Week 11: Toppling Towers of Spaghetti

On Friday, my class built spaghetti towers.

We just finished a math unit, so for the final day before March break, jumping straight into the next math unit wasn't ideal. Instead, we did a STEM activity involving spaghetti, yarn, tape, and marshmallows.

Not only did it involve those four things, but those were the only materials that my students were allowed to use. Each group of three students was given 10 sticks spaghetti, 20 inches of yarn, 1 yard of tape, and 1 marshmallow. Their goal was to build the tallest standing structure to support their marshmallow using only those materials with 15 minutes on the clock. Their structure would be measured from the floor to the marshmallow. Here are a few pictures of my students hard at work....

Looks like hard work, right? It's true, my students put a lot of hard work, strategizing, and logical thinking into building their spaghetti towers.

But you know what? They all fell.

Yep. Every single one of them. As soon as the fifteen minute timer went off, their hands had to take their hands off their structures. No sooner had they taken their hands off when one by one, each structure toppled over. There was a bag of marshmallows on the line for the winning team, but unfortunately, no one was awarded that bag of marshmallows since not one team met the requirements (but don't worry, they still split the prize and got one marshmallow each).

The students may have failed at building their spaghetti structure, but that doesn't mean that the activity was a failure. There was still a lot to learn. We talked about what worked and what didn't. We talked about the importance of both planning and risk taking. We viewed pictures of successful structures, and what we would change for next time. Here are a few specific things that we learned from this activity...

Trying something sometimes means taking a risk.

Like these spaghetti towers, sometimes you just have to stop overcomplicating things and take a risk. This week, my students had multiple tests, so I thought it would be a nice break to do a fun review activity in the form of a game. It involved movement and noise, so I thought it would for sure be a success. We ended up having to stop the game twice because of noise levels, arguing, and lack of listening. That being said, I will not be doing that game again. Playing this type of review game was risky, especially with this class. But I did learn that my class cannot handle this type of game, and I will plan accordingly in the future. Despite taking this seemingly unsuccessful risk, I think that it is important to encourage students to take risks in their work.

This week, I got to experience parent teacher conferences. I got to sit in on the conferences of a few different teachers (all with the parents' permission), so it was good to see how teachers differed from each other in running their conferences. During some of these conferences, one thing that continually came up, was the need for the student to take more risks. Students can get so stuck in right and wrong thinking, that they forget to think outside the box. Instead of focussing so heavily on getting a specific grade (which is countercultural in many Asian cultures), kids need to be kids, taking risks, and putting creativity into the work they do.


If something does not work the first time, that doesn't mean that you've failed.

Many of my students started their spaghetti towers by creating a base, which was actually a really great idea. They were definitely onto something. They did not quite get it to work, but the whole idea was not in and of itself a failure. I have also tried a few things (such as that review game) that seemed to be failures at first, but it doesn't mean I've failed. I have emphasized how loud and noisy my class can be. And really, they are so loud. all. the. time. You can imagine that the week before spring break wasn't any calmer. Well I decided to try something out to try to gather their attention when it seemed to be straying off. The whole "one, two, three, eyes on me" seems to be too juvenile for them,  and I DON'T want to revert to their last student teacher's method of using a whistle (although I've been tempted). It needed to be fun, interactive, and maybe even involve a bit of movement. So I tried the "If you hear me clap once," except I'd say it kind of quiet the first time, so only the students around me could hear, and I would say different numbers not starting at one. It was kind of like a game, and I hyped it up as much as I could. Once I started trying it during class, some of the boys refused to clap even though I called them out, and since there is no behavior management system in place, there is no consequence in place for not listening to me. Even though this method did not work, I am going to continue to look for different attention-getter strategies. Any suggestions are welcome!


You learn from your mistakes.

As each spaghetti tower toppled over, I'm sure many of my student thought to themselves, oh no, I've made a mistake. Despite this, the students still learned from their mistakes and they learned from the activity. You do not always get things right the first time and that's life, but you can choose to learn from those mistakes. I am noticing that the same goes for teaching as well. I am a student teacher right now, so if I am going to make some mistakes, now is the time, especially while being supported by a cooperating teacher. I had my first observation this week, and overall it went really well. It is nice to get feedback from people who are experienced in the field of education and can help you see the ways you are doing well as well as the ways in which you can improve. The main improvement that I was told in which I could make based on this observation is stopping to get all the students' attention. This is feedback that I will use to continue to keep trying and keep getting better so that I can be the best teacher that I can be.


When you get it, it's a really great thing.

After the spaghetti tower activities, we got to see picture of successful spaghetti towers that hadn't toppled. My students oohed and ahhed at the simple, but creative structures, saying things like, "we totally could have done that!" Although it takes mistakes to get there, when you finally find something that works, it is a wonderful thing. Even though I just went on and listed some of the things that did not work so well for me, I also had moments this week where I though, wow, this is really working well! I taught the final science lesson of the book this week, which was on exploring space. For part of the lesson, I turned off the lights and we simply viewed pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Students could comment on what they liked about it and what they wondered about it. There were 100 pictures in the album, but we only had time for about 15. When I stopped it, they wanted to see more. I also heard a student say, "I love learning about science!" (which is something I never would have heard at my last placement!) I also showed my students a video about comparing the earth to the size of a golfball to show them how big the rest of space really is, and how we cannot even begin to wrap our minds around how small we are and how big this universe and God really are. This was one of those lessons where I thought afterwards, this really worked well. I could tell my students learned a lot and were impacted by the lesson.

Another thing that I got to see this week, which I thought went very well, were student led conferences (SLCs). For SLCs, parents would come to class and the student would show them different activities in science, math, and English, showing them what we have been learning recently. The students seemed to be so excited about showing their parents what they were learning. It was especially fun to see those students who don't usually participate start explaining the content in ways that I did not even realize they knew!

And now...

It's off to Cambodia for (a much needed) Spring Break!



Classroom Confidential: Chapter 6
One strategy that I enjoyed reading about which I could incorporate into my own teaching is the section about codes. At my last placement, there was a "Crypto Club" which was having students decode things and look at ciphers. Simply by having review activities or even introducing a concept in this way would be more engaging for the students.

Listen and Draw was another strategy that I could see myself easily incorporating into my teaching. My students right now love to be busy doing things, and many have trouble just sitting still and listening. By having my students engage in the activity of drawing the things they are envisioning in their heads, I would be catering to a variety of learning styles. I also think it would be cool to use these pictures for sort of a gallery walk style discussion where we could see the things that our classmates made and then talk about it as a class.

One last strategy/activity that I would like to implement into my teaching is the Everyone's an Editor strategy, specifically the Editor-in-Chief. So far, it seems like the students I have had for student teaching could use a lot of help on editing their work. Students can be quick to see the errors of others, but not see the flaws in their own work. By having each student actively participate in the editing process in a way that seems like a game, they will be more motivated to find those small errors within their and others' writing.

Week 10: Can You Hear Me Now?

You have most likely heard the well known phrase, "Can you hear me now?" which appears in a Verizon (or was it Sprint?) cell phone commercial. I found myself saying this phrase, "can you hear me now" frequently while attempting to FaceTime a friend, and fellow student teacher, last week due to the sometimes spotty WiFi. I would be talking to my friend, telling her about my experience in Indonesia so far, and suddenly I would realize she wasn't listening because she could no longer hear me. With lots of redialing, reconnecting, and repeated can you hear me nows, we were slowly but surely able to catch up with each other and really hear what each other had to say.

As strange as this may sound, I have had similar experiences to this FaceTime call in my classroom this past week. I taught my first lesson last week. Similar to the FaceTime call, I was talking and in the middle of the lesson, when I realized that my students seemed to not be listening and that they could no longer hear me. This was not because because of faulty WiFi or confusing concepts, but rather it was because students were talking while I was. When one students started talking, others started talking, and to make matters worse, I didn't quite have their names all down yet. It seemed like what I was saying was not quite reaching them.

This trend continued in my future lessons as well. I taught one or two lessons every day last week and had the same continuous problem. My students were just plain noisy while I was teaching. This was very frustrating for me at first. Because of the lack of behavior management system, I did not have a set way of getting their attention. By loudly stating "5th graders!" and then individually calling them out for talking, I can eventually get them to quiet down. But no sooner after I start speaking, I hear the mumble of voices under mine once again.

In my last placement, there was a strict behavior management system in place. If the students talked while I was talking, they would be told to be quiet by me, their teacher, and if it persisted, they would be told to flip their card. This seemed to work for all the students, and because of this, silence was common.

Here, silence is rare.

As I continued to observe and teach, I have come to realize something about the lack of silence. Noise and talking doesn't mean that my students are not engaged. At my last placement, if my students were talking, it meant that they were off task. Here, I do not think it's quite the case. It is hard to get this class to quiet down, but a lot of the time, this is due to the fact that they are all shouting out answers and vocalizing their thought processes.

They are just noisy learners.

It took me a little bit to realize this fact and face this truth, but talking does not mean not engaged. My students are hearing me just fine (most of the time). When I look at their assignments and evaluate their learning, they are learning in my lessons even though I often doubt whether they even hear me. However, it doesn't stop at simply being heard. I can go one step further and connect with them on a more meaningful level through the way that I teach.

Just like that FaceTime call, I need to continually look for ways to reconnect to my students.

Reconnecting to my students looks different for each class. In order to reconnect to my students, I need to know how they learn best. I have quickly learned that these students learn best when given the opportunity and the freedom to talk. Illinois Professional Teaching Standard says, "The competent teacher plans and designs instruction based on content area knowledge, diverse student characteristics, student performance data, curriculum goals, and the community context. The teacher plans for ongoing student growth and achievement." The specific and diverse needs of this class is that they need to move and talk while learning. I am intentionally trying to find ways to make lessons extra engaging and hands-on for this group. Here are a few ways that I have incorporated noise and movement into the classroom...

-In math, we are working with 3D shapes, so we have been creating our own 3D shapes by cutting them out and folding them to make our own.

-For science, we are learning about the solar system. I had students get up to model this by having one student be the sun, one student be the earth and it's rotation/revolution, and one student be the moon and it's rotation/revolution. Students have also done this in small groups as well.

-When we look at something on the board, they all have the option of getting up and sitting on the carpet.

-In general, I am more lax about the volume level in my class while teaching, as long as students can still hear me.

By catering to my students' diverse needs, I am trying to reach them and I am trying to get the to hear me. They are used to learning in a noisy environment, but I think teaching with this diverse characteristic in mind has helped them to learn even more. Teaching in this type of environment is definitely not something I am used to this, and it is something that I am still navigating through. I am starting to accept that teaching with complete silence is just not going to happen with this class.

I know what they say, silence is golden, but this class doesn't seem to be in the market for that.



Here are a few other highlights from the week:

-I finished and submitted my edTPA! Yay! Because of this, I feel like I can relax and enjoy my placement a bit more. So far, it is so nice to have this weight off my shoulders!

-I got to observe an ELL classroom. When I got there, the students were each allowed to ask me one question, so I answered questions like "What is your favorite color?" and "What is your favorite fruit?" In their lesson they talked about big animals and small animals and participated in some pretty engaging activities. Every time I observe an ESL setting, I am reminded how much I love it! Whether it is next year or somewhere down the road, I would love to teach in an ELL classroom.

-I taught my first lesson! Overall, it went well. Ironically, I was teaching a lesson on how the earth's movement affects seasons, only to realize that Indonesia does not quite have those seasons (only rainy and dry). It was fun trying to explain this, but I think my students understood. I have noticed that there are lots of little cultural differences like this that pop up while I plan my lessons. For example, I was putting together an "I Spy" game for my students with different real life 3D shapes and realized that I was finding things that they might not know what it was!

Week 9: Out of the Ordinary

Halo from Indo! (Halo is hello, Indo is Indonesia--you get the point.)

Just like that, my first week of student teaching in Indonesia is done! Part of me feels like I just got here yesterday, and another part of me feels like I've already been here for much longer. Time is a weird thing! Speaking of time, I am thirteen, now twelve, hours ahead over here, and am just about over some major jet lag. There is so much I could say about my first week especially as I am in both a new classroom and a new country.

To sum it up, this week was a bit (okay, A LOT) out of the ordinary.

On Sunday, my taxi picked me up from the airport and weaved through the infamous Jakarta traffic to the southern side of the city where it dropped me off in front of my apartment. No wait, it dropped me off in front of a mall. Wait, no it was the school.

Actually, it is all three of those things. I live in an apartment that is beneath the school that is connected to the mall all in one huge high-rise building. Not so ordinary, right? Here is the view from my apartment:

The coming week was also sure to be out of the ordinary as three of the five days were dress up days, one was a holiday (day off), and one was a professional development day, all of which I was informed of upon my arrival. Monday was the start of book week, so the students could either wear their uniform, or dress up like a book character. Tuesday was Dr. Seuss day, so the students could dress up like any Dr. Seuss character. Wednesday was dress like an author day (which I still do not understand what that means). Below is a picture of my class on Dr. Seuss day. About 3/4 of the school was either Thing 1 or Thing 2, hence all the red shirts. I attempted (very last minute might I add) to dress as Horton from Horton Hears a Who.

Before this placement, I had been in the same 6th grade classroom since August, so the students, the teacher, and the way things were run had become ordinary. Coming to a new placement, with new students, and a new cooperating teacher, things are far from my previous standard of ordinary.

It became ordinary for my students to be quiet, not really enjoying school. You could say my students are out of the ordinary as they are a pretty energetic and talkative bunch.

It became ordinary for my cooperating teacher to be pretty strict. You could say my new CT is out of the ordinary under that standard.

It became ordinary for there to be a closely followed behavior management system in place. Again, that would be a bit out of the ordinary here, or at least in this classroom.

To flesh out some of these out-of-the-ordinary qualities, I'll explain what I mean. When telling other people that I am a student teacher in this particular class, they cringe a bit and say "good luck." This particular class is notorious for being full of energy, noisy, and with as much craziness for it to still be a good thing. Apparently their last student teacher had to use a whistle. They are unlike any other class in the school, or so I've heard. For some reason, they just have an extra dose of energy than other classes, and they always have. As for the way my cooperating teacher handles this, I was surprised off the bat. During class while my CT is teaching, the students often walk around and talk during the lesson. I am still trying to figure out how much "withitness" my CT has that this is all going on. Through my own observing, I was able to see a lot of what went on behind the scenes, which was a lot. As I mentioned, there is not much of a classroom management system in place. In fact there is not one. This is a huge change of pace from my last placement because whenever students would talk there, they would immediately be punished. Here, they just talk all the time. I am seeing both extremes, so it will be interesting navigating this way of managing a classroom once I start teaching.

When I first observed this rambunctiousness during class, I thought there was no way that the students are actually learning, but when I checked their work, they knew exactly what they are doing. These students are smart. I mean this as nicely as possible, but this is a huge change from my first placement. Those students were very low, especially in math. My 5th graders here do great with math as well as other subjects. On Dr. Seuss Day, my CT had a spur of the moment idea in reading to have them write their own Dr. Seuss stories. This is going to be interesting. So that's what they did. The students paired up or worked on their own and spent 20 minutes or so working on writing a Dr. Seuss style story. As I walked around, looking and listening in on their conversations and work, I was surprised by what I saw. These students were writing stories that were way above the level of what I would expect from 5th graders, incorporating creative writing styles and original ideas. Their writing was extraordinary compared to my 6th graders in my last placement, which is a refreshing change of pace.

Do you know what else is out of the ordinary, in fact, it's extraordinary? This is a Christian school! I have never been in a placement at a Christian school during my time at Trinity. I am discovering how much of a gift it is to be able to talk about Jesus with your students freely and openly. Wednesday is Chapel day, so after lunch we all gathered as 4th-6th grade classes on the very top floor for Chapel. Some of the students from my class led worship, which was so cool to watch, and then one of the PE teachers gave a message.

Another out-of-the-ordinary thing that I have enjoyed is squeezing the entire 5th grade class on one elevator at the end of the day to go 5 floors down to street level. Oh, and did I mention that there are 13 floors in this building and that during the school day, we only use the stairs?

There are a lot of ways that life here in Indonesia is out of the ordinary to me. The traffic, the language, the temperature, the food, etc.--All of these things make life out of the ordinary right now, but over time, I am sure some of these things will become more ordinary to me as I adjust.

Week 8: Flying Solo

As I am writing this, I am on a plane on my way to Indonesia. I have traveled to pretty far places before, but never by myself. I am quite literally flying solo.

I did a lot of flying solo this week, both figuratively and literally. As it was my last week at Stony Creek Elementary, so I had the opportunity to travel around from classroom to classroom in order to observe different ages and types of classrooms. It was really nice to just do my own thing and gain all of these beneficial experiences. I also had the opportunity to solo teach once again as my teacher subbed in another classroom.

In each of these classrooms, I had very different experience, and had various insights and reactions. In my first observation, I went to a 5th grade classroom to observe math. One thing that was really surprising to me was the great difference in maturity, behavior, and interest in learning between 5th and 6th. Despite there being only one year difference between these grades, there seemed to be a huge difference. The 5th graders seemed so young compared to the 6th graders. During the math class, the teacher I was observing used PearDeck as an entrance and exit ticket for her students. I have learned about PearDeck in the past, but I had never actually used it in the classroom.

This week I changed that.

For one of my reading lessons, I created a PearDeck game to review vocabulary. Although the students had fun with it, they did not take it seriously enough because their sentences were horrible (and my cooperating teacher let them know that). However, I am not going to be discouraged by this because this specific class really struggles with vocabulary. With a different class (such as my next placement) I think this tool would be greatly beneficial.

On Tuesday morning, I got to observe three out of the four 4th grade classes. Things did not go as planned and one class had to end up testing, causing all of the other classes to change their plans. The three remaining classes were all doing Junior Scholastic articles about Pandas. It was interesting to see that even though they were all doing the same topic/resources, they used different teaching methods. Some had worksheets, some had online magazines, some had the physical magazine, some used BrainPop, some were independent, some were in partners, and so on. This simply shows how there are endless ways to structure activities, and that it will vary depending on your students and how they work best.

During my observation, I was also surprised by how (inwardly) critical I was when observing certain classes. Yes, I am just a student teacher, but I can also tell when something is being taught well or not so well. In one particular classroom, I felt like I wanted to jump in the whole time. I didn't of course, but the students all seemed to not be listening, and the teacher did nothing about it. The style of classroom management did not seem effective, the students were not speaking/reading loud enough, and the whole lesson just seemed a bit disorganized. There was also a lot of students that ended up of the ground during this class, which I was super confused by. If that would have happened in my class, I would have told the students to get back in their seats, but the teacher did not even acknowledge it. In another instance, the teacher was showing a math problem incorrectly, or at least I thought it was being computed incorrectly. If it were my cooperating teacher, I would have spoken up, but I did not want to do that in a classroom that I was in for the first time.

Although some of the classroom management styles were styles I do not want to repeat, I also picked up a few strategies that seemed beneficial along the way. In one classroom, the teacher used was a super clap to quiet her students down, two if needed. One teacher used a "clip down" method similar to the card flipping method in my homeroom. One teacher let her students show their work on their laptop by "doing a lap" around the room with their laptop so that the other students could see their work. In another classroom, the students began reading in British accents (it was a British story) and they seemed to have fun and stay engaged with that. I realize that some classes would not be able to handle that, but this one was.

The 2nd grade teacher/classroom that I observed was great! The teacher had an entirely different demeanor than that of, say, a 6th grade teacher. Even I changed the way I talked to them than I would for my 6th graders. 2nd grade is a bit younger than I would like to teach, but it was good for me to have the experience of observing this age level. These students were very young, but I they were able to do more than I expected. I was observing during a reading lesson, and then after that they broke off in centers. I asked a few of them questions about what they were working on and had them read to me out loud while some were doing independent reading.

Another experience I enjoyed during my time flying solo this week was observing a 6th grade Two-Way Immersion (TWI) classroom. It was interesting because many of the student in that class are either in my math or my science class, so seeing them speak Spanish sort of showed a completely different side of them. They started doing their reading lesson in English, and then did the second part of it in Spanish. I was able to understand most of what they were saying, and I even tried out my Spanish speaking skills a bit!

Lastly, I really enjoyed the experience of observing and getting involved in an ESL classroom. I didn't realize it until then, but I really enjoy teaching in and ELL resource room, and it is not something I have been able to do since last year. One of my students was in room while I was observing. I got to work with her a bit and we even walked around the school, pointing out different objects and how to say them. That student talked more than I ever had heard her talk. The ESL teacher said that this was the case with many of the students in her room. This room created an environment for the students were they felt comfortable to learn and speak out when they had questions or when they had anything to say at all, which is important to do in any classroom.

I learned a lot while flying solo in both my teaching and observing from class to class. In my teaching, it allowed me to be more comfortable and do my own thing. In observing, it allowed me to see different places, and observe differences between both students and teachers.

Week 7: 절대 포기하지 마

One trend that I've noticed in my blog posts lately is that many are inspired by something I heard my students say or tell me. Although this consistent trend in themes was unintentional, it caused me to realize that I am inspired by my students (no matter how misbehaving they may be at times).

This post is no different.

So there is this student in my class who has a tendency to have one of those too-cool-for-you attitudes. He's pretty smart and loves to tell everyone how what he thinks is always right. You get the picture. That is why what happened next was completely unexpected to me. He came up to my desk and handed me this...

"It says never give up in Korean," he told me as he placed it in my hands. Taken off guard, I just told him how cool it was and thanked him. This student isn't Korean, and I still don't know exactly why he gave me this, but it was more encouraging to me than he even knows.

He had no idea that I love languages and learning about them (especially Asian languages!).

He had no idea that two of my friends are Korean.

He had no idea that some of my students in a few weeks are Korean.

He had no idea that I really needed the reminder to never give up.

Never giving up is crucial in student teaching. Never give up on your students or yourself, especially when things have not changed yet. At this point in my student teaching, I'm starting to get sentimental and look back on these past six and a half months with my 6th graders, since I have to leave them next week. Illinois Teaching Standard 3 talks about how a "teacher plans for ongoing student growth and achievement." The key word is ongoing, not all at once. Looking back, I see so much ongoing student growth during this time with my students, as well as progress and change. If I had given up on certain things with them or with myself, that same growth could have been produced.


Here's how I've seen my students grow...

For awhile, my students seemed pretty bored with learning. There are still times where this seems to be the case, but I have seen such improvement. I have seen a lot more sparks of joy throughout our learning than I used to. Last week in social studies, we were going through an assignment where students were required to illustrate an economic achievement in this box on their paper. I decided to have one person from each group go up to the board and draw out these achievements. This exercise turned in to us laughing at the less-than-stellar pictures that appeared on the board, yet each student gave a detailed description of the economic achievement they were attempting to illustrate and why it was an economic achievement. It was funny and it was memorable. The students definielty learned and they definitely had fun, two things that seemed to be mutually exclusive in the past.

I have also seen progress on the individual level. One student who used to speak very little English in August has come so far and made immense improvement. I can now have a conversation with her and understand a majority of it. My other ELL student who arrived in January who spoke absolutely no English, can now say things like "bathroom," "twenty-four" (her class number), and "thank you teacher." These are small things, but improvements nonetheless. I've seen students who were timid about their math abilities become more outwardly confident, willingly volunteering to walk the class through a problem. I've seen students who were often unengaged make progress by more regularly participating in class discussions.


Here's how I've seen myself grow...

At the beginning of this week, my teacher told me that she was going to try to be out of the room as much as she could. She even told me that I should sit at her desk for the week rather than the side table! This suggestion both overwhelmed me and excited me, and I willingly accepted the challenge. And you know what? I did it. And it went extremely well. By the end of this week, I can look back and see how much growth was produced before and during this experience. A few months ago, I would not have so willingly done this, and I do not think it would have gone as well as it did. Throughout these past months I can see now that I was being prepared all the while, learning about the behavior managements in place, grading papers, learning about the curriculum, and so many other specific aspects of this classroom. Because of this ongoing preparation, I was able to hold my own in a classroom without the physical presence of my cooperating teacher, and it felt like real teacher.

I have also seen immense growth in my classroom management. Before, I was hesitant to discipline students. What was once hesitancy has now been replaced with confidence and firmness in the way I discipline. Part of it comes from imitating the behavior management style of my teacher, who has a very strict/stern/sarcastic tone, but I also have combined pieces of this with my own tone and my own beliefs in discipline. Because of the lessons I have learned in classroom management, I feel more prepared to manage behavior and a classroom in general in my next placement and even into a future job.


Here are a few things I need to never give up on, even though I have not seen much growth yet...

The reading curriculum is boring and there is no denying this. I have tried to make it more engaging at times, some of those times being successful, and other times not being so successful. Despite the successes and non-successes, I am still choosing to not give up and keep trying.

My students also seem to have gotten lazier on some of their assignments. When I grade them, it seems like their effort has taken a plunge and their missing slips are piling up. Last week they had the whole week to read 3 chapters in our novel, and when I got to the day it was due, I suspected that many of them did not get it done and needed more time. I asked them to answer honestly whether they had thoroughly read the chapters, and about five students' hands went up. I decided to give them grace and give them one more day, but it was discouraging to see this lack of effort. Nevertheless, I am not going to give up on the expectations that I have for them.

Lastly, not all of my students respect me as their teacher. This has been difficult, especially with discipline. I have seen growth in my ability to discipline and do it respectfully, but on the contrary, I have not seen that same respect from all of my students. My students are continually getting off task, forging signatures, and chatty as ever, even when I discipline them. It takes a lot of perseverance to not give up, especially when it feels like you're constantly fighting them at times. In this case, never giving up looks like patience, calmness even when you are frustrated, and consistency.


Never give up. As cliche as this statement is, it still holds a lot of value, especially in this student teaching experience. I showed my Korean friends what my student had made me, and they were both impressed by it. I then told my student about showing his work to my friends. A few days later, he comes up to me and hands me these...

"Can you give these to your two friends? I am not going to tell you what it says, so you'll need to ask them first." I thanked him, saying that I am sure that my friends will love it (whatever it says). After giving these notes to my friends, they translated it as "You will do great things. Always keep doing your best."

Despite a student's sometimes-slightly-arrogant attitude, don't give up on them. There is a sweet side to them, and it might just take a teacher who never gives up to draw that out of them.

Week 6: Highs, Lows, and Buffaloes

I recently learned of a game/activity called Highs, Lows, and Buffaloes. This is something I have encountered outside of the classroom, but could see it being incorporated into my classroom. If you have ever heard of Happy Crappy or Highs and Lows, it is basically the same thing. In small group settings, each member goes around and shares something about their week (or day or experience) that was a high, low, and buffalo. A high would be something that was a highlight or brought the joy. A low would be something that they struggled with or was difficult. Lastly, a buffalo would be something awkward or really anything else they want to share that does not fall into those two categories. Each participant's story is different, and no two are alike.

The same goes for my student teaching.

No two weeks of my student teaching experience are alike. In fact, no two days of student teaching are alike. Each week, each day, and each subject may contain consistencies, yet so many variables remain. There are high, lows, and buffaloes.

Let's start with the Lows since I would rather end on a high note.

Disciplining is something that is necessary, but not something that I enjoy doing. This week, I caught one of my students plagiarizing on an assignment and gave him a detention and wrote him up because of it and because of the rules/consequences that are already put into place for this type of misbehavior. I met with the student and talked with him calmly, asking him what he thought was wrong with his assignment, why what he did was wrong and why plagiarism is wrong, and what the consequences were. During that whole time, he did not say a word.

Another particularly low moment of this week was grading and the results of that grading. I had a lot of online grading to get done this week. As I progressed through my students' assignments, I was extremely disappointed with the lack of effort put into their submitted work, particularly in their vocabulary. The assignment was to define the word (which we did together) and then create your own sentence using that word. Each word contains the type of speech, yet in a majority of my students' sentences, they used the wrong type of speech. Some of their sentences did not even contain the vocabulary word. For some students, this was done out of pure laziness, and for others, it was done out of compete misunderstanding. Because of this, I have recognized the need for changing the way that this vocabulary is taught and learned. Illinois Teaching Standard says, "The competent teacher has foundational knowledge of reading, writing, and oral communication within the content area and recognizes and addresses student reading, writing, and oral communication needs to facilitate the acquisition of content knowledge." Using proper grammar and English conventions in writing is something that so many of my students struggle with, and it shows in their other class work as well. I had a chat with my whole class about the issues that I have been seeing in their vocabulary assignments. Rather than having vocabulary tacked onto the end of assignments, I am now taking more class time to discuss the meaning of words as a class more in depth and review what each type of speech means. Although they have a long way to go, I have seen some improvement already.

Next, we'll move to the Buffaloes.

This one is less serious, and can encapsulate a variety of instances this week in which odd, random, or embarrassing things happened. For example, I taught a science lesson with basketball hoops around the room (which the students loved!) but the basketball hoops kept falling off the wall when the students would shoot. In other instances I posted the wrong assignment, and on one occasion I tripped in front of half the school during an assembly, but that's a whole other story.

A few other random things that happened this week. I was able to have a conversation with my class about hallway behavior, and since then, their hallway behavior has dramatically improved. I was also able to be the teacher for the day on Monday since the school was short on substitute teachers and my teacher went and taught in a different room for the day. This was another memorable experience, and it is these days which make me all the more confident in my abilities for having my own classroom someday.

Despite the lows and buffaloes, I had many Highs throughout the week as well.

This week, I had my final observation from my supervisor, which went well and sort of signified an end and an accomplishment, making me feel more ready to move onto my next placement in less than two weeks! Another high for me was teaching a math lesson that the students finally seemed to catch onto right away. As I have said before, math has been a struggle lately, and the students just did not seem to be grasping the concepts. They took a test on Monday, so we started a new unit this week, and right now, it seems to be going well.

Like last week, this week was a tough one and a tiring one. There were low moments were it seemed so difficult to reach the students or even see that I was having any impact on their learning, but there were still moments that made up for all of that. I saved my highest High moment for last. At our class Valentine's day party on Thursday, one of my students gave me one of the sweetest cards that I could receive and one which I really needed to hear....

Dear Miss Lins,

You are doing an amazing job at being a student teacher and helping all of the class with their weird questions that they ask, and on February 11, 2019 on keeping the class together and working productively. You are the sweetest ever and you have the slowest temper ever. You and Mrs. C work so well together. I thank you for all that you have done to help all of the class and do all you can to keep a class of 24 11-12 years old boys and girls. I give you full credit to all you do in all of the classes that you teach. Hope you have a good Valentine's day. 

Sincerely, 
-----------


Classroom Confidential: Great Teachers Are Drama Queens
"The arts are ways of knowing" (page 189). I loved this quote because it highlights the way that art can find itself weaved into the learning processes that occur in the classroom. Often, we refer to knowing as answering questions on a test or in a discussion, when it could also take the form of art. Art gives us ways to communicate with each other without even speaking or writing. I could see this being especially helpful for my English Language Learners as speaking and writing are more difficult for them. There are times where they understand, but they do not know how to express it.

I also loved the section about movement. I have a tendency to think movement is dance, but they are two related yet very different things. One activity that stood out to me was the Galloping Grammar. First, it just sounds like a lot of fun (since I love grammar), but I also think my students would find so much value in this since grammar is something that they struggle with. I could use examples of student work that was done incorrectly, and we could correct it by showing the galloping grammar movements. I also think the Thesaurus Game would be especially helpful to use in my class because the students could use a little more spice to their writing. Right now, they use very basic words, even for sixth graders. They would be able to expand their horizons in writing and be able to communicate with more specific words.

One specific authentic assessment that I saw in this chapter was the students "show me" instead of "tell me." In this method, students can show an emotion, draw a picture, or represent any question without using words, but rather showing it. So often we ask a question in order for students to tell us. With this method of assessing students, you can see how well they understood/are able to answer the question. I could use this in my classroom during our reading times during times that we have a whole class discussion.

Week 5: That's Tough

"That's tough." I have heard those two words come out of the mouths of my 6th graders at least 40 times this week (I promise I'm not exaggerating!). It's one of those phrases that is suddenly trendy among the students and one in which they seemingly try to fit into every conversation, despite it being borderline irrelevant to most conversations that it surfaces in. It basically means what it says. That's tough. When something bad happens, you respond with "that's tough" or that's rough or that's unfortunate. Overall, there were a lot of tough moments this week, whether lighthearted or truly tough. Despite the week's toughness, growth was also produced in both me and my students.


Here are a few examples of a few "that's tough" moments from this week:


A student dropped all of their pencils. "That's tough."

The power went out. "That's tough."

A student gymnast in the talent show didn't make her landing. "That's tough."

I told a student to flip his card. "That's tough."

None of the students answered the math question correctly. "That's tough."

I came to school with my shirt on backwards. "That's tough."


Monday morning rolled around and I got a text from my CT saying that she was taking a sick day. So I taught the whole day. I had a sub, but she did not have to do anything (and she actually did not do a thing anyway). The day was a really good kind of tough, in fact, I think it was my favorite day of student teaching so far. Part of the reasoning behind this was that I felt comfortable to truly and fully take charge of the classroom. It was tough being the sole teacher in charge, but it was so rewarding!

Caring for others can be tough. Each month at Stony Creek, the school focusses on a character pillar. This month's pillar is caring. In our classroom meeting time this week, I had the opportunity to teach an entire lesson about caring. This was interesting, as it does not fall into the category of a particular content area. It was simply a social emotional learning lesson. For this lesson, I had the students use this website called PollEverywhere to respond to live polls about the topic of caring. We had great whole-class discussions about what it means to care for others as well as how the students have experienced caring from and towards others. In one activity, I asked the students to think of what words came to mind when they thought of caring, and with those responses, they created the word cloud attached below.
As you can see, spelling can be tough too :)

Per usual, disciplining has been tough for me, and especially this week. I have continually had a few students who are disrespectful towards me and do not listen to what I tell them to do. Hallway behavior has been a huge issue as well. I am learning to discipline with love, but to still be tough about it. Being viewed as "the nice teacher" comes with both benefits and downfall, and not being taken seriously with discipline is one of those downfalls. On Monday, I will have the opportunity to specifically address the topic of hallway behavior during our classroom meeting time by having a whole class discussion about it. I plan of doing this in order to clearly communicate my expectations for them and explain my reasoning behind those expectations.

Math has been painfully tough to teach lately. The students seem to have lost interest and are just not participating in the lessons like they used to. I feel like I have been teaching them the same thing for a week and it is just not sinking in. Honestly, it has been pretty frustrating and has left me questioning my own abilities to teach and explain this particular topic. My CT has jumped in a few times and tried to reach them, but that has not been working either. It's tough to see the students struggle, but it's also tough to feel like they are not putting forth their full effort. Nevertheless, it is crucial to persevere despite the tough nature of the situation, and to continue to seek new ways to teach them, even if it means starting at the basics. Working with percents is what the students have been struggling with, so during math intervention time, I brought it all the way back to the basics of percents, and what they mean. This is a slow process of learning, but I think it has already proven to be beneficial.

Our reading curriculum is tough. Not just tough, but it's dull, monotonous, and disengaging for the students and the teachers. BUT we are required to use this curriculum.  That's tough. This online curriculum is called StudySync, also commonly referenced to as "study stink" by my 6th graders. The unit we are currently working on is called Ancient Realms, which includes historical fiction, legends, and some mythology. As exciting as that sounds like it should be, the curriculum is incredibly dry, and many of my students have come to despise reading. However, I had the idea of bringing in a graphic novel series Olympians by Geroge O'Conner, which was introduced to me in my Children's Literature course at Trinity. (In fact, I even met the author for Young Authors!) I rounded up nine of the eleven books in the series and brought them in for my sixth grader to read as supplemental material since they connect so closely to what our unit is (should be) about. These graphic novels are unique because they depict the stories of various Greek gods in a layout similar to a comic book. My 6th graders love these books, and even fight over who gets to read them during our independent reading time. It has been so fun to watch my students get excited about reading again!

Teaching is tough, but you learn roll with the punches. There have been moments this week that left me feeling down and defeated, but there were other moments where I felt so excited about teaching. I was enthusiastically describing my caring lesson to one of my friends when she stopped me mid-sentence, looked at me and said, "Han, you're having fun." Huh, I guess I am. Teaching is full of "that's tough" moments, but it is still fun and still such a joy despite that. Through those tough moments, you become tougher too. Now, when my students respond with "that's tough," I turn to them and say, "that's tough, but so are you."



Classroom Confidential: Great Teachers Are Power Brokers
In chapter 2, Schmidt talks about the concept of eptness. Before reading this chapter, I had never hear of this term before. Eptness basically means the opposite of ineptness, which is a quality that signifies someone is without skill or ability to do something. Eptness is the opposite. It is a classroom culture where each student is believed to possess great potential, and the ability to contribute to the class a whole. Each student brings different strengths to the table and can be useful and helpful towards the betterment of the class. In doing this, you see what students can do, not what they cannot.

Schmidt also talks about behaviors that teacher should use to promote eptness in their classrooms. One of the behaviors that stood out to me from this list was the first one right off the bat that talked about Approximations. When reading this, I realized my own faults with only observing students with the intention of catching their bad behaviors, rather than their good ones. The students often have independent/partner work, and so I often walk around the room from group to group observing their behaviors. I would like to start being on the lookout for good behavior and not only noticing it, but naming it out loud. The next behavior that stood out to me was Feedback, the fourth behavior listed in this chapter. Schmidt specifically mentioned feedback that uses words that are unusual which get the students' attention. Another part of this feedback that I would like to implement is more directly quoting the words used by my students when giving them my feedback. Lastly, the 10th behavior, Do Nothing for Students That They Can Do for Themselves, stood out to me. My CT does a great job of this. She assigns her students jobs and constantly gives them odds and end things to do for her. This is something that I need to make sure to do in my future classroom. I have a tendency to just do things myself, for the sake of thinking I am being helpful, when in reality, it is more helpful to have students put those responsibilities into practice. Simply having students hand out the materials for a lesson, write something on the board, or bring something to the office is an example of putting this behavior into practice.