Continuing the dream

This week brought two observation post conferences. Reviews were more mixed than previous and I think this was good for me. In both observations I was rated at basic/developing. While I got a bit defensive at first, after reflection, I realized that this is a learning experience. If I am always rated high, then I am not in a true position to make myself a better teacher.
One new activity that I have added to my arsenal is an activity called whip around. It worked well with my honors classes but I was a bit apprehensive to try it out in my standard classes. However, it was an overall success in al my classes and I can see myself using this again in the future. The premise is that each student is given a post it note. They are asked to wrote down a minimum of three things and then stand up. Students take turn sharing around the room, crossing out their items when they are shared. This goes on until all items are crossed out. The activity takes about 15 minutes, depending on class size. When I used this, I connected it back to one of the posted objectives.
One of the areas of improvement was to make sure I'm using my objectives. I am trying hard to make sure we read through and explain the objectives in the beginning of the class. Then, as we transition to another activity, someone reads the next objective. At the end of the class, I have a student read an objective and make the connection to what we did in class. I actually had an objective on the board that we were unable to get too. I had students at the end of class questioning that objective, thinking that they missed something. It's nice to have the students to as back up to keep me on track and to see them taking an interest in their learning.

Teaching Reflection Week 8

On Friday, I found out that a student is returning to my school and class. He withdrew from school at the end of September and never enrolled in a new school. Now I find myself with the difficult task of integrating him into a class that is preparing for a test that he clearly will not be prepared for. Additionally, one week prior to the close of the marking period leaves limited time and ability to offer him a grade for the quarter. As a senior, and a struggling senior, I just am not sure what to do.

I spoke with my department chair regarding both his integration and grade for the first quarter. When the student withdrew, he had a B. My DC suggests that he should be given a B, but I'm struggling with giving the student a B based on two grades when there have been between ten and fifteen graded assignments. I am also struggling because we are using mastery grading system. Clearly he has not mastered the content. Since he was never enrolled in a school when he withdrew, I do not have a more current starting point grade to work with.

The next piece of my struggle deals with reintegrating him into the classroom. It is a small class but contains a group of tough students. In fact, he tended to be the one that was capable of derailing the entire class at any given moment. While I do not like seeing students not in school, it was a relief to not have to run circles around the student every class. Having him come back on a day that is review followed by a test, I am trying to plan activities for him that educate him on what he missed bit also engage him so that the remaining class members can be successful on their assessment.

One measure I have set up is a buddy room. This is a place I can send the student if he is unable to not cause a distraction. My department chair suggested that he start off his return in the back of the classroom, seated independently, and through showing positive behavior, he earns his way back to the general public. While this seems like a good plan, I do not necessarily see it working out to the classes benefit. The student generally has the attitude that he can do as he wishes regardless of consequences.

Although I think this transition will be difficult, I am optimistic that it can work out. Starting him off with my expectations and ensuring I have follow through will hopefully make the student and the class more successful in the end.

Teaching Reflection Week 7

I survived my first spirit week! It seems amazing to me that my students could be crazier than normal but they managed it this week. This week brought a huge challenge of engaging my students in the content, and not have them talk solely of homecoming, and keeping them on task. In order to do this, I allowed my students some time to discuss spirit week/homecoming. I think it's important to remember that students are still kids and need to be allowed structured off task time. As an adult, teaching has been the first job I've had that I haven't spent time off task. In my other jobs, a portion of time was spent doing things at our leisure. Perhaps this is how lab work is and other jobs are different. However, I do believe that some downtime increases productivity. I try to incorporate this concept into my classroom. I do this in little chunks at a time so that I am still able to regain their attention and focus. Off task time also encourages relationship building with students. Having conversations outside the curriculum has allowed me to connect with my students on a deeper level. In fact, from talking with one of my at risk seniors, and talking to him as a person, has encouraged him to complete more tasks in the classroom. It's really encouraging to see that taking a few minutes to connect with them increases their classroom productivity.
I am currently teaching three at risk seniors. These students have struggled throughout high school and are in danger of not graduating. What I have done with these three is learn their history and I don't mean their school history. I've tried to learn their outside of school history, figure out what interests them and make a point to ask how they are doing. With one of them, a student that failed my class last year, I've reached out to his mom and have started an open dialogue with her. I let her know when her son is struggling. I also make a point to let her know when he does well. Just last week, his mom punished him and took his car away because another teacher contacted home about his poor performance. I contacted home on Friday to let her know how great he did in my class, not knowing that he was on punishment. On Monday the student came to me and thanked me for getting his car back. Instead of saying you're welcome, I told him that he earned his car back. Yes I made the call to mom but I wanted him to see that he put the effort in and did the work.
A video circulated on Facebook this week in which teachers told students that they were the reason that the teacher came to work everyday. They told their students how much the student was appreciated. Every student reacted with shock, many of them being brought to tears. The video really struck a nerve with me because students need to hear they are appreciated as well. I've decided that I want to start doing this with my students. I haven't quite decided how to handle this but one idea I have is to use post-it notes. I would write a quick positive message on the note and place it on the students belongings. This allows the act to be more private so that students don't have to save face on front of their friends. I'm excited to try this out in the near future.

Teaching Reflection - Week 6

This week I'm reflecting on assessment in my classroom. When I create lesson plans, I make sure to build in multiple ways to assess my students. These assessments help me adjust what I am teaching to ensure my students understand the curriculum. Often times, I assess my students through questioning. I ask them a question, then I ask them to explain their answer. If they are struggling, I then will reexplain the information and then ask more questions. Another method I use is whiteboards. Through the use of whiteboards, I can see which students understand and which ones don't. I continue to answer questions until all students are able to respond correctly.
Another assessment method I employ is self reflection. I ask my students every class to reflect on their learning. Not only does this help me understand where they are, it also helps my students understand where they are.

This week my students participated in a density lab. While most of my students handles the lab professionally and appropriately, I am concerned about some of my students. Additionally, I found that my students had difficulty reading and following directions. This is extremely concerning to me as a teacher because if my students are unable to follow directions, they will not be able to be safe in the lab. In every class I reviewed the directions and explained to the students what they were to do for every step. Unfortunately, there was a disconnect somewhere and I still spent a majority of time reexplaining directions. I will have to look at other ways to make sure my students understand directions and to make them more self sufficient when performing labs. It makes it difficult to assess them during a lab when a major portion of my time is spent on directions.

Teaching reflection week 5

The past two weeks have been both extremely stressful and extremely rewarding. I have had five observations over the course of ten days and I have felt like I was under a microscope. My classroom has had a revolving door and I have been the center of the performance. I know that this is common for new teachers, especially those in a graduate program, and my hope is that these visits become easier over time. So far I have had two baseline observations from my consulting teacher, one formal observation from my administration, one visit from the office of science, and one from Stevenson. On both my formal observation and the one for Stevenson, I recieved proficient ratings, with some categories falling under distinguished for Stevenson. This was super exciting because it always reaffirms that I made the right decision in switching career paths. The office of science visit went well and seemed more of a formality than anything else.

My consulting teacher, CT, has been the most stressful experience so far. Yes, all of the observations are stressful because additional planning is always necessary, but my first observation with my CT was far from successful. She observed me during one of my more difficult classes and seemed to be focused on things that seem less important to me in the grand scheme of things.  During our post observation meeting, the only success she was able to mention was that I knew my content. As one can imagine, I went into my second observation less than thrilled to be there. I was pleasantly surprised at how engaged my students were and how pleased my CT was. She remarked that my classes were like night and day. She was pleased with my rapport with students and even more pleased that within their lab groups, my students were having meaningful discussions about the content. They were challenging each other and working through the matter examples like real scientists.

My biggest struggle right now is my one class that over half the students hold a 504 or IEP. Many of these students are able to deliver the content verbally but are unable to convey the information through means of writting. In a class of twenty plus students, I am struggling to find ways for my students to be graded on the content that goes beyond writing the information down. Some days I wish there was five of me in the room so that I could grade my students in a way that aligns with their abilities better. I am planning on working with my STAT teacher in the near future to determine acceptable resources for students to deliver their knowledge verbally. I feel like most of my students in this class will excel if they are able to verbally convey their answers instead of writing them down.