Week 2: Speak Up

One thing that I have particularly enjoyed about teaching with students at the sixth grade level is the ability to have more meaningful conversations with them. Whether it is chatting before lunch with a student or asking them about their day as they are packing up to go home, these students' responses seem more relatable and relational-- in comparison to a first grader for example. This particular age group has lots of interesting and valuable things to say, but sometimes it is not so easy to draw these things out of them. Sometimes they need to be encouraged to speak up.

As a teacher-in-training, I have also needed to be encouraged to speak up, by my cooperating teacher and even by my own students! This week, I was taking my students back from their special at library (which was in a fairly large room) and so I yelled, in what I thought was a loud enough voice, "Okay sixth graders, it's time to leave for math. Pack up your things and then line up at the door." As they all began to pack up, one of my students turned to me and said, "you have a soft voice."

Basically he was saying, you need to speak up.

Even though this was just one brief comment that maybe did not have much thought put into it (and was maybe even borderline disrespectful), it meant something to me. As I teacher, I need to speak up, which can show up in a variety of ways and take on a variety of meanings. For example...

When you are teaching a class, speak up.

In terms of audibility, I have noticed that I need to speak louder when teaching. I did some practice filming for my edTPA this week (as well as real filming) and noticed that I am hard to hear, which may be due in part to the overall camera quality, but it made me realize that I can and should be speaking louder than I have been. When teaching, it is important to speak clearly and confidently. I have found that in doing so, students gain a stronger sense of understanding and respect for you as a teacher. This week I taught eight lessons total, and each one I teach, I gain little more confidence and understanding of the curriculum, my students, and my ability to teach. Because of these things, I can and have spoken up a little more with each lesson taught.

When a student does something extraordinary, speak up.

Sometimes all it takes for a student to share their unique abilities is for a teacher to name it. One of my math students this week showed an in-depth and advanced understanding of a concept that I had not yet taught. This student is one who is shy and rarely speaks in class, even when working in a small group. He is not placed at the high table and often lacks evidence of understanding on his assignments. But I caught that he understood this, so I challenged him to speak up. When encouraged to do so he explained his method for solving a problem on the board for the rest of the class to learn from, and it seemed like a bit of a breakthrough moment for him. The next day, the class took a pre-assessment and there was one particular problem that the class struggled with and only two students got it correct. One of them just so happened to be the shy student who spoke up the previous day. This time, I spoke up and told him how extraordinary he was for not only getting this question correct, but also for demonstrating his knowledge.

When a student does something not-so-extraordinary, speak up.

This is one I have trouble with. I would be perfectly content with students that always listen to me, respect me, and behave properly. This week, I had to discipline multiple times. At one point, one student would not listen to me when I told him to get back in his spot in line. Once he did not listen, it became a respect issue. Even though I am still timid about discipline at times, I spoke up and gave him the choice to either get in the back of the line in the next five seconds or going back to the room and flip his card. He waited much longer than the five seconds and then went to the back of the line, so I made him return to the room to flip his card. As a student-teacher, I realize that I am going to get a little pushback about discipline and have already been experiencing that. My teacher had a conversation with the class earlier in the week prior to this incident telling them that they are to treat me like their teacher. One girl in the class told me that a boy sitting next to her responded to this with, "I'm not going to treat her like my teacher." Unfortunately, there could be more students in the class like this, so by speaking up and cracking down on discipline, I may be able to establish the respect I deserve as their teacher.

As a teacher, you should speak up for your students and encourage them to speak up as well.

Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 9 covers professionalism, leadership, and advocacy. This whole idea of speaking up for your students directly relates to the advocacy piece of this standard. By speaking up for students, you are advocating for them. As a teacher, you can help students to have their voices heard. Often, when my math students are answering a question, they speak quietly and I tell them that I cannot hear them. I do this so that they will make their voices heard, because they truly do have intelligent things to say. I also appreciated this week when my students spoke up and let me know that they were confused and that I needed to explain a particular concept further. This week I also experienced their voices being hear through voting on door decoration ideas. Each student has a voice in this, and has the ability to speak up. We started a unit this week on Ancient Realms and I was thankful that my students spoke up to say how excited they were for this unit. When students speak up for the things they care about and the knowledge they have, it is a beautiful thing!

Goals for this week:
-Speak louder when filming the remainder of my edTPA.
-Speak up and tell at least three students about something that they have a particular strength in.
-Do not be afraid to discipline, and when you do, do it confidently.