A good weekend

This weekend I attended a Quest Leadership training for some of my students and it was a good time. The program seeks to give emotional IQ skills to high schoolers and mature middle schoolers. Many students share very emotional stories that they've never told anyone else. They learn that everything they do is a choice and that they are ultimately responsible for their lives. I had 8 of my 8th graders at the training and there were about 7th graders as well. Although all of my saturday and most of my sunday was taken up by the program, it never felt like a waste of time. I've had my weekends taken up by other things that were less fruitful than this program. While I have a good amount of work tonight, along with having to be up in 10 hours, I don't feel guilty about it at all.

another week down

This week had its ups and downs. Monday and Tuesday were pretty fun as we were looking at the relationship of all vertebrates. The lesson was a transition from genetics to evolution/natural selection. Many of the kids were quite fascinated as they saw skeletons of vertebrates and could pick out how those skeletons were just like our skeletons (of course, we are vertebrates too--that was the whole point). The week was broken up by a diagnostic from the NWEA (northwest evaluation association). It measures science skills and is given in two parts. The first test's results tell you the level for the 2nd test. The students weren't too happy about the test and many thought it would count for a grade; however, I told them about 1000 times it wouldn't count for one. I did reward each test with either a tootsie roll or mint and this was well received by most.

The behavior of each class is starting to set in. My 3rd period is quite defiant at times and my 7th period thinks that it's the last class of the day so they don't have to do anything. All of the other periods are quite good and I have a good rapport with each class.

We also had parent teacher conferences and they went pretty well. I had many parents show up who wanted to speak with me. Many students are not doing well right now due to not studying/paying attention in class. Each parent seemed quite understanding of their child's grades and would make sure to get him/her to work harder. Most liked the idea of having a test each Friday due to the low grades--each student can easily pull his/her grade up to an acceptable level with half of a grading period left.

Not to end on a low point, but I have to get a new car. Last Saturday I was driving along 61 in my toyota when all of a sudden the car would not accelerate. I then hear a low rumbling sound which builds and then a "whoosh" along with something falling out of the car. A large smoke cloud appeared behind the car and I pulled over immediately and jumped out with only my cell phone. Two other drivers pulled over to help me out and helped me call the only towing/wrecking service we could find open on a Saturday. We looked at the car once it stopped smoking (mostly oil burning off) and discovered that the piston rod fell out of the engine. Replacing the engine would cost as much as a new car especially given that it would go into an older used car. Luckily, I've found a 04 Nissan Sentra in pretty good condition and on Monday I'll be trying to get a deal on it as its price it much above what it should be going for according to nadaguides.com. I liked driving the Nissan and found it to be a fun car. Its VIN check was perfect. It looks like it was owned for a while and then leased for a period of time.

Tomorrow I get to help out at a leadership training called Quest where many of my students will be taking part. Quest helps students develop leadership and empathy skills and it's worked quite well in the past. One of our school board members is strongly behind it and a few of the middle/high school teachers are helping out as volunteers. It should be fun and a good way to get invested in a few of my students.

Improvement

Things are still going well. Teaching is fun and stressful at the same time. It requires me to be "on" all day long. Once 3:15 hits it feels like I've just gotten off a rollercoaster.

We found another black widow the other day. My 6th period was outside doing the diet coke and mentos experiment. While going back in a few students called me over to the AC unit outside. The whole class was crowded around a sizeable spider web with a pretty large black widow in it along with her egg sack. We stayed at a far distance and watched it for a few minutes and then proceeded back in to the classroom.

After revealing the test scores and having a goal to work toward, last week went pretty well. 3 classes made an 80% or better on the vocabulary retest (2 81%s and one 84%) and one other came close. One class is still a bit behind and the other passed on the firs test. Having a test as a looming deadline did help with classroom management. I could easily ask if the question or what a student was doing (in the case of off topic questions/misbehavior) would help get them closer to passing the test. This week I am doing the same with Friday as test day. The tests are short enough to be finished in half the period and I can now use the other half for super scientist friday. I realized that it's a steep uphill battle to get students to learn new material on a friday right after a test, so SSF is a good thing to have after the test. I need each class to a set a goal for this friday's test, which will happen tomorrow.

I was really happy with some of the test scores I saw from students who are considered "problem students" by many teachers. Many act well in my class and did extremely well on the tests. I was really happy to see them succeed on the test as these are students for whom many teachers have low expectations.

Along with the test scores, the week started off well. We did a fun activity demonstrating phenotype, genotype, and how alleles/genes are passed on based on probability. Students flipped coins (one for each parent) to determine traits for a smiley face/alien (it depended on the artist). The rest of the week will be spent focusing on going from phenotype to genotype and back, punnett squares, and a few more vocabulary terms.

A better day

Today went pretty well considering I had to deliver the bad news that most failed the vocabulary test. I gave a presentation showing how both my actions and the students' actions contributed to the bad grades. Most seemed interested and desired to do better. I made the point that I wanted each one to succeed and that success meant a class average of 80% or better. I told them that I would fail as a teacher if I were to accept their low performance on the past test. There was more to the speech, but right after it we got to work. I went through and explained some of the terms and most students in each class were taking notes. The room had never been that silent outside of taking a test. Each class also picked a class creed that the students will say each day. The creeds are in the first person and lay out the expectations I have for each student. Parts of them, for example, were, "I believe in myself and my ability to do my best. I am intelligent. I am capable of greatness."

This is not to say there weren't problems. My last period is still difficult due to having dismissal duty and many leaving 15 minutes early. It was also apparent today that only 2-3 students are causing the trouble in the class. I found this out by sending them out into the hall. Once this happened, those in class worked quietly without disrupting the class. I haven't figured out what I'll do for that period, but I've got part of the solution.

I decided tonight that I will also split the vocabulary test up into two sections--one for friday and the other for monday or tuesday. This will help with giving the students a smaller amount to study and to allow for greater comprehension instead of a shallow memorization of lots of terms. It will take the anxiety off the students as well as a smaller amount may be a more feasible amount. Of course the 2nd test will have a few terms from the first one as well. Tomorrow will involve a little more teaching and then a powerpoint jeoparday game (the board is set up just like the game show--it's really cool).

Data and Feedback

TFA places a heavy emphasis on data and that's a really good thing. I just graded our diagnostic tests along with the first vocabulary test. The results were not great; they show me that I have a lot of work to do. But it's good to have tests this early because I can get immediate feedback on my teaching and what my students are able to do and not able to do. The students will be tested each week (quiz or test) so that not only I can get quick feedback on my teaching but so the students can master a small amount of material at a time. The tests will have cumulative parts; I'll be able to teach the importance of remembering past material.

The vocab test performance was under my control and it showed me that I need to do something different this week in teaching. Group work where the students taught each other did not work well except in one class. The idea was for each student to learn 1-2 words on his or her own and then share those with examples to each member of the group. It might've been too soon to try this type of activity. Furthermore, the students in those classes were all on the same level; there were very few students that could teach the others as almost all struggled with the material. The reading scores should have indicated this to me along with the amount of misbehavior during the assignment. Misbehavior can be a signal that the students are frustrated with the assignment and they decide to do something off task.

Tomorrow, I'll reveal the grades to the students and we'll discuss what both the teacher and the students could've done better on the test (as the students did decide to waste a lot of time by talking while I was explaining things). Friday will be a retest over the same words but with a different test (as we are going over the answers). As much as TFA's "teacher impact model" where "teacher actions leads to student actions" is drilled into our heads at Institute, it didn't make sense until this set of tests. I chose the method of instruction; I chose how each class went; I chose the questions for the test. As much as the tests measure the students' performance, they also measure the teacher's actions that led the students to that performance.

Week 2

Week 2 was good overall. My classes did indeed test me as everyone had predicted, but I was able to keep control in most of them. The most common issue was low level misbehavior such as talking when I was explaining something or when I paused in between giving instructions. Luckily, taking away Super Scientist Friday (SSF) time and being consistent in my consequences worked for most students.

One thing many of my students like to do is to ask questions. This is not a bad thing, in fact, it's great. However, it's not so great when you get 100 off topic or tangential questions that have interesting answers during class. One successful thing I've done to manage this behavior is that I created the "Question Bag." It's a gift bag in the back where students can ask any question and put it in the bag. I then answer the questions on Thursday night and share the answers on Friday. The questions range from personal questions such as "do you have kids?" to science questions such as "how do people get Down Syndrome?" It works well because the kids get to ask their questions and I get a good response for any question that is off topic that is asked in the middle of a lesson. Many were receptive to the idea and the bag was quite full during its first week of use. Plus, when I get a complicated or obscure science question, I can have time to research it instead of telling the student, "I don't know."

My 5th period is my tough period as the management strategies that I use in my other classes do not work during that class. Almost every time I spoke or tried to get something done, the students simply ignored what I said and started to talk. This happened a great deal on Friday when I was trying to do the demo and other fun stuff, so SSF got canceled (after a few warnings). We had a study hall in silent instead. They seemed genuinely surprised and shocked. During the silent work time, I had a few trusted students create a new seating chart and they came up with a pretty good seating arrangement. They knew who would talk and who could not sit near each other, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

I also tried to go to the football game on Thursday, but lightning canceled the game. Luckily, the teachers and I were able to attend the high school game on Friday and it was a lot of fun. The band has a new director and although they were small they were pretty good (no half time show yet though). The high school team is quite good and easily won the game. I saw many of my students at the game and I think they were surprised to see me outside of the classroom. It's true, though, I felt the same way in high school and middle school. For some reason, you don't make the connection that teachers are "real people" and have lives outside of school. When you see them out, they look and act differently.

Having an LCD projector is a very useful tool during science class. I used one of the school's projectors on Friday and it seemed to work well. I can create Power Point presentations on the day's material and I don't have to worry about writing everything on the board or making 100s of copies. I can also find amazing pictures and short videos to show the entire class. I even have templates of game shows (like Jeopardy or Who Wants to be a Millionaire?) that I can use for review. While the school only has 2 that must be shared, I may use some of my mentoring grant money to buy one for the class to use almost daily. Basic ones can be found for only $300-$400 (as opposed to others that are more than a $1000).

I'm grading diagnostic tests right now and getting prepared for tomorrow. I realized that I have to work more on student investment. The idea is a TFA idea, but it's basically getting students to care about your class and their education. I have some ideas that should work, but I'll update on those once I try them out this week.