Exciting challenges and experiences await!

I am excited to begin another semester and to continue on the path of becoming an English teacher! It's so close, I can taste it! Okay, maybe not really.

I attended the first day of school at Frankford High to kick off my pre-student teaching experience (pseudonyms will be used for all names in order to protect the privacy of the school, staff, and students). I had the opportunity to see how my CT introduced herself, laid down rules and explained procedures. The class with which I'll be working is an AP English class, and the students all seem very well behaved and dedicated to their education (thus far at least!). I feel fortunate to have witnessed a teacher explain rules during the first days of school and I came away with a few ideas for how I'll do the same when I'm a teacher.

I have learned that my CT holds very high expectations for her AP class, which I think is excellent. She let her students know that the course would be challenging and that they were expected to do well. One thing that I found a bit surprising was that she gave them an essay assignment that was due the next class. At first, I wasn't quite sure what to think about the fact that the students were expected to write an essay that was due on the second day of class. However, I quickly became a fan of this getting-right-to-work method. On the second day, my CT made copies of the student's essays and she handed them back to the class. She then spent the class period having the them analyze their own papers. I would explain what exactly she had them do, but this is a blog, not a book and I don't want to bore you :) Nonetheless, it was an eye-opening experience for the students and I was impressed with how much they learned about their writing and how to improve it on only the SECOND day of class.

I'll wrap this up by expressing how excited I am to work with the students at Frankford High. Because the class is an AP class instead of just basic English, it is sure to present challenges for me as well as the students. Through this experience I hope to learn new methods of teaching, classroom management techniques, and how to create a positive learning environment. I'm looking forward to growing, learning, and becoming the best educator I can be.

Testing...testing...

This is my practice post. I currently do not have anything interesting to say.