2/25

Constructing this Independent Reading Unit as a lot harder than I expected! I kept second-guessing myself because I didn’t know how detailed I should be. In the end I concluded that my audience was composed of educators, so I could write this unit exactly as I would write it if Ms.D’s class was really my class and someone in the department needed to read it. I also feel like, at least for me, the goal of independent reading is to help struggling readers improve, and most of that I feel cannot be captured during the pre-planning period. I can only emphasize that it is my hope and goal through the instructional approaches. Conferencing is very important as well, and I was also unsure how explicit we should be in describing that component of the unit.

            Constructing the video was really hard as well. It is so odd watching yourself on camera. I really didn’t know that my voice and my demeanor was so bossy. I wish I could have been a lot warmer to the students, but I had been observing how they could take advantage of that so I knew I had to be assertive. Teaching that lesson was not easy because there were so many distractions, I couldn’t keep up with my own thoughts. Next time I’m going to try to pace myself and try not to anticipate the distraction so my speech and ideas come out a lot clearer than what they did.

            Nonetheless, the lesson wasn’t a complete fail and I’m happy about that. For a good moment, the students were engaged, and I think they all learned something.

2/18

This weeks reading were a lot more helpful for me as a student than as a student teacher. For Mrs. Bomer’s class we are required to keep a writers notebook, and that’s something I’ve been struggling with. What I’m struggling with the most is kind of making my writing process…I guess clear. I don’t know if that explains what I’m trying to say, but trying to describe my writing process in words is very difficult. Before reading about this, I never considered the process of writing. For me, it feels like something that just happens. When I’m writing, especially for personal purposes, I can’t remember what the process was. It seems that the words just kind of travel in a very fast pace from head to my fingertips. I know there is a process, but I’m having a lot of difficulty finding it within myself.

Nonetheless, I agree with Mr.Bomer, when he says that helping students with the process instead of he final product is a lot more productive. So it’s definitely something I need to work on, so I’ll be able to share it with my students.  I also think it’s a good thing, that it’s not coming so easy to me, because I’ll probably be able to relate to my students who experience the same difficulties, and do much better job getting through it.

I enjoyed the chapter in Smagorinsky’s text, and I definitely agree that teachers should not always lead discussions. However, going back to my experience at Miami Central, some students and classrooms are not always ready for that kind of independence and it is up to the teacher to get them to that point. At Central we’d do what was called a “Socratic seminar” which is much like the “Fishbowl” that Smagorinsky describes. It didn’t always work for all of the classes because sometimes the climate of the classroom just didn’t allow it. Doing that is also kind of hard; because you feel like there’s a message or idea that you want them to tackle, and if they don’t, and the discussion is all over the place, you might feel like it failed.

I have left many “Socratic Seminars” feeling like the students didn’t get anything out of it. I remember once we were having a discussion about an article that talked about the inequalities in the legal system when it comes to African American and Latino men v.s White men. The seminar ended with more promoting violence than looking critically at the justice system. I don’t think there was anything wrong with how they reacted to the article, it wasn’t unexpected, but I think the teacher should definitely follow up on those kinds of things.

As for my placement, there’s nothing really new. The students were working on typing their plays last week and I should be teaching a lesson Thursday. I’m still a little apprehensive about what I should do because of the behavioral issues, but I’m sure it will all work out. I’m anxious for them to get used to my personality so once I get passed this first teach everything thereafter should be a breeze.

2/11

This is going to be a pretty short post. I have been feeling under the weather on and off lately, and definitely not feeling too well as I write this.

Examining the NCTE, TEKS, and Common Core Standards this week was quite interesting. I think my peers would agree that the NCTE standards are more favorable than the common core and definitely the TEKS. However, I am not too fond of standards because I think they put unnecessary pressure on teachers. Then again, it is important to have set goals for the classroom, but I think teachers are competent enough to come up with those on their own. They know what their student’s need more than anyone and I think the NCTE standards leave room for that, and trust teachers a lot more than the other two.

            My field experience has not changed much since my last post. I’m getting ready to teach a lesson on poetry, specifically Black poetry, which I love, so I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself to do a great job. Ms. Derbyshire has expressed to me that her students are having some difficulties identifying theme so that is something that I want to incorporate in the lesson. I also want to bring “A Raisin in the Sun” back up because I’m disappointed that they read the play and watched the movie without having any type of meaningful or critical discussions afterward.

            The only thing that concerns me and scares me about teaching Ms. Derbyshire’s class is the blatant disrespect that I see every time I go in there. I think I’m going to have to do a lesson on respect or something because …it really is that bad. 

Oh Reagan...2/4

I enjoyed this week’s readings because I feel like I learned a ton about planning a unit, and it doesn’t seem as daunting as I initially expected. I am starting to prepare for my first lesson in Ms. Derbyshire’s class and I feel sort of overwhelmed because her classroom can at most times be described as utter CHAOS. As I visit them more, I’m noticing that there are a lot of issues that kind of make me feel uncomfortable in her classroom. First, Ms. Derbyshire has no control of her classroom whatsoever, and what I find odd, is that she doesn’t demand it either. Even in the class where she has an inclusion teacher present, there is still no control (that’s actually the poorest behaved class). I get the feeling the adults have no idea what to do about discipline, and I see a lot of what Alex and Holland were saying about Reagan last semester.

I also feel that the expectations are way too low. The students aren’t pushed and I almost feel like Ms. Derbyshire thinks the students would hate her if she gave any constructive criticism. So everything is “great and amazing” even when it clearly isn’t and much work needs to be done. And the students get away with doing close to nothing…everyday. I just feel kind of nervous teaching a class where the students have no regard for the adults, I don’t want them to think that what is okay with her is fine with me. 

When I do teach them, I want them to learn, so I’m really excited about planning for her classes because I feel like they need so much help, and I want to see if some if the ideas I’ve been thinking about would have an effect on them. The whole class environment makes me think about the Carol Lee quote mentioned in the Smagorinsky text. Because these Latino/a and African American students are expected to be disrespectful, lazy, and confrontational they are treated in ways that do not hold them accountable for any of their actions. I think the students are really bright, why wouldn’t they be? But Ms. Derbyshire seems to be okay with anything they produce in class, which 95 percent of them are not trying when they produce these things. I could not accept what she accepts from them. If they assignment was to create your own play and at the end of the period you present me with two lines, I couldn’t. I’m definitely not going to say “great job”, we’re going to have a discussion about why you only wrote two lines in over an hour.

The other issue is there are students that need a lot of times to complete the assignments, not because they aren’t trying, but because they are still learning English. It blows my mind the things that these kids are subjected to. I spent working with this student (Anastacio) because he’s still learning English and has to think through every word he writes. It takes him about 20 minutes to construct one sentence, and I don’t understand why he isn’t getting extra help. Why are they ignoring him?

You can tell that I’m kind of frustrated, but it’s a good frustrated. There’s so much more I could say about Reagan and Ms. Derbyshire’s classroom, but I just hope I can help the classroom climate and the students while I’m there. They desperately need it.