I Identify

I identify most with the role of relationship builder.  I think this is an essential role.  If my students know that I genuinely care for them and value each student as an individual, outside the realm of academics, the things I tell them have weight and legitimacy.  The respect and mutual investment that develops from a relationship gives me the opportunity to teach from a different place.  Teaching that stems from a relationship counteracts student disengagement because of issues with authority figures.  I’ve found, for my students, developing relationships makes them much more responsive to my instruction.

Read Across America

Week 12 Reflection

Week 12 Reflection

Personally, if I were to decide a student was motivated the basis of that conclusion would be from the effort I witness the student apply to the class.  If I notice a student is working hard and trying things that may be difficult for him out of a personal, internal desire I would label that student as motivated.  I also believe that motivation is an expression of curiosity.  Students who question and perform beyond my requests are motivated to learn for themselves rather than for a grade.  I equate a student who has “no motivation” as a student that is apathetic.  This is a student who genuinely does not care about learning.  He either engages in the content only because of the unpleasant consequences of not or does not engage because he does not see value in the content.  I believe that there are all sorts of psychological reasons behind this mentality—from fear of failure, disinterest, anger, lack of skills, etc.  With students who are not motivated I need to expend even more energy determining what it is that they are interested in so I can build a relationship and engage them in learning.  Every child has something that he is interested in and that he will put forth an effort to learn about—I just have to discover what it is.

This is an activity that all of my students were motivated by. They had to illustrate a division problem in as many ways possible.They loved it and challenged themselves to find 15 ways for each problem--much more than the two different ways I asked for.

Week 11 Reflection

Week 11 Reflection

I have never had the experience of being a new student at a school.  Coming into a school; other than the normal transitions in kindergarten, sixth grade, and ninth grade; is a completely foreign concept to me.  I also have not had any new students enter into my class this school year.  If I had a new student I would try to make them feel very welcome and accepted in their new environment.  An effective way to do this is by assigning students, a few that are particularly kind and helpful, to buddy the new student the first week and teach him how things work at our school.  I also would like for the new student to complete a writing assignment explaining a bit about his old school, what he liked/disliked, what he learned, and any other things he wants to share.  This will give me a better understanding of the student so I can provide the best differentiated instruction possible and also make him feel the most comfortable and welcome.

Week 10 Reflection

Week 10 Reflection

I do not feel that Teacher Expectations play heavily into the environment of our classroom because as a whole, the class struggles similarly with just “doing school”.  And that stereotype cannot be pinpointed to one specific group of students.  I have seen my mentor teacher work really hard to act out against these stereotypes to reinforce for the students that they are all capable of success.  Within our classroom there is a group of students, African-American males, who have been falling into the stereotype that they are too cool for school.  My mentor teacher has been really intentional about discrediting this stereotype and reaching out to these boys in anyway possible so they will remain engaged.  Seeing her reach out to students in this manner inspires me to move beyond stereotypes and interact with students on an individual basis.

Being goofy with students really helps discredit stereotypes.

Extra-Curricular Activities

Extra-Curricular Activities

I love all of my students so much.  And I love seeing them in a non-school setting where they are free to be themselves.  It is really refreshing to see my students excited about things they are interested in and that they are good at.  They really enjoy educating me about different things they enjoy that I don’t know much about.  I’ve gone to almost every different type of after-school activity our school provides, even the ones that my students don’t participate in, because I feel like the more students I know at the school the better of a teacher I am.  I love that I know kids from all of the grades.  Developing those relationships is really important to me.

After-School Sports: After-School Sports, or SCATS, is a program that a lot of my students participate in.  It runs after school from 3:30 until 5:00 and the kids get to hangout in the gym practicing tumbling, unicycle riding, jump-roping, juggling, and ball-walking.  The things that the students can do are absolutely amazing.  They start learning the tricks in P.E. and all of them love it.  The kids can also belong to the performing group that travels and performs for different groups.  I’ve been able to go to about three different performances outside of school and seeing the kids so excited and engaged in the performance is wonderful.  A couple of my students have been trying to teach me some of the dance moves that they do, not with much success, and they think it’s absolutely hilarious.  I love going and just getting a chance to talk to them and watch them show me the new things they’ve learned.

Sums up my students perfectly

After-School Tutoring: This program is geared toward the younger students at our school kindergarten through first grade with the Washington Reading Corps program.  Because the program uses my classroom for the afterschool program I’ve been able to stay a few times and help out.  I like spending time with these kids because I’d forgotten how funny 1^st graders are.  A couple of the girls I work with are convinced that I live at the school—because all teachers live at school.

Starfish: Starfish is another afterschool program that is hosted by the City Year interns.  This program is geared toward the older students so about eight of my students participate in it.  Again, getting a chance to hear more about my students and have conversations outside of the school context enriches our relationship so much.  All of the boys love to show me their Yu-Gi-Oh cards and the girls tell me stories.  It’s great to see them open up.  I also really like interacting with other students who are not in my class who participate in the program.  Hanging out with some of the other kids allows me to have conversations with them and develop deeper relationships.  Also this is really beneficial because if I see a student misbehaving in the halls, chances are I know him, and that makes it much easier to help him get back on the right track.

Literacy Night: The school hosted a Literacy Night a few weeks ago.  I was able to participate and perform with some of the other teachers in a skit.  Although none of my students attended the event I now have a lot of new kindergarten friends who, “really like the story you read to us”.  It’s really fun to see them so excited about something they’ve seen and wishing that they had more of it.

Social Studies Reflection Week 6

Here is my response to this week’s article.  Social Studies Reflection Week 6

Religious Diversity Approach

As an educator, I think that my personal response to the issues surrounding religious diversity is an attitude that promotes conversation.  I would like for my students to feel comfortable raising questions about religion and diversity in my classroom because they know that they will be able to express their questions and beliefs freely in an accepting environment.  I want my students to be able to voice questions and ideas about traditionally taboo topics because I truly believe such conversations, if held in a safe environment, can only improve students’ awareness of diversity.  Also, by allowing such conversations to occur, I feel that my students will grow in their own convections and beliefs.  I think I will allow a pretty wide range of dialogue and questioning to occur in my classroom as long as it is respectful for all students and the entire class does not feel uneasy about the nature of the conversation.  I think if I can impress upon my students that our classroom is family, and intentionally create an environment, that conveys this we will be able to tackle difficult and controversial issues with grace and love.

Personally I feel that my own religious convections do not have a place in the classroom—I should, to paraphrase Tali, let the light shine through me without shouting “Jesus, Christianity, Jesus” at my students.  My faith should be so evident in the way I treat, respect, and love them that verbal proclamation of the gospel won’t be necessary.

In my current practicum school, there is extreme religious diversity. And I know I am going to mess up (because I don’t know everything about every religion present), but if I approach situations with a genuine desire to learn about the different components that make my students unique and truly value those differences I think my students will forgive me for any mistakes I may make.  I think having a relationship with students makes all the difference in the world.  A relationship allows you to dialogue and explore together, which is beneficial for both participants and it allows for some really amazing growth to occur.

In the future, regardless of the type of school I work at, I want to create an environment that encourages honest conversation about religious diversity.  Even if I teach in a classroom that has a lack of religious diversity I think conversation about religious issues would still be incredibly beneficial for those students as well. Creating a safe environment that allows students to think and develop their own convections is something I think is really important.  I’m going to do my best to make this possible if I am teaching at a school like the one I am at now or one that is completely different.

Engaging with students in conversations about religion and culture from a place of genuine interest has helped me deepen relationships.

Observed Diversity

As I’ve mentioned before, my class is very diverse.  I have students from multiple different cultural backgrounds.  This makes my class a very exciting place to be because the students love to share their opinions and experiences about various things.  Because there are so many cultural backgrounds present, the students get to experience a lot of different viewpoints.  Most of my students take a lot of pride in their culture, and it is something that I am genuinely interested to hear about, so they love educating me about different things.  I think because the school, and the entire Beacon Hill area, is very diverse the students have been surrounded by peers that are different from themselves their entire life.  Because they are so comfortable and accepting of it, it only enhances their school experience.

Religiously, my students are also diverse but less so than culturally—the majority of students fall into three religious groups.  Most of my students are Muslim, Christian, or religiously apathetic.  Most of my students come from families that are not religiously inclined one way or another so I don’t really feel that they can be categorized into a specific group.  I think the next largest religious group in my class is Muslim.  I have quite a few girls who cover and I know a lot of the boys are from Muslim families as well.  Again, I don’t feel like this is difficult for students to accept the differences of their classmates because it is so commonplace in the school.  The students are used to having students who practice different religions and they just accept it.  Sometimes they talk about it or ask questions but it is always from a place of curiosity rather than prejudice.

Week 4 Reflection

I’m starting to get the feeling that all of my weeks will have that special mixture of good and bad.  I’m not sure why that is surprising for me but it is.  If I think about this week and some of the tremendous gains the students, and myself, made—it seems great.  But if I think about all of the behavior issues (that started on Monday and continued while I was there) it’s kind of disheartening.

Some of this week’s accomplishments were feeling like I really know my students, gaining more teaching time, staying for after-school tutor and furthering my connection with students other than my own, and seeing Y do so well in some of the reading lessons. I feel like I have an individualized, and personal, rapport with each of my 46 students now, which is a major accomplishment.  I feel like I have a good grasp on each of their personalities and abilities and how to be a motivating model for each student on a more personal level.  Stepping into even more teaching time was really beneficial because I feel like I am making a visible contribution to my students’ lives (and it was wonderful to get feedback from my observation so I can be more, and more impactful every time I teach).  Because I’ve been staying at the school later I get to see some of the after-school programs provided.  I ended up staying and helping with the kindergartener tutoring, which was a blast; I’d forgotten how funny five-year-olds are.  Working with the kindergarteners made me feel like I see even more kids I know when I’m walking around the school, which I love.  Something else really cool that happened in my week was seeing Y actively participate in multiple reading lessons.  He just learned how to read and is really struggling, but when he was able to apply the comprehension skills from the lesson to a book he had listened to, he rocked!  I was so proud of him.

Behavior-wise this week was just a rough one.  I’m not sure why but all of the kids were really off each day.  Lots of students got referrals, owed recess, needed a phone call home, got electronics confiscated, or had to meet with the counselor.  Hopefully this weekend will give them all time to get back into sorts.

Having fun on a class field trip.

Observed Differentiation

Although a large portion of my class is performing and testing below the fourth grade level, there is still a range of ability to take into account for both lesson planning and instruction.  My mentor teacher does a really good job of scaffolding the content in ways that make it more accessible to the students who struggle.  She frequently models the reading and writing for the class.  Often for writing, she explicitly demonstrates what she wants the students to write by beginning sentences and then leaving blanks where she wants them to insert their own ideas.  By providing this framework, she makes it possible for struggling students to participate in the curriculum in a way that encourages their success.  An additional way that my mentor teacher utilizes differentiation in the classroom is by leveling the reading groups.  This allows all of the students to learn and be exposed to the same material but approach it at a level that is appropriate for their reading abilities.  This differentiation prevents the struggling readers from being bogged down by a difficult text.  Instead, they are allowed to explore literary concepts in a friendlier environment.  Because of the span of levels the students do lots of work in groups that were compiled to be the most beneficial and growing for each individual.  In the case of reading this means students are often separated by level but in a subject like science the groups are more heterogeneous so the students can help one another.  From observing my mentor teacher, I think she has a really good balance of differentiating within in the content so, regardless, of ability the students are receiving the same instruction tailored to their level.