Pre-internship Weblog

I can’t believe how often I forget to do this blog. I get home from school, plan my supper and off to the computer I go. Searching for ideas, suggestions and new lesson plans. Lets face it, we are all guilty of searching for a lesson plan that is already complete. The only thing you have to add is the professional targets. Well guess what, you never find the whole lesson plan, but you do find the outline and ideas of what you can use in class. This is the great part about education, we are not in the schools for pre-internship to reinvent the wheel. We are there to get use to preparing lesson plans, organizing our time, being there for students and most importantly to expand our horizons. We all have come from unique backgrounds and we are most likely in a school that has some characteristics that are similar to the one we came from, with a few differences. At the Huda school, the atmosphere is so different than your typical high school, the classes are structured in a different way and the teachers are dressed in uniform, as are the students. But at the end of the day, these kids are just like all other students; they have friendships, they like music, they like new clothes and they love to talk, AND they all get bored in class. This is the part that is the most ironic. In education, we have been taught all these cool suggestions for keeping the class somewhat entertained. But you know what? At the end of the day, we are not there to entertain the students, we are there to educate the students. This can be done in a cool and exciting way, but guess what, it can be done in the traditional format as well. I get excited when I am teaching math with these students, they actually seem engaged. Seems ironic, I know, but they truly seem to be interested in what is being taught. You know what it all comes down to? I do not know for sure, but I think a lot of it has to do with being organized. When you are not completely organized, you have to struggle to find the next thing to do on the list. When you are ready and have everything laid out, there is less time for the students to get bored. Cool, eh!

This morning, we had the opportunity to go to Memories with the girls in our school. One of the leaders in the school takes the senior girls out once in a while to find out what they like about the school, what they don’t like and what suggestions they might have. They did this with the boys a few weeks ago. This is a great opportunity for the school suporvisors to hear, first hand, what is going well and what isn’t. The school is in a time of growing pains. They have outgrown their facilities and the resources are not as readily available for these students, like they are at many other schools in this city. But one thing these students do have is a voice. People here truly care about what they like and want for their school, a true sense of ownership.

Tomorrow, I will be giving a math test and having students work on a project in IP. It seems so crazy we should develop a lesson plan for this, but I will so I can keep specific things in mind when I am delivery the test and when I am letting the students work on their assignment.

Talk to you all in a few days, have a great weekend,

Mrs. M.