Today went much better than yesterday. The 2nd half of my classes began work on making atomic models out of play dough and construction paper and the first half are ready to start the project tomorrow.
A funny thing happened during 7th period. Many of you know that it's one of my more difficult periods. I had just finished explaining what we would be doing when a new student entered. I welcomed him to the class, he sat down, and I got back to the introduction of the lesson. Then, all of a sudden, the students who are quite disruptive announced, "we want to learn today." They then moved to empty desks in the front of the room and sat attentively for most of the lesson. Sure, there was some joking and yelling out, but for the most part it was almost a perfect class. The class got much farther than my 1st, 3rd, or 4th period classes. I don't know if it was because we had a new student or because we were going to a do a project with play dough or what but for some reason the students had a motive to learn. I did have one of the students at tutoring and asked him about it and he said that part of it was that he liked my class. Who knows what tomorrow will bring but I hope I can keep this going in 7th period.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Post Thanksgiving Break Edition
Thanksgiving break was restful, but too short. I'm happy that I was able to see everyone from family to high school friends to college friends all in 3 days. My last week and a half before break ended a bit average. We were reviewing natural selection and the scientific method and I don't think I was on the top of my game teaching-wise. Part of it was going over material that we had (supposedly) learned once. The other part was probably not having a clear enough plan. I can tell that things did not go as well as I had hoped due to the data from the test scores; they were low on a test consisting of mainly multiple choice (I had many low level Bloom's objectives and I'll admit it made the grading easier on the plane).
Luckily, I found a great website that has a set of presentations and handouts from conferences put on by the Department of Education. While the presentations aren't recorded, the powerpoint used along with the handouts are there and they are a wealth of good information that is content specific. I found presentations on using writing, differentiation, and dealing with misconceptions in science! The information is all given by experienced teachers who back it up with research. One thing I'll be implementing by the start of 2nd semester is science journals. Students will do more writing in class and they'll have a portfolio of work that can be graded (and shown to parents). It will also help in keeping information organized so that the students can see what we are doing as a whole rather than disjunct parts.
These weeks up until Christmas should go much better as I have two units that I know I can teach during this time period: atoms and space. The atom unit is quite basic in that we have to cover the parts of an atom and how to find the number of electrons, protons, and neutrons in an atom. We also have to discuss how atomic theory is a scientific theory and conduct investigations about the history of science as it relates to atomic theory (scientists, discoveries, etc). The space unit deals with the shape of galaxies and how planets and other objects exert gravitational forces. I like the idea of ending with this unit as next semester we get to do earth science where we'll definitely talk about waves.
Tomorrow I have a lesson planned where we will create models of atoms out of construction paper and play dough. The play dough will be used to create the electrons, protons, and electrons on the atoms. Of course, the students will be calculating the number of each and planning their atom out instead of just playing with play dough. Today's students had a great deal of energy; I don't think they were ready to be back in school. The behavior was a bit crazy across all of my classes (even the relatively good ones). I don't see this as necessarily bad as it wasn't just one class plotting against me; instead, it was a mood across all of the classes and it should be better tomorrow. The behavior of my students will go in streaks with bad behavior never lasting more than 2 days.
I'm also excited to start a new book I just ordered called, "The World Without Us." Its author asks, "What would the world look like environmentally if humans weren't in it?" It appeared on Scientific American's recommended list for holiday gifts and it will touch on a great deal of the earth science we'll be dealing with 2nd semester. I also just found the topic interesting, and I may learn more about earth science this way than through a dry textbook. It'll also be helpful to have during AR Reading Time, which is the program the students do during homeroom. They read designated books on their reading level and then take tests on what they've read. It seems to be a much better use for homeroom than a study hall. In order to get students to do most behaviors in middle school (and other levels, too) it's important for the teacher to model the behavior. As a result, I too get to read during homeroom. It's actually quite nice as I am awake enough to read and not completely exhausted like at the end of the day. I have been reading the economist and scientific american, but by having a book my reading should appear more meaningful. Luckily, I do have students that like to read and many have asked me about what I'm reading (which is quite cool).
Luckily, I found a great website that has a set of presentations and handouts from conferences put on by the Department of Education. While the presentations aren't recorded, the powerpoint used along with the handouts are there and they are a wealth of good information that is content specific. I found presentations on using writing, differentiation, and dealing with misconceptions in science! The information is all given by experienced teachers who back it up with research. One thing I'll be implementing by the start of 2nd semester is science journals. Students will do more writing in class and they'll have a portfolio of work that can be graded (and shown to parents). It will also help in keeping information organized so that the students can see what we are doing as a whole rather than disjunct parts.
These weeks up until Christmas should go much better as I have two units that I know I can teach during this time period: atoms and space. The atom unit is quite basic in that we have to cover the parts of an atom and how to find the number of electrons, protons, and neutrons in an atom. We also have to discuss how atomic theory is a scientific theory and conduct investigations about the history of science as it relates to atomic theory (scientists, discoveries, etc). The space unit deals with the shape of galaxies and how planets and other objects exert gravitational forces. I like the idea of ending with this unit as next semester we get to do earth science where we'll definitely talk about waves.
Tomorrow I have a lesson planned where we will create models of atoms out of construction paper and play dough. The play dough will be used to create the electrons, protons, and electrons on the atoms. Of course, the students will be calculating the number of each and planning their atom out instead of just playing with play dough. Today's students had a great deal of energy; I don't think they were ready to be back in school. The behavior was a bit crazy across all of my classes (even the relatively good ones). I don't see this as necessarily bad as it wasn't just one class plotting against me; instead, it was a mood across all of the classes and it should be better tomorrow. The behavior of my students will go in streaks with bad behavior never lasting more than 2 days.
I'm also excited to start a new book I just ordered called, "The World Without Us." Its author asks, "What would the world look like environmentally if humans weren't in it?" It appeared on Scientific American's recommended list for holiday gifts and it will touch on a great deal of the earth science we'll be dealing with 2nd semester. I also just found the topic interesting, and I may learn more about earth science this way than through a dry textbook. It'll also be helpful to have during AR Reading Time, which is the program the students do during homeroom. They read designated books on their reading level and then take tests on what they've read. It seems to be a much better use for homeroom than a study hall. In order to get students to do most behaviors in middle school (and other levels, too) it's important for the teacher to model the behavior. As a result, I too get to read during homeroom. It's actually quite nice as I am awake enough to read and not completely exhausted like at the end of the day. I have been reading the economist and scientific american, but by having a book my reading should appear more meaningful. Luckily, I do have students that like to read and many have asked me about what I'm reading (which is quite cool).
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
tutoring
Tutoring has been going really well. It's something that I look forward to each week especially today. The day went alright for most of my periods. We did an activity based around natural selection. We are revisiting the unit because the averages for the unit were quite low in each class compared to what they had done previously. This is partly due to the unit being rushed when the 9 weeks were drawing to a close.
I felt I could not move on due not just to certain objectives not being mastered but also because of how important the theory of evolution/natural selection is for many. These students will see the topic again in high school biology and it's mentioned quite frequently in the news (whether from the typical debate or in the recent case of staph infections). The infections are due to strains of bacteria (staph) that have evolved to the point where common antibacterial products cannot kill them. As a result, these more serious infections require more powerful antibiotics and many times hospital care. What had happened is that in a population of bacteria there were some that could be killed by antibacterial soap and others that could not be. Soap was used and killed the ones without any defense. The ones with the defense persisted and reproduced. As a result, we have staph bacteria resistant to common antibacterial products.
Back to the activity...it went well for most of the classes except 4th and 7th periods. Those periods may the day pretty stressful. Going to tutoring, though, made a lot of the stress go away as I had a small group that was quite attentive. We went over topics we had discussed recently and even went back to topics that had been missed in the past (one of the benefits of tracking objective performance on each test). I just like how I can come home tired and stressed from school, but after tutoring I am refreshed and energized.
As for the turnout, it's been pretty solid. In town, I have a small yet dedicated group each week. In the other town farther away, I get the equivalent of one of my classes or sometimes larger (20-25 students). While I love the turnout, it's a bit more difficult to give individual attention to each student. What I've started to do is to give a small quiz at the beginning and then go around from group to group aiding students with whichever answers are giving them problems. This makes targeting the weaknesses much easier.
I felt I could not move on due not just to certain objectives not being mastered but also because of how important the theory of evolution/natural selection is for many. These students will see the topic again in high school biology and it's mentioned quite frequently in the news (whether from the typical debate or in the recent case of staph infections). The infections are due to strains of bacteria (staph) that have evolved to the point where common antibacterial products cannot kill them. As a result, these more serious infections require more powerful antibiotics and many times hospital care. What had happened is that in a population of bacteria there were some that could be killed by antibacterial soap and others that could not be. Soap was used and killed the ones without any defense. The ones with the defense persisted and reproduced. As a result, we have staph bacteria resistant to common antibacterial products.
Back to the activity...it went well for most of the classes except 4th and 7th periods. Those periods may the day pretty stressful. Going to tutoring, though, made a lot of the stress go away as I had a small group that was quite attentive. We went over topics we had discussed recently and even went back to topics that had been missed in the past (one of the benefits of tracking objective performance on each test). I just like how I can come home tired and stressed from school, but after tutoring I am refreshed and energized.
As for the turnout, it's been pretty solid. In town, I have a small yet dedicated group each week. In the other town farther away, I get the equivalent of one of my classes or sometimes larger (20-25 students). While I love the turnout, it's a bit more difficult to give individual attention to each student. What I've started to do is to give a small quiz at the beginning and then go around from group to group aiding students with whichever answers are giving them problems. This makes targeting the weaknesses much easier.
Friday, November 2, 2007
A longer update
My last unit was a bit weird because it really didn't have that much of a theme to it unlike genetics or natural selection. It dealt mostly with microscopic organisms and classification. For the first part, I was at least able to talk about bacteria and protists--both unicellular organisms. Classification worked well in the 2nd part as we could organize the similarities and differences between the two types. Unfortunately, I didn't know my content as well for this one as I did for the units at the start of the year. Luckily, I was able to find some good articles and we were able to practice reading strategies and foldables (as mentioned in another post). I haven't graded the tests yet, but many students seemed to be quite confident for the test so I'm hoping for some solid grades.
We had a three day teaching week with yesterday and today taken up by staff development. The sessions yesterday were led by our consulting group and our sessions today were led by the principal and the math and literacy coaches. Yesterday was about assessing rigor in released test items and reaching struggling learners.
Assessing rigor turned out to be a useful session even though I thought it was going to be completely useless. We looked at how states have similar standards/objectives yet they test those standards on different levels of rigor (ie how complex of a thought process a student must use to solve the problem). In math, a question with a low level of rigor might ask a student to find a simple pattern (1, 2, 3, or 2, 4, 6) to solve the problem. A higher level of rigor would ask for a more complicated pattern (add 1, add 2, add 3) and have more steps in finding the right answer. In English, it would be the difference between identifying a device used and making inferences from a passage.
For some reason, rigor had not made much sense to me up until this point (especially with multiple choice questions). Something just "clicked" and I saw that the more steps required to get an answer the more rigorous the question. This fault might have been due to being trained mainly with Bloom's Taxonomy rather than Webb's Depth of Knowledge. While I could see the different levels with Bloom, the idea of "steps of thinking" were made clear with Webb.
The afternoon session on struggling learners interested me greatly, but it didn't tell me much that was new. It seems as though that if my training is not stressing "released test items" then it's emphasizing differentiated instruction. While the latter is a good thing, those that have presented workshops on the topic give the same vague and general advice. Usually we get discussions on different learning styles, advice to use all three modalities when teaching, and then advice to tier assignments and pair weak learners with strong learners. This is all good advice, but it's the same each time without regard for the nature of middle school and specific subjects. We get very little application and specific directions during our workshops. While I am not making excuses for middle school behavior, it can be difficult to implement some methods of differentiated teaching in the classroom. Paired learning can easily erupt into talking or not happen at all when the two hate each other. I have classes where no students are "strong learners." I'm not trying to insult them, but the way my schedule is set up is that almost all (except for 4 or 5 students) of my GT (gifted and talented) students are in one honors science class. The others are spread around my other classes. While I realize I'm on a tangent about the ineffectiveness of one strategy, it just frustrates me when we get advice from consultants that doesn't match our particular situation.
I think I was spoiled by TFA at Institute. It seemed that efficiency was their main concern--not how to take something that could be explained in 30 minutes and turn that into 3 hours. Almost every session was focused on giving us methods we could put to use immediately. Each presenter also made sure to discuss the problems we might run into and back up strategies to use. I remember our literacy coach holding subject specific sessions for literacy use in the classroom. The reasons for this are varied but come down to the nature of an education consultancy group and TFA. TFA knew it had only a small amount of time to get us the best information possible to make us better teachers; the organization had to be efficient if it wanted to achieve its mission of one day all children having the opportunity to receive an excellent education. The consultants on the other hand were either already paid or had to spend a certain amount of hours to justify their cost. A high cost might feel "worth it" if you are talked to for 3 hours versus thirty minutes. Also, our instructors at Institute were recent teachers with experience in the classrooms we were going to enter once we left. Our consultants are former or retired teachers who have been giving workshops for the past few years and not teaching students like the ones we have.
I don't mean for this post to hammer education consulting--I do get some good ideas and resources from our workshops. However, it just seems that there's lots of stuff to sit through in order to get the small amount of useful information.
While not completely related to teaching, we had trick or treating on Wednesday. While most people did not go out of their way to decorate their houses and stores didn't stock many costumes, I still had kids coming to my house dressed up. Of course there were my middle schoolers and high school students I knew that came without a costume. They just wanted the free candy. It was pretty fun and I was able to meet more members of the families of my students.
As a first year teacher, I am just consumed by this job (in a good way). It's what I think about each night and even on the weekends. My other fellow teachers can't stop talking about it either. Our conversations revolve almost entirely around what our students are doing in our classrooms. While this isn't a bad thing (I usually get enough sleep each night), we sometimes have to stop ourselves from discussing school. These bans seem to last only 10 minutes, but at least we are trying. It's a job that demands that we do an excellent job every day we are teaching. In school, you are there mostly for yourself. You get to decide how much you want to pay attention, to study, and to work. However, with teaching you go to school and each class period you have students staring at you expecting you to teach them.
We had a three day teaching week with yesterday and today taken up by staff development. The sessions yesterday were led by our consulting group and our sessions today were led by the principal and the math and literacy coaches. Yesterday was about assessing rigor in released test items and reaching struggling learners.
Assessing rigor turned out to be a useful session even though I thought it was going to be completely useless. We looked at how states have similar standards/objectives yet they test those standards on different levels of rigor (ie how complex of a thought process a student must use to solve the problem). In math, a question with a low level of rigor might ask a student to find a simple pattern (1, 2, 3, or 2, 4, 6) to solve the problem. A higher level of rigor would ask for a more complicated pattern (add 1, add 2, add 3) and have more steps in finding the right answer. In English, it would be the difference between identifying a device used and making inferences from a passage.
For some reason, rigor had not made much sense to me up until this point (especially with multiple choice questions). Something just "clicked" and I saw that the more steps required to get an answer the more rigorous the question. This fault might have been due to being trained mainly with Bloom's Taxonomy rather than Webb's Depth of Knowledge. While I could see the different levels with Bloom, the idea of "steps of thinking" were made clear with Webb.
The afternoon session on struggling learners interested me greatly, but it didn't tell me much that was new. It seems as though that if my training is not stressing "released test items" then it's emphasizing differentiated instruction. While the latter is a good thing, those that have presented workshops on the topic give the same vague and general advice. Usually we get discussions on different learning styles, advice to use all three modalities when teaching, and then advice to tier assignments and pair weak learners with strong learners. This is all good advice, but it's the same each time without regard for the nature of middle school and specific subjects. We get very little application and specific directions during our workshops. While I am not making excuses for middle school behavior, it can be difficult to implement some methods of differentiated teaching in the classroom. Paired learning can easily erupt into talking or not happen at all when the two hate each other. I have classes where no students are "strong learners." I'm not trying to insult them, but the way my schedule is set up is that almost all (except for 4 or 5 students) of my GT (gifted and talented) students are in one honors science class. The others are spread around my other classes. While I realize I'm on a tangent about the ineffectiveness of one strategy, it just frustrates me when we get advice from consultants that doesn't match our particular situation.
I think I was spoiled by TFA at Institute. It seemed that efficiency was their main concern--not how to take something that could be explained in 30 minutes and turn that into 3 hours. Almost every session was focused on giving us methods we could put to use immediately. Each presenter also made sure to discuss the problems we might run into and back up strategies to use. I remember our literacy coach holding subject specific sessions for literacy use in the classroom. The reasons for this are varied but come down to the nature of an education consultancy group and TFA. TFA knew it had only a small amount of time to get us the best information possible to make us better teachers; the organization had to be efficient if it wanted to achieve its mission of one day all children having the opportunity to receive an excellent education. The consultants on the other hand were either already paid or had to spend a certain amount of hours to justify their cost. A high cost might feel "worth it" if you are talked to for 3 hours versus thirty minutes. Also, our instructors at Institute were recent teachers with experience in the classrooms we were going to enter once we left. Our consultants are former or retired teachers who have been giving workshops for the past few years and not teaching students like the ones we have.
I don't mean for this post to hammer education consulting--I do get some good ideas and resources from our workshops. However, it just seems that there's lots of stuff to sit through in order to get the small amount of useful information.
While not completely related to teaching, we had trick or treating on Wednesday. While most people did not go out of their way to decorate their houses and stores didn't stock many costumes, I still had kids coming to my house dressed up. Of course there were my middle schoolers and high school students I knew that came without a costume. They just wanted the free candy. It was pretty fun and I was able to meet more members of the families of my students.
As a first year teacher, I am just consumed by this job (in a good way). It's what I think about each night and even on the weekends. My other fellow teachers can't stop talking about it either. Our conversations revolve almost entirely around what our students are doing in our classrooms. While this isn't a bad thing (I usually get enough sleep each night), we sometimes have to stop ourselves from discussing school. These bans seem to last only 10 minutes, but at least we are trying. It's a job that demands that we do an excellent job every day we are teaching. In school, you are there mostly for yourself. You get to decide how much you want to pay attention, to study, and to work. However, with teaching you go to school and each class period you have students staring at you expecting you to teach them.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
The internet is back
I know it's been a while since the last post. Our internet went out and now it's back. I'm sure I'll post a longer update with good stories in the next few days, but I just wanted to at least post to say all is going well right now.
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