Tuesday, May 21

Today the whole third grade went on a field trip.  I left my blog prompt open on purpose, trusting myself to have tons to say after the day was over.  I have two main topics on my mind after today.

The first thing I thought about struck me a little ways into the trip.  We were outside walking around making observations, looking for signs of animals.  Everything went well for the first part, although many students were very excited and were a little difficult to keep quiet and on task.  They did well, yet as our morning progressed, a few students started to get tired.  This continued until lunch time, at which point at least three of my group of nine were ready to sit down on the path, and at any chance they could get.  They were complaining the entire time, and were having no fun because they did not want to keep moving.

I was understanding at first, but as I think about this more, it saddens me a bit.  It was evident that these students don't get physical activity very often at all.  We were walking around outside for between an hour and an hour and a half, and they were exhausted and complainy.  One student (we'll call him Z) often has a negative attitude.  He went on and on about how he wanted to go home, how he wanted the bus to drop him off there so he could play video games.  He would not stop talking about how bored he was and how he wanted to watch tv.  The inactivity of some students is extremely evident in cases like this, and brings me to my next point.

After being outside for about ten minutes, one girl freaked out because she thought she had something in her shoe.  She swore that something had crawled inside her sock and was biting her foot.  We stopped and stood on a concrete stopping point, took off her shoe and sock, and investigated.  There was nothing in her shoe, so we put it back on and continued.  For the rest of the day, she was paranoid of bugs on her ankles and in her shoes and around her neck (she ended up pulling up her hood, zipping up her jacket the whole way, and tying the drawstrings at her neck).  There were a few other students who had this attitude, but to a lesser degree.  They also stayed exactly on the path, becoming very uncomfortable if the group entered any clearing with some slightly higher sprouting plants and shrubbery (less than ankle high).  They didn't want to touch anything outside, and often said "gross" when the tour guide showed us something.  Meanwhile, other students were excited to be there, investigating and picking up leaves, stones, and anything they could find.  Some took the active route, wanting to run off the path or up ahead to see more more more!  I asked a few of the students if they play outside a lot, and most of their answers coincided with what I would expect based on their behavior.

As someone who was constantly outside as a kid, this is still a strange concept to me.  I don't blame kids who don't like being out of doors because they are unexposed.  I feel bad for them, especially on days like this when their whole day is ruined because of their lack of experiences.  Some of this has to do with their attitude and whether they are naturally adventurous or hesitant.  Part of me feels like the exposure children have to the out of doors relates at least a little bit to their level of curiosity.  This is of course a long shot hypothesis and may be completely off base.  Even so, the amount of complaining about simple things of nature like ducking under a branch or swatting at a bug made me think about how disconnected some students are with anything past their doors.  Last semester Amy had a book on her reading list about this subject.  After today, it's at the top of my summer reading list.

Despite these concerns, I had an excellent day.  I loved outdoor learning, and even if some students didn't, the exposure is something they need.  It was a wonderful day and I look forward to having similar experiences in the future.

Monday, May 20

            Today I was observing using the template for assessment, particularly checking for understanding.  Because I’ve been in this class for over a month using the checking for understanding template, I decided today to switch my focus.  I focused on the end of lesson assessments, as well as any written/concrete assessment the teacher did throughout the day.

            In the first lesson, math, Mrs. L. had the students follow along in their math journals as they always do.  There is always something to write down in there.  Most of it is done as a class, then there is often an activity completed within their table group, also recorded in their math journals or occasionally on a worksheet.  After they complete these activities, they usually also do math boxes in their math journal as well.  Finally, as the last written assessment, they take home a math study link to be completed before the next class. 

            Many of the students do fill in what they’re supposed to in their math journals.  Most follow along, however there are a few that always slip through the cracks and have less than half written.  They are only reprimanded and redirected when the teacher sees this during class.  To my understanding, the journals are never collected and looked at or checked off.  They also are not corrected.  In the last class I was in, the homework was sometimes corrected, however there was never any follow up with it, whether the students had it done or not.  Today, the group activity was making an angle measurer.  All students did have this done.  Mrs. L. didn’t officially check this, although it was easy to observe whether or not the student was using their angle measure during their work time. 

            One of the reasons I decided to write about written assessment instead of checking for understanding was because Mrs. L. mentioned to me that we were going to be handing back their study links this week.  I asked what happens with them (I’d been wondering because I’ve been correcting them and they have just been in a stack at the back of the room).  Apparently she occasionally does this and then gives the student with the most sheets of paper back a prize. 

            In writing, the students are working on reviews of places.  Today they completed an activity where they got a review and were to underline the descriptive language in it.  They did this as a class, so all students were repeating on their own paper what the teacher did. 

            Some of these are effective ways to assess, however I think a few things could be done to add to them, especially so the teacher knows how the class in general is doing.  For example, in math, I think going over their homework and correcting it at the beginning of class could go a long way.  As I was correcting, there were assignments on which many students missed almost half the points.  There are also students who regularly get very low scores.  They get completion points in the Dojo system, so it does not matter if they did not try on it, simply if they had some answer written down.  This also is a huge issue because I can see that they are not understanding certain topics.  When I’ve mentioned this (particularly with mean, median and mode), we still haven’t gone back to reteach or clarify it.  I think that correcting the previous night’s assignment could clarify things at least a little bit for students. 

I also had one other issue with completion points in Dojo: one student (we’ll call him J) never does his homework.  I’ve developed a relationship with him in the past few weeks, and one day I pulled him aside after correcting many homework assignments.  Mrs. L. has me highlight the boxes of students who have not turned in an assignment.  I showed him the row of highlighted boxes next to his name.  I asked him why he wasn’t doing his homework.  He said he didn’t have a pencil at home.  I don’t know if this is true or not, but I gave him one to take home.  I told him I really wanted to see his homework, that I just wanted him to try it and that it was okay if he didn’t get the questions right, etc.  I encouraged him a lot, and told him to turn it in to me instead of putting it in the homework box.  Since then, he turns homework in much more (not consistently, and I have to remind it of him often).  I think he just needed some encouragement and individual attention, and that the consequences for not doing homework were not of concern to him.  He was also only affected in that he did not have a chance to get the prize, although one possible prize every few weeks is also not that big of a deal to miss out on. 

I think there are a few great things in place, but that they could be enhanced without too much difficulty.  I think that something daily that the students thought was a bigger deal could be more effective.  My first thought towards this would be to have a reward at the end of the week that is based on turning in homework daily.  The reward could be class game time, like around the world to work on multiplication facts, or sparkle, to work on spelling.  If students have all their homework for the week done, they get to play.  If they still need to finish some, they can use that time to work on it.  If the student finishes, they then get to join the game.

Question of the Day

What are some misconceptions you had about teaching before entering the profession?

First reaction: “I don’t know, that was back in 1993!” After thinking for a few minutes, Jessica shared that she thought teaching was primarily done at school and during school hours.  She was surprised at the amount of work she had to take home with her, and how much time she put into preparation each and every night.  She began talking about how this is still something she is a little surprised at, and how she thinks others outside of the profession don’t fully realize it.  She shared that this weekend, with the end of the year coming up, she spent almost all her time writing report cards.  She ended with, “Teaching doesn’t just happen within the four walls of this school, or within the time I’m in the classroom.  I take it home—I am a teacher long after the bell rings.” 

            I think this is a strong point, and brings up more thoughts than I think Mrs. L. intended.  This made me think about another piece of teaching that is brought home after every school day: the mental and emotional reactions to each day, and the concerns for and celebrations of every student.  This was something that I wasn’t expecting as strongly when I entered student teaching, or even fieldwork.  I didn’t realize how much the school day would affect what I thought about when I went home.  These are definitely both good and bad, and they end up being a huge drive for me in my planning and attitude for the next day.  I am starting to feel the end of my time at this school coming to a close, and I’ve begun to consider coming back a few times a week until the school year ends.

Friday May 17, Annenberg Video 5

Program 12.  Peer Conferences.

http://learner.org/resources/series205.html?pop=yes&pid=2215#

            I chose a new Annenberg video to watch.  This one was called Peer Conferences.  It discussed setting up norms for peer conferences in writing.  There were no prompts for the video, so I am writing a general reaction to what I learned in it. 

            The first teacher in the third grade classroom had a well-planned introduction to peer reviews.  She was very deliberate in her directions and explained thoroughly.  She walked students through exactly what they could say, how they could word their answers with respect.  The way that she modeled an interaction between a student and their peer listener was explicit and she broke down specific actions afterward.  In addition, she followed this up with a chart, then an example done by two students in the room.  It was also helpful to see two students go through the activity in full, giving all the other students and opportunity to see another example, and one that was perhaps more relatable.  It was also a effective decision to have the students who were in the example go around helping others.  This made the two students who were finished already were engaged still instead of repeating the exercise, and other students benefitted from their recent expertise.  This reminded me of my ‘mini-teacher’ idea—giving students an opportunity to be the teacher, and to learn from their peers.  Her chart was very helpful for me as a viewer, and I anticipate it did a lot for the students as they went through their conferences.  It was very smart to have a visual for the students to follow, because there were quite a few elements she was looking for in the peer conferences.  The students would have forgotten without having something to refer to.

            I really liked the system the teacher created for the process of writing.  She had a bulletin board for the writing process.  There were long rows with stars in them: each star had a student’s name.  When the student was ready to move onto the next stage of writing, they would move their own star down.  In this way, students were the ones who decided when they were ready.  When there are two stars in the peer review section, they automatically are paired together.  In this way, they also then have unpredictable partners that change often.  This helps the teacher see where the class is as a whole, who takes longer at what stages, and many other insights into individual student processes.

            Another important part of this class period was having the students reflect at the end.  She had them share why they liked the activity, and if they liked it.  The students had very insightful answers.  The most notable to me was the student talking about her partner asking questions.  She shared that this really showed her where she needed more details. 

            It was interesting to see how the third grade practice was alike and different from that of the fifth grade.  The fifth grade lesson focused on less.  They only worked on questioning that day.  This is interesting—they did less in a period than the third graders did.  It seemed like they used less time though, and they also probably focused on the other aspects on different days. 

            The teacher made a point of talking about partnering.  She started talking about academic ability, but said her main focus was to facilitate conversation.  She wanted discussion, not necessarily a match of academic level.  In this context, being able to communicate is much more important for student learning. 

            This video gave me a lot of pointers about how to set up conversation rules, especially for a specific process.  In my last review I learned about setting up rules for discussion and the best environment for it; this pushed it one step further, focusing on a specific type of lesson.  The two are very closely related, and the practices discussed in the first video are present in this one.  I also really like the idea for the writing process tracking board.  I think I could easily adapt this for different types of tracking, especially in writing or reading, or for any multiple-step project.

Question of the Day: What is the biggest misconception you think others/society have/has about teachers?

Mrs. L said that the biggest thing is that people think it is an easy job and we get three months off.  She started expanding on this, saying that it is really not an easy job at all.  Each day is difficult in many ways, as well as wonderful.  In addition, the three months off are not actually free time.  Many teachers continue working, either at a second job, summer school, or something else.  Mrs. L also added that it is a break from a 9 month school year, but it is a needed one.  The kids need summer as much as teachers need some time away from their normal classroom setting.  The other point she brought up is that people forget that teachers are the ones that shape everybody.  We often are unappreciated and our work is seen as less important.  She wrapped up with, "We don't get credit for molding the world."

Thursday, May 16

Today I was planning on observing for checking for understanding.  I taught the math lesson today, and the rest of the day was packed with a timed test, class game day, and a number of other opportunities to practice being flexible.  I ended up with nothing written on my sheet.  Instead, I will reflect on the lesson I taught in math. 

            The lesson subject was learning about frequency charts and analyzing data sets with mean, median, and mode.  I followed the Everyday Math plan almost exactly, which is not something I usually like doing.  We started with a warm up, practicing finding the middle place in a list of 5, 15, and 16.  This relates to finding the median.  Next, I showed the students a list of their head measurements (which we’d used for a previous lesson).  The list was unorganized and random.  Next, we made a frequency chart from the data.  After doing that on chart paper at the front as they followed along in their journals, I asked them to find the mean.  They have done this before, but were still very unsure about the concept.  I hadn’t anticipate this taking so long, but they were very lost.  After reviewing mean, we thought of strategies for finding it another way using the frequency chart.  I had to lead them to the answer, hinting at using multiplication.  They’ve been doing multiplication for a while now, but they don’t automatically use it as a strategy.  We all agreed that it was a lot easier to find the mean using the chart.

            Next we worked on the median.  I had written their measurements on post-it notes, so each student brought up their post-it and we ordered them.  I had one student come up to the board and took off one from each side until we got to the middle.  While she did that, I used the frequency chart to cross off my tallies, seeing if we got to the same answer.  They are very confident with median.

            I then introduced the mode as the number that occurs most frequently.  I used this language carefully, however many students became confused about using the biggest number versus the number with the highest frequency.  As I went around during individual work time, I noticed a lot of students getting confused with a list of numbers.  When I referred to the frequency chart, they always could understand that, but had trouble with the list.  I had anticipated the opposite, that they would understand the list and have trouble with the chart. 

            Finally, we made a bar graph of our data.  This was mostly review and practice for them, but also linked to the frequency chart.  It turned into a long lesson, so I didn’t push on this as hard in my discussion of it.  I returned to mean median and mode in my wrap-up.  The students have a hard time remembering which one is which, and struggle finding mean at all.  I think that tomorrow’s lesson should focus strongly on this, especially because these are things they will really need to know for future classes and testing.  Tomorrow I would like to teach them my mean median mode song.  I learned it in grade school and still remember the whole thing.

            Management was, as always, somewhat of a struggle.  I really only had trouble with one resistant student (case study #2), and a table of frequently off-task students.  During individual work time I checked on them, and all but one had the concept down for the most part.  I felt better about being in front of the class.  Mrs. Lance runs a tight ship, and I’m jumping on board with it.  I’m much sillier than her though, and not so harsh about individual issues (broken pencil, dropping things on the ground…some of the smaller stuff).  I think this is one of the reason I’m taken a little less seriously than her, along with the fact that I’ve only known them a few weeks.  One thing that was a definite strength of mine came near the end of the lesson.  I could tell the students were fading and we were just starting our bar graph.  After each step, I had them show me they were ready in sillier ways.  The first was putting their finger on their nose, next was striking a pose, then rubbing their head, etc.  There were only a few students who started to get too silly with it, and once redirected were not a problem.  Overall, I think it was an effective lesson. 

Question of the Day: How does/has your relationship with your principal affected your teaching?

Mrs. Lance had a bad experience with one of her principals in Texas.  This person was very disrespectful to his staff.  Jessica felt unappreciated and disrespected on a daily basis.  After putting up with it for years, she ended up leaving her job.  She said it created a very negative work place.  Interestingly enough, she worked with his wife at another school.  When they interacted outside of the work space, she said he was a completely different person.  Another situation was when Mrs. L’s son went to the school she taught at.  As a parent, she felt that she didn’t get a lot of respect either, but as a teacher had a great and productive relationship.  She said both personal/interaction AND policy/decision making are important to the work environment.

Wednesday May 15

Today I observed for instructional strategies.  We had a shortened math and a very mini mini-lesson for reading with an activity rather than a lesson for writing.  I didn't have a whole lot to write observations on.  I still made notes, however the entire first column is either direct instruction, individual work at desks, or turn and talks.  Instead of writing about what I did see, I would like to focus on an idea I had for an alternate strategy.  I am very interested in creating groups, and I haven't been able to see it happen much outside of table shares.  Today in math the students were working with their calculators, getting to know the memory keys.  Mrs. L. could have taught her lesson by choosing 4-8 students.  These students could meet with her for 10 or 15 minutes while the others work on their daily math boxes and extra math.  The group instead could be instructed in the normal lesson.  These students would be higher in math (students like case study #2).  The class could then split into groups of five with two of the students who have already been instructed in each.  They could then be asked to explain what the memory keys do and how to use them to their new group.  The teacher then would call attention to the front and re-explain or gather student responses and check for understanding.  The 'mini teachers' could then lead their group in an activity using a worksheet with specific prompts.  For example, today they went through many key series to enter into their calculators, then shared the answer.  This could be led by a student mini teacher.  The teacher would later bring them all back to the whole group to review.

There are of course some issues I have not worked through with this, as it is a very rough idea.  It would first be hard to balance the student power and make sure the mini teachers weren't seen as the 'smart kids' or 'teacher's pets'.  They also would have to not be seen as getting rewarded while everyone else was working.  I think this could best be done during another lesson.  Maybe throughout the week, the teacher could split the class into groups and choose other mini teachers during different subjects, so everyone gets a chance.  If predetermined, this could be easy to do.  The teacher could prepare handouts that each mini teacher would follow in advance, each with a different level of scaffolding based on the students' needs.

If details were worked out, I think this could have a very positive affect on all of the students.  Some of the students, such as my first case study student, might pay more attention to a classmate rather than the teacher.  Because students communicate with each other differently than with the teacher, they might hear an explanation that makes more sense to them.  They would also get extra time to work on other math skills, such as the ones provided by Everyday Math's math boxes.  The grouping possibilities could go a long way as well.  My initial thought is that ELL students could greatly benefit depending on who they are placed with.  It would also give the teacher a chance to spend more time and attention to a group of struggling students.  They could additionally be paired with mini teachers that are a higher level (although this might set up a weird social vibe).

This is just one idea I stumbled upon during our math lesson today.  It could work very well if designed properly and carefully, and with tons of attention given to creating groups.


Question of the Day: Do you deal with bullying in the classroom before going to someone higher?  What steps do you take within your room towards discouraging bullying?

Mrs. L. immediately answered that the school has a no tolerance policy, and that teachers are told to bring any and all bullying issues to one of the behavior management faculty members.  I think this is a great idea in theory, but I feel that there are some things that are on the verge of bullying that are probably dealt with more by the classroom teacher.  I observed on such event last week, in which students were calling another student fat.  This isn't 'true' bullying, but it is somewhere on the spectrum and could lead to something more serious.  It was all dealt with by Mrs. L.  She continued to talk about things done in the class.  The main thing she discussed was the school-wide books they read.  The last few of these have been all about bullying.  Mrs. L. has read a couple other books to her students that also have to do with the topic.  I think bullying might be a little overlooked by teachers because they are discouraged from dealing with it.  They perhaps don't make as big of a point of it, because of their school policy.  At the same time, I think they actually do more with it than they realize, because the smaller issues they deal with themselves.

Tuesday, May 15

Today I observed for checking for understanding/assessment.  Instead of using my usual template, I decided to observe for questioning.  I didn’t have a template for this, and the first thing I will say is that if I do it again, I will certainly create one.  I basically wrote down all of the questions she asked. 

            The biggest thing I noticed was that most of her questions were a lot of knowledge questions.  There were mostly questions with a concrete right or wrong answer.  Examples include:

·      What number should we use first?

·      Is there a number between 2 and 4?

·      What’s the answer?

·      Yesterday what was the mean?

·      Which ones do I cross out?

These all had one answer that was correct.  This was more true in the math lesson, but was also evident in the writing lesson I also observed. 

            The teacher also uses many process questions, especially in math.  She uses questioning to lead students in whatever process they are doing.  For example, she often says, “What should I do next?” “What’s the next step?” “So what did I show you?  What do we do?”  or, more specifically, “How can we find the median arm span?  What can we do with these numbers so we can find the median?”.  This seems useful to the students, and helps them see what they are doing as a process with concrete steps and not as either a simple answer, and not as a huge task they are lost in (I hope anyway).  This type of questioning was also evident in the writing lesson, but looked a little different.  She used these types of questions as a way to help students brainstorm.  She had students share ideas to write about, as well as the process or key elements of writing a product or place review.  These also consisted of many knowledge questions. 

            I didn’t see a lot of HOT questions.  I really didn’t see many, if any, questions above the analysis stage.  The students just started doing mean and median, so perhaps this new topic lead to lower levels of questioning.  Even so, after students learned the material, I feel that they could have responded to a HOT question or two.  They could even use them at the beginning, for predicting or some form of brainstorming.  I think HOT questions also could have been used more in the reading lesson, especially with analyzing an example product review.

            Questioning was used in one other way that I hadn’t really anticipated.  The teacher often uses them as a way to get students back on task or to tell them they have a wrong answer.  She also says “Really?” a lot if students are doing something somewhat ridiculous.  If a student hasn’t written anything on their math page that the class is doing together, she might say, “Do you really have a blank page?” “Why didn’t you write the answer?”  “What are you supposed to have here?”  These are sort of rhetorical.  I personally wouldn’t use this approach regularly as a way to get students back on task.  It is her style though, and it is effective for her.

Questions of the Day: Was teaching your first career path?  Have you considered any other professions outside of teaching?  What are your future plans?

            Mrs. L. was not planning on becoming a teacher.  She went into college as an international business and French major.  After taking a few classes, she decided international business was definitely not for her.  She kept French, but decided to go into the education program.  Eventually, with her course load and the French program at her school, she decided French was not for her.  Right now, she is in school and is pursuing becoming a principal.  She is very excited about this.  When I initially asked her the question, however, her instant answer was, “I’ve always wanted to own a bookstore.”  Very fitting for a teacher!