Last week, I was sitting at my desk during block five getting some grades and plans done because no students were with me at the time. When I looked up, I saw one of my students from my first block class walking into the room, toward my desk. She had a smile on her face and a carefree- which is not always the case- air about her. I smiled back, welcoming her in.
She laughed, because earlier that day she had sent me an e-mail with a funny "emoticon" attached to it. I laughed with her, then affirmed that she was not producing the e-mail during another teacher's lesson! She assured me this was not so, and I believed her, so we went back to laughing about the dancing lobsters and bobbing heads that lighted up my e-mail a few hours ago.
I then asked her what was up, and the best thing was that her response was, matter-of-factly, "Nothing." She had a few minutes to spare before her ride picked her up, and knew she might be able to find me and another one of her teachers in this room if she stopped by. I smiled more to myself than her, then talked to her about the project she was currently working on for another class. She vented about how she lost part of it a few days ago, but optimistically stated what her plan for revival was. After this, her other teacher entered the room, and we three chatted for a bit longer.
Within ten minutes she was gone, but the smile she gave me was not. Despite the fact that I am insecure about both the community I teach in and the district I have transferred to from my overly positive experiences while teaching in New York, I realized that I had done it again- another student found an adult she could turn to in Mrs. Hauser. Many days, I think that these simple interactions mean so much more to me than rewarding someone with an A+ on his essay or full credit on a reading quiz. Thank you, Tina, for something to be proud of.
November 23, 2009
Observations of Motivation
Since I was part of the Motivation Presentation, I am not going to go through the elements of motivation and how to implement it into the classroom. Instead, I'm going to use this entry for simply listing some of the ways, from my own teaching experiences, that I have seen motivation come alive in the classroom.
- A few days ago, I led the students in a discussion about what a U.S. citizen brought to mind for them. Students who would not normally speak up in class were engaged in this discussion, I believe, because of the relevance it has to them in their own experiences.
- I created a mini-Facebook type page for my honors students to use as a supplement to our study of A Tale of Two Cities; they have been creating changes throughout the site without being told to do so. I am anxious to see how they apply the text connections in the coming days, too.
- On a few different occasions, I have asked students to incorporate music into their understanding of the poetry we are studying or literature unit we are working on. The creative responses I have received are incredible.
- When I give students the opportunity to draw or create in a new way, I am always surprised by the amount of creativity that surfaces in at least half of the students. For instance, my assignment for creating "Oh My Goddess" trading cards while studying The Odyssey.
- Students will complain about being assigned mandatory texts throughout the semester, but when I give them the chance for free reading time, the all eagerly use it. By providing this time once a week for them to read what they want to, it is a way to balance choice with the mandates of the curriculum. A room full of quietly reading teenagers is something wonderful to behold!
November 22, 2009
Thoughts on Teaching Vocabulary
I was surprised by the many different ways vocabulary can be taught, and also perplexed by how I m ight be able to incorporate these ways into my daily lessons.
First off, I loved what Alicia showed from her group presentation on Prior Knowledge. The use of pop culture icons and videos in order to elicit responses from the students to teach them various words was truly inspirational. I was encouraged by the way she got students to think for themselves, while actually enjoying expanding on their vocabularies.
In seeing this, it made me think about what I currently do, which is unfortunately not the best strategy. Due to the fact that we are given a vocabulary book of 15 chapters for our students to complete in one semester, in addition to the fact that we need to get through the assigned 7-8 texts, I have the students teach the vocabulary to themselves. I think if we were able to pick and choose essential words, thus limiting the number of words required in a semester, I might be able to actually teach the vocabulary and spend time on it. However, there simply is not time with the chapters given. That being said, I do think the vocabulary text we use has some positive aspects. For instance, it looks at synonyms, antonyms, and various other components while having the students practice each of the words.
The group plan that we came up with for vocabulary focused on a foreign language classroom, and used pictures of in fashion and out of fashion clothing styles to teach new Spanish clothing words. By looking at pictures, students reviewed what they knew by stating things about the pictures in words they were familiar with. On the second day, these same pictures were paired with paragraphs in Spanish describing them. Therefore, now the students could use the pictures and context clues to help them learn what some new vocabulary words were. With all of this review and introducing new words, the students then spent the rest of the class and next couple of classes creating their own fashion critiques. They created and or found pictures, wrote descriptions, and presented the material to the class. I liked this progression of steps, and thought it exemplified ideal vocabulary learning very well.
These discussions and multiple ways of teaching vocabulary have inspired me to talk to my department head about why we assign so many words per semester, and if there is any way to limit the number so the students will learn the words for mastery, instead of just performance means.
First off, I loved what Alicia showed from her group presentation on Prior Knowledge. The use of pop culture icons and videos in order to elicit responses from the students to teach them various words was truly inspirational. I was encouraged by the way she got students to think for themselves, while actually enjoying expanding on their vocabularies.
In seeing this, it made me think about what I currently do, which is unfortunately not the best strategy. Due to the fact that we are given a vocabulary book of 15 chapters for our students to complete in one semester, in addition to the fact that we need to get through the assigned 7-8 texts, I have the students teach the vocabulary to themselves. I think if we were able to pick and choose essential words, thus limiting the number of words required in a semester, I might be able to actually teach the vocabulary and spend time on it. However, there simply is not time with the chapters given. That being said, I do think the vocabulary text we use has some positive aspects. For instance, it looks at synonyms, antonyms, and various other components while having the students practice each of the words.
The group plan that we came up with for vocabulary focused on a foreign language classroom, and used pictures of in fashion and out of fashion clothing styles to teach new Spanish clothing words. By looking at pictures, students reviewed what they knew by stating things about the pictures in words they were familiar with. On the second day, these same pictures were paired with paragraphs in Spanish describing them. Therefore, now the students could use the pictures and context clues to help them learn what some new vocabulary words were. With all of this review and introducing new words, the students then spent the rest of the class and next couple of classes creating their own fashion critiques. They created and or found pictures, wrote descriptions, and presented the material to the class. I liked this progression of steps, and thought it exemplified ideal vocabulary learning very well.
These discussions and multiple ways of teaching vocabulary have inspired me to talk to my department head about why we assign so many words per semester, and if there is any way to limit the number so the students will learn the words for mastery, instead of just performance means.
Classroom Curricular Design
Our conversation revolved around how to create a lesson that could be easily assessed, execute a clear objective, and utilize a variety of learning strategies. Therefore, we took something I had recently done in my classroom and applied these ideas to it.
We maintained a consistent goal by stating the objective for the lesson on the board. In our case, it was "Students will observe pictures of late 1930s America and will apply this knowledge to their understanding of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird through oral and written means." This objective would be written on the board and on the top of a note sheet that each student would receive and use.
Next, I would show pictures from the 1930s in southern America. Students would write observations about these pictures in the designated space on their worksheets, then write questions in the next space designated on their worksheets. After a few minutes of individual observation and reflection, the students would then open up their thoughts in the form of a class discussion. I would facilitate the discussion as students reach to make connections between the nonlinguistic representations and their own written thoughts.
Finally, before ending the lesson each student needs to write on an index card 3-5 sentences about how this activity helped them to improve upon their understanding of the novel. By handing in this card, I can then check to see if the objective was met or not; in other words, did the students gain the necessary connections between what was happening in the story and what was happening in America during the 1930s?
We maintained a consistent goal by stating the objective for the lesson on the board. In our case, it was "Students will observe pictures of late 1930s America and will apply this knowledge to their understanding of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird through oral and written means." This objective would be written on the board and on the top of a note sheet that each student would receive and use.
Next, I would show pictures from the 1930s in southern America. Students would write observations about these pictures in the designated space on their worksheets, then write questions in the next space designated on their worksheets. After a few minutes of individual observation and reflection, the students would then open up their thoughts in the form of a class discussion. I would facilitate the discussion as students reach to make connections between the nonlinguistic representations and their own written thoughts.
Finally, before ending the lesson each student needs to write on an index card 3-5 sentences about how this activity helped them to improve upon their understanding of the novel. By handing in this card, I can then check to see if the objective was met or not; in other words, did the students gain the necessary connections between what was happening in the story and what was happening in America during the 1930s?
The Nine Essential Instructional Strategies
I found the Nine Essential Instructional Strategies handout a useful review of the types of ways we should be varying our classroom activities. It also helped me to understand why many of my administrators have been pushing toward having everyone state the objectives of each lesson on the board at all times. One of the instructional strategies that I know I could incorporate more is providing "advance organizers" and "nonlinguistic representations." To be honest, working with my peers in this class and exchanging ideas has helped me to increase these things already.
For instance, in my current A Tale of Two Cities unit, Alicia's wonderful suggestion of creating a character storyboard inspired me to do the same. I have created a poster of well-known actors and actresses, which then stands for various characters. Every time we meet someone new, I add another face to the poster, and I am hoping this will help the students to understand character relationships in a different way. I think this strategy is especially useful during ATTC because of the mixture of characters from both England and France; it is essential, yet sometimes challenging, to keep these nationality distinctions straight.
Also, I have been including more "advance organizers" by giving my literature students a hand out of "Double Entry Journals" to use while they take notes during individual reading assignments. This structure has helped many students to stay more organized, which then helps them to improve upon their thoughts and substance of notes. I am eager to incorporate this into each of my units of study from here on out, while the students can refer back to the same handout which gives them a "key" for how to organize this type of graphic notes organizer.
During Session Nine in class, Pam shared with Angela and I how she uses a tri-venn diagram to cover some of her key civil rights figures. This addressed "identifying similarities and differences," which is something I also use as my writing students complete their compare and contrast essays. Pam mentioned how part of the lesson extends into a second day, which gave her an opportunity for homework, practice, and reinforcement of what was being learned through the venn diagram. The students were then able to generate and test hypotheses, by watching a movie which complimented the leadership styles the students had covered through the civil rights figures. I have also become aware of how to help my students test hypotheses, by including this as a component in the double entry journals and using this type of language during class discussions.
Something we talked about as a group was how to reinforce effort and provide recognition. We realized that every time we tell a student that they asked a good question, or shared an interesting perspective, we are providing recognition. However, I know that I personally need to work at being more consistent with reinforcing effort. The main struggle that I have is how to turn over multiple essays in a short amount of time. While I work at figuring this out, I am making sure that I can provide shorter assignments, which the students get back quickly in between the larger ones.
For instance, in my current A Tale of Two Cities unit, Alicia's wonderful suggestion of creating a character storyboard inspired me to do the same. I have created a poster of well-known actors and actresses, which then stands for various characters. Every time we meet someone new, I add another face to the poster, and I am hoping this will help the students to understand character relationships in a different way. I think this strategy is especially useful during ATTC because of the mixture of characters from both England and France; it is essential, yet sometimes challenging, to keep these nationality distinctions straight.
Also, I have been including more "advance organizers" by giving my literature students a hand out of "Double Entry Journals" to use while they take notes during individual reading assignments. This structure has helped many students to stay more organized, which then helps them to improve upon their thoughts and substance of notes. I am eager to incorporate this into each of my units of study from here on out, while the students can refer back to the same handout which gives them a "key" for how to organize this type of graphic notes organizer.
During Session Nine in class, Pam shared with Angela and I how she uses a tri-venn diagram to cover some of her key civil rights figures. This addressed "identifying similarities and differences," which is something I also use as my writing students complete their compare and contrast essays. Pam mentioned how part of the lesson extends into a second day, which gave her an opportunity for homework, practice, and reinforcement of what was being learned through the venn diagram. The students were then able to generate and test hypotheses, by watching a movie which complimented the leadership styles the students had covered through the civil rights figures. I have also become aware of how to help my students test hypotheses, by including this as a component in the double entry journals and using this type of language during class discussions.
Something we talked about as a group was how to reinforce effort and provide recognition. We realized that every time we tell a student that they asked a good question, or shared an interesting perspective, we are providing recognition. However, I know that I personally need to work at being more consistent with reinforcing effort. The main struggle that I have is how to turn over multiple essays in a short amount of time. While I work at figuring this out, I am making sure that I can provide shorter assignments, which the students get back quickly in between the larger ones.
November 16, 2009
Collegiality and Professionalism Plan
During Session Eight, Pam, Angela, and I created a three day professionalism and collegiality plan. A few of the highlights of this plan included lending advice and or resources to a fellow colleague who has been at our school for less time than we have, having another colleague observe us for a specific intention other than evaluation, and exchanging feedback about teaching strategies with the same colleague. When I think about the usefulness of these activities, I am reminded of the many days I spent working with my mentor during my first year of teaching. She and I were constantly reflecting, which took the form of something as simple as me stopping by her room before I left for the day and sharing a story of a recent lesson or student incident. Those simple conversations helped me to understand what happened during my day, what mattered during my day, and what I could do better tomorrow.
I believe that collegiality is about helping colleagues to find these things within themselves. Collegiality is coming together as teachers of different styles and approaches, with the greater goal of doing the job better. Collegiality is sharing- ideas, materials, and success stories in addition to failures. I have been lucky enough to work in two departments that are very open to sharing and thus helping me to feel a part of the department. However, I have a more difficult time thinking of collegiality on a school-wide scale. I don't think there are enough opportunities for multiple departments to share what works- more often than not, I hear about fellow teachers sharing WHO doesn't do the work! In other words, conversations when not structured often become more based on misbehaving students than students who are learning from our hard work.
Having said a lot about collegiality, professionalism is something that I learned more about through Marzano's words. I used to put collegiality and professionalism in the same boat, but now I understand that professionalism is more about how you conduct yourself and collegiality seems to be about how you interact with your colleagues. Some ways that I strive to keep a high level of professionalism at school are by writing non-emotional e-mails (especially in response to upset parents), dressing modestly and taking pride in my appearance as an example for my female students, treating faculty meetings as I would want to be treated in my classroom, and constantly working to improve my craft.
I believe that collegiality is about helping colleagues to find these things within themselves. Collegiality is coming together as teachers of different styles and approaches, with the greater goal of doing the job better. Collegiality is sharing- ideas, materials, and success stories in addition to failures. I have been lucky enough to work in two departments that are very open to sharing and thus helping me to feel a part of the department. However, I have a more difficult time thinking of collegiality on a school-wide scale. I don't think there are enough opportunities for multiple departments to share what works- more often than not, I hear about fellow teachers sharing WHO doesn't do the work! In other words, conversations when not structured often become more based on misbehaving students than students who are learning from our hard work.
Having said a lot about collegiality, professionalism is something that I learned more about through Marzano's words. I used to put collegiality and professionalism in the same boat, but now I understand that professionalism is more about how you conduct yourself and collegiality seems to be about how you interact with your colleagues. Some ways that I strive to keep a high level of professionalism at school are by writing non-emotional e-mails (especially in response to upset parents), dressing modestly and taking pride in my appearance as an example for my female students, treating faculty meetings as I would want to be treated in my classroom, and constantly working to improve my craft.
November 3, 2009
Thoughts on Force Field Analysis
I enjoyed working with new classmates, Jessica and Lisa, during Session #7. I was comforted by the fact that when we were first shown the force field analysis example, I was completely lost on how to interpret and so were they! I've realized that I truly struggle with graphs and charts, therefore it's something I want to become better at. It seems like such a waste of information when I cannot simply interpret what is before me. That being said, we developed a force field analysis for the implementation of RTI in her elementary school's building. Lisa was explaining her experiences with staff as they were forced to get to know this program, and it reminded me of the way my colleagues reacted to the implementation of new teacher websites that we just went through a few weeks ago.
First, there are those of us like me who are eager to play around with the program, and enjoy learning about it. Then, there are those who automatically look at the negative effects this sort of program will have on us as teachers- more requirements, more ways for parents to hover over us, etc. Also in that span of colleagues, there are those who are scared of the new program because of technology deficiencies or negative connotations with teacher websites. I realized that we reached a sort of equilibrium as our training was given, giving us clear expectations for the site and easy directions on how to use it. I'm not sure that my example is as well-developed as what Lisa shared and our group documented, but I do think the analysis activity has made me think more critically about the negative forces working with positive forces in the workplace.
First, there are those of us like me who are eager to play around with the program, and enjoy learning about it. Then, there are those who automatically look at the negative effects this sort of program will have on us as teachers- more requirements, more ways for parents to hover over us, etc. Also in that span of colleagues, there are those who are scared of the new program because of technology deficiencies or negative connotations with teacher websites. I realized that we reached a sort of equilibrium as our training was given, giving us clear expectations for the site and easy directions on how to use it. I'm not sure that my example is as well-developed as what Lisa shared and our group documented, but I do think the analysis activity has made me think more critically about the negative forces working with positive forces in the workplace.
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