I've learned that even after a really bad week, if you come back, change it up, and plan well, the students will respond. They do want instruction.
My classes went really smoothly this week. I started a few new routines. 1) A 5-minute 2 question quiz that starts at the bell for the regular level classes. 2) new seating plan with groups of only 2 (not 3) and enforcing the seating plan really reduces negative chatting. 3) clear notes to take and lessons designed around applications - used geometry for equation solving. 4)lessons stayed on only one topic so they were very specific 5) a really easy to set up game made the block period fun for them and they got a lot done too.
All prevention stuff, but my classes really settled in well. Mostly planning and positive reinforcement.
On the first week of my assignment, it was “swim or drown” for me because my cooperating teacher got sick and took off for the rest of the week. So for the 3 remaining days I had to teach 5 periods with 4 preps. Although a sub was assigned, I took over the teaching and it was ok with him. Classroom management was not a problem for the 4 out of the 5 classes. The fifth class was challenging. We were four in the class, the sub, a special education teacher, a paraprofessional and I. One boy and two of the girls were quite distracting. One of the boys would get up, make a step forward, revolve around himself and go to sharpen his pencil. He felt no need to raise his hand before he got up. The special Education teacher once took him out of the room. The two girls would seem to have a lot of energy and they would keep talking. Generally the class was noisy and some of the kids would be either indifferent or not attentive. On the subtraction of integers, I and the cooperating teacher had to repeat the lesson three times. I found that the only way to control that class was to keep them busy continuously. Quite few of these students were under behavior plans and 504 plans, although I was not given access to their files. However, on the 2nd week I participated in a PPT meeting. Persons who participated in that meeting were the major teachers, the special education teacher, guidance councilor, the Vice principal and the parents. I can’t elaborate on the issue, but the goal of the meeting was to take specific steps for the academic and the behavior improvement of the student. In the other four periods the students did not present any big problems. Again, the key here was keeping them at task all the time. With both myself and the cooperating teacher present there was no so much room for misbehaviors. Minor talking would occur sporadically but it did not go out of control. Analyzing the classroom situation a bit deeper, I have come to the conclusion that the best way to manage the class is not to just keep the students busy. The important detail is to keep them busy in many different ways. For example I noticed a tremendous response, attentiveness and no need for any intervention on my part, when I incorporated different tools in my teaching. For example from having them work on some examples, then perform an activity, then competition style questions and may be a story telling. It worked wonders… In summary, with respect to classroom management I had a positive experience over the last two weeks. I was pleasantly surprised during my evaluation period when I noticed that the students were amazingly more attentive and responsive than usual.
This one is pretty simple. The Don Perras tricks along with giving praise 4-7x more frequently than correction is very effective. The whole mood and atmosphere of the room is different when you are always recognizing and acknowledging the students correct behavior. I know for me it is not natural to do this, and I believe most people would say the same. My guess is that this is because we go into class with a certain vision of how the class will go, and of course this vision is a good one. (To envision chaos beforehand would be stressful!) So when class begins, the aspects that meet our expectations kinda just fade away into the background, but the behaviors that aren't part of our vision are highlighted and catch our attention, and we react to them. Giving praise for the good stuff requires us to actively pay attention to the good stuff, something I'm not sure we do naturally. Also, I think that people fear that by ignoring the bad stuff, they are allowing the kids to walk all over them. Don Perras addressed this directly yesterday, and between what he's said and what I've experienced, I'm convinced that his methods work. Second thought on this topic. I'm finding myself morphing into a new person in the classroom. With the lower level classes in particular, I'm much more active. I use a soft cushy ball and toss it to students when I ask questions. For closure, and also during class when we need to raise the energy level or get kids involved (say after 5 minutes of lecture, which I'm finding is about their limit!), I'll walk around the room tossing the ball to kids.. I often call their name just as I toss the ball so it often catches then off-guard. I'll ask them a question, and whether they know or not, I have them toss it back and immediately toss it to another kid... I'm shooting this ball rapid-fire all over the room... I drill them on concepts "What does the line represent?"... (answer, "a plot of all solutions to the equation"... I'll follow up immediately by tossing to another kids, "What does "solution" mean?"... etc... I drill them on the same concepts probably once or twice each period in this manner, and the concepts are sticking. When I'm doing problems, I refer back to these concepts so that they can see how each problem is just another example of the same concept. The ball/questioning technique is fun for me, and gets the class on it's toes. It's great for closure because I can just keep tossing it around asking questions until the bell rings... I don't need a fixed amount of time.
Week Two: Classroom Management The week got off to a bang on Monday with my first evaluation with the 16 student third period (MW) Algebra I class. The lesson plan had a difficult step that I proceeded to completely forget to do properly, so I spent the rest of the period compensating. I don’t have a problem improvising a lesson on the fly to cover something that comes up, but this was a complete operational snafu. I kept working the class, redirecting and keeping everyone busy and it didn’t end to badly. My evaluator dinged me for not closing properly, but said it was okay since it was my first evaluation. So all’s well that ends well.
I’ve heard a number of different stories about evaluations. My guy stayed the whole period and left me with two pages of minute by minute notes on what I was and wasn’t doing right, similar to what my cooperative teacher does. He stayed and we talked for about 45 minutes afterwards. I must admit that I schmoozed shamelessly, bought coffee, connected on a classmate of his who is a professor at Penn and was when I was there. My wife, who is a professional schmoozer, first class, was proud of me.
Tuesday morning Scott, my cooperating teacher, cautioned me that the honeymoon was about over with the fifth period (second period TTh) class, the 24 eight and ninth grade Algebra I students in the unfortunately shaped long narrow room with the board on the long side. If I didn’t step up, he suggested things could get ugly in these sense that I would completely lose control. Fortunately the names started coming a bit more easily, I made an effort to move around more, and even managed to make a joke or two. Scott said one or two students were surprised when I redirected them by name from across the room. Disaster averted for the moment. Sometimes success is just to keep pushing failure one day further into the future.
My real difficulties came with the third period Algebra I class when I saw them again on Wednesday. Three gentlemen kept cutting up, and I really hadn’t discussed the various behavioral levers beyond friendly persuasion. Scott just let me struggle with it; I’m sure he was having a good time watching me flail. I spoke with him that evening and we discussed several options. Apparently the three are just coming off of basketball season, and no longer have much incentive to maintain their academic standing.
The class met again on Friday rotation first period, so I was able to get to the room early. Interesting aside, there was a rotating cast of students frantically doing/copying the homework, not the best timing and not exactly subtle. I met the three at the door as they came in and directed them to their new, well-separated seats. They pushed back, but stayed. They also didn’t really do anything all class (though they didn’t really do anything the previous class) but they were less disruptive. I also got some push back from a young lady who said I had transferred one of them into “her” seat, which she hadn’t been sitting in the previous class, so she moved one row away and also proceeded to do essentially nothing all class. Something to work on next time.
I also scored my second cell phone of the week—picked the first one up in seventh period Algebra I on Thursday afternoon. I was fairly public about taking them, but gave them both back after class with a stern warning that next time they would be delivered to the vice principal per school policy. Maybe word will get around. Still haven’t gotten the knack of noticing who is chewing gum.
The seventh period Algebra I class is a different problem. There are only seven students, but most are seniors taking the course for at least the second time. There is also one bright seventh grader who must have been stuck in for scheduling reasons. She seems a bit intimidated by the older students. There is little motivation, and getting them to work or participate is like pulling teeth. This is the class my evaluator will be coming back to on April 20th, so I will have to come up with something.
The second week of my student teach went smoothly. I started off with new seating charts. All the students whom I observed need help and also those who could be distractive in class, I moved them in the front. The U shaped seating was not working for me and the students ,especially when they needed help during independent practice. I changed into rows with an above average student, a below average student, a most studious, a most talkative alternatively. It worked amazingly well, my cooperating teacher said she herself struggling with that class since 9 months and surprised how the 99 % of the class was engaged. Seniors were cribbing about changing seats but I insisted with alpha commands and also gave them a chance to talk to me in person, if they had any problem.For senior class, I started divide and rule policy, I tried to help two students , one got the problem , I gave a positive remark to him, the other girl said to the student “ Stop being over smart “ they both started arguing. I realized individual rewards do not work with seniors and I made 6 groups and challenged them to compete in finishing independent practice or in answering questions and also ASKING questions. I couldn’t believe, from then until now, groups take care of themselves, I don’t have to do any classroom mgmt except for looking at them shhing at each other, motivating reluctant ones to work so their group can earn points.Looking at their good work, I made an announcement that the points earned will be given to their teacher to add up to their grades. I repeatedly assessed class , if they got it group wise and offered help .This made my life easier with seniors. From then, no one is hesitant to ask questions if they did not understand. They are quite ok with me now, though some still don’t like me that much because they have been working a lot since I started teaching. My geometry classes with 26 and 30 students in each, responded not that great to seating charts , some still caused distractions wherever they are. For them, I made a big chart with two heading “Positive points” ,”Negative points”. This stratergy worked pretty good. Atleast I got them to concentrate in the class. Few boys are always on their toes, since we donot have any air condition, when it gets hot they start removing their shirts huh.., sometimes I become intolerant and raise my voice, but of no use. From wednesday I started implementing this “Kill with Kindness.I told myself no matter what , I have to stay calm and pull students to calm down. It was/is soo tough to do still, I told myself I was earning positive points for being calm. Some students have to move around in the class, esp block periods so before and after the class I give them some chores like distributing quizzes, etc so they can get to move. One student has severe ADHD, I make him sit in front of me the whole time, I always start his work and ask him to continue as he is smart but never focuses.I get tired after geometry classes. My negatives points are “talking too much” less wait time and my accent. I openly admited to my students that I have a different accent and I appreciate if they ask me to repeat and I don’t mind repeating and writing on the board. I have students repeating my words “see” which I use a lot and laughing. I got offended initially but now I laugh too and take it easy. I know I cannot change my accent but I guess increasing wait time and repeating is working good. I ended my week by assigning a holiday project on real world applications for algebra, geometry and trigonometry which will be due on April 19th.
My cooperating teacher has an AP calculus class, a college prep level algebra 1 class and 3 honors precalculus classes. I’m not really involved with the AP calculus class and my cooperating teacher has thus far used me as an additional resource with his algebra 1 class. In that class we’ve been breaking into 3 smaller groups and I’ve been working with one of the groups. He takes another group and the special ed teacher in the room takes the 3rd group. I’ve been teaching all the precalculus lessons. Each precalculus class has a different personality. One class is very quiet, almost silent. One is more social but still very much focused on the work. The 3rd is pretty loud,sometimes off task, but they ask a lot of good questions. I think my main takeaway working with these 3 classes is that being well-prepared to lead them through new material seems to be all that is needed for classroom management. Most of these kids are good students that care about doing well in school. So, being well-prepared serves as prevention. I’ve been trying to increase student participation in the classes by looking at the seating chart and calling on students for answers, not just taking answers from volunteers and those calling out. I’ve even tried to target some of the weaker students who generally don’t participate with the easier questions to help build their confidence. I was pleasantly surprised that the class as a whole took well to the participation by a greater percentage of students. It worked especially well during my evaluation. The Do Now is something new for this class. I got some eye rolling the first couple of times I handed one out, but I just ignored that. I’m surprised how quickly they’ve gotten used to this routine. I was pleasantly surprised one day when a student told me that the Do Now from the previous day really helped her understand how to solve a problem using the sum and difference formulas for sine and cosine. I’ve enjoyed coming up with problems that bring in prior knowledge to help set the stage for the topic of the lesson. I think that doing this well and making a good transition helps to keep the focus of these students throughout the lesson. There is talking and laughing that goes on in these classes (except for the dead silent class). I assume that they’re laughing at me. If I were in their shoes I probably would be too, but I’m not taking it personally. On Friday, in my rowdy class, they started shouting out answers to the You Try problems. It seemed like solving these problems had turned into a bit of a competition, which wasn’t helpful to the students still working on the problems. I didn’t do a good job of addressing this by letting it go. It occurred to me after class that I should have asked them not to shout out their answers for the sake of the kids still working on the problems. Or alternatively, I can try to harness this competitive spirit into a game of some sort. The college prep level algebra 1 class is a completely different story. That class has all sorts of issues that we’ve discussed like lots of off task socializing, absenteeism, very little work ethic in class or on homework, etc. and subsequently, very poor achievement. Based on my limited experiences there I think the same basic principal applies. The better prepared you are with a good lesson, the easier things are going to be.
I have found so far that the classes go best for me when I am prepared to provide a mix of activities so that the students do not get bored. And this aligns with some of what Don Perras said. In introducing logs one day to the Algebra II classes, instead of a ball (which I did not have), I just had the students pass an eraser from one person to the next and whoever was holding the eraser answered the next problem (we were converting logarithmic to exponential expressions). It sounds so silly, but doing it this way kept them going and kept all of them attentive. I have also been incorporating the Do Now, but some of the students don't work on it. I wish I could change the seating arrangement in my classes, but I have not been given permission to do that. I need some better strategies for when the class does independent practice in pairs or groups. Often they do not stay on task, so I need to incorporate pop quizzes and use a timer to help keep them focused. Also true to what Perras taught us, trying to manage with an authoritarian style does not work. I reverted back to this on the Friday before break, which was particularly high-energy because there was also some kind of all-day assembly with food that all of the classes expected to be dismissed to. I found it very difficult to settle the class down that day, and reverted back to authoritarian tones, which I quickly found to be completely ineffective. When I return next week, I will have to have different strategies.
Classroom management or should I say mismanagement. I admit my classroom management leaves a lot to be desired. In my first period of the day the kids are great in Academic Geometry. They come to class awake and ready to get started. They don’t complain about the Do Now, they sit down and do it. No real classroom management issues here. I feel like I have connected with this class. This week, several students came in class early and said, “Mr. Stejskal, I didn’t really get the homework”. I said that is OK, it is for practice, as long as you attempted it. Since this it the first period, we had a few minutes before class. They got out their homework and showed me what they didn’t understand. The homework was on rotations. They were to rotate an Octagon about a point at the center and determine where a specific point would end up after certain rotations in multiples of 45 degrees. I showed a few individually before class and they were able to complete the rest of the problems before class officially started. I could see there were still questions with the majority of the students so I spent some time reviewing placing your second finger on the center and your middle finger on the point that is to be rotated. I showed them how to rotate it. They said they understood that. The day before we did rotations on a template sheet with a circle and its center and 6 equally spaced dots around the perimeter of the circle. We discussed that each of these rotations that we did was 360/6 or 60 degrees. I guess I didn’t fully explain it to them the first time. But with this class this did not stop them from wanting to find out how to do it.
My other two classes, the lower level Algebra 2 (which they say is really 1 ½) leave a lot to be desired. They are good kids at heart, but they would rather talk than learn how to solve quadratic equations. I gave a test yesterday, and many of them said they still didn’t know how to factor or to use the quadratic formula. My cooperating teacher had gone over factoring with them before I got here and I have been doing factoring, quadratic formula, and solving quadratic equations with them for the last 3 weeks. Many kids get it, others don’t. My classroom management in these 2 classes sucks. F period is better than G period. The last period of the day, they really don’t want to be there. My cooperating teacher has been leaving me alone with them to give me the full experience and let me struggle to regain control. I think the main issue here is that they see me as a part time substitute. They have no reason to want to listen to me. My cooperating teacher told me I should stop the lesson and wait for them to stop talking. I tried that today, worked for a short while. She said it would take a while for them to get used to it. I need to be more assertive with them. I have called out their names and asked them to stop talking, and they can’t hear me over their own conversations. There are two girls on opposite sides of the room that want to have discussions while we are doing guided practice and while I am walking around during independent practice and I am helping others.
These two classes say, “DO NOW!” “DO NOW!” each time I give them one. And I reply yes, do it now. Some do it others say they don’t want to. Many of the students do not do their homework. My cooperating teacher said there is a Dept policy that the students get a homework detention if they fail to do their homework. They have to come in and stay after school the next afternoon. Since I have been here, homework has been sporadic. She didn’t tell me this early on, and she wasn’t enforcing it the first two days I observed. I need to work on my management of these two classes. They aren’t all bad; just lack self control with talking. One kid really is getting to me. He puts his head down on his desk and refuses to do any of the practice work or write anything in his notebook. I asked me cooperating teacher about this, she said some kids don’t like change, and not to worry about it. He is not disruptive, but I want him to get engaged. I have spent time with him during Do Now exercises and independent practice. He says he doesn’t know what to do, so why bother. I have asked him how do we get this started, he has told me the right way, then he scribbles something on his paper with the minimalist effort and then refuses to do another problem on his own. I don’t want to make a big deal of it with the rest of the class, and I don’t want to scare him. I just walk by his desk and tap it when he has his head down and say, “Michael, you need to be working on this problem.” I gave a test yesterday, and he said “Oh great, another F” when I passed out the test, he answered the multiple choice, and didn’t do much for any of the other problems. I have told him I am there after school to review and help. I will need to discuss this further with the cooperating teacher. I believe he has ADHD and that is part of it. Today I laid down the law on the Homework. I told them we were going to enforce the homework rule. I asked them what the homework rule was, several said detention for not doing it. I said “good, remember, if you don’t do your homework tonight, the detention is going to be on Friday before vacation.” Yesterday at the end of the test, I have out review homework on factoring. I said it was due Thursday for a grade. Half of the G-period class wanted to hand it in today. Maybe they are getting on track. After school today, one of the students who likes to talk a lot and not get started on his work, came in and said he needed help with the homework. I thought this was a good sign; he wanted to get his homework done. I will try the ball technique tomorrow. I was afraid to introduce to many new things in this class, but I need some change now.
On Tuesday this week, I finally have my whole time with the two Algebra classes I teach. My co-operating teacher still told me that she was actually sitting right outside the classroom and listening to my whole class. But at least, since she was not in the classroom, whenever the kids had any problem, they would come to me and there was only one standard that they have to follow. The Period 2 class absolutely has no behavioral problem at all. As soon as the activity starts, almost all of them are on task right away. There are only two or three of them who do need a little push from time to time to stay on task. The Period 3 class is a little difficult because almost half of them are not really engaged. If I have the permission to have another seating plan for them, I will certainly try that out. But I have to work with all I have. "Proximity" always works for the best but sometime the problems take place at the two opposite corners which might make it hard to work. I am quite reluctant to use the "authoritarian" type of managing the classroom. So I did ask the most distracting kid to sit at the front next to me. I told him as long as he stayed focused, he could always go back to his seat. Sometimes it works, sometime it doesn't. I will try to talk to him in person next week and see if I could understand him more and make some changes.
Overall, I feel good that I really got a taste of how it likes to be on my own feet finally in a real world classroom setting. But now, I just have one week left.
Wow! What an experience. Before I even started student teaching I knew that classroom management was going to be a big challenge for me since I avoid conflict by nature. Right from the first day, I've implemented the Do Now and surprisingly, they started picking it up on the way in the room starting with the second day. I've been successful in varying learning activities to keep the students engaged, however, it has been difficult getting their attention back after doing group or individual work. By the second week, I started using a timer with a buzzer to establish the timeframe for all activities. When they hear the noise, they start asking other students to be quiet. This procedure enables effective time management and provides a signal for the class to come back together as a group. I guess this is my implementation of the "gong" that Scott Dunn uses. The biggest challenge that I've experienced relative to classroom management is trying to keep the talking to a minimum during instructional time and assessments. One very effective technique for me is moving the disruptive students to the periphery of the room away from the groups of students. It has worked every time. Although I initially thought it was corny using index cards with student names to encourage everyone to participate, I decided to try it. Before I started student teaching, I went to the teacher store and bought florescent color bookmarks with a hole at the top. I had everyone write their name on one side and something about themselves on the other side. (That has helped me connect with the students.) So I put the bookmarks on a metal ring and randomly picked names to answer after I asked questions to the general group. They didn't know when they would be called on so everyone paid attention and I increased participation significantly. When I leave they'll have a bookmark for their math books! At the same time, I quickly learned their names. My cooperating teacher and his wife had a baby on Sunday night at 11:59, so I was thrust into teaching all 5 periods starting Mon. He was also out on Tue. and Fri. Amazingly, the school felt confident in my abilities and asked me if I could take over for the whole day. Since I already had lessons and activities planned and the students knew me, it was a smooth transition. As luck would have it, my first evaluation was on that Monday when my cooperating teacher was out! The vice principal apologized to the evaluator for the situation I was thrust into that day. Further, I was expecting him for the next period and he came while I was in the middle of an activity where the students were tossing dice and making posters. It was organized chaos, but a real test of my ability to transition the students back to instruction from an animated activity. Everything went really well and the students re-engaged with ease. Honestly, I surprised myself with the success of that particular lesson. An interesting side note is that my visibility in the classroom and getting to know the students by name has really increased their recognition of me as a teacher inside and outside of school. I now feel like I am a positive role model for the community, not just the school. The experiences I've had over the last several weeks have truly made me eager to teach every day!
Classroom management for me has been all about effective lessons. I had to teach standard deviation twice because I lost the kids the first time. I tried to be too conceptual (thought the seniors could handle it), but that was a mistake. I came in the next day to much confusion!! So I monitored and adjusted and retaught the lesson, this time being more concrete. The funny thing is... I thought I was being "played" by the students, but I retaught it anyway. There was a lot of "commotion" in the room that second day of the lesson so I thought my classroom mgmt was very poor. After the class, I commented on this to my cooperating teacher. To my amazement, she completely disagreed. She observed that the students left the room that day feeling much more comfortable about standard deviation. She complimented me on the lesson and thought I made a great recovery from the day before. My next lessons were on Empirical Rule and z scores. I stuck with the concrete and felt like I hit a home run (ok, maybe just a double). I left the classroom feeling like I really engaged the students and the objectives of the day were satisfied. I got some good questions and responses from a large sample of the class.
Paul, the algebra 1 college prep courses were always my favorite to teach. They have the ability but need the structure and guidance. Aside from maybe freshmen English, algebra 1 is the MOST IMPORTANT class the students take because it sets the stage academically, emotionally, and metacognitively.
You can change some lives in a class like that. It was in algebra 1 that I had a male from Afghanistan and a female from China who barely spoke English. They excelled in A1 and likely were better prepared for their future because of my help - what a rush!
As expected, there are issues with individual students. I haven't read any reports of phone calls to parents. This is a major intervention that appears to be underutilized.
Again, make a phone call early on so they know that is an action you will take. If it is productive or effective, the next time there is a problem with that particular student you can remind them discretely during class that you will call home again. It gives your warning some bite.
At the very least, you document the call and when you report the issue to administration, they know you've made the effort.
I've created a thread regarding phone calls because this is VERY IMPORTANT!
Many more things are not working well than are working well. I am having difficulty with students talking and moving around in class and not doing work when given independent or group time to do class work. Homework completion percentage is very low. And, this is for a precalculus honors class. What is working well is the use of name cards and the foam football throw. I used the name cards the second day and this does allow multiple students to contribute instead of the few who are proactive. The use of name cards keeps the majority of the students attentive because they might be called on. The best use for the name cards is when the question is relatively easy as the students are afraid to answer when they might be wrong. It is important to not be random and choose better students when asking a difficult question and students who struggle more when asking easier questions. The students enjoyed the football toss to answer questions and it did bring energy and engagement to the class. I have not had the time to use the football throw as much as I would like as I run out of time in a 45 minute class. The Do Now, Homework, and Objective Posting have had little effect. The students still arrive late or talk past the bell even with a Do Now posted. The students did not do the Do Now until I assigned the equivalent of a homework grade to it and still they start it after the bell rings. Although it is well posted and mentioned and pointed to in class, many students have said they did not see the Homework and I have had to give them a zero for a grade. I post the objective and bring it up at the beginning of class, but it seems to have little effect on the students. The tickets for good work did not work well. I think the students are too old for this to be effective and did not look at it as a reward. I believe if the ticket practice had been in effect all year it would have a better effect. The students understand that the actual reward is rather minor; my plan was to use the tickets to have a drawing for dollar coins at the end of next week. Independent or group practice is not working well as a significant amount of the students do not do the work. They wait for me to “help” them, copy from friends, or just don’t do it. In groups, the better students do the work and the majority use the time to socialize. As the core instructor stated, it takes time for students to learn how to work in groups and it is something they have to get use to. It has been difficult to come in as a student teacher and change the prior culture and habits of the class. The students put up significant resistance and understand the situation is temporary.
I’ve been struggling with what to say on this subject because I want to keep it to one post and I have so, so much to say !! I’d like to say that I totally agree with Everett that us coming in as student teachers puts us in a different light in the student’s eyes. It’s very difficult for us to really establish our own norms because some of our teachers are just not letting us do that. So most of our CM attempts are a hybrid of what’s already been done in the school that we have to continue and us trying little things when we are allowed to. That's not so bad because we get to try some things with a safety-net. I would like to comment on what I’m seeing with “repeat offenders”. They are the students with IEPs for special education, that also have Behavior Plan Charts that follow them along to each class every day and these students also have “special education” resources either with a paraprofessional,in a co-teach situation or resource room. Wow. What a lot of extra work these students add to stress the system. At my school, the team leaders meet weekly to discuss ideas on what is working or not working with these particular students. Lunch detention is not much of a deterrent, spending time with the principal to do the lessons they missed doesn’t really seem to deter them from being repeat offenders either. Almost always one-on-one time seems to help these kids. What is sad is that I’ve been asking a lot of questions about what happens to these kids in the system. Basically what I’m learning is that once the kids get an IEP, it now longer really matters what their grades are because they almost always get advanced to the next grade. If they fail, then they go to summer school and even if they don’t pass summer school, they get advanced to the next grade. Ouch. The teachers in my team, are telling me that they have never ever had a year with so many students with issues. And from what they are learning from their middle school counterparts at other schools, they understand that they are not alone. But this makes it much more difficult to find ways to keep these kids in your classroom without ruining the classroom experience for the other kids. Because basically these kids don’t have to sit in the class to learn what they are supposed to do because they are also getting one-on-one time with other professionals to learn it anyhow and their grades don’t really matter. I’m dubious whether the raffle ticket for prizes would work but maybe they do help provide some incentive for the “repeat offenders” to behave. I sat next to one of my “repeat offenders” during an assembly where over 80% of the 125 students received an award for “Bringing Up their Grades” on the latest report card. I said to my kid, “Gee, wouldn’t you like to earn one of those awards in Math this time.” He said “No, I already know I’m going to summer school. So I really don’t care.” I said, “well I care, I know you can do it”. Yet, I keep trying with him. One day he got taken from my class because he was out of control the day before, and he apologized when he came back the next day. One day good. Still failed the next quiz. But at the same time you’re trying things for one particular kid, you’re trying other things for other kids. It’s overwhelming. Because there are so many different issues for so many different kids these days. My school also has an “intervention” team and some students get pulled out of class to work with other students in a different setting on this same work. My school also has some schoolwide teacher initiatives, where the teachers try to identify other at-risk students and find ways to spend extra one-on-one time with them before they start failing. I don’t really understand all the programs. But it seems pretty clear that the normal C/B students who are quiet and typically compliant don’t seem to be paid much extra attention to. And the teachers at my school are dealing with some many issues that it does seem that the innovative lesson planning is just very low on the totem pole.
Classroom Management Update: Last Friday was the day before Spring Break. My morning class went well, I gave a quiz that took most of the period. I let the kids discuss their project I gave them that is due next week after Spring Break. The rest of the day was interesting. My classroom being a double classroom size, was being used for an IBM day presentation for the upper level kids. The two Honors Algebra Classes that my Cooperating Teacher teaches stayed there and other classes came in to join us for the presentations. Toward the middle of the first of the two Honors classes, my Cooperating Teacher says to me that she isn’t feeling well. but she intends to spend the rest of the day there. Then she says, I am sorry I really need to go home. I said I was fine, I should have no problems with the kids. She said legally that there should be someone else there, I said fine. Now the chaos begins. My last two classes, the lower level Alegbra 2 classes, we are displaced across the hall so that upper level classes can use our room. So I direct the students across the hall, and the other class is still in there to take attendance before moving to my classroom. So the kids were a bit confused and displaced. I told them to sit down, after the other class left I handed out the Do Now and started to take attendance. The lively roar of talking started during the Do Now. One student said Mr. S., here is Miss Allison? I said she went home sick. Then they said we’re not doing anything today right? I said we are. After the Do Now, I tried the ball technique to review homework answers. This worked surprisingly well. Many students were eager to answer questions. It brought them back on track and away from talking. Then I started the independent pairs work. My Cooperating Teacher calls it Boss/ Secretary. The Boss tells the Secretary what to write. So one student tells the other how to solve the problem and then the other writes it down. They then switch. One student again said they didn’t want to do it they were on Spring Break, I said not for 45 minutes. Then I said do you like Jolly Ranchers. One kid said are you trying to bribe us. I said yes. He said cool, sweet, I’m in. Then I gave them the assignment. One kid said we don’t know how to do this. I said exactly. Now everyone look up here. I’m the BOSS. You watch and write down what I say. This worked surprisingly well. This way I was modeling what I wanted them to do and also presenting the lesson. Then they started the work in pairs. Most were doing it, but they were also talking. I walked around the room and help those who needed help. Many said is this right? Did I get the right answer. They only got 3 problems done. I gave them the Jolly Rancher as they left. The last class of the day the same subject was about the same, although it was quite a bit noisier. One kid knocked on the cabinet and said Mr S. there is someone at the door. I looked at him, then glanced and the door and then back at him and said REALLY? Meaning I’m not a substitute, I have been with you for 3 weeks are your really trying to pull that with me. He said sorry. While I was walking around one girl had written F*** T*** in the name spot on her worksheet. I saw this and said what’s this. She crossed it out and said sorry. This class had no motivation to be there. The ball technique didn’t really work with this class, no one wanted to answer the homework questions. All in all it could have been worse. It was a mixture of good and bad all in one class for both of those periods. I really didn’t imagine a perfect class the day before Spring Break. My Cooperating Teacher called me today to see how the class went. I explained. She said she was worried because it was the day before break and she wasn’t there. I said it really could have been a lot worse. Hopefully next week I can regain control for my final week.
I've learned that even after a really bad week, if you come back, change it up, and plan well, the students will respond. They do want instruction.
ReplyDeleteMy classes went really smoothly this week. I started a few new routines. 1) A 5-minute 2 question quiz that starts at the bell for the regular level classes. 2) new seating plan with groups of only 2 (not 3) and enforcing the seating plan really reduces negative chatting. 3) clear notes to take and lessons designed around applications - used geometry for equation solving. 4)lessons stayed on only one topic so they were very specific 5) a really easy to set up game made the block period fun for them and they got a lot done too.
All prevention stuff, but my classes really settled in well. Mostly planning and positive reinforcement.
On the first week of my assignment, it was “swim or drown” for me because my cooperating teacher got sick and took off for the rest of the week. So for the 3 remaining days I had to teach 5 periods with 4 preps. Although a sub was assigned, I took over the teaching and it was ok with him.
ReplyDeleteClassroom management was not a problem for the 4 out of the 5 classes. The fifth class was challenging. We were four in the class, the sub, a special education teacher, a paraprofessional and I. One boy and two of the girls were quite distracting. One of the boys would get up, make a step forward, revolve around himself and go to sharpen his pencil. He felt no need to raise his hand before he got up. The special Education teacher once took him out of the room. The two girls would seem to have a lot of energy and they would keep talking. Generally the class was noisy and some of the kids would be either indifferent or not attentive. On the subtraction of integers, I and the cooperating teacher had to repeat the lesson three times. I found that the only way to control that class was to keep them busy continuously. Quite few of these students were under behavior plans and 504 plans, although I was not given access to their files. However, on the 2nd week I participated in a PPT meeting. Persons who participated in that meeting were the major teachers, the special education teacher, guidance councilor, the Vice principal and the parents. I can’t elaborate on the issue, but the goal of the meeting was to take specific steps for the academic and the behavior improvement of the student.
In the other four periods the students did not present any big problems. Again, the key here was keeping them at task all the time. With both myself and the cooperating teacher present there was no so much room for misbehaviors. Minor talking would occur sporadically but it did not go out of control.
Analyzing the classroom situation a bit deeper, I have come to the conclusion that the best way to manage the class is not to just keep the students busy. The important detail is to keep them busy in many different ways. For example I noticed a tremendous response, attentiveness and no need for any intervention on my part, when I incorporated different tools in my teaching. For example from having them work on some examples, then perform an activity, then competition style questions and may be a story telling. It worked wonders…
In summary, with respect to classroom management I had a positive experience over the last two weeks. I was pleasantly surprised during my evaluation period when I noticed that the students were amazingly more attentive and responsive than usual.
Keep the students engaged, planning and prevention...sounds familiar! :)
ReplyDeleteBTW, who is ij1?!!??! Do we have a mystery guest poster? If so, welcome.
This one is pretty simple. The Don Perras tricks along with giving praise 4-7x more frequently than correction is very effective. The whole mood and atmosphere of the room is different when you are always recognizing and acknowledging the students correct behavior. I know for me it is not natural to do this, and I believe most people would say the same. My guess is that this is because we go into class with a certain vision of how the class will go, and of course this vision is a good one. (To envision chaos beforehand would be stressful!) So when class begins, the aspects that meet our expectations kinda just fade away into the background, but the behaviors that aren't part of our vision are highlighted and catch our attention, and we react to them. Giving praise for the good stuff requires us to actively pay attention to the good stuff, something I'm not sure we do naturally. Also, I think that people fear that by ignoring the bad stuff, they are allowing the kids to walk all over them. Don Perras addressed this directly yesterday, and between what he's said and what I've experienced, I'm convinced that his methods work.
ReplyDeleteSecond thought on this topic. I'm finding myself morphing into a new person in the classroom. With the lower level classes in particular, I'm much more active. I use a soft cushy ball and toss it to students when I ask questions. For closure, and also during class when we need to raise the energy level or get kids involved (say after 5 minutes of lecture, which I'm finding is about their limit!), I'll walk around the room tossing the ball to kids.. I often call their name just as I toss the ball so it often catches then off-guard. I'll ask them a question, and whether they know or not, I have them toss it back and immediately toss it to another kid... I'm shooting this ball rapid-fire all over the room... I drill them on concepts "What does the line represent?"... (answer, "a plot of all solutions to the equation"... I'll follow up immediately by tossing to another kids, "What does "solution" mean?"... etc... I drill them on the same concepts probably once or twice each period in this manner, and the concepts are sticking. When I'm doing problems, I refer back to these concepts so that they can see how each problem is just another example of the same concept. The ball/questioning technique is fun for me, and gets the class on it's toes. It's great for closure because I can just keep tossing it around asking questions until the bell rings... I don't need a fixed amount of time.
Week Two: Classroom Management
ReplyDeleteThe week got off to a bang on Monday with my first evaluation with the 16 student third period (MW) Algebra I class. The lesson plan had a difficult step that I proceeded to completely forget to do properly, so I spent the rest of the period compensating. I don’t have a problem improvising a lesson on the fly to cover something that comes up, but this was a complete operational snafu. I kept working the class, redirecting and keeping everyone busy and it didn’t end to badly. My evaluator dinged me for not closing properly, but said it was okay since it was my first evaluation. So all’s well that ends well.
I’ve heard a number of different stories about evaluations. My guy stayed the whole period and left me with two pages of minute by minute notes on what I was and wasn’t doing right, similar to what my cooperative teacher does. He stayed and we talked for about 45 minutes afterwards. I must admit that I schmoozed shamelessly, bought coffee, connected on a classmate of his who is a professor at Penn and was when I was there. My wife, who is a professional schmoozer, first class, was proud of me.
Tuesday morning Scott, my cooperating teacher, cautioned me that the honeymoon was about over with the fifth period (second period TTh) class, the 24 eight and ninth grade Algebra I students in the unfortunately shaped long narrow room with the board on the long side. If I didn’t step up, he suggested things could get ugly in these sense that I would completely lose control. Fortunately the names started coming a bit more easily, I made an effort to move around more, and even managed to make a joke or two. Scott said one or two students were surprised when I redirected them by name from across the room. Disaster averted for the moment. Sometimes success is just to keep pushing failure one day further into the future.
My real difficulties came with the third period Algebra I class when I saw them again on Wednesday. Three gentlemen kept cutting up, and I really hadn’t discussed the various behavioral levers beyond friendly persuasion. Scott just let me struggle with it; I’m sure he was having a good time watching me flail. I spoke with him that evening and we discussed several options. Apparently the three are just coming off of basketball season, and no longer have much incentive to maintain their academic standing.
The class met again on Friday rotation first period, so I was able to get to the room early. Interesting aside, there was a rotating cast of students frantically doing/copying the homework, not the best timing and not exactly subtle. I met the three at the door as they came in and directed them to their new, well-separated seats. They pushed back, but stayed. They also didn’t really do anything all class (though they didn’t really do anything the previous class) but they were less disruptive. I also got some push back from a young lady who said I had transferred one of them into “her” seat, which she hadn’t been sitting in the previous class, so she moved one row away and also proceeded to do essentially nothing all class. Something to work on next time.
I also scored my second cell phone of the week—picked the first one up in seventh period Algebra I on Thursday afternoon. I was fairly public about taking them, but gave them both back after class with a stern warning that next time they would be delivered to the vice principal per school policy. Maybe word will get around. Still haven’t gotten the knack of noticing who is chewing gum.
The seventh period Algebra I class is a different problem. There are only seven students, but most are seniors taking the course for at least the second time. There is also one bright seventh grader who must have been stuck in for scheduling reasons. She seems a bit intimidated by the older students. There is little motivation, and getting them to work or participate is like pulling teeth. This is the class my evaluator will be coming back to on April 20th, so I will have to come up with something.
The second week of my student teach went smoothly. I started off with new seating charts. All the students whom I observed need help and also those who could be distractive in class, I moved them in the front. The U shaped seating was not working for me and the students ,especially when they needed help during independent practice. I changed into rows with an above average student, a below average student, a most studious, a most talkative alternatively. It worked amazingly well, my cooperating teacher said she herself struggling with that class since 9 months and surprised how the 99 % of the class was engaged.
ReplyDeleteSeniors were cribbing about changing seats but I insisted with alpha commands and also gave them a chance to talk to me in person, if they had any problem.For senior class, I started divide and rule policy, I tried to help two students , one got the problem , I gave a positive remark to him, the other girl said to the student “ Stop being over smart “ they both started arguing. I realized individual rewards do not work with seniors and I made 6 groups and challenged them to compete in finishing independent practice or in answering questions and also ASKING questions. I couldn’t believe, from then until now, groups take care of themselves, I don’t have to do any classroom mgmt except for looking at them shhing at each other, motivating reluctant ones to work so their group can earn points.Looking at their good work, I made an announcement that the points earned will be given to their teacher to add up to their grades. I repeatedly assessed class , if they got it group wise and offered help .This made my life easier with seniors. From then, no one is hesitant to ask questions if they did not understand. They are quite ok with me now, though some still don’t like me that much because they have been working a lot since I started teaching.
My geometry classes with 26 and 30 students in each, responded not that great to seating charts , some still caused distractions wherever they are. For them, I made a big chart with two heading “Positive points” ,”Negative points”. This stratergy worked pretty good. Atleast I got them to concentrate in the class. Few boys are always on their toes, since we donot have any air condition, when it gets hot they start removing their shirts huh.., sometimes I become intolerant and raise my voice, but of no use. From wednesday I started implementing this “Kill with Kindness.I told myself no matter what , I have to stay calm and pull students to calm down. It was/is soo tough to do still, I told myself I was earning positive points for being calm. Some students have to move around in the class, esp block periods so before and after the class I give them some chores like distributing quizzes, etc so they can get to move. One student has severe ADHD, I make him sit in front of me the whole time, I always start his work and ask him to continue as he is smart but never focuses.I get tired after geometry classes.
My negatives points are “talking too much” less wait time and my accent. I openly admited to my students that I have a different accent and I appreciate if they ask me to repeat and I don’t mind repeating and writing on the board. I have students repeating my words “see” which I use a lot and laughing. I got offended initially but now I laugh too and take it easy. I know I cannot change my accent but I guess increasing wait time and repeating is working good.
I ended my week by assigning a holiday project on real world applications for algebra, geometry and trigonometry which will be due on April 19th.
My cooperating teacher has an AP calculus class, a college prep level algebra 1 class and 3 honors precalculus classes. I’m not really involved with the AP calculus class and my cooperating teacher has thus far used me as an additional resource with his algebra 1 class. In that class we’ve been breaking into 3 smaller groups and I’ve been working with one of the groups. He takes another group and the special ed teacher in the room takes the 3rd group. I’ve been teaching all the precalculus lessons.
ReplyDeleteEach precalculus class has a different personality. One class is very quiet, almost silent. One is more social but still very much focused on the work. The 3rd is pretty loud,sometimes off task, but they ask a lot of good questions. I think my main takeaway working with these 3 classes is that being well-prepared to lead them through new material seems to be all that is needed for classroom management. Most of these kids are good students that care about doing well in school. So, being well-prepared serves as prevention.
I’ve been trying to increase student participation in the classes by looking at the seating chart and calling on students for answers, not just taking answers from volunteers and those calling out. I’ve even tried to target some of the weaker students who generally don’t participate with the easier questions to help build their confidence. I was pleasantly surprised that the class as a whole took well to the participation by a greater percentage of students. It worked especially well during my evaluation.
The Do Now is something new for this class. I got some eye rolling the first couple of times I handed one out, but I just ignored that. I’m surprised how quickly they’ve gotten used to this routine. I was pleasantly surprised one day when a student told me that the Do Now from the previous day really helped her understand how to solve a problem using the sum and difference formulas for sine and cosine. I’ve enjoyed coming up with problems that bring in prior knowledge to help set the stage for the topic of the lesson. I think that doing this well and making a good transition helps to keep the focus of these students throughout the lesson.
There is talking and laughing that goes on in these classes (except for the dead silent class). I assume that they’re laughing at me. If I were in their shoes I probably would be too, but I’m not taking it personally. On Friday, in my rowdy class, they started shouting out answers to the You Try problems. It seemed like solving these problems had turned into a bit of a competition, which wasn’t helpful to the students still working on the problems. I didn’t do a good job of addressing this by letting it go. It occurred to me after class that I should have asked them not to shout out their answers for the sake of the kids still working on the problems. Or alternatively, I can try to harness this competitive spirit into a game of some sort.
The college prep level algebra 1 class is a completely different story. That class has all sorts of issues that we’ve discussed like lots of off task socializing, absenteeism, very little work ethic in class or on homework, etc. and subsequently, very poor achievement. Based on my limited experiences there I think the same basic principal applies. The better prepared you are with a good lesson, the easier things are going to be.
I have found so far that the classes go best for me when I am prepared to provide a mix of activities so that the students do not get bored. And this aligns with some of what Don Perras said. In introducing logs one day to the Algebra II classes, instead of a ball (which I did not have), I just had the students pass an eraser from one person to the next and whoever was holding the eraser answered the next problem (we were converting logarithmic to exponential expressions). It sounds so silly, but doing it this way kept them going and kept all of them attentive. I have also been incorporating the Do Now, but some of the students don't work on it. I wish I could change the seating arrangement in my classes, but I have not been given permission to do that. I need some better strategies for when the class does independent practice in pairs or groups. Often they do not stay on task, so I need to incorporate pop quizzes and use a timer to help keep them focused. Also true to what Perras taught us, trying to manage with an authoritarian style does not work. I reverted back to this on the Friday before break, which was particularly high-energy because there was also some kind of all-day assembly with food that all of the classes expected to be dismissed to. I found it very difficult to settle the class down that day, and reverted back to authoritarian tones, which I quickly found to be completely ineffective. When I return next week, I will have to have different strategies.
ReplyDeleteMarty - Part I:
ReplyDeleteClassroom management or should I say mismanagement. I admit my classroom management leaves a lot to be desired. In my first period of the day the kids are great in Academic Geometry. They come to class awake and ready to get started. They don’t complain about the Do Now, they sit down and do it. No real classroom management issues here. I feel like I have connected with this class. This week, several students came in class early and said, “Mr. Stejskal, I didn’t really get the homework”. I said that is OK, it is for practice, as long as you attempted it. Since this it the first period, we had a few minutes before class. They got out their homework and showed me what they didn’t understand. The homework was on rotations. They were to rotate an Octagon about a point at the center and determine where a specific point would end up after certain rotations in multiples of 45 degrees. I showed a few individually before class and they were able to complete the rest of the problems before class officially started. I could see there were still questions with the majority of the students so I spent some time reviewing placing your second finger on the center and your middle finger on the point that is to be rotated. I showed them how to rotate it. They said they understood that. The day before we did rotations on a template sheet with a circle and its center and 6 equally spaced dots around the perimeter of the circle. We discussed that each of these rotations that we did was 360/6 or 60 degrees. I guess I didn’t fully explain it to them the first time. But with this class this did not stop them from wanting to find out how to do it.
My other two classes, the lower level Algebra 2 (which they say is really 1 ½) leave a lot to be desired. They are good kids at heart, but they would rather talk than learn how to solve quadratic equations. I gave a test yesterday, and many of them said they still didn’t know how to factor or to use the quadratic formula. My cooperating teacher had gone over factoring with them before I got here and I have been doing factoring, quadratic formula, and solving quadratic equations with them for the last 3 weeks. Many kids get it, others don’t. My classroom management in these 2 classes sucks. F period is better than G period. The last period of the day, they really don’t want to be there. My cooperating teacher has been leaving me alone with them to give me the full experience and let me struggle to regain control. I think the main issue here is that they see me as a part time substitute. They have no reason to want to listen to me. My cooperating teacher told me I should stop the lesson and wait for them to stop talking. I tried that today, worked for a short while. She said it would take a while for them to get used to it. I need to be more assertive with them. I have called out their names and asked them to stop talking, and they can’t hear me over their own conversations. There are two girls on opposite sides of the room that want to have discussions while we are doing guided practice and while I am walking around during independent practice and I am helping others.
Marty - Part II:
ReplyDeleteThese two classes say, “DO NOW!” “DO NOW!” each time I give them one. And I reply yes, do it now. Some do it others say they don’t want to. Many of the students do not do their homework. My cooperating teacher said there is a Dept policy that the students get a homework detention if they fail to do their homework. They have to come in and stay after school the next afternoon. Since I have been here, homework has been sporadic. She didn’t tell me this early on, and she wasn’t enforcing it the first two days I observed. I need to work on my management of these two classes. They aren’t all bad; just lack self control with talking. One kid really is getting to me. He puts his head down on his desk and refuses to do any of the practice work or write anything in his notebook. I asked me cooperating teacher about this, she said some kids don’t like change, and not to worry about it. He is not disruptive, but I want him to get engaged. I have spent time with him during Do Now exercises and independent practice. He says he doesn’t know what to do, so why bother. I have asked him how do we get this started, he has told me the right way, then he scribbles something on his paper with the minimalist effort and then refuses to do another problem on his own. I don’t want to make a big deal of it with the rest of the class, and I don’t want to scare him. I just walk by his desk and tap it when he has his head down and say, “Michael, you need to be working on this problem.” I gave a test yesterday, and he said “Oh great, another F” when I passed out the test, he answered the multiple choice, and didn’t do much for any of the other problems. I have told him I am there after school to review and help. I will need to discuss this further with the cooperating teacher. I believe he has ADHD and that is part of it. Today I laid down the law on the Homework. I told them we were going to enforce the homework rule. I asked them what the homework rule was, several said detention for not doing it. I said “good, remember, if you don’t do your homework tonight, the detention is going to be on Friday before vacation.” Yesterday at the end of the test, I have out review homework on factoring. I said it was due Thursday for a grade. Half of the G-period class wanted to hand it in today. Maybe they are getting on track. After school today, one of the students who likes to talk a lot and not get started on his work, came in and said he needed help with the homework. I thought this was a good sign; he wanted to get his homework done. I will try the ball technique tomorrow. I was afraid to introduce to many new things in this class, but I need some change now.
On Tuesday this week, I finally have my whole time with the two Algebra classes I teach. My co-operating teacher still told me that she was actually sitting right outside the classroom and listening to my whole class. But at least, since she was not in the classroom, whenever the kids had any problem, they would come to me and there was only one standard that they have to follow. The Period 2 class absolutely has no behavioral problem at all. As soon as the activity starts, almost all of them are on task right away. There are only two or three of them who do need a little push from time to time to stay on task. The Period 3 class is a little difficult because almost half of them are not really engaged. If I have the permission to have another seating plan for them, I will certainly try that out. But I have to work with all I have. "Proximity" always works for the best but sometime the problems take place at the two opposite corners which might make it hard to work. I am quite reluctant to use the "authoritarian" type of managing the classroom. So I did ask the most distracting kid to sit at the front next to me. I told him as long as he stayed focused, he could always go back to his seat. Sometimes it works, sometime it doesn't. I will try to talk to him in person next week and see if I could understand him more and make some changes.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I feel good that I really got a taste of how it likes to be on my own feet finally in a real world classroom setting. But now, I just have one week left.
Wow! What an experience. Before I even started student teaching I knew that classroom management was going to be a big challenge for me since I avoid conflict by nature. Right from the first day, I've implemented the Do Now and surprisingly, they started picking it up on the way in the room starting with the second day. I've been successful in varying learning activities to keep the students engaged, however, it has been difficult getting their attention back after doing group or individual work. By the second week, I started using a timer with a buzzer to establish the timeframe for all activities. When they hear the noise, they start asking other students to be quiet. This procedure enables effective time management and provides a signal for the class to come back together as a group. I guess this is my implementation of the "gong" that Scott Dunn uses. The biggest challenge that I've experienced relative to classroom management is trying to keep the talking to a minimum during instructional time and assessments. One very effective technique for me is moving the disruptive students to the periphery of the room away from the groups of students. It has worked every time. Although I initially thought it was corny using index cards with student names to encourage everyone to participate, I decided to try it. Before I started student teaching, I went to the teacher store and bought florescent color bookmarks with a hole at the top. I had everyone write their name on one side and something about themselves on the other side. (That has helped me connect with the students.) So I put the bookmarks on a metal ring and randomly picked names to answer after I asked questions to the general group. They didn't know when they would be called on so everyone paid attention and I increased participation significantly. When I leave they'll have a bookmark for their math books! At the same time, I quickly learned their names. My cooperating teacher and his wife had a baby on Sunday night at 11:59, so I was thrust into teaching all 5 periods starting Mon. He was also out on Tue. and Fri. Amazingly, the school felt confident in my abilities and asked me if I could take over for the whole day. Since I already had lessons and activities planned and the students knew me, it was a smooth transition. As luck would have it, my first evaluation was on that Monday when my cooperating teacher was out! The vice principal apologized to the evaluator for the situation I was thrust into that day. Further, I was expecting him for the next period and he came while I was in the middle of an activity where the students were tossing dice and making posters. It was organized chaos, but a real test of my ability to transition the students back to instruction from an animated activity. Everything went really well and the students re-engaged with ease. Honestly, I surprised myself with the success of that particular lesson. An interesting side note is that my visibility in the classroom and getting to know the students by name has really increased their recognition of me as a teacher inside and outside of school. I now feel like I am a positive role model for the community, not just the school. The experiences I've had over the last several weeks have truly made me eager to teach every day!
ReplyDeleteClassroom management for me has been all about effective lessons. I had to teach standard deviation twice because I lost the kids the first time. I tried to be too conceptual (thought the seniors could handle it), but that was a mistake. I came in the next day to much confusion!! So I monitored and adjusted and retaught the lesson, this time being more concrete. The funny thing is... I thought I was being "played" by the students, but I retaught it anyway. There was a lot of "commotion" in the room that second day of the lesson so I thought my classroom mgmt was very poor. After the class, I commented on this to my cooperating teacher. To my amazement, she completely disagreed. She observed that the students left the room that day feeling much more comfortable about standard deviation. She complimented me on the lesson and thought I made a great recovery from the day before. My next lessons were on Empirical Rule and z scores. I stuck with the concrete and felt like I hit a home run (ok, maybe just a double). I left the classroom feeling like I really engaged the students and the objectives of the day were satisfied. I got some good questions and responses from a large sample of the class.
ReplyDeletePaul, the algebra 1 college prep courses were always my favorite to teach. They have the ability but need the structure and guidance. Aside from maybe freshmen English, algebra 1 is the MOST IMPORTANT class the students take because it sets the stage academically, emotionally, and metacognitively.
ReplyDeleteYou can change some lives in a class like that. It was in algebra 1 that I had a male from Afghanistan and a female from China who barely spoke English. They excelled in A1 and likely were better prepared for their future because of my help - what a rush!
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ReplyDeleteAs expected, there are issues with individual students. I haven't read any reports of phone calls to parents. This is a major intervention that appears to be underutilized.
ReplyDeleteAgain, make a phone call early on so they know that is an action you will take. If it is productive or effective, the next time there is a problem with that particular student you can remind them discretely during class that you will call home again. It gives your warning some bite.
At the very least, you document the call and when you report the issue to administration, they know you've made the effort.
I've created a thread regarding phone calls because this is VERY IMPORTANT!
Many more things are not working well than are working well. I am having difficulty with students talking and moving around in class and not doing work when given independent or group time to do class work. Homework completion percentage is very low. And, this is for a precalculus honors class.
ReplyDeleteWhat is working well is the use of name cards and the foam football throw. I used the name cards the second day and this does allow multiple students to contribute instead of the few who are proactive. The use of name cards keeps the majority of the students attentive because they might be called on. The best use for the name cards is when the question is relatively easy as the students are afraid to answer when they might be wrong. It is important to not be random and choose better students when asking a difficult question and students who struggle more when asking easier questions. The students enjoyed the football toss to answer questions and it did bring energy and engagement to the class. I have not had the time to use the football throw as much as I would like as I run out of time in a 45 minute class.
The Do Now, Homework, and Objective Posting have had little effect. The students still arrive late or talk past the bell even with a Do Now posted. The students did not do the Do Now until I assigned the equivalent of a homework grade to it and still they start it after the bell rings. Although it is well posted and mentioned and pointed to in class, many students have said they did not see the Homework and I have had to give them a zero for a grade. I post the objective and bring it up at the beginning of class, but it seems to have little effect on the students.
The tickets for good work did not work well. I think the students are too old for this to be effective and did not look at it as a reward. I believe if the ticket practice had been in effect all year it would have a better effect. The students understand that the actual reward is rather minor; my plan was to use the tickets to have a drawing for dollar coins at the end of next week.
Independent or group practice is not working well as a significant amount of the students do not do the work. They wait for me to “help” them, copy from friends, or just don’t do it. In groups, the better students do the work and the majority use the time to socialize. As the core instructor stated, it takes time for students to learn how to work in groups and it is something they have to get use to.
It has been difficult to come in as a student teacher and change the prior culture and habits of the class. The students put up significant resistance and understand the situation is temporary.
I’ve been struggling with what to say on this subject because I want to keep it to one post and I have so, so much to say !!
ReplyDeleteI’d like to say that I totally agree with Everett that us coming in as student teachers puts us in a different light in the student’s eyes. It’s very difficult for us to really establish our own norms because some of our teachers are just not letting us do that. So most of our CM attempts are a hybrid of what’s already been done in the school that we have to continue and us trying little things when we are allowed to. That's not so bad because we get to try some things with a safety-net.
I would like to comment on what I’m seeing with “repeat offenders”. They are the students with IEPs for special education, that also have Behavior Plan Charts that follow them along to each class every day and these students also have “special education” resources either with a paraprofessional,in a co-teach situation or resource room. Wow. What a lot of extra work these students add to stress the system. At my school, the team leaders meet weekly to discuss ideas on what is working or not working with these particular students. Lunch detention is not much of a deterrent, spending time with the principal to do the lessons they missed doesn’t really seem to deter them from being repeat offenders either. Almost always one-on-one time seems to help these kids. What is sad is that I’ve been asking a lot of questions about what happens to these kids in the system. Basically what I’m learning is that once the kids get an IEP, it now longer really matters what their grades are because they almost always get advanced to the next grade. If they fail, then they go to summer school and even if they don’t pass summer school, they get advanced to the next grade. Ouch. The teachers in my team, are telling me that they have never ever had a year with so many students with issues. And from what they are learning from their middle school counterparts at other schools, they understand that they are not alone.
But this makes it much more difficult to find ways to keep these kids in your classroom without ruining the classroom experience for the other kids. Because basically these kids don’t have to sit in the class to learn what they are supposed to do because they are also getting one-on-one time with other professionals to learn it anyhow and their grades don’t really matter.
I’m dubious whether the raffle ticket for prizes would work but maybe they do help provide some incentive for the “repeat offenders” to behave. I sat next to one of my “repeat offenders” during an assembly where over 80% of the 125 students received an award for “Bringing Up their Grades” on the latest report card. I said to my kid, “Gee, wouldn’t you like to earn one of those awards in Math this time.” He said “No, I already know I’m going to summer school. So I really don’t care.” I said, “well I care, I know you can do it”. Yet, I keep trying with him. One day he got taken from my class because he was out of control the day before, and he apologized when he came back the next day. One day good. Still failed the next quiz.
But at the same time you’re trying things for one particular kid, you’re trying other things for other kids. It’s overwhelming. Because there are so many different issues for so many different kids these days.
My school also has an “intervention” team and some students get pulled out of class to work with other students in a different setting on this same work. My school also has some schoolwide teacher initiatives, where the teachers try to identify other at-risk students and find ways to spend extra one-on-one time with them before they start failing.
I don’t really understand all the programs. But it seems pretty clear that the normal C/B students who are quiet and typically compliant don’t seem to be paid much extra attention to.
And the teachers at my school are dealing with some many issues that it does seem that the innovative lesson planning is just very low on the totem pole.
Classroom Management Update: Last Friday was the day before Spring Break. My morning class went well, I gave a quiz that took most of the period. I let the kids discuss their project I gave them that is due next week after Spring Break. The rest of the day was interesting. My classroom being a double classroom size, was being used for an IBM day presentation for the upper level kids. The two Honors Algebra Classes that my Cooperating Teacher teaches stayed there and other classes came in to join us for the presentations. Toward the middle of the first of the two Honors classes, my Cooperating Teacher says to me that she isn’t feeling well. but she intends to spend the rest of the day there. Then she says, I am sorry I really need to go home. I said I was fine, I should have no problems with the kids. She said legally that there should be someone else there, I said fine. Now the chaos begins. My last two classes, the lower level Alegbra 2 classes, we are displaced across the hall so that upper level classes can use our room. So I direct the students across the hall, and the other class is still in there to take attendance before moving to my classroom. So the kids were a bit confused and displaced. I told them to sit down, after the other class left I handed out the Do Now and started to take attendance. The lively roar of talking started during the Do Now. One student said Mr. S., here is Miss Allison? I said she went home sick. Then they said we’re not doing anything today right? I said we are. After the Do Now, I tried the ball technique to review homework answers. This worked surprisingly well. Many students were eager to answer questions. It brought them back on track and away from talking. Then I started the independent pairs work. My Cooperating Teacher calls it Boss/ Secretary. The Boss tells the Secretary what to write. So one student tells the other how to solve the problem and then the other writes it down. They then switch. One student again said they didn’t want to do it they were on Spring Break, I said not for 45 minutes. Then I said do you like Jolly Ranchers. One kid said are you trying to bribe us. I said yes. He said cool, sweet, I’m in. Then I gave them the assignment. One kid said we don’t know how to do this. I said exactly. Now everyone look up here. I’m the BOSS. You watch and write down what I say. This worked surprisingly well. This way I was modeling what I wanted them to do and also presenting the lesson. Then they started the work in pairs. Most were doing it, but they were also talking. I walked around the room and help those who needed help. Many said is this right? Did I get the right answer. They only got 3 problems done. I gave them the Jolly Rancher as they left. The last class of the day the same subject was about the same, although it was quite a bit noisier. One kid knocked on the cabinet and said Mr S. there is someone at the door. I looked at him, then glanced and the door and then back at him and said REALLY? Meaning I’m not a substitute, I have been with you for 3 weeks are your really trying to pull that with me. He said sorry. While I was walking around one girl had written F*** T*** in the name spot on her worksheet. I saw this and said what’s this. She crossed it out and said sorry. This class had no motivation to be there. The ball technique didn’t really work with this class, no one wanted to answer the homework questions.
ReplyDeleteAll in all it could have been worse. It was a mixture of good and bad all in one class for both of those periods. I really didn’t imagine a perfect class the day before Spring Break.
My Cooperating Teacher called me today to see how the class went. I explained. She said she was worried because it was the day before break and she wasn’t there. I said it really could have been a lot worse.
Hopefully next week I can regain control for my final week.