My Last Video Teach

I did my last video teach this past wednesday. I covered the eighth amendment, which states that there shall be no laws enforcing excessive bail, excessive fines, and prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. I wanted to break up the students up into groups of three however, due to the number of students groups of four ended up working out better. I gave each group one packet of group notes. I handed out a set of group resources, which they were supposed to read and then use to answer the questions on the group notes. We covered excessive fines and bail with my packets and then the death penalty covered the last question in my packet and the first question in Ms. B’s packet. It sounds complicated, but it really wasn’t.

The second period class crashed. I met resistance from students just to get into groups. I had to state to one student, “Are you really going to give me a hard time about getting into groups?” As we went throughout the lesson, the assigned readers kept getting off task, some students said they “didn’t feel like reading”, it was frustrating. I ended up reading most of the material because the groups kept getting off task. After the class I needed time to chill out and calm down because I was so upset. Several students went out of their way to avoid doing any work. Those that did the work refused to talk about the questions provided on the guided notes or that I asked them. Even when I provided the answers some groups were talking and would not quiet down when I tried to get the students refocused. 

Then 4th period came and saved the day. I made some adjustments. I decided to cut out some of the material and to read the examples of excessive fines and bail, then when when I asked the questions on the group notes great discussions developed. It was completely opposite from 2nd period. There were actually a couple of times where I had to cut the debates/discussion short in order to cover the needed material. It was how I planned how the lesson would work out. I felt redeemed and much more successful with my second class. 

I think there were several key differences in the two classes. The biggest difference was the students. 2nd period just didn’t want to work. I felt like perhaps I was doing something wrong, but the more I observed Ms. B teaching both 2nd and 4th period I’ve realized that 2nd period just has several lethargic students. There have been times when we will discuss a topic, cover some new information, and a question will be asked about what was covered in the discussion and no one will answer the question. They know the answer, they just don’t want to answer or talk. The second difference was the amount of information I threw at the students, it was most likely too much. The students probably felt overwhelmed. In the future I will use the philosophy that in most cases, less is more.

Last Day with My ELLs

Today was my last day with my ELL’s and it went well. Mr. I emailed me a copy of his power point and we went over it and had the students do a graphic organizer with South Asia in the middle. The four categories were people, land, differences, and history. As we went over the power point I explained the main points of each slide and had them fill out their graphic organizers.

The lesson went great, we started off talking about our weekend and kept building our rapport, which has grown substantially over the past few weeks. We then moved into the lesson and it went smoothly. They grasped each concept very well. We talked at length about nuclear war and the war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Which caused us to go on a tangent about the Cuban Missile crisis and the possibility of the world being destroyed by a nuclear war. It was a great discussion. We also talked for quite a bit about the caste system and how if you’re poor then every generation of your family is poor. We then compared it to the United States where if any one works hard enough they can work their way out of poverty. I shared a story about how my mother worked her way out of poverty and they seemed to enjoy it and I think they could relate to it because many of their parents have either done the same thing or are currently working to do the same thing. I’m going to be seeing one of my buddies during the summer for football workouts, he’s joining the team and I’ll be working with the team starting in May so it’s good to already have a relationship with one of the players.

Working with my ELL buddies has shown me the importance of building rapport with my students and also how I need to incorporate pictures in my lesson plans. Language has barriers, but photos do not. My Spanish has improved quite a bit from this semester as well. More and more of it came back to me as the semester went a long and I could communicate much more easily with my ELL buddies. I’m going to continue to work on my Spanish, I feel it’s necessary when working with the demographics of this area. I cannot allow language to be a barrier for any of my students success and the bottom line is many of the parents here only speak Spanish. I need to provide bilingual newsletters, progress reports and if I have a website, then it needs to be in both English and Spanish as well. This experience has been trying at times, but it was much more rewarding and has been greatly beneficial for me as a future teacher.

Capturing Their Hearts

Today I observed Mr. M’s teen leadership class. It was perhaps the most humbling, rewarding experience this semester. The class gave speeches about their most memorable moments in their lives. The topics ranged from the births of their siblings, funny moments in childhood, abuse, neglect, fears, and drugs. The speeches were great, the students were engaged and there were NO discipline problems.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been around people from this area. When I was a student here I was aware of the horrible parents my friends had, the drug abuse people around me were trapped in, premature death via overdose or violence. But since I’ve been to college it’s been 4 years since I’ve had any real interaction with many people who are from this type of background. I remember when I first got to college I was taken aback by the ignorance of many people about how rough many people’s lives are. I felt like there was a huge disconnect between those college students and the real world. Today when I heard those speeches I felt like there was a disconnect between the students and myself. I had forgotten how rough many of these kids have it. How did I forget what it was like? How did that disconnect develop? I think my mom picked up on it, she asked several questions about it recently. How have your political views changed since you’ve gone to college? You don’t seem to be as passionate about the people from the neighborhood, what’s changed? You’re not as angry about the things around here, why? My mom has always been blunt and to the point, always loving, but always blunt. I took offence to her questions and answered them with a bit of the anger the felt was missing, but I think today I’ve been able to experience the pains and joys of people that are from where I’m from. Back to teaching…….

Mr. M’s rapport with his students is remarkable. He talked about capturing the student’s hearts. About gaining the student’s trust but maintaining the teacher’s role. He said it’s like a friendly father figure. There’s a distinct role, but the trust is unquestionable as is the respect. I asked him how he gained that trust and respect and he told me that he shares part of his life with his students. He tells them stories from high school, college, and life in general. The students first trust him and slowly begin sharing part of their lives, and then the students eventually begin to trust each other.

I need to build rapport with my students, and I think I’m going to follow Mr. M’s method. Sharing stories of my past, where I’m from, what I went through in high school and college will help the students trust me.

 

 

Geography of Africa with the ELL

Today I went over the geography of Africa. I gave the students two maps; one with all the countries names on it and the other one was blank. I had the students look at the map with all the names of it and went over the general landscapes of each region. After that we reviewed the hand out given to me by their teacher. I had them describe to me what climate, vegetation, population, and economy meant. Then I showed them three videos, one about the safari, another about the rain forests in Congo and the third about Sudan and the crisis in Darfur. After each video we talked about the people in the video and the landscapes. Then I had them write all the names of the countries on the blank map.

The lesson went well. I was able to speak in about a 50 to 50 ratio of English and Spanish so that helped a lot. The students had a great understanding of climate, vegetation, population, and economy. We talked quite a bit about resources and one of my students asked how Africa was so poor when it has such an abundance of resources. We talked briefly about imperialism and the effects it had on Africa, which they both seemed to grasp. I wanted to integrate videos into the lesson because I feel that for students to understand other cultures they need to be able to see and visualize what is going on in the region. I could tell them about Darfur but unless they saw the images of children soldiers and the war torn land, I don’t think they would have remembered the region as well. I explained to my buddies that many times children are kidnapped or orphaned and become soldiers for corrupt, twisted gang lords. They seemed to be engaged with the videos. I avoided playing music and it seemed to be effective as both students had longer attention spans. After the lesson we talked about war and war movies, and we also talked about our weekend and school. I feel like my rapport has grown quite a bit with both of my ELL buddies.

I feel like the lesson was a success. I should have provided a video guide for both students to take notes as they watched the video. I could have gone over the notes before the videos were shown that way they would have been listening for key terms or information. However, when questioning my buddies after each video they seemed to have picked up on the main points of each video. Still I feel that the video guides would have been beneficial for the students to have. I like how the lesson progressed. Talking about each region’s climate, vegetation, population, and economy had the students separate the different regions of Africa. Then showing the video put faces with places and places with random names on a map. So I feel like I established a good connection between my mini lecture, the videos and then having the students write the names of each country. I asked how one of my buddies did on the previous test and he said he did better on the test over the Middle East than he had on any previous test. So that was encouraging. Hopefully he got more from this lesson than he did on the lesson over the Middle East.

 

Finishing strong

In every sport I played I was told over and over again to always finish strong. During workouts, practice and games - finish strong. My second teach I feel was not as effective as my first teach.

I did a lesson on the first amendment, focusing on the freedom of speech and expression students have in schools. There was a packet that had readings covering Tinker v. Des Moines, Frazer v. Bethel, and another packet that asked questions pertaining to the cases covered. The lesson depended heavily on class participation and discussion. The goal was to have a class debate towards the end, with the students discussing their personal views and opinions on each case. The last article covered numerous examples students attire that was deemed offensive and had to be settled in court.

I had a difficult time getting volunteers to read, so I did most of the reading. That was the last thing I wanted, I didn’t want to stand in front of the class and talk the students to death. I was hoping for the topic to be interesting enough, and engaging enough, that the students would want to read and discuss the topic. I was also nervous as two of my professors observed me. I was talking much faster than normal and I could sense my nervousness by my body language. Thankfully one of the students noticed and went out of her way to answer as many questions as she could. Towards the end of class, the class discussion/debate my entire lesson depended on started to form. I was hoping for it to begin much sooner than it had, but at least started. My 4th period class was much more effective and a debate was raging 40 minutes into the lesson. I enjoyed the class much more because the students were teaching each other rather than me forcing the lesson down their throats. I was surprised by the difference in the two classes and asked Ms. B what the difference was and she simply replied, “You”. I guess Mr. Wong is right, the teacher makes all the difference.

So now I must finish strong. I do not feel like I failed during my second teach, but I definitely stumbled along the way to the finish line. I have one last video teach and I plan on finishing strong. Dr. B taught us ways of asking questions that would be much more effective, and I feel that will help my next lesson. Professor N. taught us four different guides for reading that we can use with the students. I’m going to look at my lesson, which will occur two weeks from now, and pick one of the four guides. I’m also going to have the students get into groups of three, ask a question, give the students time to think independently, then discuss the question as a group, the discuss the question as a class. Hopefully these methods will work. They have to, because I pride myself in finishing strong…….

Geography Lesson with my ELL buddies

Today I went over geography of the Middle East with my buddies. I had them write down the names of each physical feature and country that the section covered and I had the students color code each one. Oceans, seas, rivers and lakes were written with a blue marker. Mountains in brown, land masses in green, and countries were written in orange. On the bottom of each index card I had my buddies write down what each item was in Spanish and English. For example, Caspian Sea would be written in blue and on the bottom of the index card ther would be Mar/Sea. After that I provided each student with three maps of the Middle East. One was a political map, another was a physical map, and the last one was blank. I then had the students take each index card, find it on either the policital or phyical map and write it down on the blank map. I had my computer with me so I also used it as a tool. I put on some music that they listened to while they were working. They really enjoyed google maps. I showed them where I grew up and one of my ELL buddies lives about 5 blocks from where I lived when I went to high school. Then I had them show me where they lived in Mexico. It was interesting to see their eyes as they tried to remember exactly where they’re old stomping grounds were. I looked at the guide that their geography teacher gave them for the lesson and I don’t believe either one would do good on the exam. Not only will the students have to know what each feature is and where it’s located, they must also know facts about each location. One question was, which sea is known for it’s inability to sustain life due to the amount of salt it has. So my ELL buddy must not only know the name, Dead Sea, where it’s located at, he must also know that there aren’t any fish in it because the salt level is too high. He must also know tht sustain is used for mantain, or keep alive. There so much these students have to do. I respect them much more after seeing the transition they are making.            (2)I think I did a fairly decent job of teaching the lesson. However, I would have given a few more examples each landscape on the index cards. There also a few moments when the students seemed to be a little unfocused, perhaps the setting was a bit too relaxed. The students did seem to understand the lesson though. I think having them write each landscape numerous times helped them memorize the map more effectively. They also seemed to remember certain nations or land masses easier than others. So I had them use the places they remembered as land marks and then to remember the surrounding nations and land masses. That seemed to be effective and the students liked the lesson.                   (3) I think playing rap music was a bad idea, perhaps I could have played classical music. Then again that may put the students asleep. I probably won’t play music my next lesson. I also will use land marks in future lessons when I teach history. For example, memorizing dates for numerous events is difficult and in most cases, unnecessary. But if a student can memorize major events and then the causes and effect of the event, they will know the era and time period to a larger extent. 

Emotional Roller Coaster

This morning’s class was rough. As previously stated Ms. B is by far the most organized teacher and most likely person I’ve ever met. She puts so much time and effort into her work as a teacher and towards her students. Today the students showed little interest and almost no effort. Ms. B assigned a group project over two weeks ago. She provided a rubric and previous students’ examples. She clearly introduced the project and had numerous check points throughout the lesson to ensure the students were on task. The project was due today and frankly they were pathetic. Three entire class dates were set aside solely for this project. I feel like any of these students could have knocked the entire project out in two productive class days. They also had spring break to work on the project. Ms. B was frustrated and disheartened. At the end of class she described how hard it is for her to put so much into the students and how little she gets back.

I completely sympathize with Ms. B. The students completely take her for granted. They do not understand or appreciate the amount of work she does for them, or how great of a teacher she truly is. I’ve asked myself if I ever had a teacher that was as dedicated as Ms. B., and the answer is yes, three times, and I busted my tail for two of them. So I can see the students perspective too. However, it still seems incomprehensible for the students to be given so much time to complete their work and still fail to do a satisfactory job.

I’ve used today’s lesson to understand that there will be days where I am going to want to quit teaching and give up on the students. Teaching is going to be an emotional roller coaster. I’m going to have to ensure that I clearly describe what I want from the students for each assignment. I’m really trying to figure out why Ms. B. is having such a difficult time with the students turning in unsatisfactory work. The only thing I can think of is perhaps she did not clearly describe how she wanted each assignment done. That seems like a bit of a stretch because when I heard her describe each lesson it made sense to me. Either way I now understand the importance of being able to weather the storms of complacent and lethargic students as well as the necessity of clearly describing all of my assignment.  

2nd day with ELL students

On Monday we met with our ELL students for the 2nd time. This time we had a scripted guide from Professor Nicholson and Bond to assess what proficiency our ELL students were reading and speaking at. The guide had us touch base on building rapport, explaining the activity, listening to and reading a passage from a book, and then creating a diagram of the family in the book.The guide helped out quite a bit. It was good to fall back on. During our first meeting there were a lot of awkward times of silence, which isn’t necessarily bad, however I just felt like there was a huge language barrier between us. With the guide it was much easier to move from topic to topic. The guide also had a lot of the best practice methods we’re currently learning in class. It had a warm up activity, when we touched base on rapport and lowered the affective wall. The objective was given when I told the students the purpose of the lesson, and the input when I told the students how were were going to achieve the objective. We had guided practice when I created a diagram of my family and then they created one of their families, and we then shared our diagrams. The lesson called for independent practice when I read the passage aloud and had the students tell me what occurred in the passage. We were able to assess and see if reteaching was needed by asking them the questions from the guide and were were able to assess their comprehension. There was more independent practice when the students were suppose to read the next passage silently, however, I felt that my ELL students were either too nervous or would not have comprehended what they were reading, so we took turns reading the second passage aloud. We would change readers after each sentence. Closure was done when we drew the diagram of the family from the story.From the reading I could tell that Ju was able to comprehend at a much higher level than Jo, but when reading a loud Jo seemed able to read much easier than Ju. Ju later admitted that he gets nervous when he reads a loud. I made the changes to the guided lesson plan because I felt it the changes benefited both students.Seeing all 6 of hunter’s steps in action proved to be effective. Building rapport with the students made them much more receptive to the lesson and it appeared they were more comfortable asking me questions. By stating the objective the students knew what we were going to be doing for the hour we were together. Having that sense of direction made the time pass much more smoothly. By giving the input, which was describing how were were going to create the diagrams, the students understood how they were going to get to the end objective. This made everything we were doing much more relevant.Both students enjoyed the reading passages and were interested to find out more about the family portrayed in the passages. Both of them were able to relate to the family in the story. I feel like our rapport has built even more because of this activity. I see the importance now of choosing texts that will relate with the students. My ELL students wanted to read more about the family in story. I asked Jo if he would be interested in reading the book if he could find a copy of it in both English and Spanish and he said he would. In the future I will look for young adult literature that my students will be familiar with. This would create more interest for students to read on their own initiative. It will also have the students more engaged in the classroom. I would like to have a class that has more dialogue than lecture, and doing activities that the students find interesting will make that a possibility.

My First Video Teach

So technically this was my second lesson, but it was my first one that counted. My colleague, Angela, recorded my lesson and one of professors observed me as well. I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be. I prepared for the lesson thoroughly. The lesson consisted of teaching the three rhetorical methods ethos, pathos, and logos and how to incorporate them into the students’ argumentative essays. Ms. B, as usual, had a very well organized lesson. She created a power point, guided notes for the power point, and the argumentative essay packet was given to the students a week prior to my lesson. I simply went through the lesson before hand attentively, made notes on what I would say on each power point slide, and created a hand out with examples of each rhetorical method effectively used in speeches or books. Being prepared for the lesson probably preventing me from being nervous. I knew I was ready, and that showed throughout my lesson. Ms. B, my professor, and my colleague all commented on how well I did. Ms. B liked the fact that I took her lesson and made it my own. I made sure that each student understood each method before moving on. If a student seemed to not understand what any particular method was, I gave more examples. For example for pathos I gave the example of the UNICEF commercials that show kids who are homeless, starving, and sick, who desperately need our money and support. I asked the students to give me an example and we discussed the NIU shootings, the tornadoes that hit Union University and other examples of current events that evoked our emotions. This showed the students grasped the rhetorical method of pathos. Again I feel more and more prepared for my future career of teaching.

My First Lesson

I taught last Wednesday and presented the argumentative essay to Ms. B’s government class. The students were respectful and I had no disruptions despite Ms. B being gone on a field trip. It was a great experience, I like just going out there and being allowed to fly or fall. I wouldn’t say I flied off, but I certainly didn’t fall. Ms. B told me that the students felt like I explained things better than she did, which is a huge compliment since I feel she is a great teacher. I have learned that being organized is 75% of teaching, being organized enables you to be more effective with classroom management and keeping transitional phases short. The other 25% of teaching is the delivery. Not to sound over-confident, but I feel like I have the delivery down. I know my content area, I’m a people person, and I like to talk, sometime too much. However, I’m not where I need to be as far as my organizational skills are concerned. I’ll have to work a lot at that, and hopefully I can pick up on a lot of Ms. B’s habits.