FEAPS a. Organizes, allocates, and manages the resources of time, space, and attention c. Conveys high expectations to all students e. Models clear, acceptable oral and written communication skills f. Maintains a climate of openness, inquiry, fairness and support h. Adapts the learning environment to accommodate the differing needs and diversity of students I have one student in my class who has ADHD. Whenever they are asked to complete a topic independently, they lose focus and cannot complete the task in the time allotted to them. They have an educational plan that requires that they have additional time given to them during testing. Every week, I work with this student in a small group to try and get them to complete the assignments given to them. Although this student has a disability, they are still expected to complete the assignments in class. My CT gives special accommodations, but tries to make it as fair as possible. One day, I was working with this student at my small group table. We were focusing on using a strategy called “Topic, Point, Evidence” to write a paragraph about what we were reading in social studies. This student amazed me with their participation and effort to write the paragraph. With the struggles this student has had on focusing, having them write half a page worth of work was a huge accomplishment. I believe that this growth goes along with my first teaching belief of my teaching platform that all students are capable of learning and growing. Any type of growth is an accomplishment that should be celebrated!
0 Comments
FEAPS a. Organizes, allocates, and manages the resources of time, space, and attention b. Manages individual and class behaviors through a well-planned management system c. Conveys high expectations to all students f. Maintains a climate of openness, inquiry, fairness and support h. Adapts the learning environment to accommodate the differing needs and diversity of students The above photo is a new seating chart I made for my classroom. One of the students (CC) needed to be moved to the front of the classroom because of vision issues he was having. Moving his seat became a more difficult task than I thought. LR, GJ, HB, and RD have to be at the front of the class because of educational plans they have in place, so that left only one spot for CC to go into. I had to move around a couple of different students to make this accommodation work for CC. When placing students next to each other, I took into careful consideration how well I thought they would interact academically and socially. For example, CP works really well with one of my autistic students, PJ. I didn’t want to separate them because she is very patient and helpful with him. The way the desks are set up in the classroom is effective for the teaching style my teacher uses. She does whole group lessons followed by collaborative table work. Students are all sat in a way where they can see the front of the classroom, but are placed close to each other so that they can work together. According to the text, seating arrangements should be flexible and able to accommodate the learning and teaching styles used in the classroom (Levin & Nolan, 2014).
References Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F. (2014). Principles of Classroom Management: A Professional Decision-Making Model. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. FEAPS 2e. Models clear, acceptable oral and written communication skills 2d. Respects students’ cultural linguistic and family background 2f. Maintains a climate of openness, inquiry, fairness and support Making sure that students feel a sense of belonging in the classroom is just as important as the topics we teach them. Based on our classroom discussions and readings, I have come to the conclusion that when a student feels like they are in a safe and connected community classroom environment, their behavior will be more positive. According to our text, the idea of unconditional acceptance plays an important role in student behavior (Levin & Nolan, 2014). Unconditional acceptance means a teacher’s affection and concern for students comes unconditionally, regardless of behavior. This shows students that the teacher cares for everyone and she won’t stop caring just because of behavior. The picture above shows a seating chart of all of the students in my class and notes I have taken on them based on their academic learning. Each student is unique in their own way. Making sure that our students feel like they belong and are cared about is extremely important for their academic growth.
References Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F. (2014). Principles of Classroom Management: A Professional Decision-Making Model. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. FEAPS 2a. Organizes, allocates, and manages the resources of time, space, and attention 2b. Manages individual and class behaviors through a well-planned management system 2c. Conveys high expectations to all students 2e. Models clear, acceptable oral and written communication skills Above are children stacking chairs during the dismissal routine. After observing my CT multiple weeks in a row, my CT has let me take control of the routine on dismissing students at the end of the day. At the end of the final lesson of the day, I used my attention getter that the students know and are comfortable with (which is "Holy mole, Guacamole!"). Once I had students' attention, they were instructed to put all of their belongings away and "pack and stack" for dismissal. “Pack and stack” is there they “pack” their backpacks and then “stack” their chairs in appropriately sized stacks throughout the room. According to our text, it is imperative to establish clear expectations to support successful teaching and learning (Levin & Nolan, 2014). The classroom procedure of dismissal was taught to the students at the beginning of the year and practiced until it was learned successfully. Because this procedure is done with such success less time is required at the end of the day to set up for dismissal, which in turn leads to more meaningful use of class time for learning.
References Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F. (2014). Principles of Classroom Management: A Professional Decision-Making Model. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. FEAPS 2d. Respects students’ cultural linguistic and family background 2e. Models clear, acceptable oral and written communication skills 2g. Integrates current information and communication technologies This is an email that I drafted to send to parents right before report cards came out. The email was short and concise, getting directly to the point. My collaborating teacher said that from her experience, shorter emails are better that way words do not get misconstrued through text. The email started with a positive note about the class and then went into informing parents about report cards, and then finally explaining what is expected of students. According to our text, building proactive family relationships leads to students achieving higher grades, better attendance, and an overall positive attitude about school (Levin & Nolan, 2014). Keeping parents informed about report cards not only holds students accountable, but keeps parents and teachers on the same team, which is ultimately to make sure that students are successful. Having parents continued support in the classroom is important for student success.
References Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F. (2014). Principles of Classroom Management: A Professional Decision-Making Model. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. The learning environment in my field placement is very engaging and focused on the student. The teacher's role is to give students the tools they need to be successful. The student's role is to use these tools to be the best learners that they can be. Students have access to a variety of materials (technology, manipulatives, diagrams, supplies, etc) to help facilitate their learning and to help them have a better undertsanding of topics that they are learning about. During whole group lessons, students are encouraged to talk to their shoulder partners and collaborate on assignments.
In my field placement, there is a very diverse group of learners. There are students that require Tier I and Tier II intervention in reading and math. There are also students who have Autism Spectrum Disorder. One of the students was nonverbal when they first started elementary school and now she is in a mainstream classroom. Other students have different educational plans mapped out for them based on learning disabilities or behavioral problems, such as ADHD. With this, there are a lot of students who require one-on-one or small group attention on a daily or multiple time a week basis to help ensure that they are being successful in the classroom. In my field placement classroom, I am already working with my field placement teacher to help the students who have extra needs. Once a week I have a small group with Tier II intervention students to help them with reading skills. During whole group lessons, I have four students sit at my table in a small group to make sure that they are following along and undertsanding the lesson. I also work one-on-one with three different students who are sturggling in the classroom but do not have formal educational plans yet. The goal is that the data I collect from working with them, will help get a formal plan in place for them so that they can continue to be successful in middle school and not fall through the cracks. This week, I chose to plan and implement a read aloud in a whole group setting. This week also was my first formal supervisor observation. I chose to do a read aloud because I felt comfortable with observing my CT do read alouds before. We do them almost every week. The students have experience with the whole group read aloud setting and creating graphic organizers. When talking to my CT about what task to choose, she felt confident that I could do the lesson successfully. In the past, the student have read chapter books and short stories. For this read aloud, we were going to be looking at a poem and try to find the main idea. When students got back from specials, they were instructed to get out their red folders, red notebooks, and a pencil. I passed out the poem we were going to read and asked students to fold the paper in half (there was another passage on the other side and I didn't want the students to get distracted). I then instructed them to copy down the learning goal in their notebook and draw the organizer I had up on the board. Before we read the poem, I wanted to go over the differences between books, poems, and plays and how they were organized differently. I called on students to ask them how books were broken up, how poems were broken up, and then how plays were broken up. Then we went a step further in how those were broken up. After we discussed that poems had stanzas and lines, we started reading the first stanza. I read the first stanza aloud and then asked students to turn to their shoulder partners and talk about what they thought the main idea of that stanza was. We completed this for each stanza and recorded the main idea of each. The students were able to find evidence in the poem to back up the concept that night time was best for desert animals. At the end of the lesson, the students were asked to record their line of learning. A line of learning is basically what they got out of the lesson. One student shared that they learned that a stanza in a poem is like a paragraph in a book and that they form together to make the poem make sense. I was extremely nervous doing this lesson for many reasons. The first was that I was being observed for the first time and had no idea what to expect. The second was that I was doing the lesson on my own. After watching the video of myself teaching, I realized that my nervousness can definitely be noticed. I also noticed that when I gave the students time to talk to their shoulder partners, I didn't give them enough time. What felt like five minutes to me, was only like two minutes to them. I think that had a lot to do with my nervousness and also trying to stay on track with time. I was trying to fit a lot of information in a short period of time. In the future, I will definitely allow myself a bigger time block to complete a lesson of this complexity. I also noticed that I had trouble knowing what parts of the poem to point out and what questions to ask. My CT jumped in a little to help me get a discussion going with the class after we completed the poem. She went way more in depth than I did and elaborated a lot more. I think overall I did okay for my first observation, but I definitely need to build my confidence up more, which I think will come with more time in the classroom and practicing these tasks! Below is my lesson plan for the read aloud:
FEAPS 2a. Organizes, allocates, and manages the resources of time, space, and attention 2b. Manages individual and class behaviors through a well-planned management system 2c. Conveys high expectations to all students Every morning my CT write the date and any other important information on the board. The students know to look there as soon as they come in the door so that they know what to start working on immediately. It also lists homework and any other announcements for the day. My CT has asked me to take over writing everything on the board when I can come into the classroom every week so that I can get into the routine of it. This is an important task because we have learned that establishing a routine from the beginning and setting clear expectations for our students will generate more success in the classroom. Consistency is key for positive behavior from students. In my future teaching practices, I think having an area for students to look to for all announcements is good habit to get into. It also helps the teacher remember any topics they need to go over with the whole class.
FEAPS 2a. Organizes, allocates, and manages the resources of time, space, and attention 2b. Manages individual and class behaviors through a well-planned management system 2c. Conveys high expectations to all students In a previous blog post, I wrote about the morning routine and how we did number of the day to help students with learning about place value. My CT came to me and said that although we will still do number of the day occasionally as needed, she wanted me to take the lead on checking the homework in the morning, as well as teaching my own mini-lesson about prefixes and suffixes. For checking homework, my CT uses a behavior tracking chart that she created. Each column represents a different subject area and she writes notes throughout the day. She uses a new chart every day and dates it. She also keeps every chart as evidence if needed in conferences with parents or other teachers. When the students got seated, I asked them to take their math homework out so I could come around and check it. I walked by each students' desk and checked to see if they completed their homework. Homework is checked on a completion basis every day, and then turned in at the end of the week. After I checked everyone's homework, I moved into the prefix and suffix mini lesson. I chose the prefix anti- and the suffix -ful for this week's lesson. I wrote them on the board. I first started with the prefix anti- and explained that it meant against or opposite. I wrote the word antibiotic on the board and asked students to use their prior knowledge of the root word bio that they learned in science and what I just taught them about the prefix to try and figure out the meaning of the word. Students were very fast at being able to come up with meanings of the word and they mostly got the correct answer. We then moved onto the suffix -ful and how it meant full of. I wrote the word careful on the board and students were eager to tell me that it meant someone was full of care. We finally reflected on the mini lesson and established that knowing common prefixes and suffixes can help us decode words that are unfamiliar to us as we move on to reading harder texts. I will give them new prefixes and suffixes every week and keep track of the ones we have already talked about on the word wall in the back of the classroom. Looking back on this morning routine, I really like the behavior tracking chart that my CT uses every day. It is an easy way to behavior and homework and keep evidence if behavior becomes a problem in the classroom. I was a little nervous when my CT asked me to lead a mini lesson every week. I thought for the most part I led the lesson pretty well. At the end, after I was done, I got stuck on how to transition into the next lesson. My CT helped me and jumped in. She also provided me feedback and told me as a rule of thumb, three is the magic number when calling on students to answer. She suggested that any more than three and we can get lost in the lesson and not move forward in a timely fashion. I appreciated her advice and definitely understood where she was coming from. In the future, I will make sure I am staying within the time constraints and keep sharing ideas to three students. I also will make transition into the next lesson less choppy by knowing what lesson will be after mine and asking students to get the supplies needed out for that lesson.
FEAPS 2a. Organizes, allocates, and manages the resources of time, space, and attention 2b. Manages individual and class behaviors through a well-planned management system 2c. Conveys high expectations to all students 2f. Maintains a climate of openness, inquiry, fairness and support 2h. Adapts the learning environment to accommodate the differing needs and diversity of students This week while during field experience, I took the lead on part of the morning routine, which also included doing a math small group with three students after instruction. In my CT's class, we always start with number of the day. Every morning when the students walk in the room, there is a number on the board. 47.375 was the number I chose, and the students complete different activities using that number. They are learning about place value and multiplying using standard algorithm, so the activities tie into the lesson. I have observed my CT doing this the first two times I was in her classroom and she asked if I wanted to pick a number for them and lead the number of the day. I noticed that my CT would usually pick a tricky number so that questions could be addressed during this whole group discussion. She would give the students about fifteen minutes to complete the task on their own, and then we would go through the activities one by one on the board. To call on students, she would pick popsicle sticks out of a jar with their names on them so that way everyone participated and had a voice.
I started the morning by writing the number 43.375 on the board so the students could see it when they walked in the classroom first thing. I asked my CT if there was any particular number I should choose and she told me as long as it had a decimal to the thousandths place that it would work for the activity. When the students walked in the door, I reminded them to get settled and then start on their morning of the day activity. The students were pretty conditioned to this task already, so I didn't have to remind too many of the students on what was expected of them. I gave them about fifteen minutes to complete the activity and then I got their attention by ringing the gong my CT uses. When my CT rings the gong, all of the students become quiet. I then told the students we were going to discuss the number of the day. We went through each of the activities, which included questions about place value, rounding, multiplying by base tens, etc. My CT also suggested that we try doing standard algorithm since it related to what they were learning. We decided to do 375 times 47. I wrote the problem on the board and asked the students step by step how to complete the problem. We used side table math to make sure we did our steps correctly. After we completed the standard algorithm question, the students were then prompted to take out their math worksheets to complete more practice problems on standard algorithm. My CT asked students who thought they were on level 1 to come to her table, and students who felt like they were level 2 to come to my table. I then led a math small group and we completed more standard algorithm practice. A picture below are the problems I completed with my group. We went through each step, completed side table math, and then estimated our answers to make sure we were correct. From completing this task I learned that it is important to be thoughtful and prepared before starting the day. Making sure everything is set up for the day will ensure success in the classroom. If I am prepared as an educator, my children will be more likely to respond positively both academically and behaviorally. I set the mood for the entire day by what happens in the beginning. I also learned that setting high expectations for students early on in the year will make everything easier in the classroom. The students knew what was expected of them when they walked in the door and it made it easier to start the day. I didn't really have to remind anyone on what to do. I think that says a lot about how good my CT's classroom management is. Based on the ongoing observations of my CT, I hope that I can have a good morning routine with my students and have such a smooth morning every day. The students knew what was expected of them, knew where the information and tools needed to complete the activity were, and knew exactly what they were supposed to do. |
AuthorDanyelle Estill Archives
December 2016
Categories
All
|