Shadowing

For part of my contract about mentoring, I though it would be a good idea to have other teachers mentor me with their multiple teaching styles. For this shadowing I decided to choose teachers outside of my mentor teacher and in different content areas. I chose to observe Reading, Social Studies, and two Science teachers. All teachers were 7th grade teachers with the exception of one of the science teachers who was in 8th grade.

Mrs. Maloney (7th Grade Science)

My first shadowing took place in a 7th grade science class for two periods. This was nice to have because I was very familiar with the teacher and had a good relationship with her. She was very willing to let me observe and even got me involved in the classroom discussions. Her class was a lot different than my mentor teacher's and I think this is because of the different contents. The class was set up in tables and she used a lot of manipulatives in her class. The manipulatives worked very well for this particular lesson because it was all about energy and how it can be transferred into electricity to operate numerous things. The class was open for discussion which sometimes led to the students getting off task, but she had great control of her classroom and got the students back on task quickly. Even though she had complete control of her classroom, Mrs. Maloney had a very good relationship with her students and made the class very fun to learn in and observe. She made plenty of real world references, which got the students very engaged in her lesson. Suncrest has access to a lot of technology, and Mrs. Maloney made good use of all the technology in her classroom. Besides the multiple manipulatives in her class, she also used the intel board to go through notes randomly throughout the lesson. I think she did a great job of integrating different types of teaching into one lesson and this observation helped me see them thoroughly.

Ms. Cunningham (7th Grade Social Studies)

Ms. Cunningham was also another 7th grade teacher I had a good relationship with and had no problem with me observing her class. Her class was more setup like my mentor teacher's, with the desks in rows and the teacher's desk at the front. She started class off with a brain teaser from their previous lessons to get the students started. She is a little bit of an old school type of teacher, but seems to have the respect of all her students and gets their attention easy. I had come on a good day because the students were writing thank you letters to people who had come in and talked to them during multicultural day. This allowed for me to see their creativity and also allowed them to express it in the classroom. She clearly had laid out the rules for the activity and had students working with one other person at most. To encourage good behavior, she played music for the students when they behaved. I love this idea because it gives the students something to look forward to, which I believe encourages them to stay on task and not lose focus.

Mrs. Goodwin (7th Grade Reading)

I was a little out of my element here because I always considered Reading as one of my worst classes. I still went in with high hopes and was surprised that the class was a co-teach classroom, but was happy that I had a good relationship with both of the teachers. The class setup at the start was just like a normal classroom, with the desks lined up in rows. This lasted for only a little bit before the students were split into three groups and each group went to a different station. I liked this idea because this class is the only one I know of at Suncrest that is a block. It was great to see this because students got to spend a decent amount of time at each station. The station I thought allowed for the students to understand responsibility was the silent reading station. Students sat quietly and read a book while the other two teachers taught the other two stations. Also incorporated into the classroom was technology. Both teachers used a timer to time each station and also had laptops to look up information for a project the students were working on. The students really enjoyed looking up material and were pretty well-behaved for a block period. I really liked the idea of stations for the class and the students seemed to enjoy it as well. I think it worked well because it was a block class and it was able to keep the students interested the entire time. It was great to see the station style used in a classroom.

Mrs. Dowling (8th Grade Science)

I felt that it would be good for me to observe an 8th grade teacher to see how a teacher differs on a different level. Even though she was an 8th grade teacher, I had a good relationship with Mrs. Dowling because she was my Tutor Coordinator. The class was setup a lot like Mrs. Maloney, meaning it had a table style of seating for students. Unlike Mrs. Maloney's class, each student had a laptop to look up material for the project they were working on. In the next few months, every classroom will have a set of laptops to be used whenever. The first class was very talkative at first and it was hard to get the class started. Instead of yelling at her students, Mrs. Dowling gave them an ultimatum. She reminded them that she was getting grading on this and that they were. She stated that she doesn't have to help them with the project and if they want to get a good grade, then they should calm down and start listening. This worked pretty well and the class got back on task. While shadowing her, she showed me exactly what her students were making and how the laptops were being used. I learned a lot about the new technology being integrated into the school and got to see how a teacher might use them in their classroom. Mrs. Dowling picked a good way to use them, because each student was looking up a different disease or disorder. This gave me a new insight into 21st Century teaching and can see how well it will work in the future at Suncrest Middle School.

TAG Mentorship

During last semester, my mentor teacher and I shared a room with the talented and gifted (TAG) teacher when we would have our individual plan. We would always have a little talk with her and she would fill us in on some things she did with her students. The students were 6th graders who competed in educational games and even the Pumpkin Drop. I became interested and was able to help out in her classroom for 3 days. I thought it would be great because I had never worked with 6th graders during my 3 year tenure at Suncrest Middle School, and was excited to see what kind of students she worked with and how she taught.

I loved how her set-up was like a discussion. She did not stand at the front of the class and lecture the students on what they were learning, but rather had them each read their own pamphlet allowed and tell her what was important in the section. During this time we engaged the class in discussions about the topic at hand, which allowed us to branch out into related stories. I thought it was almost like a college class with the way we were discussing everything going on and how the stories were so relevant to the material. I also enjoyed how she managed the class when it got a little too loud and she seemed to have a great rapport with her students. The students felt very comfortable with me in the classroom because they have seen me a lot around the school because they were some of the only 6th graders who were ever on the second floor.

It was great to help students who were beyond their grade level to discuss problems and figure out ways that may help prevent or limit them in the future. I honestly did not think students so young could have such an in depth discussion on vital issues in our society. Students are selected into the TAG program by achieving high scores in the classroom and also scoring high on standardized tests, so it was nice to see that in this particular case, the scoring seemed to have a positive affect. Overall it was a great experience and I had a lot of fun for the short period of time I was helping out this class. I think the students will have great success in their next two years at Suncrest and will continue that pace into high school.

Before School Mentoring

Instead of having a homeroom at the start of the school day, my mentor teacher and I would offer assistance to students who were struggling in math. Every grade level was allowed to come for extra help and we allowed this time to also let students of ours finish tests. Tutoring started at 7:30 in the morning and would go till 8:20, a few minutes before 1st period. It was a great experience for me because I remember feeling that I helped a lot of students during the Fall semester and it was good to help them when I came back. I liked it a lot because I was able to see a lot of my students that I had and also got to help the students I had helped previously in the year. The level of comfortableness was already there, so the students did not hesitate to ask any questions.

On certain days we would only have a few students come up that needed help, and with me being there, it allowed for my mentor teacher to catch up on any material he may have been behind on. On the days of few students, I was pretty much in control helping students in 6th-8th grade with any type of math problems. Unfortunately this was not always the case for us. Some days were very rough because we would have 20-25 students who needed our help. This occurred often on test days and it became very difficult when we needed to print notes off for the students who have missed previous days. Having two people helping twenty some students was very hard on us, so I could only imagine how tough it would have been if it was just my mentor teacher. This really put my management skills to the test and also helped me to determine how much help I should be giving on certain problems. Students always wanted the easy way out and answers, but I would try and push them to figure it out with me as a guide by their side. This became very difficult when multiple students needed help, but it was nice to be tested on that ground.

A way my mentor teacher figured out how to help us on days with a lot of students, was he allowed a student or two in Algebra to help us with the students. This was a great help because they were able to fill us in on what some common problems were for the Algebra students who were coming in to get help. We had to closely monitor everything because sometimes the helpers would start having conversations that were off topic with their friends. My mentor teacher seemed to really grasp this and would ask the students to leave if they were not working on anything. He showed his classroom management by enforcing this rule and making sure that all the students knew about it. A great thing he did was, he would allow for his students to come in as early as 7:00 for help because he was normally there. So there were some days I would be in earlier than 7:30 to provide him with as much help as I could. Overall I felt I helped a lot of students and also helped out my mentor teacher. The experience was great and can see it being used in my own classroom to help further my students' education.

Weeks 3 & 4

Starting with week three, I started taking over my mentor teacher's 3rd and 4th period 7th grade classes. I was pretty excited because I would start feeling more like a real teacher and started using my own lessons. The transition was a pretty easy one since they have all been around me for a few weeks and were comfortable with me taking over. The students started off being a little more noisey since I was a student teacher and they wanted to test me, so I did have to raise my voice a little to let them know that I am in charge. The 3rd week went by very well and I was happy with what happened. During my fourth week I got into my own rythmn of doing things and felt very comfortable in class. I sped through some sections that flowed smoothly together so that I would be able to implement my action research test. The test had only 20 questions with 5 on basics, 8 on decimals and 7 on fractions. They had the entire period to work on it without a calculator so I could get my baseline data for my research. I was very surprised that the scores were so low with the main focus on fractions. My students acted like they have never seen or used fractions before in their lives. Even though my students performed poorly on this research test, it did provide me with a good baseline data so I know where to focus my attention with my students. The test also proved me right because it shows that my students have become very dependent on calculators for everything, including their basic skills that they should be mastering at this level. Overall it has been a pretty good semester and I am looking forward to this upcoming week because I will be taking over 4 out of the 6 classes and I am also going to the LSU game, so I am pretty psyched for that too.

Weeks 1 & 2

My first two weeks have been great. My mentor teacher made me feel from day one that I was a part of the class already by making sure I was introduced in all of his classes. I felt this allowed for me to start out as an authority figure right away. Besides just making sure the students knew who I was, my mentor teacher makes me feel comfortable in his class because he is laid back like me and I don't feel any pressure from him. Throughout the past two weeks I feel I am becoming more familiar with all my students and they feel just as comfortable with me as their teacher as they would if my mentor teacher was teaching. We have had very little problems in the classroom currently with the exception of one or two students, so we have been able to get a lot of work done because the students are not being distracted.
After the first day I started helping out more by grading quizzes and checking homework everyday I'm there. I feel this has helped me a lot because I have full control over how many points the students get on their quizzes, and it is helping me understand how to grade better. Also I am becoming more keen about how students try and make it look like they did their homework and if they just copied answers from another student. During our planning period I have been making lessons for the future so I will be ahead of schedule when I start taking over his classes, which will be starting this week. Starting Tuesday I plan to take over two of his six classes and I am already prepared for the class until October with some open days to conduct my action research. Overall it has been a great two weeks and I believe it will continue throughout the semester.

Artifacts and Characteristics of a Novice Teacher

If there is one thing that I have learned from my mentor teacher this year, it is that all students are able to learn and that a teacher should try everything he or she can do to try and get a student to learn. This falls under characteristic #4 which states "We believe the novice teacher should be a facilitator of learning for all students." The artifact I used for this looks like a simple worksheet that we use often in my Algebra Support Class, but its not the worksheet that is different but how I used it in class. Our Algebra Support class is a small class for students who have had trouble in mathematics and have been "passed along" through their classes. Through observation my mentor teacher and I have noticed that some students are fine with just a lecture and a worksheet but others are objective towards these methods and tend to disrupt class. We've noticed that these particular students will do the work if they are receiving a lot of attention, so we came up with a method that will keep everyone happy. The worksheet is designed for students to be working individually but also I would allow students to come to the board and work on them for the whole class. One student who is objective usually in class and rarely does work had a great time using this method and really started to learn in the class. This came about because my mentor teacher and I did not give up on the student and found a method that helps him to better understand the mathematics and enjoy doing the work. The worksheet was also good because a student did not have to do the boardwork if they did not want to, so they would be learning through their own way. I believe this covers characteristic #4 very well because we showed that all students can learn and it is the responsibility of a teacher to find ways to accommodate all students to learn.

Artifacts and Characteristics of the novice teacher #5

My newest artifact is something that I have recently incorporated in a recent lesson. I have chosen to have my students create a graphic organizer for a certain section in my Geometry class. The lessons that we were going over involved angles of elevation and depression, which primarily consists of word problems. I know from prior knowledge with students and myself that in mathematics nearly everyone hates to do word problems. The graphic organizer I had the students create was used to help them understand the steps to go through while solving a word problem. The organizer was made with one piece of paper that was folded so there would be three rectangles long ways and the students then cut the two end rectangles in half to create four flaps. The first flap was labeled understand. Through conversation with the class we decided what we think should go under this flap. The second flap was labeled plan to see how a student should go about a problem. The third was labeled solve and the final flap was labeled check. For each flap we talked as a class to decide what we should do for each step. This allows for the students to have a guide on how to solve all sorts of word problems. Characteristic #5 states that the novice teacher should have in-depth knowledge of pedagogy and I feel that this artifact connects very well with this characteristic. It really allowed for the students to be creative and be able to understand how others think and approach word problems. Through all the collaboration between my students and I, we developed a great graphic organizer that I believe will help them in my class and others.