Bring a little holiday cheer to Leland, MS!

My friend was driving me to the airport to catch my flight back to MS over Thanksgiving break and we started brainstorming goals for me to have over the 3.5 week period between holiday breaks.  We settled on me celebrating the holidays just like I would if I was back home.  And thats what I have done :)

Everything from my classroom to my house to my bedroom has a little bit of holiday cheer.  Do others appreciate it? Who knows.  Do I appreciate it? EVERY DAY BABY!!!  I have always loved the holidays.  As a kid I loved the presents on Christmas morning but as I have grown older, I realized that its the days leading up to Dec 25th that are amazing.  Its the Christmas music playing on all radio stations.  Its the sense of giving rather than receiving.  Its all the fantastic smells and flavors coming out of the kitchen. And of course it’s the family that surrounds you. THATS why I love the holidays.

My classroom has a christmas tree on the door and tinsel in the room as well as a garland.  Yes I did say a christmas tree!!! We have one in our cafeteria as well. Hell we said the Lords Prayer before our last soccer game but hey thats another blog...Anyways I love it.  And the kids seem to enjoy the holiday cheer too.

My house has some snowmen that light up.  Some window cling pictures.  And of course lights!! One of  my neighbors commented on how I really "went all out" for just a few days.  Well to me, it was really important to do so.  Even if I am far away from home in a new place with an incredibly hard job, I am determined to keep this the same.  Its all part of not allowing school to completely consume me.  It has been fun and I suppose it has made the time go by SLIGHTLY faster.  My neighbor has even told me that my bedroom lights need to stay up all year round.  

What has this taught me? The holidays will pass but I will need to pick up something else to consume me for a bit.  Something not teacher related at all.  And by doing so, it will make life a little more bearable.  Ideas so far: bike riding, volunteering…  

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!! 

A Day In My Life

Have you wondered what I am actually going through? Well here is a brief view into my day to day life.

When on Duty
545 WAKE UP
7:00 Arrive to school
745 Enter WWIII in the cafeteria aka my duty post.  This has got to be the world's worst duty post.  I am all alone with about 200 kids with their tshirts untucked and their ids not on.  Duty puts me in a horrible mood.  My day starts off on the wrong foot.

When I am NOT on Duty
630ish WAKE UP (WOOHOOO!!! be jealous!)
745ish Get to school and chill in my classroom until homeroom starts


EVERYDAY
830 homeroom starts - Besides my duty post, homeroom is the WORSE party of my day.  I suppose you can say its a good thing that its at the beginning at that it only lasts 30 min but UGH its horrible.  The worse part of it is that there is no grade so there is nothing to hold over the kids heads.  They refuse to do any work.  I can't even play the news on a tv because oh wait I DONT HAVE A TV IN MY ROOM.

9am -BEST PART OF MY DAY = my planning period.  For 90 full minutes I am on planning.  I turn up the music and relax before the day really begins.  Yes some days my planning is taken away by random meetings but I am generally prepared for the day before 830 am.  I usually do some planning or grading or post thing in my room during my planning period.  Its delightful.

1040am - 2nd Block begins.  This bright kids can't get it together.  They are 15 years old but can't control their mouths.  Its the rough truth.  I get them quiet and I am halfway through my next sentence and they are talking again.  Its horrible.

1215pm - 3rd Block begins. I have grown to love these kids.  I rarely show it and I doubt that they would say that I even like them if you asked them.  The thing is they are bright. Really bright.  They just have a few kids that want to act a fool.  But once I calm those kids down (or they fall asleep) they room is in harmony and learning actually occurs.  I am more likely to do fun things with this class.  It hasn't always been like this though.  It was really rough for a long time...

220pm - FOURTH BLOCK.  By this time I am tired.  My feet hurt.  My head hurts.  My throat hurts.  But the thing is the kids are tired too. We have sort of reached an understanding: they be quiet and I wont yell.  When I don't yell, I am relaxed and I crack jokes.  Its a nice understanding.  Sadly its not like that every day in the classroom.

350pm- First bell dismisses students

355pm- FREEDOM - but my day does not end here of course

4-415pm - my door is open for any extra help a student may need in math

430pm - I am changed and at the soccer field.  I became the head coach of soccer a month ago.  It is a blessing and a curse and not just because it gets me out of school meetings :)  I love doing something non-school related especially since its one of my true loves.  BUT there have been so many headaches along the way.  I am still really glad I accepted the position though.

7pm- Arrive home. Done? I think not.  I need to plan/grade for the next day.  This is why Sunday is so important. If I dont plan thoroughly on Sunday then during the week,  after my long day, I have to come home and plan.  Thats no fun.  So I make sure I am good to go Sundays.  Then when I get home I can just have fun.

945-1045pm SLEEP.  When I started this job, the one thing I refused to give up was sleep.  I average 8 to 8.5 hours of sleep a night.  I am very proud of this fact.  Few people sleep this much.  I just don't think I would be able to function without sleep.

Thats me in a nutshell.  Clearly this is just a rough outline.  I missing lots of details.  Now looking back over this and actually reading how I describe my day, I am not quite sure how I end up in such a bad mood so often.  But I think its a lot of small things that add up throughout the day.  And the constant backtalk/general noise from the peanut gallery as I try to speak.  Its really tiring.  Yet I wake up and do it again.  I give myself a pat on the back every morning for just rolling out of bed.

Not just reading, but COMPREHENDING.

That was the theme of chapter three in the textbook.  I appreciated this chapter.  I have noticed this problem a lot even in my classroom - not just reading words but understanding what all the words mean.  I can't imagine how it must be to teach English where that is constantly the problem.  In my math class, students are constantly taking notes, doing examples as a class, but when it comes time to do them by themselves, they freeze.  They can't do it solo.  This is an issue that I am currently struggling with and I feel as if most new teachers do.  Thus I was excited to read the chapter.  Perhaps there would be some useful pointers that I could actually implement!  Perhaps there was some small tid bit that would change the way I am teaching in my classroom.  Sadly, I was yet again disappointed by this book and its lack of focus on how math teachers can implement these strategies in their classrooms. 

            The most useful part of the chapter discussed what skilled readers can do: preview, summarize, use clue words, pointer phrases, etc.  These are all the things that my students SHOULD be able to do.  But most struggle with them.  Another one that I thought of was pulling out the main idea or the bigger picture.  Connecting one topic with another.  I often get tons of complaints from my students regarding the fact that I move onto new things each day.  But really it’s all the same.  There is a theme per unit.  I am fully aware that this is the fault of the teacher, however, I am not sure how to fix this.  We discuss our agenda for the week each Monday.  We discuss the unit before it starts.  I come up with sets so that it can relate to their lives.  And yet its not all good enough because after working on it for 2 weeks, I still have students that don’t realize that when they are talking about slope-intercept form, they are talking about a line!!!!

            And here in lies the problem. What do I do? I feel as if I was not given many, if any at all, strategies to fix this problem!!! Now I realize that my students don’t know how to read the notes they are given (sometimes I truly wonder what the point of notes are…why not just do example after example because none of my students ever reread their notes…) BUT what are my options?  There were suggestions such as think pair share, which I have tried occasionally.  Each of you do a problem, then turn to your neighbor and see if they get the same thing.  But yet again, my students don’t see the point of this.  They aren’t working together to solve the problem.  They first do it individually and THEN they share.  Its that damn big picture issue again!  I need to start visually showing my objectives on the board with each subtopic below…perhaps that’s what I will do this week.  Ready. Set. Go.

Reading in Math.

So one of the grad classes I am taking is about reading in your content area. Yeah I know what you are thinking because I have been thinking it the whole time – “Reading in math? What? How does this class apply to whats happening in my classroom?”  Well I don’t really have an answer for you.  I am still trying to figure that one out for myself.

I just finished reading chapter four in a book we were assigned.  It had some pretty useful things in it but again, I am not really sure how to apply.  Better yet, I am not sure why I need to apply them.  The chapter was giving me various ways to assess my students literacy ability and ways to get to know them, which would have been better read at the beginning of the year.  I suppose I am just stuck on what I do once I assess my students.  Yes its true that there are basic sentences to read in my class.  Yes you have to read word problems. And yes you have to be able to read the test.  I still don’t see the value of assessing my students reading ability.  There are key words in math that my students pull out.  Even my SPED students can pull them out.  Perhaps its just because I don’t have anyone who is severally behind in reading?

Not sure.  Anyways, the one section that I have been thinking about in the chapter was about standardized tests.  Seeing as I am an Algebra 1 teacher, I have feelings about this age old debate: teaching to the test vs not.  To me they can not be separated.  I HAVE to look at past state tests to see what material is presented and in what fashion and even what language do they use.  But I often catch myself teaching things and not thinking about the test.  I teach because its important for the kids to know certain things if they are in algebra, but at the same time there is this test that they must pass to move on.  Its definitely a balancing act but not a one of the other situation. 

That’s about all I got out of the chapter at this point.  Perhaps I will learn something new in class on Saturday?

Six Months Later: My first visit home.

Last weekend I went home for the first time since May.  I wasn't sleeping the nights before my trip because I was so excited.  I became very lax in my classroom.  Nothing seemed to matter except getting home.

Describing my feelings when I arrived in DC is just impossible.  I was overwhelmed with just seeing a city for the first time in so long.  AND it was raining. I haven't seen rain in months.  I missed the food.  I missed the general culture.  Then i got to see all the people that I love!! It was the perfect weekend.

But what I found most interesting was talking to my friends from home and college that just graduated.  Everyone was struggling in their own way.  No one really had it "easy."  It was oddly comforting.  Yes I may be in a foreign land with no friends or family.  I have some really low days - I mean low.  BUT so does everyone! Everyone is exhausted.  Everyone is struggling with this new lifestyle that seems very monotonous at times.  I guess I had never really thought of it before.  It gave me a new perspective on life.  The Delta can be a bit of a bubble.  You just forget that life goes on elsewhere!

When it was time to leave I wouldn't say that I wanted to go back, but I wasn't as devastated as I thought I would have been.  I sort of just accepted it and moved on.  Sadly that didn't last long...

I had Monday off which meant it was four day work week.  LONGEST WEEK EVER.  It was homecoming week and the kids were off the chain.  Every day this week all I wanted to do was jump back on a plane home.  The kids came back to school particularly horrible.  But the craziness of homecoming week just made things worse.  Good thing I had an easy unit to teach, but waking up and going to school each day was a real struggle.

Oh wait, and I am sick.

Five weeks until Thanksgiving :)

Functions, Functions, Functions!

I thought it was perfect that we used functions as examples in class the other day because I am teaching functions right now! On Monday I plan to use the Fun with Functions activity as a review before a quick quiz.  Hopefully my class will be able to handle the activity especially just coming off of homecoming week...

Anyways, in order to implement this activity, the key will be to deliver clear and concise directions.  Its basically a matching game but there are different parts to mix together.  It can get very confusing and I can see myself giving directions and then 5 minutes later having 20 children yelling at me saying they don't understand.

The benefit of this fun little activity? its not book work! Lately when my class pisses me off, I set them to work in the books. THEY HATE THIS.  I on the other hand love it.  Not copies and minimal management issues.  So this will be yet another opportunity for my kiddos to prove me wrong and show me that they can handle fun activities.  Plus I am giving a quiz the same day and this will be a good review.

let's see how this goes!

"Repeat after me!"

It sounds simple but it is easy to forget.  In class a few weeks ago we were told to remember to get the students to repeat instructions back to you after you have given them.  I remembered people telling me this over the summer, but as with a lot of things that we were told this summer, I seemed to just forget.  Anyways, following class, I started to make sure that I asked the class to repeat back what I just said.  In recent days I have been doing more interactive activities (mainly to keep me sane...) and I have started to make sure that I have my class repeat my instructions.

So why is this so important?  Because it does not matter how fun I make an activity, my students never listen to my instructions the first time.  Is this really an issue found only in the Delta? No of course not! The average student, hell the average American does not hear what you have to say the first time you say it.  Thus by repeating the instructions back, I am ensuring that the students are listening and perhaps if you didn't hear it the first time, then maybe you will hear it the second time.  Trust me, there is nothing more annoying than giving directions 10 times.  But also, repeating instructions help you to see if the students are actually comprehending what you are saying.  Perhaps there is a step that you left out or that was not clear. Then you can correct it before you let everyone go and everyone has the same problem.

It sounds silly, but yes, remembering to ask the children to repeat back the instructions was one of the most helpful things I learned from class the other day.

Is Ms. Jones Fair?

Last Friday I posed this question to all of my classes as their warmup.  The results were not really surprising or unexpected.  Quick rundown:

-       Majority say I am unfair à no shock there!

-       The question stated why and most said because she gives check marks à again no shock and I am sorry nothing is going to change either because check marks are necessary.

-       The good kids said I was fair

When I put up the transparency it was so funny.  I had kids who REFUSE to do work writing! Everyone can write when it’s criticizing the teacher, but no one can COPY notes. I had kids saying,  “A few sentences? Man I can write an essay!”  I just laughed and said, “You may write as much as you want in the time given.”

I did like this exercise.  I think it gave the students a chance to voice their opinions.  Whether valid or not, it makes them feel like the teacher is listening to them.  I also got some great feed back.

Although I said I was not shocked by most of the responses, there were several that stuck out:

1.     One student in my fourth block who had a major attitude problem with me but has recently been showing me as much respect as she would her mother or grandmother.

“Ms Jones she is okay..She is fair cause she allowed me 2 pull up my grade and I just want to tank you so much..I really didn’t like you at first but know you are a very cool person but thank you again Ms. Jones.”

2.     A student who I want to help desperately but needs me by his side the entire class.

“No she isn’t fair cause I don’t get that much help so I just sit here and fall asleep.”

3.      Anonymous

“No. You always write checks. Never get nothings done. Don’t let us sit anywhere. Just aint right.”

4.      A lovely (black) girl who just misses too much school

“Yes she is because she teaches very great. It’s just that the kids do not want to listen.  And I feel that that is not her fault it’s the students fault.  In my 4^th block I cant get my lesson cause the kids wont shut up and be quiet. To me she’s fair. We just have a load of ignorant black children in our 4^th block class.

I plan to make a slideshow for class Monday and at the very end have a couple slides where I pull out some of the responses.  I want the students to see that I read what they had to say and perhaps we can discuss things as long as the conversation doesn’t get out of control.

What I have taken from this exercise:

-       The kids did point out my inconsistency in giving check marks.  I know I need to be fair and everyone who breaks a rule gets in trouble.

-       I also do realize that I need to get around to everyone, but this is a balancing act and requires them to change their behavior ie. the reason I can’t make it around to everyone is because I have to stop and deal with behavior issues constantly.

-       Some students don’t understand why they get a check mark.  I need to be more clear either with my rules and expectations or more clear when I am actually giving a check mark.

My Biggest Challenge?

Waking up in the morning! Ha.  Well in some ways this is true.  Waking up each morning after a bad day is hard, but I think this is really covering up a larger issue that I am dealing with – a very monotonous schedule.  This is my first full-time job.  Up until now, I have been in school myself.  My day-to-day life was very flexible.  But now I do the same thing each and every day and it all revolves around school.  Yes I try and give myself Saturdays off, but you can’t help the random thoughts about school.  I have even started dreaming about school!  It’s so consuming and sort of boring? The actual job isn’t boring, but the routine is.  I can’t be as spontaneous as I would like.

Monotony has been a personal struggle.  Thinking about my struggles in the classroom is a whole other bag of chips.  A quick list may work better:

-       By the end of the day, I am exhausted, the kids are exhausted and everyone is acting up ten times worse than I imagine they would if I had them in the morning and to make matters worse my room is hot and smelly from a long day.  I really struggle with treating my 4^th block fairly. I tend to get short with them.  I know they are tired but what they fail to understand is that I am too!! I stand all day and I have to be in that room all day.  If everyone would just shut-up then a) there wouldn’t be so much hot air in the room b) I wouldn’t waste so much time disciplining and I could help you more and c) I would be happier and less mean. So there is definitely room for improvement on everyone’s behalf during 4^th block.

-       Of course classroom management needs to be improved…basically I need to be more consistent on consequences.   EVERYONE who stands gets a check not just every third person.

-       Third block using the bathroom!  Here is the situation.  At the beginning of the year we went to the bathroom post lunch.  The little rascals decided they wanted to lock themselves in the bathroom and start banging on the doors and making a ruckus. Silly them – I took away bathroom privileges.  So some __(adjective)__  girls decided to complain to the assistant principal about this and they told I must allow them to go to the bathroom after lunch.  After telling them how my class acted when they were given that privilege, they said okay let them go 2 at a time.  FABULOUS – now I get to have children in and out of my room for 45 min.  That’s not disturbing at all!!! So now I say that you can go during independent work only.  Its still a mess because then kids complain about not having enough time for the work.  Moving on to the next challenge…

-       Getting kids to make connections.  For instance, you going to the bathroom when you don’t have to = less time for your work in the classroom.  What about: if everyone would follow directions, Ms. Jones wouldn’t have to spend so much time giving check marks.  Or here is an excellent one: YOUR BEHAVIOR IN CLASS EFFECTS YOUR GRADE. 

I think just about every single “challenge” I am currently facing is something any first year teacher would face no matter what kind of school district they were in.  I am struggling with things, but I suppose I must also point out that there have been improvements from Aug 4^th…thank goodness! 

An in-depth look at Chris Curran!

Yeah right.  To be honest, I did not  read every word of Chris’ blog.  That was insane, overwhelming, and tedious.  However, I did read way more than I expected.  I got sucked into his story at first because it is so similar to mine and many other first years.  But then his witty comments and insightful entries kept me reading.  Here are my general thoughts:

• He started out just like me! He was nervous and unsure and in a new place.  I know this sounds silly but after seeing second years teach so well it is nice to know they started in the same place.  I mean he literally had some of the same problems that I am having such as the ever present filler words such as “alright.”  But he later commented on how we was able to correct this.  Point being that being told that second years started where we are is all fine and dandy, but to actual read entries from when they were at the same place is even more comforting.  I can’t even imagine myself a year from now.
• Small side note: its interesting how the increase in students (last year what 50? to this year 240?) changed how we both viewed summer training.  I mean generally we both feel that summer training accomplished its goal of “preparing” us.  However our improvements were complete opposites.  For example, he wanted less peer observations, and all I wanted to do this summer was to be able to observe my peers more.  He wanted more students, which is a fair argument, but I thought the increase in students rendered the three weeks of role plays tedious (they were just too long.  They certainly had a purpose).
• Chris had some really thought through posts.  One of them that caught my eye was the one regarding “the death of MTC.” The point of this post was to predict the impact of TFA pumping the Delta with teachers on MTC in the coming years.  But what I got out of the post was the fact that MTC’s goal should be a death wish.  I had never thought about it like this, but if MTC succeeds in its goal of improving education in MS, then there will no longer be a need for programs such as MTC.
• Chris’ first few days account reminds me to be flexible (he was in the wrong room for the first day of school and all his decorating went by the way side).  He left so many stories, both good and bad.  It was interesting and insightful to jump into someone’s head who was right where we are a year ago.  

In general, I have learned a lot about Chris, and he doesn’t even realize it! The best word I can use to sum up how I felt reading his blog: comforting.

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Five weeks later...

...much improved, but lots of room to grow!

Summer training was interesting.  At the beginning, I am not sure if I was nervous/excited/frustrated/apprehensive or some combination of them all.  I didn't like that I was in a room with all males.  I didn't like that they were so strict.  And I was uncertain if I would be able to open myself up to learning from them.

Silly me.  This classroom could not have been more perfect.  The guys showed me that you need to lay down the law day one. And day two. And day three. Hell, I may still be laying down the law come December.  But it will pay off.  The students in our summer school class responded so well.  By the time July came around, they knew the rules and they knew the consequences, but more importantly, they knew that we would follow through with the consequences.  I can not thank my team of teachers enough for helping to show this important fact to me.  I am lucky that I learned this now rather than during my first year.

Clubs..what a FUN part of the day! NOT. Clubs were simply not run well.  I love the idea and I still think that they can happen, but things need to change.  I was in drama club and we did put on a performance of Romeo and Juliet, but it was stressful. There were days where I rocked teaching Algebra 1, but club was so bad that it made me feel as if the whole day was rotten. What did I learn from clubs this summer? You can have fun with students, but there needs to be structure at ALL times.  This can be applied to classrooms, sports teams, clubs, or any aspect of the school day.  The students walked into clubs knowing that it was chill, and thus acted a fool.  Now there were other problems like a lack of communication between second and first years on what was suppose to be happening.  However, had clubs been run as if it were any other class in school, I guarantee you that there would have been a major difference.

Overall, I am pretty impressed with myself and how well I kept it together.  There were days when I left school more than a little deflated.  However, I used that bus ride to digest my day and when I climbed off the bus I told myself "Today is done. Tomorrow will be better."  And then when I climbed on the bus in the morning I told myself what Sealand told me to say every day "This is my classroom  and I am going to DOMINATE today. Just like the students get to start fresh each day, so do I."  I believe telling myself these two statements really helped me keep things in perspective.  I plan to print these sayings out and post them to my wall in Leland.  The true test will be whether or not I can keep this positive thinking going during the school year as things get rougher and rougher.

As for MTC summer training outside of summer school, I think things went okay.  I have no major issues with what we have been through so far, just minor ones.  I suppose I am just amazed at the minor ones because this program has been around for how many years and it still has glitches? For example role plays.  Week two was repetitive.  I was over role plays by Wed of that week and it was hard for me to get into character both as a student and as a teacher.  Although I had minor issues, I did appreciate the fact that I was given ample opportunities to express my feelings.  Whats more, I felt like the program took them to heart.

My finally note is in regards to the effectiveness of summer school and summer training in preparing us for the school year.  My answer to this question whenever I think about it is, can you ever really be prepared for your first year?  I don't believe sitting in a classroom for a year and student teaching for another year will prepare one any better than summer training for the first year.  I mean think about it.  Its a crazy adventure we are about to take.  Come August 3, I am going to have my own classroom!! I hear all the advice people are giving me, but in the end it is up to me and how I choose my room to run.  And I just don't think that you can every really be prepared for the insanity that is going to be the first day.  You can run through every scenario in your head, but the one you don't think of is the one that is going to occur.   

Overall, yes summer training was definitely helpful...well as helpful as it can be!

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Teaching: Take Two!

Wow. What a difference!

Watching myself teach this time was completely different.  I thought I was confident in front of the classroom but this time around I actually am confident.  You can hear it in my voice and the way I hold myself.  That is why watching a video of myself teaching is great.  You can tell in the video that the students respect me.  I simply give them a look and they know I mean business.  My first lesson I was glued to the blackboard and in this lesson I was using the overhead and moving everywhere.  Basically it looked like a completely different person.  It makes me excited to see myself in a year from now (because there is still A LOT of room for improvement).

There were several things not captured on the video that I believe changed over the summer as well.

1.  My lesson planning skills: At the start of the summer I would come home and lesson plan from the moment I got home until 11pm.  I would be exhausted and stressed out.  NOW, I am still exhausted but not as stressed because I am getting the hang of lesson planning.  I spend a lot lesson time planning.  I am usually done within 2 hours or so.  I can't wait until I get to the point where I can do my lessons for the whole week on Sundays...

2.  Classroom Management:  I much better at dishing out consequences and doing it to everyone.  But I am concerned about is setting the tone in the fall.  With summer school, I had my second years and team teacher to do this.  They taught the first few lessons and they went the rules and consequences.  In August it will just be me.  i suppose that will be the real test.  Can I do it by myself? 

I think these two recordings have shown me that it can be useful to watch yourself teach.  I think I may try doing it during the school year.

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Week 4 and I have already caved in...

And I am not so proud.  

While at Georgetown I had various jobs that placed me in the classroom.  I also took several classes focused on education and children.  After getting accepted into MTC, I started thinking about how I wanted my classroom to run.  Taking from my experiences and classes, I decided that I was not going to give out food in my class, especially candy, as a reward.  In just three weeks, I have already broken this promise to myself.

Why do I believe in not giving food as a reward? There are several reasons.  First of all, it connects food with rewards for children.  They assume that if they do something well that they should treat themselves.  This can lead to eating disorders as well as obesity.  However, more importantly I am concerned with the diets of children in low income communities.  Many of them forgo lunch at school (yes it may be disgusting and low quality) and eat nothing but processed chips and candy instead.  Who knows what students eat for breakfast and dinner, but they are eating junk for lunch.  Therefore, I do not need to add to this poor diet by suppling children with cookies, chips, and suckers for answering a question in my class.  

Well, I failed.  I gave my class Dum Dums earlier this week.  Here are my thoughts: I need a reward system.  Rewards work way better than punishments any day.  So I do need a system.  But coming in with “healthy” food options, wont work...yet.  If you give them things that they want first, eventually you can slowly start introducing new things.  Get them to like you and then try changing things.  

Side note: I do realize that rewards systems don’t have to center around food.  You can give extra credit points, pencils, and other random small gifts that students love.  I plan to experiment with these items in the fall as well.  

I still believe that connecting food to rewards is bad.  But I realized that there are bigger battles for my to fight.  When I enter the classroom in August, I will have to gain control of my classroom before I try changing anything.  Right now, I need to choose which fights I want to fight because I wont have energy to fight them all.  Perhaps at some point, I will be able to say I have a “Food-Free” rewards system in my room or one that only has “healthy snack options”.  But for right now, that is not me.  I want to focus on getting my class under control and getting them to trust and respect me before I worry about life changing diets.

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Teaching: Take One!

Watching a video of myself teaching was comical and eye opening at the same time.  Its  always interesting to see a video of yourself because you see things from a new perspective.  I did notice several things that I didn’t realize I did. Plus the video really helped to reinforce several of the things that tended to reappear on my evaluations.

First of all, watching the video you could tell that learning was happening.  At the end of the day, that is the goal in the classroom.  The students were quiet and taking notes.  They were asking questions.  I was checking for understanding and they seemed to grasp the ideas I presented.  

I also noticed that I was attached to the board.  Now this tape was in week one.  I would already say that so much is happened.  I rarely write on the board.  I usually use overheads, powerpoints, or have students writing on the board.  This allows me to move and always see the class.  However, this video was a good reminder of why I need to continue to distance myself from the board.

The other thing I noticed was my use of filler words such as “um” “right” and “okay.” Sealand once told me, “If you don’t know what you are going to say next, pause, think about it, and then continue.” I really failed at doing this in my video.  I didn’t seem to know what I was going to say next.  Sealand has told me I am much more confident in front of the class (perhaps because I know them better now?) so I may have already improved on this.  But I believe this will still be a goal for me to achieve.  I know I still use filler words, however I have started realizing that I am using them.  I think this is step one.  Step two consists of me actually changing my language.  

Overall, I don’t think I look horrible.  I know what I am talking about.  I look professional.  And as I stated before, learning is happening.  I think there are many areas for me to improve on and I can’t wait to see a recent video of my teaching and compare them.

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“I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?”

Well, I wish I could just be whelmed.  Sadly, after reading the Reluctant Disciplinarian and after our first subject meeting and after our last class where we ran down all the due dates, its needless to say that I feel overwhelmed.  I have been waiting for this moment to arrive and it has.  MTC has not made me cry yet, but I feel like the flood gates may open in the coming weeks.  The thing is, we just finished week three of summer school, and the thought of what we have to do in the next TWO weeks is just, well, overwhelming! The thing is though that I spent four years at Georgetown doing this exact thing.  Each semester finals would roll around and you would have a final one day that is worth 60% of your grade followed by a 15 page paper due the next day and another final two days away.  But somehow, I made it.  I always survived.  Finals never killed me.  Sure it stretched me thin, but I always rebounded.  And that is what I have to keep in mind.  Take each day as it comes and just know that I will make it through...

Those were my immediate feelings after closing the book.  But I do have general thoughts about what was discussed.  

• As with many things, these are all suggestions. What works for one person, may not work for everyone.  Just like at summer school. You absorb it all, but at the end of the day, its up to you and how you want your classroom to look.  I feel like the “What Does Work” section should have been entitled the, “What Worked For Me” section instead.  I just find it hard to believe that this guy has found the perfect calculation for what is necessary to be a good teacher.  For instance, if I did everything he said, I still think I would have many issues!  Teaching is unique because two people can have very different classrooms but equal success.  
• Start with traditional methods - use textbook and other traditional forms of assessment for the first few weeks of school.  Using traditional methods is how students define a good teacher.  This idea was new to me and caused me to stop for a moment and think about it.  I can see the benefit in doing this.  Students are use to text books and the traditional way of teaching.  However, I wonder if that then causes them to think that the teacher will be just as bad as the last teacher they had? Either way, I think this may be something I experiment with.

“Learn to find the truth in any advice” - this was the take home point for me.  Overall, I enjoyed this book.  I think I will read it again closer to the start of school and I will pick a few things that I want to focus on.  Yes its true there were a lot of antidotes in this book, but what’s the alternative? Reading a traditional boring education textbook?? I think not.  Rubinstein did a good job of getting the same points across in a much more interesting format. 

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Oh! How Time Flies!

I hate blogs. Its just that simple.  How are they ever suppose to convey how I am feeling?  I mentally started this blog a week and half ago.  Since then, it has morphed into something completely different.  And still, as I type, something different from what I planned is developing.  How am I suppose explain to the world what is going on in my life? I am not very poetic, but even those that are, I doubt they can even convey all their emotions.  So I am not quite sure I understand the point of them because I paint the picture that I want you to see.  With that in mind...

...We are rounding out week three of summer school! We only have 2 more weeks to go and I can hardly believe it.  Where to start? In general, things are going well. I have my time management down better so I am not up late lesson planning anymore.  In the classroom, time management is a different things :) But I am working on it!  I really appreciate teaching a subject in summer school that I will be teaching in the fall.  I didn’t think much of it at first, but now I realize I will have lessons already prepared and worksheets pre-made (with the answers!) So in my algebra one class, I am generally quite content.

Drama club, is a different story.  I don’t hate clubs at all.  In fact, I think they are brilliant.  They allow kids to associate school with something positive and fun and a little more hands on.  But this only happens if they are implemented correctly.  This did not happen and so clubs are a complete disaster at summer school.  Ask almost any first year and they will tell you their day is always going fine until 11:55 when club starts.  Here is where I think clubs went wrong: It wasn’t clear to first years that they would be basically running clubs alone.  If Quentin and I had known this, we would have taken our club in a different direction.  This is by no means the fault of second years.  They don’t come every day which then leaves the club in our hands really.  My point is that it should be made clear to first years from the start that the club is all theirs to run.

School aside, life is still good.  Living situation for the fall is questionable.  I have traveled to Greenville twice now and I believe I am headed there this weekend as well -- hopefully to sign a lease? I got into a fight with my printer and the printer won.  Its kind of all in all very reminiscent of college. Oh wait, except I wake up at 5:15 AM every morning.  Its actually not bad anymore.  Its just really hard to get enough sleep. But let me tell you, you can surely feel when you have sleep 6.5 hours compared 7 hours. 

Tomorrow is the second years last day.  I am sad to see them go but excited for it just to be Blake and I in the classroom.  I am interested to see where things go.  Lots and lots of work to do ahead of me.  All I can say is: BRING IT!

peace.

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In the end, we are all the same.

Among us first years, we have people from the North and from the South.  We have city slickers and small town homebodies.  We have people who went to small private universities and those that went to state schools.  Some of us are super athletic, others, not so much.  Some of us come from families that are well off, others relied on financial aide to make it through college. Some of us want teaching to be our career, others are just taking a "break" before heading to law/med school.  Some of us are black and some of us are white.  But in the end, we are all just human.  We are all the same.

This is the one thing that I have noticed recently.  In college, these same people existed, however, Georgetown was just big enough that you could pick who you wanted to associate with.  Here in MTC, were our class has but 23 people in it, you have to associate with everyone.  You have to talk to one another because really, you wont get very far otherwise.  No one else understands quite what we are going through except each other.  We can call out families and friends as much a we want.  We can run away for weekends in Memphis, but really at the end of the day, the only people that can even slightly understand what we are talking about our our fellow first years.  

So we must put aside our differences.  That is what I am learning to do and I think a lot of people in this program are being tested on this aspect as well.  

I hail from Northern Virginia, from a house that has a touch of English and Indian heritage.  So obviously Oxford, MS is introducing me to some new things.  For instance, I am learning that gentlemen hold doors open (and get mad if you don’t let them!) But interestingly enough, you know what does get under my skin? I know you are going to roll your eyes and say, “THAT is what bothers you?!” But the general lack of recycling around me is slightly irritating.  I am certainly not generalizing to the entire South, because that would just be ignorant.  But I am use to a recycling bin next to just about every trash bin.  I am use to separating my glass and cardboard from the rest of the trash in the house.  Here I don’t do that.  The general lack for the environment in this sense, is quite irritating...

BUT that is not my point! My point is that we all come from very different backgrounds, but something brought us here.  And that is the one thing that we all have in common (although there my be others). I think that it is crucial that everyone in this program remember that.  Forget the petty fights and squabbles.  Its going to be hard to put the next two years into words.  So we have to count on each other.  We need to be able to just look at one another and in that look, we shall just understand each other.

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The Art of Questioning

Questioning is actually a little harder than what you would expect.  How do you ask a question and get students to respond? How do you ask a question that the students understand?  How do you ask questions that make the students think a little harder and not just recall facts?  How do you make sure every student is heard and not just 1 or 2 who love to participate?

These are all questions that I have contemplated over the past week or so.   I have had two problems with my questioning.  First of all, I have two brilliant students who are always willing to answer questions, but the rest of the class is much more timid.  And then my other problem is asking questions that cause the students to take the knowledge that they have and take it a step further. 

The other day I sat at lunch with both the students who love answering all the questions and they said something to me that I didn't expect to hear.  They said, "Ms. Jones you discriminating!" Baffled I replied, "Excuse me?" And they said, "Yeah you never call on boys! Only girls!"  This completely caught me off guard.  I stopped to think about it and realized that no I was calling on everyone but these two boys want to be called on every time.  Of course I couldn't do this.  There are 32 other students in my class.  I can't just focus on two students.  Its a constant battle back and forth  about calling on them and asking them to wait a second and let the others try to figure out the answer.  And that is when the brilliance of cold calling (randomly pulling names from a cup and calling on students) comes to my rescue.  If these two students see that everyone gets the same chance of being called on, its not just me "discriminating" against the boys.  Its simply the luck of the draw.  Plus it helps involve the other students.  I am for sure pro-cold calling! 

I also tried muddy questions with my class.  I handed out notecards at the end of the period and asked them to write down what was difficult.  95% of the class said they were confused with what we just went over. I kind of read those and tossed them to the side because there was a new topic introduced that period and it would be continued in the next one.  But there were 2 or 3 cards with brilliant statements.  The one that said the most intriguing thing sadi "everything is confusing because you go to fast and I don't understand."  Now this is the nature of summer school.  You just have to push forward, but I appreciated knowing that some students just weren't keeping up. Hell, I have a hard time keeping up.  MY head is spinning 90% of the time as well so I can only imagine how the students feel.  I have mixed feelings about this one because 95% of the class wrote something that was obvious (perhaps I need to choose a better period to do them?) but I can't ignore the few cards that gave me a bit of insight as to how the students were actually doing. So I will have to try this one again before I make any final decisions on it.

Questioning.  Probably one of my weakest points.  I plan to start writing in my lesson plans with higher level questions already included.  Therefore I can glance at them rather than just rapid fire question the class with whatever is the first question to pop into my head.  

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Delta Autumn: So much information in such a small book!

Reading this book was extremely overwhelming, but interesting.  It seemed like each chapter discussed something completely different. There was so much information to take in at once.  I think it was all very useful information, but hard to dissect it all at once.

The first thing that hit me, was the list of things to do, people to meet, and supplies to buy at the beginning.  Although some stuff seemed obvious, there were so many small things that a complete list like this will come in handy.  Not too mention that the beginning of school is going to be stressful and busy, so a go to guide like this will be almost necessary to make sure you don't forget anything.  I have to say, I didn't think about EVERYTHING that you need to have ready.  Come Aug. 1. I will be looking back on these pages for advise.

Another chapter that I will have to definitely come back and look at once I know my class is the special ed one.  As I started reading I started to think about how classroom management will be hard and all the things I would have to change.  I have actually worked with special ed students, but I just feel like there are so many other things going on during my first year that I want to be able to give everyone attention.  We will see how that goes...But once I see who is in my class, I will definitely start with Delta Autumn as far as tips go for how to adjust your classroom.

The final chapter that really stuck out to me was the one about figuring out how to get additional money.  First of all I didn't realize till I came down here that there were options for funding.  I just assumed it would be out of pocket.  So its really exciting that that there are various ways to fund things. My next thought was, "Oh my! I picked the right subject!" It seems that mathematics gets more money than most other subjects other than the sciences.  I am really thrilled about this! I plan to use as much as I get.  My only question, which I feel like the book hardly talked about, was how to acquire this money.  They say ask your department head or principal, but honestly what do you do? Walk up and say "Hi I am a new teacher here, but give me my money damnit!" Although it may not be in those words exactly, the point still is that talking about money is always so awkward.  I am going to start with second years and see what they did, but that will only get me so far. At some point I am going to have to waltz up to someone and be like "Give me money!"

In sum, I would advise all new teachers or even teachers in general to read this book.  I feel better about everything now that I have.  I probably took in only a small portion of it, but its comforting to know that its there.  I have a checklist already made. I just have to open the book again in mid-july.  

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Week one down, two years to go!

Well the first week of MTC flew by so fast, I can't believe it is over.  Much has happened to me in the past 2 weeks with graduation and moving down here.  It is hard to process it all.  But what I do know, is that I am settling in well, for now.  

The first few days were expectedly awkward.  There are 24 of us and most of us don't know each other so it only makes sense that conversations seem forced.  Plus, this is a new place for many of us.  Not too mention that there was so much information thrown at us.  It was all very overwhelming, but we went through it together.  This has bonded us.  Although at times things are awkward, we are much more relaxed with one another.

As far as orientation and getting down to the nuts and bolts of what we are actually here to do, the past week has been a blur.  Like I said before, it is really hard to not only be meeting new people, but at the same time, trying to figure out the logistics of everything.  I was very happy for Friday afternoon to come around mainly because I wanted a chance to take a deep breath and actually figure out everything that I am suppose to be doing.  I think that weekends this summer are going to be like little treasures.

This week has also caused me to think a lot about what I am excited, nervous, and just plain scared of in respect to the coming two years.  This may seem ridiculous, but I am scared of tornados! I have been thinking of it a lot recently, and well I know they happen out here.  I am just not an extreme weather kind of gal.  Slightly more important than tornados, I am nervous, really uncertain, of my classroom management plan.  We have received a lot of great advise over the past week, but as far as classroom management goes, I have heard a lot of conflicting thoughts.  Some say start really strict and then if the class responds to it and can handle being a little more laid back, then it is acceptable.  Others have said the complete opposite.  Don't try and be their friend, but also do not go in there stone faced and really strict.  I have had a few years of experience lesson planning, so I am not as concerned about that.  But at this point, I am really unsure of how I want to run my classroom.  I see the benefits in both starting off strict and not starting that way.  The question really is whether or not I can be that strict teacher even though that is not how I am naturally.  I suppose that is why summer school teaching is so perfect. It gives us time to experiment with how we want to do things ourselves.

But overall, I am just really excited! I feel like we wont really understand the things that people are saying regarding teaching until we are actually in the classrooms ourselves.  That is why I went with an alternative teaching program.  I wanted to learn about teaching while teaching at the same time.  I learn by doing, so I think just jumping into it all will really help clarify things for me.  I suppose we shall see how things unfold in a few short days.

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