Reflection Ten

Week Ten Reflection

Leigha Tracey – BSU Intern
Carmel High School
October 28 – November 1, 2002

Goals

• Determine schedule and responsibilities
• Meet participating teachers
• Make contact with advertising and web teams (Hilite)
• Observe teacher – science
• Interview office administrator
  

Observation/Participation (35 hrs.)

This was my first week at Carmel High School (CHS). My intent this week was to observe and begin building credibility and relationships with students and faculty. I spent the week getting used to a new schedule. I find that the block scheduling at CHS is less stressful than seeing 183 students each day, as was the case at Clay Junior High School. In regard to the classes that I am working with, I have had some concerns with my “role.”
The journalism I classes are well into the semester and I am “waiting out” a current assignment and will have an opportunity to jump in next week. That works well. For the publication classes, I feel a bit lost at the moment. I think this will just take time. It is apparent that Tony Willis has a well - run team here. The students are self-directed and organized, as a good newsroom should be. I have begun to make contact with and establish a relationship with the advertising and web teams. I think they are doing well, but just need some extra attention and assistance with organization. I feel that I can contribute to their success and do some positive things within these areas. I appreciate Willis giving me the opportunity to work with these groups. It gives me purpose and a place to put my energies. I am comfortable with the students in the journalism department and my skill level in being able to perform as a teacher and coach for these students.

In addition to my responsibilities with the journalism department I am working with Joe Stuelpe and his 8th period government class. I am getting an endorsement in government so I thought that this would be a beneficial experience. My course of study did not provide time nor the need to do further studies in the area of government. Therefore, I did not have any methods classes in government. My first sessions in the government classroom have been a bit of a shock. Stuelpe gave me a course outline and has assigned me with the task of teaching the legislative branch. There is an overwhelming amount of information that needs to be covered! I have no idea how I am going to be able to cram it all in and still give the students a chance to synthesize the relevant content. Notice that I did not say important, as it is all important. Stuelpe is a master lecturer. He somehow gets through everything in his outline during one class period. The problem is that the students are madly taking notes and I feel that they are just “doing school.” In fact, I am fairly certain that this information goes right out of their heads, is crammed back in before a test and then goes right back out. That is disheartening because my goal is to get students excited or at least interested in politics and to have a voice. I have a stack of materials that I will be going over this weekend. I am hopeful that I will be able to schedule and prepare well enough to be able to add a few discussions and activities that will benefit the students. I do feel that Stuelpe will be a good mentor and a great help as I learn this area of teaching from the ground up and on the fly.

Goals – I had a wonderful opportunity to observe an astronomy presentation by
Mitch Turner. The live presentation was informative and having a very nice in-school planetarium is impressive. I took a lot of notes and plan to test my new knowledge. The students were engaged and seemed to genuinely learn.

I also interviewed two secretaries (Sue and Diane) in the Dean’s office. I was surprised to see how the discipline procedures had intensified since I went to school here almost 14 years ago. There are several systems in place for discipline that utilize a warning system and then varying degrees of severity. There are before and after school detentions, in-school suspensions and outside suspension. Students serving outside suspension are required to attend a juvenile facility for the duration of their time out of school. This is a court-mandated program. According to Sue, there are very few students that push the limit at CHS. I plan to do a “hall sweep” with them next week and supervise a detention session.