Week 10 Old Quarry Middle School

Week 10 

Old Quarry middle school

The start of week ten I was at my new placement, Old Quarry middle school in Lemont, IL. I have some prior knowledge to the school since my cousins went to the school and I competed against Old Quarry when I was in middle school. This week was mostly filled with observations of my cooperating teacher ad the other pe staff. I was informed that 5 of the 6 classes are cotaught classes and my third hour is an adaptive pe class that a outside teacher come in two times a week and introduces new skills to the students. (1A) I know in the adaptive class we will be doing golf on Monday. The skills that the students learn are essential for basic movement. (1J)There are a wide range of special need students in the adaptive pe class from high functioning autistic to 3 students in wheal chairs that have no use or very limited use of their legs. Two of those three students have cognitive delays and stand up wheel chairs to assist with simple walking. I followed the lead of my cooperating teacher and assisted with getting materials ready for the day and clean up at the end of the day. (2J) I did interact with the students, which they have a lot of questions. I even played some games of pickle ball with the students that did have partners. This week I was taking in the surroundings and getting my bearings on the middle school atmosphere since I was coming from a high school setting. I am happy I was put in a great school with a great staff. During the week there are days that we have meetings with counselors and other staff that are in the arts. This is to go over expectations, upcoming events, important information regarding students that we well need to be aware of, and questions about special days. We did discuss what the day will look like for the 8th grade students that are going on a field trip to see the new Captain Marvel movie. (3B) They came to a decision of going 2/x30 min classes instead of a full period for first hour and 15 min for 2nd hour. For Pe purposes this would be a night mare but we may let the students hang out in the gym and have a little free day. (8F)

The things I have learned this week are the procedures for sustain students that need to change in the main office and then get escorted down due to bad behavior in the locker room. Yon need to allow the class to change and enter the gym, then walkie talkie the front office to send the student down. During class you have to keep a close eye on the student for physical altercations. (4F) Once the class is over you walkie talkie the office again to let them know that the student is on their way back. This is for all students safety and had been working for weeks. I learned that my patience had built up since if came from high school and i am able to wait a little longer for the 8th graders to settle down in the morning. I do enjoy how my day is later out with 8th great the first two periods then 2 seventh and finally 2 sixth grade to end my day. I have learned that there is a big maturity difference between 6th and 8th grade. It can be difficult how you instruct form each age group but all the same skills can be applied. 

I hope to learn a little more about the grading system that Old Quarry has, it seems to be very similar to the grading and attendance system that Reavis has. (3E) I have been peaking at the attendance sheet and grade book to see how my cooperating teacher takes attendance and it seems like a system that could be difficult for me to learn but I am willing to give it a try to see if I want to implement that style into my own teachings. I am looking forward to an all staff meeting on Wednesday to meet all the teachers and get familiar with the school. Also I have reached out to the swim coach and asked if I could help assist the team for the end of the year meet. I haven’t heard anything back but I will reach out again next week.