Apprenticeship Teaching Journal
Week 15: December 1- December 5
This is my last week in the classroom for this semester, which is hard to wrap my head around because it feels like it flew by. Coming into my apprenticeship, I was nervous that the students would not relate to me so it was intimidating to stand at the front of each of the five class periods I worked with. I wanted the students to recognize me as an additional authority figure in the room and not someone they could walk all over. We have always discussed the importance of establishing that respect and authority the moment you set foot in the classroom the first time because first impressions are lasting, especially for the minds of the teenage students we work with. As I reflect back to that feeling from the first week, or even few weeks, I feel so relieved and grateful to have had the group of students I was placed with. I have never enjoyed my time in the classroom more than I have this semester because I always felt like I couldn't make the connections and have the conversations with students that were necessary to build the necessary rapport to be successful during classes that I only taught three isolated times. This was genuinely the greatest experience, and I don't think I would feel nearly as prepared entering the classroom full-time if it was not for this Apprenticeship. I feel prepared and excited to be approaching my first full-time teaching position, but I know I am going to miss my Algebra II students because they are really the first set of students I have ever gotten the chance to really know and work with.
Chapter 21: Teaching Responsibility
An important factor in teaching responsibility is putting some control in the students hands as exemplified in the bedtime example: If students hustle to get ready for bed, they will have more time for stories until their designated bedtime, but if they dawdle, the children are loosing some of their story time. As a teacher, we can give students preferred activity time (PAT). As students complete transitions in less time than your provided or they do things positively, they receive more time towards their PAT. Important to note here would be that while removing time occasionally is okay, it could be counterproductive to use time reduction as a weapon. If used more negatively instead of for positive reinforcement, students will become resistant and resentful toward the practice.
This is my last week in the classroom for this semester, which is hard to wrap my head around because it feels like it flew by. Coming into my apprenticeship, I was nervous that the students would not relate to me so it was intimidating to stand at the front of each of the five class periods I worked with. I wanted the students to recognize me as an additional authority figure in the room and not someone they could walk all over. We have always discussed the importance of establishing that respect and authority the moment you set foot in the classroom the first time because first impressions are lasting, especially for the minds of the teenage students we work with. As I reflect back to that feeling from the first week, or even few weeks, I feel so relieved and grateful to have had the group of students I was placed with. I have never enjoyed my time in the classroom more than I have this semester because I always felt like I couldn't make the connections and have the conversations with students that were necessary to build the necessary rapport to be successful during classes that I only taught three isolated times. This was genuinely the greatest experience, and I don't think I would feel nearly as prepared entering the classroom full-time if it was not for this Apprenticeship. I feel prepared and excited to be approaching my first full-time teaching position, but I know I am going to miss my Algebra II students because they are really the first set of students I have ever gotten the chance to really know and work with.
Chapter 21: Teaching Responsibility
An important factor in teaching responsibility is putting some control in the students hands as exemplified in the bedtime example: If students hustle to get ready for bed, they will have more time for stories until their designated bedtime, but if they dawdle, the children are loosing some of their story time. As a teacher, we can give students preferred activity time (PAT). As students complete transitions in less time than your provided or they do things positively, they receive more time towards their PAT. Important to note here would be that while removing time occasionally is okay, it could be counterproductive to use time reduction as a weapon. If used more negatively instead of for positive reinforcement, students will become resistant and resentful toward the practice.
Week 14: November 24- November 28
This week, there is no school in Alachua County for the Thanksgiving holiday.
This week, there is no school in Alachua County for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Week 13: November 17- November 21
This week we went to a presentation by Dr. Howard Gobstein about reforming education and changing what is considered as the "norm". This was an interesting presentation to be at because the entire mathematics department for UF was present, which includes almost every math professor I have had since I started my first semester. I felt very disconnected from the responses as I sat in the presentation because when the speaker would imply one change that should occur in a teaching style, some of the faculty members protested that the students were to blame. While I do not think every student is sitting on a pedestal, I do believe that there is some responsibility to be taken in both directions. I think teachers should incorporate some more investigative teaching strategies, but I also agree that with technology and larger class sizes, it can be easy for students to be off-task. Either way, it was definitely a learning experience to see their point of view, but my biggest take away was to always remain open to new research and different teaching and learning strategies because at the end of the day, it is about what is best for the students' success.
This week we went to a presentation by Dr. Howard Gobstein about reforming education and changing what is considered as the "norm". This was an interesting presentation to be at because the entire mathematics department for UF was present, which includes almost every math professor I have had since I started my first semester. I felt very disconnected from the responses as I sat in the presentation because when the speaker would imply one change that should occur in a teaching style, some of the faculty members protested that the students were to blame. While I do not think every student is sitting on a pedestal, I do believe that there is some responsibility to be taken in both directions. I think teachers should incorporate some more investigative teaching strategies, but I also agree that with technology and larger class sizes, it can be easy for students to be off-task. Either way, it was definitely a learning experience to see their point of view, but my biggest take away was to always remain open to new research and different teaching and learning strategies because at the end of the day, it is about what is best for the students' success.
Week 12: November 10- November 14
Chapter 14: Staying Calm: Our Emotions
Stress management falls under the similar category that it is better to be proactive than it is to be retroactive. You will be more successful in the long run if you are practiced in managing your stress and emotions throughout the day than if you expect to be able to unwind at the end of each day because that is assuming that each day you "get" more than you "give" through interactions with your students. Under stressful situations, all humans (including teachers!) utilize their flight or fight response during stressful situations, which can easily be a situation where a student is being disruptive in the classroom. The point of this is to think before you act in the classroom. One of my favorite quotes from the text states, "Calm is strength. Upset is weakness," because when you are upset, you are giving up your own control of the situation. Addressing a situation calmly proves to the students that while they may have disrupted the classroom, you are in control of the situation and the classroom will remain in order as expected. This kind of calm can be practiced through breathing and relaxing techniques, which help mentally prepare a teacher before entering a situation.
Chapter 16: Setting Limits: Our Actions
"Body language is the language of emotion and intention". Even before children learn to speak, they are able to observe the actions you take and the way you take them, so they learn at an early age to notice changes in emotion. This is no different from students in the classroom. They study each of their instructors' body language and learn the difference between their "instruction" mode and "discipline" mode. Because of this, it is important to be clear when we are looking to place discipline on a front burner. We know that it is important to place discipline as a priority because when you don't the students think they can get way with disruptive behavior. This chapter is more about how to make discipline a priority without taking too much time and while making sure the students know you mean business. There are not enough minutes in the class period to dedicate a ton of time to discipline, so the teacher must be skilled in the art of staying calm and disciplining students effectively. This has to do a lot with posture and positioning of the body. There is a specific tip to slowly begin turning towards the disruptive students giving you time to breath and relax, and them time to understand your intention as you turn towards them. It is about making it clear that you are putting all of your attention towards rectifying the situation before returning to instruction.
Chapter 14: Staying Calm: Our Emotions
Stress management falls under the similar category that it is better to be proactive than it is to be retroactive. You will be more successful in the long run if you are practiced in managing your stress and emotions throughout the day than if you expect to be able to unwind at the end of each day because that is assuming that each day you "get" more than you "give" through interactions with your students. Under stressful situations, all humans (including teachers!) utilize their flight or fight response during stressful situations, which can easily be a situation where a student is being disruptive in the classroom. The point of this is to think before you act in the classroom. One of my favorite quotes from the text states, "Calm is strength. Upset is weakness," because when you are upset, you are giving up your own control of the situation. Addressing a situation calmly proves to the students that while they may have disrupted the classroom, you are in control of the situation and the classroom will remain in order as expected. This kind of calm can be practiced through breathing and relaxing techniques, which help mentally prepare a teacher before entering a situation.
Chapter 16: Setting Limits: Our Actions
"Body language is the language of emotion and intention". Even before children learn to speak, they are able to observe the actions you take and the way you take them, so they learn at an early age to notice changes in emotion. This is no different from students in the classroom. They study each of their instructors' body language and learn the difference between their "instruction" mode and "discipline" mode. Because of this, it is important to be clear when we are looking to place discipline on a front burner. We know that it is important to place discipline as a priority because when you don't the students think they can get way with disruptive behavior. This chapter is more about how to make discipline a priority without taking too much time and while making sure the students know you mean business. There are not enough minutes in the class period to dedicate a ton of time to discipline, so the teacher must be skilled in the art of staying calm and disciplining students effectively. This has to do a lot with posture and positioning of the body. There is a specific tip to slowly begin turning towards the disruptive students giving you time to breath and relax, and them time to understand your intention as you turn towards them. It is about making it clear that you are putting all of your attention towards rectifying the situation before returning to instruction.
Week 11: November 3- November 7
Chapter 13: Understanding Brat Behavior
Natural teachers are able to practice discipline through prevention which means they spend very little time of their class time with disciplinary action. When teachers are not naturals, however, they learn to use discipline through remediation. One of the oldest myths about discipline is that someone else can solve the problems you cannot, but the second you send a student out of your classroom you are sending the message that other people have ore authority over you, and the student now has that at their disposal. Natural teachers are able to control the situation without it getting out of hand and without having to raise their voice or spend a lot of time with the situation. They do this because the students know when they "mean business", something that happens with more experience and practice, but it is important not to blow it the first time you try to remediate a situation because it's the students' first impression of your conflict management.
Chapter 15: Being Consistent: Our Thoughts
A large lesson learned in chapter 15 follows really well from chapter 13 because we discussed sending students a consistent message that you mean business. If they realize that if they can get away with a certain behavior even once, they are sure to act that way again. We can eliminate the disruptions in the classroom if we focus on the smaller disruptions first because smaller disruptions generally turn into the larger ones. Sometimes it can be a difficult call between finishing an instructional question with a student and putting an end to disruptive behavior because it is the difference between completing an educational moment versus standing your ground on behavioral development. Despite this internal conflict, it is important to consistently end the disruptive behavior because if you do not, it enforces that disruptive behavior is okay when your back is turned or when your focus is not to the whole class. I can see how this may be difficult but if we paint the larger picture, it really means that in the long run, we will have to give smaller consequences for correcting behavior instead of training the class to be persistent in their disruptive to the point that we become angry and explosive as teachers.
Chapter 13: Understanding Brat Behavior
Natural teachers are able to practice discipline through prevention which means they spend very little time of their class time with disciplinary action. When teachers are not naturals, however, they learn to use discipline through remediation. One of the oldest myths about discipline is that someone else can solve the problems you cannot, but the second you send a student out of your classroom you are sending the message that other people have ore authority over you, and the student now has that at their disposal. Natural teachers are able to control the situation without it getting out of hand and without having to raise their voice or spend a lot of time with the situation. They do this because the students know when they "mean business", something that happens with more experience and practice, but it is important not to blow it the first time you try to remediate a situation because it's the students' first impression of your conflict management.
Chapter 15: Being Consistent: Our Thoughts
A large lesson learned in chapter 15 follows really well from chapter 13 because we discussed sending students a consistent message that you mean business. If they realize that if they can get away with a certain behavior even once, they are sure to act that way again. We can eliminate the disruptions in the classroom if we focus on the smaller disruptions first because smaller disruptions generally turn into the larger ones. Sometimes it can be a difficult call between finishing an instructional question with a student and putting an end to disruptive behavior because it is the difference between completing an educational moment versus standing your ground on behavioral development. Despite this internal conflict, it is important to consistently end the disruptive behavior because if you do not, it enforces that disruptive behavior is okay when your back is turned or when your focus is not to the whole class. I can see how this may be difficult but if we paint the larger picture, it really means that in the long run, we will have to give smaller consequences for correcting behavior instead of training the class to be persistent in their disruptive to the point that we become angry and explosive as teachers.
Week 10: October 27- October 31
Strategies Toolkit
The article about Accessibility Strategies is remarkably important because it discusses how to better support students with disabilities in a mathematics classroom. Now, just because they are geared towards helping students with disabilities, they are still applicable teaching strategies for any classroom, so if we utilize them in the classroom, we may help improve any students ability to learn.
I specifically like the Conceptual Processing strategies because it relates a lot to what we talk about in lesson planning- getting students to think outside of the box and draw connections between concepts rather than thinking in a concrete manner. Students who lack the metacognitive skills to think abstractly need more support through the use of Explorations (or investigations) to see concepts become clear and making a point to explicitly point out these connections to the students. It may even be helpful to put these students next to our students who see the connections more clearly because they may be able to collaborate and help one another. We also incorporate Language into our lessons because it beneficial for students to be able to communicate their thinking through both verbal and written communication and we can do this using various types of formative assessments.
As I brought up before, having students working in groups can be really helpful, but as we learned in the Psycho-Social category, students very easily give up on tasks when they are frustrated or working with those they do not communicate well with. Students need to be able to try new ideas and work with their pairs or groups even through frustration, which involve these necessary psycho-social skills achieved by minimizing competitive aspects of games and activities, modeling constructive feedback, and setting clear expectations for work and collaboration.
Diversity Research
Code-switching refers to the practice of two languages during one conversation or within one sentence. It is common for people to view code-switching as a deficiency but in reality it can just be harder or take longer for a student who knows two languages to retrieve arithmetic facts. It is seen as a deficiency because people assume the change in language occurs because the person cannot think of the word in the other language. More often, it is because students recall the information in the language they learned it in, so it is likely that when learning new information, they will retrieve it in the language they learned it in as well. I think all of this is very relevant to me, especially with my future intention of teaching in Miami Dade County where there is a large population of bilingual students. This is helpful for me because I am more aware for the reason of code-switching, which commonly occurs for non-mathematical reasons. Alternatively though, students may feel more comfortable elaborating in their first language since it is what they may have learned the computations in, so it is definitely something to be aware of!
This week, we began implementing the Strategies Toolkit into our lesson plans, or more accurately, identifying the strategies previously implemented. For this, I honestly forgot until the day before the lesson plans were due that I was supposed to go in and make sure one strategy from each of the categories was present and comment on which category the strategy fell under and why. This was a cool experiment for me because it was completely accidental but I got a chance to see how many of the strategies I was already implementing into my lesson plans without even considering the strategies. At this point, it really feels like we have learned about so much of the research for teaching strategies through the minor that some of the tools just come naturally which I think was really eye-opening to realize. Reading through the Strategies toolkit to begin identifying the strategies in my lesson was something that was initially stressful because I had completed my plans and I was frustrated that I would have to go back and adjust the lessons I had already worked so hard on. But reading through, I started to notice multiple places in my lessons that worked for the different strategies. It felt really great to have already planned an entire lesson with consideration to the strategies without even realizing it.
Strategies Toolkit
The article about Accessibility Strategies is remarkably important because it discusses how to better support students with disabilities in a mathematics classroom. Now, just because they are geared towards helping students with disabilities, they are still applicable teaching strategies for any classroom, so if we utilize them in the classroom, we may help improve any students ability to learn.
I specifically like the Conceptual Processing strategies because it relates a lot to what we talk about in lesson planning- getting students to think outside of the box and draw connections between concepts rather than thinking in a concrete manner. Students who lack the metacognitive skills to think abstractly need more support through the use of Explorations (or investigations) to see concepts become clear and making a point to explicitly point out these connections to the students. It may even be helpful to put these students next to our students who see the connections more clearly because they may be able to collaborate and help one another. We also incorporate Language into our lessons because it beneficial for students to be able to communicate their thinking through both verbal and written communication and we can do this using various types of formative assessments.
As I brought up before, having students working in groups can be really helpful, but as we learned in the Psycho-Social category, students very easily give up on tasks when they are frustrated or working with those they do not communicate well with. Students need to be able to try new ideas and work with their pairs or groups even through frustration, which involve these necessary psycho-social skills achieved by minimizing competitive aspects of games and activities, modeling constructive feedback, and setting clear expectations for work and collaboration.
Diversity Research
Code-switching refers to the practice of two languages during one conversation or within one sentence. It is common for people to view code-switching as a deficiency but in reality it can just be harder or take longer for a student who knows two languages to retrieve arithmetic facts. It is seen as a deficiency because people assume the change in language occurs because the person cannot think of the word in the other language. More often, it is because students recall the information in the language they learned it in, so it is likely that when learning new information, they will retrieve it in the language they learned it in as well. I think all of this is very relevant to me, especially with my future intention of teaching in Miami Dade County where there is a large population of bilingual students. This is helpful for me because I am more aware for the reason of code-switching, which commonly occurs for non-mathematical reasons. Alternatively though, students may feel more comfortable elaborating in their first language since it is what they may have learned the computations in, so it is definitely something to be aware of!
This week, we began implementing the Strategies Toolkit into our lesson plans, or more accurately, identifying the strategies previously implemented. For this, I honestly forgot until the day before the lesson plans were due that I was supposed to go in and make sure one strategy from each of the categories was present and comment on which category the strategy fell under and why. This was a cool experiment for me because it was completely accidental but I got a chance to see how many of the strategies I was already implementing into my lesson plans without even considering the strategies. At this point, it really feels like we have learned about so much of the research for teaching strategies through the minor that some of the tools just come naturally which I think was really eye-opening to realize. Reading through the Strategies toolkit to begin identifying the strategies in my lesson was something that was initially stressful because I had completed my plans and I was frustrated that I would have to go back and adjust the lessons I had already worked so hard on. But reading through, I started to notice multiple places in my lessons that worked for the different strategies. It felt really great to have already planned an entire lesson with consideration to the strategies without even realizing it.
Week 9: October 20- October 24
Formative Assessments
There are different types and purposes of assessments that we perform with students to help with their instruction. One of the assessment types is formative, and it is used to help instructors plan and re-evaluate former plans for their instruction based on student feedback of their learning. Often referred to as FACTs in this book, there are 75 different Formative Assessment Classroom Techniques provided and discussed in detail in this textbook, with plenty of ideas for purpose and implementation. Apart from informing the teacher of how to proceed in a lesson, formative assessments also allow encourage students to activate their knowledge and apply it to certain types of activities or questions. So, they can be helpful in either broadening the students' minds or even putting together different bits of discrete knowledge.
The different types of formative assessments can gear towards engagement and readiness, eliciting prior knowledge, exploration and discovery, concept and skill development, concept and procedure transfer, and self-assessment and reflection. Some of these overlap other types of assessment, like diagnostic and summative, but each has their formative aspects which may place them in this category. For me, however, one of the most valuable tools of a formative assessment takes into consideration the reflective side of learning because students should take a moment to sit down and process the information they are learning and determine how much of it they truly understand or do not understand. They should also feel comfortable coming forward from this reflection and saying which parts they need more work on and why certain parts of the problem begin to confuse them. When we use assessments like these in the classroom, I am careful to emphasize that I would like the student to be clear about their explanation or reflection on paper because I should be able to read it and understand exactly where they are coming from.
A great tool described in the text to help uncover student thinking through the formative assessment is the Quest cycle, which stands for Questioning student understanding of a learning target, Uncovering student understanding, Examining student work, Seeking links to cognitive research, and Teaching implication (or using the information to plan and implement instruction). This can definitely help implement more formative assessments into instruction in the future, especially with the formative assessment techniques I am less familiar with.
Formative Assessments
There are different types and purposes of assessments that we perform with students to help with their instruction. One of the assessment types is formative, and it is used to help instructors plan and re-evaluate former plans for their instruction based on student feedback of their learning. Often referred to as FACTs in this book, there are 75 different Formative Assessment Classroom Techniques provided and discussed in detail in this textbook, with plenty of ideas for purpose and implementation. Apart from informing the teacher of how to proceed in a lesson, formative assessments also allow encourage students to activate their knowledge and apply it to certain types of activities or questions. So, they can be helpful in either broadening the students' minds or even putting together different bits of discrete knowledge.
The different types of formative assessments can gear towards engagement and readiness, eliciting prior knowledge, exploration and discovery, concept and skill development, concept and procedure transfer, and self-assessment and reflection. Some of these overlap other types of assessment, like diagnostic and summative, but each has their formative aspects which may place them in this category. For me, however, one of the most valuable tools of a formative assessment takes into consideration the reflective side of learning because students should take a moment to sit down and process the information they are learning and determine how much of it they truly understand or do not understand. They should also feel comfortable coming forward from this reflection and saying which parts they need more work on and why certain parts of the problem begin to confuse them. When we use assessments like these in the classroom, I am careful to emphasize that I would like the student to be clear about their explanation or reflection on paper because I should be able to read it and understand exactly where they are coming from.
A great tool described in the text to help uncover student thinking through the formative assessment is the Quest cycle, which stands for Questioning student understanding of a learning target, Uncovering student understanding, Examining student work, Seeking links to cognitive research, and Teaching implication (or using the information to plan and implement instruction). This can definitely help implement more formative assessments into instruction in the future, especially with the formative assessment techniques I am less familiar with.
Week 8: October 13- October 17
Chapter 9: Creating Motivation
The chapter defines motivation as the as the building of diligence in the classroom. One of the biggest questions we ask ourselves within the UFTeach minor is how we can motivate the students who who just does not seem to care. There are many factors we cannot control, which include factors of the home environment and even partially the curriculum. What we do have control of is very valuable, however, because we can use these two things to create the learning environment we find most ideal! These two things which help us manage productivity in the classroom are the quantity of work or diligence and the quality of work or excellence. Each of us has had a time in our lives where we've had to push ourselves to find the line between working so fast we make mistakes, and working so slowly that we do not accomplish enough work. But, in order to find our most efficient working pace and strategy, we know that it has to be towards something we want to accomplish. This brings us back to our question from before: How do we make students want to push themselves?
Teachers can create an incentive system in their classrooms, which would encourage students to work hard at given tasks and try to get work done. In life, there are many informal systems that we do not always realize are there, but there are also formal incentive systems which describe an agreed-upon exchange of goods and services. Within the classroom there can be simple or complex incentive systems. A simple system would be very traditional and would be along the lines of, "If you complete _________, you will get to do _________." The concept of dynamic tension here is important because if students try to rush through their task, they are likely to make mistakes along the way. A great way of doing this is implementing the criterion of mastery, which essentially requires students to correctly answer a given number of questions consecutively. This relies more heavily on working carefully while still guiding students quickly towards their incentive activity. A key factor to keep in mind here is that it is alwasy better to be proactive than it is to be reactive with incentives. Students should walk in the room and know their expectations and understand how to receive rewards properly, and an incentive should never be implemented on the spot just to make someone do something because it shows them that noncompliance can be bargained.
Our goal in an incentive system is to offer a preferred activity, use a criterion of mastery, and check students work as they go for correctness. Types of preferred activities for a math classroom could be some mathematics games or puzzles, like Sudoku, or even a more interactive and fun worksheet. Students could also do extra credit work if the teacher is willing to offer it, or they could use the time for their assignments. Whatever it is, the goal is to make the learning incentive fun so there is something motivational for students to work toward.
Chapter 9: Creating Motivation
The chapter defines motivation as the as the building of diligence in the classroom. One of the biggest questions we ask ourselves within the UFTeach minor is how we can motivate the students who who just does not seem to care. There are many factors we cannot control, which include factors of the home environment and even partially the curriculum. What we do have control of is very valuable, however, because we can use these two things to create the learning environment we find most ideal! These two things which help us manage productivity in the classroom are the quantity of work or diligence and the quality of work or excellence. Each of us has had a time in our lives where we've had to push ourselves to find the line between working so fast we make mistakes, and working so slowly that we do not accomplish enough work. But, in order to find our most efficient working pace and strategy, we know that it has to be towards something we want to accomplish. This brings us back to our question from before: How do we make students want to push themselves?
Teachers can create an incentive system in their classrooms, which would encourage students to work hard at given tasks and try to get work done. In life, there are many informal systems that we do not always realize are there, but there are also formal incentive systems which describe an agreed-upon exchange of goods and services. Within the classroom there can be simple or complex incentive systems. A simple system would be very traditional and would be along the lines of, "If you complete _________, you will get to do _________." The concept of dynamic tension here is important because if students try to rush through their task, they are likely to make mistakes along the way. A great way of doing this is implementing the criterion of mastery, which essentially requires students to correctly answer a given number of questions consecutively. This relies more heavily on working carefully while still guiding students quickly towards their incentive activity. A key factor to keep in mind here is that it is alwasy better to be proactive than it is to be reactive with incentives. Students should walk in the room and know their expectations and understand how to receive rewards properly, and an incentive should never be implemented on the spot just to make someone do something because it shows them that noncompliance can be bargained.
Our goal in an incentive system is to offer a preferred activity, use a criterion of mastery, and check students work as they go for correctness. Types of preferred activities for a math classroom could be some mathematics games or puzzles, like Sudoku, or even a more interactive and fun worksheet. Students could also do extra credit work if the teacher is willing to offer it, or they could use the time for their assignments. Whatever it is, the goal is to make the learning incentive fun so there is something motivational for students to work toward.
Week 7: October 6- October 10
Chapter 6: Setting and Maintaining High Behavioral Expectations
I truly think my mentor teacher has to have read Chapter 6 of this article because I can see her intentionally using many of them throughout each class period. I find this very interesting because while reading the article, each topic that came up, I already felt familiarized with how it could be used in a classroom setting. It made reading these chapters very applicable to my own teaching experience thus far.
Chapter 6: Setting and Maintaining High Behavioral Expectations
- 100 Percent: In a classroom, it is not only important, but it is necessary for 100 percent of the students to be following any direction you give out. It definitely makes sense that if one student is not following the directions, it can lead to confusion in who is supposed to be doing what. Imagine you say, "everyone needs to divide these numbers by hand, but one student takes out a calculator and begins doing it that way. All of a sudden, there are other students questioning whether they need to do it by hand since this one student is clearly doing it by calculator instead, and if they get to do it, why can't they? In order to get this compliance in the classroom, you want to intervene in the least invasive way possible, as stated in the article, because the more commotion you have to make to get compliance the longer it will take to get the rest of the class back in compliance. Another important aspect is to make sure the students are consistent with the compliance. Set a clear expectation as a teacher, so if you would like everyone to raise their hands, the should do it straight up in the air, instead of half-way or leaning over their heads or any other half-effort variation they may come up with.
- What To Do: Something I have experienced many times before is that I will give a direction and it is unclear to the students, so what appears to be non-compliance is really just confusion from the students on what to do next. Four things to keep in mind for What To Do in order to give effective directions are to be specific, concrete (something the student can physically change in their body language or work ethic to be on task), sequential, and observable. Like I said, sometimes students are not trying to be defiant, but they do not respond to what you have directed them to do because they are confused. It is important to be able to tell this from the instances when students are actually being non-compliant.
- Strong Voice: The five principles of Strong Voice are Economy of Language, Do Not Talk Over, Do Not Engage, Square Up/ Stand Still, and Quiet Power. Saying fewer words can be stronger than saying too many words because students will be able to remember the words you say if there are not aa many of them. In addition, if something is important enough that you have to say it to the whole class, then the whole class needs to be quiet to listen for it and it is important to not talk over the students who are not paying attention. Instead, you should wait for each student to be paying attention. Students should be able to tell by your body language that you are serious about each request you are making. Lastly, when it seems like you may be losing their attention, instead of talking louder and faster over them, use the power of quietness in the room to get their attention. Each of these is helpful individually but all together, it is that much more effective!
- Do It Again: This is a great way to emphasize to students that doing something right the first time is always necessary, especially when it comes to school policies or classroom directions. I see this used often in my own mentor classroom because when students come into the room with their hoods on or wearing a hat, Dr. Allison will send them out and ask them to come in the door properly. Most of the time, they know instantly that they are not in proper dress code and they remove the article of clothing right then and there, but she still has them leave the classroom and re-enter correctly. The note I liked the most about this one is that it ends with success because they may have come into the room doing something incorrectly the first time, but it requires them to correct their action and you can praise them or thank them afterwards reinforcing the act itself.
- Sweat the Details: This falls most on the teacher with respect to effort being put in ahead of class time, but I think it is very effective in having an organized classroom. If you spend the time tor review the details of your lesson and activities, you can already plan for the materials you will need and the desired organization of the classroom for that day. It definitely relieves some of the stress on the day of the lesson because all of the background details are already aligned.
- Threshold: The idea of threshold is that when a student enters the door, they are ready to work in your room. This one is great because many students will enter a classroom and stand around and talk until the bell rings because "class has not started yet". Instead, we want students to see crossing the doorway into the classroom as entering a new world (Bear with me for minute). I want students to know when they make the decision to walk into the classroom from outside or in the hallways, they are crossing into a place where it is time to get to work. If they want to socialize, they can stay outside and do it until just before the bell rings, but when that bell rings, they should be in the classroom, notes and homework out, in their classroom, and ready to work. This is definitely something to implement early on in the year so it is something they know is an expectation for each and every day.
- No Warnings: I have not thought of this one previously because the concept of a warning, as mentioned in the article really does come to be expected. It can be difficult to start right away by taking action because it can seem harsh. One way to counter this can be to have a scaled system of consequences so depending on the infraction, the student may have a certain kind of consequence they serve as a result. You hope to never have to get to the more severe consequences but as the instructor, you cannot be afraid to take action because the students will learn to take advantage of anytime you are not taking action against noncompliance.
I truly think my mentor teacher has to have read Chapter 6 of this article because I can see her intentionally using many of them throughout each class period. I find this very interesting because while reading the article, each topic that came up, I already felt familiarized with how it could be used in a classroom setting. It made reading these chapters very applicable to my own teaching experience thus far.
Week 6: September 29- October 3
Chapter 7 on Visual Instructional Plans discusses the problems with the instructions we generally give students regarding our examples on the board. Teachers often prompt their students to complete a problem by having them follow a certain step from the example left on the board. This can be difficult because generally the example on the board is not broken up into steps. How is a student supposed to differentiate one step from another in an example which is shown in-full on the board? If we expect a student to be able to do this, it means we are expecting they are able to recall in exact order everything we said while showing them the example, which relies too heavily on both auditory learning and the short-term memory of the students. Although it can be more difficult to create, it is more beneficial for the students if the teacher would create a Visual Instructional Plan (VIP) which is a clear step-wise graphic.
This is something I feel I could implement in my classroom when doing systems of equations because I could make one for both elimination and substitution. This could help differentiate the steps between solving for one variable, plugging this equation into the second equation, Finding the solution, Substituting that solution into original equation to solve for the second variable, in the substitution method of systems of equations just say. Coming up in the next chapter, I will be teaching Systems of Equations, so this is definitely something I could come up with for that lesson. I think this would be helpful for any set of students. It may be difficult to implement in my classroom this semester because they are used to being able to just ask for help along the way. I have been working really hard to “Praise, Prompt, and Leave”, allowing the students to continue working on their own once I help them with one step of the way. If I could begin practicing the visual steps as instructed in this chapter, it could be particularly helpful for students in my classroom this fall because I am already trying to practice a variety of different strategies, which can be difficult to remember. Once the students adjust to this methodology, I actually believe it will be a time-saver in the classroom, especially while I am still getting used to teaching in the classroom every day.
In Chapter 8, Say, See, Do Teaching: The Physical Modality, I really enjoyed the quote, "The twin goals of instruction are comprehension and long-term memory. We want the students to get it and keep it." Say, See, Do is a way for teachers to say what they are doing, show the students how to do it, and have the students try it for themselves. While this sounds like it can be implemented in the lecture-based structure of teaching way, where the teacher lectures and shows examples for more than half the class period, and then allows the students to try the work for themselves afterwards, it is definitely more practical in the classroom. In my classroom for Apprenticeship teaching this semester, I have already been working with this instructional structure because my mentor teacher uses it daily. In planning my own lessons, I feel I could implement them into my 5E lesson plans during an explanation period. Once the exploration is complete and we begin going over the concepts in the explanation, I feel the teacher could absolutely show the students an example of what they are explaining and have the students try it for themselves before moving onto a different type of example or a different concept.
Bringing concepts from previous weeks together, the Tools for Teaching textbook addresses three modalities: Verbal, Visual, and Physical. We discussed the Verbal Modality with Praise, Prompt, and Leave and found that it tied in well with the Visual Modality because during the Prompt portion of "Praise, Prompt, Leave", students and teachers would both benefit from having proper visual models to show the step-by-step instructions of how to complete examples of what is being taught. Now, looking at the modalities holistically, I find that Say, See, Do brings in both the verbal and visual modalities because the visual instructions would be used during both the "Say" and "Do" portions for students to refer to and during the "Do" time-frame, teachers can circulate the room and "Praise, Prompt, Leave" with students who have questions.
In my own classroom this week, I was able to implement some of my own lesson ideas and had the chance to teach more periods than I have been previously. It is very exciting and rewarding to make connections with my students and learn that they truly value my knowledge as their instructor as they do with my mentor teacher.
Chapter 7 on Visual Instructional Plans discusses the problems with the instructions we generally give students regarding our examples on the board. Teachers often prompt their students to complete a problem by having them follow a certain step from the example left on the board. This can be difficult because generally the example on the board is not broken up into steps. How is a student supposed to differentiate one step from another in an example which is shown in-full on the board? If we expect a student to be able to do this, it means we are expecting they are able to recall in exact order everything we said while showing them the example, which relies too heavily on both auditory learning and the short-term memory of the students. Although it can be more difficult to create, it is more beneficial for the students if the teacher would create a Visual Instructional Plan (VIP) which is a clear step-wise graphic.
This is something I feel I could implement in my classroom when doing systems of equations because I could make one for both elimination and substitution. This could help differentiate the steps between solving for one variable, plugging this equation into the second equation, Finding the solution, Substituting that solution into original equation to solve for the second variable, in the substitution method of systems of equations just say. Coming up in the next chapter, I will be teaching Systems of Equations, so this is definitely something I could come up with for that lesson. I think this would be helpful for any set of students. It may be difficult to implement in my classroom this semester because they are used to being able to just ask for help along the way. I have been working really hard to “Praise, Prompt, and Leave”, allowing the students to continue working on their own once I help them with one step of the way. If I could begin practicing the visual steps as instructed in this chapter, it could be particularly helpful for students in my classroom this fall because I am already trying to practice a variety of different strategies, which can be difficult to remember. Once the students adjust to this methodology, I actually believe it will be a time-saver in the classroom, especially while I am still getting used to teaching in the classroom every day.
In Chapter 8, Say, See, Do Teaching: The Physical Modality, I really enjoyed the quote, "The twin goals of instruction are comprehension and long-term memory. We want the students to get it and keep it." Say, See, Do is a way for teachers to say what they are doing, show the students how to do it, and have the students try it for themselves. While this sounds like it can be implemented in the lecture-based structure of teaching way, where the teacher lectures and shows examples for more than half the class period, and then allows the students to try the work for themselves afterwards, it is definitely more practical in the classroom. In my classroom for Apprenticeship teaching this semester, I have already been working with this instructional structure because my mentor teacher uses it daily. In planning my own lessons, I feel I could implement them into my 5E lesson plans during an explanation period. Once the exploration is complete and we begin going over the concepts in the explanation, I feel the teacher could absolutely show the students an example of what they are explaining and have the students try it for themselves before moving onto a different type of example or a different concept.
Bringing concepts from previous weeks together, the Tools for Teaching textbook addresses three modalities: Verbal, Visual, and Physical. We discussed the Verbal Modality with Praise, Prompt, and Leave and found that it tied in well with the Visual Modality because during the Prompt portion of "Praise, Prompt, Leave", students and teachers would both benefit from having proper visual models to show the step-by-step instructions of how to complete examples of what is being taught. Now, looking at the modalities holistically, I find that Say, See, Do brings in both the verbal and visual modalities because the visual instructions would be used during both the "Say" and "Do" portions for students to refer to and during the "Do" time-frame, teachers can circulate the room and "Praise, Prompt, Leave" with students who have questions.
In my own classroom this week, I was able to implement some of my own lesson ideas and had the chance to teach more periods than I have been previously. It is very exciting and rewarding to make connections with my students and learn that they truly value my knowledge as their instructor as they do with my mentor teacher.
Week 5: September 22- September 28
This week, we read a chapter on Instructional Planning, which was familiar to me because we have planned a unit previously in Project-Based Instruction. There were outlined steps for planning a unit which I will list below:
Reading further into these steps, I worked to identify useful tips or bits of information I was less familiar with. For example, I liked the suggestion of planning the summative assessment as one of the first steps because it gives a definitive idea of where the students will need to be by the end of the instructional unit. Then, looking into step 3, if I know the goals, I can turn them into student-achievement based measurable learning objectives. These objectives can be broken down into lesson objectives with the intention of teaching those in one lesson. Though we have had a lot of practice with this in previous lesson planning, the mention of carefully selecting verbs to define measurable learning objectives is emphasized in this chapter. Looking forward into scheduling the unit, I found it to be a really helpful suggestion to lay the unit out onto a school calendar because there are days which will be used for assemblies, field trips, or planning days. This is important to make sure we are setting a reasonable time frame in order to complete the unit. One concept that intrigued me was one of the suggestions for tracking the unit by use of a chart. This seemed to be very detailed because it would include placing all of the objectives along the top and all of the student names along the side in order to track that each student is reaching each objective. I am not sure how efficient this tracking would be for multiple class periods of instruction, but the concept is definitely important despite the fact that it does not seem entirely feasible.
My classroom is really beginning to feel like my own, which is great because I feel more comfortable interacting with the students and building rapport with them when I feel like I truly am their teacher. On Monday, I taught for 5 periods in a row, and since my mentor teacher has 6th period planning, that means I taught an entire school day. Throughout the week, I got the chance to feel out how the unit I was planning would play out in the classroom, and I think every day I am getting a better idea of the amount of material it is realistic we will cover each day in the classroom. I planned a 2.5-2.8 unit along with my lesson plans for next week, and using the information from the Instructional Planning article discussed above, I made sure to look at it compared to the school calendar. This was beneficial because before I checked, I had planned for instructional days every day of the week, and later had to adjust the unit timeline to account for two Fridays which students had off due to a holiday and a Teacher Planning Day. Now, I have talked to Dr. Allison who was even thinking to create a mini-unit within section 2.5 because this section requires the use of a graphing calculator. So my goal this week, will be to re-evaluate my timeline, and create a quiz to assess student learning after we finish the 2.5 instructional days.
This week, we read a chapter on Instructional Planning, which was familiar to me because we have planned a unit previously in Project-Based Instruction. There were outlined steps for planning a unit which I will list below:
- Develop a vision
- Creative Summative Unit Assessment
- Translate learning goals in learning objectives
- Sequence the content
- Schedule objectives on school calendar
- Create beginning of unit diagnostic tool
- Create tracking system for objectives
- Continually adjust plan
Reading further into these steps, I worked to identify useful tips or bits of information I was less familiar with. For example, I liked the suggestion of planning the summative assessment as one of the first steps because it gives a definitive idea of where the students will need to be by the end of the instructional unit. Then, looking into step 3, if I know the goals, I can turn them into student-achievement based measurable learning objectives. These objectives can be broken down into lesson objectives with the intention of teaching those in one lesson. Though we have had a lot of practice with this in previous lesson planning, the mention of carefully selecting verbs to define measurable learning objectives is emphasized in this chapter. Looking forward into scheduling the unit, I found it to be a really helpful suggestion to lay the unit out onto a school calendar because there are days which will be used for assemblies, field trips, or planning days. This is important to make sure we are setting a reasonable time frame in order to complete the unit. One concept that intrigued me was one of the suggestions for tracking the unit by use of a chart. This seemed to be very detailed because it would include placing all of the objectives along the top and all of the student names along the side in order to track that each student is reaching each objective. I am not sure how efficient this tracking would be for multiple class periods of instruction, but the concept is definitely important despite the fact that it does not seem entirely feasible.
My classroom is really beginning to feel like my own, which is great because I feel more comfortable interacting with the students and building rapport with them when I feel like I truly am their teacher. On Monday, I taught for 5 periods in a row, and since my mentor teacher has 6th period planning, that means I taught an entire school day. Throughout the week, I got the chance to feel out how the unit I was planning would play out in the classroom, and I think every day I am getting a better idea of the amount of material it is realistic we will cover each day in the classroom. I planned a 2.5-2.8 unit along with my lesson plans for next week, and using the information from the Instructional Planning article discussed above, I made sure to look at it compared to the school calendar. This was beneficial because before I checked, I had planned for instructional days every day of the week, and later had to adjust the unit timeline to account for two Fridays which students had off due to a holiday and a Teacher Planning Day. Now, I have talked to Dr. Allison who was even thinking to create a mini-unit within section 2.5 because this section requires the use of a graphing calculator. So my goal this week, will be to re-evaluate my timeline, and create a quiz to assess student learning after we finish the 2.5 instructional days.
Week 4: September 15- September 21
Skipping ahead to chapters 11 and 12 this week, I got the opportunity to read about, "Succeeding from Day One," which is something I went into a little detail about last week interestingly enough. This chapter is all about holding yourself accountable for the rules you put in place. It talks about being proactive as opposed to retroactive because retro-activity often brings about teacher nagging and frustration. It also means the students have already gotten away with an unwanted behavior. However, proactivity would mean you are already accounting for everything that may take place in the classroom and planning how you may react to these behaviors. The concept of bell-work is another activity established for Day one that would help create a routine for the students. As I think about it, it does not necessarily have to be an assignment, just the routine that when students enter the classroom they are entering to begin classwork. To further this notion, the chapter discusses creating the idea that if you want to continue to socialize, then stay outside until closer to the bell ringing, but the moment students enter the classroom, they should get to their assigned seats and begin whatever the routine for the classroom is.
In chapter 12, about teaching routines, I appreciated the perspective about never doing things for students that they are capable of doing themselves. We want the students to feel needed in the classroom, as if they are contributing to the well-being of the environment. So, if we give them tasks having to do with cleanliness, decoration, and clerical work in the classroom, they will always be playing a role in the room. It also talks about contacting the parents in the beginning of the year to give them a role in the classroom as well. We can make sure they feel responsible for their child's education as well, let them know that they play a vital role in their child's success. Many things happen during a given school day and as the teacher, we only get one period with them per day. It would be impossible for us to know everything that is going on all the time, but if the parents heard of something that impact their education, communication could be key in each of the student's success.
This week, I had a great time navigating the classroom for the first time. I got an opportunity to teach at least one period each day of the week and I feel that I am really starting to establish a relationship with the students. I know most of the names of the students I am interacting with at this point, and I am getting better each of every day. I struggle most with trying to teach certain concepts in the way my mentor teacher would because I do want the learning experience throughout each of the periods to be consistent. Because it is not always a method I was taught with, or the way I remember it best, I think it can be hard to get the message across clearly, as though it is evident I am less familiar with this phrasing. For example, we were working with the equation for the slope of a line, and Dr. Allison used the trick, "Stack them and subtract them, Y's on top", which means place the ordered pairs one on top of the other, subtract the values making sure the y-values are being placed on top of the fraction. I had never heard this before, so when I went to teach it, I was not as confident in the words I was saying than I would have been explaining it in my own way. Even though this has been difficult for me, at least initially, I think it is extremely helpful to hear all of the different tricks or remembering strategies that Dr. Allison uses in her classroom because I am learning new ways to present the material in my own classroom in the future. Already by Friday, I felt more comfortable leading the classroom than I did starting off on Monday. I am really excited for week 2 of teaching to see all that I will learn and experience.
Skipping ahead to chapters 11 and 12 this week, I got the opportunity to read about, "Succeeding from Day One," which is something I went into a little detail about last week interestingly enough. This chapter is all about holding yourself accountable for the rules you put in place. It talks about being proactive as opposed to retroactive because retro-activity often brings about teacher nagging and frustration. It also means the students have already gotten away with an unwanted behavior. However, proactivity would mean you are already accounting for everything that may take place in the classroom and planning how you may react to these behaviors. The concept of bell-work is another activity established for Day one that would help create a routine for the students. As I think about it, it does not necessarily have to be an assignment, just the routine that when students enter the classroom they are entering to begin classwork. To further this notion, the chapter discusses creating the idea that if you want to continue to socialize, then stay outside until closer to the bell ringing, but the moment students enter the classroom, they should get to their assigned seats and begin whatever the routine for the classroom is.
In chapter 12, about teaching routines, I appreciated the perspective about never doing things for students that they are capable of doing themselves. We want the students to feel needed in the classroom, as if they are contributing to the well-being of the environment. So, if we give them tasks having to do with cleanliness, decoration, and clerical work in the classroom, they will always be playing a role in the room. It also talks about contacting the parents in the beginning of the year to give them a role in the classroom as well. We can make sure they feel responsible for their child's education as well, let them know that they play a vital role in their child's success. Many things happen during a given school day and as the teacher, we only get one period with them per day. It would be impossible for us to know everything that is going on all the time, but if the parents heard of something that impact their education, communication could be key in each of the student's success.
This week, I had a great time navigating the classroom for the first time. I got an opportunity to teach at least one period each day of the week and I feel that I am really starting to establish a relationship with the students. I know most of the names of the students I am interacting with at this point, and I am getting better each of every day. I struggle most with trying to teach certain concepts in the way my mentor teacher would because I do want the learning experience throughout each of the periods to be consistent. Because it is not always a method I was taught with, or the way I remember it best, I think it can be hard to get the message across clearly, as though it is evident I am less familiar with this phrasing. For example, we were working with the equation for the slope of a line, and Dr. Allison used the trick, "Stack them and subtract them, Y's on top", which means place the ordered pairs one on top of the other, subtract the values making sure the y-values are being placed on top of the fraction. I had never heard this before, so when I went to teach it, I was not as confident in the words I was saying than I would have been explaining it in my own way. Even though this has been difficult for me, at least initially, I think it is extremely helpful to hear all of the different tricks or remembering strategies that Dr. Allison uses in her classroom because I am learning new ways to present the material in my own classroom in the future. Already by Friday, I felt more comfortable leading the classroom than I did starting off on Monday. I am really excited for week 2 of teaching to see all that I will learn and experience.
Week 3: September 8- September 14
In the readings for Tools for Teaching this week, we read chapters relating to "helpless handraisers" in the classroom and helping students who are stuck by giving them corrective feedback. A helpless handraiser, as described in Chapter 5, is a student who raises their hands because they have "no clue where to start" or need help on "all of it". Teachers generally spend a long period of time coaching one student through the problem and then they move onto the next student who is helping handraising and have to do it all over again. This takes up a lot of class time and teachers can run out of time for instruction quickly if they are continuing to do this throughout the class period. It was an introduction to the chapter that would follow, which would give us information about "weaning" the helpless handraisers off of the attention the teacher gives to them.
One thing I began to think about before I read Chapter 6 was that one way to prevent students from giving students the "I need help with all of it" responses. We always say that the way a teacher acts on their first day and even in the first weeks, will set the tone for the whole year. If a teacher is stern and clear the first day about their expectations for questions in the classroom, and enforces it through the whole year, it would at least be a start in the right direction. For example, if the teacher emphasizes that their students would need to explain exactly where they were getting confused, on which step specifically. It may be difficult, but have the students check their notes to see where they feel they are going wrong- whatever they do, though, they cannot begin to give into the cycle of walking through and re-explaining every step.
As I read the chapter, one thing that stuck out was, "Be clear. Be brief. Be gone." It is very difficult for students to retain verbose explanations of step-by-step instructions, so if we are brief and clear about one step of instructions where the students are being confused then it will be more effective and we can move on to other students and classrooms. One thought I did not think about before reading the chapter was the effect of the way our statements are phrased. There can be a negative connotation associated with, "Show me where you are shaving difficulty" or "Show where it went wrong this time". We can phrase this differently so students do not feel dumb for "messing it up...again". Start our feedback with what went well! Tell the students what they have done well so far in the problem. We can count our successes first and then move onto feedback on how to fix the next parts, but the students will already feel better that they succeeded so far.
Upon the first day of observations this week, I learned more about my mentor teacher, Dr. Paige Allison. She has been teaching for 31 years and from the first time meeting her, I could tell that her heart was in the profession. She is so dedicated to helping the students succeed, and she possesses a specific quality that I believe will take me some practice and time to conquer. She cares so much about her students success, but while she teaches them, it is very obvious (at least to the students) that she could not care less what they think of her. I feel as though the students really respond to her well because they have so much respect for her, and part of that comes from the fact that she is not afraid of them not liking her. I feel that is something I may struggle with initially. I know everyone is different, so even when I develop this quality in myself, it will showcase itself in a very different form, but that is the point of this apprenticeship: to find qualities you desire to possess as a teacher, to develop teaching skills and strategies, to discover the tips of the trade (or the ideas you don't think will work for your own classroom), and to learn more firsthand what it is like to be in charge of a classroom for more than once a week.
In the readings for Tools for Teaching this week, we read chapters relating to "helpless handraisers" in the classroom and helping students who are stuck by giving them corrective feedback. A helpless handraiser, as described in Chapter 5, is a student who raises their hands because they have "no clue where to start" or need help on "all of it". Teachers generally spend a long period of time coaching one student through the problem and then they move onto the next student who is helping handraising and have to do it all over again. This takes up a lot of class time and teachers can run out of time for instruction quickly if they are continuing to do this throughout the class period. It was an introduction to the chapter that would follow, which would give us information about "weaning" the helpless handraisers off of the attention the teacher gives to them.
One thing I began to think about before I read Chapter 6 was that one way to prevent students from giving students the "I need help with all of it" responses. We always say that the way a teacher acts on their first day and even in the first weeks, will set the tone for the whole year. If a teacher is stern and clear the first day about their expectations for questions in the classroom, and enforces it through the whole year, it would at least be a start in the right direction. For example, if the teacher emphasizes that their students would need to explain exactly where they were getting confused, on which step specifically. It may be difficult, but have the students check their notes to see where they feel they are going wrong- whatever they do, though, they cannot begin to give into the cycle of walking through and re-explaining every step.
As I read the chapter, one thing that stuck out was, "Be clear. Be brief. Be gone." It is very difficult for students to retain verbose explanations of step-by-step instructions, so if we are brief and clear about one step of instructions where the students are being confused then it will be more effective and we can move on to other students and classrooms. One thought I did not think about before reading the chapter was the effect of the way our statements are phrased. There can be a negative connotation associated with, "Show me where you are shaving difficulty" or "Show where it went wrong this time". We can phrase this differently so students do not feel dumb for "messing it up...again". Start our feedback with what went well! Tell the students what they have done well so far in the problem. We can count our successes first and then move onto feedback on how to fix the next parts, but the students will already feel better that they succeeded so far.
Upon the first day of observations this week, I learned more about my mentor teacher, Dr. Paige Allison. She has been teaching for 31 years and from the first time meeting her, I could tell that her heart was in the profession. She is so dedicated to helping the students succeed, and she possesses a specific quality that I believe will take me some practice and time to conquer. She cares so much about her students success, but while she teaches them, it is very obvious (at least to the students) that she could not care less what they think of her. I feel as though the students really respond to her well because they have so much respect for her, and part of that comes from the fact that she is not afraid of them not liking her. I feel that is something I may struggle with initially. I know everyone is different, so even when I develop this quality in myself, it will showcase itself in a very different form, but that is the point of this apprenticeship: to find qualities you desire to possess as a teacher, to develop teaching skills and strategies, to discover the tips of the trade (or the ideas you don't think will work for your own classroom), and to learn more firsthand what it is like to be in charge of a classroom for more than once a week.
Week 2: September 1-September 7
This week, we read chapters 3 and 4 in the Tools for Teaching book, which discussed concepts of "Working the Crowd" and "Arranging the Room". There are two things I have enjoyed thoroughly about this text so far. The first is that it is very simply put, which is helpful because it can be difficult to really understand when reading something like a scientific research paper on educational techniques or strategies, which is sometimes the kind of reading material we receive. That is not to say that I do not find value is such research, but this resources dissects the research and provides the information to us in lamens terms, with great examples and visuals. This brings me to my second point. Tools for Teaching provides concrete examples of what to do and even what not to do, while describing the benefits and downfalls of any possibility you may be considering. This helps take a concept, like desk arrangements, and learn more about how it will work in the classroom setting.
Something I noticed to be interesting from the "Working the Crowd" was that it talks about this concept of circulating to continuously switch the zones of Proximity, in which students who sit further in proximity from the teacher will tend to misbehave or get off task more often. While I understand this concept, we have always learned through UFTeach to circulate asking probing questions during Exploration activities. So, while it may exist for different reasons, the concept of circulating through the classroom becomes beneficial for more than just a formative assessment tool.
I was trying to brainstorm ideas of how to keep students engaged without ever having to say a word, because through the circulation and effective engagement of students, a teacher can begin to learn to work the crowd in such a way that everyone remains on task. I think part of it is definitely having a randomized system of calling on student names for responses so everyone is always considering their own answers to each question in anticipation that their turn to respond may be next. This would be most effective coupled with the circulation concept (although it may take a little bit of multitasking from the teacher) because the students would also be changing in and out of the green zone quick enough that they would not begin to disengage from the work.
Finally, this week I was really excited to get to finally know who my Mentor Teacher would be this semester. We were both unable to attend the Mentor Teacher Meeting so I went by PK Yonge on Thursday to meet her and begin to discuss more about the structure of my own apprenticeship within her classroom. The bell schedule is different than I have ever experienced because Mondays, every class period meets, but on Tuesday-Friday, the students have block scheduling. I do not have an official teaching schedule or anything as of yet, and it seems as though it will be pretty "go with the flow" for now until I have established myself in the classroom. I am a little intimidated about the experience overall, because it truly is a lot to take on even though it is exactly what we have been working for since my first Fall semester attending the University of Florida. I just look forward to the moment where this becomes more comfortable and I can laugh about how nervous I am as we proceed into the first few weeks of teaching.
This week, we read chapters 3 and 4 in the Tools for Teaching book, which discussed concepts of "Working the Crowd" and "Arranging the Room". There are two things I have enjoyed thoroughly about this text so far. The first is that it is very simply put, which is helpful because it can be difficult to really understand when reading something like a scientific research paper on educational techniques or strategies, which is sometimes the kind of reading material we receive. That is not to say that I do not find value is such research, but this resources dissects the research and provides the information to us in lamens terms, with great examples and visuals. This brings me to my second point. Tools for Teaching provides concrete examples of what to do and even what not to do, while describing the benefits and downfalls of any possibility you may be considering. This helps take a concept, like desk arrangements, and learn more about how it will work in the classroom setting.
Something I noticed to be interesting from the "Working the Crowd" was that it talks about this concept of circulating to continuously switch the zones of Proximity, in which students who sit further in proximity from the teacher will tend to misbehave or get off task more often. While I understand this concept, we have always learned through UFTeach to circulate asking probing questions during Exploration activities. So, while it may exist for different reasons, the concept of circulating through the classroom becomes beneficial for more than just a formative assessment tool.
I was trying to brainstorm ideas of how to keep students engaged without ever having to say a word, because through the circulation and effective engagement of students, a teacher can begin to learn to work the crowd in such a way that everyone remains on task. I think part of it is definitely having a randomized system of calling on student names for responses so everyone is always considering their own answers to each question in anticipation that their turn to respond may be next. This would be most effective coupled with the circulation concept (although it may take a little bit of multitasking from the teacher) because the students would also be changing in and out of the green zone quick enough that they would not begin to disengage from the work.
Finally, this week I was really excited to get to finally know who my Mentor Teacher would be this semester. We were both unable to attend the Mentor Teacher Meeting so I went by PK Yonge on Thursday to meet her and begin to discuss more about the structure of my own apprenticeship within her classroom. The bell schedule is different than I have ever experienced because Mondays, every class period meets, but on Tuesday-Friday, the students have block scheduling. I do not have an official teaching schedule or anything as of yet, and it seems as though it will be pretty "go with the flow" for now until I have established myself in the classroom. I am a little intimidated about the experience overall, because it truly is a lot to take on even though it is exactly what we have been working for since my first Fall semester attending the University of Florida. I just look forward to the moment where this becomes more comfortable and I can laugh about how nervous I am as we proceed into the first few weeks of teaching.