Does that dog have a gas mask on?

Does that dog have a gas mask on?

I finally got to teach my unit in my class, and I was surprised to have such a wonderful time! The students apparently have dual personalities. I was so nervous getting up and teaching them, based on what I had seen on how they treat my MT. Add to that, I had my observation that day, I was sweating bullets. I started the day with the normal routine of bell work and really overestimated what I thought my students could handle, but we quickly moved beyond that. The story that we worked on was called “Can Animals be Brave?” It was mostly over how a few animals were used for war. I decided to print off more pictures of the different roles of animals during war-time. I brought some pictures of horses and dogs wearing gas masks from WWI and WWII eras. The students were so interested in the pictures, and had loads of questions. I was so happy that they were interested in what I was showing them, I honestly didn’t care if they were still rambunctious or not. I don’t usually like to have students just yell out questions and answers, but the fact that they were wanting to learn more, I didn’t care one bit if they were loud.

For the whole week, I taught them, and they were so good for me. It made me feel better to know that they were receptive to me. (I also bribed them with stickers) I honestly think that the personality of the teacher makes all the difference in the world. I love to teach, and that comes through in the way that I interact with the students. I saw a drastic change after the first day with them. They went from being very disruptive, to volunteering to read. And, when I thought it couldn’t get better; they started to volunteer for multiple paragraphs, raising their hands with questions, and engaging in thought provoking discussions. There was only one moment when there was a disagreement on a comment, and someone was called a name. I simply stopped the discussion and taught the students how to use academic language to have differing opinions during a discussion. It was smooth sailing from there.

Now that I have had the opportunity to work with the students in this class, the more I think I like the thought of teaching in an ESL setting. This is a unique challenge that I find thrilling. I am lucky that I have the TESOL for my middle school as my MT.

KATE Conference

·          

• I enjoyed Bill Konigsberg’s session the most. I have always enjoyed hearing authors talk about their work and their inner driving force. And in this instance, you have a man that represents the LBGTQ community writing books that young adults can relate to. Because, to be honest, I can sit and say that I am an ally and that I support them, does not mean that I can understand the current of emotions that they are going through. Bill was very personal with what he talked about, and open about his triumphs and tribulations. I honestly cannot wait to be able to start reading these books. (I now have all three.)
• I would have to say that there were two sessions that I found most useful. I enjoyed the “Miracles in the Classroom” session and “Student-teacher to Teacher”. Miracles was particularly helpful in giving me ideas on different material I can use to teach literacy to my ESL students. I have even started to hunt for possible alternate reading formats for my unit I want to teach.  Then there was the “Student-teacher to Teacher” session that I found very helpful. We talked about what will happen once we get jobs, the things we weren’t taught, and the things that people assume we already know. We were told to keep a journal to be able to reflect on our days. Mrs. Tolbert told us to learn the building’s acronyms, and to make friends with security and the custodians. She advised us to stay away from the negative people in our building, and to “Document! Document! Document!” and finally, to never forget to make time for ourselves and to not feel guilty in doing so.
• Outside of talking to the vendors and gaining some information that I would like to use in my future classes, I was too shy to get to talk to anyone. There were some nice ladies from a different district that I ate lunch with, and enjoyed myself with their company. However, all we had was small talk. I found that they didn’t care to talk about their schools, or districts. But that is okay, I will have other opportunities to network in the future.
• I was expecting more. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I honestly thought this was small. Considering this was a state-wide conference, I thought there would have been more vendors, more sessions, and more opportunities to engage. I loved the breakout sessions, those were fantastic. I honestly thought that this would have been a great opportunity for companies to come and push their products on literacy advancement. Maybe next year.

A Day in 7th Grade

A Day in 7th Grade

Today is the day!
I walk the hallway
Following the tide
What do I do; what do I say?

Keeping to the right
Pressed against the wall
Their voices of thunder
A sea of faces is a sight

Walking around the bend
I see where to go
The door up a head
The next forty minutes I will spend

Please stay in your seat
No, not that one
The one you are assigned to
The desk is not for your feet

Who threw that over there?
Voices need to be at a zero
Turn to page 129
Why oh why are you out of your chair

Glancing at the time
Deep breath in
Say a quick prayer
Are we all on page 129?

Who will read line one
I need your voices at a zero
Please stop playing the drums
I thought English was supposed to be fun

The kids are wound
They don’t want to read
The bell rings
Today that is the best sound.

Until tomorrow
I can run away
Enjoy the quiet
Until tomorrow..

Keeping the motivation going

As I write this, I am thinking about the events of the last few weeks. Since my last post, I find myself still struggling with the same issues. That being said, I will not discuss that here. On, a bright note, a few of the students have figured out that I am still in college, and the dynamics have changed a small amount. One of my low readers was walking with me at the end of the class and I asked him why he didn’t like to work in class; he simply told me it was because he found reading so hard and that he didn’t like it. So I told him that I understood that class could be tough, and sometimes we had to do school work that we may not like very much. He asked me how would I know, and I told him that I knew because I had a lot of homework that I was going home to, and that if I didn’t get it done I would fall behind in my class.

                I still have problems with him being motivated to actually read during class; I think part of that is a “cool” persona he is trying to uphold. We were going over our workbooks today, and they were asked to correct the things they missed, and this poor kid had a big ugly F in his and he was pretty upset about it. I sat next to him and talked with him for a minute and looked over his book and discovered that some of the answers that were marked wrong were actually right. I brought this up to my MT, where, after looking through her book discovered that she used the wrong key to grade with. I went back to him with his corrected book, and he was so startled to see that he had a B. He was really happy for a few minutes, then he decided to just close his book and not work for the rest of class.

                I’m still trying to find my own path in this class, but there are days where I really do feel like I’m drowning. The reading skills are so challenging for me when I want to be creative and make my students really think about their reading. I have looked at sever websites that are designed for ESL classrooms, but even with those I feel like the plans are beyond my students. My teaching is coming up early next month with no real clear direction from my MT. I feel that the lessons that I make for this class are going to be challenging for me, yet with this struggle I will find a better part of myself in my ability to create a lesson that (hopefully) engage my students.

                I am always on the lookout for new material and ideas on how to manage a class that has not management. I have actually bought a CHAMPS book that will hopefully give me some good management insight. I’m actually learning that when these kids have something really positive happen it takes them by surprise, and changes them for a moment, and then its chaos again. I will keep my head up and keep marching on.

The Importance of Classroom Management

Life is too short not to do something that matters. – Hugh MacLeod

I survived this week by the seat of my pants. This really wasn’t how I was expecting to start this year out; but I did, it has, and now to move on. I am given a very unique opportunity to be able to observe two different content areas and in turn two very different management styles. During the first partial week all the teachers are expected to walk the students through the CHAMPS expectations. Each hour is assigned a specific school-wide expectation, as well as their personal expectations.  It is up to the teachers to set the mood for the year by explaining what he/she expects from their students while in their room.

During those first few days my Science MT repeatedly we over her rules, had her students repeat them, and even had them write down one that “stuck” with them the most. Every day before we begin, she has the students do a very specific routine with coming in the room, picking up their notebooks, writing in their agendas, and completing bell work and vocabulary. When we do activities, she will point to her CHAMPS poster and remind the students what level she expects them to be working in. The students are not allowed to just roam the room without permission, they are not allowed to all go to their lab stations at once. My MT will dismiss one row at a time to the labs, and same for at the end of the day. She has made it very clear that she dismisses the class, not the bell.

This class of 28 6^th graders is very well behaved. They come into the room knowing what the expectations are, and they follow the rules. There has never been a time I have seen my MT have to raise her voice to get the class under control. She will simply raise her hand in the air and say, “Mrs. **** needs your attention first call” She will repeat it if necessary, but I have only seen her need to repeat herself a few times.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is my English MT. During those first few days she simply went over the school expectations, and with a vague go over of her class expectations. We begin this school year with the students creating a newspaper front page article about themselves. This is something that should have been able to be completed during the first full week of class. At the start of last week our school began the R-CBM, (Reading-Curriculum Based Measurement) this required my MT to take individual students into the hall and have them read out loud to measure proficiency. She handed me a stack of worksheets and told me I was in charge of the class while she did the testing. During the first day I had absolutely no control of the students. Near the end of the class I put my foot down about how they were behaving and decided that I wouldn’t accept that kind of behavior. On the next day their behavior was much improved, however, it was short lived. Fast-forward to today, we are both in the room today trying to get the students to finish this newspaper article; and they were so riled up that it was again complete chaos. The students not only refused to listen to me, they refused to listen to her.

So, trying to figure out some way to overcome this big obstacle, I found a great article, that you can read here: http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2010/06/26/classroom-management-plan/ that breaks down classroom management into two very simple steps:

1.       To state the rules of the classroom

2.       To state exactly what will happen if those rules are broken.

The key is to strictly and obsessively hold them accountable. Now I just need to find a way to get my students to follow the rules and bring some order in this room.

First Day Thoughts and Feelings

So, today was my first official day in Core III as a pre-student teacher. As of right now, my feelings are mixed. There is this rush of excitement as I enter this next step toward my dream, and there is also this bottomless pit of uncertainty of if I will be a good teacher once this is completed. As I look out over my first observation, (first of two each day) I see those faces staring back at me, and I know they are my responsibility to teach. It will be up to me as a teacher to give them the tools they will need to grow and become well tuned and functioning adults. It is that realization that makes me sweat with fear. Knowing they are there to learn, (weather they want to be there or not) and I will get to be part of that journey with them is also thrilling

Today, we all have first day jitters, not just my beautiful students, some of which are in this school for the first time, but for us teachers as well. Each new year brings the same anxieties, will my students find my lessons engaging? Will they learn what I have to teach? What if I trip on something and fall in front of them? Will I bore them to sleeping? These are thought I think constantly. Also, I think about the joy of creating exciting lessons, ones that will get the students involved with both of the subjects I will teach. I think having a dual certification offers a unique ability to use cross-content to encourage grown in both areas. It would be easy to bring science into my English class, and English into my Science class. I look forward to this final year of my education and see myself grow as future teacher. Over the next two semesters I would like to see myself accomplish some goals that will make me a better teacher.
1. My classroom management skills. My two MT's have very different management methods for their classes. One is very loose in enforcing CHAMPS rules; this leads to chaos and students not paying attention during class. The other is very precise about how she expects CHAMPS to be followed; at every activity she redirects the students attention to the CHAMPS board and reminds them what is to be expected of them. I would like to think my management skills will be more like hers, the students seem to function better when there is a direct set of rules.
2. To stop feeling nervous in front of the students. I still feel very awkward when I am walking around the class. I know this is something I will get better with as I go, but I still feel so strange.