I can't believe that there are only 3 weeks left in this school year! I am so grateful for this much needed Thanksgiving week-long break. It came at just the right time! There has been little consistency in this month of November. We have had so many changes in our school, from International Week to field trips, so the lack of structure has definitely been challenging.
As I wrote in my last blog post, the structure of my math block has been a cause of stress because of all the differentiation and planning. However, I have tried two things this month that have helped both my remedial, 3.1 (on-level), and 3.2 (advanced) groups. Something that I have started doing with both my remedial and 3.2 group is mini-math tasks. With my remedial group, I have tried to provide the appropriate amount of scaffolding so that the tasks aren't frustrational. With my 3.2 group, I try to give them a few tasks a week at the beginning of the math period so that I can work with my 3.1 group. This helps me manage my time a little better, so I'm not running around from group to group. Another thing that I have tried to do more regularly this month is number talks with my 3.1 group. My math coach at my school has encouraged us to lead number talks to build math fluency. I have realized that my students are still using their fingers to add/subtract simple numbers together, instead of using their knowledge of base-ten to help them. For example, it takes them a long time to add together 19 + 6, and they are using their fingers and are sometimes inaccurate (instead of adding 1 to make 20 and then subtracting 1 from 6 to get a total of 25). So I have been leading number talks so that my students can learn more efficient, accurate, and flexible ways to combine and separate numbers.
A pattern that has emerged in my connections for the month of November is having my kids internalize that writing is a cycle. It's hard for students to sustain interest have the endurance to work on a writing project for an extended period of time. I have noticed that many of my students think of each step of the writing process as something to check off their to do list. For example, students will prewrite because I have told them that they need to prewrite, but few actually have internalized the purpose of prewriting. Telling students the purpose of each writing stage is not sufficient -- this is not how students internalize knowledge. I know that I need to model how to stick with one piece for an extended amount of time, bringing it through each step of the writing process. I want them to know for themselves that writing is cyclical, and writing is not just done once you finish the first draft. If anyone has any helpful tips for how to help build writing endurance for our kids, please let me know!
One of the other things that has popped up in my connections is my composure and behavior management. I am struggling to strike a balance between being funny and goofy (being my true self) while at the same time being firm and authoritative. What often happens when I try to have fun is that my kids get a little too silly or a little too over the top and then things get out of control. Then I feel like I have to get super strict and mean so that my students can get back in line. I want to be consistent and I want to both be authoritative and myself. I don't want my kids to consider me a friend but I do want to welcome my personality and find myself as a teacher. I'm getting closer to this but I'm still not there yet. Again, if anyone wants to shed any light on how they strike this balance, that would be greatly appreciated :).
Just because I am in the Thanksgiving spirit, I want to take a moment to give thanks for all of you. You have all accepted me for who I am and you have decided to be compassionate instead of judgmental. You all are such an important part of my teaching journey and I would not still be standing if it weren't for all of you. So thank you, thank you, thank you :).
Joy -
ReplyDeleteYour post striks so many things with me, I feel the exact same way about a lot of what you said. I know that I too am really struggling with finding that balance between being my true self (laughing, smiling, happy, ha) and a leader and disciplinarian in the classroom. We should definitely talk more about what is working for you. One thing that has worked for me is really trying to build in the culture piece of getting to know who each of my students are individually (easier said than done ha) and then trying to use something personal to them to allow my self to ease up a little here and there.
It sounds like you are onto something great with your math class also. I too just began switching things up a bit and trying to do more meaningful tasks in small groups and then pulling for more one on one instruction.
You are up to a lot of great things, and yes the Thanksgiving break was much needed and it is hard to believe we only have 3 weeks left before the year is over - let's dig deep and make them count!
Aw Joy, I am thankful for you. You are the one that either leads us, make us laugh to death, and mediate between the teachers and us. Thank you for being so honest with your struggles last year. I personally feel like I learned a lot from you, and that even though I struggled with similar things, I tend to hide those things I am not proud of, so if it wasn't for your struggle of trying to find yourself in the classroom, I probably would have not understood what it meant to be my true self in my own classroom. so Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid I can't help you too much with advise regarding writing, because I usually have to cut the writing time for my students....but you make me think of the importance of pushing them to understand writing better so that it means more to them, instead of seen it as a completion of task.
In finding balance, my personality is not silly or goofy at all, so I don't really struggle with that. Instead, I want to be a happier, goofier teacher, so that I enjoy more myself and the students enjoy me and the classroom more, but this is hard, since that is not really who I am.
And for the math, I am not sure what your math talks look like, but I would highly suggest that you think back at the CGI classroom we looked at when we were on our math class. I think it would be worth to try for your students to solve a problem a day, and then share 3 responses in 3 different levels, so that they can learn from one another different ways of solving it. I would also put the strategies up, model them and represent them. I would suggest that every time you give a problem ask them to pair up and come up with at least 3 different strategies and then share. This will help them be aware of new strategies, and to start approaching math in different ways.
Remember, the only way your children will acquire the appropriate age development strategies (like base ten) is through exposure. but simply by telling them how to do it, or what to do, won't cut it, just like you mentioned in your post.
Hope this helps :)
Oh my goodness, loved the thank you at the end! You summed it up beautifully. I've never loved a group of women like I do this group!
ReplyDeleteI really connected with two things you are talking about. November was nuts! I felt like everyday there was a change in schedule for some reason and it was really jarring for both me and my kids. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is hoping for some stability and a return to the normal! I also really feel like I struggle with behavior management in the same way you do. I still feel my management is better than it was last year, but sometimes do you ever wonder "do I have control here?" lol. Maybe even wondering it means I don't, but I think I wonder it because it seems to be the all important question in a classroom. Does the teacher have control? Are they listening to her? I don't know. I just always wonder that.
love you joy! I am thankful for you for so many reasons.
Thanks to you too Joy! I'm going to start teaching math in December and I have thought a lot about differentiation. It seems to be a little more difficult to do in math b/c the skills are always changing (so a kid who may rock in addition, may struggle in multiplication). I love the idea of number talks though and I'm probably going to utilize that in my class.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to the management piece, b/c at times I find it difficult for me to keep my laid back soft spoken demeanor when students are so off task. We can quickly turn into that mean teacher that's always yelling to get students to behave. I'm working on balancing it out too. ( I guess a second look at the Composure chapter of CD wouldn't hurt), but I think as long as we can stay as consistent as possible it will work out. :)