BEDUC 406 Day Four

I'm nervous about how I will know if ALL students have learned or not.

I'm excited to create lessons that I think will be engaging for students. And to get to know students so I can create engaging lessons for them.

A lesson plan seems to be a more structured and simple plan of learning. As I teacher I need to first know what they know, then what students need to know and if they do (ealrs). Then I need to figure out how to get them to know the stuff they need to (lesson plan). Finally I will need to know if they got it(assessment). Then repeat repeat repeat the cycle all over again starting with what students know.

When lesson plans don't work out (and I realize this in the middle of the lesson) what kind of things should I have in my "bag of tricks" to supplement my own mistakes and still have the time be constructive to student learning?

Student Learning : V

V is very low when looking at test scores. But she can learn! Because English is a second language for her it helps her to hear a passage and then repeat back what she wants to record or what she thinks is important. She is definitely an auditory learner. I wonder how much her scores on tests reflect her ESL aspect or her actual academic ability. I know she has learned something when I work with her the next day and she can recall the facts and statements she wanted recorded the day before. This ability to recall will be very useful in college. How as a teacher can I help her with the other ways to learning though. There is still visual, kinesthetic, and oral learning. As a teacher should I still help her improve her skills in those ways of learning?

Darnit! Another One

This observing without judgment thing is not easy, not to mention I think I have another bias, another assumption that I need to get over. When a student is labeled a behavior issue or I see that they may be a behavior problem in class I tend to think,"oh they must be on the lower end of the class academically." This is not necessarily true AT ALL! Ack, I'm ashamed to be realizing this but at least I am now aware of it and will NOT make the same assumption again.

I am reading a book titled, How To Talk To Kids So Kids Can Learn, and I realize just labeling or thinking of a student as a "behavior problem" will not help them learn or me teach. Though it focuses on talking about how a teacher/adult should acknowledge the feelings a student is having, I think the lack of acknowledgment can lead to issues in the class if I as a teacher only critize their attitude or frustration or even only give advice.

BEDUC 406 Day Three

I'm very anxious about how to plan out lessons so that each student is learning or at the very least that at the end of a lesson I know if each student has learned.

I'm excite to see how students in room 402 can learn from each other in their Caravan groups (social studies unit in which they gather information about countries to earn points to travel from country to country collecting artifacts for their museum).

There are many other factors that each students may be dealing with that can either help with their learning or interfere with their learning. As a teacher I've learned it is my job to help them do their best and be the best learner they can no matter what those factors are. I've also learned that I may not be able to help as much as I would like and I'm going to have to learn how to deal with that.

I understand that I need to teach the underlying concept of something and not just the procedure. There are many procedures, ways of solving a problem (math, spelling...) but only one resounding concept, usually. How do I help a student if they do not get a concept after using multiple ways of teaching it (visual, oral, kinesthetic...)?

Teacher learning and students teaching

The traditional idea of who is teaching and who is learning seems to reverse during the first week or two of school. The teacher is learning and the students are teaching. Partly this is from assessment and knowing where each student is at academically (dibels testing). Another is getting to know each student as a person and let them get to know each other (about me sheets, group projects). Amazingly the teacher is not doing as much teaching the first two weeks as I thought. This looks to be important as much for the student as for the teacher: to help build community, routine, and classroom expectations. 

Also in the past two days of school (total amount of school this year 7 days) there has been two new students (at an even 30 students now) adding another layer especially with block student planning for literacy and math. As well as making sure the two new students get caught up in routines, expectations and become part of the community. When would a school district/school stop adding students to a class? 32? 30? 35?

Awesome idea: create a binder for all student information (about me, IEP, sample work).

Curriculum vs. standards

Shoreline has a new assessment for grades k-6 in reading and math. EasyCBM was introduced to staff at Meridian park this morning at our admin. meeting. One of the presenters made the comment that curriculum is the tool used to teach not the topic. The topic being taught should be the washington state standards. This was said to answer the concern, that some teachers may be using different curriculums to teach their students and what if their curriculum didn't align with the test? Though the assessment had many other properties, as well as measuring NCTM focal points in math with benchmarks, low cost for students, and short in duration this idea of what curriculum is compared to what is being taught really resonated with me. 

This difference of curriculum and standards should be at the focus of most assessments in my mind. My assessment may differ if I want to know how a student learns (curriculum, how topics are taught)than what they have or have not learned(standards). It seems between DIBELS, WASL, EasyCBM and many other assessments that create, at times, an overwhelming amount of data it will be important for me as a teacher to remember what the assessment was for to know what to do with the data in the end. Question to ask myself: How does this information help my student(s) and I learn better?  

My own bias

One bias that I have which was not easy to recognize was my affection for the "good kids". This affection is, I just recently noticed, connected to the idea that they will not need as much of my attention. This may be true for classroom management but not in their learning. Either way I realize this bias could get me in trouble. First all students want to know that their teacher is fair and can create a safe learning environment whether or not they have behavior issues or not. Second all students need to have individual attention whether they are a "bad kid" or "good kid". Finally I need to not label a student in my mind as good or bad or let outside opinions and information influence my idea of who a person is. Because no matter what, if a student is good or bad, it is only one aspect of the whole and will never give me a complete picture of who the student is as a person. 

It seems I need to remove judgement of my students. Is this possible? Can I only remove the social aspect (behavior) and not the academic (grades) or both? Can I assess/evaluate my students in academia and behavior without being judgmental?