Two More for the Blog Roll

Stare at a blank piece of paper long enough and you may see dots. This syndrome is a common affliction of writers, a struggle for students, and a downright pain in the arse roadblock for student teachers. I went through it. Everyone I know went through it. And you will, too. You will get caught up in the teaching standards. You will wonder how to connect two completely unrelated lessons. You will wish you had a curriculum of your own already set up and the more ambitious of you will try and figure out in your head exactly what that unit of lessons would be like if you were at the helm rather than your cooperating teacher. You will go bald by the end of the semester trying to relate, rethink, and rewrite the lessons, only to have your students send you on a roller coaster of successful days that prove you were right to chose your field and days that make you want to quit altogether. This is normal in your new found role as a student teacher.

However, there are things that you can do to save yourself some gray hairs and nights sometimes nearly in tears. My biggest frustration when I went through my student teaching was the lesson itself. I tried too hard to come up with new content, things that people hadn't seen before, and to make it absolutely perfect and flawless. I repeatedly forgot to respect the existence of Murphy's Law. Things don't go perfect. Even when you're at the end of the student teaching experience and you start to think "FINALLY, I've got this", you go out into the field proud of yourself, step into the role of a substitute teacher, and if your first day will be anything like mine was, by the end of the day you think "what have I done to myself". It's a factor that happens because you forget that you are green and inexperienced. You forget that you were given basic tools, but that you still aren't practiced in putting them all together. That's where I hope to come in.

Your lesson plans will be your first hurdle. Focus on them. Forget the writing and the standards, come up with your content with them in the back of your brain as you go, and start drawing rough lists of your process and procedure. Bullet point your steps, and if you are doing a demonstration (as I so often had to do as an Art Ed major) DO THE PROJECT YOURSELF BEFORE YOU EVER WRITE THE LESSON. You will inherently do the project much faster than your students because, let's face it, they're kids. Time yourself to completion and add extra time to complete for the younger and younger the kids are, yes, even for teens.

As for content, don't sweat not coming up with something completely original. Most people don't. Trust the tried and true teachers and focus on getting your practice in. That's what student teaching is for. Look online for lessons, or ask your cooperating teachers for lessons of theirs to look over for inspiration. They are there to help. It is no sin to take a lesson offline and put a twist of your own on it. These are written and offered by teachers who have tested them (let's face it, who else would voluntarily write a lesson plan if they didn't have to) for others to use and learn from. Take advantage of it.

As far as content, I can recommend two sources I've recently found to help the random thoughts and information floating in your head to come together. I'll try and share a new link review or blog with each new post from now on in my "Source of the Day".

Source of the Day

The Learning Network - Sponsored and written by the New York Times, this website seemed to have quite a bit going for it. It was a bit dry in reading but when put to the test, it was a wealth of information feeds, lesson plan suggestions on all different types of subjects, and news stories in addition that can be easily accessed as continually feeding posts to keep you updated on recent events going on in the world. Use this either for current lesson subject, research for your own lesson plans, or just to keep your students updated on what's going on. Teenagers rarely ever read or watch the news voluntarily themselves. Keep them abreast of what's going on if you can. It makes what you're teaching all that more relevant to them if they know it's not ancient history.

The Cool Cat Teacher Blog - The subtitle of this page reads "Teaching students with new tools, enthusiasm, and belief that teaching is a noble calling", and it certainly delivers. It is written by a full time teacher to introduce new concepts, new ways of reaching students, and advice to parents, teachers and students alike. Please, do not miss this blog. Mrs. Vicki Davis
 is already putting into action technology in her classroom. Read her bio and I know you will agree, this woman is someone you want to connect with.