Kaitlin’s Kaleidoscope of Contemplation

Sunshine. 65-70 degrees. T-shirts. Shorts. Baby Ducks. Signs of SPRING! This year, Spring seems to be even more special. While the last four years spring simply meant that school was going to be over soon and summer was going to begin, I knew what was ahead of me: MORE SCHOOL! This year, there is uncertainty. Of course there will HOPEFULLY be a job at the end of the summer, which only brings more uncertainty and excitement. However, as this year ends, and I begin thinking about writing my portfolio, I realize how much all of us GRS students have really gone through in the last 12 months. As a reflection and possibly a warning to the incoming cohort, I have created an Acrostic of what GET REAL! really means.

Grand Ideas – Yea a lot if it is an idealistic framework, but why not work toward perfection? Not to mention the grand ideas we all surprised ourselves with in all of our teaching experiences.

Exhausting – Work, work, work. Yes there is a lot of it.

Theory – Yes, it’s all based on theory. It was/is our job to translate the theory into reality and practice. Good luck incoming cohort- I predict this will probably NOT be your favorite part of the program.

Relationships – with other GRSers, supervisors, mentors, professors, and STUDENTS

Emotional – An emotional rollercoaster of ups and downs. Between student teaching, STARS, Camp, papers, lesson planning, unit planning, trying to be innovative in a world of tradition. Let’s face it, its emotional.

Alcohol – Ok, sure, maybe Get Real doesn’t really mean alcohol, but the alcohol certainly has its place. A beer with a long paper can make that paper seem so much more bearable. Certainly completing student teaching and/or each semester calls for a celebration! Let’s just put a limit on the Irish car bombs ok?

Late nights – need I say more?

Ok, I admit, it’s a pretty rough poem. That’s why I am in science remember? So as we embark on our search for jobs, just remember what you’ve done to get here. We all have a lot to brag about. Ha! Just surviving this program is something to brag about!

Last night in class, JC brought up the idea of literacy in the science classroom. Although there are many ways of integrating science and literacy, I just finished an article on the use of children’s books in the high school science classrooms as a way of engaging students with the material. The article is called Reading Aloud: A Springboard to Inquiry by Lisa Bircher. The citation is below along with some articles that this reading cites.

Bircher, L. (2009). Reading aloud: A springboard to inquiry. The Science Teacher, 76(5), 29-33.

Brassell, D. (2006). Inspiring young scientists with great books. The Reading Teacher, 60(4), 336-342.

Delo, L. (2008). Reading aloud: Integrating science and literature for all students. The Science Teacher, 75(5), 3-37

Madrazo Jr., G. M. (1997). Using trade books to teach and learn science. Science and Children, 34(6), 20-21.

Don’t you hate it when something as easy as creating a simple powerpoint slide and e-mailing to your professor takes you an hour?! I woke up this morning, thought gee I’ll make my powerpoint slide for our celebration, that wont take long. HAHAHA! I couldn’t have been more wrong. While it didn’t take all day, it did take me an hour to create something that should have taken 5, maybe 10, minutes. Why did it take me so long? My answer to you is that while technology get so so so much better, it also gets that much more complicated! I got a great camera for Christmas, however, it now takes pictures that are about 20x too big to send through e-mail so then I have to find a way to minimize the memory it takes up! Ugh! Anyways it got done, I just needed to vent a little bit about the difficulties with working with technology, even when it seems so great.

In searching for images for the visual part of our literacy circles this week, I came across this science teacher self-reflection checklist. Although it may not offer questions specific to issues you may be having in your teaching, it can offer a place to start. There are also checklists for other subject areas available on the following website:  http://www.teachnet.com/how-to/organization/092998.html

Teacher Self-Reflection Checklist-Science

1. Was there sufficient probing of the children’s knowledge, abilities and processes?
2. To what extent does my questioning foster critical and creative thinking?
3. Do I encourage the children’s questions and curiosity?
4. Do I encourage the children to rethink, reorganise and refine their oral and written ideas?
5. Am I encouraging the children to listen and respond to the remarks of their peers during large and small groups discussions.
6. Am I providing sufficient opportunity and time for the children to work independently, in pairs and in small groups?
7. Does my classroom environment encourage the children to take risks during speaking and writing activities?
8. Were the assessment techniques appropriate to the type and quantity of the children’s information needed?
9. Did the children complete the assessment under conditions promoting the best possible performance?
10. Was the range of the children’s information collected sufficient in order to make interpretations of progress? Could the results of the evaluation be meaningfully communicated to both children and parents?
11. Do I encourage and enable children to access and use a wide variety of resources?
12. Do classroom resources reflect fair, equitable and accurate portrayals of peoples of different cultures, ages and genders?
13. Do I provide a variety of resources and experiences to meet the needs of all children?
14. To what extent are my assessment techniques fair and appropriate for evaluating progress and for making instructional decisions?

It is so weird to realize that, unless I substitute, the next time I am in a classroom I will be the teacher. Leaving on your last day is such a bittersweet feeling. I am relieved to finally have time to work out and do my school work. On the other hand, it is hard to leave students that you have been working with for eight weeks and now may never see again. One of the best things to hear on your last day is a student asking you if you will visit them. I think that just shows that they really know that you cared and they are showing you that you meant something to them. Although they may never know how much they truly mean to a teacher (or in this case a student teacher) at least they feel that the time you spent at their school was valuable.

If we can make meaningful connections with students in just eight weeks, imagine what we can do in a whole school year. Even more importantly, think about how they could influence you in a whole years time. Teaching IS the best profession

This past Friday, I began to really see the importance of connections in the classroom. The funny thing is, there are many types of connections that are crucial to success in the classroom. I’m just going to quickly describe two of them here.

The first type of connection is the relationship you create between you and your students. For example, I have been going to my inclusion CT’s classroom a couple of days every week when two of my students are in resource with her. Unfortunately, this means that I must miss my 6th period class. On Friday, as I was leaving the classroom to head downstairs, the students from my 6th period class stopped me and basically started harassing me about not being in their class that day. They weren’t harassing in a bad way, they were just trying to let me know that they REALLY wanted me to be at class that day. Part of the reason for this is that they feel there is a relationship between me and them that they don’t have with their normal classroom teacher. Now, this may be simply because I am a student teacher, or it could be that my philosophy on teacher and learning vary from that of my CT.  The bottom line is, the students understand that I respect them and am there to help them succeed. AND they appreciate it. While it is important to “put on a show” and “be an actor” as a teacher, I also think you need to allow the students to see the real you as well. As they were telling me that I needed to stay in class that day, I was apologizing and one of the students commented saying, “Oh she really feels bad!” They knew that I wanted to be in class with them as well, but I couldn’t be in two places at once. They could tell I CARED. So, ultimately, just remember if you are the type of teacher that likes to put on a show, make sure there is time, whether its after school, in your free periods, or even in the halls, when the students get to see the real you as well.

The second connection I want to talk about is the connection between the content in the classroom and the students’ interests. For example, I was talking to a student about why he thought class was boring. He responded by simply saying that the teacher makes everything sound boring. This statement alone (I think) implies that the student understands that the content being covered isn’t actually boring but the way in which it is presented is boring. So I told him that science isn’t really boring and that it can be related to a lot of other subjects as well. This student is particularly fond of the Holocaust and World War II so I asked if he remembered how at the beginning of the year he had to know the parts of a cell, and when he said yea, I told him that the parts of the cell could be related to Germany during World War II. The look on his face said What?! Miss Schulz you are CRAZY! I began by explaining the role of the nucleus and asked him what that could be like in Nazi Germany. He quickly responded, “Well that could be like Hitler, right?” I continued to explain the parts of the cell and for every single one, he was quickly able to come up with a corresponding element of Nazi Germany. It was amazing. Every time he thought of another connection, you could see his face light up even more. It was like everything was coming together. SCIENCE WASN’T BORING ANYMORE! Once we had gone through about 5 organelles, he said, “See that’s why you’re going to be a good teacher.” and me, being my always practical self responded with, “Yea but not every kid is interested in the Holocaust.” and to my surprise, he said very matter of factually, “Yea, but you’ll find other things too.” It’s amazing how the connection to something he was so interested in could make such a difference!

The best part about teaching is the students. That’s why we’re all in this profession. Without students, we would be nothing. So let’s try to help the students we have succeed. How do we help them succeed? BY MAKING CONNECTIONS!

I learned this week that keeping lessons simple may help students to interact with material and alleviate some stress in both planning and implementing the lesson. Last Friday, I had a lesson that I did not feel went as well as it could have. I didn’t realize how simple the material needed to be presented. Additionally, the lesson was out of the students’ comfort zone in terms of the freedom they were given. The students are very accustomed to being told the answer or copying an answer from a book. Even if you ask them they will tell you they do not like to think, they’d rather be told the answer. So on Tuesday, I attempted to try another inquiry based lesson. I simplified it a little bit by only having two stations and also by giving the students explicit instructions with a few questions they must answer by THINKING about. The students did very well, and I think they enjoyed it too. All of them were engaged in the activities. ….Pictures are coming, they won’t upload right now :-\

If anybody is looking for an activity or lesson plan, check out Scholastic’s website. They have a bunch of different lesson plans for a variety of subject areas. They do not have one for every single science area, but they do have some that may be great if personalized by you. There is also a link to SMART lessons. These are all programs designed for the SmartBoard if you have one in your classroom. Just know that if you don’t have the SmartNotebook software on your computer, you cannot view the program. So for most of us that means we would need to look at them while at school. Hope this can help some of us that are struggling to come up with lessons!

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/search/?Ne=172&Nr=OR(Resource_Type:Lesson%20Plan,Resource_Type:Informal%20Lesson%20Article,Resource_Type:Unit%20Plan)&N=422+673&isBrowse=Y&_N=407

Student teaching could be one of the most awkward most frustrating experiences. While the cooperating teachers and the students and pretty much everyone involved at the placement site and at Warner are very supportive and open to new ideas, I can’t help feeling like I am always stepping on my CT’s toes. I hate having to try and suggest changes in his plans. I don’t know how to ask to plan a lesson without him feeling like his lessons aren’t reaching all the students. I know that when I get my own classroom I will be able to create lessons that reach most students. It’s just very hard to do it in someone else’s classroom. No matter what I do, I’m afraid of making somebody angry. It doesn’t help that many teachers at the school talk about students and the system as though they are the complete problem without taking into account that they aren’t giving students a variety of ways to learn. We read about how the blame often gets placed on the students and I have seen it in action. I feel as though if I try any lesson plans or classroom management styles that I believe should be in action in a classroom, I will be told the students need more order, more structure, more discipline, more respect for authority (when the authority doesn’t respect them). While I truly believe in the methods I would use, I am not convinced that others in the school would be as well. I feel as though I do not have any defense for why I would try these methods. If it were my own classroom I could simply say, “This is my classroom and this is how things go here.” Being in someone else’s classroom on the other hand makes me feel like I have to follow the same classroom management even when it’s not my style and even though sometimes I think it just creates more tension and makes the students more angry.

I just keep telling myself there are only four weeks left. Then, the next classroom I will be in will (all things positive) be my own