Fifty-Nine Minutes: A Student Teacher Blog

I blogged previously about Randon Ruggles, a student teacher that’s working with Anne Smith and Kristin Leclaire this semester. Well, Randon has started a blog, Fifty-Nine Minutes (great name, btw) to document his experiences as a student teacher. As he told me, “I thought that it would be a great way to reflect on my student teaching. Besides, if I’m asking the students to do it, why shouldn’t I?”

Here are a few excerpts of what he’s written so far. From his first post, back in early December:

Wow, let's just say that after meeting with my teachers I know that this will be a great experience, but on the same side of the coin I am a little nervous. This is an awesome school and yes, I do have some experience, but I am still just that - a student teacher. Nothing else, and nothing more. I have written lesson plans, taught before, and I love interacting with students. This is going to be amazing, but at the same time I don't know what I am going to do.

Each day I will see my students in fifty-nine minute blocks. I will be teaching four periods and be seeing probably around 120 students I am responsible for daily (the real number is still TBD). I can't wait, this is going to be amazing. I actually get to plan, teach, and lead the class.

When I look at it though, it comes down to is this:

I have fifty-nine minutes
...to teach.
...to connect with my students.
...to engage my students.
...to make a difference.

Fifty-nine minutes starting January 5th, 2009.

No more, no less...fifty-nine minutes.

While I would quibble with the statement that he only has fifty-nine minutes with them (we aren’t restrained as much these days by the bell ringing, learning can continue after the bell, plus of course how much interaction he can have with them outside of class), I think it’s a timely (pun intended) reminder for all of us that we need to make those minutes count for our students.

From First Day at AHS!:

All in all though, the highlight of my day (besides the principal coming and talking to me at the end of the first day) was when Anne told me that a student sitting next to her commented to her during the lesson - "Where did you get this guy, I like him." That just about did it for me, I'm hooked, sign me up to a life of teaching.

It will get harder, Randon, but keep that enthusiasm, our students deserve it.

From Day Two:

The whole point for these students, and really any students that we teach at AHS, is for them to go change the world. Yes, at first it sounds a little cheesy, your 9th graders are going to go change the world, but no they really are going to. That is the challenge ever 59 minutes that I am in that period, in that classroom, I want to change them, challenge them, and encourage them to go out and change the world into a better place. So today we did this activity from The Last Lecture called "The Crayon Activity." I had each of the students take a crayon and then put their heads down and contemplate life as a child, when it was simpler, and when they had childish dreams. I encouraged them that even now, they are 9th graders, that they can still accomplish those dreams. Don't let anyone stop you and continue to push forward. Anne, my cooperating teacher was pretty impressed I guess. I think I even inspired her. The highlight was when she told me one of the lines I told the students - "When we stop dreaming, we stop changing the world." It was another good day of teaching 9th graders. Tomorrow I get to challenge them to actually put their words where their mouths are and really start to change the world with their position paper.

Nothing wrong with cheesy. I think sometimes as educators we shy away from things because others might judge them “cheesy” or “touchy-feely.” Students are people. Teachers are people. And school should have a purpose beyond simply scoring well on the CSAPs. (Of course, I might be a tad bit biased here.)

From Day Three!:

How Anne teaches this class makes me want to return to high school and take my senior level English class again. I can't wait to take over this class in a few weeks. They will probably push me the hardest to be the teacher that I always hope that I can be. The 9th graders can and do push me, but I feel some sort of pressure from these seniors. A good pressure to perform, to teach them, to challenge them, and to not let them down their last semester of their senior year. It will be a challenge that I can't wait to reach head on.

Last semester seniors can be a challenge, and I think senior year is one that many schools – including mine – need to rethink a little. (Randon does have the advantage that I believe he only student teaches for twelve weeks, so he won’t have seniors those last few weeks after spring break/prom.) But I'd like to see my school look at what other schools have done to make senior year more meaningful and relevant for students, there are a lot of good ideas out there.

From Day Four!:

There was one point today where I did not give clear directions on how to break up into groups. The students thought it was a little silly, but in the end I apologized and took the fall for it. It's always a learning experience, right?

For good teachers, I think every day is a learning experience. It never stops as long as you keep teaching (or at least it shouldn’t).

From Day Five!:

After class I really considered my fifty-nine minutes with them. Was it effective? Did they really learn the material? Are they actually prepared to start this essay? I honestly did not think so, and I voiced this concern with Anne . . . Tomorrow I will evaluate and look at how can I break down the steps and really get these students from their really large topics down to something small that they can actually research and write about. I need to take them from a topic the size of the world and bring it down to something the size of Denver - hey, that's a great analogy, I just might use that on Monday! Then from there I need to model, model, and model some more. They need to see what a true example looks like. I need to stop talking through examples and start physically writing them down for the students. Randon, don't be afraid of the blackboard - just because it's not a whiteboard or electronic doesn't mean that it will hurt you!

Think. Plan. Teach. Reflect. Learn. Adjust. Improve. Repeat.

Considering heading on over to Fifty-Nine Minutes and leaving some comments for Randon. Based on his early work, I think this might be a blog you should subscribe to. Of course, Randon, that means you’ll need to continue blogging after you finish your student teaching . . .

Getting a Jump on Student Teaching

Kristin Leclaire and Anne Smith are going to be mentoring a student teacher for the first half of next semester. Randon is coming in from out of state (Wartburg College has a program where they place student teachers in the Denver Metro area) and, like many student teachers, won’t have much of an opportunity to get the lay of the land before he starts.

So, to try to get a jump on getting to know the students, Randon developed some questions for them that Kristin and Anne then posted on their blogs. (Leclaire English 10, Smith English 9, Smith English World Literature). The questions varied slightly depending on the class, but here’s what he asked the students in English World Literature:

1. I (Mr. Ruggles) have never lived in Colorado. What is your favorite thing about Colorado
2. What do you like about English Literature?
3. How do you learn best? In what concrete, specific ways?
4. What sorts of activities in the classroom have been really meaningful to you?
5. What sorts of activities outside of the classroom have been really meaningful to you?
6. What are you passionate about?
7. What sorts of things will you be participating in or doing second semester (Either inside or outside of AHS)?
8. Next semester we will be looking at The Picture of Dorian Gray. What do you know about this book?
9. What is your favorite thing about the people of England or the country of England?
10. What is one thing I (Mr. Ruggles) should know about this class?
11. If you were teaching the class, what is one thing you would change?
12. What is one thing you want to accomplish on the first day of class second semester?
13. What are you really motivated by (besides your parent/guardian and receiving good grades)?
14. What is one thing you want to know about me (Mr. Ruggles)?
15. Finally, what one character in a movie or a book are you most like at this point in your life? Why?

Take a look at the three posts and how the students responded to the questions. I thought this was a great way to start to get to know the students and the culture of the class, and for the students to start to get to know Randon.

Random Thoughts from the NCTE Convention

This will not be any kind of coherent post, just some miscellaneous thoughts from the annual NCTE Convention. (I know, I know, how will you tell the difference?)

Did You Know? Has Jumped the Shark
Gary Stager tweeted a week or so ago that Did You Know? had jumped the shark because his Mom sent him the link (and, the horror, she was proud that he knew me). Then a remix of it played twice on Sunrise, a popular morning show on Australian TV. But I think the culminating piece of evidence is this picture that Bud Hunt made me take.


At the opening celebration for the NCTE Convention, they had it playing in a continuous loop for 60 minutes. But they also had the sound turned down and a mariachi band playing – so picture Did You Know? with mariachi music and light appetizers. Too. Funny. Oh well, Henry Winkler’s done okay since then, hasn’t he?

Greg Mortenson
We went to listen to Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, speak, and we sat in the front row because Anne wants to try to get him to blog with her students about the book. Just before he’s about to begin I start to take a picture of him. But he sees me and immediately walks over, puts his arm around me, and hands the camera to Anne to take a picture of us. After that about fifty people came up to have their picture taken with him. I’m guessing he just knows that’s going to happen so picks somebody out to start the process, I just happened to catch his attention. It was a little awkward, since I wasn’t trying to get my picture taken with him, and I’m still not sure Anne has forgiven me (even though – for the record – it was completely and utterly not my fault).

For folks that liked Three Cups of Tea, you’ll be excited to learn that they’ll be releasing both a children's version and a young reader’s version in January, both of which should be more accessible to younger readers. You might also look at the Pennies for Peace program.

Anne and Kristin
I was part of two presentations at NCTE. Anne and I were the featured presentation on Saturday morning, but it was 8:00 am so sparsely attended. But on Friday Anne Smith and Kristin Leclaire presented and it was fabulous – I predict that NCTE will be inviting them back to do some great things very soon.


Technology
Let’s just say that for a conference that was titled “Shift Happens,”


the wireless access was, ummm, pretty “shifty”. I know it’s expensive, but when is it going to be a given that when anyone gets together for a conference learning, especially educators, wireless is a necessity, not an option? Bud Hunt has more thoughts on this, and so do his commenters.

In addition, every single session I was in, including both of the ones I was associated with, had technical issues with the projectors and/or the microphones. Some of that is to be expected with that many sessions, but 100% with problems? I don’t think so.

Miscellaneous Quotes From My Notes

If we really want students to succeed in the future, we have to allow them to work in a participatory and collaborative way.

They did all this work outside of school because our filters wouldn’t let them find these things.

We invited the superintendent, adminstration, etc. – not one of them took the invitation. That was disappointing.

Teachers will incorporate bits and pieces, but it was still the same basic curriculum – we needed to change the whole thing.

'They’re on a computer, that’s not English' – but they were doing more reading and writing than in their other English classes.

I didn’t feel like our department had a vision – so I changed schools. At my new school, there was a different way of talking about students, a different way of viewing students.

We believe kids can’t look critically at the world until they figure out who they are.

We should think of ourselves [teachers] as the Designer of the Learning Experience.

Every teacher will have to be tech savvy.

They don’t have to be where the information is.

Blogging is reading, with the intent to write. (Quoting Will Richardson).

Wikified Personal Philosophy Statements

Kristin Kakos's students are getting personal on a wiki:

One challenge that faces me each year is how to achieve cohesion between in-class activities, homework assignments, class discussions, creative projects, and essays (not to mention cohesion between units and semesters). With the guidance of the brilliant and charming Mike Porter, my students and I have discovered the glory of wikispaces.

In my American Literature classes, my students each formed a personal philosophy statement that will form the focus for the semester, and perhaps even for the year. Many of their philosophy statements explore the root of evil, the impetus for rebellion and/or obedience, the destructive force of fear, the significance of vulnerability, and other concepts that emerge from early American literature.

She links to four of her students' wikis that are partially completed, so you should visit her post and click through to the wikis. You can leave constructive comments on her post or on the discussion tabs of each wiki.

I really like this part of what Kristin writes,

I like using wikispaces because the technology doesn't get in the way; a wikispace is essentially a 21st century folder that allows for almost any type of media, emphasizes professionalism, encourages feedback, and lasts as long as you want it to, unlike a notebook that you clear out at the end of each semester. We'll keep coming back to the wikispaces throughout the semester and adding to them, and hopefully by the end of the semester they'll be able to look over their work and their ideas say, "THIS is the little piece of my soul that grew in American Literature," whether they focused on hope, goodness, evil, or any other personal topic that found its way out of a seemingly boring Puritan text.