Hilarity and hijinks on The Office - Be there Thursday

Exterior Angle claymation – Enjoy

Getting a restart

Since my last post, time has simply flown. The semester is nearly halfway over, I've had some great experiences in classes at Michigan, and have also made a change in my placement. Moving from Romulus High School to Pioneer in Ann Arbor has been the biggest adjustment of the fall. After spending two weeks with my mentor teacher at Romulus, I felt that I really needed to work with a teacher with a different teaching style. It was a tough decision for a number of reasons; the students at Romulus were great, it was a caring school community and my mentor teacher and I had developed a very good relationship. Since making the change, though, I'm sure it was the right move for me. Although it's taking some time to get to know another group of students, and become acclimated to a new school and different classroom environment, I feel like I'm learning so much in every aspect of teaching. Making the transition easier is the fact that I already know some of the teachers from my years of covering high school sports as a reporter. It's been nice to see those familiar faces in the hallways.

Diving into the fall

The first week of the fall semester is close to its end. I've been through nearly every class at the University of Michigan once and, best of all, have spent two days with the my mentor teacher and our students at Romulus High School. This is the part of the MAC program that I've been most excited, yet most nervous about.

The opportunity work with students, teachers and other professionals in a school environment has been very motivating. Romulus High is a caring community, where there is a lot of support among the staff and an obvious dedication to the students. This academic year I'll be working with Karl Wukie, a veteran math teacher at the school. Karl and I will be teaching three different classes this trimester; calculus, geometry and algebra. As might be expected, within those classes there are students with a wide range of academic abilities. I am looking forward to seeing how Karl works with those different groups throughout the semester, and I'm sure I will learn plenty that will help me when I begin student teaching full time in January.

Karl has a nice rapport with the other staff members at the school, as well as the students, and has expressed a number of times that he is open to letting me work as much with the students as I'd like. I appreciate the trust he has shown in me, and look forward to taking an even more active role in the classroom in the coming weeks.

As for my classes at Michigan, the field experience class seems like it will be quite valuable since everyone in the MAC cohort will be able to discuss their experiences in their different schools. I'm also pleased the way the math methods class so far. Since I'm getting serious about math for the first time since graduating from college years ago, the more math (and math instructional methods) to which I can be exposed, the better.

Looking forward to what comes next

We received a delightful break recently from the academic grind of summer in the MAC program to actually speak and listen to REAL LIVE STUDENTS. We were afforded the opportunity, a couple of weeks ago to speak – via phone - with some high school students from New York City who were visiting Detroit to attend a conference.

The teacher, a graduate of the MAC program, led the students on their adventure to Michigan, and took time to help coordinate a question and answer session with our cohort. The exchanges were wonderful. The students told us what characteristics they liked and didn't like in teachers, for example, and we answered questions about our college majors, and how we arrived at those academic destinations. The students were thoughtful, interesting and interested and obviously talented in their use of language (several submitted poems that we watched them read on YouTube).

It was a nice reminder, for me and many others, I believe, of why we're in this program. The educational underpinnings we're receiving this summer, a foundation steeped in theory, have their place. But it's the opportunity to begin working with students, and putting some of the things we've learned in June and July to practical use, that I'm really looking forward to.