Week 7

On Monday I took over 1st grade math responsibilities for the next couple months.  If I'm being honest, it was slightly scary to think that their math learning now rests in my hands.  It was also exciting to know I have the opportunity to teach them as much as I possibly can in the next couple months!  I started off my math teaching responsibilities with the first of three consecutive lessons to be assessed.  It was longer than usual and my students were troopers.  They were, however, slightly unruly at times.  Recently my cooperating teacher and I have been talking about ways to gain control.  She's expressed that she realizes she has been more relaxed for the last month or so than usual, and now we are seeing that play out in their behavior.  One student in particular refuses to do work during the math block.  We sit with him for extended periods of time, offer him manipulatives, connect work to his interests, and he outright refuses to work.  My cooperating teacher called his mom at the end of last week, and it helped that day, but since then we have yet to see improvement.  We are talking about starting a rewards chart for him to see if that helps motivate him to participate.  We may offer constructive time on the iPad (playing educational games) as a reward and see if that helps.

On Tuesday I had some time to talk to my cooperating teacher about a lesson I taught on Monday.  I had introduced the new poem for the week, which was about skiing and engaged students by talking about the Winter Olympics.  I asked them if they had watched any of it and we began to dialogue about what events they liked or knew about.  My cooperating teacher commented that she thought that dialogue was a really good idea to help them make connections to the poem.  We then discussed how surprised we were that not many of my students knew about the Olympics.  It made me realize that I need to incorporate more visuals and even videos when possible, as well as talk about topics or subjects that they may not know about, such as the Olympics.  Because some knew and others learned about the Olympics, they were much more interested in the poem than they would have been (2N).

Wednesday I taught a writing lesson and for the first time this semester, my students finished much faster than my cooperating teacher or I expected them to.  I was able to keep them working and focused by showing the students who finished quickly the next step in their writing process for the piece, but I couldn't believe how quickly they worked and how focused they stayed.  They are usually all over the place during writing:  getting out of their seats, talking to their neighbor, pretending they don't know what to write, etc, but today they got right to work and finished quickly.  I think it's because the topic they were writing about was one they chose.  We are in the middle of a nonfiction unit for reading, so they are writing nonfiction pieces in writing as well.  Today they had to choose something they know a lot about as their writing topic.  Many of them were excited to write about the things they really like.  It was great to see them work so hard during writing, but now I also know what they are capable of accomplishing.  Hopefully our writing time will look a lot more similar to what it did today than most other days.  

Thursday my cooperating teacher and I began working on a behavior plan for a student who has been unmotivated and obstinate.  He refuses to complete work, even when he knows how to do it.  One little thing sets him off and he puts his head down and doesn't respond to anything we say.  We came up with a plan to set one morning reading goal for him and one afternoon math goal for him.  Each time he meets that goal he will get a sticker on a chart.  When he fills a line in the chart he will get a reward, such as playing an educational game on the iPad.  It was reassuring to talk with my cooperating teacher about the struggles she has with the student to know that it's not just me.  It was also hopeful to discuss the progress we hope he will make.  We are going to try to implement the system starting Monday.  I'm looking forward to see his response.

We focused our "science Friday" on animals.  We talked about the needs of animals and played a classification game.  In the afternoon my teacher asked me to teach math.  I had about 10 minutes to plan the math block using the math problem of the month.  I made a guide sheet in the computer lab during their bathroom break and gave them a challenge problem and manipulatives to compare the heights of giraffes.  Students worked busily for almost a half hour trying to figure out the problem.  The lesson turned out better than I expected, which was great.  It was a good experience to have to plan on my feet and improvise as well!


Schmidt chapters 8 and 9 talked about authentic assessment, history and the arts.  Even if I am not directly teaching social studies or the arts, they can still be incorporated into classroom learning.  Some of the strategies Schmidt mentioned really stuck out to me.  One of these is using images to teach history.  By showing students a photography and asking open-ended questions, they use critical thinking skills, can visually process information, and produce language to describe their analysis.  This strategy can be used not only in connection with history, but any relevant topic portrayed in an image.  This strategy is also one I would love to use with English Language Learners.  Another strategy described was using historic simulations.  Students learn to take on the perspective of someone else as well as produce language by participating in the simulation.  One strategy Schmidt mentions in terms of the arts is to ask students to participate in a readers' theater, but to give them props to use.  This encourages movement and a dramatization of the text.  It appeals to kinesthetic and visual learners.  A final strategy I really liked was "Say What?" The teacher describes a simple scenario to students and asks students to volunteer to act out the scene, "emphasizing what the characters say as well as their gestures and actions" (Schmidt, p. 194).  I like this strategy because it is spacial, kinesthetic, and verbal.  Students listening and watching also receive language.

In terms of authentic assessment, Schmidt talked about how the goal of assessment is to show mastery and to produce new knowledge.  Assessment becomes authentic and is driven by motivation when presented to someone outside the normal classroom setting such as parents, peers, knowledgeable community members, etc. through demonstrations, performances, products, etc.  I have seen authentic assessment used only a few times in the classroom.  From my own experience, I participated in a court debate over a constitutional issue in high school.  We performed the debate for a team of historians from the community and were judged by that panel.  Other forms of authentic assessment from my own school experience included a science fair, a country fair (in which we picked a country and had to present the culture of that country to people we invited from the community), and a dramatic performance of a modified version of a Shakespeare play to another English class in high school.

As I thought of ways I could use authentic assessment with my first and second graders, I thought of the resources I have as a college student. Because I have friends from a variety of majors it would be easy to bring in "community experts" from a variety of disciplines for a class of first graders.  I was considering incorporating an art project and bringing in an art expert for my students to present to.  I'll have to look into community experts.  I'd really like to try to find someone who knows a lot about plants to incorporate a plant science project with an authentic assessment.

Week 6

Monday I taught a first grade math lesson.  I have been trying to incorporate white boards into our activities during math for a couple reasons.  First, by the afternoon, it seems as if my students are really worn out.  They have a hard time focusing during math and seem tired. Many of them put their heads in their hands and seem to look off into space easily.  Second, they really love using the white boards.  Every time we get them out they get really excited.  They also ask to use them ALL the time.  So on Monday we used them and once again, they loved it.  I also tried playing a game to engage them and access prior knowledge and they enjoyed that a lot too.

One thing that's been on my mind in regard to a couple of my students is working on interacting with them in a positive way even when they are not paying attention and zoned out.  It seems like no matter how many games we play or stories I tell or how many times I call on them or incorporate something they are interested in into the lesson, they still zone out and "turn off" during math.  I honestly think they're just tired.  One of my goals as we continue this semester is to try to find a way to keep them focused on math, engaged, and eager to participate.

Tuesday my students were unruly.  My teacher got visibly frustrated for the first time this semester.  It seemed like every routine they should have been going through with ease, they completely forgot.  Numerous times they had to sit down and line up again, or return to their seats and walk to the carpet, or put the white boards back and sit down again.  The list could go on.  Maybe it's because they were anticipating a day off on Wednesday?  Anyway, it was interesting to talk to my cooperating teacher about days like Tuesday.  We talked about ways to avoid annoyance, like moving students who are annoying you out of your direct line of vision.  We also talked about practicing routines and expecting a certain behavior from students without settling for anything less.  It was a good experience to talk with her about it and be a part of the chaos in order to practice dealing with it appropriately.

Wednesday we had a day off for Lincoln's birthday.  Thursday I taught writing while my teacher was at a meeting.  My students had had a rough morning (actually a rough week…we've been talking about reinforcing behavior management strategies) so I strayed from the plan I had made and asked them to write using their usual writing format.  One student who has been testing me in terms of behavior for the past week or two was doing so again during writing.  When I handed him his graphic organizer and blank sheet of writing paper so he could begin working, he asked me if he would be able to draw and color his animal that he had written about.  I told him if he worked hard enough and finished a presentable piece of writing that he could.  When he raised his hand ten minutes later (record time for him) and showed me a BEAUTIFULLY finished piece of writing I knelt beside him, looked him straight in the eye and told him how much I appreciated his hard work, telling him all the good things he incorporated into his writing.  I finished it with an emphatic, "_____, I'm PROUD OF YOU." He was beaming.  It was wonderful.

On Friday we celebrated not only Valentine's Day, but also 100 day.  When my  cooperating teacher told me we were going to celebrate Valentine's Day I was skeptical as to how we would be tying it into our normal activities, but when we started planning for Friday, I was excited about incorporating it into math.  We had students rotate through three stations:  one where they had to work together to count and glue 100 sprinkles onto a giant cupcake, one where they had to roll a die to 100 (using stickers to mark their spot each time), and one where they had to predict where they would end up after taking 100 steps from our classroom (and then count to see where they actually ended up).  I took the group into the hallway and my cooperating teacher monitored those working in the classroom.  The time was meaningful and useful in learning about number sense.  It was also a great time of co-planning and co-teaching with my cooperating teacher (5Q).  

Week 5

On Monday I spent the morning preparing materials for my cooperating teacher and organizing the room to begin a new week before getting sick at school.  My teacher sent me home after planning the next day's lesson with me.  On Tuesday, I got the chance to observe the RtI teacher during a 30 minute intensive reading session with four students from my classroom.  The entire time the students were focused, working, and engaged.  The RtI room was an example of a classroom I really enjoyed being in, and I could tell the students enjoyed it too.  I like the small group aspect, but also the atmosphere of the room.  The RtI teacher gave a great amount of positive feedback.  Encouragement was continuous and she often called them to be leaders.  She explained to me later that she talked to them about being good readers and being good leaders often because they do not get as much of that kind of feedback in their regular classroom.  At the end before the students left to return to class, she made sure to tell them all individually one thing they did really well and one thing she wanted them to work on.  She does that each day before the students leave.  It was a great reminder to find ways to incorporate that atmosphere into a large classroom as well.

On Wednesday my cooperating teacher asked me to test all of our students on Fry's list of sight words, something CPS is now requiring to be tested on a weekly basis (which we learned at our professional development day a couple weeks ago).  I had each student read the words on the list until they missed ten words, then made folders for each student with a list of the first ten words they need to work on.  I couldn't help but think about how much work it would be for my cooperating teacher to implement and keep up with this task without my help.  We were talking today about how it will most likely affect their spelling grades as well, because they will most likely only study one of the lists each week.  I understand the benefit of learning sight words, especially for our emerging readers, but it's difficult to fit  so many different forms of testing into each school week without taking away from other areas of learning.

On Thursday we structured math a little differently than normal.  We tried incorporating math games for the second time this week during independent work for both grades.  Because we used one day to introduce the games, today the students played them successfully.  It was a great environment and gave my teacher and I encouragement in using them again.  The students were enjoying themselves, interacting with peers, and learning math concepts.  It was wonderful to observe.  Hopefully I'll incorporate that into my future planning!

On Friday my teacher and I planned afternoon activities to be interdisciplinary and to include application practice (IPTS 3L).  I enjoy Fridays because we stray from our normal routine and integrate social studies and science with our reading and math activities.  This week we accessed students' prior knowledge about house blueprints and invention designs (from all the literature we have been reading in the unit "Inventing Fun" for the past several weeks) and asked students to use different mediums to construct the blueprints of a house.  Students explored how shapes fit together by using pattern blocks, snap tiles, building blocks. cubes, and paper shapes to create blueprints for their dream house.  The students LOVED this activity and were enthusiastic about spending the afternoon working on it.  We then took pictures of everyone's blueprints and shared them with the class.  I'm looking forward to planning Fridays during my full time teaching!

Schmidt devotes an entire chapter to communication with parents.  Before reading the chapter I thought I had a solid foundation regarding communication with parents.  Things like making eye contact, setting boundaries, being clear in communication, and being intentional about positive communication were things I already knew.  Chapter 11, however, contained a great deal of relevant information, especially regarding parent-teacher conferences.  I like Schmidt's idea of focusing on enlightenment in communication with parents.  Having this goal drives the direction and procedure of communicating with parents.  Practical tips I noted were using bulleted points instead of full sentences when possible on news letters, including student work in newsletters, and including a rolling calendar on student newsletters.

The chapter also contained a great deal of relevant information about parent-teacher conferences.  The cultural considerations were helpful in beginning to consider my own students and how their home cultures may differ when it comes to communication.  I'm realizing that being knowledgeable about students' cultures but also observant whenever possible is important, noticing things like what a comfortable distance is for a conversation with students' parents and considering that parents have affective filters too.  I found the idea of having a parent preparation packet for conferences useful.  The questions included would be helpful, but I also wondered how many of the parents of my students would complete it.  I also appreciated tips like having an agenda and sending out thank-yous after conferences.  Overall, I feel like the chapter helped prepare me for conferences, but I also wondered how my ideas would play into my cooperating teacher's ideas and methods for conferences, which is something we'll have to discuss.