Embracing the chaos

When you see students sitting at their desks completely silent and working on their assignments you would assume they are learning and the teacher must have great classroom management skills. But what if you saw a room where the students are noisy, laughing and all around the room? If you walked into my classroom for Intervention, math and science that's what you would see. During intervention the students are learning about Reader's theater and I have them in 6 different heterogeneous reading groups. I told them what reader's theater is and gave them a demonstration. I also taught them about using expression and phrasing. Then I assigned them scripts and characters and they took it from there. Most of the scripts are based off of ether different books or fairy tales. (One was CLICK ClACK MOO!)While walking around I was intervening in the groups and asking them about their thoughts and throwing in an idea or two. Some of the groups where going beyond just reading the script with a little expression. They were figuring out where they would stand when presenting, figuring out if they could use any props, finding hand/small movements they could do and then rehearsing with their new ideas. The room seemed to be in chaos, but I guess I would call it organized chaos. They were learning and knew what their jobs where.

Then during math as an extension when students are complete they had a choice of two games, one being multiplication wrestling and the other being beat the calculator. When the students are playing the games you can tell they are really interested in them. It's interesting listening to their conversations and essentially hearing them learn. As a teacher I could have just made a few more worksheets with practice problems on them for the students to complete. This would have fit the picture of the typical classroom. But why not make math more engaging? Isn't it more real life to use it in a competition than doing drill and practice?

Our last chaotic moment happened during science. The new unit is over magnetism and the students where introduced to the magnet. As a way to get those new item jitters out they were able to take the magnet around the room and see what they discover with it. I think this is an important part of the lesson. Students will be trying to stick it on all the different hings in the room anyway, why not just let them do it all at once. It was also interesting watching them discover. One student found that when the magnet is dropped into the sink the right way it rolls all the way across and up the other side...I later thought about how I should have added the idea of gravity helping it, I will have to remember that for next time I teach the lesson. The students where all over the classroom "playing" with the magnets. After I had them experiment a little we filled out a KWL charts. Each student got two sticky notes, then they wrote either a question or what they knew about magnets and stuck it on the chart.

I think some teachers would have a problem with this kind of learning. I like the fact that they are discovering on their own and able to find out for themselves the different things about magnets, or add in that extra stuff for their reader's theater. In the real world we are not taught but practicing in worksheets or having someone always tell us what we need to know, we discover new things by doing them.

After being away for a week I was ready to be in the classroom. I think the week was just the right amount of time to get myself rejuvenated and caught up. Plus it was really nice to just spend a few days in my p.j.s rather than dressing up. One would think the students would also come back energetic as well and hyper, but it's really the exact opposite. They came in very sluggish and I got some funny looks this morning when I was energetically greeting them at the door. The morning seemed to start out sort of lethargic. But after gym they were back to their hyper selves. Even though they are more chatty, I enjoyed teaching them more with the higher energy level. It gave the lessons more substance. It made me think of comedians when they are on stage. It seems that once the crowed starts to interact more and respond to their material the more confidence they radiate and the better their skits are. Teachers are entertainers to an extent as well. Or as my C.T. says we are not just teachers, but we are public speakers. No one wants to listen to a boring speech by some monotone speaker. Kids today are constantly being stimulated by television, games, computers etc. The teacher's job then is to keep up with that level of entertainment in order to keep the students attention. This is something I, myself, am really trying to work on. I try to continually ask myself what would make the student care about what I am saying? And it the answer is because that's what the book tells me to teach then that is a sure sign I need to re-think what I'm teaching. Again that all relates back to making the lessons relate to that "real-world" application.

It was interesting attending the New student teaching orientation tonight. I didn't want to go at first because of all the other things I had to get done, and an hour of time taken away is quite a bit (when really it is about 2 hours considering the drive time to and from Coe and talking afterwords). In a way it was refreshing seeing peers that have the same concerns we had when we where in their position. It also brought to my attention how much I have really learned over the course of the semester. It's hard to tell them not to worry so much and that they would be fine (considering I was told the same things) when I can understand how they feel and what they are going through. It seemed better to tell them to embrace their nervousness and to remember how they feel now when it is complete.

' Every wrong answer gets me nearer to the right answer'

My biggest hurdle as far as teaching goes for this week is classroom managment. The more I work at it the better it's going. I've said it before in a blog but this is definietly something that teachers have to learn through expereince and find what works well for them. You can pick up ideas in books or from watching other teacher but ultimatly it must be something you work at as a teacher and find what you feel comfortable with. One procedure that my CT uses and I've found I really like is when you want the classes attention you say "class" in some funny way or use claps. Then they say back "yes" the same way you said class. It took a little time to get used to doing and I'm learning more fun ways to say it as well, but it really works! The students have learned that when you call their attention in this fashion it lets them know you have an announcement or directions of somesort. I like it because it's fun and it works.

During the last few weeks we've been having parent/teacher confrences. I was able to attend quite a few of them from both Taylor and Peirce. It's really intersting seeing the differences since the schools are very different in S.E.S. I also find that I learn a lot more about the child during that time. Talking to the parents is like getting a glimpse of what they are like outside of school. I feel that parents also are able to show the line of communication between them and their child at the confrences. For the begining part at Peirce the child showed their data binders to their parents. During this time some of the parents would make comments about this or that project showing that they remembered their child working on it, or showing that their child communicated that with them. Other parents seemed to be more suprised when differnet points where brought up. One of the confrences that stuck out in my mind was where the paernts seemed to joke a lot with the student and had a very open line of communitiation, they really showed a connection. I think this reflects a lot of how the student is as well.

It is really important for the lines to connect between parents, students, teahcers, and the school. In my mind I see more of a web and how they are all interconnected with each other. I believe that what we do in school and what we are learning doesn't just stop when the 3:40 bell rings. A teacher should also help students see the connections with the real world and school. It's not important to just have all your math facts memorized, but to know how and why 2*2= 4, and then realize that the same math fact is found in the real world. It's also the parents job to help make those connections for the students when they are not at school.

“Give yourself an even greater challenge than the one you are trying to master and you will develop the powers necessary to overcome the original difficulty.” William Bennett

I think my quote fits perfectly with what happened yesterday. My CT and a few others at the school went to a conference, as I told the students to become an even greater teacher, this left me with a substitute. I had two options one to let the sub do most of the stuff I haven't yet done in the class and would be taking over on Monday, or I could take over the whole room a day early and with out my CT in the room. I decided to give myself a greater challenge and take over for the day. This was such a great feeling knowing that I was in control and I didn't have that "security blanket." The sub was there, but I didn't have the CT there to ask 'what would you do? or how should I." I had to make those split second decisions and maintain the classroom control. In some ways I felt like a sub. The students where not yet used to me taking over everything and decided to see how much they could get away with. Two students where told specifically to stay at their desks after they were done with their math tests. (Normally during free reading time students are allowed to sit anywhere in the room they'd like to. Well, one student thought it would be a good idea to lay next to his desk with his feet at the chair, then another student followed suit. I guess thy were still "at their seats" but this shows they were really seeing what they could get away with. The students were a lot more chatty than usual part because it was Friday and a lot of it is because I'm not the 'teacher.' My CT is also a lot taller than me as well as a guy. I think both of these factors are a little more intimidating than a 5'2" female. Women are also looked at as being more "motherly."

I ran into a bit of a complication with Spelling. We normally take our tests in the computer lap at spellingcity.com (awesome site!) Well once we were there I told the students which lists they were on and dismissed them, we found the lists where not showing on the site. I thought maybe it was just the one group that didn't have a list, but the students soon let me know that non of their lists where showing up. I decided to let them play a quick spelling game from last weeks words since we had the computer lab already reserved. After that I had the students head back to the room and we worked on our "thank you" letters to the student ambassadors from U of I for visiting our classes a few weeks ago.

One thing I did that I was proud of was I had them re-do different things during the day. When they go from the carpet to their desks they have certain expectations, and when they go from the desks to the carpet other expectations. These where not showing. Once when they where coming to the carpet it took them a lot longer than it should have, and was a noisier they it should have been. So once everyone came to the carpet, I had them all go back to their seats and we talked about what it should look like and sound like. Then we did it again. I did the same thing later for when they went from the carpet to their seats. Once they got back to their seats the noise level increased and it seemed a little chaotic. So I had them come back and talked about what had happened and re-stated the expectations. I wanted to show them that I didn't think it was o.k. to stop doing their personal best when the c.t. wasn't around and that I still expected them to.

Over all they day had a few frustrations and looking back there are things I would have done differently or said differently for directions. (But isn't this the way every new teacher sees it?) We got through everything (except for the spelling test) that we where supposed to. I feel more confident about myself as a teacher after this experience. I was forced to take on a role that I chose alone. My original challenge was to teach the class and the greater challenge was to teach a class without that "security blanket." Not only did I conquer the original challenge, but I learned a lot about myself and gained more confidence from that.

“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.”

It's amazing how many decisions a day a teacher has to make. I'm just starting to understand this concept. Today I had a lesson for math that had 2 things unexpected arise. The first being the promethian board acting up and making weird zig-zag things. First it just zaged upward, then I went to make a 0 and somehow it make a shape of a cat head. It was funny and I had some laughs but I decided to just continue. Then another cat head came out of a 0. With the few other problems it had the students distracted and paying more attention to what the pen was going to do next then the actual lesson. So I decided to stop and give the students 5 seconds to laugh about it, and we all laughed together. Then I said that our laughter was out and we knew that it might happen again, but it was time to focus and ignore the complication. I was a little frustrated with the pen because it made it really difficult to write in the chart that I had created for the math lesson.

I made a mistake by not looking closely at the problems we were going over together. I used the teachers manual and the * looked like an + sign. As you know the picture of the student pages in those things are really small. Well we were working with broken calculator problems and the question was something like t*52 = 3380. The key that was broken was the division key. Once I got to this problem I realized they didn’t have the skills to figure that problem out I wasn’t sure what to do. Luckily my cooperating teacher jumped in and saved the day with calculators! I think this was a decision I should have made on my own knowing that the students could more easily guess and check using them, but it shows how many split second decisions teachers must make. I believe this is something that will come better with time as well as experience. My CT is always giving me awesome advice about lessons in the curriculum because he had already taught them and knew what decisions worked and which ones didn’t.
One of the students in class hadn’t finished his math work from the morning and was pulled out of class to work on it. This particular student is new to the area and had been struggling previously with math. I wasn’t the one to work with him on the math boxes, but knowing the student I would have thought that maybe he didn’t do it because he didn’t understand. Once the student was pulled out he finished them in a short time and had them all correct. I think that it shows that students will surprise you sometimes with what they learn as well as your assumptions about different situations. Instead of the student not really knowing what to do, it was really a matter of him not using his time wisely during the allotted time given to him.

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” John Powell

Today I made a mistake, well quite a few but don't we all, but I was able to learn from it as well as make it into a teachable moment. We are writing thank - you letters to Ambassadors from U of I because they came in last week and taught us more about the human body. So I made a thank you letter to the students on Microsoft Word. Then instead of copy and pasting I just re-wrote it as a flip chart. I didn’t spend a lot of time on it since the day was about to begin and I had a few other things to do. Once I began showing it to the students I realized I had A LOT of errors. Part because I was typing fast and part because I didn’t proof read. We proof read the letter and found most of the mistakes (2 major one’s where I spelled the teachers name wrong and the school ) . I then asked them why was it important for me to go back and re-read what I wrote? I also asked them what would someone think if they received this letter as a thank you letter with all the errors in it? They told me that it would look bad, and one student mentioned the fact that it makes you, as the writer, look unintelligent. Lesson learned, I will proof read items before showing them more often!

During my math lesson I came across a problem I wasn’t sure how to react to. The students were measuring different lines and wing spans of bugs in their books. I asked the students what did they get as an answer. I knew that there would be some fluctuation of answers because they were measuring in millimeters and it’s often hard for them to see the little lines. The answers some of them were giving me where way off.. I didn’t want make them feel bad by saying they were wrong, but instead I called on a few other people. The numbers where still way off. After I made it through the lesson nervous about what had happened and why it turned out that way. we found out during their partner work time. We found out that some of the rulers where different sizes. We had printed off a few more of the rulers this morning and didn’t think about checking them to see if they were the same. This was then a realization as to “why” the answers would be different. So for the next time we got rid of the old rulers and made new ones that are all the same size.

Practice only makes for improvement. Les Brown

So today I was able to do a little make up of my not so great science and social studies lessons. I'm trying to figure out how to manage group work and the transition from whole group to small group. It seems like this is one of those things you can't really learn from a lecture, but it takes a lot of practice (and patients). There are a lot of things you just don't think about when planning a lesson for the first time. Today I worked on talking to the class about what it looks like when you are in your small group. "What should I see, and what should I hear." I then had a few groups model what they should do first before releasing the whole group to work on their own. They had a guide to their learning and it told step-by-step what to do. I was very naive at first and really over estimated their abilities. So today I re-explained the questions and the format to the guide and asked if students had any more questions after. This seemed to really help. I see it right now as if I'm practicing how to manage the group before taking over. I see what works, what doesn't, and then expanding on what works.

Instead of going on to my next lesson in grammar I thought it would be more beneficial to go back over singular possessive nouns and have the students practice since this is an area that students get mixed up a lot in. (as well as adults). I feel like I repeated myself 100X when explaining that the 's shows that the (noun) owns something in the past few days but it seemed to really work and I only have about 2 students that missed a problem (mostly because they rushed through it). It shows the power of re-teaching and how students can benefit from hearing about a concept for more than one day. It seems like the curriculum doesn't allow a lot of time to really teach one particular area because we have to keep moving forward. But what then do you do if you have a few students or even a whole class that hasn't mastered the concept? Should you keep trudging along hoping that they will pick it up, for we are supposed to "believe in the spiral"? Or should we stop and try to mater the concept and move on to the next even though we may not have the time for it?

Life isn't about how to survive the storm, But how to dance in the rain.

It's interesting how dramatically different one school or one class can be to another. I am constantly comparing my first placement to where I am now, but it's really no comparison because they are different places, with different students/teachers/atmospheres/grades/rules etc. I'm finding that a lot of the things I learned at my first placement are not applicable at my second.

Today I taught a social studies lesson and the students were supposed to follow along with a work sheet that gave step by step directions. They were going to work in their table groups (groups that have been the same way for awhile now). At my last placement I didn't have students work in groups because working in pairs was difficult enough for them. Their maturity level wasn't high enough and even in just pairs they argued or fussed about their other partner. (Now looking back this could have been a great thing to teach about if I would have had more time.) I assumed way to much for the group and after reading a short bit of the reading I directed showed them the sheet that they would be using to guide their time and told them about another sheet they were to complete. Once they got to their groups the noise level rose, it seemed that there was some confusion about what to do, and a few groups had a hard time working together. I underestimated the power of modeling.

To save-face, tomorrow we are going to re-group again but I will explain more about the worksheet and I'm going to model what working a group should look like. We will also talk about what we see and hear when we are in a group and how to help each other.

I came into the placement thinking I knew way more than what I did because I had just done a lot in my first place. My first placement was an awesome learning experience and made me grow a lot as a teacher, and so far my second placement is teaching me even more. From here out I need to, not forget about what I learned at my first placement, but put some of it on the back burner. That way I can focus more on what is happening here and now at a new place and keep reminding myself that each day is a new day and a new slate.

In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back. (Charlie Brown)

Halloween was a blast with the kids. What was even better was the parent support that put the party and parade together. They created games and activities in each room and provided snacks. (It was nice as a teacher to just sit back and enjoy too. It shows that there is help in/outside of the classroom and as a teacher you really are not alone.

Today I taught spelling, grammar, and science. Science was completely new for me since in my last placement my teachers swapped classes for science and social studies, and we taught social studies. I realized that even though a lot of it is already planned out, there is still a lot of work to go into it. I made some errors with the lesson. It's funny how when you are watching teachers things seem flawless, but then once your get up front it seems to become a snowball of disaster, or at least to you they do. I find myself forgetting things or not thinking of one thing or another, but ultimately this happens with all teachers. One of my college professors once said you need to be a good liar to be a teacher. She didn't mean that you had to actually tell lies, but be able to cover up your mistakes. I think it's also good to also let students sometimes know when you make a mistake. It shows that everyone makes mistakes, but you don't just let it go, you fix it. I planned the lesson all out and had a power point to show the information to the students. It went pretty smooth until I realized I had skipped a step in the experiment. There were also things that came up that I didn't realize would come up. It's hard to plan for everything and to predict what is going to happen. I think this is one reason why teachers with experience are the 'experts.' They've taught the lesson before (sometimes many times before) and have had those unexpected questions come up.

Yesterday I was driving home and I realized how much driving and teaching are alike,
1. You have a destination to reach, you can take the long way or the short way.
2. It takes practice, but eventually becomes second nature.
3. You always have more than one thing to focus on at a time, if not you can miss something big.
4. You constantly have to maintain control.
5. It requires regular check ups.
6. Needs a continuous amount of fuel to keep it moving.