Introduction
My name
is Sarah Zietlow and I currently live in Pierre, South Dakota but in 2 weeks I
will be relocating to Wausau, Wisconsin with my husband for his job and so will
our small dog, Lucy. I went to MSU for
my Bachelor’s and completed my student teaching internship through MSU in the
Holt Schools. After the internship year
I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and taught 6th grade for just over 2
years. Sixth grade is considered elementary in Utah so I taught all the core
subjects and all the electives to my class.
We were on a year-round schedule which means that I taught for 9 weeks
and then I had 3 weeks off in an alternating fashion rather than having one
long summer. I strongly recommended
year-round schedules because it is great for planning units and it is great for
behavior; everyone knows they need to work for nine weeks and then we get a
vacation so students work a lot harder.
I moved from Salt Lake to Pierre for my husband’s job (note the theme)
and since I had already started the school year in Utah I was not able to find
a position in South Dakota since I moved at the end of September. Luckily I had already decided to go back to
school and get my Masters so I took this whole year to focus on finishing my
program, full-time. A month ago I
accepted a job at the South Dakota Department of Education to be the Educator
Effectiveness Specialist. Basically I
help district design evaluation systems that will improve teaching and
achievement school wide, for both teachers and principals.
On a
less professional note, I love sports. I
play Ultimate Frisbee, soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball and just about
anything else that requires hand-eye coordination. I started playing Ultimate Frisbee in college
at Michigan State for the club team and quickly fell in love with it and have
not stopped playing since. I recently
just had my 1st wedding anniversary on June 1st. And I just bought my first new car which was
simultaneously exciting and terrifying.
I look forward to working with all of you with my last official class of
my Masters; I’m completely done August 1st!
Reaction to The Wire Clips
One thing that I realized as I was
watching The Wire clips in the order that they were listed, once I got to the
last clip, was that I could not relate to the scenarios with the teachers or
with the students. I can relate to
entering a school that had a different culture than my own when I taught in
Salt Lake City where most of my students were Mormon and had not left Utah but
I could still manage my class. The
magnitude to which the students’ social lives inside of school and outside of
school shift was enormous and frankly scary in The Wire. One of my biggest fears as a teacher is not
being able to help a student outside of school.
There are a lot of moral, lawful and emotional barriers to helping
students at home but I often wonder how far I can go to help my students. We, I’m sure as a group of teachers, have all
had at one point or another a student in our class that made us worry, feel
anxious or very concerned for their well-being once they go home and this last
clip, “The Fate of the Four Children,” brought about this worry for me
tenfold.
As a
teacher, I want to bring all my experiences into my teaching to help students
see different things that maybe they will not get to experience and have them
share with me and the class what they have experienced. What I have not considered is the complete
lack of willingness to even listen or show the slightest respect for a teacher. In “First Day of School” I could feel my own
stress, anxiety and frustration bubbling as the students totally disregarded
the teacher and gave a lot of their responses with an attitude. As a teacher entering a room of student who
are unwilling to listen or follow directions, like simply reading a seating
chart, I see myself responding a different way than Mr. P did in the show. The whole scene was overwhelming and the last
line of the clip, “you’ll get the hang of it” by the other teacher coming into
the room to help was just the nail in the coffin for me. The overwhelming classroom combined with
another teacher having to take over to get control would frustrate me. I just felt like the last line was meant for
encouragement but said in front of the students would be a further loss of respect
and authority.
“Sharing
a Happy Moment,” was a redeeming clip for me.
The Wire has never been a show I have watched or heard of the plot
before these clips so it was a bit intense at first but I’m glad this fourth
clip was shown. “Trick them into thinking
they aren't learning and they do,” is true for every classroom and I am so
relieved that Mr. P was able to find a connection with the students and able to
find the resources to teach them.
Meeting the students at their interest levels and at their academic
levels is good practice but it is not always the easiest exercise. Mr. P showed a lot of initiative to find the
dice, but also to take action and get the new 5th edition books out
of the basement and into the classroom, same with the computer. This clip made it seem like Mr. P and the class
were finally finding a stride and running together and that is such an
accomplished and successful feeling, even if only for that lesson.
