The Final Countdown

Here come exams.

Today was my last day in the classroom (I observed Honors Geometry and Algebra 1 CP). Eh, it was okay. Nothing special at all happened until after school when I was scheduled to tutor a young man named Matthew in geometry.

That was an interesting experience. I've tutored before, but not like this. Usually it's just been a friend or two who I've helped, but never an actual high school student. A little different than just walking around the class and helping them with their homework.

We started off with simple problems about how to solve single-variable equations and then moved on to parallel and perpendicular lines (he was having a lot of trouble with his algebra). I can't really say too much about the experience, to be honest. There were a few times where I really had to break it down for him, and when my knowledge almost got in the way of helping him. I never really struggled in mathematics, and so it was difficult for me to see why he couldn't understand that parallel lines had the same slope. I guess that just comes with the territory. My mentor teacher and I actually discussed that -- we didn't struggle, but the majority of kids you meet will. Not everyone is built to do well in math, and just because you find something incredibly easy doesn't mean one of your students will.

But the session as a whole went well. He seemed pleased about the help, and he definitely showed a lot of progress in the 45 minutes we were together.

Time for Christmas.

I teached'd

That's right, I teached'd, or taught, the eager young minds of Miss O'Shields' Algebra IA classes (Pre-Algebra). The first class took to the lesson VERY well. They got involved, they asked questions, answered questions, volunteered to come up and show work on the board. Overall, they were a great big bunch of participating fools. I loved it.

The second class was awful. They didn't want to talk. They didn't like being asked questions. They REALLY didn't want to come up to the board and show work. Same lesson, same style of teaching, no dice. So, I guess it's true... what Dr. Gillis and Dr. Manizade have been saying... classes really are different. Imagine that.

How did I adapt to the second class's failure to communicate? Simple. I walked around a little more. Does that seem like a big deal? No. But it started to work. For the first class I was relatively stationary. I remained at the front of the room (mainly because I had to record myself). The second class, however, had a terrible tendency of putting their heads down. They're just not used to actually being lectured to I suppose (see Bookwork Mania below). The funny thing is, they were very polite about being rude, and I don't think they even intended to be rude. So as I began walking around, guess what happened? Heads naturally popped up, eyes opened, questions were asked, answers were given (not by me, by other students).

I did a lot of asking "why?" with them. How'd that go? Great. I prefer to ask why. I'm sure the way the lesson was taught, students left thinking, "You know, we basically just taught that class." If so, good! That's how it should be! Learning is an independent act, and if that's how they felt, then that means they did learn. It's easier to own information that you find out for yourself than information that is simply shoveled into your face.

This was shown by the high rate of success on the think-writes I gave out. I wrote a single problem on the board which encompassed everything we had gone over in the class, and asked them to solve it while writing down exactly what they were doing in each step and why. 16 out of 22 either got the right answered or performed the right steps but made an arithmetic error (lost a negative sign, or wrote a different number than given). I think that's pretty good for a class who, from what I noticed when I would walk around and help them with their work, had no idea what was going on most of the time. 16 out of 22. I'll take that.

Bookwork Mania

Class: Pre-Algebra, Geometry H, Algebra I CP

So, Miss O'Shields does a lot of bookwork in the class. A whole lot. Granted, in light of recent events at West Oak, I can't blame her. If you hadn't heard, three students lost their lives in a car crash, and the school has been a little shaken ever since. If I were her, I probably wouldn't want to introduce anything strange or foreign to the kids either.

However, bookwork was still being done as late as Friday, and that concerned me a little. Her classes seem to be behind where she wants to be, and so it's like she's always trying to play catch up. Do I think she does a good job of it? Absolutely I do. She's very lenient with the kids when it comes to getting their work done, but it's to the point that the children don't take advantage of the opportunity. They sincerely want to get their work done for her.

I'm not sure how the ties into things we've discussed in class, but I'm sure it does somewhere. There's a certain level of respect that the teacher has for the students and the students have for the teacher. Both are willing to joke and play, but both understand that consequences of falling too far behind or not getting work done. She allows ample opportunities for students to raise their grades and better themselves, and I haven't seen one not put that to use. It's not like she's giving nothing but extra credit and the students are slacking off because they can rely on her to do that. If she sees a need for improvement in a student, she attacks it. She takes hold of it and builds it up. It's very subtle, but it's very cool to watch.

Back in the Saddle

Friday was my first day with Miss O'Shields at West Oak. Due to a Veteran's Day assembly, classes were shortened, so I only stayed until 9:30 (the assembly was at 9:45). In that time, she introduced me to her Algebra IA (Pre-Alg), Geometry H, and Algebra I CP classes. They all seemed polite and gave me a nice wave, and I returned it.

Because classes were shortened, Miss O'Shields was forced to give very, very brief lectures and crunch time down for quizzes. While she was attempting to fit 45 minutes into 30 minutes (and actually only 20 minutes for the last class I was there), I graded papers. I made it clear that anything she felt I could do to help me learn, I wanted to do it, so she started me off slow with just papers. I can tell this is definitely a better place than Palmetto. Despite the presence of a metal detector as you walk through the front doors, I actually feel more comfortable here. There's just a nice vibe about the place... and something about a towering bald man with a sense of humor about my Clemson education who is also the principal of the school is pretty awesome. Miss O'Shields is pretty great as well, and I can tell I'm definitely going to benefit from being in this place.

Been a while

I know it's been a while, but I wanted to keep anyone who reads this up-to-date. I met with Mr. Millar and Dr. Horton this morning to discuss my new placement, and they're looking into Oconee County, specifically West Oak High School. I don't really care anymore; I just want to get back into my internship and student teaching as soon as possible. Strangely enough, I miss it.

Adios

I said goodbye to Mrs. Wimpey and Mrs. Cortez today. I will be given a new internship placement in the next couple of weeks, and while I'm very excited, it's a little upsetting that all of this came about. I will take responsibility in this matter and say that I am at fault for not setting a standard for myself to abide by, but it's a two-way street and sometimes things just don't go as well as you'd like. Therefore, I'll be getting a fresh start elsewhere.

As a result, the frequency with which I blog in the next couple weeks will probably decrease. No assignments means no ah-ha moments in the classroom which equates to nothing to post. Although, given the way the semester has gone, maybe I'll say something about my classes... the good and the bad. We'll see.

Testing... 1, 2, 3

Class Observed: Honors Pre-Calculus
Teacher: Mrs. Terri Cortez
Time: 8:00 - 9:30

I graded quizzes! That's really about it. Mrs. Cortez gave a lesson on the area of triangles, and she did something clever with her smartboard. She had answers blotted out on the board with gray, and then made the background gray so that it looked like it was just a gray background with some notes on it. Then she'd ask the class guided questions (so they would give the answers in the order that they were blotted out), and when they answered correctly she would use her eraser tool and erase a random area on the smartboard and hey, look, the answer! It was pretty neat, and about the extent of excitement during my morning.

I guess if I'm going to have to get something out of this, it would be that sometimes conventional methods are not the best way of presenting questions and answers to a class.

Orange Peels

Date: Monday, Oct 8, 2007
Class Observed: AP Calculus
Teacher Observed: Mrs. Mandy Wimpey

Pretty uneventful day. I don't know how I can make all of these posts meaningful. Nothing special happened in AP Calc other than Mrs. Wimpey asking me to talk to her class this Wednesday about college mathematics. Mrs. Cortez had her planning period today, so I dropped in and discussed when I would be teaching my lesson. No, I haven't done it yet, but I've been discussing it with my teachers. I've got a pretty firm date set (this Friday) to teach area of triangles to her Honors Pre-Calculus class. Sort of looking forward to it, but I'm sure I'll be nervous. Why? It'll be graded... I'll have a ruddy camera on me documenting every single um, uh, and so. S'alright -- good to know I won't have cameras in my classes when I actually start teaching. Thank goodness for that.

Go Sawks

First of all, the Red Sox are going to the ALCS... woo!

Secondly, my Friday observation.

Teachers Observed:
Mrs. Mandy Wimpey (8:00 - 9:30) - MT IV: Statistics
Mrs. Terri Cortez (Substitute, 9:35 - 11:05) - CP Pre-Calculus

Mrs. Wimpey had to lecture her students. They, along with myself, were given those clickers with A, B, C, and D on them. She was using an interactive assessment tool that allowed the students to answer questions with anonymity. First of all, I think this is an EXCELLENT tool; if a student gets an answer wrong, the class doesn't know about it, and if the majority of the class gets a question wrong, the teacher knows what he or she needs to focus on. Problem is, the kids start to not care after a few questions, and begin to joke around instead of taking the assessment seriously. So what did Mrs. Wimpey do? She took care of business. For about 5-10 minutes she lectured her students, but not in that mean teacher sort of way. She stopped the assessment, took up the controllers, kept her voice down, and instead of saying things like, "What's wrong with ya'll? Stop joking around!", she said things that related to the students. She talked about what they would do outside of High School after they graduated, how Stats was probably the most important math subject to know in their lives, how they needed the class to graduate, etc. She kept it very calm, very cool, and she had a certain sweetness to her voice that, as I noticed, made students nod and understand that they were in the wrong. That's exactly how I want to handle situations in my classroom, and I hope when those times arise, I'll be able to do so.

Then I went to Mrs. Cortez's class. Mrs. Cortez was out at a math conference, and so there was a substitute. She, Mrs. Cortez, had assigned work from the book as well as a worksheet. I collected my assessment data and sat down to do some analysis on it. After a little while, I decided I'd go ahead and walk around to make sure everyone was doing alright (because the substitute was certainly too busy reading her Vogue magazine). A lot of the students said they were having problems with number 60, so I did something... I taught! I got up, and without any sort of nerves or jitters, I taught. I went through the problem, asking questions along the way to make sure that the students were answering the problem and I wasn't simply giving them the solution. While I was up there, I thought of things that I would've never thought of if I had been a student, and I was really excited to see that inner-teacher come out. It was an incredible feeling.

This made me realize it's not public speaking that I have a fear of. It's not standing up infront of crowds. It's grades. That's right, grades. If I know I'm being graded on something I'm giving, it bothers me. It gets to me knowing that there's a rubric sitting infront of a professor and she's checking off things -- "Oh he did this, but he didn't do that." It's nerve wracking. I understand that I'll have administrators sit in on my classes from time-to-time, and I'm sure I'll be a little nervous then, but it felt like when it was just me and the students I was really doing what I was meant to do.

Just a shame that I can't carry that over into my college courses.

Boomshakalaka

Courses
Math Tech IV, 8-9:30, Mrs. Mandy Wimpey
CP Pre-Cal, 9:35-11:05, Mrs. Terri Cortez

We started off with a review for their test on Friday which was then pushed back to Monday. Typically I think it's a good idea to push a test back, but only a day. If you do it more than one day, well, the kids may think that they're going to be able to get away with it a lot, and they'll start acting as if they don't know so that they can keep pushing the date back. Other than that, it was a relatively simple class: a review, a review of the review, and then a few extra minutes at the end of class.

The next class, Mrs. Cortez, had the students do problems out of the book at the end of class. Unfortunately, one of the problems from the book gave inadequate information, and while we tried wracking our brains for about 20 minutes to figure out the problem without using future information that hadn't been covered, but we couldn't. In this case, I liked what Mrs. Cortez did. Instead of introducing a new concept and overwhelming the students, she said that she'd save the problem for later when she had gone over what was needed to actually do the problem.

Other than that... really, nothing insightful. Just a typical day at school.

Elbow Grease

Date: 9.26/2007
Class Observed: Mrs. Wimpey's AP Calculus
Topic: Limit definition of the derivative

I took the young lady whom I had problems teaching last week the notes that I said I'd make up for her. She seemed very appreciative, and actually kept them (to the best of my knowledge... I don't recall seeing her tossing them in the wastebasket when she left).

I can't write. It's a little bit of a problem. Well, I can write -- but not very long. My elbow's being a pain, and so today I did more observing than note-taking. I noticed that Mrs. Wimpey has a very good relationship with her AP class, and then I thought about the relationship she had with her MTIV class. They weren't that much different. She would allow side-conversations if it involved her, and she would joke with them a little bit, but she would never pal around or let the topic drift too far from math before bringing it right back again. I thought this was great because for the past 3 years I've heard of teachers treating different level classes in a different manner. Classes of "lower intelligence levels" typically have a tighter leash on them, while classes of "higher intelligence levels" tend to have a little more reign.. but that's not the case with Mrs. Wimpey. She treats her brightest AP calc student the same way she treats her least-able Math Tech IV student, and to be honest, I think that's how it should be. As far as ability level goes, she knows what they can and cannot do, but she doesn't talk down to one and praise the other -- she treats both as if they're students who do not know a lick of what they're being taught. In this way she's thorough and fair... a great combination if you ask me.

Mental Block

Teacher Observed: Mrs. Wimpey
Class: AP Calculus (8:00 - 9:30)

My last observation could have certainly been better. I observed Mrs. Wimpey's AP Calculus class, and she split them up to do some group work. So I made my way around trying to help here and there, answering some fairly simple questions. However, there was one girl who I tried to help and, well, I just couldn't. I did my best to explain to her why infinity could not be a limit, and she just didn't understand. I even tried to break it down as simply as I could, saying a limit had to be one number, just one, and infinity wasn't a number, but rather a set of numbers. She still didn't understand, and I felt absolutely awful about it. I know that when I become a teacher, there will be times when I just won't be able to communicate some subject matter to every student, but I didn't expect it to be my second student ever.

What I know I will do, however, is make up a couple sheets of notes with example problems and explanations, and then give them to her when I see her on Wednesday. Hopefully those will help, but I sure can't let her go without being absolutely certain that I did my best to help her learn.

First Time for Everything

I taught my first student today, and I didn't teach them wrong! It was such an uplifting feeling.

Again, same classes, same teachers, different times... I stayed a little later to discuss lesson plans and unit plans.

Also, Mrs. Wimpey was very kind and printed off the National and SC standards for her CP Stats class, which I immediately immersed myself in along with her AP Calc syllabus, pre-test, and various other papers. I'll tell you what, this wonderful lady is definitely doing everything in her power to make sure that my transition into student teaching is made as simple as possible.

Alright, my first teaching experience. It was in Mrs. Cortez's pre-calculus class, and she had the students doing some exercises out of the book. The first thing that struck me is that when she assigned them, she said, "Now if you need any help, look in the book first, and then come to us." Yes, she didn't say, "and then come to me." It felt like my first real experience as a teacher, and I could tell the students were a little hesitant to really ask me for any help. I would go around and ask the students if they were understanding things alright, and they'd stare at their papers and say, "Yes, sir," and not five seconds later they'd raise their hand for Mrs. Cortez. Not the best feeling in the world, but, eventually, they came around, and one of them asked me the reciprocal of -1. Now, I know, it's not the most exhilarating first-ever-teaching question, but you know what? It was a question. So I politely said that it was -1, and the girl said, "Oh, duh!" I eventually made my way to another girl who was about to go up and put her answers on the board, and she asked me to check and make sure they were correct before she wrote them for the whole class to see. Cautiously I ran my fingers down the page like any good teacher would do, checking for any mistakes, and, finding none, said she was good to go. I can't really explain the knot I had in my stomach while she was writing them, and all I did the entire time was stare intently at her answers to make sure they were indeed right. How horrible would that look, if I told her they were perfectly fine and she wrote the wrong answers? I would have been devastated. Thankfully, everything turned out fine. I'll get some confidence soon, but I think for the time-being I'm allowed a touch of anxiety.

Relating this to the material, I think the biggest idea would be that everyone learns differently, and that everyone thinks differently. While most people, even the least-mathematically-inclined of us, would agree that the reciprocal of -1 is a horribly easy problem and should be known my most anyone, it is still a question, and as such needs to be treated with respect, as well as the student. I'll admit that a little voice in my head asked, "Is she serious? The reciprocal of -1?", but I remembered what I'd been taught, and I applied it. Not everybody gets everything, and for those who don't, we teachers need to be there to help them through.

I'm dreading it... the first day I stand infront of a class, but at the same time, I'm confident that it will be right where I should be.

It's a start...

So... Monday was my first day of observations (from 8 AM to 11 AM). I observed one Math Tech IV class, which was Statistics, and a CP Pre-Calculus class.

The first teacher I observed, Mrs. Wimpey, did an incredible job at interacting with her students. It was fantastic to see a real High School teacher in a situation where I'm not the student, and it made me appreciate teaching and math so much more because I realized just how much work must go into preparing, teaching, interacting, clarifying, etc. The second teacher I observed was Mrs. Cortez, who also interacted very well with her students. Both of them, and I found this very interesting, had a great relationship with their students. They weren't like my teachers in high school who were very business-oriented with their "I'm a teacher, you're a student, that's it" attitude. These teachers really seemed to care for the kids and about their learning, and it showed with their ability to tolerate horseplay to the extent that it didn't interrupt the class. They allowed kids to call out, but if they became a nuisance they quickly put an end to it, and the kids obliged. I wouldn't say they were chummy, but they definitely had something more special than that boring teacher-student relationship. I'd say it be more like mentor and peer.

What I'd love to see when I become a teacher is something like this happening among my students and myself. I'm sure when I first start I'll probably grip a little too tightly, and it will be a while before I feel I can loosen up without losing control of the classroom, but I feel more than prepared and ready to do that.

As for anything covered in class, I can't really think of anything off the top of my head that relates to this. Being attentive to your students' needs, perhaps, and attentive to their learning styles. Maybe that's why they had such a good relationship with the teacher, because the teacher was willing to go the extra mile to make sure they got it.

Test Post

Test. Good.