A Short Clip of Me Teaching

Rootology

After learning about vocabulary in our Professional Development meeting, I realized how mcuh my classes were lacking in this area. Yesterday, a student asked me what a list of words meant that she had made during out reading. I explained them to her and she asked if certain endings and beginnings of words meant certain things all the time. I explained to her about prefixes and suffixes. I realized I needed to teach these kids about words.
So tofay I started a bellringer called "Rootology." Everyday, I will introduce two or three root words to the class and together we will think of examples and decipher what they mean. I will record these on a chart so the classes can use it as a reference. These words will be on their final exam.
I think that this practice will not only help them on standardized tests, it will help them become better readers in general. It will teach them to pick apart words to find meaning.

This is a good Web site with a very complete list of common roots to pull from.

Certified Sub - not a career path

I completed my substitute training last Thursday. I learned that APS is short 100 substitutes everyday. And now with APS cutting teacher positions and enacting a hiring freeeze, the lack of teachers in schools will only become worse.

It doesn't make any sense that schools fail AYP and then instead of increasing the teacher to student ratio to ensure student success, school must cut teachers. Although subbing might be my only option for a job in the school system next year, I have been warned by many teachers that this will only cause me to burn out as a teacher. Subbing is harder than teaching. You have to deal with misbehaving students everyday and do not get the chance to make an impact on the lives of these children. I would like to sub some for experience, but I really want my own classroom. We discussed other job options in my UNM classes: Teach for America, DODD schools, Silva tudoring. Dr. Bryant suggested we go to grad school. Since I was already planning on finishing grad school, this advice was not too helpful. And since I am finishing my schooling, I have to stay in Albuquerque -which means I cannot take any teahcing jobs that require relocating. I really want to move and thought that teaching would help me stay put for another year while I finish my Master's. It will be much harder if I do not get my own classroom. I have been working on my cover letter and resume lately. And I am meeting with Mrs. Dawn Moore to get some interview tips. With luck, I will land a job at a local charter school. If not, I must be flexible -like a true teacher.

Thanks Gary!

It is always informational to observe Gary's classroom. He has such a calm, collected style of teaching. He also knows how to make his class relevant and connect with kids. He really knows each of his students and is able to meet them at their ability level, while still encouraging them to try harder, push for more. He is in inspiration.

Essays and Tests

My spring break consisted largely of writing papers for UNM, so it was a joy to take a break and read my students' Compare and Contrast Essays. The difference from student to student in writing and comprehension was astounding. Some kids really "get" this book. They push past the superficial details and relate to the core of the story. Other kids don't even realize Scout is a girl. Some students think Calpurnia is a slave and started talking about the Civil War (instead of Civil Rights Movement), while other did not realize she is black. One of the most challenging things I have come across is to teach each student at his/her particular level. By taking time to grade essays and write lots of comments, I am pushing the kids who already undertsand to look deeper and helping those who are behind to catch up a little. By this time in the year, I feel like I know my studnets and what they are capable of. Only sometimes do I worry that this student or that student is capable of doing more, they are just lazy and have me fooled into thinking they cannot produce really excellent work. I looked at students' DBA scores, hoping it would help me understand my kids better, but the scores were all over the board. Some kids who turn in awesome work did poorly on the test, while others who never turn in anything in class scored extremely high. I think this only confused me more. Talking to the kids and getting to know them is much more beneficial than looking at any test scores.

Lost The Lottery

Now that spring break is over, the end of the year is right around the corner! I made lesson plans for the rest of To Kill a Mockingbird over the break. Only on Monday did I realize I had forgotten to plan for the upcoming holidays, testing, and parent-teacher conferences. The book is a long one, and I had only left three weeks at the end of the year for our next book, The Lottery Rose. After much consideration, my CT and I decided it would benefit the kids most to just focus on To Kill a Mockingbird for the rest of the year. This way, we can work in discussions about ethics and stereotypes, and show the movie to the class. I am a little sad because The Lottery Rose is such a good book, but relieved because I can spend more time on important issues as they arise in class.

Calling Home

The week before spring break, I got this wild and crazy idea to call all students' parents. I have been told several times by those wiser than me at UNM to contact parents BEFORE kids do anything wrong. So, having missed my chance at the beginning of the year, I decided to take the oppurtunity and call home.
The experience was amazing and rewarding. I called each student back to discuss grades while the class worked independently on essays. I warned kids that I would be calling their parents. Then after school, I set to work. The first call was not encouraging. I had not asked my students if their parents spoke English! The following day, I found out language proficiency information on parents and sent home progress reports to those who did not speak English, about 20% of my classes. I would like to learn Spanish, but this is a long-term goal and cannot be accomplished over night. Although this experience did give me much more motivation.
I set to work calling parents again. Most of my students are doing well so far, so many reports gome were good. Parents were astounded that a teacher was taking time to call and let them know how well their students were doing. For those who were not doing as well, we created a success plan together during class and I told their parents how they can help. The students, parents, and I all have the same goal -to see students succeed. This was my mantra on the phone.
I don't think I spoke with a single parent who was not happy to hear from me. This was an awesome experience and I feel a lot more comfortable speaking with parents now.
On my teacher certification test I took last weekend, the one extended-answer essay question was about how to keep parents involved in student success. I felt like a pro.

You're Welcome

You have one new message:
“Hello this is so and so’s mom. I appreciate the call. Thank you so much! I’m so glad um –thank you so much! I know you guys do so hard work with these kids. So I’m so happy to hear he’s doing good in your class. I appreciate it so much! I know he’s struggling with his math, but I’m so glad he got his English grade up. Thank you so much! And I appreciate the call. I’m going to have him listen to it and I know he’ll be very proud of himself. Um –again if there are any concerns, you have my number. Thanks again so much and have a great day!”

Building a Better Teacher

New York Times awesome article: Building a Better Teacher

Good to see positive publicity!

How not to manage your classroom

Very beginning of class.

Me: Sally, what's wrong?
Sally: I don't feel good, can I call my mom?
Me: During class? No. I can send you to the nurse and you can call from there.
Sally: I don't want to go to the nurse. I just want her to come pick me up. Please?
Me: No, just go to the nurse. That's proper procedure. I can't let you use your phone during class.
Sally: But miss! I don't want to walk all the way to the nurse just to come back here when I could call my mom from here.
Ellie: [Budding in] Just let her miss.
Sally: Please? [Makes sick face like she might vomit at any time]
Me: Fine. Go, do it now, outside. Hurry back in.
Sally: Ellie, let me borrow your phone.

20 minutes later
Intercom: Please send Sally to the front office, her mother is here to pick her up.
Me: You got it.
Intercom: What?
Me: Yes ma'am. Go on Sally.

Lesson:
I need to stick to my guns. Even though this worked out (kind of), I cannot let the students push me around like this. When I say no, I have to stick with it. I just need to learn which battles are worth fighting. And I did not want vomit in my classroom.

I rock!

Yesterday I totally rocked 5th period! The class was about twenty minutes behind my other classes, beacuse a. they're a skinny period, b. they meet right after lunch, and c. those kids are talkers! I had everything prepared to launch right into our work when the bell rang. Then I kept them on track with constant reminders and stern teacher looks (which I have been practicing.) It took a lot of effort, but they are caught up now! Win!

IDK

Another issue close to my heart was raised at our meeting today: grading writing. I have not been grading my students’ writing for spelling and grammar. This (apparently) is a horrible atrocity for an English teacher. I have been trying to get my students to write ANYTHING down. I have been exposed to the idea that marking kids’ papers up excessively only reinforces the idea that they are failures and encourages them to not turn anything in and ditch class. I want to support my budding writers. I think that understanding concepts is much more important than being able to spell them. (Although it is amusing when I get "IDK" for "I don't know," "cus" for "because," and "usto" for "used to.") This may be because my father is a wonderful engineer and cannot spell to save his life. He has been successful in his life because of his critical thinking skills, not his grammatical skills. But as an English teacher, I feel like I am failing my students by not teaching them basic English. Teachers in other fields shared how they mark down for poor writing, and wondered why I was not doing the same. Another reason is that I want my students to write more than I have time to correct. I want them to write everyday and I do not have time to pick apart their writing. Hopefully, I can figure this one out soon…

Homewhat?

Today in our Departmental Development meeting (10th grade Academy) we discussed homework. Do we want to have a 10th grade homework policy across the board? Why assign homework? Is it to reinforce skills taught in class? Is it to give students base knowledge about upcoming topics? Is it to teach kids organization and responsibility?
We could not agree.
We did agree that all students should have homework every night in math, reading, and writing. This posed a problem since I have three English classes that do not have homework at all. Period. I wish I could assign the students homework, but they have not been taught the skills to complete it. Homework is giving them another avenue for failure, not success.
I think reading is the best homework that can be given in an English class. Teachers should give book talks and let students choose their own books, which they will write about and share with small discussion groups. SSR time should be provided in class to get students enticed. Then they will be motivated to read at home. Ah, if only things were as easily done as said!

Talk to me!

One of my professional development goals is to engage the students in discussion more often. Too many days the kids are sitting in class like bumps on a log. The first strategey I am employing is to use "name cards" to get kids to anser questions. These are a class set of notecards with each students name on a sepertae card. Whenever I ask a question, I can pull the top card and ask that student specifically. Then I give the student a plus for answering correctly, a check for attempting to answer, and a minus if they did not attempt to answer at all. This takes the pressure off me to choose students to speak in class and takes pressure off students because they know they all have to participate equally.
I introduced this to my students at the end of last week. There was a unanimous groan. But it made my job as a teacher much easier, since I could focus on teaching more than stressing about who will answer the next question. I am only using these cards as scaffolding and hopefully my students will internalize the purpose of the cards and begin to speak more freely in my classes.

Advice from a master educator

A few days ago, I had the privilege of a discussion with Assistant Principal Holly. She did an excellent job of putting my uneasiness to rest by explaining her educational philosophy. I was worried about the difference between the things we're learning at UNM and the things I'm seeing during my field service.

Here are some things we talked about:

• Every student should graduate (or get a GED). Not every student that attends, or every student that speaks English, or every student that turns in their work. Every student. Period.
• Use technology! Meet the kids halfway with what they are interested in.
• So many kids don’t ever come to class because we lose them in the first few days.
• Remember that engaging lesson plans are the best cure for truancy.
• More important than the lesson is classroom management. If kids are not paying attention, they are not learning!
• Testing is secondary –teaching the kids comes first.