Although it is not a new year, only a new semester, I am starting over in a new class. I was moved from 3rd grade to 5th this semester. Since I'm new in this classroom, I felt that it would be helpful to refer back to one of our texts from last semester; The First Six Weeks of School by Paula Denton and Roxann Kriete. I read back through the first 2 chapters and was able to make some meaningful connections to a concept mentioned in the book and some of the things I experienced in my first week back in the classroom. The idea that stood out to me is that "knowing the children we teach is as important as knowing the content we teach"(Denton & Kriete 2013). In this new classroom I am a stranger and must build relationships with these students before I can teach them anything. Also in the book, one of the goals for the first week of school is that "students and teachers will be able to name some interests and out of school activities or experiences of members of the class"(Denton & Kriete 2013). In order to meet this goal and get to know my students, we had a simple greeting my first day back so that I could learn a little about the students. My CT and I met before the students came to class, and we discussed how this greeting would go, and she said to me," I show them pictures of Boo Boo." Boo boo is her cat. she explained to me that an important part of having a relationship with your classroom is to let them know that you are a person. They need to know that you have a life, outside of school, and that you're not just some robot programmed to come in, teach, and leave without making any personal connections. She said that it's important to let them into your life just a little, so that they can relate to you as a human being, and not just as an authority figure. During this conversation is when the wheels started turning. Now bare with me, because I'm not a very linear person and my thoughts bounce around a little, but they DO all connect. During our Social Studies class earlier that morning, we were given an assignment that requires us to make an animoto film about ourselves using a primary source. So basically, using pictures to show a timeline of our life that tells about who we are. This animoto website is a perfect resource for a new teacher to use to introduce themselves. Now unfortunately, I did not have time to make an animoto between Social Studies class and internship, so I simply showed the students some photos of my family, and talked about some of the things I like to do for fun, and then we went around the room and let them do the same. Now that I know about this resource, and the importance of using it to build relationships with my students, I'm going to do my absolute best to give a good representation of WHO I really am, so that my students can get to know me. After the assignment is complete, I intend on going back to my 5th grade class and showing them the video, and then maybe allowing them to critique it. They can tell me what they like, don't like, wish there was more of, and I can mold this video source into something that I can use in the first six weeks of school in my own classroom someday. Hooray for awesome resources!
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In class today, we did an activity that was supposed to get us thinking about what we thought classroom management was. We had to first, write out on an index what classroom management should be and then we had to create a picture representation of this concept with play-doh. After everyone made their play-doh management art, we had to go around the class and write down the first word that came to mind when viewing each others artwork(regarding classroom management concepts).
First of all, this was much harder than I had imagined it would be. I find it difficult to explain classroom management in one word and even more difficult to represent a concept that has multiple components into one picture. I made 2 hands, a large one for the teacher and a small one for the student, and I layered them one on top of the other. I intended for this to represent the concept of classroom management as a collaborative effort. I believe that the teacher and student should work together to create an environment that safe, functional, and successful. What I learned after reading the comments from my classmates and seeing their artwork was that I really didn't have the clearest view of what good management was. I realized that I had a main idea, but that I wanted to borrow some components from my classmates as well. From this experience I learned that it is ok to add to, take away, or even change your point of view. As you learn and grow you should also be able to adapt your views and accept the fact that personal views always have the opportunity to change. When I think of classroom management now, I still think of it as a collaborative effort, but I also see good management as the building blocks of a successful classroom. I see that in order to have a successful classroom, you must lay a good foundation to be built upon. The classroom as a whole should build onto this foundation, and the teacher should be a guiding resource and a helping hand, but not a dictator. I believe that students should have the opportunity to take on responsibilities and make the classroom their own. And most of all, it is so important for your classroom to feel safe, secure, and "homey", because you never know what kind of environment your kids go home to, and your classroom may be the only real, safe, loving family they have. And yes, I got all of this out of playing with play-doh. Imagine that! This week was really exciting for me. I got to see so many new things and I'm so excited to be able to share them with you.
On Monday I was asked by a fellow resident to come and film her performing a mini lesson for her thrid grade class. This was really exciting for me because I was able to observe her teaching style and how she interacted with her students. This was an awesome experience. Also on Monday I learned about a little program that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers put on, called BUCSCARE. The picture at your left shows you the worksheet that students need to participate in BUCSCARE. Each student writes down the number of pages that they read daily; at home or during independent reading at school. At the end of the month, the class with the most pages read total, gets to take a field trip to One Bucs Place to tour the facility, see locker rooms, equiptment, the practice field and much more. On Tuesday, at my partnership elementary school, we had an awesome anti-bullying assembly, put on by one of the memebers of the Harlem Globetrotters. He gave the kids a lot of important information about bullying and how to put a stop to it in our schools. He performed some tricks, and let some of the kids participate in activities. The kids were really pumped and they really received a good message about bullying. On Wednesday, we put our tattle monster in the classroom. If you read my blog from last week, then you know what I'm talking about. This was a truly effective tool because we have less tattling and more working going on in the classroom, and the kids are still able to feel like their tattles are important, even though they don't get the same kind of attention that they used to. If you wish to see a picture of our tattle monster, you can view it in the photo gallery. Also on Wednesday, myself and 2 other of my resident friends were responsible for morning meeting in our classroom management class. We rocked it, if I might say so myself. Our community building activity included a mummy wrapping contest. It was a great deal of fun, everyone got involved (including the teacher), and there are also pictures of this in the photo gallery. On Thursday, we did some group work in my CT's classroom. Turns out that I really got to see some of the flaws of group work. We had instances where some students dominated the group conversations, while others were completely left out. And then they all spent more time fighting over whether or not they got to participate than they actually did working. After observing this behavior, I wondered what would be some good strategies to help ensure that all members of a group got equal participation rights? I will make surfe to ask my CT how she usually resolves these situations. Friday was supposed to be my first day responsible for an entire teaching block. My CT had the day off and she planned to allow me to teach the RTI group that day. There would be a substitute in the classroom of course, but she wanted me to take the lead in the phonics lesson. However, when I arrived on Friday, my dreams were shattered. They were unable to find a substitute for her class, so we had to split the students up between the pod, and I got to sit in on one of my fellow resident's classes. This was a blessing in disguise! My friend's CT has such a different teaching style from mine and it really was a good experience to be able to see a different teacher in action. Although I love my CT and her teaching style, I also loved this teacher's style. I feel like my classroom one day will be a blend of both of these. I took lots of notes on things that she did that I either liked, or disliked. It was really good for me to be able to gain a different perspective. Overall, this was a great week. I really got to see how some of the "Big Names" like the Bucs and the Harlem Globetrotters, make community participation a priority. The kids really have respect for those who take time to show that they care. This week proved to me that teaching really is the most rewarding profession, and I'm so glad to be a part of it. |