Stephanie

Hohbein
Hoover High School
9-12 Special Education

Weekly Log
(March 2-6, Week 6)

How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?
This week, all of the English classes (Gen. Ed and Sped.) began to wrap up the unit.
The students were finishing writing their research papers and turning them in. The
students also finished Night and completed the CFA for the district on the topics of:
Claim/thesis, reasoning and evidence. There were many times this week where we pulled
the special ed. students out into a different room. For their papers, we took those students
to a conference room in the library where it was quieter and helped them finish their
papers. They were able to get a lot more done than usual with fewer distractions. We also
pulled them into our classroom during the CFA. We read the assessment out loud to the
students and they had extended time to work on it as well. I In the self-contained English
class, the students finished Night and continued to work on their research papers. I'm still
teaching bell to bell, which is going very well!

Lastly, we had conferences this week. Not many parents showed up, which didn't
really surprise me...but the parents that did show up came to talk with my mentor teacher
and I. I let my mentor teacher do most of the talking but I did introduce myself and add in a
few comments during each conversation. I learned how to check students grades online
and how the process of conferences works.

What were your most satisfying experiences? What were your most challenging
experiences?
My most satisfying experiences this week involved the students completing their
research papers. It has been such a huge project for these students and a challenge for all of
us. I had a few moments with students as they were writing their papers that impressed me.
I tried to talk with students as they were writing their papers and help them to avoid
plagiarism. Getting them to put ideas in their own words was hard but there were a few
students that were very successful. Talking aloud about what they wanted to write helped
them to form clear statements before they put them down on paper. The biggest challenge
this week was with my self contained English class. Behavior has been the biggest issue
lately. A few of the students haven't been listening or respectful of me or the other students.
There were a few times when I had students stand up in the middle of class and yell across
the room during instruction. My mentor teacher pulled them out of the room immediately
and had a discussion with them about their behavior. Some days were better than others
after these incidents.

What are your plans for the upcoming week?
Next week will be a short week due to Spring break. Our plans are to make sure each
student is done with their research paper. The students in gen. ed. English will be watching

The Boy in The Striped Pajamas to end the Holocaust/genocide unit. If there are students
who have not finished their papers, they will not be allowed to watch the movie and we will
pull them out to help them finish. With the self-contained English class, you will observe a
lesson next week. I am going to have the students do some journaling as well as a gallery
walk about the Holocaust. These students will also be completing a final assessment, but a
different one than the gen ed.CFA. They are going to respond to a writing prompt/scenario
about the Holocaust. If the students get those things done and there is extra time, I have a
Holocaust jeopardy game planned for the day before break. This will serve as their "reward"
for working so hard in the unit!

Supervisor Feedback:

I always enjoy your logs. They show you think like a teacher! You celebrate when
students are successful and know when things aren't just like you want them to be.
I'm impressed.

Weekly Log

(March 23-27, Week 8)

How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?

This week the students started To Kill a Mockingbird in the general ed.
classes and the self-contained class. In the self-contained class I had my students do
a few mini-lessons to build their knowledge on the historical context of the time
period. The students learned about Emmett Till, racial disparity and the issues of
prejudice and discrimination. I had my students watch a video on Emmett Till and
they seemed to be very interested in the story, as Emmett Till was 14 years old,
close in age to my students. The self-contained class started a KWL activity as well. I
read a one-page teaser to the book and had the students write down facts (What
they know) and write down questions (What they want to know) I was amazed how
well this activity went! I also had my students do some vocabulary work for chapter
1 of the book. This week our data team also began to use the IB (International
Baccalaureate) format for unit planning as we planned out our activities for this
unit. In the co-taught class I have been taking on more responsibilities as well. I have
lead activities and facilitated in class readings.

What were your most satisfying experiences? What were your most
challenging?

My most satisfying experiences were seeing my students connect to this unit
already and seeing their genuine interest. The themes of prejudice, discrimination
and racial disparity hit close to home for many of my students at Hoover and I think
that discussing these issues are so important. I can see that students have

knowledge on these issues already and I want to keep building on that with them.
The most challenging continues to be behavior and classroom management but I
work on it everyday and some days are better than others!

What are your plans for next week?

Next week we will get further into To Kill a Mockingbird. I have plans to
finish up a KWL activity I had my students start last week. We will be reading
chapters 2 and 3 of the book, and doing a characterization chart. I will be sending
you a plan for Monday as well for when you come to observe.

Supervisor Feedback:

I am really impressed by your backgrounding of the students into the time period
and the social setting. That's excellent thinking, and very necessary! When you
interview and they ask, "What examples of how you help students be successful?",
that's one you can use.

I enjoyed reading it.

Weekly Log

(April 20-24, Week 11)

How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you
have?
This week my classes were continuing to finish up the last chapters
before the court case in To Kill a Mockingbird. We did some work with
vocabulary and character charts. The general ed. classes were working on
study guides for the novel and an essay about symbolism from the novel. On
Friday, I had my self-contained English class playing a few review games on
the application Kahoot. The students absolutely loved this game! There is
something about having a competition that is highly motivating! They also
worked on a mini-research project about the setting of the novel. Students
had to compare and contrast the 1930's with 2015. I created a graphic
organizer to guide their research. Then they had to create a journal entry for
me that I used for progress monitoring. I had them write about if they would
rather live in the 1930s or 2015 and they needed to incorporate specific
evidence from their research.

What were your most satisfying experiences? What were the most
challenging?

The most challenging experiences this week-involved behavior. I had a

few incidents occur in the ONE day that my mentor teacher was gone. All in
one day, we had a lockdown, I had one student admit to me that she thought
she was going to get jumped, and I had one student get arrested. In addition, I
had one student show up 30 minutes late to class and my self-contained
fourth block was acting very impulsive. Emotionally my classes have been off-
kilter. It is getting nicer outside and the students are getting riled up. I have
been trying to deal with these instances individually as they occur. My plan
for the future is to pull some students aside as they enter my classroom and
just check in with them, ask them how their day is going and if they are doing
all right. I want my students to know that I respect them and care about them
and their lives. I feel that with these individual conversations I have had some
success but there is a long way to go. There have been points when it is very
difficult to deal with students who have a bad attitude toward school and me
in general, but I am trying to take each day as a new day. I know my students
care because I did receive several sincere apologies about their actions and
their language toward me. I am really looking for different methods of
responding to these misbehaviors so I would welcome any idea's you have!

What are your plans for the upcoming week?
Next week my self-contained class will hopefully be able to start the
readers theater for the novel. We will set up the classroom like a courtroom
and each student will get a part or two to play. In the gen. ed. classes, they will
be playing catch up, as they are way behind in the book. My mentor teacher
and I have come up with some great activities to do with our self-contained
classes in the next few weeks such as a character collage, more competitions
on Kahoot, and fun creative writing journals.


Supervisor Feedback:

You're getting some real life experiences! I can't accept the premise that a student
might not like you. Instead, I see students that don't feel appreciated or connected
and they push back just to be ahead of the game. That is, they feel they rather reject
you and school than feel you and school are rejecting me.

You do provide meaningful experiences in your classroom & that is a major part of
turning those kids around! I'm looking forward to seeing you Thursday, but I'll miss
seeing you teach!