This week I was getting more comfortable with my students and understanding my classroom routines better. One thing that I struggle through in my classroom is to understanding that my students need more concrete information. Their depth of knowledge is on one level and getting them to expand above that is extremely difficult, esp. for some students. My students are in 9-11th grade with modified diplomas, meaning they do not have to take the west test and their CSO’s are different. Last week we worked on reading on their individual levels. Some of my students cannot read at all and other students are on a higher level. I have students read their books aloud tome to try to help them as much as possible.
In math we worked on money. This was something that going into I did not realize how difficult it was going to be. I started by asking my students what a quarter was and how much it was worth. I became very nervous when no one knew. Then, my teacher told me about touch math. I asked the students if they knew what touch math was. Some of the students that my teacher had last year, understood touch math. I had these students show the other students the touch math on the board. So I continued to review the coins aloud with the students. I became very nervous when my students couldn’t even count by 5’s let alone count coin. So, I stopped the lesson and had everyone count by 5’s aloud. When students messed up we started over. So we couldn’t by 5 three times. I continued to work with the students identifying counts and doing the touch math. We did it on the board, aloud, on paper, and with marker boards... identify, identify, and identify. After realizing that my students didn’t know how to count to 5 I decided to use the Macarena to teach them. Two of my students who are lower level loved it, they will do it even when it’s not math and putting a motion with the number is definitely helping them with identify the order of numbers by 5. So, I learned that when starting something new, start at the very beginning so that you can judge where the students are, then you can move on.
Friday I participated in a PLC with the English department for my school. I was in English because my teacher and I co-teach in a 9th grade English class. In the PLC we discussed how to assess students learning and how to improve West Test scores. The teachers were concerned because students who do badly on the West Test do well on the ACT, So if their doing well on the ACT why are they not showing those scores on the West Test or Benchmarks. Teachers also wanted to see their students’ scores from the previous year with the CSOs to see if the teacher didn’t teach that CSO or if the students didn’t try. Basically, the teachers were just trying to improve students motivation and scores in this meeting. Which is familiar to the meeting they had about the west test the first day of school, analyzing data to see what is going on with these students.
I will begin my last week in the high school setting next week and it will be bitter sweet. I really like my students and enjoy the atmosphere at East Fairmont.
This week I was getting more comfortable with my students and understanding my classroom routines better. One thing that I struggle through in my classroom is to understanding that my students need more concrete information. Their depth of knowledge is on one level and getting them to expand above that is extremely difficult, esp. for some students. My students are in 9-11th grade with modified diplomas, meaning they do not have to take the west test and their CSO’s are different. Last week we worked on reading on their individual levels. Some of my students cannot read at all and other students are on a higher level. I have students read their books aloud tome to try to help them as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteIn math we worked on money. This was something that going into I did not realize how difficult it was going to be. I started by asking my students what a quarter was and how much it was worth. I became very nervous when no one knew. Then, my teacher told me about touch math. I asked the students if they knew what touch math was. Some of the students that my teacher had last year, understood touch math. I had these students show the other students the touch math on the board. So I continued to review the coins aloud with the students. I became very nervous when my students couldn’t even count by 5’s let alone count coin. So, I stopped the lesson and had everyone count by 5’s aloud. When students messed up we started over. So we couldn’t by 5 three times. I continued to work with the students identifying counts and doing the touch math. We did it on the board, aloud, on paper, and with marker boards... identify, identify, and identify. After realizing that my students didn’t know how to count to 5 I decided to use the Macarena to teach them. Two of my students who are lower level loved it, they will do it even when it’s not math and putting a motion with the number is definitely helping them with identify the order of numbers by 5. So, I learned that when starting something new, start at the very beginning so that you can judge where the students are, then you can move on.
Friday I participated in a PLC with the English department for my school. I was in English because my teacher and I co-teach in a 9th grade English class. In the PLC we discussed how to assess students learning and how to improve West Test scores. The teachers were concerned because students who do badly on the West Test do well on the ACT, So if their doing well on the ACT why are they not showing those scores on the West Test or Benchmarks. Teachers also wanted to see their students’ scores from the previous year with the CSOs to see if the teacher didn’t teach that CSO or if the students didn’t try. Basically, the teachers were just trying to improve students motivation and scores in this meeting. Which is familiar to the meeting they had about the west test the first day of school, analyzing data to see what is going on with these students.
I will begin my last week in the high school setting next week and it will be bitter sweet. I really like my students and enjoy the atmosphere at East Fairmont.
Great adaptation, Morgan. That ability to adapt is what's making you such a strong teacher.
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