My experiences at Del Norte are proving to be extremely valuable to my growth and development as a teacher. As I rove through different classrooms and observe the various teachers in the World Languages Department, they graciously welcome me and integrate me into their classrooms.
Each morning my first stop is the Chinese classroom during period 1. The Chinese teacher has been doing an incredible job developing this new program—he has classes from Chinese 1 all the way up to AP Chinese. However, since he is the only Chinese teacher, he has to be creative in terms of how he accommodates to the varying levels of Chinese proficiency in his classrooms. For example, he has combined his upper-level Chinese 7/8 class with his AP Chinese class. However, the Chinese teacher and I have worked out a schedule in which each morning we separate the Chinese 7/8 from the AP students. While the Chinese teacher leads the AP discussion, I take the Chinese 7/8 students and lead the discussion/lesson plan with them. Most of these students only started learning Chinese during their first year at Del Norte. However, their level of Chinese character recognition along with their ability to converse and discuss various topics in Chinese are well on their way to high levels of proficiency. The students are excited to be learning Chinese, and the time seems to fly by each time we meet. Each morning I highly look forward to this challenging aspect of my student teaching experience.
Another aspect about my student teaching experience is the opportunity to meet as a World Languages department each Tuesday morning. Last week we received lab-tech training as a department in which specialists trained us on how to effectively manage our classes through the use of available technology in the World Languages lab. And each teacher has a specific day of the week in which (s)he is encouraged to make use of the lab. This week, we discussed as a department the challenges that arise due to the trimester system that is unique to Del Norte High among Poway schools. While the traditional semester system affords teachers 18 weeks to work through a course, the trimester system only provides 12 weeks. In terms of the level of performance that students are expected to achieve by the end of each trimester, there is a 6-week deficit that Del Norte teachers must help their students overcome in order for the students to succeed. Teachers are therefore forced to focus entirely on the absolute essential material and concepts of each course. This means that some material—that would otherwise be considered necessary and or important in other schools—must be taken out of the course curriculum in order to accomplish their objectives. This underscores the importance of working together as a department in building the various curriculum from lower to upper levels of language. Consequently, as students upstream through higher levels, teacher collaboration is key to successful transitions, and coursework emphasis from level to level must be strategically planned out with appropriate scaffolding taken into consideration.
As I observe the various techniques that the World Languages teachers use in terms of managing classroom behavior, correcting students’ mistakes during classroom discussions/activities, managing their grading system and their students’ incessant pile-up of completed work assignments, and the varying ways in which these teachers engage their students and cause learning to take place, I take time to pause, reflect, and breathe. These teachers are true masters, and I feel so fortunate to be welcomed among them as their apprentice.
2 Comments
9/19/2013 08:03:50 am
Hey Sean,
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Matt
9/19/2013 08:18:17 am
Sounds like a great class. I too have gained great insight from department meetings. It is very interesting to see what happens behind the scenes with administrative tasks, strategic planning and collaborative work. It's importance and time-consumption is often overlooked by new teachers.
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