EDCI 602: Blog #2: Teacher Performance

I feel that I have done some of my best teaching during these past few weeks. I think my students were must successful during one of my lessons for SVA. I was also being observed that day so I’m glad it was one of my best days. I used a paragraph with indefinite pronouns (which we had not yet covered) as a means to introduce the topic. I gave each student a paragraph to work on and instructed the class to work individually on finding the subject in each sentence, some of the subjects were indefinite pronouns; by noting the plurality of the verb used in each sentence, students were able to deduce which pronouns were singular and which were plural. One reason I thought it worked so well is because it was introduced to them inductively. They figured it out themselves as opposed to me just stating something and telling the students to take it as truth. A second reason for its success was the change in technology: I used a projector for my lesson, and it was the first time that a projector had been used in class. It gave the students a new way to relate to the information. This added with the inductive aspect really guided comprehension.
My students were not very successful in understanding the parts of a bar graph. One reason for their lack of success was due to the short amount of time I was able to spend discussing bar graphs. I spent a lot more time explaining a different type of visual aid that by the time I came to bar graphs, I was able to quickly describe them and handout out a worksheet for them to work on for homework. There was little to no real instruction. A second reason for this failure lies in the time span of the summer school and how we lead teachers divided that time. We were very good at deciding which topics were more important to teach and later reinforce. We scheduled what was going to be taught by which teacher for every single class period during the June session of the school. Doing this, however, made it very hard to find extra time for an extra lesson on visual aids. Since I had already taught classes on pie charts and tables, I felt I had sufficiently covered the topic of visual aids and decided to live with the fact that we never covered bar graphs.
I think that the way in which I organized my procedures greatly helped student comprehension. I utilized different kinds of text and worksheets, used varied technology, and at times changed the location of class for an entire period. I think that by changing up the things I did in the classroom, I effectively used differentiated instruction. By reaching a greater number of students through these means, I was able to increase overall comprehension of the topics I taught. I think I could have used more technology in my lessons than what I did this past month. Just from the reaction I received when I used a projector and transparencies, I’m certain that by using more technology in my lessons, I could have improved my students’ performance during those class periods.

EDCI 602: Blog # 1: Learning Goals

I am one of two lead teachers teaching English 8 during summer school. So, I was responsible for only three of the first six lesson plans that we submitted as a class. In addition, one of those three was for the period that we used to administer the pre-test, so for some more obvious reasons, I am going to omit commentary on that lesson and its objectives. The two remaining lessons plans that I wrote had objectives that related to different, important aspects of subject-verb agreement (knowing what subjects and verbs are, pronouns, understanding what it is to be “singular” versus “plural”). So between the two lessons, I broke down the concept of Subject-Verb Agreement into fundamental steps to help explain the idea to the students in a more effective manner. My first goal for the students was to have them understand what a subject is and the difference between it and a noun. Next, I wanted them to understand what a verb is. The students needed to be able to identify both the subject and the verb in a sentence. The third goal was to have them understand the difference between singular and plural, another essential step in understanding subject-verb agreement. After the students could demonstrate competency in explaining and identifying these things, I wanted the class to put the basics together to create sentence with correct subject-verb agreement (SVA). Another important aspect of this topic, however, is to know which indefinite pronouns are singular and plural so those too could be appropriately used in sentences.
I feel the goals I set up for them were important due to how essential they are to being able to speak and write using Standard English. The student’s ability to understand and use correct SVA will help their own writing and overall achievement in school. Also, I feel that having SVA as one of the first topics to be covered in the class provided insight into the students’ prior knowledge on the topic specifically and a “heads up” as to what issues some of them may have in the classroom in regards to writing (we had 2 – 3 big writing projects scheduled for the students within those three weeks.
For the more simple concepts that were also easy for me to teach, I had no problem giving a definition for a part of speech, review sample sentences that highlight the important part being discussed, and later assigning a worksheet to be completed in class. I wanted to spend time on the ideas, but not discuss them extensively. I spent more time explaining how to actually use correct SVA in writing and when discussing indefinite pronouns, since those were less “fact” and more “concept.” I included an inductive instructional strategy in one of my lesson plans; its purpose was to review the topics we had covered on SVA. By locating the grammar errors in a badly written paragraph (without any help from me on what they should specifically be looking for), the students would effectively review the concepts just taught to them as well as develop the ability to edit work (an important aspect of the writing process, a topic they would begin work on before the end of the week.

There is so much to argue about when it comes to education in Mississippi. But something that bothered the heck out of me throughout my first year of teaching is how much emphasis is put into the high school graduation. I taught two classes of seniors, about 35 students, and remember having my class pulled and sent to the auditorium (all the seniors were in the school were sent there) to receive an hour-long presentation from Jostens on graduation packages--it included everything from personal throw blankets that said "class of 2007" to signature books to stenciled name cards to give to your friends to remember you by or something? I don't even know how many colleges and universities receive Jostens package offers like that. There was all this hullabaloo about when and how you could order the package, which package is better than which... They were talking about these tassels that said "07" on them that you could hang from your car's rear view mirror like it was the coolest thing since... i don't know what.

I can't tell you how many times my class was pulled to go talk to Jostens... I find it very upsetting and saddening at the same time. I was upset during the year b/c it messed up my class period: I'd suddenly have students again for the very last minutes of class. It upsets me still because of the suggestion being made by these Jostens representatives. They were selling high school graduation with such fervor that it makes it seem like h.s. graduation is the icing on the cake. Put the sucker in a box and tie it with string, 'cause you're done. Reaching one's high school graduation is so widely seen as the chief educational accomplishment that that's all students come to school for. So many are just trying to graduate that they don't understand the greater importance of learning and the actual education they receive. It reminds me of that commercial that comes on every now and then with the woman in a business suit behind a desk that tells you that a high school graduate can receive hundreds of thousands of dollars more in a lifetime than a non-graduate. That's what education becomes, a money tool.
I have student that failed my class this year and some of them were actually upset about it. But a great majority were not upset because an F in my class meant they failed, they were upset because an F in my class would stain their transcript and make it harder to get out of high school, so they asked to do last minute extra credit work to get that 70 and were pissed when i said no to them.

It is very hard to get your students to care about putting in good effort and truly apply themselves in a classroom when the environment in which you teach and the community in which they live says that their greatest accomplishment will be to receive a high school diploma? At the age that these children usually are, why wouldn't you just do what you had to get that piece of paper? And why wouldn't you pay 300 bucks for a bunch of stuff to celebrate it? Makes that tassel on the rear view mirror look some much more... reasonable.

I know I'm ignoring a whole slew of other factors that one really should consider when discussing education, but this is all i really felt like talking about right now. And I'm gonna stop because I feel a(nother) rant coming on...

my students...

In early May I decided to change schools for the upcoming year. I told my students during our last week of classes and I was honestly surprised to receive some of the responses that I did. Of course, there was that one class that I told and they all clapped their hands and shouted in glee... but I was surprised to have so many students even care enough to ask me why I was leaving. I told them I'd rather not discuss it but it wasn't them. I didn't feel right telling them that I "strongly disliked" the administration, most of my students had to stay with the administration. A few other students (a few of my seniors) got a little bit more information.

Either way... One of my students made probably the most mature gesture I'd seen all year from any of my students, freshmen to seniors. My year with him had been a like a roller coaster ride. He's a really smart kid with a lot of attitude and a lot of things going on in his life. So he occasionally made my life hell. He'd do things like get upset when I didn't call on him for answers to questions, or come in after lunch and just refuse to sit down and stop dancing. Once I saw him in the lunch room on a day he didn't take my class and he told me I was very ugly, and then said he was kidding. A roller coaster ride.

So at the beginning of the last week of classes, towards the beginning of class he raised his hand and asked if he could speak to me outside. So I stepped outside my classroom with him to talk and he said something to the effect of, "I know we've been through a lot this year, we've had our ups and downs, but I just wanted to say that thank you for this year. I really did learn a lot and you're a good teacher..." I was so touched by this. I made a big joke about it while he was saying it, but I went running to some other mtc-ers in the building and told them my little proud story.

I knew what everybody says is true, how teachers have a big impact on their students and even though you can't usually see how you're affecting them you are. But it was good to finally see it.