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Stephanie Smith

Mrs. Corbett

9 April 2012

AP Literature

Senior Project Speech

I have always heard people say that pursuing a teaching job is not worth it because the

annual salary does not involve large amounts of cash. But I have learned that teaching is not

about making tons of money. Teaching is about taking a passion that you have and turning it into

a life changing experience. It is about molding young minds and shaping the lives of the children

who will be leading our country in the future. Teaching is about doing something that you love

and making a difference in the world.

Since the eighth grade I have had an interest in a career in the field of education. That is

why I used my senior project as an opportunity to further explore the teaching field by acting as

an assistant teacher to my project facilitator.

One of the first things I did for my senior project was write my research paper. For my

research paper, I examined one of the central problems that education suffers from. That is, what

exactly should education be focused on in order to help children reach their full potential? I

found that several theories have been proposed by philosophers and other figures in an effort to

make learning more efficient for students. But no matter the approach, all of these propositions

have been put down or criticized by others. The No Child Left Behind Act, which was the topic

of my research paper, was one of many attempts to pinpoint the focuses of education. The Act,

signed by former President George W. Bush in 2002, used tactics such as standardized testing

and “adequate yearly progress” to make sure students were receiving the education they need to

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be successful in the real world. However, many believe the act only made matters in education

worse and has had a negative effect on America’s students. This is relative to my project because

before I could get started, I had to establish what information I should and should not teach to

my students. I had to find a focal point that would not only allow me to catch their interest, but

also help them to learn a thing or two.

I realized that I could find a focal point by creating a lesson plan that would present only

the most important information about my topic to the students. The lesson plan that I created

serves as the final product for my senior project. I designed my lesson plan so that it would

closely follow Georgia’s standards for a high school Honors World History class. The topic that

my lesson plan deals with is the French Revolution, which can be found within the Mounting

Global Tensions Unit on Cherokee County’s year-long course map. My lesson plan includes four

lectures and activities that were taught to and completed by Creekview High School sophomores

in the span of one week. I used lesson essential questions in the form of multiple choice review

questions in all four of my lectures, but the topics addressed in each lecture ranged vastly. For

example, in my first lecture I discussed the events leading up to, during, and after the French

Revolution, but in my last lecture I talked about how the Revolution resulted in the break out of

several revolutions around the globe. In an attempt to catch the student eye, I incorporated visual

images on each slide and used quotes that I found in their textbook or video clips from YouTube.

As for my activities, I created two puzzle activities and two chronology activities. The purpose

of these activities was to help the students recall important events and historical figures that I had

mentioned in my lectures. The activities add creative elements to my lesson plan and allow the

students to learn and have fun at the same time. Overall, my lesson plan holds educational value

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in that it teaches key facts and vocabulary from the French Revolution unit in instructive and

creative ways.

I chose the lesson plan as my product for two reasons: (1) I wanted to make sure that the

sophomores learned something during my time as their assistant teacher and (2) I wanted to see

what teaching was like behind the scenes. Before my senior project, I did not know anything

about what it takes to be a teacher. Even to this day I cannot fully understand how much time and

effort teachers have to put into their job so that they are able to teach a class effectively. It is hard

to get an idea because as a student you only get the teacher’s finished product; whether it is a

couple of assignments or tests that you must complete, or even a lecture. I chose my lesson plan

because I wanted to put myself in a teacher’s shoes and see what it really takes to be a successful

teacher. Through creating and presenting my lesson plan, I was able to get a little taste of what it

is like to be a teacher. I found that teachers have to dedicate large amounts of time to preparing

for each lesson they teach. I also realized that having a teaching career is definitely not as easy as

it seems.

The process of creating my product was not entirely simple either. There were several

steps that went into creating a lesson plan that would specifically follow Georgia’s standards and

teach my students. The first stage was to do some research and find important events that led up

to and took place during and after the French Revolution. My main sources for this research were

an Honors World History text book, my French III textbook, and lecture notes from my

facilitator. With these materials, I was able to move on to the next stage and write my lectures.

Since I was not responsible for teaching everything to the students, I limited my lectures to ten

slides. This way they would only last fifteen to twenty minutes and act as an introduction for my

facilitator’s more detailed lectures. I used PowerPoint to create my lectures and each lecture took

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a minimum of two hours to complete. The third stage of creating my lesson plan involved the

making of my puzzle and chronology activities. For my puzzle activities, I made a list of terms,

definitions, and historical figures that posed as vital information in the textbook chapter. I then

took these items and put them on the back of pieces of paper that I had cut to look like puzzle

pieces. Therefore, the goal of the activity was to put the puzzle together by matching the terms

and historical figures with the correct definition. As for the chronology activity, I found

important events from the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte and wrote

them in brief sentences on slips of paper. The goal of this activity was to put the events in order

according to the dates I provided. It took me an entire day to create this part of my product. In

addition to this tedious process, I had to explain and present my lesson plan to my students. I also

included reflections and detailed breakdowns and copies of each part of my lesson plan. The last

step to creating my lesson plan was to professionalize it by putting everything in a binder.

With that being said, I would not have been able to create my lesson plan without the

help of my project facilitator, Mrs. Brenda Guyer. Mrs. Guyer is a social studies teacher here at

Creekview High School. She teaches Honors and College Prep Word History to Creekview’s

sophomores. I chose Mrs. Guyer for her firsthand experience and the excellent job she has done

thus far in the teaching field. I also chose Mrs. Guyer because I knew her beforehand. I was a

student of Mrs. Guyer’s for two years in a row and she was someone I felt comfortable working

with. Mrs. Guyer helped me by giving me an insight on what it is like to be a teacher. More

specifically, she showed me an example of a lesson plan that she had put together herself in past

years. This helped me immensely because it told me exactly what my lesson plan needed to be

comprised of. My facilitator also gave me advice when it came to teaching her students. She

gave me tips on how to interact with her students and keep them interested in the topics I

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addressed. She even allowed me to observe her class while she was teaching so that I could learn

how she runs her classroom. Although her assistance was helpful, I was not able to avoid the

obstacles that arise when it comes to being a teacher.

The biggest challenge that I faced during my senior project came about when I had to

teach my lectures to Mrs. Guyer’s sophomores. It was very hard for me to keep the students

engaged in my lessons and listen to what I had to say. At times, I would see students zoning out

or laying their head down on the desks. I found out later on what the problem was: there was too

much information on my slides. But I was able to overcome this issue by using hand motions and

summarizing the information instead of reading it word for word off the slides. I also asked the

students questions throughout the entire presentation instead of just at the end. The video about

the guillotine that I had embedded in my last lecture also helped me to capture the students’

attention. All of these techniques allowed me connect better with the students, giving me the

results that I had been looking for since the beginning.

I learned several things from the process as a whole. I learned that to be a teacher, you

have to commit to putting lots of time and effort into the job. There is a lot more work and

preparation that goes into being a teacher than I could have ever imagined. My senior project

also revealed to me the characteristics that a teacher must have if she wishes to be successful.

Not only do you have to have people skills, but you have to be a person who is confident and

thick skinned. You have to be able to control your emotions so that they do not get in the way of

you giving your students the best education possible. As for me becoming a teacher in the future,

I think it is still a possibility but teaching is not my first career choice anymore. I have learned

that while it can be enjoyable to watch kids grow through education, it takes a lot of courage to

get up in front of students and teach to them every single day. It was not until now that I realized

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how hard a teacher works and is not appreciated by every student in the room. My senior project

helped me realize that teaching might not be my passion after all.

In conclusion, my senior project taught me how difficult it can be to be a teacher. After

exploring the teaching field by acting as an assistant teacher, I learned that a teacher has to make

sure to keep the topics interesting and change their techniques every so often so that their

students will be engaged and learn the required material. When that has been done, I believe that

teaching can be a very rewarding experience!