My student teaching experience has been.....

My student teaching experience has been great, especially because of the fact that I was able to observe the classrooms over the beginning of the year prior to actually taking over as teacher.  This allowed me to first see how and effective mentor teacher can set-up a class for the year, everything from classroom management to procedures, testing to lab group organization, expectations to discipline.  This provided me, the student teacher, with a structure that was already in-place and that I was familiar with (and the students knew this).  While I learned these skills by watching my mentor teacher, there is really no substitute for jumping in yourself as a teacher and having to navigate the position on your own.  This requires much planning ahead of time but also an ability to improvise, modifying a well-thought-out plan to “chase the rabbit” of a class discussion down a different path.  Sometime the most memorable learning experiences for students are the spontaneous, impromptu, discussions that are not necessarily part of a curriculum goal or standard.  These conversations can be what truly inspire young scientists and push them to pursue an education and career in science. 

The skills I was learning in our National class were directly relevant to the classroom situations I would find myself in.  Classroom management, the establishment of my own procedures, modification I made for lessons and testing, and technological teaching resources, all became useful in how I approached these challenging situations in the real classroom and I credit some of the conversations with classmates over blogs and in-person with helping me through.  These skills are a toolbox that teachers continually add to and keep ready, honing old skills and learning to use others. 

The most memorable experience I will have from my student teaching placement will be the feeling I had the first moment I truly felt comfortable in my lesson delivery.  Timing, modifications on-the-fly, management and procedure all funneled into what seemed like a perfect harmony and I was not longer “delivering” my pre-planned lesson, but was integrating the lesson into the situation, the environment, and accounting for all variables, simultaneously.  Obviously, the next day went terribly but I assume that was to keep me from getting over-confidentJ  This glimpse of the seamless teaching setting was enough to make me strive to re-reach that goal.  I will also remember how collaborative the department was and how willing teachers were to assist in my learning of the profession.  This is another skill I hope to be able to bring to my future school and within my science department.

Classroom Management....PUSHUPS!!!!!!

Most of the classroom management techniques in my classroom have been established by my mentor teacher and I, as a student teacher, have inherited her system and have adjusted to fit my style into it.  Most of the effectiveness of her system lies in the fact that it has been established from the beginning of the year and the students know it as routine.  This establishment of routine and procedure, or rather a lack of it, is something that Wong and Wong site as a key root cause to discipline problems (Wong and Wong.  P. 165).  In our classroom, typical procedures are used to deal with disruptive students.  The idea was established on the first day of school that; if you (the student) are not interested in learning during a particular lesson or day, you may not inhibit others students’ ability to learn.  This sets the groundwork for dealing with a disruptive student in my class.  The “first offense” involves a gentle reminder of how we need to stay on task as a class and many small interruptions can mean we have less time, in class, to complete our work.  This singles our the individual student who is being disruptive but also speaks to the entire class and highlights our collaborative effort toward classroom and individual academic goals.  This also gets other student to buy into the idea that they are being shorted by one student’s antics; many act to help “police” behavior, instructing the disruptive student to focus so that the entire class will not have to stay after class completing work.  The “second offense” is a more stern and directed response, alerting the student that they are being disruptive and disrespectful to our class and that this must cease immediately.  As a coach, I can command the attention of my classrooms simply by increasing to “coach volume”, halting work/class, and can wait for the room to fall silent after this.  Then in my, softer, less commanding, “teacher voice”, I can address the disruptive student and single his behavior out.  I find it helpful to only call actions and behaviors out rather than specific students in order to keep students from getting defensive.  If I tell a student that he/she is disruptive, they can take offense but if I tell that student that their talking or other behavior is disruptive, like other students on previous days, the student is less defensive and can recall prior classes where they were disrupted by similar behaviors made by other students.  The “third offense” usually never occurs but involves removal from the classroom (to a convenient adjacent hallway connecting the interior of the science department), a talk after class that concludes with the student penning an email to their parents explaining their actions and the consequences for both themselves and others in the class.  This acts to start a dialogue between student, parents, and teachers regarding behavior and a “unified front” on the part of teachers and parents can be key to changing student behavior.  An additional way to encourage a disruptive student to engage in their learning is by encouraging them when they are working well and staying on-task.  Tomlinson recommends teachers to “promote on-task behavior” as a way to reach these students, recording their work efforts on a daily and even task or subject-specific basis (Tomlinson.  P. 37).  The adage that you attract more flies with honey than with vinegar can be related to this disciplinary idea, the idea that students respond better to positive feedback than they respond to negative feedback. 

I find unmotivated students easier to deal with in my science classroom.  Although most in my class are interested, bright, science students, some students have days or phases where they are uninterested in learning.  This is generally not disruptive to other students in the class but can also be viewed in a collaborative, class-unit way.  I agree with the Wong’s assessment that learning in collaborative, group environments is most effective for all students, especially for science students (Wong and Wong.  P. 204).  Scientists must work collaboratively during research and in group-oriented tasks.  I use my classroom as a model of this environment and students have bought into the idea that we succeed and fail as a class.  In this way, students take the initiative to help try to motivate an unmotivated member of their lab group.  This generally works well, with students able to “pick each other up” motivationally when they need it.  For students I recognize with chronically unmotivated attitudes, I intervene and try to make the subject, science, relevant to their interests.  There is literally no subject, interest, hobby, or craft that cannot be in some way related to science or scientific concepts.  In a monthly assignment, I have students read and analyze current event articles relating to science.  This allows for them to guide their own learning and choose subjects that they are interested in.  I also find out a lot about the students based on what types of articles they choose and can sometimes modify lessons to include specific student’s interests.  Because motivation is a more long-term goal for my students, I have no “first offense, second offense, third offense” procedure but rather make continual, incremental efforts to engage unmotivated students; initially gaining their trust and respect and then use this place in their lives to encourage and motivate these students to achieve and become self-motivated.  Keeping science relevant is another way that I try to increase the motivation in my classroom, bringing in science articles myself that relate to things we have learned or articles of particular interest to high school-aged students.  

Assessments

In a subject like science or math, we tend to work more with the quantitative versus qualitative measures of student "success".  My class is broken into three assessment types; Tests and Quizzes, Lab Experiments, and Homework Assignments.  Tests and quizzes are fairly self-explanatory; this summative assessment is similar to assessments given by the state and other testing companies that administer the SATs, AP's and ACT tests.  In many ways this is how I assess my teaching.  These tests show a "final product" for student understanding after a lesson or unit and can give insight into my teaching practices.  The homework assigned is designed to instill prior knowledge in students before they listen to a PowerPoint presentation or complete a class or lab activity.  This prior knowledge helps students have a foundation from which to build upon in classroom discussions and work.  I "grade" these homework packets (stamped during class and collected at the end of the unit) based on completeness, effort, and ability.  Some students have such a difficult time retaining papers in their binder that I will give them a couple "extra credit" points based on receiving back 100% of the pagers i have handed out to them.  This assessment is slightly more formative and informal, with room to praise students improvement rather than ability.  The final part of my assessment of students' learning is based on lab activities.  These activities allow for students to self-differentiate, with students playing to their individual strengths.  The lab work that is turned in and graded is parried against how well students were able to work together in their groups and come to a collective level of learning and understanding.  Lab experiments go badly sometimes and I find these activities to be more about interpreting science and research rather than memorizing information and fact.  This is also a somewhat more qualitative measure with room to track students' improvements as well as their understanding.  A strategy that comes from our textbook that I thought was fairly novel for a science class is to debate an issue or topic.  Science is viewed by many as "The Answer", and many forget that science is constantly changing and our understanding of the world around us improved.  Having students research and generate talking-points can play to the more interpersonal learners and those that enjoy the competition of debating.  Tomlinson states that students think about, apply and even expand on understanding fundamental to a topic.  This higher learning is truly what we want for all our students and by challenging students to a task that is unfamiliar to most science classrooms may be both exciting and educational to students.

Blog Post 3/9/13 from in-class

How would you define school and class culture?

Class and school culture can be viewed as the ways and means by which schools and students function.  School culture can by under- or overachieving.  They can be focused on academic, social, or cultural topics, can encourage or discourage activities and ideas, or can prompt or preventing students to reach new heights.  As teachers, we can facilitate an improved culture at out school and in our classes.  We can hold students accountable and teach them responsibility.  We can hold high expectations for all our students, regardless of ability levels, and encourage them to reach their self-defined goals.

What is the relationship between data and school culture?

As we saw from our exercise today, their is slight correlation between school data and culture.  Some schools with higher API ratings had problems with student-overload and a high-stress environment.  Other lower API schools had issues with student motivation and language and special needs students.  I think the culture of the school is affected more by the demographic of students than their school-specific data measures and rankings.

How does SES (socio-economic status) impact school and class culture?

I do think there is the strongest correlation between similar school's demographic and socio-economic status and the cultures experienced at these schools.  We heard from teacher candidates from lower achieving schools talk about their ethnic and academic demographics and how many students are full grade-levels behind the class.  Parents need assistance in helping their children and many are lacking this help.  Higher achieving school know that parent and community funding can "fill-in-the-cracks" when it comes to educational tools such as computers and enrichment activities.  This also can be seen as a double-edged sword, with many students from lower socio-economic backgrounds working extremely hard to achieve when they show academic promise while many students from more affluent communities lack the motivation to achieve at their highest levels.

What are some pathways to success?

Differentiation can help each and every student maximize their learning in school.  Students strengths must be identified and lessons and activities must be geared toward these strengths on a student-to-student basis.  Teachers might start out the year with an activity that could identify their students learning preferences.  Multiple Intelligences exist for different people and by teaching to these "intelligences" can benefit student and teacher alike.  Teachers can gain new insight into how different learners take in lessons and use this information to plan for future ones.

Assignment #1 PowerPoint

Here is my PowerPoint Presentation on Los Gatos High School's School Culture....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_8PFZ9i2PU

Discussion #2 - How does School Culture affect Student Learning?

School culture is critical in shaping students' learning, both in the high school realm and in the time following high school, as students begin to enter the "real-world".  Many students credit their high school experiences in "seeking knowledge" as the turning point in the way they view the subject of education.  I remember personally being fascinated by calculus and the idea that all relationships could be described by a mathematical formula.  It could be used to calculate and predict things that would take too long or too short an amount of time to experimentally measure.  In hindsight, this event showed me the power of knowledge and, from that point forward, I would consider myself a life-long learner and student.

Teachers and school administrators help to create this culture, along with community and family expectations and sufficient funding, to facilitate this culture.  Teachers can do many things to promote a positive school culture on a day-to-day and more long-term basis.  Our textbook cites everything from daily routines and practices to positive or negative expectations by teachers (Wong & Wong.  2009).

The failure to establish a classroom and even a school-wide routine can lead to chaos for classes and teachers.  Even in the high school setting, students crave the structure and predictability that routines can provide.  This day-to-day structure not only established a better learning environment for the students, but it can also make the transition of the class to a new teacher, either a sub or subsequent teachers in high school, much smoother.  In my experience student teaching, the easiest classes to teach are ones where routines have been established, students know and understand expectations, and where everyone buys into the educational goals.

The final piece of this puzzle is "selling" these educational goals to students... and to teachers.  The more long-term culture measurement, established by school staff, is one of expectations.  Teachers or staff that expect a lot from students, for them to achieve academically, compete fairly, and act morally, usually see these expectations fulfilled.  Conversely, students who teachers have labeled as under-achievers, troublemakers, or disruptive, typically also fulfill these expectations, performing poorly academically, being the cause of interruptions in class, and jeopardizing other students' learning. Teachers are the monitors of these students and their interactions everyday shape the attitudes of their student body.  Teachers who are encouraging, respectful, and hold their students to high academic and personal expectations see these students start to affect other students, slowly but surely changing the overall school atmosphere.  This shift is culture, a culture driven by students and sustained and spurred by teachers, can create an environment where all students can receive the most out of their education in the classroom.

I also must acknowledge the fact that school funding can be the most restrictive factor in school ability to change culture.  I have had the benefit of both attending and student teaching at Los Gatos High School, a very affluent community that prides itself in their youth demographic.  This means that the school is able to provide students with resources that improve the school culture.  Computers and lab equipment in science classes, facilities for the physical education programs, and enriching activities and clubs all cost extra and the brunt of this cost is payed for by residents.  In other communities, students do not have access to these types of resources and are correspondingly less engaged and interested in their education.   Likewise, teachers in underfunded schools are struggling to provide the necessary resources, pencils, paper, etc., let alone provide a class computer or fund a student club.  This lowers their expectations, which in turn lowers the expectations of students.  Students notice when their textbooks are decades old and when their class resources are lacking.  In these school, the mere fact that they do not have adequate funding make the act of motivating students that much harder for teachers and staff.



Wong, H. K., & Wong, R. T. (2009). The first days of school: how to be an effective teacher.  

     Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications

Discussion Two - How Does School Culture Affect Students' Learning?

School culture is critical in setting the stage for engaged student learning.  I am very fortunate to be working in at a school, in a distract, which is in a community, all of whom help create a culture that values education.  Los Gatos is a affluent community, with many residents working in the Silicon Valley in a variety of occupations.  These residents are educated and have high aspirations for their sons and daughters.  The district and school administration also push students to achieve on an academic level.  The point-of-contact liaison for school culture is, however, the teacher.  The teacher is the person that, day-to-day, establishes, maintains, and sustains this culture.  A positive culture can promote achievement both academically and socially.  A negative culture can discourage student from learning from, and sometimes even attending, classes.  As a teacher, I will want to maintain the established culture, one where students feel encouraged and helped along in their educational endeavors.