Thursday, April 12, 2012
The Reflective Teacher #2
Like before, please use this space to reflect on classroom strengths/weakness; successes/failures; expected behaviors/shocking behaviors; etc. Also, if you have noticed a repetitive "something" existent in your teaching behavior...i.e. saying "like" excessively; wild hand movements...mention it here. What you are doing to fix these behavior "ticks" and/or how do the students react to them(did they notice it or did you?)?
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One my overall strengths that I had throughout student teaching is my classroom management. This is one area where I feel that I stayed about the same in throughout student teaching. I learned a lot about myself from watching the video clip for the gate D project. I realized that I come across as all business when in front of the classroom. Which has it strengths, because the students know that we are here to learn and that there isn't going to be any monkey business, but I realized that I need to let loose a little bit and try and be more relaxed, because I felt that I was too business in front of the classroom. I didn't realize this until watching myself, because I felt relaxed in front of the classroom, but I realized that this is an area where I have room to grow. I also realized that I was shaking my foot a lot when speaking to the class. I don't think that this is from being nervous, but just something that I do when I have to sit still for a long time. It was distracting though to myself, so definitely something that I need to be more aware of and try to stop. I think that while I do now feel comfortable in the classroom I need to work on outwardly showing this. I still find myself saying "good" a lot after students respond to a question. This is something that I am continually trying to work on. Not only because it is repetitive, but so that I can have a natural response to further the discussion along rather than just saying good and having it end there.
ReplyDeleteI like to make list about things that I have to accomplish, because I can be forgetful and don't want to forget anything. This can, however, have it's down falls. The main one being that I will start to freak out when I see about 10 things that I have to do in a week (this is something that I would quite often do in college with classes as well). I have realized that I need to take a deep breath and just take it day by day, so that I don't overwhelm myself, and that I always get everything done so there is no need to panic. This is something that is going to continue to be a problem for me and something that I need to overcome, but I am working on it.
I am looking forward to seeing all of you this coming week to discuss student teaching! Have a strong last week, the end is near!
I am somewhat jealous that you came across as all bussiness infront of the classroom. I had the oppostite problem at times where I needed to present myself as more of an authority figure. This became more and more apparent to me throughout my student teaching as students started to take advantage of me more and more. I think that there is a small happy medium between being too professional infront of the classroom and being to relaxed. I noticed more and more that students felt comfortable around me, and at first I liked that but then it slowly started to become a problem. I think that it might be better to be more strict that too lax.
DeleteI understand what you mean about being overwhelmed with all of the tasks and I also found that it was very helpful to make a list of taks to accomplish.
I have no doubt that you had a great presence in the classroom!
One strength that I have noticed with my student teaching is how well I interact with the students and am able to build a strong connection with them. I really enjoy talking to my students and getting to know the real them and vise a verse. This is something that I pride in because I beleive that one of the most important aspects of teaching is really know your students. After you know their interests, their dislikes, how they learn and what makes them tick, it is very helpful to create lessons and activities that you know the kids will enjoy. However something that I have noticed about my relationships is that it has been difficult to establish authority. My students respect me and know taht I am their teacher and in charge, however they can do a good job of testing me and pushing my limits. They also know how to get me off task and get distracted. This leads into the biggest weakness that I have noticed in my studetns teaching.
ReplyDeleteI never thought taht my biggest struggle would be classroom management, but it certainly has. I have come a long way since the first few weeks and it is getting better, but it is not quite where I would like it to be. I tend to have a problem with tlaking "at" my students rather than talking "with" my students. This is someting that I have noticed and I have really tried to change. I've been starting by changing the tone in my voice while I am instructing to make it sound more conversational rather than stern and forceful. I definitely do NOT want to be that teacher who stands up in front of the class telling them what to do and blah blah blah. This is why I am really trying find a successful solution so that when I am in my own classroom I will know what works and what doesn't.
I have really enjoyed my student teaching expereince. I will greatly miss my studetns when I leave. I think that I have learned a lot to prepare myself for my future teahcing career. I hope you all have had great expreinces as well and I can't wait to see you all and share stories! See you all next week
I love your first paragraph and I can completely relate to everything that you said. I really loved making connections with my students and that was my absolute favorite part of the whole experience and what made me decide that I do want to be a teacher after all. However, I also found that my students knew exactly how to take advantage of me and get me off task even though it was apparent that they respected me as a person.
DeleteI could relate to your second paragraph as well and I found that my tone was either stern or completely friendly with no happy medium.
I am really happy to hear that you were able to connect with your students. That is what makes teaching so worthwhile!
I agree that building strong relationships is one of the most important things, I actually said close to the same thing in my post.
DeleteI think that things like talking "at" your students is something that you will be able to see yourself doing and improve over time. There are all things like that we each have a problem with and I really think that over time you will catch yourself doing those things and improve upon yourself. The more comfortable you become in the classroom, the easier it will be to talk "to" your students rather than "at" them. (At least I hope so, otherwise were all in trouble! ha!)
I am really glad to hear that you had a good experience, my experience far surpassed my expectations!
On Fiday, I asked my students for feedback and was extremely pleased with their responses. Students were honest about which projects were confusing and concepts that they had not understood and some even told me that I need to be more strict.
ReplyDeleteWhile the negative feedback was really helpful, the positive feed back made it clear that I have had an impact on these students. I recieved several comments like, "You were a great teacher and you were so much fun!" But I was completely pleasantly surpised by some of the other comments that I recieved. In the section "What did you learn from me?" I expected students to write things about writing conventions, a I did, but I also recieved some personal comments that meant a great deal to me. I had students write, "You taught me the right way to use the word gay, "You taught me that gay is not an insult,"and even "you taught me that it is okay to be gay." I had one student tell me that she wants to create a gay-straight alliance at this school (which takes bravery in this community)and she made me a collage for my last day that included the steps to become a good straight ally to the LGTBQ community. I almost cried. I had not realized that I had made this type of impact, and I guess I accomplished it in the way that I constantly corrected harmful language. Each time I heard things like "Why did you throw that you stupid queer!" or "Shut up your gay!" or "Ugh this homework assignment is so gay." I used it as a teaching moment to let students know that the word "gay" is not a put down. I did not realize how well they were listening.
I also recieved helpful feedback on my tone with the students. Almost every student wrote down that they enjoyed my stories and the way I shared myself with the students stating that it made them want to share more of themselves in their writing because I had shared personal things with them. Several students also wrote that they were inspired by the story of my shaved head and that it helped them to be more confident in themselves and their appearance. It was a neat experiene for me to see my impact.
Although I did recieve all of this positive feedback, I also recieved some feedback that helped me pin point my weaknesses and areas I need to improve. I had one student write down, "I like how you got along with us, you are like one of us" and I cringed. Like Bre said, the students respected me and knew I was their teacher, but clearly I needed to do a better job of establishing myself as an authority figure. I also had students write helpful things like, "You let students talk too much and it distracted me." Watching my mentor teacher come back, I can definitely see areas that I need to tighten up in my control of the classroom.
I enjoyed student teaching imensely and I am excited to apply what I have learned about myself in my own classroom someday.
I think asking students to give feedback on your teaching is a great idea, not just during student teaching but in our future classrooms.
DeleteStudent's feedback is more often going to be honest and worth-while, positive or constructive. Like we talked about last week, I think this will be something that I try to have my students do. It's hard at some points to not "be like one of the students", especially right now, because we still kind of are students. Well, we were at least. I find myself from time to time recognizing when I may be on a more student as opposed to teacher level and try to check myself. I also have tried to watch more closely the way my teacher conducts the classroom and commands attention in hopes that it will help me understand what I can do in the future.
I was hit with a major dose of ‘reality check’ this past week and a half of teaching. We have a plethora of students who struggle with staying on track when outside of class so our research unit was stretched out over the past 2 months. Yes, I said two months. (Mind you we had 2 weeks of for spring break and one week was Flex week- which is a built in enrichment and remedial week before spring break). Nevertheless, I have spent extensive time teaching and reviewing all the basic components of a research paper and the writing process.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the first rough draft was due on Monday, April 23 and the final draft today, both by midnight. Low and behold, last Monday came and went and it was Tuesday around 8:00 a.m. and over HALF of the students had not submitted a first draft. This first draft was worth a whopping 120 points of the 530 total points this project is/was worth. Of the papers I did receive on time, most required lengthy time commenting and reminding students of the necessary elements of a research paper. There were SO many unrealistic and careless mistakes in the student’s writing; I thought I was going to lose my mind a few times. Students were sending papers that didn’t have in-text citations, that didn’t have work cited pages, and that were only 2 pages long (when the requirement is 3-5). I am very straightforward with my students and continually remind them that they can’t pull fast ones on me because I’ve been there done that, and yet they just don’t get it. Alignment of the paragraphs is like 2” from the edge of the paper rather than the normal 1”. There are 2 and 3 lines of space between paragraphs. It blew my mind. I wondered what I wasn’t doing well enough. What was off in my teaching style that students just were not getting it? I realized, as much as I didn’t want to think it, that those students just want to try and slide through their school work and basically do their work the way they want. Those who are going to do well- they do well and those that just don’t care, are going to half-ass their work, regardless of deadlines and extensions.
It wasn’t until Thursday of last week that I REAALLLLYYY FULLLLYYY realized the grand scheme and importance of due dates and how crucial making these deadlines is and how annoying it is when they aren’t met. The plan was to have students submit their paper on a Monday so they could be graded Tuesday and Wednesday; Thursday and Friday would be spent reviewing more elements of the research paper, revising their drafts, and getting any specific questions answered. Of course, I was still receiving papers on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday… I am still getting rough drafts submitted TODAY!! The due date for their final draft! Grading research papers is a time consuming process as it is and students sending papers sporadically throughout the rest of the week and is just plain irritating. I have TRULY recognized the crucial importance of deadlines and due dates.
This was more of me venting. I'm sure you all have had this issue with your classes in some way or another. :-) Just wanted to share how fantastic my week last week was. And yet I still just can't really be mad at any of my students. Ha- Life of a teacher huh??? :-)
What grade do you teach? I encountered that with a handful of students, but most of my students are highly motivated. I did learn just how strenuous grading research is though :(
Delete10th grade! ha it's crazy some of the assignments students turn in with little to no effort.
DeleteI think my biggest strength in the classroom is understanding and connecting with the students. Not only are they comfortable enough with me to ask me questions and answer questions without feeling like they are going to sound stupid, but they also tell me when they are confused, or if I don't make any sense. I think that being able to build relationships like that with students is a huge aspect to teaching successfully so I am glad I am able to make those connections with my students.
ReplyDeleteI still think that my biggest weakness is classroom management, although it has definitely improved from before. I can get students to listen and quiet down when they ask, but I still have trouble getting them to stay focused after I have done so. I still have times where they will listen to me for a certain amount of time, and then go back to what they were doing before. My classroom management strategies are still a work in progress. One thing I have improved with is actually following through with consequences. Many of my classes didn't think I would actually keep them after the bell..until I did. I think that showing them that I will actually give them consequences for their actions has made them respond to me better.
I have had some failures since the last time I posted. But on the bright side I have some great success stories as well! One student that ended up being one of my failure stories was a girl who had just moved to the school. She came into my second period class midway through the semester. She had been moved from school to school very often and was even "home-schooled" for a bit. She had many family issues going on outside of school that spilled over into her time at school. Her attendance was also very poor. At the beginning of the semester I gave her the benefit of the doubt for certain assignments but once I started to see a pattern, I began grading her and expecting exactly what I would expect from any other student. After working on a speech unit with all of my students, they were ready to present their speeches. This student was not present (as always) on the day she was supposed to present. When she got back a few days later, I asked her to present her speech. She had told me that she didn't feel like it, and that she hadn't practiced and didn't know it at all so she wasn't going to do it. I told her it was okay she could bring her outline up with her if she needed something to jog her memory. She said, "Do I look retarded?! I'm not doing this!" I felt I shouldn't push it farther because she seemed to have a violent side to her. I found out later that day she had moved back with her mother and would not be returning to school at Tuttle. I am really disappointed that she did not finish the project. She had put in all the major work (research, outline, word-for-word written speech) but did not end up giving the speech at all.
Even with all the ups and downs of student teaching, I really enjoyed those students. I had a wonderful cooperating teacher who I honestly look up to. She is one of the best teachers I have ever seen, and I couldn't have been luckier to have her as my mentor in this student teaching experience. I would not change a single thing throughout this experience!
Follow up on consequence/threats, I think, is major. Students need to recognize that although we can be fun and everything, we are serious about things. Taking time from students in their passing period is huge to them. Kids love chat chitting in the hallways with their friends and screwing around so to take this away means business.
ReplyDeleteHaving students basically shut down is so mind-boggling. For one, I can't imagine ever telling a teacher (at any age) that I was not going to do something. I have a student that just is 'dark', in so many aspects. He "doesn't like anything" and just "wants to sit in his room in the dark and maybe play video games". He only comes to school one day a week and doesn't bring any past work with him. I've asked him why he doesn't and he just simply responds because he doesn't care.. or he's a failure or other things of that nature. I have consistently and continually tried to get this student to "get it together", basically, and it just is not happening. It's hard NOT to push to far, or even flirt with that line a little, just because you want the student to succeed and you want to help. Unfortunately, not all students want help and not all students understand where we are coming from. :-)