“Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.”
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
Monday, Feb 1st:
Monday marked the beginning of our "How To" Speech presentations. Overall, the students did well. Some impressed me, some disappointed me, many were in the middle. I had asked the students to follow some specific criteria with their speeches: A- the speeches had to be at least 3 minutes long, B- The students had to physical demonstrate the process which they were explaining, C- Another visual, in addition to the props which were used during demonstrating, had to be present (though I said that this second visual could be as simple as some steps written onto the board... nothing elaborate was required), and D- the students had to speak for at least 3 minutes. I would say that maybe a tenth of the students followed all of the criteria. Many students did well during their speeches, but most were not 3 minutes long and the majority did not have a second visual.
Talking with Ms. Luby about how speeches typically go, she said that usually she's content with having at least the majority of the students present, which they did. Out of the 100 students broken into our four classes, only 10 chose not to present. So I'd consider that a pretty good success rate. I just wish that these kids would care more about their school work. I find myself frequently being disappointed by their lazy work efforts. I won't contribute that habit to every student in the pod, but definitely the majority. My biggest goal during my time student teaching has become to challenge these kids. I refuse to lower my standards and expectations simply because the students refuse to meet par. So far the pushing has worked well. Most of the students completed their "Mini Essays" assignment and the majority even wrote the 6 pages which I asked for. I impressed Ms. Luby by getting most of the students to present speeches as well, so perhaps I'm making progress afterall.
Tuesday, Feb 2nd & Wednesday, Feb 3rd:
We finished our speeches up, with the last of the students presenting on Wednesday. What I learned most from the speech unit was not that these students need to work on their public speaking skills (though many do), but that these students lack common respect. I began the presentations on Monday by sharing my expectations for students in the audience. Audience members were required to complete peer evaluations for each of their classmates. Questions were to be saved until the end of presentations, and questions would be politely asked after raising one's hand. No talking was permitted during speeches and I kept tallies of those students who had to be asked to stop talking, and their grades reflected their audience skills. I told the students that it was not appropriate to tell a presenter to slow down or hurry up, as the first priority of these speeches was not to help the class members to create ten different types of paper airplanes, but rather to help their classmates to improve their speaking skills. In every class, I had to repeatedly restate my expectations, and numerous kids lost points due to speaking during presentations. I was shocked by the kids' audience etiquette. I expected more out of 8th graders.
Thursday, Feb. 4th:
On Thursday I introduced the students to Persuasive Thinking in preparation for our Persuasive Paper Unit, which I'm beginning this week. I had the students participate in some activities which introduced the concepts of rhetoric, the strategies of logos, ethos, pathos, kairos, and big names, and I had the students analyze magazine ads through the lens of the rhetorical strategies which we covered. Most of the students seemed to do well with these activities, and I was happy to see that my teaching occassionally sinks in with these guys.
Friday, Feb. 5th:
On Friday I allowed the students primarily a work day. Ms. Luby read the kids a story about Empathy as part of Kindness Month, and we completed one of the Reading Practice Quizzes which are meant to prepare the students for their Basic Standards Test in April. For those classes who ran out of time Thursday, we completed the Persuasive Thinking activities. Outside of this, the students used the class time to work on an extra credit opportunity, catch up on the their Accelerated Reading, or write the Journals which are due Monday.
Friday night I attended the 6th grade Family Night at the Middle School. Having been required to attend the event, the other student teachers and myself were present to aide in the three hour event which was meant to allow the family members of 6th graders a time to hang out with their kids. I worked in the coat room, though to say that I "worked"is not accurate. The 6 or 7 students who had volunteered to work in the room were undoubtedly capable of maintaining the tasks of the facility. In fact, when I tried to help, I found myself getting in the way. So I spent most of the evening gossiping with two other student teachers. The greatest lessons of the night? - Student Teachers = Free Labor for School Administrators, - 7th graders are more than capable of hanging jackets without adult supervision, & - It feels wonderful to vent to individuals who are experiencing the same difficulties as myself. Phew.
Monday marked the beginning of our "How To" Speech presentations. Overall, the students did well. Some impressed me, some disappointed me, many were in the middle. I had asked the students to follow some specific criteria with their speeches: A- the speeches had to be at least 3 minutes long, B- The students had to physical demonstrate the process which they were explaining, C- Another visual, in addition to the props which were used during demonstrating, had to be present (though I said that this second visual could be as simple as some steps written onto the board... nothing elaborate was required), and D- the students had to speak for at least 3 minutes. I would say that maybe a tenth of the students followed all of the criteria. Many students did well during their speeches, but most were not 3 minutes long and the majority did not have a second visual.
Talking with Ms. Luby about how speeches typically go, she said that usually she's content with having at least the majority of the students present, which they did. Out of the 100 students broken into our four classes, only 10 chose not to present. So I'd consider that a pretty good success rate. I just wish that these kids would care more about their school work. I find myself frequently being disappointed by their lazy work efforts. I won't contribute that habit to every student in the pod, but definitely the majority. My biggest goal during my time student teaching has become to challenge these kids. I refuse to lower my standards and expectations simply because the students refuse to meet par. So far the pushing has worked well. Most of the students completed their "Mini Essays" assignment and the majority even wrote the 6 pages which I asked for. I impressed Ms. Luby by getting most of the students to present speeches as well, so perhaps I'm making progress afterall.
Tuesday, Feb 2nd & Wednesday, Feb 3rd:
We finished our speeches up, with the last of the students presenting on Wednesday. What I learned most from the speech unit was not that these students need to work on their public speaking skills (though many do), but that these students lack common respect. I began the presentations on Monday by sharing my expectations for students in the audience. Audience members were required to complete peer evaluations for each of their classmates. Questions were to be saved until the end of presentations, and questions would be politely asked after raising one's hand. No talking was permitted during speeches and I kept tallies of those students who had to be asked to stop talking, and their grades reflected their audience skills. I told the students that it was not appropriate to tell a presenter to slow down or hurry up, as the first priority of these speeches was not to help the class members to create ten different types of paper airplanes, but rather to help their classmates to improve their speaking skills. In every class, I had to repeatedly restate my expectations, and numerous kids lost points due to speaking during presentations. I was shocked by the kids' audience etiquette. I expected more out of 8th graders.
Thursday, Feb. 4th:
On Thursday I introduced the students to Persuasive Thinking in preparation for our Persuasive Paper Unit, which I'm beginning this week. I had the students participate in some activities which introduced the concepts of rhetoric, the strategies of logos, ethos, pathos, kairos, and big names, and I had the students analyze magazine ads through the lens of the rhetorical strategies which we covered. Most of the students seemed to do well with these activities, and I was happy to see that my teaching occassionally sinks in with these guys.
Friday, Feb. 5th:
On Friday I allowed the students primarily a work day. Ms. Luby read the kids a story about Empathy as part of Kindness Month, and we completed one of the Reading Practice Quizzes which are meant to prepare the students for their Basic Standards Test in April. For those classes who ran out of time Thursday, we completed the Persuasive Thinking activities. Outside of this, the students used the class time to work on an extra credit opportunity, catch up on the their Accelerated Reading, or write the Journals which are due Monday.
Friday night I attended the 6th grade Family Night at the Middle School. Having been required to attend the event, the other student teachers and myself were present to aide in the three hour event which was meant to allow the family members of 6th graders a time to hang out with their kids. I worked in the coat room, though to say that I "worked"is not accurate. The 6 or 7 students who had volunteered to work in the room were undoubtedly capable of maintaining the tasks of the facility. In fact, when I tried to help, I found myself getting in the way. So I spent most of the evening gossiping with two other student teachers. The greatest lessons of the night? - Student Teachers = Free Labor for School Administrators, - 7th graders are more than capable of hanging jackets without adult supervision, & - It feels wonderful to vent to individuals who are experiencing the same difficulties as myself. Phew.
No comments:
Post a Comment