Today was a district wide in-service day. I was bracing for, well, I wasn't really certain since I'd never attended one before. However I really had a good time. The entire process proved interesting, and I got to see a lot of new educational technologies.
I also got to talk with a few people from other schools within the district, and while they were all middle school teachers, many had insights and thoughts on teaching high school.
I must admit I felt like the coolest guy in the room whenever someone had a technology issue and they turned to me. Mostly it was the simplest stuff in the world, like pushing a button or plugging something in, but it still felt quite good to be successful. We also got a great conversation going on the usage of wikipedia, of which I am a staunch supporter.
I also met one of the people from the Department of Education who is responsible for NECAP testing - that's the New England Common Assessment Program. This is a standardized competency test shared by Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Soon Maine will also begin using it. We touched upon many interesting issues regarding this test, but one in particular really surprised me.
We looked at one sample prompt, which presented a fact sheet by a 'student' and the test-takers were tasked with contrasting television in 1965 and television now.
This seemed fairly harmless until we began to really dig into it. Is this prompt fair to students who don't have television? In addition, the fact sheet was not written by a student but instead was written by professionals, and was designed to resemble student writing. This surprised me, since this meant it was intentionally difficult to read.
Now while I see the point, that students need to be able to organize, decipher and raise the worthwhile information from the chaff, it rubs me the wrong way that they were, well, deceived about it in some ways. If a student is unfamiliar with current television, then they won't have much to go on for a comparison. When I mentioned this, the reply I got was that a valid answer would be to say that you don't have/watch television.
How many students would think of that? Further, how would that answer score? As someone who is tasked with scoring a test of this nature, is it really a comparison between TV then and TV now to say "I don't know - I don't own a television" even if that's the case?
This whole matter is troubling to me, and is something I need to think about deeply. Looking at our NECAP scores, it seems by and large that Vermont as a state isn't doing particularly well. Does this stem from cultural differences between Vermonters and New Hampshire and Rhode Islanders? Based on the figures I saw, the mean scores for Vermont don't meet proficiency in any area - I can't believe that should be the case.
Troubling is really the only way I can think to describe it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The September Plague
So yesterday marked the first day I've elected to take off since starting. I was required to take one day off when I got pink eye, but yesterday I was sick as a dog and wound up sleeping for thirteen hours. All this while struggling to do a paper and to take the numerous cold/sore throat/lost voice remedies prescribed to me by friends.
I at present feel like I'd been run over by a truck, but I can speak and thus it's a definite improvement since yesterday. I had been fighting off this cold for awhile, but this weekend I simply gave up the ghost. There was just nothing I could do to fight it off. On Friday night I received a call from my father about my Mom, who was in the hospital with pneumonia.
Now my mother is pretty tough, and she has quite the number of physical ailments. However she also has breathing problems and is on oxygen, so her getting pneumonia was a serious worry for me. I tried to really fling myself into other activities and not worry too hard, and I called her Sunday evening to check in. It had been as serious as I worried, and her doctor had actually asked her about next of kin information. Suffice it to say I was not in a place where I could think much about education, let alone about fighting off a cold.
And so for those aspirant teachers out there, let me say this: give consideration to your students. If you brush past a student who is chronically late with his homework or who bombed the latest test, try to take just a minute at the end of class and ask: Why? Not every student is going to tell you "My mother is in the hospital," or "I had to go to a funeral," or even "I was too busy this weekend taking care of my little brother," but these are real and legitimate circumstances in our students' lives. It can really make all the difference in the world, being asked why.
I at present feel like I'd been run over by a truck, but I can speak and thus it's a definite improvement since yesterday. I had been fighting off this cold for awhile, but this weekend I simply gave up the ghost. There was just nothing I could do to fight it off. On Friday night I received a call from my father about my Mom, who was in the hospital with pneumonia.
Now my mother is pretty tough, and she has quite the number of physical ailments. However she also has breathing problems and is on oxygen, so her getting pneumonia was a serious worry for me. I tried to really fling myself into other activities and not worry too hard, and I called her Sunday evening to check in. It had been as serious as I worried, and her doctor had actually asked her about next of kin information. Suffice it to say I was not in a place where I could think much about education, let alone about fighting off a cold.
And so for those aspirant teachers out there, let me say this: give consideration to your students. If you brush past a student who is chronically late with his homework or who bombed the latest test, try to take just a minute at the end of class and ask: Why? Not every student is going to tell you "My mother is in the hospital," or "I had to go to a funeral," or even "I was too busy this weekend taking care of my little brother," but these are real and legitimate circumstances in our students' lives. It can really make all the difference in the world, being asked why.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Digesting
So after a long lunch and a day to really think about the lesson plan and how it went, I thought I'd post my findings here.
On the whole I would say the lesson went quite well. Having to do two pieces of writing caught the students a bit by surprise and some had thought it was actually due for homework, but most seemed to appreciate that the second piece of writing was more laid back - in a way at least. It wasn't asking the students to process the story, just take a character you already like and already know about and let me know why this character is your favorite and use some of today's terminology about him or her or it.
I had two Holden Caufields, a Frodo Baggins, a Bilbo Baggins, a few from more esoteric books like One Hundred Years of Solitute and Love in the Times of Cholera, but also I had one person say God. One person also said Arya Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire while another said Rorschach from Watchmen. I got a little nerdy on that last one.
The students were engaged with the discussion and I think they both got a lot out of it and also had a good deal of say in how things went. I also gave the students a vocabulary quiz, which they were allowed to use their texts on. I took the vocab. words, which they typically only dealt with in a rather detached way and applied them to our reading in eleven or so sentences summarizing aspects of the reading. while on the whole results were mixed, I did hear some positive comments that the words felt more challenging in this context and it was also nice to see some of them used.
The downside was that I just overestimated how long things would take by a mile. Instead of taking forty minutes for discussion, we spend about 20. Thankfully one of Mrs. N's assignments had been left undone from the previous day, and so they could work on that and then silent reading, but I think until I get a better sense of timing I need to over-plan my lessons rather than under-plan them.
I'll be doing another lesson for the same class next week on poetry, examining Michelle T. Clinton's "The Shape of Mythic Lies." I'm excited to see how the students respond to this poem, particularly in light of many examples and parallels being drawn to the Garden of Eden mythology in their current texts.
On the whole I would say the lesson went quite well. Having to do two pieces of writing caught the students a bit by surprise and some had thought it was actually due for homework, but most seemed to appreciate that the second piece of writing was more laid back - in a way at least. It wasn't asking the students to process the story, just take a character you already like and already know about and let me know why this character is your favorite and use some of today's terminology about him or her or it.
I had two Holden Caufields, a Frodo Baggins, a Bilbo Baggins, a few from more esoteric books like One Hundred Years of Solitute and Love in the Times of Cholera, but also I had one person say God. One person also said Arya Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire while another said Rorschach from Watchmen. I got a little nerdy on that last one.
The students were engaged with the discussion and I think they both got a lot out of it and also had a good deal of say in how things went. I also gave the students a vocabulary quiz, which they were allowed to use their texts on. I took the vocab. words, which they typically only dealt with in a rather detached way and applied them to our reading in eleven or so sentences summarizing aspects of the reading. while on the whole results were mixed, I did hear some positive comments that the words felt more challenging in this context and it was also nice to see some of them used.
The downside was that I just overestimated how long things would take by a mile. Instead of taking forty minutes for discussion, we spend about 20. Thankfully one of Mrs. N's assignments had been left undone from the previous day, and so they could work on that and then silent reading, but I think until I get a better sense of timing I need to over-plan my lessons rather than under-plan them.
I'll be doing another lesson for the same class next week on poetry, examining Michelle T. Clinton's "The Shape of Mythic Lies." I'm excited to see how the students respond to this poem, particularly in light of many examples and parallels being drawn to the Garden of Eden mythology in their current texts.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Lesson Plan
While a bit rushed, here is my lesson plan for today's AP Lit. class. Comments, criticisms and thoughts are absolutely welcome.
Terminology for those not in the know:
Collins Type 1 Writing: A form of brainstorming for a set amount of time on a particular prompt. Uses the five type Collins Writing system.
Grade Level Expectations: The standards that Vermont had set for students.
Ticket to Leave: The requirement for a student to leave the classroom once class has finished. This may be sharing a piece of learning, handing in a paper, etc.
Focus: Students will explore characterization through Miss Brill and will explore the more practical side of the Wordly Wise Vocabulary words.
Grade Level Expectations: RHS6 (Shows breadth of vocab.), RHS10 (Demonstrates initial understanding of elements of literary text), RHS13 (Analyze and interpret elements of literary text - analyzing characterization),
Materials: Vocabulary Quiz, white board and markers, students for student discussion
Previous Homework: Read "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield and "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara.
Activator: Students will respond with a Collins Type I brainstorming ideas piece to the prompt: What do we learn about the character of Miss Brill through her perceptions and interactions with others?
Procedure:
1.SSR
(10 min.)
2.Collins Type I Writing to the prompt: "What do we learn about the character of Miss Brill through her perceptions and interactions with others?" These will be collected.
(10 min.)
3.Class discussion about parallel traits of characterization. Go around the room and get students to list one character from Miss Brill and write them on the board. Write on the board with two columns (direct and indirect presentation) (flat and round characters) (static and developing characters). Students will be asked to consider what each term may mean and then place various characters from the story in the appropriate column. If students struggle to fill the lists with characters from Miss Brill, we will go around the room and everyone will name a literary character who fits each type from any story or genre.
(20 min.)
4.Once we have populated the lists, we will add three more terms: dramatized, stock character and epiphany. Each will help better paint the picture of one of the pairs of words. We will then go over what each one means in relation to the whole. Exploration of stock characters could lead to a rich discussion if the students become engaged - if the columns went well then open up a discussion to describe various stock characters. If students struggled to name characters from Miss Brill, see whom they suggested for the lists and who is a round character, who is flat, who is static, who is developing, etc.
(20 min.)
5.Pass out vocabulary quizzes after a preamble about exploring using vocabulary words. If not finished in class, it will be due as homework the next day.
(15 min.)
Wrap-Up: Collins Type I Writing to the prompt: Name your favorite literary character and describe whether he or she (or it) is static or developing; flat or round; presented directly or indirectly and why that character is their favorite.
(10 min.)
Homework: Read "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather and "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson.
Assessment:
Ticket to Leave: Both Collins Type I writings.
The two writings should demonstrate both whether or not the student read Miss Brill and the second piece should show a student's fluency with the terminology.
Terminology for those not in the know:
Collins Type 1 Writing: A form of brainstorming for a set amount of time on a particular prompt. Uses the five type Collins Writing system.
Grade Level Expectations: The standards that Vermont had set for students.
Ticket to Leave: The requirement for a student to leave the classroom once class has finished. This may be sharing a piece of learning, handing in a paper, etc.
Focus: Students will explore characterization through Miss Brill and will explore the more practical side of the Wordly Wise Vocabulary words.
Grade Level Expectations: RHS6 (Shows breadth of vocab.), RHS10 (Demonstrates initial understanding of elements of literary text), RHS13 (Analyze and interpret elements of literary text - analyzing characterization),
Materials: Vocabulary Quiz, white board and markers, students for student discussion
Previous Homework: Read "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield and "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara.
Activator: Students will respond with a Collins Type I brainstorming ideas piece to the prompt: What do we learn about the character of Miss Brill through her perceptions and interactions with others?
Procedure:
1.SSR
(10 min.)
2.Collins Type I Writing to the prompt: "What do we learn about the character of Miss Brill through her perceptions and interactions with others?" These will be collected.
(10 min.)
3.Class discussion about parallel traits of characterization. Go around the room and get students to list one character from Miss Brill and write them on the board. Write on the board with two columns (direct and indirect presentation) (flat and round characters) (static and developing characters). Students will be asked to consider what each term may mean and then place various characters from the story in the appropriate column. If students struggle to fill the lists with characters from Miss Brill, we will go around the room and everyone will name a literary character who fits each type from any story or genre.
(20 min.)
4.Once we have populated the lists, we will add three more terms: dramatized, stock character and epiphany. Each will help better paint the picture of one of the pairs of words. We will then go over what each one means in relation to the whole. Exploration of stock characters could lead to a rich discussion if the students become engaged - if the columns went well then open up a discussion to describe various stock characters. If students struggled to name characters from Miss Brill, see whom they suggested for the lists and who is a round character, who is flat, who is static, who is developing, etc.
(20 min.)
5.Pass out vocabulary quizzes after a preamble about exploring using vocabulary words. If not finished in class, it will be due as homework the next day.
(15 min.)
Wrap-Up: Collins Type I Writing to the prompt: Name your favorite literary character and describe whether he or she (or it) is static or developing; flat or round; presented directly or indirectly and why that character is their favorite.
(10 min.)
Homework: Read "Paul's Case" by Willa Cather and "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson.
Assessment:
Ticket to Leave: Both Collins Type I writings.
The two writings should demonstrate both whether or not the student read Miss Brill and the second piece should show a student's fluency with the terminology.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Proximity
Note: I was initially thinking of entitling this post "Don't stand so close to me," but decided that a Police song about a teacher-student crush is in no way appropriate for an education blog, though the irony does at least make me laugh.
Yesterday was an interesting day. I didn't have much time to write about and reflect upon it, since Mrs. C was out sick. This left me with a sub during the last period, and I found I had some big successes and some definite struggles. Because of the substitute's unfamiliarity with the material, I found that I took on a teaching role much more than I otherwise might have.
I also reflected upon my first real new learning as a student teacher - how close you are to a student in physical proximity makes a difference. I tend to move around the room when I teach - I don't like being stock still. I feel more comfortable moving when I speak (this is also in part so that I gesticulate less wildly, which I naturally tend to). I have one student who is extremely hyper and who knows when he is misbehaving. If I am less than half a room away, look at him and catch his eye, he immediately stops doing what he is doing. If I am further away than that however, it doesn't work.
So far this has only really happened during my work with the freshmen class - the other two classes are electives and feature students who want to be there and who are (more or less) committed to their own success. It's hard to be in an elective and feel like the class is being forced upon you, what with electing to participate and all.
Yesterday I found that whenever I moved closer to a group of students, they would be quiet and stop talking. I found this most effective if I walked up behind them, particularly if I walked up silently and surprised them.
Unfortunately this newly discovered technique also failed at one point. A student who has been having some problems in the class continued to talk, with me standing behind him. I finally told him (since we were watching a film) that "If you're not going to pay attention, I don't really care, just don't hinder everybody else."
This worked for a little while, but I think some kind of firmer disciplinary measure might go a longer way. This particular student really doesn't want to be in the class. He seems to take issue first with Mrs. C and secondly with English in general. He would rather goof off and play sports than pay attention. I think a large part of this stems from still being young - he is projecting a macho/tough attitude.
On a happier note, I'm having some good luck with another student. Let's call him Mr. Dan. Mr. Dan is in some ways a troubling case - he has gone through freshman lit previously, but failed the course due to disciplinary problems. He is smart although he chooses not to apply himself. He seems, to me at least, disaffected with school as a system and does not see the value in it for himself. Worse, because he is intelligent and has done the coursework before, he knows all of the material ahead of time and doesn't care about doing it/reviewing it.
Initially Mr. Dan was having some real discipline problems in this class too. Unlike the other student I mentioned, who is posturing, I feel Mr. Dan can really succeed if he wants himself to. I completely understand Mrs. C's point of view on dealing with problematic students though - you cannot sacrifice the entire class's learning for one student. Yet at the same time, I am becoming a teacher to make a difference in student's lives. I've decided to take this opportunity to try and reach out to Mr. Dan and help him find a reason to continue with school. I worry that he is going to bomb out at the rate he is going, but I think if he feels both appreciated and pushed, then perhaps he can succeed, at least in terms he feels matters.
Yesterday was an interesting day. I didn't have much time to write about and reflect upon it, since Mrs. C was out sick. This left me with a sub during the last period, and I found I had some big successes and some definite struggles. Because of the substitute's unfamiliarity with the material, I found that I took on a teaching role much more than I otherwise might have.
I also reflected upon my first real new learning as a student teacher - how close you are to a student in physical proximity makes a difference. I tend to move around the room when I teach - I don't like being stock still. I feel more comfortable moving when I speak (this is also in part so that I gesticulate less wildly, which I naturally tend to). I have one student who is extremely hyper and who knows when he is misbehaving. If I am less than half a room away, look at him and catch his eye, he immediately stops doing what he is doing. If I am further away than that however, it doesn't work.
So far this has only really happened during my work with the freshmen class - the other two classes are electives and feature students who want to be there and who are (more or less) committed to their own success. It's hard to be in an elective and feel like the class is being forced upon you, what with electing to participate and all.
Yesterday I found that whenever I moved closer to a group of students, they would be quiet and stop talking. I found this most effective if I walked up behind them, particularly if I walked up silently and surprised them.
Unfortunately this newly discovered technique also failed at one point. A student who has been having some problems in the class continued to talk, with me standing behind him. I finally told him (since we were watching a film) that "If you're not going to pay attention, I don't really care, just don't hinder everybody else."
This worked for a little while, but I think some kind of firmer disciplinary measure might go a longer way. This particular student really doesn't want to be in the class. He seems to take issue first with Mrs. C and secondly with English in general. He would rather goof off and play sports than pay attention. I think a large part of this stems from still being young - he is projecting a macho/tough attitude.
On a happier note, I'm having some good luck with another student. Let's call him Mr. Dan. Mr. Dan is in some ways a troubling case - he has gone through freshman lit previously, but failed the course due to disciplinary problems. He is smart although he chooses not to apply himself. He seems, to me at least, disaffected with school as a system and does not see the value in it for himself. Worse, because he is intelligent and has done the coursework before, he knows all of the material ahead of time and doesn't care about doing it/reviewing it.
Initially Mr. Dan was having some real discipline problems in this class too. Unlike the other student I mentioned, who is posturing, I feel Mr. Dan can really succeed if he wants himself to. I completely understand Mrs. C's point of view on dealing with problematic students though - you cannot sacrifice the entire class's learning for one student. Yet at the same time, I am becoming a teacher to make a difference in student's lives. I've decided to take this opportunity to try and reach out to Mr. Dan and help him find a reason to continue with school. I worry that he is going to bomb out at the rate he is going, but I think if he feels both appreciated and pushed, then perhaps he can succeed, at least in terms he feels matters.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Going out of my mind (But in a good way!)
So after having it mentioned to me by both of my cooperating teachers, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about how, well, I've been spending a lot of time thinking. Whether it's putting together lesson plans of trying to talk to students, right now almost all of my free time is being spent in the act of thinking about teaching. The idea of thinking about thinking about teaching also strikes me as fairly ironic.
My nature is fairly thoughtful - I do tend to spend a lot of time just thinking. Not just about education, but about life and wider topics in general. So as far as thinking not only about my education, but about how I am trying to teach others, well, it is kind of exhausting.
So this weekend was spent recharging and in many ways getting out of the groove of teaching. I tried to avoid thinking too much about education all weekend and instead spent my time with friends and with my girlfriend. Friday feels like a century ago, although I did have something interesting to report from then.
Friday afternoon during my freshman class, Mrs. C stepped outside with a few students and left the rest of the class to do an assignment. As more and more students finished and grew restless (last block of the day, after all) things got rowdier and crazier. I had never been in a situation where I didn't have a plan or a cooperating teacher in the room. I tried to regain order and momentum by having students share journal entries, but it did little to stem the quell of leaping up, jumping around and general misbehaving from rowdy students.
I felt like, if it had been completely my classroom, like I would have thought of what to do. Because Mrs. C's meeting with the students ran for much longer than she anticipated (15 minutes instead of 5) I was really on my own. In this regard, I don't feel like I was very successful yet. This will be something to work on - having a few backup assignments on hand if things are winding down at the end of the day. In retrospect, I could also easily have just said it was time for silent reading until the end of the class - not only do students have silent reading books, but they also have a novel they're working on now and I can use having less homework as leverage against in-class misbehavior now.
Food for thought.
My nature is fairly thoughtful - I do tend to spend a lot of time just thinking. Not just about education, but about life and wider topics in general. So as far as thinking not only about my education, but about how I am trying to teach others, well, it is kind of exhausting.
So this weekend was spent recharging and in many ways getting out of the groove of teaching. I tried to avoid thinking too much about education all weekend and instead spent my time with friends and with my girlfriend. Friday feels like a century ago, although I did have something interesting to report from then.
Friday afternoon during my freshman class, Mrs. C stepped outside with a few students and left the rest of the class to do an assignment. As more and more students finished and grew restless (last block of the day, after all) things got rowdier and crazier. I had never been in a situation where I didn't have a plan or a cooperating teacher in the room. I tried to regain order and momentum by having students share journal entries, but it did little to stem the quell of leaping up, jumping around and general misbehaving from rowdy students.
I felt like, if it had been completely my classroom, like I would have thought of what to do. Because Mrs. C's meeting with the students ran for much longer than she anticipated (15 minutes instead of 5) I was really on my own. In this regard, I don't feel like I was very successful yet. This will be something to work on - having a few backup assignments on hand if things are winding down at the end of the day. In retrospect, I could also easily have just said it was time for silent reading until the end of the class - not only do students have silent reading books, but they also have a novel they're working on now and I can use having less homework as leverage against in-class misbehavior now.
Food for thought.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Accountability & Activity Success
I think that right now the single biggest question in education is "Who is held accountable for student success and failure?" To most of us, the answer feels obvious. How matter of fact could it be? But who is it you think? Why, the students of course. They are the ones taking the tests, the ones who decide how much to study and how much they wish to commit themselves to the material.
Well, yes and no. Other voices will proclaim that it is in fact the teachers who are responsible. I am reminded of an example of Plato, where he taught a young slave boy geometry. Initially the boy failed to grasp the concepts and Plato acknowledged the failure was his as a teacher and not that of the boy. By changing how he was teaching, Plato showed the boy how to find the measurement for the shortest side of a triangle when the other two sides were unknown. This is not a small task, considering the child had minimal at best reading, writing and mathematics skills.
Does the burden of proof then lie with the administration to set things right? After all, if they assigned students to teachers who could work best with them and responsively facilitated student and faculty needs, there shouldn't be any worries, right?
And so on and so forth as this issue gets more and more tangled.
My own opinion (and this blog is in many ways nothing more than that, my own thoughts on education) the responsibility lies between students and teachers. If a student is adamantly set against success, there is little a teacher can inherently do to help. Yet it then falls to the teacher to learn why a student is so defiant and reluctant to learn.
In a lot of ways, I view teaching as something more than just a job or even a career. It is something I have Afición for (a Spanish word blatantly appropriated by Hemingway for The Sun Also Rises and now appropriated by me in grand literary tradition). Afición means passion, but the type that goes beyond the normal or reasonable. Those who are fans of bullfighting are all well and good, but those with Afición know the bullfighters, know their records, connect with the bulls themselves as the fight goes on, etc. Teaching to me is something that is crucial to everyone, and I think that many teachers lose their Afición as time goes on. I might yet as well, but when I'm in the classroom I feel energized. A little shaky, a little nervous, but also so full of energy I can barely sit still. I have been working on becoming a teacher for about six years now.
Yesterday I had two big successes. In my first class, I lead a discussion on news sources. I handed out copies of a news story from Tuesday about Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who throw his shoes at George W. Bush last year. He was just released from prison and has said he was tortured. CNN initially didn't report anything about torture, but the BBC did. Then when the AP news story came out later in the day, CNN changed their story to match. I mixed up the stories, so that every four students had different stories and once everyone was done reading it, I asked what the headline was. Unfortunately it took long enough for everyone to read it that many students noticed they didn't have the same article.
If I were to do this assignment again, I would either find a different news source for each student or put them together in small groups and have them read and then discuss the stories. I also wish instead of using the BBC, the AP News and both copies of CNN's story, I'd just used both copies of CNN.
I learned something about accommodations in this class. While working with a deaf student, I should have provided the student with the material first before anyone else. This would have given the student a chance to read it more thoroughly and let other students read and catch up.
During my freshman block, I had a great opening activity. Mrs. C told everyone that I was going to be administering a test. Everyone grumbled but then I segued into telling them "Now Mrs. C and I have agreed that we're going to change around some classroom rules, and we're going to do so by voting. You all each get one vote, but we want only the best votes to count. So I've got a little test for you. If you get two wrong, you fail. If you talk once I've finished passing out papers, you not only lose the right to vote but I will also crumple up your paper."
After one student asked a question aloud after I put down the last test, I just walked silently over and crumpled his paper. After that the room went dead silent.
What I'd like to have done differently in this case was make all the students stand and then read the question and then the answer aloud. If it is wrong, have the student sit down. Instead I rushed the answer process because it was a foregone conclusion. The students were seething, and I then tapped into those feelings of anger and unfairness. We really started up a great conversation about the type of literacy tests African-Americans had to take in order to vote - and once I mentioned that anybody who actually passed the test had to pay me ten dollars per vote, they went wild! It was a really great success and I think I engaged with a lot of students who might otherwise have tuned out or just not connected with this type of lesson.
Well, yes and no. Other voices will proclaim that it is in fact the teachers who are responsible. I am reminded of an example of Plato, where he taught a young slave boy geometry. Initially the boy failed to grasp the concepts and Plato acknowledged the failure was his as a teacher and not that of the boy. By changing how he was teaching, Plato showed the boy how to find the measurement for the shortest side of a triangle when the other two sides were unknown. This is not a small task, considering the child had minimal at best reading, writing and mathematics skills.
Does the burden of proof then lie with the administration to set things right? After all, if they assigned students to teachers who could work best with them and responsively facilitated student and faculty needs, there shouldn't be any worries, right?
And so on and so forth as this issue gets more and more tangled.
My own opinion (and this blog is in many ways nothing more than that, my own thoughts on education) the responsibility lies between students and teachers. If a student is adamantly set against success, there is little a teacher can inherently do to help. Yet it then falls to the teacher to learn why a student is so defiant and reluctant to learn.
In a lot of ways, I view teaching as something more than just a job or even a career. It is something I have Afición for (a Spanish word blatantly appropriated by Hemingway for The Sun Also Rises and now appropriated by me in grand literary tradition). Afición means passion, but the type that goes beyond the normal or reasonable. Those who are fans of bullfighting are all well and good, but those with Afición know the bullfighters, know their records, connect with the bulls themselves as the fight goes on, etc. Teaching to me is something that is crucial to everyone, and I think that many teachers lose their Afición as time goes on. I might yet as well, but when I'm in the classroom I feel energized. A little shaky, a little nervous, but also so full of energy I can barely sit still. I have been working on becoming a teacher for about six years now.
Yesterday I had two big successes. In my first class, I lead a discussion on news sources. I handed out copies of a news story from Tuesday about Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who throw his shoes at George W. Bush last year. He was just released from prison and has said he was tortured. CNN initially didn't report anything about torture, but the BBC did. Then when the AP news story came out later in the day, CNN changed their story to match. I mixed up the stories, so that every four students had different stories and once everyone was done reading it, I asked what the headline was. Unfortunately it took long enough for everyone to read it that many students noticed they didn't have the same article.
If I were to do this assignment again, I would either find a different news source for each student or put them together in small groups and have them read and then discuss the stories. I also wish instead of using the BBC, the AP News and both copies of CNN's story, I'd just used both copies of CNN.
I learned something about accommodations in this class. While working with a deaf student, I should have provided the student with the material first before anyone else. This would have given the student a chance to read it more thoroughly and let other students read and catch up.
During my freshman block, I had a great opening activity. Mrs. C told everyone that I was going to be administering a test. Everyone grumbled but then I segued into telling them "Now Mrs. C and I have agreed that we're going to change around some classroom rules, and we're going to do so by voting. You all each get one vote, but we want only the best votes to count. So I've got a little test for you. If you get two wrong, you fail. If you talk once I've finished passing out papers, you not only lose the right to vote but I will also crumple up your paper."
After one student asked a question aloud after I put down the last test, I just walked silently over and crumpled his paper. After that the room went dead silent.
What I'd like to have done differently in this case was make all the students stand and then read the question and then the answer aloud. If it is wrong, have the student sit down. Instead I rushed the answer process because it was a foregone conclusion. The students were seething, and I then tapped into those feelings of anger and unfairness. We really started up a great conversation about the type of literacy tests African-Americans had to take in order to vote - and once I mentioned that anybody who actually passed the test had to pay me ten dollars per vote, they went wild! It was a really great success and I think I engaged with a lot of students who might otherwise have tuned out or just not connected with this type of lesson.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Community Service
So I'd like to talk for a moment about community service. I think that serving your community (however it is you choose to define community) is very important. Yet at the same time, I don't like outside forces dictating to me either who my community is or how I am supposed to serve them. It thus really catches me that the school I am student teaching at has a mandatory period of community service, which is a graduation requirement.
Now I highly doubt that any senior is going to grumble about serving their community. After all, a school is part of a community and as such should work to bring something back to the community. Yet at the same time, at least to me, it feels disingenuous to make that type of community service a requirement. A genuine desire to make your community a better place is a great thing; serving your community because you have to feels like it won't build up a spirit of community or social responsibility.
Of course there's another side to it as well. If students don't have mandatory community service, then how many will do it? My undergraduate college has a 'work day,' where students participate in beautifying the campus. I never participated. I felt that if I was going to serve my community, it shouldn't be just because it's the day everyone else is. Instead I would do things when the mood struck me or a particular problem caught my attention: I would throw out a bit of trash or sweep up some food garbage if it became particularly unsettling.
Can we expect students to gain a love for their community if serving it is a requirement? Do you become a better citizen because you really have to be? Just some food for thought.
Now I highly doubt that any senior is going to grumble about serving their community. After all, a school is part of a community and as such should work to bring something back to the community. Yet at the same time, at least to me, it feels disingenuous to make that type of community service a requirement. A genuine desire to make your community a better place is a great thing; serving your community because you have to feels like it won't build up a spirit of community or social responsibility.
Of course there's another side to it as well. If students don't have mandatory community service, then how many will do it? My undergraduate college has a 'work day,' where students participate in beautifying the campus. I never participated. I felt that if I was going to serve my community, it shouldn't be just because it's the day everyone else is. Instead I would do things when the mood struck me or a particular problem caught my attention: I would throw out a bit of trash or sweep up some food garbage if it became particularly unsettling.
Can we expect students to gain a love for their community if serving it is a requirement? Do you become a better citizen because you really have to be? Just some food for thought.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Lesson Plan
For my own convenience I am putting down the core elements of what a lesson plan should consist of, so that I can return here and reference them. There are three preparatory steps and four effect steps.
Focus: A brief summary of what the lesson will be about and the overall goals of the lesson.
Grade Expectations: The Grade Level Expectations are what state standard(s) the lesson will be addressing. This should be clearly explicit in the lesson plan and preferably clearly explicit to students.
Materials: What you will need in order to accomplish this lesson.
Activator: An opening activity to get the lesson started and to help create mental connections.
Procedures: A step by step summation of major activities and what the lesson will itself include.
Wrap-Up: A closing activity to bring home what the students have been doing and to help finalize any previously unclear information. The stinger.
Assessment: A way to demonstrate student learning, whether that be something concrete and summative like a test or something more casual and formative like an end of class writing.
Focus: A brief summary of what the lesson will be about and the overall goals of the lesson.
Grade Expectations: The Grade Level Expectations are what state standard(s) the lesson will be addressing. This should be clearly explicit in the lesson plan and preferably clearly explicit to students.
Materials: What you will need in order to accomplish this lesson.
Activator: An opening activity to get the lesson started and to help create mental connections.
Procedures: A step by step summation of major activities and what the lesson will itself include.
Wrap-Up: A closing activity to bring home what the students have been doing and to help finalize any previously unclear information. The stinger.
Assessment: A way to demonstrate student learning, whether that be something concrete and summative like a test or something more casual and formative like an end of class writing.
Chasing Sleep
So today itself is going to be a killer; however I am going to be spending it smiling. Last night was the finale of the post-wedding celebration and I got together with some dear friends, two of whom depart today for Maine and then Montana. This get together lasted until 12:00 AM when I got in and I wasn't asleep until about 12:30 AM. Having gotten up at 6:00 AM to come into school, I can already feel myself dragging and it's only 7:14!
It's what we were doing that relates (in my view) to education. For those who don't know me, I will happily reveal myself for the nerd that I am: I have played Dungeons and Dragons for longer than my students have been alive. After finding the first box secreted away in my basement like a buried treasure, I have been a fan of roleplaying games. Now I certainly don't mean anything weird by that - I mean the types of nerdy games one sees parodied on television where kids sit in a basement and pretend they are wizards or Conan the Barbarian and/or dragons.
I think that everyone has a desire to tell their stories. Who we are, how we got there and what has shaped us along the way are integral and important to each of us. As a kid, roleplaying games helped me find an outlet and voice for the emotions and difficulties I couldn't otherwise express. Sometimes yes, it is just silly fun, but at other times it can serve as a vehicle to explore concepts and ideas that I simply cannot voice or cannot deal with in the real world.
I personally think that a lot of students come to Dungeons and Dragons (and other sundry roleplaying games for those in the know) to explore who they are in some way. The finer details don't matter so much, but deep down the whole point of the game is collaborative storytelling. You and some friends are shaping a story in a way no other medium can allow short of children's games of pretend. You are telling your story at the same time your friends are telling theirs and you are both shaping and being shaped by them.
So yes, the medium itself has long held derision, controversy and self-effacing parody, but I don't think people would know it as a fad having started during the 70's if not for the stories. There remains something persistent about the idea of shared storytelling that no other experience can replicate. I don't think I can truly accurately explain it beyond my shots here in the dark, but I know that a surprising number of my peers, even some of the cooler kids, would play these games back in high school. It's important to honour a students' story (and as my graduate advisor would say, their second moral language) and in doing so you can find a connection with a student that you maybe otherwise never could.
Mrs. N ends each day with an activity. Each student must share or communicate something with her on the way out. Whether it's something they love or they hate about the school, something about their home lives or something surprising that occurred to them during an assignment, they need to share it with her on the way out. This short moment gives students a chance to, however briefly, share their personal stories with Mrs. N. She was telling me she had no idea the school had a serious drug problem until one of her students said "I like it her, except for all the drugs," and then a few more students echoed this comment on their way out.
Whatever way it is, whether a single moment before students leave the classroom to something as elaborate as pretending to be wizards and warriors after school, let people share their stories with you. That alone can be all the difference in the world.
It's what we were doing that relates (in my view) to education. For those who don't know me, I will happily reveal myself for the nerd that I am: I have played Dungeons and Dragons for longer than my students have been alive. After finding the first box secreted away in my basement like a buried treasure, I have been a fan of roleplaying games. Now I certainly don't mean anything weird by that - I mean the types of nerdy games one sees parodied on television where kids sit in a basement and pretend they are wizards or Conan the Barbarian and/or dragons.
I think that everyone has a desire to tell their stories. Who we are, how we got there and what has shaped us along the way are integral and important to each of us. As a kid, roleplaying games helped me find an outlet and voice for the emotions and difficulties I couldn't otherwise express. Sometimes yes, it is just silly fun, but at other times it can serve as a vehicle to explore concepts and ideas that I simply cannot voice or cannot deal with in the real world.
I personally think that a lot of students come to Dungeons and Dragons (and other sundry roleplaying games for those in the know) to explore who they are in some way. The finer details don't matter so much, but deep down the whole point of the game is collaborative storytelling. You and some friends are shaping a story in a way no other medium can allow short of children's games of pretend. You are telling your story at the same time your friends are telling theirs and you are both shaping and being shaped by them.
So yes, the medium itself has long held derision, controversy and self-effacing parody, but I don't think people would know it as a fad having started during the 70's if not for the stories. There remains something persistent about the idea of shared storytelling that no other experience can replicate. I don't think I can truly accurately explain it beyond my shots here in the dark, but I know that a surprising number of my peers, even some of the cooler kids, would play these games back in high school. It's important to honour a students' story (and as my graduate advisor would say, their second moral language) and in doing so you can find a connection with a student that you maybe otherwise never could.
Mrs. N ends each day with an activity. Each student must share or communicate something with her on the way out. Whether it's something they love or they hate about the school, something about their home lives or something surprising that occurred to them during an assignment, they need to share it with her on the way out. This short moment gives students a chance to, however briefly, share their personal stories with Mrs. N. She was telling me she had no idea the school had a serious drug problem until one of her students said "I like it her, except for all the drugs," and then a few more students echoed this comment on their way out.
Whatever way it is, whether a single moment before students leave the classroom to something as elaborate as pretending to be wizards and warriors after school, let people share their stories with you. That alone can be all the difference in the world.
Monday, September 14, 2009
In your head
So I've been thinking about something Mrs. C said to me and it has yet to leave my mind since she said it. After class one day, we were talking and she said "You're still completely in your head. It's like that during student teaching and the first two years or so. You're so wrapped up in your head that you're not there with the students."
This is really been one of my biggest problems, not just as a teacher but as a person. I tend to plan and contingency plan for if my plans go awry. It's more a defense mechanism to the possibility of failure but it's just become in a lot of ways the way I live. I plan and plan and structure and then when my plans start to break down I get a brief deer in the headlights moment before I roll with it and come up with another plan.
I've been trying to work more on improvisation. I know in a lot of ways teaching is an art, but for me this goes beyond just teaching. The ability to roll with the punches and change direction and tact is important to me and I feel as if often my plans are simply too rigid to necessarily work. This is another goal of mine for my student teaching: to develop better improv skills, such that I can at least get rid of the noticeable deer in the headlights moments.
The wedding this weekend was amazing and exhausting. I was part of the technical crew and we got it all set up and running. The wedding itself was on Sunday, and it rained and poured Friday and Saturday. Then on Sunday, the sun came out, the sky cleared off and it was warm and wonderful. I'm glad everything went well and my two friends (who have been dating for ten years!) are now married!
This is really been one of my biggest problems, not just as a teacher but as a person. I tend to plan and contingency plan for if my plans go awry. It's more a defense mechanism to the possibility of failure but it's just become in a lot of ways the way I live. I plan and plan and structure and then when my plans start to break down I get a brief deer in the headlights moment before I roll with it and come up with another plan.
I've been trying to work more on improvisation. I know in a lot of ways teaching is an art, but for me this goes beyond just teaching. The ability to roll with the punches and change direction and tact is important to me and I feel as if often my plans are simply too rigid to necessarily work. This is another goal of mine for my student teaching: to develop better improv skills, such that I can at least get rid of the noticeable deer in the headlights moments.
The wedding this weekend was amazing and exhausting. I was part of the technical crew and we got it all set up and running. The wedding itself was on Sunday, and it rained and poured Friday and Saturday. Then on Sunday, the sun came out, the sky cleared off and it was warm and wonderful. I'm glad everything went well and my two friends (who have been dating for ten years!) are now married!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Tough but Fair
Something I am striving to find in my student teaching is how to create that fine line between being tough but fair. How do you communicate to students "I want you to succeed, on your terms and by how you define success, but I also won't let you hinder the success of others."
The Freshman class is a continual struggle. About a quarter of the class is loud, extroverted and disruptive. Four or five students in particular are really causing problems and actually have been sent out of class. Today I took the time to warn them that Mrs. C was losing her patience with them. I think it helped somewhat, but I wish I could have done more. I don't want to simply cut them off from the classroom and make the feel like they shouldn't be in there, but to some degree it might have to be done.
Mostly it's just a tough pill to swallow that you don't, as a regular classroom teacher, necessarily have a way to deal with everyone who needs additional support and help. The school that I did my pre-practicum at was really quite surprising - despite its small size they had a very active network of paraprofessionals, some who went with specific classes and some who went with specific students.
The idea of showing the students that I want to do right by them is still buzzing around in my mind. I hope that in large part I can accomplish it by being forthright, by being honest and by being stubborn as an ox about helping them. I think the biggest cause of students becoming disaffected is by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy for themselves that teachers and adults in their lives just don't care. When a teacher tries to get closer, they make the effort to push them away and are then comforted to see their expectations fulfilled.
I think those are the students who most need someone to be tough but fair with them and to keep after them. To push without pushing away.
This whole teaching thing sounds very zen when I put it like that. Sorta like Wu Wei, which friends of mine during college loved to espouse on at length, which is perfect action through inaction. You set up events such that it falls out exactly as you wanted it to, without ever lifting a finger to see to it that it does. Or such is my limited understanding.
To-morrow's schedule should be visiting a few other teachers and checking out some other courses. I am following Mrs. N's advice and seeing some other teachers and trying to absorb a few other departments teaching strategies. I might do another day of it next week and then it's throwing myself completely into English and preparing to teach.
This weekend also marks the wedding of two dear friends of mine from college, so it should be quite hectic. It's ever-growing into a larger affair, with people flying in from all over the country and plans being made and people being invited to some activities and not other things because of space constraints, etc. etc. etc.
It's going to be great though and I'm really looking forward to it! Somewhere in that time I also want to begin writing up lesson plans for my upcoming student lessons.
The Freshman class is a continual struggle. About a quarter of the class is loud, extroverted and disruptive. Four or five students in particular are really causing problems and actually have been sent out of class. Today I took the time to warn them that Mrs. C was losing her patience with them. I think it helped somewhat, but I wish I could have done more. I don't want to simply cut them off from the classroom and make the feel like they shouldn't be in there, but to some degree it might have to be done.
Mostly it's just a tough pill to swallow that you don't, as a regular classroom teacher, necessarily have a way to deal with everyone who needs additional support and help. The school that I did my pre-practicum at was really quite surprising - despite its small size they had a very active network of paraprofessionals, some who went with specific classes and some who went with specific students.
The idea of showing the students that I want to do right by them is still buzzing around in my mind. I hope that in large part I can accomplish it by being forthright, by being honest and by being stubborn as an ox about helping them. I think the biggest cause of students becoming disaffected is by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy for themselves that teachers and adults in their lives just don't care. When a teacher tries to get closer, they make the effort to push them away and are then comforted to see their expectations fulfilled.
I think those are the students who most need someone to be tough but fair with them and to keep after them. To push without pushing away.
This whole teaching thing sounds very zen when I put it like that. Sorta like Wu Wei, which friends of mine during college loved to espouse on at length, which is perfect action through inaction. You set up events such that it falls out exactly as you wanted it to, without ever lifting a finger to see to it that it does. Or such is my limited understanding.
To-morrow's schedule should be visiting a few other teachers and checking out some other courses. I am following Mrs. N's advice and seeing some other teachers and trying to absorb a few other departments teaching strategies. I might do another day of it next week and then it's throwing myself completely into English and preparing to teach.
This weekend also marks the wedding of two dear friends of mine from college, so it should be quite hectic. It's ever-growing into a larger affair, with people flying in from all over the country and plans being made and people being invited to some activities and not other things because of space constraints, etc. etc. etc.
It's going to be great though and I'm really looking forward to it! Somewhere in that time I also want to begin writing up lesson plans for my upcoming student lessons.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Mental Batteries
So while I was at school today, I was really thinking about what I'd like to talk about tonight. What of the many topics that were running through my mind would be the best thing to post about on here. I ultimately decided to be self-reflective though and to say that today I was mentally exhausted. I don't doubt that it stemmed in large part from having a four day weekend and then getting back into the swing of things or that my eye still looks frankly awful. Make no mistake, if you ever tell people you've got pink eye, they will suddenly reel away from you like you're a plague victim. I spent the day joking that it was too late, and pink eye could be transmitted simply by sight - I'd infected them just by looking into their eyes. Both of those are very clearly causes to me.
Yet at the same time, I just felt completely unprepared today. I think this was also from not even being sure I should be in school today - while I had been using the anti-biotic ointment for a full 24 hours, that didn't change the fact my eye looked and felt absolutely awful. I found out once I was at school that I didn't bring my notebook and I didn't have any kind of discussion questions in mind for when I tried to lead a discussion on The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. I came up with some questions, particularly ones that connected the text back to the previous text we'd read (The Autobiography of Malcolm X). I just never quite felt on-step during the day.
The freshman lit. course with Mrs. C didn't help either. She had a rough time with them yesterday and was forced to send a couple of students out of class. Today she completely rearranged all of the desks so that it was in a new pattern and it was disorienting to both the students and myself.
So once I got home, I wanted to do nothing. My eye hurt/itched and I was grumpy and tired and really wanted to do nothing but sleep. I only slept for a few hours the night before because I had so many things going through my mind. I also realized I had given a friend an old computer of mine (since I replaced my old one with a shiny new Toshiba) and had failed to clear out all the saved passwords from Firefox. Despite being tired however, I had promised my girlfriend that I would drive up to the local college and see her. I debated canceling since I felt like I'd been run over by a truck, but I decided not to and I am really glad I didn't. I felt dog-tired for awhile but then I started to pick up again. While my eye is still hurting, it's not nearly so bad as it was. I'm feeling much better at this point and ready to tackle to-morrow with renewed vigor.
On the one hand, I feel like things are suddenly moving much faster at the high school. I am now going to be solo-teaching for two weeks during the final two weeks of the first quarter. This means in about three to four weeks if my calculations are right. I need to start getting lesson plans together, discussion questions, assignments, etc.
All of this amounts to me feeling a bit nervous and worried that I might get overwhelmed. However, I think that if I take it one class at a time, figure out a week's worth of assignments and go over them with Mrs. N and Mrs. C and hammer things out, it's going to be fine. This is really unusual for how student teaching is supposed to go however - traditionally one starts by assisting with a lesson, then solo teaching a lesson, then assisting with a unit then solo teaching a full unit. Anyone who knows me though can attest to the fact that patience isn't one of my strong suits.
Better to jump in, I think, and figure out how to swim once I'm already in the deep end.
Yet at the same time, I just felt completely unprepared today. I think this was also from not even being sure I should be in school today - while I had been using the anti-biotic ointment for a full 24 hours, that didn't change the fact my eye looked and felt absolutely awful. I found out once I was at school that I didn't bring my notebook and I didn't have any kind of discussion questions in mind for when I tried to lead a discussion on The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. I came up with some questions, particularly ones that connected the text back to the previous text we'd read (The Autobiography of Malcolm X). I just never quite felt on-step during the day.
The freshman lit. course with Mrs. C didn't help either. She had a rough time with them yesterday and was forced to send a couple of students out of class. Today she completely rearranged all of the desks so that it was in a new pattern and it was disorienting to both the students and myself.
So once I got home, I wanted to do nothing. My eye hurt/itched and I was grumpy and tired and really wanted to do nothing but sleep. I only slept for a few hours the night before because I had so many things going through my mind. I also realized I had given a friend an old computer of mine (since I replaced my old one with a shiny new Toshiba) and had failed to clear out all the saved passwords from Firefox. Despite being tired however, I had promised my girlfriend that I would drive up to the local college and see her. I debated canceling since I felt like I'd been run over by a truck, but I decided not to and I am really glad I didn't. I felt dog-tired for awhile but then I started to pick up again. While my eye is still hurting, it's not nearly so bad as it was. I'm feeling much better at this point and ready to tackle to-morrow with renewed vigor.
On the one hand, I feel like things are suddenly moving much faster at the high school. I am now going to be solo-teaching for two weeks during the final two weeks of the first quarter. This means in about three to four weeks if my calculations are right. I need to start getting lesson plans together, discussion questions, assignments, etc.
All of this amounts to me feeling a bit nervous and worried that I might get overwhelmed. However, I think that if I take it one class at a time, figure out a week's worth of assignments and go over them with Mrs. N and Mrs. C and hammer things out, it's going to be fine. This is really unusual for how student teaching is supposed to go however - traditionally one starts by assisting with a lesson, then solo teaching a lesson, then assisting with a unit then solo teaching a full unit. Anyone who knows me though can attest to the fact that patience isn't one of my strong suits.
Better to jump in, I think, and figure out how to swim once I'm already in the deep end.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Illness
While I had a great labor day, sometime on Sunday I managed to get myself pink eye. After a two hour wait in the ER, I got a Doctor to confirm my self-diagnosis and now unfortunately am taking a painful prescription eye ointment and not allowed to go to the school today.
Hopefully by to-morrow it will be mostly cleared up and I will no longer be quite so infectious.
Hopefully by to-morrow it will be mostly cleared up and I will no longer be quite so infectious.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Distracting Distractors
So today's post will be fairly short because I am exhausted. Both mentally and physically, I am having difficulty keeping up with my own plans for the day. I think it's still going to take some time for me to get into the swing of the school experience, but I'm doing my best.
Today I really spent some time thinking about distracted students and also distracting students. Particularly in the freshman class, I have a lot of students who are simply very distracting. They whistle, they make noises, they hit pens onto things, they shift in their seats and one student actually keeps picking his entire desk up and moving it around.
Today the students answered the prompt "What is your ideal classroom environment?" Over half of them (13 out of 24) said it should be quiet, and many made mention of the other students being distracting. So what as a teacher am I to do? On the one hand, I want everyone to be able to participate and get the most from the class that they can. If someone is showing that they will hinder another student, that can't fly. Yet if I try purposefully to stop it, then it may only make the distraction worse or take more time away from the students who are set on learning.
Obviously I don't have any easy answers here. Just something I'm pondering. One idea I do like is trying to give distracting students positions of authority in the classroom. Perhaps make them in charge of collecting homework assignments or seeing that the class guidelines are followed. Something that gives them a way to 'buy in' to the classroom structure and give them a sense of investiture. I haven't tried it yet, but I think by helping these students to feel that they are a part, indeed an integral part, of the classroom, they will be more inclined to participate and less inclined to distract.
My current plan is to speak to the students to-morrow about what they wrote on the ideal classroom. I hope that if everyone sees how many students want quiet to help them focus, it might provide a social pressure to the distracting students and also help those students who want it to be quiet not feel as if they're alone.
It's just a place to start for now, but I think it's a solid one. To-morrow will mark the first time I'm up in front of the class wearing the teacher hat and doing the teacher thing. Let's see how it goes.
Today I really spent some time thinking about distracted students and also distracting students. Particularly in the freshman class, I have a lot of students who are simply very distracting. They whistle, they make noises, they hit pens onto things, they shift in their seats and one student actually keeps picking his entire desk up and moving it around.
Today the students answered the prompt "What is your ideal classroom environment?" Over half of them (13 out of 24) said it should be quiet, and many made mention of the other students being distracting. So what as a teacher am I to do? On the one hand, I want everyone to be able to participate and get the most from the class that they can. If someone is showing that they will hinder another student, that can't fly. Yet if I try purposefully to stop it, then it may only make the distraction worse or take more time away from the students who are set on learning.
Obviously I don't have any easy answers here. Just something I'm pondering. One idea I do like is trying to give distracting students positions of authority in the classroom. Perhaps make them in charge of collecting homework assignments or seeing that the class guidelines are followed. Something that gives them a way to 'buy in' to the classroom structure and give them a sense of investiture. I haven't tried it yet, but I think by helping these students to feel that they are a part, indeed an integral part, of the classroom, they will be more inclined to participate and less inclined to distract.
My current plan is to speak to the students to-morrow about what they wrote on the ideal classroom. I hope that if everyone sees how many students want quiet to help them focus, it might provide a social pressure to the distracting students and also help those students who want it to be quiet not feel as if they're alone.
It's just a place to start for now, but I think it's a solid one. To-morrow will mark the first time I'm up in front of the class wearing the teacher hat and doing the teacher thing. Let's see how it goes.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Technical Difficulties
Today felt much more calm than yesterday did. I think the first day jitters were wearing off for the students and for me as well. The real stand out moment of the day came from working with technology.
During the journalism class, Mrs. N wanted to show the first in a series of films on news media. She had them previously on tapes, but unfortunately there's a wrinkle to simply showing the tapes. One of our students is deaf, and trying to watch the tape and her interpreter would be very difficult. After a quick search, I discovered the videos were available for free on the web with closed captioning. Thinking the situation solved, we were all set!
And so I learned my first very important lesson of the day - before you try any lesson with technology, give it a run through first to make sure it works right.
Once we had everything hooked up, nothing happened. So I ran off and got the right cables and then - nothing happened. So we got the owner of the projector who explained to us that, first, you need to remove the lens cap.
Once we got the video showing with closed captioning (itself a challenge and a half) we couldn't change the video's size. This meant it was tiny. We resorted to tried and true methods of making a projection larger and tried pulling back the projector from the screen, but it didn't help much. The entire thing was really a fiasco. I found out way too late that I couldn't adjust the window size at all, and so it turned into a great big mess of tiny pictures and frustrated students and teachers.
It occurred to me only after the class that we could have asked the student if it'd be alright to show the video and set it up for her on the computer with the captions.
My last block of the day featured the freshmen again, somewhat less wound up today but still very excitable and loud. Today we went to the school's library and I got a chance to peruse the books. I am not a huge fan of Young Adult literature, but some of the book selections actually piqued my interest, and the students just ate them up. I was also really shocked to see a copy of Watchmen in the stacks. What high school offers Watchmen?
My current assignment is to think up an interesting class discussion on Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. I think I might try to pick up on some of the threads from the AP Lit. discussion on authenticity. It's always been my biggest thought around the text - is it more authentic to relate events as they happened or to take literary license and capture more of the emotion in the moment?
During the journalism class, Mrs. N wanted to show the first in a series of films on news media. She had them previously on tapes, but unfortunately there's a wrinkle to simply showing the tapes. One of our students is deaf, and trying to watch the tape and her interpreter would be very difficult. After a quick search, I discovered the videos were available for free on the web with closed captioning. Thinking the situation solved, we were all set!
And so I learned my first very important lesson of the day - before you try any lesson with technology, give it a run through first to make sure it works right.
Once we had everything hooked up, nothing happened. So I ran off and got the right cables and then - nothing happened. So we got the owner of the projector who explained to us that, first, you need to remove the lens cap.
Once we got the video showing with closed captioning (itself a challenge and a half) we couldn't change the video's size. This meant it was tiny. We resorted to tried and true methods of making a projection larger and tried pulling back the projector from the screen, but it didn't help much. The entire thing was really a fiasco. I found out way too late that I couldn't adjust the window size at all, and so it turned into a great big mess of tiny pictures and frustrated students and teachers.
It occurred to me only after the class that we could have asked the student if it'd be alright to show the video and set it up for her on the computer with the captions.
My last block of the day featured the freshmen again, somewhat less wound up today but still very excitable and loud. Today we went to the school's library and I got a chance to peruse the books. I am not a huge fan of Young Adult literature, but some of the book selections actually piqued my interest, and the students just ate them up. I was also really shocked to see a copy of Watchmen in the stacks. What high school offers Watchmen?
My current assignment is to think up an interesting class discussion on Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. I think I might try to pick up on some of the threads from the AP Lit. discussion on authenticity. It's always been my biggest thought around the text - is it more authentic to relate events as they happened or to take literary license and capture more of the emotion in the moment?
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Real First Day
Phew! What a day! Today marked my first real day as a student teacher. This meant a great many things, including my first battle with the copy machine, getting into trouble for the first time and attending my first English department meeting.
To begin, there was a misunderstanding between myself, Mrs. C and Mrs. N yesterday. While the day was on a shortened schedule for students, I was not supposed to leave early and was to have a meeting with Mrs. N after the last block of the day. I hadn't realized this and skipped off without a thought in the world. I didn't think anything of it since Mrs. C (the teacher I intern with during the last block) had told me it was fine to head out. That is, I thought it was fine until I got home and discovered a stern e-mail waiting for me. I then felt absolutely awful about it, but I think we're doing just fine now.
In order to make all this really comprehensible, I will divide it up into the classes and portions of my day as they went.
Journalism: My first class of the day! I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this class, but I was pleasantly surprised by the relaxed atmosphere and enthusiasm everyone displayed. I'm sure it partially stems from being an elective, but the students really seemed to want to dig into journalism and learn more about it. The class was mainly spent getting to know everyone with a "Get to know you Scavenger Hunt." Everyone got pieces of paper which listed off certain qualities from the physical (wears glasses) to the personal (loves acting) to activities (has been bungee jumping) and skills (can operate a backhoe). It went really well, and the students seemed to enjoy getting up and moving about the room and talking to one another. I was a bit surprised that only one student spoke to me during the activity (to ask if I could juggle) but other than that I was fairly unnoticed.
I also got my first look at the Collins Writing System, the school's choice for English improvement. I can see the appeal in some ways - you choose certain areas to work on in each paper (up to three) and only assess based on those (called Focused Correction Areas). If started early, you can be sure the fundamentals are thoroughly developed by the time they reach high school. The system is being implemented only at the high school level however (as far as I'm aware) and so feels somewhat out of place. If a student needs to work on spelling or sentence structure, yet the paper is correcting only thesis statements and sentence variety, it feels a bit unfair to the student to not help with the earlier problems as well. Still, you work with what you have, and I think I can find ways to make this system work for me.
The only real bone of contention I have with the class is that I don't think news, any news, is objective. I think we cannot help but bring our own biases and perspectives into what we read, and even more so into what we write. I also think all journalism (and media) is persuasive writing. The author is trying to persuade you towards a certain point of view, even if it is only the view that the media is worth your time and attention, and so they will invest of themselves into the work and, perhaps consciously or unconsciously, inject bias. I suppose the key then is to eliminate obvious bias (which is more than we can say for many media outlets) yet that still leaves unintended bias in the work.
Something to maybe toss around in the class and see if anybody bites.
Advisory: This class was fairly short. Not so much a class as a group meeting, it served as a check-in with students - they received information, forms and got a chance to just say hi and have a moment's breather in the day before rushing off.
AP Literature and Composition: The big one! This is the class that I am most nervous about. As Mrs. N put it, the class is a "hybrid between a test-prep course and a great books course," and cannot skimp on either. It must also function as both a high school course (obviously) and also a collegiate course, with all the rigor and trappings of both. It is a bit intimidating to try and manage, and it is the class that I think will take the most out of me. It also has very dense reading, some of which I'm still struggling to finish. The Autobiography of Malcolm X is absolutely fascinating, but it never seems to end! I am not saying I want to rush to the end, but a time limit really cuts down how long I can spend with the text.
We began with another scavenger hunt activity. I was really surprised by the sheer number of musicians in the AP class. The majority of the class played an instrument, and almost all of them were saxophone players. I was also very surprised to hear how many students talked about the Harry Potter books when discussing favorite authors and books you grew up with. I came of age too late for Harry Potter (apparently) and actually didn't read the books until my Junior year of college. The first book came out in 1997, so I guess these current students were right in the thick of their publishing. I wonder if they will remain popular in years to come, or if they'll fade out of sight. Something to ponder.
Lunch: I have my third block open each day. Mrs. N and I will be using this time to discuss teaching, answering questions, etc. This is also lunch block, and so I sat down for my soon to be customary meal of ramen. Today however was something of a special day. Today marked the first day that gay Vermonters could get married. And at lunch, I got to participate in a (very) small wedding ceremony! I was so glad I could be a part, however small a part I was, and am so happy it went off went. The couple had a much larger civil union ceremony previously, but wanted to get married now that they could. I am not a big fan of weddings in general, and my thought is the bigger the ceremony, the less and less it actually is about the two people marrying one another and the more the ceremony itself takes center stage.
While not a fan of the institution of marriage itself, I am still deeply invested in people having the right to be married. So long as we have marriage intertwined in government, then it should be provided to everyone regardless of race, creed or orientation.
Freshmen English: Woo! Last class of the day! This one was definitely the most lively, and by lively I mean of course that they are freshmen, on their first day of full classes at the end of the day. Wired and loud would be ways of putting it mildly. Despite that, I really can't wait to work with them. One of my goals during the course of this internship is to develop improvisation skills.
Now let me explain how that relates to teaching and this class. All too often, lesson plans are constructed to take you from Point A to Point B. This of course never happens. Student interest is akin to holding onto a non-Newtonian fluid (look it up!) and once you lose it, it's gone. If a lesson plan bombs, as a teacher you need to find a way to save the class. This often means scrapping whatever you were planning and going from something that has caught student interest (or that you hope will) and going from there. You can't very well say "Well, that didn't work. Sorry guys. Do some quiet reading while I write up a new plan."
I find all too often I come up with a plan, not just in education but in my broader life, and follow it to the end. This sometimes entails banging my head against a wall until I eventually smash through it, but that just isn't productive. So with that in mind, I am going to try to be more fluid in my planning and find what works.
Now with a class full of freshmen, particularly some who are natural class-clowns and who are already trying to show off and make trouble. If I am going to help them learn and really feel like they're getting something from the class, then I have to find a way to hook them and keep their attention. This is a challenge, but it is one I am eager for. It helps that, as I mentioned, I'll be teaching The Odyssey and I think the book is absolutely fascinating. So I'm hoping my own enthusiasm will prove infectious. Can't hurt, at any rate.
Department Meeting: At the end of the day, we had a Department Meeting. I obviously won't be repeating the vast majority of things mentioned, but one thing that was brought up looked absolutely fascinating. There's going to be a conference held in Conchord, Massachusetts on learning and media influence on brain activity. I may try and tag along if anyone is going (and see if I can get the school's rate while I'm at it) if I can.
After School: This has little educational value, but I got my autumnal hair cut. I make a point of getting one hair cut per season. Having gotten my summer cut in May, it was starting to curl around my ears and on the back of my neck and so I felt the time was appropriate for a trim. I now have inch long hair again, and am happy for it to be so manageable.
I also think at this point I have enough of a log of back entries that it's time to begin sharing this blog with my co-workers, friends, family and other various and sundry people in my life who might like to read my thoughts on education.
To begin, there was a misunderstanding between myself, Mrs. C and Mrs. N yesterday. While the day was on a shortened schedule for students, I was not supposed to leave early and was to have a meeting with Mrs. N after the last block of the day. I hadn't realized this and skipped off without a thought in the world. I didn't think anything of it since Mrs. C (the teacher I intern with during the last block) had told me it was fine to head out. That is, I thought it was fine until I got home and discovered a stern e-mail waiting for me. I then felt absolutely awful about it, but I think we're doing just fine now.
In order to make all this really comprehensible, I will divide it up into the classes and portions of my day as they went.
Journalism: My first class of the day! I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this class, but I was pleasantly surprised by the relaxed atmosphere and enthusiasm everyone displayed. I'm sure it partially stems from being an elective, but the students really seemed to want to dig into journalism and learn more about it. The class was mainly spent getting to know everyone with a "Get to know you Scavenger Hunt." Everyone got pieces of paper which listed off certain qualities from the physical (wears glasses) to the personal (loves acting) to activities (has been bungee jumping) and skills (can operate a backhoe). It went really well, and the students seemed to enjoy getting up and moving about the room and talking to one another. I was a bit surprised that only one student spoke to me during the activity (to ask if I could juggle) but other than that I was fairly unnoticed.
I also got my first look at the Collins Writing System, the school's choice for English improvement. I can see the appeal in some ways - you choose certain areas to work on in each paper (up to three) and only assess based on those (called Focused Correction Areas). If started early, you can be sure the fundamentals are thoroughly developed by the time they reach high school. The system is being implemented only at the high school level however (as far as I'm aware) and so feels somewhat out of place. If a student needs to work on spelling or sentence structure, yet the paper is correcting only thesis statements and sentence variety, it feels a bit unfair to the student to not help with the earlier problems as well. Still, you work with what you have, and I think I can find ways to make this system work for me.
The only real bone of contention I have with the class is that I don't think news, any news, is objective. I think we cannot help but bring our own biases and perspectives into what we read, and even more so into what we write. I also think all journalism (and media) is persuasive writing. The author is trying to persuade you towards a certain point of view, even if it is only the view that the media is worth your time and attention, and so they will invest of themselves into the work and, perhaps consciously or unconsciously, inject bias. I suppose the key then is to eliminate obvious bias (which is more than we can say for many media outlets) yet that still leaves unintended bias in the work.
Something to maybe toss around in the class and see if anybody bites.
Advisory: This class was fairly short. Not so much a class as a group meeting, it served as a check-in with students - they received information, forms and got a chance to just say hi and have a moment's breather in the day before rushing off.
AP Literature and Composition: The big one! This is the class that I am most nervous about. As Mrs. N put it, the class is a "hybrid between a test-prep course and a great books course," and cannot skimp on either. It must also function as both a high school course (obviously) and also a collegiate course, with all the rigor and trappings of both. It is a bit intimidating to try and manage, and it is the class that I think will take the most out of me. It also has very dense reading, some of which I'm still struggling to finish. The Autobiography of Malcolm X is absolutely fascinating, but it never seems to end! I am not saying I want to rush to the end, but a time limit really cuts down how long I can spend with the text.
We began with another scavenger hunt activity. I was really surprised by the sheer number of musicians in the AP class. The majority of the class played an instrument, and almost all of them were saxophone players. I was also very surprised to hear how many students talked about the Harry Potter books when discussing favorite authors and books you grew up with. I came of age too late for Harry Potter (apparently) and actually didn't read the books until my Junior year of college. The first book came out in 1997, so I guess these current students were right in the thick of their publishing. I wonder if they will remain popular in years to come, or if they'll fade out of sight. Something to ponder.
Lunch: I have my third block open each day. Mrs. N and I will be using this time to discuss teaching, answering questions, etc. This is also lunch block, and so I sat down for my soon to be customary meal of ramen. Today however was something of a special day. Today marked the first day that gay Vermonters could get married. And at lunch, I got to participate in a (very) small wedding ceremony! I was so glad I could be a part, however small a part I was, and am so happy it went off went. The couple had a much larger civil union ceremony previously, but wanted to get married now that they could. I am not a big fan of weddings in general, and my thought is the bigger the ceremony, the less and less it actually is about the two people marrying one another and the more the ceremony itself takes center stage.
While not a fan of the institution of marriage itself, I am still deeply invested in people having the right to be married. So long as we have marriage intertwined in government, then it should be provided to everyone regardless of race, creed or orientation.
Freshmen English: Woo! Last class of the day! This one was definitely the most lively, and by lively I mean of course that they are freshmen, on their first day of full classes at the end of the day. Wired and loud would be ways of putting it mildly. Despite that, I really can't wait to work with them. One of my goals during the course of this internship is to develop improvisation skills.
Now let me explain how that relates to teaching and this class. All too often, lesson plans are constructed to take you from Point A to Point B. This of course never happens. Student interest is akin to holding onto a non-Newtonian fluid (look it up!) and once you lose it, it's gone. If a lesson plan bombs, as a teacher you need to find a way to save the class. This often means scrapping whatever you were planning and going from something that has caught student interest (or that you hope will) and going from there. You can't very well say "Well, that didn't work. Sorry guys. Do some quiet reading while I write up a new plan."
I find all too often I come up with a plan, not just in education but in my broader life, and follow it to the end. This sometimes entails banging my head against a wall until I eventually smash through it, but that just isn't productive. So with that in mind, I am going to try to be more fluid in my planning and find what works.
Now with a class full of freshmen, particularly some who are natural class-clowns and who are already trying to show off and make trouble. If I am going to help them learn and really feel like they're getting something from the class, then I have to find a way to hook them and keep their attention. This is a challenge, but it is one I am eager for. It helps that, as I mentioned, I'll be teaching The Odyssey and I think the book is absolutely fascinating. So I'm hoping my own enthusiasm will prove infectious. Can't hurt, at any rate.
Department Meeting: At the end of the day, we had a Department Meeting. I obviously won't be repeating the vast majority of things mentioned, but one thing that was brought up looked absolutely fascinating. There's going to be a conference held in Conchord, Massachusetts on learning and media influence on brain activity. I may try and tag along if anyone is going (and see if I can get the school's rate while I'm at it) if I can.
After School: This has little educational value, but I got my autumnal hair cut. I make a point of getting one hair cut per season. Having gotten my summer cut in May, it was starting to curl around my ears and on the back of my neck and so I felt the time was appropriate for a trim. I now have inch long hair again, and am happy for it to be so manageable.
I also think at this point I have enough of a log of back entries that it's time to begin sharing this blog with my co-workers, friends, family and other various and sundry people in my life who might like to read my thoughts on education.
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