Monday, March 19, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Still Growing
It's comforting to know that I'm a work in progress, but so is every other teacher. No matter how much experience we have, we have to continue to evolve with our students, our communities, our resources. We're never done with the process of becoming great teachers.
That said, I've certainly learned a lot this quarter in both my college classes and in my elementary main placement. I take in all I can from my mentors, my classmates, my textbooks, my administrators, and my students. I mix it all up with everything I already knew (or thought I knew) and the result is likely to be some new way of thinking about something or doing something.
I've come to see the tedious writing of lesson plans to be a good way to find flaws in my plan. While I certainly don't stand in front of the class and read from a script, I've written one because it helps me develop the flow and pace of my lesson. I have found the result to be the development of a natural clock inside my head that keeps lessons within time limits and keeps kids engaged.
Thinking about modifications to fit student needs is also laying out a framework of having lessons designed to meet a range of abilities yet still cover the required content. My future students will have varied reading levels, understandings of math concepts, language skills, social skills, family units, physical abilities and attention spans. I have to be prepared with something for everyone. Taking the time to chart out individual student needs across subject areas is a good way for me to help them reach their potential.
There's nothing like the real thing when it comes to experience. These past months have put me in front of 27 students, their eyes fixed on me, waiting for me to say something profound. My mouth absolutely goes dry. I've seen the looks on their faces that say "She doesn't know what she's talking about" and I never want to see that look again. I've also seen them engaged and eager to get to work and that's a much more pleasant experience for all of us.
I know the chaos of getting in all the fine points of the day - pledge of allegiance, straight lines, sharpened pencils available, flipcharts ready, lunch count, permission forms, soothing hurt feelings, phone calls to parents, fielding interruptions, Just Right Books, homework distributed, planners filled in, and who rides which bus. On top of it all, there are so many expectations to meet. My students and I are together trying to please parents, principals, school boards, government agencies, and future employers. My goal is to take the pressure off students to make everyone else proud and just make themselves proud.
More Than One Way to Go
The opportunity to visit a variety of classrooms served as a scale I can use to find my balance in the classroom. For almost every classroom decision a teacher makes, there is a broad range of options from which to choose, especially when it comes to expectations of student behavior. This is an area I am still vague about. I know my methods will be influenced by my school, the district, the principal, my co-workers and the student population, but I also need to establish my own course to follow because my students will look to me for cues.
One of the first ideas that came up in my course work at UWB is that learning is noisy. I liked this quote "A silent classroom is not necessarily one where learning is taking place." Not sure who said it but I agree. My CT certainly does not have a silent 5th grade classroom, but she does have times where she expects no noise from students. One of those is when they are seated on the rug and she's giving a mini-lesson. As the lesson progresses, so do the opportunities for students to contribute. When the lesson is over, the transition back to their seats is expected to be done QCQ - quickly, calmly, quietly. If not, "FREEZE! Come back, Let's try that again."
My CT does not use a microphone so it was interesting to observe a first grade classroom where the teacher used a mike. Despite the magnification of her voice, students still talked out of turn. She did not choose to correct behavior every time but she did send out reminders that when she's talking they're listening or when one of them is talking, everyone else is quiet. If she stopped every time someone blurted or wiggled or whispered, she'd be stopped all the time because the energy these kids are trying to harness is turned up to high. I liked the way she used a quiet voice and didn't raise her voice above conversational volume.
The teacher I worked with for science class in Lake Washington School District had a very soft voice and used the microphone in fun ways. When students were working and she wanted their attention, she would say quietly and in a sing-song manner, "Oh, Students?", and they would reply "Oh, Yes?". She also used the student mike which sparked interest in participating and made it so even the quietest student could be heard.
As I take on more responsibilities at my main placement, I'm finding that by the end of the day, my throat burns. The students test my limits and I say "FREEZE" more than I'd like. I want to use the microphones during my weeks as teacher because I think it "clicks" that the teacher is talking in a more obvious way and prevents him/her from being drowned up by the ebb and flow of student wiggling.
Another issue I ponder is the use of the rug for mini-lessons. Yes, it's great to have students at your feet with their eyes looking upward at you, engaged in the lesson. The problem comes when students aren't as little as they used to be, nor as comfortable with their legs crossed as they used to be. It's difficult for me to sit cross-legged for 20 minutes so I can relate to their wiggling as the lesson gets longer.
On the other hand, I've experimented with letting them remain at their desks to hear the lesson but there are many distractions available to them. I hope to be able to work with the classroom set-up and seating arrangement to allow students to easily move their chairs into "auditorium rows" for mini-lessons without the risk of hitting people on the head with chairs or taking away from learning time. I might also try out "Girls on the rug, Boys in chairs", taking care to switch off, or "Front row, criss-cross, back rows legs tucked under", letting students decide which method is more comfortable for them.
If I expect to keep my students' attention, I know I've got to have expecations in place for when they are to be quiet and when noise is expected. There's got to be some of both. I think it's important to consider my students' needs so that they will see I'm wanting them to have as much success as possible and there's more than one way to get there.
One of the first ideas that came up in my course work at UWB is that learning is noisy. I liked this quote "A silent classroom is not necessarily one where learning is taking place." Not sure who said it but I agree. My CT certainly does not have a silent 5th grade classroom, but she does have times where she expects no noise from students. One of those is when they are seated on the rug and she's giving a mini-lesson. As the lesson progresses, so do the opportunities for students to contribute. When the lesson is over, the transition back to their seats is expected to be done QCQ - quickly, calmly, quietly. If not, "FREEZE! Come back, Let's try that again."
My CT does not use a microphone so it was interesting to observe a first grade classroom where the teacher used a mike. Despite the magnification of her voice, students still talked out of turn. She did not choose to correct behavior every time but she did send out reminders that when she's talking they're listening or when one of them is talking, everyone else is quiet. If she stopped every time someone blurted or wiggled or whispered, she'd be stopped all the time because the energy these kids are trying to harness is turned up to high. I liked the way she used a quiet voice and didn't raise her voice above conversational volume.
The teacher I worked with for science class in Lake Washington School District had a very soft voice and used the microphone in fun ways. When students were working and she wanted their attention, she would say quietly and in a sing-song manner, "Oh, Students?", and they would reply "Oh, Yes?". She also used the student mike which sparked interest in participating and made it so even the quietest student could be heard.
As I take on more responsibilities at my main placement, I'm finding that by the end of the day, my throat burns. The students test my limits and I say "FREEZE" more than I'd like. I want to use the microphones during my weeks as teacher because I think it "clicks" that the teacher is talking in a more obvious way and prevents him/her from being drowned up by the ebb and flow of student wiggling.
Another issue I ponder is the use of the rug for mini-lessons. Yes, it's great to have students at your feet with their eyes looking upward at you, engaged in the lesson. The problem comes when students aren't as little as they used to be, nor as comfortable with their legs crossed as they used to be. It's difficult for me to sit cross-legged for 20 minutes so I can relate to their wiggling as the lesson gets longer.
On the other hand, I've experimented with letting them remain at their desks to hear the lesson but there are many distractions available to them. I hope to be able to work with the classroom set-up and seating arrangement to allow students to easily move their chairs into "auditorium rows" for mini-lessons without the risk of hitting people on the head with chairs or taking away from learning time. I might also try out "Girls on the rug, Boys in chairs", taking care to switch off, or "Front row, criss-cross, back rows legs tucked under", letting students decide which method is more comfortable for them.
If I expect to keep my students' attention, I know I've got to have expecations in place for when they are to be quiet and when noise is expected. There's got to be some of both. I think it's important to consider my students' needs so that they will see I'm wanting them to have as much success as possible and there's more than one way to get there.
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