Adventures in Teaching!

Greetings!

I have been so busy in this blog writing about the readings and my reactions to everything I've been learning that I have completely neglected to write about my field work observations and experiences!

Where to start... I spent several full school days floating from class to class, trying especially hard to sit in on math lessons! It is no secret to my readers (or anyone for that matter!) that I worry about teaching math effectively. My observations did not leave me any more confident...except to convince me that the way I see math being taught is generally BORING. I was in a 4th grade lower level class where they have a push-in, academic intervention specialist teach the math lesson. She explained to the class this really neat way of determining if a two digit number is divisible by 9. I had never heard of this and I got so excited that I expressed this excitement to the teacher and the students which, in turn, made the students sit up and begin to get excited. I really believe that my enthusiasm caused more of them to learn this strategy which is directly in line with my belief, as I expressed in the comp exam, that one of the most important motivators for students is teacher excitement and enthusiasm. I have seen this time and time again when I've substitute taught. I always tell students WHY a particular subject or topic interests me and I always try to keep my reasons generic enough that they can make the same or a similar connection. Unfortunately, I really never see other teachers do this. Maybe they are so used to the curriculum that they can't muster any excitement but my response to that is simple: FAKE IT!!! Even if you only grab a few kids with your excitement, that's a few more than you would have had without it. Use whatever you've got!

Back to my mathcapades...I observed many boring, textbook lessons, lots of lessons I honestly didn't understand though many of the kids seemed to, lots of time spent reviewing homework assignments which struck me as a little odd. If you did a lesson the previous day and you conducted frequent CFUs, and did some semblance of guided practice, wouldn't you know whether or not the kids were getting it? Is it productive to spend half of the next days math lesson reviewing the previous days lesson? If I was uncertain about comprehension, I would prefer to conduct some form of independent practice right after the lesson, perhaps have students begin their homework, to see the levels of mastery. If everyone was on target, why should I spend time from my next lesson reviewing info that everyone understands? If there was a particular area causing problems, I would prefer to review it right then and, if necessary, adjust the homework to focus on the problem area. If I had to reteach the next day, I would know, in advance, exactly what I needed to review and I could plan an appropriate lesson to meet that need. Who knows? I am not in the classroom yet and, perhaps, there are reasons why it is done this way. It just seems somewhat unproductive to me. The closer I get to actually teaching, I am becoming acutely aware of how short the school day is. Take away unpacking and packing up time, lunch/recess, specials time, walking to and from lunch and specials, etc, the actual time spent with the students is about 4 1/2 hours!! That's it! That scares me. It is not enough time which is why I am so focused on using the time I have as productively as possible.

So, in terms of math, I am more convinced than ever that I will have to prepare harder than the average teacher just so I understand what I am teaching and I will have to think of ways to, in the words of Carol Ann Tomlinson, "mix it up" to make it both memorable and fun. How will I do this? I haven't a clue but, but mark my words, I will figure out something! It may actually be in my favor that I don't understand a lot of the math. The methods I will use to figure it out may be the very methods I use to teach it!

I had the opportunity to teach both my direct instruction lesson and my inquiry lesson to the same 4th grade class. Both experiences resulted in wonderful moments of cognition. Toward the end of my DI lesson, one of the students asked if we could read the whole "story of the girl and her grandmother" that was used as beginning. middle, and end examples of writing in the lesson. Other students echoed this request and I had to tell them that there was no story, that these were just examples I had made up to teach them about beginning, middle, and end. Then, I suddenly had an idea! I told them that we were going to look at the 3 slides again, to see WHAT about them made the reader want to know more. What made this a good beginning, middle, and end and how could they, the students, do the same in their writing? Well, they loved this idea. We went back over the three slides and talked about the way I had written them. A wonderful discussion ensued with several student comments that were thoughtful and clearly higher level! I closed the lesson by telling them to keep all this in mind the next time they were writing something and that they, too, could captivate their readers.

Naturally, after this success, it seemed only fitting that I use this same class as the guinea pigs for my IPM lesson! This was fun! I put the overused words on the board and asked if any of the students used these words. Of course, they all did. Next I asked if they used them a lot. Again, the answer was yes. Then I asked them if they could think of any other words that meant the same thing. They came up with a few but for most of them the students believed there were no other words. Perfect! I sent them off on their dictionary and thesaurus investigation and, lo and behold, many had no idea that dictionary.com existed. They loved it--far more than they loved looking up the word in a hard copy dictionary! Most were also unfamiliar with a thesaurus and were amazed that such a book existed and was online, as well. This was a fun lesson and I was thrilled to see their enthusiasm at doing an assignment that got them actively involved and out of the textbook/worksheet mode. Children are active learners...they just need to be given the opportunity to be active! And, again, I genuinely shared their excitement at their discoveries which made them even more motivated...It's these moments that make teaching so rewarding.

While subbing in another class, I was left copies of a map of the US which was to be used to teach students the concepts of N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, and SW. The map had only a tiny compass rose and was badly designed for teaching this concept. While most of the students were familiar with N, S, E, and W, teaching them NE, NW, SE, and SW proved much more difficult...until I had an epiphany and which was to have everyone draw a big + through the US which allowed them to see it in the quarter sections that comprise NE, NW, SE, and SW. Suddenly, light bulbs were going on throughout the room and the lesson was a success! Hopefully, I will have similar epiphanies when teaching math.

One thing I have always tended to do, when subbing, is to make transitions, between lessons, active. By that I mean having the students move physically before sitting again for the next lesson. I do this simply by announcing that they have 1 minute to stretch, get a drink, use the bathroom, but that they must get up and move. I then do some stretches that students are invited to follow if they wish (and many always do!). I believe this makes them more focused and less restless when we begin again. What surprises me is that more teachers don't do this. I have never seen it occur, as a regular routine, in any classroom. But, again, I am a sub. As a teacher, will I become so consumed with what I have to teach each day that I will lose sight of all these wonderful techniques I am now at liberty to employ? This is one of my greatest fears. I truly believe that the majority of teachers start out filled with the same idealism I have right now and, then, somehow lose it. It is a documented fact that teachers are leaving the field in droves. I applaud these teachers. They didn't stay in a field in which they weren't happy and make life miserable for their students. It is the ones who lose their idealism and do stay that worry me. Look, I am not naive. I know that many of my plans and visions will perish in the reality of working for a school district. I know that I will be faced with the temptation to treat my classroom like a factory, grinding through the material as quickly as possible, taking shortcuts that don't benefit all my students. Will I do it? Will I succumb to the pressures? Or, will I find ways to meet district mandates and still be the teacher I want to be? I don't know the answer. I only know that if I do no harm, if I inspire each day, if I can manage to incorporate ANY of the things I believe in, and if I can make a positive difference in a single life, then it is worth it to me to stay and keep trying.

Until next time...