Positive Energy

My CT was out today, so we had a guest teacher in the room all day. The first 15 minutes of the day went incredibly well. After that is was all downhill from there. Their behaviors were not anything out of the ordinary. There were chatty students, disrespectful students, and everything in between. The guest teacher in the room is someone who has been in our class several times this year. She knows the students and the students enjoy having her in the room. It was great to have another teacher in the room who was totally engaged in helping the students and being another set of hands for me. When my students worked in small groups on a review packet for their Math test, she moved around from group to group as I did to check in with students and help them understand the concepts. It was one of a few times that I felt like I had support, even though she is still in school to become a teacher too!

At the end of the day, after we were both stressed out about how rowdy the kids were, she told me something that is still resonating within me. She said that as challenging as my kids are, she has lived through worse. WOW! I knew that someone out there somewhere has a bunch of kids more challenging than mine, but it was very encouraging to hear her say that. It really made me take stock of the beautiful minds and charisma of my students that makes me smile every day when I walk through the doors of my school. I appreciate my students and I know that I am a better person and teacher because they are in my lives.

Lunch Time Drama

There was an “episode” today involving me, my CT and my class. There was no confrontation or anything like that, just simple repetition of what is the norm. The difference this time that abut 5 other teachers were able to see what I experience day in and day out. So, today during lunch, I finished eating early and decided to go back to the classroom. I was planning some interventions for Math dealing with elapsed time. I talked to my CT and told her I wanted both of us to pull a group right after lunch as a review of the concept. My CT was still in the lounge when I left. Well, the bell rang signaling the end of the lunch hour. I naturally assumed that my CT would pick up the kids, seeing as though I was working in the classroom and she was in the lounge which is literally about 50 ft from where the students line up outside. So, I continued working in the classroom, getting things ready for the Math intervention. Our students always take a restroom break right after lunch. So 10 mins after the bell rang and no one showed up at the door, I assumed it was just taking a little longer. Well, about 1 minute later, the office called down to my room to inform me that my students were still waiting to be picked up from the playground.

SERIOUSLY??!!! I was livid!! Yes, I could have walked down to get the kids, but I am so frustrated with always having to be the one to drop what I am doing, while she always gets to enjoy extra leisure time. The positive of this whole situation is that the principal, secretary, and parent educator were privy to what happened today and were actually quite upset that it took place. I hate that my students had to stand and wait for their teachers to show up, but I felt like I needed to take a stand. The crazy part of it all is that my CT did not even bat an eyelash at the situation; it was just business as usual. I will take this situation and chalk it up to another lesson learned.

Job Fair

Today was the huge Mid America Job Fair at my University. My student teaching coordinator made a huge deal about this Job Fair and even brought in the assistant HR director to one of our seminars to give us some tips on how to stand out. I had big plans to spend yesterday preparing for the big day but those were foiled because I was sick! The bug came out of nowhere but I felt absolutely miserable all day. Fast forward to today....I feel better than I did yesterday, but still not 100%. Either way, I had to pep myself up for the Job Fair. I met with 5 districts and one of them was the district in which I'm student teaching now. I felt fairly well about 2 of the 5 districts, and totally uncertain about the other ones. It was difficult to read their body language.

After spending half a day at the Fair, I am still left feeling up-in-the-air about my job prospects. I know it's still early and I also know that most districts don't know what they can offer yet in lieu of the economic hardships they face. I plan on emailing some of the HR directors I met with today to thank them for the opportunity to meet and learn more about what their district has to offer new teachers. My reasoning is by putting my name out there again, they may be less likely to forget about me. I don't know if my logic is sound, but that is what I'm thinking right now. Do you have any tips on how to go about pursuing a position with a district outside of simply submitting my application? As always, all suggestions are welcome!!!

Math Woes

On Wednesday, I gave my students a test of Math Topic 12- Area and Perimeter. Throughout the entire Topic, I did all I could to make sure that my students understood the material. I had them take notes in their Math Journals, we completed the first couple of problems on their homework together so they would understand exactly what to do, and I also had small group interventions with the students that did not seem to understand the concepts. I also created a study guide before the test and we spent one entire Math lesson working in groups to review for the test. With all of this said, I just knew that my students would do better on this test than they had on any other. I could not have been more wrong. I had one student get a 2 and everyone else earned a 1. I was almost in tears after grading these tests.

Well, I came to school today and showed the tests to my CT. We looked at the test questions, how many students missed each question, and what type of question was missed. We wondered, and have wondered, if the problem with our students’ performance on Math tests results from not understanding the questions. Many of our students struggle with reading comprehension, so it would make sense that they would possibly struggle to understand the questions on the test. So today, we gave the same test again, only this time, I read each test question aloud. The hope was that students would better understand the questions if they were read aloud and thus they would be able to show what they really understand about the topic.

I still have about 5 more tests to grade, but right now, the vast majority is scoring the exact same as they did on the previous test. I am at odds with what else I can do. If students do not do their homework and do not focus on the content presented during the lesson, how can they show an understanding of the information? I do not know what else I can do outside of providing interventions and working diligently to engage students in the lesson each day. Any suggestions?? All are welcome!

Board Meeting Wash Out

I attended my first school board meeting tonight. It was decided that a community forum was needed in order to address the expected budget cuts for the next school year. I know that Springfield is one of many districts affected by the budget crisis in the country and particularly the state of Illinois. I feel I have a vested interest in what happens with the budget in this district because of my desire to stay in district for my first year of teaching.

I expected to go to this meeting and listen to the explanation of the real issue from the mouths of the people making it. This did come to fruition. The members of the superintendent cabinet spoke about the fact that our expenditures exceed our expected revenue for next year. After hearing the issue, I expected that the audience would be allowed questions which would be answered by the superintendent. Only have of this expectation came to be. There was a Q & A session, during which very relevant and pressing questions were posed; almost all of which went unanswered by the superintendent. I have never seen someone dance around such a tough issue like 56 instructional leaders, reading teachers, and other instructional professions positions being cut. I left the meeting feeling more uncertain about the state of the district than I did when I came in. If our own superintendent was unwilling to provide us with substantive responses to our concerns, can we really expect him to take our concerns into consideration when making proposals for what next year will look like? Tonight was a lesson learned in how political our field can really be.

Photo....What???

In the Science lesson I taught on 2/19/10, the focus of the lesson was on the process of photosynthesis. I anticipated this being difficult topic because of the terminology (carbon dioxide, oxygen, photosynthesis). I also thought it would be a difficult topic because it was not concrete/tangible. It is very difficult for students to “feel” or “see” the photosynthetic process. In alignment with my plans, I gave students a passage to read about photosynthesis with a partner. We came back whole group to discuss it. After asking questions to guide their comprehension, I observed that some students were not “getting it”. They were able to respond to the questions I asked in a very rote manner, but they lacked a connection to the entire process.

Then, in a split second, it hit me. I knew I needed to find a way to make photosynthesis come alive and that is exactly what I did! I stood up and started acting as if I was a tree. I wiggled my legs, acting like they were roots, pulling up water from the ground and used my arms to pull in carbon dioxide from the air. Then, I had one of the students come up behind me and act like they were giving off oxygen. Next, I had someone come up and poor water on the tree (me). Then, I had students come up in serve as the sugar and sunlight. I made the photosynthetic process come alive! The kids loved it and can tell me not only the components of photosynthesis, but also which student had that role in the reenactment!! The kids truly enjoyed being an active participant in their learning experiences. I think their physical involvement helped them make stronger connections within the concept of photosynthesis.

Second Round of Conferences

Parent Teacher Conferences were today. It was a long day, but I think it was made even longer because out of 8 scheduled conferences, only two showed up. One of those was a home visit that was an incredible experience, and I don’t mean that in a good way! Well, my CT, Parent Educator, Special Ed. Resource Teacher and I went to the home of one of my students. It started out crazy because as soon as I walked through the door, my student’s grandmother said with a very snippy tone “Who are you?”. I immediately felt on edge and it made me question for a split second who I really was and why I was there! After I got over that shock, I got a strong whiff of the marijuana that was filtrating the house. Grandma was spraying Febreeze, trying to mask the odor, but it was clear to all of us visiting the home what it really was.

I don’t think the marijuana would have bothered me so much if she was there by herself, but there were 6 little kids under her care at home, all being exposed to this illegal drug. What adults do on their own time is their business, but when kids are affected, the game changes. The student who lives here is consistently off task, does not turn in homework, and is a distraction to others. I think it is important to hold students accountable for their conduct in the classroom, but thinking about what they deal with at home definitely sheds light on what may be contributing to their behavior.

Goal: I will think more holistically about how my students behave and perform in class. There is no excuse for their behavior, but there may certainly be factors outside of the classroom that explain their behavior. Understanding these explanations may help me to better meet their needs in the classroom by creating an atmosphere that counteracts the negative forces they may face at home.