Cooperative Learning

For my two teachers, they are on the opposite ends when it comes to group work.  In my advanced algebra classes with my other CT, we do not do any group work at all.  Most everything in that class students do individually.  Then, with my other CT, we usually do group work everyday.  I think the group work is the most effective when we are using a discovery activity in class.  Sometimes we try to have the students try to answer each others homework questions.  When they do that they usually don't do it or just copy off of each other.  In the class, the students sit in groups of 4.  Usually, the group work will be as a table, or with your table partner.  Usually, the purpose of the activity is a discovery activity where the students have to do a task to find what they are learning for that day.  We usually sometimes assign them roles.  For example, we were having the students build triangles and "impossible" triangles with Anglegs.  We had them work in pairs and we assigned one person as the builder and one as the writer, then they changed roles.  This kind of makes it so that one person isn't going to do all the work while the other sits there and does nothing.  We really don't have any type of accountability for the students.  The only sort of accountability we have is just asking them what they found when we bring it back as a group.  With our groups, the main role of the teacher is to keep the students on task while they are doing the task.  I think without this supervision and push to complete the task, the studetns would never complete it on their own.

Lesson Planning

This week I am starting to do my own lesson plans for a class.  One form that my CT gave me uses the 5 E's.  The five E's are engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate.  My CT said that this is the one that the department uses when they have to do evaluations.  I like using this one because it gets you to think about what can come up during the lesson, more than what is actually in the lesson.  At our school our lessons and activities are very similar for each teacher.  So this lesson plan template gets you to anticipate what is going to come up and questions that the students may ask.  I don't think that I am the best at planing these those because I just haven't had the experiences designing them for students.  However, I do think that when I get more experiences with actual students, my lesson plans will get exponentially better.

Student Teaching Week 1

One of the classrooms that I am in, the desks are put into groups.  This, I think, helps build a sense of community among the students.  They are always working in pairs or in groups.  In the other room that I'm in the class is in rows.  This doesn't really build a sense of community in the class.  However, the teacher seems to know something about every student in the class.  She has something to talk about with each students and that helps build that community.  One thing that is going well is that there haven't been any kids that have been misbehaving.  They seem to all be well behaved and won't cause that many problems in the future.  One idea that I have come up with is to use my iPad and notability for the notes when I eventually take over the classroom.  Both my teachers write under the doc cam or just on the board.  This will make it easier to upload onto the website for the students and it also may be easier for the students to see because the doc cam is kind of hard to see in my classrooms.  There aren't that many special rules that are in my classes.  Both of my teachers haven't really communicated what the consequences of breaking the rules are to the class.  

Tests

The past couple of week our class has had a number of tests.  So during the time the students are taking them I have gotten to think about if I like the way LPS has the standardized test that the district writes.  The positives that come out of the district writing the test is that you don't have to write it, so you can spend more time on grading for other classes or just time relaxing.  Another positive from this is that you get help form other teachers if you have a question on how to grade a problem if you have trouble with something.  The negative (and I think it's a pretty big one) is that it limits your individuality in designing a lesson plan.  Having the pre-written test makes you have to teach to the test a little bit.  Our CT does this in his lessons.  He has to make sure he has examples that are going to be on the test so the students get to see it at some point.  After weighing the positives and negatives, I think I'm still indifferent about it.  I would be fine with it if the district I teach in in the future does either of these.

Cussing

There are a couple of kids in my class that have the mouths of a sailor, and they usually say a couple words that maybe shouldn't be said during class.  Our CT just tells the students to watch their mouths.  This is way different from when I was in high school.  If we ever said a cuss word there would be some sort of punishment for it.  This got Logan and I discussing about how we would handle it in our classroom.  We talked about how we would handle it on a case to case basis.  If a student just uses one in normal conversation I don't think that they should be punished.  If they use it in front of the whole class I think that is a different story and something should be done.  One student always asked why cussing is bad in school when it is everywhere else, and my response to that (and the reason I will use in my future classroom) is that it's about respecting your classmates.  You never know what the other students think about those words and you don't want to offend them.  Another thing I like that my CT said was that there are thousands of words in the English language, there are plenty of other words to use other than those 6 or 7 words that have been deemed bad.

Classroom Management

My CT tries to start the day using the same routine.  He usually has a warm up on the board for the students to work on once they get in the room and get settled in.  Then we starts the day going over the warm up problems.  That is followed up by a quote and then a estimation on estimation180.com.  Next is the lesson and some practice problems.  There aren't any rules in the room that my CT put up.  However, there is the SOAR rules that is the rule guidelines that Southwest puts in place.  The biggest problem he has is students talking.  When a student is talking, he usually stops the lesson to tell them to be quite and that they need to pay attention.  If the whole class is having a side conversation, we does a countdown to get them to stop.  Another problem is cell phones.  He give them a warning if they are using them in class.  If they get caught using it for a second time, he takes the phone away and keeps it at his desk.

One disciplinary rules that Southwest has is to send the students to the office if they are acting up.  Our CT hasn't needed to do that in our time there.  The norms that our CT sets is that students should come to class prepared, on time, and ready to work.  The students also know that when there is a warm up on the board, they should get to work on it right away.  One norm that he is trying to work on is having the students writing notes and him not having to tell them that they need to write things down.

1. Routine for how students will enter the room
Students should walk in and go straight to their seats and get started on a warm up problem that is on the board.

2. Routine for how students will be instructionally engaged while attendance is taken and for how opening business is conducted:
I will take attendance when students are working on the warm up

3. Routine for dealing with tardy students:
I will ask them for a pass, and if they don't have one then I will mark them down as tardy and tell them to get started on the warm up

4. Routine for dealing with students who come to class without necessary materials
I will warn them that they need to be prepared for class next time, and then have them borrow the necessary materials from me or a neighbor

5. Routine for dealing with students returning after an absence:
I will talk to the student while they are working on the warm up and catch them up on what they missed and what they need to do

6. Routine for dealing with student bathroom breaks
Students will able to go to the restroom when we aren't doing something really important

7. Routine for returning student work:
Students will get their homework right when they get in the door and sit down

8. Routine for students when engaging independent work:
Students should be focused on the task and doing it by themselves if that is what the task asks for

9. Routine for students when engaging in partner/small-group work:
They should get into their groups in a timely manner and then get started on the task when they all get settled down

10. Routine for students when engaging in whole-class discussion: 
If students want to contribute to the discussion, they need to raise their hand and wait to be called on.  If they aren't talking they should be quiet and listening

11. Routine for wrapping up at end of day/class:
Students should complete the closure task that is given to them

12. Routine for dismissal:
Students should not pack up until the bell rings or I tell them that the lesson is over and can pack it up


Policies & Procedures for Managing Student Work:

1. Policies & Procedures for assigning classwork and homework:
Homework will be given at the end of the lesson for them to leave with

2. Policies & Procedures for collecting completed work:
After the homework, students will pass their homework in to the end of a row or somehow together so that it's easy for me to collect

3. Policies & Procedures for keeping records and providing grades and feedback to students:
Grades will be kept in whatever grade system that my school has.  Grades and feedback on the student's work will be written on the assignment too

4. Policies & Procedures for dealing with late and missing assignments:
A small point total will be taken off for each day that an assignment is late

5. Policies & Procedures for dealing with absent students:
Students that are gone will have 2 or 3 days to complete the assignment that was assigned that day

Finding a Balance

My CT creates his own seating charts for his class.  He tries to put students in a way where students sit by other people that they work well with each other.  I do like this strategy that he puts in place.  It lets the students be more comfortable with talking to their neighbors about a problem that they have.  This helps students learn and helps the teacher so that they have less questions to answer.  However, since he likes to put students that work well together, those kids are most likely pretty good friends also.  This means that they talk all the time during class.  He constantly has to tell a couple of pairs to stop talking and pay attention in class.  Since I do agree with the concept of doing this, I kind of want to put in use in my classroom.  However, after seeing the results of what actually happens, I'd much rather have a calm classroom environment and having all my students not distracted.  I wonder if there is any way to find that balance of great partners but ones that pay attention during class.