Mason+High+School+redux

Peter Croce 1701 University Village Apt. 302 East Lansing, MI 48823 313-549-8491  begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 313-549-8491 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 313-549-8491  begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 313-549-8491 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting   begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 313-549-8491  begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 313-549-8491 end_of_the_skype_highlighting   begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 313-549-8491  begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 313-549-8491 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting crocepet@msu.edu

Katlynn Craig 2599 Abbot Rd. Apt. 1014 East Lansing, MI 48823 <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">231-740-6957 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 231-740-6957 end_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">231-740-6957 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 231-740-6957 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting  <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434"><span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">231-740-6957 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 231-740-6957 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">231-740-6957 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 231-740-6957 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting craigka1@msu.edu

Steffon Jones 3839 Hunsaker Street Apt. 425 C East Lansing, MI 48823 <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434"><span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434"><span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">313-213-8543 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 313-213-8543 end_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">313-213-8543 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 313-213-8543 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting  <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434"><span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">313-213-8543 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 313-213-8543 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">313-213-8543 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 313-213-8543 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting Joness63@msu.edu

Regan Kwong 540 Holden Hall East Lansing, MI 48825 <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434"><span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434"><span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">248-464-0629 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 248-464-0629 end_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">248-464-0629 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 248-464-0629 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting  <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434"><span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">248-464-0629 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 248-464-0629 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">248-464-0629 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 248-464-0629 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting kwongreg@msu.edu

Michael Perry 1218 E. Grand River East Lansing, MI 48823 <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434"><span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434"><span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">517-242-4966 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 517-242-4966 end_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">517-242-4966 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 517-242-4966 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting  <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434"><span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">517-242-4966 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 517-242-4966 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <span class="skype_pnh_print_container_1323198434">517-242-4966 <span class="skype_pnh_container"> begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 517-242-4966 end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highlighting mikeman09@gmail.com

This explains a little bit about the school and the TIES Program. It actually sounds kinda of cool and useful. I wish we had this when I was in school. -Katlynn [|Mason High School Profile] Mason High School Calendar

__**Important Dates for Spring 2012**__

1/25/12 Parent/Teacher Conferences 4:30 - 7pm 1/31/12 Professional Development 1:30 - 3:30pm 2/8/12 Faculty Meeting 2:45pm (In Library) 3/2/12 Field Trip to Holocaust Center in Farmington 8:15am 3/21/12 Faculty Meeting

__Field Placement Project #1__:
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Can we co-teach? Put pictures in a prezi in the background the whole time. With every important point we pull up a picture (timeline through pictures.)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Idea 1: Straight up lecture from the book from beginning to end.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Idea 2: Do a timeline on the board (15 min), then afterwards discuss other revolutions (

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Idea 3: Do a lecture basically about the rise and fall of Napoleon and him as a person and his personality (“he’s like an only child, he just takes takes takes, but Russia stuffed him when they burnt all their supplies.” Also, Russian winter destroyed him in the same way it always does.)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We have to incorporate an assessment of sorts. Make sure she knows. Worksheet, participation, ticket out the door (what have you learned to put this in your real life?), etc.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">__Lesson Plan topic:__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Action Research Question:__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How do we take this lesson that is frequently cut and make it worth teaching?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How do we make this often cut lesson memorable and relevant to students? Answer: Draw on parallels between American Revolution and French ( <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">__scaffolding__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Essential Questions:__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Was Napoleon doomed to fail from the start? Answer: Pro-tip: don’t invade Russia. What were the long-term effects of Napoleon's empire?

**Lesson Plan for Mentor Teacher:**
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Hook: (5 to 7min)__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Show powerpoint pics of Napoleon. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a. Start out with pop culture reference of Napoleon Dynamite and then show Napoleon Bonaparte to make sure class understands exactly who we are talking about. On picture of Napoleon before and after his rule ask the following question (refer them to pg. 611 in book): <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">b. Why do you guys think Napoleon looks so different in these pictures? What do they represent?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Napoleon and Napoleonic War Powerpoint:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Lesson: 25 min__

-What three things have you learned today that you didn't know before?
==

==

__**Reflections on Visits**__

 * For this just try to write down something from a couple of our visits. It will make filling out the actual log for the PPP that much easier. Also please use different colored ink for your post and write your name below (Shoty green).

//11/1/11 (2hrs) Tuesday// This was our first visit to Mrs. VanBeelen's classroom and I have to admit I was pretty bummed out by it. I came into this thinking I was going to be able to be so involved with the classroom right away and immediately I see thats not the way its going to be. Our mentor teacher seems very nice and doesn't seem to mind we are here at all. She is a veteran teacher of about 14 years I believe. Its sucks because today was a review day and so we didn't actually get a chance to see her teach a lesson. **- Michael Perry**

<span style="color: #564ee2; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">On our first visit to Mrs. VanBeelen's classroom at Mason High School was interesting, but also disappointing. It was disappointing because they were doing a review that day and we didn't get to observe too much in terms of teaching strategies. She lectured and reviewed over the material the students had learned about the whole time. However, it was interesting at the same time because we got to get a feel of our settings that we will be working with over the next few weeks. The classroom, I noticed, contained many different posters and maps. The walls were covered with posters over the different religions and maps of the world, including a map that showed where the major religions were most popular and where they originated in the world. There were also posters near the door about the school dress code. On the side board there is a schedule for the day, which was blank except for all the things that were due that day or through out the week. The room was very cluttered with posters that weren't hung up on the walls, textbooks, and papers were everywhere around and on the teacher's desk. The room seems to be equipped with an outdated computer, a projector, and a electronic document reader. The room seemed to have posters that was geared for a World History class, which is taught the second hour that we are there. -Regan Kwong

Today marked our first visit to the Mason, it also was my very first time stepping into a High School as a Student-Teacher. Mason High School is very different from the High School in which I attended. My high school was situated in downtown Detroit and was very fast paste and straight to the point. Mason H.S. greatly contrasted with this it was rural, slow and for me a bit bland. I'm not sure if the cause of this is from my own experiences or because it was first period. All in all I'm very excited to get to know the students and Miss.VanBeelen who seemed both intriguing and head strong.**~ Steffon Jones**

//11/3/11 (4hrs) Thursday//

<span style="color: #c11ac1; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">I just took some general notes about this day. The Holocaust and Genocide class was just reviewing a work sheet from their homework. Seemed lectured based. She didn't really move around, but just stood at the front of the room for the most part. She also seemed to just call on the same kids repeatedly. She got the kids a interested though when she started talking about the symbol that the Nazis used. <span style="color: #c11ac1; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">World History was an interesting experience because of it being tag-teamed. I feel like that is going to be a harder class to work with because there are already two teachers in there, plus now us. It seemed to be very lectured based with the PP and that there wasn't very much elaboration or interaction with the students.
 * Katlynn **

//11/8/11 (6hrs) Tuesday// <span style="color: #564ee2; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today was our second week at Mason High School in Mrs. VanBeelen's class. The first hour that we were there was for her 12th grade Holocaust and Genocide class. They were starting a research project on German World War II concentration camps. They formed groups and were given a list of concentration camps to choose from to do their research on. We went to the media center. The students just went on the computers and did research. She did instruct them to be wary of the websites they used for their research. She warned them that not all sources are good and that some sites provide false information or information that isn't useful, for example, she told them that some sites are made by holocaust deniers or those who skew concentration camps to make them sound like a good paradise for the Jews. She also warned them that certain sites provide images of different camps than the ones that are being discussed on the site. Through this warning I believe she is helping students learn that they must question sources and learn how to distinguish good sources from bad ones and to pick out the bias in the sources they use. As a group we sat and talked to Mrs. VanBeelen about her views on teaching, administration, and parents. She told us about how a parent once told her that she was a communist, since she graded a student's paper on different government structures poorly based on the fact that the student had written a paper that discussed how great democracy was and condemned communism is without many viable sources. The second hour we were there the students worked on a worksheet all hour.-Regan Kwong

//11/10/11 (8hrs) Thursday// Today was the first time I really noticed our teachers use of an informal bellringer. She somehow found a way to relate the Joe Paterno/Penn State situation to her Holocaust and Genocide class. She talked about the coach who walked in on Sandusky and the child and how the coach was similar to people who saw the Nazis kill Jews. They were both silent observers. They saw horrible inhumane things occurring and did nothing about it. I really enjoy how she connected these 2 things and I think the class enjoyed it too. After this bellringer the class watched a video called Swing Kids about teenagers involved in Swing dancing only to be drastically changed by the arrival of Nazis. I'm not exactly sure what the point of showing the movie was at least in terms of a specific point she was trying to put across. In the World History class the bellringer was about the Edmund Fitzgerald because it sank on this day in history. Although simple it provided students with a quick bit of local knowledge. Immediately following this the class took a pretest, were shown grades, and given a new seating arrangement. Its interesting to notice that she gave a seating chart to her completely sophomore World History class yet gives no seating chart to her Holocaust and Genocide class. This just goes to show that as a teacher you need to be aware of the maturity of your class. The lesson for the World History class was primarily based around introducing the vocabulary of a new chapter. For this the class was split up into pairs and afterwards the teacher said she specifically does it this way because group work gets a little too out of control. **- Michael Perry**

Today marked the second day of the Mason visits. It also was the first time that we really got to get a feel for Miss.VanBeelen as she shared her views on education and teaching styles. She also gave a great insight into the road in which led her to the teacher who she is today. The students also were more inviting engaged with us and even started up general small talk. The Holocaust and Genocide class received a group project assignment today which was interesting as I was able to see students search for credible resources and learn about the importance of primary resources.**~ Steffon Jones**

Today class started the way every class should start. She took the Penn State scandal and made it relevant in the classroom. Not only was this great because of the fact that the idea of moral vs. legal responsibility lends itself really well into discussing Germany during Nazi occupation, sexual assault is an extremely huge issue that is never discussed. She made an incredible case on why legal responsibility is pointless and moral responsibility is what the students should focus on. Given that 10% of college-aged men have been sexually assaulted, using the Penn State scenario was quite relevant. I am just thrilled because she balanced something that needed to be said with something that had to be covered according to the state and standards. **PC**

<span style="color: #c11ac1; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Katlynn** <span style="color: #c11ac1; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">I liked that she started off class talking about the Penn State scandal. It showed that she respected the students and their opinions. Although she said that they could offer their opinions, it seemed like she was on the offense whenever they voiced an opposing opinion. Although she did tie in Moral Responsibility vs. Legal Responsibility with the class. Later in the class when asking questions, she didn't give the students very long to answer before she did or before she changed the question. <span style="color: #c11ac1; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">The World History class was a little different. you can really see the different handling of the students in the two classes. This class always seems to be more structured. I'm not sure if its because they are younger or because its a tag team class with the Special Education teacher. It might be a combination of both. She kicked off class with a youtube clip, which was great for a minute or so but then it seemed like the kids kind of checked out. I'm pretty sure I did. Then the students took a pretest and talked a little about the Sophomore Forum they had the next day. (The class is primarily 10th graders)

//11/11/11 (10hrs) Friday// This was perhaps the most enlightening day thus far. We went in today to figure the details of our lesson so we didn't actually observe her teaching but rather spent the time picking her brain about ideas. The focus of our conversation was on our project but as is to be expected with Ms. VanBeelen many different tangents were explored. I found these tangential conversations to be the most enlightening of the experience thus far. Ms. VanBeelen shed light on a lot of the realities teaching and that young teachers don't really get taught what they need to know. She is a very outspoken teacher and makes her voice heard when it comes to decisions regarding education in the district however she expressed to us that for us young teachers you need to keep your mouth shut until you become more respected in the area. **- Michael Perry**

While we didn't actually spend any time with students today, the experience was still very beneficial. Ms. VanBeelen opened up a lot about the politricks and not so fun sides of being a teacher, which I found was really helpful. While I did not take everything she said as 100% truth, it definitely was good to hear. Aside from that, she helped us get our lesson plan going in the right direction. **PC**

<span style="color: #c11ac1; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Katlynn** Just went in on Friday to discuss how we were going to set up our lesson plan for the World History class. Because Ms. VanBeelen teachers mostly 10th graders, she had free hours almost the whole day leaving us time to chat during the school day. We were able to has out a general outline of what she was looking for and what had been done in the past. We were also able to get to know her and her teaching experiences that she as had. She talked to us about problems that she has encountered over the course of her teaching whether it was administrators, parents, or students.

//11/15/11 (12hrs) Tuesday// In the holocaust and genocide class we looked through a primary document called the Wansee Protocol. VanBeelen used this to show how the Nazis masked their cruel intentions of genocide. After going through this Mrs. VanBeelen went over some answers to the questions students had about "Hitler Youth" a book they are reading. In going over the questions I noticed she was calling on a lot of the same people to answer questions. Ms. VanBeelen has very often mentioned the literacy she tries to bring into her classroom. Often times she will assign reading but the kids never do it and so I think going through some of the questions has been developed to try to account for this. She also has mentioned some papers the students had to turn in and how bad they were and how it goes back to literacy and actually the impact technology has on it. In the other class Ms. VanBeelen pulled a fast one on us and Regan got to go through a study guide with the students. I think it was a good experience for Regan and us because it gave us a chance to see how our best impression of looking like a teacher comes across.**- Michael Perry**

The primary source analysis of the Wansee Protocol proved to be an extremely beneficial endeavor. Students looked at it to see that the Nazis did not fully open up about the fact that they were interested in genocide. The way the Nazis worded the protocol covered their butts quite well. Because this is such a controversial document, it helped students really challenge the document. I can only hope they take the skills they learned in this class and use it for other analyses. **PC**

<span style="color: #c11ac1; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Katlynn** <span style="color: #c11ac1; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">In the Holocaust and Genocide class she started off again talking about the Penn State scandal, relating things back to current events. She then dived right into a discussion about primary sources and used the Wannsee Protocol as one. She was asking questions aging, but not always gibing students enough time to answer before rewording the question or answering it herself. Also while she was talking, she was multi-tasking looking for something in the front of the room. Not sure if thats a good thing or bad thing. It is true that teachers need to be able to multi-task but then you have to wonder if that takes away from the actual teaching of the lesson. She always busted out a map to show where things were. The students were attentive to what was going on and were being forced to think from an opposing point of view. They also seemed to get really excited when she started busting myths about Hitler and who he was. I think because it went against what they thought was the norm is what made that part of the class so interesting. She did say something about Hitler: "who cares about they 'why' of what he did, but that he did do it". I thought this was a bit of an odd statement and might send the wrong message to students. <span style="color: #c11ac1; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">In World History I was blinded sided for second because I didn't realize that Ms.VanBeelen and Ms. Malone (SE teacher) were stepping out of class for little bit to go over IEPs. We had two subs in the class plus the five of us. The students just had to work on a quiz over a map of Europe until Ms. VanBeelen got back about 15 minutes later. She had Regan do the notes for the class that were on the Powerpoint which was pretty cool. I think that she is getting more use to us hanging around and having us do things, (papers, computer stuff, etc.)

//11/17/11 (14hrs)// Today in H&G Ms. VanBeelen started off class with a discussion on the difference between active and passive resistance i WWII. I thought this was a very difficult and thought provoking question. The students really struggled with defining passive resistance and so we went around and helped the students figure out the difference. I enjoyed this because it was one of the few times we got to really interact with the students. After Ms. VanBeelen went over what active and passive resistance looked like in WWII. However I still think it was unclear what passive resistance was. I think the major limitation to this discussion was that passive resistance can be defined in different ways. Following this discussion Ms. VanBeelen showed a powerpoint which I though was a bad idea considering it is the first hour of the day. The class ended with the teacher going over the discussion questions for the next chapter in "Hitler Youth". The world history class was much more basic. They had a test and then afterwords did a guided note taking of a video. Ms. VanBeelen guided the note taking vocally by interjecting everyone now and then to expand upon important parts of the video. **- Michael Perry**

<span style="color: #c11ac1; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Katlynn** In the H&G class today I wasn't the biggest fan of the set up of the lesson. She started off by having them get in pairs and discuss what active and passive resistance was which I thought was an interesting and challeneging thing to do. After that she took examples and discussed how different things were active and others passive. This took about 15 minutes to do. She then launched into a powerpoint about different events and characters in the Holocaust and how their actions were passive or active resisitance. I thought it was an interesting topic, but she did this for almost 40 minutes which I thought was a bit excessive. As much as I found the topic interesting I felt like there should have been another activity in there to break it up. The students seemed somewhat interested, but some had that glaze eye thing going. In WH they just had a test.

<span style="color: #564ee2; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">In the first class, the lesson was somewhat slow. She had them start off in pairs to come up with definitions and examples of active and passive resistance. It seemed that students found it challenging. Many students could not come up or didn't know what passive resistance was. We walked around and chimed in our thoughts with a few of the groups. She used questioning and lecturing during the lesson. After about 15 minutes of brainstorming she had all the groups rejoin as a class. Then she asked the class what they had come up with. She chose only the groups that volunteered with a hand raise. Many groups stumbled on their answer for passive resistance and soon it felt like pulling teeth as students couldn't come up with an example that she was looking for. She then lectured and gave examples of passive resistance to the class. Then she launched a power point about different people during the Holocaust who protested through passive or active means. The students who had participated greatly in the previous activity seemed interested or seemed like they were paying attention. The students who weren't very engaged in the beginning of class seemed uninterested and bored during the ppt presentation. In World History they took a test and we stood in each corner of the classroom trying to look intimidating.-Regan Kwong

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This class was interesting because I wasn't entirely knowledgable on the subject matter that was happening in class. Once learning what the definition of passive versus active resistance was, I was able to guide students to think about the question that Ms. VanBeelen presented. I liked that she used the board and really encouraged the students to come up with answers on their own instead of her just telling them what it was. ** PC **

//11/22/11 (16hrs)// H&G started off the class with group presentations on the different concentration camps they were assigned. There were only two groups left to present but out of the two presentation I was not impressed. I really wish Ms. VanBeelen would have put more stress on the quality of the presentation. In general from the two groups I saw the presentations themselves were poor. While the students may have voiced all the information they needed to, the way in which they did so was not good. These presentations took up maybe 5 to 10 minutes. The rest of the class time was devoted to Ms. VanBeelen teaching the lesson we designed. Please see Lesson Plan Reflection for the reflection on our designed lesson plan. **- Michael Perry**

As Mr. Perry said, today the H&G class presented their projects. The presentation quality was pretty bad, and I wish there was more encouragement to speak louder and with more conviction. Also, some of the stuff was obviously plagiarized. I'm interested to see how this plays out in grading. **PC**

11/29/11 (18hrs) Today was a very boring day. Mason High School is on trimesters and this week is their finals week. That said all they did today was study and take a test. The hours were different today so only the H&G class met. **- Michael Perry**

Learning how Mason does their trimesters was interesting. They go about it a lot differently than my high school. They had time to study before the exam, so I helped some students. A lot were just sitting around talking so I attempted to encourage them to focus and study. When I asked if any of the students had looked over their notes before that day, pretty much everyone said no. **PC**

12/1/11 (20hrs)

The last day was bittersweet. The students had finals so there wasn't much closure between us leaving. I have built some really good relationships with the majority of the students so I can only hope I do the same with this next trimester. **PC**

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In general I felt the execution of our lesson on Napoleon and his Wars went well. I thought Ms. VanBeelen did a very good job of expanding upon the outline we provided of the lesson. We gave Ms. VanBeelen about 5 days to look over and prepare for the lesson we designed and I have to say that it didn't really show in the execution of the lesson. I thought she gave a very good introduction to the lesson but got caught up a little bit on our powerpoint slides. She normally doesn't incorporate powerpoints into her lesson but she seemed to work okay with the powerpoint we provided. Our powerpoint was designed to show pictures of Napoleon and his wars to allow for students to learn the analysis of pictures and also to learn who Napoleon was and how he was perceived by the people. Ms. VanBeelen did a good job of asking students to analyze the pictures themselves and also realizing when she needed to jump in to provide her input. In reference to the pictures I thought the students were engaged in the topic and did a great job of interpreting the pictures and vocalizing it in responses. The pictures were the first part of the lesson and the next part was the Congress of Vienna which resulted from Napoleon and his Wars. I will say that the one part of our lesson that was extremely lacking was transition. Regardless I thought Ms. VanBeelen did a great job of transitioning the lesson from Napoleon and his wars to the Congress of Vienna. Our plan didn't do a great job of explaining how to connect these two and so the fact that Ms. VanBeelen was able to effectively transition was a great experience for us to see the how important improvisation is in the classroom. In general it seems that Ms. VanBeelen is very aware of what works well with her students and what doesn't. Prior to the presentation of this lesson Ms. VanBeelen stress the importance of design 3 separate activities for her 60 minute class. She told us that her students and high school students in general could not focus on one activity for more than 20 or 25 minutes. In consideration of this we designed a lesson with multiple parts. In the second part Ms. VanBeelen previewed and gave background to the Congress of Vienna. Following her explanation of the Congress of Vienna our plan called for the class to color territories corresponding to the new territories established by the Congress of Vienna. This activity took far longer than we had additionally expected but I was rather happy with this. I was happy because it seemed early on in microteaching that a lot of us had problems making lessons long enough and so seeing that we had made a lesson that had too much going on was good. The class just barely made it through the map activity as it essentially served as their ticket out the door rather than what we had initially planned. In the end I thought the lesson went very well and has otherwise brought some importance to a topic that has been skipped over in the past. **- Michael Perry** =====

The Mason High School redux Field Placement Project went better than expected, which is particularly exciting given that my expectations were relatively high to begin with. Our primary goal was comprehension and understanding through a more lighthearted style of teaching. We also wanted to make our lesson interdisciplinary.

The above goals were met without a doubt. While my field placement group had to leave the class in which we were presenting early to get to their classes back on campus, I was fortunate enough to be able to stick around the whole time. For the students who finished before the bell rang (this was a small number, and they were done 5 minutes or less before), I asked them what they thought of the lesson. They were pleased with the variety of things we incorporated. They also thought the amount of content we covered was reasonable.

The two teachers in our class also loved it. They said we managed to get certain students to engage who have never raised their hand all trimester. The amount of participation in general was pretty surprising in general. I was also excited with how the “tangent conversations” went. One in particular may have seemed off topic, but once we made it relevant to Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars, I could figuratively see light bulbs going off in students’ heads.

Going into our topic, I was not very thrilled. I do not find the Napoleonic Wars and Napoleon to be particularly interesting, less relevant, so drafting a lesson plan from scratch was daunting to say the least. But through my group and outside learning of the subject matter, I came to the realization that we could teach this “boring” lesson and make it relevant and even fun. I am upset that we were not able to get to the part I came up with on modern revolutions. My group in general did not seem interested with the idea of drawing parallels from the French Revolution to modern revolutions such as the Arab Spring. I wanted to ask students also if they thought Occupy Wall Street was a revolution or just a movement. This sort of wondering was not achieved unfortunately, and I truly think it is because the four other people in my group were not on board with my vision.

This is not to say that my group did not do a good job. They filled me in on the specifics of the French Revolution, Napoleon, and the Napoleonic Wars. Also, aside from Steffon getting called into work on our final planning night, they showed up and got work done. Steffon made up for it by coming up with the outline after we sent him all of our plans however. But like I said above, I wish we could have promoted more wondering and modern-day questioning because knowing what wars happened when is trivia. Knowing what is going on around you today and how it effects you is much more important.

The experience of being given a lesson topic and being told to come up with a lesson plan from scratch with a group of five people with intensely different visions was invaluable. After the initial head butting and understanding of each of our personalities, we were able to get a diverse yet cohesive project done. And above all, the students were receptive and learned differently than if it was presented by our mentor. ** PC **

Going into the Lesson Plan assignment I was bombarded by an array of my own personal thoughts and emotions. However in the end I truly believe that the lesson was carried out successfully. With that said there were many mild road blocks and dead ends. The first one being that out of the five of us not many of us knew a lot about the Napoleonic Wars or Napoleon himself. From there I quickly realized that there will be many times in which I might not fully know or understand the subject matter. But there is always an abundant of resources found in my peers, books and other sources that can help bridge any concern that I might have. Moreover, because I didn't fully know much about Napoleon I think it made this experience a great one. It gave me the opportunity to work outside of my general comfort zone.

The planning process and constructing of the lesson itself was interesting because it gave great insight on what it means to work with other teachers. And their array of personalities, teaching styles, ideas and viewpoints. One of the these that I wish would’ve of been avoided is my absence during our groups second meeting. In a way I felt I missed an opportunity to voice my ideas and share my knowledge and teaching insights. What my absence did allow me to do was to feel the anxieties of entrusting your colleagues in constructing a lesson that I myself have to teach or use. It also allowed me to solely prepare the general outline and main ideas narration that Miss. VanBeelen used for the lesson. I was able to take what my peers deemed important and summarize from there what I felt were the main ideas. And overall goals of our lesson. This was a fun task to do because I found myself familiarizing myself with Napoleon his doctrine and the impact that his legacy leaves on history. My biggest concern was to construct an outline without offending Miss. VanBeelen. I constantly wondered when is where do I add a general background or summary of each event or historical prevalence. Without being redundant or losing my peers and my own voice as the creators of the lesson.

At the end of the day I truly believe our lesson was successful, like anything there's always room for improvement. There were many great ideas arose by my peers as far as comparing and contrasting modern day themes, incorporating hands on activities and forcing the students to become engaged in a subject which normally would be shelved. For me my major concern was the fact that our audience was a mixed of students. We have students who had IEP's and needed accommodations, students who generally didn't find and interest or challenge in the subject and everybody else. I felt that the biggest concern and challenge for me was to ensure that created a lesson which seamlessly addressed the needs and interest of the entire class.

~Steffon

I felt that the lesson we planned on Napoleon Bonaparte and the Napoleonic Wars went well. Mrs. VanBeelen expressed her concern for the lack of detailed script for the lecture portion with the power point at first, but understood the general direction we wanted with the outline that Steffon provided. I believe that after the outline and with the combination of her experience as a teacher and with the material she gave a lecture that went well with the power point and kept students engaged. I feel the power point helped students visualize the Napoleonic Wars and Napoleon himself, which helped them stay engaged and made the dry history a bit more interesting. They analyzed the paintings of Napoleon enthusiastically and were engaged in the opening activity planned. I feel that the visuals, teacher lecture and interjections, and questioning helped the students stay engaged and interested on a topic that is usually cut from the curriculum. I feel that focusing on Napoleon at the beginning helped hook students in since parallels were made between Napoleon and celebrities, especially with the picture analysis. Students began picturing how they would feel if they were Napoleon when analyzing the paintings of him. I feel that analysis of the pictures of Napoleon helped students them connect to Napoleon and place themselves in the shoes of Napoleon. Many students made comments along the lines of, "If I was Napoleon I wouldn't want to be pictured in that way (referring to the portrait of Napoleon looking fat and tired)" or "I would want to look majestic like the other painting (referring to Napoleon riding a stallion). It was exciting to watch so many students participate since in many of the class periods that we observed the students weren't very active usually. I could not stay for the entire period, and missed out on the Congress of Vienna map activity, but from Peter I heard that it went longer than planned. I find this to be a slightly positive thing because in our Microteachings we usually do not plan enough to fill up the allotted time. This shows that we are improving on planning multiple activities for a class period.

It was interesting planning this lesson because I felt that we had a daunting task to fill since we had to make this lesson that is usually left out of the curriculum worth while. It was also difficult to plan because it was a topic that my colleagues and I did not have much background knowledge about. All I could remember from my class was a few facts about Napoleon, but did not know much about the Napoleonic Wars or Congress of Vienna. At first we thought about incorporating the French Revolution as a tie in to the lesson, but we dropped this idea because Mrs. VanBeelen stated that she had already gone over the French Revolution with her class. After doing research we concluded that the Napoleonic Wars wasn't the important focus of the lesson since the series of wars wasn't too important since they were all similar to each other and that the Congress of Vienna was much more important since it was the result of the wars. The wars weren't important other than the fact that Napoleon won many of the wars until he reached Russia near the end of his campaign. We felt it was more important to focus on the Congress of Vienna since it was the result of the war and it was a congress held to reverse everything that Napoleon had done. The Congress of Vienna would also have lasting effects on Europe for many more years to come with the drawing of new borders, boundaries, and territories. We also felt that focusing on Napoleon for the hook of the lesson would be a good strategy since students may be familiar with Napoleon. We wanted to debunk any myths that they had of Napoleon and to hook them with a famous figure in history. We also felt that focusing on Napoleon might help students relate to the lesson better not only because they may already have background knowledge, but because we could analyze him in a similar way that we analyze our celebrities. We also focused on the portraits of Napoleon and Napoleon, so students can develop the skills to analyze visual information, like pictures and paintings. I also felt that using visuals and portraits of Napoleon would help make the lesson more interesting to students since we are a very visual society, especially with our social networking sites that have a large focus on things like "profile pictures". I was also nervous about planning this lesson because we gave Mrs. VanBeelen an outline rather than a detailed script. I wasn't sure if the outline would be enough for her. I felt that having a detailed script would help her know exactly what we wanted her to present, but felt would be too limiting in that she might provide information that she knew or deeper understandings that she had of the topic. We are novices to the topic compared to her and felt it might be better if we didn't limit her to a script since she would be able to use her vast knowledge to make the lesson better and she would have more freedom in our lesson. This turned out to work quite well. The outline gave her a general understanding of what direction we wanted her to present and which information we wanted conveyed and it allowed her to use her knowledge to improve on the lesson. It also worked well because we got to observe how a teacher thinks on their feet and improvises, especially sine we had weak to no transitions planned in our lesson plan, she was able to connect all the activities together as an experienced teacher. It was exciting to watch her teach our lesson and we were able to pick out the issues we could improve upon in our lesson, like working on transitions and connecting different activities together and bringing the activities back together under a common theme. She was able to emphasize the cause and effect of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, which in our planning did not have enough connections to each other. We now know to investigate how to connect different activities together and to make better connections and transitions between our activities and topics when planning. --Regan Kwong

Katlynn Craig It seemed to me that the lesson we planned on the Napolonanic Wars went really well. We decided to get started early on this task so that we could do feedback back and forth with Ms. VanBeelen and have mulitple opportunites to change and fix portions of our lesson. We decided to go with a background powerpoint for it and a general outline for the lecture portion. One thing about the lecture was that we weren't sure how detailed to make it. We didn't want to treat Ms. VanBeelen as if she didn't know anything about it, but we also did not want it to be too vague for her to make a lecture out of. She e-mailed us back after we sent her the original plan and said she would like something more specific so Steffon made a detailed outline. When she presented to the class the lesson it seemd like she hadn't gone comptletely over the powerpoint and seemed surprised by what was on it.

We had her start class with a compare and contrast picture of Napoloen from two different painters and time periods. It made the students think about who they thought Napoloen was and what kind of person he was percieved to be. We also used an image of Napoloen Dynamite to get this point across. After that the powerpoint consisted mostly of pictures from the Napoloenic Wars to illustrate how much fighing there had been. The kids seemed to actually be engaged and were asking questions about what was happening.

I wasn't able to observe the map activity that we had, but Peter said that it went really well. We had them get into pairs and fill out a map of Europe according to what it would look like after the Congress of Vienna. We assigned certain colors for different countries so that as we walked around the room you could tell if they had the right idea or not. Ms. VanBeelen suggsted doing something like that to make it easier to check for comprehension. We were suppose to have a ticket out the door of what three things did you learn that you didn't know before you came in, but apparently the map activity ran over which is fine.

When watching her do this lesson and just putting it together, it was very interesting. I learned about what what works well and what doesn't in a classroom and what sort of things need to be planned more accordingly. I definitely understand the frustration that Ms. VanBeelen has with her computer sometimes because we had the same issue. It wouldn't read Reagan's flashdrive so we had to download the powerpoint offline. We were all paranoid to begin with that it wouldn't work so there was also a copy saved in my inbox. Ms. VanBeelen also filled in the gaps in things that we didn't put in the lesson to make the lecture more full with information.

Peter and Steffon's Project