Week Three: MHS Open House

Morgantown High School’s open house was a new experience for me entirely. As a student my parents and I never went to our school’s open house because it wasn't that much of a concern unless you were freshman. The open house started with each grade meeting in a bigger room to talk to the counselors about the requirement for the grade level. Since we have an 11th grade homeroom, we were in the 11th grade meeting. We found out that by the time students are applying for colleges their 12th grade grades won’t be on the transcripts so the 11th grade grades are what really matter.  They also went over graduation requirements because by the 11th grade year they should know what other classes they need to take to finish up and be ready to graduate.

Then we broke up and since my teacher and I teach both 10th and 12th grade we had two meetings with our 12th grade parents and 2 meetings with our 10th grade so that we could go over what we will be teaching and parents can ask any questions they have. It was a really nice opportunity for me because I was able to explain what I am planning to do my research on (student- teacher writing conferences). I explained that I will be meeting with the students individually to help them with their writing and I will be going over plagiarism and the writing process.

It was also nice for the parents to meet me because I know many of them have doubts when it comes to a student- teacher teaching their children. It was a moment to prove myself and I believe that I did really well.

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Week Two: Beowulf and the Colomber

Textbooks: 

One of the things I'm really noticing this year are the textbooks that MHS has adopted. The books hold a lot of great stories for the students to read but they all seem to be abridged and the majority of the story isn't even told; especially when it comes to the classical literature. I guess it is just the English major in me that can't stand to see the great works cut up in to little pieces, so I always tend to tell the students more details then what the book is doing. The textbook isn't supposed to be the one teaching the material, but it was still shocking to me to find out just how much of some stories are left. Beowulf for example leaves out a lot of details and jumps around to just the action/ fight scenes and there is only a small paragraph in italics to explain what has happened in between. 

Though the classical works of literature are shortened there are still hundreds of amazing short stories that are available for students to read. Many of them have twists and turns that the students wouldn't expect and are perfect to teach along side the elements of literature. 

The books also have great introductions. I think it is always important to provide some history about the time period or context that the students will be reading about before they read so that they are prepared for what they are about to experience. There are also numerous articles and informative pieces of work in the textbooks that go excellently with the Next Gen  standards of providing our students with more informational reading instead of just fiction. 


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Meetings, Committees and Students: The First Days of School

The first few days at Morgantown High School allowed me to see a side of teaching that is rarely witnessed as a student; the training and governmental side of teaching. During the first few days back for teachers we went through a series of workshops to help get us ready for the school year. We learned about the new Next Gen (common core) state standards and how they teacher reading and writing across the curriculum (and not just in English classes). Principals also expressed the importance in making our students feel welcome because due to a survey only 60% of students felt welcome or cared for by the teachers at the school last year, yet 90% of the teachers said that they showed care and welcomed their students in their classrooms. Many issues were debated such as whether or not a 2.5 is an A or a B, and how to deal with the student parking situation. 

I also got to see how the English department (and I assume the other educational departments) chose their department chair. The department chair is in charge of making sure the rest of the English teachers get the news about meetings, procedures, and petitions that are going around for teachers. we also got to sit down and break apart the new CSO's to see which ones match up with what old CSO's to help us when making (or converting) lesson plans for the new year. 

The first few days at a school are extremely different without the students and with the students. There is time to plan lessons and decorate the room so that everything is prepared for when the students come. This was a a great learning experience!