De dos Semana (Week two)

            This week has been a hectic one to say the least. Monday started pretty slow but by the end of the week I had all but taken over the class completely. We had two RTI meetings Friday, we have a conference next week Tuesday morning before school to accommodate a parent, and have had some colossal melt downs with students this week. Because of these things Mrs. Z. has been running all over the school talking to parents, our school social worker, our principal, and anything else under the Sun, leaving me to run the classroom. Because her class is still worksheet heavy all I had to do was pass them out, go over the instructions, and let them go to work while answering questions. I think she only taught two full lessons all week and other than that I taught all the mini lessons that accompanied the worksheets. The other thing that attributed to this was the fact that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday we barely had the kids all day so for the majority of the week they weren’t being taught any new concepts in the homeroom class.

*NOTE – I changed the names of the students I’m talking about. I thought in this case I would use names of disciples…After the week we had it was good for me to refer to some students in a positive light. J

            Monday I graded papers all day trying to get the grades in before report cards are due. I gave them their morning work which again just entailed me handing out worksheets for them. All in all Monday was pretty slow.

            Tuesday started to turn the week around. I handed out their morning worksheet. I reviewed their homework with them. Only this time I used projector which is something they don't get a lot of. So as somewhat of an incentive for them to do their work quietly I had them come up and let them write on it because more often than not they just stay in their seats. We have a student who has diabetes and he read to the class about it because apparently they have asked him a lot of questions like the difference between the types of diabetes and things like that. So it was good for him to be able to read a book describing the differences in fourth grade terms. Tuesday they have gym, bathroom break, lunch, art, another bathroom break, and then back to the classroom. So we really only have them in class for about a half hour from 10:00 until about 1:30 so that takes a big chunk out of the day. Tuesday we reserved some computer lab time and I got to teach my webquest social studies lesson which went really well. During all the down time when students are all over the school I attended an RTI meeting between the teacher, social worker, and reading specialist. The biggest thing that happened in my opinion is we moved John’s desk right next to mine so that I could keep him on task. He is a student that never gets his work done, always looking around the room not doing what he’s supposed to, but is so smart that when he does turn in his work it’s almost always 100% correct. And he’s not defiant, it seems as if he just always spaces out, he asks questions about everything you could think of, and is always smiling. So it’s not a question of not wanting to do the work, just lack of focus.

            Wednesday morning was when things really started going haywire. First thing in the morning Matthew walked in and had a colossal melt down. He has some behavior problems that root from getting spoiled at home and he is used to controlling his house as a fourth grader. So he apparently had a bad night because of an alarm clock and was just defiant, refusing to do anything, refusing to talk to me or Mrs. Z., he wouldn’t even acknowledge us. Since this is a frequent behavior Mrs. Z. sent him to the social worker and he was out of the room for probably an hour. I went through the morning work and John got it all done on time and everything was right. This was the first sign that the move for him was working. After morning work I corrected their homework with them. Then I taught a mini lesson on fact and opinion and while they were doing their worksheet I graded some papers. Again they were out of the classroom most of the day so there was really only about two hours I wasn’t in charge.

            Mornings are all the same so after morning work on Thursday I taught a sequencing mini-lesson. Mrs. Z. was in and out of the class all day again dealing with a different student. Luke is a student who just wants to rush through everything and get it done fast. He also has some behavior problems and this is what we dealt with. His mother apparently sent a note to Mrs. Z. Monday asking to call her so they could talk about conferences and RTI plans. Mrs. Z. never got a letter so when she sent home a conference note with Luke for next week Friday Luke’s mother was really upset and went over Mrs. Z.’s head straight to the principal. It turns out Luke threw away the note and never gave it to Mrs. Z. So we practically turned his desk upside down and found missing work he was supposed to turn in, re-do assignments we were missing, his homework sheet he is supposed to show his mother every night. He has been getting his check out sheet signed, ripping it out of his folder and shoving it in the back of his desk, then telling his mom he has no homework. So Mrs. Z spent the whole day on the phone with his mother, talking to the principal, and talking to the social worker because this is not the first time he has interfered with communication between home and school which is a serious problem. So with all of that I was left in charge of the class again for the whole day.

            Friday we started the morning with me making their morning work because they can’t grasp a concept. So I was hammering home what they needed. It was also too short of a time that they couldn’t do a whole worksheet so I gave them a few problems that they could do in that time and I could go over with them to check understanding. We have been studying civil rights and we brought them up to a class to watch a movie about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with two other classes. They then had an assembly because the teachers had a collaboration meeting about Charlotte Danielson’s Enhancing Professional Practice. After that was lunch, then library, then another assembly. So when we totaled it up we only had the kids for an hour all day. During the second assembly we had a meeting with one of the parents about her son’s RTI, the progress he’s made, and where to go from here. We were supposed to have another one but the parent canceled so Mrs. Z, the social worker, the reading specialist, and I held the meeting just the four of us and talked about what steps to take for him anyways. From here we just have to get the mother’s consent which is going to be a chore. John has gotten all his work done over the past three days on time and above 95%. He has told both me and Mrs. Z. that with his new seat he gets his work done, so that might be one of the most rewarding things for me all year.

            In the week ahead there are a few things I hope to learn. It’s only a three day week because of Martin Luther King Day and we have conferences on Friday. In those three days I’m excited to see how John does with his work, if he continues to do it all diligently or if we need to try something else. I’m looking forward to the conference with Luke’s mom and trying to get everything straightened out and how to best move forward. I still haven’t quite figured out how to handle Matthew other than just sending him to the social worker. There has to be something I can do to snap him into a good mood. Whether it’s just five minutes of quiet in the hall, a simple calming talk, something has to work that’s less extreme than sending him off immediately.

            One thing I hope is that when I start teaching more the practices Trinity has prepared me with are accepted by my teacher. She likes these worksheets and I just hope she’s open to trying alternative teaching methods. She has liked some of the ideas I’ve thrown out there so far but when I actually implement them I hope they are received well.

Classroom Confidential

            Eptness is the combination of all the students’ capacities and the teacher’s ability to unlock them and use them through meaningful activities. The successful teacher is one who gets all the students to perform at the best of their abilities. All of the things Schmidt talks about is all fine and dandy, but if the students don’t feel safe in the classroom environment then as she says, it falls on deaf ears. Classroom safety is something I’m very concerned with; I know that if students aren’t comfortable in the class then the whole learning process for them is hindered. As teachers our first job is to make sure the students feel safe in our class and after that everything is possible, but if they don’t not only will eptness not be effective, nothing will.

            Schmidt then talks about ten behaviors that promote eptness. One behavior I plan on using all throughout the year that has always come easy to me is encouragement. Encouragement is something that is easier than most people think. There are always some students in your class that a teacher has labeled as the “problem child” and are often difficult with the teacher academically, behaviorally, or both. Those are the kids who don’t often get a lot of encouragement because they are too busy getting criticized or getting their behavior corrected. I know in my class right now I have a few students who are indeed those types of students. However those are the ones in particular you need to encourage and sometimes encouragement can go a long ways with them. That is the reason why encouragement is one thing I plan to use most often in my classroom.

            Another behavior I like that Schmidt talks about is when a teacher does nothing for a student that a student can’t do themselves. I really like this because it gives more power to the students and can also give them a further form of encouragement. Schmidt talks about two first graders who went and talked out a problem with their assistant principal. He had made an announcement on the PA they disagreed with and so they went down and talked about it with him and all the teacher had to do was sign their hall pass. This also makes students more resourceful. If you hold their hand every step of the way then how are they going to know how to do things on their own? This is something the kids in my class struggle with. They never want to read the instructions they want me to spoon feed them how to do everything when they are more than capable of figuring it out on their own. So something I’ve been working on is every time they have a worksheet to do I make them read the instructions out loud before they start. This is a small step but I’ve gone from telling them what to do, to telling them to read the instructions and then they understand the instructions on their own. Kids are more than capable of so many things we don’t give them credit for and when you allow them to do things on their own it can give them a sense of accomplishment and encouragement.

            Breaking their bad habits goes into my third habit Schmidt talks about that I plan on using, and that is challenging old habits. She talks about a spelling test that was the routine cut and dry say the word, say it in a sentence, repeat the word. Only she realized that there was no point in doing this because most of the students knew the words by Tuesday and were just waiting for her to say them in order. So what she did was give them five minutes to write down as many as they remembered and then read the list and they could write down the ones they were missing. Nothing was lost but it was something different. I believe fourth and fifth grade are ages where they have to start breaking old habits and getting ready for middle school and that is one thing I have already started doing like with the instructions. There are a lot of things that are going to change for them and it is good to start preparing them for those things. Breaking old habits like reading them instructions, giving them little to no homework, and letting them re-do anything less than 70% are all things my teacher has been doing which won’t be an option to them in the very near future. That is why I’m going to start trying to either break those habits for them, or at least get them used to them not always being an option. It prepares them for next year in fifth grade where I know the teachers don’t give them that luxury and the rest of their life when things do indeed get harder. Because isn’t that our ultimate goal after all? That our students not only do well on ridiculous standardized tests, but ultimately to be prepared for life.