Blog Weekly Post 10

Last week I began to become frustrated with my research. I am not sure what steps to take with the progression of my students. I find the book difficult to understand and to relate what I read to my students learning. I am not used to reading something from a book and implementing into the classroom. I feel like I am not confident in my research and that it will take a much longer time span of implementation before you begin to recognize real results. My teacher and I discussed today how we are starting to think our students are not developmentally ready to implement these learning’s with our students. I am beginning to feel like the students are getting very comfortable with me and are not afraid to disrupt or misbehave. I can tell a major difference between when I teach and when my teacher teaches. I do not know if my students feel I will not discipline or if they do not realize that I am not the main authority. They are not terrible and I am maintaining control, but I am noticing that they are getting a bit chattier.

Chapter 4 Reflection

Blog Chapter 4 Data Analysis and Interpretation Just like Chapter four says, analyzing and interpreting my data feels like moving into a dark, foggy forest of unknowns. I am not really sure what my data is telling me or what I am looking for in my data. I am not even certain that the data I am collecting is the data that is best to collect for my study. Interpret means the way you look and analyze something. I have found that I have made many interpretations already in my study. I make interpretations about my students that are participating in my study and judgments based on their capabilities. I use interpretations during my teaching all the time. I assess my students through interpretation and what they know and need to know next. I liked in each section: analysis, synthesis, deconstruction, and contextualization all give you questions that you should be asking or could be reviewing with your own data. I think that this can help guide me in my thinking and my data findings. I think that many of these topics are great to use once you have your data, so that you can analyze the data that you have. I have only collected one week’s worth of data and I find it difficult to analyze much with just this information.

Blog Weekly Post 9

After forty one days in school you would not think that the students would still be able to surprise me. I usually feel like I know my students and their understanding fairly well and then suddenly I realize that a certain student knows nothing about what I have taught them. I try to mentally assess my students every day. I am constantly asking questions and calling on certain students to see if they know the answer. I have come to realize that assessing Kindergarten students is very difficult. Even with three teachers in the room, it is hard to get one on one time with a single student. I do not always think that whole class assignments are a great was to assess my students either. I think that sometimes they do not understand the directions or do not realize what I am asking of them. They need more direct instruction geared directly towards them. I still have two students that do not know their colors. The rest of my students were assessed on colors before we came back to school and passed except for these two. We did not directly work with them on their colors because that is something that we talk about and use daily in our classroom. I assumed that they could pick them up so quickly like everything else. This week I realized that they still are confusing their colors. I was so concerned that I even gave the one student a color blindness test. I have been better at trying to pull students individually when I have time to work with them one on one on a specific skill that they are lacking. This week my teacher was at a conference for two days. I just started my six weeks of full time teaching so I was nervous on how things would go. I felt like things went really well! My students behaved well and really worked hard for me. I think that they were so used to me teaching mostly anyway that it did not interrupt their schedule so they were able to handle the change better. It is exciting to feel a part of the classroom and have the students respect you as a teacher. But, I give Laura lots of credit because it is exhausting. This week was my first week of full time teaching. I have been finding planning to be difficult. There are so many things that need covered in such a small amount of time. I want to make sure that ALL of my students have a good understanding of a concept before I move on to something else but then I also do not want to bore other students with staying on the same idea for too long. I think that it is much harder to plan in Kindergarten because you do not have a book telling you what to do next or giving you any ideas on how to teach something. I also think that the students learn more because you really work hard on your planning and make sure that it is really worthwhile to your students learning.

Weekly Blog Post 8

Sometimes I feel like it is hard to assess my students constantly. Last week during one of my lessons I realized I did not know how low one of my students was in math. During this lesson I had instructed them to complete an activity on their own and it included numbers. I thought that this student knew his number one through ten. As I was monitoring the class I began to notice that he has no idea what each number was called. He could count one to ten but if you held up the number three he was not able to tell you that number. We are constantly using numbers in everyday activity. I was so surprised that I had overlooked how low his math skills were and I thought he knew the majority of his numbers. I decided I would pull him aside to assess his numbers one on one and I came to find he cannot tell the difference between a three and a ten. I do not know how I did not realize before this that he was so low. When you are not working individually with students, it is really difficult to keep up with their progression. I also find it hard to understand how he is still so low when we work with numbers on a regular basis. This worries me because I am so afraid that I am leaving some students behind in my instruction. I know that I will have students that are below level, on level, and above level at any time it just worries me with how low they might be and I seem to be overlooking them. I have been having some trouble with my students blurting out while I am trying to teach. I have come up with a contract that I think will contain the blurting with my higher level students. These students are well aware of the classroom expectations and they still have difficulty staying quiet during instructional time. I created a contract that the student, their parent, and I signed stating that after five warnings about blurting they must change their light which ultimately means five minutes off recess or no star card for the day. These students are good students and know what is expected of them in the classroom. I am going to try to see if I can change their behavior with this contract. I am starting to feel like I need to differentiate my lessons more. All of my lessons so far have been on level and I do not feel like I have challenged my higher level learners enough. I have some very intelligent students that need more difficult work. I am going to start including a higher level piece into every lesson that I create. I want my students to be working to their full potential.

Weekly Blog Post 7

I have been having issues with my students blurting this week during whole group instruction. Many of the students that tend to blurt often are my intelligent ones that know better but have trouble keeping quiet during instruction. I feel like these students are very bright and want to make sure that I know they know the answer to the questions that I am asking. Many times I am asking questions to my lower level students to keep them on task or to see if they understand my material. I know that my higher level learners comprehend my teaching and so I do not call on them as often. It has become increasingly more annoying to deal with blurters during my lessons lately. I also think that these students know the answers and have trouble holding in their answers while waiting for other students to come up with an answer. I know that many times they think they are helping their classmates by “giving” them an answer but I want my other students to become better independent thinkers. I have talked to this students many times and we have discussed them changing their lights because of their disruptions during class. I have decided to come up with a system to stop the blurting. I think I am going to make a contract with the students and their parents to stop the blurting during instruction. Any time one of these students blurt they must go color a pair of lips or something at their table. Once they have reached a certain numbers of blurts they will have to go change their lights. I know that some of my students are not capable to hold in their blurts because they do not fully understand being quiet. My higher level learners know what is expected of them and they are not complying. I will also plan on rewarding these students when they are able to complete this task and not blurt. When I reflect back on my lessons I feel like I sometimes forget that I am teaching Kindergarteners. I think I look at them on one level and expect that they can all think to their highest capabilities and I tend to give directions based off of my higher students’ levels. I find it difficult to be constantly planning for my different students academic levels. I think that the majority of my students are able to understand and follow my directions with little or no reinforcement, but then I have students who are completely unable to complete anything. I know that this is because these students are unable to complete many tasks at all. Some are still having difficulty putting their name on their papers while others are writing full sentences by themselves. The gap in intellectual capabilities is enormous. I need to find a way to keep them engaged and learning. I feel like they are not learning anything because they are constantly behind. Even when we give them one on one attention with an assignment I feel like we are basically doing the assignment for them because they put little effort into it.

Blog Weekly Post 7 - Monday

After my lesson today my teacher began to take over to start her lesson. As we transitioned into her teaching I noticed how well she spots off task children. In Kindergarten, every other second it seems like a child is off task or paying no attention. My teacher is really good at keeping all the students’ attention the whole time she teaches. I have noticed that I am so concerned about teaching my lesson and what I need to do next that I have trouble managing my students’ behavior. I feel like I am constantly correcting or trying to manage a certain student or twos attention and I feel like I am taking away from my other students. I also feel like when I go to correct a student’s behavior I must stop my lesson to do so and I am losing my on task students attention. Is this a skill that comes with time when teaching? Am I not paying enough attention to off task behavior during my lesson? I know that no class is going to be perfect but is there a way to grab every student’s attention. I then start to question my ability to grab my student’s attention. Am I planning exciting enough lessons that my students want to learn and participate in.

Weekly blog post 6

I have come to realize that the plans you make for your teaching can change so quickly. I plan my lessons the week before I teach them. During the middle of the week I find myself changing or tweaking my lessons. Sometimes I feel like my students do not understand the information as much as I would like and feel like I should not move on to the next steps until they fully understand the first steps. I have also gotten to the middle of the week and thought I was holding them back from their learning and I needed to speed things up. I have been having trouble with assessing my students. I feel like I need to take more time with my students individually on their learning to assess what they know. I try to call on my students individually to see if they comprehend the information but I think that sometimes their answers are not always one hundred percent accurate. Sometimes other students will whisper answers to them and other times I think my students might know the answer but are too afraid to say it aloud. My teacher keeps a clip board with cards of each student’s name and will write down things that they can and cannot do. I like this method but I feel like there are always students we miss, especially our higher level learners. I am going to try to write something about each child once a week. I noticed that my students have been getting bored with our morning message. They have been getting more chatty and restless during our morning routine. I have decided to change our routine a little by creating some more activities. I have tried to keep them active and interesting. I think that the end of last week’s morning routine went better than the beginning of the weeks before I changed it. I am feeling very comfortable with my students and my classroom. I am picking up on so many great ideas and strategies that I feel like I will use in the future!

Blog Weekly Post 5

I finally feel like my students are getting into their routine of how our daily schedule works. Most of the students are transitioning very well from one activity to another. One of my biggest pet peeves that I have noticed with my students is they cannot keep their hands to themselves. It is so very distracting for me and the other students. The majority of my students have trouble with the concept of keeping their hands to themselves. I know that this is a very normal concern in Kindergarten or younger students. I want to start looking for different ways to try to keep my students hands to themselves. It is just a constant distraction to the class and the others. One thing I noticed this week is that I tend to think that my students that are quieter do not understand information or that there academic qualities lack. I was surprised today when my teacher showed me assessments that she had been working with individual students. One of our quieter students scored fairly well and I was very surprised. This student tends to keep to herself and not answer questions even when prompted and asked. I think I thought because this student did not answer questions aloud to me that she did not know the answer. This makes me think about my instruction or individual assessment with this student. I tend to make mental assessments on my students when I talk to them or hear them talking to their classmates about their class work. I feel like I do not have a great grasp on this student’s capability because I never hear her talking aloud. I want to spend more time with this student to learn more about her and the ways that she learns. I also want to find a way to assess her in a way that she is comfortable. I believe that one way could be not having her answer questions in whole group instruction. I think that I could have her give me an answer by writing or drawing the answer if she doesn’t want to speak. Another part of me thinks that she needs to learn to speak in front of her classmates so that she will get comfortable.

Week 4 Blog Posting

I am beginning to realize that our students really listen to the teacher’s when we speak. They unintentionally listen to how we talk to each other and other students. We have one student that speaks little English and has trouble with her behavior. We are constantly talking to her and saying her name during class. Many times we have to stop whole class instruction to correct her behavior. It is very difficult and tiring to keep her on task and focused, as you could imagine it would be being from another country and not understanding the language being spoken. As teachers, we are constantly trying to correct her behavior without interrupting the other students learning. I have noticed that the other students are starting to talk to her like the teachers do. They try to boss her around and tell her what she should or should not do. In some ways it is good that are students know what they need to be doing and try to help this student get on track. There are many negatives to this situation. I feel like the students see this particular student in a negative light. She is consistently bothering the other students by touching them and talking or making noises during instruction. As teachers, we tend to say this students name loudly, directive, and authoritative. I have heard the other students talk to her this way. I feel like we do not realize how negative we make this student look to her classmates. I heard a student in line the other day say, “I have to stand by the weird girl”. This was upsetting and eye opening to me. Our students probably see our frustration with this student and find her weird and not like the other students. I want this student to be treated fairly and normal. I never realized how much our students listen to not only what we say but the tone of our voice. I am not sure what the answer is to fix this problem. I know that I am going to try to talk to this student in not just a demeaning tone. I want the best for this student. I do not want to give her a bad reputation with her classmates because of how we speak to her. I also have a student with a behavior issue that comes from an interesting home setting. We have had some serious issues with him cursing and hitting other students. He has no earned star cards (our reward system) multiple times and it does not seem to phase him. We kept him in from his second recess for cursing at another student and it did not phase him at all. Today we had an issue with him hitting other students on the playground and at lunch. He will tell the other students sorry if we ask him too. When we ask him why he hit his classmates he has no reason. We gave him a red light (behavior management system) and it did not seem to affect him. I am not sure how to punish someone who does not care if he is punished. Our punishments are obviously not making a difference in his behavior. I do not know how to keep our other students safety in mind when dealing with a student who does not care to hurt others. I have learned a lot about my students this week. Every week I am learning more about them academically and personally. I am really enjoying my time in Kindergarten!

Chapter 3 Reflection

When I think about data I get very overwhelmed. I find data difficult to read and decipher. I never understand what kind of data I should be using and what kind if data Is appropriate. Interviews are data that I understand and can contribute without any problems. Some observational data is confusing but I generally understand. I have trouble deciding what data that I need to collect and use for my study. I think I have a difficult time understanding the difference between research data and assessment. Interview data can also be survey data. I never considered this before. I think that surveys are a good start to collecting data for your research. Table 3.2 gives some great data-collection tools. I think that I want to record a lot of teaching for data. I think that video recording is great evidence to support your data. Triangulation is your three sets of data, interview, artifacts, and observations. Although this covers much of your data it does not cover all. Triangulation makes your data and research trustworthy.

Week 3 Blog Posting

This week has felt like the longest four days ever! I am starting to realize that my students are such zombies on Monday since they are tired from their weekend. I think that Monday’s seem like a good time for instruction since they are too quiet to disrupt their neighbor. I also have noticed that I am most tired on Monday as well and need to really step up. I took over morning work this week. My teacher suggested that I should teach morning work for two days and then she would take back over for a day so I could watch her one last time. I thought that this was a good idea. After the first two days of my teaching I reflected really well so I knew what to look for when she taught the third day. One of my main concerns was that I was not very upbeat. I felt like if I wanted m students to be excited about learning the information, then I needed to be excited about teaching it! The next days I tried to step it up. I find it hard early in the morning when I am really tired to get really engaged so that I engage my students. Although the week felt extremely long, I learned a lot this week. I have been trying to work more with my students’ one on one. Our students’ levels are really far apart. We have one student that cannot even recognize the first letter of their name and another student that is on a third grade reading level. This makes instruction very difficult. This week I started taking small groups during station time to work on leveled instruction. I found it difficult to decide what students needed what instruction. When my teacher reviewed my lesson plans she thought some activities were too low for some groups. I wonder if this comes with experience or if I do not know my students well enough. I made it a point this week to get to know my students and their strengths AND weaknesses better. I noticed that I tend to get better results from my students when working one on one with them. Well duh! I feel stupid for even writing that. I just am seeing how important it is to work to each individual needs. I find it very difficult to realize that many students are not getting this one on one interaction that they need. I feel like they could really be rising to their potential if we have the teacher man power. It is difficult to find one on one time with certain students. I wonder if we made a time every day where a teacher just pulled one student at a time to work on a specific need if we could make a faster learning process. I worked with our child that has behavior issues this week one on one. He was refusing to color his worksheet, which we needed to do before he could go play at stations. The student just sat there and watched all of the other children. The other teachers were busy either pulling students for individual teaching or busy supervising the other students in the room. I decided that I would sit down and talk to this student. This is a student who has really never been given the chance to color in his life. I talked to him about the different colors and what color he wanted to use for the different parts of the picture. As he told me what colors to use I would pick up the crayon and begin to color that section. I told him I started it now you need to finish it. He did very well with this activity. His coloring was the best we have ever seen it. Of course he would get distracted but he actually finished his work in time to play. I feel like because of his behavior issues we tend to leave him out or not think he needs help or deserves help but in reality he needs more help than anyone in that room.

Weekly Blog 2

This week was our first full week in the classroom. I am getting more comfortable with my classroom and students. The students seem to be coming out of their “honeymoon” stage. Many of our students are getting comfortable as well and are starting to act like they do at home which can be a little more complicated at school. Some of our students are having a more difficult time staying quiet or raising their hands when wanting to talk. My teacher does a great job at keeping these students under control. She will refuse to call on these children that are “blurting” unless they are quiet with their hands raised. I find it difficult to ignore these children because I want to correct their behavior that second and tell them to be quiet even though I know it distracts the other children and takes away from the lesson. I am starting to get to know my students on a more individual level this week. I have been trying to talk with them one on one to get them more comfortable with me being in the classroom. Most of the students respond really well to me but there are a few that are not interested in talking to me on a personal level. I think that some of these students are just very shy and are not ready to open up yet and others are just not interested. As I mentioned last week we have a student that speaks no English. This student has had a very hard time paying attention and staying out of trouble in the classroom. I have noticed that she seems to be getting into the most trouble when we are watching a movie or in a direct instruction time. I think that since she does not understand what is being said she is frustrated and uninterested. How could you blame her? Constantly trying to explain things to her has gotten redundant. Towards the end of this week I am trying new approaches with her in the classroom. I wonder what types of things I could do to get her involved or to get her out of trouble. When we were in library I had her sit on my lap so she could not get up and run around the place by herself. This seemed to calm her down and she stayed with me the whole time. I wonder if she just wants attention and is not getting enough of it during our instruction times. My teacher includes her in every activity but I am wondering if she wants one on one attention since she does not understand the instruction provided. I also think that she knows more then what she leads on. I wonder if there was a way I could get this information out of her in English. I am going to continue new strategies with her next week to see what I can improve.

Week 1 Blog Posting

Starting early back to North Elementary was one of the most rewarding experiences throughout my student teaching thus far. I got to watch how the beginning of the year plays out before students ever step foot into the building. As a future teacher I find this a very beneficial experience for myself. I was able to attend beginning of the year teacher meetings and be a part of some neat activities that involved the rest of North’s staff. Many of the meetings that we attended dealt with our text books and curriculum we would be teaching this year. I thought our meeting about the Social Studies text was interesting but also long. We discussed that we thought some of the resources were not resources we needed and that it could be missing some others that might make our teaching more interesting. I was able to travel with my teachers to their class home visits. I found this to be the most important part of going back to school. I enjoyed getting to meet the students and evaluating them on their skills. I mostly enjoyed meeting the parents and observing what types of homes my students were coming from. I learned many new things on these home visits about my students. I learned that some cultures have to offer their guests food of some sort and it is rude of you to turn it down. I felt like I got to understand my students more by being able to observe their backgrounds. I also felt like this could be a little stifling for the student because I seemed to already make some sort of judgment about these students before really getting to know them. I would like to always know where my students are coming from even if I am not teaching Kindergarten and do not travel for home visits. I have only had three days with my students so far so I still feel like I am trying to get to know them individually. I have one student that speaks no English. I find myself frustrated and upset with her a lot. This student does not listen or follow directions well at all. I find this student doing her own things often and not paying attention to the rest of the class or the teacher. I try to explain to her using motions and actions as best as I can. I need to realize that this student is probably just as frustrated or even more than I am. I feel myself constantly repeating the same words to her as if she is supposed to understand them. I notice that she does the same thing when she is talking to me in her language. I need to find a better way for the two of us to communicate. I also have a little boy that comes from a broken home and does not know how to behave in a school structure. I was so worried the first two days of school about how he was going to act and if I could help control him. By the third day of school with the children I already feel myself more relaxed around him. He has already begun to act more appropriately and behave. I have realized that I was judging him on his home appearances and how his parents talked about him. I thought that he would be bouncing off the walls and unable to be controlled. In reality he is just not used to the structure and I think with time he will grow to appreciate it.

Chapter 2 Action Research Reflection

I thought that the Exploring your school context: listening to your setting section was very intriguing and enlightening. I agreed with the statement that the most difficult phase is moving from a broad concern to a more focused question appropriate for a certain task. I seem to have a broad idea of what I would like to research but narrowing down my options to one question to research is very difficult for me. I have many personal concerns that I feel like I could address but do not know if there is a study that I could formulate. I feel like I could sometimes personalize my objectives too much. I feel as if I should take a step back and look at the bigger picture. I choose Alex and Lauren to be my critical colleagues because they are familiar with my teaching styles and the setting of where my teaching takes place. They are both placed in a Kindergarten classroom this semester and will be on similar pace as mine. I can confide in them both and trust that they will be honest with my research. When considering different strategies to use in my research I like to consider the strategies that worked best for me in my own learning. I would like to consider seeing if these strategies work best for everyone or just me. I sometimes find it difficult to use articles to find information about my research. I always feel like the articles relate but are not always exactly what I need. I am not sure if this means I need to refine my questions or maybe they need to be broadened.

Inquiry Celebration

I found the Inquiry Celebration at Lakeview to be very beneficial and interesting. Last year, as a tutor, I felt like the Inquiry Celebration was overwhelming and made me nervous for the upcoming years. Now that I have been participating in my own inquiry and have a better understanding of the idea I found this celebration to be enlightening. I have learned so much over the last year about my own teaching style and the things that I am interested in studying with my own students.

At this years celebration I was scheduled to be in Seminar room one for both of the morning sessions. I was really interested in watching the presentations about early childhood inquiries. During the first morning session we were presented with three unique and interesting research presentations. The first presentation was about Kindergarten students using their five senses to learn new ideas. The second presentation was about using movement to teach Kindergarteners mathematical concepts, like shapes. The last presentation was about using movement in a Pre Kindergarten classroom to better gross motor skills. These three presentations were very beneficial to me because I am placed into a Kindergarten classroom next Fall and was interested in how the Interns implemented their studies.

The second session was also very intriguing for me to witness. The first presenter implemented diversity into her Pre Kindergarten classroom. I found this unique to me because I am placed at North Elementary where our school community is very diverse. The last two presenters were geered more towards upper grade levels and dealt with integrating Social Studies and Science into the curriculum. I found all of these presentations to be rewarding to watch. These presentations make me excited for my student teaching next year!

Characteristics Blog 2

When considering which Characteristics of a Novice Teacher I wanted to blog about I thought I should choose the most difficult ones for me. These Characteristics to me seem to be the hardest to identify with and fine artifacts. The two Characterisitics that I choose were one and seven.

CHARACTERISTIC 1: WE BELIEVE THAT THE NOVICE TEACHER SHOULD HAVE A COMMITMENT TO AND SKILLS FOR LIFE-LONG LEARNING.
This Characteristic means that you as a teacher should always be learning. Just because you are a teacher does not mean that you are no longer a learner. You should be constantly updating yourself with new and relevant learning. As a teacher you need to learn to pass this new knowledge onto others. An artifact that I thought of for this Characteristic is going to workshops. This semester I was lucky enough to attend a free few week training with my host teacher at my school. We met one night a week for a few hours to learn about reading instruction. As a student I did not realize how beneficial this was in my own learning. Going to workshops provides a great resource to keep you updated with life long learning.

CHARACTERISTIC 7: WE BELIEVE THAT THE NOVICE TEACHER SHOULD EFFECTIVELY INTEGRATE CONTENT AND PEDAGOGY.

This Characteristic means that you integrate what you have learned as a teacher along with the content that you are teaching. Novice teachers should use the art of teaching to provide the students with the content expected to teach. One of the artifacts that you can provide for this Characteristic is a video of you teaching. I think that this is the best way to show how you integrate the content into your teaching style. The video could relate to this Characteristic by showing how you teach the content.

Characteristics

After looking over the Characteristics of the Novice teacher I became most interested in characteristics two and three.

Characteristic 2: WE BELIEVE THAT THE NOVICE TEACHER SHOULD BE AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATOR.

I think that the big idea for this trait is for the teacher to be an effective communicator. Teachers need to communicate in many ways, especially with students, parents, and colleagues. An artifact that I think would connect well with this characteristic is a letter home to the parents. This opens a door to have great communication with the child's guardians. The best communication you can have with a parent is when there is a two way communication. You want the parents to feel comforatable coming to you with their comments and concerns. Allowing your parents the opportunity to stay involved in their child's learning makes this a great way of communication. As long as you are getting responses from the parents you will be have an effective communication which incorporates this characterisitic.

Characteristic 3: WE BELIEVE THAT THE NOVICE TEACHER SHOULD RECOGNIZE THAT TEACHING IS A PROFESSIONAL, MORAL, AND ETHICAL ENTERPRISE, SHOULD UNDERSTAND MORAL ISSUES AND ETHICAL PRACTICES IN EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS, AND SHOULD HAVE DEVELOPED ETHICAL FRAMEWORKS WHICH FACILITATE EFFECTIVE TEACHING.

The big idea for this characteristic is the professional, moral, and ethical relations. Preservice teachers need to focus on these issues immensely throughout their time teaching and thereafter. The teacher should know his/her own morals and the social ethics of their community. An artifact that works great with this characteristic is an observation of a lesson plan. The lesson plans focus would be on the professional, ethical, or moral views of the preservice teacher. This artifact lesson could come from the character education lesson. I think that this ties into characteristic 3 by showing the ethical, professional, and moral values of the teacher and what they are teaching.