Sunday, November 25, 2012
Hopeful!
A few individual goals I have for myself this week are connecting with my students, giving clear directions, and respecting the classroom environment that the students have created.
It's been a tough couple of weeks trying to connect with the students in the classroom. I think part of the difficulty connecting is because of the rotating schedule. I remember having a rotating schedule in middle school. It was a very good idea because not all the students are ready to talk about history at 8:00 every morning. When you switch things up each day, you will see a different student each time you meet. However, in the short amount of time we are in our middle school I need to find a way for the students to like me and enjoy my teaching. This week I'm going to make this work!
Clear directions are definitely going to be part of the challenge in the middle school this week. High school students take directions in a very different way than the middle school students. Clear directions are not easy to come by. There always seems to be a room for error. I'm hopeful that my partner and I can make it clear to the students what they will need to do, how to do it, and why they need to do it. This also blends in with our classroom management in a middle school. The amount of energy 7th grade students have is AMAZING! IF we can hone that energy in on the lesson and not side chatting, we'll be good for the week.
My last individual goal is to make sure I am respecting the classroom environment that the teacher has created. The students have specific classroom management rules, as well as, community building actions. These actions include classroom points for the day, shutouts for students, and a system called tracking (giving all of your attention to whomever is speaking in class). I guess you would call these the classroom norms. In high school the classroom norms are pretty standard: no cell phones, no talking in class, ask for a pass, and respect the teacher. In middle school, community is the center of the classroom norms. They are used to create a comfortable feeling within the classroom.
A collaborative goal I have for this week in the middle school is embracing what my partner had=s to bring to the table. Emmanuel is a great teacher candidate, however, we haven't had many teaching moments in the middle school. We've done a great deal of observing and monitoring the classroom. I can't wait to see his reactions to certain situations, as well as, his overall presence center stage in the classroom. We seem to have a lot of fun doing mini lessons as a pair so I can't imagine anything less during this week of teaching.
I'm hopeful that this week will continue on a good note like it did on Monday of last week. We made a break through connecting with the students. We gave directions and helped with explaining point of view. They seemed to enjoy our leading the class and I hope that continues for this week.
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Ashlee, I like how you mentioned respecting the classroom environment the teacher has created. You had explained your teacher's point system in class the other day, and though my CT's point system is different than yours, it is something Courtney and I will have to do too. Middle schools seem to have more structures in place than high schools, and I think the more consistent we are with our CT's structures, the better the students will respond to us. I think it will ease that transition, especially if we haven't been able to get to work with the students as much as we would have liked before teaching.
ReplyDeleteI love that you talked about giving clear directions and the difference in giving directions to high school students vs middle school students! This isn't something that I have thought about, so I'm glad that it was brought to my attention. I think that if you respect the classroom environment, then the students will like you! Good luck this week, you'll do great! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat goals Ashlee! Giving clear directions (like many others I see) seems to be one of the main goals for me as well! At Burrillville High School I definitely had an "uh-oh" when I failed to have handwritten directions. While I know what I want students to do, they have no idea and are going off whatever information we give them, or fail to give them in my case- big time oops!
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that it was much harder to connect with the class I am to teach- it was like I kept looking for ways to make it happen, and it just wasn't in the cards- either way though, just have fun and try to ENJOY
Ashlee you post is full of great ideas that we might all want to work on this week. While things may have gone good or bad in the high school, middle school is a different scenario, one that we are not very familiar with. I admire that you mention respecting the teachers environment and it seems that your teacher has one set up in a very concrete manner and it is also scary that you have to live up to that; as you mentioned in high school the rules are pretty much laid out. When it comes to your teaching partner, I have had the pleasure of teaching with him and working on many different occasions and for different purposes. He is a great individual to work with and is very passionate about what he brings to the classroom. I wish you both good luck on this trip that we all take tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteYou noticed that community is part of the classroom norms for MS. Shouldn't it--couldn't it--be that way for HS too? To me, you met most of your goals this week :)
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