The first three weeks

Before I begin writing about the last few weeks, I wanted to let you all know about a project I am getting funded through a site called, www.donorschoose.org. While I have a LCD projector, I would like to hook up a document camera to it. My project is almost funded--Pfizer helped out a great deal. If you would like to help fund it or know someone who could help, here is the link: http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=184026

The first three weeks have been great. Everything seems much easier this year. My students seem to be enjoying class so far and are mostly willing to do what is asked of them. Fewer students than last year challenge my authority and class just seems to go well. One breakthrough this year was when I taught independent, dependent, and controlled variables. It's not the easiest concept to grasp and it's much more abstract than genetics or types of galaxies in space. I used some examples I found on a worksheet that featured various cartoon characters carrying out various experiments and the students seemed to be excited about the examples (or at least more interested than usual). I'm going to keep the cartoon/notable person examples going throughout the year. We also tested variations to paper airplanes as a way to study the different types of variables--students built similar airplanes and then changed just one feature while predicting what that change would affect.

I've also taken a page from the book "Mechanically Inclined." Although the book focuses on writing, its method of making things visual seems to be applicable to any type of class. The method is where the teacher sets up a large sheet of butcher paper with the technique or grammatical structure to be learned on the top (usually in a formula). Underneath, examples that the students create or find in a book or their own writing are placed. The result is a visual diagram with student created examples. Throughout class that day and all others, the students are able to use the wall chart as a reference--it can act as a scaffold to students who might be having a tough time getting the concept the first time around or remembering it. These are taken down for tests, but the author noticed that students were still looking in the same places as a memory aid cue. I started this with the types of variables last week and I'll be adding in different components of experimental design this week.

Things should go well this week as we are finishing up our Nature of Science Unit. Next, we are going to do genetics, followed by natural selection.

Winding Down (or gearing up?)

I cannot remember school going by this quickly when I was a student. It seems that each day just flies by as does each week and each month. Part of it has to do with 2nd period being my prep period; the rest of the day is a sprint to the finish.

The kids put a great deal of effort into their state tests. Just by walking around I could see pages being filled on the open-response essays. Kids were asking for extra sheets (of course we couldn't give them any). You could tell that they were putting forth tons of effort--even with the last sections of each day. I'll be surprised if we don't meet our school's goal.

We are on an exciting weather unit right now that the kids find fun. Most of the resources are from DSM kit that I received from our science resource coordinator. We collect daily weather data, put it in a chart, and make predictions on the weather. It's a concrete and relevant way of understanding the scientific method. Of course, it also allows the students to get a little bit of time outside, which is very helpful with testing over and warm weather.

I've found many grants to get resources for the classroom. I just applied for a minigrant that almost every teacher who applies gets it. I have another in the work for a laptop, projector, and interactive remote system. That last thing is where students have remote controls (essentially) and they are asked a set of questions. The students use their remote controls to send their answer to the computer. As a result, the teacher is able to see the exact response from each student. The results are not displayed directly on the screen for all students, but you can have survey results displayed (eg polling the audience in "who wants to be a millionaire). It seems as though the questions are stored on the computer but can be given in paper form. As a result, giving tests where a section is multiple choice would allow those sections to be instantly graded.

What's great about these systems is that you can get daily feedback on where each student is and the effectiveness of your lesson. It makes differentiation and frequent assessment feasible. It's a task for any teacher to give daily assessments that are then tracked by individual standards and students (on top of lesson planning and grading). The system will work well as a behavior management system as students will be a bit more engaged with using technology instead of simply writing out answers. Of course, the remotes can be taken away if students act poorly (they would do their work on paper). I'm excited and I hope the grant goes through.

I'm also excited about the materials I've found for next year. I wish I had known the amount of stuff I would've needed to do good labs during this past year. I've been able to find a hands-on resource for almost every standard I teach in the large science catalogs that I've looked through. Now it's a matter of writing the grants, but I hope to have a completely inquiry-based science classroom next year (and for any teacher who comes after me). Pedagogically it makes sense as students need to have a concrete experience before going to higher abstract levels of knowledge. I have many students who prefer activity in the classroom and need something to manipulate or see.

With more of my time free, I hope to keep you all updated on my ongoing projects.

Opossum and the Mississippi

At recess, my students found a clue to the mystery smell. The kids saw a large opossum exiting the vent outside of my room. A large group gathered and one of my kids even picked up the opossum by its tail. The student hunts and is around animals all the time so it did not scare him. Luckily, another teacher saw him do this, he put it down, and it did not harm him. After lunch, there was then a campus-wide announcement that a opossum was loose on the grounds and we were not to touch or go near it. We haven't seen the opossum recently and the smell is not as strong as it used to be in the room.

While it has not rained much down here, we are seeing the effects of the rain from the north with the Mississippi's waters rising. The level of the water is hitting some pretty high levels, but most residents are staying pretty calm.

I'm starting to look forward to next year and part of that process is finding more resources for the classroom. I'm looking into writing grants for some pretty cool yet costly items, namely FOSS science kits and a document camera/lcd projector. The kits would allow me to do inquiry based science on a regular basis with a curriculum backed up by solid research and endorsements. I would then be able to leave the kits for the next teacher who would only have to get replacement parts for the exhaustible materials. The technology items would just make class easier. The document camera allows any object to be displayed on the wall rather than needing it to be in the form of a transparency. Book pages, photographs, and experiments could be easily seen by all in the class from anywhere in the room. The projector would allow me to not only display websites, movies, and DVDs but to also use the school's SmartBoard. I've found many grants so far and my goal is to work from a basic outline that I will tailor to each one. As a result, I can maximize my chances through applying for many at a time.

Our state tests are coming up and the school is in preparation for them. It's not too crazy as our principal and consultant see us as on track to stay out of school improvement. We'll know the results later this summer. There isn't too much else to report; the year is going by quickly.

A Mystery Smell

"It smells like a dead rat." This was the most common declaration by a student that entered my classroom a few weeks ago. No student was making this up. I agreed. I had been absent the day before the smell and wondered in the back of my mind if some creature or equally gross thing had been hidden in the room. Other students thought the same; however, no one came forward and there weren't even rumors, so that hypothesis became less supported over the next few weeks.

I moved the class to the library (like I did with our heating problems) and taught there for a few days while we tried to figure out the cause of the smell. I looked in every drawer, shelf, and box that I could find, but I found nothing. The janitors took the screens off the vents and replaced the air filter to my heating and air conditioning unit. They found nothing. I was moved back to the room after a few days as it was getting more difficult to teach and the principal thought the smell had gone down. It had, I didn't mind, but the students definitely cared.

At first, I kept the fan going and door open but the smell stayed. One teacher thought that some ammonia might clear out the smell. We put small amounts in the room during my homeroom (the students were in another classroom) and that didn't do much. The smell wasn't there as much but the smell of ammonia hung in the room, too. I thought maybe that the smell was in the carpets and took to cleaning them. I went to the store and bought some powder carpet cleaner and vacuumed the room the next morning. The result was another combination smell; although the baking soda in the powder seemed to help. The next move was by the principal who had the carpets deep-cleaned and most of the smell left after that. Unfortunately, there's still some of the smell lingering in the room. The smell has decreased this week but it's still a source of amusement for many of the students. I still think that the vents have something to do with the smell as it's at its strongest when the vents are blowing air. Luckily, I have a glade plug-in near the front and it masks the smell quite well.

Tangentially related, an electrocuted rat was found underneath a desk in the computer lab right across the hall from my room. I guess it had burn marks and was missing some fur; I didn't get to see it. Also, while writing this post, a medium sized orange spider crawled across the armrest. It made me jump a bit but I took care of it. Its body wasn't too big, but its legs were quite long.

In other news, I went to Doe's Eat Place in Greenville this last weekend. It's one of the Delta's best known restaurants. It's famous for its steaks and tamales. I had the best steak I've ever had in a restaurant. The funny thing about Doe's is that its prices and cooking don't match its decor. You enter through the kitchen/waiting area where there is a huge grill and oven full of steaks and other food. There's another prep table to your left and a counter up front where waitresses are preparing dishes for customers. Signed pictures of celebrities hang all around while people wait. Once you are in, you go to your table and you have to be careful. The floor is uneven and someone who drank too much wouldn't be able to leave without falling a few times. The tables have elegant plastic table cloths and regular ol' chairs with some of the cushioning coming out. Our table was at slant, as well. While Doe's has beer, it's BYOB. We were provided with wineglasses and their corkscrew had to be shared among the guests. However, once the food arrives, you'll forget about any deficiencies in the decor. The steak came with garlic bread toasted on the grill and steak fries. The meat was a few inches thick; it fell off the bone; it was perfectly tender. It just tasted good.

Overdue update

I wrote my last post in December and got out of the habit of regularly updating this blog. I hope to get back on track for the rest of this year. Here is a quick post of everything that has been happening since the start of the second semester.

The first weeks back got off to a rough start. In the span of roughly 2 weeks, 2 shootings happened in the neighboring town. Neither occurred at school; however, each affected many of the students' lives directly and indirectly. I saw that those most affected were in the high school but I could also see a marked difference in my middle schoolers on certain days. Just so no one gets worried, I live in a safe area and work in a safe school. Not once have I felt threatened or felt in fear of violence either at home, while tutoring, or at school. Things did get back to normal and school continued.

My room was without heat for about two weeks. A part was missing from the system and had to be ordered and shipped. As a result, I held class in the library. This was difficult. Although I had a whiteboard and all of my supplies, my students did not take class as seriously. Of course this is no excuse and I did not take their excuses/reasons why they chose not to pay attention. I could tell that the attention and focus dropped dramatically while in the library. Luckily, the behavior changed once we got our heat back.

Since the beginning of the year, I did not have any shelves in my room. I was promised some a few weeks into the year but they never arrived. As a result, I had few places to put the 20 or so boxes of new books and their related materials (workbooks, study guides, transparencies, CDs, etc.). Things started to pile up due to lack of organized space. Finally, about 3 weeks ago, the shelves were delivered to my room. They were simple "snap-together" shelves from Walmart. The next week I started to put them together in hopes of getting them all together by the end of the week. My principal did not think this was fast enough so one day during my prep period I inherited a team of student workers. The students have been without a permanent keyboarding/computer teacher and have had a variety of subs in the room; they weren't doing much in that class each day.

Once the students entered the room, I split them all into groups with jobs for each one. One group put together all of the shelving units. Another group organized the materials for the shelves. Another group was my "clean-up" group that I directed in cleaning up the trash and old materials found in the room. The cleaning lasted into 3rd period with the end result being a well-organized and spotless room. I'm happy I got the work crew as the room just looks amazing now.

During 2nd semester I started to help coach the Quiz Bowl team (along with 3 other teachers). Quiz Bowl is a competition where the students answer fact-based questions in the subjects of science, math, literature, art, music, history, geography, and general knowledge. The rounds are set up for students to answer questions through knowing specific facts or groups of facts (such as having 10 questions in a row dealing with units of measurement ending in -gram). The team advanced past the regional competition by placing 3rd (top 4 was needed) and the team competed at State this past weekend. We did not do as well and were eliminated during the first elimination round in the afternoon (the first 3 morning rounds decided placement for the afternoon).

I've also taken weekend trips to both New Orleans and Memphis. Both were fun cities and I would've loved to spend more time in both of them. In New Orleans, I got to see one of the teachers I worked with this summer at Institute. While I did not take a tour of the lower 9th Ward, I did get to see parts of the Recovery District. It's true that there are houses that are still sitting there with their insides gutted out onto their front lawns.

Those were the major events of the 2nd semester so far. Spring break will be in 3 weeks and the year will be officially 3/4 over at that point. While I feel that I am doing pretty well right now, I'll be a much more effective teacher next year. I received more books on teaching and I am slowly making my way through each one. Over the summer I'll be able to plan better according to those books in order to make the 2nd year run smoothly.

almost finished

These last two weeks have been our home stretch. I let the students teach last week and the strategy seemed to work. Their science teacher last year had them teach each other in front of the class so it was easy to get them to do it for me (many had been wanting to do this for awhile). It allowed them to put their energy into talking to the class rather than each other and many did a pretty good job. I could tell during our recent review days that many had gotten many of the concepts they taught to the class.

The Pluto debate went pretty well, too. Luckily, I found a site that had middle school debate team resources and used many of their ideas to teach students how to support their reasons with facts. We did a few practice arguments on whether we should eat school lunch and wear uniforms. Many got into the debate including one of my newer students who seemed kinda quiet--he got up during the debate and spoke the best out of all the students in the class. He had a good tone, spoke slowly, and was pretty good at repeating key points. I hope to have more of my classes teach and debate during the next semester as the students seemed to like both and stay focused on what we were doing.

In getting ready for our end of semester tests we had a review day yesterday where we didn't play a points based game. Instead, I had gone to Walmart and purchased this spongy green sea anemone-like object. Each student who saw me with it wanted to hold it and play with it. Of course, each student had to answer a review question correctly. If the student got the correct answer, I would throw it to them and then ask another question. The anemone would then be tossed around the room to whoever got the question right. It made a huge difference in the review game participation and desire to do the work. I had students volunteering who before would just want to do nothing or sleep during a review game.

My roommate had a similar experience with his students where he combined a crazy object and flashcards. His students were not only involved but their retention increased--test scores jumped from the low 30s to the 70s (not an exaggeration). While this was one testing run and other factors could've been at play, it makes sense that a kinesthetic game would work better for our students than a mostly auditory game. While I don't know how each one of our students learns best, it seems that many prefer active/kinesthetic games and activities over listening. Most of school is aimed at either listening or seeing something (pictures, words, some math concepts); we don't have many "doing" classes or components. Some have suggested that this is why there is a strain of low performers--we aren't teaching to their heavily preferred learning style (I hope I got the argument correct as I don't have a strong education theory background). If you were to take a snapshot, though, of what my kids enjoy you'd see a love of drama, rhythmic beats (my room doubles as a percussion section and beatbox somedays), and a desire to be moving about constantly.

We had our Winter Arts Festival recently where the middle school and high school music programs performed along with the dance team. This was the 2nd year it was being put on and it was really well done. The bands have a very good director similar to the one I had in high school--high expectations and lots of discipline. The result was a really good sound from both the middle and high school bands. The middle school band wasn't at all like mine--the one I heard played songs with a discernible melody that didn't sound choppy or out of tune. The high school band had a great performance where they kept their own beat while the director walked off stage (planned, of course, it was a jazz tune). The choirs were small, but good. They have a fellow TFA teacher leading them and they did a solid job. It was just really cool to see a good deal of my students performing and they liked the attention they got at school as we mostly recognize football and basketball.

Our Christmas party was fantastic this past weekend; we made sure to decorate for the event. Our house has garland on the outside and over the area that separates our kitchen and family room. We have lights on the inside of the house near the windows as we don't have an outside plug. The party went well as many brought great cocktails, appetizers, and desserts. It was a really good way to start off the last week before break.

I'm looking forward to a restful two weeks where I can plan the 2nd semester. I should be getting some good books from using some of my professional development money. They cover a wide range of subjects from differentiation to earth science labs. The two week break will give me the perfect amount of time to get supply lists and lesson plans ready so that I can be completely prepared for when I return.

Things are back to normal with most of my classes (including 7th period). Class has been pretty good this week due to our new unit on space. It's held most of each class' attention and I get bombarded with questions everyday, which I find loads of fun. Part of science education is allowing and encouraging inquiry so I have no problem entertaining the questions the students have about space. Tomorrow we are debating Pluto's status as a planet and the debate fits quite well with a few of my nature of science objectives--formulating inferences from scientific data and understanding the process of peer review, et al. Any time we can get "making inferences" and "drawing conclusions" into our lesson plans the better as these are skills that need strengthening for the reading test in the spring.

More of my classes are buying into my class rewards system. Instead of rewarding efficiency and staying on task with minutes for preferred activity time on Fridays I reward the classes with class money (the minutes were replaced with points). The classes can choose to spend part of their money or save it each week. The money can buy a whole list of rewards such as making me learn a dance they know, dying my hair, shaving my head, dressing like a student, etc. Incentives don't always have to be something that costs money (like candy); instead, they can be crazy things only you would do. The whole point is that the class feels special because you are doing something for them. I am dying my hair red and blue this friday for my first period class but I am washing it out during my prep period as it's only for them. Unfortunately my 3rd and 7th period classes haven't bought into the system so I am not sure what I will do to either take a different route for classroom management or to get them invested in the system.

To explain more on 3rd period, the students are quite active and invade each other's personal space during class. This could be something like kicking the bottoms of desks, stretching their arms and putting their hands into each other's faces, etc. Luckily, I only have 7-10 students in the class so tomorrow I am going to create an area in the room where the disruptive students are spread out at least 8-10 ft from each other. This should cut down on students bothering each other or at least allow me to better target the ones that are starting the trouble. We'll see how this plan goes.

The semester is almost over teaching wise. We have a review on Thursday, test on Friday and then another week of teaching. After that, we have a week of 9 weeks test and then break. Luckily, I know my content well (space) for the last teaching week so it should be smooth in terms of planning and teaching.

Funny Story

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Opposite Days

Yesterday and today were completely opposite days. On Monday, the students received their 9 weeks tests along with their grades. Many were not happy. I had As in almost all of the classes and Bs in each one. Students got a study guide a week ahead of the test and we reviewed before the test; however, some did not do that well. This caused many to want to discuss the past 9 weeks and my teaching. This turned into class meetings for each class as I realized by 4th period that we weren't going to get anything done in terms of learning. I had students put their desks in a circle and we discussed the past 9 weeks along with their grades. This seemed to go quite well and my 4th-7th period classes seemed to take the news better than 1st and 3rd. Of course, I did my own reflection and I realized that I need to give them more tools to study and to comprehend the information in class.

One of those tools that I used today were vocabulary cue cards. They are a type of "foldables." Foldables are when you take pieces of paper and fold them or cut them in different ways to create study aids. Generally, foldables can have layers, flaps that open, and other crafty mechanisms that hide and reveal information. Middle schoolers are still at the age where something like this isn't seem as "dumb" or elementary. For this one, students folded a piece of paper into fourths and then read a small amount of text on unicellular organisms and protists. Students then selected sentences from the text that used the vocabulary words, created their own definition, and then created their own picture of what the word looks like. Each step goes on one of the flaps with the vocabulary word on the outside. The end result is a step-wise tool that students use to quiz themselves on various representations of the vocabulary words. Surprisingly, this worked quite well. Reading is not an 8th grade strength for my students especially with the technical vocabulary of science. However, because the amount of text was small and we were doing something with it, almost all had no problem. We had a tough time at first with the first foldable, but right after it, they were able to get the 2nd vocabulary word foldable with little help from me. The idea is for them to have these on them at all times during class so they can review them at the beginning when they finish their "do-now" (or bellringer) or when we have time left at the end of class. Using literacy and having them write also gets them used to "open-response" problems, which is our major weakness across all subjects.

This worked really well because of some good teaching advice that I had received but never fully realized until today: The students should be doing the work not the teacher. They should be tired at the end of the day; you should not be. This was actually true today as there was very little stress and the students were kept busy in class working on their foldables. I polled the classes and almost all of the students found this method better than writing down definitions off the overhead.

Not much else is going on except teaching each day. It feels good to be in a groove. It still feels weird to have a full time profession as a teacher. Of course it's completely different from college, but it's also different than internships/summer jobs I've had. Work can't stay at school--I have to worry about each and every student I teach. School is the top priority each day (as it should be).

Tutoring has been going well too with an amazing turn out. I tutor in one of the nearby towns that we took over last year and I must have had 15 or 20 of my students in the restaurant where I tutored. I had to circulate around to multiple tables and help only with very specific problems. The other teachers and I are looking into the nearby community center as a better place due to space and noise concerns as the place we used was quite small.

That's about all for now. This job never gets boring.

Update

So the first nine weeks are drawing to a close? I didn't realize this until the staff started discussing the unit test schedule for each class. It doesn't even feel like I've completed 1/4 of the year, but looking back on my objectives that will be tested I can tell that I've taught a great deal of material. Some things are getting easier, but my last period class is still quite difficult. 3rd period has settled down, but that's mainly due to many of the students being suspended or in ISS (in school suspension).

Tutoring has been a huge success so far. I've had a solid group of students at each session and many are there because they really want the help. My new policy on buying food for them is that I only do it for the first 3 that get the mini-quiz right at the end of the session. The students usually come in a group of friends around the same time and then leave at the same time, too. Besides being able to help the students with the material, tutoring also helps with getting to know the students outside of school. Many were just impressed that I wanted to help them outside of school.

I've also been getting observed recently by the principal, our education consultant, our math and literacy coaches, and my mentor. While they haven't been in there all at once, I did have one day where there were 3-4 observers in the room at once. I was a bit nervous, but luckily everything was clicking during the lesson. It's a toss up most days if the lesson will succeed. While sometimes it's due to how I deliver it, some classes are more excited/interested than others. My first and third periods could love something and my 5th and 6th periods hate it.

The same goes with behavior. I've had students act completely rude and disrespectful one day and then the next act like the most well mannered student imaginable. I have to remind myself and each class that each day is a blank slate. It seems to help because grudges don't develop as the students know that I am not holding their previous day's behavior against them. As I discovered at the Quest program, many of these students have gone through or are going through difficult phases in their life. They bring this into the school each day along with the difficulties of going through puberty/growing up. The result is that each day is unpredictable.

On an unrelated note, the new car is working well. I love how it drives and the fact that it will accelerate without having to floor the accelerator (as I had to do on the Toyota). This makes passing and getting on the highway much easier (and safer).

This week shouldn't be too bad in terms of work. I am giving our unit test on Wednesday and part of Thursday. The days before will be spent reteaching one lesson that didn't go over well along with a review of the major concepts in the first unit (genetics and evolution). Friday may be spent with a movie introducing our next unit as the students will have tested most of the week along with Friday being Homecoming (the middle school gets to participate in the activities, too). While I know that I should have high expectations of my students, something tells me that the motivation to learn or start a new unit on Friday will be quite low.

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.