Continual Thought: Can a Student Say That For Me?

For some reason reading the title of the article Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say really confused me. I could not figure out what the message behind those words was going to be. Now having just finished reading it, the article's title makes perfect sense. Teachers, or adults, should not have to talk/lecture/clarify if the students are capable of delivering the same message.

I think a lot of good can come out of having the students talk instead of having the teacher constantly be the one explaining and clarifying.

1. The teacher gets the opportunity to see if the students understand (and this might just mean the directions that were given if you ask them to repeat them, or if they understand what their classmates are talking about if you ask them to synthesize)

2. This makes the student have to pay attention to their classmates instead of just listening when the teacher talks.

3. The teacher can also preserve their voice while taking advantage of the 25 or so more teachers in the classroom. The students can be great teachers they just might need some exposure to being one.

One of the things in this article that I enjoyed was the reminder to be nonjudgmental about a student’s response or comment even if it is intended to be positive. If a teacher tells a student “wow, that was great” you run the risk of the rest of the class not giving any input or additional answers out of fear that their comments will be no where comparable to “great”. Plus when you tell a student something was ‘awesome” or “good” those are seemingly useless words because they provide no feedback for what was awesome or good. Students just hear those words and feel good about the reaction but they do not know why exactly they produced such a response or how it can be duplicated. Our students need to know that so long as they put in the effort to genuinely answer a question then all answers are good.

I also really liked that the reading mentioned what to do if a student comes up and asks if their answer is correct. Instead of saying yes or no say, “I don’t know, could you explain your thinking”. This could be used as an informal assessment. The teacher would be able to observe if the student understands what they are doing, if they know the proper steps, if any steps were skipped, and if they were using the right terminology. In addition this would save the teacher some time because they would not have to guess where things went wrong if the student did not understand or got the wrong answer. They would simply point the teacher right to the problem while they were explaining their thinking. Also, students benefit a lot from trying to verbalize their thinking. We constantly have to explain ourselves either inside of school or out, so another opportunity to do so would be beneficial.

I really enjoyed reading this article. It made me realize some of the things I do, like answer my own question, or that other teachers do, like repeat what a student said. I will most likely return to this article to reflect on my teaching practices and see which ones are working and which ones need to go.

Miss Toliver: A Math Teacher's Idol

So I finally got up the courage to watch my first, math teaching experience in the middle school. I really should have watched it right away instead of waiting 4 weeks because then I would not have yet had the exposure to Miss. Toliver. She seems to make math so much fun for the students. While I taught a hands on learning lesson to the students it was far from "Miss. Toliver" exciting. This is proof that you can make learning and teaching fun. I know there are ways I could have delivered my lesson differently to better engage and excite the class.

Kids on Race: Accepting all Colors in my Classroom

The other day in class we watched a bit of "Anderson Coopers 360: Kids on Race". Below is just a clip from what we watched in class.



I thought this was a really interesting study. However, not knowing that much about studies and research I found myself wondering somethings. The questions were posed in such a way that implied that the participants had to answer. They asked "which girl is the prettiest?" or "Point to the girl that is the good student?" which makes it sound like there is an answer. I started to think about this when some of the older students responded by saying that there was not enough information for them to answer the questions, and that all people are equal regardless of what their skin color was. So how do you decided if younger children in the study just answer because it seems like they have to or because they are showing biases? What if the questions were "Do you think any of these children are smarter than the others?" that to me would show more than just asking them which one.  While I do not know too much about research I do know that they look at the validity of the study to see if things were conducted appropriately. I would be curious to see what others would say about this study.

Another thing that I think is important to look at in the data is the other side. They said that "66% of students pointed to the darkest skinned child when asked to point to the mean child". The other side to that is 34% of children did not and what are they hearing and learning that is influencing their decisions.

Regardless of my knowledge of this study and research in general I think there is a message I can take away from this that will impact my teaching and when I am a parent some day. I want to make sure that the things I say and that my actions don't make any students think that one color over another is better or worse. That is not something I believe and therefor do not want it to be a message that students pick up. One of the expectations in my classroom will be that students work together and accept and cherish diversity and everyone differences. I will not only tell this to students but I will have activities in place that help the students to see this in action. That will just be one of the way we will begin to be a class that is not colorblind but one that accepts color regardless of the shade.

Are middle school students like kindergarten students?

Back in September I had a great experience with one of the students. The students were working on drawing pictures of themselves so we could graph how many boys and how many girls there were in the class. As I am walking around looking the the portraits I am trying to keep in mind what I learned in my Art Education class over the summer. We learned that telling a student their art is "good" or "nice" or even saying it is "bad" is not constructive feedback and that makes kids think their work is only acceptable if it is "good" or "nice". Students should not just be looking for those words of praise but should know what it is that they are doing nicely or why it looks good. So as I walk around I am pointing out to the students what I see. I say things like "I see you have a big smile on your face" or I might throw in a "looking good, I see your curly hair and your brown eyes" since it is hard for me to leave out those words completely, and I think not too necessary but that is a different blog. I happen to walk over to one student and say "Gavin that looks like you, I see your brown hair, and your blue eyes. I think the only at thing that is different is today you are wearing a green shirt and in your picture you drew you are wearing a red shirt." I followed that up by saying are you trying to tell us something, tomorrow are you going to wear a red shirt and this is a picture of exactly what you will look like tomorrow" Then I went on my way to see some more pictures.

The next morning Gavin walks into the classroom. He says to me "Good morning Ms. Parks look" as he pointed to his shirt. All I said was good morning back. Then a couple minutes later to my surprise I realized what he was trying to tell me, Gavin had remembered what we talked about and wore a red shirt. I not only thought it was incredibly cute that he did that but I was amazed that he  remembered. I went back over to him and did not say I forgot because how embarrassing if a five year old can remember shouldn't I be able to? Instead I started talking about him looking like his picture and that I thought it was really cool that he surprised me and did that.

That experience made me think about how kids really do listen and they want to impress you.
I couldn't help but think of Gavin when I happened to have a nice chat with A yesterday, the middle schooler who I happened to mention in another blog that always has an attitude problem. As I mentioned before we have not had any conflicts and I never did anything wrong to her but that she just doesn't like teachers. As I walk past A's desk I happen to notice that her binder cover has been cleared out of all of her artwork and pictures. I wanted to ask but hesitated because I did not want to get the same angry look or mumbled comment. However, I decided to ask anyway and she quickly looked up and responded saying "I took them all out because I want to reorganize my binder and I am giving my artwork away." Not only was that the most pleasant response she has given me but she next said "would you like one?" I was shocked! "What me? You want to give me something" I thought. Of course I told her I would love something. By the way she is a pretty good artist. So she starts pulling all of her art out of her binder to show it off and let me pick what I wanted. I felt really bad I was getting her off subject but really good that she was giving me the time. It was a complete turn around. After I picked my piece of her art she put them away and got back to work. When class was over I went up to her and asked if she was going to decorate her binder after school. She replied back with saying that she might if she had time. This was the moment I thought about that kindergarten boy. I wondered if A would come in with a newly decorated binder and if she would be interested in showing me.
The next day I was excited for 5th period to come around to see if A would acknowledge me or want to talk more about her art. sure enough she walks in and I am sitting in a chair in the back of the room and she pushes her binder towards me to show what she had been working on. I perked up and started to talk to her about what she had created. "Yay" I thought it my head. We talked about what was new and that she had never really taken an art class. A little while later I had showed her a picture that I had on my phone of a self portrait I had done years ago. She laughed at it but it was a very genuine laugh together and not like she was laughing at me. It was great. I felt so pleased that it seemed like I made a connection with her. I hope that next week things are still on the right path.
While I am very happy with the way things are going, I am having trouble with the way A's and my relationship shifted. It seems like the only way I could connect with her was to get her completely off the topic of her school and work. How can you make sure to connect and get to know your students when you have so little time to do so? It was not like this was the only time I have tried to talk to her about her likes and interests. It seems like she needed multiple attempts. However, I am also not the teacher and I only see her and the rest of the class two times a week for two months which makes it challenging. Maybe this would not be as big of a challenge if I was there more often.

Is it more challenging to be a middle school student or a middle school teacher?

11.18.10


Today I got to teach for the second time in my middle school dyad. The lesson I taught was basically a fun, engaging unit wrap up. The students had to work in their table groups to match up graphs, tables, equations, and story problems that had the same linear relationship. One of the first challenges in planning for this lesson was trying to figure out how much time it was going to take the groups to do the work. The students in the math classes are all over the board with their understanding of the material. The other thing that needed to be considered was making sure that everyone was going to participate in the work. Group work can sometimes be challenging for students or anyone to work on. These math classes don't get the opportunity to work together too often so having little exposure was something that could create a problem. However, it just so happened that the day before the groups did a group test together which helped me to observe which groups were going to need some assistance in encouraging everyone to participate. The thing I liked about this lesson and really tried to emphasize it to the class was that each person in the group had a role. Each student had to be in charge of looking at the graphs, equations, tables, and story problems. From what I was seeing as the students worked, they did a pretty good job at including everyone.


At the end of 2nd period I was feeling good. Things went smoothly and as planned. I felt proud of the class and all of their hard work but also proud of myself for delivering a good lesson. When the class was let out I was walking around picking up their posters. I was about to say good work and good-bye to one of the students when she said "Ms.Parks, you are a really good teacher." I slightly stuttered as I tried to get a thank you out. I responded saying "thank you A. That means so much to me. That is the first complement I have received and I really appreciate it." This compliment came from a student who I once thought did not like me. I have worked with her one several occasions because she does not understand the math and always copies off of her table group. I have felt really bad for her because she was the kind of student that when does not ask for help when she doesn't understand. I think it has something to do with being embarrassed and not wanting to admit she doesn't get it because of the not so encouraging comments I witnessed her table partners say to her. At first I worried that I was helping her too much and that she was not going to appreciate all of the extra attention it could bring her. However, I tired to be discrete when I helped her out by not just working with her by also with some of the others at her table. During the group work today I asked her questions to deepen her thinking along with the others at her group. I really want her to succeed and I think she would really be proud if she did.


After the success of 2nd period I knew I did not want to get too confident because there was still 5th period. The last time I taught, 2nd period went well and 5th period went well in a different way. I had students fighting and swearing, being rude and not listening, and sitting at their desks without knowing what do do and not asking for any help. The teacher has told me that 5th period is a much more social class and with it being the end of the day the students are starting to check out. Keeping that first teaching experience with 5th period in mind I did not want to just assume everything would go as planned. While I did not have any students swearing and fighting with each other I had some students throwing markers some talking about things completely off subject. Then there was another student that was just as rude to me this time as she was before. Ironically her name also starts with an A just like the student who said  I was a good teacher. Even the teacher in this class as trouble with this student. I consider myself to have a pretty good awareness when I have done something that might upset or offend someone so I can pretty much guarantee that I have don't nothing wrong to this student. I have even made several attempts to talk to her before and after class about school and other non related things to help her show I care and am interested. However, it seems to be unappreciated. In a meeting she had with the teacher she said how much she hates school and doesn't want to be here. I am pretty sure she is just your stereo typical middle schooler.

Every time I went over to check on A's group in 5th period, she was either playing with wax on her binder or writing a note. The first time I went over I tired to give her a moment to realize what she was doing wrong and correct it on her own. When she didn't I asked her to stop and put her binder on the floor. The next time I came over she had a note out so I asked to her to put it away. The third time I came over she had the note out again and was writing in it. I was really surprised that she was doing that so I calmly looked at her and said "Because you are writing that note right in front of me after already talking to you and asking you to put it away and you did not even attempt to hide it  from me tells me that you are not listening or respecting what I am saying." She put the note away and started to work with her group. I think I might have been even too nice about the way I handled it however, I was not prepared to handle any real discipline.


At the end of the day I went through all of the posters that the groups were working on. From what I saw going on in the groups and from their product I know a lot of learning was going on. However, I am still struggling with how to reach out to some of the middle school students. I know that adolescents are going through so many changes and it is a tough time for them, but I think it possible for them to all enjoy school or something about school and show respect to those around them.

Goodbye Kindergarten, Hello Second Grade!

The last two weeks of working with Buddy S have been great! As Buddy S and I went to find a quite spot where we could chat and do some work, she suggested that we read for a little bit today and then we do the written conversation like we did last week. I replied by telling that was a great idea and I would love to do just that.


We started Junie B. Jones right from the start we stopped at last week. I did not ask at the time, but I am wondering if she did any other reading in the last week. We were trying to figure out the exact place where we left off last time so I asked her if she could remember what was happening when we had to stop. She said "Junie B. Jones had just bumped into her grandpa's belly" as she laughed and smiled which caused me to to the same.  Once we found the place where we should begin reading, I told her I was going to take a couple of notes as she read because I was doing a running reading record. I let her know that this just helped me know what she was reading and how second graders read and that I would just be making little marks on my paper as she read. I wanted to say something because she probably would have asked. However, I don't think it bothered her at all and I even felt like she read more fluently this week than last week.

Junie B. Jones are interesting books. Really the only spots where Buddy S had trouble was where the words were either made up or not grammatically correct. This week we stumbled upon "'structions" and "'fridgerator" for "instructions" and "refrigerator". Buddy S did not recognize what those words were and when she came to "'fridgerator" she recommended that we just skip it because she has read it before. Since I was doing the reading record I did not stop here when she said "struggled" instead of "'structions". However, now that the word "refrigerator" was presented in the same was as "instructions" I thought we could talk about it. Last week she told me that some things don't sound correct in these books because the writer is trying to sound like a kindergartener. When talking about the two words we were trying to figure out Buddy S was able to problem solve for "refrigerator" by fitting it into the context of what was being talked about. She told me that this was just another way that they writer shows how a kindergartener talks.

I also really liked doing the written conversation with Buddy S. This is similar to something that we doing in one of my college classes. My instructor has name cards for us and she encourages us to write on the back any comments or questions we might have. When we get them back at the next class she has responded to what we wrote. I think I would like to do something like this in my future class. It is a good way to check in with the students about their lives and to see how they are doing with writing. Some things I noticed looking at Buddy S's writing was that she often wrote in complete sentences, capitalized the beginning of the sentence, added punctuation at the end, used contractions, and was aware of many words that she spelled incorrectly. Buddy S did not often ask me how to spell something but realized some of her spelling mistakes on her own. During our time with the second graders I have noticed a significant amount of literacy development that happens in two years. It has been really interesting to get to look at that and make those comparisons.

Another Learning Experience with Buddy E

Today was a great last meeting, well for now, with Buddy E. When we came in he has his usual smile on his face, I bet he was anticipating the fun things we had planned for him. First we looked at his journal that he had out. I really liked that that teacher had journals for the students and that they wrote in them every Monday after the weekend.  When they do a “weekend” journal entry the teacher gives them a piece of paper to glue in that says “over the weekend I…”. Most of Buddy E’s journal entries were just illustrations but he had great stories to add to his pictures. On another page he had talked about their trip to the farm. He had drawn a barn, cow, pig, and cat and wrote in the appropriate label for each of those things. His most recent journal entry was the Monday after Halloween so he of course wanted to talk about trick-or-treating. This was his first entry that he had a nice illustration but also finished the sentence saying he went trick-or-treating using inventive spelling. He was really good at figuring out the begging sounds and some of the ending sounds however it was a little difficult to read what he had wrote. However, it was great to see his progression through the journal from the first journal entry to his last. I am sure when we see him again later in the year I will be even more impressed by his progress.

After we chatted about his journal we moved on to reading Sheep in a Jeep. My partner and I decided to read a rhyming book so that he could see the rhyming being used in context. While we read he jumped in a couple of time to rhyme or to add some commentary to the pictures.

Next we did a game where Buddy E had to create words. He had to take one letter and an ending sound to form the word. It was interesting because he made several different words using the ending “old” and even after his third word created with this ending he was not able to pronounce it. However, he was trying to say the nonsense word “nold” so maybe that was part of the trouble, it was not a word he was familiar with because when he spelled the word “sold” next he got that really quick.