November 15, 2013

Recent presentation with an inattentive student. In my 4th period I have a group of students that are inattentive to me during class. They go to sleep or talk amongst each other every day. I decided that I needed to find a way to get them involved in the lessons and keep them on track. The first thing that I did was to seperate them in the room to curb the talking. With this they simply slepy. No matter how many times I woke them up they went back to sleep. The next thing that I did in order to get them involved was to call on them more throughout the class when I would ask questions. This got them involved, but I felt like it would at times embarass them also. The next day I tired something new. I gave them tasks to accomplish in the classes. I would ask them to take up journals or pass out papers. This worked for the first half of class but not the second half of class. to help with this I talked to my host teacher and he helped me develope a game that would keep them focused. He had a small foam football that wouldnt hurt at all. Then At the end of class I ask review question or call for participation. This keeps them awake because they want the chance to catch the football. Now they are engaged through the class and it has worked very well. I hope that I can shy away from the football to keep it new, but still keep their attention also.

November 8, 2013

Reflect on a lesson that went well. Why did it? A lesson that I really enjoyed with my class was a computer lab assignment I developed for the students to do. I wanted them to get in touch with a person from history that they have learned about. So I found a facebook template for the profile page online. I uploaded this to the students edline. Then I typed several famous peoples names from the Progressive era through the Great Depression. Then the students each drew a name out of a hat. We went to the lab and they researched these people to find out the biography, who their friends might have been, what they may have said, How they lived, and everything else on a facebook page. The students loved it, and it was a great learning tool. They go in touch with a person from history and the culture of the time. They were immersed in the time period and class flew by that day. I think this lesson went well because it was with it, it was something familiar that they use all the time, and there was the element of surprise that went along with it. The students really enjoyed this lesson and they learned a lot about U.S. culture through this time period. It was amazing.

November 1, 2013

Reflect on Professional Relationships with those other than your mentor teacher. I have several profressional relationships that have been built with staff other than my mentor teacher here at MHS. For instance I am friends with the athletic director Mr. Erinrich. During first period there is a drivers ed class in my room. There is no space in the class for me there and I am not able to work. So in the mornings I go to his office. He is a former teacher and always asks me how my teaching is going. I tell him if I am having issues and he provides me with useful adivce on how to troubleshoot problems in my classroom. This advice has come in very handy to me several times through out the semester. Another relationship that I have is with the couselor next door. She often talks to me about things to do that help students who she is working with. If I am having a problem with a student she is an invaluable resource to me. This has helped me to understand some of the things that I have seen with studetns in my classroom. Another important relationship is with one of the other members of the social studies staff. Mr. Crouso has helped me tremendously to find ways to engage learners and keep attention in the classroom. This has proven very helpful to me throughout my time here at MHS. With his help I have developed severl resources and methods to keep classes interesting. These type of professional relationships are vital to my sucess and I would say that they are vital to every teacher out there.

October 25, 2013

Reflect on my Questioning techniques. When I am in the classroom I use a lot of questions to aid my instruction. What I have noticed is a change in what I am trying to get out of the students with my questions. At first I would just ask for a basic fact or peice of information, and then I would elaborate on the subject and make it into a concept. This I thought was pretty good until I realized that what I was doing was teaching facts and not applicapble concepts to the students. So what I have done is to modify my questioning techniques for the students. Through this I have changed the types of questions that I am asking. I will ask one student for the fact. Then I will ask another to give me the why for that fact. After that I will ask another student for the what that goes along with the theme. I ask these building questions and then the students build the concpets for themselves. For instance I will ask what a referendum is. One student will tell me that it is a vote on an intiative. Then I will ask another to explain what an initiative is. Then I will ask a student why they are important and another how are they used. This way the students have built the concept themselves and I feel like this is a must more beneficial way of questioning to get the types of learning that I want out of my students.

October 18, 2013

A lesson that went well. A lesson that I taught that I really think went well was when I taught iniatives and womens suffrage. An initiative is a law that is written by citizens and put on the ballot to become law. Women used this to gain suffrage in individual states. First I split the room in two halves. I put the girls on one side and the boys on the other. Then I had the boys vote on things like should the girls take notes today, should we watch a movie today or sports etc. Through this I ignored the girls. Then I explained that this is what it was like for women in the progressive era and why women worked so hard to change it. Then I had the students write a brief reflection on what they thought after the activity. Then I explained how the intitiative was used. After this I put the students in groups and had them write their own laws. After which each law was read, debated by the class, and then voted on. I think this lesson went well because the students talked about it for a long time, and the students can still recall the information presented in it.

October 11, 2013

Questioning Techniques. Since the beginning of the semester I have noticed a change in the type of questions that I ask the students through the course of a class. In the beginning I would ask a lot of who what when where how questions just seeking surface facts. As I have went along though now I find myself asking more critical thought questions. For instance if this happend then what caused it? Why did this effect this? Now that you know this what happens when this occurs. This shows my development as a teacher. I now ask questions that provoke a higher level of thought. I think that this is because I am more confident in myself as a teacher. Before I think I was afraid that the students could outsmart me. Now I am condfident that I can control the classroom and basically that I know my stuff. Because of this I feel that the students are reaching higher levels of learning and I am growing to a new level as a teacher.

October 4, 2013

Student learning styles and multiple intelligences. Through the course of the semester I have learned that I have three very different learning styles. In my m tech class the students are very hands on literal work. They do the best when they have books and worksheets for them to read and complete. Outside of this type of class they struggle greatly. They are not the best in social studies, but they excel in areas that involve logic. In my regular ed classes one is very reading based the other is very hearing based. One class would rather read the book and then discuss what they read. The other would rather listen to me talk and explain the events to them and what they mean. The one common ground is the use of computers excluding the Mtech class. The regular ed classes exceled the greatest when they were able to use the computers on the prezi assignment. The Mtech group struggled the most and did the worst when they were asked to use the technology.

September 27, 2013

Use of alternative assessments. So far this semester I have only used one alternate assessment other than tests. I used a prezi assignment to assess my students on their knowledge of the Spanish American war. The students had to create a timeline on prezi including events that happened before, during, and after the war. The students had to have comprehensive information and images to improve the effectiveness of their prezis. The students had to also cite sources for their information. This assessment assessed the students research abilites, citing abilities, and their knowledge of the Spanish American war. I liked the way that this assessment came out. The students really enjoyed the assignement, and it was a welcome break from what he had done in class before. This assessment was very comprehensive and it took over two entire class periods to complete it.

September 20, 2013

Rapport with students I think that I have a very good rapport with the students in my classes. I have gotten to know all of their names and some things about each of them. I often have students come into my class to each lunch, and many times students will open up to me and tell me about their problems always on the teacher student level. The students feel comfortable around me, but they respect my position and listen to me in the classroom. I feel like a teacher this semester more so than in other semesters becuase I am here everyday and I have had the time to get to know my students. I feel like I have been able to establish myself in the classroom and also in the school community. This has been a great semester so far. I have students stopping by just to say hello, and often coming to me when they need help and asking me to help them.

September 13, 2013 Reflection

Reflect on my mentor teachers classroom management practices. My mentor teacher is very different from myself in how he manages the classroom. He is very loose in what he chooses to enforce and what is allowed in the classroom. For instance at the beginning of every class he lets the students discuss the news with him. During this time there are a few that acutally partipate in the discussion. The rest simply talk or play on their cellphones for the entire time. I would stop the discussion until I had all the students attention and then I would continue the discussion when everyone was paying attention to what I was saying. Also when there are assignements given out the students can put their earphones in and listen to music as they work. This is not such a bad idea since this keeps the students from talking to each other, but it can be a distraction when you are trying to explain something that the class is not understanding. The only time he wants full attention and quiet is when he is using direct instruction. I want to be able to call the class together at any second. On tests he lets the students put in their earphones and take the test. I dont like this idea either because I think that hearing the music in another persons headphones would be distracting.

September 6, 2013

What child do I think that I influenced most this week. I have a student that has failed several classes over the last two years and has given up on trying to learn and excel in the classroom. He is incredibily intelligent, but doesnt use his intelligence for his betterment. Today at lunch he asked if he could stay in the room and talk with me instead of going to the cafeteria. I didnt care so he stayed and we talked. He was very down on his confidence and thought that he was just going to drop out soon. I talked to him and went over a lot of his work with him asking him questions. He bagan explaining the material that we had learned and having a very intelligent conversation with me about it. He said that it is just because he likes history, but I told him that he could do it in his other classes also. When he left he said that he was going to try and do better in all of his classes. I feel that he will to. I think that today I may have had the opportunity to change someones entire outlook on eudcation and their future and that is amazing to me.

August 30, 2013

Lesson took less time than I expected. This happened to me this week. Each lesson that I had planned finished up about 20 minutes early. I had to think on my feet because I didnt want to waste the time that the students could be using to learn, and I didnt want mass chaos in my class for 20 minutes. So what I did is I thought of several wrap up writing assingments for lessons that are coming up. Application is a big thing for me in my teaching. I decided to make these activities to where they had to apply what they had learned to use it and write about it. For instance one of them is to picture yourself as an immigrant worker before the Progressive reforms and write a letter describing where you work to your family in Europe. These each take about 15- 20 minutes and they help wrap up the knowledge and the concepts that I have presented that day. I really enjoy these and I am thinking that I may want to make them a part of each class that I do to close the lessons. This was a great idea that I stubled upon becuase I was done to early in class.

August 23, 2013

If I had the opportunity to re- teach one thing from todays lesson I would find better visuals for the meat packing plants in Chicago. The conditions here were terrible and I dont think that I addressed these well enough to get the students to see the issues being looked at. I needed a video or some other form of visual help that I can use to bring the era to life in my teaching. Given a chance I will find one and use it the next time that this topic comes up to get a more in depth understanding of what it was really like when Upton Sinclair was in the plants.

August 16, 2013

This is the first week I was here at MHS. The students have not arrived yet for their classes, and the teachers are here preparing for the year. I am here getting myself prepared for the task at hand in my intern year. This is the first time that I have been here to see the amount of preparation and meetings that go on here to begin the year. Some of the meetings have been pointless, others have been benficial. I am looking foreward to a great year and can't wait to get to know my students and start teaching!