Reflection #1: "Difference"

Ellen Bass' poem "Relax" speaks humorously of some horrors life can throw our way. "Bad things are going to happen" is the first line; not what you might expect after reading the title. In this same way teaching will throw each and every one of us for a loop now and then. Even the best teachers have horrible days. In response to Bass' poem I followed her form to create my own piece entitled "Difference".

Difference

Everything that can happen will.

Your umbrella will have a hole during a downpour

and your school laptop will  make a sickening “whrr”.

A student will sneak in their hot fries and forget where he hid them

until the cockroaches enjoy their snack. Then

bed bugs join the train from student A to your classroom.

Your alarm clock will decide to die

that Wednesday morning you have a 7:10 meeting, the one where

the principal just had to join. Or your students

will remember they’re dramatists

and reenact soap operas all period long. And your other computer-

the one with Windows 8 you never really understood- will contract a virus

that requires you to prove you weren't downloading illegally to

every person that gives you “the look”.

Your pants will rip.

No matter how much grading you get done during plan,

how much copying, you’ll lose your classroom key,

students' assignments and your ability to spell. If your grade book

doesn’t receive every food stain

possible during speed triathlons of eating,

you’ll come home to find there is no food in

your refrigerator, you aren’t paid for another week,

and all the dollar menus require more gas to reach than is in your car—and the oil light dings.

There’s a saying about a silver lining for every cloud.

Where even in the heaviest of rains, something positive

awaits you as well. But that doesn’t help a drowning worm.

In the gutter—Niagara falls to bugs and insects—the water rushes

and the worm floats helpless. It is at this point

the worm might look up if it had eyes.

It could look up at the silver lining.

Then it could see the positive of the child rescuing its brethren in neon galoshes just before the sewer.

So here’s the lining, the upside, the positive

light in the dark. Your students make you rethink your job, you’ll get frustrated,

find out all the chocolate in the vending machine is gone

and your coffee pot broke. You’ll feel helpless.

But wriggle into the safety of the child’s hands as

They pull you from the gutter; how one act makes a difference

and the difference is with you.

Genre Reflection #2: Letters

                                Letters

F

“Forget it,” he says- like he won’t even try

                                                But I know him better than that.

                                                                                “Let’s work this out together.”

D

There’s pride. He does not say it

                                                And there is no need.

                                                                                “Let’s see if we can do better.”

C

“Holy shit!” he cries- and I can’t scold his language;

                                                He has learned more than words-

                                                                                “Great! Think you can get a B?”

B

“I did it!” he shouts- a proud gleam in his eye;

                                                There is confidence in his ability.

                                                                                “I always knew you could.”

A

Stunned silence. Disbelief? He questions my grading

                                                But I didn’t need to go easy.

                                                                                “You did it on your own.”

Online Reflection #4 - Filling in the blanks

As the saying goes: time flies when you are having fun! It’s hard to believe that we are already halfway into November. It’s even harder to believe just how fast this semester has come and gone!  But as the semester begins to wrap up, I have noticed a lot more empty seats. After talking to my CT she said that it is typical: the first rainy days, the first cold days- all drawing the sleep-ridden seniors deeper into their beds rather than into an 8am English classroom. Is there any way to stop this trend?

Various articles online mention things like making a school or the environment feel safe, or talking to the students to say they were missed. Others talk about the use of incentives in the class room.  What do you do if this doesn’t work?

If the students aren’t in the classroom, they obviously can’t learn what you are trying to teach. With senioritis seeming to hit incredibly early, my CT has shown me a trick that she uses fairly regularly. Grades are among the most important thing for students (or so it seems). By tying in daily attendance into participation, she forces the students to take responsibility to come to class- or lose out on the opportunity for those points completely. These small points add up over time, teaching the chronically absent that the bare minimum isn’t enough. Is this better than incentives or individual talks with the students? For the classroom I am in right now it seems one of the most helpful strategies; but what others have you seen used? Does it matter what age the students are when trying to decide what strategy you use? Does it matter if half of the class is over 18?

KATE Conference: The mortar of the bricks

Although I was unable to attend Thursday’s session of the KATE conference, I was very happy with Friday’s experience! Just by listening to my fellow pre-student teachers talking I knew that Thursday was very informative and beneficial. Friday was far from disappointing!

The atmosphere was a lot different than I had expected. Typically conferences intimidate me in their size, especially when so many are strangers. However, there were smiles abound and friendliness was soon a long forgotten worry. Even in the small group of the first session, ESOL Strategies in the Language Arts Classroom, was very friendly! This session was also among the most beneficial of sessions, as many of the students at my school are ESOL learners. In fact, the speaker for this section is a teacher at the school I am in! How cool is that? I did not have the pleasure of meeting her before, but her presentation was very enlightening. Did you know that it takes 13-15 exposures to learn a new word, if the student is on grade level? Otherwise it takes double. I never would have guessed! Many of the strategies that were mentioned I have already had the pleasure of seeing in my current classroom, used by my CT. This background experience in the strategies enhanced my learning, and made this session my favorite!

It was a difficult choice to decide where I should attend next. In the end I chose Poetry Out Loud, followed by the Children’s Book sessions. Both provided even more amazing information and ideas! I thought it was very interesting to hear about the nationwide poetry contest and community college experiences.  All of the sessions showed how to enhance student learning, but to do so in a way that brings excitement, motivation, and fun! It definitely made me feel a tad disappointed when fellow pre-student teachers discussed how Thursday’s sessions were just as great- if not even better.

In the end, the conference left a great impact. I wasn’t sure what I would think of it after hearing about several long, sometimes not the most entertaining inservice days. While a conference is not an inservice, it was the comparison that I was making in my mind. Not anymore! I look forward to the conference next year, in the hopes that I can attend and discover a plethora of new information at my every beck and call. A teacher’s job of learning never ceases; and I happily accept the task of growing into a better, well rounded and open minded educator!

Genre Reflection 1: "Why?"

“Why?”

He asks why and I feel the blood quicken,

mind racing as I consider all I know.

Defiance?

Class clown?

Control?

If I yell to assert my power- is it power I really own?

Perhaps I can be of selective hearing- will the class move on?

He stares. How long does the silence stretch?

Student versus teacher;

since when were we on opposite sides?

Again he asks: “Why?” Yes, I heard you.

But how do I respond?

Authoritative?

Passive?

Or…

In this same intrusive second after his asking

I abruptly notice:

sincerity in the eyes- no mockery; no grin;

have I misjudged him?

As a daughter, my parents ask why.

As a student, my teachers ask why.

As a teacher, my supervisors ask why.

Why can’t he?

Because he is my student-

Does that take away his rights?

Dawning

Realization

Acceptance

He asks “Why?” He does not challenge

My job

My knowledge

My ability

He simply wants to know the answer-

“Why?”

Online Reflection #3 : Building the Basics – How much is too much?

As future teachers we are often advised to get to know our students- but what happens when they want to tell us too much? Over the past few weeks I have felt completely blindsided by some of the information that students willingly and openly share. Working in the first hour of the day, the senior class I work with appears to have no qualms in talking to the CT and I about their weekend or previous night’s happenings. A few of the students have even come up to ask for advice! Normally, I would be thrilled with this amount of openness between students and teachers- but this idea is based on the fact that students share sensitive information to teachers when there is a basis of trust between them. Is this the case, anymore?

It seems that more and more students (or at least the classroom body that I work with) are openly sharing intimate details that simply should not be shared without caution. For example: there is a student who often asks for advice on her “love situation”. Through some half-hazard talks (to which I always tried to offer a basic service of advice for a general audience, so as not to misguide or misinform the student while also not simply rejecting her sincere questions) I have been told- without even asking- of more than one “significant other” at the same time and questioned on who I, personally, would choose to stay with- or if hiding one from the other is wrong. These are questions that I don’t feel comfortable discussing with acquaintances and yet here is a student openly asking her teacher without batting an eye. At first I wondered if this behavior was solely of one student but I quickly learned that it was not. There are several students who willingly share and proffer such information without even being asked. It begs the question of: what is too much?

Researching online, I discovered that this situation is becoming more and more commonplace. For example, an article written by Stephen Winzenburg, gives the opinion that the online social media may be playing a part. While I do not know whether or not Facebook, Twitter, and the vast array of online websites could cause students- and people in general- to willingly share private information with little care, the article shows that it is not isolated the students in my classroom.

So what is the solution? Is there even a problem, or is this a social change that older generations will inevitably have to recognize- even if they do not agree it should be done? Perhaps I simply did not search the right words- but there seemed to be little online information on this specific topic. I found an abundant resource of information on what people, kids in particular, should or should not share online but not in relation to a classroom or public situation. From there I turned to classroom management. This appears to be the path, at least for the moment, which is most beneficial- especially during transitions. Perhaps by using such guides as Adam Waxler’s “How to Handle Classroom Management During Transitions” – or one of the many other online and in print resources for this topic–the amount of personal sharing may get cut down. A classroom discussion on what is too much to share may provide a benefit to some students, as well. However, as they are all seniors, most already taking on adult responsibilities and liberties, I’m unsure as to how many will take the discussion into serious consideration. Most of the students, when questioned, do not see the problem with sharing as much as they do, after all. Am I simply creating a problem where there isn’t one?

Online Reflection #2 : Laying out the Foundation

The first few weeks have come and gone, and overall I couldn’t be more pleased with how the class has been run. Many of the students have had my CT before and already knew her classroom rules and procedures which have made it almost easier than it should be to begin a daily routine. I have had students come to ask me what the daily plan is on the rare occasion that a morning bell work is not posted for them via overhead when they first enter the room because they know that there should have been one waiting. The responsibility the students have shown has been very encouraging, to say the least! This experience also leads me to further understand and see firsthand the words of Dr. Wong in his book entitled The First Days of School: how to be an Effective Teacher (2009) when he states that the “first two to three weeks of school are critical in determining how well students will achieve for the remainder of the year” (p. 6).

Classroom management, one of my personal goals, has been amazingly simple due to the management skills of the classroom teacher. However, there is a noticeable difference in the students when the CT leaves the room for any reason and I am left in charge. Their behavior doesn’t change in that the students refuse to acknowledge what I tell them, but the atmosphere of the room feels more lax in their expectations of side conversations and volume level. At times it makes me wonder if, following under the pre-set expectations of my CT, I have failed to lay my own foundation. Or could it just be that the students are still adjusting to having a second teacher in the classroom with them? I believe it may be a bit of both, as the students and I are both in a new learning environment together.

Armed with this knowledge, I have been excitedly working on building a three to five day thematic unit to teach to the class. It is my hope that during this time I will be able to teach more effectively in terms of what my own procedures and expectations are. My CT has given me the opportunity to work with the class on their first assigned book by Jean Ferris called Bad. We, the CT and myself, will be piloting a new strategy with this book (if all things go as planned) by using voice recordings of the chapters for the students to hear as they read. This may be used in class and at home (especially for those who were absent). Since the classroom I work in is a special education English classroom with many ESL students, we are hoping to test and see if an audio recording of the book will improve student comprehension (and perhaps even motivation). It is an exciting challenge to take, however it may turn out! This new set of audio accessibility and online streaming have opened up a lot of potential for future projects that can provide a great benefit for the students. I can only hope that, with this new technology being introduced during my thematic unit, the planning will work out and not be too hard on me with technical difficulties! Either way it will be a learning based experience. Without putting the effort in to try there can be no possibility of success!