Somebody Help!

Today I tutored at CLC, an after-school enrichment club for students at Longfellow. As tutors we have a list of things we need to do with our students: read their group reading book, review the Dolch word lists, practice math facts, and practice spelling words. As always, the student and I read the group reading book he had in his bag. It was a new book he'd only gotten yesterday. He told me it was a hard book and that he couldn't read it all. I told him we'd get through it together and that when we finished we could play a game. About half way through the 25 page book, the student started to get frustrated.

"Why won't you just help me?!"

"I am helping you. We're sounding out the tough words and you're reading really well." I replied, confused as to where this outburst had come from.

"I know. But why won't you just tell me the words?"

It was then I realized that as teachers we may sometimes take the easy route and just tell kids the answers to their questions instead of helping them work through things they don't know. But students need to learn how to deal with words they can't read and math problems they can't solve at first glance. It is these coping skills and attack strategies that will ultimately benefit the student in the long run.

What a Paper Deserves

Assessment, one of the great conundrums a teacher faces. Honestly, grading and evaluating students is something I am most nervous about. It's not the worksheets or the spelling errors that worry me, it's the essays the student has been working on for the last two weeks. How do I grade 100+ papers, not just to give a grade but to benefit the writer. We all need that reinforcement, or the guidance saying, "you're doing this right." When did we get to the point where that is why we write, read, give our brain a workout? I don't want the writers in my classroom to work hard because the grade is important, I want them to work through their writing because what they are doing, the process, the product is important. Is an A really celebrating writing? Will an F, D or C improve writing? Will the student learn from fixed grammar? I would say no to all of these questions. Good writing needs to be celebrated, to be an example and to build confidence. A's will give a neurotic pleasure, until the next assignment has been turned in. Bad grades don't help bad writing. Bad writing needs to be supported, given attention and commitment from any party involved. A poor grade won't teach any of that, it will just work to destroy confidence. Grammar is something we need I guess, but it should not be the focus. Just like terrific verbs or adjectives, good grammar will benefit writing. Because writing is a process an individual must develop, like any other skill, it's important to work through the process , not just hand out answers. I still have no idea how I will grade or evaluate, but at least I have some opinions on the matter.

Wacky Wednesday

Today was Wacky Wednesday, and it certainly lived up to its name! The students were actually more focused that I'd expected since people were wearing their clothes backward, had spiked hair, and wore their shoes on the wrong feet.

Report cards get sent home this week, so the classroom teacher has been busy assessing the students so she can fill out their report cards. She is a very laid back teacher. She calls the student to her desk and does the assessments that way. It's a very nonthreatening process for the student and is less intimidating than sitting in a quiet conference room where you'd be able to cut the tension with a knife.

I've been thinking about report cards and wondering about their instructional value. All teachers monitor their student's progress more than the three times each school year report cards go home. So if teachers already have that data and are keeping up with how the students are doing, then the report card only serves as a communicative tool by which parents can see how the student is progressing. So the checks and minuses on the paper are just arbitrary symbols which represent what the parents choose to make them represent. Some parents would make a big deal about a student getting a minus in math and work with the student at home for 30 minutes each night on their flash cards. But some parents just don't have or choose to take the time it requires to help their student get ahead in school. If every student had a supportive, nurturing home environment, all students would have a better chance of progressing at a rate appropriate to their grade level. However, that is not always the case, and is rarely the case in the classroom I'm teaching in right now.

As teachers, we can only control what happens to a student from 8:40-3:00 Monday through Friday. We have to make the best out of the limited time we have with them and make the largest impact possible in a short amount of time.

Managing Behavior

Today I witnessed my classroom teacher's form of behavior management. When a student misbehaves, the teacher says, "That's one. If I get to three you're going to take a break". If the student continues misbehaving or misbehaves again in a short amount of time, the teacher says, "That's two. If I get to three you're going to take a break". As you can probably guess, if the behavior continues the teacher says, "That's three. Go take a break". Taking a break consists of the student walking to the wall of cabinets near the teacher's desk and sitting on a rug shaped like a stop sign. The student remains there until either the teacher says they may return to the table or the student feels they are ready to work hard and shape up.

This may sound like a basic management technique, but the teacher was very effective in carrying it out. Sometimes I've seen teachers count 'one' and then forget or get side tracked doing something else while the behavior continues. I've also seen the situation escalate to the point where both the teacher and student are visibly angry and raising their voices.

When I have my own classroom, it will be so important to have a behavior management system that the students know and respect, and to stick to it no matter what. Making the system predictable allows the students to know what's coming and not be taken by surprise when they are told to take a break.

Friday's a Fine Day

Today was a great day at Longfellow Elementary. All the kids were happy to be there and there were virtually no arguments all morning! During math time the teacher put two particular students together who normally would have moaned and groaned, but there were no gripes or complaints. And during reading time, my partner and I worked with our two students, and both were right on cue with nearly every thing we did.

As with any job, there are good days and bad days. I know that there will be down days as well as up days in my teaching career. It'd just be nice if the majority of days were up! :)

Not Always as Easy as Pie

As teachers, sometimes I think we take for granted that school has [probably] always come easily to us. I don't specifically remember learning to read, or being taught letter-sound correspondences. All I remember is that I loved to read and there were many times my parents would have to take my books after bedtime because I stayed up too late reading, or when I would get in trouble for reading after the teacher told us to put our materials away.

I know and understand that children with learning disabilities generally have a very hard time learning to read. I love helping people learn to do something that is difficult for them--that's why I chose learning disabilities as my minor! But sometimes it can be very frustrating when I try ten different ways to teach the letter sounds in the word 'ran' but none help the student understand. I try my hardest to be patient and accommodating when a student is having a hard day or when they are acting exceptionally hyper.

During my final two semesters at UW-Eau Claire, I hope I will take a class that can shed light on how to get through to unmotivated students. I don't think I'm alone in feeling frustrated, but sometimes it feels like I am.

Time Spent in the Teacher's Lounge

Today I administered a diagnostic assessment for the first grade student I'll be be teaching reading to. Both my partner and I did the same assessments for each of our students, but since we'll be writing and teaching our lessons together, we have to write our lessons based off the lowest score of either student. So, since my student knows three of the 26 letter sounds of the alphabet but my partner's student knows seven, we will be teaching both students nearly all the letter sounds from scratch even though both students aren't presently at the same level of performance.

It was frustrating for me to assess my student for several reasons. First, she was squirmy and more excited than usual today, which did not help her concentration or attention span. Second, the classroom teacher put us all (my partner, the two students, and me) in the teacher's lounge, so my student was hearing both my partner and me talking which confused her. She couldn't concentrate on my voice alone. Third, since the door to the lounge doesn't close, my student was very distracted by the noise in the hallway. Finally, she wasn't doing very well on the exercises I was asking her to perform, so she was frustrated before we even finished the assessment. I don't know how accurate her scores were considering all these environmental factors, but I have to take her score and results as they are and use them as the basis for planning out the next two weeks of reading instruction.

A New Beginning

This Monday I began my eight week field experience for SPED 404. I am in a learning disabled classroom at Longfellow Elementary School in Eau Claire. My partner and I will be there for the next three weeks and then again for three weeks after Spring Break.

I go to Longfellow for three hours Monday through Friday and work with several students throughout the morning. As with all classes, I'm sure that no two days will be the same. There is always something new and exciting happening in the classroom, and being at school is never boring!

On this blog I will tell stories, anecdotes, and share experiences that I feel will benefit other future and current teachers. Please feel free to post a comment or ask a question. As the saying goes, 'we're all in this together'!

This blog is part of an assignment for EDMT 380; I will evaluate the Blogger service and comment about it on our class wiki page.