Some dilemmas that I am anticipating this year are the
different teaching beliefs and styles between my mentor and I. It is only a week and a half into the
school year, but everyone has their own teaching styles and I have noticed some
areas where I would present a lesson differently than my mentor teacher
has. The classroom
management styles between my mentor teacher and I may also present difficulty
in the fact that they may be different and the kids may respond better to one
than the other.
A dilemma that I see when building teacher-student
relationships is the wide range of diversity in the school. I grew up in a predominately white
middle class community. However,
when I attended college at Michigan State University, I quickly learned about
the various types of people that make up our world but it is still going to be
a learning experience working with children from all different backgrounds. I am very excited to gain this
knowledge and experience, but I do believe I will get stuck in not knowing how
to respond to something a student may say just because I may not have had any
prior knowledge or experience with it.
I do have to say that the other day, I played basketball on the playground
with some of the boys in my classroom and they really accepted me in the play
and it was a great feeling to share similarities with the boys and get to know
what their interests are outside of school and actually participate in the
activity with them.
I believe one dilemma I may encounter in constructing
relevant curriculum and assessing students in meaningful and productive ways is
if I am using the correct format/information. Due to the fact that GLCE’s have changed over to Common Core
Standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts, I am still trying to get
comfortable with the change and understand the changes so that I can teach my
students according to the new standards.
Another dilemma I see happening is assessing students is whether or not
I am doing it correctly. I would
hate to assess children and do it incorrectly and not get the students actual
results.
I feel very confident coming into this year of student
teaching. A lot of my confidence
stems from the fact that I have already had a semester of student teaching in a
preschool classroom at a child development lab. After two weeks I started taking over the classroom and ran
the classroom at the five-week mark.
Through my experience, I had ups and downs, lessons that worked and
lessons that didn’t work. What I
learned the most from that semester of student teaching is that not every
lesson goes as planned, you always have to be ready to adapt the lesson to the needs
of your students and be flexible with the schedule. I feel that when I stand in front of a class I am not nervous
to make a mistake, but know that every day I teach is a day to learn.
The Daily 5 is a literacy program that is ran in my
classroom. I have never had
experience with the Daily 5, so my MT suggested that I read the book on
it. After reading the book I have
become very knowledgeable on the subject and have also seen it implemented in
the classroom. This has shown me
how to take something from a book and actually have my students practice it. It has been amazing to see the growth
and development in reading that these students have shown in the last eight
days of school.
After reading the article by Jodene Kersten and Laura Pardo,
some ideas I have about finessing the literacy practices would be to combine
the Daily 5, with daily writing, and read aloud. Instead of having three different focus lessons within the
Daily 5, I would like to implement one lesson on reading to self/partner, one
lesson on daily writing, and one lesson on read aloud. After the three focus lessons on
literacy have been mastered, I would love to try finessing these important
lessons to see how my students would do. This would also allow more time for science and social
studies lessons, which seem to be overlooked more so now than ever before. I think that science and social studies
are a huge part of a child’s learning and should not be taken out. So finessing some material would help
me to teach all subjects each day.
You have mentioned many great points in your post. I share your delemma about differing from your MT, especially in terms of classroom management. When it come time to lead teach, I fear that the students will not respond to my visions of classroom mangement. I am nervous they will be too adapted to responding to yelling as a means to gain their attention.
ReplyDeleteAs you have mentioned, I too grew up in a predominately white community. Although attending MSU exposed me to some diversity,too, I have found many challeneges already in fully relating to all the students in my classroom. I have found, though, that being honest with them works the best. The students are always very excited to have the chance to talk and tell me about something I do not know.
In terms of assessment, I fear messing up, too. Assessing first-grade writing causes much of my worries. I never know how much to correct, or what to correct. Too add, learning what needs to be taught according to the Common Core feels very over-whelming.
I like your ideas about the article, especially what you were saying about finessing some material. To add to your idea, I think using the idea of Daily 5 to teach other subjects would be a valuable way to teach children literacy through a variety of subjects.
I find it interesting that you are already noticing differences between your own practice and your MT's. It's great that you have a sense of your own teaching style already and that you feel strongly about it. I agree that one of the difficult things that we will face as teachers is sticking to our own beliefs about teaching. This year that will be especially difficult because we are not in our own classrooms as well as we have to stick to school, district, and state mandated curriculum. I would suggest maybe talking to your MT about her style of teaching and classroom management. Ask her why she chooses to instruct that way, so that you can learn about her own teaching beliefs and it can open up the conversation to add your own opinions about teaching and management. This sounds like a great opportunity to learn from her, and for her to possibly learn from you!
ReplyDeleteI also think that it is great you are working to learn so much about your students outside of the classroom. By playing basketball with them, you are getting to know them on a different level and that can help out so much in the classroom. I think this will also help with learning more about student differences and their backgrounds. It is so important to be able to relate to the children in your class and build a sense of trust to be able to help them learn as much as possible.
You also mention working through the switch from GLCEs to Common Core and this is another thing that many of us are trying to figure out right now too. Our mentor teachers are in the same position though because they are figuring out these new standards as well. I believe this is something that will just take some practice for everyone. It took a while to figure out how to use the GLCEs as well, so I believe that as we use them more, they will become easier to work with.
Confidence is such an important part of teaching and it’s great that you feel so confident after just a few days of school. I also student taught in a preschool for a semester and I think that has made a huge difference in my abilities in the classroom so far this year. I feel like there are many situations that I am able to handle because I have had experience with them, and it allows me to focus my energy on things besides my nerves or standing in front of the class. I think this confidence will make the transition to lead teaching easier for you.
I have also noticed a lack of focus on science and social studies in my school and classroom. I like your idea about trying to fit them into your Daily 5 so that you are meeting standards while also diversifying what your students are learning about. You could also ask your MT about how she plans to fit in these two forgotten subjects and share your ideas with her.
I’m excited about the growth you are seeing in your students. I’m very excited about that as well. I love how rewarding this career field is!
Sorry Jenny, I don't think I made myself clear. My MT does include science and social studies however it is set up differently. Right now we are in a social studies unit talking about ourselves and our families, making comparisons on how we are alike or different. After this unit my MT plans to switch to a science unit and teach that for awhile then switch back to social studies. These lessons take up the majority of our afternoon however starting next week we are going to have centers that also take up some of that time we were using for science and social studies. Today we had to do something related to the Constitution because it was Constitution Day. My students read a paragraph and then answered four questions on whether the sentence was true or false based on what they read. I'm interested if any of you had the requirement from the school to do something along these lines as well? If so, I would love to hear what you did and how it went!
ReplyDeleteLaura, my MT also switches between Science and Social Studies. We never do both in the same day. Once our Family unit is complete, we will switch to a Science unit. This saddens me because I feel like the students are missing out- there does not seem to be enough time in a day! I thought it was a great idea when you mentioned finessing material in order to use time more wisely.
ReplyDeleteThe first thought that came to my mind when I started reading this is that this is a learning experience for everyone. We need to remember that our MTs are going to be learning as much from us as we will be learning from them. Different teaching styles is not necessarily a bad thing but it can get confusing for students. Laura, maybe you can suggest ideas to your MT and she can make adjustments. She may like your way of presenting something better than her way. I see it like this..Our MTs have their teaching styles and since we are in their classroom it makes sense for us to use those ways and conform as the students do. However we will be taking over the class and I think it is important for us to have control of the classroom in a way that we are comfortable.
ReplyDeleteLike all of you said, I was also raised in a predominately white community. I cannot even think of one nonwhite student in my elementary school! Fortunately I was placed in a Lansing school last year for 402 so I got a little taste of diversity in schools. I was exposed to problems I had only heard of before. It was definitely a good learning experience for me. It showed me what diverse schools looked like as opposed to the predominately white schools I attended K-12. I think it is great that you were able to play basketball with the boys. The students need to know that you are someone who is there to get to know them and help them, not just the person who tells them what to do all day long. Gina brings up a good point about honesty. Honesty with students sounds like a good thing. Students, especially my kindergartens, are curious about everything! I also think it is important that we make sure and give students time to express themselves in class and share it as a way for us to get to know them better and for them to get to know each other. In my class we have begun writing journals where they write about things that they like or did over the weekend. We give everyone a chance to share, either with the whole class or just a partner.
The Common Core Standards seem to be a challenge for everyone but I like what Jenny said about them. She mentioned how the GLCE’s were once new to all of us and with time and practice we got use to them. These Common Core Standards are just the same. They are new to us and our MT’s but over time and with practice they will become easier for us to use.
Hearing about you and Jenny’s prior student teaching makes me envious. I hope to be as confident in the classroom after fall semester as you and her are now. I have been doing more and more things in my classroom but I am still working on gaining control and respect of my students. I would love any advice from either of your experiences that you are willing to share! I think my biggest problem is keeping the attention of all 32 students at the same time in order to complete a task and having them all listen to what I am saying.
The Daily Five is new to many people this year, my MT included. I had some exposure to it in my classroom last year. However I only saw the students reading or writing. I never witnessed or helped with any mini lessons so how it fully works is still new to me. That was a very smart idea to read up on the Daily Five! My teacher has given me an article/sample lesson plan for the Daily Five to look over which should be helpful. Again this is a learning experience for everyone!
ReplyDeleteI am not too familiar with how Daily Five works but aren’t writing and read alouds part of the Daily Five? If not, then I think your ides of finessing the three of them together sounds good. Schools spend a lot of time on reading and writing. If students know how to complete the task they should be able to get it done faster and move onto the next thing. If you practice the mini lessons with your students enough I’m sure they will master it so that less instruction needs to be given and they can complete their work in a timely matter. I agree with you that science and social studies do not get much time in the day. Since we now have a science special I think that my MT is relying on that class to cover a lot of the science standards. If things like reading and writing could take up less time in the day then we could do science lessons to add to what they learn in their science special. Today we did do a social studies for Constitution day. My teacher went through the week one booklet of the books that the principal gave to each class (you may have no idea what I’m talking about), but it was basically an introduction into social studies. I was out of the room for part of the lesson but I did hear them reading the national anthem.