Observation #3

          For this observation, I focused on classroom management.  I noticed that every class the students enter the room really loudly and they always walk around the room and talk to their friends before the finally take their usual seat.  Its also interesting that the majority of the students arrive in the class after the bell rings.  There is always a "do now" activity ready for the students, but they often talk and do other things rather than focusing on the activity.  It seems that class begins once the teacher approaches the front of the room and starts talking to them, but there are many times that she needs to watch the hallways between passing, or has to talk to other teachers/faculty before class.  Until the teacher is focused on the students, they are not focused on the class.  

          The teacher doesn't seem to formally take attendance.  Rather than wasting the five minutes to call out every name, she jots down the names of students who arrived late to class or are absent and she starts the students on an assignment.  Once the students were working she went to the computer and saved the attendance online.  She also knows which students were absent the day before, which I thought was impressive because she has so many periods to teach.  She grabs the papers that students who are late or were absent the day before, had missed and she explains to them what they need to do to make-up.  The teacher passes out the papers to each student individually, and she collects papers this way.  Sometimes she uses this as a way to talk to the students.
          
          During my most recent visit, the teacher had the student groups practice their presentations for her (and myself) before their official presentation the next week.  She would make numerous criticisms (mostly constructively) but there was not a lot of praise.  There were some groups where she would stop their presentation and tell them things they needed to change.  I understand that many of the groups are behind and they missed obvious directions that she has repeated over and over, but I feel like the also deserved a little praise.  Again, the teacher quickly corrected poor behavior, but didn't praise the students who were doing the right thing.  

          About five minutes before the period ended, the students were already packed up and standing near the door, ready to leave.  In this class the teacher does not dismiss the students, instead they leave when the bell rings.  They don't wait for the teacher to acknowledge that they are leaving, they just loudly leave the room and enter the hallway, the same way that they enter it.   

            
          








    

Observation #2

          For my second observation, I watched the class and tried to take note of the teacher's lesson plan.  I decided to take note of what the students and the teacher were doing and how long they were doing it.  For this class, everyone went to the library to work on their powerpoint projects. 

This was the breakdown:
9:44am-11:10am - All student groups work on powerpoint using the computers
                     10:17a-10:28a - Group 1 practiced presentation for the teacher
                     10:58a-11:05a - Group 2 practiced presentation for the teacher 
11:05a-11:10a - All students save work and prepare to leave class

All extra time was spent on students working on their powerpoints and the teacher talking to students, correcting behaviors and constructively criticizing presentations.

It is clear that the students are preparing for their final presentations next week, and it is difficult to have students do this type of work at home/on their own time.  This project/lesson is the end of the unit, which explains the emphasis on the cumulative project.  

This lesson encompasses the following teacher standards:
ISTE 2 - Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
ISTE 3 - Model Digital Age Work and Learning

And the following student standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1 - Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL11-12.5 - Make strategic use of digital media in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

Promising Practices

          This semester I attended the Promising Practices Conference at Rhode Island College.  Unlike previous years the conference took place from 8am to 5pm, so I was unable to stay after lunch because of work. 

          Plenary Session
The conference opened up with a panel discussion between RIC, JWU and RWU presidents, the Superintendent of Providence Schools, the CEO of United Way RI, President of Rhode Island Foundation, the Mayor of Providence and it was moderated by a member of the RI Public Radio.  

This was a great experience for me, because hot topics were discussed and real teachers, faculty and student teachers were able to ask specific questions to the leaders of the institutions.  A few of the key concepts from the discussion included: 

• We need to prepare future leaders not people for the workforce
• Colleges need to provide primary/secondary schools with talented mentors
• You can't evaluate what you can't measure
• Don't be afraid to fail
• Students need support to succeed - don't label students because of their zip code
• Poverty is a factor but NOT a destiny 

(These are just a few of the major points during the session) 

          Session #1 (part 1) - Children in Central American Migrant Families
While this session was very interesting, it did not provide me with any techniques for classroom use.  We looked at migration policies and how undocumented parents can influence a child's education/school work/personal life.  It is extremely important for teachers to know this.
*Helps teachers to know what could be going on with a student*

        Session #1 (part 2) - Building an Architecture of College Inclusion for High School Language Minority Students
 This session picked up where the other left off in that they created a project for students whose English language skills do not match their home language skills.  Project ExCel looks at students who are high performing but don't have the typical English classes.  There was an eye-opening story from one of the presenters who explained that a high performing student was told not to apply to a four-year college by their guidance counselor because they weren't strong in English.  As teachers we should always encourage our students to achieve, and this student wasn't remedial... they had great grades!  Basically, there are programs for students who are stronger in their home language, and ESL doesn't mean you can't achieve in college!

        Session #2 - Literacy Walks
This presentation was done by teachers at Henry Barnard, which made me a little worried that content wouldn't match with my high school students.  The idea of literacy walks, however, was developed from an adult model.  Basically, the students walk to different stations and complete activities that are related to a novel/play/poem/etc in groups, in pairs and individually.  A question that was raised was that many schools don't have the opportunity to walk outside in a huge safe field.  An alternative is stations in the classroom, hallway, or specific stations in the gym, cafeteria, other room etc.  I would love to use this in one of my classrooms because it would keep them actively engaged in the text while making memories, developing skills, and creating a classroom community feel.

Overall, I found the conference to be really interesting and eye-opening.  I've attended the conference for the last three years, but this was the first time I really got something out of going.  Perhaps, I'm starting to get "teacher goggles" and see how I can apply certain things in my future classroom.
 

Obeservation #1

            On my first day if observations, I pulled into a front row parking space just before second period.  I glanced down at my note which read “Ms. English, room 305, 9:44am” and took a deep breath before getting out of my car.  I made my way towards three large doors and noticed that the middle one was still open.  I guess that this was a policy for late students, as first period had not ended yet.  As I approached the doorway I noticed two men talking in the lobby.  I carefully ducked around them politely and (since I could sense their confusion and curiosity) asked them how I could get to the main office.  One of the men eagerly greeted me and walked me towards a door.  He held it opened for me and explained that the office was just above this floor.  I thanked him and looked around the ground floor before proceeding to the office.  There were bright posters around the walls one displaying greetings from the faculty and students and another explaining the ideals that HighSchoolName students possess.  I noticed that the atmosphere was dark, not due to lack of lighting, but because of the dark wood paneling that lined the walls.  

            Upstairs, the office was extremely large, way bigger than I imagined it to be.  There was a long counter that separated the visitors and faculty, and I was not sure where to stand.  I started looking for a visitor’s binder, but decided to get the attention of the woman behind the counter instead.  She quickly grabbed the binder for me and explained the procedures of the school.  I left my license with her and in return wore a bright red lanyard that screamed visitor.  I told her the classroom I was going to, but that I didn’t know how to get there.  I was surprised when she walked around to my side and pleasantly walked me to another staircase.  Her directions brought me right to the classroom, but not before the bell rang releasing the students into the hallway.  The hallways busily filled, but not with as many students that I predicted.  Hardly any students looked my way, even though I was clearly an outsider, as they were preoccupied with looking towards the ground and moping to their next class.  My high school hallways had been battlefields full of talking and screaming, kissing and fighting and especially locker doors slamming, and I was surprised to see the opposite at this school.  The hallway was long and dark, and the doors were molded with the same dark wood that trimmed the entire school.  On the side of each doorway was a little brown plaque that displayed the room number.  I could barely make out which rooms matched the tiny white numbers, but managed to find the classroom I was looking for.   

            As I walked into the classroom, I noticed that there were not a lot of students (about 5).  I took a seat a one of the three teacher’s desks on the side of the room and waited to meet Ms. English.  Much after the bell rung, the rest of the small class (9 total) decided to stroll in, as if the bell didn’t apply to them.  The teacher’s desks were very old and creaky, also made of wood.  There were three white boards, two chalk boards, a small built in library shelf, large sticky note lists around the room, and three bulletin boards.  The student desks face towards the white boards and the three teacher’s desks face the side of the student desks.  This set up was strange to me, as I was used to the conventional teacher desk in the front of the room.  There was not a lot of student work around the room, only four (extra-credit) dream catchers hung from the ceiling, and a few typed pages were stapled to one of the bulletin boards.  

            Something that caught my eye was the number of behavioral signs around the room.  Above the white boards hung three signs; “no hats/hoods”, “no phones/ipods”, and “class rules“.  On the other side of the classroom there was another sign titled, “classroom procedures”.  On top of that, behind the teacher’s desk was a list that described detention and warnings.  Strike one was a warning and your name would get written on the board, strike two was a second warning and a checkmark, and strike three was a third warning and another slash.  After three warnings the next disruption would cause the student to have a fifteen minute detention, after another problem there would be a conference with the parents, and another problem would result with a call to Mr. Principal.  It seemed strange to me that there would be so many warnings in a classroom that seemed very concerned with discipline.  

When I finally met Ms. English, I learned that the room was shared by two teachers and that she has a hearing impairment.  This means that she doesn’t hear when people speak too softly, and she is provided with a teacher’s assistant to aid her.  Ms. English spent a lot of time trying to gather papers and sort things out, while the students talked loudly, instead of doing their “do now” assignment.  When the lesson finally started, most of the students seemed to listen, but a few of them were clearly distracted by either friends, phones, or just other things in their world.  Instead of raising their hands, the students would shout out to the teacher, and they seemed sort of engaged.  It seems like the students decide for themselves when they are going to do what they are supposed to.  For example, all of the students completed the “do now”, just not at the time that they were asked.  This is the same for classwork and reading, it seems to be on their own time rather than when the teacher tells them.    

 

Microteaching I

          My microteaching lesson was on similes and metaphors, and I had my students create their own similes and metaphors in pairs and individually. I realized that timing is an extremely important aspect of teaching a lesson, and I know that I need to practice my lesson multiple times before I teach the it, to ensure that my timing is good. At the same time, it is impossible to predict how long groups will work, or how quickly the students will grasp the information. My group of four students easily grasped the ideas and quickly created their own similes and metaphors. If I were to teach the lesson again, I would have them write more similes and metaphors and maybe have them switch partners a couple of times. 

          Another challenge that I faced was cutting the lesson too close to the end of the class period. I was practically half way through me lesson when another class had to use the room. At first I was stressed out, but then I remembered how many times this happened in my own school experience. There were a number of times where my teachers taught after the bell rang, or had to cut the lesson because of fire drills or an assembly. Without trying to, I learned an important lesson which is to expect the unexpected. Sometimes you won't be able to teach the lesson as planned, and you just have to roll with it and do what you can.