Joel,
It was so good to read your positive blog tonight. Success!! You really did do some action research about the situation last week. Congratulations! I imagine your students benefited from a well-prepared and time-managed lesson as well.
Keep up the good work!
Kaye :-)

Week 12 Reflection

This week I tried another review game in class. This time I was prepared.
Two days ago we started a unit on prehistoric cultures-the cultures that settled in West Virginia before the the Europeans settled there. We had spent two days on the four types of cultures-Paleo, Archaic, early and late Woodland cultures discussing about their culture, similarities between the groups, differences, and improvements in technology between them.
For gameday, I desgined the class to have the first ten to fifteen minutes being spent on discussing the late Woodland culture. After we finished discussing them I then broke them up into groups and got things going. They created team names, talked about the rules of the game, and began the game.
The game was similar to jeopardy-I asked them a question and the first group to raise their hand got a chance to answer the question correctly. If they answered it right, they had the opportunity to shoot a hoop for additional points. At the end of the game we tallied up the points and the winner was announced.
Amazing to me was how much better it went because I planned other activities before playing the game to make sure the game didn't last to long. In some of my classes I wasn't able to ask all my questions due to time constraints. I was much happier with not finishing at the end of class rather than finishing and doing the same thing over and over.
Planning for this made things much smoother and less stressful for me. Such an easy thing as alotting fifteen minutes to go over other things made the game playing much better. Amazing how one thing can totally change the appearance and opinion of a certain activity.

Hi Joel,
Well...don't think you are alone in not having enough for a class period! That has happened to the best of teachers. My problem often was I had too much for students to do so became exasperated because the students didn't work fast enough or didn't grasp the lesson well enough to move it along.
I think you certainly did some "action research" with this experience in you always need to have some other "tricks" in your pocket for those kind of occasions. It would be good for you to have what we elementary teachers call "sponge activities". I have hundreds of them for the elementary level. So...if you would like to have some, let me know. They might come in handy when you go to Mrs. McLaughlin's class in a few weeks.
Good luck the rest of the week!!
Kaye :-)

Week 13 Reflection

This past week I had discussed the different climate zones and types of weather with my seventh graders. The day after a long day of notes and reading I thought I'd reward them the following day with a fun activity that has them utilize the knowledge they learned while doing something other than notes. I came to the decision of using the game of BINGO as my learning activity. The day before BINGO I had talked it up and got the kids excited for the fact that we in fact were going to play. I thought it was going to be a big success and that everything was going to go great. Unfortunately for all parties involved, it didn't.
I have three seventh grade classes right in a row, so I got to read BINGO for a wopping 135 minutes in a row. That wasn't bad except for the fact that by the third period I was ready to tear up the questions as well as every BINGO card in sight...here is problem #1. Problem #2-? was that I didn't plan anything else for the period. Just BINGO. As it turns out, 20 minutes of BINGO is impossible to do with seventh graders, let alone 45 minutes.
What my biggest problem was the fact that I didn't plan anything else for that period. I immediately thought that they'd be interested in playing the whole time. Seeing the students drag halfway through class until the end was bad, however, me being bored out of my mind as well told the story of the day. During the second period of BINGO I saw that it was becoming a bear to do and no one wanted to do it. I tried to think of something else to do but I just couldn't get any ideas.
Looking back at it and looking toward the future I now know that a single activity, even something sounding as great as BINGO BONANZA will not cut it in a class period of 45 minutes. I need to plan more activities that allows my students to learn but in different ways.
Even though it was a tough day for me, this was a great lesson learned. In the future when games are being used in the classroom as a learning extension, I'll now know that more than that game is needed.

Hi Joel,
My recommendation would be to observe how the other teachers at school interact with the students and follow their lead. Also ask your mentor teacher if he/she thinks your interaction is appropriate - that is allowing the students to be too chummy...
It's even difficult at the college level because in my EDUC 401 class, I really like my students and want to be friendly...but have to draw the line in also requiring good work from them.
Kaye :-)

Week 14 Reflection

Building rapport with your students is one of the most important things that a teacher can do with their students in my opinion. Throughout the first three weeks I feel as though I've put myself out there to show to my students that I'm interested in building trust and a relationship with all of them. I feel confident in my methods and behavior towards them, however, I'm still figuring out where the relationship ends and the role of the teacher begins. I value the relationships that I've begun to build with my students and I hope they see that, but I know that it would be a disservice to them to just end there with it. It is my responsibility and desire to be a teacher to them as well. In the first three weeks, I've been able to teach, discipline, handle situations fairly well but I wonder how much more effective could I've handled them and with how much more professionalism. There are times when my students will walk by me in the hall and kid around with me which I think is fine, but there are also times when they come and give a nudge or a shoulder as a joke. This is the point that I'm uneasy. It's not because I'm upset or afraid of what just happened, but I view this as them feeling comfortable with me as more of a "friend" role than a teacher role. I don't know exactly what to do. Do I let it go and continue to be chummy with my students or do I shrink back from that role and become more stern and serious with them? I personally think a little bit of both with more in the chummy end of it but I'm not certain as of yet. I guess it'll come with more time with them, discussions with teachers about their feelings as well as my own comfortability with it all.

Hi Joel,
What a nice thing you did by going to the game!! And the students noticed! This will gesture of yours will go a long way to gain their confidence. I'm so impressed with your attitude this year. I know you are going to do an excellent job in your internship.
Keep up the good work!
Kaye :-)

Week 15 Reflection

Yesterday (Thursday) I went to the middle-school football game as an after-school activity. I thought it was a good way to show to my students (the one playing, cheering, cheerleading) that I am seriously interested in getting to know them and supporting them. In the long run I know that this could help my rapport with the students as well as the trust with my students. Little did I know how appreciative they'd be. Today all throughout the school day, I talked to a lot of them about being at the game and how the game went, etc. What was suprising to me was how much they thought of that. They were excited and told me how pleased they were that I was there. I never realized that just my showing up at the game would cause that kind of response. It is my desire to really show these students that I am interested in seeing them succeed in all arenas of life and am wanting to be a big encourager to them in these eight weeks.