This is my final post about teaching from an undergraduate, pre-teacher standpoint. I'm not sure whether I'll blog in the future about my teaching experiences, as the idea of putting my thoughts on the web still freaks me out a bit. But as the semester finishes, I can certainly say that my perspective and comfort level about teaching are entirely different from when I began in January. I am still intrigued by the challenge of the teaching world and excited about the ways I will grow as a person when I start teaching, but now I feel much, much more prepared to teach and it is no longer an abstraction in my mind but rather a concrete career that I understand. No matter how long I teach for, these invaluable lessons that I have learned and research-based approaches will be swirling through my head, and I hope that I do not annoy my future children's teachers by my interest in how they teach my children!
Looking back on the semester, I realize how intense and challenging it was at times and how little I actually enjoyed all of the lesson-planning, but there is still a part of me that senses that teaching is what I was made to do, and I hope that as I grow in my experience as a teacher I will truly be able to make my teaching metaphor a reality. If teaching is like a gourmet grocery store, I want to introduce children to the expansive and fascinating world around them, the colors, the sights, the scents, the sounds... for those who come from homes where none of this has been available to them, I hope to see their eyes begin to sparkle a little bit as they experience new things and realize they LOVE to learn. And in elementary school, children get the opportunity to learn so many life things, like what a fresh peach tastes like or why they understand exactly how the character in their book feels, or that they are in fact GREAT at dancing or singing or basketball. I was just sitting under the shade of a gorgeous leafy green tree this afternoon by the Rotunda and talking with a friend after we finished our very last exam, and we talked about how much we love learning, learning of all kinds, especially learning we don't have to demonstrate through taking a test. This has come from a long history of great teachers, engaging experiences, and challenges of all sorts. I realized from that conversation today that my aim in teaching extends far beyond the classroom. I sincerely hope that some student of mine some day somewhere will sit under a green leafy tree and think back on all his or her learning experiences and say, "I LOVE to learn."
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Fifth lesson-last one!
March 29th was our final lesson, and when Lorena and I arrived that afternoon, we were surprised to find a substitute in the teacher's place. He was a man who obviously had a lot of experience with classroom management, because I have never seen these children respond so well to classroom structure and discipline. They were so happy and so on-task and it really gave me hope for their futures in learning, I have to admit!
The frustrating thing, though, was the time constraints. We went in expecting to have an hour with the children to do a review, maybe reread the Curious George book, and then give our summative assessment, but since the sub did not even know we were coming, he gave us about 25 minutes and then sent the kids to free time activities. I did not expect this at all, and was really surprised at the situation because we did not even get to finish collecting our data! Only the more advanced children were able to finish their booklets about money, jobs, needs&wants. Because we had formative assessments throughout, I still have an idea about what the children learned, but honestly, I was not at all expecting this to arise. I guess part of teaching is that you have to learn to be flexible and roll with the punches, because there will always be unexpected surprises! (I can only imagine all the student pull-outs, assemblies, school cancellations, etc. that make covering the content challenging!)
I have to say, I'm completely relieved to be done with this unit teaching. It would be one thing if this were all I had to do, but on top of all the other assignments, exams, and lesson plans for other classes, I am so thankful to be done teaching. And, I hope I never have to teach Kindergarten again. My classroom experiences with upper elementary students are much more enjoyable for me, so hopefully this was a learning experience I can learn from and move on!
The frustrating thing, though, was the time constraints. We went in expecting to have an hour with the children to do a review, maybe reread the Curious George book, and then give our summative assessment, but since the sub did not even know we were coming, he gave us about 25 minutes and then sent the kids to free time activities. I did not expect this at all, and was really surprised at the situation because we did not even get to finish collecting our data! Only the more advanced children were able to finish their booklets about money, jobs, needs&wants. Because we had formative assessments throughout, I still have an idea about what the children learned, but honestly, I was not at all expecting this to arise. I guess part of teaching is that you have to learn to be flexible and roll with the punches, because there will always be unexpected surprises! (I can only imagine all the student pull-outs, assemblies, school cancellations, etc. that make covering the content challenging!)
I have to say, I'm completely relieved to be done with this unit teaching. It would be one thing if this were all I had to do, but on top of all the other assignments, exams, and lesson plans for other classes, I am so thankful to be done teaching. And, I hope I never have to teach Kindergarten again. My classroom experiences with upper elementary students are much more enjoyable for me, so hopefully this was a learning experience I can learn from and move on!
fourth lesson: JOBS!
Okay, so this lesson was probably the best of any lesson in terms of how it went, how engaged the children were, etc. This was probably due to several factors: the main teacher was away, so it was only my teaching partner and me with the kids, in addition to the teacher's aide. They knew they had to respect us and listen to us, because we WERE the lesson that morning. Secondly, it was morning time. The kids were so mellow and actually pretty well-behaved! Thirdly, they had a great incentive: the chicks in the incubator had begun to hatch and so the children could go look at the baby chicks if they did what they were supposed to during the lesson!
The Kindergarteners were really cute and made me remember that I actually DO like children! During the Curious George book, for example, they would cheer as they saw him do silly things or make funny predictions about what might happen next.
Next, as we led the children in reciting the Firefighter Song with its motions, we were joined by some student volunteers in the classroom, probably 2nd year students. It was really kind of a cool experience for me as I was there leading the children in song or resorting to automatic teacher methods by now (quickly reacting to student behaviors, calling on students who are less engaged to get them refocused, being more stern) and realizing that just 2 years ago I was in these volunteers' shoes, just helping out and not having a clue how to manage a class. Of course, I still don't really know what I'm doing, but I had to stop and reflect for a moment that all of a sudden I felt like the teacher and that maybe, just maybe, these girls would see us teaching and think- I want to do that too!
I modified the concept attainment model in order to help children match jobs to their descriptions, which I think went over well. What I did was hold up tools that each job might use and list examples and non examples of job characteristics, and then the students would determine (based on the information) which job I was describing. Then the children would help spell out the word as I wrote it on the board. Looking back, I should have passed around the tools and let the children be a little more hands-on for each job. For example, I pulled out a whisk and spatula for the cook, and I realize now that the kids would have loved to touch these items.
Something Lorena and I started doing after each lesson as well is gathering students in a circle for a short discussion or wrap-up session. It's fascinating to me to hear their responses about what was fun, what was challenging, connections they've made, etc. It's sort of the reward at the end where I see that they actually DID learn something!!!
The Kindergarteners were really cute and made me remember that I actually DO like children! During the Curious George book, for example, they would cheer as they saw him do silly things or make funny predictions about what might happen next.
Next, as we led the children in reciting the Firefighter Song with its motions, we were joined by some student volunteers in the classroom, probably 2nd year students. It was really kind of a cool experience for me as I was there leading the children in song or resorting to automatic teacher methods by now (quickly reacting to student behaviors, calling on students who are less engaged to get them refocused, being more stern) and realizing that just 2 years ago I was in these volunteers' shoes, just helping out and not having a clue how to manage a class. Of course, I still don't really know what I'm doing, but I had to stop and reflect for a moment that all of a sudden I felt like the teacher and that maybe, just maybe, these girls would see us teaching and think- I want to do that too!
I modified the concept attainment model in order to help children match jobs to their descriptions, which I think went over well. What I did was hold up tools that each job might use and list examples and non examples of job characteristics, and then the students would determine (based on the information) which job I was describing. Then the children would help spell out the word as I wrote it on the board. Looking back, I should have passed around the tools and let the children be a little more hands-on for each job. For example, I pulled out a whisk and spatula for the cook, and I realize now that the kids would have loved to touch these items.
Something Lorena and I started doing after each lesson as well is gathering students in a circle for a short discussion or wrap-up session. It's fascinating to me to hear their responses about what was fun, what was challenging, connections they've made, etc. It's sort of the reward at the end where I see that they actually DID learn something!!!
Third Lesson
In the third lesson, we began with teaching students about needs and wants of plants so that they would have a better understanding of basic needs, before moving to needs of people. Lorena taught the guided instruction portion, using a felt board and pictures so that the Kindergarteners could clearly see what plants and people need. This also allowed students who were called on to come up to the board and move the objects to either the "wants" column or the "needs" column, according to what they understood. Using the Integrative model, students could sort and compare in their minds the differences between needs and wants.
In terms of myself as a teacher during this lesson, I'm not sure that I am getting closer to my metaphor of teaching being like a gourmet grocery store, where students experience new things and acquire a taste for learning in ways they did not expect. It's hard for me to get past the behavior management issues enough to really delight in leading these children to really explore and learn. All I could think about what getting these children to complete the worksheet so I could get out of there. I think maybe it has something to do with how burnt out I've felt from the Ed School recently... because assignment after assignment keeps piling up and I don't even want to look at a lesson plan for a long time. Gee, what a great start to teaching!
In terms of myself as a teacher during this lesson, I'm not sure that I am getting closer to my metaphor of teaching being like a gourmet grocery store, where students experience new things and acquire a taste for learning in ways they did not expect. It's hard for me to get past the behavior management issues enough to really delight in leading these children to really explore and learn. All I could think about what getting these children to complete the worksheet so I could get out of there. I think maybe it has something to do with how burnt out I've felt from the Ed School recently... because assignment after assignment keeps piling up and I don't even want to look at a lesson plan for a long time. Gee, what a great start to teaching!
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Second Lesson
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...
The second lesson did NOT go well at all. It was taught in the afternoon, which meant the kids were all riled up, and there were so many behavior issues it was like pulling teeth to have anyone pay attention. And, to top it off, Jen was coming to observe our teaching!
We began with a re-reading of Caps for Sale, just to remind the children about the basic economic concepts in the book and have them move around a little bit as they did hand motions along with the story. Then we had the children practice role-playing: the peddler vs. the customer. They could choose which caps to buy based on the amount of money they had and then we ended with a group discussion in a circle about what they enjoyed, what was difficult, and if they could choose to sell or buy anything, what would it be. I think they at least understood that part, and I thought it was interesting that the children could identify why they would sell or buy certain things, based on how much money they had or would make.
The wrap-up was a nice lead-in to the next lesson, which will be comparing needs and wants.
I am trying to have a more stern, "teacher-face" so that the children treat me like a teacher, but the problem is that they treat their own teacher with the same disrespect. There really just are not good discipline structures in place in this classroom to get children in a place where they are learning without a million distractions. A helpful discussion afterwards led me to conclude that in my own classroom, it's important to me that I establish expectations for school behavior right off the bat and address explicitly the behaviors that will promote a learning-friendly community, rather than reacting to behaviors after they occur. I also think it's important to be flexible in classroom management techniques, and change these from year to year if need be to fit the students of that particular year.
The second lesson did NOT go well at all. It was taught in the afternoon, which meant the kids were all riled up, and there were so many behavior issues it was like pulling teeth to have anyone pay attention. And, to top it off, Jen was coming to observe our teaching!
We began with a re-reading of Caps for Sale, just to remind the children about the basic economic concepts in the book and have them move around a little bit as they did hand motions along with the story. Then we had the children practice role-playing: the peddler vs. the customer. They could choose which caps to buy based on the amount of money they had and then we ended with a group discussion in a circle about what they enjoyed, what was difficult, and if they could choose to sell or buy anything, what would it be. I think they at least understood that part, and I thought it was interesting that the children could identify why they would sell or buy certain things, based on how much money they had or would make.
The wrap-up was a nice lead-in to the next lesson, which will be comparing needs and wants.
I am trying to have a more stern, "teacher-face" so that the children treat me like a teacher, but the problem is that they treat their own teacher with the same disrespect. There really just are not good discipline structures in place in this classroom to get children in a place where they are learning without a million distractions. A helpful discussion afterwards led me to conclude that in my own classroom, it's important to me that I establish expectations for school behavior right off the bat and address explicitly the behaviors that will promote a learning-friendly community, rather than reacting to behaviors after they occur. I also think it's important to be flexible in classroom management techniques, and change these from year to year if need be to fit the students of that particular year.
Monday, March 19, 2007
First Lesson!
The first lesson is always the hardest to teach, in my experience so far. It's difficult to know how engaged the children will be, how to get back in the swing of adapting to the children's needs, etc. Friday morning (March 16th) was our first lesson and I think it actually went pretty well for a first lesson! Maybe I'm blind to the mistakes we made, but the students seemed to stay pretty focused and the instructor commended us on our work!
The lesson began with me leading an interactive reading of Caps For Sale, a book about a man who sells caps and then when he falls asleep, monkeys steal his caps. Normally, a reader would not think of economics in relation to this book, but I thought it was a great introduction for Kindergarteners into the world of money and exchange of goods for money. The students really enjoyed the book, imitating the monkeys and their little motions and sound effects "tsz, tsz, tsz" and they seemed to be able to answer questions about why the peddler in the book needed to sell his caps.
Next, Lorena introduced the activity section where students had paper tickets with toys on them, labeled with their prices, and each student also had cut out papers displaying the 4 coins. In a simple way, each student could buy two items, turn in their money to the helper at their station, check off the box on their worksheet, and at the end, check off the boxes for coins they had remaining. This was really adapted to our particular class because some students knew exactly how much money they had spent and how much they had left, but some students did not know the value of the coins and so they could at least identify which coins they had left.
The biggest uh-oh of the whole lesson was the wrap-up. We completely forgot to tie it all together at the end, which I know is key to student understanding. OOPS! I hope next time we'll get it right. Lesson #2 comes tomorrow...
The lesson began with me leading an interactive reading of Caps For Sale, a book about a man who sells caps and then when he falls asleep, monkeys steal his caps. Normally, a reader would not think of economics in relation to this book, but I thought it was a great introduction for Kindergarteners into the world of money and exchange of goods for money. The students really enjoyed the book, imitating the monkeys and their little motions and sound effects "tsz, tsz, tsz" and they seemed to be able to answer questions about why the peddler in the book needed to sell his caps.
Next, Lorena introduced the activity section where students had paper tickets with toys on them, labeled with their prices, and each student also had cut out papers displaying the 4 coins. In a simple way, each student could buy two items, turn in their money to the helper at their station, check off the box on their worksheet, and at the end, check off the boxes for coins they had remaining. This was really adapted to our particular class because some students knew exactly how much money they had spent and how much they had left, but some students did not know the value of the coins and so they could at least identify which coins they had left.
The biggest uh-oh of the whole lesson was the wrap-up. We completely forgot to tie it all together at the end, which I know is key to student understanding. OOPS! I hope next time we'll get it right. Lesson #2 comes tomorrow...
Third Observation
During the third observation, I was again frustrated while watching the students, but this time I just felt bad for the teacher. She said in 30 years of teaching, she has never had a class NOT respond to her the way this class does. All of her strategies that normally work with kindergarten children have not worked this year, and she was just telling me how amazed she is that there are children in her class who STILL do not even register that she is speaking to them. She said the variety of ability levels is so widespread that she basically has to plan about 10 different lessons to teach the same thing, in order to reach each student.
Frankly, this is overwhelming and scary to me as a future teacher. I'm not looking forward to doing 10x the work like that! How exhausting to go back day after day and face these children who do not respond at all to what you say as their teacher!
As for me right now, however, I still have to keep all of this in mind when teaching lessons for EDIS 488. On the day of observation #3, March 2nd, my teaching partner and I also administered our pre-assessment. We created three stations for students to rotate to: 1) guided exploration of money to determine student knowledge 2) independent work- drawing jobs in the community 3) needs/wants comparison with guidance. As the students rotated through the stations, I did notice that they were engaged in the material and interested about the subject: economics. This is encouraging for our unit teaching! I was at the money station and about 90-95% of students could identify a penny and its value, and about 1/3 of the students knew the rest of the coins. All students could count out 10 pennies, which I was impressed by, and the kids commented that they liked "playing" with the money. We'll see how the unit goes....
Frankly, this is overwhelming and scary to me as a future teacher. I'm not looking forward to doing 10x the work like that! How exhausting to go back day after day and face these children who do not respond at all to what you say as their teacher!
As for me right now, however, I still have to keep all of this in mind when teaching lessons for EDIS 488. On the day of observation #3, March 2nd, my teaching partner and I also administered our pre-assessment. We created three stations for students to rotate to: 1) guided exploration of money to determine student knowledge 2) independent work- drawing jobs in the community 3) needs/wants comparison with guidance. As the students rotated through the stations, I did notice that they were engaged in the material and interested about the subject: economics. This is encouraging for our unit teaching! I was at the money station and about 90-95% of students could identify a penny and its value, and about 1/3 of the students knew the rest of the coins. All students could count out 10 pennies, which I was impressed by, and the kids commented that they liked "playing" with the money. We'll see how the unit goes....
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