I did my observations here

This is where I did my observation hours this quarter. Providence St. Mel is a private school located in Garfield Park. This documentary is coming out early next year and I thought it was pretty interesting.

Back to school website

Visit my new Back to school website
http://welcomebackparents.wikispaces.com/

Google

I have become a huge fan of Google while taking this course. Google has so many wonderful features, that are easy to use. I really loved Google documents. Google documents is easy to use, it automatically saves all your work and you can share your information with everyone or just certain people. I am getting married in a little more then a week and I used it to organize all my wedding stuff. I save everything in Google documents and then share it with my fiance, my parents and my soon to be in laws. This way all of us can view it, make comments and add too it. It was very convenient and time effective. When i get my own classroom I plan on setting up a Google groups page for my class. This way I can view the work my students are working on before they and it in. If their is problem or if the student is taking the project in another direction then I would like I can address the problem before its too late.

I will never have to listen to a child's excuse to why their homework isn't done again. There work is all saved online and it cant be lost, destroyed or forgotten.
Another way to effectively use Google groups is through groups projects and collaboration. Members of the group do not need to physically ever be together to complete a project. Everything can be done online. I can assign a project on the parts and function of government and assessing everyone a different section. The students can post their work online and I can put everything together for the class to view and learn from. I can also have my students collaborate with students in different grade levels or even different countries.

Whats a teacher to do?

I had a very interesting situation occur today when I was observing and helping out for my practicum 1 hours. As I have mentioned in previous posts, my school environment is extremely structured and their is a rule for everything. The students are expected to use the bathroom before school, during lunch, after school and on their assigned bathroom brake with no exceptions(unless an emergency.) Each grade level does get a scheduled time each day to use the bathroom.
I was helping the third grade teacher with a math lesson and a child asked to go to the bathroom. My teacher is new and she used to let them go but things go out of hand because once one goes they all need to go. So now she follows the schools rule and just tells the students they have to wait. I told the child no but she kept asking so I sent her over to talk to the teacher, who also said it was almost lunchtime and to wait.
About twenty minutes later the child raised her hand and the teacher said just a few more minutes until lunch. The child responded back to the teacher that she has already went. Everyone was in shock as the embarrassed student rain to the bathroom as we rushed to find her a change of clothes and clean up any evidence. So was the teacher wrong, the school wrong? Now she lets everyone go when they ask and now the students ask nonstop and things are out of control. I am glad that I am not in her situation because I am not sure what I would do.

Not your typical school

I have never seen anything like the school I am observing in right now. You would never know that outside the classroom walls poverty and violence is everywhere. The school has students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade. The school repeatedly sends all of its high school seniors off to college year and after year. Its not the most nurturing environment but they sure do produce results. Everyday at Providence St. Mel is careful planned by the administration and teachers. At 8a.m. every morning after the first bell rings all the third grade students are expected to be seated and ready to learn. Each day is started by a student reading a prayer over the loud speaker. Then the students stand up and all say the pledge of allegiance and the schools motto together. The school motto is rather lengthy but every student knows the words and says it with great pride.
Most of the third graders day is divided into 46 minute blocks of time, with 5 minute brakes in between, Every day of the week has a different set schedule. The daily agenda is on the board everyday. The third graders almost never change rooms so the five minutes is used as a bathroom brake but they normally skip the brake completely. They get 25 minutes for lunch and have no recess. Each day they have one subject that they get to leave the classroom for. The students have P.E,.(twice a week) art, music and have library resource time each week.
There is no talking allowed in the hallways as the students line up in their perfectly formed reassigned lines. They walk in silence with their arms behind their backs. For the first ten minutes of lunch there is also no talking and even their art projects are done in silence. The school is focused on structure and academics the entire day. If you brake a rule then you get a consequence, its that simple. The third graders have rubrics attached to their papers, receive letter grades and have final exams.
This is not the nurturing environment I am used to be but I admire what they are doing. This is the only structure many of these kids have. I am very impressed what they have done with the resources they have.

Reflection on my first lesson taught

Last week I taught my first real lesson. All my other lessons I taught have been to a group of my peers. I used my prior observations and knowledge of my students helped me to develop my lesson plans. The third grade class I am observing is completing unpredictable. I have observed them comprehend an entire math lesson on Roman Numerals in half a class period and then the next day take almost three days to learn how to read a thermometer. I knew my lesson plans had to be flexible enough to accommodate either scenario. I prepared a couple pages of extra problems on overhead slides in case they needed additional help. I also went ahead and previewed the next section in their books so I would be prepared to introduce if I had extra time. Part of my preparations also included making sure I knew every child’s name. I had the teacher help me make a seating chart and after two days I had them all memorized. The children thought it was really cool that I took the time to do this. This definitely helped establish my credibility with the students at the opening of my lesson when I called on them all by name. The students were very excited when I announced I was going to be teaching them today.
The students at Providence St. Mel are taught in an extremely structured and strict environment. Sometimes towards the end of the day I have observed that their attention spans and behavior become less then exemplary. Since I am teaching a math lesson towards the end of the day, I decided that I would need to try and engage the students as much as possible to keep their attention. I was constantly moving throughout the classroom. I used the overhead in the front for part of the lesson and then used the side board for another part of the lesson. I was always asking them to raise their hands to answer questions or come up to the board and show the class their work. I asked some open ended questions to the student’s about they arrived at their answers. I didn’t expect for them to have so many different answers. More then half the hands in the class went up. I didn’t know how to stop calling on students and move on. I wanted them all to have a chance to share but to a point. They were so busy thinking of what they were going to say they weren’t listening to those talking. I talked to the teacher about this and she told me about, one, two, three, back to me. She picks the three children that she is going to call on, so the rest can put their hands down and pay attention. I thought this was a great idea.
I made sure never to lecture for long without student interaction. I didn’t want to risk losing the students attention. I called on volunteers to come up to the front of class and hold up objects as examples. This worked very well because all the children wanted to volunteer and you couldn’t get picked it you weren’t on task. Everything ran exactly as I had planned until we started working in groups.
I differentiated the lesson by having the students work in their math groups. The groups are based on ability. All the groups were given a similar worksheet but the numbers and working were modified slightly. Some were slightly harder and some were a bit simpler. Since there are no programs for children with special needs at the school the teachers have to find a way to accommodate everyone’s learning styles and ability. This allowed me more time to work with the lower ability children, while the higher ability children were kept busy longer with more challenging work. My cooperating teacher had my gear my problems and worksheets to the average student (majority of the class) and then helped me to accommodate the higher and lower ability groups. This was a successful and unsuccessful at the same time. The work I gave the groups was successful but I had d hard time keeping them on task. I was a new teacher and they were seeing what my boundaries were and what they could get away with. They viewed me as the nice lady that would come into their classrooms and help them and who never yelled at them, like their teachers did. They thought they could take advantage of me. They kept breaking their pencils on purpose so they couldn’t do their work and they wouldn’t get to get up and sharpen them. It was very clear that this was on purpose. So I gave them a warning that no else could get up to sharpen their pencils and if a student’s pencil broke then they would have to hand in their work as in and incomplete. They realized I was serious and stopped. I quickly understood why the teachers are so tough on these kids. I am in a rough area in the city and if you give these kids an inch they take a mile. Next time I am placed in the classroom I need to make sure the students see more as the authority figure.
My closing did not go as planned either. I was running short on time, so I let the children know they had five minutes left to finish up their group work. I had each group come up at the same time instead of individually to put their problem on the board. It wasn’t too big of a deal but I didn’t feel more rushed then I would like too. I quickly previewed tomorrow’s lesson and collected their work. Next time I will try and use better time management skills during the lesson.
After the lesson I took the rubric and the class list and started accessing how the students performed and recorded points in the teacher’s grade book. Several of the children were not on task during the group activates and lost points on that section of the rubric. A few of the students of work was barely legible but for the most part I was very impressed with the work they turned in. They really seemed to grasp the material better than I expected. All the students grasped the main objectives of today’s lessons. I just need to address behavioral and organizational (neatness issues) I realized from observing them today that will have no problem with the next lesson, skip counting. Most of them were skip counting in today’s lesson, without realizing it. I would set my goals high for next class period and plan on covering 4.2 and I would prepare to start teaching 4.3 as well.
Overall, I think the lesson went pretty well and was definitely a learning experience. This was the first lesson I ever taught in a real classroom. All my other lessons that I have taught have been to a classroom of my peers. It was great to be able to teach to a real audience and get my cooperating teachers feedback. I will definitely remember this experience and build on it

"Start the Year right with Digitally Native Teachers"

Title: Start the Year Right with Digitally Native Teachers. By: Anderson, Mary Alice, MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 15464636, Sep/Oct2005, Vol. 12, Issue 5
Database: Academic Search Complete

"Start the Year Right With Digitally Native Teachers," is a journal article written by Mary Alice Anderson. The article talks about how schools are now starting to hire the first generation of computer literate teachers. This new generation of teachers embraces technology instead of running from it. This is because they grew up with access to computers in their classrooms and their homes. They use excel by choice to organize their lives and are dependent on technology to get through their day. These new teachers often are confused and frustrated why teachers at their new school are still using the chalkboard, not posting grades online and incorporating technology into their lesson plans.
The new computer literate teachers often become role models for the experienced teachers, who may not be so technologically advanced. The schools goal is to have these teachers work together so the less computer literate teacher can become more comfortable and gain more confidence when it comes to using technology.
Schools are very excited to have computer illiterate teachers join their schools. The problem is that just having computer knowledge isn't enough. The schools are finding out that no amount of knowledge matters if you don't know how to use it.
The schools solutions is to work on how to teach teachers to integrate technology into the curriculum. Many are now bringing media specialists into their schools who job is to teach teachers incorporate technology into the curriculum and to help them take advantage of the resources available to them. The media specialist is their to



My response to this article was mixed. I believe that children need technology in their classrooms and in their curriculum. The children that don't have access to this at their school are at a severe disadvantage and will be behind their peers that do have access. I think its wonderful that students are being exposed to more technology savvy teachers. I am worried that while these teachers have the knowledge they may not have the resource to execute their knowledge. I feel like this article applies to teachers teaching in suburban, more affluent and private schools. Many schools still are seriously lagging behind in technology. When and if these schools do find the budget to incorporate technology into their classrooms I don't see them hiring media specialists anytime soon.

Technology in the classroom

I have had the opportunity to observe in two different classrooms. I observed a kindergarten class in the suburbs and in a third grade classroom on the West side of Chicago. The differences were astonishing but not completely surprising. The kindergartner classroom in the suburbs had a smart-board and seven computers in the classroom. One was for the teacher and the other six were for the students. The room was divided into centers and one of them was devoted to computers. Everyday the students were exposed to the computer centers. There were two kindergartner classrooms in the school and they shared one aide and the classrooms also had a parent volunteer each day. The children also had access to a smart board, large television and dvd player in their classroom.

The third grade classroom on the cities west side had one computer in the classroom that was for the teacher. Her computer was extremely old and very slow. The classroom had one very small television that was never used because it was too small for the entire class to see. There was no smart board and the teachers used the chalkboard to teach their lessons. There was one computer lab in the entire school(k-12) and the teachers had to sign up to use it. From what I saw it was mostly used by the upper grades. There was rarely anyone in the lab to help students. The teachers were allowed to take the students to the lab if it went along with their lesson plans and curriculum. On average the students only went to the computer lab three times a semester.

One of the third grade teachers in the Chicago classroom was asking me what classes I was taking. She mentioned how she remembers taking her technology in the classroom class. She mentioned how she learned all these cool things that she looking forward to using in her classroom. Now that she is actually in the classroom she hasn't been able to use any of it because her school doesn't have the technology. As frustrated as this made her she assured me that the students were still learning and the teachers just have to be more creative. This was more then discouraging to me as a future teacher but its also reality. I don't know where I will be lucky enough to find a job and I will have to teach my students with what resources I'm given.

Engrade

Being somewhat new to technology, I had never heard of the term web 2.O until I was told to write about it last week. I was expecting to read about some new high tec and complicated form of technology that I couldn't relate too. What I found was the complete opposite. Media is moving away from it traditional format and moving more toward social media. With interactive social media your able to create, listen, search, view, comment, communicate and receive almost instant feedback with others. Facebook and twitter aren't just for teenagers and young adults anymore. Businesses are using them too now to promote their company, image, product and most importantly for social networking. With so much information out there people are relying on the feedback and advise of others.. The field of education is no exception and their finding ways to incorporate this interactive technology into their schools.
I was very impressed with all the great free or inexpensive social networking and educational sites on the web to help teachers communicate better with each other, their students, the administration and the parents. One thing that has bothered me during my observations in Chicago classrooms is the lack of parental involvement in their children's education. I witnessed the parents being completely surprised at parent teacher conference time that their student was performing poorly. So I wanted to look for a site that was easy for parents to use and let them know what was going on in their children’s education. Engrade claims on their web that they are a “free set of web-based tools for educators allowing them to manage their classes online while providing parents and students with 27/7 real-time online class information.” I wanted to see if there claim was accurate and being that I often struggle with technology I decided to sign up for an account to check and check out their site. I found that it was very user friendly. If I can figure it out then the majority of teachers should have no problem. The site is set up for teachers, administrators and parents/students. The students and parents are given a special passcode. The passcode is good just to check that students information and protects the privacy of the rest of the class. Once the student is registered and they have their secret passcode they can start accessing their personal information. The students and their parents can check their grades. The parents can see their Childs score, see if the assignment was turned in on time or not at all. there is also an online attendance book that can be viewed along with the teachers webpage. The teacher can post upcoming events and homework assignments so the child and parent wont have an surprised and knows what to expect from the teacher.
The teachers can easily enter their grades and make a class page. They can easily upload files, homework assignments and classroom events. They have the option to average all grades equally, assign different weights for each assignment or drop the lowest score. The teachers can also make individual progress reports for each student that includes there progress in multiple classes. What I like best as a future teacher about this site is that I can enter and update my grades anywhere that I can access the internet. Engrade is a great way for everyone involved in the education process to communicate with one another. There is a messaging feature that allows parents and students to message the teacher if they have any comments or concerns. The teacher can also message the parents if there is a situation that they should be aware of. The administrations and teacher can also communicate with each other this way as well.
When I am a teacher this is something I would like to integrate in my classroom. The students have 24/7 access to their grades so they have complete accountability for them. Students can’t say they didn’t know because its right in front of them. More children are coming from households with two working parents or from single family homes, making parents busier then ever. Engrade allows parents to quickly access their child's information from any computer. Problems can be addresses immediately. If they see something they don’t like or understand they can send their child’s teacher a message and address the situation right away.

This I believe mind map