To My Past Self (Blog Post #6)

Dear summer 2017 Madison,

You will be going on quite a journey this next year.  Right now you are anxiously wondering what your first day will be like at your placement school and how you will get along with your mentor teachers as well as your students.  You are wondering how you will teach the content when you get to teach and if you will be as good as your mentors.

Here is what you should do:

Ask as many questions as possible.  You should not feel like an inconvenience in your mentors’ classrooms because they decided to become a mentor in order to help you.  You are still learning and training to be a teacher and they know this. 

Reflect back on how you taught that day.  It is okay to change how you taught something from earlier in the day.  Do not feel like you are letting down first and fourth hours because they are resilient, smart groups who can bounce back from a mistake in a lesson.  Reflecting on how you are teaching will make you a better teacher and will make the lesson quality better for the students.

Plan out what questions you want to ask your students the night before.  Trust me when I tell you it is difficult to come up with thought-provoking questions on the spot.  Take time the night before when tweaking a lesson to formulate higher-level thinking questions.  Comprehension questions can come to you during the class period.

Now I know what your thinking, what do I wish that I did differently?

I wish that I did not procrastinate working on lesson plans during the time I taught.  I would end up waking up three hours earlier than I wanted to in order to complete lessons for the day.  This would leave me anxious that I did not plan effective lessons.  Learn from me.  Plan out blocks of time during the week where you plan out lessons.  Actually work on your lessons during the weekends when you tell people that is what you are doing. 

I wish that I was able to go to TEAM time with my mentor teachers.  Both of them will tell you not to worry that you are not going and that plan time with them is more important but fight for the opportunity to attend a TEAM meeting at least once a week.  It will be beneficial for you to get the experience before you are hired somewhere and they expect you to know how to be an effective team player.

I wish that I tried out more lessons.  I was worried that students would be too confused if I tried out different techniques.  Remember what I said about students being resilient?  So not be afraid to try something new.  If you are nervous about it that is okay!  Talk to your mentor teacher and ask her about your idea.  She may be more open to the idea than you thought.

The classes that accompany your internship will play an important role in having a beneficial year.  There will be plenty of opportunities for all interns to share ideas and that will help you with ideas for your own lessons.  Each intern is having a different experience at their placement and their situations and how they handled it may help you with your situations.  The books you will read for the course will also help you think of ways you can help your students learn language arts in a fun way.

The changes you will want to make to help yourself in your classes is again: STOP PROCRASTINATING.  This is your major stressor and you need to plan out when you will do them.  You think that there are many assignments in class when really there is not that much.  You just think this because you are taking twice the class load. 

I hope your year is a great one.  Yes, it is challenging.  You will realize that you have never been this stressed out before in your life.  You may question if this profession is really for you multiple times.  You may break down because a substitute questions your classroom management skills.  You may find out that you build great connections with students.  You may realize that you do not want you student teaching year to end.  Remember to enjoy all of the experiences.

Good luck!

End of internship Madison

I Am (Blog Post #5)

I am a student

One of the first to class the first day

Anxious about who I will talk to

Nervous about what expectations are

Wondering what the assignments are

Can I pass my classes?

I am a college student

One of the first to move in to the dorms

Anxious about all of the new experiences

Nervous about being on my own for the first time

Wondering how different college classes are

Can I achieve my dreams?

I am a student teacher

One of the adults who looks like a middle schooler

Anxious about planning quality lessons

Nervous about classroom management

Wondering if I will be able to pass all licensing requirements

Can I make it through the year?

I am a teacher

One of the adults who has gained confidence

Anxious no more about students telling me I am mean

Nervous no more about a lesson failing

Wondering where I will be teaching next year

Can I choose my own path?

How Can I Help ELL Students? (Blog Post #4)

When beginning the teaching program, it is a requirement to take a class called Diversity in the Classroom.  There is one class period that is dedicated to ELL (English Language Learners) and then it is never really talked about again.  In the school district I am placed at there are a decent number of students who are ELL.  I can tell when students are not comfortable with English because they are quieter and do not want to contribute as much.  As teachers we need to help ELL students feel confident when they are asked to answer questions in class.  If I end up working for the district I need to know strategies that were not covered during that one class. 

               The class that I am placed in does have ELL students.  These students can read and comprehend in English because they have been placed in an honors classroom.  According to Kristina Robertson and Karen Ford’s chart, I would place these students in intermediate fluency.  They can communicate in the second language but do have “gaps in vocabulary knowledge.”  They are still the quieter ones in class because they do not want to be wrong in front of the class.  How can I help ELL students feel more confident to speak their opinions in front of others who learned English as their first language?

               One strategy I think would be beneficial to ELL students in my classroom is Robertson and Ford’s strategy of error correction.  This would be done one-on-one rather than in front of the class.  When students are working individually I would be able to conference with each student.  With ELL students I would work on their language skills with whatever the conference is about.  According to Penny Kittle in Book Love (2011), conferences are a way to “increase complexity and challenge” for students (p. 84).  For example, if I am conferencing with an ELL student about his or her essay they are writing I would correct the error and then explain the difference.  This way the student is still learning the language to get him or her to advanced fluency without the potential to be embarrassed in front of his or her peers.   I think if students are corrected often in front of their classmates then there is a chance ELL students will not volunteer to answer questions.  There needs to be a balance with the number of corrections given.

               Another strategy I want to try to help ELL students feel more confident from Robertson and Ford’s strategies is learning another language.  Students do become excited when their teachers attempt to learn their language.  I remember when I was a para one of the ELL students was shocked when I could have a short conversation from the little Spanish I remembered.  When he tried to further the conversation but I had to tell him that I was unable to continue in Spanish.  He told me I should learn more again.  When I think back to this encounter I now realize how important it is for all students to feel comfortable speaking in the classroom.  Trying to learn some words in students’ languages may help them feel more comfortable to try to speak in English.  I regret not continuing to learn Spanish and I hope my future ELL students do not give up on English.

Sources:

Kittle, Penny (2011) Book Love. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

"Language Acquisition: An Overview" by Kristina Robertson and Karen Ford.   http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/language-acquisition-overview#h-stages-of-language-acquisition

Not My Student (Genre Reflection #2)

            First, the student walks into the classroom with a buddy form.  You have control of the classroom, for now, because your mentor teacher has to test a student in the hallway.  You see that he is upset but gives nothing away as to why he was sent out of the room.  You tell him to sit in the appropriate chair. You tell him not to be disruptive because your students are trying to write a paper.  He goes over to the seat and deliberately makes sure the seat makes a noise.  You look over at him but he pretends not to notice.  He starts tapping a pencil.  Your students start getting distracted and look over at him.  Feeling the pressure to be in charge of the room you tell the student to stop tapping the pencil.  Students are trying to write.  He stops tapping and you think he finally sees reason.  Instead he moves on to an even louder noise, shaking the blinds.  You walk over to him and whisper to him the he needs to stop shaking the blinds.  He decides to stop and take out his pencil sharpener.  Nothing could go wrong, right?  He removes the pencil shavings and starts playing with them ON THE TABLE.  This is your time to shine.

            You ask him to step into the hallway so you can talk to him.  You take deep breaths, this is the first time you ask a student to talk to you in the hallway and he isn’t a student you know well. Breathe, you got this.  You give him the best “fear the teacher” look you can muster.  You tell him that he is not to be disrespectful in your mentor teacher’s classroom.  You think you sound authoritative.  He is not fazed.  He does not look at you with fear.  You feel like you have somewhat failed and your mentor teacher notices this when you start walking back in the room with him.  She asks why you had to talk to the student.  After you explained she asks for the student to come out to talk to her and while she is SITTING she tells the student the same thing in her authoritative tone and he listens.

            After class you talk to your mentor teacher about your first “hallway discussion.”  She congratulates you for taking initiative and trying to talk to the student.  You know there is more work to be done.  What needs to occur to make a hallway conversation more effective? 

Learning to Give Students Time (Blog Post #3)

I have realized during my time in my internship that I do not give students enough time to get to the correct answer.  They sometimes need an extra push but that does not mean that I need to provide them the answers all of the time.  According to Melissa Kelly's article "Wait Time and Education," teachers should wait "three to seven seconds" for students to respond to a question.  I think what is difficult for me is that I want to fill the empty noise.  Those seven seconds feel like a long time.  I have been told multiple times that it does not feel that long to students but when it feels like I am being watched I need to fill the noise.  It has gotten better throughout the semester but I know that I will need to work on it next semester when I am with students I am unfamiliar with.

One of my students invited me to attend the school play that he was a part of.  He was proud of the fact he was in the play and wanted as many people to attend as possible.  I was excited to get to see my student in a play for the first time.  The play was "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."  I had a feeling of pride any time my student was on stage.  The play was a great way for me to realize being a teacher is more than being at school every day and teaching lessons.  It is more than trying to get to know students during passing period or when conferencing with them.  Being a teacher is also getting to see your students participate in one of their passions and supporting them through the process.  I look forward to seeing future students participating in their passions.

One question I want to explore next semester is how to put a positive spin on bad behaviors in the classroom.  My MT has warned me of some of the behaviors in one of her hours I am teaching in.  She said that they are not bad students but occasionally get off task and start doing things that disrupt the flow.  I think I want to test out giving students jobs when they come in each day so they can put their energy into that.  If any students like to talk without raising their hands I want to try the strategy of "talking chips."  I hope that it will promote more quiet students to participate in discussion as well as help students who enjoy talking to limit what comments need to be made.

As the semester is winding down I look forward to seeing what challenges and triumphs occur during interning full-time.

https://www.thoughtco.com/importance-of-wait-time-8405

My KATE Conference Experience

What did the KATE Conference mean to me?  I have been inspired and I feel like it was an impactful experience.  I learned so much from the breakout sessions.  My favorite session was titled "Selfie Culture: Make it Work."  I was unsure about going to this one at first because I did not know if it would be beneficial to me as a teacher.  I was so wrong.  Stacy Chestnut and Alexis Fisher incorporated numerous activities I can use to get to know my students.  One activity I would like to do with my sixth graders would be the "Five Core Values" we got to do.  They had us first write our five values and then put a circle around it.  The next circle is where we had to write names that help us protect those values.  The circle after that are people that do not always help us with our values but we continue to have around.  The last circle are the names of people we probably should not have in our lives.  I like this activity because I feel like middle school is a good time for students to look at the type of friendships they have.

Another session that I am happy that I went to because it was not at all what I expected was the "Pod Save Us All."  I never really thought about podcasts being a tool for teaching.  The one that I could use with middle school students would be Storycorp or Poetry Now.  I feel like Storycorp would work with middle school students because it would be a good way to show how to create a story.  I think that the stories on this website are meaningful and students may empathize.  I liked the podcasts for Poetry Now because the authors of the poem read them.  Students would be able to understand the flow of the poem.

The next session I want to talk about is the "Get Out of the Way and Let Your Students Read."  I remember reading Penny Kittle's book Book Love during Literature for Adolescents.  Although I enjoyed the book and Kittle's discussion on how to get students to read more, I did not really know how to incorporate the strategies in the classroom.  This session showed me how teachers are able to use strategies effectively and how to incorporate your own spin on the strategies.  My favorite technique was how the teachers check on how students are doing with their readings.  I found it encouraging that the teachers presenting were getting some of the same results that Kittle was experiencing!  I now know that I will be able to incorporate a few of these strategies into my own classroom.

I liked being with a group of English educators who are passionate about their profession.  They were all welcoming and I was thankful for it because I was a little nervous going into the conference the first day.

One presentation I with I went to was the "Hatred of Poetry" session.  I heard so many amazing things from the other teaching interns about it.  One session that I thought would be different was  the "Including Diversity in the Middle and High School Curriculum."  I appreciated that they gave more titles of diverse novels that I could incorporate into a middle school classroom but I wish that there was more discussion about how to teach it.  The session never really got past discussing the novels.

Overall I am so happy that I attended the KATE Conference.  I want to try my best to return next year and learn even more!

Should I Call On You? (Blog Post #2)

Where did I last leave you on my journey through student teaching?  Ah yes, I was trying to figure out how to ask more in-depth questions.  I am happy to say that I have gotten better at posing higher level questions to my students.  I think I was able to ask better questions because I was teaching my unit last week and I had to plan out lessons for five days.  I took my mentor teacher’s advice and read the text we were going to be reading in class, Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, while I was planning so I could write out the main questions I wanted to ask.  Now that I have had the practice to write out what higher level questions I want to ask I now need to work on asking higher level questions on the spot.

During my week of teaching I tested out my question of “how do I incorporate discussion and still have enough time to complete the lesson.”  I can now tell you after a week of teaching that it is really difficult to balance!  I wanted to get through all that I planned with my students but in order to do that there were some days that I did not ask all of my questions I wanted to ask.  If I had more time to teach I would have had more in-depth discussions with my students.

One struggle I had while teaching was not calling on the same three students to answer questions.  How can I get more students involved in the discussion?  After the first day of only calling on people who raised their hands I experimented the next day and decided to call on students.  I gave students time to think about their answer when they did not talk right away but there was one student who refused to answer the question.  I also gave an opportunity to talk in small groups but that did not help her answer the question.  What are other techniques I can use to help students be more comfortable voicing their opinions in the classroom?  One technique I have found on John Spencer’s article Encouraging Introverts to Speak up in School was number seven on his list of ten ways to get introverts to speak up in class.  He says “I conference ahead of time with students who are anxious. I affirm their courage in speaking up and allow them to share their frustrations with the situation.”  I like this idea because he gives students a chance to talk to him one-on-one about any issues they might have about speaking in front of their classmates.  I want to try this technique with my students who are shy.

One idea that I want to incorporate into my teaching is allowing students more free time to write about whatever they want to.  Students are given times when they write in my mentor teacher’s classroom but I would like to incorporate more time for students who enjoy writing.  According to Bomer (2011), “we need to teach students to attend to their thinking, to develop and extend it” while writing (167).  I would want to incorporate at least one fifteen minute block a week where students are allowed to write whatever they want to write about.  For those who were like me and did not like having too much freedom while writing I would post writing prompts on the board to spark an idea.

Link to John Spencer’s article: https://www.quietrev.com/encouraging-introverts-to-speak-up-in-school/

Bomer (2011). Building adolescent literacy in today’s English classroom. Portsmouth: Heinemann.