I Survived Methods!

Background: I have “microtaught” for 5-7 minutes in front of my methods class 2x now.  I have learned a lot, realized some positive things, and realized some things I need to work on and will continue to work on in the future.

1. You are your harshest critic.

The worst part of micro teaching is after you have just finished and you are sitting back at your desk waiting for you peers to finish writing down their thoughts on what you did well on and what you can improve upon. At this point I am usually sitting at my desk thinking of a million and one things that I did wrong or that I could have done differently. When it comes to receiving feedback my peers were either a. EXTREMELY easy on me, or b. I was just way too harsh on myself. Their comments aligned with many of the things I thought of myself and it was helpful to become aware of some things I might not have thought of myself. Then after watching the video of myself teaching I thought that a. I actually wasn’t too bad and b. maybe I didn’t do as poorly as I thought. Of course there are numerous things I know I need to work on and will continue to work on throughout my career, but I concluded that I expected the worst and surprised myself by not being completely terrible and stuttering and running out of the classroom crying. So I gave myself a little pat on the back.

 2. Things do not always go as planned, but that’s ok,. Have a plan B!

You obviously hope that your students will participate actively and have a response to every question that you ask them, but this is not always the case. One can dream though…

You don’t want to spoon feed them answers but I can see where is can get frustrating if students are staring back at you in silence. Luckily when microteaching I had classmates who were willing to participate but I was nervous I would get the blank stare response. Because of this I realized it is good to have a plan B in the event this does happen. While it is a little unrealistic to have a backup plan for everything, it is important to be aware of points in your lesson that could potentially go wrong and try to plan accordingly especially with something involving technology. Technology can be your best friend or worst enemy.

Adapt and be able to just go with the flow. Act like you always know what you’re doing! The teacher is always right, right?

3. I don’t speak as quickly as I think I do.

When I stand up in front of the class I feel as if I’m going a mile a minute. I want to fit in everything I have to say yet I still want students to feel comfortable asking questions and making any inquiries that they need too. When receiving feedback from my peers the overall consensus was that I had a pretty good pace. It was surprising to hear this because I sometimes felt as if my mouth was a runaway train speeding down the track. I learned that a good way to gauge this is by simply looking at your students. If they look like deer in headlights or they might want to cry, this is not a good sign. If they laugh at your attempted jokes or smile and nod their head from time to time, this is a good sign. It is always good to simply ask students if they have questions from time to time and open up a space for discussion in case you were being overwhelming with information or talking a mile a minute.

4. I am surprisingly comfortably in front of the class.

As my 5-7 minutes progressed I found myself feeling more and more relaxed and comfortable. By my second microteaching I wanted more time in front of the class to share even more of my lesson with them (whether they were interested or not). I think it is rare that people feel comfortable speaking in front of groups of people and I envy those who do this with ease, low blood pressure, un-sweaty armpits, and confidence. I have learned that when I’m up in front of the class I can put on my teacher face and really command and control the room the way I want to, while still having an open and friendly demeanor (this was really nice to hear from my peers).

5. I don’t know what to do with my hands! I will work on this…

This one is self-explanatory. It’s one of those things you don’t think about. I’m usually pretty animated with my hands so this works in my favor, but while watching the video of myself teaching I really began focusing on this. It’s weird I know, but it’s one of the things I am now conscious of. I have included a few links that I checked out myself. They might help you if you share my problem. Not everything applies directly to public speaking in terms of teaching but I still thought they were helpful.

http://www.howcast.com/videos/505112-What-to-Do-with-Your-Hands-Public-Speaking

The 5-step cure for boring body language

English Classroom or Ethics Arena?

Ms. P begins handing out tests to students after they have finished asking her any last minute questions that they have. “You’ll have the whole period to finish this test. It will probably take up the whole period so I will periodically let you know how much time you have left,” she says. The students all receive their tests and are huddled over their desks writing away. Ten minutes later this scene changes a little.  In walks Jared, ten minutes late to the test. His first issue is the location of his seat. Ms. P tells him where he should sit; yet he chooses a completely different seat. Ok, she lets this slide. Jared then begins talking to those around him about how he didn’t know they had a test, this is stupid, and a series of other things he mumbles. Ms. P informs him that the class was not obligated to wait for him to start the test and he can feel free to leave. He chooses to leave. However, he cannot simply walk out of the classroom he has to rip up his test, and knock over a few things on his way out. “Ok, focus people. Sorry for that outburst but everyone back to your tests,” says Ms. P as she follows Jared out of the classroom.

 

Upon her return to the classroom Ms. P briefly told me what happened on her walk with Jared. I was interested to hear this, though didn’t want to invade Jared’s privacy and flat out ask what his issue is. Apparently the seat Ms. P wanted Jared to sit in was next to a girl he was having serious issues with. Ms. P said she asked Jared how he could have handled the situation better and he responded that he could have spoken to Ms. P rather than ignore her request. He knew he was wrong and admitted that he could have handled the situation much more maturely. For this particular student it was clear problems outside of school were infiltrating the classroom for him. After class Jared returned to the room and apologized numerous times to Ms. P. All she asked of him was that he think before he has any more outbursts like that, is more respectful to his classmates (which was the part of the outburst that bothered her the most), and that next time he should feel he is able to talk to her. She explained that if he had said “Ms. P can I talk to you for a second outside” she would have been more than happy to listen to what he had to say. By not, in a sense, confronting Jared in front of the whole class and possibly embarrassing him, Ms. P helped to develop a stronger trust with Jared and I would like to think that after seeing how things played out in this situation he would truly feel comfortable talking to her about any difficulties he is having. This small action could go a long way.

As Christenbury states, “Students privacy, fairness to all students, protection of students who are vulnerable, being friends with your students, and sexual ethics are five issues we need to consider” (276). On top of worrying about lesson planning, backward design, CCSS, making sure you come to class prepared, etc. teachers must worry about ethics and the place of ethics in the classroom. The NYS Code of Ethics for Educators lays out a series of ethical principles for educators. Principle 1 states, “Educators nurture the intellectual, physical, emotional, social, and civic potential of each student.” I though of Ms. P and Jared in regard to this principle. Rather than harboring any ill will for her student, Ms. P was more affected by the fact that Jared thought he couldn’t talk to her about the problems he was having. I think nurture is an interesting word choice in this principle. Nurturing is usually associated with parents and their children. Yet, in a sense a teacher is like a second parent to their students. They see them 5 times a week, get to know their students very well, and oftentimes teachers know a lot more about what’s going on in the students lives than the students actually suspect.  Below is a link for a website that touches upon some basics of ethics in the classroom.

http://teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/3522-creating-an-ethical-classroom

Whether it is student privacy, being fair to students, sexual ethics, or simply ethics in a text you are reading as a class, the issue of ethics is one teachers will face daily. As Christenbury says, “This is our challenge on the journey. It is personal, it is social. It has profound consequences for ourselves and for our students.” (286)

 

Christenbury, Leila. Making the Journey: Being and Becoming a Teacher of English Language Arts. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2006.

NYS Code of Ethics for Educators

How are You Motivated?

In Erika Daniels article “Creating Motivating Learning Environments: What We Can Learn from Research and Students,” she writes “Teachers cannot make someone motivated, but they can create motivating learning environments” (25). As I have read more and more about teaching, teaching techniques, classrooms tips, etc. it has become clear that as much as you might want to make everyone happy and everyone engaged all the time this is not always possible. When I think about what my classroom will be like when I am officially a teacher I picture students sitting upright, all hands raised when I ask a question, no side conversations, and students paying attention and enjoying my lessons. And then I think back to my experiences that I had throughout middle school and high school and what I am viewing in the classroom now as I continue my observations. Just today the teacher I am observing (we’ll call her Ms. C) said to me “don’t let students do independent work, they’ll never get anything done.” We went on to talk about how they should be happy that they have been given extra time to complete their work so they won’t have to take it home. But being high school students they have countless other things on their mind that seem to take priority over their schoolwork. This made me think of the concept of motivation. While one would think that the students in the class would be motivated to do their work during this time so they would get it done and wouldn’t have to work on it later, it was clear the motivation wasn’t there.

In my dream classroom set up my students are always motivated, but I know this will not always be the case. Daniels writes that students feel motivated when

1. They feel some sense of autonomy or control
2. They feel connected to the class and school
3. They feel as if they posses the skills necessary to meet the challenges of school (25)

In the classes I have observed it is clear that student’s feel they have input into what is going on in the classroom. I have observed Ms. C giving students the option of doing one activity first over another. Because of this, students seem to be more involved since they got to share their input into what is going on. For example in one class I observed the teacher gave the students options between reading two short stories. She described the short stories and told the class she wanted half the class to read one and the other half to read the other. They would then pair up and explain the short story to their partner (which is similar to a classroom activity I recently did). Although the numbers were a little uneven a few students were willing to switch so that the class would be evenly divided. I think that giving students the options often makes them feel like they have a say in what is going on and helps them to see that teachers so care about their input and opinions. This can work as a great motivating factor to help students to engage in whatever reading or activity they may be doing.

The teachers I have observed have also been surprisingly encouraging to their students. Today students were getting distracted while answering some questions about what they read to try to get them to quite down and focus the teacher says, “Come on people! You are all hardworking, smart, beautiful individuals and I know you can focus and get this done.” Granted not all teachers have the personality where they can yell out things like this, who wouldn’t love to be complimented as a way to get you going and motivate you to do your work and work harder. It was a simple, random moment that I’m sure the teacher didn’t put much thought into but I really liked her random compliments to her students and it is something I would like to do in the future for my students. A simple compliment can go a long way and I would like to be able to have the relationship with my students that I can yell out random compliments to them and create a motivated learning environment for them.

http://www.interventioncentral.org/behavioral-interventions/motivation/teacher-praise-efficient-tool-motivate-students

Daniels, Erika. “Creating Motivating Learning Environments: What We Can Learn from Researchers and Students.” English Journal 100.1 (2010): 25-29.

A New Day

Well today got off to an interesting start. A student walks into a class period with a test and he is late. It sounds like it could be the start to a high school class joke, but in this situation it wasn’t. After the student proceeded to express his unhappiness with the fact he had to take this test (which I’m sure he knew he had today) the teacher asked him if the expected the class to wait for him in order to start the test. He began to mumble under his breath and the teacher told him he could leave if he wanted to. His response was to rip up his test on the way out and toss some filing folder off of a desk. Well good morning to you too! Luckily the day proceeded to get better and there were no more folder flinging incidents.

Prior to coming to class students had to read a short article on bullying. Having just read one for class myself I could relate to the experience the students were going through. The teacher started off class with a do-now that required them to take 5 minutes to do some writing to get them in the mindset for this particular class. After this the teacher explained that students would be reading another short story relating to the article they read. They would be reading aloud. I heard some groans about this and in response the teacher told students that if they did not want to read out loud or felt uncomfortable reading out loud they could just say “pass” and the person behind them could pick up where the last student left off. It was a pretty short story, written in short paragraphs so I thought the reading out loud method was great for this particular story. The students had just done quiet group work so rather than having them sit quietly again reading out loud switched things up a little bit and allowed the teacher to interject when necessary and try to keep students focused. In regards to the NCTE Principles Regarding Reading Instruction this applies to the point “teachers should try to use a variety of instructional groupings, including whole-group, small-group, and individual instruction, to provide multiple learning experiences.” It is pretty common knowledge that students tend to lose focus after doing the same thing for a while no matter what grade level they are. This seems to especially be the case in middle school and high school classrooms. By switching up the way in which students are reading rather than having them read silently class after class, this could help to keep students engaged and a little less boring for them.

In the short story “And Summer is Gone” by Susie Kretschmer (which is what the students read in class today), the characters are adolescents and going through issues that are easy for students to connect to. It was interesting to see students react aloud to what was going on in the story. It was easy to see that the students were invested in what they were reading. Some bolder students made comments here and there, but the teacher just went with the flow and incorporated these comments into the reading and then got the students back on track. I found myself laughing along with the students and I was happy it was their first time reading the short story as well as mine so I was able to see their initial reactions.

After the reading the students were required to get into groups of six and put together a skit displaying one of the main themes of the short story that they picked up on. I was able to connect this to the NCTE reading principle “teachers should provide regular opportunities for students to respond to reading through discussion, writing, art, drama, storytelling, music, and other creative expressions.” I really liked the skit idea. It was a quick and easy way for students to identify a theme and share this with their classmates in a fun and interactive way. It also helped students to focus on the concept of themes and hearing different themes their classmates had picked up sparked some discussion. Although class time ran out and not all of the groups could present their skit, they were able to at least see what other classmates presented and had come up with a central theme of their own. Some of the students got a little off topic and the skits evoked a lot of giggling from the “actors” and from their classmates but again, the teacher clearly knows her students well although they are only a few weeks into school and has great control of the class. It was also an Honors class so this probably contributed to this a little as well. Overall I thought this lesson was a great example of different ways to get students reading and different ways to approach reading in class for students.

A Good Day to Observe

Although I only have two days of observations under my belt I have already seen many of the things I have been reading about in my classes put into effect in the high school classroom and it has been great to see this. I have been sitting in on 9^th grade English honors classes and have been extremely impressed by both the teacher and the students. After reading so much about the current changes going on in the classroom and the role the CCSS are playing in this I was a little nervous to see how much things had changed in a high school classroom since I had been there.

For summer work the students were required to read Tuesdays with Morrie since the honors track required them to do a little extra work. Since it is still the beginning of the school year I entered the class at a point where they were beginning to wrap up their work with this novel. Something I immediately picked up on while sitting in the back of this class was that the teacher I am observing was not what Leila Christenbury refers to as a “talking head.” Since I came into the classroom towards the end of a unit it was quite clear the students had a pretty good grasp on the novel. They had done their own summer work and for the past week or so had been working with their teacher on the packet of summer work they were required to complete. This is insulting to the students, but I was actually quite surprised by some of the comments they were making in the class discussion (in a good way). I feel a lot of this had to do with the teacher facilitating the conversation they were having (on theme/theme’s of the novel) in a way that made students continue to think and question. There were even two or three students that would raise their hand almost immediately after they had just responded to add another point to what they had just said. While reading Christenbury I was drawn to her comment, “I found that asking, not telling, was almost always more powerful. Students had to make their own meaning of events or text in writing; it became our class, not just mine.” This point stuck with me and was something I really wanted to make sure I carry over to the classroom when I become a teacher. Seeing this concept in the real world, in the classroom made me realize even more just how important it is. Seeing the students so involved and invested in what they’re saying and doing in the classroom was actually quite inspiring.

While I’m hopeful that every class will have this type of interaction and level of interest I know this will not be the case. I am looking forward to seeing how teachers really get students to think when they are struggling with a text or piece of literature since this is something I am worried about having to handle. The students that I observed really made the class feel like “our” class. Numerous times throughout the class period students came up with their own questions they had for their teacher. Rather than just answering the question, the teacher gave the question back to the rest of the class for them to answer. She wasn’t just talking at the students she was talking with them. At one point a student raised a question directly to the rest of the class. “What would you have done if you were in Morrie’s position?” he asked. This made me think of the CCSS and their emphasis on making connections from the text to the real world. Some of the students were clearly heavily invested in the text at this point and it was enjoyable to witness this.

Although it is only about the third week of school it was clear that the students had a great deal of respect for their teacher and I feel that this method of not just being a “talking head” contributes to this. This is a practice I hope to carry over to my student teaching and teaching when the time comes.

So far so good! 🙂

 

Christenbury, Leila. Making the Journey: Being and Becoming a Teacher of English Language Arts. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2006.

Welcome to My First Blog!

Welcome! As the next few months progress I will be sharing my experiences as I begin my observations in the classroom (grades 7-9) for my Methods I class. I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences and everything I will be learning with you. Hope you enjoy!