As you've become more familiar with your cooperating teacher and your school and students, I hope that you have begun noticing what makes a class successful and what makes it not so successful. Also, I hope you are closely watching your teacher and listening to her voice for cues on tone, stance, and presence in the classroom.
This week, as you observe, help out, and teach your lessons, try to distill your experience into two categories: things that makes you say "WOW" (as in, "Omg that was so awesome") and things that make you say "Hmmm" (as in, "Well, I'm not sure that was the best way to do that."). You might jot down some notes, while you're in schools, to this effect. By Saturday at noon, please post some thoughts to the blog about what's going on in your classroom. What WOW moment did you experience? What Hmmm moment did you experience? Tell us about them!
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I feel like I’m learning so much about a REAL classroom that it’s hard to just pick out a “wow” and a “hmmm”.
ReplyDeleteWow!: This is more of an idea that I’m going to steal for the future than a classroom management technique. Beth has folders all over her classroom that students keep their supplies in. She told us that if she sends anything home with the students, the chance of it coming back are really slim. They have writing folders, poetry folders, “’caught ‘ya” journals: basically everything they could possibly need to work on stays in the classroom so that they never have the excuse that they forgot or lost anything. Also, she has an “absence folder” that kids can go to to find any work they missed. During her prep period or at the end of the day, she compiles any worksheets students might have worked on and assignments given out and paperclips them together with a slip with each absent student’s name on it. This way, they each have their own personalized packet of missed work that they can find without having to ask her for it or make her interrupt class time to compile. I think all of these things are so great and I definitely plan on using them.
Hmmm: I am realizing more and more how difficult it is to make sure that every student is on task or knows what they’re doing and even though this falls under my “hmm” moment, I know it wasn’t intentional on Beth’s part. A few times I have noticed that a normally quiet student will be “left out” of the activity. Here are two examples to say what I’m trying to say better than I can: On one occasion, students were asked to make a flipbook of poetic elements and even though it wasn’t a super difficult task, it involved folding, cutting, and stapling that some kids found easy and others couldn’t figure out (I’m sure I would have been the ones who was a little slow with it!) Most of the students who couldn’t do it were vocal enough to get help from Beth or another student but I noticed that one quiet student kept trying and trying to get it right but just could not get the hang of it and never asked anyone for help. Beth was so busy trying to make sure that everyone who was yelling “Miss!” was taken care of that she never noticed that he was not doing it. Eventually he did figure it out (so maybe she knew that he would be able to do it if given enough time…!) but I just felt bad for him in those moments when he was virtually left alone to figure it out. This same sort of thing occurred a second time when students were choosing their own small groups and a quiet girl just sat there looking around and didn’t try to find anyone to be in a group with. She just sat on the outskirts of another group until they ‘adopted’ her. From this, I learned that it is so important to not assume that the kids who are asking for help are the only ones who need help and to make sure to check in with every student to make sure they are okay.
My "Wow" moment is more of the entire idea of Beth Wheeler's classroom. As Kathryn states, everything is so organized. And it's simple. I think it's important to have a simple system so that both the students and the teacher can keep it on track. Aside from classroom organization, the class activities are extremely structured as well. Kids need and expect routine, both at school and at home. Nearly every class of Mrs. Wheeler's is the same: they work on grammar in the "Caught 'Ya" activity, and then they take out poetry/grammar/reading folders, depending on what the objective is for the day. Some students even know to get their folders before class begins. For the most part, Mrs. Wheeler can keep things running on schedule.
ReplyDeleteMy "Hmmm" moment is similar to Kathryn's: keeping students on task and motivated. I don't know how Mrs. Wheeler deals with the students who constantly get out of their seats and the ones who blatantly refuse to do any work. She says she has tried all year to motivate students to stay on task, but nothing has worked. With the pressures of teachers meeting all the standards and raising test scores and keeping students interested in school, what do they do when their students will not participate? This may be the most frustrating part of teaching for me: I can do everything in my power to motivate kids, but what happens when that fails? Mrs. Wheeler still encourages her students to do the best they can and gives them different choices (in books to read, topics to write about, and so forth). During the entire class period, she walks around the room, visiting students that she sees are struggling or not on task. She tries to reach every student. Is that possible? It's heartbreaking to me to see students who will not do classwork, even after the teacher tries every which way to make it matter to them.
Wow Experience:
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love how Mrs. M connects the literature her students are reading to their every day life. She always tells a personal story and asks her students to share out as well. Her strategy reminds me of our mind mapping activity we did in class with Tim O’Brian’s story. She works through the literature with her students and stops along the way making connections, clarifications, and asking questions as they read. I believe this is an important skill for students to learn and she is actually teaching them how to use this reading strategy by modeling.
One of the eight grade classes she teaches is a lower level, 8-2. They are constantly being told to complete their work and hand it in on time. Today she commended these students on their outstanding behavior during the field trip. She explained that their bad behaviors are always being recognized and she believed they needed to be complemented on their respectful and mature behaviors. Those students who attended the field trip were grateful for this complement and expressed their gratitude with big smiles. It’s hard to motivate students who are unwilling to learn and I felt that Mrs. M’s approach of rewarding her students rather then reprimanding them showed this class they were capable of doing the right thing. Since they were praised and enjoyed the complement they may continue to act appropriately in the classroom striving for her approval, which too many seemed a big surprise.
Hmm Experience:
Throughout the period I found that Mrs. M sits at her desk for a large amount of time. She will usually sit while they are reading or as she gives the class directions and she does not use the board as often as I expected teachers would. I will say that she does walk around, up and down the rows, when they are doing work. To me it just seems like she sits at her desk a lot. I think I would have the students rearrange their desks into a circle so I could join them as we read and make it a point to write the directions on the board so everyone is not asking a million times for them to be repeated. Personally, I always felt more comfortable when I could refer to the board or a handout for clarifications as I worked on in class assignments.
Mrs. M seems to hand out a lot of detentions in her lower level 8th grade ELA class. When a student is given the detention they often respond sarcastically with a thank you and then sit there for the rest of the class period without doing one singe thing. I feel as if classroom management is a weak area for me to be critiquing but I feel if she were to approach behavioral issues in a different manor she could motivate her students rather then turn them off to completing in class assignments.
**I’m not sure if this would fit under my “hmm experience” because it didn’t necessarily happen in the class but I need to share this with all of you! During lunch the other day one of the teachers was talking about how she had a student teacher from RIC who was horrible. This made me feel so uncomfortable and self conscious. The other teacher’s chimed in and majority agreed RIC students were not prepared and PC had great students…AKWARD! Considering I was sitting right there. They tried covering it up by saying well I guess it depends upon the student not necessarily the school. I don’t think her intentions were to make me uncomfortable but I felt like these teachers were trying to tell me something. I thought it was a little unprofessional to be discussing these issues in font of me. If they did feel this way they could have at least waited until I wasn’t there! It doesn’t bother me anymore I really only felt self conscious for those few minutes they were talking…but still!
Mrs. Martin is so great that everyone should be jealous that they don’t have her as their cooperating teacher. It is difficult to define the “wows” and the “hmms” because she is awesome everyday in so many ways. I absolutely love her sense of humor (shocking as that may be) because she is funny but knows when to pull back and get serious. Her classroom management style is calm which I much appreciate because I think that "old yellers" are ineffective to say the least. I guess that my “wow” would be the way that Mrs. Martin differentiates instruction for her many different level students. She gives separate tests and allows the lower level students to write on their papers and staple them into their notebook.She has the students do what they are capable of while pushing them to learn. Most of the students copy things from the board into their notebook to save paper which I love. She also takes time to make sure that the high level kids get more stimulating exercises and has them be team leaders when they do group work. I am learning more “reality” teaching than ever before.
ReplyDeleteI am having a hard time coming up with a “hmm” but if I had to I would say that Mrs. Martin is a tad bit unorganized (like I am) so she wastes time looking for things. On the flip side, it gives me hope that you don’t have to be perfectly organized to be a great teacher.
I have been team teaching with Mrs. Martin and it has been a great experience. I am becoming very comfortable in front of the students and because I have been teaching the same 3 Social Studies classes, I’ve gotten to know the kids and their learning levels. It has been an interesting experience that I am thankful for.
I understand where Nicole is coming from with the teachers. I too ate lunch with the them but the student teacher was in there, probably the one talked about in front of Nicole. It was so unprofessional and catty, not to mention rude and I am glad that it was not me because I might have had a hard time keeping my mouth shut. I think that I am treated differently though because of my age. They don't feel as threatened by me because I am older. All that I know is that Nicole has seen the unfortunate side of the teaching world and it is not pretty but we have to learn to ignore all of that and focus on what truly matters.
Oh and by the way, it would be great if someone could model the pre-assessment /charting assignment that I received via e-mail. I know that it is shocking but I am confused and could use some help!
Thanks, I miss you gals!!
Sorry that this post is a little late, but honestly, sometimes I feel like Cinderella! Only, my big dream isn’t going to the ball, it’s getting a bit of time to do my homework!!! Tracyrella, you may do your homework IF you wash the dishes, finish the laundry, take the children to their birthday parties, make lunch, and scrub the bathroom.
ReplyDeleteSo for a “wow and a “hmmm”:
“Wow”—I really love the way that Erica has her poetry unit set up! She has stations around the room that each have a structured activity at them. There are about six stations. The students have sheets to keep track of which stations they have completed, the progress they have made on the incomplete ones, and those that still need to be done. The students are told that they can “move at will” but that they have to complete all of the stations by the end of the two week unit. Erica still has free writes and sharing at the beginning of the block, but the rest of the time is mostly used for stations. The students really like the idea that they are allowed to “move at will”; although, Erica does set some boundaries for that: Only a certain number of students at one station, staying put at a station until you have made good progress or finished the task, and splitting up students who repeatedly go off task when they are together. Walking around and helping the students during stations showed me that, although there are definitely students who do not make the best use of their time, they do, for the most part, make progress each day. They have to be redirected and focused by a teacher sometimes, but they like the process and do not want to blow the opportunity. Erica has warned them that if they cannot handle the responsibility to roam free and complete their work, they will have to have a more structured classroom. When I got a chance to talk to Erica after class, we talked about the phenomenon of middle school and high school teachers being afraid to give students too much responsibility (ie.- not assigning homework, keeping all of their supplies in folders in the classroom, providing time-management mechanisms rather than teaching the students how to manage their own time). I certainly understand the logic of this. It is impossible to teach if the students do not bring what they need to class! On the other hand, if all of their teachers are just taking that responsibility away, how do we know what they are in fact capable of? Maybe the first few weeks would be a disaster; but maybe then the students would catch on and learn a much needed skill. The idea of giving them the opportunity to manage their academic time on their own (with appropriate guidance when needed) is an important part of why Erica does this unit in this way. I think she is right to value the survival skill of time-management just as much as she value the content they will learn in their poetry unit; because, even if they are not given personal responsibility by the high school teachers, they will certainly fail at the college level or in the workforce if they do not learn how to independently manage their own time and materials.
“Hmmm”—One thing that I saw that disturbed me a bit was a reaction that Erica had to a comment during a class discussion. She asked on of the boys what he did to celebrated birthdays in his house. He said, “Nothing.” She prodded him by asking about when his birthday was (it had just passed) and didn’t he have a cake: didn’t someone make him his favorite dinner: didn’t he get presents? All of these things were answered with a, “No;” and, he isn’t the confrontational type who would just be playing devil’s advocate. He said his mom is busy and doesn’t have time to celebrate his birthday because it was on a Thursday. Probably what didn’t come out was that he celebrated on the weekend, but maybe he didn’t celebrate at all. I feel like Erica made a big public thing out of the poor kid’s birthday when maybe he felt bad (or at least did now) that he didn’t have a special day on his birthday. It wasn’t the biggest deal in the world, but I just feel like sometimes Erica has a tendency to put a student on the spot and maybe embarrass them a bit. In other cases when I saw this happen, it was her reaction to a free write share, which I almost feel is fair game, since the student picked a topic and obviously felt comfortable sharing it with the whole class. This time though, it was more unexpected and it was not a topic that the student chose to talk about, but rather an answer to a question Erica posed to him.
ReplyDeleteI am also sorry that I am so late in this posting! I have no excuse except that after hours and hours of Bleak House for 460 and yet another not-so-interesting book for 336 yesterday, I finally found the time to sit for a minute and write...
ReplyDeleteSo, my WOW moment with Mrs. Berek happens everyday when I am in the classroom--the kids love to share what they have written in their writer's notebooks. So far on the days that I have been in the classroom, the topics for their entries have all been free writes. For 10-15 minutes, 20+ 6th graders sit silently, diligently writing away in their journals. No one speaks, no one seems to be daydreaming, all the pens/pencils seem to be moving...it's pretty amazing. They've been trained well by this time of year! At the end of journaling time, Mrs. Berek asks if anyone wants to share what they've written and almost always, hands shoot up. She lets a few students share, then she shares what she has written (which I also really like--that she writes too...) and then she'll wrap it up with one or two more kids. It's great! I love that those kids feel comfortable enough to read some very heartfelt and personal things (at times...)
As for a HMMMM moment, this is rather tough. I was there for Tracy's experience and I must admit that I feel the same way--sometimes Mrs. Berek does seem to put some of them on the spot. I guess she does know them, and does know her limits, knows who can take the heat and the ribbing, but sometimes somethings could be too much for a child.