Hayley White Quarter One Journals Week One- 9/7/10 They didnt really respond to me today (Miss Klinge

forgot to tell them that I was coming). They all just said hello and carried on with their days. The classroom seemed to be decorated too young for 6th graders, but I guess its been a while since I was there. Miss Klinge was reading a book to the class, again it seemed oddly too young for them. If its possible, I remembered being a lot older in 6th grade! She read it very energetically, so the kids seemed very interested in the story because of it. After she read the book, she had them reflect on it, answer questions about things pertaining to the story. There was a lot of brainstorming and creativity so that the story wasnt a pointless activity. When she had the classes switch, there were some bad grades in the next class-her attitude had to switch so the students knew she was serious. Thats a very important trick of the trade to learn. Once the classes switched, the boys inparticular responded to me a little differently. They had a chance to talk to me, and they were asking a lot of questions (hoping I was their teacher for the day) she has to do three of the same lesson in a rowand throughout the day, I got to meet three different groups of kids. She keeps each class just as consistent as the others. Week Two- 9/14/10 I walked in and she was reading another story to her first class. Class one- Racially, there wasnt a lot of diversity (maybe two kids that were of a different race). There are, however, a few kids that seem a little different. They do not seem disabled, but they do seem a little slower or maybe just underprivileged. I can tell small differences in kids by the way they get maybe more excited than others about certain things. Nobody seems to be treated any differently from the other students. The special kids blend and work within the rest. Class two- The second class is pretty similar to the first one. There are two girls that I think English may be their second language, but they do not have helpers or anything. This class is so much more fun than the other. Miss Klinge shared that this is the class with the most special needs. Class three- There really isnt a lot of diversity in this class either. This is Miss Klinges homeroom class, so she knows them the best. I really like all three of them, but this will be the class that I get to know the best, and I am very excited for that. Week Three- 9/15/10 According to Miss Klinge, parents rarely have time to deal with their kids and their work because they are usually busy. Parents tend to think that their child can do no wrong. She has yet to deal with child abuse of any sort. Were in an excellent school district so that isnt really a common issue. She has had to deal with kids in foster homes; you just have to be more sensitive to their needs. Theres a no tolerance policy for bullying. She yells at them that usually take care of that issue right away. Theres an occasional kid that will ride the line with racism or religious differences.

Week Four- 9/21/10 Over the past couple of weeks, the kids have been working on ideas and structures for a good story. Theyve been brainstorming ideas from other books theyve read in class, and then from ideas other students have shared in class. At the end of every class period, they have 10 minutes to free write. She had an interesting method today that was a little different. She had each kid pick one line out of all of their writings that was their favorite. She had them write down that sentence on a note card and switch cards with someone else. Each student had to create a completely new story using those sentences as their story starter. I thought it was a really neat way to circulate more ideas, creating a larger variety for topics that they may never have come up with otherwise. Week Five- 9/22/10 There are staff meetings from time to time, but collaboration and communication between teachers is pretty lacking. Theyre very supportive of each other it seems though. There are three 6th grade teachers, and they all collaborate very well. They have to plan activities, lesson plans, and field trips so that it works between all of them. So between the three of them, communication is great. School wide however, Miss Klinge says it could definitely be improved. Week Six- 9/28/10 She says she feels like now that shes been teaching for 13 years, it isnt so much that she has more responsibilities, but she is just more comfortable with the responsibilities that shes been given. When she first started teaching, expectations werent as high, so responsibilities did seem a little easier. As years go on, she gets more comfortable with the students and has a greater understanding with what theyre capable of. So she does know what these kids are able to do, and what they cant do. Their rights and responsibilities havent really changed that much over time. Theyre the same every year. She doesnt really like kids grading others papers. They buddy buddy up and can easily fix each others work. She doesnt trust them enough for that; their maturity level still has a ways to go. Week Seven- 9/29/10 Today they had Code 411. This is where a West Des Moines Police Officer comes in and talks to all of the kids about drugs, alcohol, weapons, harassment, etc. Its fun watching the kids get excited about things like this. They love learning about violence, and they love learning about the crazy things that goes on in this world. For the majority of the kids, theyve never been exposed to things like this. Although, when I watch some of the students, I can tell that they understand what the officer is describing to them. Maybe they have experienced things within this sort of nature. It just makes me think that I may not know a lot about these students, and Miss Klinge doesnt know their complete stories either. We have to be careful with what we say at all times because you never know what they have truly gone through.

Week Eight- 10/5/10 This isnt my last day, but I can still answer these questions I think! I did very much enjoy my time with these kids. 6th grade is a very natural level for me because (as sad as it may sound) they have a very similar humor and attitude to mine. I know that I couldnt go any lower in age because we just wouldnt match. These kids are goofy, fun, and creative. I shared a couple memories with these kids that I will always treasure. Adis and I talked about ghost stories for about 15 minutes while we waited for his bus to arrive. Joey and I live on the same street so we always have something to talk about. Tyler and Sam came into Hy-Vee while I was working, they told the whole class about it! Cole cracks jokes that he knows everything about me because of the t-shirts that I wear. These kids are awesome and I am really going to miss seeing them every week. Maybe Ill come back and visit from time to time.

Hayley White Quarter Two Journals Week 9- 11/2/10 The first class that I sat through was her advanced kids. They are working on an overwhelmingly large research paper. I was not addressed by this class; they came in, saw me, and went straight to work. I was introduced, but there was little reaction from the 9th graders as opposed to the 6th graders. Her second class has a test today over To Kill a Mockingbird. She is collecting study guides and has an interesting way of doing so. She has them turn their homework in on the table, check their name off the list, she takes the list and reads off the names that arent checked off. She hands them a yellow excuse sheet to explain why they didnt turn it in. If it is their third excuse sheet, she calls their parents. She does this because of this new program called ZAP (zeros arent permitted) where they cannot give any zeros. This excuse sheet stands in as a pending grade until their assignment gets turned in. Week 10- 11/3/10 Most teachers in schools are more moral based than in other professions. By example, students will pick up on their morals and values. When she teaches, morals and values do kind of sneak through, but its not forced. They want the kids to follow certain morals. They want them to value their education, but it cannot be forced either. Ideal is that everyone is going to go to college, reality is that some dont. By junior and senior year, students generally know which route they are going to take. Mrs. Wicks teaches 9th grade English, she is preparing them for the next level, and 10th grade will prepare them for the next level, and so on. Those teachers who teach A.P. are obligated to prepare students for college. The ability of the students in your room, thats what should guide your curriculum. Some arent ready for college bound curriculum quite yet, you have to base it year by year, class by class. Week 11- 11/9/10 I sat through a curriculum meeting. They talked about the state standards that they have to meet throughout the year. They each brought in their personal curriculum and lesson plans, so they could match and adjust to state and district standards. I can tell that they are having issues trying to connect their lessons to the required standards. I didnt know stuff like this happened behind the scenes, it is very interesting watching them trying to put all of this together. I also sat through another meeting. This is where some teachers from around the school get together and talk about what theyre doing in their classrooms. They talked about their big picture with the assignments they create. Basically the teachers are coming together to get feedback on assignments and lessons that maybe they werent so pleased with. Week 12- 11/10/10 Well sadly, what Ive come to realize is that 9th graders dont really need help, and they would rather not talk to the teacher if they dont have to. Before I started the teaching program, I was pretty much set on teaching high school English. My plans are definitely starting to change. I dont like not being needed, and it really just sucks that by 9th grade,

students stop looking up to you. In all honesty, I really miss my 6th graders. From 6th to 9th grade was a harder shift than I thought it would be. The teacher just kind of becomes a by-stander to their forming social lives. Im glad that Im taking this class so that I didnt end up in a high school classroom and be completely miserable. I cannot wait to go back to my 6th graders next semester. Week 13- 11/16/10 Well as far curriculum goes, it is a very in your face approach. They all choose their specific lessons and such, but the district sets very specific rules and guidelines that each teacher has to touch base on in their classrooms. They have weekly staff meetings to go over what each teacher is covering in their room. They have another weekly meeting to break up and divide what the district wants. This was the CCR meeting that I attended last week. Basically district and state standards. Its very meticulous, its very time consuming, and you can tell that the teachers dont like working through it. Week 14- 11/17/10 Mrs. Wicks and her classes have been working for about a month and a half on To Kill a Mockingbird. From what I remember, and from what I have seen, they do so much analyzing of this book. They read the novel out loud in class, assign readings for homework, have class worksheets and discussions, etc. After finishing the book, they had a unit test which they all agreed was actually pretty easy. They later started working on their own newspaper. They all had to write their own article relating to the book, and then put it all together. Today they started on expository essay writing about the 3 central themes of the book. I had a chance to go around and ask the students what they thought of this unit. It was a pretty unanimous decision overall that they appreciated the amount of time that was given to them, but this unit was stretched and lengthened over a long period of time, that they were so sick of the book by the time they got to the essay. So an important thing to remember as far as unit length goes, you have to be really careful when trying to find a good amount. Week 15- 1/4/11 So this was my first day back since I lost my license a little while ago. I came back on a pretty cool day though. I finally got to see the kids get really creative. They just finished, and are presenting poetry projects that theyve been working on since I've been gone. They have to write 5 poems, and they all have to be different styles. The idea is to write poems that reflect them as individuals. They stuck them on a decorative poster and they choose their favorite one to read for the class Poetry Slam. Its really neat to see what these kids are capable of. Poetry is one of my favorite units, so I am really glad to be a part of it. Week 16- 1/5/11 I am so thankful that I got to experience an 8th grade classroom. Before I did the teaching program, I wanted to be a high school English teacher no doubtthe reason Im so thankful that I got to experience this classroom is because now I know that this isnt the type of environment I would choose to be in. I dont like the fact that whenever Mrs. Wicks tried to offer her help, the students rolled their eyes when she left. The feeling of

this age group is not the feeling that I want to get from my career. The only reason these kids treated me somewhat nicely is because Im around their age. This is exactly why I hardly got any respect from them either. All I know is that I miss my 6th graders, and I cannot wait to go back to them!

Second Semester Week 1-1/20/11 My first week and a half back to the 6th graders has been wonderful. Im having the chance to really get to know them and its so great. 9th graders just werent for me, and Im happy to be back. I havent taught any lessons yet because the majority of their time is spent working on their research papers. Miss Klinge gave me a packet of lesson plan ideas to look over because within the next couple of weeks, I will be teaching the students about adjectives. Theyre still working on verbs for the time being. Lately Ive been helping them organize their research, and set up paragraphs for their paper. Ive also been helping them study these things called no excuse words. This is a list of 35 words that they should know how to spell, and they have no excuse not to. Words like disappear, beginning, recommend, and the big onedefinitely! hopefully I can get them to remember these words! Week 2-1/31/11 Research papers are still in progress. Theyve moved from the research portion to their rough drafts. Miss Klinge gave them so much time to get them done, and Ive picked up on a few slackers. Frustration finally hit Miss Klinge today because she started emailing parents. She said that was usually the last resort, but theres no excuse for laziness. Week 3-2/10/11 We finished the final drafts for their research papers this week! I think theyre very excited to have those completed. (I am too kind of). Overall, I think they did really well with those. I saw the final copy of some of theirs, and I was very impressed. Some even went the extra mile to put covers on them, add pictures, and even add a bibliography! Week 4-2/17/11 This was the week that we celebrated Valentines Day, and the kids couldnt have been any sweeter! Miss Klinge was gone the day we did our Valentines activity, so I got to plan the activity that we did. They had to cut out a huge heart with construction paper and then write their names at the top of it. Everyone made one (including me as an example) and then they left them on their desks. Everyone had to go around and write a specialized compliment on their heart using complete sentences and correct grammar. They left their comments anonymous so that nobody thought that anybody had a crush on anybody. I left my heart out as an example, but a boy named Mark, who hardly ever talks, came up to me and asked if he could write on my heart. All it said was, You are really helpful, and you make things easier to understand. That kind of melted my heart, I didnt know I was impacting anyones learning at this point! After he wrote on it, everyone started writing on it! They were so sweet and so honest. The best one that I got that day was from a boy named Aaron, and in a complete sentence he said, You are the greatest assistant a teacher could ask for. We are so lucky to have you here. I love these kids. Week 5-2/23/11 Crazy enough, I have 40 hours after completing this week! I am on a roll! My lesson plan was this week as well. My lesson was to teach all three classes about adjectives. I read them a cute little story about adjectives, just to introduce my topic enough. I had

them right down all their favorite adjectives as I was reading the story to them. They each picked one of those adjectives, and that was the one they were going to use for their project. They had to spell that word out on a paper plate using examples of that word, my word was fuzzy, so I spelled out the word with cotton balls to show them. I explained to them that if they didnt have the materials, they could just spell out the word to look like it would if they used actual objects. We all had some time left over, so we played adjective charades and Pictionary! Week 6-3/2/11 This was a pretty slow week for me as participation with the class goes. After we took a break with adjectives, we jumped right into persuasive essays. All that Miss Klinge has been doing is reading them an essay a day to give them ideas for how they can structure their papers, and giving them basic ideas for things they could be trying to persuade. I havent gotten a big chance to be involved because these arent activities as much. I did get to run the classes when Miss Klinge was gone however. The students and I played bingo and studied our homophones. Of course they got candy if they won the game, so it was an overall enjoyable class period for all of us I think. My favorite part of the week was at the end of the days, the students have study hall. They can work on whatever they want, but a lot of the times they dont have anything to work on. So they invite me to sit on the couch with them and we all talk. I love it because Im getting to know these kids a little bit better every day. Week 7-3/10/11 This was another slow week. We havent really made any further advancement with the persuasive essays, and I can tell that the students are getting bored out of their minds with reading the examples. She needs to get the ball rolling with getting more ideas flowing and then actually getting them started with their essays. We did get to play charades/Pictionary again because they loved playing it last time with my lesson! Next week I believe they are starting the interview process for a filed trip called JA Biztown. They all get to interview for jobs that the city allows them to apply for, and then they run a fake city for the day. Ive been asked to help interview, so I'm excited to do that too! Week 8-3/25/11 This was a really fun week! The kids have been working on their persuasive essays some more. They finished their rough drafts and have been using me to edit for their final drafts. I dont know what kind of editing I can do on their papers because I dont know the true potential of a 6th grader. On Thursday, the students and I had so much fun! I got to interview half of the students for their field trip, and they were so cute for it! They came into the room, shook my hand, and they didnt sit down until I had a seat. Most of them did really well, I was impressed. Im excited to go on this field trip with them!

Week 9- 4/1/11 This week was fun in kind of a bad way. This was the first time that I ever got to completely discipline a student. We have been working on persuasive essays for a while, and there has been more than enough time to get it done in class. I sat down with a

student and edited his paper, helped him revise for his final draft, and watched him get started on his final draft. He shows up 2 days laterand the final copy wasnt completed. I told Miss Klinge, so she had me step out in the hall with him to finally make him understand that he needs to do his work. My intention was not to make him cry. But I accidentally didat least I know he learned his lesson. Week 10-4/7/11 I wasnt very involved this week, so I really dont have a lot to journal about. I did get started on my first week with my Individual Student Plan. He is not doing that well which is extremely disappointing. Theres only been one time this week where he turned all of his assignment. Otherwise, hes had at least one missing assignment per day. The day after I started implementing the plan, he showed up without an assignment done. I was very upset about that, it just kind of set the standards with how much effort I think hell be willing to put in. Ill keep monitoring, and I have the highest hopes for him. Week 11-4/14/11 There wasnt a whole lot going on this week in the classroom, but it was finally time to go to the JA Biztown field trip with the kids. It was so much fun! The kids were so excited to act grown up for a change. I thought I was just going to walk around the town and just watch them and observe. But it turned out that one of the chaperones didnt even show up. So I got to be a chaperone in the bookstore. I helped them manage their business throughout the day, create the products that they were selling, and help with their loans and incomes. By the end of the day, the book store made the most money out of all the other companies. The kids were so excited. I was thrilled to be a part of it. Week 12-4/22/11 This week they got started on their final drafts for their poetry unit. They each have to pick three of their own original poems. One has to be a rhyming, one has to be in a shape, and the other one can be free choice. Its fun to see their creativity at its finest. Their poems are all about the sun shining, summer, marshmallows, and bacon! Those are the common themes I seem to be coming across. They are so fun to read because I hardly get to read things like that anymore. These kids are so carefree, and its so nice to see.

Week 13-4/28/11 This week I helped the kids celebrate May Day! I bought a bunch of baskets from the Teachers workroom when we went to the LRC, bought a ton of discounted Easter candy, and gave everyone their very own personalized May Day basket! When I showed up with that big box of goodies, you should have seen their faces they were so excited! One of the students, Adis, is from Bosnia and he has never heard of May Day before. So his best friend Alec explained it like this. Its where you leave crap on someones front step, ding dong ditch them, and run like crazy. Because THE RULE IS if you get caught, that person has to kiss you! And Adis, with complete excitement in his face jerks around to me and goes, IS THAT HOW WERE PLAYING TODAY?! No no no no no, that is not how we play when a senior is giving candy to 6th graders, nice try though boys.

Week 14-5/5/11 This week they started working on biographies as their last big project of the year. I reminded Miss Klinge of this because she stopped doing it for a few years for some reason. The kids all pick a person that has made a positive impact on the world, and they tell either me or Miss Klinge. They are not allowed to tell any other students. They write their biographies and show up the day its due and read it aloud to the class, and everyone has to guess who it is. The fun part, that I came up with, is that they have to dress up like their person! Im excited to see how these turn out. Week 15- 5/12/11 This week I gave my lesson plan, and it was very fun. The students enjoyed the idioms lesson that I prepared for them, and it was just a very relaxing day for them I think. Another thing happened this week that is more worthy to document. There were three students involved in a scandal. A boy paid one girl $100 to hug him in front of everyone, and then he paid another girl $200 to kiss him in front of everyone. Both girls went through with it, getting paid for their services you might say. I wasnt involved with this issue, but I was informed by Miss Klinge and the guidance counselor. I never thought this would ever be something to come up in a 6th grade classroom