Week 6

A highlight of the past week would be that my avid kids played two truths and a lie and I knew all but two of the students. I like the feeling that I know the young people that I am teaching. It was also fun to see how much they knew about me as well.

Something that happened that made me think a little differently about kids is that sometimes the fight is worth it and sometimes it is not. Then there comes a line when you have to call the student out every single time. The little things are easily handled by hand motions or raised eyebrows and other things you have to say how it makes you feel. I realized the more open on how their behavior makes you feel and how you would like to work on changing that with them the better your silent cues are followed later on. I had a student I took out of the classroom during a lecture and explained that I understood he listened a lot better when playing with some things in the student’s hands but when you are making noise with that instrument/ or disturbing others from learning that the student needed to respect them and me when we ask them to stop. We show respect by asking politely and we need respect in return. I then gave the student options that would work instead.

One practice that I will adopt when I teach a lesson is making a hash mark on the board representing 10 seconds of the students’ passing time when the whole class is not coming back together after I have asked. It worked like magic and was a fast easy way to get students to realize that they need to settle down after a task.

There were a couple things I found perplexing this week. The first was the brain to body function process. One kid just ran (literally) from the back of the room into this kid at the front and drove him into the smart board. When asked why the student said he didn’t know and from the look on his face I believe that answer. The second was when I was grading papers and one of the more advanced students did not do good on a test but when in class could explain the process extremely well.

Week 5

Something interesting that happened to me this week would be that I went and observed in another teachers math classroom. She made me want to get a minor in math so that way I could teach math as well. I learned that the algebra kids where almost always willing to learn and get down to business.

Something that boggled me was kids are so technologically more intelligent than me. I had a kid today hack through the security wall so he could get on youtube. Genius! Another thing I found interesting was that boys talk WAY more than girls. Way more! Boys are chatter boxes and always have something to share. I was not expecting that.

Something I want to take away with me is how the math teacher organized everything. All of the assignments are on a month calendar and on a self in the appropriate folder. This way when students missed a day or whatnot they know exactly where to go to find out what they did. She said it helps so much because it cuts down on a messy desk and being busy in between classes.

Week 4

Everyday is a new experience in a classroom. I am in the classroom everyday and I love it! One day everything goes according to plan and everyone is happy then the next day is just an off day. These off days make me realize that we all have off days and if we, as a team, work through the off times everything works so much better than work around them. One saying I want in my classroom is that "Today is a new day and so is tomorrow." With this comes the lesson that every class period is different and as a teacher you have to realize that. Your attitude/demeanor has to start over at the start off a new period.

Another thing I learned this week that I will not have in my classroom is squeaky chairs! Who knew that chairs could be so loud and distracting! My cooperating teacher and I talked about this and next school year she is going to order tennis ball for the bottoms of the chairs. Relatively silent movement here we come!

Today I had one of my students give me a note before class. She told me that she and another student didn't like me when I first came because they didn't think they could have fun around me. However, after getting to know me they both really liked me and realized they could have fun. She ended the letter telling me I was one of the few teachers she trusted and that she wished I would have been here at the beginning of the year for the whole year. Her letter made my day. Looking back I can see how much more I have trusted them and how that has built stronger relationships with the students. Another highlight was when a group a students asked me why I was leaving on the 18th and I told them I was going for a fun weekend to Montana. I heard sighs and "okay good" then one girl turned to a boy and said "you lied! She is too coming back!" It is nice to know the students want you around.

Week 3

This past week has been great! It was less stressful and fun. A highlight of my week is that I now know every students name. Another highlight is that one student has been calling me Miss H and one student corrected him saying my name was Miss Wyman. The boy looked at me and said I thought that your name was Miss H. We came to the conclusion that he got that because when I first introduced myself I said my last name was like saying “Why Man?” just spelled without the H. He asked if he could still call me Miss H, 8^th graders make life fun.

Something that made me think differently is that some kids can tell you everything they need to know but don’t want to do the work because something else is on their mind. I learned that if I just ask any question they will usually tell you what they need to say and after that they seem to focus so much better and actually do their work. I am learning real quick that just talking sometimes can make all the difference.

One thing I learned was that when working with messy labs is to keep all the labs on the outskirts of the room and not crammed at their desks. The more that the middle of the room can be clear of people the less mess you have. Another thing I learned that I wasn’t expecting was that if you ask the student to stand up and do 5 jumping jacks to get their blood flowing to their brains is that they will actually do it and appear more alert. I will definitely incorporate that into my future lessons.

Assessment Article Review

The article I read was called The Role of Classroom Assessment in Teaching and Learning by Lorrie A. Shepard. I will discuss the sections I found most useful in her article. She used many references and case studies to support her article.

One of the main topics she discussed was allowing the students to assess themselves. I really like this section because I believe that students should be assessing themselves. Not only will they have too and should do it when they live on their own but it will increase their learning. I think some of the problems among adults is that they never were held accountable or were taught to assess what they were doing and analyze the good from the bad and the outcomes/consequences of either one. On that note, a great chunk of learning comes from assessing yourself. When you look at what you have done or what you should do then you realize things that you may have not seen before.

One way to help students assess themselves is by giving them a rubric. Not only does the rubric help us but it helps the students see what they need to accomplish and if they did accomplish the criteria. A rubric is only one example. According to Frederiksen and Collins “the features of excellent performance should be so transparent that students can learn to evaluate their own work in the same way that their teachers would.” I really like this quote and the way they used transparent to describe what it should be like.

On the other hand, making students think about what you expect of them is another way to get them metacognitively thinking and analyzing. The article mention that “the more important reasons for helping students develop an understanding of standards in each of the disciplines are to directly improve learning and to develop metacognitive knowledge for monitoring one’s own efforts…they provide students with the opportunity to get good at what it is that the standards require.” If the students are actively engaged in grading their own work then they have a more in depth understanding of the standards required.

As a final note, I found this quote that wraps up what assessment should be. “Wolf and Reardon (1996)…talk about ‘making thinking visible,’ and ‘making excellence attainable.”

Week 1 & 2

I am now in the classroom Monday through Friday 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th periods. Because I am in the classroom so often I am learning more about my students and how my cooperating teacher handles situations. My first lesson last week was much better than last quarter. I am learning to wait longer when I ask a question or when I have asked for their attention and am not receiving it. Most of the time peer direction is much more affective then anything. At the end of the week my cooperating teacher was gone and the sub allowed me to teach the class. The sub was more blunt than I have been and I learned more from her than I ever would have thought. This week started off with a glitch where my teacher had to leave the classroom for the period and I was left in charge. The lesson went good and at the end of the period they were supposed to be working on a study guide and some of the students were not working. I was a student that wanted to work and got annoyed when the other students wouldn’t work and would talk so I demanded that they be silent and focus on working. When my teacher returned for the next class she explained to me that as long as they weren’t making other students mad it was their choice to use the time to write a study guide they could use on the test or not. That made sense. She then explained that some kids really didn’t need the study guide and got bored really easily so the best way to handle that was make them useful. One of the best learning moments was when I was grading the tests. Some of the students that were always fidgeting and talking during lecture did really good and some of the students that constantly participated in discussion and answered questions didn’t do as well. I am constantly amazed at how some students retain information even if they show all signs of not paying attention. These past two weeks have been a great learning experience.

Classroom Management Article

New Practitioners Forum: Making the Transition from Student to Teacher

Although this article is specifically for pharmaceutical students becoming professors or teaching a college course, the information it provides it still very practical to any soon to be teacher/first time teachers. The article gives many scenarios that will come up during teaching and provides some suggestions on handling the issue or going about handling the issue. The first item the author discusses is the biggest jump from student to teacher. It is a completely different occupation and one that I didn’t realize how much of a conscious effort it would take. There is a lot more reflecting when being a teacher than when being a student. Reflecting is a major must in the next topic of time management. One of the scenarios presented was a workshop where not everyone got around to each venue. A solution proposed was to reflect on why the students didn’t have enough time and what would work better next time. The problem is still that the students didn’t finish so a study guide was given to students about the venues they were not able to observe. As a first year teacher, and most likely throughout my career, I am going to find this will happen when presenting new labs, lectures, or worksheets. I will definitely write down the time it took and reflect what needs to change or if more time is needed. Unlike the workshop, I can have my students finish the next day but I may have to write the study guide anyways so that way we don’t fall to far behind. I have learned that being flexible requires that maybe an extra day is needed and as long as the students are getting the most out of it that is better than moving on and leaving some students in the dark. One way to keep the students out of the dark is to make sure you engage them in the lesson. Students are different and therefore learn differently as well. Trying to accommodate all learning styles is hard but worth it in the end. If the students know you are trying to accommodate them they will be more apt to pay attention. Another way to keep their attention is learning their names and actively asking questions and calling on your students. Calling on your students is a good way to cut down on side chatting because they don’t want to look like the fool that has no idea what is going on. Another way to deal with disruptive behavior is to talk with the student(s) after class. This works extremely well in my 8^th grade classroom. However, if the whole class needs redirecting a brief 30 second talk about focusing and coming back from a task is a great reminder.

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