School on Lockdown

     We are told to expect the unexpected when it comes to teaching, well I don't think anyone could have expected this past week's events. Last Wednesday there was a shooting that resulted in the death of an Athens police officer. Needless to say Athens was in a state of shock and panic. Schools went on lockdown immediately which only intensified the fear in others. This was a new experience for me, I had no idea what to or how to go about daily school life. School went on as normal for the most part on Thursday. There was no recess or outside activities which was to be expected. Friday on the other hand was a completely different story. I quickly learned that "Soft Lockdown" can mean many different things. We were technically on soft lockdown the day before but for the most part school life went on as normal, whereas Friday students were not allowed to leave the classroom. Lights were turned off, movement was minimal and announcements were made every 15 minutes. If there is one thing that I can take away from this situation it is that we as teachers and adults can foster fear or handle the situation in a way that comforts students. With every announcement I could see that panic in my students. I understand that in a situation like this it is so important to make sure that teachers and students are aware of what they should be doing, but coming over the loud speaker to tell teachers how important it is that students do not go anywhere by themselves only made students question the situation more. I think that the situation could have been handled in a much better way. I think that the teachers should have held a morning meeting to discuss what was going on and answer any questions that the students had and that announcements to the teachers should have been done in private through emails. 

     This situation taught me a lot about myself as well as how to handle tough situations. I hope that I never have to face another situation like this but if I do I will be so much better prepared. 

Closer to Feeling Like a Real Teacher

      This past week was the first time in my college career that I was in an elementary classroom for an entire week. I will admit I was a little apprehensive and somewhat terrified to teach my lessons. Monday morning came quicker than expected but was gone before I even had time to realize what had happened. I was so relieved to find that my lesson plan went off without a hitch and even more thrilled that my third graders actually liked my lesson. For this week I taught a lesson the integrated Social Studies and Writing. My mentor teacher gave me the daunting task to teach MAJOR historical figures in just 5 days. This in itself was a task but I jumped right in, head first, trying to figure out fun and exciting ways to teach these figures.
     The first day I taught about Susan B. Anthony and we created a KWL chart to start the lesson off. I was afraid the kids wouldn't like this but I was surprised to see that the students were really in to it. What I thought would be a short list for each column turned into an extensive list with all kinds of questions. There was a short lesson to help answer these questions and then I had the students complete a worksheet that had Susan B. Anthony's picture on it. One of the question said this: "Draw a speech bubble or thought bubble as to what you think she would say or is thinking." I really didn't read into this question too much but I was pleasantly surprised to read some of their responses. My favorite though was quite funny, it read, "I may not be alive for much longer." Indeed she was old in this picture and did look a little scary so I had to agree with this student and laughed over his response. These types of instances occurred all week long and I found my fear of teaching slowly disappearing. I found that as long as you present students with interesting subjects and assignments they will go above and beyond with what you expected of them. The main thing that I can tie back into the article as well is that giving students the freedom to choose something that interests them is key to creating successful projects and assignments. The last day of my teaching I allowed each of the students to pick their favorite figure, the key to this though was that the students were not limited to just the people I had talked about. I told them that there were many people and are many people that have done great things for us. The main thing I wanted my students to take away from my lesson are the characteristics of these people and sure enough they did. I really enjoyed reviewing their work and seeing how they had been able to relate to these people and create connections to their lives.