- What was most surprising (or caught you off guard)? Explain.
- What was most challenging? Explain.
- What went especially well for you? Explain.
- Identify one major adjustment you have or will need to make, if any. Explain.
Friday, April 2, 2010
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The most surprising thing I had , one fourth of total students in my class need help in basic algebra ,they are offered free afterschool help and a computer trained program to make up their grades but they do not show up afterschool. They sincerely work, struggle in regular classes, they know they are weak in certain areas but they do not use any help from neither me nor their own teacher. I feel bad for them who are just on the brim of passing but do not put enough effort to prep and do their test well. I was surprised to see a pregnant student who is very regular and an A+ candidate in my class. One more thing surprised me is, one senior student wearing the same dress every day to the class. I felt very bad for him.
ReplyDeleteThe most challenging part was with some girls from different periods. Few girls do not hold a pen for the whole class and sit there, and chat the entire period. Me insisting, pushing them never helped, infact they became more resistant and started cracking jokes etc.Another challenge was one of my merit student constantly questioning my skills and subject knowledge. Even though I prove to her, she still thinks “Why I need to listen to her?”- Attitude problems.
One thing which I imagined would not be possible for me to be successful was connecting to those couple of behavior oriented big boys who are double my size. But greeting at the door, from student information form and socializing with them after knowing their interests really made my class easier to handle. There are still some knuckleheads (as Randy calls) which I have deal with anyway. I got hold on juniors but seniors still have some attitude issues and sophomores still have that immaturity.
There is a saying in Hindi “What you plan to do tomorrow, you do today, what you plan to do today, do it now”. I guess I need to be quick and flexible. Especially when the class is not responding, immediately. Try to change your style or plan without students knowing it. So many things to remember, handle, and solve – even If I put in paper, I keep forgetting certain things. I feel bad. Yesterday , first period did not go well , I felt bad and did not eat my lunch thinking through it , but after getting feedback from my cooperating teacher and adjusted my lesson for my 6th period , I felt very satisfied. Then I realized what our ARC teachers always say “mistakes will happen, accept it, change and move on”. They are right 100%. Now I know I cannot be perfect in everything I do, but still should not stop trying.
I am thankful to both methods and my cooperating teachers.
Although the teacher explained my role as a student teacher to the students in the week prior to my first day, it was surprising that many of the students thought I would only teach one day. Due to this misconception, I think the students initially treated me like a substitute teacher with some level of indifference. However, after the second day of teaching, the tone of the classroom changed with the students tuning into the lessons better and interacting more with me. At the same time, they started becoming more sociable with me knowing that I was going to be around for a while.
ReplyDeleteThe most challenging part of the first week was managing the side conversations in the classroom and the students yelling out answers. Although I spoke with students who were off task or talking individually, I found the effectiveness was intermittent. While discussing this issue with my cooperating teacher he recommended that I making a statement by writing the names on the board of those who repeatedly ignored my instructions. I felt like it was a little punitive and we were taught not to manage the classroom in that manner. He assured me that that action would make it clear to all students that there were consequences to choosing to ignore the rules. Although he asked me to do it without explanation, I've decided to make it clear to the students the rules and what it means. The process is to warn two times, then write their name on the board, discretely without stopping the class. If there is a second infraction, they will receive a check mark next to their name, and a third infraction leads to after-school or lunch detention. I am still unsure of this process, but my cooperating teacher uses this method; he says it is effective. This week I tried writing names on the board and it was totally effective after the first time. I've decided to see how this policy plays and make a final decision in the future.
A major adjustment that I've made is modifying the lesson if something doesn't work within a class or changing it in the following classes based on feedback from earlier ones. I've found that having more instructional and independent activities planned for each lesson has worked well to allow me to adjust instruction when needed. One particular day, during a free period between classes, I met with the cooperating teacher and we reviewed how the classes went, what worked, and what could be better. For that lesson, I had two Do Now activities planned ahead of time. During the first two periods, the Do Now required additional explanation since the students were unfamiliar with the data type presented even though they understood the process. In the following two classes, I implemented the alternate Do Now that I also planned and it went much more smoothly. During the same lesson, I found the activities were just filling in answers and didn't engage the students well. I had another hands-on activity planned which required using scissors and interacting with one another. As it turned out, the students in the last two classes were much more engaged and everyone was on task.
The value of planning a full lesson with several alternative activites and adjusting instruction along the way based on understanding and engagement becomes overwhelming clear during my first week. Being prepared for these situations worked especially well for me. I've already put this into practice and found out that it works well. This was a great Methods "lesson learned" for me!
First Day, First Week, First Month, First Year, Whatever.
ReplyDeletePart 1
(Too long, as usual, so posted in four parts)
I think I’m a couple of reflections behind, so this will be a bit long. I’m hoping it will touch on enough so I don’t have to go back and blog on classroom management. Let me know. I hope it fits.
I am student teaching at Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford. They are located in the old G Fox building in Hartford (for the few of you old enough to remember the old G Fox in Hartford) cheek by jowl with Capital Community College. They are scheduled to move into their own building, but this has been delayed for a variety of reasons. There appears to be some politics involved, but no point in discussing that here. For the moment everybody is on top of everybody else: the teachers and administration share one large room with six crammed offices around the edges; the kids wander in and out; there is no such thing as “my own classroom.” If you grew up in a large family like I did it’s very familiar: I remember why I was so happy to go away to college.
My cooperating teacher is Scott Wojnarowicz, Mr. W to the kids. The Vice Principle is Mr. B, and today I became Mr. R, and we all know Randy is Mr. E, so I think I am detecting a trend. It appears all I ever needed to know about last names I learned in kindergarten, beginning with the alphabet.
I like Scott, and I would say that even if I didn’t promise to send him a copy of this and he has to write up an evaluation. He’s very laid back, which I like, and he is clearly concerned about making sure I’m comfortable in this overwhelming new situation. I hope I’m not frustrating him too much. He keeps asking me if I have any questions, and I don’t have many. His critiques are crystal clear, and I see myself making the mistakes as I read his notes on my teaching. Actually, the question I’ve asked most often is, “Can we really do that?” You’ll understand why later.
Capital Prep runs double length periods, and classes meet every other day, one set on Monday and Wednesday, the other on Tuesday and Thursday, with a rotation on Friday. There is a brief faculty meeting every morning at 8AM, and classes start at 8:25. Classes effectively end at 2:30—there is a final period from 2:30 to 3:20 for extracurriculars, which are mandatory. Scott coaches track, and so far I have not accepted his offer to come run with the team—I’m finding enough ways to embarrass myself as is.
My “first” day was really Monday and Tuesday. Scott teaches five classes and supervises one study hall, with one . Two classes are pre-calc and three are Algebra I. Both classes are basically in the same place in the curriculum. We have settled out on my teaching the three Algebra I classes and one of the pre-calc calc classes, so I only have two sets of lesson plans to prepare. I may do some things with the other pre-calc class latter on.
Having to prepare only two sets of lesson plans is a tremendous relief. Writing and revising to get them right is a lot of work. I think I managed about 10 hours sleep total the three nights from Monday to Thursday. If I could change the ARC curriculum in one way I would add the requirement that students spend the month before their student teaching working with their cooperative teacher writing a full set of lesson plans for the entire four week period, completely revising them at least once. There is enough that you can only learn in a real classroom that anything you can do to reduce other burdens would be worthwhile so you have more time to reflect and adjust. Thank God for three day weekends to square things away for the last three weeks!
(Continued in part 2)
Part 2 of 4
ReplyDeleteI also think having one class where I can continue to observe Scott is really important. One thing I keep trying to tell my debaters is that taking notes while watching a debate is one of the best exercises you can do to improve your debating. (I know, “THERE HE GOES AGAIN.”) But you see things watching people who are better than you are that you simply don’t see while you are doing it yourself, no matter how well-developed your facility for self-criticism. I plan to take advantage of the opportunity and stay with this fifth class, hoping to absorb some technique.
As far as I have seen, these are all pretty good kids. They where uniforms—blazers for high school and sweaters for middle school, ties for girls and boys, khakis or plaid skirts (for the girls only)—and failure to be dressed properly gets you sent out to change or to the office. This doesn’t mean everyone is neat: the ability for a 6th-12th grader to find ways to look “comfortable” exceeds my imagination. Discipline does not seem to be a problem. Students who are sent to the office for being late or any other infraction go without complaint and come back promptly. The teachers are quick to enforce the school’s standards, on any student at any time. Community policing works.
Now let me tell you what I’m teaching, and explain the “can we really do that” remark above. Scott’s initial suggestion to me was to do a unit on linear regression for Algebra I. They have been doing rate of change and linear equations. So I suggested we do something with real data—2010 is a Census year, April 1 Census Day, and some of the kids will be familiar with the letters their parents have received. A lot of math, a little civics, current evets, real world application, win-win-win-win right? Of course, I said, some of the data can be a bit gnarly. The comment I got back was classic:
“i would suggest you choose something perfectly linear to go through the process of using calculators. (have students create formula first, then use technology to verify as well as learn steps). you could introduce correlation coefficient at this time as well... it should be 1!!! i know you don't like this form of technology, but using regression functions on graphing calculators are important for them to know.”
But I kept working the idea and came up with a unit based on income tax versus income. It uses a simplified 1040-EZ which yields a linear result, and a simplified 1040 that yields a near linear result, even though the tax function is only piecewise linear, because itemized deductions increase with income—some social justice there. We are H&R Capital Prep competing with you-know-who. I’ve created 30 “clients” with the students first names and last names related to the occupation, with some obvious corny exceptions—Homer Simpson is the name of the nuclear engineer, and Dewey Sueem is the lawyer. The incomes match data from the 2000 Census to keep that tie in and justify a final project using some income and consumption data (I hope). And there is even a bit on tips for drawing a good presentation quality graph, something I have very strong opinions about after 30 years of corporate briefing.
When I was in graduate school I worked for an economic forecasting firm, and my boss was just getting his PhD. I asked him why he didn’t want to teach, and he said only wanted to teach if he could teach his own research. This isn’t my research, but it is really my own lesson. I feel like Flounder in Animal House, “This is going to be so cool!”
Part 3 of 4
ReplyDeleteWell, the rubber hit the road on Wednesday, and I taught the same lesson twice again today. It does get better with practice! And you do pick up obvious things. After the first time through I realized I was wasting time and losing control giving out multiple handouts. Thursday I consolidated into a packet and started with clear instructions about how we were going to proceed. And when I got the “Do Now” distributed properly to the largest class the second day and there was total silence for about 3 minutes, it was so “Wow!” that I forgot to take attendance. Of course, I only completed about one-third of the planned first lesson, despite three tries. It took a very long time to explain the context—income, income tax, withholding, census. Of course some of the questions on how to fill out the 1040-EZ, where I’ve tried to match the IRS’ phrasing, have been great—no wonder we adults pull our hair out each April.
An aside on classroom management. The biggest issue I am having is keeping students on task and moving through the material, especially the largest class, which is in a very long room with the board on the long side. When I travel stage right I can hear and feel them drifting away from me on stage left. I think I taught the first class from my usual comfort zone up front and at a distance (I sit in the back—but I’m used to presenting and teaching from up front). I consciously forced myself to move around more and mix the second day, and it seemed to help. Reading Scott’s comments—fantastically detailed stream-of-consciousness comments typed as he observes—I can see my self making the mistakes he notes, and remembering knowing I was making the mistakes as I was making them. Every once in a while I remember something I am supposed to be doing and actually manage to do it. But it is clearly a question a reflexes as much as of knowledge, and at this point I’m a bit short on both.
The other that is really limiting is not having command of all the students’ names. There is no more effective addition to any of the classroom management techniques than to use someone’s name, and perhaps no skill which I lack entirely as the ability to remember names (and, if you other suggestions to make along these lines, please save them until student teaching is over). I’m struggling there.
Two comments come through repeatedly in Scott’s notes. First, there is the need to keep the students so I can manage. If they are working they aren’t doing something else, and you can be doing something else. Maybe good teaching is just the art of keeping students busy. So as I revise and extend my lesson plans this weekend I’m going on an altruism binge: more for them, less for me. I will be looking for ways to break things into clear steps where they have to do something at as many points as possible.
The second is the need for more frequent assessment. I guess Randy and Jaf really did know what they were talking about. (Randy’s thinking, “Now he gets it!”). Scott pointed out during lunch today that when I asked students to hold up their papers so I could see whether they were finished it was the first time I’d performed any kind of assessment during the lesson. (And yes, I did actually remember that from Methods. Every once in a while I manage to keep cool under fire.) So I will be looking for more ways to build ongoing assessment into the lessons.
Part 4 of 4
ReplyDeleteOkay, back to the classes I’m teaching. The pre-calc classes are doing trig identities. Now I do the New York Times crossword puzzle, some Ken-Ken, and I like puzzles, and I enjoyed doing trig identities in high school. (Geek!) But in all the years since I can’t think of one single practical application, and I can’t imagine anything less interesting to the ordinary well-motivated student. But a math teacher’s gotta do what a math teacher’s gotta do, or so I thought. After observing this class, Scott notes that they are all Seniors, and their heads have largely left the building already. He wants to expose them to a few more things like limits and derivatives. But that will only take month, so he suggests I spend it teaching them how to structure arguments and debate.
Now I swear to you all I did not suggest this myself! In telling Scott some things about myself I did mention debate, and why I thought it was important. I had also mentioned the relationship between the formal logic that we use in mathematical proofs, and the informal logic relevant to argument in the real world. Why not go ahead and teach that?
And that’s when I said, “Can we really do that?”
It gets better. Once the door was open, I mentioned that Yale hosts a parliamentary style debate tournament each year for Connecticut high school students, and this year it was on April 25, the Sunday after my student teaching ends. And Scott says, why don’t we take the four best to Yale—there are only eight in this class. So I’ve got four placeholders signed up for the end of the month.
Now it isn’t all fun and games. I have to keep making some reasonable connection to mathematics and usable skills. There have to be content, lesson plans and assessment up to the same standard as any other class. I also have to find a way for these students to have enough confidence in themselves to be willing to jump off this cliff into deep water.
But Scott’s rationale is that this a valid educational activity with a lot of things his students should be exposed to. Logic and argument are very relevant to mathematics and relating mathematics to the real world is an important part of a math education. Finally, it gives them a break from math they have been doing, and, if it works, he gets them back at the end of April refreshed so he can cover the last set of topics he wants to cover before they graduate. So I’m excited.
One final note. There is another ARC-y in the building, and she introduced herself and asked me if I’m the one who knows about debate. And she asked if I had any material she can use, because she would like to hold some debates in class on the social justice issues she plans to teach over the next four weeks.
So, I’m exhausted. I’m having a great time. And this could turn out to be the best vacation I’ve had in years—certainly the longest. I hope that you are all having as much fun as I am. I apologize that I have not read all of your posts, but I promise to read through them all tomorrow after I’ve had some sleep.
Everett
The first week was fun, interesting, filled with ups and downs, very challenging and extremely busy. The days went quickly, but were very busy. The nights were busier. Even though I had some time before teaching a class, I was going through the homework the kids were doing to be sure I knew it well and could help them with it. I also started to plan my lesson plans. It was a week of long nights and early mornings, and not much sleep. I see that continuing for the next four weeks.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that was surprising occurred during the first lesson I taught. The class was a pretty strong Algebra I class, as per my coop. We were working on equations in the “y = __” form to discuss ordered pairs and eventually get to graphing and slope. I gave a few examples, but many of the kids had trouble with isolating y of all things! And this was after the chapter they just finishing on factoring much more complex items that included getting all the terms on one side and zero on the other. So, the class work on that topic took a lot of extra time to go through as I could see many blank faces and oncorrect answers while going around the room. So,we didn’t get to the last part of the lesson on the basics of a coordinate plane. Now, the pressure is on to catch them up next class in order to cover everything needed for the quiz scheduled for next Friday before break, and to keep pace with the other 2 Alg I classes my coop is teaching. Randy and Jaf said that sometimes even the stronger classes will have challenges with things you believe that they would/should know. Also, they said fractions can be difficult for students at all levels. I found this to be true even though I thought I prepared for it.
There were several things that I see as challenging, but will focus on two. The first big challenge for me was staying ahead, being ready for each class, and being able to develop good lesson plans. I saw somewhere in Everett’s comments a suggestion about getting with the coop teacher a month ahead of time to get lesson plans going. This is a great suggestion to explore and try to flesh out. The second is the challenges associated with stepping in to another teacher’s world for a few weeks. Even though my coops have been great and very supportive, you are still on their schedule and working with their norms. It is not as easy to monitor and adjust.
One thing that I think went well for me was developing a rapport with the kids, or at least most of them. I can tell that some will take longer to gain trust and acceptance, but I made an effort to get to know them as quickly as possible, and help them during class work and reviews.
One adjustment that I made was deciding not to press forward to another topic when I saw the kids were having trouble with isolating a variable. Although it put me behind, we spent more time on it, and I believe it helped. One adjustment to make going forward is to try harder to develop the lesson plan with more emphasis on rigor, but show or have them do more examples to get the kids to the higher thinking level.
The most surprising thing was catching one of the students overtly cheating on a test. The test was given by the cooperating teacher on my first official day, Monday. The student had a sheet which contained the topic being covered on the test under the test. I did nothing at the time, but I informed the cooperating teacher after the test and he addressed it with the student the next day. The cooperating teacher told me that he was glad I handled it the way I did so as not to confront the student during the test. There were a few students I thought were cheating with wandering eyes and the cooperating teacher mentioned that he gives different tests to the students so that this would not help, but actually hurt them. I recommend you discuss the topic of cheating on exams with your cooperating teacher to determine ahead of time how they would like to handle it.
ReplyDeleteThe most challenging is classroom management, and I have honor level students who are well behaved for the most part. Still, there were inappropriate comments made and students do speak out in class regarding the lesson being covered a well as many other subjects not related to the class. This is an area where I don’t think praising appropriate behavior will work well, the student named would feel like a teachers pet. I raised my voice to bring attention and this was somewhat, but not totally effective. I purchased a bell as I was instructed in core and will try this next week. The talking is like a growing snowball, the more they get away with it, the more they do. There are no classroom rules in this area from the cooperating teacher, so I feel that it would be difficult for me to initiate and enforce a speaking out rule.
The foam football worked very well. The students paid better attention and wanted to participate. The questions were simple and easy to answer and I think this is where it works best. In the video we were shown where this technique worked, I remember the questions being easy and even listed on the boards. When I tried this with a more difficult problem that required a calculation the students were reluctant to participate.
My lesson plans are too aggressive to cover in a typical 45 minute class. I have only taught one lesson from the plan, but only got through 50% and did not get to assessment. The good thing is that one of the main reasons was that the students were interactive and asked good questions and would not let me proceed forward when they did not understand, probably because they are honors students. The end of the lesson included homework type problem examples and I wanted to get through this to give them a chance at success on the homework, but this caused me to rush the lesson. I plan to reteach the lesson in a different way on Monday.
I tried to use the calculators to do trigonometric graphs to get the students involved, but it was more like a video game and I believe understanding was poor. In reteaching the lesson, I plan on using paper and graphing as it will be easier to check if the students completed and understood the graphs.
The most surprising thing during my first week was the fact that very few tools- the ones we were taught at ARC- were used in the classroom. However my cooperating teacher, having forty one years of experience, was pretty effective. As I described in the first day blog, my cooperating teacher got sick for the rest of the week and I took over teaching five periods a day for the rest of the week. The substitute teacher, being a social studies teacher, was glad that I took over the teaching. Out of the 5 periods I had to do 4 preps, pretty heavy load for a newbie. So I have been teaching, giving quizzes and tests, grading and doing bus duties. I tried a new technique: I posed a problem of the next day’s lesson on the board and I said I would give 10 extra points to the students that would solve it by the next day. I did that for two reasons: 1) to make students read ahead and be more receptive to the next day’s lesson and 2) to give an opportunity to students to raise their grades. It was surprising to me that only 3 students responded. And unfortunately they were the best students. They ended to get higher than 100 points! The lower level class is very challenging…even with a special ed teacher, a para-professional, the sub and myself. I find that I have to stay on the same objective for 2 periods sometimes. So this was an adjustment that I had to make. Still I may have to make further adjustments to this class to be more effective. Things that well in my case was that the cooperating teacher was very good to me the first day and the sub has been very encouraging by giving me frequent positive strokes
ReplyDeleteFirst week:
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, this week reminds me of the first few nights after my daughter was born… “why didn’t anyone tell me that I’d never sleep ever, ever again?! Second, Don Perras… guy’s a genius.
The biggest surprise for me is how well behaved and on-task the students have been. Those Don Perras tricks worked wonders! I wasn’t surprised by anything else… I have been working in the school for a few months so I had a pretty good idea what to expect.
The most challenging part of the week, BY A COUNTRY MILE, was the lack of sleep.
There is one major adjustment I’ll have to make. Three students were absent on Tuesday, and that totally threw me off on Wednesday. They kept asking questions and blurting out “I wasn’t here yesterday” in class. Every time I tried to help them, the rest of the class went to sleep. And when I moved on, these three didn’t know what I was doing, so they couldn’t stay engaged and ended up chatting or otherwise being disruptive. I have some ideas on what to do when this happens next time. It’s likely that everyday there will be someone out, so this is something we need to be prepared for.
Otherwise, I’m still trying to train myself as much as the students. I need to remember to take attendance during the do-now. I need to remember to use the name cards to randomly call on people after posing a question to the class. And I need to somehow address note-taking skills for the students. I would second Everett’s comment about writing lesson plans and seeking ways throughout to get the students involved as much as possible. At the times when a “lecture” format is absolutely the only way to go, I’m doing it in short bursts, and I’m going to start using note handouts. Basically these handouts will have the notes that they should be taking, all written for them, but with many blanks throughout that they will have to fill in. This will hopefully keep them engaged while I am talking.
What went especially well for me?... well just about everything. (continued)
(part II)
ReplyDeleteOn Monday night, I looked at the pre-assessments from day 1 and determined that all classes needed some review. For the two higher level classes I did a day of review on Tuesday of some basic pre-algebra stuff that they needed. For the two lower level classes, I didn’t want to bore them with more of the same old stuff. The lower level classes could go south on me quick, so I needed to be careful. I want them to get engaged. Many of them are failing. There are a lot of discipline problems. Many of them do not have a favorable view of school or teachers in general. The chapter I am teaching them is systems of linear equations, and the pre-assessment I gave them assessed their knowledge of linear equations, graphing, and interpreting word problems. The students needed a lot of help, but I decided to take a different approach with them. I wanted them to work on solving systems but WITHOUT using equations, i.e. without using the math that they have come so accustomed to hating. I gave them a do-now which said “You are going on a Dunkin Donuts run for a group of friends at a party. An iced coffee costs $2 and a bottle of soda costs $1. As you are considering what to buy, you are figuring out the cost of each of your options. Complete the cost column in the table below for the various combinations of soda and iced coffee that you are considering buying.” This required that they read these instructions, something many of them seemed shocked by, so I had to go around and get them on task. (on day 3 however, you could hear a pin drop during the do-now, it was amazing!) We then went over the do-now which led into the lesson. First I suggested that we rearrange the table from the do-now into a grid… iced coffees along the bottom, sodas along the side. At the intersection of each quantity, we write in the total cost. After they got comfortable with this unfamiliar layout, I gave them a much larger version of the same grid… they had filled in only the total costs for 1-3 iced coffees and 1-3 sodas, or the first 9 elements of the grid. The grid I gave them was generated in excel and was something like 30x30. I had them check their 9x9 grid against the lower corner of the larger grid, again just to get them comfortable with it. We discussed again what these grids (or matrices) contained, emphasizing that the dollar amounts in the grid are the total costs of the various combinations of iced coffees and sodas that you could buy. I then said, “suppose you have $30 to spend… which combinations of iced coffee and soda cost $30?” I walked around, they were working to find all the cells that contained $30, and they were all seeing that these cells form a diagonal line.
The “do now” also had the following question… “Consider the following: In a situation like this where you go to a store for a group of friends, you will have a total amount of money to spend but you will also need to provide enough drinks for everyone. In the problem above, if you had $30 and you were going to spend it all, and you wanted to buy 20 drinks, how would you figure out how many sodas and how many iced coffees to buy? (Just consider this. No need to try to figure this out now - we will do this in class.)”
We returned to the grid (using an overhead for all of this). We know the cost of each combination of iced coffee and soda, but how many drinks can we buy?.... so we started putting the total number of drinks in each cell with each dollar amount, which got messy, so we made a separate grid. I gave them a large version of this as well, and asked them to find all the combinations that would give us 20 drinks. (I’m skipping much of the discussion and Q&A that went on.) I then asked them if there was one combination of IC and soda that BOTH cost $30 AND served 20 people. I let them struggle with this, I really wanted them to see that they were looking for the intersection of the two diagonals. This marked the end of class, so we picked up on day 3 where we left off. The “do now” asked them a few simple things about the prior day’s work just to refresh their memory. All of their work was in the folders, waiting for them on their desks when they came in. I used transparencies for this lesson, and when most of the students figured out what was going on, I overlayed the two grids with the diagonals of interest highlighted… they immediately now saw that the intersection fed 20 people and cost $30. We walked through how the calculations were done, then re-wrote with variables instead of words, and it went very well. We ended up with a system 2x+y=30 and x+y=20, and the graph of the two lines. I was monitoring OFTEN during all of this, making sure not to lose anyone… the WHOLE IDEA was to give them a POSITIVE experience, and to habituate that positive experience as much as possible. This is why I went through the exercise without using equations and was happy to let it span 2 days. If I could get them to have a positive experience early on, then I believed I would actually have a chance to have their attention and teach them math as the month went by. But if I started off with the same old math that they were used to, ie x and y, I am certain they would have had no reason to be excited or encouraged, but rather just the opposite. Actually, one girl (the biggest behaviorally challenged girl in all of my classes, more on that in a moment) commented on this. During the lesson described above, I had written on the board, just as the class had told me, “total cost = (# of iced coffees) X $2 + (# sodas)X$1”. I then referred back to the grid… iced coffees were on the bottom, so I asked, “what variable do we usually write for this axis?” They said “x”, and similarly for y. I then wrote “total cost = 2x+1y”, and this one girl said “oh, here we go again, those x’s and y’s….”…. this was validation for me. Had I introduced those x’s and y’s early on, that frustration would’ve been brought out immediately. Instead, she was having a good experience during the first two days, she was able to do the work, find the solutions, etc. that is, she was having success. I purposely wanted to get them to understand the concept without being scared off by the math. My response to her was “well, you don’t like the x’s and y’s now, but if you had to write that big statement 100 times (pointing to the equation written out in words), you would start to like those x’s and y’s a whole lot! Actually, when you see ‘x’, think ‘number of iced coffees’ in your head” and similarly for y. This girl actually has been on the verge of being sent to an alternative school for her behavior, it’s been that bad. But this week, I gave her the timer and the bell on day one. The teacher questioned this move, but said “hey, go for it.” She has been a MODEL citizen… so much so that the teacher e-mailed the vice principal to spread the good news. If possible, I want to call home to let her parents know how well she’s been doing in class.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I was observed on day three, and that went great. And it was encouraging. I have always felt that all I will ever do well is teach, but my micro-teaches in ARC were terrible! In ARC, I was doing lesson plans not with kids in mind, but with Randy and Jaf in mind, what would they want to see. And for the micro-teaches, I was not teaching as I would with kids. I was certainly trying to pretend you all were kids, but I’m not good at pretending, so I ended up with some morphed version of lessons that were appropriate for neither adults nor kids. There are many things that I know I’m doing well…. And I feel good about that. But there are many things that I need to improve. I’m going to video-tape myself this week a few times and critique myself and try to find ways to improve.
ReplyDeleteEverett makes a great point, implicitly at times, about learning for yourself. Students, whether teacher candidates or freshmen in algebra 1, often learn and learn at a deeper level with relevant experience with the content (which is how Don Perras becomes a "genius" as Lee explains). Mr. R (Everett) also shares a great example of the valueable experiences ARC peeps bring to the table.
ReplyDeleteJoe makes a related point about kids struggling with a topic. This will often happen. A common response of the teacher is to take the reins and lead the entire class through the content again - review and review some more. There are two pitfalls with this. First, we tend to present the information the same way. Second, we don't engage the kids who do understand. I suggest giving the kids a scaffolded problem to work on their own. In this case it could look something like this
2x+3y=12
-___ -___
3y=12-___
etc.
(see next post for a photo)
Glen, you are not alone is running out of time. I suggest breaking the lesson into smaller segments of notes, guided practice, independent practice then repeat - as we discussed in methods. Choose homework problems for each section. This way when the section is ocvered, you can assign homework for that section.
Regarding classroom management issues, I personally would talk to the students individually in private and call home. They are establishing some poor norms in your class and others likely will take notice.
Lee, a teacher with 41 years of experience is probably old school in many ways and has refined his approach to the point that it can be very person specific - it works for him. It is typical that only a few kids worked ahead!!!! Kids with special needs often are not doing well because they are presented content in the traditional way. They work better with concrete, hands on activities before moving to symbolic work.
Bill, GREAT STUFF! I love how you let them get their hands dirty and engaged them. Your story about the girl will be great to share as you interview and must feel like you've helped impact a life!!!!
Nothing really caught me off guard or surprised me this week. I have learned that I overestimated the amount of material that can be covered in one lesson. Thankfully, I learned that while I was observing my coop teachers and before I had to teach my first lesson. I was able to adjust accordingly and my first lesson went well I thought (teaching Elem Stats to seniors).
ReplyDeleteAs for the most challenging, that’s any easy one - time management and lesson planning. I’m getting my butt kicked. This hasn’t really come as a surprise, because I remember thinking my 3rd or 4th week into ARC after some of the Core presentations and Method classes that teachers must work on a special clock where days are 36 hours long and weekends are 4 days. Thinking through every little detailed minute of the lesson plan is taking me a LOT of time and my lesson plans are nowhere near as elaborate as Sue’s micro-teaches (that’s a compliment Sue; loved your lesson plans!). I think Joe said it best – Paralysis by Analysis! Is there a pill for it? I don’t normally like to take medicine, but I will take that pill. So Bill, needless to say, I’m with you on sleep deprivation! And as for re-charging my batteries this weekend, that did not happen. I’m thankful I had an extra day this weekend though. I start teaching my 3rd class tomorrow (Precalc to mostly juniors) and I’m scheduled to give a test in both Stats and Precalc this week. I must admit I’m loving the challenge.
This leads to the major adjustment topic. I need to figure out a way to better manage my time and I’m going to need to figure it out QUICKLY! My evaluator comes tomorrow so I plan to pick his brain. I will discuss with my coop teachers as well. Any thoughts from my cohort would be greatly appreciated. I don’t expect a magic solution.
The week went well. I didn’t actually teach my first lessons until Thursday, because we gave a quiz to the classes Wednesday. I was generally happy with how I did and my coop teacher thought it went well. My Period 2 kids were a bit shocked because they were used to coming into class and having about 5 to 10 minutes to chat since that period is used for saying the Pledge of Allegiance and then making the day’s announcements. Boy did they get an April Fool’s day when I had a Do Now prepared for them to get on task before they even had a chance to sit down (I greeted them at the door.) I thought Don Perras was in my class, because I could have sworn I heard him say “Seriously?” several times. There was a little confusion at the end of the period as well. The kids are used to being able to pack their stuff up with a few minutes left to go. They weren’t privy to the fact that I read Johnson’s Every Minute Counts. I kindly asked them all to stay in their seats. One kid did not comply so I persisted. He told me to “CHILL OUT!” (That’s Madison’s version of “MF” I think.) In front of the rest of the class, I told him to never tell me to chill out again. I’m not pleased with the way I handled this. The coach in me came out in an instance. I wish I had handled it differently.
I say the kids were shocked. I anticipated this. I knew I would be changing their “norms.” I thought about whether I wanted to do this more methodically over a period of time. I felt it best to just go in and teach the way I planned to teach right from the start. I figured if the expectations were set, then they would adapt quickly. I’ll find out if that’s the case this week.
My Period 5 class is smaller (16 kids). They seemed to adapt to the “new structure” well.
One final comment… I couldn’t ask for better coop teachers. They really care about helping me do well and helping me develop. They are very supportive of any changes I make and help me think things through.
The thing I found most surprising is the record keeping. Attendance, recording homework, grading, tests, lesson plans, keeping track of what students missed what work, test retakes, writing up notes on situations involving your SPED kids, following up with students if they don't show up for retakes etc. Even if you are a good teacher, if you can’t get all that paperwork under control you won’t make it is what I think.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the most challenging is handling all the interruptions while you’re trying to actually teach. It’s like you don’t get that much time so you need to pick what you teach carefully. I feel like you only get about 10-12 minutes of real teaching in a 45 minute class as least to 6th grade middle school anyhow. Like students getting up to sharpen pencils (as that battle was not worth fighting in my setting), handling the requests to go to the bathroom (that is to get out of doing work & learning), listening to the excuses why homework is not done, the principal and other visitors stopping in, the phone rings, the SMART Board does strange things, etc. Then more random behavior happens during independent practice. Not to mention when the group dynamic is just off and you have more classroom management issues. So I still feel that more preplanning will help me out so I feel prepared and can think about the few things that the students really have to master on this lesson so they can do the homework that nite.
My observation is the one thing that week well this week. I don’t feel that my cooperating teacher has given much thought to planning for me to be there, so I’m not really getting that coaching from her that I was hoping for a continual basis or the observation comments that I need. So I’m very happy that the one thing that did go well was the one class I taught that was being evaluated. She let me teach one 45 minute session last week to 5th period while she was in a meeting. Then I only got to teach for like 20 minutes on Wednesday. Thursday morning she let me teach to 1st period what I was being evaluated on during 2nd period. So I didn’t really get much practice teaching and I was very nervous. But it went wonderfully. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. It was the first time I had taught that bunch of students, but I had put together a seating chart for myself. I made symbols next to each student's name for their level of proficiency – level 1 circle, level 2 parallel lines, level 3 triangle and level 4 square, then I highlighted my SPED kids and put BH next to my behavior plan kids. That way I was able to call on them by name during my observation and knew who I could call on if I was having trouble getting to the answers I was looking for or needed someone I could count on to go up the Smart Board to do a problem. That chart saved me and the class participation that day was terrific. Even some of my SPED students surprised me. I finally felt like a real teacher.
One adjustment I will make this week is that when I get to finally teach four classes a day, I will own them and do things like I’ve learned at ARC. I currently do not feel that the students have a real connection to me just that they’ve seen me around but I haven’t really been able to do much in the way of teaching. But then I finally get to do my own lesson plans and run my own show, I will guide things quickly to the way I want my classes to run. It’s unfortunate that I don’t have the lessons yet that I will need to teach so like the rest of you, I’m not planning on getting much sleep this week. So I agree with Everett’s comments that there has got to be a better way to nail down what lessons we need to teach ahead of time. There are just too many other things to learn in 20 days. And I guess I’ll have to learn to “wing-it” a little more this week as I go along. Have a good week everybody! Keep smiling.
The first day went pretty well. When I previously met my cooperating teacher we went over that I would be handling 3 Algebra 1 classes and helping in on JAVA programming class. I’m teaching at Plainville High where both my kids went. My cooperating teacher, Jen is two years older than my daughter and was on the track team with her. I’m observing Monday thru Thursday while my Co-op finishes her unit. I’ll be taking over the unit on exponents. My co-op class format pretty much matches what we have gone over in ARC. Initiation, Lesson, closure, assessment. Teachers are busy people. The day goes fast and 55 minutes a class is a lot less time that you think. For me it’s going to be a challenge finding a balance of enough material to cover and insuring that I don’t plan covering too much or too little
ReplyDeleteIgnore the previous post. My cut and paste was one cycle back and I reposted the first day. Below is the first week.
ReplyDeleteThe first week seems to have passed too fast. It was a short week since we had Friday off. Jen-my-co-op has here unit to finish so I observed her Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. I took over Friday and will be teaching the next unit exponents. I thought getting the right fit for the size of the lesson would be the challenge. Turns out the real challenge is not the size of the lesson but the direction. I had thought I had prepared well. I actually took over the last few minutes of Wednesday’s class to lead into the next unit being exponents and gave them a homework assignment. The homework was a review specifically the order of operations since that has been drummed into them for years. They all know “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” PEMDAS. I had purposely put in a pair of examples (2*3)*4 and 2*(3*4) the intent was to show that if all you have is multiplication the Parentheses will not change the answer. I also had another example that had addition and subtraction. That one required you go left to right. Turns out one of the properties of exponents is to show that (ab)^n = A^n * B^n. What I found out? NEVER put numbers in problems demonstrating this principle. For example give them (2*3)^2. Dear aunt Sally insists that you do 2*3 = 6 then 6^2 and get 36. That’s right. So is 2*2 = 4 and 3*3 = 9 so 4*9 = 36. My one challenge is Lissy. She’s a tough one whose mission in life is to do what she wants and not what you want her to do. She’s smart but obsessive on the PEMDAS point. She WILL miss the point of the Property. I’ll keep pressing it but now we are up to dividing with exponents. While other students are following Property and are able to simplify even the most complicated examples by reducing or cancelling. Lissy has numbers in the millions with no hope of subtracting exponents to simply. Even walking through the example and showing her that leaving following the property instead of Aunt Sally leaves you with a very simple fraction is not for her. The best part was learning from the first class what works and doesn’t and being better prepared for the second class. Still I’m seeing that this will be a daily battle.
Nothing really surprised me, other than the kids don’t seem to take out their notebooks and write in them, even when I tell them to. Is that surprising? It surprised me a little, but there was no real, caught me off guard moment. When I walked around the room, I told them they should have their notebooks open and should be copying the notes down from the board. Most did it after a little prodding.
ReplyDeleteI posted a few times last week, I was only there 3 days, and taught 2 of the days.
Today was interesting. Today was my evaluation, which went well. She caught me on one thing, but I will fix that next time.
I was pleasantly surprised at how the students got on task with the Do Now. I started it with them last week and we only had 2 days with it, then 4 days of vacation. So today my Do Now in lower Algebra 2 was to copy from their notes the Quadratic Formula and the steps to solve an equation using the Quadratic Formula. I had half sheets printed up to hand out to students who were absent when we started this topic last Wednesday. OK, here is where I was surprised. When I walked around the room, I was surprised to see that some of them, had nothing written for the 2 questions on copying from their notes. I handed them the note sheets, because I wanted to get them on task with the evaluator there. I know I shouldn’t set precedence to give them notes all the time, but it did help with a few that were absent, they were able to start using the formula to answer the next question. As I walked around the room, I saw MANY of them had trouble finding, a, b, & c and starting the problem.
That’s when I said OK, let’s stop now. I see many of you are having trouble, and now let’s work on this together. I quickly worked through the example with some students help. I then started today’s exercises which were scaffolded worksheets as mentioned in a previous post. I asked them to find a, b & c and fill them into the blanks in the equation. WOW, as I was walking around the room, many figured that out and were completing the problem, others still were having trouble.
Main issue they have trouble with is –4ac, they always have a negative number, they forget when either a or c is negative, that it becomes positive.
I pointed that out as I walked around.
Overall I think it went well today. I was pleasantly surprised that they were on task, although they didn’t remember from last week.
TIME where did it go? This is like Architecture School. Working 20 hour days. I cant continue like this. My head is spinning at the end of the day.
Tonight I have to start the Geometry Exam for Wednesday and the Quiz on solving quadratic equations using factoring and the Quadratic Formula for Algebra on Wednesday as well. I wish I could have picked a different day. My cooperating teacher said she could write the Exam, but she thought I should get the experience. I am fine with that, I just need more time in the day.
Nothing really surprised me, other than the kids don’t seem to take out their notebooks and write in them, even when I tell them to. Is that surprising? It surprised me a little, but there was no real, caught me off guard moment. When I walked around the room, I told them they should have their notebooks open and should be copying the notes down from the board. Most did it after a little prodding.
ReplyDeleteI posted a few times last week, I was only there 3 days, and taught 2 of the days.
Today was interesting. Today was my evaluation, which went well. She caught me on one thing, but I will fix that next time.
I was pleasantly surprised at how the students got on task with the Do Now. I started it with them last week and we only had 2 days with it, then 4 days of vacation. So today my Do Now in lower Algebra 2 was to copy from their notes the Quadratic Formula and the steps to solve an equation using the Quadratic Formula. I had half sheets printed up to hand out to students who were absent when we started this topic last Wednesday. OK, here is where I was surprised. When I walked around the room, I was surprised to see that some of them, had nothing written for the 2 questions on copying from their notes. I handed them the note sheets, because I wanted to get them on task with the evaluator there. I know I shouldn’t set precedence to give them notes all the time, but it did help with a few that were absent, they were able to start using the formula to answer the next question. As I walked around the room, I saw MANY of them had trouble finding, a, b, & c and starting the problem.
That’s when I said OK, let’s stop now. I see many of you are having trouble, and now let’s work on this together. I quickly worked through the example with some students help. I then started today’s exercises which were scaffolded worksheets as mentioned in a previous post. I asked them to find a, b & c and fill them into the blanks in the equation. WOW, as I was walking around the room, many figured that out and were completing the problem, others still were having trouble.
Main issue they have trouble with is –4ac, they always have a negative number, they forget when either a or c is negative, that it becomes positive.
I pointed that out as I walked around.
Overall I think it went well today. I was pleasantly surprised that they were on task, although they didn’t remember from last week.
TIME where did it go? This is like Architecture School. Working 20 hour days. I cant continue like this. My head is spinning at the end of the day.
Tonight I have to start the Geometry Exam for Wednesday and the Quiz on solving quadratic equations using factoring and the Quadratic Formula for Algebra on Wednesday as well. I wish I could have picked a different day. My cooperating teacher said she could write the Exam, but she thought I should get the experience. I am fine with that, I just need more time in the day.
Part 2:
ReplyDeleteMy poor wife has tonsillitis and she is a Math Teacher (Wannabee)/ Architect Widow. If I’m not at school, I am in the Office. Crazy!
Time management both in the class and outside is hard to get used to. Today I had a better sense of where I was supposed to be at what time. Before that, I was Pavlov’s Dog, the bell rang and I followed the teacher, if she stayed, I stayed, if she left I left.
I can work on my lesson plan during her 2 Honors Algebra classes and review my lessons for the afternoon with her at Lunch. The morning Geometry needs to be done and ready to go when I walk in the door, that is the hard part. There really isn’t time to plan to far ahead. As it is, I don’t think they have a set plan of what is next. That is fine for a seasoned teacher who can pull it out of a hat.
For me, my biggest fear is not knowing how to explain the material. Also, that other Math teachers are more intelligent than I am. I guess the confidence here will come in time.
Anyway, I need to write exam questions and work on a review lesson.
The best thing is my second Algebra 2 class seems so much easier after I have done it once the class before. I have caught myself thinking, didnt I just say this? Is it live or is it Memorex. But, I do feel more comfortable with it the second time.
My reflection is going to be short here. I feel very overwhelmed with the amount of planning that I have to do, and managing my two children at the same time is difficult. That being said, each day feels better. Today was the first day that I had the full load of classes, and finally reaching that milestone has made me feel better going forward. What has surprised me most is how not on task most of the kids are at my school. The teacher does have them doing independent work, but it is not structured, and many of the kids just end up socializing and not working on any of the problems. This is not true of all of the classes or all of the kids, but it is more of a problem than I expected in the school that I am in (Fairfield Warde high school). Also, it surprised me that a lot the kids have trouble still with performing basic mathematical operations (e.g. getting signs right, remembering how to isolate). What is most challenging to me is getting through the lesson planning in a reasonable amount of time. Perhaps I am not keeping them simple enough (and also since the prob and stats course is so different that takes me longer to plan)...but this part really exhausts me. However, now that I have taught a whole day, I think the planning will get a little easier simply because I have a better sense of what is going on in the class, the levels I am dealing with, etc., etc. One challenge I will definitely have is with classroom management and keeping the kids focused on their work instead of socializing. I really can't say that anything went especially well for me last week because I taught only two classes--the prob and stats course--and they were difficult because of the nature of them. I did much better today really I think because I just felt more comfortable talking about probability concepts since I've been trying hard to brush up on all of that. One thing I did today in the prob and stats course was to have the students count off to determine what group they worked with (instead of just working with the people they sat near)--this definitely decreased the socializing problem quite a bit, and the fact that I did it sort of helped them to look at me as more of an authority figure than they did last week. The really major adjustment I will need to make is that I really need to be super-organized, which I am not. I am not terribly unorganized, but even sort of unorganized will definitely be a problem here! I need a really good system for all of the paperwork, handouts, etc. that I am developing and accumulating.
ReplyDeleteWe had block classes today and I needed to make up some game. What I did was very simple and seemed to work really well. Frankly I'm surprised at how well it worked because it just seems kind of silly.
ReplyDeleteI set up a sheet numbered 1-18 with one or two questions from the book so that each number had a page and problem number with it. I had the class in groups of 2. Each group made a score sheet and had paper ready to do problems on. Each group rolled a die once and recorded the number giving each group a number of 1 to 6. When all groups had their number, I revealed the assignments. As soon as a group finished their problem, they would come to me to get it checked. If correct, I would sign the score sheet and they would score the value of the numbered itemed (the same value they rolled). For their second problem, they rolled two dice and for their 3rd and all other problems they rolled 3 dice. That's why I had 18 problems ready. The winning group would 10 extra credit points, 2nd 7 and 3rd 5. For 40 minutes or more they worked really well. This game was really simple to set up and got them practicing. Sometimes games take a lot of extra planing or props or have special requirements. Not this. Tomorrow I will try it on my regular level (today was honors). I hope it is as effective.
I think the thing that I find it most surprising was the amount of workload that a teacher has in the school. Despite the fact that I have not been really teaching alone so far, the amount of preparation work is overwhelming. It's probably you are new and you try to work with the flow of the others which make it very challenging. I have to do 3 preparation work for two special ed and two Algebra classes in the same level. In the special ed classes, I really don't feel like I am teaching at all. Most of the time, I am actually tutoring one on one. For the algebra classes, I don't really get the chance to run the class all by myself because my co-ordinating teacher is always there to watch me. She actually checks my lesson plan of the class and told me to change my approach to teach. In most cases, it ends up the way she wants to do the class. In the class, I did try to follow my approach (in a sneaky way) and she would jump right into and change it. As of now, I still have not got the chance to really run my own class and I start to feel that even though I am teaching in the class, kids will actually turn to her, my co-ordinating teacher to ask questions. In addition, the way she manages the class is quite different from what I learned in the ARC program. Sometimes, it will be difficult for the kids to follow which approach.
ReplyDeleteIn my schedule, even though I am supposed to have 2 planning periods before the end of the class, I barely have the chance to use them so far because my cooperating teacher always has something else for me to work on.
The major adjustment I have made is to use the overhead projector in the last 2 classes instead of the tablet laptop my co-ordinating teacher uses. As of today, she has not given up advising me to use her laptop. When I use the transparency, I have more whiteboard space to write and I can also ask the students to show their math work to the class. More important, it allows me some time to think about what I will do next.
What went really well happened this morning in the special ed class. One of the kids was not engaging at all since the start of the class. I walked up to him and had a small talk with him about the comparison between playing basketball and doing math. It worked because somehow I feel we are "connected" after the talk. I was really happy to see him turn around (well, at least for that particular class). It is such sense of fulfillment gets me running again!!!
Well, as I mentioned in my previous blog, my cooperating teacher and I decided to use exit slips to monitor and assess their level of understanding in solving the one-step equations I introduced to them the previous day. We began by going over the previous night’s homework. While going through the material, I made sure to emphasize on areas where they might face challenges. I paced myself well to avoid jamming the new material on them. There’s always the temptation of focusing on those who understand the lesson and are answering questions. One particular student who is quite new to the school was upbeat, contributing and willing to answer questions so I realized my attention was mostly on him. I had to force myself to change focus to include the other students in the Q & A session. Their 9th period is always a study hall so after reviewing their exit slips, I made a list of those who needed further clarification of the lesson. My cooperating teacher went to their assigned study hall classrooms and brought all of them to my class. I went over the material on one on one basis. It was great to see the glow in their eyes when the “light finally went off.” The exit slip strategy is effective. My students were scheduled for a Nature’s Classroom the following week which will be followed by their regular April recess. Wow! Two weeks of no formal teaching. I will have to keep preparing lessons to prevent myself from getting rusted before school reopens. I have also begun bonding with them so I wished them all an enjoyable holiday season before we parted that day. Working with the kids on one on one basis brought the awareness of the importance of the classroom teacher – transforming lives one at a time. What a rewarding career it is.
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