(Un)Engaged Learners

In response to this week's blogging prompt, I would like to focus on a student who I've noticed to be particularly uninterested in what is taking place in the classroom. My cooperating teachers deals mostly in below average students, though I have noticed a distinct difference among these kids. Two types exist: the first is the student who may have a learning disability, but is generally willing to participate in class, answering questions and joining in on group discussions. These are students who I think may be driven enough to succeed without as much teacher intervention. The other type of student comes in the form of a student who may have a learning disability, may be lazy, or may simply not see the point in school. This sort of student, in my opinion, would require a much greater deal of hands-on help and guidance in order to succeed, as often times they are definitely not as driven to complete their work.

The student I am focused on (let's call him Oscar) can generally be seen one of two ways: with his head on the desk or staring at the ceiling. It is very rare that he is actually paying attention to what is going on in class and typically does not perform well on assessments. Prior to a test at one point, he assured me that he was going to fail because he could not study; it literally put him to sleep, he claimed. He did not seem interested in doing well and it appeared that he cared little for how his lack of motivation might affect him in the future. As a future teacher, it is something that I now find really sad; it's hard to watch a student who really has little faith in themselves as well as little idea of how important their schooling might be.

In an effort to engage Oscar, I think my best bet would be to find ways to make the class more interactive. Although I've had limited interaction with him up to this point, I think it would greatly benefit him (as well as the entire class) to make them more active. These students have so much working against them (learning disabilities, home lives, etc.), and often times I think that a class discussion may not work as well as some sort of active project may in terms of helping them learn. For instance, let me use my Unit Plan as an example. My UP is heavy on class discussions, which I have already said may not work as well for a student like Oscar. To suit his needs, it may be appropriate to engage him by asking my students to draw pictures of the scenes in Hamlet or to act the scenes out. It is easy to shut your brain off when someone else is rambling on and saying, "To be or not to be," but it is an entirely different thing for me to have him stand up, ask him to read it, then encourage him to think about what the passage means. It should be my goal as an educator to make these plays come to life, and the perfect way to do this is to turn Oscar into Hamlet.

Under Pressure.

I have to admit that when I first walked into the school, I was a bit intimated. The school has mt AYP for the past two years in a row and it seemed like this school was no joke. And, I was pretty much right--this is great school. The students are awesome, the teachers seem really down to earth, and the administration is really nice. On my first day at NMS, I was able to attend a team meeting. My co-op, and the rest of the teachers, are broken up into teams--we're on the Green team--and every so often they have meeting with the principal and vice principal of the school. I thought it was interesting because I was able to see how the school operates behind the scenes. When I first walked into the meeting, the principal asked me what I thought of the school, so far. When I walked it, my first impression was that this was a serious school, but also welcoming to people that were coming in. After talking for a little, the principal said, "Well, welcome to the Yale of Middle Schools." And, i can see why he said that. The teachers take their jobs very seriously and students seem know when and where they can act, and also that they need to get their work done.

It seems perfect. Well, i realized that a school that seems perfect has a lot of standards that they have to live up to. The first few days that I was there, the students were doing benchmark testing--pre-PSSA prep. My teacher was almost manic as a students were handing in their scores. She kept telling me that usually the students do very well on their tests, but some of them don't take it as seriously. She even has to lecture them to make sure that they do there best, or they would end up in remediation (where the teachers take the students that don't do as well, and work with them on improving their scores). She said that she was sad that she had to be so hard on them, but I realized that how her students do on these tests, is a reflection on her as a teacher. Which, I thought, was a little scary. However, it seems that most of the students did really well on the test. Out of three periods that I saw, only 3 or 4 students received basic or below basic scores. It'll be interesting to see what else happens as I am watching the students.

Shakespeare in the Classroom

I am extremely lucky for the timing of my placement. Three of the classes I am working with are reading Shakespeare: Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night's Dream. I was actually surprised to learn that they read Shakespeare throughout their middle and high school years. Watching them act out the parts has been surprising. I incorrectly assumed that tenth graders would be too cool to act out Shakespeare. In all three classes, (honors, on level, and challenged) the students raise their hands and actually want to go up in front of the class to act out the parts (they're in competition with each other to read and perform). I was also surprised to find out how much they knew about Shakespeare and his life.

Their final project is great; they get to choose whether to write about the architecture, clothing, recipes, music, medicine, or sports from the Elizabethan era. This assessment uses images, writing, technology, and lots of creativity. On Friday, the students were busy in the library looking up sources for their projects. I got the chance to help several students find materials and cite their sources; it felt great to be helpful.

So far, the field work has been amazing; I think student teaching will be the place where everything comes together. We will finally get the sustained opportunity to practice what we've been studying. I'm nervous, but I'm also looking forward to it.

Technology in the Field

At Lancaster Catholic, technology seems to be at a premium. Most English and math teachers have smart boards, and all teachers have at least 5-year-old desktop computers, but that's about it. They mostly use VHS tapes, and my co-op still has her overhead projector. (However, a few students identified as needing help from the guidance office are to be given their own iPads---about 1 student per class.)

My co-op told me that the reason why they don't have much technology is because they get little grant money from the federal government, and their best hopes for new technology come from alumni donations.

My co-op uses the technology she has pretty well. She had the students listen to a record of The Canterbury Tales in Old English, and she uses snippets of video often. She doesn't use her smart board all that often, mostly as a means of showing video and to display the morning announcements to her homeroom.

I like her use of video, so I would definitely echo her choice of that in my own teaching. In my own classroom, I might use my Smartboard to get students involved. I could see a vocab warm-up activity where students had to come to the board and circle the antonym; or breaking down a scene from a Shakespeare film adaptation like a sportscaster to show who's "in the lead" or who could have made a better "play."

My Students

Yes, I call them MY students because even though I've only spent a few days in their classroom, I already feel as though I'm getting to know them. For example: Russel, a "C-level" student, loves anything to do with hunting, and very little else holds his interest. We're reading Tuesdays with Morrie in that class, and Russel is having a hard time seeing how reading this relates to his life. On Wednesday I assigned a Glogster project in which students had to display the best lesson they've ever learned ( this relates to Mitch learning his lessons from Morrie). Russel, of course, didn't see the point in this either until he realized that he could talk about the best hunting lesson he's ever learned. For students like Russel (and there are a few), broader assessment options has been a key element in getting to know them.

I'm also shocked, across the board, and how much these students open up with their writing. I know in our teaching writing classes we're all pretty comfortable with sharing our work...but come on, we're college kids. ENGLISH MAJOR COLLEGE KIDS. And we're teachers. So we're supposed to a) share our work and b) love to talk about. These students, however, are 11th graders; I would never expect them to be so comfortable with sharing their writing. It's not just the fact that they write and read it; it's WHAT they're writing. In every class I've had at least one student that blew me away with how much of their personal life they are sharing with the class through writing. One of the prompts posed was, "write about your biggest fear". I had an honors student write an elaborate poem -- mind you, the students had a 2 minute timer -- and after she read it the class gave her a huge round of applause. We were all blown away!

We all talk about how our teaching English class is sort of a community, and it's amazing for me to see how my co-op teacher has created that sense of community within each of his classes. All of the students talk to each other. All of the students feel comfortable to share something as personal as their writing. This is something I'm striving for, and this is something I'm determined to have in my own classroom.

Lenovo what?

The first time I met with my tenth grade classroom the teacher was introducing a new unit by using the school's community laptop cart. The students worked in pairs and researched questions from a worksheet. The laptops were used to assess student prior knowledge of World War II and to supplement their reading of Night by Elie Wiesel. The laptops were dated and many of the students had problems accessing the internet. They were slow and most could not hold a charge and had to be plugged in while being used. The school district received a grant a couple of years ago and bought refurbished laptops, a brand I was not familiar with, and the technology is slowly failing. The school cannot afford to hire a tech to fix them so they must adapt to what they have. It is an interesting contrast to be in a classroom where most students have their own iPad, Linden Hall, to a classroom where technology is still governed by financial access. Imagine what students would be capable of if they had the latest technology available to them.

I Didn't Think Schools Like This Existed

A few years ago I did some volunteer work at "The Factory," a Christian based hangout for middle/high school students, located in the school district my placement is in. When I was there I noticed that many of the students exhibited rebellious behavior and were coming from poverty stricken homes. When I met my co-op, she told me that over half of the school qualifies for a reduced fare lunch, initially confirming my perceptions of the school district.
So try to imagine my surprise when I learned that every student in the school (along with the faculty) is issued with a white, Mac Book computer! Yes, every student in the high school. It seems like all the technology related material we have learned about is being implemented into everyday lessons. Just the other day, classmates were proofreading each others papers by leaving comments on Google.docs.
I don't consider my self the most technological person, but working in this classroom has inspired me to focus more lessons that are rooted in technology. I also have to say that my co-op is a great person to work with. She is very student centered in her lesson planning and is constantly pushing for the students to relate what they are learning to their own life. On top of that, her classes are so fun...2 English classes (reading Gatsby now), Creative Writing, and Journalism! I've already been able to participate in her poetry unit and am looking forward to using some material from Teaching Writing in her class.