnam War. I introduced the Vietnam War the same way I did with the Civil Rights Movement; which was using the think maps. I thought this would be a great way to start every single unit. So a week or so from now I should be doing the same thing when talking about the 1970’s-1990’s.

This week was overall a good week too. We finished up Civil rights, and we did it by playing a game on Thursday. This game I created had students challenged with matching people, and events of the past with those of the present. These events or people were things such as; Martin Luther King Jr. is too Barack Obama; or Betty Friedan is to Sandra Day O’Conner. What they students did was some high level thinking because not only did they have to match the people together, they also had to tell me the organization (NAACP, SNCC, LULAC) , and the law (Civil Rights Act 1964, Affirmative Action), that made it possible for those people in the present. Overall it was a very successful lesson. Friday they matched pictures to the think map they created over two weeks ago, and they did that wonderfully as well. Monday will be a review day for the 6 weeks test, and Tuesday we will take the exam. I am excited to see the results of the exam, so that I can see if the students actually learned while I was teaching.

This was a pretty time consuming week, and it was full of all new experiences. Monday was basically the start of me pushing all of the facts and details about the Civil Rights Movement. The first thing we did was trace the background of the civil rights movement. The class did this in various small groups, which was very successful. Tuesday was another small group day, and again the output was successful, and I feel the students learned. Wednesday, and Thursday was again another group project, and by Thursday I could tell students needed some independent study, because they were exhausted from all of the group work. Friday students had the choice of working alone or with ONE partner on a “must know info” paper. Students were used to this kind of work, and actually enjoyed working independently. The reason my week was full of new experiences because I learned how to work the copy machine much more successfully than I remember, I learned how to check, and input grades, and on Thursday Mr. Eads was sick and I took over his classes. This was interesting because although many times earlier that week, and in the previous week he had left the classroom so I could feel how it is to be alone; now I knew he would not be returning at a random time to check up on me. This made me put my “big boy pants on” and step up my skills, which turned out to be successful the entire day.

This week was another successful, productive week. This week besides the usually taking over 5th, 7th, and 8th period I had to take over ALL class periods on Thursday and Friday. I had to take over all classes because we started a new unit The Civil Rights Movement. On Thursday and Friday we did something new with the students. Instead taking the usually kind of notes when I stand at the smart board and lecture and they take notes, we instead did think maps. This is sort of like a flow chart, but instead a little different because we are connecting all major and minor events of the Civil Rights movement together. Besides that I had a good week, and this weekend I am tasked with creating more lesson plans regarding the civil rights, which is a little harder than I expected. Although I learned to write lesson plans for a class, it is much harder to do when there are actual students in front of you and their passing or failing is partially on me, and what I teach them.