Thursday, December 10, 2009
Working with students
I got to experience something unique in my placement on Tuesday. My mentor teacher offered retakes on an inequality quiz that students took a week or two ago because a lot of people struggled mightily with it. One of the students who was taking the retake had hurt her writing hand, so what we did was have her dictate her answers to me while I wrote down exactly what she said. At times it was hard not to say anything, but I noticed that sometimes you can be leading even when you don't say anything. There were a few times I didn't catch something she said so I paused my writing as an indication to repeat herself (I wasn't sure I even wanted to ask her to say something again, though I eventually got over that - it seems kind of silly that I ever thought that). However sometimes a pause can mean more than just repeat yourself. Sometimes when teachers pause, whether it be in writing or saying something, they are looking for a student to say more and complete their answer because the student is missing something. I think that happened once while I was writing her test for her when I did not mean it to. Also there were times when I just did not understand what she wanted me to do. It helped that I knew the topic of the test and that I had seen the students solve these types of problems before, otherwise I would have had an even harder time of it. I guess the moral of the story here is that you can be accomodating for students, just be careful that you establish a procedure for it and that you know how they are going to think about solving the problem so that you understand what they are asking you to do or write down.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Homework Grading: Completion vs. Accuracy
I had a discussion with my mentor teacher the other day about how she grades her homework. Most of the homework she only grades for completion, so if you've done all the problems and have the proper type of work shown you get 10 points. From there you lose points if you have problems missing or incomplete. If you really struggle with a problem and just can't figure out how to do it, you can write a question like "How do I use a proportion to solve this problem?" and still get credit for doing the problem. The reason my mentor teacher said she grades this way is because it allows students to feel comfortable making mistakes and it helps put student errors and misunderstandings on the table for discussion. As we talked about in my methods class, sometimes student errors can be a more valuable discussion tool than discussing only the "correct" method. If you only grade for accuracy you force students to be "correct" on every problem and you miss out on key discussion points and the chance to clear up student misconceptions. I think grading for completion can be an extremely useful tool. However, I think that every once in a while you need to grade for accuracy, otherwise the students might get complacent with turning in just incomplete material or material that is worked out wrong. Plus grading for accuracy every now and then helps them be prepared for quizzes and tests. By mixing up the grading styles and not telling the students how they all will be graded it keeps them honest and having to do every problem.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Classroom etiquette
It's been a while blog, but it's nice to be back.
I stopped into my placement on Friday for various reasons, and ended up talking with my mentor teacher for a few minutes. She told me about an incident that happened in class that day where one of the students randomly called out, "WOW! That poster is HUGE!" Needless to say this was very disruptive. My mentor teacher had an interesting tactic for dealing with this issue. She went back to her lesson, then in the middle of lesson she randomly said, "Look at that A on that poster; it's so big and purple!" The students were stunned and thinking, "what just happened?!?" She used tactic to ask the students how they felt when she randomly said something not pertinent to the lesson. They realized how distracting it was and how she, as the teacher, must have felt when the first student made her comment. I thought that this was a really useful technique, particularly for a middle school classroom like ours. I wonder, though, if it would be equally effective in a high school classroom or if it would be almost too childish maybe.
I stopped into my placement on Friday for various reasons, and ended up talking with my mentor teacher for a few minutes. She told me about an incident that happened in class that day where one of the students randomly called out, "WOW! That poster is HUGE!" Needless to say this was very disruptive. My mentor teacher had an interesting tactic for dealing with this issue. She went back to her lesson, then in the middle of lesson she randomly said, "Look at that A on that poster; it's so big and purple!" The students were stunned and thinking, "what just happened?!?" She used tactic to ask the students how they felt when she randomly said something not pertinent to the lesson. They realized how distracting it was and how she, as the teacher, must have felt when the first student made her comment. I thought that this was a really useful technique, particularly for a middle school classroom like ours. I wonder, though, if it would be equally effective in a high school classroom or if it would be almost too childish maybe.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Thoughts on the first days of Student Teaching
Now that I have been student teaching for two days in the classroom, I have a few reflections I want to make a note of. Firstly, glancing over some of the problems my students had to do, I couldn't help but think how simple some of them seemed to me. Let me explain. I am in an 8th grade accelerated Algebra 1 class this semester. My math background includes classes all the way up through Calc IV and then some. On top of that I am starting a very proof-based, theoretical geometry class. So, for obvious reasons, it is a challenge to keep in mind the level that my students are at and that they may have very different ways of thinking about problems than I do. It's just a balance I have to maintain between my level of mathematical knowledge and my students level of mathematical knowledge. How to do that is certainly a good question for my mentor teacher.
My background also brings me to my second point, which is how do we justify the use in teaching something we've rarely if ever seen used outside of class and standardized tests. For example, our lesson today was on stem-and-leaf plots, and I could not think of a use for them outside the classroom. I had a really nice discussion with my mentor teacher about this today and she told me that sometimes there just isn't a good answer to that question, but to keep in mind that sometimes simply the process of solving such problems and knowing different ways to organize data can be extremely useful skills to have. Also in situations like this, an option she gave and has used in the past, is to have students look for examples of such charts and graphs used in the newspaper or online or anywhere else outside of the textbook and bring the example into class for extra credit (though she did admit that stem-and-leaf are pretty hard to find even in those sources). Here's just a few strategies for dealing with topics that you may not see the relevance in teaching. If anyone has some other ideas or gets other ideas during the semester, please let me know, and of course I'll keep reporting ideas and strategies that I have heard. With that, adios amigos.
My background also brings me to my second point, which is how do we justify the use in teaching something we've rarely if ever seen used outside of class and standardized tests. For example, our lesson today was on stem-and-leaf plots, and I could not think of a use for them outside the classroom. I had a really nice discussion with my mentor teacher about this today and she told me that sometimes there just isn't a good answer to that question, but to keep in mind that sometimes simply the process of solving such problems and knowing different ways to organize data can be extremely useful skills to have. Also in situations like this, an option she gave and has used in the past, is to have students look for examples of such charts and graphs used in the newspaper or online or anywhere else outside of the textbook and bring the example into class for extra credit (though she did admit that stem-and-leaf are pretty hard to find even in those sources). Here's just a few strategies for dealing with topics that you may not see the relevance in teaching. If anyone has some other ideas or gets other ideas during the semester, please let me know, and of course I'll keep reporting ideas and strategies that I have heard. With that, adios amigos.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Middle School Dynamic
I am sitting here trying to process a lot of information. It has been a busy two days in my placement at Forsythe Middle School, meeting teachers, going over schoolwide information, and setting up the classroom. On top of that I am starting up class in the School of Education again. I have a billion and one things buzzing around my mind that I could talk about, but what really struck me most today happened when I got home.
There was an article in the local newspaper, the Chelsea Standard, that my parents wanted me to read (I am commuting from Chelsea this week until I move into my apartment in Ann Arbor on Sunday). I noticed it in the paper when we got it last Thursday but had not had time to read it until tonight. It was about a girl, Amanda, who graduated from Chelsea a year before me and her struggle with sex and drugs and alcohol and finally her triumph over it. That hit so close to home I couldn't help but think about my classmates and my time at Chelsea and wonder how close I was to being introduced to some of this stuff. Granted most of her problems happened in high school, but it developed from her sense of self (or lack thereof) in middle school. This really got me thinking about how these are becoming issues not only in high school, but also in middle school. And it can happen anywhere.
Those of us teaching in middle schools cannot forget that the group of students we are teaching is going through major changes in their personal lives. Puberty can easily lead to irrational behaviors among adolescents and we really have to watch out for them and catch them when they are about to walk into a pitfall. And its not as easy as it seems. How many students like the girl in the article have fallen headlong into that hole while parents and teachers have stood by oblivious to what is happening? We teachers need to be proactive when it comes to these students. In this society it is becoming harder and harder for parents to keep track of their kids and many times the teacher sees the child for more time in a day than the parents do. Also, most parents are unwilling to believe the worst of their children. "That could never happen to my child," or "There is no way on earth my child would possibly participate in such activities," they say. They forget what it was like to be the odd one out, the one who just wants to fit in so badly he would do anything.
Therefore, in many ways it is easier for a teacher to see the signs of high and hungover students than it is for parents and to get that student the help he or she needs. Teachers see these things everyday so they know when students are trying to fit in and when they might be starting to go a bit too far. Teachers teach because they care about their students so how is it that students, especially students in such supportive communities, still fall through the cracks? It is a difficult task, but each and every one of our students needs our utmost attention. It will be so much easier for us and for them in the long run if we sacrifice a little bit and lay ourselves out as a bridge across the chasm of illegal substances, instead of letting our students fall in and then have to climb out on their own.
To close, I want to stress that this is a global problem. No school is good enough or inclusive enough to the point where everyone fits in and feels good about themselves. The human mind just does not work that way. We need to be observant especially in the middle school environment, because even though events may be minor in middle school they can easily lead to much worse behaviors at the high school level.
I want to say more and say it more eloquently but at the moment my mind is muddled with an overload of information. More post on other thoughts will be forthcoming, but please post if you agree or disagree with the point I am trying to make here. Also if anyone has ideas on how to spot troubled students before things get out of hand that would be appreciated because I have limited knowledge of the human personality and the adolescent personality.
There was an article in the local newspaper, the Chelsea Standard, that my parents wanted me to read (I am commuting from Chelsea this week until I move into my apartment in Ann Arbor on Sunday). I noticed it in the paper when we got it last Thursday but had not had time to read it until tonight. It was about a girl, Amanda, who graduated from Chelsea a year before me and her struggle with sex and drugs and alcohol and finally her triumph over it. That hit so close to home I couldn't help but think about my classmates and my time at Chelsea and wonder how close I was to being introduced to some of this stuff. Granted most of her problems happened in high school, but it developed from her sense of self (or lack thereof) in middle school. This really got me thinking about how these are becoming issues not only in high school, but also in middle school. And it can happen anywhere.
Those of us teaching in middle schools cannot forget that the group of students we are teaching is going through major changes in their personal lives. Puberty can easily lead to irrational behaviors among adolescents and we really have to watch out for them and catch them when they are about to walk into a pitfall. And its not as easy as it seems. How many students like the girl in the article have fallen headlong into that hole while parents and teachers have stood by oblivious to what is happening? We teachers need to be proactive when it comes to these students. In this society it is becoming harder and harder for parents to keep track of their kids and many times the teacher sees the child for more time in a day than the parents do. Also, most parents are unwilling to believe the worst of their children. "That could never happen to my child," or "There is no way on earth my child would possibly participate in such activities," they say. They forget what it was like to be the odd one out, the one who just wants to fit in so badly he would do anything.
Therefore, in many ways it is easier for a teacher to see the signs of high and hungover students than it is for parents and to get that student the help he or she needs. Teachers see these things everyday so they know when students are trying to fit in and when they might be starting to go a bit too far. Teachers teach because they care about their students so how is it that students, especially students in such supportive communities, still fall through the cracks? It is a difficult task, but each and every one of our students needs our utmost attention. It will be so much easier for us and for them in the long run if we sacrifice a little bit and lay ourselves out as a bridge across the chasm of illegal substances, instead of letting our students fall in and then have to climb out on their own.
To close, I want to stress that this is a global problem. No school is good enough or inclusive enough to the point where everyone fits in and feels good about themselves. The human mind just does not work that way. We need to be observant especially in the middle school environment, because even though events may be minor in middle school they can easily lead to much worse behaviors at the high school level.
I want to say more and say it more eloquently but at the moment my mind is muddled with an overload of information. More post on other thoughts will be forthcoming, but please post if you agree or disagree with the point I am trying to make here. Also if anyone has ideas on how to spot troubled students before things get out of hand that would be appreciated because I have limited knowledge of the human personality and the adolescent personality.
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