Exceptional Learners Entries

Social Justice Blog # 9 Learning to Identify Allies

Learning to identify allies is a key part of becoming a better teacher and person by finding and receiving help from those around you. Last May I joined the math organization National Council of Teachers of Mathematics or NCTM. NCTM is a great resource and ally as I think of ways that I can teach math to a class in school. NCTM sends me a monthly magazine that contains articles and journals on important ideas and lesson plans for math teachers. I can also go to their website online where they have a large number of articles to read written by other math teachers and specialists. One thing that I particularly enjoy about this website is that it has math lessons and ideas broken down by age level. Because I am interested in teaching middle school and high school, I have subscribed to those articles and am able to read them at anytime. These articles are a great ally for thinking about what topics are particularly challenging for teachers to teach and students to understand, as well as how to go about teaching these topics effectively. For example one article that I read recently discussed how it is important for students to understand why (-1)(-1) = +1. Without having read this article I would not have realized that this is a difficult topic to teach, but now that I have read the article, I recognize that it is a bit more complicated than it first appears. Thankfully, the author also explained an efficient and understandable way to teach this subject. Another way that NCTM is a great ally is that it provides math problems of the week for different age groups. These math problems are good because they are not calculations but rather logical problems that force students to think. This semester I have used this resource to compile a list of math problems that I think are particularly good and helpful. In all, NCTM is a great ally to me as a future math teacher, and I hope to be able to find more ways that NCTM can assist me in becoming a better teacher.

I often hear how it is easy for new teachers to get burned out, to become disheartened by the system or the stress and pressure of the classroom. I obviously do not want this to happen to me. Because I am not easily stressed by work that I have to do, I was never very worried about this happening to me. This semester, however, I have made a point of asking previous teachers that I have had about their first couple of years teaching, and specifically, about getting burned out. Talking with them has led me to believe that I should expect to get stressed while teaching, and that I need to find a way to relieve this stress. I decided to make a point of finding people or activities that are especially helpful for calming me down and helping me relax. In doing this I have found an ally in one of my friends who is particularly good at getting my mind off of work and things that I need to get done. Spending several hours with him is great for relieving anxiety. One activity that I found to relieve stress and got my mind off of homework was playing Scrabble with a few friends. This was very relaxing and fun, and helped relieve the stress of having two tests and a large paper due later in the week. While I don’t need this at college very often, I realize that I will need to find someone who can help me during especially rough times throughout the school year. When I graduate from college and start teaching, finding an ally or an activity that helps me relieve tension will be a high priority.

I have also identified allies with other students who are also in education classes and planning to be teachers. Several of my friends are education majors and it has been very helpful talking with them about their experiences in schools, and the classrooms that they have observed. One of my friends has been observing at a history class at Goshen High School. It has been very interesting to talk with him about his experiences there and his analysis of the teacher’s methods. This has led to several great discussions comparing what I observed at my classroom at Goshen High School this year and the math class at Pierre Moran Middle School that I observed last May, and his history class. These discussions have been very enlightening as we compare effective teaching strategies, as well as talk about what we would improve. We also talked about the attitudes that teacher's had toward the students. Conversations with other people who are also in the education program has helped me find effective allies for coming up with creative ideas and solutions to problems that we see in the classroom. These conversations have also helped me think of my role as a teacher, and the loving attitude that I want to show them. I plan on continuing to find other people to talk to about teaching in whatever school that I end up in. Talking with others who are both inexperienced and experienced seems to be an essential part of becoming a better teacher.

Social Justice Blog # 10 Study Effective Teachers

Throughout this semester I observed a special education teacher at Goshen High School. Although this was not a traditional classroom, and likely not a class that I would teach, I learned a lot during these observations and when I interviewed her. During my time in her class I saw that her students were very well behaved, more so than most other classes that I have participated in. I was surprised how well the class behaved and listened to her instruction. The main disciplinary actions that I observed were her moving students and talking to them when they were not doing what they were supposed to. When I asked her about the class's behavior she responded that the main thing she does is give students choices. Rather than forcing them to do activities that they are not particularly interested in, she gives them choices of things that they can do. I saw this occur several times while I was there. For example one day their options were to either work on a project that they had to do, finish a worksheet, or complete a writing assignment. Also, the different projects gave the students different options as well such as creating a comic strip or writing a letter. Although I don’t necessarily agree with the assignments she gave or all of her discipline methods, this strategy seems to be effective, as it allows the students to have a role in the activities that they are doing. I really like this idea and hope to implement it into my classroom, because not only does it give the students more of a say in their education, it also helps teach decision making, and allows students to choose activities that they prefer. I can also use this as a motivational factor to get them to complete assignments

Another way that I have been studying effective teachers is by talking with my older brother, Matt, who is a physical education major, and teaches PE and health to middle school students. I have had many conversations with him about how he deals with inappropriate behavior, incomplete assignments, students who are struggling in class, and other problems that he finds in his class. These conversations have been very helpful because he describes different things that he has tried in order to solve these issues. For the most part, what is helpful is not the solutions to these problems, but the problems themselves. Because he is only on his second year teaching, he is encountering problems that I, as a new teacher, will have to deal with as well. It is helpful to know what these problems are especially because I might not see them while observing a more experienced teacher who has already dealt with these issues. Next time I observe a more traditional classroom I will pay attention to how the teacher gets students to complete assignments, participate in the class, and get them excited about the material. These seem like problems that I will have to deal with on a regular basis. Another thing that I talked to him about was a teacher’s conference that he went to about what effective teachers do. This conference talked about how teachers need to do more than just teach their respective areas, but also teach students the skills that they need for life. These skills are simple things like how to properly shake someone’s hand or hold eye contact while talking. Matt told me about how he implemented this in his classroom by shaking every person’s hand as they enter the room, and taking class time away from his subject area to respond to teachable moments in the classroom. Having somehow who has experience teaching, but is still relatively new is a great resource for learning how to become a better teacher, as well as preparing me for different problems that I will face in the classroom. I plan to often talk with Matt on how he is dealing with these issues, and his advice on what I might do in my classroom.

Another way that I have been learning from effective teachers is from the NCTM website and resources. I studied effective teachers through this website by looking at a section of the website about teaching tips. These teaching tips are written by teachers on a variety of topics like getting parents involved, motivating students, supporting all students, homework, and grading. These articles focus less on lesson plans and what to teach, and shine a spotlight on how to teach. At the same time, the articles were specific to math, and gave me several good ideas on teaching. For example, one idea was to have a weekly prize drawing, or raffle, where every homework assignment that a student handed in earned them a ticket. I found this to be a particularly good idea because it serves to motivate the students to do their homework, and it can also be used to teach about probability and things like the lottery. Giving students grades on papers by focusing on the positive like 4/5 rather than -1/5, was also a tip that is easy to do, and is more encouraging for the students. Another interesting tip on grading that I read was that teachers should not give students zeroes for not turning in assignments, because a student who receives A’s on other homework assignments can end up having a B or C average on homework. Instead, Ken O’Connor, an assessment expert suggests that teachers mark the assignment as incomplete and give students the opportunity and require them to finish the assignment. Then the teacher can penalize the student for turning it in late rather than giving them a zero that does not accurately portray their grade. I thought that this was a pretty good suggestion because it still has students finish the assignment, which was the goal in the first place. It also prevents students from getting discouraged by getting zeroes on assignments. NCTM has several webpages filled with simple tips like these that teachers have used and found effective. Here is the link to the main tip page on the NCTM website: NCTM Teaching Tips. I plan to periodically check these pages for new tips that I can use in my classroom.