Helping Students Succeed through Curriculum

In this module, there are a lot of different ideas. I believe the overall arching ideas were similar to the big ideas in education. How do we make sure that our students are learning the most that they can under the best circumstances so that we can help them become functioning well-rounded citizens? We started out our discussions with ideas on overlying ideas for education, and what our perspectives or approach to education are. I think it was interesting to read how different people’s view are, yet they are all based around these four ideas, though I saw more behaviorist speaker’s incorporated somehow in everyone’s posts. Embedded in those questions were ideas that come from our own classrooms. It was interesting to read how all the different age groups and subject matters incorporate different aspects of implicit curriculum, or how they collaborate with others. Many people had the same ideas of self-discipline, respect, a comfortable, safe environment and self-confidence. I thought it was interesting that many people did not incorporate collaboration or cooperation. Maybe it was implicit in one of their other implicit lessons, but I think one of the most important skills we can teach our students is to work well with others, no matter who those people are or what ideas they have.

My favorite article was Anctil’s, which discussed the three A’s. Last year, it was very difficult to handle all of my 504 and IEP students. In one class I had six students, in addition to a couple ELL students, plus a few with behavior issues. When I was reading about the three A’s, I was like, “hey, this is what I was doing every day for 6^th period last year!” It was a huge learning experience, and at the time quite frustrating at times. I had to keep up with multiple changing 504s, make sure my IEP kids were getting the right assignments and material in their Learning Strategies classes, and make sure the parents were in the loop about what was expected of their child and what I could do to help. I am sure that I will have to handle a similar situation this coming year, but I feel I am much more prepared for the task by myself after my experience last year.

Phase 5 of EDU 6120 project

Group project: Presentation to give new teachers

What worked well?

I thought that this project would have worked better if we had figured out a way for all members to attend our group discussion sessions. I liked the group discussion times, and they were helpful in keeping me on track to finish my individual portion, and then help with the group collaborative portion.

What were the challenges?

The challenges were our entirely different schedules. We have one member on the East coast, one member who is coaching two sports, I believe, at her school and one member who is just finishing up the year for student teaching and taking a full load of classes. We are on very different time schedules as well. Some people go to bed early, while others get home late. It was difficult to work out times when we could all “meet” online.

Are you satisfied with the quality of the charter, essay or presentation (whichever is appropriate for the phase you are on)?

Yes, somewhat. One group member did not include enough citations, nor did they include notes on their slides. I tried to alert her to the oversight, but she did not respond.

Are you satisfied with the individual and collaborative work of your team?

Yes, somewhat. Pretty much the same reason as the last question, because it is hard when group members do not follow given instructions and then are not around to fix the issue. I gave her about 8 or so hours to fix it, and it was hard to not get any response, even the next day.

Describe how you personally did, in terms of following the charter?

I thought I did well. I kep ton top of everyone for the power point, and made sure that everyone had all the parts they needed. I added my information to the outline before the deadline and I looked over the final essay to make sure it was high quality.

How did the team do?

As a team, I thought we did well. We completed every part of the whole project and I liked all the final products. I learned a lot from my group members and I hope they learned a lot from me.

Were there technical challenges?

none. I figured out how to post everything to google docs, which allowed us to post everything on the blackboard site easily.

Module 9- must all children attend school?

The courts have stated that children do not have to attend school if they are Amish or if they are home schooled by their qualified parent(s). I thought it was interesting that the Amish religion is the only religion covered under this law (Teachers and the Law, p 2). What about devout Christians that do not believe in evolution? I thought it was interesting that students can opt out of certain subjects, like the father who did not want his daughter to study grammar, and it was only because he did not feel like having her learn it. The court agreed because it was not necessary to be a good citizen. But students could say that about chemistry, or math. How can those subjects be essential for becoming good citizens? How can high school, besides the social aspect, be considered to create good citizens? One could argue that only history is needed after junior high, with the logic of the court. The reading also discussed the idea of extra-curricular activity participation for home-schooled children. The state of New York ruled that students who do not attend a public school full time could not participate in extra-curricular activities. I think this is a good idea because the schools pay for the activities, and the parents are not paying into the fund that pays for the activities. The sports especially have other ways to participate, such as club sports, or recreation sports through the YMCA.

Involvement with ELL’s

I liked how the reading this week brought up the idea that different cultures have different ideas. Different cultures have different ideas of what is expected for respect between people, and how they should be involved in education. I think the idea of interpreters in high need communities are a great idea. I wish I had interpreters in my school so that I could more easily communicate with some parents. I specifically liked the idea of a sign-in sheet for the parents at curriculum night (Curtin, 2009, p. 238). My mentors did not do this during our curriculum night this past year and I think it would help a lot in reaching the parents. Many of the suggestions the book gives are about incorporating parents in the classroom by asking them to volunteer. In high school classes, there is not a lot of opportunity for parents to help out. I was unsure of how to use this idea in my classroom, unless we go on a field trip and need drivers. Maybe I can involve parents in homework activities and projects, but I cannot foresee any reason to have them in the classroom during school hours. The book also talks about home visits. I do not feel that this is really appropriate. As high school teachers, we have 150+ students. It would not be possible to visit all of these parents. I never had teachers visit my house, even when my brother nearly failed out of eighth grade. I’m just not sure how appropriate this is.

Curtin, E. M. (2009). Practical strategies for teaching English language learners. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.

Draft of Professional Development Plan

The Professional Development Plan helps a teacher determine how they are going to keep growing as a professional. I drafted mine today, but I plan to develop it a lot more as my career progresses.

Meta-Reflection: Standard P- Understanding teaching as a profession

In my internship, I am quickly learning everything I must do, by law, for my students, especially my IEP and 504 students. I am finding ways to easily use all of the students’ accommodations with a lot of help from my mentors, even if it is as easy as making a copy of the notes I use in lectures, or letting them take an exam in their Learning Strategies class. I feel that these also create a professional setting between me and other faculty members and parents. The students benefit from this as well because they can see that the people around them, including their teachers, want them to succeed.

Different ethical issues have come up this quarter, and I feel that I have done a pretty good job of dealing with them. One incident involved a student drawing something inappropriate on a student’s poster from a previous period. I had to have a conversation about respect in that period, which was really hard because I could not believe I had a student that could be so rude. I have since been able to control myself a lot better, and not gotten so angry when things like this happen, which is good because I feel like I can deal with them better when I am in control of my emotions. Unfortunately, I have had to talk about respect towards others multiple times in this same class. Another incident was between one student and a group of students. The group was bullying the one student, making fun of him because he is different and because he reacts a lot, which is exactly what the group wants to see. It is very disruptive, which means we get through less material in class as well. I had to bring up this issue with the entire class because most of the class was involved. We again had to discuss what it means to respect others and their property and talk about how we can respect other classmates. Another day, I was absent and they had my mentor as a sub. I have been teaching this class since the beginning, so the students are not used to having my mentor as a teacher. They were very disrespectful towards her, and were not treating her how they would normally treat me. I had to have words with them again, and this time made them write her an apology letter. The next time she subbed for me, the class was better behaved.

I feel that it would be extremely difficult to be a teacher and not be reflective about your teaching. Every time I give a lesson, I always think about how I could have done it better, or what needs to be changed, or how I could have prepared the students better for the lesson. I think my whole blog is an artifact for this component, because it shows how much I think about my students and how to make learning easier or more fun for them. It is very easy to get ideas when you collaborate with your peers. I try to ask everyone in my department for ideas, so I can get different ideas and put together something that works for me. In April, I was observed by both my assistant principals and the principal. One of the assistant principals gave me some ideas for classroom management. We used ActiVotes in my sophomore biology class. A couple students were not participating by choosing multiple choice answers on their votes that were not choices on the power point. I asked the students to participate fully by not choosing answers that did not apply to the question I asked (I asked questions with answers A-D, but the voters had choices A-F). I still had students choosing answers E and F. The assistant principal suggested I say something positive to the students who were choosing A-D answers. I reflected on it and came up with saying “thank you to those students using A-D answers.” Talking to students positively rather than berating those students that are not following the rules reinforces positive behavior. It can help those students who are not behaving strive to get my approval by doing what I asked. I even used this tactic when the principal observed me. It didn’t end up working as well, but I have used it in other scenarios and it works very well.

I have had a few situations in class where my explanation of the material does not work at all, and both my students and I leave class confused and frustrated. I want to be able to teach my students and have them understand the material without me confusing them first with explanations. One of these times was when I was trying to teach the students how to predict products of single replacement reactions. My students did not understand how to complete the problems, and I could not understand why. I could not figure out why the students did not understand the material, nor could I think of a way to represent the material the next day to help them. Frustrated, I went to our faculty meeting, where we were continuing a study of Teaching with the Brain in Mind. From the presentation, I was able to reflect on my own teaching, and figure out what I was going to do for my lessons the next day.

Every time I use a new activity in chemistry (which is essentially everyday), I am always reflecting on how the lesson went. I think about what went wrong, where the students were confused, issues with my worksheets, etcetera. I have had many lessons where the way I explained something in 2^nd period did not work very well, and I had to think about how to change my explanation on the spot. We usually would talk it out, and I had students who understood explain it their way. Sometimes, I used a student’s explanation in 4^th period. Just last week I made a worksheet that I thought made sense when I was creating it, but once the students started working on it, I immediately found issues. I came up with a work around, and had the students write it into their worksheets. For 4^th period, I made the work around a little easier to understand and gave it to them right off the bat, and things went much smoother.

Our biology department works collaboratively in our entire curriculum. We all have the same materials, same activities, even the same exams. We collaboratively go over what we are doing at least bi-weekly, if not weekly, to make sure that we are all on the same page. We go over exams, and compare ideas for changes to the exams, and then send around the final copy. We have even had meetings discussing specific questions on the exam, and how we grade them to ensure that we are making every students have an equal opportunity to succeed.

One of our assistant principals had the biology team do 5 meetings over the course of the year. We discussed student learning and strategies we use in the classroom. We graded one set of test questions together to determine what criteria we each used, and how similar our expectations and rubrics were. All our expectations were pretty similar, and we agreed on the individual pieces we were looking for to get points. We gave one point for the correct arrow direction, one point for describing why the water moved in that direction, and one point for describing how the cell size changes, and one point for stating the correct vocabulary term for how the cell is changing. We also talked about how we were going to give partial credit (see the test copy above).

As a bio team, we also discussed our failing and almost failing students. We talked about reasons why they may be failing, and how we may be able to help them bring their grade up to passing. For example, we talked about how some of the students do not complete their homework, then ways we can help them complete it more often, such as asking everyone to write it down in their planner, or calling/e-mailing home to have the parents help remind the students.

Because of this exercise, I realized how important it is to have rubrics, even if it is for how you grade an exam (reflection). On one of my chemistry tests, there was a question that required the students to fill out a table. I graded on the basis of the students’ understanding. The table asked for three things, but each of them fed off the previous box. I gave students points based on how they carried their understanding through the problem. If they got the first part wrong, but if the next two boxes matched their first, I gave them points for the second two boxes only. This caused some discrepancy with the students because some students got points off for the second two boxed even though they had the correct answer. My thinking was that if the students put an incorrect answer for the first box, then a correct answer for the second box, they did not understand the problem. My mentor agreed with my thinking. Student exam examples: A, B.

Our whole faculty at Skyline is participating in a study of the brain and how it affects learning by doing a book study of Teaching with the Brain in Mind. We began with a introduction to the book during the week before school started and did a dissection of a sheep brain, to introduce the faculty to the parts of the brain and to show them what an actual brain looks like. This prompted the biology department to do a short presentation on the brain on the first day of classes, which showed the students how the brain is affected by learning. We have had a few more presentations on the how the brain is affected by learning, the teenage brain, how the teenage brain is affected by learning, and other related topics. I am looking forward to the continuation of this series in following faculty meetings.

Teachers have to be watchful for issues that students may be having. They must care for their students’ well-being, and be mindful of things they may try to hide from others. This includes possible child abuse. I talked with a counselor at Skyline to learn about how they handled suspected cases of child abuse. Teachers always need to be on the lookout for how to help their students. It is not our job to be counselors, but that does not mean that we should be blind to our students needs outside of learning. Only with a supportive environment can our students learn to their best ability.

This year I have learned a lot about being a professional teacher. There are many things about teaching besides how students learn, and how to convey the material in way he can understand. There are many things that teachers are expected to do in addition to helping students learn and there are many ethical and moral things teacher must think about when assessing student learning. This year has been a huge learning experience, because it is hard to learn about all of these different ideas without experiencing them first hand.

Observations

These past two weeks, I have had my principal and both vice principals observe my classrooms. I decided to have each administrator observe a different classroom. All the observations went fairly well, despite some students behavior issues. I was very happy to hear the positive things they had to say, as well as get feedback from them. As I have heard from my mentor, I need to work on my classroom management. The administrators gave me great advice on certain situations they saw to help control students’ behavior. They all said that I had great rapport with the students and they all seemed to respect me, even when students were giving me a hard time. One of the vice principals really liked my enthusiasm and how confident the students were to raise their hand, volunteer answers and ask questions. I even used some of the comments the vice principal gave to me about technology management in my observation with the principal and I think it made things go smoother, and showed what I expected from my students. The other vice principal commented on how great my questioning technique was, which is something I have been working on since the beginning of the year. I was really glad that everyone thought I did a great job, and that I have seen an improvement in my own teaching since the beginning of the year.

Helping My ELL Students Succeed

The reading this week affirmed many things I already know and taught me things I did not know about helping ELL students. Both classroom scenarios were very similar to experiences I have had this year in the classroom. Ms. Lockhart’s experience was very familiar (Curtin, 2009, 2-4). Just like Ms. Lockhart, I have several students who seem to understand the material in class, or even when I help them after school, but then perform poorly on tests. I have some students who should be in the ELL program, but are not, either because their parents do not want them to be, or because they have never been tested. I also have students who do not qualify for ELL, but they still have limited English skills. These students often have other responsibilities at home, such as caring for younger siblings or making food for the family. How can I help these students, when they do not have time to come after school and I try to alter my lessons so that I can help these students as much as possible?

It was also interesting to read about all the different methods of helping ELL students in school. Skyline uses a program similar to the partial ESL program, where the student spends one period a day in an ELL class, working with an ELL teacher on current material in other classes. The English Language Development (ELD) caught my attention (Curtin, 2009, 16). This program has one teacher who is trained in ELL, teaching ELL students the subject matter appropriate to their age group. I have heard of programs, such as one in the math department at Kentwood, where a subject is team-taught by two teachers, one certified in the subject matter, one ELL certified. I think this program would be the best for the students, because the ELL students have a second teacher to help them when they need extra help that the subject matter teacher is unable provide. This tactic would be difficult because of the shortage of ELL teachers we have. Skyline only has one ELL teacher. In order to make a program, like the one at Kentwood, work, we would need to hire significantly more ELL teachers than we have now.

Reference:

Curtin, E. M. (2009). Practical strategies for teaching English language learners. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.

“This is unfair”

It’s always hard to figure out how to objectively grade exams that contain multi-part questions. Exams are meant to test a student’s knowledge of the subject, and it is important that they are scored as fairly as possible. When we give multi-part questions, we have to take in to account ALL of the knowledge the students demonstrate. If they get the first part wrong, they will inevitably get the rest of the question wrong if one simply grades based on what the answer is supposed to be. I grade based on what the student did in the first part, so they do not keep getting docked multiple times for the same mistake. This means that students may put the correct answer for the third section, but it is wrong based on the work they did. Students have a really hard time with this, because they look at their neighbor’s test and see that they put the same answer and got it correct. I had a student get extremely upset over this last week. I explained why I had graded it the way I did, even showed him another problem on the same test that had been given full credit, even though it was wrong based on my key, because of what he had done in the first part. I thought I handled it pretty well even though he walked out of the room cussing. He was fine the next day, which was good. My mentors both grade the same way, which made me confident in my decision.

Student Exam Examples: A, B

Meta-Reflection: Standard P- Understanding teaching as a profession

This is the standard I feel I have only just scratched the surface on. In my internship, I am quickly learning everything I must do, by law, for my students, especially my IEP and 504 students. I am finding ways to easily use all of the students’ accommodations with a lot of help from my mentors, even if it is as easy as making a copy of the notes I use in lectures, or letting them take an exam in their Learning Strategies class. I feel that these also create a professional setting between me and other faculty members and parents. The students benefit from this as well because they can see that the people around them, including their teachers, want them to succeed.

Different ethical issues have come up this quarter, and I feel that I have done a pretty good job of dealing with them. One incident involved a student drawing something inappropriate on a student’s poster from a previous period. I had to have a conversation about respect in that period, which was really hard because I could not believe I had a student that could be so rude. I have since been able to control myself a lot better, and not gotten so angry when things like this happen, which is good because I feel like I can deal with them better when I am in control of my emotions. Unfortunately, I have had to talk about respect towards others multiple times in this same class. Another incident was between one student and a group of students. The group was bullying the one student, making fun of him because he is different and because he reacts a lot, which is exactly what the group wants to see. It is very disruptive, which means we get through less material in class as well. I had to bring up this issue with the entire class because most of the class was involved. We again had to discuss what it means to respect others and their property and talk about how we can respect other classmates. Another day, I was absent and they had my mentor as a sub. I have been teaching this class since the beginning, so the students are not used to having my mentor as a teacher. They were very disrespectful towards her, and were not treating her how they would normally treat me. I had to have words with them again, and this time made them write her an apology letter. The next time she subbed for me, the class was better behaved.

I feel that it would be extremely difficult to be a teacher and not be reflective about your teaching. Every time I give a lesson, I always think about how I could have done it better, or what needs to be changed, or how I could have prepared the students better for the lesson. I think my whole blog is an artifact for this component, because it shows how much I think about my students and how to make learning easier or more fun for them. It is very easy to get ideas when you collaborate with your peers. I try to ask everyone in my department for ideas, so I can get different ideas and put together something that works for me.

Our biology department works collaboratively in our entire curriculum. We all have the same materials, same activities, even the same exams. We collaboratively go over what we are doing at least bi-weekly, if not weekly, to make sure that we are all on the same page. We go over exams, and compare ideas for changes to the exams, and then send around the final copy. We have even had meetings discussing specific questions on the exam, and how we grade them to ensure that we are making every students have an equal opportunity to succeed.

Our whole faculty at Skyline is participating in a study of the brain and how it affects learning by doing a book study of Teaching with the Brain in Mind. We began with a introduction to the book during the week before school started and did a dissection of a sheep brain, to introduce the faculty to the parts of the brain and to show them what an actual brain looks like. This prompted the biology department to do a short presentation on the brain on the first day of classes, which showed the students how the brain is affected by learning. We have had a few more presentations on the how the brain is affected by learning, the teenage brain, how the teenage brain is affected by learning, and other related topics. I am looking forward to the continuation of this series in following faculty meetings.

Although I do not have much concrete evidence for this standard, I still feel like I am learning a lot through my experience at Skyline. I hope to keep increasing my knowledge as the year continues.