Blog #3

1. My teachers classroom management is one in which seems to be used throughout the entire school, the card system. There is a large pocket chart in the front of the room and has each students name on a pocket with different color cards. The student had a good day is they stayed on green, had a minor problem if they got moved to blue, had trouble twice if they got moved to yellow, and got in serious trouble if they were moved to red. I have only ever seen a student get moved to blue and for the student to get to that level, he was not following directions and was disrupting the overall flow of the class. My teacher told me that if the student does get to yellow they are sent to a different classroom to “refocus” and if they get to red then they are sent to the office. No, this plan does not focus on the positive, it is about the negative things to students are doing. 
2. Two things that my teacher does to avoid unnecessary interruptions and to keep things running smoothly is he does not allow the students to sharpen their pencils throughout the day, they must sharpen it at the beginning of the day and if it breaks, it is $5 dollars to sharpen it (the school wide money system gives students money for good behavior), and he does not allow students to ask questions until he is completely done explaining everything.
3. Guiding Principles:
1. Students should be respected
2. Knowledge is the consequence of experience
3. Learning is natural and social
4. Students should be reminded of positive behavior as often as possible
5. Make decisions based on evidence
4. Classroom set-up: (picture at the top of the page--I could not get it to go here)
5. Rules:
1. Be responsible
2. Be respectful of others personal space, rights, and property
3. Follow directions and raise your hand to speak
4. Listen quietly while others are speaking
5. Come to class prepared and complete all assignments and on time

6. Routines:

1. Absences: in the case of an excused absence, students will be given one extra day for each day missed to complete assignments at home (sent home in communication folder).  If you will be taking a family vacation during school time, make up work will be handled by the teacher upon the student’s return to school. Chronic cases of late work will require a student/parent/teacher conference.

2. Classroom Jobs: jobs will be determined by a chart where names are pulled at random and will be changed each week, no student can repeat two weeks in a row. Jobs include, line leader, door holder, lights, paper/material distributor, recycler/trash collector, and hall messenger.

3. Collecting notes, money, and forms: notes and forms will be communicated through the communication folder. Money will be handed to the teacher at the beginning of the day and will be kept save in teacher desk until needed.

4. Distributing and collecting papers and materials: designated job helper will collect and pass out materials/papers.

5. Going to the bathroom and getting drink: to use the bathroom the students must raise their hand with two fingers and one finger (index finger) to get a drink.

6. Movement in the halls: will introduce the procedure, “with our hands by our sides, we’re lined up straight and tall, mouths are closed, eyes look ahead, then we’re ready for the hall.

7. Storing personal belongings: each student will have their own cubby to put their backpack and coats. They will have to get everything they need for the day out of them before they go to their desk so that they do not mess with them throughout the day.

8. Taking attendance: while morning work is being completed, teacher will call each students name and have them raise their hand to see who is there or not. The classroom job helper labeled as “hall messenger” will take the attendance folder to the office.

9. Using the pencil sharpener: students must sharpen 2 pencils at the beginning of the day and if both break during the day, students must ask for permission to sharpen again.

10. What to do in emergency situations: follow the school-supplied procedures. Model for the students’ positions and locations we go incase of emergency. Have current roster easily assessable to take out during fire drill or other emergency situations.

11. What to do when a visitor comes into the classroom: Teacher are the only one who should acknowledge the visitor, students should remain on task. If teacher knows about visit in advance, will tell students in advance and remind them to not acknowledge the visitor and to remain on task.

12. Weekly Folders (Communication Folder): communication folders will be sent home each day.  Included in the folder will be graded papers from the previous week.  In addition, I will provide a checklist and/or comments in the event that I become concerned about work habits or classroom behavior.  Any “to be signed” papers are to be signed by a parent and returned the next day.  Parents should feel free to write comments or questions directly on any papers or write a note. One pocket of the folder says, “keep at home” and the other says “return to school” to keep things organized.

13. How to ask for things in table teams: look at the person, say the persons name, ask for what you want and say please, thank the person for sharing.

14. When you’re done: read a book, write a letter, draw a picture, or complete any assignments not completed before.

15. Dismissal: clean work area, push chair under desk, put communication folder in backpack, line up by dismissal area (bus, car, day care, walk).

                                                              

7. Consequences:

1.       Verbal warning (reminder of which rule they are breaking or reminder to refocus).

2.      Turn card.

3.      Time out to the reflection table (go to the table and reflect on what they did).

4.      Must sit out of free time or fun time.

5.      Conference with the teacher (ex: “you can talk to me now or you can talk to me after this lesson. Meet me behind my desk.”)

6.      Call home (parents will be notified of what happened in class that was an infraction of the rules and a follow up note will be sent in “communication folder” which will be signed and returned the next day).

7.      Principal’s office (possible referral or suspension upon Principal’s discretion). 

Blog #2

 In my 3rd grade classroom I have been able to witness a lot from different perspectives. In the morning I see on level or below group of students and then in the afternoon I see above average or gifted group. Each class has very different behavior issues, while they have some of the same too. The morning class has a major issue of listening to directions the first time. There are a few students that literally ask a question about what my teacher just went over the second he stops talking. They also have a problem with getting their work done on time, we constantly have to walk around and tell them to stop playing or stop talking and do their work or it would never get done. This classes behavior issues mainly stem from these problems, but they also have trouble getting along with each other and tend to say very mean things to each other for no reason at all. This week I had one students tell another "you're going to lose because you're stupid" when we were playing a math game. The student that said this was mad because he had not won yet and wanted others to lose too. The student that was told this immediately started crying and didn't want to play the game anymore. I felt bad for him because he was really looking forward to playing right before he was told that. In my second class (the gifted group), the students also have a competition issue and tend to degrade each other or brag too much. My teacher does not seem to address it directly, he just tells the students to apologize to each other. I feel like something else should be done.

As talked about earlier, I do not feel like my teacher style matches much with my teaching style. He is extremely laid back and just does things on the fly when I would have to have everything planned out and organized. I also feel as though I would be harder on the kids with their behavior issues because they seem to just do as they please right now. I do think my style of teaching will be laid back but not to this extreme, I need to have some type of order in my classroom. Some of my supervising teachers style that I would incorporate into my style would be the way he presents the material to the students. On Monday and Wednesday he presents new information, and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday he reviews the topics introduced. I also like how he incorporates centers and manipulatives very frequently. I like these two things because I think it really reinforces the topics and helps the students to really grasp the concepts with a great understanding.

The one curriculum/ instructional element that was new to me was the formatting of my teachers lesson plan book. The way he wrote out his lessons were nothing like the lessons I have to write for my classes and every time I see him teach the lessons, it is very informal. For some reason I expected it to be like the lessons I have done previously. Also, I did not realize how spread out the lessons were, my teacher is always saying, "oh we will just finish tomorrow." I thought each lesson had to be done at a specific time or day.

On the other hand, the concepts and formatting of his class seems very comfortable to me. I love the way he presents a topic and than reviews the next day. I also found it comfortable the way he had the classroom set up and how the students were in table groups. It was familiar to me because that is how I want my classroom set up and how every class I have been in so far has been set up.

The next thing I plan to do in my professional development is my peer-to-peer evaluation. I haven't got up in front of the class yet; I have only been doing group or individual review sessions. I have really enjoyed working with the students individually though; they seem to depend on my to come explain things to them when they are having a hard time.

Blog #1

1. This term I have an overload of classes. I am taking 21 credit hours just so I can graduate this coming Spring. Currently, I am in enrolled in Teaching Writing, Teaching Elementary Social Studies, Linking Literacy, ESOL 3, Measurements, and my Level 2 Internship. This summer I took 3 courses: Math II, Teaching Elementary Science, and Classroom Management. The spring semester before that I took Social Foundations, Math I, Literature in Childhood Education, Reading and Learning to Read, and ESOL 2. The  previous fall I took Creative Experiences, ESOL 1, Level 1 Internship, Health/Phys Ed for Child, and Learning and Developing Child. Lastly, before I was admitted to the College of Education, I took Teaching Diverse Populations, Intro to Edu, and Intro Educational Technology.

Out of all the course I have taken so far, I can honestly say that my Level 1 Internship really made the most impact on me. I did not have a positive experience with my supervising teacher and she did not allow me to do anything in the classroom. At first I thought that nothing positive could come out of my experience with my teacher and class but I think I learned what not to do in the classroom. The teacher I observed had NO control over her class and screamed at them all day, which got no responses from the students. The classroom was completely out of hand and the students did not get the attention and learning experience they should be getting in second grade. Observing this class and teacher really made me focus on my classroom management skills for the future and how to deal with another teacher that you do not necessarily get along with but have to work with. This teacher was also very unprofessional in that she would talk to me about teachers she did not like and about what the administration was doing that she didn't like. I was very uncomfortable and did not know if how I responded would effect how she treated me or how she would grade me in my observations. I hope my Level 2 will be a much better experience where I can learn what to do instead of what not to do.

2. I have not had a lot of opportunities to get experience because I played softball for my first 3 years here and it took up all my free time outside of school. The experiences I have had are with volunteering in my mothers classroom (first grade) and with being a consoler at the USF Softball camps over the summer which was with all ages from 7-16. I was most impacted by my time with the softball camps because it was a comfortable environment for me and it was easy for me to teach the subjects/tasks because it was something I was confident with because of all the background knowledge I had. I wish that I was more confident in certain subjects in my teaching abilities in the actual classroom. I am uneasy about math because I feel like it is not one of my strong points and I feel like that comes off to the students when I try to teach it. I hope to work on that when I get into the classroom this semester. 

3. My expectations for this internship are to hopefully have a positive supervising teacher and a classroom where I can learn my strengths and weaknesses. I hope to improve my teaching abilities while learning from my teacher and peers on how to create engaging lessons and making a lasting impression on my students. My fear is that I will have another bad experience and have a really bad behaved class that I will have to spend more time reprimanding their behavior rather than teaching them the material. Lastly, my worst nightmare is that I have another supervising teacher that does not let me do anything and isn't a good support system for me when I am trying to learn. 

4. Personally, the experiences that really stand out in my life are ones that are negative. I have only had a few teachers that I really enjoyed and learned from. These teachers all had the same qualities and really understood how to relate to their students while still keeping a professional barrier. These teachers were very fun and exciting to be around, they made me want to come to their class and made each class feel like it lasted 5 minutes because we never had time to be bored. I also really enjoyed these teachers because they taught their lessons with examples and real life situations that I really related to and paid attention to. I really felt comfortable in these teachers classrooms and never felt nervous to ask a question. I knew these teachers would be there to help me if I needed anything and liked that I could count on them. I wish I would have had more teachers like this when I was in elementary school but I didn't get a teacher that made this type of impact on my until I was in 7th grade.