Blog #8

Blog #8 There are three parts to this blog. Please respond to all three parts, A, B and C.

A: In chapter 7, Carol acknowledged that it is hard to care. She gives several reasons. Which reason is most validating to you, and why? If you don't really connect to any of Carol's reasons, explain what you believe your "reason" is.

I think one of Carol’s reasons that was most validating to me was “It’s hard to care because…to make the world better for a child whose world is out of control.” It’s not that it will be hard to care; the problem is it will be hard to not care. When I taught pre-school I had a student that I suspected was being abused. I told the Head Mistress my suspicions and why, she told me that with no hard evidence there was nothing she could do. I cried for that child. Both in field last semester and visiting my intern school a few weeks ago, there were students that had just lost parents. At times you could see the pain in their eyes. I could tell when they were thinking about their mom or dad. I only knew this one girl for three weeks and this boy for one day but even now as I think about them I tear up. I know I will have to come up with copying mechanisms so I don’t take these feelings home with me. A few years ago I subbed as a tech. in a self contained class of 4^th-6^th graders that had anger issues. I found out that several of the students lived in either foster care or group homes. I never would have known that this was a special class because I never saw any of those problems. What I did see was an amazing teacher that was strict, had high expectations for her students, and I could tell she cared about each and every one of those children. The only thing I can do or that I have control of is to love my students unconditionally and make my classroom a safe, stable and enjoyable environment with multiple ways to succeed.

B: Carol offers two final metaphors, what I call the "McNurlty Metaphor" and the "London Metaphor." Which one do you connect with most, and why?

I really liked the McNurlty Metaphor. We have all seen teachers that love what they do and teachers that either hate what they do or are just plain burned out. It is not hard to tell the difference between the two types of teachers. One teacher’s classroom is full of life and color. She will have students’ work decorating the classroom; there will be posters or artifacts around the room that represent the diversity of her students. The students will be working in collaborative teams. You may find her outside during recess, playing a game of four square or basketball with not just her students but students from other classrooms. She always has a smile on her face. Whereas, in the other teachers classroom the students are working independently, all on the same worksheet. The bulletin boards have hardly anything on them, and her other team members may avoid her.

Two people could be working on the exact same project; with the same materials but if one person is excited about and loves the project, she is going to end up with very different results than the person that does the project just because they have too. I also make an amazing spaghetti sauce but some nights it just isn’t as good. When I think about my family and how much they would love to have spaghetti for dinner and how much I love them, my sauce is actually better than when I get home from work or school and think I have to study, what would be the fastest thing to make for dinner tonight. The same holds true for teaching. Children are smart, they can tell if you want to be there or not, they know if you’re being sincere and they will respond accordingly. Three years ago I subbed for a teacher that was working on her ESL endorsement so I subbed her class once or twice a month (some times more if she was sick or on vacation) she also had one other sub that worked for her. On my last day of subbing one of the “trouble maker” boys came up to me and said “Mrs. Hughes you are my favorite sub ever.” I responded by saying “Thank you; this has been a wonderful class to work for.” He said “Don’t you want to know why?” That did peek my interest so I of course said “Actually, I do want to know.” He said “Because you wouldn’t let me get away with anything.” I’m sure the other sub didn’t let him get away with things either or maybe she did, but this student could tell that I truly cared about each one of them. I will never forget that class of students. They showed me how much I wanted to be a full time teacher and to trust in myself.

C: Read one or two blog responses from two or three of your classmates. Then, please give a brief message of encouragement to one of your classmates based on your reaction to their response that you read. Leave your message of encouragement on their blog as a comment (at the end of the particular blog your are responding to). Copy your message of encouragement and paste it into YOUR blog, telling me who you are responding to.

I responded to Shellie Gray.

I too liked the idea of celebrating success by calling each of the students parents to let them know how wonderful their child is doing. I think that if we get in a habit of calling for good things, we develop a relationship of trust with the parents so if we do need to make a call on a negative issue we all will be able to speak openly and honestly on how to best help the student. I plan on keeping a three ring binder with a section for each student. In this binder I can keep track of who has shared in morning meeting or for show and tell, whose parents I have called, who has gotten to be note keeper on our class web site and I can also keep track of all their accomplishments throughout the year. This will also make it easier to write about them for the class book, like the one Dr. P showed us in class where there was a picture of each student and the “teacher likes me best because”. Wasn’t that wonderful? I really want to make one of those books for each of my students.

Shelly, I have really enjoyed getting to know you this term. You are going to be a wonderful teacher. I can tell you already love your students even though you haven’t met them yet. Keep up the good work.

Blog #7

A Scenario Where Work Is Important, Focused, and Engaging (6.1) pg.69

To me this, simply put, is backwards design. How do you know how you are going to get somewhere if you don’t know where you are going? I will be doing a form of this for every single lesson in every subject that I teach. For both my intern school and the district we have been taught a very specific way that we need to feel out our lesson plan books, it’s called Lesson in a Box (Sample to the left). First we put WT: (What will be taught, the concept/objective). Next we put HT: (how it will be taught- direct instruction, guided learning, inquiry, etc.) under this we write simple instructions on what to do, such as for the guided learning model we write what we will do for the intro, activity and response. Finally we put HD: (how demonstrated). Basically it is a watered down lesson plan. We will then turn these in every Monday to our intern coach so she can see what we are doing that week. At first it looked like a lot of work but I can see how it will help me keep my lessons important and focused, picking out the most relevant parts of a unit. As we talked about in class and as the book states in every unit there are things that are “enduring and important…versus what might be nice to know.” We also need to have a plan B incase plan A doesn’t work. As I have watched my own children these last two weeks of school, I have learned , we may have time to go back at the end of the year and touch on some of those “ nice to know” things. My son asked if he could stay home from school today because their field trip was canceled on account of the rain, so they are going to have yet another reading marathon. Why not use these unplanned days to teach something of interests to the students that you weren’t’ able to get to during a unit or something that may not be in the core but is of interest to the students. So much time is wasted these last two weeks of school. Weather should not be an excuse. If the students can’t go on the field trip, how can we bring the field trip to our students?

A Scenario Where Work Is Demanding and Scaffolded (6.2, 6.3, 6.4) pg74

As I was reading this section I was thinking about how the two tiered groups in Mr. Johnson’s class would look like, sound like, and feel like. I came to the conclusion that even in the two tiers you are going to have students of different levels, abilities, and interests. As an example of another subject let’s look at Words Their Way. You may have several students in the Within Word Patterns but even then you will have some students working on blends, some on long vowels and other on other vowels and even in those three groups there may be different levels of ability and readiness. What I like about this is peers helping each other, a sense of community. With the two tiers in Mr. J’s class the lower tier will still have some students that can help others, they can truly work as a collaborative team and the lower students in both groups can feel like they are contributing to the overall product. If this was an individual project even with more scaffolding some students may feel overwhelmed. I love the idea of rubrics. I don’t ever remember seeing one when I was a young student. The closest thing I remember to a rubric was 5^th grade social studies. We were to memorize the Gettysburg Address. The teacher told us exactly where we needed to memorize to, in order to get an A, B, or C. Our grade was our choice. The question is how to motivate the students that only care about the B, C or lower. I liked the rubric on page 145 that doesn’t give the points possible but does go in descending order. Some students may only read the first box and do what it says. With the boxes in descending order you have already set them up to succeed. I struggle somewhat with the self-evaluation. In my experience some students are too hard on themselves, while others are too easy. But I will know my students and if I see a discrepancy then I can take this opportunity to meet with each student and go over their evaluation and talk about the wonderful things they are doing and where they can improve. Then we can set goals for them.

I feel like I am just scraping the top of the iceberg on understanding differentiation but I can’t wait to apply what I do know and understand and continue to learn and grow in this subject.

Blog # 6

Sorry this is late. My husband got a new job and has been out of town all week for training. He got back Friday night.

4.2) Chapter 4 is all about teacher responses to student needs. Throughout the chapter there are multiple bolded subheadings (scenarios, specific strategies, and ideas for classroom routines). Choose three of them that you believe you can work on or that you would like to do in your own classroom, and explain why you chose them.

This was such a wonderful chapter I had a hard time narrowing it down to just three. As I was reading I found myself not just highlighting things that I thought were important to remember but also making notes in the margins of experiences I or my children have had or of questions I still have.

The first item I chose to blog about is the classroom environment. I decided a long time ago that I would have objects in my classroom labeled in both Spanish and French. Since then I have decided that I will still label things in French but I would ask my Spanish students to help me label items in their language. If I have students from other countries I would like to have them also label things in their native language. I think it would be fun to know how to say clock or drinking fountain in multiple ways. I would also like to have a culture week were each day we highlight a different country and or culture. All students can participate by showing or talking about the country they are from or where their ancestors are from. They could also talk about another state they have lived in or visited or a tradition their family has. There are many ways to have each student participate and feel special. This will also help students learn more about one another and create a feeling of community in our classroom.

My second heading is Hold Goal-Setting Conferences. I really like this idea but I am struggling with coming up with how I would do it. It would be imposable to meet with each student individually, every day, but would it be possible to meet with each one once a week or would once every two weeks be enough? I really want to do this strategy but I need some time to really think about how this will look in my classroom. I may not know until I meet my students. Some students may need to meet more often than others.

My third choice is under Guidelines for Classroom Operation. I started to laugh when I read, under Scenarios of Guidelines for Operation in the Classroom. It says “There are other ‘beliefs we live by’…” When my oldest son was 7 he asked what standards were, he had heard the word at church. I told him they were things we lived by. He responded by saying “I live by the mount ions.” Beliefs we live by makes much more sense. Scenario one talks about Ms. Gandy’s class and how if she notices a student that has just made a bench mark growth she will stop the class and have them come over to that students desk and have that student explain what they had just done. For some students this might work but for others it might be too much attention and make them not won’t to try so they are not the center of attention or put so much pressure on them to continue to succeed that they feel they have to cheat. This is what happened to me. When I was in junior high I had an English teacher that didn’t believe in putting everyone on the different spelling lists. He told us that we were all capable of doing the hardest level. The teacher would give us the new words on Friday to take home and study over the weekend. On Monday we would take a pre-test, anyone that got a hundred percent didn’t need to do spelling that week or take the final test on Friday. I am a horrible speller and never did well. One weekend I really studied hard, I memorized and used mnemonics to remember some of the words. On Monday I got a hundred percent. My teacher was so proud of me he showed all my other teachers my test and brought it up in class several times throughout the week. The next week I didn’t do as well and saw the disappointment in my teacher so I started to cheat, I had a copy of the words under my paper. When he caught me, that disappointment was even worse. We need to be careful how we praise our students, what might be a reward for one student could be a punishment for another.

In my daughters class they have class cheers and chants. The one I like the most and my daughter says most of the students like, is when a student says something is too hard and they can’t do it. The whole class chants “Yes you can, yes you can, yes you can, uh.” I asked my daughter how she felt when the class did this. She said she liked it because it made her feel good to have so many people believe in her.

5.1) On page 56 Carol says: “It is the teacher’s contract with the child to care intelligently, unyieldingly, and deeply about the individual’s strengths and weaknesses, dreams and nightmares, uniqueness and commonality.” I felt this from Carol when she was my teacher. It was a powerful experience that really did change me as a teacher. Is there a teacher in your past who seemed to have this “contract” with you? Please tell about it.

Above I told you a little about a teacher I had in junior high. I can relate to Carol and how she felt about her 8^th grade algebra teacher. I had those same feelings and emotions about my English teacher and class that first semester. He started out as being my least favorite teacher ever, but something happened the second semester that made me change my mind. I now feel about him and English the same way Carol felt about her German teacher. In the end he turned out to be my favorite teacher ever. The first semester of school all we did was spelling and diagramming sentences. I couldn’t spell or diagram sentences. I think he disliked me as much as I disliked him. I don’t remember ever having any scaffolding done on the different parts of speech. I think he just assumed we had all learned it in elementary school. I was pulled out of class for speech several times a week and now I wonder if that is where some of my academic gaps stem from. Our second semester was all about Literature. I was and still am an avid reader and even though I can’t spell or diagram a sentence, I can write. This teacher was thrilled when the quite, mousy girl that always tried to fade away was now participating in class. I loved having class discussions on the books we were reading and writing my thoughts down on paper. It turned out that I also had a talent for writing poetry. This teacher took an interest in me as a person. He helped me learn lines for the school play. Came to all my music and theatrical performances and would help me improve my writing. I felt that he really cared about me as a person. I wonder if we had studied Literature first semester and he had gotten to really know me then, if he would have taken more time with me and found other ways to teach me the parts of speech.

We must never assume that because a student isn’t getting a particular concept it is because they are lazy and not applying themselves. We need to first look at ourselves and the way we taught the concept. Then come up with another way to present the material that will be more closely related to the way that student learns.

Blog #5

Blog #5

From chapter 2 I picked 3 quotes because they go so well together. The first two are on page 19. “We are invigorated by challenge, strengthened by working toward it, and ennobled by attaining it.” And “Challenge in the classroom gives roots and wings to young dreams. It prepares learners with the substance, habits, and confidence necessary to move toward their dreams.” The third one is on page 22 quoted from Educating Esme “I aim too high probably. But if I don’t aim, how will I hit anywhere near the target.” These three statements touched me because I had something interesting happen when I was in field the first semester with older grades. My cooperating teacher gave me 2’s for both articulates clear academic expectations and communicates effectively. Then she wrote “Initial instructions could be in more kid friendly language.” For the next few weeks I kept reflecting on and replaying the different lessons my partner and I taught and many of my interactions with the students, trying to grasp what the teacher meant by this. We were teaching social studies to a fifth grade class. I did use new vocabulary but I would use it in a sentence and also explain what the new words meant using vocabulary the students were already familiar with. There were two ELL students but one was at the top of the class in every subject and the other we would work with one on one when it was needed. There was no differentiation in this class and the students spent most of their time working on work sheets. I feel that too often teachers and adults in general talk down or at children instead of talking to or with them. Children will bring themselves up or down to our expectations. If our expectations are low the student may feel that we don’t think they are capable and only do what is asked or required of them, coming down to our expectations. If we set our expectations high then give the students the support they need to reach those expectations we will all come away from the experience better, stronger, more capable people. As I look back on that teaching experience there is only one thing I would change and that is one of the lessons we did that need more scaffolding. It was a very interactive, group participation type of lesson. This class was not use to working together in small groups. I would still talk to the students the same way I did and with my new class and my own children I will watch for ways to increase their vocabulary and my own. I know I will make mistakes and hopefully learn from them. I know my students will make mistakes and hopefully learn from them. But by continually pushing our selves further than we think we can go is the only way to grow.

From chapter 3 I chose a quote on page 30 that I feel also goes with the ones from chapter 2 “…opportunity is more closely related to exhilaration than drudgery. Opportunity requires hard work, but it is work with a purpose- it is work in pursuit of a dream.” It is easy to settle into our comfort zones and coast through life, but think of all the amazing things we could do if we challenged our selves. Becoming an intern has been such an amazing opportunity but I almost didn’t apply. I knew how competitive it was going to be, sixty four openings and over one hundred and twenty applications, and I knew how hard I would have to work this summer while me kids are at home. But I am so glad I applied. I have learned so much about myself and my family. I want to teach my students and own children how to take healthy risks and develop their talents so that they can someday look back on their amazing lives with no regrets, no asking themselves what if I had…? I want them to live their dreams.

Blog #3

Blog #3: With the reading you've done so far, about differentiation, can you see any differentiation I have organized for you in this course? Look at the assignments (listed on page 3 of the full syllabus and outlined on pages 7 - 11). Which one appears to you (not your friends, or study buddies, but to YOU) as if it may be the product and process differentiated for student interest? Briefly explain why you think so, and connect it to something you read in Ch. 1 of Fulfilling the Promise.

I feel that the one assignment that really allows for differentiation is our final project. The reason I think this is because there are several different projects to choose from. We can choose the one we feel we are the most likely to use in our classroom or the one we feel we may need the most help with. There are also many different ways to approach each project; we can each put our own twist or personality into our chosen project. In the book Fulfilling the Promise it says “There are four student traits that teachers must often address to ensure e effective and efficient learning (Tomlinson 2003 p 3). One of these traits is interest. We need to be interested in a subject in order for optimal learning to take place.

Blog #4

Tell me about any part of Principal Sylvia Allan's presentation that "struck a chord" in you, (either positively or negatively), and how you think it will affect you in your teaching. I really enjoyed Principal Allan’s presentation but there were three things that I either disagreed with or am still processing and reflecting on. The first was that the students don’t need to sit in a circle. I do agree with this. I have been told I will have between 29 and 32 students next year; one of the teachers this year has 35 students. There just isn’t the room to make a circle with all those desks. But she said the reason that Krietee says to make a circle is so that students won’t be constantly touching each other and goofing off. I thought it was so that everyone could be seen and heard. She also said that the students don’t touch and pick on each other. I disagree with this. I have observed many classrooms that do morning meetings or go to the rug for other activities and in some of those classes the students are playing with the person’s hair, or shirt that is sitting in front of them or the person in front is laying on the person behind them and there are always the students in the back that are kneeling because they can’t see but that just makes it so the students behind them can’t see either. But with rug time rules, good classroom management and a true feeling of community, these distractions can be minimized if not done away with completely.

The second item that I disagreed with was that the greeting only needs to be done on Monday. I feel that the greeting is an important, every day part of the Morning Meeting. The greeting is one of the elements that help students from different cliques speak to each other. Also we don’t know what has happened to our students on their way to school. Maybe they didn’t have time for breakfast, or they were running late so mom was yelling or they felt like no one noticed them in the shuffle of siblings and neighbor kids on the way to school. Being acknowledged, by name, by one’s peers could be the exact thing that student needed that day to feel loved and appreciated.

The third item was when she told us about the boy that couldn’t read or memorize. The story had a happy ending and everyone is different but to me, at first, it felt like to much attention was being drawn to him. But as I listened to the conference again on black board, I realized that she asked Hunter if he wanted to share with the class why he was so upset or if he wanted to get himself together on his own. Hunter made the decision to share with the class. She had created a place where Hunter felt safe and secure enough to share his pain with his peers and without telling them that Hunter couldn’t read she gave the students the opportunity to help Hunter succeed. I am the type of person that needs to hear or read things several times and really think about them before I can learn them or form an opinion on them. I am glad I went back and listened to the conference again.

I really liked how Principal Allen divided up the class business into vegetables, dessert and medicine. It is fun to see how different people put their own style into Morning Meetings.

# 2

1. In the "morning meeting" readings you were exposed to several teachers who do morning meeting in their classrooms. Please find one of them, list his or her name, and explain what they do or believe about morning meeting.

Mike Anderson believes that morning meetings builds community, and reinforces both social and academic skills. He invites parents to come to class and participate in a morning meeting. He also sends out a weekly new letter that not only shares with parents what the children are doing in math, science and other core areas but also what includes a section on what skills they are working on during morning meeting.

2. In both part I of Differentiation in Practice and chapter 1 inFulfilling the Promise, you find a short list of curricular elements that teachers can adjust and a short list of student traits or characteristics teachers can respond to. One of the books lists 4 of these, while the other lists only 3. What do you think changed in Tomlinson's thinking to add a 4th curricular element and a 4th trait to her original list? I did not finish the reading for this question I am going to be getting caught up on everything Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I would love to answer this question in Thursday’s blog.

3. In the introduction to The First Six Weeks of School you read about the importance of establishing a friendly, predictable, and orderly classroom as a "prerequisite for children's academic achievement." Is "friendly" as important as "predictable" and "orderly"? Why or why not? (Please refer to ideas you find in the introduction to The First Six Weeks of School.

Yes, one way that we feel safe and excepted is by the way we are treated by others. If others are friendly, with a smile and a compliment or an invitation we are much more likely to trust them. The book even say “When children are anxious, unruly and out of control, the learning that occurs is seldom what we intend.” While I was in field last semester our cooperating teacher did something that I really liked. Each day she would pick one boy and one girl that she paid a little bit more attention to that day. She would go out of her way to ask them how they were doing or about an event in their lives outside of school. She would call on them more often and spend more time helping them. She would keep track of which students she had chosen, in a little note book. In a class of 24 students, 12 girls and 12 boys every one new they were loved and appreciated by their teacher. No one fell through the cracks in that class.