Head Up, and Shoulders Back!

Just woke up after watching the video of me teaching. Ha-ha! Maybe it was the lack of sleep after weeeks of going to bed at 3:00 a.m. and waking up at 5:30 a.m; maybe its the fact that I haven't had any healthy meals or consistent exercise since I got here; or maybe...maybe... I really am that boring of a teacher. The last possibility is, of course, the one that I am most hesitant to lean towards, but its the one that I feel I should examine the closest.
The thing that was most apparent to me while watching the video, and probably the most surprising, was my posture. It never entered my mind that my posture would have an impact on the kind of teacher that the students view me as. Of course, posture, in general, is important; but, I never considered myself as having poor posture. However, during the video, I did not come across as a confident, professional, educator. Instead, I looked like a twenty-two year old girl, with slouched shoulders, who crosses her arms when she's nervous, and shuffles atound the classroom, as if she is searching for something that she can never find. It was hilarious to me, but mortifying as well. I don't mind looking like that while attending college, or hanging out with friends; but, in a classroom - MY classroom - it seems to be the most blatant sign of weakness and immaturity. So, just like my teacher face, I have to work on my teacher stance.
The other thing that really stood out to me was how often I had my back turned to one part of the class. Either I was writing on the board, or just facing one side of the class and talking - but, I definitely want to work on quitting. I think it also involves the setup of the classroom. Even if I do the nifty "Joe-Sweeney-writing-with-his-back-turned-to-the-board-thing", I think that my body gets in the way of some students seeing, and when I move, then I'm in the way of other students. Vicious Cycle, really.
Well, lots to work on and make better. Glad that I at least have somewhere to start, though. There always seems to be room for improvement, but if I can at least get the "look" of a teacher down, I figure I'm gonna be ropin' in 6 figures by the end of January.

Creative Writing

I know that it is debated within MTC whether or not it is appropriate to assign writing as a form of punishment. I hope to blog about this question, and I find it a very important issue to address, - but, in this post, it is an issue I wish to avoid.

The following is a sample, from one of my summer school students, of a one page paper assigned as a consequence for disrupting class:

Rules are important at school cause if you didn't have rules the school would be a bird pin. It would be just like birds flying through school making a mess. Rules are not meant to be broken. You should not break rules especially during school cause you will be punished. That is why some of the kids act like they do during school, cause they don't have enough rules. Respect the rules.

This is incredible to me. The student who handed this paper in to me is a constant discipline problem. A very sweet and very smart young man, but - I think - gets bored and frustrated in the classroom. He was not doing well on his work or tests, but has become more of an active participant, and seems to be having an easier time grasping alot of the material. Reading this short paper, though, I was totally blown away by how eloquent his bird pen example was. He has beautiful handwriting, and the analogy was so clever to me. I also recognize that there may be more grammatically correct ways of writing what he did, but I am so torn as to whether or not I should stress these grammar issues upon students.
Of course, I believe that everyone should have a basic knowledge of proper grammar, and it is obvious that many of these kids don't. However, the writing they do turn in to me, although full of grammar and spelling mistakes, is BEAUTIFUL. And, I think that so much of that beauty is due to those mistakes. The same way that Faulkner or O'Connor would write a dialogue between two or more people from the south, is how these students are writing to me - It's an internal dialogue of sorts. I do not mean to compare my students to characters in famous stories; I merely wish to say that the dialect they write in is fascinating, and - in its own way - brilliant.
Of course, Faulkner and O'Connor knew proper english as well as their own southern style. That is probably the most important factor for me to keep in mind while thinking about this issue. While I do think that their writing and imagery is amazing, it may be better for me to stress the difference between creative writing and professional/"proper" wrting. I do not want them to lose any part of their imagination and dialect, but I do want them to recognize that there is proper english and that there is a proper time to employ it.

On a final note, I also assigned a page of writing to a student who would not stay in his seat while we were discussing factors. The final line of his paper was, I will not be the least common factor of this class anymore.

Paper Folds

Thus far, at summer school, I have incorporated "paper-folding" activities into two different lessons. I LOVE IT!!! Maybe it's the silly, crafty, "i-wanna-play-with-crayons" side of me, but I think the creative, hands-on, activities are great. It gives every student a chance to use his/her head, to use his/her imagination, and there are no "wrong" answers when you are being creative. Of course, each activity does involve problem solving, and needing to know equations. So, in that respect, some students do have a more difficult time than others. But, still - even the students who have trouble get a chance to enjoy math a little more. Some things I might change or be cautious of? I certainly don't want to treat the students like babies, so the more challenging and creative the activity, the better. Also, if I choose to use these activities during the school year, they will not be every day, and I will save them for the lessons that seem to take less time. The reason for this is, that while the students do benefit from being creative, I think the activities would be more beneficial once the students have a somewhat firm grasp on the knowledge content involved in the activity. If they're unclear on how to solve for a percent, me asking them to make a booklet about solving for a percent is somewhat pointless.

Cold-Calling

This week I attempted to use the Cold-Calling method of questioning in my class. I am very torn up about the results of the particular method. I started by writing down my students' names on index cards, and pin-pointed the places in my lesson plans that I would use the cards to act as a method of "randomly" calling upon a student to answer a question. When I got to those points in my lesson, though, I would start to ask the class to shout out an answer, but would then remember that I was holding the cards in my right hand, and would have to slur my sentence, back-track, and explain my new method of questioning. The students did not seem to have any reaction to me using the index cards, and even when I would say, "Mr. Doe, could you please explain to the class what the first step in problem five is, " kids would raise their hand and shout out the answer. Again, though, I would specify, "Mr. Doe," and all those who had just shouted out would understand that I would not acknowledge anyone but Mr. Doe, and they would refrain from speaking. However, I find myself doing the same thing even when I'm not using the index cards. If I ask a question in class, I always expect at least half of them to shout out the answer. Sometimes I'll let the shout out suffice, other times I'll listen to the shout out, but then specify a single person to repeat their answer. The cards seemed to have the exact same effect. I suppose one purpose of the cards is to give an atmosphere of randomness, and make the students feel as though I am not playing favorites and that there's always a chance I'll call on them. This makes sense, but I hope to give that impression regardless of having the index cards in my hands or not. In fact, I found that even while I was looking at the cards, I might draw a person's name from the deck, decide that I have already heard "enough" from that person, and play it off as though I had drawn someone else's name.
In general, I like the intent behind the method of Cold-Calling, but I feel more comfortable calling on people randomly, and not having to look at a deck of cards. Maybe if I practiced the method a few more times I would become more comfortable, but the first time I tried it I found it to be more distracting to me, and I was more focused on the cards than the students. Like I said, though - Very good intentions I the method itself.

Response to Focus Paper

I just finished reading a Second Year Teacher's review of some of the history involving the Pledge of Allegiance in the United States' School System. There were some interesting cases and facts brought up in the paper, e.g., something that I found curious was the original composition and the fact that it had no mention of God or any Religion, and that the United States were nowhere referred to by name. Another thing that surprised me was learning one of the first cases brought to court involving this issue had to do with the parents of students taking offense at their children being required to pledge allegiance to something other than God. It seems to me that lately the controversy being raised around the Pledge of Allegiance in schools confronts the somewhat exact opposite problem, i.e., parents are frustrated with their children being asked to acknowledge a God or Religion that they do not believe in. It was amusing to think about the origins of the conflict being so seemingly opposed to the position we are presented with today.What I found particularly interesting in the paper, though, was the notion of a clear and present danger resulting from a student's refusal to recite the Pledge. I suppose the notion makes sense when considering a sort of militaristic point of view - if you don't have all of your soldiers following given orders and believing in the same cause, your army is at a disadvantage. However, I do not think that the children in schools should be compared in such a way to the soldiers in an army. I agree that we are raising and educating our children to not only to be morally decent and intellectually sound human beings, but to also be "good" citizens of the United States (I would love to say that I think the two types of education go hand-in-hand, though sometimes I am doubtful). I wonder then, if part of a child's education is learning how to function in the country they are growing up in, what is our duty - not only as teachers, but as parents, lawgivers, etc. - to "train" the child to "believe" in his/her country?Perhaps I am way too liberal about this, or - perhaps - I'm not liberal enough; but, it seems to me that if we are honest with a child, if we tell a child the truth - insofar as we are able - about the country they are living in and the history - good and bad - of that country, and we also teach the child to think for him/herself, we will be doing absolutely everything in our power to ensure that the child will both love the country they grow up in, and that the country they are growing up in is a place worth loving. I may need to explain myself a bit more.If a country takes pride in the education of its individuals, I believe that it is fulfilling one of the top priorities and duties assigned to it. Through education, I believe that people make wiser, more thouhtful choices which result in better actions. Thus, when we teach our children well, we are not only teaching them about where they come from, but we are giving them a better option for where they can go - and if a healthy and thorough education is something that we can continue providing, then this "better" place will no longer be a hope for the future, but will become a benefit of today.It might be the case, though, that once this "better" place is reached, there will be so much love and dedication to it by the citizens, that pledges, and anthems, and alll sorts of similar "praises" will become a part of the culture that is passed down to many generations throughout many public and private institutions. However, there is a large difference between reciting a pledge because it is something you believe in and are compelled to do out of love and compassion for your country, and reciting a pledge because it is recquired by an authoritative figure and refusal will result in an expulsion or punishment. One is an action done out of love, and one is an action done out of fear.Of course, are children old enough to know what they love? This may seem like a terribly unfair question, but I thought it was an interesting point that the focus paper raised saying, " The first stipulation raised by the supreme court was that the children were old enough to maturely and intelligently hold their own religious beliefs and...despite theirstatus as minors, they were deemed to have reached an age when they were no longer under the intellectual influence or compulsion of their parents." Very interesting, but is it true? Are children old enough to think for themselves about religion and moral issues? If a child cannot grasp the theory of relativity, can he/she grasp something as complex as death? I certainly am not saying that Relativity and Death are equivalent, or that they even involve the same type of mental capabilities; however, why are we sometimes inclined to say that we know our beliefs long before many other types of knowledge? In mean, they're BELIEFS - those things that we cannot know for sure - yet, we're sure of them right away?I may have strayed from the original topic, and I apologize for that. As an attempt to summarize the messy response above, let me close with a question: Is the public education of our children reponsible for making them moral human beings, and if so, how should the system go about doing so?