Week 3

1/22- 1/26

Classroom Confidential Chapter 4

Being an ESL minor, I have learned many things about culture and incorporating it into the classroom. However, my understanding of culture was even further enhanced by Chapter 4. A passage that stood out to me immensely was near the end of the chapter where Schmidt stated, "And the ensure that all students succeed, great teachers make explicit for their kids the parts of school that are firmly cemented in the majority culture, so that they can learn how to use the codes of power to realize their potential in the world. If we do any less, we end up creating a culture of exclusion, forcing children to undergo rituals of failure, until they simply give up on school." This quote truly demonstrate how crucial it is that we as educators provide our students with an equitable education. It is important to create a culturally aware classroom and incorporate culture in the classroom. Also, it is also important to inform minority students about majority culture in order to be successful and "crack the code."

It seems that often culture is seen as something to add on if there is time. Instead culture needs to be looked at in a way where teachers ask themselves how they can use student's assets throughout learning. I liked how Rafe pointed out that their is something for every child that should be integrated in the day to make them see successful. I agree that this could very well change the way a school views schools. I really like how Rafe included discussion about things such as how to make a mistake and take responsibility, how effort relates to accomplishment, how to support each other, etc., This "instruction manual of life" helps minority students receive the equitable education they deserve. Another part of culture that he discussed that enhanced my idea of culture is helping students develop morally. Teaching students the different perspectives of others changes the whole environment of the classroom. I found it powerful when he said "I can get high test scores, what does it mean if my kids aren't good people?"

Another important reminder for me was to not treat all kids the same. Some feel as though they are helping by saying "I am color blind, I treat all kids the same". In many of my classes we have discussed the difference between equity and equality. Equality is giving everyone the same thing and equity is giving everyone what they need to be successful. Therefore, the goal is to not treat everyone the same but to instead recognizes and utilize their differences as assets in the classroom. 

I would say that the biggest impact this chapter had on my view of culture was to "see my class through culture-colored eyes". It is important to think about who am I  and how that affects my teaching, who are my students and how does culture affect they way they learn, and who are we together and what advantage can all my students gain by learning about and in the manner of different cultures. These are really challenging and difficult questions that can drastically enhance my classroom that I plan to work to answer and incorporate.

What Happened 

I taught continued teaching phonics this week, On Monday I was wrapping up the unit with a speed sort. I gave students index cards to write down their times, but did not originally plan on collecting them. Many students got chatty during this time and didn't sort the words as many times as they could have. My cooperating teacher then explained that it is helpful to let the students know that I will be collecting their times, which gives them an extra push of motivation. For the second day of phonics we focused on homophones to shift into the next phonics unit, which targeted homophones. I think that the students really enjoyed the different activities I planned. However, the final activity had them draw homophone examples that we came up with as a class and I should have steered them away from examples like to, too, and two for this activity just for drawing purposes. Due to their background knowledge on homophones, the following day when I introduced the new unit the students could match the homophones with ease and successfully defined the different meanings with the help of a resource, if needed. 

The additional subject that I took on this week was science.  I was eager to do this subject because I had previously observed how interested the students were in it. I began the Force and Motion unit this week by starting out with a paper helicopter activity. The helicopter can be seen in the picture below. With the helicopter we discussed what force is causing it to fall (gravity) and what force pushes up against it (air). I also challenged the students to think about how we could change the helicopter to make it go faster or slower. Students then were given their own helicopter pattern to make and then video themselves experimenting at home. This activity showed me how much more meaningful it is for students to participate in the construction of their own knowledge as we have discussed in many of my courses. In class we used my model of the helicopter to ensure that everyone discovered the concept and then extended it into at home discovery and then showed videos and discussed the following day. 

We also practiced the skill of finding details and the main idea in the text this week during science. I really appreciate how the Interactive Science book incorporates skills like this in the lessons because it helps students grow in their skills of understanding informational text. This class tends to choose to read fiction books in their free time, so this interdisciplinary connection helps expose them to literary skills while still connecting to science.  In many of my courses we have discussed how meaningful connected two subjects can be. 

Students were working more with metaphors and similes this week with my cooperating teacher in Literacy. They watched a fun video that explained metaphors and simile via a superhero girl and guy, which the students really enjoyed. They were also writing their own sentences for each a simile and metaphor and then drawing the sentences. This activity was a good informal assessment to see if students could generate a simile and metaphor and then draw what it means. 

This week I had the opportunity to see my first  Social Emotional lesson done by the social worker. This week the topic was depression. I was pretty shocked that they were discussing this because it is a pretty heavy topic. I don't recall covering this when I was in fifth grade. However, I was very impressed with how maturely the students discussed the topic and also shocked about how much they knew about it. This lesson reinforced the idea that has been discussed in many of my classes, which is that it is important to teach students academics but it is also very important that they we educate the whole person. 

This week the class started a new morning work, which is called Jumpstart. This morning work is effective because it reviews skills that students may be getting rusty in. It is important that the students are able to maintain those skills so this activity helps them do that. The students have shown in math especially that once they have moved on from a skill they tend to weaken at that skill. Therefore, that information supports the use of Jumpstart in the morning to help them keep up their literacy skills. 

On Friday the school had a volunteer breakfast. This breakfast consisted of families coming in before school to enjoy some breakfast, sign up for volunteer opportunities, and converse with other families and teachers. I was impressed with how many families showed up and how many volunteering opportunities their are for parents. I have repeatedly learned about how important family and parent involvement is in school and think that this is a great event that Fulton puts on to encourage that. 

Friday was also a busy day in fifth grade because we had our first day of MAP testing. I learned a lot from being able to observe this since I am more familiar with pen and paper standardized testing. I have learned much about MAP and PARCC, but have never had the chance to see the whole process. My cooperating teacher set the students up in the morning and goes over the scores with each student by conferencing with them. She also provides students with test taking strategies and how to be respectful to those testing around you. 

Lastly, on Friday we had a one district, one book assembly in which the students learned about the book for this year: The One and Only Ivan. I love this district idea to have students read a book with their families while the rest of the district is doing so simultaneously. I think that this encourages family involvement again and unity within the district. It also gives the community within the schools to discuss the book and have some good conversations since they are all reading simultaneously. 

The students earned a "home run" with their baseballs ( classroom management strategy) so they got to choose their reward. I was intrigued that the students came up with and choose a PJ day with stuffed animals, flashlights, and reading time. It was very cool to see that even for their reward they chose reading time over a no homework pass!!

On Friday my fifth grade class went downstairs to help out their second grade buddies. Each student is paired with a second grader and a few times in the year they will do an activity together. This time the class was working on writing poems about winter. I enjoyed walking around and seeing my students be leaders and assist the little ones in a loving and caring way. I think that pairing up an older class and younger class is a great idea that I hope to incorporate in my future classroom. 

What I learned 

The students had a test this past Tuesday on their Chapter 1 Matter Test. Each lesson in the interactive science book as a quick check sheet that students can do to review what was discussed in that lesson. My cooperating teacher then compiles those checks along with other key questions for a study guide. The day before the test the students complete the study guide with a partner and then review it as a class. They study that night and then receive about 15 minutes before the test to study as well. I think that this is an effective method because it ensures that everything of importance that was covered will be on the study guide and was previously covered. It also ensures everyone's study guide is correct to study off of. I think that this process models very good studying strategies for students and finding the key things to study. 

My cooperating teacher often uses dry erase boards in math. I think this is an effective method because it gives students plenty of room to practice, the teacher can see that students understood, and it saves paper. The students also enjoy getting to use the boards. They serve as a powerful formative assessment tool. 

In social studies the class was learning about deep sea artifacts. My cooperating teacher had already had a lesson in mind but adjusted it when she realized that the students had flashlights at school for their reward and that she could utilize those. So she switched up the lesson a bit but putting the artifacts around the room, turning off the lights, having students pretend to be underwater and using their flashlights as they "swam" around and took pictures of the artifacts with their Ipads. I think this activity showed how important it is to sometimes deviate from what was planned to work with what you have. The students were very engaged and loved the activity!

Another strategy I learned this week was that going over the questions aloud to the class before they take an assessment is beneficial to this class. They perform much better when this is available to them. However, unfortunately many times this is not available to them, but they are being modeled to on how to approach looking at a question, which I think is effective. 

After students completed their MAP testing my teacher had them complete a Genre pie. This helped students to see how many books in each genre they had read. Then they could make it a goal to even out the pie and read more book in the section that may be lacking to make sure that they are reading a wide variety of books. 

Goals

Last week one of my goals was to transition smoother in lessons since sometimes the students take longer to put some things away and get ready for the next activity. This week I did try telling the students something along the lines of "By time I get to ten you should be back in your seat" and then began counting. I noticed a drastic difference in the speed at which they completed transitions. I found this to work very well for me and intend on continuing to use it. Last week I also discussed how I wanted to work more on letting the lesson flow where it may and building on top of students answers. I am still improving at this, but I think that I did better at letting the lessons go in the direction that the students take them by their answers. 

In this next week I want to learn more about what motivates my students. This addresses Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 5, which states, "The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation." I want to unlock that motivation and use it in the classroom. I have noticed that they tend to be more motivated to do something when an activity is hands on and they get to be fully involved. However, in some subjects it is more challenging to always have hands on and active involvement continuously. For example, science can be very engaging, but also during reading time from the textbook that engagement can drop. Therefore, a goal of mine this week is to come up with ways while I'm planning to make that time more involved and engaging. A goal of my this week is to also learn more about how my students feel about math, their preferences, and knowledge on order of operations so that I can plan my instruction accordingly.