After taking some time from my altercation with the librarian, I feel like I should reflect on the experience.
I did make mistakes. I shouldn't have waited until the last minute to look into getting a camera. I shouldn't have assumed, based on Marna's info, that the librarian was ok with lending me a camera. I should have accepted the changes to the expectations for me without questioning them and/or reminding her of her previous agreements.
However, in the long run, I wasn't in the wrong. I think that this person was projecting their personal concerns or difficulties with getting things done on time, or keeping commitments onto me without cause. I can't put a finger on it, but the experiences that I have indicate to me that perhaps the librarian has trouble with time management and being organized. Her behavior towards me indicates that she expected me to have the same problems, to the point where she felt it necessary to have two entire class periods of cushion time from when I returned the camera, until it was needed, in order to maker herself feel comfortable that it would be back in time. She seemed like she so overwhelmed and absorbed by her other duties, that it was more then she could handle to offer verbal advice or directions to me. It also showed arrogance that her needs were more important then treating me respectfully. There was clear bias towards me because I am a student teacher, rather then a certified teacher. I don't know if this librarian is a classified or certified employee, although the fact that she teaches a class indicates to me that she is probably certified, but I doubt that she would have given me so much trouble if I had been a first year teacher who needed to video tape her lesson, or if, like Marna, I was a veteran expert teacher who needed to tape themselves for an award they were receiving. It's possible that age played into it as well. I felt ridiculed for my youth, as if she was equating me with some stereotypical co-ed, partying it up every night and barely passing my classes.
It was an unfortunate experience, but one that I am glad to have. I will probably continue to run into people who will judge me or treat me differently based on my age, experience and gender. People will be rude, cruel, unfair and I will have to deal with it with professionalism and grace. I think that I did that fairly well this time, all things considered, and was still able to solve my problem by calling on other resources.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Figting vainly the old ennui...
The end of the year is rough. I feel like I've reached a point with my students, especially in math, where they don't care about anything. Unlike a month or two ago, I can't draw them into a lesson by making it about something relevant, telling a clever story, or including a fun activity. They don't care about those things either. Especially not with this lat ditch effort to cover percents. There are a few kids, who if you challenge them, will get into something. I had three students working at the front of the board on solving problems involving percents that they actually had to reason to solve, not just plug things in, and they were into it, and they were working together. The rest of the class was really chaotic. I had to ask one student to sit back down in her seat three or four times. Part of the difficulty was that all of the students were in different places in their work. We were working through a packet on percents, and some students were done the first day, while others were struggling. So those that finished, I had to find more things for them to do. But those who were working, and did have things to focus on weren't. They were confused, and not necessarily paying attention, I was repeating myself over and over again.
This sort of end of the year ennui seems unavoidable. Unless you have something that students are intrinsically motivated in, which some classes, by their nature more frequently have those types of subjects (such as the Musical, which performs in two weeks). So what's a teacher to do. My cooperating teacher recommends sticking to work sheets. Keep them busy, with things that engaged the lower learning levels. Higher order thinking isn't accessible for them at this point.
Obviously it depends on the class. My 8th period didn't have nearly so much trouble focusing as my 4th period, but they are learning to add and subtract negative numbers, not exactly a task requiring analytical thinking.
So the question is, are students at a total loss for deep thought and analytical thinking this near the end of the school year?
This sort of end of the year ennui seems unavoidable. Unless you have something that students are intrinsically motivated in, which some classes, by their nature more frequently have those types of subjects (such as the Musical, which performs in two weeks). So what's a teacher to do. My cooperating teacher recommends sticking to work sheets. Keep them busy, with things that engaged the lower learning levels. Higher order thinking isn't accessible for them at this point.
Obviously it depends on the class. My 8th period didn't have nearly so much trouble focusing as my 4th period, but they are learning to add and subtract negative numbers, not exactly a task requiring analytical thinking.
So the question is, are students at a total loss for deep thought and analytical thinking this near the end of the school year?
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
What to do when people work against you.
I'm angry. This is the first time in a long time that I've ever felt like someone was activly working against me, or to prevent me from being successful. I'm sure that that isn't this person's purpose, but it is the result.
Several weeks ago I inquired from my cooperating teacher as to the availability of video cameras for taping myself teach. She told me that all I needed to do was go talk to the librarian, check one out, no big deal. So I pushed the topic to the back of my mind. Time flew by, and before I knew it I was (am!) nearly done with my unit for my Unit Assessment Report. Here is my big mistake, I waited (accidentally) for the last minute to talk to the librarian about signing out a camera. Perhaps I didn't understand how things worked, or who the cameras belong to, but she was taken aback and put out by my request, and acquiesced because she trusts my cooperating teacher. I was allowed to video tape my lesson upon the agreement that I would return the camera before her class the next day, and I would delete my video from the card. Since this is my third term dealing with this, I figured no problem.
Well, I've tried everything I could do in order to make that clip come off the camera and I can't figure out how to do it. None of the things that have worked before worked, so I did the logical thing and asked the Librarian if she could help me out. Her response when I told her it wasn't working? "I know, I can't manage that for you". But I just need a little bit of direction.. "I can't manage that..."
The way I'm hearing that it almost sounds like she knew I (and the other student teacher using the camera) would have trouble down loading our video, but she gave us the camera anyways, and didn't forewarn us about the potential problem.
I went to the tech guy at the school and he and I spent about 15 minutes messing with the camera and my computer trying to get it to read the files, and it wouldn't work. I'm afraid to go back and ask the librarian again because I don't want her to be angry with me, but I'm at a loss of what to do. I suppose I might just loose the film and have to do it again. The other student teacher is trying to get the files off this afternoon, so hopefully she can figure it out and fill me in.
However the really concerning thing is the fact that I feel like this other teacher is working against me, particularly trying to make this a difficult process for me because she's offended that I assumed I could check out the cameras for this purpose. How do I deal with this? Is this an issue/conflict that comes up a lot in schools? I expected more professionalism. It's possible that she is just exceedingly busy and doesn't mean to come across this way, but either way the interpersonal skills could use a little work.
Several weeks ago I inquired from my cooperating teacher as to the availability of video cameras for taping myself teach. She told me that all I needed to do was go talk to the librarian, check one out, no big deal. So I pushed the topic to the back of my mind. Time flew by, and before I knew it I was (am!) nearly done with my unit for my Unit Assessment Report. Here is my big mistake, I waited (accidentally) for the last minute to talk to the librarian about signing out a camera. Perhaps I didn't understand how things worked, or who the cameras belong to, but she was taken aback and put out by my request, and acquiesced because she trusts my cooperating teacher. I was allowed to video tape my lesson upon the agreement that I would return the camera before her class the next day, and I would delete my video from the card. Since this is my third term dealing with this, I figured no problem.
Well, I've tried everything I could do in order to make that clip come off the camera and I can't figure out how to do it. None of the things that have worked before worked, so I did the logical thing and asked the Librarian if she could help me out. Her response when I told her it wasn't working? "I know, I can't manage that for you". But I just need a little bit of direction.. "I can't manage that..."
The way I'm hearing that it almost sounds like she knew I (and the other student teacher using the camera) would have trouble down loading our video, but she gave us the camera anyways, and didn't forewarn us about the potential problem.
I went to the tech guy at the school and he and I spent about 15 minutes messing with the camera and my computer trying to get it to read the files, and it wouldn't work. I'm afraid to go back and ask the librarian again because I don't want her to be angry with me, but I'm at a loss of what to do. I suppose I might just loose the film and have to do it again. The other student teacher is trying to get the files off this afternoon, so hopefully she can figure it out and fill me in.
However the really concerning thing is the fact that I feel like this other teacher is working against me, particularly trying to make this a difficult process for me because she's offended that I assumed I could check out the cameras for this purpose. How do I deal with this? Is this an issue/conflict that comes up a lot in schools? I expected more professionalism. It's possible that she is just exceedingly busy and doesn't mean to come across this way, but either way the interpersonal skills could use a little work.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Social Studies is different.
I taught my first social studies lesson on Thursday. It was on the causes of the Renaissance, most specifically about The Plague, The Hundred Year War/Joan of Arc, the Market Place, Italian City-States and the 'Spirit of the Renaissance' (or humanism and the well rounded individual). Each topic had a slide with some art on it, and I asked the students to tell me what they saw, and what it made them think of. 
We discussed each slide and topic, it was half me lecturing/leading them to answers, and half them discussing, theorizing about why, and providing the information themselves. I worked really hard to involve them in the discussion process, and keep them interested. I was really pleasantly surprised to see that several of the most knowledgeable and engaged students (even if their information did come from Age of Empires) were students that are often disconnected in my math lessons and do poorly.I felt like I spent the entire time talking, and was afraid that I went on much too long, but my cooperating teacher said she thought that because of the pictures and the fact that I included the students in the discussion so much made it so it was manageable for them. Now the challenge is going to be figuring out how to vary the lessons so I don't spend every day lecturing with images and discussing with the students. Needless to say, I'm finding that teaching World History is very different then preparing to teach math, both in the planning and the execution of the lesson. Tomorrow, after we finish the slides, I have them doing an activity creating a compare and contrast chart with the classical era (Ancient Rome and Greece), the Middle Ages (in Europe) and the Renaissance. There is a section of the book that outlines that really clearly, so they should alsmost be able to copy it out, but hopefully they will learn something too. It is hard to find an assignemnt that is accessable, but challenges them to think more then just copy. Perhaps I'll also assign a critical paragraph as homework? It is particularly challenging that there are only class sets of the books, so homework needs to be something that doesn't require a book, and they can do at home. I have to keep in mind that not all students even have access to the internet, so that aspect should be challanging. I don't anticipate giving nearly as much homework in that class as I do in math. Any ideas for homework assignments that fit this bill?
Time Management
It seems to me that one of the greatest lessons that I am learning this term is that time doesn't move at a constant speed, it is indeed relative. I can prove this by the fact that the moment lunch time arrives, I suddenly discover that it is 3:00, and school is nearly done. Equally surprising is that by what feels like Monday afternoon, I need only look at the calendar to discover that it is in fact not Monday afternoon, but somehow we have arrived at Thursday.
Despite time's acceleration, I think that my previous terms of practicum work have prepared me well for my 'full time teaching', and that in turn, this term's student teaching will prepare me excellently for what will (hopefully) be my first year of teaching in the fall.
I find that I am finding a method that works for me to stay ahead of the game and prepared for each week of teaching, but not so planned out and set in stone that I cannot be flexible for the speed that the students are working/learning at.
Because I have all of the classes I teach on one day, and I only assist on the other day, I am fortunate to be able to do all of my prep at once. Depending on how the days fall, either Friday or Monday (whichever is an odd day), I plan the basic format for the week, deciding which investigations will be taught on which days, picking out the homework assignments, and deciding if there are any unusual materials that I will need to find. Then, on each odd day, I make sure that I have read through each investigation thoroughly and have planned how I want to approach it, especially identifying how I want to do a warm up (pre-teaching, or review) and trying to pre-identify any aspects of the investigation that might be confusing. I also make any photocopies I need to make (usually I try and make photocopies two days ahead, in case the students rush through an assignment and finish early). Odd days are also my opportunity to write any office hour requests slips. Office hours are the last fifteen minutes of each odd day, and it's a time I can call in students that have an over abundence of missing assignments, need to retake quizes etc.
In this way I have found a rhythm that allows me to feel prepared for each lesson, without spending hours and hours of grading and planning at home.
Though I will likely not be so lucky as to have on and off days as far as teaching, while still being 'full time', using this method to keep me organizedd this term will allow me to modify it in the future when I have even more classes to prepare for, and less time to do it in.
Despite time's acceleration, I think that my previous terms of practicum work have prepared me well for my 'full time teaching', and that in turn, this term's student teaching will prepare me excellently for what will (hopefully) be my first year of teaching in the fall.
I find that I am finding a method that works for me to stay ahead of the game and prepared for each week of teaching, but not so planned out and set in stone that I cannot be flexible for the speed that the students are working/learning at.
Because I have all of the classes I teach on one day, and I only assist on the other day, I am fortunate to be able to do all of my prep at once. Depending on how the days fall, either Friday or Monday (whichever is an odd day), I plan the basic format for the week, deciding which investigations will be taught on which days, picking out the homework assignments, and deciding if there are any unusual materials that I will need to find. Then, on each odd day, I make sure that I have read through each investigation thoroughly and have planned how I want to approach it, especially identifying how I want to do a warm up (pre-teaching, or review) and trying to pre-identify any aspects of the investigation that might be confusing. I also make any photocopies I need to make (usually I try and make photocopies two days ahead, in case the students rush through an assignment and finish early). Odd days are also my opportunity to write any office hour requests slips. Office hours are the last fifteen minutes of each odd day, and it's a time I can call in students that have an over abundence of missing assignments, need to retake quizes etc.
In this way I have found a rhythm that allows me to feel prepared for each lesson, without spending hours and hours of grading and planning at home.
Though I will likely not be so lucky as to have on and off days as far as teaching, while still being 'full time', using this method to keep me organizedd this term will allow me to modify it in the future when I have even more classes to prepare for, and less time to do it in.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Where do you draw the line?
Each student is an individual. As a teacher, your expectations for each student are not the same. This is especially true when dealing with SPED students.
In my math support class, called Math 360, I have to boys in particular who have special expectations. They both have IEPs (I think), and probably ADD or ADHD, although I haven't actually had access to their files. These boys are always out of their seat, talking, and they both seem to want to slap themselves, hit their heads against things, over react etc. They're both fairly bright, but can't focus for long periods of time.
So where do I draw the line with these students as far as sending them out of the room and to their advisers, rather then just dealing with the discipline issues in classroom. I don't like to take things out of the classroom if I can help it. I don't want to escalate things for the students, I don't want the paper work, and there is probably a little bit of ego that tells me that I can deal with it myself.
Today I should have sent both of them to their advisers. My co-op teacher for that class, Zach, interjected on my behalf a couple of times, and separated one of the boys at one point, but he wanted to allow me to retain the power of sending them out of the room, rather then taking over, which I appreciate.
My problem I think was that I was so involved with trying to keep them doing something, and trying to keep the other students engaged that I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until only a minute or two were left in the period. At that point it was too late to send the student out.
So when you have students with behavior problems like that, how do you make the call about when their behavior has crossed the line. I would never tolerate their behavior today from a "normal" student, but how bad do you let it get in the interest of compassion for the student?
In my math support class, called Math 360, I have to boys in particular who have special expectations. They both have IEPs (I think), and probably ADD or ADHD, although I haven't actually had access to their files. These boys are always out of their seat, talking, and they both seem to want to slap themselves, hit their heads against things, over react etc. They're both fairly bright, but can't focus for long periods of time.
So where do I draw the line with these students as far as sending them out of the room and to their advisers, rather then just dealing with the discipline issues in classroom. I don't like to take things out of the classroom if I can help it. I don't want to escalate things for the students, I don't want the paper work, and there is probably a little bit of ego that tells me that I can deal with it myself.
Today I should have sent both of them to their advisers. My co-op teacher for that class, Zach, interjected on my behalf a couple of times, and separated one of the boys at one point, but he wanted to allow me to retain the power of sending them out of the room, rather then taking over, which I appreciate.
My problem I think was that I was so involved with trying to keep them doing something, and trying to keep the other students engaged that I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until only a minute or two were left in the period. At that point it was too late to send the student out.
So when you have students with behavior problems like that, how do you make the call about when their behavior has crossed the line. I would never tolerate their behavior today from a "normal" student, but how bad do you let it get in the interest of compassion for the student?
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Can you hear my voice?
Last Friday I learned that I don't have quite as much stamina as I thought I did. Friday was my first day teaching two class periods. Soon I will add a third. Friday I started the day observing and helping out in World History with Rebecca.
She had a really interesting topic tying their history topic to today. They were studying Imperial China, and specifically discussing the Great Wall of China. The students were doing an assignment writing a mini paper comparing the Great Wall of China with the potential 'Great Wall of Mexico', specifically they are asked to discuss why both walls were built, and how they functioned, and what caused it to eventually fail (in the case of the Chinese wall) or why it may or may not work in the case of Mexico.
I think it's a really fascinating topic for kids to look at, especially 7th and 8th graders, however because of the split focus, and the style of the lesson, it was really disjointed and full of tangents. Basically, the teacher talked a bunch, and then assigned a reading and the kids had to fill out a worksheet while they read. It was terribly boring, but then again, she tried to do a role play, and it was well explained and prepared, and the students just wouldn't buy into it. I'm really excited about my unit, I have the great fortune to be teaching a period that I have great personal interest and knowledge in, I just hope I can instill some of that passion into the kids.
After the social studies class I teach a Math class full of the loudest most talkative 30 7th graders I've ever met. I spend way more of the period shouting then I'd like, but the feed back that I'm getting (and comparing my lessons to the ones Marna, my Co-op teacher taught) I'm actually don't pretty darn well. The material is a bit challenging, percents, ratio proportions are not easy concepts to get, but most of my kids will do anything they can to get out of working.
After a prep that usually doesn't feel nearly long enough, I teach my second Math 7 class. Friday was my first day of teaching this class, and about half way through my lesson I quickly realized that if I didn't start doing things a little different my voice wouldn't last until the end of the day once I started teaching my third class.
Though my last class is smaller, and more cooperative, it's the end of the day, and kids are antsy.
So my new goals for myself include working on keeping the pitch of my voice low. 'Going under them' as Marna puts it, rather then getting shrill or shrieky. I'm also trying to employ a tactic that Jenn, a member of my cohort, mentioned, of quietly saying sit down and look at me if you can hear my voice, over and over again until the whole class is seated.
Fortunately I seem to have established a pretty positive relationship with several of the more challenging students, so even if they aren't inclined to pay attention, when I ask them specifically to do something, they smile, knowing they've been caught, rather then getting upset at being asked to stop.
She had a really interesting topic tying their history topic to today. They were studying Imperial China, and specifically discussing the Great Wall of China. The students were doing an assignment writing a mini paper comparing the Great Wall of China with the potential 'Great Wall of Mexico', specifically they are asked to discuss why both walls were built, and how they functioned, and what caused it to eventually fail (in the case of the Chinese wall) or why it may or may not work in the case of Mexico.
I think it's a really fascinating topic for kids to look at, especially 7th and 8th graders, however because of the split focus, and the style of the lesson, it was really disjointed and full of tangents. Basically, the teacher talked a bunch, and then assigned a reading and the kids had to fill out a worksheet while they read. It was terribly boring, but then again, she tried to do a role play, and it was well explained and prepared, and the students just wouldn't buy into it. I'm really excited about my unit, I have the great fortune to be teaching a period that I have great personal interest and knowledge in, I just hope I can instill some of that passion into the kids.
After the social studies class I teach a Math class full of the loudest most talkative 30 7th graders I've ever met. I spend way more of the period shouting then I'd like, but the feed back that I'm getting (and comparing my lessons to the ones Marna, my Co-op teacher taught) I'm actually don't pretty darn well. The material is a bit challenging, percents, ratio proportions are not easy concepts to get, but most of my kids will do anything they can to get out of working.
After a prep that usually doesn't feel nearly long enough, I teach my second Math 7 class. Friday was my first day of teaching this class, and about half way through my lesson I quickly realized that if I didn't start doing things a little different my voice wouldn't last until the end of the day once I started teaching my third class.
Though my last class is smaller, and more cooperative, it's the end of the day, and kids are antsy.
So my new goals for myself include working on keeping the pitch of my voice low. 'Going under them' as Marna puts it, rather then getting shrill or shrieky. I'm also trying to employ a tactic that Jenn, a member of my cohort, mentioned, of quietly saying sit down and look at me if you can hear my voice, over and over again until the whole class is seated.
Fortunately I seem to have established a pretty positive relationship with several of the more challenging students, so even if they aren't inclined to pay attention, when I ask them specifically to do something, they smile, knowing they've been caught, rather then getting upset at being asked to stop.
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