Emily's Senior Year Blog

Sorry this is a little late:

From the April article bank I chose the article Reflect Upon Your Practice.  I have found myself a creature of habit in reflecting on a lot of things I do now in the classroom – many thanks to all the reflecting we have all not necessarily been thrilled about over the past couple of years being in school of ed.

I really enjoyed this article and the 20 steps it gave for reflecting.  They are as follows:

1.Start with standards

2. Analyze your audios

3. Make a movie

4. Conference with a colleague

5. Chitchat

6.Join a journal

7. Switch shoes

8. Flip through files

9. Notice the news

10. Relate the Relevance

11. Watch for worthy words

12. reflect and ride

13. Make the most of your  mentor

14. present a portfolio

15. document with Data

16. Participate in a professional development institute

17. Pause, and pause some more

18. List what you learned

19. Welcome the Web

20. Go for growth

Each of these explains a different strategy for learning about ourselves as teachers.  I found this article a great tool for beginning teachers as it will help us to really analyze and discover our strengths over the next year as we learn about what works for us.  I definitely recommend reading this article.

Behavior Implementation Plan

Here it is!

So I had this moment today where I found myself just staring in awe at my little ones.  I know that sounds cheesy, but really – there were all singing the fireflies song for Earth Day and it was one of those moments I realized how different things will be starting next Wednesday.  I was talking with Sydney earlier today and we were talking about how these people have surrounded our everyday lives for almost a full school year now.  It is a sad thought to know this will change.  Sure everyday is not the best but everyday has a good moment.  And for the most parts days are great.  I really have enjoyed this year and learned  a lot.  However, I still feel very much engaged in the learning process and have a hard time realizing that this part will be over soon.   The real world is just around the corner – YIKES!   Part of me is scared – the other is very very excited.  My goal is to enjoy and make the best of these last few days I have with my CT and my students and my school.  I cannot believe it’s this close to the end…

good luck to everyone on these last few days!!

One thing I did not mention in my last post was that my student is one of my ELL students.  In completing this assignment I have found it interesting to hear explanations for not having work completed.  Just as we have learned in our methods courses it is important to keep in mind the home situation.  As I have taken over assigning all the homework I have found this task to be more time comsuming than I imagined.  I find myself re-reading what I have typed multiple times to make sure I am very clear on directions.  I noticed the first week I assigned all the homework multiple ELL students in my classrooms were the students with an incomplete for homework.  In conferencing with them I realized the directions on the paper were not clear because of the language barrier and therefore when my students got home it became more difficult.

In regards to the specific student I am working with, it has been interesting to see her progress.  Since, we made the contract my students’ homework has continued to improve minus a few here or there.  I have also noticed through positive feedback and encouragement the work overall has improved tremendously and she has become a leader in the classroom.  We have what we call Terrific Kids each month.  These students are chosen by the class for their hard work ethics, behavior and leadership in the classroom.  When voting for March’s Terrific Kid the unanimous vote was for my case study student.  I was very impressed and could see immediately the self confidence boost this created.

I feel like each week there is a new theme from the words we have heard over and over again throughout our methods courses.  Last week the word that came to mind was flexibility.  In teaching always be flexible… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that.  Well between St. Patrick’s Day, my birthday (which being around kids is the best because they treat you like a celebrity),  a cultural performance by drummers, two other birthdays of the second grade team, and of course the weekly random things that occur, I found myself feeling exactly what it means to be flexible.  I’m pretty sure by Friday not one day had followed the lesson plans I made.  However, it was quite a fun week.  I really do think we see the reward of teaching on such holidays.  Even on the worst days we have to remember every one of our students looks up to us.  They are little, they will forget we yelled at them by the time they come into the classroom.  I was overwhelmed in the best way possible last week with the excitement and love from the little people and staff I am around everyday.

Teaching last week presented itself in the best light.  I found myself struggling to get a lot of quality teaching time in, but at the end of the day I know my kids were learning it was just different from most weeks.  I think one of the most important things we can do is to remember to be flexible.  It keeps it interesting.

First of all I’m so sorry for the late posts for those of you in my group!

I have chosen a student who has had trouble turning in her work on time including homework.  This has become a problem because it is affecting her progress on class assignments.  In addition the incomplete on her homework is affecting her understanding of concepts we are learning in class and therefore is effects her attention.

I implemented a contract with her about completing her work.  I have been keeping up weekly with her work completion to see her progress using a more formal record.

Though long, this article is very helpful and informative.  I did not read all of it but skimmed each part section briefly to decide which part of the article to focus on for my response.  I was trying to decide which section applied most to my situation.  I found myself nodding to multiple parts of the article but seeing as I do not have any major behavior problems in my classroom, it was more nodding in agreement for past experiences of stories I’ve heard.  However, as I have taken over the class I have really begun to focus on how I treat student behavior.  My CT did a wonderful job setting up her classroom management and expectations, creating a learning environment that has continued as I took over.  However, I have found that the students began to push the boundaries trying to see what they could get away with, with Miss Hobbs.  I found myself really focusing on the noncompliance section of this article.  I feel this is important for every new teacher to read and be aware of before teaching.  As a new teacher I am still determining the best way to direct and guide and teach my students.  One thing I’ve learned is the importance of once I say something I must follow through with it.  This applies to giving directions in how you give directions and your expectations.  Just as the article says, “if you expect students to do something, tell them what is you want and then reinforce them for being compliant”.  Giving students an option allows them to be defiant if they are wanting to do what you say.  Choices can be good however, if both choices will benefit the learner.  The story in the article gives an example of a teacher who asks each small group if they would like to clean up they can – right here, being nice is not the best answer, as a teacher we must be clear in what we want them to do.

I also agreed with the statement, “Adults also promote non-compliant behavior by their own stubborn refusal to change their behavior to better meet the needs of their students.”  We hear this over and over about teaching to the needs of our students but it is only because it is very important to keep this in mind.

I knew it would happen at some point…I had that moment of being completely overwhelmed.  I think this week I finally felt the full effects of teaching.  There is a big difference between planning for just literacy and planning for multiple subjects throughout the day.  Again I had to remind myself to how long it takes 7/8 year olds to get work done.  Even though it was not one of my favorite days, Wednesday was a great learning experience.  By the time I left school on Wednesday evening I felt much better.  I had a great conversation with my CT, one of the resource teachers and the literacy coach.  They were all very helpful in helping thinking about planning and using my time to the best of my ability.  They were all very encouraging and very helpful.  It makes me realize how important it is to have good relationships with these people in the school I’m working at.  Sometimes it’s just helpful to have someone outside your own classroom come in to provide another prospective.

That said, I’m very excited about this week!  St. Patrick’s Day   We also have been continuing our March Madness basketball shooting.  It was a great end to last week and has really made the students come together and work in teams.

This past week was exciting!  We started our a unit on communities (acutally Sydney’s unit!!) and it has been so much fun.  We have begun this unit studying maps.  The read alouds have been really good choices and very easy for students to make connections.   We made maps of our own bedrooms just as the character in one of the books did.  It was interesting to see what students consider important in their own room.  It was also interesting to see where the details were focused on.  I hope to do this activity again towards the end of the unit for assessment.  I think it will be interesting to see what students include after learning more about maps.  We also did a fun activity focusing on the cardinal directions.  One of the other second grade teachers has an  interactive CD with different tracks getting students to use map skills.  For this particular track students learn N-S-E-W.  The song provides facts about each but also can be used to have students phsycially see the directions.  We set the room up like a compass with one direction on each wall.  I divided the class into four groups and they became the direction.  As the song moves around calling out the direction the students had to be paying attention and stand up and dance when the song made a reference to their specific one.  It was a great activity that got the students moving – they were asking to do it over and over again!

I also started Time in math!  I’m excited to use the new computer software they told us about last week!

Can you believe it?  Monday is March 1st.  As excited as I am about spring I cannot believe how fast this semester is passing.  Last week was a very busy week.  From beginning to end I experienced seeing what our staff would do if the fire alarm was set off during a soft lock down drill (interesting to think about), a PLC training meeting, more meetings about retaining a student (including with the parents), and a field trip with second graders to the Morehead Planetarium.  Needless to say each week brings something new and exciting.

On the 26th I believe it was our school had a practice lock down drill.  Without warning the fire drill alarm went off.  Teachers had to make the decision of what to do.  After school the faculty met to discuss the happenings.  It was interesting to have this experience.  Some teachers were upset this happened, but most were just discussing what would really happen.  The principals made this decision to see how the staff would react.  They are working on implementing more practice drills of lock downs because it is just as important for these to be habit as fire drills. They realized that some rules were unclear about what to do if something like this happened during a real situation.  The ultimate conclusion to this meeting was this drill was set off to spark discussion and really see what teachers/staff would do in order to make them aware of such decisions.  It also allows the higher authority to see where questions and uncertainties lie so they can determine procedure rules they also are unsure of.

I have a student in my class who at this point in the year is still on the level of a beginning first grader.  My CT and staff members are in the process of working out the details of retention.  It has been a very good learning experience for me to see all the work and struggles that may occur in this process.  The older a child gets the more difficulties arise.  This process calls for a lot more attention, work and teamwork than I had ever imagined.

Friday was our field trip!  I loved every minute of it.  The first part of the trip was a little high level in the content of matter they were trying to teach our students, however, the overall experience was wonderful.  The planetarium is very intriguing and entertaining for students of all ages I think!  It sparked great conversation among my students about science and connections to their reading! I felt it really touched base with the inquiry learning we have discussed so many times in our methods courses!

As we draw closer to spring I really to keep in mind to take in everything!  Until next time…