Midterm Summary

Wow, what a semester this has been so far. We had the opportunity the first half of the semester to work with Height’s Middle School students teaching them poetry. The students learned poems that they then performed for Mesa Verde Elementary Students and they did great!

We, as coaches, had specific things we were working on with our own learning and the learning of our students. The major strands we worked on were: communication, research, technology, and collaboration. Each of these things was vitally important to everyone’s learning. Without any one of them the process and end result would not had been as good.

Communication was very important in this process since we were working as a group to teach students. Not one person was responsible for everything that happened in classroom, we had to work together as a team and keep communication open. At the end of each day we would group up and reflect on the process and gives ideas of how to possible make the next session better. Not everyone always agreed on how things should be done but in the end it all worked out for the best. By being flexible and open throughout the process we were able to provide the students with a wonderful learning experience and the students became more comfortable with us. The students began to show what they were really capable of as they became more comfortable around us and we were able to pick up on things that they may not have liked doing but could work them though the process. By being able to have open communication with the students we were able to get them ready for the performance.

Research was essential in picking the proper poems for not only the Height’s students but also for the Mesa Verde students. Dr. Vitali provided poems at the beginning of the semester that she thought would be a good starting point with the students. As we progressed through the process we were able to pick out more poems as a group based on knowing the student’s abilities and interests. Proper research is important in any setting but especially when working with students, if the information you put in front of the students is not properly researched then it may be over their heads and the students will quickly become disinterested.

We currently live in an age where technology is everything so it was very important to include technology in the learning process. Although we did not use technology on a daily basis during the learning process it was utilized for the main performance. The problem with technology is that it is not always reliable. Even with the best sound checks and computer checks things can still go wrong and guess what they did. Thankfully we were still able to use some technology in the program but it was not what we had wanted or expected.

The last strand that we utilized was collaboration. Collaboration is extremely important in a school setting. Teachers have to learn how to work with other teachers, their administration, parents, and most importantly their students. As coaches, we quickly had to learn how to work together to make the process the best for everyone involved. Most of us had to work together to teach one or two students a poem and we had to figure out what would be the best method to teach the poem they selected. If we had decided that we wanted to do it our way and only our way then the end result would not have turned out the way it did.

In the end the students were able to pull off an awesome performance with only a few minor glitches. It was a little upsetting that a few of the students were not able to make it to the performance that they had worked so hard for but the coached stepped up and filled in the open positions.

Midterm Evaluation

Looking back on the past few weeks I have realized that I have really grown in my teaching experience. I was taken outside of my comfort zone and had to do things that I normally would not have done. I really enjoyed the whole experience and have learned a lot. I realize that sometimes in order to get students to cooperate you need to help them find a way to be happy with what they are doing; you have to learn to understand the student. Upon evaluating my own effort I think that I have given my all. I stepped outside of my zone and preformed the best I could. I gave each poem that I worked on 100% and tried to get my students to do the same thing. I am very excited to see what the second half of the semester brings for me.