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Roots Before Branches

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And so begins the trials and tribulations of student teaching.  I may be exhausted, but I will reflect here....

Ok I am tired.  Writing lesson plans and being creative was like pulling teeth (simile!).  Writing that simile was easier than coming up with a lesson plan to teach both metaphors and similes.  Maybe it is because TPA teaching is over, maybe it is because we are almost done at my current placement, or maybe I used up all my creative energy is why my lessons this week don’t feel good.  However, I digress before I even start. 

                This week, I had a bit of a revelation with my teaching style and values.  I see the merits of asking higher lever questions.  Whys and Hows come out of my mouth more than I repeat directions.  However, that is a close race, closer than November’s polls.  While teaching a lesson this week, what I thought was a simple question was met with blank stares.  The kind of stares that can burn a hole in you.  The kind of stare where you ask yourself was I teaching a different class yesterday.  The answer is no.  I stumped them because I did not warm my students up.  I honestly do not remember the question I asked but it was asked too soon.  On Bloom’s taxonomy remembering is the base.  It is what supports all other types of learning.  We cannot analyze or apply unless we start by remembering.  However, the way I was asking my students questions I had skipped straight into the race and forgot to stretch and warm up.  So there I was fumbling with a torn ACL and no one to help me.  Then I rewound and realized that brisk 5 minute walk or a question to access prior knowledge would prevent that Bill Bruckner moment.  No it was not that embarrassing, more like missing a pop fly.  While I spit out metaphor after metaphor, my thesis this week is that to be able to start asking those higher level questions I value so much I need to start with remembering questions.  They are so important.  It gives all students a chance to access the information.  By accessing the remembering stage I can prime my students to use those higher level questions to enter their zone of proximal development.  Then when we move onto those “tougher” questions my students will first be clued into what we are actually discussing and then they can fire synapses to create new connections and make meaning.  Just like training for my 5K, I need to walk before jogging.  With my future classroom, we need to remember before we can analyze.  If we cannot remember how do we honestly know what we are discussing?

This is the lesson that never ends, it goes on and on my friends, some people started teaching it not knowing what to do.....

Salvador Dali's

The Persistence of Memory

And so begins the trials and tribulations of student teaching.  I may be exhausted, but I will reflect here....

Minus the fact I felt guilty having to be in school during Rosh Hashanah and not dipping apples in honey, this week went rather well.  My TPA lessons went almost according to plan.  They were by no means perfect, but I am not perfect.  There were valuable lessons this week, such as the value of a lesson that starts and ends during a continuous duration. 

                Due to the scattered broken schedule I have to deal with I often feel that my lessons stretch over days.  I actually don’t feel that I know that.  This week I had two lessons that should have taken 30-45 minutes, but it took days.  It was either a combination of over planning or yet another assembly to interrupt my class.  Its life, but I have to learn how to make a disjointed lesson seem seamless.  It is even harder when you do not like the lesson you have planned.  I understand I am not required to jump through hoops and pull out bunnies from hats, but when I write a good lesson I feel more prepared and confident when teaching it.  When something is good, it’s GOOD.  However, these said lessons felt like they sank faster than the Titanic.  The kids were taught the information; I just feel like I was not on my best game which made it hard for students to make meaningful gains and really grasp the material.  Some material built on prior knowledge, but it still required higher level thinking skills.  This has been a struggle.  I will say the bright side of having a lesson drag on for days (literal, not figurative)  is that I was able to try and fix what I thought was a horrible lesson into something moderately meaningful.  We can’t win them all.  I am surely not throwing in the towel ;-) but I use this as a learning opportunity how to make my future teaching practice tighter and stronger. 

Try and follow the leader

And so begins the trials and tribulations of student teaching.  I may be exhausted, but I will reflect here....

Following directions.  Most people seem to not want to do that.  Is it because they do not want to or is it because the directions are not clear?  I am going to have to go with the later.  Just like directions from Ikea, I felt that during the week my lessons were lacking a bit of clarity in a certain area.  While lesson planning and thinking I spend extensive time scripting and thinking of what I actually would love to say and how to communicate an activity to my students.  To me it sounds crystal clear.  Then I start teaching. 

While the lesson seems to be unraveling in front of my face, I know the lesson is actually hitting a speed bump.  When explaining the directions of the various activities to my students I am often met with blank stares that scream “WHAT LANGUAGE IS SHE SPEAKING TO ME!” While recognizing this, I mentally try to take a step back and breathe.  I know something went wrong.  Often times, I will try and call on the one student who may just get my train of thought and have them revoice it to the class.  I catch myself using adult words (I will not stop however, but challenge my students to figure out the definition) and then having to clarify what they mean.  So I recognize that students will need clarifying, but even after a student tells the class in their language they seem to be lost.  Could the students not be listening?  Yes, but I know that one of my weaknesses that I must focus on in coming weeks is my clarity of directions.  I do not mind having to repeat myself 4 times, but when every student has a clue what is going on there is an issue with what should be a simple task.  As the week progressed students had a better grasp of what was being asked of them, which makes me believe there have been slight improvements.  There are also some practices I need to keep students accountable with following directions, and it is not a check in their behavior folder.  Patience is a virtue….I will get it, soon!

Truth

A Small Bite into Decoding

Last week, I gave what I consider an awful presentation on decoding.  Why was it awful you may ask?  Well after a week from hell where my computer self combusted I basically left the burden up to my partner to complete the assignment.  So maybe because only my feet were wet and not all the way up to my neck, or the fact I really could not grasp what decoding was and how it looked for students.  Or it was awful because I made a huge fool of myself in front of the class because of my inability to personally decode.  In the kitchen of screw ups, there was a dash of both ingredients.  So now I know that decoding is breaking up words into its various sounds.  I never really got to experience students decoding in my last practicum because it was a 6th grade placement.  My students then were all at a level of high fluency.  I spent the majority of my time with them working on comprehension.
This semester I am tutoring a struggling reader who I know will give me plenty of opportunities to help her decode.  At least I think so, I am still administering tests to have a better grasp on her abilities.  But I digress from the reason why I came out of hiding to write this post.  Today, while working on a math lesson in my new practicum placement my student was reading a word problem aloud.  He was having trouble with the word macaroni.  Without even thinking (well I lie again, I saw my decoding opportunity and pounced) I stuck my finger over "aroni" and had my student break apart the syllables.  He was able to get mac, then we moved onto "ar" and so on.  He pushed the syllables together and there it was "macaroni."  I thought about pointing to the pic of mac and cheese in the textbook, but knew that by using decoding the student would have a more concrete understanding of the words and use that strategy next time he comes to a stop in his reading.  It was not explicit that I was teaching reading, I am just happy I was able to start mastering a method I was previously so uncomfortable with.  

Ulterior motives

So I have waxed eloquently on here about what I plan to implement as a teacher. However I never really divulged why I want to become a teacher. Yes it is to make a difference but subconsciously lies the real reason.  This past semester,  (yes it's over! Sad to see some classes end (Social Studies) and others not so much (Math)) I took a children's literature class that reopened my eyes to the wonderment that is children's literature. Our 1st assignment was to write our own bio of our reading habits (below).  What I soon discovered is that as a child I had a voracious appetite for books but could never satisfy my hunger. Then it dawned on me one day, I am becoming a teacher to have an excuse to read all the books I never got around to as a child. Through my class I discovered that children's literature is not a whole lot different than the stuff we read as adults.  The stories run parallel themes that infiltrate the books for an older set. There are love stories, struggles, uncertainties, and discoveries.   Well written children's novels weave an intricate plot that engages the reader to turn page after page.  In a nut shell, children’s literature is adult literature either written in the child’s perspective or marketed to children.  Chances are you ate up all 7 Harry Potter’s even though they are “kid’s books.”  So this break instead of catching up on reality TV or gossip sites I plan to plow through one or two of those books that never got to be cracked open when I was a wee one. 

Journal:  Write your own reading autobiography.  What memories do you have of your early reading?  Did either of your parents read to you?  Do you recall any of the books read to you as a child?  Did any teachers or librarians read aloud to you?  What books did you own as a child?  What were some of your favorites?  Do you recall any that you did not like?  Do you know why?  Were there any characters with whom you related closely?

My mother always read to me. Every night before bed I would pick out a book from the shelf. From what I can remember I always loved Good Night Moon and Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss. I find this ironic because had I graduated from Vandy while Chancellor Gee was in office I would have received that at my college graduation. I loved to look at the pictures and jump right into the book with the characters. My mother usually took on the reading duties because my father has dyslexia and it would often be hard for him to read aloud. She would patiently read the books over and over to me, until I finally had them memorized. Once the book was finished, I would ask her to read it again. When I was in elementary school, each March was P.A.R.P.: Parents As Reading Partners. Each night we were to go home and read aloud to our parents. It was a friendly competition to encourage students to go home and read.  

In school, it all started with Roger Red Hat in Mrs. Cesarano’: s kindergarten class at Ridge Street School. I remember breaking out into guided reading groups and reading the same book as some of my peers. I loved the challenge of reading the books, but was hard on myself because I was not reading the hardest option available. By the end of first grade, I was reading independently with little help from my parents at home. Also, I loved the Library period we had each week. Once a week, all throughout elementary school we would go up to the Library. There Mrs. Goldman would read us a story, which usually tied in with that week’ s lesson. After she read to us we were encouraged to check out books, specifically that tied into what we were learning that unit. I remember looking at all the chapter books and wanting so badly to take them out. I think by 3^rd or 4^th grade I did take them out, and really enjoyed reading them, but some were hard to read. When I was able to master the chapter book I started the American Girl Doll series of books for Molly. Molly was my favorite because she modern and adventurous. Also, the World War Two era had really fascinated me because my grandfather had fought in the war.  

As I got older, into Middle School I would read book after book. When my family moved and I had a brand, spanking new room the only request I had for the construction was to have one long shelf at the top of my room to put all my books. On the left were the books to be read and read ones were to the right. When I had to clean out my room last summer I noticed that the right side was far more loaded than the right. In middle school, I started reading more adult books, but still loved the Princess Diaries series. I would stalk Meg Cabot’s website hoping it would be that much closer to the release date of the next book. To me Mia Thermopolis was the coolest, best friend a girl could want. I wanted to live her life in New York City and be free and artistic just like her. While waiting for the next book in the series to be released, I started reading adult books. The most memorable books from middle school were Summer Sisters and She’s Come Undone. I was so into She’s Come Undone that the binding of the book broke, and when I reread Summer Sisters for book club it was just as good the second time around. During summers at sleep away camp, me and my friends would skip activities to hide in the woods to read by the lake. In High School, I began to appreciate the books our teachers assigned to us. I loved looking for symbolism in Lord of the Flies, and truly understanding what Romeo and Juliet was about. While Leo was easy on the eyes, reading Shakespeare’s text was that much more powerful. I am not going to lie, there were times when Cliff Notes were used to get through some of the painful stuff I had to read for English class. It was dry or above my level or I was not mature enough at the time to grasp what the author was saying. In eleventh grade however I loved almost every book Mrs. Jackson assigned to us. From One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to The Great Gatsby I was excited for the homework she would assign us. Senior year, I was enrolled in AP European History, and over the summer I was to read The Girl with the Pearl Earring, my absolute favorite book. My senior year, I was also the president of the book club (and captain of the math team to help increase the nerd factor). Outside of the class room I was always reading independent books.  

At one of the first classes at Vanderbilt that I enrolled in was an English course. The professor assigned Of Mice and Men, this I was not happy about. I hated it in High School, but I read that Steinbeck in hours. Due to the fact I loved it so much, I later picked up some of his other works. Unfortunately, I never found the time to finish them, but one day. During summers, I would commute from Westchester into the City and would read book after book. The summer, I was placed in the Brooklyn office for the company where I was interning was the summer I would read book after book. On average, I finished a book a week. After college, I unfortunately did not pick up where I left off. I could not focus enough on a book to one get involved or two even finish it. This past spring, I picked up the Hunger Games and while I have not voraciously finished it, reading the series is setting me back up to have a healthy appetite for literature.