Week 9 October 22- 26, 2012

 I just finished my first week back at my home PDS, Suncrest Primary. I really missed being in the familiar setting. However, I started to miss the 6^th grade students and the daily routine I had established with them. I like the structure of the middle school with 45 minute classes and the students rotating throughout the day. But, I have already begun to learn about each of my 19 2^nd graders. The one thing I like most about the elementary setting is that I have the same students each day all day, so I definitely get to know them better. I feel more physically exhausted at the end of the day because we are always changing something or doing something different.

I experienced one of the most frightening things in my life this week. My mentor teacher and I had lunch duty; this rotates throughout the 2^nd and 3^rd grade teachers. Anyways, a student started to choke! The little girl across from him raised her hand, I was totally focused on what she needed and then when she calmly pointed at him and said, “he’s choking,” I panicked. Luckily, Mrs. Wilson was within reach and by the time we both got to him, he had coughed up the food that was trapped in his throat. I almost cried watching him, but it was all-ok, and he started to eat again. This showed me how ANYTHING can happen, especially with little kids. We had the nurse come in and talk with the students about the lunch room and if you see someone choking, do not raise your hand, it is ok to get out of your seat! This made me think, I am first-aid and CPR certified because I work at a day care over the summer, but my teacher education program does not make us take courses or be certified. I think this is something I am going to bring up to my program because had I not been certified and I was the only teacher in the room at the time, I would have not known what to do.  It was very scary.

I started to take over the calendar time in the morning. This was nothing new for me because I did this with the same mentor teacher last year, so I know the drill pretty well! This coming week, I will start the morning math. Two times a day, we have reading stations, where one group works with my mentor teacher and a few students who need intervention work with the interventionist and the other student’s work independently. For the most part, the stations rotate nicely. Each group is at that station for 30 minutes and this rotates among 4 days of the week. There are reading and math stations in the afternoon that are 30 minutes each as well.

This week I also am beginning my research study. My mentor teacher helped me pick out 6 students, a boy and a girl from each of the above level, on level, and below level reading groups. We decided that we would dedicate time in the morning to do the vocabulary activities as a group, this way I am sure to get some useable data! My mentor teacher says this is one of the most immature group of students she has had in awhile, so everything with them needs to be done step by step and as a group if possible. So, I am excited to get my study started! I feel like I have done so much preparation for this point it almost seems unreal that I am actually starting it and will have some data to analyze at the end of this week. Unfortunately, I leave for Texas for a cross country meet this Thursday and will miss two days of my research, but my mentor teacher said she will make sure everything gets done. I am really luckily to be placed with her again because she really wants me to be involved with the class and she really trusts me with her students.

As I mentioned before, the maturity level of this group of students is very low. I student taught with 2^nd graders last spring and they were so mature! I know that these students are a lot younger than the students I worked with in the spring because it is still early in the year. I am hoping that when I come back in the spring to do some contract hours that the maturity level of this group increases. They are a great group of kids, they are just so needy. The biggest thing I have noticed with them is that they cannot stay in their seat and they talk a lot! They talk to themselves for the most part! This was funny at first, but after a day of it, I was about to go crazy! If they need something they always come up and start pecking on my shoulder, so we are really working with them about raising their hands if they need something. I really like this group and can’t wait to start teaching them more. They are a really energetic group and seem really eager to learn!

Week 8 October 8-12, 2012

This was my last week at my middle school placement this semester. I wasn’t expecting on being so sad, but once all the students started saying good-bye to me and my mentor teacher and other 6^th grade teachers wished me well, it hit me. I didn’t realize that spending only 8 weeks in the classroom would have such an impact on the students, and that they would have such an impact on me! When the students told me they would miss me, it really made me think about the impact I had on them and how much they really looked up to me. It was probably one of the best feelings I have had while teaching. 8 short weeks proved to be enough to gain the respect of my students and have them look at me like a “real” teacher. I will really miss each and every one of them. My mentor teacher and the other 6^th grade teachers really opened their classes up to me and made me feel like apart of their team. I hope that the school I teach in has a staff that is so close and works so well together. They asked for my opinions and really taught me how to deal with all the stresses that come along with teaching.

On my Monday of this week, we had an ISE day. There were no students, but the teachers had to report, including myself. The first two hours of the day was spent doing parent conferences. My mentor teacher was not able to make it into school that day, so it was my responsibility to fill her position and actually take part in all 3 meetings we had with students that day. Mrs. Atkinson and myself act as one of the student’s homeroom teacher, so I didn’t have much to share other than her SR and ABC record. I had to show the parents her chart and tell them what she had received an SR/ABC for.  The second student was in my math class. I had to give my opinion on how he behaved in class because this particular student has an issue with talking back to teachers. I had experienced this before with this student so I was able to tell his mom what I saw from him in the classroom. The third student is also in one of my math classes. As his teacher, I didn’t see the many behavior problems like some of the other teachers have seen. He is respectful for the most part, the only issue we had with him in our classroom is his inability to sit down and raise his hand when he needs something. He had trouble getting his homework in at the beginning of the year, but this has improved. Since he has had so much trouble in school, with suspension and fighting, his meeting was really long. This was good for me because I was able to see how the other teachers dealt with the parents and all the parents! I was so nervous during the meetings because I have been with the students all year up to this point so it was my responsibility to tell them how their children have been doing in my class since I was the teacher in charge for a few weeks. Talk about stressful!! After the parent meetings, we had Faculty Senate meeting with all the entire staff. They discussed issues in the school and other items that were happening in each of the grade levels.  It was nice to see the whole staff working together to make the school a better place for them and the students! I was glad I was able to be apart of this ISE day.

My mentor teacher and I, along with a SPED teacher, collaboratively taught a math class this semester. I really like collaborate teaching and I think all classrooms should have this regardless of if there are students who need assistance in the classroom. Mrs. Atkinson and I worked really together, which shows me you need to be compatible with the collaborative teacher if you are going to teacher successfully together. Collaborative teaching is something I am fully open to and would like to do in the future! It was so nice having 3 teachers in the classroom; this helped all the students in the class, not just those who needed the special educator. We were all 3 able to bounce ideas off each other and add things to lessons that may help different students in different ways.

I was so hesitant to be teaching 6^th grade, but I quickly learned that 6^th grade is definitely a level I would be willing to teach! I like the structure and schedule of middle school. Although, I found it hard to make lessons new and exciting, compared to the fun arts and crafts you get to do in the elementary grades all the time. The one thing I liked about 6^th grade is that I can take what I have learned in all my English courses in college and apply them where as this is harder to do in the primary grades. I actually really like this age group. For the most part, many of them are still excited to learn and want to do well! It may have been that I had an awesome mentor teacher and literally, all the students LOVE her, which made my experience so grade, but I also had great students to work with as well! My experience in the 6^th grade has been invaluable to me. I am glad that I was able to broaden the grade levels I have student taught in, this makes me confident to apply for middle school positions in the future. 

On Monday I will take on the 2nd grade as the final step in my internship, I am excited to work with my mentor teacher and also start my research study!! 

Week 7 October 1-5, 2012

This week was my final week of full time teaching in my 6^th grade class. I have one more week left in this placement before I return to my home PDS. I have learned so much these past few weeks of full time teaching. The biggest things I have learned is how to get through changes and be able to switch plans at any moment. Monday morning I began teaching 1^st period math and noticed right away during their individual 5 minute check that many students did not understand the lesson that was taught on Friday. Based on this assessment, I decided to reteach the entire lesson, so this put my math lessons behind a whole day for the entire week! So much for detailed lesson plans when everything can change at any moment! Luckily, my mentor teacher is so flexible and understands changes in the schedule that she agreed with me that we needed to reteach the lesson.

My mentor teacher noticed that I have taken a lot more control of the classroom over the past few weeks as well. She told me my improvements have made lessons go smoother and the students also realize that I am a teacher too and in control of the classroom. I no longer stay in my corner of the classroom; I am walking around the entire time and showing that I am in control. I am definitely being more assertive when it comes to behavior in the classroom, I ask them to raise their hands if they need something instead of blurting out loud during instruction; this is something some students are still working on! I have made big improvements with the amount of questions that are being asked during my 5^th period English class. I think now they understand that if they are going to ask me if their answer is right o wrong, they better not ask it! I am giving them clearer and more step-by-step instructions so I think this helps them not get so confused during the period. I still have a lot of little hands going up in the air during this class, but it is definitely getting better. If there are questions before we begin an activity, I make sure to tell them to listen closely because I will not answer the same question twice. I’m not sure if this is a good strategy or not, but for students whom I know ask questions just for the sake of asking them, I will ignore them and see if they put their hands down or keep them up. For the most part, they put their hands down and move on. We were spending SO much class time answering questions like, “is it ok if I have a blue pencil instead of a dark blue?” or “she didn’t dot her “i” is that ok?” that we were not having time to do anything else and that needed to change!

Mrs. Atkinson also showed me how to record the SR’s and ABC’s. This is so time consuming especially if you have students who get a lot of them! It is good for documentation though. During a conference with a student’s parents, we were able to show the improvements of number of SR’s and ABC’s based on the record we keep. The first week of school their line of reminders was really high and as the weeks went on, you could see a decrease in the height of the line. Even though this is good documentation, it still takes up so much time and you have to remember to do it everyday or you will get behind and have so much recording to do!

Another thing my mentor teacher noticed that I am doing a good job with is calling on students during lessons that are off task. Doing this gets them to see they need to pay attention during lessons. It also shows my mentor teacher and myself that I am multitasking, I am teaching a lesson and watching all the students at the same time and noticing what they are doing. This skill takes practice, but I also think it is a good classroom management strategy because I am watching the students’ behaviors and if one student is off task, I can see it and get them back on task by asking them a question they should know.

On Friday there was a sub in my classroom which meant I was teaching and doing everything all day! I have done this before so it wasn’t a big deal, it just shows me how much needs to get done and be done by the end of the day! I was the teacher the students went to if they needed anything and at times that meant I had 5 students at my side! It can be overwhelming, but it is invaluable experience that I will be glad I had once I am able to sub and have my own classroom. Being able to be the head teacher towards the end of my time here has shown me how much the students look up to me. They respect me and follow what I ask them to do. Very rarely did I have students who were acting up because there was a sub in the classroom. This makes me feel really good and shows me that I can have control of the classroom and have respect from the students. They know that I follow Mrs. Atkinson’s classroom rules, so they need to follow them even when she is not in the classroom.

Next week I will slowly start to give Mrs. Atkinson control of the classroom and teaching. I am really sad to go and will miss the students a lot. 6^th grade is definitely not what I thought it would be! Next week I will teach a few lessons and prepare to move on to my home PDS.

Week 6 September 24-28 2012

This week I continued full time teaching, making it my 2^nd week. What I have found these past few weeks is that there is literally no time during the day to get anything done! I reached for my teacher notebook to look at notes I had taken about this week and was surprised to find that I didn’t have any! Full time teaching has forced me to make mental notes about things I have seen and hope that in between class periods if I am not making copies of something or preparing for the next group of kids to come in…there is no time to take notes!!! Even though I arrive at school earlier than I am suppose to, prepare at home, and use every free moment at school to review lessons and see what changes I can make, there never seems to be enough time!

On a more positive note, my mentor teacher and I decided we would tackle our 3^rd period collaborative math class together. It is a collaborative class after all. So, my mentor teacher, the SPED teacher, and myself all teach this class together and switch off between example problems and walking around the room to help various students. This has seemed to work the best! It has also given the SPED teacher an opportunity to see how my mentor teacher and her collaborative teacher did things last year…she is used to more one on one resource room teaching.  I have to admit collaborative teaching is something I really enjoy and would like to learn more about and get involved with when I become a teacher in the future. I think this really helps the students because sometimes other people are able to explain material in a different way that different students will understand better.

My English class is still moving forward with their novel Walk Two Moons. My mentor teacher gave me some suggestions with this class and their tendencies to ask many questions that really do not need to be asked. During one lesson, we were checking a paper that could have more than one answer. As soon as we were done reviewing there were about 8 hands in the air. I asked them if they had a question about whether their answer was right or wrong, than they needed to put their hand down. And ALL the hands went down! I don’t think this was to harsh because I had spent 5 plus minutes explaining to them that their answers may be very different than others and that was ok. My mentor teacher also suggested that when their questioning gets to out of hand, to tell them if they have a question, write it down and come to me after class. This helps save time during instruction.

We took our students to the “safe place” this week also. This is a place the school is suppose to me incase the building is not safe. My mentor teacher has to carry a bag with parent numbers, emergency contacts and a lot more. This definitely opened my eyes and made me think that when I am a real teacher, I will be in charge of 25 lives at all times and it is my job to make sure these students know what to do and that I know what to do in case of an emergency. It is very scary and overwhelming knowing that soon I will be the one in charge.

As I being my 3^rd week of full time teaching I am expecting on being exhausted, but I am also expecting on learning a lot and taking in as much as I can about middle school.

Week 5 September 17-21, 2012

This week I took over my mentor teacher’s collaborative math class. We both felt like this was a good idea because our collaborative class is one day behind our first math class. This allowed me to watch her teach the first math class and then the next day I would teach that same lesson. I felt really comfortable doing this which made me more comfortable to take over BOTH math classes the following week!  Teaching the collaborative class wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! My mentor teacher was in the room along with the collaborative teacher. This really helped me keep the lesson moving while they helped out around the room.

This week there was also a sub in my class. She was a lot more helpful than the previous subs I have had in this class. But, I did all the teaching! I was so nervous once collaborative math rolled around because the collaborative teacher also had a sub! We did a 5 minute check quiz to see if the students retained the information from the lesson the day before. I learned from this quiz, that they did not retain as much as I would have liked them too. This was a great opportunity for me to assess and act on what I saw. So, I decided on my own that I would reteach the lesson from the day before. When I talked about this with my mentor teacher she said it was a great decision. I noticed that the students had a lot more respect for me as their teacher this day with the sub than the previous days with the subs. They came to me with all their questions and followed all the classroom rules. I only had to hand out SRs to students who didn’t complete their homework.

In my English class, we are moving forward with the novel Walk Two Moons. I have really enjoyed this class and my lessons because I am a BIG literature person! I am looking forward to my lessons this week because we are discussing metaphors and similes. We did literature groups for the first time and they worked out great! This group of students can work independently, with a partner, or in a group wonderfully! They discussed the book with one anther without being told to and they looked out for their vocabulary words that they will be quizzed on soon. This class really wants to do well in school and this means they ask questions and participate in class.

One thing that I have really been utilizing while I am full time teaching is the SmartBoard with Microsoft word. Before each class I put a list of things the students need to have out on their desk that way once everyone is seated, we can start the lesson and there is not confusion on what needs to be out and what we are doing. It avoids a lot of questions and gets the students focused as soon as they walk in the class. This is definitely something I will be doing when I have my own classroom. Another thing I tried this week was playing music during my English class. I played some classical music while the students worked independently and silently. Many of the students commented on how it was really relaxing and it kept the room from being completely silent 

Week 4 September 10-14, 2012

For the past few weeks in my PDS, my mentor teacher and I have been implementing her form of classroom management. I have found it is a lot different and sometimes harder to create a management plan when you are teaching in a grade that switches classes every period compared to a class (like an elementary grade) that stays in the same class the entire day. Luckily, I didn't have to think to much about some type of plan for my classes because my mentor teacher has already developed a really good one. She has all 5 periods of classes she teaches written on the chalk board with 5 blank spaces going out from each of the 5 periods. Her plan is that she will not ask a class to QUIET down. She will go over to the board and write a letter each time she feels like the class is out of control. At the end of each week, the class that has the fewest letters receives an award like an Opps Coupon, or first to lunch coupon. This is a great system because the students are still really young, just coming out of elementary school and they are still competitive and awards like the coupons work well for them. If a class gets the entire word QUIET spelled out, they eat lunch in our classroom.

This week I tried doing some partner/group work with the English class I have taken over. It worked really well! This particular class gets a long very well, even though they are awfully chatty! They still get quality work done, so as long as they are working cooperatively and not disturbing other groups, I don't mind if they talk. They worked with a partner to fill out a few sheet for their Chapter 1 grammar test, and they enjoyed it. I think this was a great way for the students to work together on something that can be kind of boring and tedious, so it was just something different for them.

This week I also got to sit in on a SAT meeting. It was very eye opening. It truly showed me how much the teachers and administration care of each and every student. They took their planning time to meet along with the student's parent. I was able to see all the documentation like SR's ABC's, grades, and papers done by the student that is needed to prove this student needs a SAT. The mother of the child really seemed to want to help her child, which seemed to make the meeting more peaceful and move smoothly. My mentor teacher cautioned me that sometimes parents become defendant of their child and look past the issues that may be there. I saw how the team of teachers came together and formed a special plan for the student in order to get them back on track with their grades and classwork.

The team of 6th grade teachers at my PDS have built a really great professional learning community. They come together everyday and discuss everything from announcements to issues in their classrooms. They offer each other advice and critiques, but in a way that is helpful. I hope that when I become a teacher I have a strong relationship with the other teachers around me. They have each other to fall back on when something isn't going well. I think the most important thing about being in teaching profession is to build that strong relationship with others and share advice and ideas with others. We shouldn't hide behind our classroom doors and not be open to suggestions of others. We should let other professional educators in and hear their advice, even if we do not agree with it.

Next week in the English class I currently teach, we are starting a novel study and I am really excited because literature is my favorite thing and the group of students I have do really great work!

Week 3 September 3-7

I have slowly started to take over more and more responsibility in my classroom. I am now fully in charge of my mentor teacher’s English class. I am so excited to teach these kids! Not only do I love English, but they are also a really great group of kids who work hard. I have also started teaching the skills group station in the Read 180 class. This class includes a full group lesson for 20 minutes, and then 3 rotations of computer, silent reading, and skills group each for 20 minutes. With this type of schedule, I teach the same lesson 3 times and I have noticed over the past few days of teaching this class that I become more confident and comfortable by the third rotation. This shows me how great it will be down the road when I am teaching the same thing year after year. I am able to reflect on how the lesson went in between rotations and hopefully change a few things before the next rotation.  However, I feel bad for the first group of students because I feel like I don’t provide them with a good enough lesson compared to the middle and last group. Is this the case? How can I change things throughout the lesson in order to benefit all students?

After one of my lessons this week, my mentor teacher discussed some things she noticed. She had a ton of good things to say but she also gave me some suggestions. I love getting feedback from my mentor teachers because they are the professionals and are helping me become a professional myself. She told me during some of the lessons I need to try to move quicker, specifically during skills group. She noticed this with the first rotation group and said the pace greatly increased as the groups rotated through, as I became more fluid with what I wanted to teach them.  She said that I ask a lot of questions, which can be a good thing, but she suggested I try to form some of my questions into commands. Instead of asking who would like to read a passage, I could say, “(student’s name) please read the passage.” I tried to use some of these suggestions the next day when I taught and she said she noticed a definite change and I seemed more confident. I can say that each day that goes by I am becoming more and more relaxed with my classes. I know I have an issue with moving quickly through lessons because I am so used to primary students and working at a day care over the summer, that I want to make sure each and every child is aware of what is going on, but sometimes you must move on in order to get through material. The students are old enough by now to know that they need to be paying attention and it is there responsibility to ask questions and get help if they need it. Timing of lessons and keeping them moving will be some thing I work on as the weeks progress.

Next week I am fully in charge of the English and Read 180 class! I have developed my lessons and am very excited to get started. With the Read 180 class, since it is a special program, I can’t really deviate from the material, but my mentor teacher told me I can switch things up as I come to them if I would like to! She is awesome about sharing her class with me and really encouraging me. She has really great ideas so most of the time I have been using her lessons and adding some of my own things. Next week I will also start taking over one of the math classes. We have one regular class and a collaborative class. The collaborative class makes me kind of nervous because I just want to be able to reach all the students. With the collaborative teacher’s help, I can move towards this goal. It is still sad to see students struggle so much. Each Friday my mentor teacher and the math collaborative teacher plan together. I really like this because they are able to talk about what they can do to help the students in their class. Today they decided to take the SPED teacher’s case load to a separate place in the classroom to help them complete a 5 minute check. They also took a few other students in order to mix it up and not make it so obvious that only certain students were getting pulled away. This really helped because they were able to go over the material even slower and it helped the other students in the class because they could move at a faster-pace as well.