September 18, 2007
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Sept. 18th, 2007
Day #8
Before the
day was only a few minutes, old, I was anxious. Precious time was slipping away, as students sat around confused,
fuddling around with their book bags, homework folders, and other supplies. Around 8:50 we finally got them to the rug
for morning meeting. The greeting was a
simple handshake, and for the first time the whole group seemed to be engaged,
calling other students out for not knowing it was their turn, not speaking loudly,
or not making eye-contact. Next, for
share, none of the people who were listed wanted to share. I decided to then share myself, sharing how
Vivian and I had worked together to put up bulletin boards the previous night. I took a few questions and comments, and
encouraged students to participate in the future. The activity for the day, I borrowed only minutes before the
start of the school day from Marcy, and was a variation on the game, “Look
down, look up,” that we’d done before, where students sit down if they happen
to make eye contact with another student, except this time they first had to
switch places.For
writer’s workshop, I had students practice sketching their seed ideas. I began by telling students that I was
feeling bored with my notebook, and asked for a thumbs up if they ever felt
bored writing. I showed them how I
started a new brainstorm in my notebook of small moments with Mr. Davey, and
then chose one, about working out during wrestling, to develop as a seed idea. I held up my notebook, and explained my
diagram of a wrestling mat. I then
engaged students by giving them 30seconds to think of a seed idea, and then to
sketch it by drawing on the carpet. I
met with Anthony, who misunderstood and was drawing about the tv show Family
Guy, as opposed to a moment involving himself, and Tyleek was drawing about a
time he played basketball with his brother.
Overall, I found it to be an effective mini-lesson, although I could do
a better job of having signs up that show the process we’re going through, and
how the notebooks should look.They then
worked independently, and I did my first semi-official writing conference with
Kenny. Kenny has a hard time getting
started, and he is very aware of this.
He gets very excited about what he is doing, and is very friendly, but
needs a great deal of support. Later,
when we were doing math, he was also one of the few to stay on the rug for
extra support, along with Kaliya and Saul.
Kenny showed that he could interpret certain math word problems, and was
also able to do 2-digit addition. He’s
a student I’m interested to see how he progresses, and to better understand his
disability.Before
morning meeting even began, Kaliya was in tears. “Someone stole my 22 pencils,” she cried. At the end of the day, she was in tears
again, this time when Anthony called her a thief for taking a pencil
sharpener. As Lynne puts it, “she is a
very needy child.” I had a chance to
speak with her during our field trip on the bus ride home, and she comes from a
family with lots of children, and might be being raised by a grandmother. During math, for a low number 2-digit
addition problem, she was drawing out the number, which I believe to be a 1st
or 2nd grade skill level.I also
discovered in math that several of the students are quite good at the subject. They can do 3-digit addition, and had
figured out multiplication. Angelo is
by far the most advanced, and will need more challenging work. He is very excited about how bright he is,
and apparently in reading he is lower than he thought he was, because an uncle
of his was having him read “challenging books,” that may have set him back a
bit.Overall, I
have a general sense that I, meaning Lynne and myself, and the whole grade
team, are 2 weeks behind where we need to be.
I’m still planning math on a daily basis, and am overwhelmed with trying
to identify what math lesson to teach from either Everyday Math or Terc. I am hoping that come October, I will better
be able to follow a more scripted program.
In writing, I don’t have a sense of how to teach drafting or
editing. I could do better by looking
more online, and getting examples of what a published personal narrative for 5th
grade might look like.For the
last hour of the day, Lynne and I had no plan, and Lynne was out for a
collegial crew meeting. I was going to
try an improvised lesson, creating a brainstorm of what students felt about and
remembered about 4th grade social studies. I began this and got the expected responses, “It sucks,” “It was
boring,” “It was a complete waste of time.”
Clearly, some things in education haven’t changed, notably, students’
perceptions of what their learning.
Either the material wasn’t presented as relevant, wasn’t presented in an
engaging way, or perhaps the students simply didn’t have the skills to access
the content. That last reason worries
me, because I like to believe that teachers can engage almost any child.The
conversation quickly broke down, as people were talking over one another. Perhaps this was because of my instruction,
or my not having set-up the expectations for student behavior. However, I made sure not to yell at the
students. I made sure not to get angry
at them. Instead, I waited. I began to time them, “How long will it take
for you to get into a circle for this lesson?” I rhetorically asked. Over 3 minutes passed. Students were growing angry at one
another. I decided to bail on the
history lesson, and have students try to think about why it was so hard for
them to quiet down. A few students
stepped up in the conversation, while a few were checked out. I believe 5th grade is the
beginning age for having these types of group dynamic discussions, at least for
any length of time. Six thru eight year
olds I expect would be squirming. I
found myself on several occasions trying to silence the class and drawing back
their attention with my clapping, which sometimes falls on deaf ears. It was a frustrating hour for me and for the
students, but I tried to steer them with the message that it was up to them to
solve this problem. “The answer is in
the group,” I told them, which received a reply from Tahjannay, “It is?” I believe my Outward Bound experience,
working with groups and focusing on personal development, may find itself very
useful in the traditional classroom.Only
3 weeks in, I realize that I am uniquely inspired, and also ignorant of
much. My goal continues to be to
acquire ideas from others, and to seek advice from those with experience. In many ways, I still doubt myself,
thinking that I wouldn’t be fit to teach in a suburban neighborhood where a
principal might expect a certain body of knowledge that I may not possess. However, given the opportunity I have to
work with kids, I have recognized that I do bring an ability to think ahead
about things, and to analyze the classroom in a way that so far has lead to a
positive classroom climate. I have also
found that I inspire and support other teachers in their own struggles and
insecurities with teaching. My goal for
now, and for the rest of the year, must be to stay focused on acquiring and
organizing material and lessons to engage and challenge my students. That’s nothing special to me, it’s just the
challenge that every teacher faces.
