Super-Intended to Have a Great Year

27 April, 2021

Practicum Final Blog

Today’s blog is the final one. I have done my 45+ hours of observation and will be graduating with my associates degree in just a couple weeks. That being said, this blog will be a little different than the last ones. We are going to do a review of my Intro to Ed class and see if I actually learned anything. Let’s all hope so.

Basically, I have this big long list of the things I should have learned about this semester. I have gone through and picked the ones I think are the most important. I would like to note that all of the things we have learned are important in some way, or we wouldn’t have learned about them. Right? Anyway, I chose ten (or fourteen and then deleted four randomly) I thought all teachers needed to know about. For each one, I will give you a description, an example, and what I think about the concept. Simple enough. I struggled to put these in any sort of ranking, so they’ll just be in alphabetical order.

1. Academic Engaged Time

· Academic engaged time is when the students are spending time being academically engaged. “The time a student spends on academically relevant activities or materials while experiencing a high rate of success.”

· In my experience, a lot of teachers use academically engaged time for review. For example, in high school, I had an English teacher that would play a team version of Jeopardy to review for any of our tests. We were all engaged, having fun, and wanting to be a part of the experience. He was evaluating if there was anything we should go over in more detail before the test.

· I love the idea of academically engaged time. The students are having fun. For some activities, they can be up and out of their seats. When the students are having fun, teaching is more fun. Plus, the students really absorb the information so much better when they are engaged, and not being lectured to.

2. Bloom’s Taxonomy

· Bloom’s Taxonomy is a chart that helps teachers with their lesson plans. Basically, it is broken into six different steps of learning, and for each there are a bunch of verbs to build your lesson plan with. For example, if your students are just starting to learn a subject, you want them to first remember the information (knowledge). You would want them to define terms, memorize a passage, or label a diagram. However, if they are more advanced in the subject, maybe just about to move on to a new subject, they should be at the create stage. They can collaborate with others on a project, compile information for a research project, or test their hypothesis.

· Bloom’s taxonomy is important and definitely something every teacher needs to understand and utilize. Mrs. E.’s exact words were: “Every teacher should use Bloom's Taxonomy. At the college we have to write our objectives (they call them course outcomes) for the syllabus using action verbs from Bloom's… Some teachers may not understand Bloom's or utilize the idea that students need to progress from lower order to higher order thinking, but they SHOULD understand it and be able to take almost any concept and write an objective at each level for it.”

· I used Bloom’s taxonomy for each of the lesson plans that I built. For me, it really did help to understand where my students should be in their understanding of a subject, and what sort of activities they may be able to do at that point.

3. Differentiated Instruction/ Scaffolding

· This is actually technically two different things, but they work so well together I couldn’t not include one of them. Differentiated instruction is “a variety of techniques used to adapt instruction to the individual ability levels and learning styles of each student in the classroom.” Scaffolding is one of these techniques. “Providing assistance-some structure, clues, help with remembering certain steps or procedures, or encouragement to try-when a learner is on the verge of solving a problem but cannot complete it independently.”

· I recently attended an online symposium/ caucus thing for KNEA in which there were two guest speakers, both of whom were special education instructors, who talked about how they implement differentiated instruction and scaffolding in their classrooms. One of them spoke about giving their students a ‘Love Language’ test at the beginning of the semester, keeping that info on file, and using it whenever the students need that help. This means the students who are Words of Affirmation need to hear “great job” and “I can tell you’re really working hard and I appreciate that”. Students who are Receiving Gifts may need gold stars and an award system. Either way, differentiated instruction and scaffolding are about getting to know your students as individuals and building a learning plan tailored to them.

· This one seems like one of those things that will begin as hard work but will turn into a “Why didn’t I do this sooner” kind of thing. Does that make sense? Students of all ages can tell when their teacher cares and when they are just collecting a paycheck. This one does take some effort, but will be worth it.

4. Diversity (In general and specific issues)/ Inclusion

· Having diversity in the classroom means to include students from all ethnic and demographic backgrounds. Basically, everyone has the right to an education and that means all kinds of students are going to mix together to learn and to teach. Inclusion, on the other hand, is often associated with students with disabilities (physical or learning). I have put them together on the list because I don’t think you can talk about one without talking about the other.

· When I was first assigned my practicum teachers, I noticed that two of them were English teachers with inclusion classrooms and the other was an English Special Education class. I was honestly a little nervous because Special Education is not something I had ever considered teaching. However, I loved the way the students in AA’s class. They felt more open to having discussions with each other and with AA. They were the only students who actually talked to me. AA does a great job tailoring her class lessons to include time to answer questions, she is patient in reviewing the information, and the students were excited to learn.

· Here’s the thing: I grew up in a mostly white town. Diversity (of any sort of demographic) wasn’t really discussed or something I ever really thought about until I moved into a larger city and worked with a wider range of people. Being able to meet these people and be exposed to these different cultures has really been a learning experience for me, one I wouldn’t trade. I love learning about the different places in the world and the different people out there. I really think exposing children to this kind of melting pot learning experience is important and shouldn’t be a novel idea. The world includes all kinds of humans, so many ethnicities, backgrounds, or even disabilities. Shouldn’t we be teaching our kids as soon as possible that all humans have value and should be included?

5. Lesson Planning

· To be honest with you, lesson planning may possibly be the most boring part of teaching. It is important, obviously, but it is kind of time consuming and monotonous as well. Lesson planning is sitting down with your curriculum, breaking it down to a day-to-day plan, and then breaking that down into daily activities and objectives. A lesson plan should include: a title, subject, rationale/goal, lesson’s learning objective (which needs to be written in a certain format), assessment/evaluation, introduction, teaching and learning activities, a check for understanding, closure/ conclusion, and your list of materials needed. It is how you, as a teacher, can be as prepared as possible for the day. Or, heaven forbid, you get sick and need a substitute, the lesson plan should be detailed enough for them to use.

· I haven’t actually seen a lot of examples of this in my practicum or in my student career. Because my practicum was online, I wasn’t able to see all of the materials the teachers used. I can tell which teachers used more detailed versions of them though. RG always knew how much time she could use on each task, was great with transitions, and had good classroom management skills. If I had to guess, she was the one who had the most detailed lesson plan. AA and I spoke briefly about her lesson plan. She told me she mostly uses the same ones she has used in previous years, just tweaking them as needed. Her lessons are structured a little more loosely, and you can tell sometimes one group will not be at the same point another group will be at. I know when you are making sure all of your students understand the lesson, each group may be a little different, but I can tell her lesson planning is a little more loosely structured.

· Lesson planning is boring and monotonous, but it must be done. It is important to know how one lesson is going to tie into the next, at what stage of learning your students are at, and what would happen if you needed a substitute. I am going to spend the next couple of years figuring out a way to make it fun, or at least more entertaining. Challenge accepted!

6. Philosophies of Educations

· A philosophy of education is basically a teacher’s letter to their future employers about what kind of teacher they will be. How they think, learn, instruct, and their values. A philosophy of education can be broken down into four basic schools of philosophy: Perennialism, essentialism, romanticism, and progressivism. There is technically also eclecticism, but that one means to systematically take pieces from the other philosophies until you are satisfied with your own style.

· I asked WG about her own philosophy of education, after we wrote ours in class. She told me she hadn’t written one since she got hired at her current job, a couple decades ago.

· From talking to WG, writing my own philosophy of education, and observing my practicum teachers, I believe each teacher’s philosophy is always changing. It is like the Constitution: a living, breathing document. It changes as needed. Teachers are constantly learning from their students, colleagues, and administration. They see the world in new ways with each new experience. Their philosophy of how to teach their students will change with their students. I don’t necessarily believe it will be easy to keep up on writing out a new philosophy every year, but maybe every couple of years evaluating yourself would be a good idea.

7. Planning/ Implementing/ Evaluating Decisions

· As we discussed, having a plan is important. Being able to implement it, and evaluate how well it works is a whole other beast. You need to be able to look at what you are doing, how well the students are doing, what administration sees, and then shift whatever isn’t working. It can be difficult to look at the plan you worked so hard on and then change it, but if it isn’t working for your students, then it isn’t working.

· WG and I had a great discussion about this a couple months ago. I asked her how she feels about evaluations from herself, administration, and her students. She told me that she loves what she does, has a mutual trust with the administration, and believes they will make the right decision for her students. The administration will give her constructive feedback that she can improve on and help her students. She also told me she isn’t great at purposeful reflection and tends to just change her plan in the moment instead of reflecting on it. Her students usually evaluate her pretty favorably, but sometimes it is hard for them to see the big picture of what she is teaching and why.

· I know that each teacher must be evaluated by their administration, and self-evaluation is something I do pretty regularly. However, the idea of having my students evaluate me intrigues me. Of course, I want them to like me, but whether or not they are learning is what I need to know. I think having my students fill out an anonymous survey, maybe once a month or so, to give general evaluations would be an interesting idea. Not necessarily a good idea, but we will see. Knowing how to critically, but kindly, evaluate others and themselves is a good skill to learn, right?

8. Relationship with Students

· A relationship with students is exactly what it sounds like. You need to have a relationship with your students. Now, every teacher takes a different approach to this, but the goal is to be friendly enough that they trust you, but not too friendly that they do not see you as an authority figure. You are their teacher, after all.

· AA has a great relationship with her students. They are very good at communicating openly with her during discussions, she can always tell when one of them is having an off day, and she knows which ones need special attention.

· I had some great teachers, and some not-so-great teachers, when I was younger, so I have some examples of what things to do and not to do. Be kind. Do not be overly friendly. Be respectful. Do not be their friend. Get to know them. Do not be condescending. Be the teacher you needed when you were their age.

9. Subject Matter

· Teachers need to understand the subject they are teaching well enough to analyze and convey their elements, logic, possible uses, and social biases. Teachers need to be able to understand the content of the school curriculum that pupils are expected to follow. Effective teachers must show pedagogical content knowledge, the knowledge that bridges content knowledge and the pedagogical.

· I think WG is a great example of this. I have made it pretty clear in the last several blogs how much I enjoy Oedipus and Julius Caesar. They are both great plays with the weirdest nonsense. I love them, but it was really clear WG does too. She is able to link the plays with an overall theme for her semester, and make it clear to her students what they mean. For Julius Caesar, she had a constant dialogue about the ethos, logos, pathos, and Kairos. That isn’t easy, but she has a thorough understanding of her subject material, so she is able to make these connections in a way her students understand.

· As I stated earlier, I am just about to graduate with my associates. This means I have two more years before I get to be a real teacher. Over the next couple of years, I will have to take all of the English courses. I have three just next semester. It will be my job to know what I am talking about. How can I expect my students to want to learn something if I didn’t take the time to learn it?

10. Teacher’s Attitude Toward Self, Students, Peers, Parents, and Subject Matter

· This one is a little complicated because there are so many parts to it. Despite that, they all break down to the basic treat others how you would want to be treated. That sounds cheesy, but it works. A teacher having the expectation that all of their students can and will succeed makes a difference in the students’ achievement. Reflection, study, and evaluation can determine the attitude you have with yourself. Using collaboration and open communication can determine the attitude you have with colleagues and parents. Your attitude toward subject matter, as we discussed, should be passionate and enthusiastic. Your positive can-do, not yet attitude will be contagious to your students and set high expectations for them.

· I have a mixed bag of examples for this one. All of the teachers I observed treated their students with respect. AA was great about joking with her class or setting the tone when they needed to be serious. You can tell her students respect her as well and want to succeed. In contrast, WG told me about the struggle she has had this year with communicating with parents. Especially since so many students have had to learn remotely, many of them are not paying attention in class or keeping up with their work. She sends out emails once a week to the students and the parents about missing assignments, but has a hard time getting back any replies with substance. I think this just goes to show that sometimes communication is difficult. WG is doing what she can to get the information to her students and their guardians, and they should show the same kind of respect by communicating with her as well.

· Both of these teachers are good examples of trying your best to have a good attitude, in and out of class, even when it is difficult. The pandemic has been difficult on students and teacher. Period. Everyone has had to work harder and learn differently. Being understanding of others’ circumstances, having mutual respect, and open communication are all vital to having a positive attitude with everyone you will be working with.

Blog 5

18 April, 2021

Classroom Events:

It has only been one week since my last blog, so I don’t have as much to say as I usually would. In RG’s class, the students started with their individual reading. They do this most classes. They just read quietly for ten to fifteen minutes. I actually really like this idea. It provides the kids a brain break and once a month they have to write a book report on something they have read. RG records what book they are reading, and how many pages it has, but they can read just about anything and at their own pace. Last week, the class was doing some small research projects on pre- WWII so they can be prepared for reading The Book Thief. They have now started their class reading so they had to have a group chat about Jesse Owens and his impact to American and world history. They watched a couple short clips that talked about him and then they discussed what kind of an effect he would have had on Nazi Germany.

AA’s class did a quick journal entry as their bell ringer, then they jumped into reading Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry. The state assessments have officially started, so AA wanted her class to be a little easier, to give them a break, so they also started watching The Help. Next week, after they are finished with their reading, they will have to do a compare contrast paper. She stops the movie every so often and points out some of the parallels for the students.

WG’s class is finishing up their short story unit. They read The Gift of the Magi and made some comparisons to some of the stories they have read so far. What kind of character development do you see in these short stories? What kind of personalities are present? How do they compare to each other? Just like with the other short stories, she had them watch the video that goes with it and they discussed the differences between the story and the video. For this story, the main couple is very poor. The written story does a great job illustrating how their apartment is a little broken down and their clothes are a little dingy. In the video, their house is fairly nice and their clothes are clean and new looking. How do these differences make the reader/viewer feel about the couple and their actions?

Which do you view your supervising teacher as having a greater strength in a) relationship with students, b) subject matter knowledge, or c) effective teaching skills?

Before I answer this question, I feel like I need to make sure to point out that all three of my teachers are great at their jobs. They are all knowledgeable, effective, and caring teachers. That being said, they are all individuals with different strategies and strengths.

Let’s start with RG. She is great at being direct with her students. She doesn’t sugar coat things when they are missing assignments or being distracting in class. She will also ask them questions if she needs help, like with technology. She keeps an open line of communication. She is very knowledgeable about Pre-AP English. She understands the curriculum, even though it has been very wonky this year, and how to share that with her students. Subject matter knowledge would be her greatest strength.

AA is a very laid-back teacher who smiles and jokes with her students as often as possible. You really feel like she wants her students to succeed when you are in her classroom. She knows the material and provides scaffolding for her students. It is easy to forget she is teaching a special education class because she doesn’t baby her students, she just teaches them. She is great at leaving time everyday for her students to ask her questions, and she keeps up on reminders for missing assignments. She is knowledgeable about her subject matter and makes sure the students have a way to enjoy it, no matter what style of learning suits them. Her greatest strength would be relationship with students.

WG is similar. Her class is an inclusion class, so she uses some scaffolding techniques to make sure all of her students are on the same subject. She jokes around with them and has a pretty calm class. She is very knowledgeable about her subject matter. She is incredibly passionate about the different things she gets to teach about, and you can tell she really loves teaching English. Her greatest strength is subject matter knowledge.

Vocabulary Term:

Resegregation (page328)

Blog Post 4

10 April, 2021

Classroom Events:

This week (actually it is two weeks, so fortnight) I changed up my schedule and started observing A.A.’s class twice per week. There was some more finals prep and finals taking. R.G. had her class take an ACT Prep test and she gave them all some standardized test taking tips. A.A. did a Kahoot with her class and used questions directly off of the final, giving her students the best opportunity to earn good grades. W.G. and I used this spare time to discuss teacher responsibility and what she wished she understood better before becoming a teacher. She told me she particularly worries about her students who use special education services. The “age of consent” for these services is fifteen or sixteen, so they can decline the services at that point. Some of these students would do much better with the accommodations, like an IEP, but they don’t like that it draws attention to them or like they are being called out. It is the teachers’ responsibility to be on the side of the students, but it can be difficult when they are making a decision that can hurt their education. She told me this is why she likes teaching inclusion classes. There are accommodations built into the class. There are audio versions of the books for everyone. She already has a para. It makes giving special help to some students easier without drawing attention to those students.

After the finals were finished, between the two weeks, the classes changed to a new term. Basically, two of my three teachers have new students; they are teaching the same class to new students and with less time. R.G. had her students start a mini- research paper in pairs. They will be beginning The Book Thief next week, so they did some research on German history and learning about pre-WWII politics. R.G. also showed me the data she uses to assign incoming freshmen students into reading intervention as needed.

A.A. showed me a program called SAM that helps her track her students’ reading progress. It reads the book aloud to her students on their own accounts, so she can see if they are reading at home or just relying on class time. A.A. is the only class that hasn’t started all over with new students. She has the same students, so she is able to just keep going in her lesson. They are also doing some research about history for a book they are reading. They have just started Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor. It is about a young black girl in Mississippi in the 1930s. The class has done some research about segregation and sexism and what it looks like today compared to ninety years ago. Did you know there are still schools in Alabama and Mississippi that are still segregated? How is that possible? There are more that eighty schools that are still segregated between the two states.

W.G.’s class has started a unit on short stories. They read The Necklace, The Monkey Paw, and Button Button. For each, they got to read the story and then watch a short skit/ video version of it. They talked about the morals and foreshadowing in each, as well as the liberties taken by the filmmakers. After my discussion with her the week before about her inclusion classes, I paid attention to her classes the second week to see if I could spot the accommodations she uses for her students. She uses as many audio versions of the stories as she can, but if she can’t find one, she would read it aloud. I remember when we did Julius Caesar and Oedipus, she was always the one reading the most. She doesn’t make it obvious she is accommodating some students; she just makes it part of the lesson. She is the only teacher with a para, but Ms. H. helps all of the students as well.

Does your cooperating teacher demonstrate the 6 characteristics of Ethical Teaching that our textbook describes? Give Examples:

The six characteristics of ethical teaching include appreciation for moral deliberation, empathy, knowledge, reasoning, courage, and interpersonal skills. I think we are living in a time that allows us aspiring educators a unique perspective on this. We have been living in a pandemic/ quarantine/ lockdown for a year. We have seen classes go to entirely remote and hybrid. Teachers are having to figure things out in the same kind of mad dash as everyone else. The difference is that no matter what the teachers do, there always seems to be someone who doesn’t like it. Teachers had to teach students out of their own homes at some points in the last year. Others have been teaching online classes at the same time as in- person, and are doing their best to make sure everyone participates. It has been a hard year. However, the teachers are not taking it out on the students, or the parents, when there is a new struggle. They have continued to show empathy, courage, and interpersonal skills to the entire community. They are expanding their knowledge and reasoning with the unreasonable. They are doing everything they can to make this work, and I have been able to observe three of those teachers over the last couple months. They are all doing their best to help their students glean as much as possible from their classes, get as much support as possible, and return to ‘normal’.

Pause and Reflect Question:

Do you have memories of teachers behaving unethically? How?

Blog Post 3

25 March, 2021

Classroom Events:

This observation was a bit different because one of the two weeks was spring break. The second week was mostly review and finals prep. I have gotten a lot of homework done.

R.G.’s class is starting a unit on satire. They all read Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, over the summer, which is one of my favorite books. They had a really great open discussion about what satire looks like now verse forty or fifty years ago when people were writing about our time period. They watched a couple of clean Saturday Night Live clips as an example. I was surprised how on-point they were with finding what the satire examples were exposing. They also had a discussion about some anticipation guides they filled out at the beginning of the week. They had to decide how perfect society, and humans themselves, could be before it wasn’t perfect anymore. They read the short story Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut. Then they did a small reflection assignment on where they thought our society and government would have been different to the society and government in the story.

A.A.’s class started reviews for her finals. She had a print out of the actual final and read the questions off to the class. She repeated any questions they seemed hesitant about and made sure they all had as much preparation as possible. Then, she gave a list of missing assignments to any students who had them, and let them work on those for credit. Everyone else got to watch the second Hunger Games movie. I was able to observe two classes with A.A., and she did this both days. She was gentle about reminding any student of what they should be doing. The remote students had the option to log off so they could finish without distractions.

W.G.’s class started with a quick review of vocabulary, then they jumped right into their Oedipus test. She gave them forty-five minutes to get it done, and some of them took the full time. I did notice she let them ask questions, both remote and in-person. She even encouraged it. She wants her students to do well, so she offered as much help as she could.

Reflection Question:

In which of the following ways does your supervising teacher use technology as a learning tool: collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and/or creativity?

               I think we are living in a time when technology is being utilized for more and more. My teachers are using technology and all available learning tools for all of the above options. They have discussions on Canvas and all assignments can be turned in online. The teachers email the students and vice versa when they need to communicate. I was supposed to have a second class with W.G., but she emailed me and all of her students to let them know her laptop was down and she couldn’t host that day. She also provided all of her students with what they could be doing without her. They all use different tools to help the students develop their critical thinking. A.A.’s class had a group document that they could all add to and edit to help them with compare and contrasting Unwind with The Island. They all use the technology to provide their students with resources and full access to education, even if they are learning remotely.

               I would like to note that technology has its problems, too. This week, especially, I have been able to see some examples of this. As I stated, W.G.’s laptop went down, so she couldn’t use Canvas or Zoom for her remote students. The day I was able to observe her, we had a discussion while the students were taking their test. She sent a message to all of her Zoom students to give them the opportunity to ask her questions. None of them answered her. Most of them also are not passing her class. They have too many missing assignments. There are one or two success stories, but most of them are going to have to retake her class, and probably the whole grade again. She told me she hopes the parents who want their kids to stay remote will chose e-schools. It is teaching the students nothing if no one is at home giving them structure and the students aren’t trying to pay attention in class.

               R.G. has had some different problems with technology. She expects all of her students to keep their cameras on, or they do not get participation credit that day. She tries to include them in discussions, but it is not smooth. She will ask a question, someone in class will answer, but not loud enough for remote to hear well, then she might ask remote learners to chime in. Sometime the answers are repeats or no one will want to answer because they can only hear part of the conversation. R.G. reminded one of her students to turn his camera on, after he replied to her discussion question without it on. She told them she expects to see cameras on and hands raised. It is difficult for them to be part of it, no matter if they have their cameras on or not. I get where she is coming from, she needs to know they are at least pretending to be part of the class. However, this doesn’t always help them be included. One of the students commented in the chat: “School isn’t based on learning and academic ability anymore, its just turning stuff in on time.” Another students replied: “School prepares us for factory jobs.” This is a little discouraging. These kids go to school in a nice suburban town and are given a lot of opportunities. What can we be doing to help them see the future in a brighter light? Why is school so controversial between students and teachers? There should be a consensus on how well it is going. Every opinion should be taken into consideration. Just something I have been thinking about this week.

Ubiquitous Computing (page 199):

Blog Post 2

13 March, 2021

Classroom Events:

               This week was a little more boring as my practicum teachers are all preparing to send their kids off to spring break. Each of them got their students to a good stopping place in what they were learning so they didn’t have to try to remember something for over a week and a half.

               In R.G.’s class, they have finished reading the Book Thief and then they watched the movie. The class does their fifteen minutes of free reading at the beginning of each day, which I have come to really enjoy, then she moves them on. This week they have been doing apostrophe practice and had a test on Friday. Then they do a quick review of what part of the movie they have already watched. What parts of the movie match the book and what parts are different? Did any of the differences surprise the students and why do you think the changes were made? Then they get to watch the movie.

               In A.A.’s class, it is basically the same. They have finished reading Unwind, and watched a couple scenes of The Hunger Games. Then she had them watch a movie called The Island. The class had a discussion about how to do compare and contrast essays. She had them throw out ideas as a class, working together to come up with similarities and differences, and she kept track in a document they can all have access to on Canvas. She does a really great job about leading the discussion but letting them have their own ideas about what they have read and watched. She prepped them a premade essay outline so the students knew what her expectations were.

               In W.G.’s class, they started reading Oedipus. Their major lesson for the play is about willful blindness. I really enjoyed her lesson before they started reading about how the play would have been seen centuries ago and what it would have looked and sounded like for the spectators. She did a nice job tying it into what plays would look like today and some of the terms we get from these ancient plays. She drew out a map for the students so they could understand the complicated relationships the characters have and how they all are linked to each other.

Does your supervising teacher practice purposeful reflection? If so, have them describe their process:

               This week in my Intro to Education class, we are discussing our philosophy of education. W.G.’s class is at the end of the day, so she let me ask her a bunch of questions I had about her own philosophy. One of the questions I had was how she feels about evaluations from herself, administration, and her students. She told me that she loves what she does and has a mutual trust with the administration that they will make the right decisions for her students, and will give her any feedback she needs to improve and help her students. However, she isn’t great at purposeful reflection herself. She often evaluates herself in more of an instantaneous fashion. As in: “This isn’t working. I’ll change it.” She told me it is important to pay attention to the students and how they are receiving her lessons. When it comes to student evaluations, she told me the students usually evaluate her pretty favorably, but sometimes it is hard for them to see the big picture or the why of what she is teaching, so sometimes you have to take their feedback with a grain of salt.

               I have seen how she sometimes changes what she is doing or saying in the middle of a lesson if the students are not understanding what she is trying to teach them. Sometimes she’ll even say something about how in the last class she tried one thing and it didn’t work, so she’ll be trying something new with this class.

Cultural Literacy (p. 149):

Blog #1

27 February, 2021

Classroom Events

For my Practicum Observations, I have three teachers I get to observe. Between them, I have been able to observe about fifteen and a half hours so far. I am really enjoying it, but I wish I could be in the classroom. Because of the current pandemic, schools in my district are not allowing any outside people into their school, so all of my observations are through Zoom. It isn’t the best, but it is enjoyable nonetheless.

Ms. R.G. teaches a Pre-AP English 10 Inclusion class. This means sophomore AP English, in class and remote. She has specific rules for her remote learners to help make sure they are actually in class. She gives them participation points if they keep their cameras on the entire class. Some of them still point the camera to the ceiling or wall instead of their faces, but the majority of them keep it on. Everyday their bell ringer is to read independently for ten minutes. Ms. R.G. keeps track of which books they are reading and how many pages they are. Next, they go over vocabulary. They have a new set of vocab words each week and a test on Fridays. She has them all do worksheets as homework with a variety of fill in the blank activities. The remote kids are told they can print it off, fill it out, and scan it in, or they can write on it as a PDF then turn it in online. She goes over all of the answers with the class, allowing them to shout out the answers if they know it. Next, they go over the book they are reading as a class. Currently, they are reading Book Thief. They have had great discussions about parallels between the novel characters and Nazi Germany as a whole. In my second week of observations, we had bad weather, so everyone was remote for a day. Ms. R.G. had everyone get into breakout groups and answer textual question, with each group having their own question. I noticed the groups were all broken up so they each had one or two students who really understood the material and would talk, and a couple of students who spoke very little, but seemed to understand by the end of the group.

Ms. A.A. teaches Special Education English 10 Inclusion. She has a great personality that really reflects her passion for teaching. She is much more likely to joke around with her students, when it is appropriate, than either of the other teachers. She has the smallest class I observe with just seven students, three of which are online. However, her students are more likely to answer her questions right away than the other classes. In most classes, the students hesitate. Her class was also the first one to notice I had joined them and they tell me ‘good morning’ each day. Ms. A.A.’s class is reading Unwind, and then contrasting it with the Hunger Games. To make the students’ lives a little easier, she has an audio book version so they can all be read to and read along. After the chapters are done for the day, she always asks them questions to make sure they were paying attention and thinking critically. She also gives them the opportunity to ask her questions. Lastly, she has them do discussions on their Canvas page at the end of class to wind down.

Ms. W.G. teaches English 10 Inclusion. The first thing they do is vocabulary, just like in Ms. R.G.’s class. They get a new list each week and test over it on Fridays. They also go over it in a similar way. Ms. W.G. has a para, so her para will type the words into the group chat for the remote learners, which seems to help everyone be able to follow along a little better. Ms. W.G. will share her screen most days so the remote learners can see where she is pulling the assignments from, and then they can find it easier. Her class read Julius Caesar, so they tied it into their semester long discussion of Ethos, Logos, Pathos, and Kairos. She had them read a more modern version of it, but still stops to explain the material any time she needs to. She will also reference previous lessons they have done in order to tie what they are learning now in with what they have learned before. Ms. W.G. likes to play games with her students so she knows what information they are picking up. She uses the online Kahoot gaming platform to make her own games. For two of my observations with her, the students did the same Kahoot. She had them play to see how well they were doing on recognizing who in Julius Caesar was a conspirator and who was not. The first time, they got about half of the answers wrong. After each one, she would remind them who that character was, then quickly move on. The next week, they did a great job and got most of the answers right. You can tell she had been working with them to prepare them for the test after they finished reading.

Between the classes, there are a few things I have noticed. Having inclusion classes is hard on teachers. Having to basically hold two classes at the same time, making sure all of your students knows what is going on. Some of the remote learners are obviously not paying attention; cameras are off or pointed at the ceiling. Some students don’t log off when the teacher dismisses them, so you can tell they weren’t paying attention. I spoke with all of my teachers about the challenges they have seen. They are all having to learn new technology, keep their classes sanitized, and basically teach two classes at once. Ms. W.G. told me there is a teacher at her school that has 60 students in one of her classes because half of them are remote learners. That is twice as much as the other teachers have. The teachers are doing their best, but some students are definitely being left behind. Ms. R.G. tends to lean toward her classroom, looking away from her computer for long periods at a time, then will ask the remote learners if they understood, and look back to the class. For two of the classes, all questions go in the chat and will be answered later. At least Ms. W.G. has a para, who stays on top of it and tries to make sure everyone in remote hears and sees everything. She also has two computers for her classroom in the Zoom class. One is at her desk so she can talk to everyone, share her screen, and do most of her lesson. The other one is pointed toward the front of the class so you can see the other classmates and see the teacher if she is teaching at the board. I also spoke with my teachers about what would happen if they needed a substitute. Ms. W.G. told me she was sick earlier in the year and the school couldn’t find a sub, so she taught remotely from home while she was sick. With this type of teaching, they are all having to do about two days’ worth of work if they have to be off for one day. Then the subs forget to turn on Zoom, they have questions, they aren’t trained for this. The teachers end up spending their time away from school answering emails from students and the sub about what to do. The students who go from remote to in class are having a hard time transitioning. They are awkward, like they don’t know what to do with themselves. The teachers are given very little support from parents, even after repeated emails. This inclusion class setup is not benefiting the remote learners or the teachers.

Compare and contrast the classroom behaviors you notice between the boys and the girls.

           The roles of boys and girls in the classroom is pretty stereotypical. If there is someone who is going to shout out or joke around, it is usually a boy. If there is someone the teacher is going to rely on for zone of proximal development, it is a girl. In Ms. R.G.’s class, Agnes will often speak up in breakout groups. She thinks critically and has good ideas. She tries to give the other students time to answer to, but they seem to rely on her for understanding. On the other hand, Isaac tends to turn off his camera, and has to be reminded at least once each class to turn it on. He does also speak up, knowing the answer more often than he would like to admit. This stereotype is not always the case. In Ms. A.A.’s class, Demaje is a remote learner that logs on, turns off her camera, then doesn’t seem to pay attention at all. The day we were all remote, Ms. A.A. had to tell her several times she could log off. It took several minutes after all the other students logged off before she noticed and logged off too. Stereotypes are sometimes true, but the truth is all students have the potential to be good students or bad students.

Pause and Reflect: Are you concerned about your ability to establish and maintain a productive classroom environment? If so, what particularly concerns you?

Practice Blog Post   1/28/2021

Classroom description

           Today in math, Ms. L and her class reviewed some of their MARS tasks they had gone over a few weeks ago. She does a good job of keeping them engaged by asked them questions and prompting them when they are unsure. She used a sample of a student’s work, but made sure to talk to the all of the students about being respectful of other people’s work before they went over it. Ms. L. had the kids discuss among themselves to get ideas for how the young mathematician solved the problem. She made math fun for her students by making it into a detective game looking for clues.

What type of learning styles are accommodated in the classroom?

           There are a lot of different learning styles accommodated in Ms. L’s classroom. When she shows the students an example of the math problem they had been working on a few weeks ago, there are several different solving methods on there. Throughout the class, she also lets the kids explain to her what they see, she lets them talk in small groups to bounce ideas off each other, and she treats all ideas with respect. Ms. L teaches the kids various styles of learning so they can find one they are comfortable and confident with.

Socialization (page 31)