“I Lost My Homework”

This article was really helpful for me and my case study. The student who I am working with frequently says similar things to “I lost my homework” or “I put it here and now I can’t find it”. This is particularly true with his homework. Today, he could not find his homework. He had an excuse for it and it was that he left it at the after school program. Later in the afternoon, he told me that he found his work and that it was in his book bag the entire time. I think this really shows me that this student is struggling with organizing his work at school/book bag/ homework.

After reading this article and today’s events, I think I am going to come up with a contract. I am thinking more of a checklist so it is less intimidating. To really help him, I think I need to come up with it with him and have two. One checklist being for what to do in the morning (making sure he has everything turned in) and in the afternoon (check homework folder for homework etc) and one for after school/ at home. I’m thinking this will be along the same lines, did I do my homework, is it in my homework folder, is that in my book bag. Since this student goes with another student from the class to the after school program, they can help keep track of one another.

I will post later to tell what we came up with and if it has/has not been helpful.

Case Study

For my case study, I decided to focus on a student who has trouble with organization. This student also has some disruptive behaviors mentioned in the Melloy article. These include, off-task talking and playing with objects. After discussing with my CT who in the class I could really help, we decided on this particular student and to work specifically on his organizational skills.

My case study has weekly forgotten his homework and sometimes two days in a row. I have become frustrated because this student attends an after school program where homework is done. I think this has gotten in the way for me at times. I think I need to focus more on how to deal with him rather than worrying about what goes on in the after school program.

Specific Behavior Challenges

I can definitely relate to this article, specifically the disruptive behaviors section. There are many students in the classroom who fall into the disruptive behavior categories. These behaviors are most often talking, making noises, and playing with objects. This article gave me insight to where these disruptions are possibly coming from and ways to address them.

I think that I can use some of these strategies in the classroom with some of the students. The intervention ideas are great. I think teaching responsibility and self-management to students would be very valuable. It might be tough to begin this as I am finishing student teaching. It would be feasible to adapt this or take ideas from it and implement them. I really like the idea of “replacement” behaviors!

I would love to see improvement with disruptive behaviors in the class. It can be very difficult and any ideas or suggestions I greatly appreciate.

Salend Chapter 7

This chapter was very helpful for me. There are so many tips and reminders of things I can do in the class as I start taking over more of the school day. There are also a lot of things that will be helpful for me when looking for and gathering information for the BIP we will be conducting. I think I will use some of the methods for the project.

One method I found interesting was the self-evaluation. I think this is a great thing for students, especially in the upper grades. I think it can teach students how to be responsible in class; for their work and their behavior.

Overall, I gained a lot from this chapter. It gives many individual and group behavior systems that I can see myself using this year and in the future. I know that I can use some of these for my class now. My CT and I have been thinking about things we can do for the class’ behavior during certain parts of the day. There are a few that I will be interested in trying.

Classroom Management

In my school, we have a system using cards (color coded), like many other schools do. Although I like this system and think that I might use it in the future, I have not seen my CT use it. This is not a bad thing because my CT has her own system too. The classroom has a log that they have to sign if they have improper behavior. I have seen my CT use this method. Usually a warning is given noting that a student/ students will have to sign the log if they do not correct their behavior. At the end of the week, if a student’s name appears, he or she has to go to Study Hall for a certain amount of time, instead of “Fun Friday”.

If a student’s name is in the log more than once, my CT has the students write to their parents about what happened. This has happened before. I think one thing that I might try when I start taking over is taking away their cards. The warnings about having to sign the log usually help with behavior, but I think it will be important to use all methods.

Classroom Management in Inclusive Settings

This article made me realize how important it is for me to set up a sense of community, create a safe learning environment, and getting everyone involved. For me going into student teaching, I have been thinking about this a lot and what some of the things I will do when I am taking more of the “teacher” role. Being in a classroom for a longer period of time now, I see how important these things are. I do not think I understood how important it really is until now.

I really like the ideas for responding to behavior problems. This is something that I am learning more about now rather than the previous semesters. These ideas are something that I have not necessarily thought about. I can see how redirecting behavior and avoiding punishment really can work. For some students in my class, I think redirecting their behavior would be beneficial.

Even though I do not have an inclusive classroom, per se, I think most of these strategies can be used or adapted. These are also good strategies for anyone to have because they might have an inclusive classroom at some point in their teaching career.

Flint Chapter 12

I did not realize how important and how well reader and writers workshops could work in a classroom. There really is a lot of flexibility and you can cater to certain students easily. I also agree that this is the time to learn more about your students’ interests. The book makes a good point about how important a child’s interest in something is and how it can foster more interest and desire to read and write. I think the book also emphasizes the importance of students’ interests and in general, students’ individual strengths and needs.  I really like the Think-Aloud strategy. During a workshop, a teacher and a student or group of students can come up with specific strategies they should try to use or need to be using. 

I like the “Four Blocks” program because it is basically a template for what should be done in a classroom regarding literacy.  The teachers have room to do what they want and do what would work best in their classrooms which is great. I also enjoyed the Invitation for the classroom about Main Idea Questioning. This strategy can be posted on a wall in the class so students can easily look at what they should be thinking about or asking themselves while they read. I actually really enjoyed most of the Invitation for the classrooms, so a thanks goes out to the book!

Flint Chapter 10

This chapter really proved to me that students can have meaningful and rich discussions about texts. I have not seen such discussions in my placement and would really love to incorporate them and teach students how to have them. I think students can learn a lot from each other in these types of situations. It is important for students to learn how to have group or small group discussions to. Not only will students use these to discuss books they are reading, but with other subjects, and later in high school/college (I know that is far off for some, but why not start them early!?). I also like the idea of giving the students roles in their discussions if the teacher is not present and using tape recorders so the teacher can go back and listen to multiple discussions.

The Invitation for the Classroom on the QAR Strategy is really helpful. I think this is something that can easily be placed into classrooms for students of all levels. It seems that this strategy really will promote higher levels of comprehension and reflection. This strategy also would be a great way to get discussions started, especially if students are first starting out with literature discussions. I also think this could be something to teach students to do while reading even if you are not going to have a literature discussion about it.

Flint Chapter 11

This chapter really got me thinking about inquiry based curriculum and using nonfiction texts in the classroom. I realized that most classrooms I have seen do not do or use enough of either of these. There needs to be more questioning and experimenting done by students. This gets the students more involved with what they are learning. I think it is great if students can research their own topics. This is a great way to have differentiation in your class because students can use tools at their level and find their own ways to show what they know.

When the book discussed the importance of nonfiction texts, I thought about the class I am in now and how more nonfiction can be incorporated. It really seems quite easy to put these texts in place. I think students do need to be taught more about how to use and read informational texts. I really liked how the book had the “Twin Texts”. I have never thought about having a fiction book and then having the nonfiction to go along with it and introduce it to students. It really does seem like it would encourage students to learn more about the topic or read another type of book.

Two of the Invitations for the Classroom that I liked were the Word Mapping and Text Transformation. I thought the Word Mapping is an easy way for students of all levels to learn words and really be able to use them. The Text Transformation is such a great idea. This is another thing that all levels of students can do and teaches students about other kinds of texts.  I think you would be able to use this across the curriculum too.

Cameron Park- Science Reflection

Overall, I was more comfortable with this science lesson than with the 2nd graders. I also felt I knew more about the topic coming into today than I did with the bubble lesson. I enjoyed seeing the students work in pairs and actually create a parachute. The students worked surprisingly well together too which was great! Some things that went well during the lesson were the student involvement, student understanding, and timing. I felt that all the students were involved with the lesson. Some were more interested than others, but everyone did speak and everyone worked together nicely when they were paired up.  The first activity that we did with the falling and floating objects helped with students understanding because they saw exactly how the two pieces of paper (crumpled and flat) fell at different rates. We discussed air resistance with this and had a couple students give some good feedback about it. The last thing that went well about the lesson was we actually got everything done that we had planned!

Something that I would do differently is have the students actually do the tests for falling and floating objects. I think this would grab the students’ attention a bit more. I would also have more objects for the students to test. This could help them see more examples and they could choose what they wanted to test if they had doubts or curiosity about something in particular. I think some of the students had a difficult time visualizing their parachutes at first. We did give them paper so they could draw out what they were thinking and make a plan, but for a next time, it would be beneficial if we had shown them different examples of parachutes.

The second day, we discussed what we had done on Tuesday and discussed how we were going to change the parachutes. We compared a small canopy to a large one (that they created Thursday). After timing both parachutes, we helped the students average their numbers. We discussed the differences and what caused this. Most of the students said something about air resistance or a larger surface will make the parachute fall slower than a smaller one. One thing I would have done different with this part of the experiment is to let the students use their imagination more and come up with their own alternative canopies. Although I think the students understood, I think having other materials to use as canopies would have been helpful (and more fun!).  I wish we had a little more time to wrap up this lesson but on the whole I thought it went well.