Week One

            My first week of student teaching was a great experience which I hope continues throughout the semester. This week was more of a get to know you week. I got to know my teacher, the principal, the staff, and most importantly the kids. My first day I walked in and had what was basically a question and answer session where the kids grilled me for about 20 minutes. I spent a lot of time grading papers because the quarter ended on Friday so grades have to be in within a week and my cooperating teacher said she wanted me to have something to do. This was a really good thing for me because it gave me the opportunity to sit back and observe the class and the behavior of the students while looking at multiple examples of each student’s work to get a handle on their quality of work. My cooperating teacher showed me around the school and introduced me to most of the faculty. She spent a lot of time this week with me going over classroom procedures, students’ medical requirements, students’ IEP’s, behavioral management, all of the basics I am going to need to know for the semester ahead. She made sure to let the students know that since we are both going to be in there for the rest of the semester that it is a great opportunity for the students to get extra help. Whenever a student would go up to her to ask a question when there was someone else talking to her she would send that student over to me in order to get them in the habit of asking us both questions. The students responded well to me. It is truly a great class with a good group of kids and they are very respectful and open to seeing me as a teacher and not an aid. They ask really good questions and have conversations well beyond a fourth grade level. One thing I thought was effectively done in her class was the belief that as long as a student is not disrupting anybody they are free to work how they want. For instance one student works better on the floor and since it doesn’t disturb the other students she lets him. The same thing with two other students who work better standing up, again since it doesn’t bother other students she lets them.

            My teacher is the kind of teacher who likes to use a lot of worksheets. I feel like when I start teaching and taking over it is going to take them a little bit to get used to different techniques and strategies. However once they get used to a different lesson format they are going to take to it and respond well. On the other hand any time you see something that works but isn’t what you do you wonder if there’s any point of “fixing what isn’t broken”. These kids are in a gifted class and are well above their level so if what my cooperating teacher is doing works, then why change it? I believe that Trinity has prepared us with a plethora of great teaching strategies that are effective and I plan on using them.

            There are so many things I hope to learn in the upcoming weeks. However I should focus on one week at a time because this is a learning process. I'm not going to learn everything in one week. Next week I hope to learn more about how the class works as a whole. I have seen them work a lot individually but haven’t seen them in a light outside of their homework and assignments. Everything else I learn is just a bonus.

Classroom Confidential

            In Laurel Schmidt’s book Classroom Confidential, she talks about how Gardner’s multiple intelligences have been around and in place long before Gardner came out with his theory. She says that good effective teachers have been creating “brain friendly” classrooms, attuning to all of the intelligences. Those intelligences include verbal/linguistic intelligence (word smart), visual and spatial intelligence (picture smart), musical intelligence (music smart), Kinesthetic intelligence (body smart), logical/mathematical intelligence (logic smart), naturalistic intelligence (nature smart), existential intelligence (life smart), interpersonal intelligence (people smart), and intrapersonal intelligence (self smart). Word smart kids are the kids who spend their time in the library, or raise their hands whenever the teacher asks a question. These students are often the ones to get ahead early in school. Students who are picture smart are the students who have very high spatial intelligence, or as Schmidt says, they have “eyes on steroids” (pg 5). Music smart kids are the students who are sensitive not only to the musical aspect of music, but the emotional representations as well. They are also the students who are constantly tapping, humming, or even singing in class, while some teachers see this as an annoying habit, it could just be their way of thinking. Logic smart is the other intelligence that is often seen as “smart” because the student enjoys mental math, estimating, calculating, measuring, or indulging in their own investigations. Nature smart are the students who would make the best classroom pet monitors ever. They are the students who would be first to launch a campaign to save the tigers, they love science and relish the opportunity to read about any scientific topic. Life smart students are the students who are fascinated with what happens after you die. They ask question about life, death, the afterlife, ghosts, and spirits. People smart are the interpersonal students, students who are always helping, commenting, or mediating other students. Although some teachers may see them as busybodies that is just how they are wired. Students who are self smart are the ones who have a high intrapersonal intelligence. Sensitive to their own emotions they can work well individually or in a group because they dent to be confident and self-disciplined.

            This semester it is my goal to use all of those intelligences. Each student is different and that is what makes this world so beautiful. This class in particular has so many different types of learners I think I can utilize all of the intelligences to the classes advantages. One way I plan on doing this is through a lot of group work, that way I can have students who have different intelligences working together to utilize the most of each other and through that create amazing work. There are also some students who are motivated by different activities. For instance if one student does all of his work on time he gets to move around or go get a drink. If I can incorporate the kinesthetic learning into the curriculum then instead of as a reward then I can get him to be motivated to learn by learning. That motivation technique can be used with any intelligence if applied correctly and that is what I plan on doing.

            The full brain classroom is another concept that Schmidt talks about. The full brain classroom is one in which the teacher accesses all of those intelligences through multiple different strategies that are both intriguing and challenging for the students. In my opinion this is something that good teachers should be doing in the first place. Some ways I plan on doing this are the group activities like I mentioned earlier and big idea projects that include multiple different aspects and intelligences. That way I can tap into multiple intelligences, challenge students, intrigue them, make them interested, and have them collaborate. Through those ways I can hopefully create the most effective classroom environment possible and have the students get he most out of their learning experience.