Week Two - Student Teaching

Week 1 of student teaching went very well. I am enjoying working with my cooperating teacher Miss Keeler and getting to know the students as well. I would say that I know about 75% of the students names right now, and they are starting to warm up to me and the idea of having a second teacher in the classroom. Miss Keeler has assigned The Witch of Blackbird Pond, as the first novel for our eighth graders to read, and I must say that I hope the students enjoy reading it as much as I am! Although, I have noticed, and in discussion with Miss Keeler, pointed out that the students need much more background history on the time period then I thought they would need. In addition, I've also noticed that the novel, although rated at a sixth grade level, is more difficult for the students to read then expected. Miss Keeler has included reading aloud to the students for the first two chapters in her lesson plans so as to firmiliarize the students with the language used in the novel. I've processed this in my mind and have come up with the explanation that students in today's technologically advanced world have little to no desire to read for pleasure any longer due to the fact that television, video, and the internet can deliver this information to them much more quickly then reading a book can. This saddens me because even though I've grown up with the development of much of this technology, I still had a passion for the written word and the discovery of whole new worlds with the turn of every page. My hopes are that the novels that these students read with myself and Miss Keeler will show them how much enjoyment they could get out of reading and book and hopefully turn them onto reading other things for their own enjoyment.