A week or two ago, we had to submit our professional development plans for the year. As always, my mind is occupied by a certain kindergarten class and their vexing and stroke-inducing behavior. Now that we are in the second 9 weeks, I have this class twice a week--needless to say I am ever so excited. Putting sarcasm aside for a moment, I have to say that I genuinely like these kids on an individual (and occasionally small group) level. Together, however, they are...wild, to put it mildly.
Naturally, my PD Plan for the year revolves around the theme of classroom management. This class--which has brought me to the point of tears, which has made me laugh, which has both darkened and brightened my day--is my challenge.
For the last week or so, I have been scouring the internet looking for solutions other teachers of kindergartners have implement in their classrooms, trying to find ideas that I can use. Effective ones, hopefully. I also stumbled upon this site: Dr. Mac's Behavior Management Site. So far, I am liking the strategies I've been reading about. Therefore, I'm going to start implementing some and see how things pan out.
As you can probably guess, I will be focusing especially on that class. If I succeed with that class, I can succeed with any class. That's the feeling I get. Plus, I want very much to be able to do projects on the same level I do with the other classes.
For example, at the moment I am doing collage with my two 2-day/week classes. Or, I was. The first class, probably one of my best behaved groups of kindergartners, are doing an 18x24 collage of a pumpkin patch. They are all working in "teams", with each table forming a team. It's challenging for them because they have to share so much. They can't claim a pumpkin as their own. They can't claim the paper they tear as their own. The result is some squabbling and some whining, but the result, I think, will be a good one, even if the project itself isn't up to par. They need to experience such a large-scale group project.
Now the next class (and lets call them the Challengers for future reference) were going to do smaller collages, working in pairs. I thought better of myself when I actually had them. I know that they are not ready for dealing with this particular project. I had them do individual pumpkin drawings. They aren't doing torn paper collage because the mess would be incredible. I would see glue painted on people, on the table...the possibilities are endless (there's a reason they are banned from painting for the foreseeable future). However, I told them that we would try a team collage around Christmas--if their behavior improves. That's my goal.
This week, the strategy I'm going to employ is "catching them being good". Basically, much subtle (or more blatant for the little ones) positive reinforcement. Having read some of the experiences of other teachers utilizing this (even with what were considered "bad" classes), I feel like it might have some very positive effects. I'll keep up with it for a few weeks to see how it works.
When we return from Thanksgiving Break (everyone will be starting fresh on projects and such), I am also going to go with something I read on a message board and change my class stars system to see how it works. Currently, the class starts with four stars and loses stars for misbehavior. I'm going to try letting them earn stars instead, with up to 4 stars possible during class. Since our classes are forty minutes long, that means every 10 minutes I will evaluate class behavior and determine whether or not they have earned a star. I'm going to tell the kids that they can politely remind me if I forget to evaluate for now, but in the future, I may try a timer if I'm having problems remembering. It depends. I think this will mesh better with my star board system, too, wherein the kids earn a star for good behavior and get a prize every third star. Generally, the behavior of my kids at the 1-4 building is pretty good, but I'm hoping this will further improve some undesirable behaviors.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!
Today felt like Monday, and I am totally exhausted. There is every possibility this post will make little to no sense in places. Hopefully I am awake enough to avoid that. : p
So yes, I am doing a lesson on Where the Wild Things Are. And such a funny coincidence that I started just when the movie came out (which I still totally want to go see). The lesson was recommended to me by my mentor teacher from Internship, and I'm doing it with the kindergartners right now.
It's quite a lot of fun. Except for that class that got banned from painting FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR because they were so completely out of control. I'm talking about a child covered from head to toe in paint, paint on the floor, paint on the wall, the tables (and not the top) and chairs. Paint. Everywhere. Egad.
But I digress.
So, lots of fun. Today I had a pretty hyper class, so I did something different. We were reading the story, they were fidgeting badly. When it got to the part were the "rumpus" occurs, I suddenly decided that we would rumpus too. After I showed them the pictures, I told them to line up behind me, and we marched down the stairs into the cafeteria and had our own wild rumpus around the room.
It was very fun and the kids loved it. It also had the pleasant side effect of settling them down, especially when I told them that if they made good choices and worked hard, we'd do it one more time before they went back to their homeroom. And the walk back to class was spectacular! These kids are pretty noisy in the hall, but today? Total angels. Awesome, and a great way to end the day (not counting bus duty of course). Now I'm wishing I'd thought of it earlier so that all my classes could enjoy it. There's next year, I suppose.
On another note, I totally feel like I'm getting back into the groove of lesson planning. When I sit down and really think about a good, involved project, I plan in units. After all, I have to have lessons building up to that great project I want to do! I can happily lay this revitalization at my fellow art teacher's feet, as she was the one who prompted me about my planning process, and because yesterday was an in-service day, I had plenty of time to get my brain jump started and plan.
I started with 3rd grade, as they needed a new lesson for next week. Somehow, my brain got caught on abstract art, and now I have a whole unit (comprised of 4-5 projects) all mapped out and am extremely pleased. All I have to do now is flesh out each individual lesson. I'll say more about the actual lessons after I've worked on them more.
I decided to precede the unit with my much smaller Laurel Burch unit to give the kids an introduction to some of the concepts the abstract unit will cover, like communication through line and color (hopefully I will not be lazy and upload the lesson plans this weekend). Since the LB unit will take about 5-6 weeks (I've got them for 40 minutes a week), I'll have plenty of time to work on the new unit. I'm excited and raring to go on it and the other grade levels!
So yes, I am doing a lesson on Where the Wild Things Are. And such a funny coincidence that I started just when the movie came out (which I still totally want to go see). The lesson was recommended to me by my mentor teacher from Internship, and I'm doing it with the kindergartners right now.
It's quite a lot of fun. Except for that class that got banned from painting FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR because they were so completely out of control. I'm talking about a child covered from head to toe in paint, paint on the floor, paint on the wall, the tables (and not the top) and chairs. Paint. Everywhere. Egad.
But I digress.
So, lots of fun. Today I had a pretty hyper class, so I did something different. We were reading the story, they were fidgeting badly. When it got to the part were the "rumpus" occurs, I suddenly decided that we would rumpus too. After I showed them the pictures, I told them to line up behind me, and we marched down the stairs into the cafeteria and had our own wild rumpus around the room.
It was very fun and the kids loved it. It also had the pleasant side effect of settling them down, especially when I told them that if they made good choices and worked hard, we'd do it one more time before they went back to their homeroom. And the walk back to class was spectacular! These kids are pretty noisy in the hall, but today? Total angels. Awesome, and a great way to end the day (not counting bus duty of course). Now I'm wishing I'd thought of it earlier so that all my classes could enjoy it. There's next year, I suppose.
On another note, I totally feel like I'm getting back into the groove of lesson planning. When I sit down and really think about a good, involved project, I plan in units. After all, I have to have lessons building up to that great project I want to do! I can happily lay this revitalization at my fellow art teacher's feet, as she was the one who prompted me about my planning process, and because yesterday was an in-service day, I had plenty of time to get my brain jump started and plan.
I started with 3rd grade, as they needed a new lesson for next week. Somehow, my brain got caught on abstract art, and now I have a whole unit (comprised of 4-5 projects) all mapped out and am extremely pleased. All I have to do now is flesh out each individual lesson. I'll say more about the actual lessons after I've worked on them more.
I decided to precede the unit with my much smaller Laurel Burch unit to give the kids an introduction to some of the concepts the abstract unit will cover, like communication through line and color (hopefully I will not be lazy and upload the lesson plans this weekend). Since the LB unit will take about 5-6 weeks (I've got them for 40 minutes a week), I'll have plenty of time to work on the new unit. I'm excited and raring to go on it and the other grade levels!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Homework Lasts Forever
Wow. It’s the seventh week of school already, and while I have settled into something of a routine, I still feel like a rank amateur. I’m sure I will for some time to come. As the days fly by, I have, however, come to realize that yes, I do love this job. (Despite the difficulties with certain classes, there are many more enjoyable moments.) We’ll see if this attitude holds for the rest of the school year.
These last few weeks, I haven’t been reflecting through writing as much as I should have been, but I have been thinking things over a lot. I’ve gotten at least a few areas of improvement pinned down (and fodder for the Professional Development Plan we’ll be required to hand in soon), especially in the area of lesson planning and classroom management.
Back when I was in college (as though that was so much longer than half a year ago) I was accustomed to a heavy workload. I took 17-18 hours a semester, spending my days and evenings working on papers and in the studio and studying for tests. I also was working to keep my academic scholarship, so good grades were doubly important. Now that I’m no longer in school, things are a little different.
It seems that there is a place in your brain that says around this time of year, “Shouldn’t I be turning in something? Do I have a test coming up?” For a while, your mind is stuck in the habit of being a student, hard to break after so many years. But there is a larger part that says, “Woo-hoo! No more school for the REST OF MY LIFE!” It is exultant. And there is something about that which makes you want to become utterly lazy. I don’t even have to create those monster lesson plans that we all have to use for our education courses, much less write up a detailed and thoughtful reflection – all of which were graded.
That’s not to say that I’m not putting any effort into my duties as a teacher—I am. But I could be working more efficiently, putting more thought into the week’s lessons. I utilize a great deal of lesson plans from other teachers. A few are my own, and I don’t expect that to change over night. As I learned during my student teaching, creating a meaningful and successful lesson plan or unit takes a lot of time and effort. I don’t have time to create one for every class all at once. It has to be gradual.
But when I am creating a lesson, or pulling ideas and giving them flesh, I still need to sit down and really plan out how it’s going to work. What are we going to talk about? What skill will we learn? In what order should things be presented?
It’s like I am flying by the seat of my pants.
It’s really hit home this week. My third graders started still lifes this week. I’ve never actually done still lifes with elementary kids before—or anyone for that matter. But I thought, “Hey, how hard can it be? I did them all the time when I was a student!” The problem is that I underestimated a third grader’s capacity for sheer bullheadedness. They ask you why and what the point is. They complain about their inability to draw whatever objects you have laid out. I didn’t take into consideration that they need to really build up to something like this. Drawing real objects can be tough for an adult artist, much less a child who may be still gaining control of their fine motor skills.
Thankfully, I can learn from my “guinea pig” classes. For the next class, instead of jumping right into the actual still life, we did exercises to help ease them into it. I also changed the objects being used. Because it’s fall, and I was at Wal-Mart anyhow, I picked up two of those cute mini pumpkins you see, a regular orange one and a white and orange striped one for variety. Their shapes are fairly easy to see and draw: an oval and a circle, ignoring the stems. Hopefully, this will bring the project down to a level that is easier to succeed at for my students, all without sacrificing the skills and ideas I am trying to teach them.
But again, this just hammers in that I really need to focus on planning better. I need to go step by step and consider, “Will this work?” I even need to plan out what I’m going to say—to a point. In other words, I need to pretend like I’m still in college, and these lesson plans are for a grade.
In a way, they are--intangibly. I’m being graded every time one of my students succeeds or fails, and I’m being graded on whether or not I did everything I could to help them succeed. If I haven’t, I’m already failing.
These last few weeks, I haven’t been reflecting through writing as much as I should have been, but I have been thinking things over a lot. I’ve gotten at least a few areas of improvement pinned down (and fodder for the Professional Development Plan we’ll be required to hand in soon), especially in the area of lesson planning and classroom management.
Back when I was in college (as though that was so much longer than half a year ago) I was accustomed to a heavy workload. I took 17-18 hours a semester, spending my days and evenings working on papers and in the studio and studying for tests. I also was working to keep my academic scholarship, so good grades were doubly important. Now that I’m no longer in school, things are a little different.
It seems that there is a place in your brain that says around this time of year, “Shouldn’t I be turning in something? Do I have a test coming up?” For a while, your mind is stuck in the habit of being a student, hard to break after so many years. But there is a larger part that says, “Woo-hoo! No more school for the REST OF MY LIFE!” It is exultant. And there is something about that which makes you want to become utterly lazy. I don’t even have to create those monster lesson plans that we all have to use for our education courses, much less write up a detailed and thoughtful reflection – all of which were graded.
That’s not to say that I’m not putting any effort into my duties as a teacher—I am. But I could be working more efficiently, putting more thought into the week’s lessons. I utilize a great deal of lesson plans from other teachers. A few are my own, and I don’t expect that to change over night. As I learned during my student teaching, creating a meaningful and successful lesson plan or unit takes a lot of time and effort. I don’t have time to create one for every class all at once. It has to be gradual.
But when I am creating a lesson, or pulling ideas and giving them flesh, I still need to sit down and really plan out how it’s going to work. What are we going to talk about? What skill will we learn? In what order should things be presented?
It’s like I am flying by the seat of my pants.
It’s really hit home this week. My third graders started still lifes this week. I’ve never actually done still lifes with elementary kids before—or anyone for that matter. But I thought, “Hey, how hard can it be? I did them all the time when I was a student!” The problem is that I underestimated a third grader’s capacity for sheer bullheadedness. They ask you why and what the point is. They complain about their inability to draw whatever objects you have laid out. I didn’t take into consideration that they need to really build up to something like this. Drawing real objects can be tough for an adult artist, much less a child who may be still gaining control of their fine motor skills.
Thankfully, I can learn from my “guinea pig” classes. For the next class, instead of jumping right into the actual still life, we did exercises to help ease them into it. I also changed the objects being used. Because it’s fall, and I was at Wal-Mart anyhow, I picked up two of those cute mini pumpkins you see, a regular orange one and a white and orange striped one for variety. Their shapes are fairly easy to see and draw: an oval and a circle, ignoring the stems. Hopefully, this will bring the project down to a level that is easier to succeed at for my students, all without sacrificing the skills and ideas I am trying to teach them.
But again, this just hammers in that I really need to focus on planning better. I need to go step by step and consider, “Will this work?” I even need to plan out what I’m going to say—to a point. In other words, I need to pretend like I’m still in college, and these lesson plans are for a grade.
In a way, they are--intangibly. I’m being graded every time one of my students succeeds or fails, and I’m being graded on whether or not I did everything I could to help them succeed. If I haven’t, I’m already failing.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
For that Bug Under a Magnifying Glass Feel
Today was the day of my first observation. My boss, the principal, sat in on my first kindergarten class today for roughly 20-25 minutes (and she'll be sitting in again tomorrow to observe one of the kids). I'm just glad that I'm used to having people sitting in to watch me teach (due to my internship last spring), or I might have felt nervous about more than a just faint fear of the class' behavior. Luckily, this first class was very well behaved, as they generally are.
Once again, the project was sponge printing. This time, I was better prepared. I found my rags (which had been in plain sight in my supply closet the whole time, of course) and so was able to conduct a much smoother clean up. My Love & Logic strategy feels like it's starting to work. I still need to finish the book, of course, and it will take some time before I truly begin to get the hang of it, but I ended on a good note today.
Now, I think I need to rewind and go back to the first class of the day.
I had 2nd, 1st, and kindergarten today, in that order. 2nd grade is doing a contour line project right now. They have a piece of standard sized paper and write their names on it in big block or bubble letters. Then, they color with colored pencils. A wonderful, no mess project, but something I can still work on reinforcing classroom procedures on. Plus, it was one worry taken away from all the rest, which is never a bad thing!
This class is one of my rowdier ones, but they actually did quite well. There is a table that I am pretty sure needs to be broken up and spread out, so sometime before next Thursday, I need to break out my seating chart and switch people around. There was a whole lot of "they're pushing the table into me!" and "he kicked me!" and squabbling going on. I ended up moving one girl to work at a desk alone, and another boy moved to a single desk --his own decision-- to work. But sadly, despite how well the class worked after this problem got figured out, I still ended up feeling like a complete heel.
Early in the class, I had given the little girl I moved a check mark because she wasn't paying attention. Later she had been working so well that I told her she could put her name on the Star Board. Unfortunately, my own criteria is that if the student gets a check at any time, they are no longer eligible for the Star Board. (Incidentally, another boy got his name up and then got it taken down because he got a check mark right at the end of class.) I later had to go back and take her name off the board because it should never have been there at all. Of course she started silently weeping. And what could I do? I felt awful, but it is very clear that if they have a check they can't get a star. I couldn't just let it go, could I? Ooohh.... That was a big lesson for me, I guess. I really need to be consistent, but I have GOT to pay attention to things like that so that I don't end up being inconsistent or just plain "mean". If I had never told her to put her name up (because I remembered her check mark), she would have been just fine at the end of class. Instead, I am now a horrible, horrible Indian giver. Woe!
Fast forward back to kindergarten...
My last class was my third worst class. (Why are they always the last class? Why can't they be the first class, so that I can end on a good note?) When I arrived, their teacher was very obviously at the end of her rope. I figured, "Oh man, they are gonna be crazy!" But they did really well today! I was so excited, I had to brag to their teacher (who really needed to hear that) and to the principal and office ladies. They were a lot more talkative than some classes, but they listened really well for the most part. Everyone finished their project. There was no big scary clean up chaos (except for the two inch dead roach I found floating in my water bucked after school--eeeeeeewww). And miracle of miracles, they walked back to class quietly. I only had to stop a couple times and ask those who were horsing around, "Will you settle down better here or at the end of the line?" I think we all know what their answer to that was. Joy!
Really, the only thing I have to deal with now is putting my drying rack together; so far, it's not working so well. I think I need to put some WD-40 in the screw holes to deal with the rust, first of all. Then I can deal with the pain of trying to hold the parts together while getting a screw in correctly. Blah. Fortunately, I'm done with painting for at least a week. Tomorrow is the Monday/Friday group, and they are doing very basic collage right now.
.....until Monday, anyway. Painting paper for the Hungry Caterpillar collage, I recall now. So I do kind of need my drying rack. Oh well. That's what the weekend is for!
Once again, the project was sponge printing. This time, I was better prepared. I found my rags (which had been in plain sight in my supply closet the whole time, of course) and so was able to conduct a much smoother clean up. My Love & Logic strategy feels like it's starting to work. I still need to finish the book, of course, and it will take some time before I truly begin to get the hang of it, but I ended on a good note today.
Now, I think I need to rewind and go back to the first class of the day.
I had 2nd, 1st, and kindergarten today, in that order. 2nd grade is doing a contour line project right now. They have a piece of standard sized paper and write their names on it in big block or bubble letters. Then, they color with colored pencils. A wonderful, no mess project, but something I can still work on reinforcing classroom procedures on. Plus, it was one worry taken away from all the rest, which is never a bad thing!
This class is one of my rowdier ones, but they actually did quite well. There is a table that I am pretty sure needs to be broken up and spread out, so sometime before next Thursday, I need to break out my seating chart and switch people around. There was a whole lot of "they're pushing the table into me!" and "he kicked me!" and squabbling going on. I ended up moving one girl to work at a desk alone, and another boy moved to a single desk --his own decision-- to work. But sadly, despite how well the class worked after this problem got figured out, I still ended up feeling like a complete heel.
Early in the class, I had given the little girl I moved a check mark because she wasn't paying attention. Later she had been working so well that I told her she could put her name on the Star Board. Unfortunately, my own criteria is that if the student gets a check at any time, they are no longer eligible for the Star Board. (Incidentally, another boy got his name up and then got it taken down because he got a check mark right at the end of class.) I later had to go back and take her name off the board because it should never have been there at all. Of course she started silently weeping. And what could I do? I felt awful, but it is very clear that if they have a check they can't get a star. I couldn't just let it go, could I? Ooohh.... That was a big lesson for me, I guess. I really need to be consistent, but I have GOT to pay attention to things like that so that I don't end up being inconsistent or just plain "mean". If I had never told her to put her name up (because I remembered her check mark), she would have been just fine at the end of class. Instead, I am now a horrible, horrible Indian giver. Woe!
Fast forward back to kindergarten...
My last class was my third worst class. (Why are they always the last class? Why can't they be the first class, so that I can end on a good note?) When I arrived, their teacher was very obviously at the end of her rope. I figured, "Oh man, they are gonna be crazy!" But they did really well today! I was so excited, I had to brag to their teacher (who really needed to hear that) and to the principal and office ladies. They were a lot more talkative than some classes, but they listened really well for the most part. Everyone finished their project. There was no big scary clean up chaos (except for the two inch dead roach I found floating in my water bucked after school--eeeeeeewww). And miracle of miracles, they walked back to class quietly. I only had to stop a couple times and ask those who were horsing around, "Will you settle down better here or at the end of the line?" I think we all know what their answer to that was. Joy!
Really, the only thing I have to deal with now is putting my drying rack together; so far, it's not working so well. I think I need to put some WD-40 in the screw holes to deal with the rust, first of all. Then I can deal with the pain of trying to hold the parts together while getting a screw in correctly. Blah. Fortunately, I'm done with painting for at least a week. Tomorrow is the Monday/Friday group, and they are doing very basic collage right now.
.....until Monday, anyway. Painting paper for the Hungry Caterpillar collage, I recall now. So I do kind of need my drying rack. Oh well. That's what the weekend is for!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
The Metaphorical Straw
As the days have passed, I've been noticing something of a trend within my classes. Namely, my most frustrating classes seem to be solely kindergarten. Now I love those little guys, but there are classroom management issues that make me want to tear my hair out. Or cry, which was something I expounded upon in a post on my livejournal here. Essentially, there are certain classes that get so out of hand that I end up shouting. They just ignore me, or they forget about it by the next time they come to class, and all I end up with is a sore throat, a headache, and the urge to cry (or scream, depending upon the day). This is unacceptable to me.
I know that as a new teacher I'm going to run into problems like this. Not only are these kiddies very new to school in general (I've been told that many didn't even go to Pre-K), but they almost certainly have not been sequestered with twenty other excitable children on a too small stage doing structured art lessons. That is not to say that all my classes are bad. Most of them go quite well, in truth. But the ones that don't...those are the ones that really get me.
When I was in school, my professors touched upon the Love & Logic style of teaching. We were even required to get the book for class. But, it was never something that I truly understood. We didn't read much more than a few passages, and talking about it in class proved a bit too abstract to digest. It's something that I need to attempt to put into practice to really get the gist of. Well I kept that book, and I've been reading it more and more voraciously as the days pass. You see, I don't want to be the teacher who yells all the time and who must resort to threats and bribery to gain a shakey control over her students. I want to be the teacher whose students CHOOSE to behave, because it's my classroom and because they are making good choices (an oft used phrase in our school district's classrooms).
Having sworn to immediately attempt to put into practice Love & Logic, I went so far as to highlight important parts of my book and even take notes, as though I were back in college! But it helped. Today was the day I only have 3 classes, so it seemed easy to start off with. And it is also the day that I have the kindergarten class I consider the second most unruly. Here's the rundown:
At the elementary (1-4) I had only a 1st grade class. They are currently doing a Kandinsky based project meant to introduce them primarily to lines. It was one of the better behaved classes. I began conciously trying to use Love & Logic phrases (or Thinking Words, as the book calls them) when speaking with my students. I tried to give both the class and individual students choices several times during the class (for example: "You may choose to use a minimum of three lines up to a maximum of all the lines we talked about. It's up to you."). I also tried to use the strategy detailed in the book for garnering my class's attention. Using a phrase like, "When everyone is sitting quietly, I will be glad to tell you what we're doing today." Seemed to work pretty well.
After this, I left for the Learning Center to teach my two Kindergarten classes of the day. The kids are doing sponge monoprints this week, and focusing on basic shapes. So, painting. (And let's keep in mind that I do not yet have any drying racks--unless you count spare bookshelf space.) Right off the bat, I made a few mistakes in terms of procedures. For one, I could not find the rags I intended to use in class for clean up and had forgotten to bring the ones in my classroom at the other school. This means that clean up involved a stop at the bathrooms to wash hands. Having never needed to do this before, I had only the vaguest of ideas on procedure, gained by idle observation of classroom teachers as I went to pick up my class of the day. The first class, having been mostly calm, was relatively okay. But my last class....well. Back to that in a moment.
As I said, the first class was pretty well behaved. I began by using the same strategies that I did for first grade. I had some gratifying successes as well. A couple of boys were pushing each other and horsing around in line on the way to class. I stopped the line and spoke to them calmly. I said, "Boys, we're supposed to be making our quiet signs in the hallway. Do you think you will settle down better here or at the end of the line?" Of course, no 5 year old wants to go to the end of the line! They both felt they could calm down where they were--and they did. The class as a whole went well. They were all highly excited to paint (it seems like all these kids want to know is if they will be able to paint), and they responded very nicely to my strategy to get them quiet. I didn't have to raise my voice unneccarily at all. Then there was the mild chaos of clean up, as mentioned above.
The second class started out just as well. I had a few more talkers in this one and a couple who liked to get up and wander (and mess with other kids' art, sadly), but everything went rather smoothly until clean up time. While nowhere near the level of chaos of yesterday's class, it was still rather bad. I still did not need to really raise my voice (though I will admit to curbing the urge to yell once or twice), and we managed to get lined up and to the bathrooms alright. This is where it was just awful. They were loud and crazy, and their teacher came to help me out because she could hear them down the hall. Talk about embarrassing. And yet, not, because I was frankly kind of relieved!
I was just worn out after that, and again, tense and headachey. But something about trying with the Love & Logic helped me to be less stressed and upset than I would have been otherwise. Tomorrow will go more smoothly, I think. For one thing, I'll have my washrags!
I know that as a new teacher I'm going to run into problems like this. Not only are these kiddies very new to school in general (I've been told that many didn't even go to Pre-K), but they almost certainly have not been sequestered with twenty other excitable children on a too small stage doing structured art lessons. That is not to say that all my classes are bad. Most of them go quite well, in truth. But the ones that don't...those are the ones that really get me.
When I was in school, my professors touched upon the Love & Logic style of teaching. We were even required to get the book for class. But, it was never something that I truly understood. We didn't read much more than a few passages, and talking about it in class proved a bit too abstract to digest. It's something that I need to attempt to put into practice to really get the gist of. Well I kept that book, and I've been reading it more and more voraciously as the days pass. You see, I don't want to be the teacher who yells all the time and who must resort to threats and bribery to gain a shakey control over her students. I want to be the teacher whose students CHOOSE to behave, because it's my classroom and because they are making good choices (an oft used phrase in our school district's classrooms).
Having sworn to immediately attempt to put into practice Love & Logic, I went so far as to highlight important parts of my book and even take notes, as though I were back in college! But it helped. Today was the day I only have 3 classes, so it seemed easy to start off with. And it is also the day that I have the kindergarten class I consider the second most unruly. Here's the rundown:
At the elementary (1-4) I had only a 1st grade class. They are currently doing a Kandinsky based project meant to introduce them primarily to lines. It was one of the better behaved classes. I began conciously trying to use Love & Logic phrases (or Thinking Words, as the book calls them) when speaking with my students. I tried to give both the class and individual students choices several times during the class (for example: "You may choose to use a minimum of three lines up to a maximum of all the lines we talked about. It's up to you."). I also tried to use the strategy detailed in the book for garnering my class's attention. Using a phrase like, "When everyone is sitting quietly, I will be glad to tell you what we're doing today." Seemed to work pretty well.
After this, I left for the Learning Center to teach my two Kindergarten classes of the day. The kids are doing sponge monoprints this week, and focusing on basic shapes. So, painting. (And let's keep in mind that I do not yet have any drying racks--unless you count spare bookshelf space.) Right off the bat, I made a few mistakes in terms of procedures. For one, I could not find the rags I intended to use in class for clean up and had forgotten to bring the ones in my classroom at the other school. This means that clean up involved a stop at the bathrooms to wash hands. Having never needed to do this before, I had only the vaguest of ideas on procedure, gained by idle observation of classroom teachers as I went to pick up my class of the day. The first class, having been mostly calm, was relatively okay. But my last class....well. Back to that in a moment.
As I said, the first class was pretty well behaved. I began by using the same strategies that I did for first grade. I had some gratifying successes as well. A couple of boys were pushing each other and horsing around in line on the way to class. I stopped the line and spoke to them calmly. I said, "Boys, we're supposed to be making our quiet signs in the hallway. Do you think you will settle down better here or at the end of the line?" Of course, no 5 year old wants to go to the end of the line! They both felt they could calm down where they were--and they did. The class as a whole went well. They were all highly excited to paint (it seems like all these kids want to know is if they will be able to paint), and they responded very nicely to my strategy to get them quiet. I didn't have to raise my voice unneccarily at all. Then there was the mild chaos of clean up, as mentioned above.
The second class started out just as well. I had a few more talkers in this one and a couple who liked to get up and wander (and mess with other kids' art, sadly), but everything went rather smoothly until clean up time. While nowhere near the level of chaos of yesterday's class, it was still rather bad. I still did not need to really raise my voice (though I will admit to curbing the urge to yell once or twice), and we managed to get lined up and to the bathrooms alright. This is where it was just awful. They were loud and crazy, and their teacher came to help me out because she could hear them down the hall. Talk about embarrassing. And yet, not, because I was frankly kind of relieved!
I was just worn out after that, and again, tense and headachey. But something about trying with the Love & Logic helped me to be less stressed and upset than I would have been otherwise. Tomorrow will go more smoothly, I think. For one thing, I'll have my washrags!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
An Introduction, of Sorts
For anyone who may stop by, let me first welcome you to my blog. It's purpose is this: to allow myself an easy method for reflection and to perhaps give others ideas and help in their own classrooms.
When I was interning this past Spring, one of my standing assignments was the completion of several journal entries throughout the semester detailing my experiences during the course of the internship. I was to examine the good, the bad and the ugly, as it were, and if so desired, my thoughts and feelings as well. I discovered it to be a highly useful tool for improving my performance as a teacher and a wonderful way to organize my thoughts. Having been long accustomed to blogging about my life in general, I felt that blogging about my classroom experiences would be no hardship, allowing me to continue the "journaling" experience more easily.
In addition to reflecting upon my teaching, I want to use this journal as a place to put lesson plans that I create and, hopefully, find successful. For any future visitors to my blog, I hope these things are both enjoyable and helpful.
Moving on...
Somehow, it seems that I would have done better to start this blog before or during the first week of school, so as to better record the events therein. But as most ought to know, the classroom can be pretty crazy at the start! Well it's now heading into the third week of school; I finally feel able to start this thing up.
So maybe a bit of a recap is in order?
As a new teacher, there were several things to take up my time at the beginning of the school year, not the least of which was packing and moving six hours away to my new home. I have found myself rooming with the other art teacher at my school, which has been fortuitous. From inservices to paperwork to lesson planning for that first week of school, life was a chaotic mess. Much of it is a blur now as I focus on other things.
Perhaps one of the most daunting tasks I faced was, believe it or not, setting up my classroom. Now, coming into this position in place of a previous teacher, there are certain things that are different from how I would have imagined. First, my current room was, at the time of my interview earlier in the year, a music room. So some things had yet to be moved to the NEW music room. Easily taken care of. Secondly, I had to utilize my new teacher budget and buy office supplies. As many know, braving Wal-Mart at the height of the Back-to-School sales pitch is a long journey, fraught with peril. I had to learn all about requisition forms (and word to the wise, the office secretaries are smart ladies--they know the answer to a great many things), bringing me to my third task: inventory.
I currently teach at two schools: the elementary (grades 1-4) and the learning center (Pre-K and Kindergarten). I had to visit both places and make a list of what supplies I did and did not have (or perhaps that should be DO not have, as I am still waiting for my final supplies to arrive). When you come into a teaching job, at my district at least, you rely on the person(s) who preceded you to handle things like ordering supplies for the new school year. So while I had a great many supplies, there were still things missing which I felt I needed in order facilitate a more productive and meaningful art experience.
This is where, while waiting for my supplies, I have to think outside the box. I have hardly any white drawing paper right now, but there is more pink paper than I can shake a stick at. So that can be used for pre-sketching and free-draw with no problem, saving the better quality white paper for the "actual" projects.
There is also the decision to make on what needs to go with me in the afternoons when I leave to go teach Kindergarten. For one thing, at the learning center, my classroom is on a stage in the cafeteria. So, no, not technically a classroom as most people know them. I have no sink readily at hand and no drying racks or counters. This is another area where I must think creatively. And at the moment, I'm still trying to get it all figured out!
As I go, I feel like things are getting easier to manage (though maybe a little more slowly with Kindergarten). I think that so far, I've found that feedback is worth more than gold. Being able to bounce ideas off of and relate experiences to other teachers has been a wonderful help. But that is a post for another time.
When I was interning this past Spring, one of my standing assignments was the completion of several journal entries throughout the semester detailing my experiences during the course of the internship. I was to examine the good, the bad and the ugly, as it were, and if so desired, my thoughts and feelings as well. I discovered it to be a highly useful tool for improving my performance as a teacher and a wonderful way to organize my thoughts. Having been long accustomed to blogging about my life in general, I felt that blogging about my classroom experiences would be no hardship, allowing me to continue the "journaling" experience more easily.
In addition to reflecting upon my teaching, I want to use this journal as a place to put lesson plans that I create and, hopefully, find successful. For any future visitors to my blog, I hope these things are both enjoyable and helpful.
Moving on...
Somehow, it seems that I would have done better to start this blog before or during the first week of school, so as to better record the events therein. But as most ought to know, the classroom can be pretty crazy at the start! Well it's now heading into the third week of school; I finally feel able to start this thing up.
So maybe a bit of a recap is in order?
As a new teacher, there were several things to take up my time at the beginning of the school year, not the least of which was packing and moving six hours away to my new home. I have found myself rooming with the other art teacher at my school, which has been fortuitous. From inservices to paperwork to lesson planning for that first week of school, life was a chaotic mess. Much of it is a blur now as I focus on other things.
Perhaps one of the most daunting tasks I faced was, believe it or not, setting up my classroom. Now, coming into this position in place of a previous teacher, there are certain things that are different from how I would have imagined. First, my current room was, at the time of my interview earlier in the year, a music room. So some things had yet to be moved to the NEW music room. Easily taken care of. Secondly, I had to utilize my new teacher budget and buy office supplies. As many know, braving Wal-Mart at the height of the Back-to-School sales pitch is a long journey, fraught with peril. I had to learn all about requisition forms (and word to the wise, the office secretaries are smart ladies--they know the answer to a great many things), bringing me to my third task: inventory.
I currently teach at two schools: the elementary (grades 1-4) and the learning center (Pre-K and Kindergarten). I had to visit both places and make a list of what supplies I did and did not have (or perhaps that should be DO not have, as I am still waiting for my final supplies to arrive). When you come into a teaching job, at my district at least, you rely on the person(s) who preceded you to handle things like ordering supplies for the new school year. So while I had a great many supplies, there were still things missing which I felt I needed in order facilitate a more productive and meaningful art experience.
This is where, while waiting for my supplies, I have to think outside the box. I have hardly any white drawing paper right now, but there is more pink paper than I can shake a stick at. So that can be used for pre-sketching and free-draw with no problem, saving the better quality white paper for the "actual" projects.
There is also the decision to make on what needs to go with me in the afternoons when I leave to go teach Kindergarten. For one thing, at the learning center, my classroom is on a stage in the cafeteria. So, no, not technically a classroom as most people know them. I have no sink readily at hand and no drying racks or counters. This is another area where I must think creatively. And at the moment, I'm still trying to get it all figured out!
As I go, I feel like things are getting easier to manage (though maybe a little more slowly with Kindergarten). I think that so far, I've found that feedback is worth more than gold. Being able to bounce ideas off of and relate experiences to other teachers has been a wonderful help. But that is a post for another time.
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