Wow, I have really fallen behind on my blogging!
Alright, let's take this back to 2 weeks ago... short week, Valentine's Day, in-service.
Because of the short week, the vocabulary lessons were quite a bit different than usual. The Thursday prior, I told the 5th grade collaboration crew that I wanted to lead again. I had this great idea for getting the students to master the vocab in 1 lesson, since they weren't going to have as much exposure (homework and assessment) with the short week. Here was my idea: 12 words, students get the words and definitions and have 5 minutes to skim through them. Then, they break into 3 groups and go to different stations. Station 1: pictionary-- students pick a word to illustrate and then take turns guessing each other's words in their group. Station 2: sentences. Students work together in their group to come up with sentences using the words correctly (part of speech and definition). Station 3: charades. Students take turns acting out the vocab words. At first, I could tell my peers were hesitant of the idea. Many questions were asked and I began to question my plan. However, my cooperating teacher encouraged me to press on and deliver the lesson. So, Monday rolled around, and that's exactly what I did.
The groups were split up to be somewhat homogeneous. Long story, short version: the first group struggled with coming up with ways to act out the words, but were usually able to guess the words. With each group, I saw more and more mastery in the words, creating gestures helpful for their peers, and quicker responses to the acting from peers. By the 3rd group, very little support was needed from me. The 2 other teachers in charge of the other stations said they saw the exact same thing in their groups. Success. The best part of the lesson: the students' responses afterwards. Maybe it was because I announced we weren't going to have homework or a test that week, but a few students who usually struggle with vocab came up to me and said, "Miss, I really liked class today. It was so fun... and I even learned something."
Third grade that week was also a bit different. We continued the story from the previous week, but because it was a short week, I only gave the kids 5 vocab words. I split the classes into their guided reading groups (very homogeneous groups), gave each student a handout that had the word, a picture, and 2 empty columns to write 1) their group's definition and 2) corrections to that definition. Here's the task the students had: work with their group to come up with a definition. The students spent several minutes talking about the words and the picture associated with it, then sent a representative to talk to the teacher (2 teachers were in the center of the room and had the words taped to them) about what their group thought the word meant. The teacher would do one of two things: give some prompts and things to consider about the definition and send them back to discuss with their group, or tell them they had a good idea of the word and to move onto the next word.
If you are familiar with cooperative learning strategies, this is commonly known as "Circle the Sage..." in essence anyways. Turns out the concept is the same, but the task I gave the students is quite a bit different than the original version of the activity. Regardless, the students did well with it. As I watched the groups work together to discuss their ideas of the words, I quickly realized how quickly the higher reading groups were finishing the task in comparison to the lower groups. At first, I thought this was a poor idea, but then I came up with the brilliant idea to have those higher students apply their new-found knowledge of the words into sentences (the typical task for this activity). Once the lower students had been exposed to and discussed all of the words, I called the class back together and had students share their ideas and examples for each word prior to exposing them to the correct definitions. I absolutely love hearing the students play with the language as they attempt to grasp a firm understanding of the words. Plus, their examples are hilarious.
On Tuesday, I read with my pull-out 3rd graders and wrapped up any questions/clarifying questions the students may have had on the story, vocab words, etc.
Thursday was a day of chaos. 1) Free jean day. 2) Valentine's Day. 3) Half-day. 4) 3rd grade picnic field trip. Not a whole lot of teaching was done, but at the end of the half-day, the teachers all met in the computer lab to begin the ESL in-service the ESL department had been working on the past few weeks. Thursday afternoon was spent re-capping ideas and misconceptions of ELLs and giving the teachers a better understanding of what our task as teachers for all of our students are. Friday was dedicated to helping students adapt a unit plan/several lessons they would soon be teacher to a variety of teaching strategies (project-based learning, cooperative learning strategies, SST accommodations, technology, language targets, content targets). The teachers were divided into grade level/content area and worked their way through several stations in their small groups to plan their units. At the end of the day, teachers met with their principal to set-up a day when they would deliver one of the lessons planned, so that the principal could see the teachers applying these strategies and techniques. I am so glad I got to experience that!
After the chaos of a short week and in-service, the other student teacher, Alex, and I headed up to a little mountain village where his mom's family is from for a weekend of simple living and relaxation with his family. All in all, one of my favorite weeks here, for sure.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
Better late than never
Sorry for the delay. Last week was incredibly busy. I had both 3rd grade sections, 5th grade, and spent a lot of time planning for this week (a short, but busy week) and started wrapping up a few things for student teaching, since my time is rapidly coming to an end here.
Monday started with vocabulary with the 5th graders. Every Thursday, the ESL teacher meets with the SST (special services teacher) and mainstream 5th grade teacher to plan for the reading classes the following week. I obviously attend these meetings and have been pitching ideas and intro activities. For this past week, I suggested giving the kids an activity where they have to draw out the word. After many questions and a lot of collaboration (top 3 favorite parts of the ESL/SST program here), this is the final activity planned:
The students get exposure to the words with images and definitions (they always get introduced in this sense at some point in the intro lesson). Then, the students are read a short story, written by the ESL teacher, that includes the vocab words in a different context than the class book (Mr. Popper's Penguins). The students are then paired off and assigned a single word/portion of the story to draw. They are given the rest of the class to do so. The following class period, we read the story again, and the students held up their picture that depicted a portion of the story/their word. The pictures were creative, hilarious, and pretty accurate. It was so fun to tap into the drawing skills of some of the students and the creativity in all of them. Their personalities were definitely evident through their drawings... I loved it, and the students seemed to as well-- or at least they were great sports.
In 3rd grade, we introduced the first half of a story called "Ribsy and the Roast." With this, we only introduced half of the vocab words. I started by reading a short summary that included all of the vocab words, flipping through a powerpoint with a picture depicting the vocab word as I read it. After 2 read-throughs of the summary, the students were each given a card with a vocab word on it. We then proceeded to do a Mix/Freeze/Group activity, where the students walk around, looking at each others' words, get into groups, talk about their words, switch words, and repeat several times. I have seen this activity a few times in my experience here, and I love how the students interact with each other and play with definitions/descriptions of words. After the students finished the activity, they sat back down, and I asked them to share their definitions/ideas before showing them the correct one. The students did great!
On Tuesday, I worked with the ESL students to read the first half of the story. I had the students take turns reading (I read some to model and to save us some time for the comprehension activity/questions I had planned). As we read, I stopped to clarify some words/phrases and to do comprehension checks. I created a 4-corner book for the students to write down the 4 main ideas from the reading. They could use this later to study for their assessment on Friday. The students did really well with talking out the details/important parts of the story, and they loved that I was filling out one of the 4-corner books with them.
Wednesday/Thursday are center days-- students split into guided reading groups and complete a variety of stations for spelling/bible/vocab/reading. I had this brilliant activity plan, where the students would work in partners to read the summary, then without referring to the text, sequence the words and re-tell the story. They would be able to refer to the pictures (already in order) and the text in rare circumstances, but I really wanted them to challenge themselves. Unfortunately 20 seconds into the first class (the one that I barely observe and don't know the names of more than 5 students), one of the boys informed me he didn't like his partner. I asked him to please work with his partner, and very soon realized that these two boys definitely could not work together. Without missing a beat, I accommodated as I saw the other pair of boys struggling with the activity as well. The second group came to my station and I was well-prepared to make proper adjustments, resulting in a much more smoothly ran activity.
Thursday I did the same lesson (with proper accommodations) with the 3rd grade class I have been with since day 1 and felt so much more confident in my execution and my students' preparation for the test. However, because I knew the students in the first section didn't receive the full practice I wanted for them on Wednesday, I created a study sheet for them to help them practice even more for the test.
All in all, the week was great. I am falling so in love with these students and can hardly imagine leaving them in 2 weeks. I'd like to think that the thought of it breaking my heart is a bit of an exaggeration, but I really don't think it is. Who would have imagined me falling in love with teaching elementary/junior high kids? I know I sure didn't.
Monday started with vocabulary with the 5th graders. Every Thursday, the ESL teacher meets with the SST (special services teacher) and mainstream 5th grade teacher to plan for the reading classes the following week. I obviously attend these meetings and have been pitching ideas and intro activities. For this past week, I suggested giving the kids an activity where they have to draw out the word. After many questions and a lot of collaboration (top 3 favorite parts of the ESL/SST program here), this is the final activity planned:
The students get exposure to the words with images and definitions (they always get introduced in this sense at some point in the intro lesson). Then, the students are read a short story, written by the ESL teacher, that includes the vocab words in a different context than the class book (Mr. Popper's Penguins). The students are then paired off and assigned a single word/portion of the story to draw. They are given the rest of the class to do so. The following class period, we read the story again, and the students held up their picture that depicted a portion of the story/their word. The pictures were creative, hilarious, and pretty accurate. It was so fun to tap into the drawing skills of some of the students and the creativity in all of them. Their personalities were definitely evident through their drawings... I loved it, and the students seemed to as well-- or at least they were great sports.
In 3rd grade, we introduced the first half of a story called "Ribsy and the Roast." With this, we only introduced half of the vocab words. I started by reading a short summary that included all of the vocab words, flipping through a powerpoint with a picture depicting the vocab word as I read it. After 2 read-throughs of the summary, the students were each given a card with a vocab word on it. We then proceeded to do a Mix/Freeze/Group activity, where the students walk around, looking at each others' words, get into groups, talk about their words, switch words, and repeat several times. I have seen this activity a few times in my experience here, and I love how the students interact with each other and play with definitions/descriptions of words. After the students finished the activity, they sat back down, and I asked them to share their definitions/ideas before showing them the correct one. The students did great!
On Tuesday, I worked with the ESL students to read the first half of the story. I had the students take turns reading (I read some to model and to save us some time for the comprehension activity/questions I had planned). As we read, I stopped to clarify some words/phrases and to do comprehension checks. I created a 4-corner book for the students to write down the 4 main ideas from the reading. They could use this later to study for their assessment on Friday. The students did really well with talking out the details/important parts of the story, and they loved that I was filling out one of the 4-corner books with them.
Wednesday/Thursday are center days-- students split into guided reading groups and complete a variety of stations for spelling/bible/vocab/reading. I had this brilliant activity plan, where the students would work in partners to read the summary, then without referring to the text, sequence the words and re-tell the story. They would be able to refer to the pictures (already in order) and the text in rare circumstances, but I really wanted them to challenge themselves. Unfortunately 20 seconds into the first class (the one that I barely observe and don't know the names of more than 5 students), one of the boys informed me he didn't like his partner. I asked him to please work with his partner, and very soon realized that these two boys definitely could not work together. Without missing a beat, I accommodated as I saw the other pair of boys struggling with the activity as well. The second group came to my station and I was well-prepared to make proper adjustments, resulting in a much more smoothly ran activity.
Thursday I did the same lesson (with proper accommodations) with the 3rd grade class I have been with since day 1 and felt so much more confident in my execution and my students' preparation for the test. However, because I knew the students in the first section didn't receive the full practice I wanted for them on Wednesday, I created a study sheet for them to help them practice even more for the test.
All in all, the week was great. I am falling so in love with these students and can hardly imagine leaving them in 2 weeks. I'd like to think that the thought of it breaking my heart is a bit of an exaggeration, but I really don't think it is. Who would have imagined me falling in love with teaching elementary/junior high kids? I know I sure didn't.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Final Thoughts for the Week
Alright, after several blogs about the good, the bad, and the ugly for the week, I'm sure you're ready to hear how it all panned out.
Let's start with the first graders. On Friday we had a mini-review of the vocabulary words and a basic plot breakdown. I then gave them their test: 4 multiple choice questions, 4 matching sentences to the pictures, and 2 short answer questions. There was a variety of vocabulary words and comprehension questions. This may not seem like it would take 35 minutes to take, but with struggling readers, it does. At the end of the class, I quickly skimmed their tests, curious to see how they did. Overall, pretty well. Even the student who struggles the most was able to answer many of the questions. Not bad, for the first time I've given a test I have written.
On to the 5th graders. On Monday I assigned a vocabulary homework assignment. The students had to write a short story about a car accident that included 4 vocabulary words (1 from each category-- noun, verb, adjective, adverb). On Friday, they had a similar form of assessment: same criteria, same length, different topics (plane crash, a war they've read about, or a shark attack). During the test, students kept raising their hands asking 2 things: can we use more than 4 words and can we write on the back if we need to? My answer to both questions: yes. However, if they chose more than 4 words, they had to circle the 4 they thought they used best, so that I could assess those. At the end of the classes (I gave the assessment in both 5th grade classes), I gathered the tests and quickly skimmed them. Not only did the students meet the criteria, many tests had 5-8 vocabulary words and 2 (or more) pages filled out. While this is impressive in and of itself, the grades were even better-- no student scored lower than a 70%... and even those were scarce.
The upper grades weren't given any assessment, but on Friday afternoon I had several 8th graders come up to me and say, "Miss, can you read what I wrote? I tried to do some of the things on the hand-out you gave us" outside of the class.
The week came to an end that I couldn't have been more pleased with. Yeah, there were some rocky parts, but when 3pm rolled around on Friday afternoon and my cooperating teacher asked, "So, how was the week?" I couldn't think of any response more fitting than "Teaching is so crazy. I love it."
Let's start with the first graders. On Friday we had a mini-review of the vocabulary words and a basic plot breakdown. I then gave them their test: 4 multiple choice questions, 4 matching sentences to the pictures, and 2 short answer questions. There was a variety of vocabulary words and comprehension questions. This may not seem like it would take 35 minutes to take, but with struggling readers, it does. At the end of the class, I quickly skimmed their tests, curious to see how they did. Overall, pretty well. Even the student who struggles the most was able to answer many of the questions. Not bad, for the first time I've given a test I have written.
On to the 5th graders. On Monday I assigned a vocabulary homework assignment. The students had to write a short story about a car accident that included 4 vocabulary words (1 from each category-- noun, verb, adjective, adverb). On Friday, they had a similar form of assessment: same criteria, same length, different topics (plane crash, a war they've read about, or a shark attack). During the test, students kept raising their hands asking 2 things: can we use more than 4 words and can we write on the back if we need to? My answer to both questions: yes. However, if they chose more than 4 words, they had to circle the 4 they thought they used best, so that I could assess those. At the end of the classes (I gave the assessment in both 5th grade classes), I gathered the tests and quickly skimmed them. Not only did the students meet the criteria, many tests had 5-8 vocabulary words and 2 (or more) pages filled out. While this is impressive in and of itself, the grades were even better-- no student scored lower than a 70%... and even those were scarce.
The upper grades weren't given any assessment, but on Friday afternoon I had several 8th graders come up to me and say, "Miss, can you read what I wrote? I tried to do some of the things on the hand-out you gave us" outside of the class.
The week came to an end that I couldn't have been more pleased with. Yeah, there were some rocky parts, but when 3pm rolled around on Friday afternoon and my cooperating teacher asked, "So, how was the week?" I couldn't think of any response more fitting than "Teaching is so crazy. I love it."
Another lesson for the week: Never under OR over-estimate your kids.
Overestimating my students is something I have realized I have a bad habit of. Example 1) The attention span of the average 1st grader. Example 2) The ability of a sophomore to cooperate with the expectations of a student teacher. Example 3) The knowledge of writing an essay of an 8th grader.
Thursday was another eventful day. In the morning, I helped with a vocabulary activity with the 3rd graders and finished up some last minute details for my 1st graders. I ate lunch and then waited patiently for 4 to 10 little hands to wave through the window to let me know they were waiting "patiently" outside of the classroom. I rounded the corner and greeted 4 of the first graders, and to my surprise, the greeting was returned by all 4 of them with a variety of hugs, smiles, and very excited voices. I ushered them into the classroom, as I had at least 2 activities I needed to complete with them.
If you can recall, Monday afternoon I overestimated their attention span, so for today, I had 2 activities planned, and 2 extra just in case. I knew their wouldn't be time to do all 4, but I know now that being over-prepared is never, ever a bad thing. The first activity was a story map. I gave each student a blue piece of paper that had 6 large empty boxes (2 columns across, 3 rows down) and 2 smaller boxes inside each of those. I had printed out 5 sets of 6 pictures that the students either associated with a vocabulary word or a sentence from the story and cut them out for each of the students. I had a master copy of the story map that had questions about the story (character, "setting," additional details, problem, solution) in "1st grade friendly words." For example, the students know "main character" as "the new friend." The students then held up the picture they thought answered the question and I called on a student to share their answer; then they glued the picture into the larger box and wrote one vocab word in the smaller box.
After this activity, we moved on to the fun activity I had promised to the students at the beginning of the week. If you are friends with me on Facebook, you saw the blob cookies I baked earlier in the week. Well, I brought those in, along with white frosting and food coloring. We then made our "own" class color, because the story was about a chameleon trying to find his own color. The students obviously loved that.
As I walked my students to the door and wished them a good rest of their afternoon, I ran into my supervisor, on her way to observe my next lesson: 8th grade writing workshop. This was the lesson I was most excited for all week. I adore the 8th graders-- as chaotic, distracted, and unmotivated as they are 70% of the time. There is so much potential in that class, so many students that warm my heart, and yet cracking them just doesn't seem to be happening in that classroom, or in any other class from what I hear. I walked in the door, and to my fear, the students were all talking. To my delight, it was about their novel, but still they were talking. When I arrived, the students were supposed to be writing their thesis statements so that I could help them workshop their examples from the novel into solid, detailed, supporting body paragraphs! One of the other teachers asked if this would be a problem for my mini-lesson. In my head: "doesn't matter if it's a problem or not, there's nothing I can do about how prepared they are for what I have prepared. I'm getting observed, so I've just gotta go with it." Verbally: "No, I can do it."
20 seconds into the mini-lesson on adding details and using descriptive words, I realize how very little the students know or care about essay writing in general, let alone writing descriptively. Plan B: let them write. We had some fun adding details to a few sentences about my beloved home state of Idaho and how much I love potatoes, but then we focused on the basics: what's the point of your essay and what are examples to support you? Introductory paragraphs at their most basic level. I walked around the room, helped the students that wanted help, and redirected students who needed redirection. As you can probably tell, this was also not my smoothest lesson, but it happens. When you overestimate an entire's class ability or knowledge of one thing, you risk the chance of students being completely lost. It happens, but what do you do? You take a step back, evaluate what the students know, and re-engage by adjusting to their current needs. They didn't need detailed writing. They needed to know how to make their main idea into a simple sentence. So that's what we did.
After talking with my supervisor, she was very supportive in my struggles for the week. She said I handled myself, the reluctant students, and the curve balls well. Her biggest concern wasn't the fact that I overestimated my students; it was that she feared the classroom wasn't set up in the most student-friendly way... and she's right. There students are not all on the same reading, writing, or critical thinking level. And with 3 trained adults in the classroom 80% of the time, there is a lot more that could be done. Next step: do something about it.
Thursday was another eventful day. In the morning, I helped with a vocabulary activity with the 3rd graders and finished up some last minute details for my 1st graders. I ate lunch and then waited patiently for 4 to 10 little hands to wave through the window to let me know they were waiting "patiently" outside of the classroom. I rounded the corner and greeted 4 of the first graders, and to my surprise, the greeting was returned by all 4 of them with a variety of hugs, smiles, and very excited voices. I ushered them into the classroom, as I had at least 2 activities I needed to complete with them.
If you can recall, Monday afternoon I overestimated their attention span, so for today, I had 2 activities planned, and 2 extra just in case. I knew their wouldn't be time to do all 4, but I know now that being over-prepared is never, ever a bad thing. The first activity was a story map. I gave each student a blue piece of paper that had 6 large empty boxes (2 columns across, 3 rows down) and 2 smaller boxes inside each of those. I had printed out 5 sets of 6 pictures that the students either associated with a vocabulary word or a sentence from the story and cut them out for each of the students. I had a master copy of the story map that had questions about the story (character, "setting," additional details, problem, solution) in "1st grade friendly words." For example, the students know "main character" as "the new friend." The students then held up the picture they thought answered the question and I called on a student to share their answer; then they glued the picture into the larger box and wrote one vocab word in the smaller box.
After this activity, we moved on to the fun activity I had promised to the students at the beginning of the week. If you are friends with me on Facebook, you saw the blob cookies I baked earlier in the week. Well, I brought those in, along with white frosting and food coloring. We then made our "own" class color, because the story was about a chameleon trying to find his own color. The students obviously loved that.
As I walked my students to the door and wished them a good rest of their afternoon, I ran into my supervisor, on her way to observe my next lesson: 8th grade writing workshop. This was the lesson I was most excited for all week. I adore the 8th graders-- as chaotic, distracted, and unmotivated as they are 70% of the time. There is so much potential in that class, so many students that warm my heart, and yet cracking them just doesn't seem to be happening in that classroom, or in any other class from what I hear. I walked in the door, and to my fear, the students were all talking. To my delight, it was about their novel, but still they were talking. When I arrived, the students were supposed to be writing their thesis statements so that I could help them workshop their examples from the novel into solid, detailed, supporting body paragraphs! One of the other teachers asked if this would be a problem for my mini-lesson. In my head: "doesn't matter if it's a problem or not, there's nothing I can do about how prepared they are for what I have prepared. I'm getting observed, so I've just gotta go with it." Verbally: "No, I can do it."
20 seconds into the mini-lesson on adding details and using descriptive words, I realize how very little the students know or care about essay writing in general, let alone writing descriptively. Plan B: let them write. We had some fun adding details to a few sentences about my beloved home state of Idaho and how much I love potatoes, but then we focused on the basics: what's the point of your essay and what are examples to support you? Introductory paragraphs at their most basic level. I walked around the room, helped the students that wanted help, and redirected students who needed redirection. As you can probably tell, this was also not my smoothest lesson, but it happens. When you overestimate an entire's class ability or knowledge of one thing, you risk the chance of students being completely lost. It happens, but what do you do? You take a step back, evaluate what the students know, and re-engage by adjusting to their current needs. They didn't need detailed writing. They needed to know how to make their main idea into a simple sentence. So that's what we did.
After talking with my supervisor, she was very supportive in my struggles for the week. She said I handled myself, the reluctant students, and the curve balls well. Her biggest concern wasn't the fact that I overestimated my students; it was that she feared the classroom wasn't set up in the most student-friendly way... and she's right. There students are not all on the same reading, writing, or critical thinking level. And with 3 trained adults in the classroom 80% of the time, there is a lot more that could be done. Next step: do something about it.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Real World: Student Teaching Episode 2
I have worked up enough energy to blog about yesterday. After I explain the events of Wednesday, you'll understand what an accomplishment gaining some energy has been.
First, let me start by telling you how much my "warm" personality and internal thermos dislike the weather here. Laying by the beach, it's wonderful. In a classroom with no air-conditioning and flustering situations... not so much. Not to mention, having a "good" hair day is about as common as getting the high school boys to see me as more than "the student teacher who lives with (insert fellow high school student name here)." So that's where I'll start my day... in the 10th grade classroom.
I always knew teaching high schoolers would be a challenge. That's part of the whole deal I look forward to the most. I want to teach kids about my content area, certainly. But that's not all I want to give my students. I want to give them a trustworthy role model, someone they can look up to, someone they can talk to, and someone they respect. That's hard to do when I stand 5 foot 4 and don't understand the first language of many of my students. It's even harder to do when I let that get to my head... about 45 seconds into the lesson.
Paragraph structure-- that was the topic of my 25 minute mini-lesson. "The students know what that is... they just need a refresher. Would you like to do it?" the American and Brit Lit teacher asked me. I pounced on the opportunity instantly. High school Literature and ESL all in the same classroom-- my kind of paradise. I began prepping that night (this was Saturday). I was going to have the best mini-lesson on paragraph structure ever-- the perfect balance of teacher input and student intake. I couldn't imagine a single thing that could go wrong...
Fast-forward to 11:50AM on Wednesday. The students had walked in, completed their "morning work," and all eyes were on me. I gave a really simple introduction, since I had never worked with or observed these students before, and then began. I heard a soft laugh from the left side of the room. There sat a rather tall boy, smile on his face, arms folded. I wondered what was funny but kept going. Seconds later 2 more boys joined in on the whispered laughs, this time making eye contact with each other after several glances up at me. I looked at one of them with my best "teacher look" possible and pressed forward. As I kept racking my brain for the points I had planned to make, the boys returned to their childish laughs and high school boyish interactions. I could feel my body getting warm and could feel my face turn red (more so than typical). Suddenly, everything I had prepared was lost in the back of my mind, and I could hardly find enough words to keep the lesson flowing semi-smoothly. I decided it was best to hand out the mentor text, ask the students to turn to their neighbor and find the intro, supporting, and conclusion sentences and to be prepared to share their answers.
I took a minute, plugged in my flashdrive, sat down, and fanned my warm face with my notes to gain a normal complexion and some more composure. After a minute or two, I glanced in the direction of my three biggest fans in the class. I approached one of their desks and asked how it was going.
"Eh." He responded. I looked at his paper and asked if he knew what we were doing. He said no. I took the opportunity to ask one of the other two boys to help him. They couldn't. "We're looking for the sentence types we talked about during the discussion. See if you can find a few and be ready to get called on for an answer." I gave them a few more minutes before I opened up the floor for discussion. The answers and questions were fine-- very basic, hardly any discussion, and very unenthusiastic-- but fine. The boys continued their childish behavior and the girls continued acting mindless. I knew I hadn't accomplished even half of what I wanted. I left the room feeling, warm and flustered, down and out, and defeated. I failed at a mini-lesson... how on earth to I expect myself to be prepared for a lifetime of teaching when I can't even gather my composure from high school boys' nonsense laughter?
I returned to the ESL classroom a few minutes before my next class-- 1st graders. There was just enough time to vocalize my frustration to my cooperating teachers and refocus on my 1st graders. That lesson went so well. We reviewed vocab words, watched a short video on a very colorful chameleon, read the story with cue cards, and then watched the motion picture of the story. The students loved it, and at the end of the lesson, every single student was able to answer my comprehension questions. Success!
Literally a minute later, I left for my 8th grade class-- Debate time. The students were very passionate about the debate. While their supporting facts and information wasn't as strong as I would have hoped, they really nailed the "defend your argument" part of it. We kept them to a very formal procedure, limiting the time, the talking, and the discussion time. At the end of the lesson, the students were supposed to have a thesis statement and several supporting examples to prepare them for my writing workshop the next day, but that never happened. No problem: they can do it in the first 15 minutes. They have so many examples; all they have to do is choose a side... this should be easy.
About 3 minutes after that class, I walked back to the high school. I was scheduled to give the same mini-lesson to the second class-- the group I spend 2 hours with a week. I knew this would be a little easier, but even the thought of another failing lesson was enough to make my stomach ache. I talked to the teacher for a few minutes outside before entering. "Tell me what went well" She asked. The only positive running through my head was that I didn't cry. "I don't know," I responded. "You have to think of the positives. There were good things, so just think," she smiled and waited. "Ok... they recalled some information? They participated towards the end, but not like I anticipated." She nodded in agreement and gave me some pointers. The next lesson went great. I adjusted the intro, engaged the students immediately, and held them more accountable, but most importantly I maintained my composure... something I couldn't manage the first class.
I'll skip to the lesson learned. Yes, the teacher recognized that she had put me in a tough situation-- jumping into a class I had never met, teaching a mini-lesson in the middle of a unit, and it was the lower of the two classes. That would have been good to know beforehand, but it wasn't her fault.
As someone who desires to teach in high school, I can't let three 15 year old chucklers cause me that much fluster. And I can't lose sight of what I'm there to do. I'm not there to impress them, and I'm not there to care about what thoughts about me are running through their minds, and I'm not there to experience only success (though that would be a lot easier). I'm there to develop my teaching skills, to experience the real world of teaching-- good and bad, to learn from my mistakes and to adjust accordingly. Teaching isn't easy, and yesterday that really hit me hard. But giving up isn't something I was taught to do. I've heard stories of lesson disasters and I've seen them, too. I knew it wouldn't be fun to "fail" in front of my students, but it's something I needed to experience. It's just the test I needed.
So what did I learn? In 25 minutes of first-time exposure to students and classroom, there is no way that I can expect my 3 big aspects of teaching to get accomplished: developing good teacher-student relationships, delivering the content I need, and gaining my student's respect as the authority-figure in the classroom. So instead, I focused on two things for the next lesson: deliver clear and accurate information and instruction, and maintain my composure. That was it. Everything else that went well was a bonus. Luckily, I was able to end the day on a good note.
I also learned that my confidence isn't unshatterable, but my perseverance is. I don't like being embarrassed; it's not fun, but I do like a challenge.
After the second dose of 10th graders, the teacher asked if that felt better. "Yeah," I said. "And I'd like to try it again, if that's OK. With the first class, too." She smiled, "Of course! I'll look at what else we have coming up and let you know."
First, let me start by telling you how much my "warm" personality and internal thermos dislike the weather here. Laying by the beach, it's wonderful. In a classroom with no air-conditioning and flustering situations... not so much. Not to mention, having a "good" hair day is about as common as getting the high school boys to see me as more than "the student teacher who lives with (insert fellow high school student name here)." So that's where I'll start my day... in the 10th grade classroom.
I always knew teaching high schoolers would be a challenge. That's part of the whole deal I look forward to the most. I want to teach kids about my content area, certainly. But that's not all I want to give my students. I want to give them a trustworthy role model, someone they can look up to, someone they can talk to, and someone they respect. That's hard to do when I stand 5 foot 4 and don't understand the first language of many of my students. It's even harder to do when I let that get to my head... about 45 seconds into the lesson.
Paragraph structure-- that was the topic of my 25 minute mini-lesson. "The students know what that is... they just need a refresher. Would you like to do it?" the American and Brit Lit teacher asked me. I pounced on the opportunity instantly. High school Literature and ESL all in the same classroom-- my kind of paradise. I began prepping that night (this was Saturday). I was going to have the best mini-lesson on paragraph structure ever-- the perfect balance of teacher input and student intake. I couldn't imagine a single thing that could go wrong...
Fast-forward to 11:50AM on Wednesday. The students had walked in, completed their "morning work," and all eyes were on me. I gave a really simple introduction, since I had never worked with or observed these students before, and then began. I heard a soft laugh from the left side of the room. There sat a rather tall boy, smile on his face, arms folded. I wondered what was funny but kept going. Seconds later 2 more boys joined in on the whispered laughs, this time making eye contact with each other after several glances up at me. I looked at one of them with my best "teacher look" possible and pressed forward. As I kept racking my brain for the points I had planned to make, the boys returned to their childish laughs and high school boyish interactions. I could feel my body getting warm and could feel my face turn red (more so than typical). Suddenly, everything I had prepared was lost in the back of my mind, and I could hardly find enough words to keep the lesson flowing semi-smoothly. I decided it was best to hand out the mentor text, ask the students to turn to their neighbor and find the intro, supporting, and conclusion sentences and to be prepared to share their answers.
I took a minute, plugged in my flashdrive, sat down, and fanned my warm face with my notes to gain a normal complexion and some more composure. After a minute or two, I glanced in the direction of my three biggest fans in the class. I approached one of their desks and asked how it was going.
"Eh." He responded. I looked at his paper and asked if he knew what we were doing. He said no. I took the opportunity to ask one of the other two boys to help him. They couldn't. "We're looking for the sentence types we talked about during the discussion. See if you can find a few and be ready to get called on for an answer." I gave them a few more minutes before I opened up the floor for discussion. The answers and questions were fine-- very basic, hardly any discussion, and very unenthusiastic-- but fine. The boys continued their childish behavior and the girls continued acting mindless. I knew I hadn't accomplished even half of what I wanted. I left the room feeling, warm and flustered, down and out, and defeated. I failed at a mini-lesson... how on earth to I expect myself to be prepared for a lifetime of teaching when I can't even gather my composure from high school boys' nonsense laughter?
I returned to the ESL classroom a few minutes before my next class-- 1st graders. There was just enough time to vocalize my frustration to my cooperating teachers and refocus on my 1st graders. That lesson went so well. We reviewed vocab words, watched a short video on a very colorful chameleon, read the story with cue cards, and then watched the motion picture of the story. The students loved it, and at the end of the lesson, every single student was able to answer my comprehension questions. Success!
Literally a minute later, I left for my 8th grade class-- Debate time. The students were very passionate about the debate. While their supporting facts and information wasn't as strong as I would have hoped, they really nailed the "defend your argument" part of it. We kept them to a very formal procedure, limiting the time, the talking, and the discussion time. At the end of the lesson, the students were supposed to have a thesis statement and several supporting examples to prepare them for my writing workshop the next day, but that never happened. No problem: they can do it in the first 15 minutes. They have so many examples; all they have to do is choose a side... this should be easy.
About 3 minutes after that class, I walked back to the high school. I was scheduled to give the same mini-lesson to the second class-- the group I spend 2 hours with a week. I knew this would be a little easier, but even the thought of another failing lesson was enough to make my stomach ache. I talked to the teacher for a few minutes outside before entering. "Tell me what went well" She asked. The only positive running through my head was that I didn't cry. "I don't know," I responded. "You have to think of the positives. There were good things, so just think," she smiled and waited. "Ok... they recalled some information? They participated towards the end, but not like I anticipated." She nodded in agreement and gave me some pointers. The next lesson went great. I adjusted the intro, engaged the students immediately, and held them more accountable, but most importantly I maintained my composure... something I couldn't manage the first class.
I'll skip to the lesson learned. Yes, the teacher recognized that she had put me in a tough situation-- jumping into a class I had never met, teaching a mini-lesson in the middle of a unit, and it was the lower of the two classes. That would have been good to know beforehand, but it wasn't her fault.
As someone who desires to teach in high school, I can't let three 15 year old chucklers cause me that much fluster. And I can't lose sight of what I'm there to do. I'm not there to impress them, and I'm not there to care about what thoughts about me are running through their minds, and I'm not there to experience only success (though that would be a lot easier). I'm there to develop my teaching skills, to experience the real world of teaching-- good and bad, to learn from my mistakes and to adjust accordingly. Teaching isn't easy, and yesterday that really hit me hard. But giving up isn't something I was taught to do. I've heard stories of lesson disasters and I've seen them, too. I knew it wouldn't be fun to "fail" in front of my students, but it's something I needed to experience. It's just the test I needed.
So what did I learn? In 25 minutes of first-time exposure to students and classroom, there is no way that I can expect my 3 big aspects of teaching to get accomplished: developing good teacher-student relationships, delivering the content I need, and gaining my student's respect as the authority-figure in the classroom. So instead, I focused on two things for the next lesson: deliver clear and accurate information and instruction, and maintain my composure. That was it. Everything else that went well was a bonus. Luckily, I was able to end the day on a good note.
I also learned that my confidence isn't unshatterable, but my perseverance is. I don't like being embarrassed; it's not fun, but I do like a challenge.
After the second dose of 10th graders, the teacher asked if that felt better. "Yeah," I said. "And I'd like to try it again, if that's OK. With the first class, too." She smiled, "Of course! I'll look at what else we have coming up and let you know."
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Real World: Student Teaching Episode 1
Sunday evening I sat in my apartment, making a very thorough checklist for the week.5th grade vocab list, activity, and assessment-- check. First grade lesson plans-- check through Wednesday. 8th grade writing workshop-- check. Sophomore mini-lesson-- also check. I was all ready for a very full, very productive week.
Monday morning rolled around, and the 5th grade class went almost as well as I expected. There are 2 reading classes for 5th grade, and I was leading the lower of the two, because they are the only ones I have observed. We did an activity I called "Vocabulary Scattegories Jigsaw." Basically, the students split into 4 categories (noun, verb, adverb, adjective) and had to put the vocabulary words in the right category and come up with a definition. I gave them the page number in the book for context clues. After that, they mixed w/ a representative from the other categories and shared their answers. Then we all came together and went over the right categories/definitions. Working with the class that has a few more needs than the other made it a bit challenging, took a bit more prodding in the right direction, but overall, I was pleased with it.
Then I moved onto the squirmy first graders... just as squirmy as ever. We went outside to do what I thought would be a "super fun activity." In my defense, it was super fun...for about 2 minutes. I overestimated their attention span by about 8 minutes, leaving me with no choice except to return to the classroom to move onto the next activity. Normally, introducing vocabulary takes a lot of visuals, repetition, practice, and patience. Add a camera that the students self-discover to the classroom setting, and all the sudden the short attention span disappears and the students are able to focus... on their poses for the camera. After about 6 double takes at the camera, several silly faces, and a few stern teacher looks, I took a deep breath and asked the students to refocus their attention on me...again. I informed them that just because I am not my cooperating teacher, that being disruptive isn't OK. I am still a teacher, and I am still here to help them learn. The students just kind of looked at me, so I asked them how they thought they were behaving in class today: thumbs up or thumbs down. Two thumbs down, one thumb up, one confused look, and one smiling at the camera. Another deep breath before I continued. "Alright, class, I'll make you a deal. If class goes like this, we'll focus on reading and taking tests. If class starts going better and we all participate and pay attention, then we'll do some fun activities along with the reading and taking the test." Eyes lit up.
"What kind of fun, miss?" I smiled. I guess we'll see when class starts going better. Instantly the mood shifted, the students started paying attention, and the camera seemed to be of less importance. After wrapping up the new vocabulary and a brief introduction to the new story, I walked the students to the door, and wished them all a good rest of the afternoon. "Bye, miss!" The girls hugged me and the boys smirked and escaped out of my sight as soon as I opened the door.
What a day... and I still had 8th graders and 10th graders to observe that day.
Now, what did I take from that day? And can I share the video of the candid camera? I'm going to put off my lessons learned until the end of the week. Believe it or not, the first graders were given a run for their money by another class. Unfortunately, I'm far too exhausted to continue blogging my busy day today, but let me give you a feel for it: leading the class in 1st grade, 5th grade, 8th grade debate, and 2 10th grade classes.
And as far as sharing the candid camera, the professional in me says "absolutely not," and besides... little to my or my students' knowledge, it died about 10 minutes into the lesson.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
The True Tests for Teaching
Four day weeks seem to be much longer, busier, and exhausting than the average week for some reason. After the holiday this past Monday, there seemed to be a lot more work than usual. Maybe that's because I also started working on my TULIP (basically, it's a unit plan for my student teaching), but regardless, the past 4 days left me far more exhausted than I've been thus far in student teaching.
The rest of the reading went a lot smoother. Sure, there was still some goofing around and some silly answers to my questions, but at the end of the lesson, he had met my expectations of following along, participating appropriately, and recognizing and demonstrating an understanding of the vocabulary words in the story. And at the end of the day, he's still a first grader. It's OK that he didn't understand the story perfectly, and it's OK that he wanted to have fun, and it's great that he gave me the attention and participation I asked for. The class ended and I gave each student the appropriate amount of points they deserved. The students exited the class and my supervisor approached me. That morning I received one of the greatest compliments of my life-- good classroom management. I think being a student teacher, that's the hardest thing to establish. The students all have previous expectations from the cooperating teacher, and establishing my own classroom management makes it difficult. Apparently, I did a good job.
Tuesday was a fairly normal day-- introducing vocabulary (which is normally done on Mondays) to the Language Arts classes that receive ESL support, reading with the 8th graders, and sitting in on the British Literature class in the afternoon. Wednesday was the same-- reading with the Language Arts classes, working on my lesson plans for next week, and sitting in on the American Literature class's introduction to "Paradise Lost." Good luck, sophomores!
Thursday was a bit out of the norm. First, I received my first in-class observation from my supervisor during the 9am 1st grade class. Normally, I don't do a lot of work with these students because Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I am with 5th grade until 9:30, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays I spend the whole hour with them. On Thursday, the students were working on finishing a test from a previous story, so I walked around, provided support, answered questions, etc., and then I read with half of the class. Seems like a pretty smooth class to be observed during, right? Wrong.
Over the long weekend, I came up with a few vocabulary review activities for my cooperating teacher. On Wednesday, I worked with half of the students on one of the activities during a centers class. Up to this point, it seemed as though I had built a trusting, comfortable relationship with all of the students in the 1st grade classes (a total of 9 students). Even the newest students, who just joined the pull-out program in the past week or so, seemed to trust me and want my support. Creating a fun review activity that they got to participate in seemed like the icing on the cake.
Everything seemed to be going great through the test. I helped the kids read the questions, reworded them for easier comprehension, referred to their previously-acquired knowledge, and couldn't help but smile when I saw the students working so diligently as they recalled information with minimal support. Then, all of the sudden I heard this annoying clunking sound. I looked at the fans-- that wasn't it. Looked at the aide working on the computer-- that wasn't it. Looked at the newest student in the class-- that was it. There he sat, dropping his eraser down the rings of his 3-ring binder, pencil on the desk, test incomplete. I approached him and asked if he was finished. He ignored me. I asked him if he needed help. He shook his head and proceeded dropping the eraser down the rings. I asked him if he could put the eraser down because other students were still testing. Ignored again. I took a deep breath, grabbed the eraser, and asked him if he was having trouble understanding the questions on the test. He shook his head and looked the other way. Meanwhile, the door had opened, my supervisor walked in, and I had been observed as my patience was tested. A few moments later, time was called, tests were collected, and the students split into their centers.
In my reading center, I had the two boys, one of which was the student I just described. I sat down, handed them the stories I wrote over the weekend incorporating review vocabulary words, and explained to them what we were going to do: read the story together, then take turns reading, and then a little game for points (and candy). One of the boy's faces lit up, the other's did not. Instead, he flipped over the paper and said "I will read it like this!" I flipped the paper back over and responded, "No, I think it's best to read it this way." I asked them to follow along with their fingers. "I don't have fingers," he interjected as he held up two fists. I smiled and responded, "Really, I see 10 right there, and I think you can spare one of those to follow along." I gently guided one hand to the first sentence and began reading. After 2 lines in the story, I realized he wasn't going to pay attention. "(student name here), how many points do you have right now?" I asked him, soft enough to not make a scene, but stern enough to know that he wasn't getting away with not paying attention. "Four," he said. "How many points do you want? I can take some away if you'd like." He shook his head and began reading. I smiled and said, "OK, let's start at the beginning."
The rest of the reading went a lot smoother. Sure, there was still some goofing around and some silly answers to my questions, but at the end of the lesson, he had met my expectations of following along, participating appropriately, and recognizing and demonstrating an understanding of the vocabulary words in the story. And at the end of the day, he's still a first grader. It's OK that he didn't understand the story perfectly, and it's OK that he wanted to have fun, and it's great that he gave me the attention and participation I asked for. The class ended and I gave each student the appropriate amount of points they deserved. The students exited the class and my supervisor approached me. That morning I received one of the greatest compliments of my life-- good classroom management. I think being a student teacher, that's the hardest thing to establish. The students all have previous expectations from the cooperating teacher, and establishing my own classroom management makes it difficult. Apparently, I did a good job.
Half an hour later, I headed up to third grade: field trip day! We had been reading a story about a baker and his bread, so naturally we had to take the students to a bakery. On the field trip, we learned the entire process of making a pizza (from the owner's 5th grade son-- so precious), made animal-shaped bread, assembled our own pizzas, and ate it. It was so much fun, but so exhausting! After the field trip, I returned just in time to meet with the 5th grade Language Arts team (gen ed teacher, SST teacher, ESL teacher, and myself) to plan for next week-- the week I take over the ESL teacher's responsibility in that classroom. It was a great meeting-- presenting my ideas for a vocabulary introductory activity, receiving feedback, asking questions, and coming out with what I feel like is a well thought out activity and assessment. I can't wait to put it all into action next week!
Friday was another fairly normal day, minus the puking of a third grader that I "got to" help clean up. At the end of the week, my mind and body were left drained and ready for a relaxing weekend. I cannot emphasize how much more rewarding weekends are as a teacher than a 12-credit college student.
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