Week 14: Writing Conferences- Take 1

Writing Conferences- Take 1

Though I have been collecting material for my inquiry all semester I have finally gotten into my conferencing. The students are writing argumentative essays on any topic of their choosing. I have provided the students with two labs days for 4^th and three lab days for my 8^th period class.

I initially wanted to conduct my research on both of my tenth grade classes, but after trying to initiate informal conferences with the 8^th period class I realized that this wouldn’t be possible. Many of my students in my 8^th period class skip school a lot, so even if I wanted to conduct research on them it would be hard. Many of the students do not turn in any material, and have not filled out computer/ internet user passes to be able to utilize the school’s computers and they do not have technology accesses at home.

With my fourth period I first collected their thesis generators and spider charts and took notes on what we needed to fix. The students had a lot of trouble with their thesis statements and with coming up with enough subtopics to support their 3 page long paper. While the students were in the lab conducting research I walked around and talked to each student about their thesis. This was important because I got to see the student’s topics and make sure they are collecting the necessary information.

During these quick meetings I was able to answer any questions that they had about the paper. I also had the opportunity just too really talk and get to know each student and see what kind of help that they need on their papers. Some people like to work at home and others in class, we have to watch out for plagiarism (I taught a lesson on this to help prevent it from occurring.)

How can I get students who miss up to date when they don’t have computers at home?

How can I make sure students are working? Seating charts in a computer lab? Make turning things end at the end of class a requirement?

Thank heavens for edline and the file locker, so students can work on things at school save it and work on the same document at home.

We will see what happens with the formal conferences next week!! J

Though I have been collecting material for my inquiry all semester I have finally gotten into my conferencing. The students are writing argumentative essays on any topic of their choosing. I have provided the students with two labs days for 4^th and three lab days for my 8^th period class.

I initially wanted to conduct my research on both of my tenth grade classes, but after trying to initiate informal conferences with the 8^th period class I realized that this wouldn’t be possible. Many of my students in my 8^th period class skip school a lot, so even if I wanted to conduct research on them it would be hard. Many of the students do not turn in any material, and have not filled out computer/ internet user passes to be able to utilize the school’s computers and they do not have technology accesses at home.

With my fourth period I first collected their thesis generators and spider charts and took notes on what we needed to fix. The students had a lot of trouble with their thesis statements and with coming up with enough subtopics to support their 3 page long paper. While the students were in the lab conducting research I walked around and talked to each student about their thesis. This was important because I got to see the student’s topics and make sure they are collecting the necessary information.

During these quick meetings I was able to answer any questions that they had about the paper. I also had the opportunity just too really talk and get to know each student and see what kind of help that they need on their papers. Some people like to work at home and others in class, we have to watch out for plagiarism (I taught a lesson on this to help prevent it from occurring.)

How can I get students who miss up to date when they don’t have computers at home?

How can I make sure students are working? Seating charts in a computer lab? Make turning things end at the end of class a requirement?

Thank heavens for edline and the file locker, so students can work on things at school save it and work on the same document at home.

We will see what happens with the formal conferences next week!! J

Week 13 Rumors, and the spreading of Chaos

 Rumors, and the spreading of Chaos

Morgantown had an incident earlier this week that caused a lot of chaos based on rumors that were circulated around the school. There was an altercation before the homeroom bell rang that involved a weapon and the students were in an uproar. Since it was before school and we had kids just getting to the school and not knowing what was going on, they school was put on a lockdown and students were ushered quickly to homeroom. Students who arrived to school a few minutes late or right on time had to stay in the office.

The rumors and the gossip spread, the teachers didn’t know what was going on as well. We hear rumors of people breaking up the fight, blood everywhere, students were in critical condition, and we were all in a state of confusion. Everything turned out to be all right and the altercation was done within the minute it started but the rumors and gossip lasted all day and well into the next one.

This really made me think of what life will be life as a teacher. If there is ever a reason for concern then the students look to the teachers for answers even if we don’t have them. It is a very scary thought knowing that 20+ students wanting to know information about you and you have to do your best to calm them down and keep the rumors from spreading farther.

e='fon� n z : t� Џ ne-height:115%;font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Break up the reading? One chapter a class day during week days and more on weekend? 

Week 12: Reading a Novel

Reading a Novel

My 12^th grade Honors and on level classes have been reading Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula for a few weeks now.  What I have noticed is the students are falling behind. There are about 25% of the students who are where they should be in the novel and the others just aren’t reading. We have the students read two chapters a class and then on weekends they have multiple days to catch up. MHS is also on an every other day schedule so the students only have to read only a chapter a night. We started off just quizzing them every six chapters, but when we realized that they were not reading, we had to start quizzing them every class period.

Students say that they are busy and that the reading is just too much, but when class time is offered for them to read or listen to it on tape they do not use their time wisely. They are doing the assignments that we assign them and most are doing the vocabulary but when it comes to reading they are falling behind.

What can we do to help our students read when it comes to novels?

How can we assign a “readable” amount of work and not take half a year to read one novel?

Break up the reading? One chapter a class day during week days and more on weekend?

em. Av � I b t� Џ lly nervous and self-conscious while videotaping, so I am not teaching to the best of my abilities. I guess this will improve the more I video tape myself in the future.

Week 11: Videotaping

 Videotaping yourself teaching

For one of our assignments in the Benedum Collaborative Program we are asked to film ourselves teaching. This can be really informational because when reviewing the video you can see things about your lesson that you didn’t notice while teaching. Such as maybe student in the corner are acting up and you didn’t notice it because they were silently playing video games or texting on their phones. Maybe whenever you turn around to write on the board a student picks/ bullies on another student.

You can also see things that you need to do more. I noticed that I do a lot of PowerPoint presentations and I don’t necessarily move around the classroom a lot. This allows the students in the back of the room to get off task while the ones in the front of the room are the only ones paying attention. Sometimes I also tend to get annoyed when my students are taking a while to write things down. I noticed this and now I will try to be more patient with my students because not everyone can write that fast and if there are people with visual problems they have a hard time seeing the slides as it is, so it is harder to copy stuff down. (I do read the slides out loud for the visually impaired but I also add in my own information so it isn’t boring to the students.

Videotaping can cause some problems as well. Sometimes students are on their best (or worst) behavior in front of the camera and it causes the classroom to be uneasy because they are nervous. When the classroom isn’t acting normal the way I have learned to instruct them isn’t’ the best way to teach them. Also I become really nervous and self-conscious while videotaping, so I am not teaching to the best of my abilities. I guess this will improve the more I video tape myself in the future.

Week 10: PLT Meetings

PLT MEETINGS 

After every Faculty- Senate the teachers branch off into their specialization areas to discuss departmental goals and strategies in a PLT. Monongalia county schools are asking their teachers to come up with two goals that they can achieve throughout the school year. Many of the English department educators have chosen to help students improve with their academic vocabulary. Academic vocabulary for English can include: cohesion, plot, rising action, and stanza.

          With these goals the teachers set goals such as the students will have a 50% improvement with academic vocabulary or etc. The teachers first will give the students a quiz (multiple choice or fill in the blank); it was discussed that multiple choice questions would be easier to gauge the percentage increase of the students then fill in the blank answers and essay questions. Then the teachers will implement different vocabulary strategies to help the students learn the academic terms. Different strategies can be using the vocabulary work in a sentence, drawing a picture to understand the term better, playing memory games where you read the definition and they pick the term from all the other terms. The students will then be tested on the vocabulary at a later time to see if there is improvement in their knowledge of the academic terms.

PLT’s are a great way for us student- teachers to express our knowledge of the content area to other members of our department. We can suggest different strategies and help pin point problems areas that could occur. It was fun to see experienced teachers, student teachers, and special educators working together for common goals! 

Week 9: Hall Passes

MHS adopted a new hall pass system this year. The students have to fill out a small white paper pass that asks their name, period, date, time left, and time returned. The older passes required signature by the teacher for any where the student was going (library, nurse, bathroom, and locker.) This became a problem because students asked to go to the bathroom or locker at all times during the class period so class was constantly disrupted to obtain signatures from the teachers. This was solved when another teacher made the option just to circle locker or restroom to save class time and obtain signatures only when the student needs to go speak with another person in the school system.

The hall passes do take up a lot of paper we have almost been through 800 of them in only half of a school year, but they are working.

Since the hall passes are strict and you shouldn’t be in the hall without them, the principals are cutting down on skippers. Students cannot just go wondering about the hallways saying they are allowed out of the classroom, they have to have a pass and it makes them responsible and actually go where they say they are going to go.

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Week Eight: SAT meeting

This week I got to sit in my first SAT (Student Assistance Team) meeting. Teachers call a SAT meeting when they see a student slipping with their work and their grades and it acts as a preventative measure to let us see if we as teachers can do anything to help them out. The girl we had a meeting with has a very messed up schedule which causes her to get back from the vocational school during the middle of our English class. Therefore she is falling behind because she doesn’t take the initiative to do all of the makeup work and read what she missed in class to catch up.

We found out that she is skipping her pre-morning credit recovery classes and sleeping all of the time in her Vocational classes and failing them because she works long hours at her job and can’t make it to school on time because of a problem with a ride. She is working to pay of fines from smoking and though she needs to cut back hours she can’t because of the bills she has to pay. Though she is not a problem in our class she is failing, she doesn’t turn things in even when we take the time to catch her up in class and she doesn’t read the work that she is missing and fails the tests that we have.

The solutions that we came up with were for her to work until her fines are paid off and then cut back on the hours. She is not to skip class anymore and to try to get some sleep and make it to her pre-school class in time. For our period we are allowing her to bring her lunch to class so that she misses the first five minutes of class instead of the first 45. By her being in our class on time, she won’t be missing what we go over and her grade should significantly improve. A lot of it is going to be up to her but she is a sweet girl and wants to graduate so as long as she can get things straightened out I know that she can do what is best for her future!