Classroom Confidential Ch. 2

This week was another up and down battle of success, messes, and continued learning both for me and my students. I taught my first edTPA lesson and began officially taking over the classroom. Even though I have been heavily involved in teaching for the past few weeks now, Mr. Park still has had his hand in the lessons some way or another. Some days he may be working one-on-one with students, running his own fitness testing station, or present as a secondary authority for discipline. I felt the transition to head teacher would be extremely fluid because of the way I have been integrated into the classroom. I figured classroom control would be no more a challenge than the past few weeks. I was wrong.

Wouldn’t you know (once again!), this week’s Classroom Confidential chapter spoke fluently into many of my thoughts and ponderings. Chapter two talked about building a classroom culture; my stage of teaching exactly. I’m not here to role play Mr. Park. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. Mr. Park and I are different people and, not surprisingly, the students respond to us as such. When I first read about great teachers building a culture of eptness and tapping into the unique abilities of each student, I honestly thought ‘this author is living in a dream world’. Here I am trying to keep a structured environment so my students don’t kill each other and some fragment of control in my “controlled chaos” remains. Don’t get me wrong, I desperately want to create an environment where my student’s human potential is a highlighted resource, where I’m providing specific feedback and challenging old habits; however, it seems I am trapped solely trying to keep a controlled and safe environment.

As I read further, I realized I was thinking about eptness the wrong way. Instead of thinking it is some added element I have to integrate in addition to classroom management, I really should be thinking of it as an integral part. A culture eptness means my students should be more invested in what they are doing because they are engaged in both role of teacher and student. Their on-task behavior peaks when they feel smart, competent, and a part of the community.

As I continue to teach, I will need to focus more on changing my own behaviors to help this culture blossom. I aim to first focus on expectations. Forming misguided preconceptions or misconceptions of one’s students is an incredibly easily practice to slip into. I will habitually look for the capabilities in all my students, expecting them to surprise me in the most positive way. Secondly, I aim to increase a culture of eptness by becoming a master of effective feedback. Effective feedback is “positive and includes details that help the students appreciate the effectiveness or accuracy of their efforts. With so much going on in the gym, I’ve noticed I will start giving out mindless “good jobs” and “great work” as I try to mentally prepare for my next step in the lesson (along with a million other thoughts). Changing my feedback behaviors means that I will put in the extra cognitive work to remark specifically on what my students are doing. ‘Catch them doing good’ will be the motto of the day.

Lastly, I hope to model risk taking with my students. Last week I taught a lesson and for several reasons it simply wasn’t working. I was frustrated. In my mind, the activity and goals weren’t difficult. They should be getting it. Thankfully, I swallowed my pride enough to ask the students what they were thinking and feeling. Come to find there were several factors that were slightly above their ability level, and they needed some extra support in figuring it out. Being able to step back and collaborate with the students not only offers solutions to the problems but also provides as safe place that says ‘mistakes happen here but we’ll figure it out together’. 

Full time teaching! -Week 5

Week…week…holy cow what week is it!?! Time flies when you’re having fun, running exhausted around a gym of twenty plus students, and trying to get your edTPA rolling! This week, like most, seems to be a blur of every type of experience I could think up. The success and the messes continue. As my first week of officially being the head teacher, I had a fair number of new experiences contributing to the craziness. I expected the transition to be fairly seamless considering I’ve had a prominent role in many of the activities and lessons since week two. However, I soon found out my assumption was more of mis-assumption.

Classroom control. That was the theme I sang in my reflections this week. Suddenly with Mr. Park in the background, the gym was an open playing field and the students were anxious to explore. Little did they know Miss Matson had a different ideal in mind: guided exploration with clear boundaries and protocols to abide by. As the first few classes began with an atmosphere bordering chaos more than control, I quickly realized my expectations would have to be voiced loud and clear and over and over again. At first my frustration boiled a bit after each lesson. I wondered why all of the sudden I seemed to have to be cracking down on the discipline not just once but continuously throughout my lesson. Didn’t my students know I wanted them to spend the majority of the time playing and engrossed in the activities? Then it dawned on me. I am not Mr. Park and even though I have been teaching, I had never stated my personal expectations for them. These students were simply doing what comes naturally to all children, testing the boundaries of something new set before them. Mr. Park could present himself casually to the students and simply give them the “look” to correct behavior. I on the other hand had not built up such a repertoire with the students to do so.     

Thus began the process of creating a learning environment, wholly my own. Every lesson I laid out my expectations and protocols. This included anything from where equipment should be during times of transition and instruction to appropriate behaviors during group discussions. At first I felt like the most horribly doctorial teacher ever. It’s not my personality type to want control or firmly enforce obedience. But I realized we had some ground work to do, and it was imperative for the safety as well as functionality of our classroom that these things be established. Some classes caught on quicker than others. I have to continually remember, although I’ve known these expectations they are brand new to my students. Grace should not be neglected. The goal is that these expectations and procedures become ingrained in the learners so we can spend more time learning and less time disciplining! It’s feels a similar to my discipline I receive as a child of God. At first its rather unpleasant and far from enjoyable, but in the end produces a wonderful harvest. (IPTS 4I, 4J)

Another thing I am increasingly growing proficient in is adapting my lessons…continuously! Because I get to teach the same lesson multiple times, I am offered an opportunity to evaluate its effectiveness and modify based on outcome data and student response. Teaching is a job requiring constant observation, evaluate, and correction of practices and lessons. At the end of the week I asked Mr. Park for feedback regarding any weakness that stood out to him in my teaching. His answer surprised me. First he said if there was something I should be doing differently I would already know because he is not one to hold back. Secondly, he said that although not all my lessons were flawless, I had actually been doing exactly what I should be in response. I was self-critiquing and continuously adjusting things to get them right. Great teachers know how to think on their feet and pun fully intended: I am always on my feet. (IPTS 3D) 

Classroom Confidential Ch.4

I first began to really delve into what it means to celebrate minority cultures my junior year of college after being enlightened during an RA training session. Up until then I felt I was a rather culturally aware and sensitive person. I discovered, however, that I was actually a subject of the mainstream colorblind ideology. I had grown up thinking equality among races meant pretending everyone was knit from the same cloth; there were no true differences between us. As my African-American instructor spoke on life experiences from the lenses of minority populations, I began to awaken to the ignorance in my cultural practices. Cultural equality does not mean treating everyone the same. It’s about acknowledging the differences amongst minority and majority cultures and doing one’s best to equalize access to knowledge, power codes, and influence within the society that we share.

I found myself eagerly consuming the information in this chapter, vigorously nodding my head in agreement to the frustrations and illuminations written within. With psychology being one of my favorite fields, I was drawn to the examples of cultural inclusion that spoke to basic human needs. Specifically I agreed that truly impactful classrooms are the ones where kids are convinced they are safe and valued. Transparency is emphasized, along with a true desire for the well-being of students. The almost too-good-to-be-true example of Rafe’s classroom, explained how he provided his students with the unstated rules of life and externalized his thinking all day long for them. Page seventy-seven describe his students as: “the children he shepherds tenderly and tenaciously toward adulthood”. I found this to be incredibly moving. When serving students, I believe teachers are not called to morph learners into imagine bearers of the majority culture, but rather shepherd them into adults who can think and be independently.

Over the past few years I have grown exponentially in how I navigate multicultural settings. Laying my need to make sense of that which eludes me, I sit at rest with ambiguity at first. Instead of making judgments or speculative assumptions, I can look around and stem my own curiosity. Slowly, my students and others teach me. It can be easily to live color blind and misidentify cultural learning styles as learning difficulties. I hope to minimize the occurrences of misinterpreting such interpersonal responses and teach myself to see differences as something potentially instructive. For I have much to learn. 

Controlled Choas, Fitness Testing, and... Making an Impact?- Week 4

Each day this week has brought with it a kaleidoscope of emotions, jumping from one end of the poles to the other each lesson. I’m exhausted just looking back on the host of experiences that took place. Monday is now a distant blur and Tuesday/Wednesday nearly indistinguishable. Thankfully I have my daily reflections to remind me of important happenings. My first second grade lesson Monday morning couldn’t have gone better, and lucky for me it happened to be the lesson my supervisor came to see. Delighted at what I accomplished (for there was quite a load of fitness testing data to retrieve), I felt the week would be smooth sailing. How dumbfounded I was when the same lesson with another second grade class the next day felt like riding an old wooden roller coaster! With each wave of classes the same lesson plan was taught and different results ensued. I groped for understanding all week. How could the same lesson go so well for one class and seem nearly impossible to complete with the next!? 

I analyzed my instructional practices, the content of my lesson, the layout of equipment…everything and anything I could think of. (IPTS 9J) I’m not saying that my reflections on these areas were fruitless. In fact, as I practiced my ideas for improvement or experimented with solutions, I was often pleased with the positive results. However, the results seemed slight in comparison with the ideal lesson I had experienced Monday morning. I hounded myself each lesson. I had to be doing something wrong. Interestingly enough, as I began reading chapter three of classroom confidential for this week’s assignment my thoughts about my classroom experiences began to change. This week’s chapter was about diversity, specifically cultural diversity. Now my school is rather culturally UN-diverse, but the principles of diversity apply nonetheless. I began to realize how naive it was for me to expect the same results from each class because my teaching routine was consistent. Each class is its own entity, revolving around a solely unique classroom culture. You may have the class with the kinesthetic achievers bursting with pride to show you their athletic poweress. The next is full of competition seekers who push the rules and boundaries vying for titles. The following is flogged with cliques whose main purpose is to share their every thought and feeling amongst a grouping of peers. Of course the classes are never as one-track as this, having a range of subcultures within. Still, why in the world then would I expect my classes to respond some sort of harmonized manner to my teaching!? What a task at hand we teachers have. It is a rather laborious one, though incredibly rewarding: when teachers sensitize themselves to student diversity in all its formats. (IPTS 1B, 1K)

Furthermore, in my week-four adventures I have
come face to face with the difficult and daunting reality elementary PE teachers must face not once but twice in an academic year: fitness testing. What a challenge it is to maintain a classroom of highly energized learners while trying to collect data on each individual’s physical abilities purely through observation of testing and recording results! I has been a huge blessing to be able to co-teach and collaborate with Mr. Park in how best to accomplish this feat. The students would have much less opportunity for activity and learning if it were not for the co-teaching techniques that we have used. We are continuously problem-solving as we encounter new obstacles to this first year of newly mandated fitness tests as well as fitness “challenges” for the first and second grades. Each Tuesday morning I participate in a conference call amongst the six other elementary PE teachers in the district. This past week much of the discussion revolved around best practices in implementing fitness testing. Trials and errors as well as success were shared amongst the group. I realized the amount of time this will take for the other teachers, where co-teaching is not an option, is substantially longer than they anticipated. This week has taught me how effective co-teaching can substantially enhance student learning and the value of collaborative problem-solving with colleagues. (IPTS 8K, 8N)

Goals for next week:
1.) practice and teach first edTPA lesson!
2.) provide more opportunity for students' cognitive growth throughout lesson. Adding critical thinking questions and comprehension checks. Students should be able to tell me what the goal and purpose of the learning segment is at every point. 

Classroom Confidential Ch. 3

This chapter was the perfect read for me this week. The honeymoon phase is definitely over for this teacher as I daily struggle to bring my perfectly written lesson plans to life while a host of hurdles are thrown in my way. As I looked back on my reflections for the week, I realized nearly every single one of them contained something regarding behaviors. Whether it be overall classroom control or individual students who seem to want to derail my patience and sanity, I have found real teaching begins more in the realm of understanding student behavior than understanding content.

As I opened Classroom Confidential to chapter three and began to read on how all of behavior is motivated by seeking pleasure or avoiding pain, my honest first reaction was ‘wonderful, a bunch of information, detached from real life experience, on the psychology of why students in general are the way they are’. Thankfully I kept reading. As I moved on in the reading, I began thinking back to my own experience as a student. I started identifying my student-self in the different examples provided. Specifically in the realm of self-accommodations, I recalled how I often drew in class to focus. I have always been highly visual and kinesthetic in the way I learn. Literally, panic still comes over me when I am given a set of verbal instructions, praying that somehow I’ll remember and decipher what’s being required of me. Schmidt continues to explain the roles students camouflage themselves with to try to hide in abilities to make it through an unpleasant process. Reading about such ploys as the class clown, frequent flyer, and charmer, I started identifying them with my own students. Perhaps the greatest way this chapter influenced me, however, was by reminding me: it’s not the students; it’s you. No student comes into school thinking ‘I can’t wait to figure out all the ways I can totally screw up and fail today’. The factors that contribute to this appearance can be caused by anything from a past trauma to poor support at home. Every day I need to choose to find the kink in their armor, slowly building trust with humor, encouragement, and genuine care.

I think chapter made me think back to one student in particular. Philip always seems to be doing the wrong things at the wrong times and has been completely disruptive throughout each of the classes I’ve had with him. Without even formally realizing I was doing it, I began to us the cheerleader strategy to get through this boy’s defenses last week. He was clearly caught off guard by my persistent encouragement and praise. This week, although caught off task many times, Philip seemed to be a very different student around me. It’s as if that initial interaction, let him know I am on his side. When I ask him to do things now, he responds in what I can only imagine as trust. Schmidt makes a point about extraordinary teaching having a three part formula- “order, challenge, and support”. I couldn’t agree more and have now experience firsthand what industrial strength support can do. 

Expect the Unexpected- Week 3

This was quite an interesting and tiresome week, and it amazes me when I remember that Monday was holiday! Tuesday and Wednesday we had a few classes outside, although rain sent us back to the gym once or twice. Then Thursday and Friday we were kicked out of the gym for an annual clothing sale that uses a portion of the earnings to fund-raise for the school. Needless to say our days felt much less routine than normal. Still, this week brought valuable learning experiences and stretched me to think in new ways about the roles of the students and myself.

It’s interesting, but not surprising, how this break in routine also affected the students. Because they don’t normally go outside for PE, it seemed as if the students felt more like it was time for recess than for class. There were distractions everywhere: other kids on the playground, people in and out of the gym, etc. I love the outdoors and was excited to have class outside. However, I learned very quickly there are several new factors that have to be taken into account to run a successful outdoor class. The noise level can be substantially high when students are out for recess, so choosing a location away from the playground is key. Addressing the students beforehand to remind them this is still class time and all indoor expectations are still in place or perhaps even a little higher because of the many distractions. I hope to continue using the outdoor space but will be addressing the students about their responsibility as learners in both environments.

There also was a lot of learning on my end about the little nuances that make a classroom run smoothly this week. One area I realized I needed to improve on was stating expectations at the start of every class and listing what the sequence of activities will be for the day/lesson. I found that telling the students right off the bat what they will be involved while they are with me, helps transitional periods immensely throughout the lesson! (IPTS 4J) This way very little, if anything, comes as a surprise, and the students are mentally prepared to have to make moves from certain games to instruction, etc. I think at it root this week has been a humbling process for me. It’s not about how well my lesson goes or seeing the success of something I’ve labored to put together. Rather, I’m starting to live in the consciousness that teaching is not about me. It’s about serving the youth that comes through those school doors with a sacrificial love so that they can grow holistically and know without a doubt they matter.

I am continually learning how to adjust my teaching practices to accommodate the various age groups that enter my gym. Whenever a fifth grade class is coming up next I’ve started doing a quick happy dance in my head. I find it humorous that I enjoy them so much, considering they were the one grade that Mr. Park sort of struck some healthy fear into me about. After overcoming my initial hesitancy towards them I think come about an interesting self-discovery! It turns out that my personality and teaching style fits best with this age group because I can use a management style that I am totally enthusiastic about. (IPTS 1F) This is one in which the students take ownership of their learning and share in responsibility of what is accomplished during the class period. As they do so, I slowly become more of a facilitator of their learning; a joyous process to watch. I can address this group in a very real and honest manner, using scripting such as: “this is your class. I want you succeed and enjoy yourselves but to get to this goal I need your cooperation by allowing me time to speak”. After using this type of reasoning I had almost all the 5th graders undivided attention after. Such statements let them know, I understand their wants and desire shared respect among us. Of course when first grade walks through the door right after, such scripting does not have nearly the effective results. Each level of learners is motivated by different things and responds differently! Go figure, a five and nine year old aren’t always after the same thing. (IPTS 2A) 

Goals for next week:

1.)  Embody an enthusiastic cheerleader-type disposition to my camouflaged students.

2.)    Put consistently into practice areas noted in my reflections I’d like to improve on (i.e. stating expectations at beginning of each class, forecasting the day’s activities, etc.) 

An In-depth Experience- Week 2

This week I was able to instruct the 1^st and 2^nd grade lessons with assistance from Mr. Park during the activity. My role for the 3^rd-5^th grade lessons included some instruction as well as I took aside groups of students to educate them on the sit and reach test. Afterwards, I aided the students were needed during their game of “hoola hut knock down”. Perhaps the most impactful part of this week has been learning how to manage the less academic areas that lead to overall success in the classroom. Learning how to speak into specific situations among the students with a servant heart and gage the severity of need while trying to balance other classroom responsibilities is quite the challenge! In the past few days I have had students with nose bleeds, overly competitive boys quarreling over games, young girls crying, bullying, and more. I’ve realized that being a teacher in this environment as so much to do with how you handle yourself in these moments and much less how well I know my content. It’s these type of unscripted moments that make or break the chances for truly meaningful learning and growth in a student.

One instance in particular happened between a new female student and a boy, both the third grade. The young girl came to me complaining that the boy was breaking certain rules. She was clearly upset. Unfortunately, I was dealing with a group of students at the moment and felt torn between helping her and rectifying whatever was making her so distraught and finishing with my group. I gave her some words to say to the student and said I would address him as soon as I was finished. As I finished, she again came over to the stage but this time was in tears. Sobbing she said the boy threatened to throw a ball at her face and was fearful of his taunting her in class. According to her, he was very mean and had a pattern of disrespectful behavior toward her. I tried to help her calm down and ease her fears. Of course I did not exactly know the history of either of these two students and had several questions. Was this girl prone to over reacting? Did the boy have a history of aggression? What can I tell her that would be honest about her safety in the classroom? One of my worst fears was to assure her of protection when it was something I could not reinforce or offer outside the gym. Thankfully Mr. Park came over and his years of experience definitely showed as he used just the right words and tone of voice to appease the situation. I truly do not think I could have done it any better. Afterwards I had a conversation with Mr. Park trying to get a history of the two students and asked about his thought process when he approached such situations. Ensuring a safe learning environment (IPTS 4G) truly is an essential part of being a servant and Christ-like advocate for these students.

The students loved my island themed fitness stations! A part of 1^st and 2^nd grade assessments includes a fitness challenge, recorded in the fall and spring, to show growth. Some of the elements include crab walking, burpees, planks, and push-ups. For my lesson I integrates a lot of upper body fitness stations as that in were many of the students seemed to be lacking based on our experience prepping the 3^rd-5^th grade classes for the push-up portion of the fitness test last week. To make it fun, however, I used a simple and adventuresome theme. I focused on really setting the stage during my engage, connect, launch piece of the lesson. Using lots of inflection and hand motions, I transported the students to a tropical island in which they must travel around to get to a special station at which secret information was awaiting them. The students used the ropes to swing over the gator pond, climbed across the rock wall or “volcano”, collected “coconuts” and tossed them into buckets, road scooter “rafts” up and down the river, and hopped from stone to stone before arriving at station number six. Making my lessons developmentally appropriate in the next coming week will be a bit of a learning process as there is a large discrepancy between the ability levels of kindergarteners and 5^th graders! However, I feel I was successful at creating something to stimulate my students’ creative and imaginative minds while accomplishing the learning objectives. While I was teaching both my lessons and aiding in Mr. Park’s I started to really connect change in student response to the learning environment based on how I presented it as a teacher. Student motivation was influenced far more at this age by my disposition toward what I am teaching than I have given credit in the past. It seems so common sense, but if I want my student to be enthusiastic I have to model that first! Although it takes far more energy, it’s worth it to model the behaviors you wish to see in your students.

Lastly, this week I was able to grow in the collaborative relationships standards. I greatly enjoy socializing with all the teachers at AGS. They are immensely supportive and encouraging towards me. I feel blessed to be in an environment with teachers who build a positive atmosphere even with district changes and immense assessment pressures flogging them. I arrive to school early every Tuesday morning for the weekly PLC meeting and this was my first week participating in the Wednesday morning staff meeting. I learned so much about district initiatives and MTSS planning from this meeting as well as really got a taste for the team environment of the AGS staff! Friday was a half day and there were no specialty classes (i.e. PE, art, and music). All the elementary PE teachers meet at the district administrative building to work through the rest of the 3^rd- 5^th grade curriculum, how fitness assessment data would be taken, and to share information on what’s been working in their classrooms. It learned a wonderful new way to acquire cognitive data through google classroom that I am very excited to use as well! Later in the day I joined my teacher for SLO (student learning objectives) training. This is a piloting program that is being run this year to prepare the teachers for how they will be summatively evaluated based on student growth in the near future. I sat in a board room with the PE teachers, an SLO leader, and another student teacher as they looked through data from previous years and tried to format an attainable growth goal objective. It was fascinating to be in the behind the scenes environment, seeing the thought process and work that goes into what is presented to the students. It really helped me get a broader picture of everything and am excited to dive deeper and deeper into the world of a teacher.

My goals for next week are: 1) use my knowledge of what the district PE teachers are striving for in the future to inform my teaching and practice.

2) Develop a helpful practice to address repeat offences with students who have a history of negative behaviors. Know what they are, what triggers them, and what works/doesn’t when addressing them.