Last Day at LC

My last field experience day at Lawrence Central was a good one. It was nice to be able to attend a PLC meeting in the morning. The Government PLC taught me a lot about the collaboration among teachers. The three teachers gave us a log of what they had been doing each week during their PLC meetings. A lot of the work they do is through assessments and seeing where there students are at before and after tests. They showed us that they use past questions and then new questions from the next Unit on their Unit Exams in order to gauge their students. They also showed us a project all of their classes put on, by running a mock election with students of the school. The Government classes ran the mock elections and then compared the results of the elections. They looked at race, gender, socioeconomic class, and age when comparing the results. The government teacher told us that whenever you can bring these types of results to students and then have them analyze them and talk about the inconsistencies and surprises it is important to their learning. Next, the last teacher showed us how he takes somewhat boring topics like federalism and uses topics that are important to students to explain them. In this case, it was the legalization of marijuana. It was interesting to see how the teacher took what students were interested about and turned it in to an effective way to teach Government. 

During the day we were able to go and observe the common areas of the lunch room and their commons. It was interesting to see how student's interacted with each other. It was hard for me to identify the different types of kids based on the activities and interests they had. However, I did see that most every lunch table was pretty segregated. Most tables were either all african american, latino, or white students. There was one table of all asian students in the entire cafeteria. Very few lunch tables contained students of different races. It was hard for me to find what students contained athletes, students in music and art, or any other type of student group. 

In class we got to take small groups of students and review with them for their test. They had a review sheet that followed their test almost word for word and I had the test. I asked them questions and help them fill in the blanks. I tried to make sure that the students had to think about each answer before giving it to them, but it was basically teaching them the test. Are teacher acknowledged that we were teaching them the test and asked what we thought about it. Basically he said that his department struggles with this question all the time because they hear they should not do this, but at the same time they get paid based on performance. It was a hard question to answer and one that I am not sure I will be able to answer yet.

Overall I learned a lot and gained so much experience from this field experience. It was nice to get my feet wet and I look forward to more field experience next semester. 

Field Experience Week 6

My week six field experience went well. Kasie and I got a lot more time to talk with our teacher about how he teaches, the resources he uses, how he improves his teaching, etc. It was nice to have time to talk to him in a professional manner about the field we will be going into in our future. He talked about his past teaching experience, how it has changed, what he does to be a better teacher, the collaboration he uses in his PLN, and just generally about the students. We asked him if he teaches more to the test and standards or for college. He admitted it is more to the test and standards based on the type of kids he has in the classroom. I know this is not what we are taught at IU and I do not want to teach this way, however I can see where he and his colleagues are coming from. Many of them are going to be paid on performance based salary. Teaching kids to the test and the standards has major improvements in their test scores. It is sad that these students are not getting the type of in-depth understanding and instruction that could be useful to them, however it seems that they have been conditioned in these classes to be taught the test and regurgitate information. I know this will not help them in the secondary education career of their lives and that is what they are missing out on.

Kasie and I also were able to talk to some of the students about their college plans. We were surprised to see how many students were applying to colleges and looking forward to going to a big college. However, many of them were not sure how they were going to pay for school at the collegiate level. We talked with them about school loans and applying for scholarships. Unfortunately, many of the students have grand plans to attend high level colleges and I am not sure they will be admitted. Many of them believe that by being a minority it will be way easier for them to gain entrance, however their GPA and test scores are not there to put them in these institutions. I think most of the kids in the classes could definitely go to college, a lot of them probably in a junior college or community college format. We did talk to a few students going to IU and even one student who is taking IU classes through IUPUI next semester. It was great to see some students with such high goals in their future.

Finally Kasie and I got to lead the Government classes in a review for their test. We used what the teacher had, which was basically just a powerpoint with questions from the test but the students were able to use clickers which they enjoyed. The lesson went well and why it is not exactly how I would have done it, the students were able to review for the test somewhat effectively.

Field Experience Week 5

In my week five field experience I did not get to teach, but I was able to observe a few different classes and interview students for Barton's class. I observed my teacher, teach an entire class for the first time completely this semester (since I have been teaching a portion each week). It was good to see his use materials in the classroom and see how he put together an entire class. The students started with watching the Channel 1 video, which is a video put out everyday by a educational teen news station over current events going on today. Our teacher stopped the video periodically to talk to the class about what was going on and get some type of discussion going. There was also a story on the presidential campaign and he pulled up an interactive map that tracked the electoral votes and each state a particular candidate was suppose to be winning. After that current event lesson, the students went through vocabulary multiple choice questions with the teacher. They corresponded to a vocabulary sheet they were suppose to be looking up and finding definitions for in the last class. The teacher went through each answer with them and tried to explain some certain words. After that our teacher has power point slides that he uses on his smart board. Each slide corresponds to a question on a packet that each student gets at the beginning of the Unit. While it seems that he is just giving students the answer he does take time to try and talk about each question or prompt from the packet individually. I do think there are some people or items from the history lesson that deserve more than just one powerpoint slide in a lesson, but I am not sure of the restrictions and time pressures on the teacher to cover material. After about 10 slides and questions were completed the students watched a video that was sped up of a boat going through the Panama Canal today, which was interesting. Many students did not know how locks worked in a canal system, which I was able to explain. After this students completed a map worksheet on national parks and natural resources in the United States during Teddy Roosevelt's time as President. I felt that this worksheet was more of just a filler activity.

During the worksheet time in two of the three U.S. History classes Kasie and I were able to pull out two students for our interviews. We showed students different pictures of historical moments in U.S. History and asked them to pick what they thought were the most important three. We then asked questions why they picked each picture, if there were other events that they did not see in our pictures they thought were important, and what they would like to learn more about. We then examined their thoughts on a picture about the Civil Rights Movement and the American Revolution. I was impressed with the answers from both groups of students and how they viewed important events in History. It seems that hardly any of them were concerned with any history that occurred pre-1900. However, we also asked questions about teaching in the classroom. I thought when I posed a question about if they would like doing some type of project based learning, all of the students said they did not think that would work and no one would do anything if they were allowed to go off and collect and research information on a topic. That was very surprising to me.

During the last class, Kasie and I were able to observe a Honors U.S. History course. The differences between this class and the classes we have been in is astounding. The teacher easily controls the classroom and the class has meaningful discussions. They ask questions about the reading and all are willingly to participate. The teacher had the class take one hour to get into groups and produce a multi-sectioned newspaper from the early 1900s that focused on American Imperialism and yellow journalism. All of the students split into groups and worked pretty well even asking us many questions to clarify how they should complete the assignment. I know in the classes we have it is hard to even get students to split into groups, not even trying to get them to think critically or produce intellectual work. It was definitely an eye opening experience.

Field Experience Week 4

My week 4 field experience at Lawrence Central went a lot better than the previous week. Kasie and I were tasked with teaching the first two sections of a Government Unit over the legislative branch of Congress. I felt more prepared for this day even though we were tweaking parts of our presentation in our plan period before class began. Kasie put together a great powerpoint. It was formatted like our teacher usually teaches, with answers on each slide that correspond directly to their packet, however it seemed to work well because it is what the class is used to on a daily basis. I was happy with how Kasie and I both took some time on each question to give a more in-depth explanation and try to provide some sort of class participation through discussion or answering a question. I felt that the class stay behaved the entire time, was engaged for the most part in our lesson, and most importantly learned a lot from what we had to say.

Another great aspect of our teaching this week was going over a part of the Presidential Debate. For classes that usually do not like participating or taking it seriously there was a ton of kids who wanted to voice their opinion. We watch a four and a half minute video where Obama and Romney both talked about the role of government. From that video clip we had an awesome discussion with the class on all sorts of issues and I think it set the tone for the rest of the class period. I would have liked to go into more detail with the presidential debate and even incorporate some type of activity, but the class discussion was a great way to start the class. The ranging opinions really surprised me and I was taken back by some of the insight students shed on the topic.

These exercises further expanded the idea of being able to tie in content to students everyday lives. Teaching a government class in the middle of a presidential campaign gives a lot of opportunities. The only thing I wonder is what other types of activities or topics could be covered in off election years that would spur such an engaging class discussion? The only drawback of the entire Government classes was that the teacher wanted the students to watch a black and white film from the 1950s, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". The class was not enthused and showed little care for the film, and I must say neither did I. I find that I am really enjoying teaching Government class and it seems easier, as of right now, to find those connections to make with students and get them more interested in what is going on.

The last class was U.S. History and it went pretty well all elements considered. Our teacher was gone, but he gave us directions on what to do. We talked a lot about Channel One, current events video, and the classes always seem to enjoy and want to talk about those videos. We then went over an excerpt from Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" which shocked a lot of students. However, the Jigsaw reading and question answering activity did not go well. The teacher laid it out for us, but the students were hard pressed to move around the room and get into groups and upon reading the material he gave us to give to the class, even I was bored and unimpressed. That was a bit of a struggle, but Kasie and I did a great job in my opinion of controlling the class, moving the activity along, and finally recognizing when it was time to quit and move on. All in all the classes went well and I am looking forward to doing better with the three U.S. History classes next week.

Field Experience Week 3

Week 3 of my IPS field experience was a difficult one to say the least. Kasie and I's objective of the day was to lead three U.S. History classes in a test review preparing for their test. Upon arriving to the school and meeting with our teacher I showed him our interactive Jeopardy powerpoint game we were going to use with the class. I thought I had made it as easy as possible, using some questions from straight off of the test, however it seemed that we were not "spoon feeding" the students enough. The teacher brought out a handout that he wanted to give the students with fill in the blank answers for the test. He said that he wanted the students to be able to walk out of the classroom with something concrete to take with them for the test. All of this was fine, but I just think if he would have communicated with us better about his expectations it would have been easier for use. We spent all of plan drafting up a worksheet to go along with the presentation and making the questions on the test easier (straight from the test).

First period was our first run through. The powerpoint did not work as planned so a lot of the time was spent dealing with technical issues. I tried to split the class up into four groups using the count off technique and that definitely did not work. The class just ended up splitting into two big groups. The technical difficulties also made it hard, and the last minute changes we made were difficult as well. The class behaved pretty well all things considered and I wish every thing would have worked properly because it seems the class would have enjoyed it more.

I spent lunch fixing the powerpoint so that every thing would work well for the next class. I split the next class up into 4 groups based on where they were sitting, which went a lot better. However, the class was out of control the entire time. They shouted at each other across the room, did not pay attention, and the students that actually wanted to participate and learn could not because of their classmates. Since the teacher was not in the room, the students recognize we have no real authority as far as disciplining them and they took advantage of our position. Multiple times Kasie and I tried to refocus the classroom and tell them that all of these questions are directly from the test, but most did not care. It was quite a struggle the entire class and I know I was very thankful when it was finally over.

For the last class we asked Mr. Gretencord to stay in the classroom and help us with class management. The class behaved well because of his presence, but were just not enthusiastic about reviewing or the game at all. In fact, most did not want to participate and were content with just waiting for the answer. Quite the opposite of the other class, but still the lack of participation was a failure in my view on the period.

I am not sure if our use of a Jeopardy game was just not conducive to the class or if they way our teacher runs the class set us up for failure with this type of activity. The daily routine of the class is to sit and watch the powerpoint with their packet for each unit. Each slide is usually titled with one answer it contains that corresponds to the packet. Not much participation is involved and students seems to just wait for the answers. It is a true teaching to the test type of environment from what I have seen, however the class is always under control.

I look forward to next week and continuing to get better. I know there are gonna be some tough days and I will learn from this day and use it to my advantage in the coming weeks. Next time I am going to think harder on the type of strategy I use when I develop a lesson for the class that is more conducive to the environment they are used to on a daily basis, while still implementing some interactive strategy hopefully.

Week 2

My week 2 field experience in IPS gave me and Kasie a lot of opportunities to take an active teaching role in the class. We were tasked with teaching the lesson over electoral processes and different ways of voting to two Government classes. I was very nervous to teach an entire lesson for the first time, but I think it went relatively well. Because of the layout of the class, we were a little constricted on how we could teach the material. Each student has a packet of information for each Unit, and everyday of class they are to follow along with the teacher presentation and fill in the blanks in the packet. I do not completely agree with this teaching method, however it seems to be effective up to a certain point in the classroom. I feel that it is hard to get a lot of feedback from students and get discussions going because students are just listening to get the answers so they can complete their packets. However, throughout our presentation we tried to get some discussion going. It seemed that we got the most class input when talking about students being able to vote and how they can vote, because many of them will be voting in this election.
After our first lesson, we went over what we did well and the areas we can improve. Co-teaching a class is kind of weird and we realized we needed to work on our timing and communication. Both Kasie and I like to talk a lot and lead discussion so sometimes we were stepping on each others toes. I also learned that I needed to make sure I kept the volume of my voice up through an entire sentence or expression and make sure I do not let it taper off and turn away from the students. Also, I hope to be able to work on giving students more time to come up with ideas and questions when we pose a discussion. I think that when I ask a question or try to pose a discussion, I get worried when I hear a moment of silence and immediately want to jump in and try to get it going. Also, I need to continue working on learning how to play off of students interest when I hear them talk about them in class. After hearing about the methods we could work on I was interested in getting ready for the next class.

The next class however, was way more difficult to handle as far as classroom management. It seemed like the 30 minutes before lunch all of the students were restless, and after lunch the students had shut down. I think we did a better job in co-teaching the class, but it was hard to implement discussion critiques because class participation was way down.

Next week we are going to be teaching US History classes and I am excited because we also are doing Test Review. Why we do not get to cover new material with the class or really have a lot of time to pose discussion, we have way more freedom on how we can teach the class. I am hoping that this week will not be as hectic in my other classes and Kasie and I will get more of an opportunity to come up with a good lesson and test review for our classes.

Week 1

My first day at IPS was very interesting. Upon meeting the teacher and getting settled into the classroom Kasie and I found out that we would be teaching part of the lesson and every week after would be teaching as well. This was a big shock to us but after the day was over I was very glad that we are going to have plenty of opportunitites to participate.

The kids in our classes were actually better behaved than I thought. There was off subject talking and people blurting things out, however that was expected. The teachers strategy for classroom management seemed to be effective to an extent. He has a very laid back strategy that includes no real due dates (except for the end of the semester), students sit where they want to, and he tries to engage them in a lot of conversation outside content material. Why many of the kids did not act up or cause problems they did not seem to participate effectively that much either. All students get a packet for each unit covered over the year. Every day there is a powerpoint that accompanies the portion of the packet and student work through it with the teacher. When Kasie and I took over and used the smart board to plot a graph on the changing of agriculture and manufacturing jobs between 1830 and 1920 the kids did not misbehave. However, we struggled to find volunteers or provoke a discussion because it seems the students do not engage much in that type of learning.

The last part of each class was spent in the computer lab finishing up paper on certain inventions. Some students worked dilligently, others did a lot of copying from sites, and some did not work on it at all. The teacher seemed not to care because as long as it was turned in before the end of the semester it would be okay. However, most students that do not turn them in this week will never turn them in anyway. I got the chance to walk around the room and ask students what they were doing their invention papers on. It was nice to get to interact with the students.

Also lunch was really good!

I am looking forward to next week but also a little nervous about teaching an entire lesson.