It's About Time

For everyone who was wondering if I "fell off the face of the earth"... the answer is NO! I'm going to update this blog this afternoon... so hold tight! 

In the meantime, feel free to check out my grad school blog. I've been actively writing in a journal during this first month of practicum... and I'm sure you'll enjoy my experiences this month. 

Please comment, (sy/e)mpathize, laugh at, cringe, get angry.... whatever. I've felt all of the above this month, so your comments would be a refreshing change of "voices in my head".  

http://imagradstudent.blogspot.com

Realizations

I've had several realizations over the last few days that I know are going to be helpful over the next year---and beyond. 

Realization #1: When you say it... mean it... AND stick to it! Along with this, be consistent! Lately, there has been an issue with running in the halls, jumping  down the stairs, and taking 2-3 steps at a time when on the stairs. When I see it, the student is pulled out of line, and told to go back to the beginning of the stairs/hallway... and this time... do it properly. Yesterday I had a girl jump down the steps... and after she had done that over, ran down the hallway (again, I told her to start over). They don't seem to be nearly as angry about having to start over as they do about my policy that they lose their place in line and go to the back. If we are going to lunch, and another class is behind us.... they have to wait and go at the end that line also. The interesting part, is that they're doing it, and turning around to see if I am watching (much to their chagrin... I am). I may not be very popular... but I'm proving my consistency... and they know what the expectation is. 

Realization #2: I'm supposed to be viewed as a teacher, but I'm not allowed to make decisions, announcements or corrections without getting permission first. This has been drastically affecting my level of respect from the students. I was told be the teacher that I am to let one child "just do whatever he's going to do." I don't believe in creating an environment where students see that some kids get preferential treatment and are allowed to get away with things that others are not. By encouraging me to basically ignore a certain students behavior, the other students begin to feel that I'm favoring the rowdy student. I refuse to encourage this mindset! I also refuse to allow certain genders, colors, religions, etc to be given special treatment based strictly on these criteria. Each student comes with their own background, experiences, issues, beliefs and problems. Each student needs to be viewed based on these individual situations and not overall cultural influences. I will NOT treat a minority student any differently than any other student strictly because of their minority status!!!

Realization #3: I am ridiculously alone in this process. I have no support from my cohort leaders, cohort members, administration, department leaders or classroom teacher. I  know it sounds harsh... but it's really true. I have been told repeatedly by Mrs Z that she never wanted a student teacher. Not only have I heard this from her... but from the other 3rd grade teachers. She continues to tell the students that I "won't always be in here"... and that they shouldn't get used to having me around. I can't talk to my teacher about this... for obvious reasons. I feel like as aide or a parent volunteer in the classroom... not a teacher. I don't feel like she appreciates my being there every day... or even cares if I show up or not. There's a saying among teachers... and teacher "manuals" that state that "No teacher is an island". Well, I'm pretty sure this is as close as I can get. I may not be an island.... but at the very least, I'm a ship without a map. 

Reading

Every week, we are reading a new story from the Scott Foresman reading curriculum. I really like how Mrs Z does her reading lessons, and I thought I'd write it down so I can remember it. 

Day One - Talk about the concepts that are going to be discussed. Introduce vocabulary. Pre-Spelling test with vocabulary from the story. An example of this is the story we're going through this week. It's a fable about trading for what we need without money. We talked about how we can get things without money (then we had to add "honestly"). Answers that students came up with were: win, trade and gifts. We elaborated on trading, things that we trade, why we might trade... and then we listened to a story about trading. 

Day Two - Brief review of yesterday. Listened to an audio clip of teenagers talking about the things that they trade regularly (food, work, chores, etc). With partners, and a graphic organizer, the students looked through the text to find clues, questions and problems from the words, pictures and other things in the story. After we shared the clues, questions and problems they found, we listened to our main story on audio... with the students following along. After the story, we revisited the clues, questions and problems and tried to answer/solve them. 

Day Three - In addition to the vocabulary "reading" words, each story has 5 "challenge" words. As a glossary lesson, we have the students look up the challenge words, write the definitions, and do a worksheet that helps them to understand the meanings of those words, and use them in sentences. As a class, we read through our story in a "round robin" style. 

Day Four - We used the story, and did a few creative learning activities. This week, we focused on retelling the story. In this fable, there was a distinct timeline of events... and a specific person that the character meets on each page. Each person has a a specific role, and each role must occur in order. We had the students draw out the sequence of the story, who the main character met, and what that person provided the character. 

Day Five - Started out with a spelling test over the words that they had been studying all week. Then we followed along to the audio of the story again. After the story, we do the assessment from the curriculum packet to see how well the material was learned... and how well the students understand the words meanings. 

I'm not a huge fan of the assessment method... but I do like the order of the week... although I'd choose to think a little further "outside the box" when learning the story and the words... and definitely to assess their learning of the material. 

Here we go again...

I know it's been a few days -- but I'll do my best to catch you up with what's been going on. 

Thursday was pretty uneventful. Nothing too spectacular to report on. When I went home, I pulled a box down from my closet, and discovered my metal Chinese Checker board. When I say discover... I mean that I found it when it slid off the box and hit me in the nose. Yep, felt just as good as it sounds. 

Friday morning, I woke up to a nice swollen nose and pounding headache! I called Mrs Z, told her I wasn't coming in, and made an appointment to get an X-Ray. Drum Roll please.... minor fracture. It didn't dislocate, but had a slight fracture... and it's sore.. and swollen. So... I get the day off... but OUCH! I slept most of the day and enjoyed my Costco bottle of Ibuprofen. I think the headache is worse than the nose. 

Now, it's Monday, and boy... is it ever! The students are tired, complaining about aches/pains and not super motivated to do anything... but are too tired to fight it. The schedule did change a little bit, thanks to the principals control issues, but nothing too drastic. Mrs Z called me last night and asked me to teach the second health/nutrition lesson tomorrow. And now, I'm sitting here at 11:10 on Monday morning and I have no idea what I'm going to do. Guess I'll talk with Mrs Z at lunch and figure something out.  

Pretty simple day

Thank goodness for that simple unit plan we did this summer. Granted, I didn't use it much -- but it did give me a good jumping off point. I found a video clip that introduced the food pyramid and food groups. I made a poster to put up in the classroom and put some examples of foods along with the poster. Not my best lesson -- but I think I got my objective across. 

Anytown School also follows a form of classroom management called ENVoy. I'm not sure if I completely agree with it, but I don't really have a lot of choices. The ENVoy coach came in today and wants me to learn at least 3 of the main points. The first point is called "Exit Directions". The second is "Influence Approach". The third is called "Freeze Body". I'm going to go ahead and make copies from the book about these three points and put them in here. Who knows -- maybe something will benefit my classroom later on. 

My Big Mouth

It's going to take a little while to get the hang of this schedule. Tuesdays are devoted to the majority of the students specials. From 12:30 on, they're gone, and only come back into the classroom to get their backpacks, coats... and then leave. This is the same schedule for all of the third grade classes. Starting next week, this time is called "imbedded PD" or (imbedded professional development). I'm not really sure what that means... but I guess I'll figure it out next week. Today, this time was spent catching up on paperwork, making copies, and all that other junk. I spent the time going through magazines to find pictures for my design journal (see entry for September 6th). 

Once the kids had left for the day, we were talking about the schedule for tomorrow. Mrs Z mentioned that she wanted to start a health/nutrition... and guess who opened her "big fat mouth"!!! Yep.. that would be yours truly. So, I'm teaching health class tomorrow. Big-Mouth Me mentioned that this summer I did a unit of study around "food" and that my lesson plan specifically focused around health/nutrition and the Food Pyramid. Well... guess what I'm teaching tomorrow... YEP!

Week 2

Today went so much better. I think that by adding the specials, a more set routine and the curriculum, the students seemed much more focused and seem to be getting into the groove a little better. No, that does not mean that all the problems have ceased... or even diminished at all... but I'm hopeful! Having more stuff to do throughout the day seems to keep them focused a little more. I'm sure having a dance class in the middle of the morning did a lot to help the behavior of the day. During math class, using manipulative blocks allowed them to use their hands more, and I think that was very useful with this group. 

I got "called" down to the office to meet with the principal and the vice principal this afternoon. Talk about intimidating!!! She seemed a little upset that I had called my Field Placement Advisor to ask about my still undetermined Winter placement. 

Side Note: this is what I am supposed to do!!! The reason this rule has been put into effect is because not all student teachers are doing both of their authorizations at the same school. 

Ok, back to what I was saying. She wasn't really happy that I had (in her eyes) gone over her head. I've been told that she has some control issues... and I guess she wanted me to go to her first. Oh well.. that's not what I was supposed to do.... so there! My Field Placement Advisor told me that she was going to put me at the school's field study Kindergarten, which.. of course... would be super convenient for me transportation-wise. I don't think it would have been a valid experience for teaching though... since it's a field study, and only has 10 students. The Anytown principal decided that she didn't like that idea... so she's finding me a place here in a Kindergarten class. I don't think this was an indicator of her changing her opinion of me... but more a desire to control the situation. 

Design Journal & Self Identity Project

For my practicum class.. we have 4 assignments to do between now and December.  Most of the assignments are pretty generic: clock your hours online,  respond to others postings online, and read several articles. 

The other two are pretty cool. 

First, we have to do a "self identity" project. Basically, we need to develop a creative project that shares/builds/enjoys the identity of your students. The identity must contain and demonstrate an anti-bias curriculum lens and multicultural/urban ed practice. Along with the creative portion, I have to share this with my college class in some way, preferably as a “document," PowerPoint visual or video experience. Sheesh! I decided to do a collage project combined with silhouette. I want students to go through magazines and find pictures and words that describe them, their families, their classroom, their friends, etc. Then, they'll fill in their "heads" with these pictures/words. I'll write more about as it gets closer. 

The second project is a design journal. My cohort leader's (aka practicum teacher) focus is on the environment, and how the environment can be another teacher in the classroom. So, since the environment is another teaching tool... we have to put together a design journal with ideas of fabric, colors, textures, furniture, and other elements that come together to create a classroom. It's kind of a fun activity. Since I've been in many classrooms, I've definitely narrowed down certain things that I want to do in my own room. I know that teachers come into a school with little/no control over color schemes, desks/tables, chairs, and storage capacity... so I chose to focus on  things that I can control (curtains, classroom policies, extra furniture, etc). I'll write more about that as it gets fuller. 

TGIF to the highest degree!

Wow, it's only Friday?!?! This has been a VERY long week already - and I've only had students for 3 days. We finished up the "All about Me" posters, and I hung those up this afternoon. We introduced the students to the Word Wall and got some great additions from some of the words they were using on their posters.

Yesterday, Mrs. Z asked me to come up with some sort of activity or lesson to do with the kids today. I pulled out my "5 minute warmup" book and decided to expand one of the activities. Since we'll be starting next week with curriculum, I decided to do an exploration of the reading book to help students get familiar with the layout of the book. Once we had gone through the book, I started a scavenger hunt to help them find specific things (pages, stories, poems, definitions, etc). For those of you who I grew up with... think Scripture Chase (books closed, hands off, and GO). The first two didn't grab their attention, but I'm sure that's because they were getting the hang of it. After the first few, they got really excited about it... and really joined in. One things that came from this was the obvious need for more work on a Table of Contents and Glossary/Index searches. I personally need to figure out some more enthusiastic ways to teach and to help them be responsible and to follow the rules. 

On a side note... the building I'm in is a "Green" building... welcome to Oregon! We have these solar panels for lighting... and we have this 1 really STUPID feature in the building. We have 3 long flourescent lights in our classroom. The one closest to the window goes on and off all day... depending how much light is coming in from the window. It's SO annoying! Ok... frustration vent complete!

Stand Up!

I stand up for my dear mom, Vickie, who lost a much too short battle with cervical cancer on July 16, 2004.

I stand up for my dear friend and mentor, Carol, who lost her brave battle with pancreatic cancer on February 17, 2007.

I stand up for my friend, Gary, who is a survivor!

I stand up for everyone who is battling this disease... and won... or lost!!!

I stand up for a cure!

I pray for everyone who is fighting this disease... themselves, or with a loved one! 

WE WILL WIN!

Please call and STAND UP with me! 

www.standup2cancer.org

Day Two

We're still not doing anything academic, but we're focusing more on getting to know each other - as well as the routines. We had a school orientation conducted by the VP and one of the teachers. The largest part of the "tour" was spent on bathroom behavior and procedures. I'm still surprised at how much emphasis is placed on teaching bathroom behavior and procedures for walking around the school and eating in the cafeteria. 

I am also surprised with the time and energy placed on teaching basic social skills. I guess I had always assumed that things like emotions, feelings, and reading facial cues was a natural part of maturation, but I guess it's only a natural step if the student sees it through modeling. Anytown uses a program called Second Steps. This program uses large photos, videos, and teacher scripts to teach many of these social skills and analyzing of feelings & emotions. 

The dynamics of this class are going to be interesting: ADHD, Autism, mental retardation, tourettes, ESL, communication disorders, etc. 2 are recent refugees, and 4 are considered behavioral issues. 

We have rearranged the seats 6 times already... but I think we finally figured out one that will work. I have 2 little girls in my class that I have coined my "diva's-in-training". I have a firm rule about running/jumping down the stairs... and when this rule is broken... they start over again. I asked T to do it... and I got full blown diva attitude: the lip, pouting, snapping fingers, dirty looks, head bop and stomping.... the WHOLE thing! I feel like I've walked into an episode of Maury Povich. Wow.... and to think.... she's 8! I've gotten similar reactions to my requests for tying shoes, putting shoes back on, putting materials away... and pretty much everything I've asked her. Sheesh... selective hearing at it's very best!!!

First Day of School

WOW, this is going to be very interesting! There are 3 adults in the class, and 24 students... and boy, are we going to need it. It's hard to say exactly how these students are going to be this year.. but it took me close to 15 minutes to convince one little boy to color a poster! Seriously! We have a lot of children with special needs and an equal number of students that are potential discipline problems. I think the most interesting part of the day is the focus on the bathroom. We have to schedule 3 times a day to take everyone to the bathroom, because the school policy is that students are not allowed to go by themselves. I asked Mrs Z, and she explained it. Apparently, last year there was a problem with some students acting out sexual behaviors with other students. These children were obviously victims of sexual abuse and were acting out the behaviors they had learned on younger students. There is also an issue with allowing them to be in the restroom unattended. I guess last year there was also an issue with students "decorating" the walls/floors and toilet seats with...."bodily fluids" and writing graffiti on the walls. I just have a hard time realizing that these are K-5th graders! I think it's sad that this is the case, but I guess if it's necessary, it's better than the alternative. 

Prep Day

After a 15 minute jaunt at the district office, and a combined total of  hours in transit from home to the office, and then up to Anytown... I finally got there! I met with Mrs. Z; she seems nice. We also have an aide in the classroom, Ms D, to help with those students with special needs. I was told today that we have 25 students: 7 with special needs, 6 who are ESL, and 3 who are undocumented special needs. That leaves us 9 who are not in resources... and of those 9, only 3-5 are on level for reading/math/writing. WOW! If anything, this will be a VERY big eye-opener for me this year!

I'm guessing that I really didn't miss much when it comes to setting up the classroom. Mrs. Z isn't much for decorating... in fact, most of the classrooms that I've seen, decorating doesn't seem to be a concern in the classroom. I've seen one or two that have decorative elements in the classroom, but not many! 

This school is called a "neighborhood" school. This means that classes are in 4 groups of 6 (K-1, 1-2, 3-4, 3-5). Each group, or neighborhood, is given a color (Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple) and has a lounge/learning area outside of their rooms. This area is designated for small group help, large group meetings, etc. There are chairs and tables, lots of curriculum materials, a resource room, and a very large carpeted area. Once a week, all the classes in the neighborhood gather on the carpet for the Pledge, the school motto, a story "Word of Wisdom" that talks about choices and any announcements that need to be made. It's a cool feature...I'm interested to see how it presents itself during the day.