Reflection: Insight for Newbies
Per Adam's reminder, I'm looking to gather insight from you guys about methods and ARC in general for next summer's cohort. Use the following prompts for guidance or go your own direction. I'll copy and paste your insight onto a single document and will make it available for them on their own blog post.
- What would have helped you prepare for the program?
- What surprised you?
- What was most challenging for you and why?
- Speak to the balancing act between intensity and earning a certificate in a single summer.
- Bribe Randy and Jaf - early and often. More later.....
- Where do we begin??? This is a good one... We'll be back...
- I think ARC I would be a great sociology study, right??? I think a sociology major could submit a tremendous paper or well-written observation about what we just went thru? Think about it...
- Top Ten List of What Every Summer Arc-ie Should Know 1. Once you get a handle on classroom management, everything else becomes easier. 2. The number of nights that you will get fewer than 5 hours of sleep during student teaching will be considerable. Thus, you will abuse caffeine. 3.During student teaching, do not hesitate to call the parents. 4. Do not overestimate your students' prior knowledge. 5. You can learn almost as much from watching the other student teachers teach, as you can from teaching, yourself. 6. If you are driving from far away every day, consider staying in a hotel one night a week in Hartford. It makes a huge difference in how refreshed you feel. 7.The combination of student teaching and methods is far more demanding than a full day of core. Do not get fooled by the first few weeks. 8. Do not try to use an e-reader (such as a Kindle) to replace making hardcopies of the core handouts. If you must use electronic media to avoid printing out the handouts, use a laptop computer. Even if using the latter, print out hardcopies of the special ed handouts - it is hard to work with them in electronic format for what is needed during the special ed lesson. 9.Do not underestimate how much Maria can help you. 10. You will develop thicker skin by the time ARC is over. But this is a good thing in the long run.
- Anonymous said...
- from Randy: Chandan sounds like a veteran already! :)
- Preparation- Try to get assignments out of the way as soon as possible - as much reading as possible before Core begins (so highlight, use post its for notes) and get the Praxis out of the way before the course. During ARC, do assignments as soon as you get them. Be prepared not to take any time off at all. Surprise! Student teaching was more demanding than I expected, mostly due to the pace of the summer school program. You will be preparing up to 4 lessons a night (that's when you do them). Find a text as a resource that you can work with to orient/guide yourself as soon as you can identify what you will be teaching. Sometimes the best text may not be the one the school assigns to the course. When you are completely exhausted and brain dead, a good textbook will remind you of the best steps to solve/teach. If at all possible find some quiet, non working moments to relax and think....often my best ideas occurred at that time. Know what you can do to give yourself a break. I did not type my lesson plans. I hand wrote them. For me it was faster and easier to adapt. Most challenging- Thinking. During methods/student teaching, I was so tired that I was not functioning intellectually at my full/best potential. You know what your personal survival skills are and what to do. In my case, I had to get my sleep or I would be worthless the next day. Prioritize. Use break times and lunch times to get a jump on things. Balancing act- It's rugged. You will need to know where and when to draw the line and what your limits are. Organize, prioritize, simplify. Ask for help when you need it - especially of your cooperating teacher. (How do you teach this?) A limited number of effective lessons will trump a bunch of ineffective ones....sometimes you will not have time to "get fancy".
- I think orientation was great at preparing us for the program. One thing our cohort did, that all of them did not, is have us get the reading out of the way before the program started. I think this was immensely helpful. Also, having us blog during student teaching in lieu of the journals was also very helpful. I don’t know how I would have managed journaling everyday in addition to writing lesson plans. Nothing really surprised me about the ARC program. I knew it would be intense. Two people I know completed the program and they gave me the heads up. I think the most challenging part for me was student teaching. The long hours of preparation, waking up early, and then having to go to class until 4:30pm was tough. I don’t know how I would have made it without Tuesday and Friday afternoons off. Overall, my review of the program is very favorable. I recognize that earning a certification in a summer is not easy, and should not be. The ARC program, I feel, did a great job in preparing me to start my teaching career. I like the mastery learning approach, and the support that I got from the program and my methods instructors. I would definitely recommend ARC to other people seeking a teaching certification.
- Anonymous said...
- Adam said... Try not to make any commitments for the summer prior to starting ARC. The instructors always say ARC is intense but that might mean a lot more coming from the students. I came into ARC right out of finishing my third degree in Civil Engineering. I thought I knew what a lot of work was but this program even challenged the intensity some of my previous studies. Thus, if you make big commitments during the weekends you will leave yourself absolutely no time to recover. A lot of the time you will even be trying to catch up with work during the weekends. All of this being said, when presented with the choice of ARC I or ARC II, I realized that I could not commit every weekend for the better part of a year in order to get the certification so I knew I had to go through ARC I. You might have to constantly remind yourself of this fact.
- I, too, appreciated that we got the reading out of the way before the program started, and the blogging instead of daily journaling. There was little enough time to get things done once we started student teaching as it was. One piece of advice I would give incoming ARC I students would be to take the Praxis in June. I scheduled mine for July thinking I'd have an extra month to prepare for the test. HA! There was no time during student teaching to do anything but prepare lesson plans.
- Anonymous said...
- From Brenda: 1. Student teaching will be one of the most intense times of your life. Try as best as possible to clear your schedule. 2. Take one night or day to yourself each week to recharge and spend time with your family. I did Friday night and/or Saturday and then worked really hard on Sunday. 3. If you have children, try to get family/friends to take them for a while during student teaching. This will allow you to focus on y our work for student teaching, and lessen (not eliminate) the feeling of guilt… 4. Start each day with a fresh attitude. If something doesn’t go as planned, reflect on it, know how you would change what you did, and then move on. Nothing is gained from holding on to “should haves”, and guilt. The key is to REFLECT, and move on. 5. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from your methods teachers, or people in your cohort. 6. Keep your eye on the prize. You can do anything for a summer!
- Bruce said...
- 1) Don't forget why you are here. We made the choice to put two years of education into ten weeks. Let me be the one to tell you now, it is the right choice. It may be intense or overwhelming at times, but deal with it and get through it. Like Brenda mentioned, "Keep your eye on the prize." 2) While in CORE, stay up to date with your journal entries. Do them every day, and do not let them build up. I saw some of the people that sat around me let them build up, and they did not look happy with that choice. 3) If there was a class or session to pay the most attention to it is classroom management. Master this, and the rest should be much easier. 4) Don't stress yourself out over assignments!! Do the assignments to the best of your ability, and let them go after they are done. It is very easy to spend hours sitting up in bed, analyzing the lesson plan you had just created. Do not do that! It doesn't help you, makes you more tired and adds an unneeded level of stress to your day. This should be our approach to creating lesson plans: create a lesson plan, review the lesson plan, try the lesson plan, fix or adjust anything that Randy or Jaf tell you to. 5) When Randy says to tell your friends and family that you will be unavailable for 10 weeks, believe him.... to an extent. I, like Brenda, tried to give myself time (even if only a little) to spend with family and friends. This usually fell on the weekends and Thursday nights. 6) This one is very important. Do not come into ARC carrying any predisposed notion that you know how to teach.. you don't!! Feel fortunate when you receive any criticism during ARC. We have some of the best teachers in the state lecturing and helping us learn to teach. Leave your previous careers at the door and be open to learning. Nothing that wasn't already done could have helped me prepare for the program better. I knew it would be tough, and I hope these tips help the future cohorts succeed.
- Anonymous said...
- Posted by Len A couple of things that would have helped me prepare for the summer program: - In the acceptance notification a note from the methods instructor could be included with the material from Maria about what will happen between the letter and orientation and between orientation and the start of ARC. - Love the top ten list format from Chandan. Maybe a few minutes could be spent putting together a list to be part of the letter above (whether that ends up being 5, 10 or however many bullets) - I did not understand the intention of the unit plan until we were halfway through it – whether I was just mentally absent when Randy introduced it or what I don’t know. In hindsight if I understood how closely it would be tied to the student teaching experience and how useful it could actually be for the student teaching I would have approached it much differently and more effectively. - Core, Methods, and Student Teaching are all very different animals and when two of them go on at once (i.e. methods and student teaching) it gets challenging in terms of time and stress management and in producing quality results. There are three parts to ARC and from easy to hard they are Core, Methods, and Methods and Teaching at the same time. - Prepare your family and friends as well as yourself to pretty much be an absentee participator in a lot of normal living during ARC – especially during the time when student teaching and methods are both ongoing. - Don’t forget its only nine weeks so the light at the end of the tunnel comes very quickly. For me the hardest parts of ARC were also the weeks that went by the quickest. Just be ready to grind through it knowing it will end relatively soon.
- Victoria said...
- 1. When instructors tell you that this program is very intense, trust them, it is not an exaggeration. 2. The most valuable thing you will need but will not have enough of is a time. So if there is any chance to rent a room near the Woodland Street, it is a good idea. 3. If you can write reflection papers quickly, you will enjoy the program. If it is a long and painful process for you, think twice before you apply for the program. 4. Earning a certificate does not equal getting a job. And it is too late to look for a job in the middle of the August. So there is a reason to spend extra time looking for it. Just in case you are going to complete the program. 5. Do you expect to have some words of support or compassion during the hard work on the program? Get friends with other students ARCies. This is a chance to get new friends and to create “friendly environment” for yourself and other students. 6. Do not forget that many instructors believe that they are” on a mission” to prepare you to a “hardship of teaching”. In order to achieve their goal they will give you as hard time as it gets. So suck it in and appreciate what they do.
- Anonymous said...
- Post by Ay • What would have helped you prepare for the program? Being warned during orientation and understanding ahead of time how intense the program was going to be helped me. People who had gone through the program before also testified to how intense it was going to be. I can not think of anything else that would have prepared me more. • What surprised you? At the beginning of student teaching, realizing that what I was being taught was not being practiced by other teachers. • What was most challenging for you and why? Managing my time; staying up at night to prepare lessons, completing assignments and staying alert in class after a long day. Keeping my sanity while trying to maintain a balance between all of the above and family. Also I loved the reflections but I felt I had to meet the minimum amount of pages- I preferred the blog posts because they were shorter. • Speak to the balancing act between intensity and earning a certificate in a single summer No comments – just kidding. There is no easy way around earning a teaching certificate, the program is/will be intense. What kept me going was the fact that I knew at the end of this challenging (rough) road, there was a reward.
- Shortly after I was admitted to ARC, I met a spanish teacher here locally that went thru it 3 summers ago. She prepped me somewhat and that was helpful. Now having gone thru it myself, I would add: do NOT fall behind on anything! As hard as it is to stay with it EVERY night - JUST DO IT! And there will be nights that feel like you can take a breather, but I suggest against it. Why start down that slippery slope??? Get your reading done, get your journal written, prepare for what you'll see in core or methods the next day and even look out beyond that if you have the time. As soon as you let 1 or 2 nights of work slip by, you might find yourself facing an insurmountable pile - and that will just add to the pressure. Make lists of what's due and continually review them to ensure you stay on top of everything. You'll find yourself getting into a very necessary routine. I wouldn't say anything really surprised me - mostly because nothing really surprises me anymore. But I do think Ayileru makes a good point about seeing a product out there completely opposite of what you guys have taught us. I am excited and encouraged that we're all going out with a new mindset and a fresh attitude about doing things the right way. Keeping up with the hectic schedule and pace during student teaching was easily the most challenging thing for me in ARC. Preparing solid lesson plans every night while staying on top of all the Methods assignments is a true test. But if you stay disciplined (like I mentioned above) then you'll get thru it. The last point is simple - it's all about tradeoffs (like most things in life). You have to ask yourself: would you rather be in a graduate degree program lasting up to 2 years, or put yourself thru an extremely grueling but very doable program for 9.5 weeks??? For me, there was only 1 solution - ARC was my eye on the prize when I committed to a 2nd career in teaching. A master's degree wasn't even an option for me - I didn't want to take that much time.
- • What would have helped you prepare for the program? I think that I would have been helped by a summary/list of goals: 2 reflection submissions, a special education homework assignment, X weekly blog posts, 3 micro teaches, 2 observations, a unit plan, a portfolio - I like checking things off a list. • What surprised you? How difficult it is to zero in on effective material for lesson plans. There is so much to sort through, especially if you are using multiple text books for resources. • What was most challenging for you and why? Attempting a true "leadership" role for the first time in my life. I found it's much more difficult to lead than follow. • Speak to the balancing act between intensity and earning a certificate in a single summer. I think it is a fair trade for someone like me who otherwise couldn't consider a career in teaching.
- What would have helped you prepare for the program? I went to a meeting regarding ARC last December, and Maria repeatedly spoke about the intensity of the program. She had given the attendees quite a bit of information regarding the program, so I would suggest that people interested should attend one of these “no obligation” sessions. I also learned that a few local teachers and friends went through the program. It’s always great to get opinions of people that have gone through it. I don’t know if I could single out anything that would have helped me prepare for the program. The original orientation meeting was pretty well done. What surprised you? I think what surprised me most was the disconnect between the cooperating teachers and the style of ARC. I’m sure it wasn’t the same for everyone, but I believe many people had the opinion that the teaching strategies we were learning were not the same as what we were seeing in our field observation. My father was an alcoholic, and in many ways I learned how NOT to parent. Similarly, I’ve learned many ways how NOT to teach. That being said, be sure to study your cooperating teachers and their interaction with the students, as much can always be learned. What was most challenging for you and why? I think the most challenging thing for me was to get to a point where I was putting it all together. At first it was the task analysis and feeling comfortable chunking the examples enough. Then it was assessment and when to actually do it. Then it was realizing that I didn’t have enough RRLE, or I had too many guided practice problems and not enough engagement. Then the idea of scaffolding finally clicked. Etc., etc. Not that I’d want a few more weeks of student teaching right now, but I just wish it had all come together for me sooner. Speak to the balancing act between intensity and earning a certificate in a single summer. How many times have I heard “You’re getting a teaching certificate in one summer?” That pretty much sums up the intensity. I would suggest trying to block off the time and concentrate on the program. I cannot say I did this. I had a few other things going on at the same time, so it took that much more effort to stay organized and on top of things. I did my best to get all core reflections done that same night and assignments done as soon as possible. DON’T get behind. If you keep pace, you’ll be just fine. Also, I believe as Brenda and others stated, reflect and let go. Keep moving ahead. The prize really does come quickly.
- I second Victoria's recommendation of getting a room nearby. I was getting little enough sleep as it was. If I'd been commuting from Trumbull everyday, I don't think I'd have completed the program. It was also helpful to be separated from my family. There would have been many more distractions at home. During the week I was able to devote all my time to the program.
