Week 2

I can't believe that it's already been 2 weeks of student teaching!  It feels like it's been a couple months, but I guess when you see your students all day 5 days a week, the days can feel long.  At this point, I know my students fairly well now.  A few of them have already been wondering if I'll be coming back.  They're all really sweet, and I'm lucky to share a classroom with them for 5 more
weeks.  These next 5 weeks are going to go by so quickly!

Last week, I made some goals for myself, and here's where I am in meeting them.  My first goal was to teach my lessons confidently and effectively.  In all honesty, I think I really did a great job with teaching my lessons this week.  Needless to say, everything was an adjustment, so I knew that I shouldn't be beating myself up about how I taught.  This week, I taught two lessons spread out between Monday and Tuesday.

On Monday, I taught my first vocabulary lesson. In 6th grade, my cooperating teacher really wants the students to work on root words, especially since many students are not native English speakers.  The root word was "bio" which means life.  Many of the vocabulary words were difficult, so I had to spend more time explaining the definitions, which the students appreciated.  When I was giving examples, I did my best to connect it to something that they were interested in or had some sort of knowledge about.  When talking about the word "biography," I gave the example of The Greatest Showman.  Almost all of my students have seen it, so it was a perfect way to explain the word to them.  The first time I taught this lesson was very rough, but I had to take into account that it was my first time teaching at this school ever, and this section tends to be more off task than they should.  My teaching for the other two sections went very well, and I was even able to cut down the time and come up with better examples.  

On Tuesday, I taught a grammar lesson on verbals.  Initially, I was pretty shocked that 6th grade is learning about verbals when in the Common Core Standards, it is meant to be taught in 8th grade.  This lesson, overall, went well, and I taught the lesson effectively.  The only issue that did not help my confidence was technology.  In Indonesia, there is wifi, but it is extremely slow.  Sometimes, it's just very unpredictable and unreliable.  For one of my formative assessments, I used Kahoot! to reinforce the students' knowledge of gerunds and infinitives (types of verbals).  The activity was engaging and helpful to my students, but it took at least 5-10 extra minutes to figure out the technical difficulties from my end and the students' end.  Technology is a wonderful thing to use, but it can be stressful to use in a country where wifi is unpredictable.  I was ready for a plan B if needed, but luckily, as I continued teaching the same lesson for other sections, my confidence was lifting.

My second goal for the week was to learn more about my students.  I'm proud of myself for accomplishing this goal.  In fact, I think that I have been able to gain my students' trust and respect.  Also, I've been able to successfully build rapport with my students.  In order to achieve this goal, I've been intentional about asking them about their interests, talking to them more, and letting them know that I genuinely care about them.  One thing that I did to gain some points with my students was use their names in grammar sentences.  It would be funny to hear students either say, "Wow, that's so me," or "That's not me at all."  By the end of the week, some of my students have been coming up to me, telling me stories, asking questions about myself, and so much more.  I feel so much love from these students, and I look forward to getting to know them even more.

Besides my teaching of the two lessons, some other notable things occurred this week.  As a class, we started reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.  I remembered reading this in 6th grade, and I had no clue what was going on.  Getting to read the first chapter with the class this week has been really great.  It's given me a chance to better appreciate the book, and it gives my students a chance to read out loud since for most, English is not their first language.  The popcorn reading method has been working for all three sections.  As far as I've seen, the students have been willing to read aloud since they know it is expected of them.  Their fluency could use some work, but they are all still learning how to be better readers and writers.  So far, it seems like the students are enjoying the novel.

One other notable thing that occurred this week were Parent Teacher Conferences (PTC)!  This past Wednesday, the students did not have any classes while parents and teachers would meet with one another.  These conferences follow the same format as in the states, but their occurrence is different.  For Term 1, all students are required to come to the PTC with their parents.  During Terms 2, 3, and 4, PTCs are not mandatory.  It is only mandatory if the teacher or the parent requests it.  Also, these conferences are student led.  The school does this so that the students can take responsibility for their work and can really understand the issue and how they can improve.  I learned that documentation is really important, because my cooperating teacher was able to show the parents the students' work.  Near the end of the 15 minute conference, the students, all the 6th grade teachers, and parents come up with some goals for the term.  Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 8P states that the competent teacher, "develops professional relationships with parents and guardians that result in fair and equitable treatment of each student to support growth and learning."  I may not know these parents very well yet, but I was able to interact with them and introduce myself as their child's teacher during these conferences.  As I observed these teachers, they were able to build rapport with the parents, and develop a support plan for the student in their education.  Being able to be a part of PTCs has been beneficial for me, because it has allowed me to practice faithful professionalism, remaining true to myself and building professional relations with others.

Most of the conferences were scheduled because of low grades.  These low grades occurred due to lack of focus, effort, self-management, and following directions.  Some students were able to recognize it and take ownership.  Some students were afraid to admit how they were doing in front of their parents.  There were even a few students who started crying during the conference, because they knew that they could do better.

The majority of the time, I was observing the conferences, but for one of the students, I was able to relate a story to him as a form of encouragement and motivation.  This student was more interested in playing soccer than keeping up with academics.  So, I shared my story about keeping my grades up and being able to receive an athletic scholarship.  It was nice to be involved in these conferences, even if it was just for a small portion.

Throughout the past couple of weeks here, I have seen my cooperating teacher use specific instructional strategies.  The most prominent one that I have observed is Ten Minute Grammar.  Basically, a few times each week, my teacher will teach a grammar lesson on a specific concept.  This concept is drawn out over 4 days or more.  Each student fills out a short worksheet to give them practice.  Ten Minute Grammar is a routine part of their weeks, and I think that it helps them for the most part, but they need more than just a simple worksheet and more than just 10-15 minutes a day.

While it's nice to see the strategies that my school uses, I was really proud of a strategy that I used, because not only did the students do a great job with it, but many of their vocabulary quiz scores were high.  These were just a few of my favorites that ultimately received 4s for a job well done:

 For the picture dictionary, they were instructed to write the word, definition, draw a picture, and use the word in a sentence.  The students were graded on completion, effort, and meeting all the expectations.  Although I taught this lesson, my cooperating teacher has been grading the quizzes, and the students shined this week.  It was really great to see a strategy that I implemented work extraordinarily well for my students.  The goal now is for them to keep it up!

So far throughout my experience student teaching here, I haven't faced too many treacherous issues, but my biggest challenge, in my opinion, is helping my students who are wired to memorize information.  I've learned that the idea of memorizing is just a part of the culture for some students.  It is custom for them to be smart and successful, so memorizing things quickly is essential in their eyes. My goal for them is to take time to think about what they are learning about so that it can become more meaningful for them. 

Overall, it was a fun week, and I'm looking forward to what this next week will bring!  It's Reading Week, so I have the opportunity to dress up each day!

Here are my goals for the upcoming week:

1. Get through a full day of just me teaching.
2. Work on classroom management.
3. Plan everything for next week during this week.

Classroom Confidential

Chapter 3 of Classroom Confidential discusses the types of behavior that can be seen in a classroom and how we as teachers should react and respond to it.  I really enjoyed the quote that the author used:  "So when kids are acting out in your classroom, apparently oblivious to your game plan, it's likely that they are self-accommodating to perform tasks you want, or camouflaging the fact that they can't" (46).  I knew that behavior in the classroom is not just something that the students is doing to get attention, but there is some hidden fact that they are trying to keep hidden. 

In a couple of the examples in the book, I recognized a couple of my own students.  In one of my classes, there is a distinct class clown.  He talks a lot and is completely unorganized.  His main issue is effort, which is a shame, because he's actually very smart.  He will crack many jokes in class causing him to be really off task.  This student is comical and smart, but there is something that is preventing him from doing his best.  The book also discussed that "the only thing that will break through your students' camouflage is to discover what they're good at and have them do it" (55).  This particular student loves art and drawing, so in my lessons, I've tried to include elements that appeal to a student's creative side.  Another example talked about the frequent flyer personality.  The student in one of my classes that holds this title likes to get up and walk around, a lot.  He appears to not be very bright, but he is distinctly aware of what he needs to improve on and is rather smart.  But, some things overwhelm him, so walking around is what helps him.  I love how the book talked about supportive redirection, because that is something that my cooperating teacher stressed with him and his mother during a PTC.  Since he can be off task at times, the teacher had him create a signal that he could use to remind him about his behavior.  This student has responded well to this intervention which is discussed in the book on page 60.  It's been interesting and eye-opening to see my students' behavior from this specific perspective.