I'd like to start off this post with a little insight as to why I have been absent in the last few weeks. In the chaos of life, I had the hardest time finding uninterrupted time to simply sit and reflect. I take that as a testament to how my life will be in the future. The important things are never easy. This has taught me a lesson about making time for reflection and I have been staying a few extra minutes every day to jot down some thoughts about what went well that day and what I need to improve.
This will be a catch-up post on the week before Spring Break.
Head-teaching continues to go well. I feel in control of the classroom and my management continues to improve. The only thing that isn't going well is the general amount of chatter in the classroom. The students aren't misbehaving, being respectful, or interrupting the class, but there seems to be a constant stream of low noise. Most of our days are ending with everyone on a warning and a few people everyday have lost recess. My cooperating teacher and I discuss some different actions we can take. She mentions that around October of the previous year, a similar thing happened and she started sending weekly reports home for how many times a student received a warning, lost recess, or finally got a major referral. We decide to do the same thing and explain it to parents during conferences. (And since this was a few weeks ago, I can say now that we've seen serious improvement in this area.)
One thing that really went well was a lesson that I planned teaching about matter. We were focusing on a discussion of solids, liquids and gases. I taught a lesson teaching how the particles behaved in each state of matter using moving images and having students pretend to be a particle in each state in their desks. The next day, to review, we had a discussion outside and then I made a few different sized boundary lines in chalk. The students illustrated solid particles, liquid particles and gas particles (where they got to run around the playground for a minute.) We came back inside to take a quiz on the information that everyone passed.
With these two examples, I learned the importance of holding students accountable for their behavior and introducing kinesthetic movement into a lesson. It's vital to classroom success to communicate student behavior to teachers. Few students will go home and tell their parents that they got a warning and even fewer may tell them that they lost recess. When parents are in the know, we see a general increase in positive behavior.
During this week, I also read Chapter 10 from Schmidt: "Great Teachers Are Insurrectionists." This was a very emotional chapter for me to read because it is something I care about so deeply. It is the very reason why I want to teach. I believe that teaching SHOULD BE insurrection. To quote myself, my sophomore year of college:
"I want to teach because I am as passionately a social rights activist as I am a lover and facilitator of learning. I realized that the struggles of multiple populations have been ignored. This is something that I cannot accept. In the spirit of Dr. King, and all those who came before and after him, let us scream out our imaginings for a new kind of education; an education system that support those from every different tongue and background, a system that celebrates differences and strives for who we can be together, a system that runs on dreams, but one that becomes a reality. I have a dream that I will teach the students who have been labeled and discarded to the very boundaries of education. I have a dream that the voices of everyone in this country will cry out strong and brave. I have a dream that I will see this country open its arms to the new possibilities of what lowering the barriers in our own minds creates."
I believe that this mission laid out in chapter 10 of Schmidt is possible even more important for a Christian educator because we are called to see every single person we encounter as a creation of God and made in His image, just as we are. My faith leaves no room for discrimination. It is also a mandate to not tolerate racist perceptions of others. That means that my role in the classroom is to wake children up to the realities around them (though many of them are aware) and to take action. This is where the instructions on page 220-224 come in handy.
I hope to continue my passionate journey as a social justice educator and Christian, committed to making a difference.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
The Most Exciting Blur
In the last couple of weeks, life has just flown by. I'm amazed at how I have somehow transitioned from the semi-typical college student, with so many freedoms to this almost adult/teacher. I wake up early to get to school about 45 minutes before students arrive to organize myself and my materials. I teach almost all of the day and am continuously energized by it. I stay a bit after school, thinking about how the day went, getting things ready and making notes on tomorrow's lesson plans. I go home, grade, and think about what I will do the next day. And yet, it's not limiting. I love every second of what I am doing.
This past week was filled with excitement for me. The reading ISAT was over and we headed into the math session. The week before, my cooperating teacher had asked if I felt comfortable enough writing lessons for this past week. She also told me that I could do pretty much anything I wanted academically because we couldn't really move ahead with our reading series until testing was over. I was brimming with joy thinking about having the chance to work outside the limiting box of BASAL readers.
I planned enthusiastically, deciding to introduce my students to classic and authentic literature as a read aloud. I settled on "Tuck Everlasting," a personal childhood favorite. So, I came to school that Friday before last week, ready to introduce the book and the direction for the week ahead. I had planned a fantastic pre-reading activity, a questionnaire to engage thinking about themes in the book. Students had to check agree/disagree to a couple statements like "It would be wonderful to live forever" and "It is okay to hurt one person in order to save many." I couldn't WAIT to "break them free" from the confines of the material they were being taught and to push them forward into a level of higher-order thinking.
How very silly I was.
We settled into our questionnaire first thing in the morning. The students hardly knew what to do. I explained it a little more, but they seemed confused by the fact that there was no right or wrong answer. They became even more frustrated when they neither agreed or disagreed with the statement. After a small amount of discussion, I began to read aloud. I don't know how recently you may have looked through the first couple of chapters of "Tuck Everlasting," but it is filled with poetic language, describing the setting of the town and countryside, the behavior of cows and how hot the summer was; no dialogue, no character interaction and not much suspense. The book does get really good after the first few pages, but as I read, there was chatter and a high amount of movement around the room. The times when I looked up, I saw sleeping, boredom and confusion. Mrs. Martinez tried to help, saying that maybe if the students could read along on the ELMO (the technological device that displays something through a camera on the SmartBoard) they might have an easier time following along. No such luck. I realized that this was not working.
Later on Friday, during our plan period, I gave Mrs. Martinez the lesson plans I had written for the next week. I had modeled them after the many I had received from her, short descriptions for the activities planned for each time slot, that's it. After looking through them for a minute, she asked about a few of the activities I had referenced in some textbooks from home. I had just listed them by activity. She said that the lessons were okay, and that I could hand them in, but that she was going to make back-up plans, because it didn't seem that anyone could follow them.
It was my second defeat of the day.
I knew that my plans, both in my head and on paper weren't where they needed to be, but I had no idea what "there" looked like, much less how to get them there. I went home pulled out "Tuck Everlasting", my plans, a large cup of coffee and thought. I had one major realization almost immediately. In being released from Trinity-style lessons, I had somehow under compensated. Just because I wasn't writing four pages, didn't mean that I no longer had to think about each of the learner's in my classroom and how they needed information to be presented to them. I realized that I had forgotten about the two deaf students in our classroom, who join us after the morning read aloud. The activities that I planned could not reference a text that they would have no involvement with. I tossed my plans in the trash, deciding that I would embellish further on each activity, and would create each necessary worksheet or packet ahead of time so that a sub, or my teacher could easily follow along.
I looked at "Tuck Everlasting." My students showed no interest in the book, even though I was reading it aloud. I suddenly became aware of the fact that my student's had almost no interaction with literature, outside of small picture books or the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series. I couldn't just throw something at them that would require a new level of focus without making sure that it was also engaging and meaningful to them. I needed a new book. I reached out to teachers that I knew, compiled a list, spent some lovely time at the book store and two hours later I had finished reading "There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom" by Louis Sachar.
It was like a shot of adrenaline to the heart. I knew that this was the book I was looking for. It was short, funny and engaging, all while being meaningful and leaving the reader with a great message. The main character, Bradley Chalkers (a bully and school outcast) even helped me sympathize with a student that I was becoming increasingly frustrated with. I rapidly planned the rest of the week, until I could picture it in my head. My literature activities needed to be on a small scale, so we spent Monday making mini-books to respond in and the student's loved it!
I showed up on Monday and immediately told my teacher how I had realized the mistake I had made in planning the lessons. I asked if we could look through a rough draft of the plans on Thursdays so that I could incorporate suggestions before I turned the lessons in on Fridays. I shared with her everything I had realized about how the ISAT days needed to go and how I had changed everything. She shared that she was proud that I had done all of that and critically evaluated myself. That's when it all fell into place. In those short couple of days, I realized something at the core of teaching. If you are second-guessing something, it's for a reason and something should be done about it. I also had the nice reminder of how pivotal reading is in the development of a human being. On the very first day of reading aloud and looking at my own class's Bradley Chalkers with renewed vision, he asked if he could eat lunch and spend recess with me in the room so that he could make me a comic about the book.
In the week ahead, I will implement my second week of plans. Now that I am teaching the whole day, I hope to continue to incorporate reflection into my routine so that I can continue to grow. In reading the book by Louis Sachar, I have remembered how much I love reading and literature. I want to continue to search for books that will inspire the students.
This past week was filled with excitement for me. The reading ISAT was over and we headed into the math session. The week before, my cooperating teacher had asked if I felt comfortable enough writing lessons for this past week. She also told me that I could do pretty much anything I wanted academically because we couldn't really move ahead with our reading series until testing was over. I was brimming with joy thinking about having the chance to work outside the limiting box of BASAL readers.
I planned enthusiastically, deciding to introduce my students to classic and authentic literature as a read aloud. I settled on "Tuck Everlasting," a personal childhood favorite. So, I came to school that Friday before last week, ready to introduce the book and the direction for the week ahead. I had planned a fantastic pre-reading activity, a questionnaire to engage thinking about themes in the book. Students had to check agree/disagree to a couple statements like "It would be wonderful to live forever" and "It is okay to hurt one person in order to save many." I couldn't WAIT to "break them free" from the confines of the material they were being taught and to push them forward into a level of higher-order thinking.
How very silly I was.
We settled into our questionnaire first thing in the morning. The students hardly knew what to do. I explained it a little more, but they seemed confused by the fact that there was no right or wrong answer. They became even more frustrated when they neither agreed or disagreed with the statement. After a small amount of discussion, I began to read aloud. I don't know how recently you may have looked through the first couple of chapters of "Tuck Everlasting," but it is filled with poetic language, describing the setting of the town and countryside, the behavior of cows and how hot the summer was; no dialogue, no character interaction and not much suspense. The book does get really good after the first few pages, but as I read, there was chatter and a high amount of movement around the room. The times when I looked up, I saw sleeping, boredom and confusion. Mrs. Martinez tried to help, saying that maybe if the students could read along on the ELMO (the technological device that displays something through a camera on the SmartBoard) they might have an easier time following along. No such luck. I realized that this was not working.
Later on Friday, during our plan period, I gave Mrs. Martinez the lesson plans I had written for the next week. I had modeled them after the many I had received from her, short descriptions for the activities planned for each time slot, that's it. After looking through them for a minute, she asked about a few of the activities I had referenced in some textbooks from home. I had just listed them by activity. She said that the lessons were okay, and that I could hand them in, but that she was going to make back-up plans, because it didn't seem that anyone could follow them.
It was my second defeat of the day.
I knew that my plans, both in my head and on paper weren't where they needed to be, but I had no idea what "there" looked like, much less how to get them there. I went home pulled out "Tuck Everlasting", my plans, a large cup of coffee and thought. I had one major realization almost immediately. In being released from Trinity-style lessons, I had somehow under compensated. Just because I wasn't writing four pages, didn't mean that I no longer had to think about each of the learner's in my classroom and how they needed information to be presented to them. I realized that I had forgotten about the two deaf students in our classroom, who join us after the morning read aloud. The activities that I planned could not reference a text that they would have no involvement with. I tossed my plans in the trash, deciding that I would embellish further on each activity, and would create each necessary worksheet or packet ahead of time so that a sub, or my teacher could easily follow along.
I looked at "Tuck Everlasting." My students showed no interest in the book, even though I was reading it aloud. I suddenly became aware of the fact that my student's had almost no interaction with literature, outside of small picture books or the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series. I couldn't just throw something at them that would require a new level of focus without making sure that it was also engaging and meaningful to them. I needed a new book. I reached out to teachers that I knew, compiled a list, spent some lovely time at the book store and two hours later I had finished reading "There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom" by Louis Sachar.
It was like a shot of adrenaline to the heart. I knew that this was the book I was looking for. It was short, funny and engaging, all while being meaningful and leaving the reader with a great message. The main character, Bradley Chalkers (a bully and school outcast) even helped me sympathize with a student that I was becoming increasingly frustrated with. I rapidly planned the rest of the week, until I could picture it in my head. My literature activities needed to be on a small scale, so we spent Monday making mini-books to respond in and the student's loved it!
I showed up on Monday and immediately told my teacher how I had realized the mistake I had made in planning the lessons. I asked if we could look through a rough draft of the plans on Thursdays so that I could incorporate suggestions before I turned the lessons in on Fridays. I shared with her everything I had realized about how the ISAT days needed to go and how I had changed everything. She shared that she was proud that I had done all of that and critically evaluated myself. That's when it all fell into place. In those short couple of days, I realized something at the core of teaching. If you are second-guessing something, it's for a reason and something should be done about it. I also had the nice reminder of how pivotal reading is in the development of a human being. On the very first day of reading aloud and looking at my own class's Bradley Chalkers with renewed vision, he asked if he could eat lunch and spend recess with me in the room so that he could make me a comic about the book.
In the week ahead, I will implement my second week of plans. Now that I am teaching the whole day, I hope to continue to incorporate reflection into my routine so that I can continue to grow. In reading the book by Louis Sachar, I have remembered how much I love reading and literature. I want to continue to search for books that will inspire the students.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Schmidt Ch. 6 and The 8th Week of Student Teaching
The big buzz word of the last few weeks has been ISAT. The tests begin this next week and we have been in a rushed flutter of activity to do last minute preparations for the 3rd graders. A couple of weeks ago, the principal decided that since many 3rd graders are underperforming in math, we had to take drastic measures to prepare for success. Two weeks ago, in our team meetings it was decided that we would group all the third graders by ability in a specific tested area and each teacher would teach a group for about 45 minutes on that specific area (measurement, number sense, geometry). We did it a total of about 5 times in the last week, and by the end I wonder if we made any difference at all. I think for the Math groups to have been effective, they need to have been happening for the entire year because it took student a while to adjust and learn appropriate behavior in this time. In experiencing students from the other third grade classes, I realized what an exceptionally behaved group of students I had and how well our classroom is managed.
Another thing that has been happening this week is major referrals due to computer use. One student (G.D.) had posted up a picture of Taylor Lautner (actor in the Twilight movies) shirtless as her desktop background. I had felt badly when I heard of that because I actually did not know that the students backgrounds were supposed to be of themselves. I had seen the day before a background of the same actor (albeit clothed) belonging to G.D.'s best friend. But since the behavior was inappropriate her mother was called and a major referral was written.
I.G. is a student who is really struggling. This is his second time in 3rd grade and his grades have been continuously dropping. His mother even called my cooperating teacher asking what was going on, because she has been taking away all of his distractions. During a time when the students were working on "Study Island," I walked past I.G. and he was artfully editing a picture of himself on Paint. So I closed the program, made sure he was logged into Study Island and had started a lesson and warned him that the next time he was going to move his card. I then was helping some other student when I noticed I.G. logging onto Paint again. I asked him why and he responded with a blank-stared "Huh?" and "I wanted to save it." I asked him to move his cad, made sure he understood that he needed to be working on something else for now. He nodded and I walked away. After the time was over, the students shut their netbook lids and lined up for a bathroom break. I decided to check I.G. computer to see if he had gotten anything done, and was greeted by the same picture on Paint. So I discussed it with the teacher and along with a major referral, he is grounded from the computer for two weeks.
It was a real wakeup call to the trials of technology in the classroom. I just feel at a loss with a student like I.G. He doesn't display any academic interests and seems unfocused. Any time you speak to him and direct a question at him, he responds with the same blank face and confused look. I wonder if he has any sort of attention disorder. It's something I think I'd like to observe and evaluate more, but the question is how?
In the ISAT filled weeks ahead, I hope to learn how to best encourage students during this testing time. My teacher has laid out a schedule with Math games, fun-filled centers and no Reading program. I think it's great, but that this time could be used to focus on thing there aren't often time for, like Science or Social Studies, I however have been instructed to think of a fun/art center to teach this week. I may not think that's the greatest practice, but I am not a veteran teacher and I have never seen what these tests do to students.
In Schmidt Chapter 6, I read a lot of information about writing. It seems that in this placement, the focus is neither on teaching creative writing or how to write academically well. No matter what grades I happen to teach in the future, I know that I will be teaching writing somehow because I believe it to be of extreme importance.
I love the strategy of using journals in the classroom. I beleive it's a great way to help students practice writing in a more relaxed way and to make writing a habit. I think that my favorite information is on pages 133-134. I love the idea of having jump starts for students who are intimidated by writing and pairing those journal prompts with reading other fiction in diary format (page 134.) I would love if I could introduce some of these writing techniques in this placement.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Schmidt Ch. 11 and "The Blur That is My Life."
After reading this chapter in "Classroom Confidential," I was feeling slightly overwhelmed by the amount to consider when preparing for communication with parents when I am a teacher. I agreed with everything that I read in this section. I want to be the teacher that knows the culture and makeup of her student's families so to show care and preparation for conferences. I want to be prepared for every situation, but as a teacher, I cannot realistically have every perfect response assembled. Part of my future career means surrendering perfection.
I feel informed in preparing for communication with parents because this chapter has a basic checklist of things to consider including being: proactive, positive, frequent, clear, basic, attention grabbing, appealing, inclusive, timely, and error-free. After reading all of those things to remember and checklist, I was feeling like it was not possible to create the perfect communication. But I know that a teacher who cares and conveys effort to parents doesn't need to worry about perfection.
I really resonated with this segment "It may seem like there's a universe of cultural practices out there just waiting to be discovered, but with very little time on your hands, you may worry that you'll never learn enough fast enough to avoid cultural gaffes. But remember, parents are eager to help you. They're very forgiving when they realize that you have an authentic interest in their cultures and are passionately committed to the education of their child (p. 244-245)."
In other news, I had another productive blur of a week. I absolutely love working with this class and doing this all day, every day. The days have started to blur together. My cooperative teacher and I have really settled into a routine of cooperative teaching. We communicate clearly about how the days are going. She has said that she feels like we work really well together; that I focus or talk about what she forgets and she does the same for me.
One thing that I did this week that I think went really well was some of our RtI review. I talked with Mrs. Martinez about the benefit of having the students create poster to review some of the major Language Arts tools that they may need to remember for ISAT. I grouped the students off and led them through the process of reviewing, gathering information, creating rough drafts and working together. I had one partnership that was very frustrated at working together, and I simply discussed different things they needed from each other and that they were in 3rd grade and I expected them to be able to work together. In the end, they created a great product and they said to me: "Miss Blasen! What do you know? We were such a great team!" I think it was such a beneficial thing for all of the students to work on.
I feel informed in preparing for communication with parents because this chapter has a basic checklist of things to consider including being: proactive, positive, frequent, clear, basic, attention grabbing, appealing, inclusive, timely, and error-free. After reading all of those things to remember and checklist, I was feeling like it was not possible to create the perfect communication. But I know that a teacher who cares and conveys effort to parents doesn't need to worry about perfection.
I really resonated with this segment "It may seem like there's a universe of cultural practices out there just waiting to be discovered, but with very little time on your hands, you may worry that you'll never learn enough fast enough to avoid cultural gaffes. But remember, parents are eager to help you. They're very forgiving when they realize that you have an authentic interest in their cultures and are passionately committed to the education of their child (p. 244-245)."
In other news, I had another productive blur of a week. I absolutely love working with this class and doing this all day, every day. The days have started to blur together. My cooperative teacher and I have really settled into a routine of cooperative teaching. We communicate clearly about how the days are going. She has said that she feels like we work really well together; that I focus or talk about what she forgets and she does the same for me.
One thing that I did this week that I think went really well was some of our RtI review. I talked with Mrs. Martinez about the benefit of having the students create poster to review some of the major Language Arts tools that they may need to remember for ISAT. I grouped the students off and led them through the process of reviewing, gathering information, creating rough drafts and working together. I had one partnership that was very frustrated at working together, and I simply discussed different things they needed from each other and that they were in 3rd grade and I expected them to be able to work together. In the end, they created a great product and they said to me: "Miss Blasen! What do you know? We were such a great team!" I think it was such a beneficial thing for all of the students to work on.
Next week, I hope to help my teacher prepare for ISAT and transition to the next unit. Mostly, I will teach they regular topics, but I assist her in test preparation and review. I hope to learn about the most effective ways to prepare students for this kind of test. My goal is to be up and moving through the classroom and following my teacher's lead up until ISATs.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Settling In (Oh my goodness this will be my 5th week!)
Before I reflect on the past week in my student teaching experience, I want to take a moment to respond to a couple of questions I have received about previous posts.
"I’m wondering if this new awareness of how you are managing your class is different than what you expected. How did you reach this conclusion?" The classroom management portion has been slightly different than what was expected because it is more of a co-management technique. I had never fully comprehended before how vital it is to know students. I have a slight idea of who the students are, yet I know more about textbook strategies for management. After teaching them for a year and a half, Mrs. Martinez absolutely knows this group of students and knows what will work and what won't. I had always pictured classroom management to be an in-depth process that students were involved in from day one, and I would use many different strategies to control the classroom. Yet that is not the classroom culture that I walked into. I can either be frustrated that it's not exactly how I pictured it, or I can go with the flow and learn how it is that Mrs. Martinez knows how to deal with each student and I can take that learning into my future classrooms. I have chosen the latter, or course!
"Your description of math shows you are using best practices in your teaching. Why did it work well? How did you know?" That math lesson was breaking new ground for me, because I had never been in a placement where it was my responsibility to teach an entire math lesson. I started by thinking about what I didn't like about math when I was in school and what I did like about it. I came to the conclusion that getting students interested and engaged was most important. So I decided to teach median and mode with out very own set of data, collected in partners around the room and out of our seats. I perceived such excitement from the students when they were allowed to get up and move around. However, I knew that it would involve a clear explanation of what they needed to collect, how they would do it, and behaviors I would not tolerate. Once I laid that all out, students followed. Mrs. Martinez and I equally went around the room helping groups. Then we collectively analyzed the data. I could tell that the lesson was working well because nearly all of the students were understanding and those who weren't were asking questions and following along. When I introduced a new method for finding the median, we got up in a line and modeled our set of data. It was an experience of joy realizing that you taught a lesson that incorporated many intelligences and that after informal assessment, realized that almost every student had grasped the information.
"Your description of math shows you are using best practices in your teaching. Why did it work well? How did you know?" That math lesson was breaking new ground for me, because I had never been in a placement where it was my responsibility to teach an entire math lesson. I started by thinking about what I didn't like about math when I was in school and what I did like about it. I came to the conclusion that getting students interested and engaged was most important. So I decided to teach median and mode with out very own set of data, collected in partners around the room and out of our seats. I perceived such excitement from the students when they were allowed to get up and move around. However, I knew that it would involve a clear explanation of what they needed to collect, how they would do it, and behaviors I would not tolerate. Once I laid that all out, students followed. Mrs. Martinez and I equally went around the room helping groups. Then we collectively analyzed the data. I could tell that the lesson was working well because nearly all of the students were understanding and those who weren't were asking questions and following along. When I introduced a new method for finding the median, we got up in a line and modeled our set of data. It was an experience of joy realizing that you taught a lesson that incorporated many intelligences and that after informal assessment, realized that almost every student had grasped the information.
On Monday, I walked in prepared for a typical day and needed the 30 minutes before class began to gather myself and get everything in order for my teaching. I walked into the office saying a cheery good morning and my response (along with the good morning) was that Mrs. Martinez wasn't in today and that I would have a substitute. The principal, looked me in the eye and said "Sasha, take charge. I want you to take charge." So with a new set of butterflies in my heart I set about trying to prepare. The day was slightly more chaotic and I had to teach more lessons than what I was prepared to do. But the sub and I worked really well together. We had a couple of behavioral issues that I had to address and that I did. I followed through on discipline and experiences some freedom in getting to do some activities that weren't "by the book" but that the students really enjoyed.
One of the things we did was that I pulled up a picture of the night sky and students got to take turns coming up to the smartboard drawing their own constellations. We did this to illustrate how constellations can be unique to the viewer and can be difficult to see without the lines. At the end of the day, The substitute, who had been teaching and subbing for 30 years, said to me "I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed today. I have seen a lot of student teachers and you are by far the farthest along and most in control one I have ever seen. You handle issues in the classroom so well. Where I struggle with the words to use in a difficult situation, you have them. You are a natural." I couldn't beleive the amount of praise she was giving me, but I could tell that it was genuine. I appreciated it so much. It's not often in the "real" world that we are encouraged so, and it was very energizing and refreshing.
This week was mostly just standard teaching. I am comfortable in my role as teacher and using best practices like discussion, visual concept maps, technology and games to engage students. I took over the RtI time this week and we focused on finding the "Main Idea" in a text. I was able to find and create some really engaging SmartBoard lessons that helped the kids practice. Then we played a board game called "The Main Idea." The students really enjoyed it, but it took some work to make it effective as opposed to general mayhem (which it was the first day). After the first time playing the game, I thought about how I could make it better. Teams needed to be at table groups instead of all around the room. Each group needed to have their own dice to roll instead of waiting to pass it. Each team needed a stack of new "main idea" cards at their table so I didn't have to hand out new ones after they got the right answer. After I implemented the new strategies, it went incredibly smoothly and everyone had a lot of fun.
One of the most exciting things that had happened this week was getting to spend time working with the ELL student whose parents don't speak English and often seems confused. When I attempted to discuss her with Mrs. Martinez, she made a comment that she thought this girl had "more issues than what we can address in the classroom." I wasn't sure if this meant that there were extreme issues at home or that she thought she had special education issues. The implication was that she couldn't succeed. Because of my ESL minor, and how I feel about teaching these students, I took that as a challenge. The next day, during their practice reading assessment, I worked with Kelly through it. I realized that her vocabulary was lacking and it was keeping her from having even a basic understanding of the questions. Once I had explained to her everything from what "fins" are to what it means when a question asks you to "draw a conclusion" she came up with all of the correct answers. I wanted to whoop with excitement and I did tell her how very proud I was of her and how smart she was.
The next day, Mrs. Martinez asked what I was doing with Kelly. I explained that she was incredibly intelligent but that her academic language was such a struggle that she didn't have the basic foundations that other students had. I wanted to explain to her strategies that she could use on her own when working with multiple choice questions. Mrs. Martinez, after realizing that I wasn't giving her the answers, seemed very excited about what I was doing. It was such a joy to have that breakthrough with Kelly and talk to Mrs. Martinez about some ESL strategies that she could use.
In the next week, my responsibilities increase even more as we prepare for ISAT. I have found confidence in my voice and Mrs. Martine and I have discussed ways that we can help every student succeed by using visuals and teaching good strategies. I want to see myself rise to the challenge and go above and beyond in helping these students prepare. It will take a lot of work, because we plan on reviewing all of the RtI focuses and creating posters for the room. I can't wait to see what the students produce.
"Great Teachers Are Ringmasters" Schmidt Chapter 3
In starting this chapter, Schmidt asks us, "What's the bid idea about behavior?" The minute I laid eyes upon that question, my mind immediately had produced an answer. Behavior is everything! Without wanting to make it the total focus of everything in my classroom, I have believed behavior to rest near the bottom of some sort of classroom hierarchy of needs. Maslow's hierarchy of needs shows us that without certain things, we cannot be concerned with the higher aspects of the triangle.
A good classroom example of this would be that a student who has not eaten breakfast yet will not be concerned about doing their academic work. Their biological needs come first. In reading the rest of the chapter, what I had believed has been reinforced and added to.
I have been having some slight adjustments and growing pains when it comes to behavior in my classroom. The classroom Schmidt describes in the beginning of the chapter transported me into mine. Often, the instructions to complete something is met with a flurry of sharpening pencils, asking to go to the bathroom or their backpacks, getting up and grabbing something that they don't need or blank staring at a piece of paper. Some student tells a joke to his table and they all erupt in laughter and hands go up uttering the same phrase over and over: "I need help."
All of these varying behaviors are motivated by one of two basic instincts. The students are seeking pleasure or avoiding pain. As pictured above, without a feeling of safety in the classroom, students often won't reach higher order thinking. It rings so true in my classroom. Many of the students feel as though they are unable to complete the tasks laid out for them and express frustration in many ways. Currently my cooperating teacher and I are working with each student on different days, teaching them necessary strategies and helping them realize that they can achieve success. I believe that helping them realize their abilities has helped many students become more focused.
I have ultimately learned that whenever I witness an odd or frustrating behavior from a student, to ask myself "What are they hiding?" I can't wait to be in my own classroom where I can employ some of the strategies listed in this chapter. In my current classroom, I don't feel like there is enough room for variety. I don't know how it would go over if I were to suggest that students complete an assignment or project that was of their suggestion or tailored to their intelligences. The reading program has become the structure and deviation from that would result in re-teaching behavior and management. Yet there must be something I can do. I want to be the teacher who plays music to energize the classroom or lets to students draw out concept maps but without instruction in doing any of these things, the students lose control, or spend too much time coloring and not showing that they grasp the information.
Some of the other techniques listed I have found that I already use, such as self-encouragement or eye contact. I have a few students that whenever they have lost focus or are making a decision that they shouldn't be, seem to find my gaze. I give them a look, either a "is that the choice you should be making?" look, or a "you can do it, keep going!" look. They respond well to that.
Ultimately, I hope to take what I have read from the chapter and look for ways that I can introduce some of the concepts into my classroom, to make it a better environment for all of it's members.
A good classroom example of this would be that a student who has not eaten breakfast yet will not be concerned about doing their academic work. Their biological needs come first. In reading the rest of the chapter, what I had believed has been reinforced and added to.
I have been having some slight adjustments and growing pains when it comes to behavior in my classroom. The classroom Schmidt describes in the beginning of the chapter transported me into mine. Often, the instructions to complete something is met with a flurry of sharpening pencils, asking to go to the bathroom or their backpacks, getting up and grabbing something that they don't need or blank staring at a piece of paper. Some student tells a joke to his table and they all erupt in laughter and hands go up uttering the same phrase over and over: "I need help."
All of these varying behaviors are motivated by one of two basic instincts. The students are seeking pleasure or avoiding pain. As pictured above, without a feeling of safety in the classroom, students often won't reach higher order thinking. It rings so true in my classroom. Many of the students feel as though they are unable to complete the tasks laid out for them and express frustration in many ways. Currently my cooperating teacher and I are working with each student on different days, teaching them necessary strategies and helping them realize that they can achieve success. I believe that helping them realize their abilities has helped many students become more focused.
I have ultimately learned that whenever I witness an odd or frustrating behavior from a student, to ask myself "What are they hiding?" I can't wait to be in my own classroom where I can employ some of the strategies listed in this chapter. In my current classroom, I don't feel like there is enough room for variety. I don't know how it would go over if I were to suggest that students complete an assignment or project that was of their suggestion or tailored to their intelligences. The reading program has become the structure and deviation from that would result in re-teaching behavior and management. Yet there must be something I can do. I want to be the teacher who plays music to energize the classroom or lets to students draw out concept maps but without instruction in doing any of these things, the students lose control, or spend too much time coloring and not showing that they grasp the information.
Some of the other techniques listed I have found that I already use, such as self-encouragement or eye contact. I have a few students that whenever they have lost focus or are making a decision that they shouldn't be, seem to find my gaze. I give them a look, either a "is that the choice you should be making?" look, or a "you can do it, keep going!" look. They respond well to that.
Ultimately, I hope to take what I have read from the chapter and look for ways that I can introduce some of the concepts into my classroom, to make it a better environment for all of it's members.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Oy Vey... Classroom Management!
This past week, my third in the student teaching experience, was pivotal in becoming a teacher who disciplines in my class of third graders. Every single day was a struggle for behavior. By Tuesday I was fed up with how I was handling the outbreaks, unfocused back table, poor line/hallway behavior and complaints of "he said/she did." So after school on Tuesday, Mrs. Martinez and I had a conversation where I invited her to help me.
I explained first that I was frustrated at how every single transition I would get a flood of students that crowded the back table if I was sitting there. I loved to be helpful to the kids that needed help, but I was turning people away, and found that with some students, they didn't need help, they just wanted my attention. It was also frustrating because they would come to the back table and not focus on instruction or directions, or be called back to their seats. Often times, I would tell them to wait for directions, listen in their seats first, or only come back if they had something they needed help on.
I offered up a couple suggestions, but ultimately she recommended that I sit at her desk and she sit at the table and I could circulate to help students. I felt a little odd packing up an moving to her desk but it certainly solved the problem. It ended up being a really good solution for our specific group of students.
The other problem I was having was hallway behavior when I took them to and from specials and lunch. I would be repeating myself constantly about staying in a line, in order, and not speaking to each other. It would take us a very long time to get from one place to another and I was not effectively disciplining to promote my expectations for their behavior. So Mrs. Martinez suggested that I have a conversation with them the next morning about my expectations and how I was disappointed. She said that it would mean much more if it was a conversation that would come from me. We also discussed effective ways that I could use classroom management with the class. As I began to implement her plan and hold firm to it, behavior began to change.
In the last week it became clear to me how very important having a constant awareness of how you are managing your classroom. Along with instruction and other factors of teaching, I must maintain management for the class. I continue to grow in teaching the reading material and keeping students engaged. I had a great experience this past week teaching math, getting the students out of their seats and working with partners.
In the week ahead, I hope to take on the challenge of planning the RtI time. The focus will be on teaching the students how to discover the main idea in a story. With my new commitment to management I believe that the students will have more focus while I'm instructing. I hope to have more of a comfort with discipline when necessary and be fair at all times. As always, I'm looking forward to another week!
I explained first that I was frustrated at how every single transition I would get a flood of students that crowded the back table if I was sitting there. I loved to be helpful to the kids that needed help, but I was turning people away, and found that with some students, they didn't need help, they just wanted my attention. It was also frustrating because they would come to the back table and not focus on instruction or directions, or be called back to their seats. Often times, I would tell them to wait for directions, listen in their seats first, or only come back if they had something they needed help on.
I offered up a couple suggestions, but ultimately she recommended that I sit at her desk and she sit at the table and I could circulate to help students. I felt a little odd packing up an moving to her desk but it certainly solved the problem. It ended up being a really good solution for our specific group of students.
The other problem I was having was hallway behavior when I took them to and from specials and lunch. I would be repeating myself constantly about staying in a line, in order, and not speaking to each other. It would take us a very long time to get from one place to another and I was not effectively disciplining to promote my expectations for their behavior. So Mrs. Martinez suggested that I have a conversation with them the next morning about my expectations and how I was disappointed. She said that it would mean much more if it was a conversation that would come from me. We also discussed effective ways that I could use classroom management with the class. As I began to implement her plan and hold firm to it, behavior began to change.
In the last week it became clear to me how very important having a constant awareness of how you are managing your classroom. Along with instruction and other factors of teaching, I must maintain management for the class. I continue to grow in teaching the reading material and keeping students engaged. I had a great experience this past week teaching math, getting the students out of their seats and working with partners.
In the week ahead, I hope to take on the challenge of planning the RtI time. The focus will be on teaching the students how to discover the main idea in a story. With my new commitment to management I believe that the students will have more focus while I'm instructing. I hope to have more of a comfort with discipline when necessary and be fair at all times. As always, I'm looking forward to another week!
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