Twelfth Week

     This week I felt much more prepared to take on classroom management and behavior.  I decided that this was the time to try what I was afraid to try all semester long.  I feel that I have gotten to know the kids well enough to be able to talk to them when I believe they may be doing something inappropriate and have them understand that I am not attacking them, but the situation.
     I got the opportunity to try this on Tuesday when one of the 4th graders was being disrespectful to his classmate.  While one of the students, who is a slower reader, was reading, he pretended to be asleep.  Once the student finished reading, he pretended to be awoken and went back to following the text.  I noticed his eyes closed and his head leaned back at the beginning and made sure to pay attention to the student to be sure that he was doing it on purpose and was not just tired.  After he opened his eyes, he noticed me watching him and I mouthed to him that we would have a talk after the lesson.  He looked peeved right away and knew that he had been caught in the act.  After the lesson, all the students were prepared to go to specials and I asked to student to stay behind.  He automatically told me that he knew he had to stay and was actually planning on staying once everyone left.  I was glad that he accepted that he would have to talk to me and did not try to get out of it or ignore the inevitable.  I think that telling him during class that we would talk after the lesson prepared him for the talk as well instead of me springing it up on him well after the incident occurred.  Before I told him anything, I wanted to see why he thought that I asked him to stay after class.  He knew right away and explained that it was because he was pretending to fall asleep during one of his classmate's readings.  I wanted him to own up to what he did and I think by having him tell me what happened he would be able to do that.  Additionally, I saw the whole incident and he knows that I saw, therefore, I wanted him to tell me and to tell me the truth.  I knew and he knew that he would not be able to lie to me.  I also asked him to explain to me why he did what he did.  He was forthcoming with his answers and I was glad that he was able to tell me the truth.  He did not try to sugar coat it or pretend like it did not happen.  I went ahead and explained to him that he needs to be respectful of his classmates and that being rude to his classmates while in the classroom was completely unacceptable.  I kept reiterating that him being disrespectful was just as bad as someone else being disrespectful to him and that we do not allow either of those to happen in the classroom.  I told him that his classmates were not doing that to him while he was reading and that it was unfair of him to be doing that while someone else is reading.  I think once I put it in that perspective, he got to understand it a little better.
     Today, I also had a lesson with the 4th graders and the same students and I made sure to observe the student as his classmate read.  He was completely and entire attentive the whole time.  After the lesson, I made sure to tell him that I appreciated him being on his best behavior and being respectful as his classmates read.  I wanted him to know that I was not mad or angry, but that I was disappointed and would be until I saw a change in his behavior.  Overall, I was glad that I had enough time to talk to the student one-on-one and I hope that this is something that can be done when I am the only teacher in my future classroom.  I believe that it is and effective way to discuss problems with students, but I hope that it is not too idealistic for a full classroom and no co-teachers.      

Eleventh Week

     This week I was able to become more comfortable in managing the classroom.  My partner and I got to teach a math lesson to the 5th graders and three social studies lessons to the fourth graders.  The mentor teacher is always present and with us when we are teaching the 5th graders, so she is able to jump in and control the class if the students get too rowdy.  However, when we are teaching the 4th graders, she is usually preoccupied with the 5th graders, therefore, we are in control of teaching the lesson as well as managing the behavior.  This was the case on both Tuesday and Thursday as we taught social studies.  We were engaging the students in a few different activities and one was a debate.  We knew that this would be a challenging activity for the fourth graders because they are all extremely vocal.  They have many opinions are never afraid to share them.  I knew that this activity was going to be a great way for me to practice classroom management strategies.
     One of the main ways that we have been taught to manage behavior is by providing clear and concise directions of the assignment.  I did so repeatedly before the debate, going over what a debate is, how the parties are supposed to act, what is to be shared, and how we were going to do one in the classroom.  My partner and I even modeled what we expected of students prior to the lesson and had them restate what we expected based on how we modeled.  I believe that taking the extra few minutes to clearly state and restate the directions and expectations prevents from a lot of confusion and disruption during the remainder of the lesson.  I also learned today that not swaying from the set directions is key.  When students asked if they could change their answers (we stated in the directions that this would not be allowed), we were able to remind them that we all agreed to the directions and expectations at the beginning of the lesson and that we needed to stay true to those.
     I also wanted to try out a strategy that I attempted with the 5th graders about a month ago.  I told students that I would make note of their names and write tally marks next to their names if they were out of order and continued to be out of order.  If they received more than three tally marks, their behavior cards would be marked.  I actually carried a notebook and a pen with me this time and every time I warned a student about his or her behavior I motioned to the notebook and made it clear that I was writing the students name down.  A few times I just looked at the student and pointed to the notebook and this helped eliminate the disruptive behavior right away.  I assume that this strategy was easy for me to implement because there were two of us teaching and I had the time to mark students while my partner was speaking.  However, this might be more challenging to do in a classroom where I am the sole teacher.  Nonetheless, I believe this is a good starting strategy to try.
     I would still like to keep trying different strategies with classroom management so that I have some personal strategies to use in the future. 

Edited Blog Post (Holly Article Inspiration)

This week, my partner and I got to teach our lesson study.  We taught the second lesson, with the revisions that we made from the first one.  Overall, I thought the lesson was successful, although we were able to get great input from our observers.  For the next lesson, we plan to focus on the puzzle piece strategy and the importance of redirecting students' responses to the text.  We want to make sure that students' responses relate to the actual story that they are reading.  In this way they will notice that what they share has to be associated to the story in order to help them make inferences.  We also ran out of independent time.  We decided to use one story for the We do part of our lesson, which will cut down on reading time as well as picking up and passing out papers.  I am looking forward to seeing how the third lesson turns out.  I am also glad that we have had the opportunity to do this lesson study.  At the beginning of the lesson study, I was not convinced that we would learn much from the experience, especially teaching in classrooms that were not our own. However, the teachers have been exceptionally accommodating and tremendously helpful in the process. Furthermore, through the lesson study process we have been able to mimic what actual grade level team meetings may be like.  Just about all grade levels have a team that meets and discusses lessons together.  Being able to meet with my fifth grade team was an insight into what this might look like in the future.  It was also helpful to work with three people who all have different ideas and beliefs.  This is reflective of what my future grade level team may look like and therefore being able to accept each others’ ideas and roll with them even though those may not be our own ideas was great practice.  I am also excited to have a lesson that I could certainly use in my future classroom.

My partner and I also taught a reading lesson this week to the fifth graders while the fourth graders were taking the Florida Writes.  Students read a play and we assigned them roles that they read.  We were in a conference room (teacher's lounge) and also used some of the props that were around to go with the story.  The students had a blast reading the story and I was extremely proud of them.  I was also happy that we were able to keep the class under control.  We knew that we would be taking the fifth graders out to teach them the story, however the location was last minute.  We did not have a lot of time to prepare and we were still able to keep the kids on task and as quiet as possible to keep from distracting the classes that were testing next door.  Classroom management is something that I wanted more practice with this semester and this was an opportunity to practice that.  Before we did the lesson, I shared with the students that there were classrooms testing all around our room and that we needed to be respectful and stay as quiet as possible.  I also informed students that if we had to talk to them more than three times and ask them to settle down or get quiet, we would change behavior cards once we got back to the classroom.  I believe that this warning at the beginning of the lesson helped in keeping them quiet, however, there were a few students who I had to get serious with and ask to be quiet.  I even had to change one girl’s seat because she was getting easily distracted by her classmates and did not do her work.  If I was to do this again, I would probably have a sheet and add students’ names on it as I warn and talk to them, placing tally marks next to their names each consequent time.  In this way I would have known which students had to be talked to multiple times and I could go through with my rules and actually change cards for students who were not following the rules.      

Tenth Week

     We finally completed our final lesson for our lesson study.  I am extremely happy about the student learning that occurred as a result of the final and improved lesson.  After reviewing the worksheets that students completed independently during the lesson, I was very pleased with the work that students did.  Most of the students, many more than during the first lesson, understood what the strategy was about and what each piece of the puzzle was asking.  I was most concerned with the distinction between background and personal experiences, however, student work suggested that most of the students understood the difference.  This was something that our team, the fifth grade team, really worked on because most of the students were struggling to tell the difference between the two.  I also believe that using non-examples and inappropriate examples was tremendously helpful for students.  This was actually helpful for all of the puzzle pieces because students got to see what was expected from them and what was not expected.
     There are certainly a few parts that I would change if I was to teach this lesson again.  The group discussion is certainly one.  Although I love having students work in groups to help each other out, I also think that our group work was too time consuming.  Some of the groups got off task when they finished discussing their puzzle piece and we should have designated specific time for each part of the group work.  Furthermore, we asked students to sit on the ground because the mentor teacher suggested this set-up.  She stated that her students were most comfortable in that setting and that that would be the best way to organize the groups.  Therefore, we went with that set-up.  However, our observers noticed a lot of off-task behavior and this is something that definitely needs to be prevented for next time.    
     Overall, I believe that students got what they needed to out of the lesson.  Their work in groups and their independent work showed that they were able to distinguish between the four different puzzle pieces as well as between appropriate and inappropriate examples.  I was very impressed with the work that they did, however, I think that the next time I teach this type of lesson, I would like it to go a little smoother.   
     Furthermore, this week my partner and I got to continue teaching our social studies lesson.  We have been working with students on Florida history, the beginning of Florida state to be exact.  We started working on the lesson last week and students began writing plays in their groups.  We continued working with students on their scripts as well as props.  I was extremely impressed with the work that students did during their preparation for the plays.  There were a few students who had trouble working in groups and staying on task.   On Tuesday, I had to specifically talk to one of the students one-on-one.  He kept being obnoxious and was not contributing to his group.  I had to explain to him what it means to effectively work in a group and that his input matters.  He also explained to me that he felt as though he was not being heard by his group members and that this created a rift between him and his group.  Therefore, we had a chat with all of his group members and they were able to continue working on their script without any major incidents.  Students performed their plays today and I gave them a few minutes to prepare their materials as well as do a run-through of their play.  Many of the students were extremely rowdy today.  I believe that this might have been due to the excitement of performing their plays in front of the whole class.  I had some trouble keeping them on task and focused on what they were doing.  Many of them kept jumping and running around, not being able to prepare in a timely and organized manner.  I even had to threaten them that we would not be able to do any more fun activities if they were not going to act appropriately.  I think this helped, because I noticed that I did not have to tell them to settle down as much after that threat.  This also led me to try and figure out ways to get students to settle down when they got too excited.  This happens a lot with the fourth graders and this is something that I would like to improve upon as I prepare for my internship year.   
   

Ninth Week

During this week, the fifth grade team taught our third lesson study.  The lesson study went really well, with the exception of a few questions that we had and brought up during our de-briefing.  Angie and Mr. Bishop helped us tremendously in figuring our exactly what was missing from our lesson study.  While I felt overwhelmed at the amount of information that we were receiving, I am also glad that we received it.  The de-briefing session helps make the lesson a great one instead of a mediocre one.  For this reason, I am excited to teach the last lesson next week, however, I am also nervous to do so.  There are a lot of expectations for my partner and me to do a perfect job on the last lesson, so I hope that we can live up to this expectation.  I feel good about it for the most part, especially because I taught it once already, and even though there was a different focus in the lesson, I nonetheless have experience teaching the topic to a class of fifth graders.

This week, my partner and I began teaching the social studies unit that is expected of us to complete for Kevin Berry's class.  We embarked on somewhat of an adventure with out students.  We are beginning a chapter on Florida becoming a part of the US and on its way to becoming a state.  Our students use an exceptionally old social studies textbook, where Jeb Bush is still governor of Florida, which provides them with a lot of dry reading.  Therefore, we wanted to create a more exciting atmosphere during social studies.  About five of the kids also stated that social studies was their least favorite subject, so we wanted to get them engaged in the history, not just read about it.  For this reason, we decided that for the first lesson, students would read and receive instruction from us on the topic, but proceed to write their own plays and act them out based on information that they learned and understood.  We are doing this lesson with our fourth graders who are all gifted and were exceptionally excited about this opportunity.  They were even talking about their characters and what they planned to do in their plays during lunch.  I was very happy to hear them debating over what event should go where and who should say what.  I am also excited to see how students will work together, as we have them in groups, and how the plays will turn out.

Lastly, the FCAT is fast approaching and our teacher asked us to help her out in planning her math lessons all the way up until the day of FCAT.  This was the first time that we actually sat down to help her plan the lessons.  We have sat with her and discussed lessons that we have to teach for our college classes, but this was the first time that she asked us directly to help her with her own schedule.  She also treated the lessons as something that the three of us will tackle together and asked us to help her teach the lessons, especially because she will be teaching math twice a day in order to teach students all the necessary material.  I was very glad that she asked us for help and actually took our advice in planning the schedule.  Now I feel as though I have an idea of what is coming up and what lessons to expect, which will help me plan to teach them as well. 

Eighth Week

This week, my partner and I got to teach our lesson study.  We taught the second lesson, with the revisions that we made from the first one.  Overall, I thought the lesson was successful, although we were able to get great input from our observers.  For the next lesson, we plan to focus on the puzzle piece strategy and the importance of redirecting students' responses to the text.  We want to make sure that students' responses relate to the actual story that they are reading.  In this way they will notice that what they share has to be associated to the story in order to help them make inferences.  We also ran out of independent time.  We decided to use one story for the We do part of our lesson, which will cut down on reading time as well as picking up and passing out papers.  I am looking forward to seeing how the third lesson turns out.  I am also glad that we have had the opportunity to do this lesson study.  At the beginning of the lesson study, I was not convinced that we would learn much from the experience, especially teaching in classrooms that were not our own. However, the teachers have been exceptionally accommodating and tremendously helpful in the process. I am also excited to have a lesson that I could certainly use in my future classroom.

My partner and I also taught a reading lesson this week to the fifth graders while the fourth graders were taking the Florida Writes.  Students read a play and we assigned them roles that they read.  We were in a conference room (teacher's lounge) and also used some of the props that were around to go with the story.  The students had a blast reading the story and I was extremely proud of them.  I was also happy that we were able to keep the class under control.  We knew that we would be taking the fifth graders out to teach them the story, however the location was last minute.  We did not have a lot of time to prepare and we were still able to keep the kids on task and as quiet as possible to keep from distracting the classes that were testing next door.   

Seventh Week

This week was another short week.  We were only in the classroom for two days.  However, this was also the week that we got to do our first lesson for lesson study.  We were in a a 5th grade class and taught our lesson on making inferences.  I was observing the first lesson.  The lesson was interesting.  We certainly have a lot of room for improvement, which is perfect because that is exactly why we are doing a lesson study.  The fifth grade team was able to meet up later in the day and debrief.  We did not have the input of any administrators, however, the teacher whose class we did the lesson study in was more than helpful.  She actually provided us with great input that we are using to fix up the lesson.

The first issue that was apparent was that we ran out of time.  The stories that we have picked out were way too long.  We decided that we would cut these up and shorten them for the second lesson.  We like the idea of having students read mystery stories so we wanted to keep that genre.  Next, we decided, with the teacher's input, to switch up our pre-assessment.  We originally had a worksheet that students were given right before the lesson.  There were a few multiple choice questions on the worksheet about inference.  However, this was dry and boring for the kids.  It did not get them excited or talking.  We decided to change up the way we assess them and go with something more exciting.  For the second lesson, we will be doing skits at the beginning of the class, where one of the teachers actually acts our a scenario and students are asked to infer what is happening.  This is a more interactive and fun way to see what they might already know and to activate their prior knowledge.  Lastly, we decided to change the way we present.  We had an anchor chart for the first lesson.  The second the interns taped the chart to the board, I noticed that it was impossible to read and see from way back in the room.  Most of the students were sitting in the back! After talking with the teacher, she suggested that we use the overhead projector and make some type of a presentation.  This is what we have decided to do for the second lesson.  We will be making a PowerPoint presentation with all the necessary information so all of the students can see.  With the technology we are also easily able to interact with the information and transition quicker.

We look forward to teaching our second lesson next Thursday!