11/13/12 (First Year Teacher Observation)
I observed Ms. S.’s 8th grade English class on Friday. The first thing that I noticed when I walked into her classroom was how quiet it was. The students were all working quietly and (for the most part) diligently on their daily journals when I entered the classroom. When the time was up, Ms. S. asked students to share their writing. Only one student volunteered to share their writing. After this Ms. S. asked if anyone else wanted to share. No one volunteered, but one student rudely and loudly said “No.” I was impressed with Ms. S. response to this. Rather than responding negatively to this student’s rude comment, she turned this into a lesson that was both positive and relevant to the class. Ms. S. repeated “No?” and then continued, “Well, how do you know that no one else in the whole class wants to share?” The student replied, “Nobody ever wants to share.” Ms. S. continued, “Oh, I see. So you are making an inference. You are using your background knowledge, knowing that this is generally a quiet class and that no one is raising their hands, to make an inference about our class. Does everyone see how _____ just made an inference? We can do the same thing when we are reading.” I was very impressed with her controlled response to this potentially negative situation.
Later on in the day I spoke with Ms. S. and asked her how she managed to keep her class so quiet. She revealed that this class is generally very quiet since it is first thing in the morning and they are all usually half-asleep. However, she said that her best method for quieting the class and getting their attention is to consistently use only one signal. Ms. S. counts down backwards from five to “focus fox.” She said that during her student teaching she tried to use too many signals to get the students’ attention and that it did not really work. I am seeing the same thing in my own experience. I think that when I have my own classroom I will establish my signal at the beginning of the year and then always use this same signal.
10/28/12
Last week went pretty well overall. It was a confidence boost after the previous week. The week before last I had a couple of rough days and I had been feeling kind of down. This week though, I had a much more successful week with fewer behavior issues. It was my goal for this past week to try out some new management techniques to try to cut out the amount of talking that had been going on. By the end of the week I could already see an improvement.
I had been having issues in my classes with transitioning from one activity to the next and with just the general amount of talking during the class. While I know that I will have to continue to work with the students and condition them to behave, it is encouraging to see the improvement.
The first major change that I made last week was to set more time limits. I told students the amount of time that they had to work on an activity before they began. This cut out on a lot of dawdling and task avoidance. I found that if the students know that they only have a limited amount of time to work on something they will get it done more quickly. I even tried to set a time limit on the amount of time it took students to take out their papers and to be prepared for the next task. I told students that they had to take out a piece of paper and finish labeling it by the time the chicken dance song went off (my MT has a big red button that plays the chicken dance). This has sped up transitions a bit, but I still get a lot of grumbling and chatting when it is time to take out papers. I will continue to work on transitions with the students and try to come up with new ways to help the students with this.
Another thing that I have been trying with the students is to hold them more accountable for their work. If students feel like there will be some kind of consequence for slacking off on their work, I think they will be more willing to put effort into their work and they will get it done faster. So far this has proven true. I have been trying to hold the students more accountable for warm ups and for their homework. Last week I tried collecting the students’ warm ups immediately after the time was up. Students were shocked and were frantically trying to write something down before I got to their row. The next day I did this again, but there were more students who were prepared. I have been continuing to collect warm ups, but I have cut it back. I tell students that I will only need to collect warm ups when they do not prove to me that they can come in and get to work. This has improved the fluidity of the beginning of class greatly. We have been getting through warm ups more quickly, and the students are more ready to begin class after the warm up is over. I will continue to work on cutting back the talking during class, but so far I am happy with what I have accomplished.
10/15/12
Last week went well. I feel as though each week I am growing and learning more. I spoke to my MT about taking more of a complete roll in the classroom, and she has taken a step back as far as jumping in. Still, I think that it is a bit hard for her to let go. I enjoy working with my MT though and I feel like I get a lot of useful advice and help from her.
While I feel like the experience of teaching can be frustrating at times, I have been realizing more and more throughout the process that this is something that I really enjoy. I know that I want to have a future in teaching. I had a moment that particularly reminded me of this this past week.
My MT and I have been struggling a bit with one of our students. This student is very intelligent and very outgoing/outspoken. I see a lot of potential in her. However, she projects an attitude that school and learning are not cool and that reading is boring. She frequently makes a scene when we go to the library about not wanting to read. Unfortunately a lot of the other students have been picking up on this attitude recently and have been modeling her behavior. This past week while we were at the library I pulled her aside to talk to her. I spoke to this student about being a more positive roll model and about taking advantage of her potential. At first the conversation was not going very well. She got upset and thought that I was attacking her. After some rewording and re-explaining I feel like I was able to get through to her. Since then, I have noticed that she has been reading more and that she will frequently show me her work and ask me to look over it when she feels proud of what she has done. I know that I will still need to work with her to continue to encourage these positive behaviors, but I feel as though I have made a connection with this student. It feels good to have made an impact, even if I did not manage it quite as smoothly as I had hoped. I feel like I learned from this experience at any rate.
9/24/12
Last week went well over all. I have been spending more and more time teaching. I had one day this week that was frustrating. This got me down and I felt reluctant to go back the next day. I am glad that I did though, because I realized that just because there is one bad day does not mean that all the rest of the days will be bad days. The students’ behavior improved the next day and continued to do so throughout the week.
During that one bad day I felt like I was hit one after another with waves of bad behavior, and by the end of the day I was completely worn out. My MT had to leave early that day because she was not feeling well, so I ended up having to teach for pretty much the whole day alone. It seemed as if the kids were trying to test me. By the end of the day I felt as though I had yelled all of my energy out. By the end of this day I learned the lesson that I don’t want to be a yeller. I went home determined to think of a way to lay the hammer down and improve the classes’ behaviors.
Fortunately, when I came to school the next day I spoke with my MT about the situation the previous day, and she told me that she had already planned to implement a new discipline system. You actually got to see the introduction of this in one of the classes, but we had already begun this in the others. We created a sit it out desk and card system. The student is given one yellow warning card that says “Make a better choice,” and then a red “sit it out” card if the behavior continues. The student will be sent to the sit it out desk where they will be expected to fill out a sheet that explains why they were sent to the desk and how they plan to improve that behavior. It has only been a few days since we introduced this new strategy, but I have seen an improvement in behavior, particularly for those students who have received a warning.
8/27/12
I was very nervous coming into the first week, but my nerves went away surprisingly quickly as I became acquainted with my mentor teacher and the students. I found that my mentor teacher as well as the students, for the most part, was much easier to connect with than I had feared they might be. This has given me more confidence and I am now looking forward to the coming weeks with excitement rather than nerves.
In only a week’s time I feel as though I have started to form bonds with my teacher and students. My mentor teacher and I work well together and feed off of each other. Since she and I remember different students more distinctly, we have been able to work together to create appropriate seating charts as well as to differentiate to their specific needs. In our inclusion class, for example, I have spent more time working with certain students one on one and she with others. Because of this we have been able to meet the specific needs of more students while sharing what we find with each other. I have found that we have been able to be strong co-teachers in this way. Of course, this is only one week in, so I am sure that this dynamic will change and adapt as the semester goes on.
I feel like I was pretty successful in meeting my goals for the week. I spent a lot of one on one time talking and planning with my teacher, and I spent a good amount of time talking with students individually and as a group. I now know all of my students’ names, and I think I am starting to get a feel for most of their personalities. I also learned a bit about smart board and taught a bell ringer using smart board. For the bell ringer I set up an activity to practice differentiating the words “to, too, and two.” I wrote five sentences on the smart board leaving blanks for the correct word and the students had to drag the correct word to the blank. I feel like this activity went pretty well. It allowed an opportunity for the students to get up and move around while practicing grammar. I also practiced differentiation as I altered the activity slightly for each of the classes. For the inclusion class I spent much more time explaining the difference between these words and giving examples of proper usage than I did with the other classes. I debriefed with my mentor teacher at the end of the day and she said that I did very well. Her only suggestion was that I needed to work on creating a stronger teacher voice. This she said would come with time though. I noticed myself though that I need to work on strengthening my transitions. As a whole, I felt like this activity went well, but I see some areas that I need to work on.
Overall I feel like the first week went very well. I am glad that I am beginning my student teaching internship in the fall rather than in the spring since I am getting to see a lot of the behind the scenes preparation. I feel like it is helpful to see how classroom management and a rapport with students are established rather than coming in halfway through the year when these are already pretty well set. Had I never had an opportunity to observe my mentor teacher prepare for the year and set up her class, I would feel much less comfortable with setting up my own class. I am looking forward to continuing to learn from my mentor teacher and through this experience.
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