What a Day!

             Thinking back to Tuesday’s class all I can think is wow! There was so much information in such a short amount of time but that was perfectly fine because the information I did receive will be so useful. I felt for Dr. G when she shared her stories with us and am excited to have received the question handouts from Dr. Horwitz. One part of the class that was extremely useful and fun to watch was when Bob, Kim, and Buddy planned a lesson in front of us. 

            Being able to watch teachers create a lesson plan was interesting. It was so helpful to be able to hear a teacher’s thoughts as they plan. At times, I was asking the same questions that Buddy was asking and thinking some of the same things that Kim or Bob were saying. This made me feel confident that I have learned from the education classes I have taken. It also made me wish that I had a co-teacher and/or Dean of Pedagogy. I had obviously heard of co-teaching before but I found that the way they bounced ideas off of each other and asked each other questions seemed so helpful and their lesson evolved easily. Although it seems Kim and Bob work well together, I kept thinking what happens if co-teachers don’t get along. Personalities can clash and I think that if two teachers don’t work well together the class could suffer from it. What can one do if this happens in their classroom?

Specifically, when listening to the planning I learned that I would need to think of how to group the students. I have learned about grouping students in Sped 433 so I knew what they were talking about when they were choosing between heterogeneous and homogeneous groups. I also realized that it is extremely important to plan what I’ll be doing when the students are working, what I will do when students need extra help, and what I will do when students already understand the material. These are things that I have learned at RIC but being able to hear different examples of these aspects was very useful.

            Being able to see a lesson being planned out made me less nervous to make my lesson plans for this class. One of the most important things I learned is to know what I will be doing while students are working and to have extra things planned so that students don’t spend class time not being productive. Also, I learned that it’s okay to ask other teachers questions and to go to use resources when I need it. Most importantly, I learned that the skills I learn at RIC will prepare me for the future and that is very reassuring. Overall, I really enjoyed this class and feel I am definitely on the right track to succeed when I teach this semester.

Administrative Panel-Some New Advice For Success

            I thought it was really great that the administrators took such a long time out of their busy day to speak to us. I left that class with a lot of knowledge, reassurance, and advice to help me today and in the future. I was actually able to take two pages of notes stating some of the things that the administrators said to us. I will not go off on a tangent explaining every phrase that I was able to write down however, I do want to elaborate on a couple of points that were made.

            Something that was said that really stuck out to me was that it’s okay to make mistakes. As a college student who wants to be a teacher I am afraid to make mistakes. I think that any mistake I make when I get a job could potentially ruin my career. Getting a job is extremely competitive and I think having the reassurance that it’s okay to make mistakes as long as I grow from them and think, “What can I do next time” is very helpful and a relief. The next step is to actually work on improving from my mistakes (obviously), which could be asking for help, looking up other lessons, or even talking to my students. I also connected this statement with the able vs. willing graph that Mr. Laplante drew on the board. I agree with this diagram and will strive to be able but will most importantly to be willing to improve and do my best as a teacher.

            Another point, which I was unaware of before listening to this panel, was that the risk zone is where most learning takes place. It did remind me of Vygotsky’s Zone ofProximal Development and it made me think of how I learn. I never thought of learning in a risk zone to be the way we learn best because I would have thought that learning takes place in a comfort zone. However, I do see that most learning will occur in a risk zone. The way I think of it now is that students need to be challenged in order to learn and that the risk zone is where students are challenged but not extremely overwhelmed or unaware, like the danger zone. It also makes me think of times where I have tried learning advanced material that I do not have any prior knowledge. I am not learning because it is too difficult and confusing for me. I need outside resources such as the Internet or other texts for extra help so that I am out of the danger zone and can actually learn. When I create my two lesson plans for this class I want to observe what zone the students I teach are in. This will be the first time that I will be teaching high school students and it will be interesting to see if maximum learning is achieved.

            These are just a couple of points that I really liked from the presentation last Tuesday. I really enjoyed listening to the administrators speak and it was great to hear their own personal stories while they spoke to us. I also am very thankful that they took time out of their day to speak to us!

                              

Great Reading Strategies!

            When reading the assigned readings for this week’s class, Chapter 5 really stuck out to me. The descriptions of the different reading strategies for before, during, and after reading seemed extremely helpful for my future classroom. As we have discussed in class and as I have read this book I have definitely learned the importance of reading and writing in every content area classroom. I have not always been the best reader so learning the different strategies will not only help me in my journey to becoming a successful teacher but I am also, slowly but surely, learning how to become a better reader.

While reading Chapter 5, I was going through the strategies, picking out the ones that I would like to incorporate into a science classroom. I also think having and knowing all of these strategies will be useful because there are many to choose from so if I were to use different ones then the class may seem more enjoyable for my students. It will not be extremely repetitive and I will be able to see which strategies work best for my students so when it comes time to repeat strategies I know which ones to choose. Some of my favorites so far included KWL, Anticipation Guide, Bookmarks, Post-It Response Notes, Exit Slips, Word Meaning Graphic Organizer, and the Vocabulary Tree. Some of these strategies I have used throughout my years of schooling and I also find myself using some of these strategies as I read today. I would like to look more into some of the before reading activities because as one can see in my list of favorites there are not that many. Based on what I have learned in this education class, students need to be motivated to read and that included wanting to read the text that they are assigned to. I think that good pre-reading activities will motivate students to want to read the texts.

Another aspect I really enjoyed about this chapter was the way in which the descriptions of the strategies/activities were formatted. The “Why Use It” and “How Does It Work” sections were extremely helpful as I was reading because for some, the description wasn’t enough. The examples were also useful because I found myself trying to incorporate what I would be teaching in my classroom into the examples to see how I could use it myself.

As one can see by reading this post I really enjoyed the reading. I definitely think it will help me not only later on but also in the near future, as I will need to incorporate reading strategies in the two lessons I will be teaching at CF. Also, the RAFT strategy description was a page that I marked down to go back to since this is another assignment that will be due in just a few weeks.

This Chapter, along with Chapter 7 has really made me consider buying this textbook when my rental due date approaches because so far it has seemed like a great tool to have for teaching.

 

Gaining Respect-Tuesday, February 25th

                                                    

            I feel like every time I am in class, three hours goes by so fast. I walk in always a few minutes before 10 AM and leave right before 1 PM feeling like only an hour has passed. So much goes on in that amount of time. The highlights of this week’s class (Tuesday, February 25^th) included a new observation guideline and the parent panel.

              The new observation guideline was much different than the one we had been previously using. I went to two different classrooms with Jean. The first, which was actually the same classroom we went to a few weeks ago, was an ESL Biology class. We had discussed who was going to be observing the teacher or student two before entering the class and then chose student one, who we both observed, after settling into the class. This guideline was interesting because I was able to focus on two people in the entire classroom for twenty minutes. The teacher spent most of this time managing the class because the students wouldn’t settle down in their seats or stay quiet. One of the only students who behaved and was taking notes on what the teacher was trying to teach was a new student who was having his first day at CF high school. I wonder how long this has been happening in this particular classroom and what else this teacher does for classroom management. It also makes me think how I would handle this type of situation and honestly at this point, I don’t know. It definitely made me realize that I need to learn some classroom management techniques that will make it likely that situations like this one won’t occur often in my classroom someday. I understand it will at some points but I would hope it doesn’t happen too often. 

            The panel that came to speak to us this week was the parent panel. I really enjoy listening to the different panels because it’s very interesting getting to hear different points of view with hopes that I will benefit in the future from it. It seemed to me that the parents want respect from all teachers. They also want the teachers to respect their children. If a teacher gives their children respect then they gain the respect of the parent. Also, a huge point the parents made was that they want teachers to communicate with them. This means they want to receive phone calls not only when their children are not doing well, but also when they are doing well. This acknowledgement goes a long way and in my own experiences in school, is not something that happens often. As said in class, saying this is something that will make me an exceptional teacher and is something to think about is not enough. I’ve been thinking about what I will do to make sure this happens. So far I’ve brainstormed that I will make it a goal to call a set number of parents per week. This number will probably vary as I begin teaching but let’s say I want to call three parents per week. After each day, or each class depending on the situation I will need to write down very BRIEF notes into a notebook/agenda/etc. Toward the end of the week (Thursday) I will make the phone calls. If this is something that will go a long way in my teaching career and I will gain the respect of my student’s parents then I really will make it a goal to do this in the future.