Week 3 3/20-3/24: Starting off on the right foot!

Last week was filled with a lot. I started of the week Monday by taking my content area praxis test, glad to have gotten that out of the way! Tuesday was my first day back and it went well. Over break I created a playlist (with help from Faby) from which I chose a song for each day I will be in the classroom. The song plays before each class starts during passing period. As students walk in they are able to look to the board and follow along with the lyrics or just listen to it. Songs typically run from 3 to 5 minutes, and they know that once the song ends it is time to start class.

In choosing the songs I decided to carefully select a large array of artists from the many Spanish speaking countries. I printed a copy of the list of songs and posted it to the door so students are able to look ahead to see what songs will be playing for the week. Along with the date, name of song and artist I included a little blurb that tells the students where the artist is from. This is a good way to bring authentic material (culture) into the classroom and set classroom procedures.

So far it has been engaging and sets the mood for the day. It is great to see students come into class saying “I know this song!” and the couple brave ones that sing along! I already have a song request for April’s playlist and have had a student try to convince us to have the music play during the first five minutes of class. His argument revolved around the idea that listening to the songs at the beginning of class would help him learn new vocab and to retain past vocab. Although compelling, both my CT and I agreed that would not be likely to happen!

Week 3/6-3/10 Songs, Excitement, and More!

I have three sections of Spanish II and three sections of Spanish III. For most of last week and the beginning of this week I had been primarily working with my Spanish II classes. I had not addressed the whole class (Spanish III class) since the first couple of days of my placement. I had been greeting them as they came in at the beginning of class and saying goodbye, so on Tuesday when I began class and helped correct homework they were super excited! This level of excitement was not something that I was expecting from my high school students, it was great! My CT told me later in the day that there had been a couple Spanish III students that had asked “When is Srta. Angulo talking to us again?” Since Tuesday, I have been involved more and more with both classes and have lead for the majority of class time.  

For the most part they seem to be excited to hear someone else speak Spanish. My CT has mentioned that the only Spanish they hear is from the audio activities and herself. Having me in the classroom has exposed them to another Spanish voice. This is significant to me because part of my philosophy of foreign language is that students should be exposed to as much auditory input as possible. Therefore, I try to use the least amount of English as possible.

One of the activity that I created included listening to a Spanish Pop song. They were to listen to the song and fill in the blanks in the lyrics. As soon as the song started they all looked startled, and in disbelief that they would be able to catch all the words. I assured them that it was fine, and that I knew they could do it! As the song went on I was able see the students tapping their feet or bobbing their heads to the beat of the music—they were enjoying it J After listening to the song twice we went over the lyrics to make sure they had them down correctly. I then used the lyrics as an opportunity to include grammar (I had them conjugate verbs that were are working on). This was really fun for me, and the students really enjoyed it.  Also, my CT really liked it and I shared it with another Spanish teacher in the building who said she liked it and might use it in her classroom!

Week One (2/27-3/3) Hola!

First week of our second placement is almost over and it has definitely been an interesting transition for me. For starters, I have transitioned from seventh grade social studies to high school Spanish.  Class goes at a much different pace. It goes faster when it comes to directions, and we are always changing from one activity to the next. It is not unusual if we do four or more activities in on class period. I am also getting used to the size of the school—just in the Spanish department there are eight Spanish teachers! Another difference from 7^th grade to high school has been the level of energy. In 7^th grade I was constantly trying to meet their energy, in high school energy gets focused on getting them to be energetic and not just sit there.  

I’ve started taking attendance (hopefully this helps me learn ALL the names) and I am also getting the “power school 101 crash course”. Entering grades and figuring out all the tricks has been very useful, but I have seen how time consuming it is—definitely not one of the fun things to do in teaching. I been able to get involved here and there with some vocab practice and today with introducing a new grammar concept. I am looking forward to next week when I start doing a bit more in the class.

Week 2/20-2/24: Observations!

This week I had the opportunity to observe other teachers in the building. I visited the 7^th grade science teacher, 6^th and 8^th grade social studies teacher, 7^th and 8^th grade language art teacher and the 6^th-8^th Spanish teacher. Not only was it a great experience for me to see other teaching styles, but I was also able to see my students in different classroom situations. I noticed that some students that are typically quiet in my class were more talkative in science and vice versa. This got me to think about how teachers influence a classroom as well as how the different mix of student (social aspect) influences how a student act/performs in class.

As soon as I walked into 7^th grade science I was bombarded with questions, “ Ms. Angulo are you teaching us Science today—are you our teacher today?” “Ms. Angulo this isn’t social studies!” “Ms. Angulo what are you doing here?” I explained to them that I was just going to sit in and observe.  I was surrounded by them! An unexpected thing that occurred was having some students come to me with questions—“Ms. Angulo is it okay if we look this up?” or “Ms. Angulo, can you help us with this?”  This showed me that they had become comfortable enough to ask me questions (even if they were not social studies questions). It also made me feel like they actually regarded me as one of their teachers—which felt very nice!  

I received a variety of ideas from observing the different teachers form varying subjects in middle school. I wrote down some strategies/activities that I think could work great in social studies. Furthermore, having the opportunity to visit these classes showed me the importance of teacher collaboration and professionalism. It has been an amazing 7 weeks here. I am most definitely going to miss the students, teachers, and staff! They all made me feel welcomed and part of the school community.

Week 2/13-2/17: ONE-ON-ONE

Take away from this week--working one-on-one with a student is rewarding!

Billy* needed extra help with chapter 3. He had not finished reading the chapter nor had he completed the reading notes packet that had been assigned a few weeks ago. He was going through the motions in class, but not really making connections. There was a high possibility that Billy* would do well in the chapter 3 test. My CT and I decided it would be more beneficial, for Billy*, to give him extra help and an extension on the test. Doing otherwise would set him noticeable behind.  

We started Monday and set some goals:

• ·       Finish reading chapter 3
• ·       Complete reading notes packet
• ·       Go over notes taken in class.

o   Get notes that are missing or incomplete

• ·       Go over study guide for chapter 3
• ·       Go over skills/procedures that will help him as we move on to chapter 5

o   Complete assignments on time

o   Note taking skills

o   Organizational skills

• ·       Take chapter 3 test by Friday ( 2/17/17)

As the week progressed I was able to notice growth. We were going at his pace, something that you cannot do when you are in front of the whole class. The best part was when I did a review game with him and I was able to see the excitement in his face every time he got a question right. I could truly see it in his face when he knew something. When he had trouble responding to a question I made sure to ask him what the hesitation was and clear up any confusion that had him second guessing. Thursday we ended by going over what he needed to be done to be ready for the test. We went over material he would need to look over, and how he should go about finding them again. It was made clear that this is a process that he will have to start doing on his own.

Today he took the test, and the work paid off. He did very well on the assessment, and we hope that he is able to apply what was modeled for him this time to future classes.

Week 2/6-2/10: CHAOS

This week students had Iowa Assessments for half the day on Tuesday (periods 1-3) and half the day on Wednesday (periods 5-7). My CT took the day off on Tuesday to recover because she had been sick all weekend and we had a substitute teacher. The substitute teacher was nice, but was unable to get full attention from the students. This resulted in complete chaos. Students were talking to each other, and because they were talking to each other they had no idea what to do so they would end up asking the same questions over and over again. I waited to see if the sub would change his approach, or at least get everyone to be quiet until he finished instruction. He attempted to quiet them down but many continued to talk to each other in whispers.  After a couple of minutes of watching this chaos I decided to step in. ( I had been hesitant at first because I was not given instruction to give out the Iowa Assessment) I used our classroom attention getter ( I “Red Robin” students “Yummmm”) Once I had their attention I was able to clear up some of the confusion, as well as make instruction clear. I made expectations clear and went around the classroom to make sure that students had completed the forms correctly as did the sub. It felt great to have the students listen to me and follow my instructions.

However, following the assessment students proceeded to their 4^th-7^th period classes. Having to teach after the assessments was a bit tough. It took a lot of effort to keep them focused on what we were doing. I had to stop multiple times because they would begin to have side conversations any moment they got a chance to. If a paused to wait for them to take something out or finish writing they would start talking. If I asked a question they would start whispering as I had someone answer the question. The last time I stopped I had to give them a lecture on being respectful and covered expectations one more time. This was the first time that I’ve had to stop teaching to address a problem. Ultimately –after the expectations were reiterated—they remained on task.  My fifth period class came in and I had a similar side talking problem with them as well. This time I didn’t wait until I was interrupted time and time again to address all the side conversations going on and was able to put a stop to it much earlier in the class period. By the time my 6^th period class came in I didn’t give them the benefit of the doubt and before starting I went over expectations and made it clear that having side conversations was disrespectful and made it very difficult for me to teach and was distracting to their peers. By doing this at the beginning of class I was able to avoid stopping continuously throughout the lesson. It was also interesting to see how the students policed peers around them who would go of task. In all, I’ve had another great week! I can’t believe that we only have two more weeks left.

  

  

Week 1/30-2/3 : Finding my Style

My CT is great at showing her emotions. What I mean by that is that she wears her emotions and expresses them well. For example, if she is excited about something and wants the kids to feel the excitement she will throw her hands in the air, raise her voice and make it a very dramatic thing. She’s moving around the classroom and has the student’s full attention. Likewise, when students are not paying attention and it is clearly a frustrating thing she will dramatically sigh and make the problem known. Furthermore, she is very responsive to students; being big and dramatic and expressive is my CT’s style and it works great for her.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been reflecting on my style, and thinking “What is my style?” “Do I even have a style?” “Am I being responsive enough?” “How do I find my style?”  One thing that I know for sure is that I am not like my CT, and if I tried to act like her it would all seem artificial. I am very laid back and don’t usually express my emotions physically. However, after talking to my CT about it I have come to realize that even though I am not loud and dramatic, I do tend to smile a lot and laugh along with my students. The students see that I enjoy being with them and in a sense create a calm environment. Now what I have to do is go out of my comfort zone and try other things that work well with who I am and my students. Talking to other teachers in the building has shown me that sometimes a high five when a students has a great response goes a long way, and other times a smile and eye contact suffice.

Great advice from my CT “Finding your style will happen gradually, but that doesn’t mean that you sit around until it happens. You have to step out and find it.”