Hi Everyone,
I would like you to put your observation assignment under this post as a comment. This assignment is 10 points. I would like you to summarize all of your observations up to this point and follow the What, So What, Now What structure. We will discuss this further in class on Thursday the 31st but this is due by November 4, 2013. Remember the what is short, the so what is the longest section and the now what is in the middle. You can't talk about everything but I want you to find a way to bring your observations together up to this point and show how your learnings are helping you answer the course essential question.
What: Going into this semester, I was concerned that it may be another slog of theory and lecture like so many college courses I've encountered in my RIC career. When I heard a week or two before the semester began that we were going to do something new; something that no other local college has in their education program, I was excited. While I'd previously observed classes minimally in 406, and taught a couple classes at North Providence H.S, the experience of undertaking an entire college course at a real high school was both exciting and daunting. To be honest, my preconceptions of an urban high school were less than ideal, as I'd heard horror stories from friends who had taught at other schools in the Providence district. However, now that I've been at District C for the semester, my perspective has been drastically altered. I now feel comfortable and at home in that setting. When I walk the hallways of District C, I feel like I belong. Another aspect of this whole experience that has been beneficial, I think, is the constant interaction with real teachers and administrators. It really has taken some of the aura out of the professional world, and I can see now that these people are real people who really love their jobs for the most part.
ReplyDeleteSo What?: Overall, my entire identity as a future teacher has been changed as a result of this experience. I now feel comfortable in my shoes as a teacher, and I feel like I belong in a high school, whereas before this semester I still entered classrooms a little nervy about my position. From week to week, our class has made progress towards getting assuming the role of a teacher instead of a student. This, of course, is the ultimate goal of the education program; to develop a student into an awesome teacher.
Now What?: The next step, of course, is actually fulfilling that role of educator and teaching two lessons at District C. While this still seems slightly foreign, I feel much more comfortable, especially in the urban school, than I did prior to this course. While I have taught two lessons in a real high school to real students before, this feels much more cohesive and relevant because I’ve spent so much time in this school and feel like I know it better than other schools I’ve been to in the past. I am looking forward to it!
What?: The idea of going to District C made me nervous at first. I had observed and tutored in other schools before, but this experience really takes the student out of me and has me practicing a depth of knowledge and assessment than I have been exposed to previously.
ReplyDeleteSo what: When I was a tutor, I was directed to work on the prescribed worksheets that the instructors wanted me to work on, fitting into their overall plan. The presentation of this material, however, was entirely up to us. This meant that there was no accountability for the method of instruction, as long as the needed results were achieved. During these observations at District C, I have become familiar with the layout, the teachers, the students, the protocols, the organizers, the word walls, each component fitting together to form a greater system that the student passes through, hopefully getting to the other side with a cohesive set of ideas about how to structure thought processes. I guess the difference between teaching and tutoring is that a tutor is more like a student: they pass along the content that needs to be covered in order to provide understanding for a specific purpose. A teacher gives the metacognative materials to learn anything they set their mind to.My teacher identity is shaping up to be more than just a person who speaks volumes about content, I want to see students to perhaps at times respectfully decline my points of interest in favor of the things that pique their interests, things that they need to know in order to thrive in the world.
Now What?: A teacher's identity, much like a teenager's is formed by practice. The main idea of observing is to watch before you do the work of teaching, and then keep doing and doing until you start to notice the areas of your practice that fit right or don't feel comfortable at all, tailoring it to your style and what best suits the audience. For some reason, most aspiring teachers think of their ideal room, but the hardest work is picturing an ideal you. Now how do I get to it?
What?: Having made many visits to the high school and after observing many classrooms, I have taken particular notice of what gets students interested in the lesson, and what does not. One sure fire way I have seen students involved in the lessons is to connect it to their lives outside of the school. Student interest is crucial for learning to be achieved in the classroom and I think people often disassociate school from the outside world.
ReplyDeleteSo What?: With the fact that student interest is important comes the question of how do you get students interested in the content of the lesson that you are teaching? So often school is separated from the world outside. Students come into school and for 6 hours they are inside a building solving equations, reading, writing, discussing ideas, and conversing with peers. I don’t think much learning about functioning in the real world is really going on in this environment.
One classroom I was in had students looking at different forms of irony. The teacher explained some forms of irony to the students, then the class was reading real life situations where irony occurred. The students then had to decide what kind of irony was present. Some of the situations even got a little controversial and the class went off on tangents arguing certain points. Everyone in the class was participating and smiling. The learning in this class was real. These students left this class with a solid understanding of irony that I feel would be developed more by the teacher throughout the rest of the course.
The interest in the subject that was sparked in the students is definitely something that will stay with them, and in the future this teacher can reference the situations and the students will most likely remember because they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. It is clear that connecting lessons and concepts to the “real world” and real world applications is important to facilitate learning among students. I for one see this in myself, especially in this class. Seeing lessons like this happening will stick with me more than just reading about them.
This has me believing that the simplest way to get students interested and involved in learning is to connect their lives to the lesson. This could mean connecting elements of a popular show that students watch to elements in a novel being read in class. Or maybe using lyrics of popular songs to introduce metaphor or other concepts of irony. Or maybe even when teaching students about forming an argument, instead of starting off in the academic realm, have them write an argument about which sports player is better, for example Jordan vs. James. I think it is incredibly important to connect students’ personal lives to lessons first before delving into the abstract side of things. This gives them a base point of understanding to start from.
Now What?: So often we discuss about the importance of knowing and valuing your students, and this is a clear reason why. If we know nothing about our students, how can we not only connect lessons to things that they personally know, but how can we make our lessons fun. Unfortunately when it comes to the two lessons I plan on teaching this semester I will not really get to know these students personally, but I do have a large group of teens at my organization who have already offered to help me with whatever I need. This is a resource I plan to definitely use to my advantage.
DeleteWhen I have been given the information on the material I will be teaching the lesson on, I plan on brainstorming approaches and activities that I think may be connected to these students’ interests. I plan on running these ideas by the teens in my organization and see their opinions. And now that I’m thinking about this, I’m seeing the emerging idea that teachers should always be learning from their students. This now has me thinking about in the future, and maybe asking some of the older students about what the younger students may like and using it to my advantage when creating my lessons. I’m extremely excited to use this idea of starting lessons off with students’ interests and scaffolding to the more abstract concepts.
Hi Dr. H. I am posting my Observation assignment in two comments because blogger won't let me make a comment with more than 4,096 characters. Here is part 1:
ReplyDeleteWhat?
My time at District C has had an enormous impact on the educational setting I would like to work in as a professional educator. Observing the school’s teachers and their interactions with the student population has inspired me to teach in an educational institution with a culturally diverse student population.
So What?
“Immigrant families in Rhode Island are diverse in terms of country of origin, socio-economic status, education level and language skills. Understanding the needs of children in immigrant families can help ensure that all children grow up with the opportunities they need to succeed. Given the link between educational attainment and family economic success, a high-quality education is one of the most important vehicles for upward mobility for children in immigrant families. Efforts that increase high school graduation and college completion rates among immigrant students are critical to young people's future success in the workforce. National research shows that children in immigrant families are more likely to be concentrated in under- resourced schools in high poverty communities. In Rhode Island, students in the four core cities with the highest poverty rates (Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence and Woonsocket) consistently have lower reading proficiency, attend lower performing schools and have lower graduation rates than students in the remainder of the state.” (Data & Information from RI Kids Count Website: August 2012 Issue Brief on Rhode Island Children in Immigrant Families)
During our October 31st bus ride to District C, Dr. H asked our class, “How do we change education in this country?” This question stuck in my head. I thought to myself, “I went into teaching to help kids, to make a difference. I’ve always wanted my life to have purpose. So now that I’m at the point in my collegiate career in which I have to begin making the decision of where I want to work when I graduate, where do I want to work?” Then I asked, “Is it really a question of where?” Or is it more a question of “With whom?” We have talked often in class about misconceptions and I think one that I had was that ‘urban schools have large populations of students that have little or no interest in learning.’ My observations have shown me just how wrong I was and the passage I provided above from Kids Count tells me that these children would greatly benefit from teachers that were able to provide them with “a high-quality education.” Schools in high-poverty, culturally diverse communities need teachers that are willing and able to improve learning outcomes through both acknowledging and embracing culture, race, and student differences as empowering assets in their classroom. A vast majority of the students in these schools are there to learn, to get a good education. They are enthusiastic and willing learners who want to do their best and be successful. And they deserve teachers who are going to give them the knowledge and skills to achieve these goals.
Here is part 2:
ReplyDeleteNow what?
One of the questions posed during the Microlab in our post-observation meeting last week was, “As a teacher, how do we show our students that they are valued?” I answered this by first answering the questions, “How can I adapt my teaching practices to be more responsive to the to the needs of my students?” And “What other knowledge, skills, and resources would help me teach from a more culturally inclusive perspective?” Teaching in a school with a culturally diverse student population makes establishing a classroom environment characterized by cultural inclusivity, mutual respect, and genuine appreciation of diversity, that much more essential. It is critical that I communicate with my students that I am committed to understanding them as individuals. I want them to know that their ethnic and cultural knowledge and differences, prior experiences, and individual abilities matter to me and are an important part of our learning experience together. When I begin teaching I would like to filter curriculum content to include literature that embodies a wide variety of perspectives, opinions, and world-views. I want the curriculum that I select to include course topics that are representative of the sociocultural characteristics of my students. Fostering a sense of community, I hope to create a learning environment where my students feel safe and comfortable enough to have open, honest, and respectful discussions about their different perspectives and opinions. So to answer my initial question, I would show my students that they are valued by fostering a learning environment where their unique differences are the driving force behind their education and by providing them with whatever they need as learners to guarantee their success.
What: Before going into District C, I was excited, but also a bit nervous. I had been in schools before, but never like this and I had never taught two full lessons in front of a class before. However, after going to District C for quite a few weeks now, I feel very comfortable there. The school and the teachers are becoming familiar and the administrators we've met and talked to are very patient, helpful and want us to succeed. In addition, I love that we get to choose what teacher we’d like to work with based on what we’ve seen. These factors have put me more at ease about teaching my own lessons. With every visit I feel more and more comfortable at District C and more and more confident about taking what I’ve been learning in class and teaching my own lesson.
ReplyDeleteSo What: Being comfortable in the school is very important, because if the teacher is uncomfortable, they aren’t happy and aren’t able to be the best teacher they can be, which will, in turn, have an effect on the students. If we had just been thrown in to teaching an entire lesson right off the bat, it would have been so much more nerve-wracking because we would have been unfamiliar with the school, the administration, the students and the teachers. There would have been no time to adjust and the complete newness of it all would have been intimidating. It is also great how welcoming and encouraging the administration and teachers that we’ve gotten to talk with have been. There’s a lot to learn and take in about becoming a great teacher and one thing that has been said during our discussions at District C is that it takes time. This has made me feel even more relaxed because it has reminded me that as a new teacher, not everything is going to be completely perfect. It’s going to take time and me trying certain things to see what works and what doesn’t. It’s obvious that the administration and teachers at District C are very willing to help, though and they are all very approachable. We’ve talked about making sure students are relaxed and comfortable in your classroom and also briefly discussed how important it is for the teacher to be comfortable as well because it really is beneficial for everybody. As I mentioned before, the comfort and overall happiness of the teacher will affect the way he or she does her job, and therefore affect the students.
Now What: Now that I am feeling very welcomed and comfortable at District C, the next step is to take in everything I’ve been observing and learning and applying what I can to the lessons I will teach now and in the future. In addition, I think it’s important for me to keep in mind that comfort in a school and in a classroom is just as important for the students as it is for me. By keeping in mind what made me feel the most comfortable at District C, I can make sure I behave in the same manner towards my students. I also want to keep in mind that certain things will take time. If I expect everything to go perfectly every single day, especially during my first year of teaching, things will get very overwhelming. In essence, I’d just like to remember how welcome I felt at District C, and even though it wasn’t something we directly learned, it is something that I observed and feel was a real life example of how both teacher and student should feel in a school setting.
What? Even before my time at District C, I've know what most important aspect of successful teaching is: classroom management. Of course, there is only so much I can learn about this topic in a textbook, so spending time in a classroom each week has given me the opportunity to see classroom management strategies being implemented in a "real world" classroom environment.
ReplyDeleteSo What? A first year teacher, who is extremely knowledgable in his content area and who has a love and a passion for sharing that knowledge with others, walks into a classroom and gets a rude awakening: Twenty-five ninth grade students, who don't share this same passion, are both unorganized and disruptive. As high school teachers, we'd like to think that our students knows the rules and regulations of a classroom, but different teachers expect different things and often times these expectations aren't clear. So before the aforementioned teacher even thinks about conducting his first lesson, he needs to consider classroom management. Because, as they say, you can have the most exciting lesson planned with the most articulate presentation, but if you fail to manage your classroom in an organized and efficient manner, any attempt to teach your students will prove futile. My time at District C has allowed me to see a wife array of classrooms and consider what will and will not work for myself. What I consider to be the most important portion of a class period is the first ten minutes. How long does it take students to be seated? Do they have something to do, or are they waiting for the teacher to instruct them? The first few minutes of a class period sets the tone. I've witnessed different scenarios that have made me reconsider what I first thought about this topic. In one scenario, students walk into class, sit on tables and continue the conversations they were having in the hallway. Before you know it, the first ten minutes of class are wasted and it takes another ten minutes to get the class started. With so little in-class time, it wasn't surprising to know that students were behind on their assignments. But with that said, students did appear engaged and the teacher was conducting a enjoyable class - it just took sometime. I also witnessed the complete opposite of this scenario. I saw students walk into a classroom, take their seats and begin an assignment that was posted on the board, the room completely silent. When the teacher began to teach, the room remained silent and students showed little engagement with the material.
Now What? What I have observed has brought me to the realization that there is no right way to manage a class. In the second example, the classroom management seemed to be taken directly from the "to do" section of a textbook on classroom management, but were students engaged or just following rules? And in the first example, the first ten to fifteen minutes of class were unorganized and chaotic, but the rest of the class time was engaging. In my opinion, the goal of classroom management is to maximize student engagement and productivity while minimizing the time wasted. I must be able to set clear rules that have appropriate consequences, while avoiding the oppressiveness that rules may bring forth. It is important to let students know that rules shouldn't stymie their creativity and voice in the classroom.
Joseph Bonaldi
ReplyDeleteSed 407
Modeling in action
Something I was looking for when I was conducting my observations at District C was the use of modeling. It was always something I was interested in because I wasn’t always sure how far one should go utilizing it and what the range of modeling looked like. When I observed the teacher with the initials MP it seemed that it was integrated so well into his teaching. Every time he spoke to his Ell class he had worked out some form of body movement to correlate with what he was talking about. It was interesting to see teaching amount to something close to a performance.
I think this is important because it shows a level of involvement in one’s class that utilizes the most basic and universal way of connecting two people. This particular lesson was on the vocabulary of body parts and body movements to the corresponding word that the students must then repeat. He would also code switch to Spanish only if absolutely necessary but immediately supplement it with repeated use of the word in English. For someone like me who can’t really imagine teaching a class to a group of students who don’t understand English it was beneficial to see this in practice. I think sometimes I alienate people who don’t speak English and forget that language isn’t the only way to make someone understand what you are saying. When I entered into a different ell class I felt like I was lost. I felt like every student was miles away and when I tried speaking to them I got nothing back. I relied only on language and now I see that that is enough. One has to rely on the things that unite everyone and not something that is only specific to the place you grew up in.
So what can I do now after understanding this? I’m not exactly sure. Part of me is still frightened of the idea of teaching an ell class. A friend of mine who teaches English in Russia gave me the advice “Don’t waste words. Every word you say that you don’t need makes it harder for them to understand.” Partly I think I have to understand that I’m teaching them the words and the usage but I have to use more than just that for them to understand. Language is only one for of communicating and I have to utilize symbols, pictures, modeling, and anything else I can find to improve understanding. I think now I’m starting to understand that ell, and maybe all types of learning, is a multisensory learning experience.
What? So going into this whole experiment I already knew a bit about District C's history and reputation, so naturally, I went in with some prejudices and preconceptions. Thankfully I was pretty much proved wrong from the get go by the wonderful staff and number of students who showed hard work and dedication. I was excited also to see how the teachers would interact with their students, I really wanted to compare my own theories and opinions with what they were doing to see how they were alike and different.
ReplyDeleteSo what? Well, after being there for a few weeks, I have developed an essential question that I can now compare and contrast with what I see. Also, now that I feel comfortable walking around and know some of the staff, It helps me to be even more cognoscente of what's going on. Instead of worrying about where I am going, I can listen to what the students are talking about in the hallways, instead of feeling awkward in a classroom, I can speak to some of the students and get their own opinions or stories from their experiences. It's interesting to see how those opinions can vary. Having had the opportunity to observe a couple times in a Spanish class that has high participation, I have become excited and hopeful that some day my class will be like that. All in all, I feel like this experience is almost like a tease for us future educators because we get to see what we will someday have, and I really look forward to that. On the other side, this experience shows me how things can sometimes not go perfectly, whether it be a student who is acting up or a fight in the hallway, I know that eventually we will all have students that will perturb us, but anything good is deserving of hard work, and naturally, as a teacher, some students will need molding and help, and I look forward to these moments too, just as a tutor of Portuguese at RIC, anytime one of my students that I tutor learn something and remember it I feel proud and it's incredible, never mind a whole class, it must be amazing.
Now what? As I am going to be starting my lessons at a High School, I'm going to attempt to remember what I've been seeing and learning so that I can implement some strategies, of course this will be limited since it's only two lessons, but it'll give me a chance to experiment a bit and see what I do and don't like. Besides this, I believe if I can use a wide variety of techniques as a teacher in the future, and affect my students positively, I can be successful.