"Not my responsibility...."

Student accountability seems to be one of the biggest challenges at A3. Students do not do homework most of the time. And if you let them, they will be totally off task during class. They do this even when they have a large project due. So if they won't work on it during class, and they won't work on it out of class, then how do you get them to do it at all?

Another way that this effects the classroom is if a student is absent, they take no responsibility for finding out what they missed and making it up, or if they were late with something or haven't turned it in yet, they forget about it. I was just entering the grades in my cooperating teacher's grade book and there are several students who I had noted that they had it done, but had left it at home, or they had asked for their missing work, and I'd given it to them. But none of this work has found its way back to me.

So what are a teachers options in a situation like this? My first inclination is that it is something that needs to be addressed at the very beginning of the school year. Setting protocol and expectations for what happens when you are absent. The expectations for missing work, homework etc. I feel like perhaps those types of expectations were not very clearly set up at the begining of the year. But, barring that kind of intial set up, what are the other options? Will being a hard ass help? Can I remind students enough to actually make a difference? There is only so much that I can do to make a project interesting, I think the archetecture project that we are doing is really interesting and engaging, with lots of options for creativity, but that hasn't been enough to motivate all students. Maybe a big tracking chart for assignments would help. In the spring I will be faced with long term teaching of a group that I didn't set expectations for at the begining of the year. I won't necessarily know what kind of expectations the teacher will have set up, and it will be up to me to set a classroom situation where students are held accountable for their own assignments and missing work.

Gah!

I am completely using up my color ink cartridge in order to print stuff for my Professional Portfolio. I hope it's worth it!

High school is kinda scary...

My experiences so far tell me that I like Middle School students better then high school students. Well, that's not quite right, I don't necessarily like high school students less, I just like teaching them less. The apathy is astounding. I'm sure it doesn't help that I have a really unique and particularly challenging group of students. Many of the A3 students are kids who have tried other high schools and been unsuccessful. Also, since it is an art high school, there is a high volume of math phobics. I am also truly appreciating how difficult it is to start with students half way through the year.

Yesterday my lesson started out ok, if not particularly exciting, but then, when we got the interesting part, I floundered. We spent some time with vocab, before doing a neat little activity called polygon brainstorm.

I should preface this by saying that the classroom I'm using is less then ideal. For Monday and Tuesday I didn't have enough tables for all of my students so five of them were on the floor, or just in chairs. It just so happened that that group of students was also my loudest and most challenging group. Not just that, but it is a shared space with lots of windows and mirrors (that can be distracting) that is a block and half away from the main school. There are minimal in classroom supplies available, and I can't get into the classroom before my class starts, so any classroom prep that I want to do has to happen in the five minutes as the students are milling into the room, and setting up the extra tables. Fortunately today (Wednesday) I got my fifth table, so everyone is now at tables.

So, since I have a very heterogeneous group of students, some finished really quickly, others took forever. But for the most part it was ok, until we moved on the formula invention activity I had planned.

I should say I was not entirely prepared to teach that activity. I had ideally planned for it to be the activity for Wednesday, but since I wasn't sure how long the brain storm activity would take, I wanted to make sure that if they finished early, I had something for them to do. Well they finished early, not just early but 30 minutes early. So I plowed right into the equation invention activity, and totally botched the explanation. It's a really logical activity to me. There are large shapes of a right and nonright triangle, a trapezoid, and a parallelogram and you have to cut them up and make them into rectangles in order to invent the equation for them. Seems like a really visual, really great way to make sure that students understand the origins of formulas. They were totally lost, and not just confused, but vocally expressing how lost and confused they were and how stupid they thought the activity was. It was all I could do to try and help those students who were actually trying, let along try and get those off task back to math.

Today I had a behavior problem as well, but this was one I was more prepared to deal with, although I've never had a confrontation go this far before. I have a student who is autistic. He is not super high functioning, but he also isn't severely handicapped by it. He's a huge geek, in fact this is the kid that I discussed D&D with a few weeks ago. He was blatantly not participating in the flash card/vocab activity they were working on. Not only was he not participating, but he was being really rude to one of his group members who was trying to get him to do something. I asked him to participate, and suggested some solutions for how they could both work on the project and he flipped out an started saying how stupid the assignment was and how he didn't have his notes, and that if he wrote down this stuff it would mean he was stupid etc. He was starting to get really loud so I asked him to leave the room with me, and he refused. So at this point, inside I'm freaking out. I have this combatant 14 year old boy who has all sorts of negative experiences with school and probably especially group work, who is flat out refusing a direct instruction by me. Finally after some insisting using my "I'm serious" voice he agreed to leave. At this point the teacher (not Danny, my cooperating teacher, but Aaron, his partner teacher) joined me in the hallway, though she let me take the lead in the discussion with him. The kid wouldn't let me say much, just kept repeating himself, and how it was stupid to write stuff down, and asking why I was treating the class like kindergartners etc. he specifically said that just because he's autistic doesn't mean he's stupid, which indicates to me that he has had people call him stupid because of his autism before. I wasn't making any progress getting him to even listen to what I was saying, let alone convince him to work on his assignment. Aaron finally joined me and her strategy was to ask what we could do to make the assignment more interesting. She had noticed, where I had missed, that he was saying that the assignment was boring. I had gotten caught up in the 'taking notes makes you stupid' comment, and forgotten what has started the whole conflict. Finally he agreed to do the assignment, and we went back into the classroom. One thing that was interesting to me throught this interchange was that he kept trying to leave and go back to class, and I had to physically stand between him and the door, and actually put my hand on the doorknob to prevent him from going back into the class. It was clear that he didn't like the attention from the teachers, and wonder if the fact that we were both women had any effect on his attitude.

After he rejoined the class he made flashcards, but he just made them randomly of words he could think of instead of the six words that he and his group had agreed to do. Only two of his other group members were there, one is very smart and tried hard but is a smart aleck and talks a lot. The other was a girl who was very smart, and I think already knows most of this, she was working on the flash cards, by drawing anime faces on the ones she had already finished (She proceeded to do that for the rest of the period, despite my gentle reminders to do otherwise). So the boy who was trying hard was extremely frustrated. He was one of my problem kids from Tuesday's lesson, and he wasn't any trouble today, but I could see on his face he was ready to just give up because of how frustrating his group members were, and honestly I don't blame him. if I were in his position, I would probably be a pain to my teachers too. I'm not sure what to do about that group. Aaron and I are going to meet during lunch to talk about today's incident.

The other thing that I've notices with high school students is that I relate to them really easily and well, which makes it that much more difficult to maintain a sense of authority with them, especially in this environment. I'm finding it hard to fit into the culture of the school, while still being an authority/teacher figure.

Resources/Brainteasers for Quadralaterals Unit

Euclid's Elements Interactive Text Book

Math Dictionary

Geometry Puzzlers

Brain Teasers

This is hard.

A flashlight in the dark

I finally got a few minutes to talk to Danny, my co-op teacher about my unit (which will probably be starting February 9th). Unfortunately, he doesn't really know much about it. In general the math curriculum, well, doesn't exist. I think that this is the first year that he has taught geometry here and there aren't many/any resources that the school has. As a policy, the school doesn't use text books. This is both a philosophical and a monetary decision, I believe, and I appreciate what they are going for with that. Too often it seems like teachers take a text book as curriculum whole sale, and just go through the book with little to no supplementing. This can be a particular mistake with students that are similar to the ones at A3. As an arts high school, a lot of the students have math phobia (and many of the teachers too). In an effort to draw in those students, and help them to appreciate and enjoy math, most of the instruction is inquiry or project based. The problem being that as of yet, there aren't any existing lesson plans or projects, or even sources for problems for me to draw from. Maybe I'll go buy a Geometry text book from Smith Family, just to use as a resource for equations/problems, I already have an Algebra and a Calculus book.

Danny walked me through how a typical day goes for them in math. He says they like to start with a warm up or brain teaser, and then move into explaining and discussing the concepts they'll be working with. He didn't really go into any specifics as to how that is usually done. Definitions and vocabulary are usually a large focus for the students, as that is often what holds them back from understanding what is going on. After the concepts are addressed, the students break into small groups and work on figuring out one or two problems. After they have had a period of time to work, and come up with a solution, each group shares what they did and how/why they did it. This, Danny said, is often the most difficult part for students, the explanation of why thy do certain steps. It seems like there is a general 'no homework' policy, though I'm not sure if that is just these particular teacher's philosophy, or a school wide policy. In general I don't think that assigning tons of homework is necessary, however, allowing students an opportunity to work on the math concepts in a different space, without the resources of their friends and teachers can be a great learning experience. On the other hand, I was just reading an article for my Curriculum Assessment Alignment class that was discussing the fact that school trains students for a type of work that is not often found in the real world. How often would a person have to do computations without the aid of a peer or adviser, outside of academic and assessment situations?

So now my task is to search for problems, vocab and brain teasers for dealing with quadrilaterals, and find a way to integrate them into the culture of the math classroom, without ever actually seeing that culture. Not to mention make sure that those materials and goals are aligned with the content standards for Geometry. This is definitely a new challenge.

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.

Stardate 010609

The students keep a journal, excuse me log in which they write their responses to the readings. Since I read at a much greater speed then the students, I found myself with some extra time during their hour of reading, and have written a few posts during that time.

Jan 6, 2009

Despite the fact that class was supposed to begin at 8, the teachers didn't arrive until 8:03 and 8:10 respectively. Understandably class should begin a bit late, allowing student to find the way but 8:23 seems a lot late.There are also quite a few fewer students there. It is yet to see if they are absent or late, or have dropped the class.

One of the teachers, Scott, is definitely the old hippie type - very Counrty Fair, long shaggy hair, round John Lennon glasses, tye dye shirt, glass om pendant. Even his speech patterns. I like him, he's a little scattered and seems to dominate the teaching, although that could be because he is the Humanities (Language Arts/Social Studies) teacher, and Danny is the Inquiries teacher (Science/Math)

We read 'Who Goes There', or began it anyways, a novella that the movie 'The Thing' is based on. They will watch the film one of these afternoons. Danny and Scott make a bit emphasis about the high expectations that they have for this class, 'We are at a college, we need to act like we are in college'.

The students are given about an hour to read the 15 page assignement and respond to the questions, then there i a discussion, which is really mostly summary, and pulling out the important bits to make sure everyone notices, and a discussion of the science that is used.

-I noticed that there are a ton of late students, very late
-Scott often used a character voice or anecdotes, especially non-examples or counter examples, to explain ideas, or how characters are thinking, it's a little hokey, but I think it really helps the students.
-Danny frequently makes depreciating comments to himself, and/or his geekery.

January 7, 2009

Considering that the original impression that I received implied that A3 was all about cooperative learning, so far this class has been very teacher centered. There has been silent reading, teacher led/facilitated discussion, and video watching. It's a great class, don't get me wrong, but it is more 'typical' then I expected.

-Students are allowed to wear headphones/iPods while they do their silent reading, there was no question or discussion about it, just something the students did. However it isn't disruptive, and they don't wear them during the discussions.

-IRE model is rampant, teachers are definitely searching for specific answers and trying to get the students to say them. Polite disregard of answers that are unexpected or don't match.

-In general, most students seem to be on task, and engaged in each activity.

January 9, 2009

Operation Carrot: The plan is to show a film right at 8 o'clock to encourage kids to show up on time. This morning it is the pilot of 'Firefly'.

I was able to make a connection with a kid over D&D. He was looking for some non-combat skills to add to a character creation sheet he was inventing and I suggested a few, and then a few more. He responded "Wow, you're good." Interestingly, this is one of the students that I find the most trying, he is frequently off topic and shouts out commentary during films, but apparently compared to the fall, the fact that he is engaged is huge.

January 14, 2009

There is a a girl, who always sits in the back, on the floor, even when there are seats in chairs available. During the movies she reads her novel (not the novel assigned for class), using a book light. ON the one hand, it seems that the teachers here allow students to make their own choices about learning, as long as it doesn't disrupt others, but no one as has asked her not to do it. I would have said something by now, in a private conversation after class. In general I've noticed that the teachers don't say 'no' much. They make a suggestion for an alternative, and give a reminder about what you are supposed to be doing, but not once have I heard "Please stop doing ______".