Arts and crafts were more fun as a student

Arts and crafts were more fun as a student!
Today I met with my teachers early mostly because there was no traffic on the drive up, I was hoping that they would be in meetings like they usually are on Mondays but I was wrong. Almost immediately when I got into the class I was bombarded with questions. I was asked to teach a lesson next week on some of the holidays coming up, I said sure not really thinking about it at all. Was I going to be all on my own to plan this lesson, or would I get any help! So many questions, and so little answers. This was a pattern I was starting to notice in the school.

Then I was asked if I knew what a “die cut machine is”. I had no idea. This machine is pretty cool, its like a giant stamp press. Each block has like shape in it surrounded by a rubber place. You place a piece of paper under it and press down on it through a machine and it cuts out what shape you want, pretty freaking cool.
I was making holly leaves for our classroom calendar, first I made the mistake of cutting all the paper in the wrong size and had to figure out a way to make it work, ok not a big deal just a rookie mistake a teacher told me as she was working at the next machine. Then the stamp press was not cutting all the way through the paper, ok I had to re-align the paper and try again, no big deal. Then when I returned to the class I was told I had to glue three little red paper circles on the leaves, big deal. The glue got everywhere, paper was flying all over the place and the kids were well let’s face it wild and crazy, I managed to get it all done and then I had to give then a test, great how was I going to manage this give a test to wild kids with most of my fingers stuck together from the glue. Awesome.

Mind Games

On this particular day my students were especially rowdy. I am now taking a more significant role in the class, I am being more involved with the students and their work. I am some what in charge of the class during the first morning warm up worksheet while the other teachers deal with other boring teacher stuff. Today the kids seemed the lack what little focus they usually have in the morning. But I was determined to get them settled down, or my name isn’t Mr. Blum.
Well that was ironic, one of the students approached me, in attempt to avoid work, and asked me about the visitor badge I have to wear. They are wondering why I have to wear a visitor badge if I am teaching them, I then had to explain that I neither work for the school like their teachers or go to school here like them. So in turn that means that I am a visitor. Still there were many more questions to follow but I finally used a teaching strategy that I learned, just tell them to get back to work or lose their recess, all ways works.
Well not this time, these kids were determined today not to do any work. A few minutes later another student approached me with a interesting question, “what’s your name”. I told them that they knew my name and they needed to get back to work. But that is not what they wanted, they wanted to know my FIRST name. There was no need for them to know this so I decided if they were going to play games with me I was going to also. I continued to tell them that my name was “Mr. Blum” and they kept asking for my first name and I told them that that was my name and they were so confused, “Mister Blum” that’s my name I don’t understand your confusion.

Santa who?

Santa who?
This observation started off just like many others, the students entered the room full of energy and took a lot of time to get settled down. As the student teacher taught throughout the morning I spent my time mainly observing the student teaching in action. As the semester has gone on and as I have learned more in my education courses at school, I have become more attentive to the actual teaching practices in my observation. I am starting to recognize moments during certain lessons (mostly literacy) where I could start using what I have learned in my classes. In one of my classes we have a class website where we have a huge supply of info on Lieteracy.

The student’s teacher has an interesting approach to her style, she does not really follow the ways I am being taught how to instruct reading. She seems to be taking a completely different approach in that during the lessons, she is depending on more student participation that I am being instructed to allow this early in the year. I am being taught to model everything before you have the students do it themselves. I think I am going to ask the teacher about this.
Well later in the class the students began to get a little out of hand, like usual it started to happen around lunch time. The class was working on independent math worksheets and I was making my way through the class answering any questions as usual. It is always fun to hear what all the kids are talking about even though they think you can hear what they are saying. Teachers hear everything. One student was talking about the upcoming holidays and he approached me and somehow our discussion got rooted toward Christmas, and the next thing I knew it I was being called Santa Claus. And not much later the rest of the class got involved and was calling me the same. For no real reason that I could see. I wasn’t mad; I found it to be strangely funny. These kids can always find a way to make me feel better no matter what had happened previously in the day.

A lotta labor for little reward

A lotta labor for little reward
The lesson plan, the dreaded task that all beginning education majors can wait forever to start. My literacy class this semester has assigned a lesson plan based around a book we read in class, we are suppose to create a lesson for a fifth grade class involving the text and a metacognative reading strategy. Let’s just say that I was more willing to stand out in the rain to write this lesson plan. I wanted to start early but failed at that, I started working on it two days before it was due, early for me but I was still uncomfortable with the time frame. The example we were given in class was over fifth teen pages, just the concept of writing about a book I didn’t much like and about a lesson I created yet didn’t quite understand was not to appealing . How was I going to do this?
My solution, I locked myself into the spare bedroom in my house, it only has a desk, white walls and a old mattress. Nothing to appealing other than writing the plane. I spread my papers all over the floor and for about an hour just looked at one and put it back down then another and repeat. I was trying to wrap my mind around what I was trying to get across in my lesson but was having a hard time figuring out how to accomplish it. Finally it hit me, I figured out how to write this dreadful piece, I stopped thinking so much and just wrote out what came to mind. Well it worked after about ten hours, many broken pencils, a box of cereal, and kick in the pants from my roommate I finished it.
Don’t worry I went back later and made sure it all made sense, but let’s not dwell on the fact that it was done before the rest of my class even started, ha.

GOING TO BE TEACHING!!!!

GOING TO BE TEACHING!!!!
Yes, that’s right me, the shy, nervous, unwillingness to speak in front of people is going to have to teach a math lesson to a bunch of rowdy seven year olds. Great combination, me in a bad tired mood, and rampaging little kids everywhere. So the teacher was nice enough to give me all the materials from the math book but was also not so kind in giving me the time slot to teach them right before lunch. I swear half the questions during the hour before lunch are “how much longer ‘till lunch” and “when can I eat”. I usually like to joke around a little here but today I was in no joking matter, it was time to take the reins.
There I was standing in front of the class, alone, while the others teachers were off to the side doing other work. The class didn’t notice I was standing there, they just kept on talking, so I let them, I stood there silently with my arms crossed just looking at them, no facial expressions at all. Finally one by one they,(how do I say this nicely of yea) STOPPED TALKING. I then instructed them to take out their math books and open to the assigned page. We then went over the lesson, I very carefully spoke loudly, clearly and made sure I was making sense in what I was reading. Then came for the hard part, doing examples, I showed the first one and then asked for student volunteers, this was difficult because I still didn’t know all their names. It seemed I only knew the trouble makers names, and not the few who volunteer all the time. So I gestured to tem and we survived that part. Then came the worksheet, this was surprisingly trick, I had to make sure the entire class was on task while still helping out those students in need. Finally we got through the lesson, I survived. Disappointment struck again when I got no response from either teacher.
First experience teaching a lesson, FAIL in my book.

Gender Audit

The next few times in the class went really well, I was starting to get accustom to how everything works and the students were starting to interact with me and I was starting to take a more active role in their education. Mostly I have just been helping them with worksheets and keeping them inline when they start to act up.
For one of my classes, gender studies in the classroom, I was assigned to do a gender audit to evaluate how the different gender act and play a role in the classroom. This exercise seemed a bit pointless to be at the start especially when I told the student teacher what I was doing. She had just taken the class the previous year and still followed the rules and ideas we had learned. I was afraid that my audit would be pointless and boring. Well it still was boring but not so much pointless. As I started observing the students in the class I began to make careful observations about each gender and certain students as well. I noticed how this one male student seemed to shy and quiet during individual work but when the group work started he became loud and continually disrupting the class. I made the conclusion that he was seeking attention and used causing problems in class to get the attention from the teachers; while it was negative attention obviously it was better than anything else he was getting. Another thing I noticed was that when female students ask question concerning work the teachers would not simply give them the way to get the solution, instead they made them think for themselves on not only the solution to the problem but how they would achieve it. In this observation I noticed different patterns in teaching and response from students had were not equal to both genders. Here are my findings and conclusions about Gender in my classroom.

Johnny Appleseed

The first observation went so well I decided to go back for a second, yea to tell the truth I was not all that thrilled to be going back. I did literally nothing on the first visit, I sat in a corner and watch a student teacher for three hours, great use of my time, and the teachers weren’t even all that approachable and talked little to me. You can see my enthusiasm for wanting to go back. But I was determined to impress the secretaries, they do run the school by the way, I wore all my nicest clothes and this time made sure my tie was nice and tight and straight. Nothing, lame no response or even a look this time, great start.
I headed down to the classroom when I almost literally ran into the student teacher who was in a hustle. All I got out of our walk or run to the classroom was, “oh, I forgot you were coming today, but oh good you can help me, have you ever used a crock pot?” She then explained that her professor was coming this morning to observe her teaching about a lesson she had created. It was on Johnny Appleseed and I would be dipping apples for the students in chocolate for them to decorate. So I was introduced to my station, two crock pots full of melted chocolate, 21 crazed students soon to be given more sugar, and me in my nice dress pants and white dress shirt. Make smart choices, I thought this shirt has to last all semester.
Then the rampage started again, the kids flew in the door like they were on a mission to see how many of them they could get in the door at once. This day I actually got a few remarks from the kids, mostly about the food, but I girl said I to me and kept looking my way all class, I think she has a crush on me.
So during the activity I somehow managed to keep the kids under control and actually start talking and teaching them some stuff, while nothing really important they were mostly just trying to figure out how strict I was going to be. Strict, I thought to myself but knew that that was probably not the case. I also somehow managed to keep myself clean, the student on the other hand weren’t so lucky, woops not my fault they wanted to try and finger paint with the chocolate.