Engaged Learning Reflection

     As I was reading Engaged Learning today, I came across something that caught my eye in the "Modeling Engaged Learning" chapter. In talking about writing, VanDeWeghe quotes Katie Wood Ray, "Either we can be walking, breathing, talking examples of all we advocate for our students, or we can have them sitting around wondering why we are trying to get them into something that we are obviously not into ourselves."
     I already talked to some of you about my co-op's sixth period class. It's a remedial class designed to improve their knowledge/skills of English in order to improve their testing scores on the Keystone exams/PSSA's. There are only four students in the class. On a good day, two of them are actually doing their work. They are argumentative and don't like to do anything except for stare at a book or an article until the class is over. My co-op makes them complete "double-entry journals" where they have to write down a section or quote from the book/article they're currently reading, and then write a response or reflection on their selection.
     In a conversation I had with my co-op last week in the library when the students were conducting research, he told me that he actually HATES to read books; however, he does like to read The Onion (satire), and news articles/current events. However, when these students who feel forced to read are instructed to read for the class period, my co-op sits on a stool at his podium and checks his email. This is not modeling ANYTHING about reading. His sixth period students are left wondering, 'why are we sitting around forced to do something that Mr. Coleman isn't into himself?' He could at least sit and read the newspaper while these students are supposed to be reading themselves.
     It was just interesting that VanDeWeghe clearly stated something that we as teachers don't really do ourselves. While we think about modeling our writing/thinking processes with students, we also need to think about what we're telling our students to do, and what we're actually modeling.

Testing My Patience

Sorry for not posting early, folks.

I had to take time to filter my feelings and process my thoughts before posting.

Last week, when we were still in classes, the principal from my field placement came into to talk to the students in our special education course. After presenting on the topic of Keystones and flipping through dozens of Powerpoint slides, he concluded his presentation by saying: "Do I want my teachers to teach to the test? Of course I do."

This upset me greatly.

I told my cooperating teacher about the talk and she relayed the story to the Department Chair at the school where I'm doing my observations. The chair of the department then leaned over the table, looked me in the eyes and said, "Welcome to the real world. My number one priority as a teacher is to get these kids to pass the test. Would it be nice if they learned something? Sure, it would, but that's secondary."

Overall, the whole testing culture is testing my patience. I can't even really formulate any sort of eloquent response to these statements; I'm frustrated. Getting students to learn will always be my number one priority, regardless of how much pressure is placed upon me due to some silly test. If that makes me a poor candidate for a job opening, then so be it.

First Week Back

Hi everyone! This week passed pretty uneventfully. I was supposed to begin teaching my memoir unit, but the class was behind on their previous unit and spent the whole week doing presentations so I won't begin the lessons until Monday. I did get a chance to teach lessons on thesis statements, outlining research papers and a short film called "The Lost Thing" (a 2010 Oscar winner) which was a good learning experience for me (and hopefully for the students, too!). The student book presentations in Mrs. B's class at the junior high were really fun to watch because Mrs. B gave everyone choice in what their presentations would be. The students had made videos of mock interviews, book trailers, picture books, artwork, power points, websites and traditional essays to showcase their knowledge of their novel. Because they were allowed so much freedom, they were really creative with their presentations. It was so cool to see that kind of enthusiasm fill an entire class!

Making the best of PSSA week

This week was a drag because the PSSA's took two hours of our day every day. So for part of class we did freewrites or brain challenges to give the students a break. The students are really enjoying doing the freewrites and I actually gave them an assignment to do a freewrite photo prompt. It is due Monday, but some of them excitedly turned them into me today! For the rest of class the students are just working on their mock trials. They are doing an assignment where their client is in need of a heart transplant and they have to persuade the judges to give their client the heart. They have opposing clients that they are going up against so they have to consider the other groups counterarguments. The groups seem really engaged with the project and I am excited to see the trials next Thursday!

Missed Opportunity (Week 3)

In my 3rd week at LCHS I've observed another situation where I really wish I had my own class. In my co-op's freshman English classes and in her Creative Writing class she is teaching about transcendentalism nature writing/throeau etc. This week, as you may have noticed, has been warm, finally. In LCHS there is no air conditioning; it gets really hot in the third floor classrooms. We spent all of Tuesday writing in our seats and listening to lecture. The kids were distracted and kept looking out the window. My co-op kept mentioning the heat and how she was sorry that it was unavoidable. In creative writing class she had them sit and write about being outside (they were to describe a natural scene, or write a poem about nature they observed) while sitting at their desks in a hot room. 

Why not go outside? 

There is a large field, vacant during the school-day hours, for baseball and football. We could have went over there and wrote outside and actually been in a natural setting. 

It almost seemed ironic, or hypocritical. Something didn't seem right. 

So we sat and wrote. The heat put some kids to sleep. 

So if that isn't disheartening enough, here is a poem I wrote after school on wednesday about Lucia, an ESL student in my co-op's freshman English class.

___

Lucia chews gum every day,

and always has to be told to spit it out--

Must be scolded before she sits,

when she walks in to doorway

to English.

Whether she does her reading or not

(If she did she’s a liar and is she didn’t she lies)

She is never called on,

so she sits back,

applies lip balm,

looks  around,

looks at me, scribbling,

in the back of the room,

chews more gum,

is never called on…

except for to spit it out immediately.

Sometimes in class they popcorn read.

And when it comes to her she says each small word,

Flower, call, pig, four, hands.

but the teacher says the bigger ones before she has a chance.

On her locker is a peeling Spanish-flag laminate

barely hanging to the metal door

by dried up Scotch tape donuts.

And each morning she finds it on the linoleum floor,

picks it up,

sticks it back on,

each time pressing harder, for a few seconds longer.

Then walks to class,

sticks a stick of gum between her lips.

In class they study grammar and she puts her head down on her purse like she’s listening to it.

Sometimes before the end of the day, even as early as 1, 130,

when the air is dirty dry and hotly sticky,

the flag comes unstuck already--

It is already on the ground.

When the teacher reads aloud

but comes to a Spanish noun,

like banjo (which she says banjo)

Or ha-hac-haci--

Lucia offers “Hacienda”

She is told not to interrupt.

And scolded for her gum. 

Research Unit

Hey Guys! I hope you're all having a good start in the field for these three weeks! I just wanted to quickly share with you all something that my co-op stated this morning. The students are currently working on a research unit... this paper that they have to turn in must show the effects of one thing on another i.e. the effects of the invention of the rifle on American society (an actual topic one student chose). I asked my co-op if there were any instances where a student would surprise him, meaning, a student who normally doesn't do well hands in an 'A' paper. He said at this point in the year, he knows the good writers from the bad writers, and they pretty much don't stray from what they were (basically labeled as) at the beginning of the year. I thought to myself.... WOAH! DID HE JUST SAY THAT? If his students aren't improving in writing throughout the year, what are they doing?!? He said that he would like to turn the research paper into a presentation, but there just isn't enough time in the curriculum. While I can understand that there is a time crunch during this time of the year, I wonder why he can't squeeze in daily, or even weekly, writing activities in a writer's notebook to help students improve their writing from the beginning of the year. The only support/modeling the students have of the research paper is what he has posted on the class wiki. The example is my co-op's chosen topic of how money affects baseball (he is a baseball coach). While this topic is relevant to high school students who like sports/baseball, I think he could choose a topic that is more relevant to model, like the positive/negative effects of starting high school later than elementary school. Do any of you find your co-op's using writer's notebooks effectively in the classroom? If so, how does your co-op make time for this?

Grammar again:P

Back into the classroom only to find that I missed even the last days of their poetry unit and we're doing verbals. This pleases me not. On the other hand Friday I start my mini unit on "Flowers for Algernon" amidst the infuriating pointlessness of PSSAs. If it bad that I feel like this will be much more fun and possibly more educational when I'm taking the lead?