Day Three at Warren C

Day Three great as expected, as the majority of the day took place in the wonderful Warren Central Media Plex. All classes were required to do web quests in which the students looked up generic facts on the 3 major monotheistic religions. While doing this they filled out graphic organizers that I felt were set up as a great scaffolding tool.

Throughout the day the kids asked for our help and we helped guide them to valuable websites that had the information they needed to be successful on the assignment. I felt that the question the students had the most difficult with was naming holidays associated with Judaism and Islam. Non the less, it was great to interact with the students and help them be successful on their projects.

Also, we got our first experience with grading papers for our teacher. At first I had mixed opinions on our teachers way of grading homework, as it was solely completion based. Multiple times I saw completely incorrect responses to simple questions, but yet I still had to write a little red check mark next to the question and count it as right. At first this bothered me, but eventually I began to evaluate this effort more closely. Each and every day students are assigned work sheets, and with five classes of 25-35 students that creates a workload that is extremely heavy. Therefore to eliminate the chance of dying from grading overload, the teacher grades more for effort. Previous classes our teacher had administered exams and she illustrated to us how she takes an extremely closer look on important/big assignments that cover the most important aspects of history, while these homework assignments focus more on smaller details. This made a lot more sense and assured me that Mrs. Kines grading ideas and class set up works very well.

The only problem I feel that could emerge is if students began to learn that these assignments are based on completion, multiple times I graded incomplete assignments that we had to mark as incorrect. If students began to learn this method they could easily put letters, random dates/names or even draw a picture to receive credit. This would obviously benefit no one, and it is our job as future educators to make sure students get the most out of their assignments even if it is "busy work".

"You stay classy, Indiana University"

Mr. Stanger

Day 2 in WARRIORVILLE

As good of a time I had at Warren Central Day 1, Day 2 was 5 times better!

When getting to our first class, I witnessed the teacher introducing an assignment that the class was to complete for that day. The teacher described the assignment perfectly, and pointed out many different aspects that helped the kids out tremendously. After this we went around the room, and did our best at helping students with difficult problems throughout the assignment. The assignment was a geography assignment in which the students read an article about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East then answered a worksheet about the article.

While this class period was great to be able to interact with the students, it was not until next period that the day began to elevate.

During the prep period following the first period, I politely asked the teacher if I could introduce the assignment to the class. Mrs. Kines was surprised with joy, and thought that would be a wonderful idea. She was so kind, and generous to let me participate in only my second week at Warren, and I am extremely grateful.

I did my best at introducing the assignment, and only did a few things wrong, however Mrs. Kines was extremely happy for me, was very encouraging, and gave great constructive criticism.

So far our relationship is very good, and I am enjoying my field experience so much. I am glad I was assertive and gave myself the opportunity to participate in class last week. I feel that each and every time I come to Warren we are becoming better educators, and the window of opportunity is growing to participate more in the classroom.

First Day at Warren Central

Thursday was my 21st birthday, and I couldnt of celebrated it in any other way, I woke up at 6:15 a.m to start my observing/ field experience at Warren Central in beautiful Indianapolis. Going into the first day I had some ideas on what to expect. These ideas were much different from what really occured, and I had a wonderful experience!

To start off we toured the facilities and I was blown away by the Media Center and the Career center, personally I think the career center was the most impressive and the ideas and resources that go along with it are outstanding.

My teacher was Mrs. Kines, WHO WAS TERRIFIC!!!!! She graduated from Indiana University, and the majority of ther classes were World Geography, a subject that I am extremely interested in, and feel very knowledgeable about as well.

I had some interactions with the students during a class period where they needed help on test corrections. This time tested my geography knowledge as the test was on Eastern Europe, however I succedded and broadened the few students knowledge.

A down side to the day was that for two periods, the students took essay based exams. This was extremely boring and quiet, as it was impossible to interact with the students. However, I realize this was the first day and Mrs. Kines told us to be prepared for better activities next week. (Pumped!)

Seeing students interact during passaing periods was great too, this time I really got a feel of how high school students interact in today's world, and the diversity of Warren was glorified.

Overall I loved the experience, and am extremely eager to go next week.


Till next time!


Mr. Stanger