First Few Weeks in Eighth Grade Reading

What I Know

                 I know that my students have a lot of strange things going on in their lives. I also know that my students do NOT like reading at ALL. Some of them have actually admitted to me that they HATE reading with a passion and that they do not want to do anything that involves reading (this may be because they know they are not phenominal readers). I have some students who are very disrepectful to adult authority figures. This may be because they have unsure adult figures at home that do not display any authority, or maybe the adult figures at home display too much authority at home.
                 I know that as a teacher I handled my students in such a wrong manner when I first started in this LTS assignment. I thought that by being the "tough, strict, old school authoritarian" teacher would help me gain their respect and attention. I know now, that I was COMPLETELY wrong.

What I Did

 I had students pushing back at me and fighting (not literally) for them to take control away from me. I was in a constant battle with my students and I did not handle it well. Before the winter break, I had a moment of weakness and broke down in tears. I was so upset because I had NO idea what to do with such defiant students who were basically rebelling against me and making me feel like I had no control over my classroom.
                 I had an uplifting conversation with one of my principals after school that day and voiced to him about my frustrations (which I broke down in tears again in his office reliving my mistakes). After speaking with him, I felt more supported and that conversation gave me the confidence to do a little research over the winter break to see how I could change things up for the new year. I found an amazing book called "Classroom Managment for Middle School and High School Teachers" by Edmund T. Emmer and Carolyn M. Evertson. The book was all about how to manage your classroom at the secondary level. I read through the ENTIRE book within 9 days and crafted a classroom managment plan based off of that book.
              Once I had my classroom mangemnt plan started, I took to Pinterest to look for insipirational ideas of how to help me implement my plan. I found so many great ideas (I couldn't use all of them) and could see many of them being used in my classroom. There are some students in my classes who finish work effectively quickly and then proceed to ask me "What can I do now?" or "I'm finished Miss Miles, what can I do?" I answered those questions with an Early Finisher's Board. It has eight activities on it (that will change every other week or so) that students can pick from to complete while the rest of the class finishes the assignment I gave them. It has an article of the week, newspaper activities and activities that will deal with different reading skills. Below is what my board looks like:

I have a black tub beside the board that has all of the materials that students will need to complete any of the activities on the board. When I explained this board to them, they were intrigued by the idea of getting to choose activities to work on when they were finished with their assigned work.

                Along with the Early Finisher's Board, I am also implementing Bell Ringer activities for the beginning of the period. These activities include a literary vocab terms, ethical discussion questions, inspirational quotes, and thought provoking video clips. We always begin class with these activities, no matter what other instruction is going on that day. It's just a nice peaceful way to begin a 45 minute class period to get the students calm and focused. I found the idea for this on Pinterest and then purchased the activities from Teachers Pay Teachers. I HIGHLY reccommend these activities to any reading or english teachers that are looking for a great way to start class. My students really enjoy the video clips on Thursdays and the ethical discussion questions on Tuesdays.

                I also found the idea of having a Reading Graffiti Wall. The wall will be filled up with quotes that students find in books, and other reading material that inspire them. A student will bring in a quote that he or she loves and the student will share the quote with the class. If the class loves it too, the student that brought it in will get to write it on the graffiti wall. This idea gets the students to interact with their classroom environment and choose what gets put on their walls. I am using a chalkboard table cloth and chalk in markers for this decoration idea. When we start to collect more quotes and fill up more of the surface, I will post a picture on here of the graffiti wall for you to see.

What I Predict/Hope

               I am optimistic about my classes and how they will do with these newly implemented ideas. So far, they are all intrigued and curious about the graffiti wall. Quite a few of my students are eager to start looking for quotes to add to the reading graffiti wall. If any one has any questions about the early finisher board or graffiti wall, just ask! 

Middle School LTS

Heading into a New Field Area

            As an elementary certified teacher, it is hard to find a full time permanent position right out of college. I have been substituting for 3 1/2 years now and I have decided to make a shift in my teaching range. Currently, I am certified in grades kindergarten through fourth grade. I am working on getting my certification for fourth through eighth grade in English Language Arts and Social Studies. I am hoping that this expands my ability to get a full time permanent teaching position. 

            At the beginning of this school year, I was offered a reading teacher LTS position teaching sixth and eighth grade reading. It lasted from the end of August until the middle of October. I learned a lot about my interests in teaching and what I really wanted to do with my career. I have found a love for teaching at the middle school level. Now, I have been offered another LTS position in the middle school as an eighth grade reading support teacher. I am incredibly excited and nervous to take on this new challenge. I will be teaching eighth graders who are reading a little below grade level to help improve their reading skills (fluency, comprehension). 

Lesson Planning Redesigned

         Lesson planning used to be a major chore. Most teachers I know are not too happy when they have to sit and create their lesson plans for the week. It is also hard to do in advance, especially when you have a class where you may need to change your plans half way through the week, due to students not grasping a concept or students comprehending more than anticipated. In the world of teaching, teachers need to be flexible with their plans and be able to change/move things around if need be. I have chosen to adopt Planbook as my lesson planning design tool.
 
     

       Above, is an excerpt of a week out of my lesson plans on Planbook. This particular excerpt was from my long-term sub (LTS) position in second grade.

Features of Planbook:

Class Setup-

        In Planbook, you are able to add all the classes (or subjects) you teach during the day. You are able to create your schedule to match your school day routine. Teachers can also include cycle days. I used cycle days 1-6 because that is what my school used. They also accommodate different types of cycle days. This tool allows teachers to schedule an entire year, term or certain range of dates. 

Standards-

        Planbook makes lesson planning simple and easy when you have all of your standards right at your finger tips. All I have to do is go to the drop down menu and pick the standards that I want to apply to the lesson and I am done. It helps me in the fact that I do not have to go looking for the standards that I need to add to my lesson.

Sharing-

This program allows me to share my lesson plans with other teachers that use planbook as well. If a teacher is absent due to illness or other reasons, they can simple share the plans with another teacher for them to print out for the substitute. Also, if there is a long-term substitute, you can share your lesson plans with the sub so that everyone is on the same page. It makes lesson planning a breeze and puts everything right in front of you so that you don't need a whole bunch of different documents. 

     





     

Struggles of an Elementary Student: Multiplication/Division

After being a building substitute for a building of 4th and 5th grade students, I have realized one thing: hardly any of them know how to properly multiply and divide numbers. Most of their problems comes from carrying over or regrouping in errors of addition or subtraction. Some of the problem is because they simply just don't care. After assisting classroom teachers in the 4th and 5th grade teams, I had come to wonder what could be done in order to make their students more successful with multiplication and division.

Their biggest issue seems to be that they simply do not know their multiplication facts. As a student teacher, I witnessed my mentor teacher using her students love of competition in order to help them remember their facts. She would start by giving each student the 2's facts. The students would then look over them and study them. When they felt they were ready, the students could then go through the facts with the teacher. If the student got them all correct (without using a chart, fingers or tricks), the teacher would then give that student their 3's facts. Once the student had completed that set of facts, they would receive a sticker to put on the chart with all of their names and their facts listed up until 12. They would continue to complete each set of multiplication facts in the same manner until all the sets were complete. As students reached certain milestones (reaching the 5's facts, 10's, 12's), there would be rewards for the students who achieved those milestones.

The students that I witnessed going through these steps and learning their multiplication facts were more interested in learning them because there was a point/purpose to learning them other than just for the sake of knowing them. It's sad to say, but most students need some form of concrete motivation in order for them to feel like doing something to help them learn is necessary. Children nowadays are more worried about the apps on their phones and tablets, who is dating whom, and what current social event is going on at that particular moment.

Once students have that basic knowledge of their multiplication facts, it makes it much easier for them to complete division, as well as dealing with fractions (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing).

Coaching and Teaching

Are coaching and teaching any different?
There is not much of a difference:
          Teaching and coaching are almost one in the same. The definition of teaching is: to give information about or instruction in a subject or skill. The definition of coaching is: to train or instruct players or a team.
           The key word in both of those definitions is "instruct." In both teaching and coaching, the authority figure's job is to instruct the student or player to make them more knowledgeable on the skill the authority figure wants them to learn. In my case I am both a teacher and a field hockey coach.
           I instruct my players on the basic skills necessary to play field hockey and help them grow and develop as field hockey players. As a teacher, I instruct my students on the skills necessary for them to learn during their time in my classroom (i.e. math, reading, science and social studies). I use different methods in my teaching as well as my coaching.
           I use differentiation in both teaching and coaching to scaffold my players' and students' learning. I split my junior varsity and varsity teams up during practice to go over different skills that they need at different levels of play. I split my students into groups based on ability in math and reading so that I can teach my students more efficiently.
           Reflection is a key component to my teaching and coaching. I keep a notebook for both teaching and coaching to write down things that work and things that do not work. I also use this blog as a reflection tool to write down my thoughts and ideas so that I can remember them down the road to use later.
           Coaching and teaching. They are really not much different. Coaches and teachers use similar methods to instruct their pupils to help them learn and grow. The good ones use their mistakes to make changes for the future and help make the best class/team possible.

Notes of a Substitute

Notes of a Substitute:

     Being a day-to-day substitute can be one of the hardest jobs in the educational field. Substitutes come into a classroom that they most likely have never been to, managing students they have never met before, working with a schedule they are not used to, and attempting to teach material the permanent classroom teacher has left in his/her lesson plans. Some people would look at a substitute's job and say that they have the easiest job on the planet, but when you have to manage around 25 young people you have never met before and gain their respect as an authority figure all while teaching them material they will need for a future test or quiz, that can make the job extremely difficult. 
     Substituting is a job where you must have three important characteristics. These would be: flexibility, patience and confidence. 
      As a substitute, you need to be able to go with whatever the regular classroom teacher wants done during the time that you are there. This means that time management is a major factor. Substitutes need to figure out the students' needs and their learning styles (if not given by the regular teacher), as well as how to keep the flow of the class going (i.e. Does the flow need to be faster for a more gifted class? Does the flow need to be slower for a class that needs more support?) 
      Along with flexibility, substitutes need to have patience throughout their assignments. They need to show patience to go with the flow of the day and the class they are substituting for that day. As a substitute, losing your cool and breaking down is not an option. Taking a deep breath and retaining focus on what needs done requires patience and understanding to get through the day with a sane mind. If you try to control everything to the point where you are losing your mind when a student steps out of your control by a hair, then maybe it's time to step back and regain focus on what is important in that particular moment. 
      There will be times where the regular teacher does not leave absolute specific plans on what to do and how to do it. In these moments, having confidence in your abilities and capability to manage a classroom are key to having a successful substitute assignment. There were days where I would have barely anything to go by other than topics that the regular teacher wanted covered that day. A good substitute uses his/her confidence to know that the regular teacher trusts in the substitute to use his/her knowledge of instruction to teach the students' in that teacher's class. As substitutes, we are trusted to know how to teach the students effectively so that when the regular teacher returns, they can pick up where the substitute left off the day before. 
      Yes, there are many issues and problems that substitutes have during their assignments and yes, the job is extremely difficult. However, there are so many things that make the job worth while, especially for a teacher that is just beginning their career. 
      I am in my third year as a substitute after graduating from The Pennsylvania State University with a Pre-K through Fourth Grade education certificate and degree. In the three years that I have been substituting, I have seen easily over 50 different classrooms, five different districts with different policies, nine different grade levels (k-8), and 15 different styles of teaching in multiple subjects. Having the opportunity to witness multiple teaching styles and classroom decor choices, and classroom management techniques gives me a fully-rounded post-grad education on how to handle different types of classes and how to handle different situations that could arise during the school day.  Overall, being a substitute is a really cool, amazing and rewarding job. I just hope one day that I can use all of the knowledge I've gained from these different classrooms in my own classroom one day.