Language Arts Take Over

Over the last week or so, I have started to take over language and spelling. I thought that this would be an easy challenge because language and spelling were always my strengths as a student. However, I'm finding that just because I know something doesn't necessarily mean I can teach it well. I've been really putting a lot of effort into my grammar lessons as far as scripting and finding examples because my mind seems to go blank when I'm in front of the class. And because of that, yesterday's lesson on linking verbs went extremely well. Students seemed to actually get it! We'll see if that is still the case today.

AHHH!!! GRAMMAR!!

This week we decided that it was time to have a review of capitalization rules. I had taught this lesson last semester, but for whatever reason, several of them were still struggling with the idea that they actually needed to APPLY what they had learned. When asked, they can all recite when and how to capitalize, but when they go to their writing, it doesn't seem to click. So, we started over. After the lesson and the assessment, it seemed like most of them understood. However, a few of them still seemed completely lost so I am planning on doing a small group lesson for them on Thursday. I've created a checklist that they will tape to their desks in order to remind them of what they need to check for.

We also decided that it was time for them to have a lesson on adjectives. That started on Monday and did not go well at all. They could all give me a definition but when it came to finding and providing examples, I kept getting verbs! Grammar is something that I'm finding I struggle to teach but I need to come up with an interesting and meaningful way to do it because these kids just aren't getting it. I'm hoping to come up with a writing assignment that will allow them to explore both of these skills in their own writing. Hopefully that will create more meaning for them because this is definitely getting to the point where it is frustrating me!

My Last First Day Back

It's hard to believe but this is my last first day as an undergraduate! It was great to get back and see all the kids. I was pleasantly surprised to see how excited they were that I was back. Of course, they were full of questions. Apparently there was a rumor going around that I had spent the break in China so they were dying to know about my trip.

I met with my mentor and communicated a lot of the concerns I had about this upcoming semester. How am I going to be taking over the different subjects? Are we going to be able to set up a planning routine? Can we get some more formal feedback for the portfolios? It actually went really well and I feel a lot better about what's coming at me. I will be changing classes with my students every day and I will be taking over science and social studies first because of MSAs. The only lingering fear/concern I have is going to be how to make decisions about what to teach in Language Arts. She doesn't follow the curriculum guide to the letter because she has so much experience with it that she's rearranged a lot of it. Am I going to be able to pick up where she left off with that? I'm not sure that I'm ever going to be able to fully take over with that kind of decision making because I don't know what's already been taught, what students know, etc. I'm sure it will be fine but I like to go into things knowing that I'll be successful. Or at least knowing that I have the tools I need to be successful. I'm not quite at that place yet.

Keeping Kids Focused in Math

Today I spent first period in math with the Yellow Class. I was able to go over the homework from last night and today's warm-up with them which was a serious relief because I need a lot of practice with teaching math. Although I was comfortable with the material, I felt really frazzled and uncomfortable because I was teaching while keeping an extremely close eye on everything that happens in the classroom continues to be a difficult adjustment for me.

After the warm-up, the objective for the day was introduced which involved simplifying fractions and writing equivalent fractions. As soon as she said the word, "fraction," there was a general moan from the class and a few cries of "I HATE FRACTIONS!" I feel like this is a common sentiment across elementary students because fractions are difficult to conceptualize and master. I also feel like math instruction can be pretty boring and combining a boring lesson with difficult material is never good. This really motivated me to come up with an engaging and relevant lesson for when I teach Least Common Multiples in a few weeks. I hope to be able to find some way to present the necessary information without boring them to tears or overwhelming them.

I have seen some great ideas to help keep kids focused in this classroom. One of those is the use of post-it notes in the students' math notes journals. Each student is given a post-it note to write vocabulary words and their definitions on so that they stand out. I think this is fabulous and really gives students guidance as to where they should be looking when they study and review the material. Unfortunately, she has decided that bright or dark colors are inappropriate and has started passing out WHITE post-its... If they're going to write on white post-its to stick on white paper, then what is the purpose?!

Another idea she shared with me today was the use of team folders. Each folder is pre-loaded with all of the materials that the students will need for the day so that instructional time is not spent on distributing papers and supplies. I loved this idea and it seemed to really work today. This means a little extra planning time for the teacher, but the amount of time that can be spent on passing out papers and the distractions that students can become involved in while you do it can be very frustrating.

Micro-Managing the Classroom and Lost Causes

Today, I spent two out of three periods in the math classroom with the other fifth grade intern's mentor teacher, I'll refer to her as LH. We have started to establish a routine where we switch more regularly so that we can ensure that we are meeting all of the standards for the PBA and for graduation. This has been quite the challenge with the controversy surrounding the Science/Social Studies teacher and the task of collaborating with multiple teachers to address the needs of 90+ students.

I had a brief conference with one of my mentors this morning so that we would both know what to expect. She has a very structured classroom and teaching style that I have not quite mastered yet. All students are expected to sit in learning position for the duration of the class, they must walk in a certain direction to reach their destination, even if that means they have to walk farther to get there, they can never leave their seats without permission, etc. There is very little opportunity for student freedom or choice in this room and there are so many rules that it sometimes seems that students are so focused on how they are supposed to behave than on what they are supposed to be learning. During our conference, she made the comment that she really hoped to help me strengthen my classroom management skills because I don't enforce her rules as closely as she would like. How do I address this issue of competing styles without being disrespectful or sounding like a know-it-all? Am I really allowed to have "style" at this point in my education? The point of the matter is, that I don't think the way she does and reprimanding students for not sitting in the learning position is not something that I am interested in at all. I believe that the purpose of teaching is to prepare students to become independent and to take responsibility for themselves and I'm not quite sure that is happening in this classroom. Perhaps it's too early in the year to tell.

I also learned that this teacher believes in lost causes - children who are too lazy, stupid, neglected, etc. to learn anything. Several students are struggling but they are systematically ignored because "they aren't going to learn" or "they don't want to learn" or "they have nasty parents." I believe that all students can and want to learn but I'm being told to ignore those students?! What's the point of teaching if we give up on students who struggle? Especially at this early point in the year! It is so disheartening to work with a teacher with that attitude.

Supervisor Journal #2 - Engaging and Maintaining Student Attention

For my observation, I taught a lesson to launch the new reading unit, Nature’s Fury. Students seemed to be really interested in the topic and were highly motivated by the activities that I presented because they were new and very emotionally charged.

I started with a warm-up asking students to write about a time when the weather had changed their plans. This got them thinking about environmental events and how they impact humans while also making connections with the students’ own personal experiences. Students were eager to share their responses with the class and I had to cut off sharing time even though not all students got a chance to respond. They were very excited to be able to use their own lives as learning experiences.

After the warm-up, the students did the graffiti activity where they basically got to “dump” everything they knew about natural disasters using pictures and words. Students were excited to do this because the material was of high interest and because it gave them an opportunity to do something new. This was the first time we had used this activity and many of the artists in the classroom were excited to have a chance to use their talents for an assignment. They were also sharing a piece of poster paper with their table so although they weren’t allowed to talk to each other during the activity, they were still able to work together. It was also helpful to me because it gave me an idea of what the students already knew about natural disasters. We displayed the posters on the board for everybody to see and briefly described them.

Next came the video that showed clips of several disasters as they happened. There were no words which was really powerful because it encouraged the students to use the images and their own imaginations to create an emotionally charged experienced. Students were very engaged by this activity because it gave them an authentic image of what a natural disaster can do. Many of them have heard of them happening or seen the aftermath on the news, but most had not actually seen any footage of one as it happened. This set the stage very nicely for the rest of the unit. It also got them concerned about what they could do if they ever found themselves in that situation.

This set up was very helpful because the next part of this lesson asked students to become an expert on one natural disaster and then to create a poster describing it and at least two safety tips that people can use. Students were concerned about what would happen if they ever encountered a hurricane or an earthquake so they were eager to read about how to stay safe. Allowing them to create a poster using pictures and words was also more motivating to them than just writing another BCR. They write BCRs all the time and have been for several years so giving them an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge in a different way was exciting for them. It also appealed to different learning styles. There are several students in the class who doodle all the time and they are often reprimanded for being off task. This activity gave them a chance to use their talents in a useful way.

I think that the use of a timer really helped me keep the pace of the lesson. I was prepared for the lesson so there was no time where students were waiting for me to give directions as I tried to figure out what came next. As they came in from recess, the materials they needed were listed on the board and I gave directions ahead of time so that students knew what they were going to be doing next. In an earlier period when I taught this lesson, we finished much earlier because the students worked faster. I’m not sure how to get students to work faster yet, but that is something I want to look into for future lessons. The TAG class spends a lot of time thinking about what they want to do before they do it, which takes up a significant amount of class time. I also found that their work was very creative but that they did not really address all of the information that I told them they needed to include. This was frustrating because I provided an example, I posted the rubric for them to see, and I discussed the assignment verbally.

Off task behavior was not particularly problematic during this lesson because students were highly interested in the material. There were some side conversations but I was able to pull those students back in either with an engaging activity (graffiti or the video), by moving closer to them, or by calling on them to answer a question. I also reminded them that they would be given checks for poor behavior and at the end of class, passed out Charactergrams to those students who were demonstrating exceptional behavior. I also can credit their respectful and attentive behavior to the fact that my mentor teacher has presented me as an “actual teacher” from the beginning of the year. The students did not even know that I was a student until recently and they have treated me with the same amount of respect that they give to their regular classroom teachers.

Assessment was used throughout the lesson. At the beginning, I assessed student knowledge of the environment’s impact on human life and they shared their responses. I also asked them to take notes on what they saw in the videos and what they read about to make sure that all students were on task and engaging in the lesson. I also asked questions as necessary to ensure that students were paying attention. Because this was the launch for a larger unit about natural disasters and the point was to get them prepared for what is to come, much of the assessment was to assure that they were paying attention rather than to assess what they knew. The assessment kept them accountable throughout the learning experience.

In future lessons, I hope to be able to use more group activities and to continue to introduce innovative resources and assignments. The students seemed to enjoy the different resources and the technology that we used and I hope to be able to expose them to more that in the future. I also want to work on my time management. Although we finished in time for dismissal, we did not have time to take our spelling test. I want to learn how to motivate students to work faster without compromising the quality of their work.

Reflecting on Nature's Fury Launch

My second Directed Teaching Activity focused on the launch for Nature’s Fury. In this activity, students were given activities to pre-assess their knowledge of natural disasters and engage them. They were also asked to use non-fiction texts to create safety posters. This lesson was taught to the entire class and was extremely successful.

The content was of high interest to students. It is something that have all heard about and they are excited to start a unit about this topic. The video was also highly engaging because it gave students a window into what it might be like to experience such a tragic event. They were very excited to discuss what they saw.

The graffiti activity at the beginning was also highly engaging. This was the first time students had done this and they seemed to really enjoy it. I would have liked to give them a few more minutes for this activity because they spent a lot of time thinking before they started writing and drawing and their posters were mostly empty.

This time through, my classroom management strategies had improved. I think part of this is due to the fact that students were very interested in the material so I did not need to spend a lot of time keeping them on task. The students have also had more time to adjust to the idea that I am a teacher and that they need to listen to me. They were very respectful and well behaved.