Even More Involved

As requested by my professor for student teaching my posts will now include discourse on at least one of the “Five Habits of Mind” for teaching.  In case the “Habits of Mind” from the Albion College Teacher Education Program differ from other habits people may be thinking of, I will start this post by listing them.

 

Habit 1: To be thoughtful and caring learner-teachers, open and eager to know, be known, and respect self and others

Habit 2: To be curious, critically thinking risk-takers and problem-solvers

Habit 3: To be perspective-takers, seeking out, valuing and incorporating different viewpoints and positions about learners, learning, teaching and subject matter

Habit 4: To be child and youth advocates, desiring a more fair, equitable and democratic society

Habit 5: To be morally, ethically-grounded deliberators, living and working with diverse individuals with integrity

I will make an effort to not rehash the same habit week after week, in order to have a more diverse dialog throughout my student teaching experience.

The week and a half since I last journaled have been quite interesting.  As the students get to know me better they continue to try to see how I react to certain things.  It has been important that I remain kind of strict early on so they understand that while the school day will be fun, we both have a job to do in the short time we are together each day.  Students continue to try to find where exactly the fine line between fun in the classroom and classroom disturbance is in my book.  It makes it a little hard on the students that there are constantly two teachers in the room.  I think I allow for a little more freedom to talk quietly, as long as the students are focused and discussing their work.  My mentor teacher on the other hand is a tad stricter when it comes to talking in the classroom.  It’s not that she prefers silence at all times, she definitely knows and understands that students can learn from each other while they work, but she has a lower level of noise tolerance than I do.  This can make it kind of difficult for the students when my mentor teacher and I take turns teaching lessons throughout the day.  I have a good feeling that as the students learn the differences in how she and I handle classroom management they will become better at transitioning between their two teachers.

You’re in the Picture

This week I was allowed to take over a lesson my mentor does every year.  It’s a writing lesson called “You’re in the Picture.”  For the bulk of this lesson I gave a book – turned to a specific page with a large picture – to each pod.  The students then had to work individually to write a story based only on the picture they were given.  If there were words on the picture, I covered them up with sticky notes.  I allowed the students to either tell the story the picture tells them, or to tell a story that was inspired by what is in the picture.  Before they began I brought them back to the class library for a mini-lesson.  In the mini-lesson I went over the general idea of what we would be doing.  The next step was to discuss how we experience life through our senses.  To demonstrate this I wrote the five senses on the board in the library and told the students to take a mental walk through the woods, and to focus on what all five of their senses would experience.  We brainstormed a list together, and then we created a story.  It was important to note that in order to develop a better story we needed to focus on a few of the topics we brainstormed and not just list off everything.  Then I chose a picture that none of them would be using and I modeled two example stories, like the one they would soon be working on individually, based on my picture.  The first story was a boring one where I just listed the things in the picture.  The kids clearly didn’t enjoy this story, which was the point.  In my good example I focused on a few details from the picture and described a story from the perspective of one of the people on the page.  I was able to incorporate both Taylor Swift and Miguel Cabrera in my story, which had the students laughing and very interested.  The students were given about 25 minutes to brainstorm and write on the first day of the lesson. 

            The second day of “You’re in the Picture” started off with a mini-lesson again.  This mini-lesson was about using descriptive words (adjectives) to help enhance the images your story creates for the reader.  We went back to our mental walk through the woods brainstorming list and I gave a brief talk on the importance of vivid description in story telling.  Together, we modeled how using adjectives created a better mental image of the items on our list.  The students were given about 25 more minutes to write and to go back and add in descriptive words to what they already had written. 

            The final day of the lesson consisted of the students just finishing up with their story, or even writing another one based on a different picture.  Before the end of writing the students were given the opportunity to share what they had written.

Habit 2: To be curious, critically thinking risk-takers and problem-solvers

 

While the students were writing their “You’re in the Picture” stories I would take time to read aloud a sentence or two that someone had wrote.  I would pick sentences that did an excellent job in modeling the use of descriptive words to liven up a story.  Doing this was kind of risky, because making the students pause in their writing could make it hard for some to get back on task.  However, that was not the case, it actually did quite the opposite.  It helped solve the problem of students letting their mind day dream too much.  Since I was giving examples from all kinds of students, the others wanted to be the next student celebrated for doing a great job.  It motivated many students to put forth the extra effort I knew they could give me.  Even if they didn’t get called out in front of the class for a job well done, their writing was greatly improved and they will get their reward of a great grade and positive comments on their papers. 

 

 

Wonder

 

Reading Wonder to my students has been a great experience for all of us.  They really enjoy hearing the story of Auggie going to school for the first time.  In our discussions of the book, my students are easily able to relate it to their life, and how the first day of school – be it their first day ever, or their first day each year – is always a little scary.  Every morning when I greet the students at the door many of them ask  “are we going to read Wonder today?!” or “can we PLEASSSSE read Wonder today.”  It’s awesome knowing my students love hearing me read them a book with such a magnificent message.  The best part about reading Wonder to them is hearing the students discuss how the book teaches us to be more accepting of everybody.  The message behind Wonder makes the reader a better person for having read the story, and when a book is able to do that it is a WONDERFUL book.