Teaching: Entry 7

Sept. 23, 2008
Week 4

I woke up today and had a revelation hand to me by Dexter, well not really, but I had an idea to help me with my students while watching Dexter.  Anyway, I arrived to school today and reviewed what was coming this week and decided to take the grammar approach to try to solve the reading "boredom" my students are feeling.  In reflecting last night, I remembered that the students were interested in the grammar part of reading and I believe it is linked to their love of writing.  Sooo, I will be teaching my reading lesson through a grammar’s lenses. While this may be nothing new to the world of teaching, I feel I may have stumbled onto the secret to unlock my student’s interest in the process of reading and how it is linked to writing.
Besides they also need much more help in spelling and all parts of speech. Because my class is a mix of students with different needs, their common struggle is with spelling. (I find it bazaar that a class that loves to write would not like to read) 

Regardless, I feel good about what I am about to attempt. I also have to say that my mentors was completely right when they said, “Teaching is about adaptation. If you can’t adapt to your student’s needs you will struggle.” That is exactly how I feel, there have been several moments during my lessons when I have stood in front of the class and hitting a wall.  Asking myself, “Am I adapting to my student’s needs?”
But I feel ok, because if I’m thinking about how my students are learning then I believe I will and am doing something about how my students learn.
I had an interesting conversation with a student of mine right after our spelling lesson today. I felt as though my regular happy go luck student was fading away. When I talked to the student I came to find out that she was feeling as though she had not learn much writing or spelling techniques from her previous year.  So I asked her why she was feeling this way and she told me it was because I was asking them question about sentence structure and she did not know any of the answers.  

At this point I realized that I perhaps was making my students feel inadequate.
After learning about how my student felt, I reassured my student and class that it is never my intention to make them feel bad about what they learned the previous year. I explained that the reason I ask them question about what they have learned is to find out about what I need to teach them.  I said we have started a new year and what ever happened last year with regards to their learning, we as a class, would improve on their previous knowledge and the sooner I knew what needed to be addressed the quicker we would get into reading and writing. I also told them that I want them to leave my classroom prepared for the coming years feeling successful. 
Yes, they are a great group of kiddos.

-M

Teaching: Entry 6

Sept. 22, 2008
Week 4
Things are moving along now, but I have to say the “honeymoon” is definitely over. Last week must have been the last my students were going to listen, because starting this week they have been, if nothing else, testy.
I have started to struggle with teaching reading I can’t tell whether my students are interested or bored. I’ve tried different strategies, such as reading aloud, paired reading, and silent reading, and they just do not want to participate or entertain questions that deal with content. I’ve also noticed that they have turned into a group of complainers. How does one encourage a group when one agrees with their students?
Well, I’ve set out to make a change and today I tried to stay clear of the main selection for reading and I focused on vocabulary and spelling. They seemed to like it, I was also suggested to have them preview future stories that will be read and have them pick out the stories they like, therefore they are more engaged and willing to participate. We’ll see.
I find myself frustrated because at times I am confused about what to do. I look at my students looking back at me and I start to blank out. Teaching reading and spelling is new ground for me and the ground under my feet feels kind of soggy right now. I’ve read, “Just because there are problems [in the classroom] doesn’t mean you are on the wrong track.” I don’t mind being on this track, I just wish I knew where it’s going to end up.
I try not to be to structured when teaching my lessons because I like teachable moments and if I’m rigid about what I am teaching then I feel like I’m missing something in my lessons. But I’m starting to believe I will have to plan lessons out, not just a skeletal version, in order to get what I want out of my students. I wish teaching reading were like teaching writing for me. But hey that’s why I got a M.ED. to figure these things out.
I also started reading Nancy Atwell’s Reading Zone I’m hoping to find some gems in her writing. I remember liking it when I read it for class. I have many notes scribbled through out the book’s pages; I just have to unravel my code. Another subject area I have started to get into is spelling. I have started to think about taking some linguistic classes…we’ll see. Well, if my students learn one thing this year, I want them to leave my class as critical thinkers. If I can do that this first year of mine, then I believe I’ll be somewhat happy.

-M

Teaching: Entry 5

Sept 10, 2008

Wow, talk about nerve wracking. The observation went well, but I kept losing my “train of thought” trying to “stay on target.” The “Man” gave me a good review, with great suggestions. After reading the comments I felt like doing the lesson all over again, but that’s the great thing about teaching, everyday is a new day and adventure. Some days you’re on, some days you’re not. Like I said, the “Man” had great suggestions, one being thinking about who your audience is when you are writing. I totally glazed over this fact, hey to hell with the audience, right?
The students were excellent during the observation, which I’ll probably congratulate them about or maybe, give them some free kickball time. They’ve been asking me to play kickball and I guess they should enjoy the good weather before they are stuck inside for the rest of the year. Once the rain gets here, their souls belong to me, it is work, work, work, no play. I’ll write more this afternoon, I have to go pick-up the kids from recess.
Fairly easy day with not so much to write about, I’m still trying to get a handle on the reading adoption and next week we start our “Hopes and Dreams” video for open house. The students are excited about this project.
My hopes for this coming year are to help my students reach their goals and to make them feel successful. I hash-out a better goal later. I actually have it written down in my journal which I for got at home so I’ll type it in next time.

-M

Teaching: Entry 4

Sept. 9, 2008

Here are a few great comments my students shared during our writing workshop.

Reasons People Write:

To express our feelings

To communicate

To write about events

Makes me feel free

Writing makes dreams come true

Because it’s fun.

Writing is quite important in our class and as I said before the class really enjoys writing, which makes my job a little easier. Now if I could get the same enthusiasm during reading, it would be great. We’re still ironing out the kinks, but they are crumbing to my will…hahahahaaa.
I have to say the afternoons suck. My class faces the sun and boy does it get hot in the classroom. The students are at their wits end and here I am trying to get them to use a graphic organizer when all my students can think about is water. I finally had to explain to them that the situation we find ourselves in cannot be changed and that we just have to deal with it. As a result, they are to make proper preparations when returning to class after Lunch recess.
I believe I got this class because it is so hot, none of the staff members wanted these classes and I can’t blame them. I am having my first observation of the year tomorrow and I’m a bit nervous. I’ll be doing a little bit of modeling some writing and getting the students to think about become writers. I’ve become aware of my classrooms want to procrastinate, so I’ll have to work on exciting them to want to work.
We had share timer at our community carpet and one of the students shared a story, which at first I thought was not appropriate, but the students took it in strides and dealt with the situation and then some of the students proceeded to share their own misfortunes on the home front. Some students have a hard life. It made me more aware, that at times students can be acting out not because they are bored in class or some other mundane reason, but because they have troubles at home. I’ll have to talk to the principal about today’s events.
It was a good day.
-M

Teaching: Entry 3

I have officially been nominated by my professional teaching team to be on the Site Council at our school. What that means and entails...is...I do not know, but I'll find out. I'm fairly excited, I don't understand what all the complaining about being a teacher and how hard it is comes from, wait...it's still early in the year, but I love teaching, and all the aspects associated with it. I guess if you're constantly complaining about your work, you should take a step back and ask, "Do I really want to to be doing this job." Come on, you've got the future of all our children in your hands. You should get out of the kitchen if you can't (you know the rest).

Today's focus was on what to do with reading. I started the adopted reading program and have molded it to best fit my schedule, but I still have to figure out how to allow my students more time to read plus figure out what character, setting and plot are all about. We had a great discussion today about what makes a good writer. I also realized that their teacher last year let their spelling go to crap. I believe I will have to start a regimented spelling test for the coming months, but if they are having problems spelling words such as"listen, what, where" then I know they're struggling with other words. I understand the importance of phonetic spelling, how graphaphonics and construction of words play in the the acquisition of language. But come on, at what point do we start teaching them how to spell? Heck, I don't even know how to do it.
Regardless, they will be better spellers when they leave my classroom. It's time to put that masters degree to work.

-M

Teaching: Entry 3

Sept. 5, 2008

Week one…is over. It was a great first week, granted I have a small class I feel it’s going to be a great year. Today was quite an eventful day. We started the writing workshop by continuing our writing assignment from yesterday, which is picking a goal they plan to accomplish this year and how they plan to achieve their goal. We are using this sample as part of our open house night to share with our parents what their children plan to work on this coming year. As an extension to the work they will be making a video of themselves sharing their goals and dreams for the future.
I was greatly energized by the amount of writing the class did over the evening and their scripts were fun and exciting to read. I really do have a group of students who enjoy writing, particularly one of my male students. He is constantly asking me to write. What can I say? NO, writing is bad. We worked out an agreement that anytime he is done doing the assignment of the day he can grab his folder and write.
This afternoon was a bit trying for some of the students. I had to reprimand two of the boys and I believe in doing so the class environment was stunted. These boys were being quite disrespectful to their fellow students and because of this behavior I had to crack the whip, thus they were sent to sit in the hall because they were not honoring their fellow peers time. Well it became apparent that the students were nervous and hurt that their friends would not be allowed to participate in the community circle.
Thus, I had a talk with everyone about how they felt when I punished their fellow classmates. Many said they felt sad and some said happy because they were acting like last years class clown, who no longer is at our school. But many wanted them to be a part of their share time and because of this discussion and what was said by my students I felt they needed to share their feelings with their newly reprimanded classmates. What happened next was somewhat of a shock and I feared I had crossed a line with my students.
We had an open circle discussion, in which the class addressed the two students and each shared their feelings with them. Several of the students asked why they choose to be disrespectful and why they would act this way during share time. The accused two said with sincere kindness in their voices that they had not intended to hurt the class environment and that they were afraid because they had to face the class knowing they had been disrespectful. They apologized and they also said they were happy to hear that the class cared about them. Then one of the boys started crying, this is when I thought I had crossed the line, I asked him if he was feeling ok and whether he needed a break, which he said yes. He stepped out to the restroom and then another male peer asked if he could check on him. Which I thought was so nice.
I thought good!, they’ve really started to care about each other, this is when one of the girls said that the misbehaved boy had really tried to make a smart choice by sitting next to me and that she believes he was really trying not to misbehave. To make a long story short they all mended their wounds and the rest of the afternoon was delightful.
Following the incident I stepped into the principal offices to ask her whether she thought I had crossed the line by have the students govern themselves in such a fashion. She said, noooo, I think it was good, sounds like you really tapped into something.” She did ask me to talk to the crying boy on Monday and to ask him if anything else was going on that day.
WOW what a week!!! I can’t wait for the rest of the year.

-M
P.S. excuss typos, I don't edit

Teaching: Entry 2

Sept. 4, 2008

We continued writing today and I noticed that the children really like writing. I briefly met with each of the students and talked about what they were writing. I was surprised to see the strategies they were employing to write their thoughts on paper. One student in particular was categorizing her memories by topic, when I talked to her she told me she had been having trouble picking a topic. Which I sympathized with her and we had a brief discuss about why writers choose to write what they write. How they at times write something that has much meaning to them. She answered by saying, “I still don’t know.” Thus I said, “Which of your stories pulls on your heart strings. When you figure that out, then I believe nothing can stop the words from flowing from your pen.” While I felt cheesy when I said it, my student took it to heart and about several minutes later she showed me which of her stories she was going to write about and why.
Another of my students got away without writing, but he did sketch his ideas. He tends to like dragons and as a result, is constantly talking and thinking about them, thus I asked him to do some research about dragons. talk about taking the fun out of dragons. I asked him to tell me what they are and where they come from, to write about his very first memory about a dragon. I’d like to say this strategy worked, but he was still drawing the dragon, thus I’m now waiting to see what he brings in tomorrow morning.
The week has been going well and the students are listening to me but I still need to work on having them raise their hands before talking. While it is rule I don’t subscribe to, I feel they need to learn the behavior because it is our school cultural norm. I’ll talk on this subject more at a later time I have to go pick up the students from recess…

After recess I came to find out that there had been some name calling between students. When my students returned from recess they were complaining about being called “monsters” and being told to go back to their school. Needless to say I was concerned, but not surprised.
Let me give you some background: The building I am teaching at is really two schools wrapped into one. A Bilingual school and an English school, there is definitely a divide that exist among the schools. Because of this cultural divide among staff members and perhaps families, students are starting to form their own misconceptions about each other. I have begun to take a proactive approach because I feel if this kind of sentiment is not dealt with… the school community could devolve and become toxic.
I talked to the sixth grade staff and asked if we could have a day set aside this coming week to have a cultural awareness and community building activity. The teachers agreed and hopefully the climate will change.
This is why I like public schools; they are such a social experiment.

Teaching: Entry 1

Sept. 3, 2008

What can I say, it’s the beginning of the school year and the students and I are trying to get to know each other. Yesterday was quite uneventful, we worked on community building exercises and did the: “what does ‘it’ look, sound, and feel like.” The activities went well, but with a class of only fourteen students, should it be expected that things will go well. I’m not sure it’s just the beginning of the year.
The feeling of this school is quite interesting. There is definitely a divide between the schools. So much so, that many of the teachers ignore each other. That open faced welcoming feeling is not felt when walking through the hallways. Enough about the divide, teaching is not totally about the social drama that exist between staff members it’s should be about the kids.
The students began to test the waters today. I have to make it clear that if I ask them to do something it is done immediately not a second or five seconds later, but immediately. I felt somewhat bad because I lost my temper and it wasn’t because they were doing anything serious, I just wanted them to move faster. There was this sense of uncomfort that lingered in the air after I had to scold some of the children.

from upcoming album, "now breathe"