Prompt #9: General Education Teachers: When working with special education teachers, what are your challenges? Strengths? What could be done to increase your skills in this area?
Well, for starters...my greatest challenge is finding time to work with the special education teachers. As a first-year teacher, I feel like I am spending most of my time scrambling to finish everything on time and anything additional might ruin my sanity. Still, I realize that working together with special education professionals is an essential piece to helping all of my students succeed. It's very difficult, however, when the culture of the school is not focused on addressing the concerns of special education. Our special education administration and staff has seen quite some turnover in the past few weeks. I lost my paraprofessional, several IEP meetings were cancelled, some of our special education staff don't know their case load, no one has any additional time to meet after school to discuss co-teaching plans or addressing specific IEP goals. Some of the staff have expressed to me that the number of IEPs in the district are inflated while others believe that every student should have an IEP.
I tried giving my IEP students different worksheets in addition to the classwork that addressed their IEP goals, but after one student faced ridicule from their fellow classmates about their "dumb kid homework" I stopped trying to discreetly hand out the extra assignments. I also tried to explain that additional practice was always a good thing, but the teasing appears to be a cultural norm and even the targeted student seemed to internalize what was said regardless.
I don't suppose I have very many strengths with special education. Then again, I don't see a very good support system here either. To increase my skills within this area, I believe the special education services need to be addressed first.
The only thing that seems to work (slightly) is my recognition program which rewards students for being "a teacher today." Students that finish their assignments early during independent practice get a chance to sign a "I was a teacher today" poster on the wall after I have checked their work and they have helped a fellow student. Being a "teacher" enough times will earn them several rewards including extra credit, good phone calls home, and even a letter of recommendation for future use. Students seem to response better to their peers, but students aren't always able to finish their work before class ends. Hopefully I'll get better at designing this program in a way that will create more cooperative learning.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Blog 8
Prompt #8: When using technology with your students, what are your challenges? Strengths? What could be done to increase your usage of technology in the classroom?
I believe that my students need more exposure to technology in the classroom. Many of them have cellular devices that allow them to play music, browse the Internet, and use applications. On the other hand, some of my students have no access to a computer or Internet at home (and our public library is not open on the weekends). For some of my students, their only access is during school intervention. I've seen some incredible hacking on some computer settings and students bypassing security measures on our sever. Of course I do address the illegality of their actions, but it is fascinating how innovative they can be when given constraints and curiosity. I'd love to give them more time to explore and "create their own learning objectives" but most of the time I am challenged by the varying desires of each student. Some prefer to spend time dawdling on Youtube, watching video after video of the same rap artist or amateur stunt gone wrong. Others are exploring articles on Wikipedia that pique their interests or playing math games online. At the same time, I still feel like this experience is a learning opportunity for them, so I'm at a loss on how to construct a lesson surrounding it. I also feel like the vast potential of information offered by the Internet makes in-classroom teaching more challenging for me. I'm trying to connect concepts to their lives, which are so complicated and interwoven to many different ideas that keep expanding as they get exposed to more information around them. It's no wonder why they struggle to stay focused in class.
As far as the classroom goes, my technology is quite limited. I do use a document camera which is fixed at the front and allows me to keep myself oriented toward students without turning my back. I'd much prefer a tablet that I could use around the classroom (so I could keep moving). I would also use it to get student participation during class--literally bringing the whiteboard to the desk. I sometimes use Powerpoints or Prezis for lessons that are vocabulary intensive (or when I'm dressed up like a ninja for Halloween and remain silent the entire period). I also include Youtube videos when I am able to bridge a learning objective or concept to a clip and build some relevance to their understanding.
I believe that my students need more exposure to technology in the classroom. Many of them have cellular devices that allow them to play music, browse the Internet, and use applications. On the other hand, some of my students have no access to a computer or Internet at home (and our public library is not open on the weekends). For some of my students, their only access is during school intervention. I've seen some incredible hacking on some computer settings and students bypassing security measures on our sever. Of course I do address the illegality of their actions, but it is fascinating how innovative they can be when given constraints and curiosity. I'd love to give them more time to explore and "create their own learning objectives" but most of the time I am challenged by the varying desires of each student. Some prefer to spend time dawdling on Youtube, watching video after video of the same rap artist or amateur stunt gone wrong. Others are exploring articles on Wikipedia that pique their interests or playing math games online. At the same time, I still feel like this experience is a learning opportunity for them, so I'm at a loss on how to construct a lesson surrounding it. I also feel like the vast potential of information offered by the Internet makes in-classroom teaching more challenging for me. I'm trying to connect concepts to their lives, which are so complicated and interwoven to many different ideas that keep expanding as they get exposed to more information around them. It's no wonder why they struggle to stay focused in class.
As far as the classroom goes, my technology is quite limited. I do use a document camera which is fixed at the front and allows me to keep myself oriented toward students without turning my back. I'd much prefer a tablet that I could use around the classroom (so I could keep moving). I would also use it to get student participation during class--literally bringing the whiteboard to the desk. I sometimes use Powerpoints or Prezis for lessons that are vocabulary intensive (or when I'm dressed up like a ninja for Halloween and remain silent the entire period). I also include Youtube videos when I am able to bridge a learning objective or concept to a clip and build some relevance to their understanding.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Blog 7
Prompt: How prepared do you feel in effectively teaching your students reading? Is this one of your strengths? A weakness? Have you started to plan to the Common Core Standards? If you have, how is that going? If you haven't, why not? What support do you need?
I don't particularly feel effective when teaching my students reading. It is definitely one of my weaknesses, as I tend to shy away from word problems due to the difficulty in composing them on my own or finding ones that align to the standards that I am required to teach. I do include reading strategies when I do show students math problems. I usually point out key words and focus on helping students identify the main question in word problems. I also make it a point to use context clues when helping students understand words that they might not recognize. It is a bit difficult since their vocabulary is quite limited. The pacing calendar I am using has formative assessments with plenty of word problems, so I do use those files for end-of-week assessments. My focus tends to be primarily on addressing the steps on solving specific problems. My students tend to lose focus when I dig deeper into the application or proofs of certain concepts. It may be due to the fact that my applications or interests in a standard are not interesting or responsive to them, or that they are just there to learn about a foolproof formula that works every time. I feel both of these cases are true.
Supposedly our pacing calendar is aligned to the Common Core Standards. Indeed, we are focusing more on fewer standards at a higher level of rigor (using the assessments provided by the calendar). The more and more that I look at this curriculum and benchmark testing, the more I feel like our district is being data-driven. I'm being rushed to finish the objectives for this semester even though our students lack the basic fundamental math skills needed to comprehend higher levels of algebra. I still want to focus some more time on skills like integer operations and manipulating fractions. My students are not necessarily demonstrating the mathematical practices expected with the Common Core. They need to show more perseverance in finding their solutions, attend to precision, and reason abstractly and quantitatively. I hardly see any of the other mathematical practices in place, and that may be due to my poor lesson designs. Still, I believe the aura of lethargy that comes with almost every student is astounding. It's almost a cultural norm to have "nothing to do" and this want for "nothing to do". How do we invest our students into what we are teaching them when all we are showing them is something they could learn through a computer? How do we break this cycle without working ourselves into the ground? I'm behind on so many other things (Rio Salado work included), and I don't have as much time as I would like to lesson plan each week. I've gotten better at planning and improvising, but I'm always so stretched for time.
I think some Common Core lesson plans on the objectives that I teach would be very valuable. I'm definitely planning as I go, or as they used to say at Institute: "building an airplane while it's flying." Perhaps this is just first year blues. I hear it gets better the second year...
I don't particularly feel effective when teaching my students reading. It is definitely one of my weaknesses, as I tend to shy away from word problems due to the difficulty in composing them on my own or finding ones that align to the standards that I am required to teach. I do include reading strategies when I do show students math problems. I usually point out key words and focus on helping students identify the main question in word problems. I also make it a point to use context clues when helping students understand words that they might not recognize. It is a bit difficult since their vocabulary is quite limited. The pacing calendar I am using has formative assessments with plenty of word problems, so I do use those files for end-of-week assessments. My focus tends to be primarily on addressing the steps on solving specific problems. My students tend to lose focus when I dig deeper into the application or proofs of certain concepts. It may be due to the fact that my applications or interests in a standard are not interesting or responsive to them, or that they are just there to learn about a foolproof formula that works every time. I feel both of these cases are true.
Supposedly our pacing calendar is aligned to the Common Core Standards. Indeed, we are focusing more on fewer standards at a higher level of rigor (using the assessments provided by the calendar). The more and more that I look at this curriculum and benchmark testing, the more I feel like our district is being data-driven. I'm being rushed to finish the objectives for this semester even though our students lack the basic fundamental math skills needed to comprehend higher levels of algebra. I still want to focus some more time on skills like integer operations and manipulating fractions. My students are not necessarily demonstrating the mathematical practices expected with the Common Core. They need to show more perseverance in finding their solutions, attend to precision, and reason abstractly and quantitatively. I hardly see any of the other mathematical practices in place, and that may be due to my poor lesson designs. Still, I believe the aura of lethargy that comes with almost every student is astounding. It's almost a cultural norm to have "nothing to do" and this want for "nothing to do". How do we invest our students into what we are teaching them when all we are showing them is something they could learn through a computer? How do we break this cycle without working ourselves into the ground? I'm behind on so many other things (Rio Salado work included), and I don't have as much time as I would like to lesson plan each week. I've gotten better at planning and improvising, but I'm always so stretched for time.
I think some Common Core lesson plans on the objectives that I teach would be very valuable. I'm definitely planning as I go, or as they used to say at Institute: "building an airplane while it's flying." Perhaps this is just first year blues. I hear it gets better the second year...
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Blog 6
Education World
Classroom Management: Ten Teacher-Tested Tips
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr261.shtml
Reflection: reading the article helped me think about my current classroom management strategies and how simple modifications could change the outcome of my students' behavior. The question I kept coming back to was how I handled rewards and consequences in class. I have yet to come up with an effective punitive measure to address students that violate the rules multiple times, although I am now asking students to sit in the "focus" seats at the front of the room closest to me when this occurs. I've emphasized that students who sit in the seats will become more focused and successful in my class as a way of keeping the "consequence" positive. Whether this will work is still up for questioning.
I really like the concept of student regulation of behavior. I do have enough rapport with some of my classes that students will "shush" each other during a lesson. I generally stand still and quiet when there is a disruption and the class naturally quiets down before I continue. This isn't the case for all of my classes, but it was oddly fabricated as an expectation from the students to each other without my prompt. Perhaps I need to make it a unified expectation or habit for all of my courses.
Prompt #6: How effectively is your classroom management system working at this point in the year? What are your struggles? What are your successes?
On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the lowest; 10 being the highest), I would say that my classroom management is an average 6. The values for my classroom management are 'love and respect for each other.' And while this moral vision has kept my questioning and management positive, the vague nature of this expectation has caused students to stretch their interpretation of the concept. I continuously have specific students that try to defy my authority, cause disruptions in class, and display aggression towards me. While that number is small enough for me to count on one hand, dealing with them every day is draining.
While it hasn't been the most effective strategy, I've been categorizing certain behaviors as either: disruptive to the classroom or disruptive to the individual student. Generally speaking, I prioritize the disruptions that affect the entire classroom and address them publicly. The first warning is merely verbal and involves a choice of respecting the learning of others or sitting in the focus seat. The second warning involves moving the student to the focus seat. The third warning (which has only happened once) forces me to take the student out into the hallway for a one-on-one conference.
I've decided (through trial and error) that I will not be issuing additional homework as a punitive measure. It creates the idea that homework is a punishment and the current issue of students turning in incomplete assignments is bad enough as it is. While I have issued lunch detention to students for infractions as well, it has only worked for students that comply. I have no real way of enforcing lunch detention (especially on my students who have courses after lunch) on my students. Once again, I've turned "lunch help time" into a more positive, optional service rather than a punishment.
At the beginning of the year, I created several seating charts, but some of the arrangements were problematic. Students were not on task because they were chatting with their friends, but as soon as I moved them they would shut down and do nothing. Literally nothing. For weeks. The motivation and self-esteem of my students is so low that I'm concerned whether tipping them in the wrong direction even in the slightest will have highly negative effects. And then it brings back the question of how effective are my teaching strategies. Is it really the students' fault in this case that I might not have the clearest expectations, the most relevant and engaging objectives, or the time to focus on every student's needs?
I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing is correct, but, if anything, I'm trying. I'm trying new things. I'm making mistakes, and I'm learning. I hope my students can do the same.
Classroom Management: Ten Teacher-Tested Tips
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr261.shtml
Reflection: reading the article helped me think about my current classroom management strategies and how simple modifications could change the outcome of my students' behavior. The question I kept coming back to was how I handled rewards and consequences in class. I have yet to come up with an effective punitive measure to address students that violate the rules multiple times, although I am now asking students to sit in the "focus" seats at the front of the room closest to me when this occurs. I've emphasized that students who sit in the seats will become more focused and successful in my class as a way of keeping the "consequence" positive. Whether this will work is still up for questioning.
I really like the concept of student regulation of behavior. I do have enough rapport with some of my classes that students will "shush" each other during a lesson. I generally stand still and quiet when there is a disruption and the class naturally quiets down before I continue. This isn't the case for all of my classes, but it was oddly fabricated as an expectation from the students to each other without my prompt. Perhaps I need to make it a unified expectation or habit for all of my courses.
Prompt #6: How effectively is your classroom management system working at this point in the year? What are your struggles? What are your successes?
On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being the lowest; 10 being the highest), I would say that my classroom management is an average 6. The values for my classroom management are 'love and respect for each other.' And while this moral vision has kept my questioning and management positive, the vague nature of this expectation has caused students to stretch their interpretation of the concept. I continuously have specific students that try to defy my authority, cause disruptions in class, and display aggression towards me. While that number is small enough for me to count on one hand, dealing with them every day is draining.
While it hasn't been the most effective strategy, I've been categorizing certain behaviors as either: disruptive to the classroom or disruptive to the individual student. Generally speaking, I prioritize the disruptions that affect the entire classroom and address them publicly. The first warning is merely verbal and involves a choice of respecting the learning of others or sitting in the focus seat. The second warning involves moving the student to the focus seat. The third warning (which has only happened once) forces me to take the student out into the hallway for a one-on-one conference.
I've decided (through trial and error) that I will not be issuing additional homework as a punitive measure. It creates the idea that homework is a punishment and the current issue of students turning in incomplete assignments is bad enough as it is. While I have issued lunch detention to students for infractions as well, it has only worked for students that comply. I have no real way of enforcing lunch detention (especially on my students who have courses after lunch) on my students. Once again, I've turned "lunch help time" into a more positive, optional service rather than a punishment.
At the beginning of the year, I created several seating charts, but some of the arrangements were problematic. Students were not on task because they were chatting with their friends, but as soon as I moved them they would shut down and do nothing. Literally nothing. For weeks. The motivation and self-esteem of my students is so low that I'm concerned whether tipping them in the wrong direction even in the slightest will have highly negative effects. And then it brings back the question of how effective are my teaching strategies. Is it really the students' fault in this case that I might not have the clearest expectations, the most relevant and engaging objectives, or the time to focus on every student's needs?
I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing is correct, but, if anything, I'm trying. I'm trying new things. I'm making mistakes, and I'm learning. I hope my students can do the same.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Blog 5
Prompt #5: “Reflect on your use of assessment in the classroom. On a scale of 1 – 10, ten being highest, how would you rate yourself. What are your plans for becoming a “10” if you are not there already? How are you using assessment in the classroom to guide your instruction? Describe how assessment results are used to differentiate instruction within your class.”
I would rate myself as a 3 out of 10 on my use of assessment in the classroom. On a weekly basis I provide students with a formative assessment that is aligned with our district pacing guide and math department. The rubric that our department uses is still undergoing some experimentation. Students are given a score between 0 and 4 based on their mastery of learning objectives and this translates into an equivalent score for their grade at the end of the grading period. According to my math department head, it is not sufficient just to get the right answers; students must demonstrate certain mathematical practices to receive perfect scores. While I agree on this rigorous approach to assessing our students, the standardization of this grading scale is extremely difficult. Most of my grades are adjusted based on my informal observations on student performance during the week. Whether this is an accurate representation of true mastery is still up to debate, but it is at least helping me identify student levels of understanding on a lesson-to-lesson basis.
I give my students at least two formative assessments on the same objectives. I keep the score of the best assessment for each student. While this works for some students who show improvement by the second assessment, it is the opposite for others. It makes me wonder how students are comprehending the material. Of course, if the entire class shows low performance on a particular objective, I use that as a sign that I need to reteach the objective. Still, I am behind on my pacing guide and our principal is pushing us to catch up. It's becoming harder to take up days for reteaching.
I look at the tests of students that consistently score low on every objective. Most of these students also have IEPs, although some of them seem to have negative attitudes in my class every day. For my IEP students, I've provided alternative assessments along with the formative assessment that every student takes and give them to choice of taking one or the other. I tried to give different assessments to individual students based on their IEP goals, but it became too much of an organizational disaster. Without a paraprofessional in the room, it becomes even more difficult to even address each student's IEP goals. Some of these students remain lost for the entirety of the class, and I'm constantly thinking of ways to reach out to them and address their needs. It's going to take a lot more investment on my part, and I don't like calling parents.
I've met with several parents during parent-teacher-conferences, but I do need to start calling parents--especially those of the students who are having attitude issues in my classroom.
I also need to find a way to help all students who are having difficulties (not just the ones who raise their hands every time during independent practice) during class. I need ideas.
I would rate myself as a 3 out of 10 on my use of assessment in the classroom. On a weekly basis I provide students with a formative assessment that is aligned with our district pacing guide and math department. The rubric that our department uses is still undergoing some experimentation. Students are given a score between 0 and 4 based on their mastery of learning objectives and this translates into an equivalent score for their grade at the end of the grading period. According to my math department head, it is not sufficient just to get the right answers; students must demonstrate certain mathematical practices to receive perfect scores. While I agree on this rigorous approach to assessing our students, the standardization of this grading scale is extremely difficult. Most of my grades are adjusted based on my informal observations on student performance during the week. Whether this is an accurate representation of true mastery is still up to debate, but it is at least helping me identify student levels of understanding on a lesson-to-lesson basis.
I give my students at least two formative assessments on the same objectives. I keep the score of the best assessment for each student. While this works for some students who show improvement by the second assessment, it is the opposite for others. It makes me wonder how students are comprehending the material. Of course, if the entire class shows low performance on a particular objective, I use that as a sign that I need to reteach the objective. Still, I am behind on my pacing guide and our principal is pushing us to catch up. It's becoming harder to take up days for reteaching.
I look at the tests of students that consistently score low on every objective. Most of these students also have IEPs, although some of them seem to have negative attitudes in my class every day. For my IEP students, I've provided alternative assessments along with the formative assessment that every student takes and give them to choice of taking one or the other. I tried to give different assessments to individual students based on their IEP goals, but it became too much of an organizational disaster. Without a paraprofessional in the room, it becomes even more difficult to even address each student's IEP goals. Some of these students remain lost for the entirety of the class, and I'm constantly thinking of ways to reach out to them and address their needs. It's going to take a lot more investment on my part, and I don't like calling parents.
I've met with several parents during parent-teacher-conferences, but I do need to start calling parents--especially those of the students who are having attitude issues in my classroom.
I also need to find a way to help all students who are having difficulties (not just the ones who raise their hands every time during independent practice) during class. I need ideas.
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