New School, New term.

This term I am at Roosevelt Middle School which is one of the 'premier' middle schools in Eugene, it's long had a reputation for being innovative and highly rigorous academically. It's got a fairly high SES and is a feeder school to the high school with the same reputation, South Eugene High School.

The culture of the school is very, for lack of a better term, Eugenian. Equity and diversity are highly valued, though there is still a fairly traditional status quo. But students call their teachers by their first names, they get to pick their teachers and their classes with surprising freedom. It's also the only middle school that I know of that has a semi-open campus. Students are free (with parent permission) to go across the street to the local convenience store, organic grocery, or funky coffee shop.

As far as math, there seems to be a very strong program. For the at level students they rely on a curriculum called Connected Math. This is very application based, and the books don't actually ever tell students how to do anything. Instead they lead them through 'investigations' that cause students to apply the math. The downside of this highly constructivist approach is that the students often lack the concrete rules, algorithms or equations that they would gain from a more direct instruction oriented curriculum.

For those students who are below level, either because of learning disabilities, other IEP issues, or simply because math is particularly difficult for them, they take, instead of one of their electives, a class called Math 360. This class is taken on the opposite day of their regular math class and pairs pre-teaching and over-teaching with structured and guided homework help, and time using the 'Bridges to Algebra' computer math practice program .

For students who are above level, there are several class opportunities, as high as Algebra II offered, as well as math club(s) and quiz teams for those who truly enjoy math. RMS is moving towards an 'Algebra for All' approach which would place all (or nearly all) 8th graders in an algebra class, verses Algebra being an at level class for Freshman. This is likely in response at least partially to the new state requirements of three years of math Algebra or above in high school .

My situation, being paired with four total teachers, may seem chaotic or busy, but compared with my physical classroom situation last term, I don't mind a bit. My 'home location' is with Marna, and two of my other classrooms are just down the hall. My other Math 7 class is on the opposite side of the school. Despite moving around, I feel like I have had ample time to get to know and get a feel for each of my math teachers. My Social Studies teacher has been absent, so I have had a limited opportunity to talk with her. The math teachers work together very well, and have a fairly effective communication mechanism.

Right now it seems that my challenges for this term will be juggling more then one class preparation, shifting to fit in with several different teacher's house rules and styles, and integrating skill practice and drill into a highly application centered curriculum.

Stepping back into music, a bit.

This week, I had the pleasure of observing in the '20th Century Music' class. Rather then having a feeling of a beginning and end, the class felt more a continuation of the previous class, like I did when I was doing my Webquest last term. After some off topic (though slightly related, and definitely important) discussion about the violence in the Middle East, and how that affects American military, the students spent some time working on a comparative timeline, they were to hit a variety of dates from 1938 to 1975. They had to list major events in the Civil Rights Movement (if there were any), the Vietnam War (if there were any), and several of the top songs on the charts. For each topic, the teacher had a website designated as a starting place to look, though students were allowed to look at whatever sights I wanted. I was very surprised to hear that students were allowed, even encouraged to use Wikipedia for facts such as dates, who what when where etc. though cautioned that it is less reliable for things that are more subjective. I'll admit I use Wikipedia frequently, either for info that is for my interest only, or as a starting place to find links to other, more reliable websites, but to see it encouraged in high school was a little strange. I think it also makes it so easy for students to find the info they need, that many of them will stop there, and not learn the skills necessary to do actual internet research, which they will need come college.

The next focus for the class was listening to the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song 'Ohio' and discussing the Kent State tragedy. We listened to the song and looked at pictures from the riots, as the two teachers (mostly Jim, the music teacher and the older of the two, Josh, the humanities[Social Studies/Language Arts] teacher may not have been alive during Kent state, he looks to be in his late twenties). After discussing the event, which many of the students hadn't heard of, there was a teacher dominated, but very informative and student participatory discussion about different social issues of the late Vietnam War (and any war really), war weariness, nationalism, polarization, the draft. We spent a particularly long time discussing the draft, draft dodging, what people's options were and what that means to people who's children are serving, or who served themselves. Both Jim and Josh shared personal experiences which I thought was very touching and really helped the kids identify. It was a particularly interesting dynamic in that class because there was one boy who was quite negative in general, but I couldn't tell if his negativity was directed at the army, or at those to avoided the army. He made mention of plans to go into the military, but several of his comments seemed to indicate a distaste for the draft or coerced service at least. Either way it added an interesting dynamic to the discussion, and either by merit of the boy, or merit of the expectations set down by the teachers, the negativity did not escalate in to confrontation, and when the discussion ended, it seemed like everything was normal.

The final portion of class was spent working on a project that they had started the week before. Each student was using a Mac laptop and the program Garage Band, with a synthesizer hooked up, and they were creating their own arrangements of the song 'Strange Fruit'. Students could use the melody and the lyrics, or one or they other, and they were creating their own version. They seemed really into the project, though the idea of it terrifies me, I've always had an aversion to composition. However, as the students all disappeared into their own worlds with their pianos and headphones, Jim and I got a chance to sit and talk about the types of classes he and the other music teacher teach during regular terms, as well as his focus. He is highly into composition, and composes many of the pieces that the ensembles perform, as well as teaches a composition class. It was also just really nice to sit and geek out with someone about music theory, obviously since starting the Education program, I have had limited contact with other music students who care about chord progressions, or would know what I mean when I talk about counterpoint. The music group at A3 seems very welcoming and energized, I can't wait for the opportunity to check out some of their ensembles later in therm.

On an unrelated note, I am having a hard time trying to choose which school to go with in the spring. I am totally loving A3, though I've yet to see what teaching math looks like here yet, but I also loved working at Briggs. I think Briggs would be easier for me to do my student teaching at, as the resources are more plentiful and the techniques more standard, but the challenge and attitude of A3 is very attractive. A3 is the type of school that I would want to be my permanent home, but the facts of the matter are, I am not well certified to be a high school teacher, so perhaps I should focus on getting more middle school experience. It's a decision I can't possible make until we go back to the regular term, and I get to know these kids better.

Come together, right now...

This week has been a sense of things coming together. As I discussed in my last post, I was sort of put on stall due to the needs of other classes and such. But this week, things have gone my way. We've been able to review for the test, do some reteaching and even create the cool foldable flap books that the kids got to use on their test (not that most of them did...) In the early part of the week I was able to work on catching up those that had been gone, and Wednesday everyone except for one absent person and the girl who missed all of the week before took the test.

It always confounds me the lack of study and test taking skills that these sixth graders have. They have sitting next to them a flap book with step by step instructions for how to multiply fractions, and two methods for dividing fraction. Yet many of them still did the wrong methods, or forgot to do steps, or mixed up division and multiplication. I couldn't believe it. I think that in my class I need to spend some serious time teaching study skills and strategies. Maybe something like a fifteen minute mini-lesson every Friday or something. Of course, with older students (theoretically) it will be less of an issue.

Well, we tested on Wednesday, and then allowed those who wanted to to re-do things that they missed on Friday. All in all it went pretty well, with no scores below a 70%. Though one student still needs her opportunity to retake. Now we're jumping into decimals, and the students seem to be having a much easier time with that. Its a bit more similar to things they are already (theoretically) good at. My big challenge now will be making my webquest functional. A webquest, for those that don't know, is a project that is hosted online, and most of the research and work are done online, and then presented in a computer format, often a power point. We are going to do one where the students have to plan a Winter vacation trip to NYC. They have budget of $2500, though I may increase this. The details are here. Monday I introduce it, and Tuesday we start working on it. Hopefully I can get it done in the time allotted. This is the first project I've tried to teach and I really hope it doesn't bomb. I guess good planning is really the only thing I can do right now, the students will determine the rest.

My unit begins

I administered my pre-test on Monday, and started my unit on Tuesday. As I've mentioned before I have about ten kids in my class that I've never had before. All of the kids in my class are at or above where they should be as far as the material I will be teaching. There are two students that lack the confidence in their math skills that would allow them to excel, even though they both scored above average on their pre-test and have showed ample progress throughout the term. On the day we switched one girl came up to me after the switch had occurred. Even though I had told everyone before that the people staying with me would be doing a little more advanced, slightly accelerated math, and the kids with my partner teacher would be doing a little more practice, she needed to reconfirm for herself, "Is this the higher math class, am I supposed to be here?" This girl fits the stereotype for a 'popular' attractive young girl, and she receives extra scaffolding in reading. She has told me before that math is hard for her, which I told her was good thing, it meant she was learning.

I have to admit, my first two lessons were really discouraging. The students were well behaved, they respected me and participated in the discussions I attempted to instigate. But it was all really deadpan. No one seemed like they were having any fun. I don't know if it's me, or the material, or my methods, or them or what. When I have taught lessons before, like when there was a substitute, I felt confident, the kids were engaged and teaching energized me. This was just draining. Part of my problem was that during Wednesday's lesson, I got confused and switched up a few of the examples that I had planned to use that day, and some that I was planing to use on Monday. Not only that, but no one had told me that due to an assembly it was a shorter time period then normal. Due to that I am now about a half a class period behind. It shouldn't make too much difference, I just may not quite be to the lesson on Tuesday that I was planning to teach for my first observation. We will have to see how things go on Monday, and how far we get. I could take extra time on Monday, and then teach what was originally Monday's lesson on Tuesday. Or I could try and move through it really quickly and 'catch up' for Tuesday. Tuesday is designed to be further exploration of the concepts introduced on Monday, so it might work either way. I will have to look more at the two potential lesson plans before I make up my mind.

Word Processing; likes and dislikes

Unti planning is chugging along. I wrote my pre-test yesterday. I ran into a problem that I'm sure plagues math teachers everywhere. How DO you write equations in Microsoft Word? Are there special math word processing programs that you can use in order to write these things? Now I know why my tests in calculus were always hand written by my teacher. Fortunately I have decent handwritting, so in the future I might choose to take that route. For the time being however, and the perception of proffessionalism I will continue to try and type them. The pretest required nothing more complicated then fractions and division signs. But I could not figure out any way to make the fractions be vertically aligned rather then on a diagonal from one another. Which is no big deal in every days use, but when you are teaching students the algorithms for multiplying and dviiding fractions (or even adding and subtraction) having a clear sense of top and bottom is key.


I am starting to get a clear list of things that I do and don't want in my classroom. I love the expectations from teh begining. Having the students help compile them. I even sort of like the 'give me five' thing, although I don't prefer it to just generally respecting one another. It's better then shouting. I like the use of comedy and humor that Mrs. Keener uses, she is goofy and silly and makes things fun.

Things I don't like so much, or would do differently: As I've mentioned before, if I ask for questions from students, they will not be allowed to make comments. They should know the difference between questions and comments by now. I also have noticed that sometimes Mrs. Keener makes a big deal out of things that would be less important to me. For instance she criticized one student for having doodles on her homework, or for putting the homework problems in rows instead of in collumns. Another thing that hs be driving me nuts is that there is no generic place where the keys to homework sheets we've done go. I assume this is because Mrs. Keener has been working with the same materials for many years, and she knows where she keeps them. However, when I am dong something like grading late work, and she has already put the key back, I have no idea whre to find it. I think a good play would be to have a binder where all of the keys for the worksheets done each term were kept. They would only be replaced to their fiile after that assignment was no longer going to be accepted as late. Be that the end of the week, the month or the term. I also think that in addition to graded work, I would choose to give students some sort of participation points for being present. Mrs. Keener sort of does this with the warm-up. Students get credit for simply having done the warm up, I like that, and would choose to do somethign similar. But students who are absent do not get marked down on the warm up. With participation points, it would reward those student who were in class every day, even if they didn't necessarily do well on their homework or tests. I have had classes that do this both in Middle/High school and in college and I think it is an effective way to help level the playing field as far as grades are concerned.
I am also not a huge fan of the way that the late policy works here at Briggs. It is something that has been agreed upon by all the sixth grade teachers. Management is the biggest issue with late work. How do you know when a student turned something in? I would perhaps get one of those old-school date stamps like libraries used to have, and when a student turns in some work, they would have to get it stamped, or they would recieve no credit. One day late would be one grade off, two days would be two grades, etc. Depending on the age, late work would either stop being accepted after a week or so (except in special circumstances, this policy would be for older students) or would recieve a maximum of half credit if it is later then a given date, but still be accepted (for 6th and maybe 7th graders, as the continue to try and make that transition from elementary to middle school). This isn't a perfect policy, I would have to do some polishing. If I were in a position to be teaching Pre-Calc or Calc, I don't think I would accept late work at all, except in the case of absence. But then again. I also don't like grading homework. I don't know if this would be functional with Middle School age students, unless it was perhaps with the advanced group, but I would like to assign homework questions, but not have them be turned in or required. That way students did homework if they needed to. The day homework was 'due' the students would have opportunity to ask questions, and then we would move on. Grades would be based upon participation points, tests, quizes, and projects. This was the way my favorite math classes have always functioned.

Between my Behavior Management class and the student teaching, I feel like I am starting to come up with a coherent personal policy/philosophy, which I suppose is the point.

Long busy day

Today was the first day of my classes, and I anticipated a bit more stress then usual. Today was particularly unique, however, because Mrs. Keener was unexpectedly sick. She came in long enough to leave a lesson for me and the sub, but that was it. She was gone by the time I got there at 9:30. I also didn't realize that she was not in the building until the sub walked in, five minutes before the kids arrived. I figured she was at a meeting, or off in another part of the bulding taking care of something. When the sub suggested that I teach the lesson, since I probably under stood the math better then he did, I readily consented, but I didn't even get to fully read the lesson plan before it was time to start! Talk about teaching on the fly. I made up a warm-up off the top of my head, with a little input from students as to what they wanted to practice, and set about teaching the lesson on using rectangular arrays to factor. Fortunately this is something which I am pretty familiar with, so the lesson was no problem. Although I originally made the mistake of handing out the square 'chips' before I went over the worksheet, so a lot of kids lost out on the instruction because they were playing with the manipulatives. I did that differently when I taught it in the afternoon. Kids also were having a hard time interpreting the analysis questions on the back (heck, some of those questions were complicated for me!) so I am concerned that they will be unable to complete it by tomorrow. I think I did pretty well with the teaching considering the total lack of preperation. The kids like me and respect me, and follow my directions pretty well. Being at a middle school, I am clearly 'one of them' to the kids. They don't identify with me as a young person, they identify with me as an adult, although I'm sure they recognize that I am younger then Mrs. Keener. Especially some of the more 'problematic' boys seem to have taken to me. I'm not sure what it is about that. If it's the fact that I take the time to give them some appropriate attention, if it's that I laugh at their jokes (when it's the appropriate time and the jokes are good) or what. But three boys in particular who give Mrs. Keener (and their other core teacher) a lot of trouble, behave pretty well for me, though they do need reminding from time to time. Perhaps I'm just new and exciting? One particularly good lesson for today is that I need to pay more attention to time when I am teaching. I accidently spent nearly half of math on the warm-up, and the science lesson took way longer then Mrs. Keener had indicated it should have. Although when the sub taught science, in the afternoon, it took them the same amount of time it took me.

Mrs. Keener has told me, and other teachers have confirmed this, that one of my strongest traits as a pre-service teacher is my confidence. Someone asks me if I can do something, and my response is nearly always "sure, no problem". I hope that this confidence I have doesn't balloon into over-confidence though. I would hate to get in over my head.

I had one other really interesting interaction today. We were working in groups on math and one boy came up to me with two questions. He's a kid who is pretty quiet and is often sort of zoning out. His first question had to do with the requirements for a science project that is due on Wednesday. The second question totally took me by surprise. He asked, " If humans evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?" A very analytical question from a person who I hadn't given enough credit! ( Not to mention compleatly off topic, and having nothing to do with anything we were doing in class, science or otherwise). I took a second, and told him about a story I'd heard about butterflys changing their spots to match thier environment when a factory producing lots of ash was built in their habitat, while the butterflys of the same speciies that didn't live near the factory didn't develop spots. I don't remember where i heard this anecdote, but it's always stuck with me. So, I explained, perhaps the monkeys that are still monkeys didn't have something making an evolution necessary. I wish I'd come up with something better, evolution isn't something I am terribly familiar with. My knoweldge steming a little from Freshman biology, and a little from the book Sophie's World, where they touch on it from a philosophical point of view.

All in all a full day. I can't wait to see what the rest of the week has in store. We are going to 'sky camp' on Thursday to do some team building. Sounds exciting!

Welcome to Briggs Middle School

I am beginning my first Practicum experience, at Briggs Middle School. It is a feeder school for Thurston High, in Springfield, although it's located very centrally in Springfield. So far this seems like a fantastic place to work. The superintendent, Nancy Golden, seems really innovative and forward thinking. The other teachers love her, she received a standing ovation upon entering the stage, as well as one after her (hour and a half long) speech. She really seems all about the kids, and is as negative about new standardized testing requirements as any self-respecting teacher. She also seems to really support the arts as part of education.

My principal also seems pretty awesome, Brooke Wagner. She is also all about trying new stuff, and getting new ideas. In fact, Briggs is spearheading an experimental bell schedule (all on their lonesome) that allows each teacher 90 minutes of prep time every day. Half of it is spent working with their teams, which are divided up by grade level and focus, to make sure that everyone is working together and on the same page about students, curriculum and school wide events. The other half is personal prep time in the classroom.

I still don't know for sure who my cooperating teacher will be, although everyone seems to think I'll be with Brandon Parks. Nothing has been made specific yet, so we student teachers (there are four of us at Briggs) are able to observe a wide variety of people, and start on our School Improvement Project.

Laura Scruggs, who is one of my favorite people I've met (she complimented my purple hair), has a project for three of us to work on for our SIPs. It is developing a foldable time line with dates from every unit that the 7th grade World History class will cover. And then, if we finish that, creating examples of foldable projects for each individual unit, to use as examples and grading keys.

As you can see, there is a lot going on for me, right now, I just have Briggs to worry about. By the end of the month, I'll add classes: Behavior Management, Methods of teaching Social Studies, and Methods of Teaching Math.