Final Blog Post: A Letter to Myself

The following letter to my past self is raw and will probably not be grammatically correct. I think it makes it more powerful that way. Thank you for reading!

***

Dear Chris in 2013,

My name is Chris as well. I am from the future. I am you and you are me. I just wanted to take some to compose a letter to you about what I have learned over the last three years and to encourage you to make the same decisions (if not a little better) over again.

2013 is difficult for you. You are involved at your job (Dillons) and you want to move up within the company, but you also want to become an English teacher. Around this time, you are feeling the overwhelming feeling that there are still two years of college left. And I’m sorry to inform you, but it is going to turn into three more years. Please, please! Don’t scream at me. I’m sorry. I did the best I could, but let me explain what is going on.

Today is Monday, July 29, 2013 (your birthday is on Wednesday). I realize that you are waking up with a numb feeling throughout your body today because last night, you found out that Grandma Paula was driving back from Oklahoma with your uncle, aunt, and cousins and there was an accident. You found out that the van skid off the highway and rolled three times. You found out that Grandma Paula’s head collided with something (the window, you still don’t know, or even understand) and her neck snapped. She died immediately. Your uncle, aunt, and cousins were flown with injuries to three separate hospitals.

Everything is crashing down around you. The walls are crumbling. You’ve experienced death, but not like this. This is the first time that someone close to you has passed away, someone that you remember being babysat by, that helped you build log houses when you were little, that played “Clue” over and over with you again, and that would watch all of your favorite movies with you. This is someone that made you laugh and made you a better person. Someone that you loved. And now she’s gone.

In the midst of all this tragedy, you’ve gotten a new job. You’ve finally been promoted at Dillons to Assistant Customer Service Manager. You are supposed to start core 1 in the fall, but you won’t. And that’s okay. At first, you may think you made the wrong decision. You may think that delaying your graduation by a year was a bad idea. Trust me, it won’t be.

It is April 2014. You are struggling with whether or not you want to continue in your pursuit of being a teacher. You don’t think it is your calling anymore. You think that you should stay with Dillons and move up. You decide to switch to an English degree. This is the wrong decision.

It is August 2014. You realize you’ve made the wrong decision. Essentially, you’ve fucked up. Thank God there are people like Katie Mason (soon to be Cramer) who help get you back in at the last minute. You have to take Cultural Issues in the spring, but that’s okay.

So, you start core 1. You find out about major assignments that you have to do. They are called FER’s (field experience requirements). You freak out. How can you complete these? Don’t worry, you will. You get to core 2 and are taking 20 credit hours (way to many dude). You are also doing your core 2 practicum and working 40 hours a week at Dillons. You think you need to step down from Dillons. You don’t. You will drop one class (it’s okay…) and you will keep going. You will succeed and you do.

Finally, we get to what you’ve been waiting for. That last year. The year of student teaching. You are internally freaking out because you are suddenly afraid of getting in front of the class and teaching full-time. But you can do this. You will flourish. Your supervisors will tell you how much you have flourished. You will pass the praxis, the PLT, and the KPTP. You will do it! You will have to step down from your full-time job, but that’s okay. You’ll be fine.

And in the end, that person that you lost…she’ll be proud of you. I know she will. I know I am.

Best of luck,

Chris

Online Reflection #3 (Spring): Technology Suggestions for the Classroom!

Technology! Whether you like it or not (I do…most of the time J), technology is our future. But one thing that is somewhat lacking in classrooms (not all, but some) is technology. How can we integrate technology into our classrooms? Today’s post is going to be about a couple different forms of technology that I have discovered and that I have already implemented or would like to implement in my MT’s classroom as well as my own. It has been a busy semester, so I haven’t been able to integrate as much as I would have liked, but I have done some. Now, I do have to say that I am always using technology (PowerPoint, laptops, projector, etc.) but what I am going to talk about here is the technology that exists outside of those areas. Let’s be honest here…PowerPoint and the like have been around for ages. There are other things that we could be trying. So without further ado, let’s begin!

Links to websites on all of these wonderful technological tools will be provided in the references.

Technology Possibility #1: Poll Everywhere

I have used poll everywhere in three of my classes this semester and each time it has gone smoothly…and not so smoothly. My biggest suggestion for using poll everywhere (or any other type of technology) within a PowerPoint would be to integrate it into the PowerPoint. Poll everywhere has software that you can easily download (it doesn’t take long at all) and it makes it much easier to begin using it right away. If you don’t integrate it into the PowerPoint, then you would most likely have to minimize your PowerPoint and bring up the site and what not. My only suggestion would be to test it out before your lesson (maybe more than once) to work out any bugs that you don’t want. For example, in my most recent lesson, the student’s answers were longer than normal and it was cutting them off.

Poll everywhere is essentially an application that allows you to create polls that your students can answer using their cell phones. They have to text in a certain code to a specific number to join your polling session, and then whatever they text after that will answer the poll.

Pros:

  

• It isn’t just multiple-choice. There is also the option to have your students submit open-ended items (word clouds, cluster, ticker, text wall, etc.
• It’s free (sort of)!!!
• Your students will be more engaged in the lesson (I promise!!! J), because you are allowing them to use their cell phones.
• A quick and easy way to assess student understanding (particularly if you use a multiple choice question that generates a graph showing who answered what).

Cons:

• The important part is free. But there are some things additional cool options, but you have to pay for them (correct answer display, reporting and grading).
• The username they assign is usually quite long and this is what the students have to text in order to sign in. You cannot customize it unless you pay. But the plus side is, our students are usually fast with texting, so this really shouldn’t cause an issue.

Technology Possibility #2: ZipGrade

I don’t know where you’ve been if you haven’t heard of ZipGrade! This technology is more teacher-oriented, but it could easily clear up a ton of grading time (and then you apply that time to more planning for your students J).

ZipGrade is an application for your cell phones that allows you to grade a multiple-choice test in seconds. Think of it as scantron of the future!!! Now, as English teachers, we may have less multiple-choice tests here and there, but it is still an excellent tool that I would suggest and it could also help a future colleague out as well.

Pros:

• Tests are graded in seconds. You simply scan the assigned answer sheet with your phone’s camera (within the application) and it automatically grades the test and provides you with the students score. Trust me, it works. I have tested it!
• If you set up your application with students uploaded, it will even do an item analysis of the tests for you to see if there were any questions that you might throw out.
• You can do multiple forms!
• ZipGrade provides the answer sheet for you!
• You can sign up for a trial and be able to grade up to 100 tests before you have to purchase it.

Cons:

•  It isn’t free (L). But I recently purchased the unlimited version (and it was only $12) and as far as now, I can use it forever.
• You have to remove your camera off the page once the test has been graded, or it will re-grade it again and count it as another test (not necessarily an issue unless it is using up your free papers in the trial version).
• Answer keys can be a little confusing the first time, so you may need to model it for your students.

Technology Possibility #3: Stick Pick

My final technology suggestion is stick pick. This is something I have yet to implement, but I have been looking for ways for me to keep track of student participation on my phone (since I’m using it as a timer anyways) instead of the regular old grid chart.

Pros:

• Stick Pick will pick students at random for you to call in, but that’s not the end of it!
• Depending on the student data that you have uploaded, it will suggest specific prompts or questions for you to ask depending on the learning level of the student.
• It will allow you to record student data in order to keep track of how a student is performing in class.
•  It will use blooms taxonomy and evaluative rubrics to track student assessment!
• It will do so much more! This is definitely something that I will be using!

Cons:

•  It isn’t free (but it’s only $3.99!).
•  Really, that’s it for the cons on this one until I start trying it.

Technology can be frightening, but it can also be fun! I encourage you to take a look at some of the above possibilities and the numerous other applications and various forms of technology out there. You never know when you might find that hidden gem to use in your classroom! Happy hunting!

~Mr. Naylor

References   

           

6 iPad Apps for Better Classroom Management ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. (2016). Retrieved April 06, 2016, from http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/06/6-ipad-apps-for-better-classroom.html

Poll Everywhere. (2016). Retrieved April 06, 2016, from https://www.polleverywhere.com/account/plans/k-12

Stick Pick on the App Store. (2016). Retrieved April 06, 2016, from https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stick-pick/id436682059?mt=8

ZipGrade - iPhone and Android Grading App for formative assessment and quizzes. (2015).

Retrieved April 06, 2016, from http://www.zipgrade.com/

Online Reflection #2 (Spring) - A Focus on Classroom Management

It seems like the past few days, I have had more issues than usual with behavior from students. Particularly my focus class (Honors English 2) has been disruptive during student discussion. We had a fishbowl discussion the other day (similar to what we did in our methods class) and I had multiple occasions where I had to give the stern look toward three individuals (on the outside of the circle) who were constantly talking. Finally, I would have to say something, but it still didn’t fix itself. Ultimately, they lost significant points from the fishbowl discussion grade, but it has prompted me to reflect on classroom management and potentially try out some new methods.

The National Education Association (NEA) suggests giving particular focus to the problem students. I feel that I have done that in regard to the “looks” that I give them whenever they are being disruptive in class. However, they also suggest potentially turning the discussion to them when they are being disruptive. For example, if I were lecturing, they suggest calling on one of the disruptive students to answer the question rather than a student who is being attentive in the discussion.

However, the NEA also suggests that I should let students choose their own seats. My mentor teacher and I have allowed the students to do this since the beginning of the semester, but it has slowly gotten worse rather than better. Some students do tend to behave better when choosing their own seats (as the NEA mentions) however many of my students are not behaving well. We have even tried moving individual people, but the problems still persist. Tomorrow (Wednesday), we are going to implement a seating chart that I designed specifically based on what I know about the students and that I turned in to my MT for approval. I hope that it will resolve some of the issues that we are seeing.

I do plan to have specific procedures in place in my own classroom. I’ve been trying to use a hand signal (hand in air) to call for silence among the students, but because it is a procedure they are not used to, it has been somewhat difficult. I’ve been trying to teach them to start using the procedure, but they are still slowly working toward it. I definitely realize the importance of implementing the procedures on the first days of school (Wong and Wong) and plan to do so in my own classroom come August.

Finally, I found another interesting strategy that I might try with my Honors 2 class but that I definitely will be implementing with my own classroom next year. An educator on the blog, We Are Teachers, suggests coming up with some sort of game to implement at the beginning of class such as a sharing activity. They suggested sharing what the students did over the weekend, but I might tailor it more to what did you read this weekend or something along those lines. I feel doing an activity like this or bellwork before breaking into the main lessons for the day will help settle the students down and get their brains ready to think!

I would love to hear your stories about classroom behavior issues that you have dealt with so far in your internship as well as the methods that you have implemented to try and improve those behaviors. Thanks for reading! J

References

5 Quick Tips for Secondary Classroom Management That Actually (I Promise You!) Work. (2015). Retrieved February 23, 2016, from http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2015/06/25/5-quick-tips-for-secondary-classroom-management

Foley, D. (2015). 6 Classroom Management Tips Every Teacher Can Use. Retrieved February 23, 2016, from http://www.nea.org/tools/51721.htm

Wong, H. K., & Wong, R. T. (2005). How to be an effective teacher the first days of school. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications.

Online Reflection #1 (Spring): The Semester Fears

The Semester Fears...

It doesn't matter what you do...
Because your cooperating teacher is going to yell at you.
And no matter how hard you try,
You are going to fail History of the English Language --- and then probably die.
You'll forget to submit your online reflection on time (because you were thinking Friday?!).
There's no avoiding it: you will be observed by complete strangers that you don't even know.
Do you like being on time? Well, you're probably going to be late for something.
You will get sick. Over and over again.
Your student (or the entire class) will do something that will tick you off. It is inevitable.
The university you attend will probably come up with some last minute fee that you are required to pay before you can graduate.
You will get a parking ticket: there's no denying it.
Your dog is getting old and will have to be put down (during your student teaching? YES).
You may not get that 4.0 GPA you were hoping for. Sorry.
Oh and were you planning on being financially stable? Haha. Think again.
That KPTP by the way,
You will probably fail it.
Remediation is inevitable.
In the end, you will be stuck in college an extra semester.
Don't count on graduating until December!
Which means no teaching job for another year and a half!
And your students will probably hate you.
For all those KPTP assessments you have to give them.
Oh well.
But these are only your fears...
Some may have come true (and some might come true),
But that doesn't mean they will.
Let the bad things come. Let the good things come.
Because they will keep you going.
You will keep pursuing.
You won't give it up.
You haven't yet.
Why would you?

Genre Reflection #2: When grading essays...

When grading essays…

Sometimes I want to write why?

But that would be mean.

So instead I do write, nice try.

And my true feelings remain unseen.

I asked them to write a narrative essay,

and then I receive a couple paragraphs instead.

Which I’m sorry, but that’s downright lazy.

My heart, my heart, how it bled!

I shake my head,

and I tell them to expand.

I can sense their dread,

as I send them back to revising land.

How do you stress the importance,

of writing a strong paper

that has a sense of purpose

while making them be their own landscaper?

I know that I can,

it’s called in-class rough drafts!

Over and over again.

So they can polish their craft.

Yes, they might complain.

But it’s all for the best.

I’ll try to emphasize and explain,

that they should work their hardest.

I will give them some tips

that will expand their writing skills.

I will help them until their writing flips
to the side that won’t give me chills.

Online Reflection #3: Have some faith and keep on trying (a reflection on the not so participative students)!

We’ve all seen them. Either as a student or a pre-service teacher, we have all had those students. They are difficult. They sit there, stubborn as a rock, head down, and refuse to do anything. They tune you out. I’m not talking about the disruptive kids, we have many of those. I’m talking about the kid(s) that simply do not do anything. They don’t take notes. They don’t turn in homework. They don’t participate. They rarely even talk to anyone. Not that they don’t have friends, but they simply do not want to contribute. But is that really the case? Or is that just our perception? Maybe they want to contribute, but they feel that there is some barrier that is hindering them. Maybe they want to turn in that homework assignment, but they are afraid of what you will think of it. I want to be that teacher that gets that kid to do something. Anything. I’ve sat back and watched teachers just ignore them. I’ve heard the responses, “Well they are responsible for their education…”. Yes, that is true, they are responsible.

But high school is about learning. It is about growing. We are preparing them for college and we want them to make grown up decisions, and no, we are not their babysitter. But I’m going to just throw this out there…they still need us. We can’t just give up on them. It isn’t fair to them. It isn’t fair to us. It isn’t fair to the rest of your class. It just isn’t fair.

I know for a fact that I will have these students in my future classroom. I’m also fairly positive, even though I’d like to think I’ll be super-teacher (I mean who doesn’t want that?), that I will have a kid that I simply cannot reach. I hope that will not happen. I hope that I will be able to reach these kids. But sometimes, you can’t. But the one thing that I’m not going to do is give up on them. From the first day until the last day that they walk out of my door for the last time, I’m going to try. That is all I can do. If they don’t respond to me, at least I tried. I will probably feel like a failure (I know that I’m not), but it will still come. We all have self-doubt and question our self-worth. But I will force myself to remember, that I tried.

So…how do we try though? According to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, there are certain strategies to implement when dealing with challenging students. The first is one that I have already stressed. Authors Mark and Christine Boynton (2015) write that, “As a teacher, it is important that you go out of your way to show your students that you like and value them. Simply going out of your way to greet your challenging students each morning or asking them questions about sports or hobbies they are interested in is a way to display that interest, which in turn fosters positive relationships.” This is one thing that I myself find difficulty with as a pre-service teacher: finding something to talk to them about. I feel like it will come easier in my own classroom as I get to know each class of students as well as the school that I will be working in. But this one important thing is the equivalent to trying; you are letting them know that you are interested in them and that you care.

I have a student in my classroom this semester, which for privacy purposes I will refer to as John, that is one of these kids. He sits there. He doesn’t participate. He rarely takes notes. I honestly cannot wrap my mind around him. It was only after my first lesson that John and me really started to actually talk to each other. I had had conversations with some of the other students, but I could tell that John was starting to feel comfortable asking me for help.

Before that, I did not have much communication with John. I remember when we took a grammar quiz, there were simple questions (what is a noun, was one of them) and he just sat there. He put his name at the top and then put his pencil down. I watched him for a while and I didn’t really know how to respond. One of the co-teachers in the room started to give him a little boost and tell him to put something down. He didn’t pass the quiz, but the thing with John is, he knew the answers.

I struck up a curiosity about John and started questioning my mentor teacher about him. The class I am in is AP Language. The previous year, John was in a regular English class (and from what I know he did participate) and then he decided to challenge himself. Well day one came around, he met the students in the class, and he gave up. He had just decided that he could not compete with the kids in the class and decided not to participate at all, instead of attempting to participate and potentially feeling embarrassed.

John doesn’t hate school. As far as I’m aware, he does not have family problems. He has friends and outside of the classroom, he is social with others. He is not on an IEP and he does not have any problems with the classroom teachers. His one problem was that he felt he could not live up to the demands of this class and he did not want to feel embarrassed in front of his peers. So he plays the part of a student who does not want to participate, but I truly believe he does. He is just afraid to.

If we had given up on John from the get go, how would we have found out about this? We wouldn’t’ have. John is still having troubles, but he is doing far better than he was. He turned in an assignment to me and it was well done. He is a smart kid who just needed some encouragement. Some days, he completely tunes me out. Other days, he asks for my help or the help of the co-teacher. We just have to work with him on a day by day basis. But we will not give up on him. He has done nothing wrong. And even if John had not responded to any of us and to this day he still hadn’t, I would still be trying tomorrow. Because he deserves that. All of our students do.

References

Boynton, M., & Boynton, C. (2015). Dealing with challenging students. Retrieved November 6, 2015, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105124/chapters/Dealing-with-Challenging-Students.aspx 

The K.A.T.E. Conference!

I was particularly excited about attending the K.A.T.E. conference this year. I have never attended and it looked like the conference would be a great way for me as a future teacher to learn new ideas and prepare for my career as an educator. Unfortunately, due to a morning class involving a test at the school, I was unable to attend the KATE conference on Thursday until shortly after 12 or so. I made it in time to see Jaqueline Woodson speak. I thought that she was very informative and a great speaker. It was motivating to see her passion about translating issues such as LGBTQ persecution into her books and I was excited that I got to pick up a few books from her to buy as well as have them signed!

On Thursday, I went to the breakout sessions by Dr. Cramer on LGBT in young adult literature but with the focus on T (transgender). I think that we are beginning to see a lot more attention being placed on transgender men and women as well as students and younger people who are transitioning or something similar. Dr. Cramer gave brief book talks about the many different books that could be included in the classroom. I really enjoyed this breakout session as it gave me some interesting ideas for my unit that I am developing for our methods class since I am focusing on persecution throughout history and one of my novels involves persecution along the lines of LGBT content.

The next breakout session I went to was with Laura Packer. I really found her quite interesting. I've never really thought of the basics of just being a storyteller and how powerful the telling of a story can be and her storytelling activity (as well as the prep work that it involved) were very interesting and ones that I might want to include in my classroom.

After that, the conference was over for Thursday. I really wished that I could have attended in the morning as there were some breakout sessions involving student group collaboration I believe and a few other things that I would have been interested in attending. My favorite thing about Friday were the KATE stories. I was very impressed with the ability of each storyteller to be able to get up there and tell a story that was authentic and true. I was a little disappointed with the breakouts I attended. I attended one about Shakespeare and it really wasn't what the program described it to be. The speaker was mainly focused on explaining the upcoming Shakespeare related events that were taking place at KSTATE and I felt I could have found this information online. I thought the session was going to involve teaching Shakespeare in the classroom, but it really didn't focus on this at all.

I also went to the breakout session about the new students in regards to ELA in the classroom. I wish I had not attended this one. As a teacher starting out, I found it very daunting and all of the standards (as well as discussion about how assessments were created) to be very overwhelming and I think the session was probably more suited to those who have been teaching for a while and are familiar with the students. I had a hard time following along as well.

Overall, I really enjoyed the KATE conference this year. From what it sounds like, most school districts (in Wichita) will only let teachers attend one day of the conference. Next year, I will probably only attend Thursday as it seemed the more interesting sessions were on this day. I also enjoyed attending the social that was held afterward and conversing with my fellow colleagues!