WhitmillerFieldExperienceJournal

Chelsey Whitmiller





JOURNAL #1 10-10-13 Chelsey Whitmiller This is only my first journal entry, since Berwick Area School District had off one whole week during the fair. However, since then, I’ve gone to Berwick several times to observe my teacher Mr. Calarco and his students. My experience has been wonderful, thus far, and I have already learned so much! At the beginning, Mr. Calarco gave me suggestions for students to choose. Initially, I thought I was going to want to pick my own. Each day I continued to observe, however, made me realize how much I wanted to choose one of the students he suggested. I had a hard time determining which one I should go with. The first was C.J. Upon observing him the first day, I could already tell he was outgoing and extremely talkative. He was always the first to raise his hand to answer a question, and he was always the first to volunteer when Mr. Calarco would ask for volunteers to read “The Crucible.” However, I noticed that some of his classmates picked on him when he would not answer questions as strongly as another student would. When this happened, he would turn beat red in the face. Since the desk I sit at is right by his seat, he was always trying to talk to me or get me to notice him. Due to his need for attention, I felt as though he was extremely unconfident with himself. This made me really want to help him and get to know him. The second was Karen. Upon observing Karen on the first day, I noticed how entirely different she was from C.J. It was amazing to me how the two of them could be polar opposites of one another. Rather than participating, I noticed how quiet Karen was. She always had her hand resting on her hand, or she had her head resting on her book when the students would read “The Crucible” aloud. Unlike C.J., she never volunteered or raised her hand. However, when Mr. Calarco would call on her to read, she always knew exactly where the class was and could pick up almost immediately. Due to the fact that I am taking Literature for Young Adults, I decided to pick both Karen and C.J. for this project. I think their differences will help me to become a better teacher and give me a better idea of what I can do to help multiple students with my lessons. In order to get to know the entire class better, I passed out surveys to them with a series of questions: How would you describe yourself using four adjectives? How many siblings do you have? What is most challenging about Mr. Calarco’s class? Who do you look up to and why? Who is your favorite teacher and why? What sports, extracurricular activities, or hobbies do you participate in? If you could teach Mr. Calarco’s class, how would you teach it? What is your favorite subject and why? What would you like to do once you graduate from high school? I chose to do these surveys to get to know EACH of the students. I also shared these surveys with Meredith Coleman, since we are both observing at the same place. I figured that these surveys would give me the opportunity to approach both C.J. and Karen through our commonalities. To my surprise, it worked. I was able to find common ground with both of them. When I approached them, I told them that I was required to choose a couple of students who I thought could help me learn how to be a good teacher. I told both C.J. and Karen that I had chosen them both based off the similarities I have with them. When I told Karen this, she smiled. I think she might have felt uncomfortable at first. I saw her type something onto her phone after and show her friend. Her friend laughed and looked back at me. Even though Karen may have been trying to act like it wasn’t a big deal that I had chosen her, I do think she felt special. C.J. I already knew would be excited that I had chosen him, because he was always trying to get my attention anyways. Today, he talked to me more than he ever has. I call that success! Next week, I am going to talk to Mr. Calarco about a positive behavior reward system. I might call it “Whit money.” This is because he told me how Karen reacts better when she is rewarded or called out for something she has done well. I believe the same holds true for C.J. by seeing if Mr. Calarco will allow me to pass out “Whit money.” This money will be a reward to students who participate, answer questions, bring in their homework on time, or bring their materials to class. Anything a student is doing well, he or she could be rewarded for it with this money. When students have a certain amount of money, they can turn it into me for a prize. Perhaps the prizes could be candy, a free homework pass if it is alright with Mr. Calarco, or five bonus points on their next exam. I’m very excited for this, and I really want to see if this encourages Karen to participate more in class. I am really interested in seeing what else I can learn from C.J. and Karen, as well as the rest of the students in the class. I’m also excited, because I feel as though this is helping me to prepare for my student teaching experience next semester.

Journal 3 I’ve been observing at Berwick at many times a week as I can. It is really giving me a lot of experience and a lot of ideas for when I become a teacher. For example, the other day Mr. Calarco did something called a Socratic Seminar with his class. The idea behind this was to get students to discuss with each other, rather than with Mr. Calarco, about //The Crucible//. Meredith Coleman and I both sat in on this seminar. The principle of the school even came down to Mr. Calarco’s classroom to see it. The students absolutely loved it, and they were all engaged at all times of the seminar. I think doing something like this is very important in the classroom. Often times students don’t have the opportunity to talk about how they feel about a text or a particular character of that text, which is why Meredith and I found this seminar so useful. Her and I even discussed how we want to use a seminar like this in our own Collaborative Unit Plan project! As far as C.J. and Karen go, I am learning about both of them more and more every day. I had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Calarco and talk to him about both students. I know that C.J. is very outspoken. However, he is not as confident as everyone thinks. He is an attention seeker, and he is often times verbal about his shortcomings. At least, this is what Mr. Calarco has told me. I do see him participating during every lesson I observe. However, I do think he struggles with it comes to staying on task and writing papers. On the other hand, Karen is still very quiet in every class. She keeps to herself most of the time, and I can tell she struggles when it comes to understanding some of the more complex terminology and topics. I do give her a lot of credit for taking AP, however, because she is only in tenth grade. Recently, the students were given an essay assignment. I sat down with the students to see what ideas they had about their topics. Karen picked a topic that Mr. Calarco had given to them, while C.J. thought outside of the box and came up with his own. Both C.J. and Karen have difficultly with writing, I believe. I offered them both extra help by giving them my email and by going to their school’s writing center. So far, neither has come to me for assistance. I feel like I need to start doing a better job of letting them get to know me so they feel more comfortable with me. As far as interviewing them, I’ve been trying to do it in little snippets. I also try to overhear their conversations. The other day, I found out that C.J. had dyslexia when he was younger. I asked him about this, and he told me how he had to overcome it. This made me think that, because of his dyslexia, he might not have as much confidence as other students. Perhaps he got made fun of when he was younger because of it, or perhaps he still does. I also found out that Karen is more of a tomboy than a “girly girl.” One of her classmates put glitter on her sweatshirt, and she got very upset over this. She verbally told her classmate that she doesn’t like glitz and glitter even though she is a girl. I found this interesting, because it made me think back to what Mr. Calarco said about Karen living with her father. I am not sure if Karen’s mother is even present in her life, which is why she could be so quiet in class. Mr. Calarco approved the positive behavior support idea. When students do something they are supposed to be doing, such as raising their hands, participating in class, or bringing their materials to class, they will be rewarded fake money. This fake money can buy them candy for five dollars or a free homework pass for one-hundred and twenty dollars. We have not yet had the opportunity to implement this positive behavior support. However, I think we are going to either Friday or Monday of this week. I am very excited and interested to see how Karen and C.J. both are going to react to this. I know C.J. will be excited, because he already participates a lot in class. Karen, however, may not be provoked anymore than she is now to participate. I am still trying to figure out how to get her more involved. I also talked to Mr. Calarco about teaching a lesson. He told me that during the middle of November, they may be reading //Huckleberry Finn//. Clearly, I am extremely excited about this, as I chose to do //Finn// for my Individual Unit Plan. I told him I am going to try to incorporate some sort of Jigsawing activity for this lesson to get Karen’s participation levels up. I hope it all works out! As far as all of my notes, everything has been recorded in my notebooks. I still have to sit down this weekend and type everything out so I can post it on the wiki. I truly love the experience I am getting from observing at Berwick, and I feel thankful that I can be part of such a wonderful group of students!