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.

Weeks of 11/9-13/09 and 11/16-20/09

My biggest struggle these past couple weeks was in one of my chemistry classes. The class is mostly juniors and seniors, and many of the boys play football. I have found that they view me as more of a friend than a teacher. This causes issues with respect, especially when my mentor is absent. The students will make somewhat inappropriate comments to me, and when my mentor is present, it is not such a big deal. But when he is not there, the rest of the class reacts, and the behavior starts to spiral out of control. Last Friday was one of those days that my mentor was absent. I began teaching class normally, but eventually the comments started. One student was very disruptive and things were starting to get out of control, so I stopped. I, somewhat harshly, informed them that the comments needed to stop. I am their teacher, not their friend. I notice that when Dr. Vernon (mentor) is gone, you seem to think you can be disrespectful and it is ok. This behavior is unacceptable and it will stop. Then I went on with the lesson. The comments did stop; the class was actually silent for about ten minutes. I think the lecture helped, but we will have to wait and see if it sticks the next time my mentor is gone.

          My biggest success these past weeks was an assignment that I came up with for one of the current topics. In science, most assignments are worksheets, practice problems, answering questions, or labeling diagrams. When there are written assignments, they are lab reports and very structured in a certain way. We have had a couple creative projects, but more speaking and making posters. I gave an assignment that allowed the students to come up with a story, poem or song that explained a process we are learning (osmosis). They were to write about a slug that gets salt on it (somehow) and show how osmosis causes the slug to shrivel. I got some amazing stories and poems from students who normally do not as well. I even had one student write a song, write music to it, then play the guitar and sing it in a video. I also have a student who normally does very few assignments who completed this one, and I can tell he worked hard on it. After all the stories have been submitted, I read them to the class, which the students also enjoy immensely. I hope that these stories helped them learn how osmosis works, and help them remember the process much longer than if they memorized it. I hope there will be more opportunities for assignments like this, because the students love them (and I really like grading them!!)

Student Work: Salting a Slug, Crawler’s End, Osmosis

Aligned with the Life Science Standard 9-11 LS1D:

– The cell is surrounded by a membrane that separates the interior of the cell from the outside world and determines which substances may enter and which may leave the cell

  – Describe the structure of the ` and how the membrane regulates the flow of materials into and out of the cell

Week of 10/19-23

My biggest struggle this week was an escalating situation in my 6^th period class between one student and a group of students. One student was being harassed by others, but then was reacting violently towards those students. The situation got worse each day. I ended up writing up 6 students on Tuesday. I had asked the students harassing the one student to stay after class and none of them did. The one student was gesturing threateningly towards the other students. The assistant principal spoke to all students involved. I also changed seats around so the group of students was split up. The next day in class, there was another incident between the one student and one of the group. I split up the two students and spoke with them both individually. The next day in class there was not any apparent issues, but they might have just kept their reactions out of my class. The situation was difficult to deal with because I felt like I was running around after school talking to many different people. I had no time to do anything I needed to do because I was trying to resolve this situation.

My biggest success this week was successfully managing five different classes of students I had never taught before. Both of my mentors were out this week. One was out both Monday and Tuesday, and the other was out in the afternoon on Wednesday. I took all of their classes on both days. I was able to manage both classes as well as teach them material. Even though they had never had me before, they respected me.

Wee of 10/12-16

My biggest success this week was more of a realization. One of my mentors has been going through a very rough time, and I have taken over all of her classes on days she is unable to be in school. This means I have been teaching a room full of students who do not know me and have no respect for me as a teacher. After teaching these students in addition to students I have been in charge of all year has shown me a great deal. I have seen just how much my students have come to respect me. After a headache of a morning with my mentor’s classes, I got to my classes and was surprised about how well behaved they seemed. I had been teaching them for so long, and I have had days with them where I feel that they are misbehaving horribly and that they hate me. After these days, I see how well behaved they actually are. Especially when I compare them to other students who do not know me at all.

My biggest struggle this week had been dealing with substitutes. I have been dealing with many different substitutes and each of them presents their own issues. In general, substitutes are interesting to handle with a student teacher. My mentor puts me in charge of the class, but I’m sure the substitute is thinking “well I have a credential and she doesn’t, so why is she in charge of the class?” They also are note used to letting someone else be in charge so I have had subs that hover over me in front of the classroom. This confuses the students because they are not used to two authority figures, especially in the classes I am in charge of. I feel like this undermines my authority in those classrooms a little because the students might realize that I am not truly fully in charge of the classroom. Students also take advantage of the fact that there are two teachers in the classroom and the ones I do not normally teach will always go to the sub to ask to leave the room. They know that I am a teacher at the school and that I know my mentor’s policies on bathroom and water fountain privileges. I have to keep track of everyone who leaves the room and make sure they follow procedure even though they think they are getting away with it by asking the other authority figure. I do not want to offend substitutes, but when my mentor leaves, she leaves me in charge of her classrooms. I am not really sure how to talk to them so they do not feel like I am stepping on their toes.

STLP Fact Sheet Reflection

Upon review of several STLP fact sheets, as well as my own, I learned that there is no single correct way to answer a question. People have different opinions, and many of these opinions can be valid. In looking at the best way to answer one question, one must look to many different sources and make an informed decision about what works for the person asking the question. In my own research, I found that many sources had different ideas about how best to deal with gang violence. Many of their ideas seemed valid. One source outlined a plan for peer involvement in trying to convince students not to be involved in gangs. Another described security measures around the school, such as smart cards and metal detectors. Another suggested a few strategies for teachers in their classrooms, such as not humiliating students in front of their peers, and knowing which students are involved in which gangs and making sure they are separated as much as possible. Even though there were many different opinions, they all seem to center around keeping the students safe. The other fact sheets I read seemed to follow this theme. For example, Mike’s fact sheet, discussing student motivation has many different ideas. A teacher can allow students to choose their own topics to study. A teacher can also relate the material to their students’ lives. Self-confidence of the students is also very important to their success. Each of the ideas centers on raising the student’s self-confidence in the subject, and helping students to realize that they can do well in science class. I will use many of these tactics in my daily teaching. I will never humiliate my students, therefore alienating them from the other students. I will praise my student for their achievements, hopefully increasing their self-confidence in the subject. I hope that I can use what I have learned to create a safe and encouraging environment to help my students succeed in my classes.

Discipline Issues Today

I know that not every day is going to be a good day in teaching. I even know that there will be bad days. Well, today was horrible. The funny thing is, it only took the last ten minutes of 6th period to make me feel like this was the worst day so far. First, I went into class knowing that I needed to talk to four students who had switched their assigned seats during a pop quiz (unfortunately I took attendence as I collected the papers, so I did not notice until the end of the quiz) and then had very similar answers to a couple questions. I was very sad that the students felt that this was necessary. In class, we were making posters to put up on the wall in small groups and someone decided that it would be a really good idea to draw on someone else’s poster (from a previous period) and wrote some things that ruined the poster. I can no longer put this poster up on the wall. And then the students were not following directions at the end of the period, and I nearly lost it. They could tell I was extremely upset about something. I talked to the whole class about the poster and none of them owned up. I told them how disrespectful this action was, and how I hoped that no one would ever do anything like that again. I should have said more, like how disappointed I was in the student that did it, but I was so close to snapping that it was all I could do not to start screaming at them. On my drive home I decided that I should have given them homework- write a letter as if you were the student who drew on the poster, apologizing to the people who made it. I think I am still going to have them do this assignment, just to show how serious disrespect is in my classroom. I will probably give them another quick lecture tomorrow about respecting their classmates, and how would it feel if someone did that to their work, etc.