The week of September 3

The second week of school is still in the getting "used to it" stage. We had Monday off in honor of Labor day. So "real classes" started Tuesday and immediately I had the opportunity to teach Math and some Reading curriculum. 

At the school, there is a huge emphasis on reading. Our school hasn't really reached their AYP in more than a couple of years. For reading it feels like there is a manual we need to follow. In fact, there is a manual. It's different to me in many ways, but nonetheless I asked my teacher if I could cover a few things such as how our library was organized, what genres were and how to chose a book. 

The most difficult, yet rewarding lesson I taught, I didn't really teach. It was a jigsaw activity on genres. I divided up the class into groups of 4, which worked perfectly--I had 7 groups of 4. Each group received a book on a genre. Their job was to read the book (or a chapter of the book) record some noticeable characteristics and check with me to see if they had gotten the genre correctly. If they did, I gave them the technical definition of the genre and some more characteristics. Once they were all experts at their genre I divided them again. Now there were 4 groups of 7 and each student had a different genre to share with their group. They loved discussing and sharing! BUT it took two days to complete the activity. In my methods classes it would take us anywhere from 40-60 minutes. It certainly took much longer than expected. It was worth it! 

I've also had the opportunity to begin teaching Math. I love math. There is something about solving a problem that makes me excited. I wanted to share my excitement with my students. I began this warm-up activity I learned in my novice placement. I call it "Number of the Day." With this technique, I have a number of the day and the students have two minutes to think of different ways to get to the number. For example, if the number is 25, how many different ways can YOU think of that add up to 25? Some answers can be 20+5, 30-5, 5x5, etc. This has been so helpful to me because we're learning about expanded and word form of numbers so the students get to review important details during our warm-up. As an educator, it makes me gleam when the students write out 635 in expanded form without me reminding them to do so. They have grown to love Number of the Day and when they hear it's only 2 minutes long there is a groan across the room. When we reach the point of 2 minutes I always get at least one student, "C'mon maestra, 1 more minute!" I can't deny them their love for Math, so I give in to a 20-second extension. After time is finally  up, I pick Popsicle sticks with their names on it for them to share. I write their strategy on the board. You wouldn't believe how much pride they have in their work! 

Even though they love Number of the Day, their love for regular stuff, isn't as great. I faced a challenging lesson on Thursday. The students just didn't understand how decimals worked. I don't blame them. When I was their age, it was a difficult topic for me also. It just seems so abstract and not really life relevant. I picked up some pointers from my teacher. She said, "Not everything is as easy as it seems. You'll learn that. Don't think that something is wrong with you or your method of teaching. One day, it'll just click." After a rough day, it was definitely the encouragement I needed to hear. We decided to do some reteaching on Friday and THEY UNDERSTOOD!! It felt so good to walk around the room and seeing students with correct answers on their page, ready to do more. I couldn't believe my ears when students were asking for more homework on a Friday night! 

This upcoming week is Open House, I'm excited to meet all of my kids' parents! I'm excited for them to teach me more than I think I know. I'm certain that the next 14 weeks or so will be a tug on my humility. Not to think that I have an answer or strategy for everything. :) 

Schmidt

In Schmidt's second chapter, we see that "great teachers are power brokers." This title captures the idea of building an environment for eptness. The technical definition for eptness is "a combination of capacities and meaningful activity." In other words, it's the search of each students' contributing quality to the classroom culture. To me, that's common sense. If I were to chose a word to describe myself, it would be encourager; I believe that God has created each child in His own image and not one is the exact copy of another. I believe that each one serves a unique purpose. Eptness is basically taking that idea and putting it to practice...searching for each child's special gift. I think Einstein said it best, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Our job is to find the 'genius' in every child.

Like many things in life, this is easier said than done. However, Schmidt gives us ten pointers that promote eptness. There are three strategies that I would like to practice in my placement now and in my future teaching career; these are encouragement, feedback, and to model being a learner. In the second chapter, Schmidt describes that encouragement "means to call forth the courage within." It's not the simple, "nice job, kid." It's not verbal praise. It is pin-pointing a specific task the student has done well and making a big deal out of it, showing him/her that what they have done has benefited their classmates. "Kids get smarter when you describe what they did and explain why it's important." I like to write comments on the students homework, especially when they show their work for math. I like writing positive comments thanking them for showing me their thought process. I think I need to work on doing it more verbally. I must really let the students know that they are doing an excellent job in order to stimulate an environment of higher order thinking. The most important part of feedback is providing "affective and cognitive information." Like stated earlier, I love looking at the good in people, that includes their work. Something that has always motivated me as a learner has been knowing that there can be more than one way to get the desired answer. My work doesn't have to look exactly like the student next to me in order to get an A. The idea of feedback gives students the opportunity to identify each student's best efforts. Finally, modeling being a learner is one of the best ways to show you're a human being. As a teacher, you make mistakes, you learn something new; I believe that, that makes you more approachable. 

Toward the end of the chapter, Schmidt brings a very valid point to the table, she says, "No matter how earnestly you promote a culture of eptness, your message will fall on deaf ears if your students don't feel safe in the classroom." I feel like Schmidt is my tenet twin; every time I pick up the book, I'm nodding my head at her as if she were sitting right in front of me. The safeness of a classroom, is an essential key to promoting an educational environment. Earlier in my week of teaching, one of my students was humiliated in front of a group of kids by another student. "You don't have a dad." Five very simple words had the world of significance to one of my students. It was so powerful that he started crying. My cooperating teacher pulled out the student and the student who had made the comment. I heard a wave of giggles and whispers. Standard 4 of the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards states, "The competent teacher structures a safe and healthy learning environment that facilitates cultural and linguistic responsiveness, emotional well-being, self-efficacy, positive social interaction, mutual respect, active engagement, academic risk-taking, self-motivation, and personal goal-setting." I knew that something had to be done. If I waited for the teacher to enter the room, it might be too late to address the issue. I had all the kids stop what they were doing and look at me. We had a quick discussion about how the student felt. Some people piped in, "I don't have a dad either, but I don't care that much." So I brought up other issues. We talked about what the definition of bullying is. We talked about name calling and how it can really hurt a person. After our discussion, they were more aware of others' emotions. Since that time, I really haven't had an issue with any of the students.