September 4, 2015 (Week 1)

Steve: According to the Goals Sheet that we filled out together last week, I have a few
questions about our teaching practices. How do we make these connections between content
and student personally relevant? What strategies should we employ? Our units are structured
around larger abstract themes, such as Identity, Adversity, and Justice, but I am interested in
learning the specific teaching practices that we will be using to engage students in
conversations about the content and the realities of the students lives and worlds.
The most logical connection for me is to have students do personal written responses that
connect content and their lives. Additionally, we can connect the content to current events that
students are sure to know about from watching the news, reading, and general conversations
happening around the school.

September 8, 2015 (Week 2)

Steve: The first day of school was mostly spent introducing school policies and rules, syllabi,
and ourselves to the students in each class. Most of the classes were particularly alert for most
of the hour. Even our first hour class period, in which I would expect students to be more tired
and disengaged, were exhibiting signs of active listening and engagement. Once we got to
seventh hour, my focus class of English 9, most of the students were completely done. Several
students were disengaged from introductions, laying their heads down on the desks, or talking
with their neighbors.
I understand that it was the end of a very long first day back to school, so I gave them the
benefit of the doubt, but I do have questions about how to deal with this in the role of the
teacher. How can I keep the students engaged and focused in class when they could be pretty
tired? How will this impact classroom activities and lessons that require reading?
I guess I still need to settle into my teaching style of being able to personally connect with
students while simultaneously teaching them in English class and managing the classroom. It is
a lot harder than many teachers that I have worked with make it out to be. Classroom
multitasking is difficult.
What do you think Hugh? Ashley? Jackie? Any bits of sage advice for a budding English
teacher?
Also, I want to get into the habit of also writing about something that I did that I am proud of for
doing. I dont want to focus only on things that challenged or frustrated me.
Today, I was proud that I was able to forge new connections and relationships with many
students in my English 9, Yearbook, and Approaches to Learning classes. I am very excited to
be working with the students this year. Additionally, I believe that I am starting to form

relationships with other staff members at the school, which I believe is equally important. I was
able to talk with Mrs. LeClair, Mrs. Lounds, Mrs. Burzynski, and Mr. Barter. I would love to get
spend time and build relationships with a good number of the staff, especially individuals in the
English department.
September 14th, 2015 (Week 3)
Steve: Today was a very interesting day at Owosso High School. I just wanted to write about
some of my experiences really quickly in regards to classroom management. My focus class,
which takes place during seventh hour, is an average-sized class that has a lot going on. On a
student level, I have many different kinds of students who seem to know each other but may not
necessarily get along with each other well. Cliques of students are very easy to identify. At first,
there were no assigned seats, and it was very challenging for me to control and engage with the
students.
Additionally, we have many students with high levels of social anxiety (one of which didnt tell
me about hers until after I made her do a presentation in front of the whole class).
Now that we have assigned seats, the problems have lessened to an extent, but I still find
myself having to spend time managing the classroom instead of teaching and engaging with
students. I am not sure of how stern I should be at times because I havent had extensive
experience doing this quite yet. I am going to try different approaches throughout the next few
days to see if I can find one that works.
How do I find the confidence (let alone time and energy) to manage, teach, and engage with
students about their personal lives in a fifty minute period at the end of the day? One of the texts
from TE 801 might be useful for providing me some insight and ideas of how to develop into a
more confident teacher, but I do not have the extra time to read it beyond what is required for
me to do. This whole teaching business is stressful and complicated, but I love it so much.
Time for the positives of the day so far! I have really enjoyed getting to know my students and
their interests. For example, a student in my first hour English 9 loves to do magic tricks, and he
always brings a new one to show me and my MT every day. They are so fun to watch.
Additionally, we presented our Introductory Paintings today in all of our English 9 classes, and
one kid was brave enough to come out to the whole class. That in itself was amazing, but the
thing that warmed my heart the most was to see the smile on the face of another student in the
class who had come out to me the week before. It seemed to me that she was so happy to see
that there are other LGBTQ+ kids in her class with her and that she is not alone.
I need to focus on the positives more often than I do the negatives. Im hoping to have
something really exciting to put in here once we start to engage with an actual text rather than
pre-assessments!

September 22nd, 2015 (Week 4)

Steve: I have encountered something that I am very hesitant about in our first hour of English 9
today. My MT and I are reading some of the chapters of Of Mice and Men out loud to the
classes, and I find this potentially problematic. I am thoroughly convinced that all of my students
are capable of reading this text. It is not overly complex or inaccessible to high school freshmen.
They have the capability of reading it on their own. When we read out-loud to students today, I
watched as some students became completely disengaged, and one student even appeared to
have fallen asleep.
Personally, I do not like reading out-loud to a whole class. Firstly, it makes it seem like we are
treating the students like small children who cannot read. That is very far from the truth. We
have some really strong readers and independent workers in our classes. These kids are
becoming young adults, and they really should be treated as such. Secondly, I think that by
reading out-loud to the class we are not preparing the students for the demands of higher level
English courses and the standardized tests that they have to complete. They will not be given
that additional help (unless designated in an IEP) in these classes. I want my students to be
successful in their reading.
I was very surprised that we had a few students tell us that they are slow readers in front of the
whole class. In my past experiences, my students have been very ashamed to say something
like that in front of a large group. They typically would come up to me and tell me in hushed
tones. How do we create a learning environment that is completely open to discussing our
weaknesses? How do we redefine what students think is a failure? Tied along with that, how
can I teach students self-esteem and self-love?
Now for the positive portion of this journal post! I had my evaluation from Hugh yesterday, and
he thought that I did really well. I know I definitely need to work on my classroom management
techniques in my focus class. Additionally, I think that I have gotten a good balance of school,
work, and socializing. I feel very productive most days. Heres hoping that sticks around.
Hi Steve! Its hard o believe it has been four weeks already. I am sure you are doing well given
all the thought you are putting into your students. I especially love that youre already thinking
about individual students and how theyre responding to the work as opposed to just your own
planning. We can always work on organizing our classes and implementing successful routines
and procedures. You might pick one thing that you want to make more efficient and come up
with a routine for that particular part of class as opposed to just working on classroom
management.
This question about read aloud is a really important one. I often struggled to balance reading
together and reading apart. Could you try allowing students to read a specific chapter silently or
even in partners. You might give them a set amount of time and the option to read with their
partner or silently but at the end of that time, they as partners need to make sure that they both

understand the chapter. To keep fast readers on task, start with a short chapter and give them
some kind of open-ended writing prompt. This would also be one way of engaging with
individuals. Another way Ive done it is to say I will read with students who want me to read with
them and others can read silently. That way you allow for accommodations but still promote
silent, independent reading, which they do need to learn to do. I would love to hear what you
might do to address this--even if its in a small way.
And one thing I would say--if the students disengage (more than 1) while youre reading aloud,
stop and ask a question or engage them in some related conversation.
September 28th, 2015 (Week 5)
Steve: Today was a very interesting day in English 9 for both me and my mentor teacher. We
are experiencing some difficulties with balancing the independent reading and classroom
reading even more now that we have graded our students quiz on the first three chapters of Of
Mice and Men. The overall class average wasnt terrible, but it wasnt particularly great either.
This goes beyond the average margin of error as well. What this told us was that our students
were not reading despite being given multiple opportunities, plenty of time, and a plethora of
reading resources.
I had a very open conversation with Jackie about my conflictions with reading aloud, but I
definitely see the necessity of it in certain situations. We are going to take a different approach
to instructional time for the moment. I just wanted to write down my acknowledgement of my
confliction and my understanding that we need to try another strategy. So, here we go with that!
On the bright side, I am very excited about doing the Socratic Circle in the class next week. I
just made a detailed worksheet for the students to complete. It may look a little intimidating
because of the amount of text at the beginning explaining everything for them, but I believe that
it was necessary. They students will literally have everything sitting in front of them to be
successful in this activity. I already know that I am going to approach this activity with a lot of
enthusiasm because I will finally get to hear what is in my students heads! Hopefully my
enthusiasm will catch on some of them.
I also love the relationships that I am forming with Jackie and my students. We have a good
groove going on, and the students may get mad at me for certain things, but they get over it
quick enough. Soon enough, I will win over a larger amount of them. Even the Queen in my
focus class is beginning to come around to me and my belief that she is a great student. Great!
Youll find that all of these take time.
Heres hoping the Socratic Circles go well! I think I am going to film them for 802.
Im looking forward to hearing on Friday how your new strategy is going. One thing you might
think about (you might already be doing it) is having them do a specific task while you read or
immediately following a chapter. When I read Night aloud with my students, for example, they

had a timeline they had to fill out. One one side, they listed the important events from each
chapter. On the other side (column), they wrote their response to the chapter. It wasnt super
exciting but it did help me see that they read and it helped them keep track of the story.
By the way, your socratic circles worksheet might be a great lesson plan/assessment to bring in
on Friday.
October 5th, 2015 (Week 6)
Steve: I am finding myself frustrated more often than not when I am preparing materials and
executing lessons in my classes. I feel like I have decent expectations of my students and
where they are at with their English Language Arts skills. I absolutely know that my kids can do
better than what they are currently doing. I dont understand why the kids arent doing their best
on these assignments even when we are bending over backward to give them time and
resources to complete them. Am I crazy for thinking this?
More importantly, I am worried that my quality of teaching is going down. I take things very
personally, so when I see that students arent engaging or working on things to the best of their
ability, I think it is because of something that I am doing wrong. Jackie is trying to assuage those
thoughts, but they are still there. How do I keep myself sane enough to balance everything and
provide the highest level of teaching that I can for my kids?
I am getting very burnt out and stressed. This week is a terrible week for an observation to
happen because of Homecoming events, but Hugh is coming in anyway. I just need some time
to get organized and rejuvenated.
Positive time! I have some students who are really gems. They definitely make my day a little bit
better. I hope that I can continue to forge these relationships.
Teaching is really hard. I find myself with more questions and frustrations than answers
nowadays.
I think if you really care about your students and your work, teaching can be like this. Would you
like me to come out and see you some time this week or next? We could talk about what youre
looking for that youre not getting. Can you think of a specific example of something that you feel
like you are doing wrong? That might help us talk through it.
In some ways, though, you have a number of constraints on your teaching. How engaged do
you expect students to be? Do they see the relevance in what youre asking them to do?

October 13th (Week 7)

Steve: This week is starting off much better than the past week. Infinitely better. We started a
brand new unit on research, careers, and personal success, and the students seem to be very
excited about it. The Anticipation Guide that we did yesterday actually got students up and
talking to one another about the content. Also, the students in my focus class got into a really
mature and amazing conversation about socioeconomic privilege and oppression yesterday,
and it was all student generated. I just had to continue the conversation with certain questions. I
definitely geeked out.
Additionally, this entire unit was created by me, but it revamped materials that my mentor
teacher has used in the past. I am really proud of it, and I am glad that the students are seeming
to be engaged in it so far. Hopefully I can keep their engagement up as we move throughout the
unit!
To be perfectly honest, I think the most detrimental force on my teaching right now is the MSU
coursework. Trying to keep up with the demands of TE 801 and TE 802 is exhausting, and I
dont feel like I am getting a lot out of the classes so far. Ashley, is there any way we could talk
about the course so far? I am struggling to see why we are spending half of the year focused
solely on dialogic instruction when there are so many other concepts we could be covering.
I am very proud of the fact that I have been balancing everything as well as I have been so far.
Between the internship, MSU courses, social obligations, another job, and a personal life, I
thought I would be laying on the floor in the fetal position. I was wrong.
I guess the biggest needs that I have right now are taking better care of myself, completing my
MSU coursework to the best of my ability, and keep having a good presence in the class.
Hi Steve,
I appreciate the desire to feel like school meets your needs. I think thats the biggest challenge
at all levels of school. In fact, its generally the problem for our students. We tend to think we
know what our students needs are (and sometimes we do) but they often have a different sense
of their needs.
To that end, I would be happy to talk with you individually about what you might like to consider
in our course (as long as it fits the goal of fostering reflection and inquiry about teaching) and
how we might incorporate it into the syllabus. Let me know when might work.
October 21st, 2015 (Week 8)
Steve: I feel like I am at a complete loss when I work with students who qualify for Special
Education services. My 4th Hour English 9 class is co-taught with a Special Education teacher

and her CMU intern; this is because about half of our students in the class have IEPs that may
need additional accommodations in the classroom.
Within the past few weeks, I have been working more closely with three students who are on a
special education caseload. These three students have been formally diagnosed this year with
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), although two of them dont think that they need to have these
IEPs.
One of the students completely shuts down unless she is walked through every assignment.
The only exception to this matter is when she doesnt like what we are doing. For example, we
have been working on a Personal Success Unit which includes research, synthesizing
information, and informational writing. This student did NOT like this and proceeded to
dramatically tear apart every assignment that was given to her. During a one-on-one conference
the other day, she had a temper tantrum.
Another student is highly fixated on a single idea: becoming a rapper. This is all well and good,
and I have been encouraging him to explore this avenue of thought. But, he is incapable of
thinking of other ideas theoretically. He is also currently failing five out of seven of his class,
including my English 9 class. When his Study Skills teacher and I sat down with him to talk
about grades and what is going on, he explained that he did not want to do well in any other
class other than English. Later that day, he had a fit when when his case manager came to talk
to him.
I have started to sacrifice my MSU Prep Hour, our Yearbook class that I do not actively teach in
anyway, to go down to the Study Skills class to work one-on-one with some of the students. For
some of them, they have done well with the additional work time, but for the one girl, she
absolutely shuts down at every moment.
I have tried to spend my free time learning how to better work with Special Education students,
but there is only so much time in the day. Other than the Special Education Teachers at my
school and my mentor teacher, what other resources do I have to help me learn how to better
work with these students? What can MSU do better to prepare us for working with these
students (because the Differentiated Instruction Unit in TE 408 did not at all)?
This is a really hard question Steve. I agree that MSU needs to do a better job thinking about
Special Education services. Im going to reach out to some people I know for resources for you.
In the meantime, I know its hard, but I want you to make sure you keep some time for yourself.
Youre not going to be the answer for all of these students (I did many of the same things youre
talking about). At the same time, something useful for us to work through these challenges
might be to (at the end of each class or even on a clipboard during class) write down the
immediate triggers for these students. What are their reactions to specific directions? When
does she tear up her paper? What are her reactions to different responses to these behaviors?
For the would-be rapper, is there a way for his other teachers to connect to that interest? What

does he want to talk about in his raps? Those subjects might be avenues for further exploration
and widening of his interests?
The only other thing I can say is that what I found is that I began to build enormous amounts of
scaffolding into my classes--not just for IEP students but for all students. It would be easier for
me to talk about this example in the context of an assignment or lesson. The danger is that it
can limit creative thought for students who want to go in new directions but the positive is that I,
over time, was able to create a classroom in which the vast majority of students felt they could
at any moment enter and be successful.
October 27th, 2015 (Week 9)
Steve: The teaching profession is definitely a tricky one. I am finding that there is too much
material that I want to cover in such a small amount of time, and thats really bothering me
currently. Our English 9 classes just finished up a 2.5 week unit on Personal Success and
Research skills. We just finished out the unit with a 3 paragraph essay. My kids freaked out
about that. They really need to work on their writing skills, and the once a week Writing
Wednesday lessons arent going to cover everything I think I want to cover.
I think that writing instruction needs to be more spread out and definitely practiced more often.
So far, Jackie and I havent done a ton of writing instruction. Its so hard to keep our students
attention for a longer amount of time to teach them these skills! Im hoping to find an easier way
to integrate writing instruction into our upcoming unit on To Kill a Mockingbird. I hope that the
students are able to get through the book quickly enough that we have some leftover time to
work on A Letter from Birmingham Jail and continue discussions surrounding racial relations,
socioeconomics, and injustice. But, where do we get all of that time?
I am really happy to say that Jackie likes the idea that I created for the beginning of our To Kill a
Mockingbird unit. The students will be working in small groups to create inquiry questions that
connect their learning with this text to their world. Im hoping these questions can open up
conversations about race and racial politics in the classroom (of pretty much only white students
and teachers). It will be interesting to start it out, but I am very excited to teach this novel.
On a side note, I plan to read through To Kill a Mockingbird and then start reading Go Set a
Watchman in my spare time (which is kinda a joke as it is right now. haha). Im super interested
in the additional commentary that is floating around about the novel.
I am feeling very reflective on my internship so far, and there are definitely things that I would do
differently if I were teaching the same curriculum in the future. I would definitely take a different
approach to Of Mice and Men and do some fine-tuning on the Personal Success Unit. Maybe I
can make that a summer project, depending on where I can find a job.
Until next time!

Im glad to read that youre reflecting on these units already. I found that I never taught the same
thing the same way twice. You learn so much from how your students respond to the material.
I will be very interested to hear about how you work with To Kill a Mockingbird in the classroom.
I read it with my TE448 class this year and we had a number of conversations about the ways
its usually taught and the potential the novel offers for critical analysis of current issues. To
facilitate these inquiry questions, I wonder if you might bring in current event articles. I know
youre crushed for time, but if you brought in blogs or New York Times type articles, the students
could likely read them quickly and draw out some connections. In TE448, I read a blog called
White Americas Ignorant Bliss written in response to Ferguson. It has been eye-opening for
my students and it has direct connections with TKAM.
As for writing, it is so difficult. Can you build in short writing assignments (even paragraphs)
related to your reading each day? From those paragraphs, you might be able to get a better
sense of what the most important thing to focus on on your Wednesdays is. We could talk more
about this. It sounds like this might be an interesting direction for your inquiry project.
In addition, I talked to someone about your challenges with students on the autism spectrum.
She said you should first identify the function of the behavior: attention, avoidance, or sensory.
To do that, you want to find a way to make brief notes during class when things cause the
negative behaviors to see if we can see patterns. Then we might be able to come up with some
specific strategies for adjusting the curriculum for them.

November 2, 2015 (Week 10)

Steve: I cant believe it is already November. Where did the time go? It only feels like we just
started school. I feel like I have been going non-stop the whole time though. Heres hoping
things will slow down a bit as we move closer to Thanksgiving.
I am not particularly sure of what to write about this week. There are a few things on my mind
when it comes to receiving more feedback to my teaching practices, but that is a conversation
that I need to have with Jackie. She is typically non-engaged in my focus class, which is
perfectly fine. I feel like I have complete ownership of that class, but I feel like I am at the point
in the internship year where I need to have more consistent feedback into my teaching
practices. I know they should not be perfect right now (nor should they ever be perfect. I want to
make sure that I do not fall into ruts of teaching English).
I think one of my biggest concerns right now is navigating the social field of the teaching staff
here at Owosso High School. Everyone is very well-connected, which is a fantastic thing to have
for a group of educators, but at the same time, I am feeling very disconnected from everyone
because they are so tight with each other. This is true even with my mentor teacher. There are
some days where I think that she does not want to talk with me at all. Who knows? Maybe I am
just overthinking things. Luckily, there have been a few teachers that have been very receptive
to me. Namely, one special education teacher named Penney, whose classroom I have been
going to during second hour to help students. She has been very supportive and nice to me
(even though she is a U of M fan).
We just started To Kill a Mockingbird as well, and we are on a VERY tight time schedule. I think
it will be possible though, assuming that students are able to power through with us as we read
through it in class. We have started giving 1-2 question quizzes if the students have homework
of reading. Personally, I do not think it is unreasonable to read one or two pages outside of
class, but apparently my students do. Oh well, I guess they will have to deal.
I am thinking of starting a new strategy as well later this week: the 3-2-1 Activity. I will be
modifying to better fit the purposes of my English 9 classes though. I will have them state 3
things that happened in the chapter (for hopeful assessment of their comprehension skills), 2
thoughts that they had (whether these are personal connections or wonderings), and 1 thing
they think will happen and why. I guess this counts as a formative assessment that I can use for
the activity in TE 802 for this upcoming week.
Toodles!
I think 3-2-1 is a simple assessment to help you think about what students understand and
what they find interesting. It would be worth thinking about how you might use them to make
really small tweaks to class tasks--even using their ideas in warm ups or as frames for the day.
I would keep up with the homework. They might change their attitude toward it over time or as
they get interested in something. And if not that's okay. Life will expect all kinds of homework
and if it's only one or two pages you could likely deal with what they miss in a one or two

sentence summary (perhaps student generated as a way to acknowledge those who do the
reading?)
And to the more affective side of things--I think from what I can tell you are doing a really good
job within lots of constraints. Do you feel comfortable asking your mentor to give you feedback
on specific things sometimes? Or maybe the special ed teacher you've connected with? As a
teacher I usually only had one or two really close friends in my school. We connected socially
but we also gave each other all kinds of feedback about our practice. I know it seems like
you've been there a long time but it's only November. I think if you find ways to be around other
teachers you will figure out who you might connect with best.
And if you want more feedback, you can definitely videotape lessons and I'll be happy to watch
them with or for you. I'd also be happy to come out to your school sometimes and talk about
teaching both yours and in general.

November 12th, 2015 (Week 11)

Steve: Today was my first experience with Parent-Teacher Conferences, and it was a lot less
intimidating than I thought it was going to be. I luckily had the chance to chat with several
students parents that I wanted to make contact with all along. We talked about the great things
that the students do in the classroom and some issues that have occurred along the way.
There is one family in particular that seemed very dumbfounded about how their son was failing
three (almost four) of his classes after the first marking period. I have their son in my focus
class, and I know that he works and pays attention in class. He just never turns anything in. So,
we developed a plan to get him to turn things in even if they are partially complete. Additionally,
we all expressed an interest into getting him to go to After School Tutoring. It seems that I will be
trying to get him to go.
I dont really have anything else to talk about. If any of you have advice on how to make Parent
Teacher Conferences more meaningful or to get more parents to come, let me know!
Im not sure how your conferences are set up, but we called our parents and set up appointment
times in the last few years I was at my school. I saw many more parents this way. I also had
student input into the process in a couple of ways. We took time to complete a grade reflection
in class that I shared with parents and we also had students lead the conferences at other
times. That way the students were involved in developing the plan for improvement.

November 18th, 2015 (Week 12)

Steve: A student at my school passed away today. I never had him as a student because he
was a senior, but the impact it had on the community was insane. Teachers, students, other
staff.. Everyone. The funeral is scheduled to be at the school on Monday.
How do I justify teaching my content material on the timeline that I have had when a tragedy like
this happens? I know I have students who were completely unaffected, and they deserve to
have the appropriate lessons. But what about the other students who couldnt even hold
themselves together?
This is hard to do. I am planning on going to the funeral to help support any and all students and
staff.
November 24th, 2015 (Week 13)
Steve: I have nothing for this week! I just need to catch up on everything. Have a great
Thanksgiving.
December 3rd, 2015 (Week 14)
Steve: I am very interested in the common mentality at my school for students to hate writing.
Whenever we assign any sort of extended writing assignment, we always have a handful of
students to adamantly refuse to write. I had four students in my focus class elect not to do the
assignment, and I dont even think I will get them turned into me as a late assignment.
I have asked these students to explain to me what it is about writing that is so negative that they
completely refuse to work on it in class, and no one has given me a concrete answer. They
always say, I just hate it. Then they proceed to shut down.
I DO NOT understand this at all, and it is becoming an incredible detriment to teaching an
English Language Arts class (imagine that.).
How can I approach this in a productive manner? I feel like if I have a complete unit on writing,
everyone will completely turn off. My school district is notorious for having terrible writing, but
the curriculum director wont make any adjustments or recognize that there is an issue. She just
does not pay attention the prominent issues in our schools, and the English department has
been pulling their hair out ever since.
This is something that has always been on my mind, and my students wont have a productive
conversation with me about why they dislike it so much. I dont have any experience with
students flat out refusing to do assignments because it involves writing. Any tips?
December 8th, 2015 (Week 15)

Steve: I have spent a large amount of time today thinking about my future as an educator, and it
is starting to scare me a lot more now. We are almost halfway through with our student
teaching, and soon enough, we will be looking and applying for jobs. The real world is coming
up very quickly. I am very scared.
Firstly, my concerns are coming from the current state of education that I have been studying
and observing for the past four and a half years. The American educational system has some
profound flaws (but admittedly also has some great things about it as well). It doesnt feel like
teachers are put into a position to succeed and to help students succeed. We are overtaxed,
limited, and under resourced. I find myself struggling very often and dedicating my own money
(which is incredibly limited at the moment) to my students and classroom. How can I sustain this
while also being able to take care of myself?
Secondly, it does not seem like students or parents want to invest extensively in their education.
I know it fallacious to think that this is the case. I know many of my students care about their
education, but they sure as heck dont show it. My focus class has the most missing
assignments, the lowest GPA, and the most behavioral issues out of all of our classes. I cant
help but take this as a reflection of my own teaching, even though I know that is not entirely the
case. It just doesnt seem like they care at all. How do help them change that mentality when
they have such low academic esteem? Many of my students have existed in a tracked system
of education that has essentially told them that they are stupid for the past eight years. How do I
combat all of that negativity?
Thirdly, I dont know where I want to be in my future. As in, I dont know if I want to stay in
secondary education or move on to get my Masters/Doctorate. I dont know if I will be able to
achieve that or even afford it. Part of me wants to be able to work with future educators, part of
me wants to travel and teach around the world, and part of me just wants to have a solid job in a
school district I love.
Right now, my placement has me feeling very conflicted. I love my coworkers and my students,
but the curricular decisions being made by my superiors make feel very uncomfortable. The No
Homework policy and the insane amount of tracking make me feel devalued as an educator.
The mere concept of tracking violates my educational philosophy.
There is a good chance that there will be an opening at Owosso High School at the end of the
year (actually, there are potentially two openings right now.), and I have many people saying
that I should apply for the position. I want to because of the coworkers and students.
Additionally, I would actually have relative freedom to teach what I want to in my classes. But I
have this lurking feeling that this school does not match my thoughts for a good, quality
education.
What do I do? Is there someone I can talk to more in-depth about this? Is there anything I can
actually do to help the curriculum developer realize how many flaws we have in our program
without getting fired/targeted?

The struggle is real.

December 14th, 2015 (Week 16)

Steve: I am really feeling the strain of sharing a classroom with another teacher. My MT has
been placing limitation on me for the past couple months, but she also hasnt been around very
much. She places a lot of responsibility on me for class. I know that I am able to handle it, but I
also feel like I havent been having the support that I need as a growing teacher.
Also, she has been letting students keep a lot of stuff in our room, including candy and pop that
are being sold by the sophomore class. People interrupt class all of the time. It is VERY
annoying. I have teachers, students, and others coming in during times when I am teaching. Its
disruptive and rude.
I guess I just needed to vent. I can solve all of my problems easily. Im hoping this Dialogue
Journal can be a space like that for me.

January 6th, 2016 (Week 17)

Steve: The new year is starting off pretty well so far. We are starting to transition into the
Midterm frame of mind, and then I will be taking over for my 10 Week after this semester is over.
I feel very prepared for the 10 Week. My MT required me to have everything planned out before
our break was over, so I am sitting pretty well for the time being. I already have materials
(worksheets, assessments, etc.) prepared for basically the first four weeks.
I also have been reading a lot for fun recently while I still can. Its been a nice way to relax
myself after long days at school. I have already finished three books so far in 2016 (although
one of them was super short but VERY good). It feels good to have that amount of time to
myself to destress and get my mind away from school for a moment. My New Years resolution
was to try to read something for fun every day for 30 minutes to an hour. Any good book
suggestions, Ashley?
Apparently several of the teachers here at OHS have been talking me up to the administration,
and the assistant principal has come to talk to me about teaching a few times. I am starting to
feel the reality of applying for real life teaching jobs, and I feel like I would be happy with my
coworkers and some of the students here at OHS if I were to get a job here. Unfortunately, the
culture of the school is still an issue for me. I want to try to talk to the administration about the
educational culture, but I am not sure how to start the conversation. The teaching position is
incredibly political, and all of the readings that we did back in undergrad did not prepare me for

navigating the political landscape of school. Is that something that we can talk about in class? I
feel like we could have a very good conversation about that given our class dynamics.
Well, I hope you had a good break, and I will see you next Friday for the first session of TE 804!

January 14th, 2016 (Week 18)

Steve: This week was an odd week because we had two snow days. While I was grateful for
the additional time to rest and read for fun, it was a long week. My students didnt get to finish
watching The Help until a week after we started it. Additionally, we did not get a ton of time to
prepare for the exams that we will be having next week.
On a sidenote from that, I forgot how much I love The Help. I had the thought that I would like to
use The Help to teach students about the concepts of race and racism. It is a bit more engaging
than To Kill a Mockingbird for students, and its something fresh. Teachers always talk about not
wanting to get stuck in a rut with their content. So maybe it is time to switch up a bit.
I am interested and terrified for classes this semester. I feel like there is a lot going on this
semester, and I am worried that I will have to sacrifice sleep in order to balance all of the
obligations in my life. There is a delicate balance happening right now anyway, so this could be
interesting. Heres hoping that I will be able to sleep on weekends.
Ashley, I would love to have the opportunity to speak with you about the Focus Class Binder
and defending it in the near future. I think having another person to run it by would be an
excellent way to help me organize all of my thoughts.
Thats it for this week! Not a ton on my mind this week.

January 19th, 2016 (Week 19)

Steve: The social climate in my school is incredibly odd, and this is something that I have been
mulling over since the beginning of my student teaching (which feels like forever ago). OHS has
roughly 1,000 students who come from mostly a lower class or upper class background. There
is limited racial diversity, and the primary political climate is conservative. Despite what you
might believe about Owosso, there are a surprising amount of students who are open about
their sexuality to the school and their families. Like, A LOT of students.
Many of my students feel comfortable speaking to me and my mentor teacher about their
sexuality because neither of us are in the closet at school. Heck, my mentor teacher is married
to another female teacher in the school. We are not hiding at all; therefore, many of our kids
think that they do not have to either, which is fantastic.

Additionally, as a co-adviser of the Gay-Straight Alliance at our school, I am getting the

opportunity to work students to talk about intersectional identities and fostering a more positive
environment at the school. My GSA kids are fantastic though a little unfocused and unmotivated
at times. There are three students in the GSA who are constantly engaged in a critical dialogue
while we have meetings: Autumn, Hannah, and Morgan. They are absolutely great. They have
even come to me looking for LGBTQ+ novels to read because they want to read more about the
experience of being part of the community. I absolutely love it.
Despite all this progress that I have listed above, I have noticed that many students in the
school still continually use derogatory phrases such as faggot and dyke to refer to other
people in a negative way. I have even written up two students for using that kind of language
because I do not tolerate it. How do I combat this kind of mentality when I am working in a
community that does not emphasize an understanding of the LGBTQ+ community and I have no
curricular materials/time to work on it?
I guess I am realizing that the majority of my issues at OHS so far have been boiled down to
figuring out how I can change the mentality of the school and make significant changes to the
way school is done here (curricularly, socially, emotionally, etc.). How does one person do this?
How does a group of people do this?

January 28th, 2016 (Week 20)

Steve: This week is definitely more of a triumph for me, and it definitely marks a milestone in my
student teaching career so far. I started a new unit this week on argumentation, and I initially
experienced some resistance from some of my students throughout the week. Many of them
shared with me that they were having issues with people telling them what to write about.
While this is not a feasible approach to academic writing (especially with the SAT), I am starting
with foundational elements with my students; therefore, I am making some drastic adjustments
to meet them where they are.
Originally, I intended to have a very structured approach to the whole argumentation unit. I
hand-picked topics and have each day building off of the next. This is where I decided to make
some big changes. Many of my students voiced the concern about me selecting a topic for
them, but instead, I am allowing them to have authentic choice about their topics for the
beginning part of the unit. While this is a big change (because I like structure), there has been
an incredibly positive impact on my students.
Two students who have previously refused to participate in class at times have turned a
complete 180. They were very engaged in their work and their ideas. Additionally, the girl who
has given me endless amounts of headaches in my 7th hour focus class is one of these
students. She is ENGAGED for once and not actively fighting me every single day. This is
probably my biggest accomplishment of the week.

I am slightly nervous about making the changes that I am making, but I am gaining confidence
every single day about it.
Toodles.
February 4th, 2016 (Week 21)
Steve: I think my biggest struggle right now is trying to balance all of the parts of my life to make
myself happy. Im not really sure if I have been too happy over the past few weeks because of
all of the stress that I have been under. Ive been trying to balance the Internship, two jobs,
school work, and trying to take care of myself, and it has been absolutely exhausting. I know
something needs to give, but I do not have proper financial support in order to alleviate some of
my problems.
How do I adequately balance everything without sacrificing the quality of my work? I feel like this
is a constant struggle that most teachers face in their life.
Tips or tricks?
February 9th, 2016 (Week 22)
Steve: I think that I am starting to recover from the burnout of being a teacher. My second wind
has finally come, I hope.
Recently, I have been feeling very overwhelmed about the amount of work on my plate and
having to navigate sharing a classroom and co-teaching. There have been a lot of growing
pains recently because I have been conflicting with my MT more often. I feel like we have two
completely different ideas of teaching English, and she does not always support my decisions in
the classroom.
Just this past Friday, she elected to change my plans that I left for her. Technically, I am the lead
teacher in all of our classes right now. If she were a sub in my classroom and decided to change
my lesson plan, she most likely would not be teaching in my classroom ever again. So, I was a
little upset about that, but I also didnt know how to navigate that properly. I am very ready for
my own classroom.
I am also starting to think ahead to looking for jobs, and I am not sure where to even start.
Ashley, can you give me some tips for this?

February 18th, 2016 (Week 23)

Steve: Nothing to report for this week! Just trying to finish up an argumentative writing unit, and
my students are doing okay with it.

February 26th, 2016 (Week 24)

Steve: Firstly, I want to apologize that I have been really behind on doing the dialogue journal!
Ive been trying to balance things in my life, and some things got lost for a little bit. I am hoping
that I have come back to a balance.
This week has really been a testament to my ability to be flexible as a person and as an
educator. My school district had three days in a row off due to snow storms, and it has really put
a dent into my Serial unit. I have to make some decisions this weekend about how I am going to
proceed through the rest of the unit now that I am three days behind.
The Serial Unit is turning out to be REALLY AMAZING so far. Many of my students have been
really engaged in the content so far, and we have only completed one half of an episode. We
also have an Evidence Board that is in the back of our room where I ask my students to add
pieces of evidence/thoughts/theories that they have about the case so far. I am very excited
about continuing this unit.
Lastly, I am really worried that I have been failing my ELL that is in my class. I dont feel like I
have been giving him the attention that he needs to grow as an English speaker. I am hoping to
remedy this to the best of my ability. I will be spending the next several days doing some unit
planning for him using The Arrival and Seedfolks.
I think I have stuff figured out for my portfolio and my adjudication panel as well. I will be asking
another English teacher at my school to be part of my panel, and she has been forming a really
positive relationship with me over the past several weeks. She has been very supportive.
March 4th, 2016 (Week 25)
Steve: So, there have been some interesting developments happening in my life as a teacher,
especially today. I am having trouble remaining calm about one of the situations though.
Earlier today, some of my students shared with me that another student of mine sent out a
Snapchat with the message: Mr. Neal is a faggot. Internally, I was FUMING. Absolutely fuming,
but I had to keep things under control for my students. I thanked these two students for letting
me know about the situation. We went to go speak with the assistant principal about the
situation, and it is now being handled.
I dont know how to feel about this situation other than anger. I am trying to remain rational
about this. I am not ashamed of my sexuality in the slightest, but this crosses a huge line. I
would even say that I am hurt.
Recording for my inquiry project went really well today though. I am trying to build opportunities
for my students to take risks and challenge these ideas of failure that have been a prominent

part of their lives. Its hard to counter, but my first hour did a good job with the activity. They
posed some really interesting questions about Serial and their thoughts and theories of it.
Things to Work on for Next Week: trying to not take a personal bias against the student who
called me a faggot, working on my Portfolio, and getting some rest
March 9th, 2016 (Week 26)
Steve: These past couple weeks have been rather exhausting, but not from the teaching end of
my life. I am finding it very difficult to juggle all of the responsibilities of being a caring teacher
and advocate for my students. There have been a number of situations that I have been
completely unsure about what to do. For example, the student who called me a Faggot in a
Snapchat last week. How was I supposed to handle that other than bringing it to the
administrations attention?
An update on that: that same student has been moved to another classroom and given an entire
week of suspension. This is the precedent at my school. I am not upset at this outcome, but I
am coming to see that there are some inconsistencies when it comes how administration
handles situations. I have heard many students using homophobic and racist speech in the
hallways. I always stop and talk about it as well as writing the students up, but it doesnt seem to
be handled consistently by my administrators. That worries me a bit. How are we supposed to
create safe environments for students when there is not consistent support.
I am also tired from the political elements of teaching. This is absolutely crazy trying to navigate
the complex space of a high school without any formal sense of agency because I am an intern.
I am treated as an intern by pretty much everyone. Its rather stifling. I dont feel like I have
reached a moment of
My students are also terrible at regulating their own emotions. They wear everything on their
sleeves and bring everything with them into class, especially my intervention classes. I am
flexible to a degree with stuff like this, but when it impedes my ability to teach. Something tells
me this a parenting thing. I shouldnt be expected to parent my students as well as teach them.
This is not reasonable to place on us.
The teaching profession is fraught with these moments that hurt my ability to teach. How can I
change this reasonably? Is this a top down change or a bottom up change? This is something
that I do not understand and struggle with almost every day.
March 15th, 2016 (Week 27)
Steve: Socratic Circles are hard. I understand that it is a very difficult process to be able to
participate in an academic conversation on a text. My students are young and inexperienced
when it comes to doing academic work like this. I get that. I have tried a variety of structures,

they have completed this kind of activity before, and they have had excellent ideas about Serial
so far in the unit.
Im just venting here right now: my 7th hour completely bombed the activity. Apparently they
dont know how to treat each other with respect during a conversation or how to build off of
another persons idea. I assumed that these were basic enough skills that should have been
covered in elementary school, but I apparently was wrong. *Done venting*
I am also interested in why many of my students refuse to take responsibility on themselves for
anything that happens in their lives. Its always someone elses fault. The computer messed up
the answers, The teacher didnt grade it, or You have to figure this out are all phrases I hear
quite frequently throughout the day. I completely shut them down, but this seems to be a cultural
phenomenon that I do not understand. At all.
I feel bad that this dialogue journal has recently become a place for me to vent because I find
myself incredibly more frustrated recently. I think I am going through another cycle of burnout,
but there is no extra room this time for me to be able to relax a bit. Im tired, overworked, and
struggling to keep my head above water. I am a little relieved that we have MSU classes again
this week, but I am worried that the work we will be completing will stress me out more.
Any tips for teacher/student/advocate/working multiple jobs burnout? I will take any solid piece
of advice. Haha
See you Friday!
To Do: TE 803 IR Reflection Paper, Comment on Edthena Videos, and Start Portfolio Artifacts.
March 24th, 2016 (Week 28)
Steve: The impact of tracking is really absurd, and I feel confident that I can talk about that
since I have been living in the MOST TRACKED SCHOOL I have ever been in. Working with the
lower tracked students who have such a negative self-perception and really strong emotional
swings (even moreso than the average teenager) is exhausting. I find myself drained at the end
of the day trying to get students to just believe that they are not stupid or worthless, horrible
people.
The even bigger problem is that I feel like the administration knows that this is a common thing,
and everyone just accepts it rather than trying to make a substantial change. That irritates me
so much.
Additionally, I am having a lot of social troubles with Jackie. It just doesnt seem like she wants
to do anything with me. We definitely have more a business relationship right now, and the
bothers me a lot. It makes lunch time and everything else awkward. Very awkward. I really miss

when we had a good friendship earlier in the year. I dont really know how to handle the
situation. I have been trying to reach out to her more. Nada. Nothing.
On a more happy note, the Gay-Straight Alliance that I have been co-advising all year is getting
into some really awesome activist work right now. The students are preparing to give a
presentation to the staff about what we do and why we have seen a need for the group in our
school and community. They were really dedicated and focused yesterday. They are a fantastic
group of students. We have a small group of really dedicated folks. They are consistently
awesome and ready to jump into work like this. I am really proud of them.
I am trying to include some of my GSA work in my portfolio, but I am having a hard time trying to
figure out how to create a document to show some of this work. I think I have an idea, but I am
thinking about including this in my portfolio defense.
Its crazy that I only have a few more weeks left of my student teaching. It feels like it went way
too fast. I am going to miss most of my students a lot. I will be subbing in my building for my
department after the internship is over, but it is not entirely the same.
To-Do: Portfolio Artifacts

March 29th, 2016 (Week 29)

Steve: So. Close. To. Spring. Break.
My students have been incredibly squirrelly lately because we are so closer to the break, and
the teacher have been too! I think it will be interesting experiencing Spring Break from the other
side as a teacher. I am excited to get a little time away, even if that means I have to work on my
portfolio and other MSU assignments in the evening. I am really intrigued as to what the
internship will look like when we get back from Spring Break.
I feel like I have been finding different ways to take a break from the internship throughout my
weeks. I spend time with friends away from the constraints of my work, and that has been really
helpful. My friends have definitely helped me get through this year with some shred of sanity. I
owe them a lot.
Now that I am in my final week of my 10 Week Lead Teach, I feel confident looking back and
reflecting on the successes and failures of my experience. I believe that using Serial as a
primary text has been really great. It is something completely new to students, and I believe that
many of them enjoyed the process of investigating the information in the podcast. I have loved
seeing the faces of the students when they hear new pieces of evidence that completely
changes what they think about Who did it?!. I feel like the argumentative writing unit went
decently well too.

I also know some changes that I would make to my future units if I were to teach them again.
Firstly, I had a lot of students not turn in a 100 point writing assignment that used argumentative
writing. It had four parts, and I gave them two weeks of in class time. In the future, I will stagger
the due dates of the parts of the assignment because that will help facilitate how the students
complete the assignment. Secondly, I will be spending more time digging into how to construct
an argumentative text for the students. Hopefully I will be able to complete a classroom model in
class. I feel like it is really important to provide a highly structured example to help the students
learn how to engage in writing.
Hopefully I will be able to get a good amount of work done over Spring Break so the last few
weeks of my internship wont be too stressful. I am nervous for the last couple weeks because
of the workload. Heres hoping it wont be too bad.
April 14th, 2016 (Week 30)
Steve: Today was my last day of teaching my students at Owosso High School. It made me
very, very sad, and I realized that a big part of teaching is saying goodbye. I am going to miss a
lot of my students. They usually make my day so much brighter, and I love being able to spend
time with them while teaching. Several of the students gave me goodbye cards too. I still plan to
go into the classroom on my last day.
I am currently finding myself at a big crossroads in life, and I am unsure of what path to take for
my future career and happiness. At the job fair on Tuesday, I had a few promising offers from a
middle school in Arizona and a brand new school in Beijing. Both of these opportunities would
be amazing experiences for me, but I find myself coming back to my personal mental and
emotional health. I dont feel like taking a full teaching position so far away from home would be
healthy for me. I would definitely struggle a lot.
Given certain circumstances in my life right now, I feel like it would be beneficial for me to stay in
Michigan. I can always travel during summer months, so I am not super concerned about being
unable to see the world. I believe I would feel more supported and secure as well.
This student teaching year has given me an incredible amount of experience and respect for the
teaching position. It is really difficult to do, and you are constantly second-guessing yourself and
your lessons. I believe that I did a good job this year, and I am excited to see what my future
has in store for me. Maybe I will consider getting my PhD in Policy like I have been thinking. But
that is for a future decision.