Week One

The first week at Taylor Co. Middle was a great beginning to the sixteen weeks I'll be here!

My host teacher and I have two English/language arts periods, and three reading periods; all are eighth grade. I like that my host teacher collaborates so closely with the other English and reading teachers for the eighth grade. This makes it easy to keep a sort of curriculum map to share among three classrooms; I also like that, at the end of the day, we can discuss what worked for individuals in which classrooms and what didn't work.

I feel very comfortable in the classroom. My host teacher and I have very similar views on student engagement and learning styles, and this makes it very easy for us to work together. She's been extremely helpful and flexible, and even allows me to jump right in and take over various class periods.

With my host teacher's help, I think I've finally nailed down a topic and inquiry for my Action Research project! We've given the English students a baseline that will measure their knowledge and application of sentence varieties, comma splices, and run-ons. These students have been taught these three grammatical lessons for three years now, and we have not seen any application in their personal writing (both formal and informal). We are wondering how we can adjust the way the material is presented so that the students will retain the information easier; eventually applying what they've learned.