Today I had one of the most amazing days. Specifically in my seventh period class, the students could not take their eyes off of me. Literally as I walked all around the room while I was explaining, the students’ eyes followed me. Even one of my sleepers was riveted. His face was animated as we went through the contents of the story. He was responding and excited. All of my students were. Watching their faces light up and contort during different emotions was incredible! I was in awe. And their excitement made me even happier and animated while going through everything with them.
We read "Open Window," "Like the Sun," and "A Problem." They are absolutely wonderful! My biggest annoyance was that the students said they were difficult to understand, but I think they were just trying to get out of feeling bad if they didn't know every detail. Honestly, the stories are quite simple and very straightforward. It was great!
I started my independent reading unit. All classes went to the library and did "Speed dating" with 12 books. As I walked around the tables many had their cards full with book titles they wanted to read. They had no problem finding something they liked and many checked out more than one. We only had about ten minutes of daily class time and that was the difficulty. I think if I had given them more time to read they would have been better at it but ten minutes is hardly enough to get into their books.
I love speed dating! You could also do a speed dating book talk (2 a day) as a mini-lesson. Maybe this will give you more class discussion time. I also saw a really cool "book bracket" very similar to a football bracket. Students had to read their book and then convince the class to vote for their book. The book that received the most votes got to move forward to the next bracket! This would be a cool idea maybe half-way through the year after everyone has finished reading at least one book in book clubs.
Last week went quite well, if I do say so myself. In my GA history class, we have started a unit on WWII, which is something that my students really seem to be interested in. I have one student that rarely pays attention getting into the unit!
My English class has been practicing for the upcoming Milestones exam and are doing quite well.
How were they practicing for the Milestones? At my school they are in full panic mode and every class now is "teaching to the test". I feel like sometimes we make the kids even more nervous about these tests.
In our school meeting yesterday, the English department was asked how we can raise our lexile scores. I am planning on introducing the idea of reading workshop to my co-workers in our next department meeting. We currently use reading counts and it obviously is not working. I'm looking forward to sharing the information I have learned. Any advice on specific ideas to share is appreciated!
I would love to hear how their reactions. I am interested in introducing the idea of reading workshops at my new school and want to know the concerns that schools will have.
I had a really good start to my week! One of the students in my class, who previously has been very disruptive, has become the leader that keeps the class on task. I have been trying to pinpoint the exact time and reason for this change, but I have been unsuccessful. My best guess is that he just really likes the new material about King Arthur. When this change first happened I assumed that it would be short lived, but I have been proved wrong. Everyday he has continued to be a leader for the rest of the class, and he is the first to contribute to discussions and ask questions. We decided to call his mother and share with her about his progress in class and how he has used his position in class to strengthen the class as a whole. She was delighted to her from us and she told us that she has recognized a difference as well. She told us that her son has come home everyday and told her about the story of King Arthur. This made me extremely happy and over joyed!!!!!!! It also taught me that once students buy into the material they are being taught and enjoy it, that they do better in the classroom. I have also noted a change in the class as a whole. The majority of the class has enjoyed the new King Arthur unit, which means they have been talking more among themselves about the material. While this is a good thing, it has also proven to be a bigger opportunity for students to get off topic in their discussions. Some days they are really good and other days I have to constantly redirect students. Today I was getting really frustrated with them because I was giving them time to work on their projects in class and I had to stay on top of one group of students. Some of the students were really taking advantage of the time they were given while others were really just pushing my buttons because even though I gave them time in class to work on their project, they refused to do any work! These same students are the ones who routinely take zeros for assignments because they do not turn in work. I didn’t let them see my frustration, but this was the first time I reached this level of frustration with them. Also, next week is the first common assessment that I will give over the content that I have taught. I am excited to give this assessment partially because it will reflect the lessons that I have created and taught. I feel really good about the content that we have learned over the past five weeks. All of my classes are connecting the material they are learning to outside sources and have enjoyed meaningful discussions in class. I am confident that all of my students know more information about our content than a common assessment can measure, and I am confident that they are going to do well.
This week, I got completely bamboozled by one of my gifted students. It was the last period of the day on Friday. Needless to say, many of the students had already checked out and were ready for the weekend. To top things off, all during this period, various school teams kept getting called out of class to take yearbook photos. My host teacher is in charge of yearbook so I was left completely alone with the students. This is usually no biggie, but the kids were in rare form. The real kicker came when the there was an announcement for members of the tennis and golf teams to report to the front of the school for pictures. A couple of students got up to leave and something odd happened. One boy got up and a few students said, "Where are you going?" to him but they quickly got quiet and looked down at their desks or away. Something didn't seem right, so I asked the same question. Immediately, there was a chorus of "He's on the golf team" and "Why don't you think he's on the golf team?" I had no choice, I had to let him go. He returned a few minutes later, giggling and saying "I guess they lost my physical." It was obvious what had happened. I was humiliated (but I didn't show it!). In the future, I will make sure to obtain a master list of every team and who is on each one.
This week we started a unit on the Harlem Renaissance that the school’s literacy coach required all ELA classes to do. I was a little skeptical at first but the students seem to be enjoying it and learning a good deal. The unit started with a background essay on Harlem and what the Harlem Renaissance was about. The prepared lesson required students to read the one page essay a total of five times but we decided that was a little much. Instead, we read it once aloud, then the students were assigned a paragraph and they worked in a small group to read it and find the most important information from that paragraph. They then came back together and shared what they found with the whole class. This worked really well because not only did it cut back on the number of times they had to read the same text, but it also allowed them to practice picking out important information. This exercise helped them see that you don’t have to have every word of a text to really understand it and they saw how to determine what was most important. Another effective activity we did was with vocabulary. When planning for this week, I told my host teacher how in class we always talk about doing things like vocabulary and grammar within context, not separate from the rest of the day’s lesson. So we tried a new way of teaching the vocab words from the reading. The planned unit already had six words chosen that were found in the text and would be most beneficial for the students to understand. Before the students read the text we gave them the words and had them write what they thought the words meant just based on their prior knowledge of the word or parts of the word. We then read the text and afterwards students went back and wrote definitions based on context clues. This worked wonderfully! The students had an opportunity to show us what they already knew and then what they learned from the reading. They were getting vocabulary instruction that was led by them. One thing I would have added to this activity would be to have the students mark other words they were unfamiliar with as they read and then we would discuss those as well. But overall, the unit is going well.
This week was much better than last. Though it consisted of both highs and lows, I can honestly say I can be happy with the lessons I produced this week. They were good lessons and I was able to deliver them in a consistent fashion- with improvements here and there as the day progressed. I feel much more confident with what I am doing when I have put more work into the plan days ahead of its delivery. What a concept. I am also doing better with managing my time even though if it means I am constantly timing myself on my cellphone. I still talk too much or devote too much time to one exercise or another… but I am starting to get better at recognizing that ahead of time. I am being met with some classroom management issues… with my honors kids. I feel that if you had asked me going into this placement, I would have told you I was more confident in myself with the gifted classes. However, I am finding that the rigor of my lessons aren’t meeting some of their needs and thus they act out in boredom. Kids that have never been a disciplinary issue for Ms. Wall are acting out… because I am not keeping them as busy as she has over the year. Good busy though. I am going to have to work further to challenge them. When I observed Ms. Wall teaching at the beginning of my placement, I noticed she taught the same lesson to her regular ed students as she did her honors students… but the differences between lessons were much more subtle than I expected. I need to do what I can to match that or find my own means of recreating that rigor. I am not having any issue with the writing portion of the unit as I am with scaffolding up to more complex texts for them to work with independently. Ms. Wall and I had a sincere conversation this past week, on where I belong in education. In our conversation, I admitted that I love the content in which we were working with but I did not fully appreciate the lesson planning aspect of it… largely due to the anxiety that it brought about. Initially, this truly frustrated her, because lesson planning makes up so much of great teaching. However, as the conversation progressed as well as the week, she suggested my dislike of lesson planning is rooted in the fact that I haven’t given myself any chance to get ahead of it. I wouldn’t have such anxiety if I wasn’t always working under the gun. Once she saw what I was capable of once I got ahead of the curve, she commented on the quality of work that I can put out. In our conversation, she suggested I need to do some real soul searching going forward and also suggested that I may make for a better middle school teacher with teaching style and need for collaborative supports… the pod system might prove to be a better fit for me. I cannot argue with her. I feel that I may have written off middle school unfairly due to my negative experience with my transmission-model host teacher at MCMS. I do like the prospect of cross-content teaching with a pod. I was reading an article Ms. Wall shared with me on the block schedule concept and I really liked the idea of it. I feel like the longer periods could make for greater independent and collaborative writing and creating efforts… as well as reading workshop. Do you know of any schools in Georgia that operate on the block schedule?
Today I had one of the most amazing days. Specifically in my seventh period class, the students could not take their eyes off of me. Literally as I walked all around the room while I was explaining, the students’ eyes followed me. Even one of my sleepers was riveted. His face was animated as we went through the contents of the story. He was responding and excited. All of my students were. Watching their faces light up and contort during different emotions was incredible! I was in awe. And their excitement made me even happier and animated while going through everything with them.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds wonderful, Danielle! I have to know what story you were reading?
ReplyDeleteWe read "Open Window," "Like the Sun," and "A Problem." They are absolutely wonderful! My biggest annoyance was that the students said they were difficult to understand, but I think they were just trying to get out of feeling bad if they didn't know every detail. Honestly, the stories are quite simple and very straightforward. It was great!
DeleteI started my independent reading unit. All classes went to the library and did "Speed dating" with 12 books. As I walked around the tables many had their cards full with book titles they wanted to read. They had no problem finding something they liked and many checked out more than one. We only had about ten minutes of daily class time and that was the difficulty. I think if I had given them more time to read they would have been better at it but ten minutes is hardly enough to get into their books.
ReplyDeleteI love speed dating! You could also do a speed dating book talk (2 a day) as a mini-lesson. Maybe this will give you more class discussion time. I also saw a really cool "book bracket" very similar to a football bracket. Students had to read their book and then convince the class to vote for their book. The book that received the most votes got to move forward to the next bracket! This would be a cool idea maybe half-way through the year after everyone has finished reading at least one book in book clubs.
DeleteLast week went quite well, if I do say so myself. In my GA history class, we have started a unit on WWII, which is something that my students really seem to be interested in. I have one student that rarely pays attention getting into the unit!
ReplyDeleteMy English class has been practicing for the upcoming Milestones exam and are doing quite well.
How were they practicing for the Milestones? At my school they are in full panic mode and every class now is "teaching to the test". I feel like sometimes we make the kids even more nervous about these tests.
DeleteIn our school meeting yesterday, the English department was asked how we can raise our lexile scores. I am planning on introducing the idea of reading workshop to my co-workers in our next department meeting. We currently use reading counts and it obviously is not working. I'm looking forward to sharing the information I have learned. Any advice on specific ideas to share is appreciated!
ReplyDeleteGo Traci! If the department is interested I would be happy to share resources and lend a hand.
DeleteThat would be great. Thanks! We will hopefully hold a meeting soon.
DeleteI would love to hear how their reactions. I am interested in introducing the idea of reading workshops at my new school and want to know the concerns that schools will have.
DeleteYay! I hope this meeting went well and good luck with making changes! I hope reading workshops start sweeping the country!
DeleteI had a really good start to my week! One of the students in my class, who previously has been very disruptive, has become the leader that keeps the class on task. I have been trying to pinpoint the exact time and reason for this change, but I have been unsuccessful. My best guess is that he just really likes the new material about King Arthur. When this change first happened I assumed that it would be short lived, but I have been proved wrong. Everyday he has continued to be a leader for the rest of the class, and he is the first to contribute to discussions and ask questions. We decided to call his mother and share with her about his progress in class and how he has used his position in class to strengthen the class as a whole. She was delighted to her from us and she told us that she has recognized a difference as well. She told us that her son has come home everyday and told her about the story of King Arthur. This made me extremely happy and over joyed!!!!!!! It also taught me that once students buy into the material they are being taught and enjoy it, that they do better in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI have also noted a change in the class as a whole. The majority of the class has enjoyed the new King Arthur unit, which means they have been talking more among themselves about the material. While this is a good thing, it has also proven to be a bigger opportunity for students to get off topic in their discussions. Some days they are really good and other days I have to constantly redirect students. Today I was getting really frustrated with them because I was giving them time to work on their projects in class and I had to stay on top of one group of students. Some of the students were really taking advantage of the time they were given while others were really just pushing my buttons because even though I gave them time in class to work on their project, they refused to do any work! These same students are the ones who routinely take zeros for assignments because they do not turn in work. I didn’t let them see my frustration, but this was the first time I reached this level of frustration with them.
Also, next week is the first common assessment that I will give over the content that I have taught. I am excited to give this assessment partially because it will reflect the lessons that I have created and taught. I feel really good about the content that we have learned over the past five weeks. All of my classes are connecting the material they are learning to outside sources and have enjoyed meaningful discussions in class. I am confident that all of my students know more information about our content than a common assessment can measure, and I am confident that they are going to do well.
This week, I got completely bamboozled by one of my gifted students. It was the last period of the day on Friday. Needless to say, many of the students had already checked out and were ready for the weekend. To top things off, all during this period, various school teams kept getting called out of class to take yearbook photos. My host teacher is in charge of yearbook so I was left completely alone with the students. This is usually no biggie, but the kids were in rare form.
ReplyDeleteThe real kicker came when the there was an announcement for members of the tennis and golf teams to report to the front of the school for pictures. A couple of students got up to leave and something odd happened. One boy got up and a few students said, "Where are you going?" to him but they quickly got quiet and looked down at their desks or away. Something didn't seem right, so I asked the same question. Immediately, there was a chorus of "He's on the golf team" and "Why don't you think he's on the golf team?" I had no choice, I had to let him go. He returned a few minutes later, giggling and saying "I guess they lost my physical." It was obvious what had happened. I was humiliated (but I didn't show it!). In the future, I will make sure to obtain a master list of every team and who is on each one.
This week we started a unit on the Harlem Renaissance that the school’s literacy coach required all ELA classes to do. I was a little skeptical at first but the students seem to be enjoying it and learning a good deal. The unit started with a background essay on Harlem and what the Harlem Renaissance was about. The prepared lesson required students to read the one page essay a total of five times but we decided that was a little much. Instead, we read it once aloud, then the students were assigned a paragraph and they worked in a small group to read it and find the most important information from that paragraph. They then came back together and shared what they found with the whole class. This worked really well because not only did it cut back on the number of times they had to read the same text, but it also allowed them to practice picking out important information. This exercise helped them see that you don’t have to have every word of a text to really understand it and they saw how to determine what was most important.
ReplyDeleteAnother effective activity we did was with vocabulary. When planning for this week, I told my host teacher how in class we always talk about doing things like vocabulary and grammar within context, not separate from the rest of the day’s lesson. So we tried a new way of teaching the vocab words from the reading. The planned unit already had six words chosen that were found in the text and would be most beneficial for the students to understand. Before the students read the text we gave them the words and had them write what they thought the words meant just based on their prior knowledge of the word or parts of the word. We then read the text and afterwards students went back and wrote definitions based on context clues. This worked wonderfully! The students had an opportunity to show us what they already knew and then what they learned from the reading. They were getting vocabulary instruction that was led by them. One thing I would have added to this activity would be to have the students mark other words they were unfamiliar with as they read and then we would discuss those as well. But overall, the unit is going well.
Taken from My Weekly Student Teaching Reflections
ReplyDeleteThis week was much better than last. Though it consisted of both highs and lows, I can honestly say I can be happy with the lessons I produced this week. They were good lessons and I was able to deliver them in a consistent fashion- with improvements here and there as the day progressed. I feel much more confident with what I am doing when I have put more work into the plan days ahead of its delivery. What a concept. I am also doing better with managing my time even though if it means I am constantly timing myself on my cellphone. I still talk too much or devote too much time to one exercise or another… but I am starting to get better at recognizing that ahead of time.
I am being met with some classroom management issues… with my honors kids. I feel that if you had asked me going into this placement, I would have told you I was more confident in myself with the gifted classes. However, I am finding that the rigor of my lessons aren’t meeting some of their needs and thus they act out in boredom. Kids that have never been a disciplinary issue for Ms. Wall are acting out… because I am not keeping them as busy as she has over the year. Good busy though. I am going to have to work further to challenge them. When I observed Ms. Wall teaching at the beginning of my placement, I noticed she taught the same lesson to her regular ed students as she did her honors students… but the differences between lessons were much more subtle than I expected. I need to do what I can to match that or find my own means of recreating that rigor. I am not having any issue with the writing portion of the unit as I am with scaffolding up to more complex texts for them to work with independently.
Ms. Wall and I had a sincere conversation this past week, on where I belong in education. In our conversation, I admitted that I love the content in which we were working with but I did not fully appreciate the lesson planning aspect of it… largely due to the anxiety that it brought about. Initially, this truly frustrated her, because lesson planning makes up so much of great teaching. However, as the conversation progressed as well as the week, she suggested my dislike of lesson planning is rooted in the fact that I haven’t given myself any chance to get ahead of it. I wouldn’t have such anxiety if I wasn’t always working under the gun. Once she saw what I was capable of once I got ahead of the curve, she commented on the quality of work that I can put out. In our conversation, she suggested I need to do some real soul searching going forward and also suggested that I may make for a better middle school teacher with teaching style and need for collaborative supports… the pod system might prove to be a better fit for me.
I cannot argue with her. I feel that I may have written off middle school unfairly due to my negative experience with my transmission-model host teacher at MCMS. I do like the prospect of cross-content teaching with a pod. I was reading an article Ms. Wall shared with me on the block schedule concept and I really liked the idea of it. I feel like the longer periods could make for greater independent and collaborative writing and creating efforts… as well as reading workshop. Do you know of any schools in Georgia that operate on the block schedule?