workshops

At practicum this week, both ELA classes (GenEd and ESL) had the period to workshop. In the GenEd class the students have their genocide essays due. Ms. S gave the students the class to finish finding their quotes and begin writing. While they’re working, she is traveling around to the different students working with them and helping them. I thought that the students looked engaged in their work, although they were confused at the beginning of the class as to what they were supposed to be doing exactly.

I think that this assignment is interesting because it shows interdisciplinary contexts working well together. Students are learning about the history of the Holocaust and Rwandan Genocide as they research and write.

In the other ELA class that we visit, the students are creating an iMovie in groups. They have three topics to choose between; social media, religion in U.S., or cell phone use in school. The assignment deals with working with arguments, which is why they are topics that people can have different opinions on.  Mrs. B gave the students a script that she went over explicitly how to fill out with the students before she gave them time to work.

For the bell work activity (that students do before anything else) they talked about any plays or musicals they’ve seen. They have a field trip to see a Cinderella musical, and so the questions were very relevant to what was going on in their lives. They discussed some of the behaviors that are expected at a theater as well.

Overall, the day wasn’t bad. Trying to find the positives has made it easier.

Bailey

3.22.17

I am trying to look for the positives in my practicum setting. It has been difficult for me to write about my experience because I don’t feel as though I am having a good experience. So I told myself to find one positive thing that stuck out and talk about that. March 22nd, that positive thing was in the 7th period gen-ed ELA class- the teacher taught explicitly on “Building a Research Paper”. She had her powerpoint printed out for each student so that they could follow along and take notes on them. After they finished going over the powerpoint, they added it to the binders they keep all of the work from that class in. Ms. S pointed out the format of the paper, some of the important pieces to writing in MLA, and she even printed out a sample essay for her students to look at and read out loud.

Another thing that the teacher has in the classroom is a giant sticky poster on the wall that has all of the assignments for the semester that students will need to have in their binder by the end of the year. I want to incorporate an assignment tracker into my classroom if I work with high school students- I think that it is something that they can appreciate.

One more comment about the class period. Ms. S demonstrated that she knew her students well because she would mention ways of doing an assignment that is tailored to their likes. Specifically one student, who loves to write and perform raps. She suggested that he brainstorm his ideas for his essay through a rap. Even if he didn’t act on her suggestion she demonstrated that she was trying and cares.

+ stay positive +

B

 

February 8th

This past week at Riverside we were somewhat productive!

The first class we went to was in the library. It was a co-taught English class which the students were working on district required writing assessments. They needed to use the computers. The ESL teachers and her student teacher pulled two students to a table in order to work separately with them, and help them write the essay rather than type it. There was not anything for Courtney and I to do during this period which has not been uncommon.

The next period was another ESL/English class. I was glad that there was instruction happening during this class, but I did not think it was very constructive instruction. The teacher was very stern with the students at the beginning, explaining that she will not tolerate their child-like behavior any longer and will be sent to the office if they act out. After her speech about that, she re-taught an essay format that they had previously gone over- it was explicit instruction provided by the content teacher and the ESL teacher did nothing. I was upset with the teacher because she denied one of the students (who forgot his paper) a new paper even though she was encouraging them to take notes. The students were not engaged in the lecture of topic sentences and supporting details. I am observing some goof things to NOT do as a teacher.

Period 8 was a lot better! My teacher led the class (which was another ESL/English class). The students began by interpreting a quote and asked a couple students to share what they wrote. The day before the students took annotated notes in groups on a paragraph in an essay they were discussing. They wrote the notes on poster paper and presented them the next day (the day we were there). I liked this activity because it had students reading, writing, and speaking. Their annotated notes including important details about the paragraph as well as vocabulary words they didn’t know with their definition. When the groups were presenting Mrs. B would ask the other groups to repeat what they heard to make sure they were actively listening which I thought was great! Overall, I thought the class went really well! It was refreshing to observe good instruction.

For the last class of the day we got to go to science! The first thing that I noticed about the class was that there were 4 adults (6 including Courtney and I). The second thing that I noticed was that it was a class full of boys, and the third thing that I noticed (rather heard, was the teachers yelling.. a lot). This was a biology class and it was the second time these students had taken it. It was a test that had a regent at the end of the year, and these boys had failed it the first time. One of the teachers explained that this was a review and each of the topics had been covered three times in just this year- hoping that these boys will pass the exam at the end of this year. Aside from the teacher yelling, I think that she had some good activities for the students to do, it was just difficult because there was not much focusing going on since it was the last class of the day and high school boys.

This week was definitely the best out of the few weeks we have gone!

-B

February First

Today at Riverside I did nothing.

During 7th period, the students were taking a test. The room was quiet, the students were (mostly) quiet, and the teachers were quiet. It was weird.

In 8th period, the students were given a free day. The English teacher was out for the day (the kids were ecstatic), and my teacher doesn’t have much say in that class, so the 40 minutes were used as a study hall. I felt frustrated when my teacher did not have any plans for the students. She was telling my that the English teacher is too strict towards the kids, and the content is too difficult, and that is why they don’t like the class. Part of me thought that my teacher should be the one working for the ELL’s, making the content more accessible, and the other part of my thought about the fact that these ELL’s are taking the same tests that native speakers are taking (and failing). That really got me pondering why we don’t have a separate curriculum for ELL’s yet (I also don’t foresee that happening under our new US administration). I find it unfair for these students- we are not helping them to the best of our ability.

During 9th period, Courtney and I were able to communicate with our teachers about the goals for the experience, and some things that we can be working on, so that was good. I am glad that they are open to dialogue. I think it will start to get better. I definitely still prefer the elementary group over adolescents.

Until next week,

B

 

New Year, New Placement

Yesterday was the start of something new; a practicum placement at Riverside High School in Buffalo, NY. There are at least 17 languages represented in the school- the majority of the students speak Spanish and are from Puerto Rico.

I am working with Mrs. B who is an ESL teacher to students in 10th grade through 12th grade. She has a few independent classes which she teaches by herself, and then in the afternoon she co-teaches in 2 English III classes.

Upon arriving at the school I felt like we were a burden on the office staff and even the teachers. There was not a lot of time for questions or introductions.. my teacher did not even take the time to introduce me to her students which made me really frustrated.

The students are preparing for state tests next week, and so there was not a lot of instruction happening, rather independent working and preparing. The 11th grade English III class was working on an argumentative essay: reading the articles, dual-colored highlighter, annotated notes, graphic organizers, and eventually will write the essay.

I am hoping that my visits in the future are more comfortable.

-B

December 7th

I love my practicum placement. This day would have been the last, but the other TESOL major who goes to the school with me, and I decided that we would take a trip up on Monday and spend the day there. I realized just how much I will miss everything about B.E.S.T, my teacher, and my students.

Anyway, let’s talk about the day.

In Mrs, S’s class we did the usual circle time and centers. I was able to work with a small group doing Magic Penny worksheets. Magic Penny is the curriculum used for phonetics. The kids love it! I had three students that I was working with, catching them up on worksheets that did not have completed yet. They were focused at the start and were working well independently, but soon lost that and needed a little bit more guidance and direction.

In Mrs. B’s class I helped Mrs. M at the guided reading center, and also floated around to the other centers making sure that everyone knew what they were doing. The group at guided reading did really well. After they finished the vocab reader they went on to read the advanced leveled reader. I was so proud of them, they did awesome! There was one little boy who broke my heart in class. He had gotten in trouble and was being nasty towards the teacher, and so Mrs. B had him sitting at a table by himself and she was explaining his situation to Mrs. M and myself. A few minutes later he started sobbing. I went over and sat with him trying to console him and figure out what was wrong and he said he didn’t know and he didn’t know what would make it better. I almost cried with him. Once he calmed down Mrs. M and Mrs. B talked about feelings and if you are sad and need a hug to just ask. It was pretty cute. Later in the morning when the class was walking to lunch he stopped by Mrs. M’s room to tell us he was feeling much better and he had a big smile on his face. 🙂

Mrs. M received great news about her pull out class. She is able to take the first graders in the morning and then wait to see her kindergartners until the afternoon. Wednesday was the first day of running that schedule and already the morning was much more productive! With just the first graders, the students are much more calm, and they were able to work in their centers with no problem. It was great!

I’m so thankful for this experience!

Teacher B

Parent – Teacher Conference

The day started as a normal day, pushing in to Mrs. S’s class in the morning, doing centers. There were a lot of people throughout the morning who were frustrated with so many meetings that were happening that day. After we finished in the classroom, Mrs. M and I headed off to a parent teacher conference.

In the meeting was the school psychologist, the student’s mother, the classroom teacher, the ESL teacher, and myself. The mother spoke Kinrwandi and Somali and any communication we had with her was done through the language line using a translator. The meeting was about a kindergartner who has been showing some behavioral issues. He is a very intelligent kid but he gets very frustrated and angry when things don’t go his way. He has started to cry, shout and even hit when he gets into these moods, and it is hard to get him to refocus. Mom told us that he acted a similar way at home. She tells him each day to go to school, listen to your teacher, play well with the other children, and be obedient. When she tries to ask him about school he doesn’t talk to her.  At home and at school he works best in an environment that is calm and quiet. He needs to know what to expect and have a routine. While the meeting was going on, the student was in the nurses office due to an eye problem, and when he was asked to come to the meeting room he wanted nothing to do with it, instead he screamed and cried. Before she left to take the boy to the doctor’s office, mom expressed that she wanted to come in once a week and observe her son in the class and work as a parent volunteer.

It was an enriching experience, sitting in the meeting. It was interesting to watch all of the professionals working together, and seeing how they accommodated to the language barrier by using the language line. It was the first parent teacher conference I have sat in and I found it to be a success!

Miss B

11.16.16

On this day, my teacher was out for the morning. I was able to spend a lot of time in Mrs. S’s class. The day began with breakfast, and then journaling time, circle, and eventually got into centers. For their journals, the students wrote their first and last names, the date, they drew a picture and then they labeled it. During the journaling time they listened to music and had some dance breaks (SO CUTE).

In the circle we talked about our favorite songs. Juju On That Beat won by a lot. 🙂

Once we got into centers, Mrs. S had to leave to go to a meeting. That left Mrs. M’s substitute, myself, and an aide in the classroom. The kids started out really productive, but that did not last too long. It’s really difficult when the teacher leaves class or isn’t there because you lose so much valuable teaching time.

We went into Mrs. B’s classroom next and did the same sort of centers. It was interesting because since I had been there so many times before I was the one helping the substitute teacher. It was a bit affirming! In Mrs. B’s room there were some meltdowns happening, which isn’t unusual, but the kids seemed fairly productive otherwise.

Meeting with our Kinders and Grade 1 Pull-Out was overwhelming. We had 26 kids! Mrs. M left independent writing work for them to do. It was crazy to see the different levels that the 1st grade is at compared to Kindergarten. It would be very beneficial to get that class separated. One of the students had an accident, so that made for a struggle.

All in all the day was good. I learned a lot about the different roles of staff and faculty in the schools.

the day after

On Tuesday, Donald Trump was elected president. On Wednesday, I saw some upset students. Buffalo was pretty somber.

For the first 20 minutes of the day, I visited the 5th graders because my teacher was caught in traffic due to an enormous fire at a steel factory in the surrounding area. The day was somewhat overwhelming. Many of the 5th graders came in to the class very upset and distraught about the election. They talked about how they were scared that Donald Trump would send them back to their home country and they would die. We know that politics don’t exactly work to fulfill one person’s wishes and that they don’t have anything to worry about as legal immigrants. The teachers in the room handled the situation wells and opened it up for conversation and discussion as well as explained a lot to them.

Once my teacher was able to get to school, we began the usual schedule. For myself, rather than switching classes, I stayed with the first kindergarten class that we push into for most of the morning. I led a center so that I could have the students fill out a “get to know you” survey which asked them their favorite food, color, what they want to be when they grow up, etc. It was a lot of fun getting to know the kids, and work with them! Plus I got some super cute answers. 🙂

While I was finishing up in there, the teachers went to a meeting and we were left with an aide. It was awful. The woman was so rude and just yelled at the kids rather than talking to them. I felt like I had to take control of the classroom in order to stop some of the meltdowns from the kids. Mrs. S informed me when she returned that they don’t have very many good aides in the school, and she shared some of the frustrations that come along with that.

It was another great week at B.E.S.T and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to grow through this experience.

11/2/16

On this day, we welcomed three new students in room 144 (one of the kindergarten classes we push into). As we did the guided reading they were very distracted, which is understandable. Their distraction made a lot of the other students distracted as well. We read the vocabulary reader together, then we read the leveled reader, before we did a writing activity about it. We had the students write a sentence based on the model we created, and then they drew a picture explaining their sentence. To accommodate for some of the students, we wrote some of the words in highlighter so that the students could trace our writing.

In our other push-in class, we were *oddly* productive. We had a writing center going, guided reading, computer center, and Mrs. B was running a center. The kids were great! They were on task and excited to show us their hard work. The only problems that we had were when one of the students was yelled at and he started to get discouraged and stopped believing in himself. It was really sad.

During the last class of the morning, there was supposed to be a common planning meeting. Due to the lack of coverage (which happens all the time), all of the teachers were not able to meet. So instead, we worked with our first graders on finishing up writing a sentence, and once they finished that, they worked on letter recognition and phonetics.

-Teacher B