Today was quite an interesting day at school because it was the day after the new President-elect was decided. Upon entering the front office, I heard the main secretary on the phone with a worried parent who thought their child was not safe at the school for some reason. The principal gave a reassuring speech after the moment of silence reminding the students that regardless of which candidate they support, we are all Americans and should therefore all support the future of our country and its leaders. Ms. Pickens’ Spanish 3 classes have a test on Friday so they pretty much reviewed the subjunctive the entire period. I enjoyed the acronym DISHES that she uses to help the students remember which verbs are irregular in the subjunctive mood. The students did a speaking activity in which they used the problems that she wrote on the board to give advice to their peers about what to do to solve the problem. They then did a listening activity where they listening to a person call in to the doctor and explain their problem and listen to what advice the doctor gave this patient. The students then had to decide if the advice was logical or illogical.

During second period, I went and observed Profe Thigpen’s Spanish one class. He is quite a unique teacher to say the least. He used the phrases “right on” and “rock out” many times throughout his class and you can definitely tell that having fun with the language is his top priority. He began his class with reminders about dates and such and then gives a tip of the day on how to learn a second language. The students then had to translate two sentences from English into Spanish and one of the words in his sentences was “Sick nasty!” which required the translation of “Qué asco” which I thought was a funny interpretation but most definitely fit his personality. His class is far more noisy that Ms. Pickens’ and even when he was speaking, several students were still talking amongt themselves. His students were using the language lab today and it was such an exciting lesson to observe! These bins come down from the ceiling and each student has a headset that has a microphone attached. Through the teacher’s computer, he or she can pair up students and when they speak into the microphone, they are speaking to this designated person only. The teacher can listen to their conversations, chime in to the conversations, record the conversations for assessment, etc.

When I returned to Ms. PIckens’ classroom third period, I paid more attention to the students during the speaking activity and realized that they need to be heavily monitored or else they will not do the activity. I feel that the students need to be watched for the majority of the time or else they will get off task. During this period, she talked to me about their Results-Based Evaluation System Individual Goal Plan which teachers have to complete once each year. Their plan must include the teacher’s goal, their rationale for this goal, and then strategies for implementing this goal. They must evaluate this goal in the middle of the year and then write a conclusion at the end to accurately assess whether or not they achieved this goal. The conclusion includes an implementation plan, baseline data (i.e. statistics), indicators of the students’ success, and tools and methods to measure this success.

Her AP students went over their homework assignment and then worked on a worksheet about sequencing, which was introduced to them on Monday. It was so funny to me to notice how little the high school students listen and how she will repeatidly say something and without a doubt, a student will ask her a question about something she said numerous times beforehand. After thsi worksheet, the students learned the perfect tenses and went over the structure and formation of them and how they coordinate with the participles to become a compound tense. The students were then issued a double-sided worksheet to practice the perfect tenses and Ms. Pickens modifies the worksheets and tells them which numbers to skip because these are concepts that they have not gotten to yet.

At the end of the school day I interviewed on of the Assistant Principals, Mr. Brian Stiltner. After we spoke for a while I asked him what he enjoyed most about his job and he showed me something that I will never forget. He prefaced his answer by stating that “this is realyl cheesy” and after saying this he pulled out a card. He said he has had this card ever since 1992 and one of his students (he used to be a History teacher) gave this to him to thank him for believing in her and helping her to turn her life around. He told me that this is what he enjoys most; the relationships that are built with the students and the role model that you are to a child who may not have anyone else to look up to. He gave me very inspiring advice and told me more information about the Mill Creek community and the school itself.

Overall, this was an excellent day at school. I can already tell that I am becoming more and more comfortable in the school setting the longer I participate in this practicum. I think it is a great opportunity for us to get our feet wet and get advice from many different sources.