The Final Week

This is officially my final week of student teaching.  I have made it through 16 weeks, and now there is only one more standing between me and the end of my college career. While I am tempted to spend the bulk of this time writing and reflecting on the “end,” I feel as though I have already used up enough of my time and energy doing that in the past weeks.

So, let’s start and take a look at what last week looked like. 

This past week, I introduced my final unit with my students.  Throughout my time here, I have been able to choose a topic in science or social studies and create units for my students.  There really is no curriculum for these subjects, but being that these are middle school students, it is important to expose them to these subject areas.  I did units on Lewis and Clark, Exploration, South Africa, and Veterans.  Now, I am ending with a unit on the scientific method.  This is basically a way to find fun experiments to do with my students and find hands on ways to learn together. 

I have chosen three different parts of the scientific method to focus on and have placed a poster at the front of the room to show the sequence of these steps.  First, we have Hypothesis, then conduct the experiment, then make a conclusion.  Every other week, the paraprofessional in the room leads one experiment with the students.  I am hoping that through this unit, I can help the students understand the important parts of problem solving, and that this is something they can continue to be exposed to throughout the rest of the year (if I can convince the para to keep using the terminology I am introducing!).  We did an experiment with eggs floating in salt water and an experiment with baking soda and water.  While I make sure to tell the students the reasoning behind the results of the experiments, it is more realistic to hope they can just catch on to the way we approach problem solving rather than all the scientific concepts behind the experiment results. 

This unit, along with other units I have done, is very fun to prepare and implement in the classroom.  In reading, spelling, and other times where we work more specifically on IEP goals, the lessons seem to be different every day, or seem to follow the same monotonous pattern each day.  Students may not notice this so much, but wow, the teachers sure do!  By building a unit, I can find ways to connect prior learning into the unit, and come up with a lot more relevant, hands-on activities to accompany the unit.  Basically, creating a whole unit is just more fun than doing day to day stories out of the same workbook for a whole month.  I know I have talked of this in earlier posts, but as a teacher, this is very important to me.  Students with disabilities may be just fine with working day in and day out on IEP goals, and may not do much objecting.  Even if this is true, why not expose them to new concepts and experiences related to the world around them?  Time in the classroom is full of opportunities to help students not only meet the standard IEP goals set for them, but also opportunities to teach them about the culture of the area, lifeskills, and random knowledge that will improve their minds and quality of life.  Be passionate about what is being taught, the students can sense that and will respond somehow, even if the response is not visually or verbally confirmed. 

Though this post was full of rambling, I walk away from feeling happy that I have been able to reflect one more time on the importance of teaching passionately.  Teachers can be successful if they teach the content they are told to and follow the books and basic plans on how to work with students.  However, teachers can be motivational, moving, inspirational, and incredibly helpful to students when they rise above those cookie cutter qualities and strive for excellence in the classroom.  The mindset of the teacher is very telling of how involved and beneficial the child’s learning experience can be.