Vivian+and+Eric

Can I type directly onto this page right here?

Eric's journal entry: Week 7



Journal entry: Week 8

Journal entry: Week 9

Journal entry: Week 10

Journal entry: Week 11

Journal entry: Week 12

Spring Break! I (Vivian) am going to try to type directly into this page for my own reflections. We'll see how this works. I am becoming increasingly aware that many of the observers to my classroom are struck by my classroom management. The general consensus is that I am pretty strict, and it feels to me that some are uncomfortable with my strictness. I believe that Eric is uncomfortable with it. I wonder why that is. I get the sense that he is holding back some ideas about it that he might worry are too critical. I have also noticed a slight misinterpretation of my views in his journal entries. I believe I have explained my views one way, then read something different in his reflections. I know that paraphrasing and/or explaining another person's point of view is difficult. I expect this miscommunication to happen. But, it makes me wonder, how do people clarify their intentions and build meaningful working relationships?

//E: Vivian, I find this very intriguing. I have been thinking a lot about communication between students and teachers. I have often heard teachers say that they have done something in class, but the students have no recollection, or they remember the content differently. It could be interesting to learn what it is that you think has been misinterpreted, and maybe you can clarify what you really meant in writing. Writing things down forces us to see more clearly what is it that we're saying and how our words can be interpreted by others, much more so than verbal communication.//

Vivian: The misinterpretations I am referring to are between Eric and I, not between me and students. These are misinterpretations during conversations about teaching that Eric and I have over the phone on the weekend, which is the only time we have found to debrief. I am glad for the Wiki page because reading what he writes in his reflections tells me what he interpretted. Not only does writing force us to see what we're saying but reading forces us to see how people took it. After my comment was posted, Eric and I decided we are going to try to do some of our debriefing on the Wiki page itself, since our conversations do not seem to be enough dialogue for us. Hopefully, the face to face communication, which I consider a crucial part of developing a working relationship with colleagues, will increase once Eric is more available after his semester ends.

E: I understood that you were talking about Eric and your interactions. I referred to misunderstanding between students and teachers, but could have been talking about interactions between any two individuals. And to answer your question of whether Eric will learn some of the education terminology in his classes: yes. He still has quite a few education courses to go through.

Journal entry: Week 13

Vivian: Eric, not only is it possible to take the multiple intelligences into account while delivering a lesson, I believe it is crucial, and I do it. We should discuss the ways that I do so when we have more time. My presentation at a faculty meeting for an elementary school in our district yesterday (4-19) was about this exact topic.

Also, remember when we were talking about the graphic organizer on my white board and the use of a word wall? I wish I could hit a buzzer every time I see a student in my pre-Algebra class look up at the board to remind himself or herself what word to use while answering a question, so that you could know how powerful the technique is. I noticed it several times in 1st period just today. There are many scaffolding techniques that are probably "invisible" to you right now. You are such a reflective person that I am sure you will start to notice them, if not at least notice the need for them, as you teach more and more. I am excited to point them out to you when we have more time for our reflections together.

In general, I am also struck by the fact that Eric is not familiar with many of the terms I am using. I am speaking the academic language of education, an essential language for Eric to acquire to be part of the education community. Eric is great at telling me when he doesn't know a specific term and asking me to clarify. What I smile at about this is the fact that I do the same thing with him when he is using the academic language of mathematics. It's like we have parallel roles for each other right now as "ambassadors" into each other's worlds. I thoroughly enjoy working with Eric in this role because he is so reflective that we can actually have these conversations. I also wonder, will he take some of the coursework that I was required to take that develops the terms and issues that he is asking about or does that job rest solely on my shoulders as his mentor? There is a difference between being educated in math and being educated in //teaching// math.

Journal entry: Week 14 Eric: I agree that I need to brush up a bit on my "teaching" vocabulary, but slowly I can see that certain terms come up again and again, and their recurrence shows me they are essential words. Hopefully as time goes by I'll become more proficient with this academic vocabulary.

Journal entry: End of April Sorry about the lapse in journal writing. I'll be more diligent with the entries from now until the end of the school year.

Journal entry: beginning of May (The date on the file is wrong, but I had trouble renaming it).

Journal entry: Beginning of June

**SCHOOL YEAR 2010 - 2011**
First week of School - First impressions, disclosure insights, getting to know my students

Eric, it is okay that your disclosure isn't perfect. There is no such thing as a perfect disclosure. What is more important is that you will be able to clarify and demonstrate what you intended through your experiences with them. Most of your students are not going to read the document ever again, and probably didn't understand what you meant anyway. Nor will they understand it by reading your document. They will understand what you expect and what you believe about them and what you hope to do with them through experience with you. Furthermore, I have NEVER had to review my disclosure with a student or parent because of a dispute about a grade or a classroom policy, or for any reason for that matter.

It is accurate for you to say that students will understand better when they teach others. This is something that you can begin to include in your daily routine. Don't worry too much about the presentations, especially since they are a "one-time" thing.

I am happy to read your reflections about what the kids have said they feel in class. This makes me happy because you care enough to make note of it and to want to create a climate in which students know they will not be made fun of. You will do a lot of work at this point in the year to establish the climate of your classroom, that is the main objective right now, and this work will pay off later. And, it will take time. You could still be trying to establish norms and expectations and developing your relationship with them in a month or two (or more).

And, if you want to know what I am doing tomorrow, here it is:

-Explain and begin ATB procedure, including passing out the page for the first time and explaining that they are to keep track of it for 2 weeks.

-Give a seating chart.

-Pass out and review the disclosure, including explaining in detail how I will grade, what the passport means to me, what non-geometry academic goals I have for them, etc.

-Virtual manipulatives puzzle for a break.

-Demonstration of some sort that I haven't figured out yet to show what I mean by "stages" or "terms" in a building sequence.

-Polygonal numbers from the Jordan School district resources as assignment/homework while some kids finish their placement tests.

My main goal this week is to explore nth term formulas for patterns/sequences that can be modelled in a plane while we develop the basics of naming points, rays, lines, line segments, angles, planes. I will be reusing some of the stuff we did last year with the handshake problem (if time) and the activity you designed in which they built a rectangular prism and identified parallel, perpendicular, skew, intersecting lines.

In Algebra, Diane and I will be reviewing the Math for Humans concepts while writing algebraic expressions to match a real context. They will be making foldables for their toolboxes by the end of the week.


 * Week 2:** The pacing of the class, how to deal with a unmotivated student

Well, Eric. I just spent 15 minutes typing you a response, and it suddenly disappeared. I'm not sure how valuable this wiki-thing is, anyway, and I simply can't take any more time to retype it. I have some ideas about the student in your class. Hopefully, we can talk at school before you and he become too frustrated. See you.


 * Week 3:** Role of repetition, first name basis with parents, first quiz

Hi, Eric. It's fun to see your reflections now that you are rolling up your sleeves and "doing the job" of teaching! I'll tell you what I think about some of your questions. First of all, the question of your students performance on the quiz. You mention the idea of "85% proficiency" as perhaps an acceptable number you have heard somewhere. As you know, I go for 100% proficiency in my class. You have already asked one important question: was the quiz I wrote too difficult? I would add another question: what does every kid in my class need to be able to do to move on? These 2 questions together will help you decide what performance is acceptable on the quiz. If it's a quiz on integers, for example, is it really acceptable if they are only doing them right some of the time or is it crucial that each kid do "it" exactly right every time? I personally believe that each kid must perform operations on integers correctly every single time. BUT, the level of difficulty in the problem is important to consider in your test. You need to decide what level you are going for right now, knowing that you will spiral through this topic over and over in different contexts throughout the year. I don't know how you will know the level you wish for right now until you get some more experience, so perhaps the best thing is to look at where you are going next and decide what you need them to do to be ready.

Second, I sign all my emails to parents "Vivian Shell." I used to write "Ms. Shell" until I started getting more and more emails from parents with their first names. I have received a few addressed to "Vivian," and that actually makes me uncomfortable. I think one reason is simply because my name sounds like "Michelle" and I have had parents wonder who Vivian Shell was in the past, thinking their kids were calling me "Michelle." But, really it is because I am still more comfortable with a professional distance between me and my students and their parents. The professionalism in my class is important to me.

Third, I smile at your question about repetition because I have BEEN THERE! :) We all wonder what in the world we sound like to our students. Sometimes, they tune us out. It's a sad fact, but reality:) It is important to ask yourself why you are repeating yourself. Some repetition is needed to help their brains connect it to things they already know. But, if you're repeating yourself because you don't think they understand you, you need to figure out a way to check for understanding, something besides repeating yourself and hoping this time you will see looks of comprehension on their faces. Good luck with that, as this is the eternal quest of a teacher: how will I know when they get it?!

(I forgot to mention what Vivian suggested I do with this student! She suggested I let him present at a later date, with the caveat that he invite his father to the presentation, and would be graded under a different scale. I'm still thinking about this one, but I found the suggestion to be interesting.)
 * Week 4:** Passports, 504's, and how to deal with a student that didn't present yesterday.

Hi Eric. I usually give students a generic 2nd version of the Passport. If they still cannot demonstrate understanding, they need something different anyway, so after that, it is on a case-by-case basis. Oh, and, I can stay after school Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Not Thursdays.


 * Week 5:** Chaos in the classroom


 * Week 6**: Vivian's Observation Part I


 * Week 7:** Vivian's Observation Part II

Journal Entry: Potpourri!

Journal Entry: Products

Journal Entry: More on products

Nov. 18 I'm sending Eric an email response to his reflections.

Journal Entry: Udita's Observation

Journal Entry: Observation

Journal Entry: Reestablishing a good learning environment

Journal Entry: New Quarter, new grading system

Journal Entry: Swearing and being the student's "friend"

**Journal Entry February 14th to February 18th: Co-teaching with Lezlie Wagner - thoughts.**
This was the first week where we carried out the proposed co-teaching model with Lezlie Wagner for my Algebra class at SLCSE. I feel that Lezlie has provided excellent advice and direction on how to teach the course. I used to fairly heavily rely on the book, while Lezlie prefers to use the book to set up the general structure of the lesson for the day, but that ultimately we want to go beyond just teaching the material in it. I want to highlight three different days where we accomplished just that.

The first day was on converting statements in English to Mathematical statements. Instead of having he kids plow through the text, Lezlie suggested that students write their own word problems and share it with someone they would be paired up with. The students came up with original statements in English that could be translated to Math, and they were more engaged than if we had simply gone through the text.

The second day, there was a matching lesson in the text, which Lezlie again seized as an opportunity to get the students out of their seats and active in the learning process. By handing out copies of the English word problems to some students and then also handing out the corresponding Mathematical statements to other students in the class, we then asked the students to find their partners. Except for two students who decided to pair up into a group of three people, in general students found their partners.

The third day of getting the students active was interesting. Lezlie realized that the hang up many kids have with word problems in English is deciphering the key vocabulary words that imply some sort of Mathematical operation. For example, “twice was many” means 2 times a certain quantity. Lezlie created five main signs (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and equality), and then handed every student in the class a key word that was related to one of these five categories. Then the students would post their word next to the category, and as we went over it as a class we found some words that should have been in a different category. This prompted interesting discussion (for example, the word “per”, should it be under multiplication or division?).

All in all I think the students appreciate the activity in the class, and that it isn’t just a matter of plowing through the text, which we are still using, but not relying on as much anymore.

Also, Larry Madden suggested a technique for me to engage my students. He suggested that I teach only using questions. Whenever I spoke something that wasn’t a question, the students would call me out on it. Harder than it seems! But I found myself breaking down the chunks of knowledge into smaller questions that could be easily comprehended by the students. I will definitely try this out again in the future.


 * Journal Entry May 9 -12th**

Since this week was CRT's at SLCSE, our Math period was cut short to 45 minutes (sometimes even less). Diane Crim's suggestion was that we do fun activities that would soothe and relax the students. Rickie McCandless brought me a magic kit, which I shared with the kids. They also witnessed how to "fractionalize" a banana, a fun activity where a banana is sliced into pieces without peeling it using a needle. The magic lessons suggested by Rickie gave me a model to help me plan my Math lessons. I should try to anticipate as much as possible, letting students know when an activity is ending and another is beginning (transitions), and making sure to pace myself accordingly. Another simple but important directive is to make sure students do not have anything on their desks (in past sessions, students have been distracted with their cell phones, iPods, etc). Yesterday's lesson had to do with tessellations, but if I were to teach it over again I would change it. I made the students construct the parent figure (either an equilateral triangle, a parallelogram, or a regular hexagon) using straight edge and compass, but looking back, that was more appropriate for a geometry class, not an algebra one. I should have brought in the parent figures on paper and let the kids choose which one they wanted to work with. Since many were lost with the whole straight edge and compass business, many students that could have been engaged weren't. Today's lesson went well. I believe I did a good job timing myself, and giving students time to work independently. We reviewed fractions today, adding and subtracting and then multiplying and dividing. These are topics that challenge most of my students, that is why I wanted to use the last day of CRTs to probe them on it. Initially I did two problems on the board, and then I asked them to work on four others by themselves (which they had the answers to, they just needed to show their work). When everyone was done (after 6 minutes on the timer), I divided the class into two groups and had a friendly competition. I would pick (with the popsicle sticks) two people to compete against each other on the board. Whoever got the problem correct would win a point for their team. The whole class was engaged (for the most part), everyone helping their classmate at the board get the right answer. I was surprised by the participation of two students. The first one wanted to compete against one of the best students in the class, because she wanted "to see if I can beat him". The other student, who mostly rests his head on the desk all class, actually volunteered to do a multiplication problem. I let him do it, and he did the problem correctly except he didn't simplify the result. This was a golden opportunity for me to reinforce his behavior, but I think I should have made it more explicit (I focused on the end result, and not his willingness to participate).