A Teacher's Stream of Consciousness

Potential and Kinetic Energy Websites

Angela Willyerd — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:18:00 GMT

The students have been working on designing rollercoasters in order to understand potential and kinetic energy. To make sure everyone understood what it was like to ride a rollercoaster, we took a virtual rollercoaster ride. The rollercoaster simulation is posted below. We also checked our roller coaster designs using the following website to see if the coaster worked: sideshow.questacon.edu.au/maketracks.html.

Storm Stories 09-10

Angela Willyerd — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:51:00 GMT

Mrs. Willyerd's seventh grade science classes created Storm Stories where they were on location of a severe storm. Our classes explored hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, and lake effect snow. The students were grouped in fours and the group determined a role for each student. There were two weather people who would be in front of the camera and delivering the weather report. There was a prop person who was in charge of brainstorming props that would make the weather report look authentic and assigning who would bring in which props. There was also a producer who was in charge of keeping the group on task, facilitating rehearsals, and coaching the other teammates for authenicity. All students in the group were required to write a script that would educate the viewers as to how the storm formed as well as including safety tips for viewers at home. We originally wanted to replace the green background with clips of storms, but we found that our prototype needed to be a more neon shade of green to reflect more light. Thus, the following Storm Story montage only debuts our raw green screen footage, but it is still educational and, at times, humorous. Enjoy!

Green Screen Attempt

Angela Willyerd — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 22:30:00 GMT

Okay, seventh graders. I attempted to make our green screen work. It appears that the color of the board plus the lack of illumination does not reflect enough light to allow us to have the complete green screen experience. I will still let the classes view the raw video to see others' work, but it won't have the backgrounds in the back. We might re-do one or two, though, so you can see what it would look like. For now, here is what I am getting. It only replaces 1/4 of the green screen.

Science Fair Video 2009-2010

Angela Willyerd — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:20:00 GMT

The Everts MS Science Fair was held Tuesday, March 9, 2010. The students did a great job explaining the scientific inquiry skills acquired throughout this extensive project. Thanks to everyone who helped to make this day a success!

Layers of Atmosphere Rap

Angela Willyerd — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:51:00 GMT

Mrs. Willyerd's science students have been busy learning about the atmosphere. We've studied the composition and the layers of the atmosphere so far. We found a fun science rap about the atmosphere created by a middle school teacher. It is pretty catchy, so I posted it on this blog so students may view it at home.

TimeToast.com

Angela Willyerd — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:52:00 GMT

Timetoast.com is a free Web 2.0 technology that creates interactive timelines in minutes. This site does require one to sign up for a free account; however, this program is quick and easy to use. The timelines can be easily adjusted to view different time intervals, so you can zoom out or zoom in for perspective. Other timelines created by other users are available for public use, so if you want to use a timeline but don't have the time to create one, then there might already be a timeline created for you to use during instruction.

The timelines can be published to give an embedded code that you can cut and paste into a blog, wiki, or placemark in GoogleEarth.

For example, here is a quick timeline for my science fair students for this year:

Slideboom.com

Angela Willyerd — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:01:00 GMT

Slideboom.com allows students to use a PowerPoint that has already been created in the classroom and upload it to slideboom.com to easily make this a file that can be quickly embedded on a classroom wiki, blog, or website. These PowerPoints may also be uploaded into a Google Earth virtual tour, so when a student clicks on a particular location then the student is able to view an informational slideshow as well that correlates with that location.

Presenters at the E-Tech conference continuously commented about how students were motivated by having their work published to the web. Web publishing onto a class wiki or blog allows students to be proud of their work since the work is readily available for family members and other friends to view at any time.

This is also a great way of making a e-portfolio of student work throughout the year so students may be able to self-evaluate and reflect on their performance at different times throughout the year. It should increase confidence in the student's performance by seeing how much the work has improved as the school year has continued.

PhotoPeach - Create Easy Slideshows with Music

Angela Willyerd — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:29:00 GMT

PhotoPeach.com allows teachers to create slideshows with any jpeg image. This site is FREE but it does require you to create an account. Royalty-free music is already available on this site to accompany any slideshow you may want to create, but you can also upload your own. You have the capability to embed these slideshows in a blog, class wiki, or in a GoogleEarth virtual tour.

Possible educational applications would be:

Social Studies
- Learning about a specific region, i.e. Egypt
  - Students could be assigned a certain geographic area of Egypt and pull together a slideshow.
  - Then, students could embed their slideshow into a GoogleEarth virtual tour of the region where the class could view their work as a whole to learn about this region.
- Learning about people
  - Students could work on slide shows that focus on the culture of each area as the school year progresses to create almost an e-portfolio of knowledge gained.
Language Arts
- Virtual Field Trips
  - This might help bring a novel to life when discussing the setting or background history on a particular author.
  - Use this is combination with GoogleEarth so students may view the slideshow when clicking on a particular destination.
Science
- Biomes
  - Students may create slideshows of various animals, plants, and/or tourist attractions within specific cities/countries in their biome.

The pros to using this web 2.0 technology is that it can create easy slideshows with music that would engage the students.
The deltas to using this web 2.0 technology is that one must have an account to use it, so the teacher might create a general account for all to use or specific accounts for students.

Voki - Making Your Own Avatar

Angela Willyerd — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:40:00 GMT

Do you like the avatar version of Mrs. Willyerd on this blog post? Voki.com is a free Web 2.0 tool that I learned about today at the Ohio E-Tech conference. The popular movie "Avatar" makes this tool relevant to students who might want to make their own avatar while learning at the same time! How - you may ask? The session I went to allowed students to incorporate Voki into a GoogleEarth virtual tour, which could be used in science to discuss biomes; language arts to discuss the setting of a novel; or in social studies to explore different locations. The students could create their own avatars that are associated with different bookmarked locations in GoogleEarth, type in up to three factual sentences per location, and create a virtual tour for other students to take. It would almost be like a Jigsaw 2.0 activity. How do I use Voki? This is really simple, and you don't even need an account. If you go to voki.com, then you click on "Get Started." You can pick the character - male, female, dog, cat, etc. - and then add all the extra touches - accessories, voice, etc. Type in what you want the avatar to say, and then publish. Cut and paste the "My Space" code into your GoogleEarth bookmarked location, and then the students can get a narrated tour by the created avatar. (Don't worry the My Space code doesn't link you in anyway to My Space. I just is the html code to allow the avatar to be embedded in the different programs.) Have questions? Let me know and comment!

Egg-ceptional Packages - Science and Technology

Angela Willyerd — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:45:00 GMT

Students studied how science is intertwined with technology this week. Students were given an inquiry-based project where they were to design a package that would prevent an egg from cracking and/or leaking for the Egg-ceptional Packaging Plant. The students were given the constraints of limited materials and time to complete their prototype. Once students designed their prototype, they were able to test their egg-ceptional packages outside. We dropped each package from the top of the bleachers onto a blacktop landing pad. Each egg was timed on the drop, and the results were recorded. Students then went back inside to examine their egg following the drop. The students were then asked to troubleshoot and think of ways in which they could re-design the package to perhaps prevent the egg from breaking and/or cracking the next time.

We related this experiment to how inventors at Apple troubleshoot and re-design each time they unveil a new generation of I-pods or I-phones. We talked about what the first I-pod looked like, how big it was, the technology used, etc. and compared each generation's improvements. Hopefully, this enabled students to connect science and technology to their real lives.

To view photos from our eggs-periment, click here.

M&M Experiment - Learning to Design an Experiment

Angela Willyerd — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:17:00 GMT

Students were able to learn more about scientific inquiry by designing their own M&M experiment. Students first conducted the initial M&M experiment to help them learn to observe in a scientific way and create a hypothesis. Based on their first experiment, they could then think of different manipulated variables for their next experiment. Students were then asked to design the experiment by writing down their materials and the procedure used in conducting their experiment. The students also learned how to collect data in a chart. To see pictures of students working in the lab: click here.

Methods, Week 8: Learning Environments

Angela Willyerd — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:54:00 GMT

How does classroom and school climate affect teaching and learning?

Field Experience Connection: Recently, I observed at another sixth grade language arts class at a different urban middle school. This middle school's demographics were approximately 80% African American, 15% Caucasian, and 5% other ethnicities. This demographic make-up is the opposite of the demographics within the middle school in which I have been teaching. Students at this school were separated by gender, so all sixth grade boys were in a class while all sixth grade girls were in another class. I was surprised that the boys' block seemed to have the majority of the students off task throughout the period. The boys were laying across the tables, rolling pencils on the desks, and giving each other a hard time verbally. It would seem that these students were not focused and not learning upon initial observation; however, when the teacher used the "call and response" model during the lesson all of the students were shouting out the answers. To my surprise, these students who looked like they weren't "getting it" were actually understanding the material. The students were also able to produce high quality work although it seemed like these students were off task most of the time. I was amazed at how this type of learning environment could still produce the high quality work that the students were producing. I have continued to reflect on this experience and toss it around in my head, but I think I finally found a possible reason why this behavior might not be so out of the ordinary when I read the article "Toward a Conception of Culturally Responsive Classroom Management."

Research/Text Connection: The article "Toward a Conception of Culturally Responsive Classroom Management" begins with a vignette from Cartledge & Milburn (1996) about a European American woman in her first year of teaching. This young woman was a product of an upper-middle-class family and was schooled in a setting lacking a lot of diversity. Thus, when she started teaching in an urban environment she did not understand some of the cultural nuances between her students. For example, the African American youth, especially males, have a unique communication style which Irvine (1990) "refers to as 'verbal sparring,' also called 'ribbing,' 'capping,' 'woofing,' and so forth. Essentially, these interactions are verbal battles characterized by Irvine as Black male rituals that are valued and generally conducted in an atmosphere of sport" (Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke, Curran, 2004, p. 25) Could this be the reason why the young African American males in the sixth grade language arts class interacted in such a way? I believe this could be the very reason why these students were able to interact through verbal sparring throughout the class but still be able to concentrate on the content. The students did not have animosity toward each other as a result of the verbal sparring, so I believe that this was "conducted in an atmosphere of sport" (Weinstein, et. al, 2004, p. 25).

Personal Connection: This article resonated with me as I am probably more like the first-year teacher in the vignette. As an observer in the aforementioned classroom, I personally thought that it seemed crazy and out of control. However, I read that "European American teachers, for example, are generally accustomed to a 'passive-receptive' discourse pattern; they expect students to listen quietly while the teacher is speaking and then respond individually to teacher-initiated questions. When some African American students, accustomed to a more active, participatory pattern ("call-response"), demonstrate their engagement by providing comments and reactions, teachers may interpret such behavior as rude and disruptive" (Weinstein, et. al, 2004, p. 26). The research completely fits my initial reactions to this classroom environment. The learning environment was not the style in which I was accustomed to learning in and not how I expected my own classes to act. But, this research article was an eye-opener and made me really stop and think.

Future Teaching/Learning Connection: In the future, I know that I will need to reflect deeper on the reasons why my students may display different types of behavior. The reasons may not always be based on some type of conflict, altercation, or situation at home, school, etc. I will need to remember to continue to consider the cultural nuances as a reason why the behavior might be different and learn to broaden my expectations of a successful learning environment. As the European American teacher in the sixth grade class mentioned above told me - it was tough to get used to this type of learning environment but when the students are learning and showing what they know by producing great pieces of writing, then it is hard to argue that their "untraditional" style is not acceptable.

Resource.

Weinstein, C., Tomlinson-Clarke, S., Curran, M. (2004). Toward a conception of culturally responsive classroom management.
Journal of Teacher Education. 55:1, 25-38.

Methods, Week 7: Differentiation

Angela Willyerd — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 22:45:00 GMT

How do you see differentiation in your classes? What have you tried? What might you try in the future?

Field Experience Connection: I have witnessed my cooperating teacher differentiate in several ways. For example, she has differentiated the learning environment for students who need it. There is a table in the back and several students have been placed there if they are having a hard time focusing. A few students even asked to be moved back there or to another spot in the room in order to remove themselves from a distracting environment when they needed to focus more. My cooperating teacher also differentiates the process of teaching by scaffolding. She is great at explaining step-by-step, modeling what the students should be doing, and giving them practice before allowing the students to work independently or in groups. This particular school district accommodates learners with IEPs by having those students work one-on-one with a tutor. The tutors at times accompany the student to class but other times will remove the student from the classroom for a class period.

While I was teaching my two-week unit, I was able to differentiate the process using scaffolding just like my mentor. I still aspire to scaffold as well as she does, but I am hoping that I will improve with each teaching episode. I tried to use modeling as much as possible. I used books that the students had previously read and modeled the lesson with that book, so the students had an idea of what to do but I was not giving the students the answers by using the same book. I also learned that providing a picture on the board of what I would like for the students to do was quite helpful when scaffolding. It is important to help the students visualize what the assignment looks like as well as to communicate verbally. This will accommodate students with different learning types. I also differentiated the product by providing more time for students to get assignments completed. A few of the blocks needed me to schedule extra time into the lesson plan in order to scaffold more thoroughly and provide more thinking time for independent and group work as well as for answering questions the students might have. In addition, I also differentiated the process by providing guided notes for explicit writing lessons. The guided notes format allows the students to focus on what I need to explain during direct instruction and only worry about writing one main word down per important point. I can better monitor the students' progress during the lesson with this note-taking format.

Text/Research Connection: McFee & Torrey (1992-1995) outlined five levels of curriculum adaptations, which should be available for use in order to "meet the student's needs as identified on the IEP" rather than "adapting for adaptations sake." The first level of curriculum adaptation is Curriculum as is. Educators need to make sure to examine the general curriculum and ask if the "students on the IEPs may gain benefit from participating in the curriculum as is." If not, then the next step in differentiation should be to develop a different objective within the same activity and curriculum. The student with the IEP would work with the other students in the classroom, but have a "different learning objective from the other students." For example, a student with an IEP may have the objective of staying on task for five minutes and expressing his or her thoughts with a visual response rather than a written response. The next level of differentiation would be to provide material or environmental adaptations. These material or environmental adaptations enable a student with an IEP to continue to participate in the general education curriculum. Examples would include reducing the student's spelling list from 20 words to 5 words, using a computer to write an assignment instead of a pencil and paper, listening to a textbook on tape or CD, and/or reading the test to the student. The next level of differentiation would be to provide physical assistance. "Assistance from another person may be needed for a student to participate in a classroom activity." These supports may be in the form of peers, teachers, paraprofessional, or classroom aide. Examples of physical assistance adaptation would include: guiding a hand during handwriting, pushing a student in a wheelchair to the next activity, or starting a computer for the student with an IEP to use. The last level of adaptation is an alternative/substitute curriculum. This type of curriculum usually involves the "acquisition of life skills." The decision to allow a student to participate in an alternative curriculum must be reflected on the IEP and discussions weighing the pros and cons must have been weighed prior to using the alternative curriculum. Examples include: community-based instruction, learning job skils in the cafeteria, doing laundry for the athletic department, and learning cooking/grooming skills to be used in the home.

Personal Connection: Looking back on my education throughout K-12, it is amazing how many different things I can pick out as specific teaching strategies that I had no idea were even necessarily important at the time. For example, when I was in first grade, my teacher allowed our class to view Sesame Street for a little bit every afternoon. She had provided me and another student an alternative assignment during this time. My friend and I were allowed to work on some type of enrichment puzzles other than watch Sesame Street like the rest of the class. I don't know if I ever wondered why I was doing something different other than because I thought Sesame Street was for little kids, but now I know that my teacher was differentiating for accelerated learners. She continued to push me and my friend rather than keep us at the same level. It is important for me to remember that differentiation also means making accommodations for exceptional children at both ends of the spectrum - those students who are accelerated learners and those students who need more reinforcement.

Future Teaching/Learning Connection: When I am in my own classroom, reviewing the students' files for IEPs will be the main priority at the beginning of the year. I will need to make copies of each student's IEP and make sure that I find ways to make accommodations for that student. I will also want to collaborate closely with the support staff at my school. We are all important members of a learning team who will advocate for our students with IEPs. The intervention specialist and tutors will need to be on the same page as to what the assignments are, how we can best modify it for the student, and monitor the student's academic progress. I am enthusiastic to have the opportunity to work with a knowledgeable intervention specialist and continue to learn more about differentiation as she shares information about her specialty with me as a language arts and science teacher. Learning this information from a knowledgeable colleague will only enhance the students' learning within my own classroom.

Reference.

McFee, K. & Torrey, Z. (1992-1995). ABCs of inclusion. A VI-B project awarded to HPEC by the Kansas State Board of Education.

Methods, Week 6: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

Angela Willyerd — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 05:01:00 GMT

What is culturally responsive pedagogy? Do you see it in your class?

Field Experience Connection: In my cooperating teacher's classroom, I have observed all five indicators of culturally responsive pedagogy. My cooperating teacher has high expectations for all of her students. She demands that they work hard, come in at lunch for additional help, and correct work for mastery. Although her classes are grouped by ability level, she does not alter her expectations for the different blocks. My cooperating teacher also has a positive perspective on parents and families. I have observed my cooperating teacher during parent-teacher conferences, and she seeks to understand the parents' hopes, concerns, and suggestions about the student. She wants to find out what is going on at home and how that may be affecting the student at school.   The parents and the teacher then work together to find an amicable solution that will improve the student's performance. She also continues to communicate with the parents via weekly parent letters and occasional phone calls home. My cooperating teacher also promotes active learning within the classroom. The students have writing portfolios that they have been continuously adding to throughout the year. The students will have six perfect pieces by the end of the year, so they will be able to look back and see how much they have improved within their writing abilities throughout their sixth grade year. Varied teaching strategies also keep the students engaged. The students are also switching from whole group instruction to individual work to learning teams. As for socio-political awareness, my cooperating teacher rallies the students to participate in fundraisers, such as collecting pennies for leukemia. The students are very involved in the fundraising and have chosen to donate their "pizza party money" back to the charity on several occasions this year. I believe that my cooperating teacher does an excellent job of using culturally responsive pedagogy in her classroom. (For how I implemented culturally responsive pedagogy, please see the personal connection section).

Text/Research Connection:  Culturally responsive pedagogy has been defined by Gay (2000) as "using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and performance styles of diverse students to make learning more appropriate and effective for them." Culturally responsive teaching should acknowledge the legitmacy of cultural heritages and build "bridges of meaningfulness between home and school experiences as well as between academic abstractions and lived socio-cultural realties." Culturally responsive pedagogy should also use a wide variety of instructional strategies to accommodate different learning styles. In addition, multicultural information, resources, and materials should also be used within the classroom.

For example, in Holler if You Hear Me, Gregory Michie uses a wide range of assignments to accommodate different learning styles. He asked students to listen to their favorite song and analyze the meaning of the lyrics. This assignment would interest auditory learners as well as students with a musical intelligence. Michie designed this assignment after listening to his students' interests. He had informally asked a pair of students to go home and really listen to the song and then tell him what it was about. The students had responded with such enthusiasm because "popular music was surely the medium they connected with most passionately" (Michie, 1999, p. 99). The students had the opportunity to bridge the gap between home and school by choosing a song that they listened to outside of school and use it as a homework assignment. Students also had the freedom to choose any song that spoke to them, which opens up any cultural song choices.

Personal Connection: Within my two-week unit, I have tried to make my lessons as culturally responsive as possible. I realize that I am not a pro at doing this, but with experience as well as conversations with professional colleagues, I will improve my skills. I did have high expectations for all of my classes and students. I wanted each student to learn even though I realize that some students will learn at different paces. I had to differentiate each day based on the different rates of learning, but I still made sure that the students were learning the same material. While teaching, I had the opportunity to meet several parents as well as write several parent letters. I share with my cooperating teacher the importance of keeping open communication between school and home. I wanted to let the families know what we were doing in the classroom, so they can have a dialogue at home about what we had been discussing at school. I do believe that culturally sensitivity was very important within my language arts class. I had the opportunity to develop relationships with my students and tried each day to share a little bit about my life, so they would feel comfortable sharing about theirs.   I was even able to make it to one of the school dances, which was a great time. The students thought it was fun to meet my husband and to see me in a different light. Relationships are really important to the students.    In addition to learning about the students' backgrounds and community, the literature we selected for the two-week unit was able to tie into to many of the students' backgrounds. We Beat the Street is an inspirational book about three boys who grew up in a tough neighborhood but were able to achieve their dreams of becoming doctors. The adversities that these characters face often relate to many of the challenges that my students face on a daily basis. I use this material in order to engage the students in open group discussion while we read a chapter each day. Students then have the chance to deliberate between their personal lives and what happened within the text. I feel that this is part of promoting active learning by making these personal connections.   I also modeled my teaching strategies after my cooperating teacher, so our classroom has a lot of varied teaching strategies, such as: whole class, small group, and individualized teaching situations. In addition, students were able to use technology, peer teaching, and reader's theater as alternate teaching strategies that would try to accommodate various learning styles. Within my two-week unit, I made sure that the students were able to make connections from the text to their community or neighborhood. Could they think of examples of where this happens in their neighborhood? I want the students to have socio-political awareness, which is the reason for always trying to connect what we learn to their community.

Future Teaching/Learning Connection: In the future, I would like to work on writing for action. A literacy course I had enrolled in last summer taught us how to have students write for action, which would relate to Indicator 5 of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. If I had more time than just two weeks, I would make sure that writing for action would be a priority in my classroom. I want students to understand that they do have a voice in the community, and they can indeed be change agents. Michie allowed his students to write for change by writing to the mayor on p. 137.    Students also connected to the world by writing to author Sandra Cisneros, which encouraged her to visit the school (p. 64).

I also would like to explore many other teaching strategies that would promote active learning. I like how Michie was able to incorporate music into his curriculum, and I think that my students would have responded to this as well. In the future, I would like to tie more of my assignments into my students' passions. I am excited about having many other opportunities in the future to add culturally responsive strategies to my curriculum.

References.

Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research & practice. New York: Teacher's College Press.

Michie, G. (1999). Holler if you hear me: The education of a teacher & his students. New York: Teacher's College Press.

Methods, Week 5: Strategies for Urban Education

Angela Willyerd — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:52:00 GMT

Will some instructional strategies be better suited for the urban environment than others?

Field Experience Connection: Based on my field experience, I believe that some instructional strategies do need to be modified and are preferred in urban environments. I believe that students need to always have the lessons tailored to their knowledge base, which is sometimes different in an urban setting as compared to a suburban setting. The best way to know how to tailor the lessons in order to engage your students is to get to know them. It is hard to quickly get to know 90 students within a methods field experience. I knew their names and a little about each one but I had still not had the opportunity to freely converse with these students. Therefore, I had no idea that when I did the "Mall Crawl" pre-reading activity that the majority of the students rarely visited the mall. So, the students could not connect with me when I tried to explain it as when students walk around the mall, on their way to the movies, and bump into a friend from school. They just don't go to the movies or to the mall - but they especially don't go to malls that have movie theaters in them! I noticed the blank stare and some furrowed eyebrows, so I quickly explained in another way - like when you walk down the hall between classes and you have some hot gossip to share. This connected a little more and the students got the idea. However, I wish I had the opportunity to go to their school dance before I had started my two-week unit. If so, I could have used the analogy of walking up and down the hallway from the cafeteria to the gymnasium during the school dance. Then students would have completely gotten the idea from the get-go. I noticed that the hallway between these two areas were definitely abuzz with gossip and chit-chat - which boy looked at them and half-smiled, which boy was playing basketball, and who they thought was going to ask them to dance next. It is this inside information that a teacher must have in order to connect her lessons to her students.

Reference / Text Connection: Williams & Woods (1995) suggest that Learner Experience (LE) is an important concept for teachers to understand in urban education. "Learner experience is a construct used to describe all of the dynamic environmental or contextual influences that help to shape students' learning - their thinking, language, knowledge, belief systems, values, and actions. These influences result from their interactions in the home, the school, and the community at large" (p. 5). There are two different learner experiences: those that happen in the school and those that happen outside of the school. The article states that "most teachers gather information about in-school LE," such as school records, standardized assessment data, and teacher comments, but some teachers are very limited in knowing the important outside-of-school LE (p. 5). Furthermore, teachers who "continually learn about and consistently use out-of-school LE are able to create caring classroom environments where urban learners are more motivated, learn better, and feel more positively about themselves" (p. 5) In addition, urban students tended to yield positive results when working in cooperative learning groups, the use of movement activities, and lessons that allowed students to "share personal experiences and multiple points of view" (p. 6).

Personal Connection: I always learned best when teachers connected the lessons and concepts to real life. Dr. Tansey at Otterbein did a great job of making chemistry easy and fun to learn. He was always using pop culture references in order to explain really difficult concepts. He knew his audience and was able to make us relate. Knowing your audience is a really important concept to grasp as a teacher.

I tried to get to know my audience better by attending the school dance. I believe that I developed rapport with some of the individuals who are very tough to get to know in the classroom. I hope that the connection we created by playing basketball together will help encourage students to participate in class and make a better effort in my class.

I also have asked students what I need to do to improve. Some students asked for more group work than work they did altogether. At times teacher-centered activities are necessary and since I am introducing many new concepts to them some of the lessons have been direct instruction. However, this coming week I will try to incorporate more cooperative learning since the research above indicated that urban students cherish working together and developing those relationships.

Future Teaching and Learning Connection: I will continue to strive to develop connections with my students. I feel that it is important to show that you care about them and want to get to know who they are as a person. I believe all students respect teachers who show that they are teachers because they care about the students and not just because it's your job. Even though the article referenced within this reflection states that getting to know your audience is an important strategy for urban learners, I believe that I will carry this belief with me wherever I have the privilege of teaching.

Reference.

Williams, B., Woods, M., & Research for Better Schools, I. (1995, January 1). Learner Experience Strategies in Two Urban School Districts. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED390968) Retrieved February 8, 2009, from ERIC database.

Methods, Week 4: Assessment

Angela Willyerd — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:27:00 GMT

What is the purpose of assessment? What kinds of assessment do you see being used in the classroom? How can you see assessment being used in the classroom? How can you see assessment being used to make teaching and learning better for students?

Field Experience Connection: Assessment in education today has a much different connotation than it did when I was in school. In my cooperating teacher's classroom, I see many different kinds of assessment which allows students to feel comfortable with the idea of assessment. She uses short cycle assessment a lot to see if the kids are getting what she is teaching. She will often teach a mini-lesson using direct instruction, allows the students to practice, and then reviews with a few questions. Students often will be asked to raise their right hand for one thing or their left hand for another, stand up/sit down, or make different movements for different answers. This allows her to know what the students know, gets the students up and moving, and is almost an anonymous way to assess since the students are busy moving they are not paying attention to what the other students are doing. Formative assessments have also been used in this classroom. My cooperating teacher designed a formative assessment similar to what the students would see on an OAT-type test. Therefore, the benefit of assessment was two-fold: the teacher is assessing student progress on certain indicators while the students are getting practice in being familiar with the question structure of a standardized test. My cooperating teacher also uses pre- and post-assessments in her classroom - especially for vocabulary. Type II writing is one of her favorite methods to post-assess vocabulary knowledge because the students are able to put the words into their own context and then circle the vocabulary words within the written paragraph(s). My teacher often tells her students, "This is a great opportunity to show what you know!" when presenting them with an assessment. Her words echo those of Powell on page 262 when Powell suggests that teachers with a positive approach on standardized assessment will "guarantee happier, more productive students along with the real possiblity of higher scores." Her standardized assessment scores do show positive value-added in language arts, so I will definitely be using this mentality with my own classroom because it works!

Reference / Text Connection: I feel like the purpose of assessment is to monitor student progress. I felt this way during class even before I read the supporting chapter in Powell's Introduction to Middle School. Powell takes the stance of the NCTM's four purposes of assessment. The first purpose of assessment is to evaluate student achievement and recognize accomplishment; the second purpose is to monitor student progress and promote student growth; the third and fourth purposes are related to "either instructional or program revisions and are recognized and acted upon less frequently than the first two" (p. 240). Although Powell believes that assessment data is acted upon less frequently to influence instructional or program revisions, I feel that this is changing in the educational sphere. Columbus Public has curriculum consultants who work at the schools who are in Academic Watch each day in order to try to improve the instruction and curriculum alignment of teachers. The school district has acted upon the data from the standardized assessment and want to try to implement some type of action in order to improve student learning. Schools who are also in Academic Watch without improvement for so many years will also risk "program revisions." Teachers will need to re-apply for their jobs, so the school district has an opportunity to re-assess who and what will work best to improve standardized assessment scores. The instructional and program revisions might not be on a classroom teacher's mind, but I think that this is constantly on administrators' minds and affects the choices made within a school district.

Personal Connection: Like I said at the beginning of this entry, assessment had a different connotation for me when I was in grades K-12. I think times have changed in education. Although school systems are much more adamant about standardized assessment than when I was in school, I feel like the everyday classroom assessment is not approached with as much anxiety. My former teachers typically assessed us with traditional tests or quizzes, which is an example of forced-choice assessment (Powell, 2005, p. 244). Although this is one of the sevond forms of classroom assessment, I rarely was assessed in any other way. Occasionally a teacher was brave enough to assign a huge project where we were to have alternate assessments, such as portfolios or visual responses; however, this was not common. Any assessment that would have resembled a formative assessment was still graded. These practices instilled a fear among students, especially among high-performing students. There was not an opportunity for students to comfortably show what they know and allow teachers to know what needs to be re-visited without the students feeling like they had to "cram" for a test. This practice made students memorize, pass a quiz or test, and then forget rather than actually learning and retaining information. I believe the new outlook on assessment encourages students to actually learn through formative and self-assessments so students will grow a stable knowledge base.

Future Teaching and Learning Connection: I really feel like assessment is a wonderful tool for teachers to use and make instructional decisions based upon the results; however, I will need the guidance of my cooperating teacher in developing assessments and rubrics because she has so much knowledge and experience to share. Assessment is an important concept of teaching that needs to be mastered, but I don't think it can be completely mastered without getting the field experience. Pre-service teachers can only read and understand the different types of assessments. It is exciting to get in the field to actually get real data and learn how to make decisions based on how the students respond. I know I will be using pre- and post-assessments as well as formative assessments for the big enduring understandings within my unit. I need to know the information provided by these types of assessments in order to alter my unit to fit the needs of my students. I might have the same "skeleton" of a lesson for each block, but I already know that I might have to vary my instruction or methods of presenting information based on the ability levels of each of my blocks. This will be challenging, but I know that this will enhance student learning. Developing a unit with the help of a seasoned cooperating teacher is one of the most valuable experiences of this course. I have new ideas that I'm ready to try and need her knowledge base to know how to tweak it best for each block!

Methods, Week 3: The Role of Planning

Angela Willyerd — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:05:00 GMT

What role does planning have in good teaching and learning?

Field Experience Connection: Before I started my field experience this quarter, I would have said that planning is the most important part of good teaching and learning. While I still think that teachers should ideally have lesson plans that have been thoroughly thought out with every aspect considered, such as learning styles and other ways to differentiate, I realize that even the best of plans do not always play out as intended. It seems that flexibility in planning is what really makes teaching and learning happen in a real classroom.

For example, my cooperating teacher runs into issues with students not doing homework or having conflicts with each other during class. At times, certain things need to be addressed and take precedence over what had originally been planned. On Friday, my cooperating teacher had built in a test-taking strategy mini-lesson to prepare the students for the upcoming Ohio Achievement Test. The lesson was to be based on a homework assignment from the previous night. Students were to create multiple choice questions using their vocabulary words. Only seven of twenty students completed the homework assignment, so if my teacher had continued her lessons as planned then it would have been pointless.

Instead, my teacher decided to modify her original lesson plans in order to adapt to the situation. This shows how flexibility comes into play during planning. This could also be called reflection in action. My teacher decided to split up the seven students into two teams. One team would be the quality work checkers while the other team would write an example of their best multiple choice question on the whiteboard. While one team was writing their question on the board, the quality work checkers would help their peers who had not completed their homework finish the assignment and ensuring it was completed as "quality work." This plan seemed to work out better than the original plan. The students who had finished the assignment for homework the night before were able to "teach" the other students how to write quality multiple choice questions. The students were engaging each other and prompting each other to think critically. I overheard one little boy tell another student, "Now, I'm going to show you what it's suppose to look like. Look here (presenting his homework paper). And, you better not copy one of mine." Students who would have typically not ever completed the missing homework were still learning even if the assignment was not completed on time. The students who had completed the assignment on time had the opportunity to refine their skills by serving as quality work checkers for their peers.

Research/Text Connection: The opening quote in Powell's Introduction to Middle School (2005, p. 269) essentially sums up my thoughts about good planning:
        Although planning is a critical skill for a teacher, a well developed plan will not guarantee the success of a lesson or
        unit or even the overall effectiveness of a course. But lack of a well-developed plan will almost certainly result in poor
        teaching. Like a good map, a good plan helps you reach your destination with more confidence and with fewer wrong
        turns (Callahan, Clark, and Kellough, 2002, p. 61).

I agree that planning is a critical skill for teaching. Effective teachers should continue to plan lessons and cohesive units as a framework for what might happen in the classroom. However, real teachers know that it is important to modify the lesson plan as needed throughout the class period or throughout the week in order to create a learning environment that will best suit the needs of the students. Lesson plans do help teachers have "a feeling of confidence and security" because planning allows the teacher to "organize, sequence, and increase familiarity with course content" before presenting it to the students (Powell, 2005, p. 271). Planning also prepares teachers to "interact with students during instruction" by preparing a list of possible questions to ask the students, knowing when to pause and discuss during the lesson, and having modifications ready to accommodate individual differences (p. 271). Without proper planning, I feel like a teacher would enter the classroom with a "deer in the headlights" effect. Students will be able to pick up on how unprepared the teacher was for class, feel like the activities he/she comes up with are pointless, and the teacher will have many students who fail to participate fully.

Personal Connection: As an event planner in my life prior to becoming a middle school teacher, I realize that most people will think that I find planning extremely beneficial. And, I do value planning based on the opening quote mentioned above in the Research section. I think that planning makes for better teaching and learning even if things aren't followed exactly as what was originally planned. I think it's important to write things out and visualize how one would like for the lesson to happen.

For example, I had the opportunity to teach a lesson this week in my sixth grade language arts classroom. My cooperating teacher had been teaching during the first block and asked us at the bell if we had wanted to pick up and teach the second block. Of course, I wanted to try to hone my teaching skills. However, I had been working on another task for the teacher during the first block when she had been teaching the lesson she wanted me to teach to the second block. The content was unfamiliar for me and in a format where the students could shout out any number of possibilities. I knew the basics of how to conduct this activity, but was very nervous about all the possible words the students could add to the root word tree. Would I know the meaning of each prefix and suffix? I didn't want to look incompetent in front of the students. I conducted the lesson the best I could, but there were a few words in which the prefix or suffix wasn't listed on the Common Prefixes and Suffixes chart. So, I had to tell the students that we would have to look that up and then asked if anyone knew the meaning of the entire word.

I doubt if any students thought that I was stupid or incompetent. However, I felt very flustered and unconfident during the entire lesson. If I had a chance to "plan" the lesson prior to teaching or just a few moments to review the content, I think I would have been more confident. This is the benefit of planning. I would have been confident in myself to lead the class in whichever way they took us based upon their shouts of words using the given root word. Without having this opportunity to plan, I was nervous and insecure about which word I would have to try to figure out along with the class. I feel that good planning allows me to be more flexible in the classroom because I am prepared and confident rather than the misconception that a person who values good planning would want everything to go exactly as planned.

Future Teaching & Learning Connection: There are two things that I definitely want to implement in my language arts classroom that are currently missing: learning targets and closure. Students need to know the reason why the teacher is having them do the activities they are doing. I feel that there is a disconnect with the students, and they are often asking: "What's the point?" It is not that the teacher is doing pointless activities. My cooperating teacher is wonderful and has lots of great ideas. It's just that sometimes the introduction of a learning target might be what connects the dots for these students.

Closure would also be another way to help connect the dots for students. On most days, the students work up until the bell, hurriedly grab their things, and move on to the next class. Students are not reviewing what they learned, connecting it to what they had already learned, or seeing how they might connect what they learned to something else the next day. I think if the teacher would consciously try to get the attention of the class approximately five minutes before the bell rings, then the students would have the opportunity to synthesize the material and relate it to the bigger picture.

References.

Powell, S.D. (2005). Introduction to middle school. New Jersey: Pearson Educational, Inc.

I Am From...

Angela Willyerd — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:32:00 GMT

Poetry was always the toughest part of the language arts experience during my K-12 schooling. Looking back, I have a hunch that most of my English teachers were fearful of embracing this subject so it was often skipped over. As a student teacher in a language arts classroom this quarter, my class absolutely loves poetry as a way of expressing their inner thoughts and feelings. I want them to partake in a poetry activity by writing a "I Am From..." poem, so I thought I would try the process myself to have insight on how I can instruct them to write their own poem.

“I Am From..."
by Angela Congrove Willyerd

I am from the rolling hills and hollers
Living on a road called Walnut Creek - not a crick.
I am from huge family gatherings
Located at the big farmhouse made of brick.

I am from playing school,
Being teacher, and reading books.
From sleeping in bunkbeds,
Walking our sheep, and baiting fishing hooks.

I am from Myrtle Beach vacations
And playing in the sand.
I am from playing my mother’s silver saxophone
And marching with the band.

I am from Fair Queen pageants
And festival floats
From Grandpa with the cow bell
And pictures with chickens and goats.

I am from the “crazy corner” with lots of folks
Who brighten our traditional holiday.
From making oyster dressing and thumbprint cookies
In order to preserve the memory of Grandma Thelma Mae.

I am from be a good person on the inside
Because outer beauty can fade.
Be there for those who are close to you
For that is how memories are made.

Methods, Week 2: How do you approach the process of planning?

Angela Willyerd — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:44:00 GMT

How do you approach the process of planning and choosing teaching strategies when given content? How do you see your teacher make decisions about teaching content?

Field Experience Connection: This week we were given content at random and asked to do a reflective teaching lesson with our peers. I was given content regarding Medieval castles and its parts. The objective of the activity was to teach my peers to label 14 castle parts, understand the main reason castles were built (for protection), and know approximately when the castle model we were looking at was built. The information was handed over to us in a manilla folder with no other directions except to design a 20 minute lesson.

The initial response I had when I opened my folder was a bewildered, “Castles?” I suppose I had expected it to be something more relevant to one of my two concentration areas. However, after thinking about it, I thought that the point of this activity was to see how we developed and executed a lesson. Good teachers know how to teach any content – just not familiar content.

I began to read carefully through the provided material when I started the planning process. What was the objective of this activity? What was being assessed? How could I frame this for my peers to understand the activity? These were the main questions that I had asked myself before designing any lesson. I determined the learning targets first based on the provided assessment. Students would need to be able to label 14 out of 14 castle parts; students would need to understand that castles were used for protection; and students would understand that this particular castle model was built in 1100 AD. It was important for me to make sure that my lesson curriculum was aligned to the assessment, because according to Fenwick English, author of Deciding What to Teach and Test, “without alignment, there is nothing fair about testing” (p. xi).

I then started framing my lesson. I decided that I needed to hook my colleagues and then give them a mini-lecture on castles. I decided to introduce the lesson by posing a question in which I felt my peers would relate. The question was: “Have you ever been in a situation where you felt awkward and started to put your emotional walls up? Where do you think the saying “putting up walls” comes from?” While teaching the lesson, I paused between questions and allowed my peers to throw out suggestions. I then segued into how people usually “put up walls” to protect their emotions and related it to how people who built castles with many walls did so for protection. I then briefly talked to them for two minutes about the history of castles and then explained the learning targets.

In planning, I had thought about how I was going to be able to teach my peers fourteen castle parts in fifteen minutes. I thought about how I would learn best and then thought about how other people might learn. I tried to design an activity that would try to accommodate all learners. I designed a magnetic board of the castle layout. The parts of the castle were then on little magnets, so the part could be placed on the magnet board in the appropriate spot. I then thought about how my peers would know where these parts should go besides just using rote memory, so I decided to provide an auditory explanation of the function of each of the parts and “model” by placing each part on the magnetic board as I talked about its function. I thought this would help the auditory and visual learners. After I finished my modeling activity/explanation, I allowed my peers to work in a small group to label the magnetic board of the castle with the magnetic castle parts. I had strips of paper that hinted of the function of each part to prompt my peers’ memory as to where the castle part might be located on the board. I thought that physically placing the magnetic parts on the board would be excellent for the visual and kinesthetic learners while reading the description and part names while searching would be good for auditory learners. Once all parts were correctly matched, then the group matched the parts without the prompt. This shows how I scaffolded the activity – using modeling first, then prompts as my peers worked on the group activity the first time, and allowing peers to complete the activity independent of any prompts the second time prior to taking the assessment.

The results of the assessment showed that my peers did fairly well. The lowest assessment score was 12/16. The assessment was not the only basis for my teaching reflection – the learner satisfaction form was most important to me. One of my peers thought it was not necessary for me to teach about the function of the castle parts if they did not have to learn it for the test. I knew beforehand that the function of the castle parts was not going to be tested, but I decided to design the lesson in this way because some students might be able to use this information to think through where the castle parts were located once they were given only a blank diagram. Another student mentioned that the mark placed on the diagram for where the parts were to be placed were not exactly in the same spot on the assessment. Again, this was true. The mark on the practice diagram was very close to the same spot but not exactly as on the assessment. Perhaps, I should have made the practice diagram exactly the same as the assessment diagram; however, I felt that the students should be able to identify the part regardless of where the mark was located. Otherwise, I thought that students were only memorizing and forgetting rather than truly learning. What do other teachers think and do?

Overall, I was relieved to have finished the reflective teaching lesson. It is much harder to teach to your critical colleagues than to teach younger students. I felt that it was tough to have your teacher persona on when teaching to someone your own age.

In my cooperating teacher’s classroom, my teacher makes teaching look completely natural. I believe she mostly uses direct instruction to teach her students; however, she ensures that the direct instruction has a balance of teacher- and student-centered activities rather than only teacher-centered, which is sometimes associated with direct instruction. Students are constantly switching from whole group instruction to cooperative learning groups that reinforce what was being taught. Classroom discussion is also prompted by “think‑alouds” that seem as natural as having a conversation with a friend in a coffee shop. It appears so natural that one would think that no planning was involved, but upon closer inspection, one would see the tons of books with interactive teaching strategies which has helped her build up her arsenal of teaching tools. Her eleven years of experience has allowed her to almost automatically know which strategy would be best for the content. I am excited to have the opportunity to learn from a teacher who really understands pedagogy.

Research/Text Connection: While reflecting on my castle lesson in respect to the research, I found that the hook and background history on castles would be considered a mini-lecture, since it only lasted a few minutes. Powell (2005) states that, “inattention may fill a middle school classroom after 10 to 15 minutes of one person talking” (p. 213). Keeping the lecture brief allows it to be more effective, so I was correct in structuring a mini-lecture rather than reading all the information that was included in the packet.

I also decided to model how to match the parts of the castle on the diagram while talking about the castle part’s function. Powell states that, “when coupled with a mini-lecture, a demonstration complements auditory learning with visual stimulation” (p. 213). Rick Wormeli, as paraphrased in Powell, “acknowledges that mini-lectures used in conjunction with other strategies during a class period are effective instructional tools” (p. 213).

In addition, I used cooperative learning, which is a “flexible and powerful tool for grouping students to promote collaboration” as well as setting learning objectives and providing feedback, which is the “process of establishing a direction for learning and then providing an explanation of what students are doing that is correct and what they are doing that is incorrect” (p. 212). I feel that I did a pretty good job of designing and planning a lesson once comparing my strategies to the research in Powell’s book, Introduction to Middle School. I will continue striving to get better with each lesson I plan because I know that ineffective teachers are those who assume they know it all already.

Personal Connection: Designing a lesson is tough work. There is a lot of deep thought that goes into designing a good lesson. Thinking back to when I was a middle school student, there were only a handful of teachers who I can remember had great lessons that truly engaged us. Most of my middle school career was full of lecture, textbook questions, and worksheets. I wonder how many of my middle school teachers truly put thought into their lessons. Or, perhaps some of my teachers showed up to class and decided what they were going to do for that period on the fly. It makes me angry to think that some students are exposed to teachers who do not spend the time thinking and planning. It is really an injustice and shows how our education system is not always equal. My goal is to make middle school education better for the students who I will teach and try to motivate others around me – teachers and students – to reach their highest potential.

Future Teaching & Learning Connection: The learner satisfaction forms that I gave to my peers following the castle lesson really provided a lot of feedback. It showed me that some of my peers learned better in some ways than in others. Teaching to an unexpected “class” of peers was tough in order to target the lesson directly to their learning styles, but as a teacher in a regular classroom it might be a bit easier once you have worked with your students closely. It would be interesting to see how students would respond if a teacher gave them a learner satisfaction form. Would they have constructive criticism? Perhaps I will give students this opportunity to voice their opinions when I teach my unit.

References.

English, F.W. (2000). Deciding what to teach and test: Developing, aligning, and auditing the curriculum. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Powell, S.D. (2005). Introduction to middle school. New Jersey: Pearson Educational, Inc.

Methods, Week 2, Day 1: The Beginning

Angela Willyerd — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:34:00 GMT

Today was our official first day of Methods. Erin and I were instructed to observe quietly in the back of the room, take notes, and have zero interaction with the students. The cooperating teacher wanted us to get a sense of how her language arts/reading classes flow and try to decipher the personalities of each blocked class.

The first block was already tracked as a gifted and talented group. The students were absolutely terrific. The teacher spent a lot of time discussing the happenings of the weekend, talking about announcements and fundraisers, and just general chit chat before starting the day. I think this opening five minutes helps the students feel connected to the teacher. Students participated in a hands-on activity - creating the dimensions of a prison cell with painter's tape on the classroom floor. This went along with their Life in Prison novel the class is currently reading. It was interesting to note that the students started gravitating towards traditional gender roles. The boys grabbed the tape and yardsticks while pretending to be "men." Most of the girls stood along on the sidelines, arms folded. The teacher did a great job of encouraging the girls to participate, making sure people had a job, and rotating the jobs. Students really enjoyed this activity, which brought the book to life. Students also learned about I-statements to manage conflict resolution. This block does not seem to have too many issues with working together. Students generally stayed on task and did not argue. However, that was not the case for all blocks in which this teacher worked.

The second block definitely had a different personality than the first block. The second block seemed to be very energetic. The students were more willing to take chances and jump right in with the cell building activity whereas the first block was cautious and more strategic. One student was very "mouthy" to the teacher. He would get stuck on one thing and couldn't move past it. The teacher ended up moving this student away from the others. Of course, the student made a big scene by slamming his papers down and scraping his chair across the floor with added emphasis. Sometimes I wonder if it would be better to ignore the annoying/irritating behavior until the rest of the class is working and then conference privately with the troubled student. It seemed to through the class off track and frustrated the teacher. Waiting to conference privately might take the emotion out of the situation. There was definitely a lot of emotion in that room. Later, the teacher worked on I-statements with the class. The troubled student was asked to fill-in the blanks of the I-statement on the board. The student was only able to verbalize what he didn't like but had a difficult time of knowing how to verbalize what he felt. Students seemed to need to work on basic emotional vocabulary. Since students don't have these vocabulary words, they tend to act out rather than voice their frustration and how they would prefer things to be.

The third block was interesting. The teacher said the third block typically had the most behaviorial issues; however, today, I felt that the second block topped the third. The third block had different pockets of students who liked to antagonize each other. Other students felt like they were helping the situation by yelling "Shut up!" really loud across the room. When the teacher asked them how they could quiet the other students without yelling across the room, then finger snapping at each other started to be the more favorable action. I don't think the snapping really helped the situation! I think I will try the "Give Me Five" signal when I start teaching. I have seen students use this signal to quiet other students when the classroom gets too loud for them to work productively. Maybe it will work in this classroom, too.

Overall, I am excited to start getting to know the kids and building relationships. I want to make sure that I am seen as a fair, fun but stern teacher. I want the students to know when it's time to work and when it's okay to joke. Most of all, I want to see student progress while I'm teaching in the next eight weeks.