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About Me
- Dr. Susan Ferguson
- I teach English Education, Foreign Language Education, and ESL Education, and I advise STEM Education Majors at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama--and I LOVE IT! I love to invite others to find the poet that is within them--I am certain a poet lies within each of us!
Well, I had to be the first one to post on La Semana Ocho. Esta semana va a estar horrible. This week is going to be terrible because of grad exams. I really need some clarity on these exams. These exams are hard for my to grasp due to the fact that most of students fall into a non-testing catergory. I lose a whole week of lecturing due to an exam that all my students are not taking. The students told me they put students not testing into a huge room and they all watch a movie. WHAT? Maybe in class I can get some help understanding these because when I was in high school we did not have grad exams.
ReplyDeleteI also teach at Baker with Jenny. The Freshman Academy has tried to figure out a way to NOT interupt class time. Today we kept our kids and continued on with a regular class schedule. (We moved without the bell, since there was testing in other areas.) This seemed to help out some of the Freshman, but not those who do not have to take the test being given that day. By the way, your new classroom looks awesome, Jenny!
ReplyDeleteExams are SUCH an interruption. Annoying as they are, they are not likely to go away anytime soon (Mike told me that he heard tonight that NCLB is going to be unchanged for now). The best thing we can do is to plan ahead for some supplemental activities during periods of testing--perhaps engagins students in learning centers to reinforce skills during this time. Also we can't get too frustrated during this time--just smile and know that it will all come to a close soon.
ReplyDeleteFor the remaining weeks in our undergratuate methods class I would like to try a new approach to our time of sharing. I think it is incredibly important to have time to share with each other and get feedback from each other. Equally important (in my humble opinion) is the short remaining time I have to share many, many more things with you guys before semester's close. For the last several weeks I am going to have an opening fifteen minute share time in which you share with a group of people (you will be in a different group each week). That way we are all heard and receive feedback, but we also get to cover all the way cool information I have for you. If you want some personal feedback from me, I am happy to answer you by email, during my office hours, etc.
ReplyDeleteHave a fantastic week!
This week was grad testing and the students watched movies at the school I am in as well. Big loss of time!
ReplyDeleteUgh, testing! If there's one thing I do not like about teaching high school, it's testing! I try to do my best to keep teaching while students are taking tests, but then I run into the problem of dealing with those students who are missing my class because they are taking a test, and how can I make the students who aren't taking tests pay attention enough to what I'm doing in the classroom...it's a big mess. So, Danielle, I completely agree with you that testing time can be a big loss of teaching time!
ReplyDeleteI share Brittany and Danielle's frustration in regards to the graduation exams. However, it did provide me with the opportunity to participate in some of the extra duties a teacher is required to do: guarding hallways, escorting students, you know, all that fun stuff. Outside the realm of testing, I did accompany my cooperating teacher during her cafeteria duty (this is strangely beginning to resemble my duty as a gate guard in the military).
ReplyDeleteGrad exams really are a pain. This past week, I went for a professional development training. Jennifer was there and we discussed the stupid regulations they put on schools too. For example, the teachers cannot sit down during grad exam week, so not only do you not get to see any of your students, but you go home with your legs throbbing from standing for 5 hours without a break!
ReplyDeleteI also have a 4th block class, so I really didn't get a break at all during exams. Its not a fun week for anyone I think.
I was frustrated with the fact our teacher seemed to not really want us there. She propositioned the principle saying she had TWO students who say they were there to observe her. It was as if we wanted to be with her out of all the teachers we could have chosen. It was rude. I would like the COE to schedule things a little better for a first weeks meet. It places a lot of anxiety on both the teachers and us to sit around feeling time was spent on nothing. I know Paige and I had to sit in the counselor center until testing was over.
ReplyDeleteBrad I would have been happy to have some of the menial tasks that you had assigned to me as well. I know you must have been thankful for something to do. My cooperating teacher just wanted us out of her hair. She basically said if we wanted we could go sit in the guidance center until testing was through. Of course the students did not finish testing before it was time for us to go on any of the days this week. On one day, Ursula and I were getting ready to leave when we heard our cooperating teacher in one of the offices talking to some of the other teachers. There was no way of knowing how long she had been out of testing and was just letting us sit there twiddling our thumbs. Whatever!
ReplyDeletePaige
The grad exam week felt like a wasted week to me. I know that the exams have to be taken and it is probably best to have them all during one week and get them over with, but I wish that this week had not been my first week in a new placement. For the most part, I have just followed the counselor around and bubbled in what the students did not, like their name or student number. Did you know they have to put their social security number on their test booklet? I thought that was a little strange. And it caused a lot of extra busy work for the counselors because practically none of the freshmen knew theie ssn, so it had to be looked up and bubbled in.
ReplyDeleteMonotonous!
Testing is really not that bad. If it was broken down over a month period, we would miss one day a week over a 5 week period. As for the menial tasks, every teacher gets a duty for the whole year. I have had hall duty for two years in front of the cafeteria.
ReplyDeleteI sat with a freshmen section one day, proctored one day, and was called out of my freshmen section and a substitute had to take over for me because a proctor called in sick. I walked from one end of the campus to the other about 8 times. I won't bore you with all the reasons for that. but it involved not being in the testing area where my son was and not having enough test booklets. I was tired that day for certain. I shared my planning period with a teacher who missed her 2nd block planning period every day that week. I did get some things graded and did some planning on a few of the days.
ReplyDelete