Watching and Applying

Often in teacher education programs the words of individualized instruction are thrown around to discuss how individual students learn. I have learned throughout my time at AHS all about individualized instruction and how it fits with students that it was about time I learned it for myself. So while I have been here I have discovered how I learn best: by watching other people teach.

A few weeks ago I blogged about a teacher who taught her English Literature class and then the ideas I took back to my classroom on how she deals with students and how she runs her classroom. This week I had the privilege of watching two other faculty members teach. One was a film class that was a co-taught environment. It was really neat to see how they ran the discussion – based on the students. They did not bring up their own ideas until the end; instead, they let the students run discussion. Also the staff were both facing different parts of the classroom so that each one was able to see different students so as to call on a variety of people from across the room. Overall, the content was polished and well presented to the students in a hard room to teach in. I also went and watching an AP Literature class. The teacher was introducing Oscar Wilde to the students and they had to read articles and poems by him. Then they were given note cards and put a line or two on there that they thought was important. From there they got into groups based on their article and formed a small group presentation / tableau presentation. It was really neat to see how the teacher tied the content to the students to them being really creative.

What amazes me the most is that I learn so much by watching other people teach, and then apply that to my own teaching. So I continue to set-up appointments and go see other people teach. The more I watch, the more I learn, the more I apply, the better I teach, the more I reflect, the more I change, and finally, the more I learn.

Screwing Up and Learning From It

My seniors are studying The Picture of Dorian Gray right now. On Wednesday I decided to use part of the period to cover the background of Oscar Wilde and briefly make sure that they understand the first three chapters – the basics: plot, structure, Wilde’s humor, and characters. What it turned into was a spoiler of their fishbowl discussion on Friday. If you are not familiar with what a fishbowl discussion is click here for a handout. Anyway I let the discussion go out a little far and pushed it into territory that is specifically set aside for fishbowl time. So in all essence – I screwed up and by the look on Anne’s face I knew that she was slightly upset.

The really cool thing, at least from my point, is that I recognized it. We sat down after school and talked through what happened. What I could have done better and really what the purpose of that lesson was. I initiated the conversation though. Anne said that was a big step for me. I knew that I had screwed up, I had made the poor choice, but I recognized that. Then, on top of that, I learned from it. We discussed, I re-planned, and now the thoughts from that day have gone on into how I plan and look at what we do in there and in my other classes.

Teaching is learning. Teaching is screwing up, more often in student teaching, but teaching is also learning from those times too.

Reflections on Teaching Writing to 9th Graders

Ok, so it has been a long haul. Today I briefly covered the conclusion and the works cited pages for my 9^th graders and their position paper. It has been six complete weeks since I started this paper. It should have taken five weeks, maybe six tops. So what went wrong? What can be fixed in the future?

I count a number of factors:

1.) My teaching – I am a student teacher and that being said I have never taught writing at this scale or this amount before. The amount of different steps (the finding of sources, the overall works cited, paragraph formation, etc.) have taken me a while to cover. I did not know how much I could push them at first, and now I have a better idea.

2.) Their knowledge of paragraph and paper formation – They came into AHS without ever having developed a paragraph fully, at least that is my understanding from Anne. I at least know that when I started this paper they had not constructed a five paragraph paper based on evidence that they had to use to prove an overall thesis. That struck me as a little far behind, like something that should have been covered in fifth grade or at least by the point they got to high school. Needless to say I have had to do a lot of teaching of material I did not think I would have to cover.

3.) My pace – Learning the ebb and flow of teaching is an art that I have not fully learned yet. However, I think now six weeks in I have a better idea. That being said, at the beginning I did not push them enough or gave them too much slack on assignments. That needs to be, and has been, improved for other classes and this class alike in the future.

4.) The middle schools – I hate to lay blame on what is going on in middle school, but I see what we, my department and I, have to do to catch students up. At the same time, I have to be curious if someone from the high school consulted with the middle school and really sat down and looked at each other curriculums? What if students came into 9^th grade already having written a large research paper? What else would these high achieving students be able to do? Image how I could focus more on the action plan with their position papers and less on their writing? That would be incredible, but at the same time I teach to where my students are at, so we move from there. It’s not only in 9^th grade, but in all other grades. I move from where they are at.

5.) Classroom management – There are two factors in there that I would count that I did not take into factor. One factor is modeling and giving clear directions on homework. For homework I need to be clearer in what I want out of them (and not only in this class. I have done a poor job of being really specific and even modeling what they need to see and what I want to see from them). I also need to bring back the models in my classroom. They were great for a few weeks, but I cannot ask students to write full paragraphs, conclusions, or works cited without first seeing examples. That is crazy. I need to bring back the models that have been lacking for the past week. The second factor is the overall behavior of students. The first few weeks and into last week the students have been crazy and I have not done a good job keeping them in check. That is my fault more than anything. I need to do a better job of keeping them in line so that there can be a productive working environment for everyone. Although, students talking, re-explaining ideas multiple times, and other minor disruptions shorten the time in class for instruction. I need to, and I believe I have started down the path, of making the classroom more of a learning environment in the future.

6.) Abandonment of the plan – At the beginning of the project I told them due dates, the schedule, and that they needed to meet with me twice throughout the project. That has not happened because I have not enforced it. That is my fault and I take the blame for that. However, I have met with every student every day in class and with our double feedback project that Anne and I are doing they have received ample feedback and assistance with their work. That is not an excuse, but it just makes it a little easier for me to handle.

I would be remiss to just focus on the negative (I can hear Anne and Ray both in my head right now), and there have been multiple things that have gone well. At the beginning of the project they believed it was impossible to write five to six pages all on one topic and now they are almost there. The accomplishment that will come on Friday will be amazing. I cannot wait to see it in their faces. The action plan has been a great idea and I cannot wait to see that come to fruition later this week. They have, for the most part, now understood the parts to a paragraph and can find resources that will help them in the future. I have collaborated with other staff members and have brought them in on the discussion, learning, and planning also. That has been a really rewarding experience. The students, I think on the whole, have also really enjoyed the project. None of them have given up yet, which is good, and I think the end is in sight. That reminds me, the globe that I started the whole project with needs to make an appearance again as a physical reminder. We are changing the world, it has just taken a little longer than I would have liked.

I am surrounded by greatness, but supported in my weakness

I walk into the Language Arts office at Arapahoe High School for another day of teaching and notice that I am one of the first ones there. Not completely unusual, but it just hits me again – Why am I here so early? Then I think, “That’s right. I am a student teacher and I need to make sure that my PowerPoints are posted on the class website, that I respond to parent and other teacher e-mails, and that I get my copies back from the copy room.” I am not like the amazing teachers in my department that can come in and grab their materials and go teach. They are amazing, truly great master teachers – every one of them, but then again they have years of experience on me. I just want to say that even though I get there early and stay late at night these great teachers around me are totally there for me every step of the way.

Many of them have opened up their classrooms to have me come watch, have held conversations with me in the back room, and have joked with me in the hall and before class. These teachers are great, and in my weaknesses and lack of experience they have supported me. They have shown me crazy parent and teacher e-mails, and as a department they have included me in on meetings before and after school, and they have taken me in under their wing - To the point that I feel that I can go to any of them comfortably for support and ideas in a time of need. The cool part is that I often do. They are there and we are there to work together. I share what I am doing in the classroom and they often come back with some ideas from their own classrooms.

It was also really fun when on Thursday I was being given a really hard time that I had apparently stolen someone’s stapler from the office. Usually it is one of the male teachers that get on my case for something small, but that is usually how far it goes. This time a departmental e-mail startedabout me behind my back (see I do not receive departmental e-mails). It got to a point where everyone in the office was giving me a hard time about this missing stapler that I did not steal. Someone put it on my desk while I was teaching. It even got to the point where the co-department chair had to come over and give me a stern talking to. Wow, what a hoot – the whole time I was defending that I did not steal the stapler. Then I had to go to class. When I returned I had sticky notes from almost every teacher in the department asking me to give them back something that I had apparently stolen from them. They ranged from the very serious to my favorite: “a fourth grade girlfriend.” Anyway, it brought a smile to my face when I got back from class.

Randy Pausch, author of The Last Lecture, loosely wrote “When people stop criticizing and giving you a hard time, they stop caring about you.” Well, I am confident in saying that in my weakness of a student teacher, not always having everything planned and ready to go, that I am surrounded by greatness – and the staff in my department let me know that. They truly care about what is going on in my classroom and what is going on with me. The sticky notes and the stapler incident let me know that for sure. It has been an absolute pleasure teaching in this awesome department and knowing that I am for sure I am surrounded by greatness, but supported in my weakness. Thank you Language Arts staff…now who has my tape dispenser?

Where was my student teaching disclaimer form?

I just have to say that there should be a little disclaimer form that all student teachers should sign before they start. It should include phrases like: “I am prepared to go on one of the hardest, busiest, and most rewarding journeys of my life thus far,” “I have a personal de-stressing mechanism in place to help me deal with the extreme stress of daily life (exercise, kicking the wall, running wild across the soccer field – I personally prefer the last one),” “I know that at times this will be overwhelming, but I have a place and people that I can call to vent,” “I am prepared to sacrifice my evenings, weekends, and long breaks for preparing, planning, and grading – all for my students and their education,” and my favorite, “I am prepared to deal with an extreme lack of sleep.” I can see the form right now. It has a big red “DISCLAIMER” written at the top and a few lines at the bottom for my signature.

Honestly, though, this experience has been way more than I asked for, but in a really good way. I was not prepared for the extreme amount of time it takes to plan, grade, and prepare that it takes me. Part of it I know is what you make it – how long and how much you plan. But let’s face it, I am a student teacher who has not covered or even taught this material before. It takes me much longer to plan, get excited for class, and grade things than seasoned veterans like the staff in my department. At the same time I am so happy with where I am. Teaching at AHS has been such a blessing and an opportunity that I probably put a lot of stress on myself based on where I am at and who I am teaching with. However, when I get up at 4:40 am to start my day and went to bed the night before, after falling asleep for the fourth time while grading papers, I just want to say that I wished I had known what I was getting myself into. Maybe I could have prepared more mentally, maybe I could have prepared physically, or at least I would have valued sleep outside of the confines of student teaching. All of this does not discount how much I love teaching, how much I enjoy going to work, how much I enjoy teaching at AHS, the students I am working with, and the amazing staff I get to work with. I just wish that someone would have warned me a little more loudly. I know that Anne and Kristin said I would be busy, and I know that education department at Wartburg mentioned it once or twice, but the question still lingers in my mind: Where was my disclaimer form?

Blogging- What’s the purpose of Fifty-Nine Minutes anyway?

I have often reflected over the past week about the true purpose of my blogging. Is it to do what my students are doing in the classroom and to see what it is like – yes. Is it because I want to keep my family and friends back home updated on what is going on in my life – yes again. Then comes the next question, are my posts boring? What I mean is that I sit here and pour out my day on this blog, but is it really effective? Is hearing about each one of my classes really that interesting? Is the fact that my seniors are studying The Picture of Dorian Gray and my freshman writing a position paper really that interesting? Honestly, if I was reading this blog I probably would have stopped a while ago. I read through a few of my blog posts from earlier and I found them to be a little dry and really long.

So here goes a new idea – what if I make my new blog posts short, sweet, and to the point? They will still be extremely effective and will probably involve some sort of reflection on what has been going on in my life that day or couple of days (soccer starts on Tuesday so blogging will probably take a back seat role to planning and teaching – sorry). My hope is that if I start writing this way, include my quote of the day and my take away, along with some sort of reflection over the past day or two days that I can keep this crazy blogging at a bearable limit and still keep my head above water. Thoughts? Let me know what you think by clicking below and leaving a comment.

Did I take ED 105: Classroom Management for the Aspiring Teacher? And if so, where are my notes?

Late last week Anne and I had a conversation about my 9^th graders. They were being a little unruly and generally disrespecting me in front of the classroom. I gave them work time on their assignment, but they neglected to use it well. Instead, they decided that they wanted to talk with each other, which obviously is not the point of work time. I asked the class thirteen times to settle down and be quiet, which is obviously way, way too many times to ask students. In addition, I had multiple conversations with individual students about their behavior in the class and how it needed to stop. Yet, at the end of the day they were still chatty and they left class with me questioning how I let chaos rule the classroom. I was embarrassed as a teacher, an educator, and as a student in that class. It was not appropriate for the students to be doing what they were doing, but at the same time I did not employ effective methods to cease or halt it either.

Many people may think that because I am at a high achieving and award winning school that I do not have classroom management issues, which is of course completely wrong. What may be the case is that my issues in the classroom are much subdued than say student teachers at other inner city buildings (where not only is classroom management an issue, but so is discipline, motivation, attendance, violence, and a whole host of other issues). Having to deal with a student or even a class out of line every once in a while is not a bad thing to have happen. After all, all students at AHS cannot be angels all the time!

So Anne and I talked about the different classroom management strategies I have at hand, which includes everything from talking to the student to moving him or her to even writing referrals and sending him or her to the office. Then we talked, or rather Anne questioned me, about which strategies I had employed. I learned very quickly that I was not stepping up to the plate. I was talking really big and taking advantage of the first two layers of intervention; however, I was not moving students up that ladder so that they could be dealt with and I could teach a focused classroom. It was a really interesting revelation for me to have. It started to make sense to me, I needed to actually back up what I was saying, and not just talk or look the part. I needed to take action.

To that end, Anne and I devised a plan of me talking to the students in my firm “teacher voice” the next day to really let them know that I was disappointed in them and wanted better. I wanted respect in the classroom, because I wanted a better learning environment. The students were out of line, I knew that and Anne did not have to tell me, because I was not happy with myself. However, at this point I wanted to know what to do. Using the teacher voice was not enough, I had tried that (or at least I thought I did). She told me that I still had not pulled it out, that I needed to have a real conversation with the students about their behavior.

So the next day, last Friday, I came into class and had them put all their laptops away. I really wanted to talk to them. I pulled out my notes and used them to talk about respect, expectations, and a few other things. The only problem, I ended up using my normal teacher voice, and not the angry Randon teacher voice - The one where I am really upset that they did not have their homework done, the one where I get upset and they really know it. Plus, I used notes, which, looking back on it was a huge mistake. If it is really something from my heart then I should be able to talk about it without notes. Teachers always talk about understanding if their students get a “come to Jesus talk” by the look of the faces of their students. Well, after another week let’s just say that they were not as attentive to what was going on. They did not get it, and the problems continued into this week.

This week it progressed. I gave them a new seating chart and put them in and near people that they would not talk to, well there is mistake number one. Those that are chatty will be chatty no matter what. I think that has to be a commandment or something. Anyway, I killed a lot of the moving around issues, but I still had the talking issues and I was not doing anything about it. They still talked when I was talking and they still were not respecting me or their classmates. It was really frustrating. So once again Anne and I had a conversation about what was going on. We walked up the ladder of intervention and the next steps that I could take and did take with students. Things seemed like they might get better…then Thursday.

Thursday came and Anne and I split up the students based on how far they were on their papers. Anne took the students that were caught up out into the hall and I stayed with those that needed a little extra work time in the classroom. I have one student who over the past few days caused some issues respecting me, respecting other students, completing work, and staying focused. What happened was I had decided before I came into class that day that I was done with this type of attitude and behavior out of students. I needed a change. I needed some peace and quiet. I had given this specific student a warning after his first issue in class, talking to the student across the aisle. I went on giving instruction, and then it happened again. So I did what I needed to do to maintain the instruction for the rest of the students – I kindly asked this student to step out into the hall. He was not happy about this choice, I was not either, but it needed to be done. So he left and the class worked well for the rest of the period. I had to move a few students that were chatting while I was talking, but that was it. They worked hard and life was good in C-11 (my classroom number).

At least until the end of the period came. The bell rang and I went to confront the student that I kicked out. I told him that we needed to chat and he ignored me. I told him that we needed to go next door (where there was an open classroom) and talk, away from the rest of the class. So I walked towards the door and he followed me, although when I turned left into the other classroom he turned right and walked down the hall. I called out to him multiple times and he ignored me. I told this to Anne who said the next step was doing something I have never done before – a student referral.

So I went through the process, filed the referral, and then went to talk to the administration about the problem. The whole issue was resolved today when he was called into the office and I had a little chat with him and the administrator.

All in all, I wonder if I left him in the hall too long to cool off. I wonder if I made the right choice of choosing the thirteen students in my classroom over him. I wonder if there was something else I could have done to make this situation more effective for all parties involved. I honestly do not know the answer to that question, but I do know that I did what I felt I needed to do. I removed the student from the situation based on behavior that both he and I knew was wrong. He had been warned multiple times about his behavior, and this was the end of the road. He escalated it to the referral stage, not me. He took the step to walk away when I only wanted to chat. Did I do the right thing? With a new week starting on Tuesday and being almost halfway through my placement, only time will tell.

A minor situation also happened in English 10. I have a very motivated, ex-Honors student in my class. He does very high quality work when he is motivated to do it, but there are times when he just wants to goof off or turn around and talk to his friend behind him. So Kristin and I had talked about me pulling him out of class and talking to him individually. He was pulling the same stuff he usually does and I finally today decided that enough was enough – the kicker was that he was even doing it during a quiz. I pulled him out into the hall and told him about how I knew he was a good student and that he could do high quality work, only his behavior the past few days and the past two weeks has been unacceptable. I wanted more out of him. I told him he can do it, he just needs to focus. After our little chat he was better in class, but still at times I need to correct his behavior. I am planning on giving them a new seating chart on Tuesday, so hopefully that will alleviate some of the stress of the situation. We will have to see what happens next week.

At the beginning of my student teaching I thought that I was on top of the world, and everything was great. I understood how to plan, how to teach, and manage a classroom. Now, at the end of six weeks into a fourteen week placement I have realized that I could not have been more ignorant. Lessons could always be more effective, I still want to push the students more than I am doing, and I still have major problems with my teaching – well not major, the major “rocks,” if you will, are in place. Now I just really need to figure out the classroom management situation. I was reflecting with Anne after school and she told me this quote that her college professor told her, “I can teach you everything about teaching, how to lesson plan, how to call home to parents, how to use effective reading strategies, etc., but I cannot teach you classroom management.” Wow, what a quote I thought. I looked at my own Wartburg College education and realized the same thing. I have taken classes on the history of education, teaching TAG and BD, and 504 students, I have looked at how to form a lesson, taught individual lessons, and done a myriad of other education related activities, but there is no way to properly teach classroom management. Where is ED 105: Classroom Management for the Aspiring Teacher? I want to take that course – oh wait, that course does not exist. So I have to learn it out here, in the field, really learning in the trenches. No one said teaching was easy, and classroom management is definitely that – Not easy. With the fantastic support from my cooperating teachers and the constant reflection, I am sure that although I did not take ED 105 in college I am currently enrolled in it here at AHS.