Wow week four already, this has gone quite quickly and I'm sure it will continue to! This week was a week that started off with two snow days so it was quite a short week, but definitely still a fruitful week. The interesting thing about snow days at my placement is that it seems whenever students are out of school for any period of time, even two snow days they seem to forget a lot about how they are supposed to act in the classroom and what is expected of them. Some students especially will just lose some of the independence that they had previously in the classroom when they are at home for extended periods of time. At first when my teacher mentioned this, I really didn't believe her that it happened, but after seeing this firsthand I can say that this happens for sure. Some is for sure related to these students just not being very independent at home and their parents doing too much for them so that when they get back to school, they just do not know how to act independently any longer.
As far as teaching this week, I had quite a few opportunities to teach especially later in the week. This week I continued teaching the RAP period, but I also added on our Reading period which lasts for over an hour so that's a pretty lengthy class period to teach. But Wednesday, I was not able to teach my Reading lesson as two of the teachers in our building were out. Meaning that we did not have enough subs to cover those rooms, meaning that our class also took on another class. So all day we had a double class in our room, plus double the amount of paraprofessionals, which leads to chaos! So for a lot of the events on Wednesday, my teacher decided that we would do more craft and group related activities just because of the sheer amount of students in our room. The principal also decided that we were not going to have math and reading on Wednesday because the teachers were gone and switching for these classes just would not work. So we did not teach those subjects on Wednesday. So finally on Thursday I was able to teach my first reading lesson, it really went well. I made sure to ask quite a few comprehension questions of the students during our reading and I also had the students act out the story after they read it, which they loved and had never done before. The only problem I had was that the class period goes for over an hour, so it was tough to teach about a short story for an entire hour. I feel that stretching content to fit into time frames is a very difficult aspect of teaching and something that I need to work at and practice more at.
Thursday I was also to work on some discipline problems in our classroom. One of our students can be quite disruptive at times in that he doesn't really care what teachers say or listen to them at all depending on how he is doing that day. Thursday was a day where he was very defiant. The student did not listen to my instructions a few times, said very mean things to a couple of other students, and then clearly defied a paraprofessional and called her a name. My teacher was not really in the same part of the room and really did not witness what was happening so I was able to step in and I talked to the student very sternly about respecting his teachers and his peers. I think that it went well, but there is still a ways to go in making sure that the student respects me and follows my instructions. This student really takes quite a while before he respects people in authority over him so I'm hoping that we can work together on this in the future. It was also interesting because my teacher usually yells at students when they are not listening or doing something wrong, but that's not really how I deal with misbehavior, I'm not really a yeller. So instead I just basically sat down the student and got down to his eye level and talked to him sternly about what he was doing, I think it was effective but I guess to see that for sure it'll just take time. To my readers: Any other ideas as to how best work with this student in his behaviors and in this area of classroom management? I think that this can be linked back to standard 4A of the IPTS standards. This is that "The competent teacher understands principles of and strategies for effective classroom and behavior management." This relates back to my discipline decisions with my specific student. I think it is very important that I realize how to use behavior management effectively, but also how to vary it from student to student so that I can be the most effective teacher possible for all of my students, but also keep the classroom running smoothly.
Friday my teacher was gone for the entire day so we had a substitute, but I really was able to take over the class and I taught the entire day which was really a great experience, I loved it, which speaks well to becoming a teacher I think. It was really great to finally be in charge and not have my cooperating teacher around, just because I felt more in control of the classroom and the proceedings inside the classroom. My teaching for the day went well, in reading we finished a packet of worksheets that the students had been working on and in math we worked on putting together a craft that dealt with counting the numbers 1-5. Another question I have for readers is this: What is a way to still teach and follow my teacher's guidelines in reading, but not use worksheets? Worksheets are an integral part of the weekly reading program and I don't know if I would even be allowed to get rid of them necessarily, but I kind of think it would be a good idea, any thoughts would be great. Anyways, teaching went well on Friday, I was able to take charge of the discipline and the proceedings in the classroom with newfound freedom now that my teacher was not in the classroom so that was really a great step for me. I think that my classroom management is also going well for the most part, I still need to work on my repertoire with my students to make sure that they know where I'm coming from in my discipline and know kind of how I would like to run the classroom as well.
Classroom Confidential
1. Through this chapter I learned about eptness and what this concept really means, it basically refers to a classroom environment in which student learning happens in a number of ways and that students feel comfortable to learn and also that they are able to learn in a number of ways and in a number of roles as well. Eptness also is related to students learning in a number of ways and taking upon a number of roles in the classroom so that they are able to learn in a number of ways and are able to take upon a number of jobs for themselves in the classroom so that learning can happen in multiple ways.
2. One teacher behavior that I hope to use is encouragement. I think that encouragement is something that comes relatively naturally to me but also something that many of the students in my class really need and would really grow from in the classroom. I think that many of the students in my class do not receive too much encouragement in their home lives and even sometimes in their school lives, they may just be told over and over again that they cannot do something or they are not doing something correctly, so it is very important to be encouraging students and empower them to do well in their schoolwork and their lives. Another behavior is that of challenging old habits. I think that this is important especially for some of the students in my class to challenge their old habits because many of them have been very dependent on others for a lot of their lives. I think that helping students challenge these old habits and work towards doing new things and doing better habits that are based around independence would be very helpful to these students and beneficial to them. Finally in special education I think that the behavior of never doing anything for students that the can do for themselves is ESSENTIAL. This is because many of these students, as I have said, have become so prompt and assistance dependent through their lives and their educational careers. Because of this, these students need to work on their independence in order to be ready for higher education and for the higher world. I think that I will use this by just doing the hard thing for students sometimes and making them do a task that may be very difficult for them, but would be very helpful in the long run for them as well.
Nate,
ReplyDeleteYou have wonderful questions and observations. I hope you got my e-mail last week since I was not able to respond on the blog but was able to read your blog.
First, your observation about how after two days off and a weekend, the students lose their independent skills. You see, Nate, school behavior is a learned behavior. When it is not repeated regularly will be forgotten. Think about learning a foreign language. If you only use that language three days a week in a course and you missed a couple of classes, it will take you a while to remember what you forgot. The longer you are away from the language, the more you forget and the longer it will take you to be at the level you were when you took the course. Does this make sense?
Then you observed that teaching to fit a time frame is a difficult aspect of teaching. YEAH! You are correct. Pacing of the lesson, either too short or too long, is difficult. So my advice is to over-plan. Have many activities which teach the same concept. Especially at the end of the lesson, give opportunities to apply the new concept. Give time to share ideas of the new concept, etc. This is where creativity comes in.
Then you talked about "respect." My question is, "what does respect look like." I just love that you sat down and talked to the student instead of yelling (which does work sometimes but not always). When you do sit down to talk to the student, discuss making choices behaviorally. Also try to have the student label his feelings. Discuss respect, which is an attitude not a behavior, in terms of what he can do to show you that he is ready to learn. Such as, When the teacher says, "open your book to page 30," what is the student going to do and how is he going to do it. Sometimes, in a special needs classroom, role playing different situations at a non-threatening time is necessary. A simple rule, I had in my classroom, was that everyone would follow my directions. "You don't tell me, no! You don't tell me, I don't want to! You are like the Nike commercial and just DO IT" That was our little chant. Then we actually role played, with me giving simple directions such as, "Stand-up, put your hands over your head." etc. If the students would follow directions they understood, I would assume that when they did not follow my directions, it was because they did not understand it. Often, the rule "follow my directions" would have to be re-taught especially after 4 days off. I hope this helps.
Now to the next observation, about the worksheets. First I would discuss this with the cooperating teacher. Then I would determine the objective of the worksheet and if that worksheet can be substituted in a different way of obtaining that objective. If not, another idea is to use the worksheet itself differently and that's where creativity comes in. "Work in pairs and do the worksheet together or if your name begins A-M do the odd questions N-Z the even ones and then we'll share."
The last day,you wrote about, I was happy to hear that you feel confident to handle what ever comes up when you are by yourself. YEAH! You are an asset to the educational profession. CONGRATULATIONS!
I hope I have given you some ideas for your questions. If you have others, I have plenty of time to answer them, just send an e-mail or call. You are doing fine and your questions show me that you are concern about the students and your chosen field of study. Good job.
Vicki
Nate, you noticed that when students are off even a couple days, they lose something - about how to behave and even knowledge and skills. So what does this say about several weeks off during the summer?
ReplyDeleteI am also not a yeller, but I did demand that my students cooperate. This does not come easily. First, you will need to earn respect. You can do this by being consistent in your treatment of students, letting them know often that you care about them and their success, and then make sure they know how they can be successful. If students do not comply and are defiant, there should be consequences. If the positive reinforcement far outweighs negative consequences, then your chances of earning respect, and consequently, compliance, go up dramatically.
I agree with Vicki about using the worksheets. Talk about it with your cooperating teacher. If you have a better idea, bring it up as an option, with the attitude of "What would you think about trying this? Here's why I want to try it...
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You have received great advice about behavior and the worksheets. Here are my thoughts to consider:
ReplyDeleteBehavior: I was never a yeller either. I was firm and consistent. I would talk to my students individually (like you did) about the situation. Remember, behavior is communication. What is this student communicating through his behavior? Is he craving independence? Is he searching for control? Identify the function. Try to build in things throughout the day that allows him that freedom or control in positive ways. If your student likes to be praised, praise the student when he is appropriate. (Be careful, if a student does not like the attention of being praised, this is not a good idea). Dr. Snoeyink had a great explanation of the positive reinforcement and negative consequences. Also, remember a lot of behavior has a cultural and environmental component. I remember I had a student that hit other students or adults whenever he wanted to gain attention. I remember the night of open house, the entire family came into the classroom, and this behavior was common among the siblings and chuckled about by the parents. That does not mean I accepted the hitting behavior at school, but it really gave me an eye into where this behavior was stemming from. Because of that, I changed my approach and intervention with the student knowing that piece of information.
Worksheets: You have received great advice. A conversation is key with an explanation of why you want to try it. If your teacher uses worksheet for data collection, think about how you might be able to collect data if you use a method other than worksheets. The ideas above about working with partners or breaking the worksheet up are great ideas and wonderful places to start if your teacher is very used to the worksheet. (You may find from your conversation that it is the district that requires it; that's why it is best to begin with this conversation.)
Thanks for your great questions!
Prof Harkema