The Life of a Student Teacher

Hi! My name is Katie and I am a Senior in the Lynch School of Education. This semester I am completing my full-time student teaching. Education students complete 3 pre-practicums where we work in three different classrooms over three semesters during our Sophomore and Junior year. I was able to get a feel for which grade I want to work with and what kind of teaching environment is a good fit for me.

Currently, I am working in a first grade classroom in a suburb of Boston. I teach 5 full days a week and take one class for this whole semester. My classroom and students are great! There are only 16 students so I have been able to get to know them well and it differentiate my lessons. So far this semester I have been able to teach all of the science (we are learning about solids, liquids, and gases now), two reading groups, and half of the math and social studies lessons. It has truly been a great learning experience for me.

Last week I was able to accompany my class on their field trip to the New England Aquarium. I was considered one of the chaperones and had a small group of children to take around. It was a great opportunity to connect with children on a more individual level and provide deep learning instruction. We nick-named our group the Electric Eels and got to see sharks, octopus, and penguins. We had a great time on the trip!

Yesterday, I was the substitute teacher in a third grade classroom. It was amazing to see the difference in the children's ability to do independent work and listen to instruction. While my 3rd grade class was out for recess I went back to my 1st grade classroom. The kids were excited to see me and I realized how much I had missed being with them during the day. I was glad to be back in my classroom today but subbing yesterday made me think about whether I want to teach in the primary grades or not.

Stay tuned for a blog about my take-over weeks!

Summer Greetings!

Hi everyone! My name is Lisa and I'm a rising senior in the Lynch School. It's been a fantastic summer here at Boston College working for the Student Admissions Program! I feel so lucky to have hosted so many eager high school students and their parents and I hope that I've truly helped families in their college search.

I'm having so much fun living off-campus with my friends! Since I have four years of on-campus housing, I chose to do something a little different this summer and sublet in one of my friend's houses off campus (that means that I am taking the place of another student who lived in that house for only part of the year). ResLife at BC not only facilitates on-campus placements for students, but assists students with finding off-campus housing as well.

Last week I went to dinner at Papa Razzi and I had a delicious dinner of chicken with garlic and broccoli, finished off with an amazing piece of tiramisu! Boston boasts amazing restaurants, from family-owned Italian eateries in the North End (like La Famiglia Giorgio and the famous Mike's Pastry), to delicious restaurants on Newbury Street (think Sonsie), and excellent options across the river in Harvard Square (my favorite is the Bombay Club).

I also had the opportunity to visit a friend in Concord and had the chance to walk across the Old North Bridge, the site of the first battle in the Revolutionary War and the "shot heard 'round the world". Many know about the Freedom Trail, a deeply historic walking trail of Boston indicated by a red brick path throughout the city. However, there is also so much history in the greater Boston area. For example, many students visit Salem (site of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials) each year for Halloween. Often, Resident Assistants will plan trips for their residents during which they visit historical sites, shopping malls and outlets, and other destinations such as Six Flags New England. Although many fun things to do are located within the reach of the MBTA (Boston's public transportation system), these programs offer transportation (and often less expensive group rates too!) to places that are not necessarily accessible by public transportation.

Thanks for reading my blog, and I'm looking forward to writing again! Hope you're all having a great summer! =)

The Semester of Lasts

As Spring Break approaches, I'm just 5 days away from laying on a beach in 80 degree heat, a nice change to bitter winds we've been experiencing here in Chestnut Hill for the last few days. On the lips of almost every Senior walking this campus, however, is that fearful phrase "this is the last...insert activity here." Ie: "this is the last first day of school," "this is the last time I'll go outside at 5am in nothing but a T-shirt to build a snowman in the mods," or my personal favorite "this is the last time I'll have to send myself a rose on valentines day to make myself feel better," (false). Anyways, as I've been surround by all these supposed last times, I've decided to adopt the why not philosophy so that I get to take advantage of all these lasts!

Most recently I participated in a 35 year old tradition at BC called Middle march. Having not been since my freshman year, when the theme was Saturday Night Live. I was a SNL Spice Girl, and to the left is a picture of my friend dressed up like Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek from Jeopardy. Needless to say I set my eyes on the prize, aka a highly coveted ticket to this dance. Involving quite a complicated process, Middlemarch is the biggest and the best costume party of the year, Halloween ain't got nothin' on this tradition. First you must go at 11pm on the designated day to Conte Forum (our basketball and hockey stadium) to hear the theme announcement, usually hidden in some kind of weird YouTube-esque video made by the O'Connell House managers. This year's theme is BOARD GAMES. On your way out of the stadium you get a special sheet complete with a secret copy-proof seal with the scavenger hunt. Made up of 15-20 questions that go along with the theme (such as what was the newest addition to the game Operation...answer, brain freeze) as well as questions about the managers of the OCH, the mansion/student union on Upper Campus where the dance is held. So then you have a week to complete the scavenger hunt questions, THEN you are entered into a lottery of everyone who got the answers correct, and SHOULD you win, you get to buy tickets, but ONLY if you are quick enough to get one of 300 tickets when 200 students have the option to buy two! Luckily my "why not" philosophy has worked out and this is "the last time I will be going to Middlemarch." I'm super excited, but now comes the complicated process of figuring out a costume: Miss Peacock, a Snake or Ladder, Candyland...the possibilities are endless.

Another fantastic tradition organized by the Senior Week Committee is the 100 DAYS Dance. All Seniors get the chance to buy tickets and celebrate 100 days until Graduation. It was held at the Roxy, a club in the Theatre District in Downtown Boston, and BC rented it out, so it was basically a gigantic Dance Party with the entire Senior class; aka amazing! They bused us there and back on big yellow school buses, so no need to navigate the streets of Boston in high heels. Everyone I talked to absolutely loved it; there is nothing like dancing to bring people together. The only downside is my foot got into a fight with someone else's stiletto and let's just say they won and my foot is mighty bruised.

Although this blog makes it look like all we do at BC is dance, there are lots of other fun traditions that I'll be back to share with you soon. In fact, I'll even post a picture from a new tradition, storming the court after we beat DUKE in Men's Basketball; Tyrese Rice is in the Background!

One more time with feeling

Well here I am back at Boston College for one last and final semester. As scary and sad as it is to say that I will be leaving this place in 4 short months, I am super excited for all that is to come this semester.

We're about two weeks into classes, and I'm settling into the new courses I have for this semester. I'm taking two courses for my Human Development major, Personality Theories and Adult Psychology, and then two electives.

One is called Humor in the English department, with famed BC Professor and Poe Expert, Paul Lewis. We spend the first half of the semester looking at what makes humor, and the second half as a writing workshop, where we get to create our own humorous skit, play, parody or video. I love the class already, our first assignment was to collect 5 jokes from our friends, and then spend class telling jokes, AND we get credit for this, totally awesome!

My other class is called Capstone: Decisions for Life. BC has these great courses called Cornerstones (which you take in your freshman year) and Capstones (which you take in your senior year) and they are meant to welcome you to your BC experience and then close it out as you prepare to leave and reflect back on your four years of college. As a freshman I took Courage to Know, which is a Cornerstone, we read a bunch of different books and talked about how the themes in those stories resonated with our experiences in college so far. It was a fantastic class to welcome me into BC, and was a fifteen student seminar style course with a Professor and two Senior Mentors. I actually was a Senior Mentor for the same Professor I had last semester. However, now onto the class I am actually taking, my Capstone. My Professor, John Boylan I have decided is absolutely crazy but so incredibly fantastic, already on the first day he told the whole class how much he loved us! Basically what we are going to be doing this semester is reflecting back on our four years here at BC, and how the lessons we have learned from our various experiences can help us as we go forward and make life decisions.

So those are my academic musings for this post, but I will be back again soon to talk about all those things occupying my time outside of the classroom.

Greetings from Chestnut Hill

Hello Everyone! My name is Katie Kelley and I'm a senior in the Lynch School of Education, where I am a human development and psychology double major. I'm originally from Oregon, but I grew up in the Netherlands.

As a Human Development major, I'm not going into the field of teaching, but I do intend to work in an educational setting. Many Human Development majors go to work in counseling or human resources jobs. I've really enjoyed my two majors here at BC. Psychology is in the College of Arts & Sciences and gives me a look into the more scientific side of people, whereas Human Development offers the practical application of psychology to the field of Education.

This was a very exciting weekend at BC sports-wise: Notre Dame was here for both Hockey and Football. Last year our Hockey team beat Notre Dame in the National Championship, but sadly this weekend we did not relive that glory. We did beat them in Football last night though, for the 7th time in a row! It was a great game! Before coming to BC, I had never seen a football game before in my life, but now I'm on ESPN.com all the time and I actually watched the draft last year. Matt Ryan, our quarterback last year, is kind of a big deal; he got drafted 3rd! He now plays for the Atlanta Falcons, so I'm actually a bit of a Falcons fan now!

Football at BC is amazing though. Freshman year, at Orientation, you get your Superfan Shirt, which is this obnoxious gold colored shirt, with Boston College, Superfan and a little fighting Eagle on the front. Then each class has their own saying on the back; they're a little cheesy, but great anyways! The seniors this year are "Talons of Fury...Get Ready", juniors are "Eagles Take Action", sophomores are "For Here All Are One" and the Freshmen are "On the Hunt for Excellence." Anyways last night's game was phenomenal; we beat Notre Dame 17-0 and at the end of the game the entire student section, which is just a sea of gold, stayed for like 25 minutes after everyone else was gone, singing along with the marching band. They play some great hits, like "Sweet Caroline", "Build me up Buttercup" and of course "Shipping up to Boston" by the Dropkick Murphys.

Outside of the classroom I'm involved in several different things on campus, which I will discuss over the next couple months in this blog. Right now I am preparing for a retreat called 48 Hours. 48 Hours is a retreat offered to freshmen at the end of first semester and the beginning of second semester that gives you a chance to step away from BC for the weekend, hear stories from Senior Leaders about their transition into college about several different themes like "The Challenge of Academics" and "Friends and Relationships." I went on the retreat my freshman year and it was a great chance to stop for a weekend and get a break from the fast pace of the college campus and really look at the decisions and the experiences I was having and whether or not they were living up to my expectations of college. So I am leading this along with 9 other Seniors next weekend.

I'm super excited and I'll be sure to report back after the retreat and talk about some other exciting BC happenings!

Chalkboard Introductions

Hello, hello. I'm Nick Grasso, a senior in the Lynch School of Education. I am originally from East Haven, CT. I am majoring in English and elementary education. This semester I am actually taking very few classes at BC because I am student teaching. Above is a picture of the classroom I am working in all set up for the first day of school back in September.

The teacher education program at Boston College strongly connects theory with practice. Education classes taught at BC all include some field based assignments. These assignments give you the opportunity to try and test the theories you are reading about and discussing in class with students in "real" classrooms. You complete three pre-practicum experiences, where you work one day a week in a school for a semester. The program culminates in a full-practicum experience in which you work in a school every day for a full semester.

So I spend every day this semester teaching 22 5th graders at a Boston Public School in Brighton along with a veteran teacher. I've mainly been teaching math every day. We are doing a social studies unit on the election and have just started a reader's theater unit with a play called, Revenge of the Nerd. The student's love sharing their acting skills and even give up recess time to rehearse!

Although teaching has been a lot of fun, the challenges of urban education are both exciting and daunting. My 5th graders have a lot of energy, but it takes a lot of work to focus that energy on learning.

I look forward to blogging this semester about my experiences in the classroom. Feel free to post any questions about the School of Education or about my teaching, I'll be happy to answer them.

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting the Boston College Student Admission Program blogs! This blog is maintained by undergraduates in the Lynch School of Education who are studying or interested in studying for a degree in education.

If you are a prospective student who is interested in applying to BC's education program, look no further! Here we try to give you a window into the life of Boston College students, who will be posting about what daily life is like on the Heights. Bookmark this page and keep coming back for more; this blog will be updated regularly by one of many of our Student Admission Program volunteers! We all have stories to share that we hope will help you determine if BC is right for you.

These blogs can be as interactive as you make them. Want to hear about a certain aspect of college life? Curious as to how we survive without home-cooked meals and laundry done for us? Ask and you shall receive. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to post them! We'll respond in our next entry as soon as we can.

Thank you so much for stopping in! If you'd like to hear more about BC, visit the official site of Boston College! You can also learn more about visiting campus and our tours and infamous Eagle Eye sessions at the SAP webpage! We'd love to have you!

Good luck!

Sam Lipscomb
SAP Technology Coordinator '08-'09
Boston College A&S '10
lipscoms@bc.edu