Mon 3/29: More observations back at the Middle School today: -Linnea Stevens (8th grade LA), -Donna Hickerson (7th LA), -Denise Black (7th Science), -Meredith Kehoe (6-8 Remedial Reading & LA) for 2 hours, -Mr. Fodness (7th Social Studies)
Tues 3/30: Today was not a good day. I was supposed to spend the day at an all-day Knowledge Bowl meet with Ms. Luby, but on Monday night my boyfriend was in a car accident. I took today off to be with him and help.
Wed 3/31: Last day of observations: -Mr. Waller (8th LA & Social Studies), -Mary Kobilka (8th Math), & -Valerie Olson (8th Social Studies)
Thurs 4/1: Last day of Student Teaching. Mixed feelings today. While I'm eager to be finishing my undergrad degree, I know that I'll miss the students and staff at BMS. I spent today observing Ms. Luby & saying goodbye to the students.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Monday, March 22- Friday, March 26
Monday 3/22: Revised Letters to Will were due today. The students did a superb job with this assignment. Despite their complaints I think that the majority of them enjoyed, or at least didn't mind tolerating, this assignment. After our conferences, most all of the students submitted revisions & the letters which I sent off to Weaver were pretty darn close to perfect.
The students began presenting their Final Projects today too. I adored checking out some of these. I requested that some of the kids allow me to keep their projects so that I may use them for future assignments, and I was so happy when they agreed to my favor! The highlight of the day included a movie created by 3 of the students. Such a good chuckle!
Tuesday 3/23: Ms. Luby asked me to conclude my teaching a bit early, and so after having finished the Memory Boy unit I spent this day and the following day talking to the students about violence prevention.
I decided to construct this lesson plan in honor of the forth anniversary of the school shooting which occurred at the Red Lake High School in 2006. Knowing that many of my students were personally affected by this event, and that every student in my class has been affected by school violence of some form; I chose to spend a day focusing on character education and, specifically, violence prevention I scheduled numerous activities for this lesson, each one focusing on a different skill which could help to empower students while they may work to prevent school violence and bullying. I utilized a number of educational technologies during this lesson; I began my lesson with a video clip which showed a short news interview with a young lady named Missy Jenkins. Missy was a high school freshman when, in 1997, one of her classmates opened fire in her Kentucky school cafeteria. Missy was left paralyzed after the shooting. However, Missy’s charisma and spirit motivated her to use her experience as a lesson for students. This video clip encourages students to take a stand against school violence, help students who may show signs of loneliness or bullying, and to show respect and tolerance to others. This video served as an excellent start to the day’s lesson as it prompted discussion and questions from the students. I led students in an intriguing discussion after the Missy Jenkins video. Students asked about the Kentucky school shooting in 1997, other school shootings, and especially the shooting which took place in Red Lake. I allowed this discussion to continue on for as long as the students desired it to, since I felt that knowing the facts about school violence could help students to eradicate it from schools
Moving our lesson along, I showed the class a PowerPoint presentation which I’d previously created The PowerPoint presentation introduced to students an organization and program which I served with during my time in Middle School and High School. The specific program, STOP the Violence, empowered me a great deal during secondary school and motivated me to participate in over 200 hours of volunteer service which was geared toward violence prevention. I utilized this PowerPoint to lead students into an activity called “The Bullying Ladder.”
During this first activity, the students were divided into groups of five. Each group was given a bag which held ten slips of paper. On each slip of paper was an act of violence. Groups were instructed to work together to rank the acts of violence in order of what act hurts the most and what act hurts the least. After completing the activity, the groups were asked to share their decisions. Once everyone had shared their reasoning, I led the class in discussing the importance of tolerance and respect. I questioned the students about their thoughts concerning differing opinions and interests. We spoke about tolerating difference and respecting individuals regardless of their different beliefs, gender, sexuality, race, disability, or various eccentricities
Wednesday 3/24: We continued with our "STOP the Violence Training" today. Our second activity was called “Add a Word.” This activity encouraged students to work together to create the “world’s longest sentence.” The catch to the activity was that for the beginning of the game, groups could not talk to one another. After participating in silence, I allowed the teams to speak during the final round of our game. Naturally, the ability to communicate with group members helped the teams to find more success. This activity then led into a lengthy discussion about the value and importance of respectful interpersonal communication skills. The class discussed as a group how techniques such as including everyone in a conversation and practicing active listening skills could help to encourage tolerance and respect
One of our final activities of this day involved exploring a website called “PacerTeensAgainstBullying.” This website is geared toward Middle School students and it offers students a plethora of information about identifying the traits of a bully or victim of bullying, why people bully, the effects of bullying, and how to intervene or prevent the situations. By exploring this website, the class explored interactive activities which encouraged positive peer relations and respect for everyone
Thursday 3/25: I spent today doing a full day of observations. I observed at the Middle School -Paula Maki (7th grade LA), -Nancy Benson (EBD) for 2 hours, -Mr. Merschman (7th LA), & -Amy Skala (6th LA)
Friday 3/26: I spent all of today observing at a local charter school called Trek North. I really enjoyed this experience. The small school atmosphere was familiar and refreshing to me, and I enjoyed the school's laid back and nature-oriented focus.
The students began presenting their Final Projects today too. I adored checking out some of these. I requested that some of the kids allow me to keep their projects so that I may use them for future assignments, and I was so happy when they agreed to my favor! The highlight of the day included a movie created by 3 of the students. Such a good chuckle!
Tuesday 3/23: Ms. Luby asked me to conclude my teaching a bit early, and so after having finished the Memory Boy unit I spent this day and the following day talking to the students about violence prevention.
I decided to construct this lesson plan in honor of the forth anniversary of the school shooting which occurred at the Red Lake High School in 2006. Knowing that many of my students were personally affected by this event, and that every student in my class has been affected by school violence of some form; I chose to spend a day focusing on character education and, specifically, violence prevention I scheduled numerous activities for this lesson, each one focusing on a different skill which could help to empower students while they may work to prevent school violence and bullying. I utilized a number of educational technologies during this lesson; I began my lesson with a video clip which showed a short news interview with a young lady named Missy Jenkins. Missy was a high school freshman when, in 1997, one of her classmates opened fire in her Kentucky school cafeteria. Missy was left paralyzed after the shooting. However, Missy’s charisma and spirit motivated her to use her experience as a lesson for students. This video clip encourages students to take a stand against school violence, help students who may show signs of loneliness or bullying, and to show respect and tolerance to others. This video served as an excellent start to the day’s lesson as it prompted discussion and questions from the students. I led students in an intriguing discussion after the Missy Jenkins video. Students asked about the Kentucky school shooting in 1997, other school shootings, and especially the shooting which took place in Red Lake. I allowed this discussion to continue on for as long as the students desired it to, since I felt that knowing the facts about school violence could help students to eradicate it from schools
Moving our lesson along, I showed the class a PowerPoint presentation which I’d previously created The PowerPoint presentation introduced to students an organization and program which I served with during my time in Middle School and High School. The specific program, STOP the Violence, empowered me a great deal during secondary school and motivated me to participate in over 200 hours of volunteer service which was geared toward violence prevention. I utilized this PowerPoint to lead students into an activity called “The Bullying Ladder.”
During this first activity, the students were divided into groups of five. Each group was given a bag which held ten slips of paper. On each slip of paper was an act of violence. Groups were instructed to work together to rank the acts of violence in order of what act hurts the most and what act hurts the least. After completing the activity, the groups were asked to share their decisions. Once everyone had shared their reasoning, I led the class in discussing the importance of tolerance and respect. I questioned the students about their thoughts concerning differing opinions and interests. We spoke about tolerating difference and respecting individuals regardless of their different beliefs, gender, sexuality, race, disability, or various eccentricities
Wednesday 3/24: We continued with our "STOP the Violence Training" today. Our second activity was called “Add a Word.” This activity encouraged students to work together to create the “world’s longest sentence.” The catch to the activity was that for the beginning of the game, groups could not talk to one another. After participating in silence, I allowed the teams to speak during the final round of our game. Naturally, the ability to communicate with group members helped the teams to find more success. This activity then led into a lengthy discussion about the value and importance of respectful interpersonal communication skills. The class discussed as a group how techniques such as including everyone in a conversation and practicing active listening skills could help to encourage tolerance and respect
One of our final activities of this day involved exploring a website called “PacerTeensAgainstBullying.” This website is geared toward Middle School students and it offers students a plethora of information about identifying the traits of a bully or victim of bullying, why people bully, the effects of bullying, and how to intervene or prevent the situations. By exploring this website, the class explored interactive activities which encouraged positive peer relations and respect for everyone
Thursday 3/25: I spent today doing a full day of observations. I observed at the Middle School -Paula Maki (7th grade LA), -Nancy Benson (EBD) for 2 hours, -Mr. Merschman (7th LA), & -Amy Skala (6th LA)
Friday 3/26: I spent all of today observing at a local charter school called Trek North. I really enjoyed this experience. The small school atmosphere was familiar and refreshing to me, and I enjoyed the school's laid back and nature-oriented focus.
Wed March 17- Fri March 19
Wednesday 3/17: Memory Boy Tests. Students were allowed to use their study guides, and things went relatively smoothly. Most of the students didn't pretty fair on the test, I was content with the results.
Thursday 3/18: I corrected tests, students worked on letters to Will Weaver & their final projects.
Friday 3/19: Letters to Will were due today. I conducted one-on-one conferences with each student. During the conferences we proofread the kids' letters & I then offered the students an opportunity to revise their letters before I would record a final grade.
Thursday 3/18: I corrected tests, students worked on letters to Will Weaver & their final projects.
Friday 3/19: Letters to Will were due today. I conducted one-on-one conferences with each student. During the conferences we proofread the kids' letters & I then offered the students an opportunity to revise their letters before I would record a final grade.
Tuesday, March 16
Tuesday 3/16: Last visit from university supervisor today & things went well. I've grown to look forward to hearing from Mr. Coe. His advice is typically relevant to my current concerns and his demeanor is oh so relaxing. I also utilized this day in the classroom as somewhat of a work day, but first I introduced to students the final Memory Boy project today. With this project I decided to construct a lesson which would require the students to culminate all of the lessons and reactions they gained during their reading of the book and apply it toward a variety of projects. This project idea would require students to both utilize prior knowledge but also construct new lessons as they worked to express their knowledge in a visual project.
Knowing that the interests, strengths, and weaknesses of my students vary tremendously, I decided to have the students choose their own academic path with this project. I provided for the students twenty five different project options which they could choose to complete. I assigned specific point values to each project; based upon the length of the project, the effort required to complete the project entirely according to its directions, and the level of creativity which the project required. This allowed the students the freedom to choose the type of project they’d most like to complete. The project options varied from traditional essays, research papers, art projects, homemade movies, oral history interviews, children’s books, comic books, wildlife related assignments, and science centered projects. While designing the project, I kept specific students in mind and did my best to gear a project toward the individual interests I’d seen my students exhibit.
Having assigned varying point values to each project, I explained to my students that I expected them to complete forty points’ worth of assignments. Some of the suggested projects were worth forty points alone, others were worth as little as ten. Some of the proposed projects included independent work, while others required that students work in groups. This allowed students the freedom to, again, create their own grades and decide their own fates.
Knowing that the interests, strengths, and weaknesses of my students vary tremendously, I decided to have the students choose their own academic path with this project. I provided for the students twenty five different project options which they could choose to complete. I assigned specific point values to each project; based upon the length of the project, the effort required to complete the project entirely according to its directions, and the level of creativity which the project required. This allowed the students the freedom to choose the type of project they’d most like to complete. The project options varied from traditional essays, research papers, art projects, homemade movies, oral history interviews, children’s books, comic books, wildlife related assignments, and science centered projects. While designing the project, I kept specific students in mind and did my best to gear a project toward the individual interests I’d seen my students exhibit.
Having assigned varying point values to each project, I explained to my students that I expected them to complete forty points’ worth of assignments. Some of the suggested projects were worth forty points alone, others were worth as little as ten. Some of the proposed projects included independent work, while others required that students work in groups. This allowed students the freedom to, again, create their own grades and decide their own fates.
Monday, March 15-
Monday 3/15: We worked on finishing up Memory Boy throughout this week, and on Monday we followed our normal routine for this unit. The students met with their Lit Circles, got a new Lit Circle sheet & then we read the last couple chapters of the book. I read the chapters out loud today, which I've done a couple times throughout the course of reading this book. I've noticed that the kids seem to definitely prefer when I read a book out loud to them rather than having to read the book to themselves. And I have no issue with reading to the students, but I want to be sure that when I'm doing so it is in order to help students to more easily understand and comprehend the content of the reading. I recognize that some readers do require that words be processed audibly in order for comprehension to occur. But I worry at times that the kids instead ask me to read out loud to them because they simply don't want to exert the effort involved in actually read a text silently. The students' behavior is typically superb when I read out loud, which isn't always an easy accomplishment for me; yet I want the students to be capable of silent, independent reading because of the importance of this skill... so until I determine a more perfect remedy, I shall continue to alternate my techniques and hope that in the meantime I'm accommodating everyone at at least some of the time.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 8th- Friday, March 12th
Another condensed week-long summary:
We continued reading Memory Boy this week. The kids have adjusted, finally, to the Lit Circle discussion formats. The students have adjusted to our new routine: each day they talk for 5-10 minutes with their Lit Circles about the previous day's reading, they get a new worksheet from me, they complete the worksheet while reading the day's assignment, and then they prepare for discussions the next day. I've also prepared study guides for the students to complete which they are allowed to use on our upcoming test. These study guides and reading worksheets have once again reminded me of the achievement gap which exist among my students. I find myself struggling between assigning additional work in order to remedy the non stop chatter of students who get through their reading assignments and worksheets quickly- these are my high achieving students and I want to present each of them with a challenge. But on the other hand I have plenty of students who are doing their best to just barely keep their head above water. Ms. Luby suggests offering more assignments to fix this problem, but what do I do about the students who can't keep up?
Another new lesson which I was introduced to this week was in regard to Knowledge Bowl. I volunteered and judged at this Thursday's Knowledge Bowl, which Bemidji hosted. I haven't found myself extremely interested in the activity throughout the last few months, it's fun but not necessarily an activity I'm passionate about, but watching a meet in action helped to light a spark for me. I enjoyed watching the kids compete, challenge themselves, and often unveil unknown strengths as they advanced from round to round. It was definitely a worthwhile evening.
Monday, March 1st- Friday, March 5th
I'm behind on posts, so I'm going to condense some news here:
We began a new novel this week. The book is called Memory Boy and was written by a local author named Will Weaver- one of my former English professors! In the novel a family races to escape natural disaster by traveling from Minneapolis to Itasca State Park. I aimed to draw the students in to the local relevance of this novel, so I created a bulletin board which I titled " 'Roadtripping' Across Minnesota with Memory Boy." I put a map of MN up on the board and on Wednesday, after the students had read some of the novel, we mapped out with tacks and yarn the start of the characters' journey. The kids seemed to get a kick out of this activity, and were competing to volunteer information about the cities which they recognized. I enjoyed their genuine interest in the board and activities. On numerous occasions I even caught the students sneaking over to the map to point out to classmates where their home was located on the board- it goes to show that these guys really do pay attention to the decor of a classroom.
I also included on the board an "Author Spotlight" section where I posted pictures of Will Weaver & information about his writing and life. We talked about the author before starting the novel on Monday, and I utilized the bulletin board as my visual. The kids seemed to listen contently and I appreciated their interest here. I'd say that the board and the introduction to Memory Boy were a success!
Other highlights from the week:
- Students started the "Lit Circles" which I have planned to use for the rest of the book. We began with a rocky start as a lot of the kids seemed to be put off by this change from their normal read & take a quiz procedure, but by the end of the week they'd adjusted to the change and had begun to take advantage of the discussions.
- More lessons in classroom management were acquired this week as I struggled to get students to adjust to many changes: a new unit, a new style of covering reading concepts, and a new "group" seating arrangement. The start of the week was rough, but after frequently explaining my expectations and behavioral consequences to students we shaped up by the end of the week.
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