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!

Genre Reflection #1: The First Lesson

The First Lesson

You are nervous.

As you look at them, they look at you.

Can they see your nervousness?

You think they can, but you have no idea.

You teach about a poem from the Harlem Renaissance.

They seem perceptive as you read the poem.

Are they being perceptive?

You think they are, but you have no idea.

You finish reading the poem and look up.

They look at you waiting.

Are they judging you?

You think they are, but you have no idea.

You ask them to begin filling out their worksheet.

As they do, you walk around the room.

Do they understand the assignment?

You think they do, but you have no idea.

You get excited when someone raises their hand.

They ask you a question and you answer.

Are they pleased with your answer?

You think they are, but you have no idea.

You regroup the class and begin to teach about figurative language.

They answer your questions and they respond.

Are they learning?

You think they are, but you have no idea.

You finish the lesson and collect their work.

And your mentor teacher looks at you. She smiles.

Did you do well?

You did well, she says. I did well.

Online Reflection #2: What is cheating? How can we change our views?

This may be a touchy subject and is open for debate. Let me start off by saying that I am in no way advocating cheating or the behavior that a student is displaying when they are attempting to get answers to something by means of something that is not allowed. I also want to preface that I am discussing cheating in regards to cheating on a homework assignment or a test, quiz, whatever it may be.  

A few weeks ago, I was studying for a quiz. I was not happy with the way that I had to learn the information. I basically forced myself to memorize what needed to be memorized. For example, I needed to be able to completely draw a chart on a blank piece of paper. This was not required, but the chart was the only way that I felt I understood how to use the information given. On one side of the chart, I needed to know the words going down the side. So I took the first letter of each word and put it in a different word (such as the word stop, I took the s and made the word Sally) and created a phrase. I then memorized the phrase. My phrase was: Sally fed alligators nineteen little geese. It helped me remember the information and in turn I remembered what each letter stood for. But looking back now, I do not feel that I learned the information. I memorized it, used it for the test, and now two weeks later I had to look up what Sally stood for.

I went off on a tangent there, but the night I was studying for my quiz, I decided to Google memorization and learning. I wanted to see if there were some opinions on memorization and how it is not learning, but the fact that students have to use it anyway. I came across a blog post that was done by an educator and speaker; her name is Kelly Tenkely. She has her own blog, but this specific post was about cheating in the classroom, why students do it, and whether or not using mobile or electronic devices is truly considered cheating.

Tenkely talked about how she was responding to posts and someone mentioned the use of mobile devices in classrooms. Another user specifically added that they worried about cheating becoming even more prevalent if such devices were to be allowed. Tenkely writes, “I mentioned that maybe we needed to redefine cheating.  In my mind, if a student is using the resources they have available to find an answer, and they are successful at it, we shouldn’t call it cheating…it’s smart!” (Tenkely, 2010). The use of electronic devices brings back calculators in high school. There are the teachers who will say calculators should not be used on tests and the teachers that say they should. There are the people that say “smart” people do not use calculators. I think people need to catch up with the times.

Technology is on the forefront in our times. I’m sorry that my grandfather did not have a calculator in high school, but the point of the matter is that we have a calculator now. It should be utilized; especially in the classroom. Technology is the future of this world. Students are going to be using even more technology as they grow older and by teaching them how to use it we are preparing them for what is to come. If our students know how to effectively use the technology they have available, and if they know how to research what they are learning and how to cite specific evidence to back up that research, then why should that be considered cheating? I think that technology should be allowed going forward on essay tests or tests that require well thought out answers.

Tenkely goes on to suggest the use of using electronic devices on multiple-choice tests. Why should the students be forced to memorize every single fact? How is learning taking place? I think it could be effective in a classroom to allow students to attempt the entire test, circle questions they are unsure of, and then allow them to get out their electronic devices and look up answers. If I were to do this in my own classroom, I would probably do something like half credit on the answers that they looked up. The point of the matter is why should students be penalized for attempting to find the correct answer. They are attempting to do well unlike the student across the room who has been asleep all year and could care less whether he gets an A or an F…and they do exist!

Another point that Tenkely makes is that if students are cheating on a test that a teacher creates, could it be possible that the problem exists within the test? Perhaps as teachers, we need to take a step back and evaluate the test that we have presented to students. In core 2, I loved learning about the item detail analysis where we analyzed multiple-choice questions and how challenging they were based on the student’s answers. If I do multiple-choice testing in my own classroom, it would be something that I would like to try. But the point is, if students are cheating on a test that we created, could there be a problem there? Finally, I enjoyed the point that Tenkely made about how creative students who cheat are. They truly will find creative ways to not get caught. My final thought is, how do we penalize the cheater?

I want to be more than the teacher that gives them a zero and sends them to the office. I want to find out why they felt the need to do it. Did they not prepare? Did they prepare and just feel helpless? Did they feel surprised by the test? I do not want to abandon the student by putting them in the category of the cheater for the rest of the year. I think that is a disservice to the teacher. I’m not saying that students should not be penalized for their actions, but I do think that we should try to help them in whatever way possible. I believe in forgiveness, and I feel that I will always forgive my students for their actions. I want to help them succeed; I want to help them not to cheat again. That is after all, why we are there.

I want to end by saying again that I am not advocating cheating. But I wanted to present the thoughts of Kelly Tenkely because they got me thinking about cheating and the use of electronic devices. I think that technology should be allowed more in classrooms and more importantly, if we do have students who cheat, we should find out why they did it and help them to not do it again.

References:

Tenkely, K. (2010, August 3). Redefining Cheating. Retrieved September 25, 2015.

Online Reflection #1: Using instructional time effectively...and some other tidbits!

I wanted to go back and recount my first day before I jump into this week’s blog post, so without further ado, story time!

6:30 A.M. is a very early wakeup call. But I’m used to it. I did after all attend school between the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. for twelve years of my life. However, I will admit that during my college years, I deliberately avoided the 8:00 A.M. classes wherever I could (there was just something about driving on Kellogg at 7:00 in the morning that I didn’t appreciate). But my alarm blared, and I was off to a good start.

I figured that if I was on the road by 7:00 A.M., I was making a good start. The journey was not bad; I had my music going and I was engaged and ready to go. I will admit that I was a bundle of nerves, but isn’t every teacher? I realized I was making good time…the school was within distance and I was super proud of getting their early, and then BAM! Cue the backed up traffic.

“Surely this won’t take too long!” I thought to myself. Wrong. And because I love the new disney movie, Inside Out, I just had to include my brief reaction to this traffic chaos:

It was probably 7:20 or 7:25 when I hit this mess, and it literally took (and no I’m not joking) fifteen to twenty minutes of just waiting for people to go before I could finally get up to the street I needed to turn on. However, then I had to loop back around and it was just a terrible experience and I got to the classroom at about 7:50 (even though I was hoping to be there around 7:35) and it was not off to a great start.

But being in the classroom made up for it. One thing that I am truly thankful for is that I had the opportunity to engage with students on the first day of school. We played a name game in which every teacher in the room and every student had to introduce themselves and then state what they would take with them while backpacking. It had to be an alliteration (this is English class after all), so for example mine was, “My name is Mr. Naylor and I’m going to bring a napkin with me”. After that, I had to recite the name of each student that had come before me. So this was a great opportunity to learn about fifteen or so names. By the end of the game, I felt that I had a pretty good hold on student’s names.

After that, it was mainly generics (syllabus, agenda, policies, etc.) but I wanted to give an overview of my first day! J

Last time, I specifically discussed my concerns with engaging with students. I wanted to add some positive experience since then. I had the opportunity to grade the student’s assignments. Basically the students were assigned two short stories from their textbook, and they were to answer the corresponding questions that followed. The class that I am in is an advanced placement, so the questions do require a bit more thought in their answers. I took the time to comment on all of their papers. Specifically, I would usually leave a question that they could go back and respond to if they wanted. If they did not hit the nail on the correct answer, I would leave some feedback (usually in the form of a question) to veer them on the path to the correct answer. I felt this gave me the opportunity to really get a gauge on each of the students writing styles and their opinions. Hopefully this will help me as I work on engaging with them and getting to know them this semester.

One question that I brought up in class last week in regards to teacher research was: should teachers use up the whole class period (especially if it is block scheduling) for the sole purpose of instruction? Should their be student work time filtered in there? I wanted to touch on this question today, because it is honestly something that is always going off in the back of my head. I thought that I would touch on some findings of my previous practicums as well as my current practicum, as well as integrate some outside research to kind of touch base on this particular question.

I have worked at two different schools in all three of my practicums. One school uses block scheduling while the other has students attending the same classes (usually for a fifty minute period, if I remember correctly) everyday for five days a week. I’m not here to debate whether block scheduling is more effective than having students attend the same amount of classes each day for shorter periods, but I do think that it is effective for those teachers who simply have a difficult time taking up a full ninety minutes of block scheduling.

In my first practicum, the students were on block scheduling, but what I noticed was that there was a lot of time for students to work independently. They were working on senior projects, but I think it may have hurt them to spend so much time without instruction from the teacher. It felt like there was not as much direct instruction as there should have been in this particular classroom.

On the other hand, the practicum with the students going to the same class every day, it seemed like direct instruction took up the entire hour, which is fine. Whenever I did a lesson for that particular class, I usually took up the entire time. The time seemed to disappear out of nowhere.

Thus far, I think the most effective use of instruction versus independent work is in place in my practicum this semester. My mentor teacher does an amazing job of balancing the time given. The class period is usually divided into three sections (one section where the students work on voice lessons, another section for notes, and then usually one more for another activity). Within each section, the students are given independent work time (sometimes for a span of two to five minutes, sometimes for ten minutes). I feel that this is the most effective use of instruction I have seen as it allows the students to work independently, but not for an extended period of time so that they do not lose focus.

According to the Florida Education Association, students who spend the majority of their classroom time completing assignments by themselves will not learn the information that is being taught. The FEA has done extensive studies by visiting classrooms to see how instruction time is being used and how effectively students are grasping the material. According to the research they gathered from classrooms where students spent the majority of their time doing seatwork, the students did not grasp the material they were learning nor retain it.

The FEA suggested the use of a four-step plan that was developed by Robert Marzano (author of The Art and Science of Teaching) to successfully using up classroom instruction time.  The first step is explanation in which the teacher explains what they are learning and uses this time to lecture. It is suggested that actual lecturing be kept at twenty minutes (potentially broken into chunks as well). The next step would be modeling, where the students are shown by the teacher what they are learning. The last two steps would be guided practice and independent practice.

As I stated previously, in my current placement, the period is normally divided into three sections. I think that I can definitely see this four step plan in place in my current classroom. My mentor teacher does not spend the entire time simply lecturing. The classroom is broken up into groups and there is time allotted for group discussion as well as group work. When the time calls for it, there is time for independent work as well. One thing that my mentor teacher is really good at doing is not spending more time than necessary on any given activity. She uses the time that she has effectively to accomplish all the tasks for the day.

I think the four-step plan could be used per activity. For example, in my placement one activity that we did for the day was reviewing the story that was to be read out of the textbook. We began by using the explanation step (where my mentor teacher went over the text and answered questions from students), followed by the modeling step (she modeled Cornell notes on the board and the students wrote down notes as she did), and then we did the guided practice and independent work. The students had an opportunity to work in their groups on discussing the story as well as taking Cornell notes, followed by some independent time to answer the questions that followed the text.

Using instructional time effectively is something that I think a majority of teachers struggle with. In high school, I can distinctly remember being given ample time to work independently on something and I usually would be distracted by something or not very focused during this time. I feel if some of my teachers had simply devoted more time to instruction (and not just lecturing but group activities, literacy strategies, etc.), then I may have had a better time retaining some of the material. Instructional time is something that I plan to take seriously and use every minute of. Time is precious after all.

References

Time-on-Task: A Teaching Strategy that Accelerates Learning. (2015). Retrieved September 3, 2015, from https://feaweb.org/time-on-task-a-teaching-strategy-that-accelerates-learning 

Practice Post: Connecting with my audience...a.k.a...the students!

Throughout the summer I was constantly thinking about the upcoming school year and the new experiences that I would be taking on as well as the challenges those experiences would bring. I felt that one of my biggest weaknesses thus far in my previous field placements was connecting with the students in the classroom. In my core two placement, I felt I did a better job than in core one, but it was also much tougher because I was at a school that did not have block scheduling. Therefore they had classes that met every single day, and on the day I went, I would see four different classes. Being that I was only there once a week, it was very challenging getting to know the students and really connecting with them. My goal this year is to really connect with my students and I feel that I have a great chance at doing this since we are meeting them from day one and not coming in when class has already been in session for three weeks.

My other goal for this year is to really practice on becoming comfortable in the classroom that I am teaching in. In the past, I have felt that I wasn't able to step up and really be a co-teacher. I did not feel that I had the authority of a regular classroom teacher and some of that stemmed from the introductions that I had with the students and also with the fact that I was only there once a week. This year I should have a much better time becoming comfortable in the classroom, as I will be there with the same class each time it meets. My only worry is that next semester, I will have to meet several other classes that do not know me and I hope that they will see me as a classroom teacher rather than just someone coming in and taking over.