-Student data/ outcomes- Students' science quiz average was 83 this week, up from last week. Math quiz average for my homeroom was 86, and due to a scheduling thing, my other class will have their quiz Monday. Exit slip scores, though, have been higher this week -- a greater percentage of students are earning 80 percent or higher. On average, about 17 of 21 are averaging 80 or higher on a daily basis.
-Student action progress/ Prioritized student action to change- Students made additional progress this week in high level questioning. This was highlighted most when we watched a video on the Apollo 8 space mission to the moon. Students were highly engaged and very interested in this, increasing their questions and specifically high level questions. The greatest frustration right now, though, came earlier this week when a parent came to observe her child in my homeroom class. She observed my homeroom class with the other teacher they have, and she couldn't have been any more disgusted with what she saw. The kids were throwing things, disrespecting each other and the teacher, calling out things. I felt it was a negative reflection on them and on me, but those types of behaviors are not tolerated and generally not present in my room.
-Teacher action to change to impact student action- I need to develop a tactful plan to rectify this situtation. I have 42 students -- 21 in each homeroom -- and I'm responsible for their growth specifically in math and science. However, I'm frightened for their lack of literacy growth in the other class. I know I can't change everything in that room, but I can challenge my students' overall behavior and attitude and I can increase the level of literacy skills in my room.
-Plan for development/ solution- During religion time, increase my instruction in the writing area. Students do daily journal entries, and I am going to create a lesson plan so they know how to write full paragraphs. I am also going to increase free writing in science class as well. Students have already written letters to me and the principal with the topic "I am ready for 7th grade because..." I will share these with parents at conferences and meet with students one-on-one to discuss their productivity throughout the school day.
-Anticipated change in student data/ achievement outcomes- I want them to take their FULL school day seriously -- not just when they are in my room. I want their literacy scores to improve or at least be set up well when they go on to the 7th/8th grade literacy teacher (who happens to be Ms. Gigot). I want that parent to come back and observe my class again both in my room and again in the other and tell me how much students have improved.
Tom Schalmo
-Student data/ outcomes- After going through exit slips and working with students on their quiz review, it looked to me that about 2 out of every 3 students understood the objectives. Meanwhile, it was the other 1 out of 3 that worried me. Their quiz is tomorrow, and I will try to reduce any anxiety they have before the test.
-Student action progress/ Prioritized student action to change- They have regressed on the progress they made on completing homework. I had about 7 students that were missing 1 or more assignment, and it is a testament to the lower quiz scores. While upping the rigor will bring down averages, not practicing will also hinder their progress.
-Teacher action to change to impact student action- I have had students come in at recess whenever their homework is incomplete or if they have questions. I will continue to press that as well as schedule times for students to come after school for additional homework help.
-Plan for development/ solution- Parent teacher conferences are within one week and I will monitor more closely the work habits of my students. Additionally, I will make fliers for after school math help and distribute them to all the parents in case they are interested.
-Anticipated change in student data/ achievement outcomes- I want my students to push themselves harder and not to be satisfied with what they have now. As much as they have learned and gained, I want them to have that hunger pushes them for perfection. I don't want any more missing assignments and low quiz grades, high rigor or not. My students need to want more out of themselves, and I need to help them get there. Hopefully additional help during recess and after school will remediate some of these issues.
Michael Nguyen
I am posting a reflection for the past two weeks, since I forgot to post last week and they had similar feel. I started last week really focusing on detaching myself from my students' responses and not letting my emotions enter the equation. I used what I call my "Snow White" voice to inform them of poor choices and consequences even when their noise level rose alongside their emotions. It work really well - I did not feel as emotionally/mentally exhausted as I have in previous weeks. I also did not send out as many scholars as I normally do, because most interactions never elevated beyond a civil conversation or request.
As for student achievement...I am really excited about the steep upward climb my scholars are on in both areas of reading and math. I was nervous they would coast through the second semester since they have already achieved 1.5 years of growth in reading and are averaging 82% mastery in math, but they are motivated by the success they have already achieved and are excited to see how far they can push themselves.
-Chelsea
Similarly to Chelsea, I am realizing that I need to detach my emotions from the classroom much more. I'm also realizing that while just calmly stating expectations/consequences is effective for individual behavior, for me the main way to ensure that whole-class misbehavior (or at least the misbehavior of a large portion of the class) stops is to just stop my instruction until my expectations are met. In the past couple weeks, when things have gone wrong in my classroom, I feel like I've been fluctuating between being nice, calm, and positive and getting really upset and yelling, all while trying to power through my lesson. This week, I realized that what I really need to do, for my sake and theirs, is to just stop instruction until they are ready to live up to my expectations. When enough of them start misbehaving, it does not do much good to just assign a million consequences and try to force the lesson, because they are either fixated on the consequences they are getting or distracted by the misbehavior of others, meaning that everyone is too distracted from the lesson to benefit anyway. So when my students were really frustrating me during a writing lesson and it took twice as long as it should, I eventually stopped, sat down at the front of the room, and quietly informed them that no one would be going to recess until we had finished everything that I had planned for the morning. This prevented them from trying to argue with me about consequences, because they knew it was an all or nothing thing, and that if any of them wanted to go to recess they had to start working as a class. They quieted down, and we were able to do the remaining reading lesson very successfully. The next day, when they started to get unruly first thing in the morning, I explained why I was going to start stopping lessons when this happened, re-explained the procedure for our reset and the consequences for not following a reset, and then told them that we would go to gym when our spelling test was finished, whether or not that was at our scheduled gym time. They were silent and respectful during the spelling test, and showed a deep understanding/appreciation for the consequences that were given out to individuals during the test, as it meant that I was not letting those students get in the way of the whole class' goal of getting to gym. Of course, they had a sub in gym, which somehow led to a riot during kickball and several of my kids got suspended... but that's another story.
Stephanie
Science fair is in 7 weeks. I've never done a science fair before and at this point most of the things that could have gone wrong have. It really is not a huge disaster. All of the things that have happened are easily fixable but it does make for a really stressful environment. I used to think that I was able to handle change well and I am realizing just how much I become stressed out when I've planned for something and it doesn't happen, mostly because it ends up impacting everything else. I have realized how much what I am feeling can impact my classroom. I am working to model for my students the appropriate ways to deal with conflict and how they can best work together. I agree with Stephanie and Chelsea, I've realized how much I need to remove my emotions from my teaching. When I am able to remain calm and clearly explain expectations and the material then things are able to go a lot smoother. Even in a calm place things can still be difficult. A coworker of mine explained that the students in our school have been allowed to act inappropriately, being held to such low standards, for so long that it is really up to the teachers to constantly be on them. I'm starting to realize how uncomfortable I am with certain management techniques that I feel treat my students more like dogs in training than people. Now it could simply be my perspective but I wish there existed a management technique that foster my student intrinsic motivation and fostered this idea of learning as the reward rather than candy or treats as the reward. Overall, I feel like even in my second year I'm still trying to determine what management style I feel will work best for my students.
-Student action progress/ Prioritized student action to change- Students made additional progress this week in high level questioning. This was highlighted most when we watched a video on the Apollo 8 space mission to the moon. Students were highly engaged and very interested in this, increasing their questions and specifically high level questions. The greatest frustration right now, though, came earlier this week when a parent came to observe her child in my homeroom class. She observed my homeroom class with the other teacher they have, and she couldn't have been any more disgusted with what she saw. The kids were throwing things, disrespecting each other and the teacher, calling out things. I felt it was a negative reflection on them and on me, but those types of behaviors are not tolerated and generally not present in my room.
-Teacher action to change to impact student action- I need to develop a tactful plan to rectify this situtation. I have 42 students -- 21 in each homeroom -- and I'm responsible for their growth specifically in math and science. However, I'm frightened for their lack of literacy growth in the other class. I know I can't change everything in that room, but I can challenge my students' overall behavior and attitude and I can increase the level of literacy skills in my room.
-Plan for development/ solution- During religion time, increase my instruction in the writing area. Students do daily journal entries, and I am going to create a lesson plan so they know how to write full paragraphs. I am also going to increase free writing in science class as well. Students have already written letters to me and the principal with the topic "I am ready for 7th grade because..." I will share these with parents at conferences and meet with students one-on-one to discuss their productivity throughout the school day.
-Anticipated change in student data/ achievement outcomes- I want them to take their FULL school day seriously -- not just when they are in my room. I want their literacy scores to improve or at least be set up well when they go on to the 7th/8th grade literacy teacher (who happens to be Ms. Gigot). I want that parent to come back and observe my class again both in my room and again in the other and tell me how much students have improved.
Tom Schalmo
-Student data/ outcomes- After going through exit slips and working with students on their quiz review, it looked to me that about 2 out of every 3 students understood the objectives. Meanwhile, it was the other 1 out of 3 that worried me. Their quiz is tomorrow, and I will try to reduce any anxiety they have before the test.
-Student action progress/ Prioritized student action to change- They have regressed on the progress they made on completing homework. I had about 7 students that were missing 1 or more assignment, and it is a testament to the lower quiz scores. While upping the rigor will bring down averages, not practicing will also hinder their progress.
-Teacher action to change to impact student action- I have had students come in at recess whenever their homework is incomplete or if they have questions. I will continue to press that as well as schedule times for students to come after school for additional homework help.
-Plan for development/ solution- Parent teacher conferences are within one week and I will monitor more closely the work habits of my students. Additionally, I will make fliers for after school math help and distribute them to all the parents in case they are interested.
-Anticipated change in student data/ achievement outcomes- I want my students to push themselves harder and not to be satisfied with what they have now. As much as they have learned and gained, I want them to have that hunger pushes them for perfection. I don't want any more missing assignments and low quiz grades, high rigor or not. My students need to want more out of themselves, and I need to help them get there. Hopefully additional help during recess and after school will remediate some of these issues.
Michael Nguyen
I am posting a reflection for the past two weeks, since I forgot to post last week and they had similar feel. I started last week really focusing on detaching myself from my students' responses and not letting my emotions enter the equation. I used what I call my "Snow White" voice to inform them of poor choices and consequences even when their noise level rose alongside their emotions. It work really well - I did not feel as emotionally/mentally exhausted as I have in previous weeks. I also did not send out as many scholars as I normally do, because most interactions never elevated beyond a civil conversation or request.
As for student achievement...I am really excited about the steep upward climb my scholars are on in both areas of reading and math. I was nervous they would coast through the second semester since they have already achieved 1.5 years of growth in reading and are averaging 82% mastery in math, but they are motivated by the success they have already achieved and are excited to see how far they can push themselves.
-Chelsea
Similarly to Chelsea, I am realizing that I need to detach my emotions from the classroom much more. I'm also realizing that while just calmly stating expectations/consequences is effective for individual behavior, for me the main way to ensure that whole-class misbehavior (or at least the misbehavior of a large portion of the class) stops is to just stop my instruction until my expectations are met. In the past couple weeks, when things have gone wrong in my classroom, I feel like I've been fluctuating between being nice, calm, and positive and getting really upset and yelling, all while trying to power through my lesson. This week, I realized that what I really need to do, for my sake and theirs, is to just stop instruction until they are ready to live up to my expectations. When enough of them start misbehaving, it does not do much good to just assign a million consequences and try to force the lesson, because they are either fixated on the consequences they are getting or distracted by the misbehavior of others, meaning that everyone is too distracted from the lesson to benefit anyway. So when my students were really frustrating me during a writing lesson and it took twice as long as it should, I eventually stopped, sat down at the front of the room, and quietly informed them that no one would be going to recess until we had finished everything that I had planned for the morning. This prevented them from trying to argue with me about consequences, because they knew it was an all or nothing thing, and that if any of them wanted to go to recess they had to start working as a class. They quieted down, and we were able to do the remaining reading lesson very successfully. The next day, when they started to get unruly first thing in the morning, I explained why I was going to start stopping lessons when this happened, re-explained the procedure for our reset and the consequences for not following a reset, and then told them that we would go to gym when our spelling test was finished, whether or not that was at our scheduled gym time. They were silent and respectful during the spelling test, and showed a deep understanding/appreciation for the consequences that were given out to individuals during the test, as it meant that I was not letting those students get in the way of the whole class' goal of getting to gym. Of course, they had a sub in gym, which somehow led to a riot during kickball and several of my kids got suspended... but that's another story.
Stephanie
Science fair is in 7 weeks. I've never done a science fair before and at this point most of the things that could have gone wrong have. It really is not a huge disaster. All of the things that have happened are easily fixable but it does make for a really stressful environment. I used to think that I was able to handle change well and I am realizing just how much I become stressed out when I've planned for something and it doesn't happen, mostly because it ends up impacting everything else. I have realized how much what I am feeling can impact my classroom. I am working to model for my students the appropriate ways to deal with conflict and how they can best work together. I agree with Stephanie and Chelsea, I've realized how much I need to remove my emotions from my teaching. When I am able to remain calm and clearly explain expectations and the material then things are able to go a lot smoother. Even in a calm place things can still be difficult. A coworker of mine explained that the students in our school have been allowed to act inappropriately, being held to such low standards, for so long that it is really up to the teachers to constantly be on them. I'm starting to realize how uncomfortable I am with certain management techniques that I feel treat my students more like dogs in training than people. Now it could simply be my perspective but I wish there existed a management technique that foster my student intrinsic motivation and fostered this idea of learning as the reward rather than candy or treats as the reward. Overall, I feel like even in my second year I'm still trying to determine what management style I feel will work best for my students.
- Emma Bradley