Monday, April 29

Today I decided to stray from my original plan a little to write about something that has been on my mind since the middle of last week.  This topic is the impact of individual teaching, and how it can shape or change the teacher's view of a student immensely.  I first would like to say that, as someone who has only been in classrooms for a few months at the greatest and not as the primary teacher, I am not certain if getting to know students as individuals is something that happens at the beginning of the year naturally and is a norm.  I of course know that it is important to learn about your students' likes and interests, however I think I'm beginning to realize how truly crucial it is.  The first time this realization began to surface in this class was when I began sitting down for observations next to a 'problem' student each day.  He seems to have a resentment built up toward the teacher and is often off task and disruptive.  For my first few days, I saw how difficult he was, and how much trouble the teacher has with him on a daily basis.  Once I sat next to him, however, I saw how productive and interested in the lessons he could be.  He definitely does have some behavior issues, but without giving him that individual attention and talking with him, I don't think I'd have seen him as anything but a difficulty.

The next time this thought came up was when I chose my case study students.  I decided to focus on one student because my teacher told me she wasn't sure exactly what was going on with her.  She was confused about the student, especially academically.  The student works hard and is often on task, and has no difficulty with her work it seems.  Yet my teacher is unsure if there is something she is missing about the student, and if there is some way she has not yet discovered that can really benefit this individual.  As she said, "I feel like there's just something missing, and something I'm missing."  I found this comment very interesting.  It doesn't seem like there's a lack of effort on the teacher's part, yet there's still something of a mystery about the student's learning.

I started getting to know the three students I chose through an interview.  One of them, a girl named Jazzalyn, has struck my curiosity.  She has some behavior issues and is not high achieving, although she is in the gifted and talented program.  She is off task much of the time, and seems sort of subdued.  I talked with her individually, and that's sort of when I realized it is likely that she is uninterested because she is not challenged enough.  Her attitude in class is still a curiosity to me: she can be peppy and excited one minute, then staring blankly and seemingly sad the next.  I look forward to spending more time with her, getting to know her, and giving her more one-on-one time.

This topic caught my attention on Friday as well.  My teacher is on a committee of faculty members who gather to discuss students teachers are having issues with.  The first student brought up was a third grader in another class.  He has intense behavior issues that are often far too mature for a grade school setting.  Besides language and bullying, he also has begun to make violent threats.  I could go on for some time about the things I have heard about him doing, as well as things I have seen him do or heard him say.  He is extremely rude and disrespectful to his teacher, but still wants to eat lunch with her.  He is a gem to any adult he is not in close contact with.  As the meeting progressed, the psychology of his home situation filled me in a lot on his actions.  This showed me again how important it is to know the student well, including their home life and difficult situations they may be going through.

I've only been in this classroom for a week.  I went through this thought process during my last placement too.  As I become more familiar with the classroom and the students, I am realizing again how intricate each one is, and how important it is to know as much about them as possible.  This helps not only their academics, but their comfort level, social development, and much much more.

Question of the Day

What is the best experience of professional development you have received?

My host teacher shared that the most valuable experience of professional development she has received was a seminar for tenured teachers on writing.  It was hosted by the new program going into effect in the school.  While all teachers were trained in it, she had an advanced knowledge of why the program was effective and why it had been chosen for her school.  She felt confident in the techniques, and was familiar with the program as a whole.  She expressed to me that often when new initiatives are implemented, there are small trainings that leave teachers with questions.  Her knowledge of the curriculum in this new program let her lead other teachers, as well as give her students the best teaching possible.

Tomorrow I will be working with a reading group and observing for instructional strategies.

Friday, April 26

Video 2: Video 11. Classroom Case Studies (Grades 3-5)

Summary: This video focuses more on content than anything else.  It talks about taking students from concrete mathematics into algebraic thinking, and how this type of thinking can be introduced in the early grades.  While the video focuses on cultivating this type of thinking, there are a number of other aspects to pick up on, mainly demonstrating knowledge, teacher's focus on process, and student engagement.

            In the elementary setting, students demonstrate their knowledge in a few different ways.  The teacher checked for understanding by circling during the lesson when students were talking with their groups.  She supported their discussion and slowed them down, focusing on the idea of doing and undoing.  She walked them through the concept further, mimicking how you would wrap and then unwrap a present.  She did this for the whole class with a couple of examples, both checking their ideas and helping explain them for the whole class (or having a student do this).  There was one time shown during the video when she checked in with students as a whole group.  She asked, “Does everyone think they have a good idea of things that can be done and undone?”  This was more a question about confidence than knowledge, seeing if the students felt good about the concept rather than asking them a question with a right or wrong answer.  I think this is something I would like to get more in the practice of, just to gain an understanding of where my students are with the lesson.  I’ve done this some using a “thumbs up/down/in between”, and it gives me a good idea of whether or not we’re ready to move on.  There is one concern with it: what about students who simply agree to not be seen as the ‘stupid kid’?  I think that, even if there are some who do this, checking in about confidence is just as important as actual content. 

            Another thing I noticed about the lesson was the emphasis the teacher put on process.  This is something I think is very important.  At one point, the teacher asked how the student would get from the ‘out’ and find the starting number. The student gave the answer, and the teacher took this opportunity to have him and another student explain how this answer was gotten.  While still appreciating the student’s answer, she gave a small bit of praise, but put much more emphasis on process.  This is also something I’d like to incorporate in my teaching.  This is something I think I do a bit already, but I’d like it to be a strong aspect of my teaching.

            In this video, student engagement was high.  I enjoyed watching a lesson like this because it was something that was ‘normal’.  By this, I mean that the lesson wasn’t high activity, which sometimes leads to off task behavior, but was still direct instruction that the students were interested in.  I’m not quite certain from the video what this was a result of, and do not know the class (and also could not see all students).  I think part of it was due to the initial question: what can be done and then undone?  This is something students can relate to, and can think of countless examples in their own lives.  Having this background was a strong connector for the lesson and helped students grasp the concept.  This shows me how important and helpful anticipatory sets can be, and how they can bring the lesson, and student engagement and understanding, to the next level.

            The last thing from the video I focused on was the attitude of the teachers shown in the movie, especially at the beginning.  They were discussing how important math is at a young level, and how it can prepare students for math at a higher level.  One teacher was talking about how she had been teaching algebraic thinking without even realizing it.  It seemed like the teachers were realizing how important math is, even in the younger grades.  It sometimes seems like math is a priority only because of standardized testing and test scores, and it was encouraging to hear these teachers talk about preparing students for higher levels of math.   

Next week, I will continue with observations.  In tomorrow's post, however, I will comment on the importance of developing individual relationships with students.  A few things from last week got me thinking about this, and it is something I've been wanting to focus a post on.  Tomorrow in school I will make a point of doing some one-on-one work with students other than my case studies to begin developing more relationships and seeing how students change when they are out of the group.

Question of the Day

Is there anyone who is not a staff member (contact outside the school) who you regularly reference for collaboration?
This question was a little more difficult. My teacher moved from Texas many years ago, and the professionals she speaks to outside the school were her previous colleagues from her old school. She does not speak to them anymore, but they were a support for her in her early years in Minnesota. She also discussed that when she moved schools in Texas, she spoke to the people she used to teach with for a long time, especially about the new practices in her new school and how things were changing at the old school. She also mentioned Pintrest as a resource. She posts on there, and having other teachers comment on her posts or repost her items is a source of communication outside of the building. I asked if she speaks to other professionals in the building outside of school, and she mentioned talking to the other third grade teacher sometimes. I am now wondering if this has changed some as her career has advanced. I feel like I will still contact my colleagues from St. Kate's in my early years of teaching, yet that might decrease as I get more involved in the school I teach at and get to know those professionals better.

Management Observations: April 25, 2013

Today was a little strange schedule-wise because of MCA's again.  For the math lesson, there were only about 11 students in the room, which changed management a lot (my ELL students and others with specific testing conditions were out of the room).  Space management was not adapted for this, and the students sat at their normal table spots.  The lesson was all direct instruction, so this was alright for the instructional strategy.  It might have been a good idea to have them sit closer to one another for the lesson though, especially for turn and talks or other small partner sharing.  Time management during math was quite tricky: MCA's and getting everyone back in the classroom took way longer yesterday than it should have, and we only had about ten minutes before prep.  Today, my teacher planned a small lesson in which she shared and discussed the results of an experiment the students had done.  There was a thirty minute block, and the teacher only took about ten.  As for behavior...the students seemed very uninterested in the lesson.  There was a point near the end when the teacher wanted a lot of answers in succession and a little bit of discussion (which strongly relates to management of instructional strategies) in which the students were engaged.  However, for most of it they were lying their heads down and dazing out.  I think that, after MCA's especially, turning off the lights to look at a projector screen was probably not conducive to the desired amount of student engagement.

In writing, my students are assembling an anthology of poems.  Today they discussed strategies for revising with a partner, and directions for transferring their edited draft onto their final.  There are many things I could comment on here: details of how materials were passed out, how space was managed, specifics of the transitions...but I instead want to write about something I realized when I was recording observations in the behavior and instructional strategies sections of my template.  A number of times, the teacher needed to redirect either a student, or the entire class.  This is of course expected in teaching, however it seemed that her expectations might have been a little steep.  I noticed the next time that it happened that the directions were somewhat unclear, yet students started working anyway.  A student asked a clarifying question about the directions, and the teacher asked for the students attention again.  Many were in the middle of their task and did not stop as fast as she would have liked.  This turned into a reprimand for the class.  Throughout the rest of the day, I realized that this is something that could be clearer in the initial directions, and that often students are reprimanded for having questions on directions.  Students of course sometimes don't listen to directions and are confused because of behavior issues.  Even so, I felt that directions often came in two or more parts, were too long for students to remember, or were just unclear.  I hope to look for this more in the future to see if it was just sort of an off day for the class, or if this is a pattern.

Question of the day: What is your school discipline policy?  What do you do to follow it, or what do you do instead?
My teacher was in a bit of a rush after school when I was asking her this question.  She said that the school has one, but she isn't exactly sure of it. She said that hypothetically, there is a no tolerance policy, but it is not carried out well.  The school as a whole has a few things in place, including "take a break" chairs for students to sit in during class when they have an issue and need to be removed.  After going to the chairs twice, they are sent to the Buddy Room, where they meet with someone and develop a fix it plan.  My teacher also mentioned that the only person who truly enforces this plan is the principal.  I thought of the question I asked yesterday about respecting adults with one anecdote my teacher shared.  She said that a student swore at the principal yesterday.  The reaction was writing him up and contacting parents on the spot.  This is a reasonable reaction, yet it still brings me back to wondering what would help increase respect for adults with students similar to this one.

Tomorrow I will be: getting to know more about my case study students and thinking about a plan for next week with them; continuing informal observation about the directions and other trends I'm beginning to notice; Annenberg video #2 completed before Monday.

Observing Instructional Strategies: April 24, 3013

There were four main strategies for instruction that I saw.
The first strategy I observed was direct instruction.  The students were overall engaged, but get antsy later in the lessons.  They want to interact more than anything, but are still able to stay on task and listen.  During the second lesson they were more antsy, and a few kids were trying to lay down and were complaining about being tired.  This might be because it was after recess, or because they were less excited about the reading lesson.
The next strategy was partner shares/turn and talks.  The students overall did very well with this.  They stayed on task while they met with their five o'clock buddy.  There were of course a few students who were off task and messing around, but for the most part I heard academic conversations between them.
The final strategy I saw was individual work.  Again, students were on task for the most part, however a few individuals were not doing their work.  The activity for individual work during the second lesson I observed was cutting and pasting, and some students were very excited about it.  Other however seemed to think it was a 'dumb' activity, or too long to complete before school was over.  The kids were also quite off task at times during the second lesson because I felt that they hadn't understood the material.
One other thing I noticed was that directions were often either unclear or were only stated once and quickly.  The students usually have little to no trouble with their first task when they go back to their seats, but the directions for what to do after they complete their task are not followed well.  I have noticed a few times where I am confused too, and repeating these directions or writing them down would help a lot.

My question of the day today was: How do you increase student respect for teachers and other adults?  This questions was a 'bigger' one, and started a good discussion with my host teacher.  She first said right off the bat that this is a big topic, and student disrespect is always going to be a problem for teachers.  There is really only one thing she does in her class consistently for this: she gives students a negative dojo.  I've heard her mention respecting others to students a few times, but only in passing.  She brought up the school's 'book of the month' program, where the whole school focuses on certain books.  The recent books have all focused on bullying, which often ties in this idea of respect for everyone.  One thing that came up in our conversation was routines with this, and how a relationship with the students is important.  Spending time with students helps reinforce routines and practices, and gives comfort in the relationship between teachers and students.  There is one second grade teacher who was on an extended maternity leave for the first four or five months of school.  She was talking in the hallway about how difficult it is to not have been with her class for that time, especially its affects on behavior.  I think this question is really important, and while I got a good conversation generated today, I would like to ask other teachers this question to see what they think at some point.

Tomorrow I will be beginning case study interviews and observing for management.

Checking for Understanding: April 23, 2013

I had some trouble observing for checking for understanding today.  The class schedule was a little off, because the students go to science on Tuesdays and Fridays, which shortens their math class.  During math, the students were reviewing for MCA's.  This was the first lesson I observed.  The second lesson I observed was reading, which was a lesson on inference, yet the teacher only focused on questioning.  For this lesson, another teacher comes into the room to help out.  As I observed fro checking for understanding, I didn't see a lot of it throughout the lessons.  Here is what I saw overall:
Walking around and observing: the teacher checked to make sure her students were one task throughout the lessons, especially when there was a worksheet or notes to be written.  During math, she mostly stays at the front of the room though, available to about six students.
Calling on students who aren't raising their hands: the effect of this was that the student would usually get embarrassed and scramble.  It often got them back on task for at least a few minutes.  Most of the students took a long time to figure out the answer but got it eventually.  The teacher moved on when the student responded correctly, or sometimes would give a small reprimand for being off-task, then would move on.
Group answers/calling out: this totally depended on participation.  There were times when students just looked bored and tired and didn't participate even though I highly suspect they knew the material.  At other times, they were all responding.  If I were teaching, I would think most of my students didn't understand something when the participation is down.  The teacher didn't have any responses to this today.
Faking an incorrect answer: the kids responded to this right away, showing that they did understand.  They corrected her and she had a student explain why.  I think this was a good way to get a reaction out of the kids to see if they knew what they answer should be.

Closing Assessments: For math, there wasn't really a closing assessment for this lesson.  The teacher collected the homework, however everyone did it together in class guided by the teacher.  I think this lesson was a little strange in terms of assessment, because of the MCA review.  If I had taught it, I think I would have created another review or set of questions to be done on the board together (or promethean if I had one) and then given them either the worksheet they did or an exit slip.  I would have switched it so the main focus of the lesson wasn't the practice test questions they were doing, but the material they were going over.  For the reading lesson I watched, the students shared the questions they were writing while reading at the end of the lesson.  Only a few students shared.  I did like this, however I might have done either a partner share with it so all kids could share something.  Alternatively, I might have had them write their question down on an exit slip, collect them all, then read off questions as the start of the transition (when you hear your question, go get your backpack).  It was also a little hard to fully analyze the closing assessment because I was thinking of the objectives of the lesson.


Question of the Day: Today I asked what else the teachers do to prepare the kids for MCA's or other big testing days.  The students did their review today, and had a packet over the weekend for homework that was a mock test.  They also had homework due tomorrow that was another practice test.  They take a practice test in January, which only five of the 20 students met standards.  The school also follows a curriculum that starts preparation three weeks before the test.  The mental math or math review at the beginning of the lesson is devoted to MCA review.  Unfortunately, the coordinator in the school didn't give teachers that memo or let them know, so that wasn't done this year.

Tomorrow I will: Observe instructional strategies, and choose case study students.

Observing Classroom Management: April 22, 2013

Lesson 1

The first lesson I observed was a math lesson on measurement. 

Space: At the beginning of the lesson, the students were on the carpet.  They transitioned to their desks.  Space was not specifically talked about in the transition directions, but the teacher had students with certain shoe types go back to their seats. This helped only small groups of them go, which avoided too much movement in certain areas.  During independent practice, I noticed that the teacher walks around the room a little bit.  One side of the classroom is hard to walk through (very narrow), so the teacher avoided this.  She walked to the back of the class once, and spent most of the student work time around one student with some behavior issues. 

Time: Timing was most noticeable during direct instruction.  The teacher got started a bit late, and seemed a little rushed throughout the lesson because of this.  I noticed a few areas where she shortened the lesson: she skipped one review problem and a few example problems.  During an activity, she focused on one group for quite a while.  During this time, it was noticeable that the other students got very off task (very related to materials).  One major thing I noticed with time is that it is used as a behavior management incentive.  The teacher often says “You have 30 seconds to…” or counts down from 5 to get attention.  She also often says she’s timing the students.  I didn’t see her follow up on this during this lesson, but students were excited about the race, so I’m hoping to see this in action soon.

Materials: During this lesson, students each got a tape measure to use.  The teacher has a teacher helper and a supplies helper as student jobs.  These two students helped pass out and collect the worksheets and tape measures.  The teacher had them pass out the tape measures at the beginning of the class, then collected them after their introductory activity.  She then passed two back out as she needed a few more observations about the tape measure.  A few minutes later she passed them all out again.  This seemed a little excessive and she could have had the students keep them.  I did notice directions about where the tape measure should be specifically, usually on the students’ name tags when they weren’t being used.  It seems like to collect materials, it is pretty standard for the class to pass them down to the end of the table where a student will pick them up.  This works very well, and the students can do it quickly and easily.  During individual work time when the teacher was occupied with other students, most of the class got very off task when they finished their work problems.  They were playing with the tape measures a lot.  They got  a little crazy, but it didn’t take anything extreme to get their attention back when the teacher desired it. 

Instruction: The teacher changed how she instructed a few times during the lesson.  She included a lot of partner and small group work, as well as direct instruction and work time.  I really liked that she encouraged collaboration with peers, especially during the beginning of the lesson as students brainstormed observations.  I noticed that she pulled name sticks a few times to have students come up to the board or to answer questions.  I think this was a good idea because I noticed her calling on one student in particular quite a bit, and he is a student who seems to give quick and correct answers.  It was nice to see this varied. 

Behavior: Most of the other aspects of management created the behaviors in the room.  Materials were the biggest detraction from well-behaved students.  The teacher gives corrections nicely at first, sometimes jokingly.  Her second warning is usually much more harsh.  She then uses a method of a ‘take a break’ chair.  One student ended up taking a break three times or so throughout the morning.  He seemed to only get more upset with this.  I wonder how he would react if he had to take fewer breaks and spent a little more time there (sometimes it’s only about a minute and he leaves looking mad and escalated). 

Lesson 2

The second lesson I observed was a writing lesson.  The students are working on poetry, specifically meaning vs. music.

Space: The teacher reminded the students of their expectations for a mini lesson before starting to teach.  This included how they should have their bodies, cross legged and still.  The students started on the carpet.  The teacher read example poems before they started work time.  She said they could lie down if they chose.  The students all spread out on their own and laid down.  This was a small problem for some students who tried to sneak under the table.  Despite a few redirections, they did pretty well with this.  The students then had work time at their desks.  The teacher pulled name sticks for five students to work on the carpet.  She also moved one student from his table to her table.  Changing his space had a strong effect on his work time and he stayed on task after this change.

Time: The teacher got excited about the example poems she was reading and ended up going ten minutes over her original plan.  When work time began, she told students they had “20 good minutes to write as many poems as you can”. 

Materials:  The only attention given to materials in this lesson was when the teacher said “When I say ‘go’, you have 30 seconds to get out your notebook and a pencil.”  The students responded to this well and did  their task quickly, although the teacher didn’t follow through with the timing.

Instruction: Students were on the carpet at the beginning of the lesson while the teacher did some direct instruction, filling in a chart.  At one point, instead of just telling students what onomatopoeia is, she all of a sudden said, “Bang!  Crash!  What are those words called?”  It had a great element of surprise and kept the kids engaged. I also really liked when the teacher had students do a quick partner share with their 5 o’clock buddy one idea for a poem.  She also reminded them of their goal of making their own anthology of poems before work time.  Students are excited about this and it seemed to help them work.

Behavior: The student with the most noticeable behavior issues was sent to take a break twice during this lesson.  The students got a little excited/rowdy during the poem reading, and this was not strongly corrected.  This was good though; they were excited about the poems and were only slightly off task.  It was a little harder when the teacher wanted attention.  She used “But I’ll wait” before talking, and the students quieted down fairly quickly.  During independent work time, she told students she was doing a dojo to keep them on task.  This got a bit interrupted at the end when she realized her difficult student had had the bathroom pass for about ten minutes and was playing in the hallway.  I did not see how this was dealt with, although another adult spent time with him after that.  I am curious to learn more about this student.

Question of the Day

I asked my teacher what the most valuable part of collaboration is for her.  She told me that the thing she talks about most with her peers is lesson planning and ideas for lessons, projects, etc.  She had just been telling me about a poem planning strategy she learned about from a colleague and had used with one struggling student.  This definitely reinforced the idea that this is happening all the time for her.  She also said that the third grade team collaborates a lot with social studies.  They don’t have a lot of guidance for social studies and my teacher is not confident in that subject area, so she is constantly talking to others about how to teach best for her students.  She also mentioned adapting their set curriculum.  I liked this, because as I student taught, there were many things with Everyday Math that were hard in lessons, or just seemed unnecessary or uneffective.  Collaborating on better ways to do something from the book is very wise-making sure that things are still getting taught, but perhaps doing it in ways that are better for the group of students.  My teacher added that she hopes grade planning can be done in the future.  It sounds like this collaboration is informal, and she is hoping to have sit down meetings about certain topics and perhaps do more as a whole grade.

Video Review #1

What did you learn about the influence of classroom environment on student learning and achievement?

            This video has a lot of information that I found interesting and helpful.  The video talked about five major topics: organization of materials, desk arrangement, organization of classroom library, routines, and thought behind grouping.  The first section was very familiar to me.  It was about how organizing materials in a deliberate way allows students to access the materials they need when they need them.  This gives students a sense of responsibility and self-reliance.  Essentially it lets them do what they need to do to help themselves learn best.  One thing that was new for me in that section was on wall displays and how important they are.  The point of wall displays are not decoration; they are to help students access information they need whenever they need it.  Making the displays easy to read, engaging, and based on student input (using student responses and language) makes them approachable. 

            The section about library organization was also very interesting to me.  In Mr. Abenth’s room, I noticed a lot of organization of the classroom library.  I thought it was great, but didn’t really understand the extent of the thought behind it.  Making classroom libraries diverse in as many ways as possible is essential to growing readers.  Making the diverse selection easy to navigate is an even bigger task.  Seeing book covers is an important way to support students who are lower readers or who are visual learners; it allows them to become engaged with an image rather than relying on a title on a book spine.  Allowing students ample time to browse and choose something they will truly enjoy is essential to supporting reading development.

            I was very excited when the section about routines came up.  I am growing more and more interested in routines, especially how they are set up at the beginning of the year.  The first thing I wrote down in my notes was that the first moment of the day should be meaningful to them; their reading and writing right when they get in the room should be engaging and should have a social element with the print.  This is often done by morning messages where students must all respond by writing on the board/poster paper.  It is important for students to know that reading and writing is used to start a conversation.  The video talked a lot about how student success is often linked to the time students spend on reading and writing.  Subsequently, that time is dependent on how the teacher sets up routines throughout the day.  At one point the video mentioned that the first 2-3 weeks are spent intensively getting into these routines so students are comfortable and familiar with them.  The speaker mentioned transitions and getting help, but did not explain much more about them.  I would have liked to hear a bit more on these topics.

            The other two sections were on desk arrangement and grouping.  The speaker had a lot to say about what desk arrangement sets up with classroom environment, and how groups or pods facilitate communication.  This relates strongly to the section on grouping, and how much communication between students facilitates learning.  This was also somewhat familiar information to me.  Classroom environment was mentioned a few times.  I was very focused on the social aspect during this section of the movie, and was hoping it would be more explicit with the social benefits of using grouping often.  Grouping seems to be a strong way to facilitate collaborative and meaningful communication between students that is focused on the learning objective, as well as teaching students how to respect other answers and incorporate them with their own thinking.

Which ideas in this session are most relevant to your teaching?

            The two sections I found most important to me were the ones on routines and on grouping.  I think these are two areas I need improvement on (grouping as support for creating a collaborative and respectful classroom environment).  Routines are very important to student learning, and getting them smooth not only saves time and teacher effort, but gives students responsibility of their own learning.  Grouping is extremely important,  and being very deliberate with grouping can go a very long way in developing students.

What ideas or strategies do you plan to use?

            I plan to use many of the ideas from this video.  I would like to have a classroom library as described in the video: one with many many options that students can navigate easily.  I plan to aim for desk arrangements that facilitate communication, leading to a respectful and collaborative classroom environment.  I plan to work hard to develop routines that work not only for my students, but for me, so that students have a sense of responsibility and purpose throughout the day, even during small transitions.  I also plan to use a variety of grouping methods.  I think this will take a lot of time and practice, however I think grouping is very important and that students need it to succeed as much as possible. 

What support and/or resources will you need to implement these ideas?

            I think the thing I need most to help me reach these goals (other than books books books for my library!) is more direction on how to set up routines during the first few weeks of school, and how to decide what routines work best in the class and with my teaching style.  I will be able to get this help throughout the next six weeks, as well as during student teaching.  One of the questions I hope to ask the professionals in my building is closely related to this topic, so ideally I will add to my knowledge through interview and personal discussion.