# data[].attributes.body
Overall, I have enjoyed my experience. There were a few bumps in the road with having two teachers, but it showed me how every classroom is different. One class it was easier to bond and to lead instruction, the other class the teacher was hesitant to let us teach and that led to students being hesitant to open up to us. This experience has also taught me teaching is definitely not easy, not that I ever thought it was. However, our mentor teachers seemed to be overwhelmed with all of the new changes to grading, such as giving athletes and now all students a 50% no matter if they do work or not; which I still feel contradicted on! Additionally, there was an exodus of teachers so they were taking over other classes so students weren't in the auditorium. I realized how much showing up matters to students this experience as well. I was invited to choir and band rehearsal and the looks on their faces when they noticed we were there was almost emotional! It reminded me of my why I teach and how important it really is to take in student interest. For example, band and choir, and music overall is extremely important to my group of kids and so for my UDL I wanted to make sure I took that into account; so we chose a lyrical analysis of a song they actually picked the week before ("This is America" by Childish Gambino). I was reminded of the Ladson-Billings reading that I rely quite a bit on this experience, but Ladson- Billings says, “More recently, Bartolome (1994) has decried the search for the “right” teaching strategies and argued for a “humanizing pedagogy that respects and uses the reality, history and perspectives of students as an integral part of educational practice” (Ladson-Billings, 1995). The argument being that it is important to take into account the differences our students bring to the table and how we incorporate that into their learning. I had never seen so much engagement in a lesson when I used their interest in music. They felt as if there was even more of a reason to find meaning and that there is more to their music than they thought.
Overall, this experience was tough but it reminded me of my why I choose to teach.

# data[].attributes.body
This week I chose to go and watch a different classroom for one of the Blocks. My students spoke quite frequently about this social studies teacher and one of the other IUPUI interns is in their room so I asked if I could come observe for the block. I had a few positive outcomes from this experience. I was able to connect and be reminded of a class experience, become enthusiastic about teacher collaboration, and do a follow up on the athlete grading from last reflection. I overheard that their PLC had a similar discussion about letting athletes pass so I asked what. they had talked about. They brought up that they are also passing athletes with a fifty percent, regardless of work that isn't turned in. I was curious if they agreed with this decision and they explained they have to do what the majority and the school asks them to do. They agree that athletes have a lot of pressure on them and a lot going on outside of school, but also what student doesn't? They said at their next meeting they hope to address this issue for all students and not just athletes. I hope to ask for an update on Thursday!
Additionally, students were learning about economics and their teacher drew a graph on the board that looked very similar to an Exposition chart in English. He asked students to label the graph and a student and myself started mentioning the parts of Exposition. The teacher responded with that the student was on the right track, but think of the economic terms rather than the language arts terms. I was reminded of the activity we did in class where we shared our revisions to a not so great lesson we watched. I remember this conversation sparking the excitement of planning lessons or units with other disciplines. I notice English and Social Studies tend to work very well together.
I was also reminded of Newman's thoughts on Authentic Intellectual Work, "Authentic  adult intellectual accomplishments require that construction of knowledge be guided by disciplined inquiry. By this we mean that learners
( 1)  use a prior knowledge base,

(2) strive for in-depth understanding rather than superficial awareness

(3) develop and express their ideas and findings through elaborated communication" (Newman, et al., 2009). Watching the student and myself make these connections reminded me of using our prior knowledge base in order to strive for a deeper understanding of these economic terms. I keep forgetting about how interesting it is to see things cross over, and it reminds me of my "why". We always hear people say this lightbulb moment and I never really knew what that meant to me, but this is it. Watching and realizing the transfer of knowledge and information is a big "why" for my teaching students and even making sure I continue to educate myself.

# data[].attributes.body
During our PLC meeting before break we talked about grading. Each group had to explain what they do for grading; how they enter it (is it 40 points or 20), are they counting this quiz, are they counting the final as participation? They even asked us as college students about our grading. I brought up a lot of professors actually use a grading covenant and we all receive a certain letter grade, usually a B and there are guidelines for receiving a higher grade, but they are very specific. Talking about grading brought up late work policies where we took to JamBoard to post our late work policy. We posted our most common late work policy in our college classes; we get one extra week to submit assignments. Many teachers do not have a late work policy and accept work at anytime. I think as a teacher I would also accept late work because at the secondary age level, many students have jobs or stressors outside of school that they cannot always complete work outside of school. This discussion also brought up something that raised my eyebrow. What about our athletes? The "rule" is that athletes receive a 50% regardless if they turn in assignments or not. I felt very stuck in the middle with this because we don't want to be teaching students it's just about getting a letter grade, but do we want to let everyone pass even if they don't do work? They aren't even letting everyone, just athletes. I was reminded of Newmann's thoughts on authentic intellectual work:
"Schoolwork is regarded largely as a series of contrived exercises necessary to earn credentials (grades, promotions, and diplomas) required for future success; but for many, especially poor students of color, this work leads to disengagement and dropping out" (Newmann, 2009). We don't want students to see grades as the requirement for their success, or just learning and memorizing to score on the test. However, why make the choice to allow just athletes to receive a 50% regardless so they can pass. I understand athletics takes up time, but we aren't allowing everyone access to this. Additionally, is just letting everyone receive a 50% to pass by the most appropriate thing to do?

# data[].attributes.body
After my first two weeks at Lawrence North, I am definitely feeling a little nervous. I have this feeling at the beginning of every Block: "I'm not going to pass this Block" and "I'm just going to suck, how am I supposed to teach?" I just get in my own head very easily. I will say that the student behavior management was different from a middle school setting, which reminded me of our class discussion on the topic. I hate to use the words "laid back" when describing the behavior management, but they definitely don't hold their hands. I found myself questioning should they address that situation with more than a look? Maybe a look is all a high schooler needs. They also use different language, there seems to be a lot of cursing and explicit language that when I was at the middle school, was not allowed to be used; even the teachers use this language. This had me questioning would I use that type of language towards a student or colleague? However, there were things I enjoyed. My mentor teacher on Green Days takes the last 10-15 minutes to talk about subjects students want to know more about! I was reminded of the Milner text, Chapter 3. It reads, "....strong pedagogical content knowledge on the part of the teacher leads to student learning experiences that should match student needs" (Milner, 2019). This teacher asked their twelfth graders what they needed as they are talking about college and is now providing them with information about such topics. I really really enjoyed closing class out this way! I felt like as interns in college, we could also add to the discussion. Overall, it was a good first two weeks and I'm anxious, but excited to see where the semester goes!
*I chose the following picture to show my feelings about the first two weeks!*