It’s Dangerous to Go Alone! Take this… (and this, and that, too): a student teacher survival manual

­Online Reflection #4 Option #2 Book Outline with Chapter Synopses

It’s Dangerous to Go Alone! Take this… (and this, and that, too):

a student teacher survival manual

Chapter One:  Plan, over-plan, and re-plan

     Start early! Work with your cooperating teacher to build a schedule that allows you plenty of time for collaborative planning. You need to know what your CT wants of you, but your CT needs to know what you have to do and what help you need. Learn about being assertive, polite, and organized. Create lesson plans that any sub off the streets can take and teach, let alone your CT. Get pointers on grading, class culture, and classroom management, before you are introduced to class. Have a strong, interesting introduction!

 Chapter Two: A rose by any other name…

     Names come easy to some, hard to others. Know your weaknesses and strengths. You will mix up names and students…apologize and move on. Set up the class to best facilitate your ability to learn class culture, student names, and promote learning.

Chapter Three: I don’t always have teachable moments, but when I do…I miss ‘em

     If something goes wrong, use it to show how human you are, and to teach problem solving and patience skills. Ask for help if it available. Be flexible. Do not be ashamed to say you don’t know, or you are sorry – but move on.

     Technology is a iffy, iffy thing in most modern schools. Be prepared for everything to go wrong. Have a back-up plan, and a emergency back-up plan to the back-up plan. Roll with the punches and don't blame it on the IT or technology staff. Sometimes they do not have access to solutions and are struggling just like you. If it makes you too angry: buy what you need , write a grant, or write a senator.

 Chapter Four: Gotta catch ‘em all!

      Just because it feels like utter chaos to you, does not mean learning is not happening. However, pick the battles that are important to you and that promote learning. You are not a cop or a prison guard. You are an educator. Do what is in the best interest of that particular position.

     There will be those students who hate you, who push your buttons, or who cannot stand to be in your class. Make a connection with them and keep your calm. Sometimes those are the students you have the biggest positive impact on!

Chapter Five: Consistency is hard in real life

     We all have those moments when we act or speak against our accepted rules. Stop, adjust, and move on. Do not be a constant hindrance in the classroom by changing policy and procedures for students. When students are unsure, they cannot make the best choices. Students will have a million reasons to “break” the rules for them, be careful when and how you make these decisions. Get advice from trusted mentors and take any accommodations into account, but in the end you have to decide if their need is greater than the class seeing a consistent teacher.

  Chapter Six: Now for a taste of things to come...

      It will get worse before it gets better. It will get better. Take time for yourself and de-stress regularly. Find a mentor that can help you, even if it isn’t your CT or even a teacher. Put into the class what you want to get back. Be ten times more organized and planned than you ever think you will need to be. Smile. Breathe.

Art, How I Love Thee! Online Reflection #3

I am loving the visual analyses we are doing! Many of my students were struggling with the large number of pages they have to read at home, let alone the textual identifications, connections and evidence backed claims required. They were not digging deep. I gave further instructions, changed my wording, gave pointers, and I worked with students after students – one on one or in their groups. The sheer size of the text (not that big of a novel) seemed to bog them down.

We had done an informal analysis of a painting prior to starting the book and they were amazing! So I decided to add in a slightly more formal analysis. I picked an OPTIC format and located some interesting Mexican-American and Spanish-American art. This culturally connected it to our text, the novel Bless Me, Ultima. They balked at “more writing” and  another “worksheet.” I had them think back to when we looked at the 1^st painting “Curandera” by Ariel and remember our discussion. I told them that what they had done then was nearly the same only they did it without a graphic organizer. Now they went “Oh…yeah” and “Okay.”

We had such a great discussion about the painting I picked “Tamaladas” because the subject was familiar to so many of them; cooking tamales at home and big family gatherings. Then I pointed out a painting above the table, “The Last Supper.” Suddenly, “Someone’s gonna die!” We went down a strange and fascinating road analyzing why the painter put that there. I finally wrenched the bus back around, I pointed to the little girl playing on the floor. “Is she always going to be this age? Next Christmas will she be older, different?” Then I pointed to other people. “Maybe she will marry and move away. Or he will have to take a job out of town.” I hinted that maybe it was the “last supper” they would have the way they are now. I got a chorus of “Oh.” I was quiet and they were quiet a moment.  And the silence was golden  We moved on, I had them relate the painting to BMU as well as their own lives, and I asked them to decide on the meaning. They completed the form and we moved on. The next painting, “Los Manos Poderosa” had to wait until next class. Now I made them complete the OPTIC form and I had them journal, connecting this painting to the novel using specific textual (paraphrased) evidence from the painting and the novel. This time we didn’t get a whole class “ah-ha” moment, as they worked on it individually or in groups, but the discussions I heard leave me ready for more.  I cannot wait to see what they wrote.  Too bad I’m making myself grade their reading notes first. 

 Then rudely, I made them read poetry and complete a TPFASTT in groups. They really had to work for every bit of understanding and analysis on these. I did not give them the easiest poems and I selected poems by Latino/Hispanic poets that had a tone, language style, or subject matter tie into our novel. It was harder for them to find in these tightly compacted bundles where all the Figurative Language was hiding, or what the heck “shifts” were again. They muddled through and I circulated, helping as I went around. They all floundered on writing their poems’ themes. I asked questions and pointed at things in the text and as a group they hashed it out. They then had to design and complete a one pager (in groups, partners or individually) and I threw them a slow curve-ball. In 2-4 sentences connect your poem to the novel using specific details from the novel and the poem. They came up with some fantastic stuff. Everything from the narrator being a young boy to having to do with religious beliefs, to connecting themes! I was so proud of them. I can’t wait until they are done with the one pagers, so I can hang them proudly in the hall. I can point and say: ”Look, here’s textual evidence. Ohhh! And here’s higher level thinking. My kids did that.”

Voice Management - Online Reflection #2

Teaching with little voice available (and much coughing when I try to speak up) this week has been a tough gig. It being my first week at the helm has made it even more challenging. It did make me think of our reading from last week by Robyn R. Jackson “Never Work Harder Than Your Students.” I thought of logical consequences and what work should be on the students and not me. I also remembered Harry and Rosemary Wong’s book The First Days of School: How to be an effective teacher and their focus on set up and procedures. Where do I go from here?

In my 6^th hour class I was constantly working to speak over them when I needed their attention. I tried the “Raise your hand if you can hear me” approach my CT occasionally uses to mixed results. The irony is that we started the day, and indeed my unit, with expectations. The students drafted, ratified, and signed off on their own personalized, class expectations, which included respect and at least a mention of not talking while teachers or peers were. I reminded them and we moved on, but the normally boisterously chatty class still escaped me on occasion. We even fell short of finishing, or even getting to, our vocab awareness pre-assessment activity. My 1^st and 5^th hours at least completed all activities but there were break downs in my ability to be heard.

My CT is pretty laid back and I know I can’t reverse my students’ world at this point, but I have to find a balance. Wong said “The effective teacher establishes good control of the class in the very first week of school.” They also talk about how “the teacher must create a well-ordered environment” and that seems impossible at the moment. So, how to get order, now?

These first days were an introduction to me and my class culture blended with theirs. It is also an introduction to the structure I do want them to have, like regular journaling, expectations, rewards systems, and my style of taking student input and giving my feedback as often as I can. Strangely they didn’t all sit in rapt adoration as I spoke or suddenly stop checking cell phones while their peers talked. Their sticky note journal entries were awesome, their chosen class mascots interesting (mostly), and their drafted expectations sufficiently reasonable, and yet I am not satisfied.

My voice cannot yell tomorrow either. What to do? Like Jackson said: wait time. That is one thing I am going to try. Just stand and wait either with arm raised or will a sound effect coming from my phone or computer. Just until I catch their attention and then swoop in with the next thing. I am also going to try some things I got from this cool site edutopia.org that I found tonight. (http://www.edutopia.org/blog/classroom-management-tips-novice-teachers-rebecca-alber ) This blog post about classroom management says:

• ·         Use a normal, natural voice
• ·         Speak only when students are quiet and ready
• ·         Use hand signals or other non-verbal communication
• ·         Address behavior issues quickly and wisely
• ·         Always have a well-designed, engaging lesson

So tomorrow, I am going to use my normal, natural voice. If they can’t hear, maybe they will quiet down a bit. I am going to try the “It looks like you have a question, Emilio” rather than “Emilio, didn’t we just create this expectation?!” I am going to find a sound effect to trigger things like “3 minute warning,” or “attention please.” If that fails, I am going to raise my arm until it wears out, or until they are ready to let me get a word in edgewise. Then hopefully I will have a voice left to yell at my dogs and talk to my husband.

"Relax" Re-Written

Breathe By Molly Weber

You’re going to forget student names.

Your students will glare and grumble

then promptly call you “Miss” again.

Someone will break the copy machine

when you are ten copies short and the printer

has no ink what-so-ever.

Your car will decide to break down

at the same time as your significant other’s

and you are due at school. Or your dog

will contract a fear of kenneling

and a passion for the cat’s food. The other dog –

the one you love the most – needs dental care

you can afford and is going blind slowly, his eyes

clouding more each day.

You KPTP will come due.

No matter how much you plain,

how well you designed your perfect lesson,

and the amount of reading you consume, you

will mess up a lesson plan. If your students

ignore you and digitalize their entire life

by the whims of Twitter,

you’ll go to an interview and realize you forgot

everything you ever knew about standards

philosophy and  methods – educational vocab,

There’s an old story of a rabbit scared of a wolf.

He stays in his burrow under a tree, he pokes

his head out to eat clover, but ever vigilante

and never far, and his clover grows scarce.

The patient, wise wolf waits and bides his time.

A storm comes and lightning rips and burns the tree

the rabbits home is exposed and he freezes

in fear. The rabbit fed the wolf that night.

So here’s my take, be afraid and be anxious

but do. Act. Be the patient and wise predator

as well as the scared prey.

Taste success in making this far in school

getting your placement and students

enjoy the wild ride.

It’s almost over.