Saturday, October 13, 2007
Teaching
Wow, what ideas I have gotten from all the great micro teachings that have been done in class. I love when have to do micro teachings so I can gain new ideas of teaching when I am actually in the classroom! I have enjoyed every ones micro teaching and cannot wait for the rest of the micro teachings to be done. I feel that if you are truly passionate about being a teacher then you will always believe in being a life long learner, since that part goes along with teaching.
Friday, October 12, 2007
microteaching
I just wanted to say that I am enjoying the mircoteaching lessons demonstrated in class. I am learning a lot from the different lessons and the way they are being presented. The learning does not stop once you become a teacher. Teachers must believe in life long learning and I believe that is the truth.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
the Students are now respecting me as a "Teacher"
finally in my observational classroom, the students are treating as if i am there teacher. before they did inappropriate things in front of me or said inappropriate things in front of me as if i was another student. i think what caused them to treat as a teacher is because of the teaching i've been doing in the classroom. finally they recognize my voice when i'm telling them to calm down, whereas before they remained talking over my voice. so now i finally feel like i'm separated from the students and now a part of the teachers team. i just hope they cooperate in the same manner that they do now when i'm around for when i do my final observation.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Effective Management Ain't Just for MBAs
Classroom management has been on my mind a lot of late. The teachers on my team are at wits end with one particular boy. This boy, no matter what they do, tends to act out and disrupt the class (in every subject). Then, after he's sent to the hallway, he remarks that the only reason that he is singled out is because he's black.
Don't get me wrong, I know there still is racism in America, but not with these teachers. The team, although all white, doesn't seem the least bit racist. In fact, they go out of their way to be racially sensitive. The math teachers said it doesn't bother her that much if this boy fails, what bothers her is that his actions are causing ten other students to fail. Now, she was saying this in jest, but I can totally see her point.
One of the reasons that they are at wits end, is the fact that football season is nearly over. This is the sole thing they can hold over this student's head. In the meeting before school, they lamented the fact that they now have little incentive to motivate this boy to behave. They were thinking of using the eligibility-type form to record whether or not he misbehaves in each class. If the forms stack up, as they think they will, the teachers plan to show the forms to the parent of the boy.
I've watched all of this closely, since classroom management is not my strong point. But this week, classroom management will not be ignored. It's been a serious part of my thoughts. You see, this week my teacher had to attend a funeral, and I went next door to observe in my other area of concentration. And the same kids who were well behaved and focuses for my teacher, where rather like hooligans for this teacher. So I discovered that classroom management was more about the teacher than the students.
Another thing that happened this week, pertaining to classroom management is related to a girl who constantly falls asleep. I asked the teacher if the girl just doesn't sleep at night. I had envisioned her sitting in front of "My Space" until the wee hours of the morning then sleeping through school. The teachers doesn't think this is the case. She in fact might have some sort of disorder. The team is meeting with her parent/parents soon, but I wonder if they can actually do anything this side of encouraging the girl to have espresso before class. I wonder how receptive the parents will be to seeking help for the girl.
One student is passively ill-behaved while the other is actively misbehaving--yet neither student is getting the education they could have. I wish I could impress upon them how important education is. I should be the poster boy for getting as much as you can out of your education. I didn't take middle school nearly seriously enough. I managed to get good grades, but I was motivated only to do the absolute minimum. My main goal was to take as little homework home as possible. Then, I spent 2 decades in jobs that were less than careers. My current job (the one I've been at for 13 years) pays well, but the bosses are really adversarial. They know that there aren't jobs out there that pay what mine does--so they demand massive amounts of overtime, they demand the driver often work double shifts, and they blame the driver for things that clearly aren't his fault. I know every career has its drawbacks, but if these students can capitalize on their educations, and if they can parlay their public education into a college scholarship, and if they take college seriously--their options won't be limited to the blue collar-type jobs that are rapidly drying up in America. If they can use their minds to specialize--perhaps they can avoid the outsourcing that is crushing the job market. But how can they do this if they refuse to take their education seriously? And how can you get them to care about something that is essentially half of their life away?
If these problem students stay on the path they are on, they might not even be a good Wal-Mart greeter.
Don't get me wrong, I know there still is racism in America, but not with these teachers. The team, although all white, doesn't seem the least bit racist. In fact, they go out of their way to be racially sensitive. The math teachers said it doesn't bother her that much if this boy fails, what bothers her is that his actions are causing ten other students to fail. Now, she was saying this in jest, but I can totally see her point.
One of the reasons that they are at wits end, is the fact that football season is nearly over. This is the sole thing they can hold over this student's head. In the meeting before school, they lamented the fact that they now have little incentive to motivate this boy to behave. They were thinking of using the eligibility-type form to record whether or not he misbehaves in each class. If the forms stack up, as they think they will, the teachers plan to show the forms to the parent of the boy.
I've watched all of this closely, since classroom management is not my strong point. But this week, classroom management will not be ignored. It's been a serious part of my thoughts. You see, this week my teacher had to attend a funeral, and I went next door to observe in my other area of concentration. And the same kids who were well behaved and focuses for my teacher, where rather like hooligans for this teacher. So I discovered that classroom management was more about the teacher than the students.
Another thing that happened this week, pertaining to classroom management is related to a girl who constantly falls asleep. I asked the teacher if the girl just doesn't sleep at night. I had envisioned her sitting in front of "My Space" until the wee hours of the morning then sleeping through school. The teachers doesn't think this is the case. She in fact might have some sort of disorder. The team is meeting with her parent/parents soon, but I wonder if they can actually do anything this side of encouraging the girl to have espresso before class. I wonder how receptive the parents will be to seeking help for the girl.
One student is passively ill-behaved while the other is actively misbehaving--yet neither student is getting the education they could have. I wish I could impress upon them how important education is. I should be the poster boy for getting as much as you can out of your education. I didn't take middle school nearly seriously enough. I managed to get good grades, but I was motivated only to do the absolute minimum. My main goal was to take as little homework home as possible. Then, I spent 2 decades in jobs that were less than careers. My current job (the one I've been at for 13 years) pays well, but the bosses are really adversarial. They know that there aren't jobs out there that pay what mine does--so they demand massive amounts of overtime, they demand the driver often work double shifts, and they blame the driver for things that clearly aren't his fault. I know every career has its drawbacks, but if these students can capitalize on their educations, and if they can parlay their public education into a college scholarship, and if they take college seriously--their options won't be limited to the blue collar-type jobs that are rapidly drying up in America. If they can use their minds to specialize--perhaps they can avoid the outsourcing that is crushing the job market. But how can they do this if they refuse to take their education seriously? And how can you get them to care about something that is essentially half of their life away?
If these problem students stay on the path they are on, they might not even be a good Wal-Mart greeter.
Fun Activity
Last Tuesday and Thursday the students were placed into eight groups and each were assigned one of the eight of the original 13 colonies the chapter covered. Each group had to come up with a song that related their colony, a brochure, a catchy phrase, and an advertisement. The objective of each group was to present their assigned colony to the rest of the class and try to get students to want to live in their colony, as if they were living at that time. Some groups had excellent presentations and were able to answers questions from other students and my cooperating teacher. However, other groups copied their information straight from the book and had no idea what it meant. Those groups got slammed with questions and had poor presentations. It was fun and entertaining watching the groups who spent the time and effort to produce an well though-out presentation. While the other groups were presenting the other students had to write down important information, from the group presenting about their colony, in their student interactive notebook. They still used their notebook but in a learning technique which hasn't been used thus far this school year. I really enjoyed watching and taking part in the "Colony Fair" presentations.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Comfortability
For as uncomfortable as I was teaching our mocroteaching lesson, I was that much more comfortable this week in my practicum. I was told I was teacing on Thursday of last week, but as I found in my short teaching experience things don't always go as planned. Instead of teaching I was a helper in giving another group project. It actually went really well since we assigned groups instead of letting them choose their partners. I find myself working really well with my cooperating teacher. We're relatively close in age and have many of the same beliefs in teaching. Plus he really lets me chime in whenever I feel like it. I all most feel rude just giving my two cents, but he doesn't seem to mind. I gave a bunch of my opinions when we were going over test review. I've graded the last three tests so I felt like I could give some tips for the next test. Hopefully things continue to go well.
Nothing to Exciting.
Since I was not in practicum on Tuesday, due to the KMSA Conference, Thursday in practicum was just another day of exciting lecturing going on. I am bored with it as well as the students. We have finally moved from landforms to culture which is exciting for myself. I was tired of landforms! I did actually did something other then passing out pencils, I got to grade papers! On Thursday it was a little different in the classroom. There seem to be a lot of parents in and out of the classroom and I am really not sure why. That was about the extint of the excitement in the classroom. I am sure that Tuesday will be just as exciting, but I really hope there is something meaningful and engaging planed!
Just another day
In my practicum we are finishing up with my lesson from over a week ago. The seventh grade had a crazy schedule last week and so we are spending what seems like forever on Early Ancient Civilizations-Sumer. Hopefully this week will begin new discussions and activities. The students of course have done an amazing job with the Sumer lesson(s) so I'm excited to see what the teacher will do next. In a couple of weeks I'll do my observation for Cook and I hope by that time I'm re-energized for History/Social Studies. Does anyone else feel a little burnt out? I'm beginning to get nervous about being able to do student teaching and well the first two years of teaching too.
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