In my 2 1/2 years of teaching, one important concept that I've discovered is that students are ALMOST ALWAYS more focused, better behaved, and more respectful in the morning. As I would expect then, my strongest relationships are with those students who I have in the morning. I am more alert, relaxed, and energetic; they, too, are more compassionate, respectful, and focused. In the afternoon, however, both the students and I are drained of our motivation, anxious to get out of school, and overly energetic after playground and lunch time. My afternoon relationships really suffer because of this physical time line of the day.
On the same note, I am very aware of the imbalance in these relationships and I try to go above and beyond to build relationships with my afternoon classes. I spend more one on one time with those students, provide specific praise more frequently, and encourage appropriate decision making. Each day is still a struggle with my afternoon kids, but because I am more aware of their needs, I can appropriately respond to them.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
October Blog: Lesson Planning
One of the lesson planning issues that I struggle with is setting a day's objectives. As a Language Arts teacher, I often feel like I have 6 objectives within a day's lesson. Since Language Arts encompasses reading, writing, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, listening, etc, I often plan my days with a 20 minute chunk of each of those categories. Consequently, this causes my objectives to be numerous.
More recently, I have been studying "inquiry-based learning," which promotes instruction based on essential questions. In my efforts to follow this teaching pedagogy, I have worked hard to base my "objectives" for that day around answering that essential question. So instead of an objective geared toward the students' specific skills like "Students will read and respond to a literary non-fiction text," my objective for the day is focused more on our collective learning and looks like "Are all people capable of achieving the American Dream?"
With this focus, I can tell if students have completed a skill (reading, writing, grammar, etc) based on whether or not they can answer the essential question of the day. I will know that a student successfully comprehended the day's reading if they can answer the essential question related to it. I will know that a student understands the word "injustice" if they can answer the essential question related to it.
My instructional techniques and lesson planning methods have certainly evolved over my 2 1/2 years of teaching. I don't know if my current focus on essential questions is the best method, but I will continue to refine until I'm satisfied (which will likely be never!)
More recently, I have been studying "inquiry-based learning," which promotes instruction based on essential questions. In my efforts to follow this teaching pedagogy, I have worked hard to base my "objectives" for that day around answering that essential question. So instead of an objective geared toward the students' specific skills like "Students will read and respond to a literary non-fiction text," my objective for the day is focused more on our collective learning and looks like "Are all people capable of achieving the American Dream?"
With this focus, I can tell if students have completed a skill (reading, writing, grammar, etc) based on whether or not they can answer the essential question of the day. I will know that a student successfully comprehended the day's reading if they can answer the essential question related to it. I will know that a student understands the word "injustice" if they can answer the essential question related to it.
My instructional techniques and lesson planning methods have certainly evolved over my 2 1/2 years of teaching. I don't know if my current focus on essential questions is the best method, but I will continue to refine until I'm satisfied (which will likely be never!)
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Active, Engaging Learning
One of the greatest challenges with teaching can be engaging even the most unmotivated student. The NTI session based on engaging learning was really interesting as it allowed learners to view and reflect on information from a variety of sources.
As I plan lessons and activities, I consistently seek new ways to engage my students. I really enjoyed the opportunity to look through the NTI textbook for some of the ideas they have developed. I have used "I Have the Question, Who has the Answer?" in my classroom before with great success. It provides a great deal of interaction between students and allows them to teach each other. Without a doubt, I plan to use many of the active engagement activities from our textbook to hopefully motivate my learners.
As I plan lessons and activities, I consistently seek new ways to engage my students. I really enjoyed the opportunity to look through the NTI textbook for some of the ideas they have developed. I have used "I Have the Question, Who has the Answer?" in my classroom before with great success. It provides a great deal of interaction between students and allows them to teach each other. Without a doubt, I plan to use many of the active engagement activities from our textbook to hopefully motivate my learners.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
"Hope is a Thing with Feathers..."
This is my third year of teaching 7th and 8th grade Language Arts, but I am definitely finding myself in a very new teaching environment. During my previous two years of teaching, I taught in a rural Wisconsin public school which had demographics more like inner city Milwaukee. Here in Colorado, I find myself teaching the same age students at a college preparatory charter school. This school environment and structure is quite unfamiliar to me and has caused me to completely reform my "old" teaching habits to create new ones.
Consequently, though I am in my third year of teaching, my hopes this year are quite similar to those of a brand new teacher. I am hoping to refine my classroom management strategies to best accommodate the learning styles and needs of my students. I hope to increase my parent communication, not only through phone calls and emails but also through the school website and my classroom blog. Finally, I hope to create a middle school Language Arts program and curriculum which challenges my high-achieving students, differentiates according to student abilities, and peaks student interests.
In the end, however, I just hope to move from barely surviving to, quite simply, thriving.
Consequently, though I am in my third year of teaching, my hopes this year are quite similar to those of a brand new teacher. I am hoping to refine my classroom management strategies to best accommodate the learning styles and needs of my students. I hope to increase my parent communication, not only through phone calls and emails but also through the school website and my classroom blog. Finally, I hope to create a middle school Language Arts program and curriculum which challenges my high-achieving students, differentiates according to student abilities, and peaks student interests.
In the end, however, I just hope to move from barely surviving to, quite simply, thriving.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
New Teacher Induction - Day 1!
Hello! My name is Erin Roberson, and I am a middle school Language Arts teacher in Eagle County School District. I recently moved to Colorado from Wisconsin where I had taught middle school for two years. Following my first day of new teacher induction, I created this blog to be a professional portfolio of my experiences in the district. As this is my third year of teaching this grade level and subject, I am eager to try new ideas while beginning to hone the skills I have already developed. This promises to be a great year!
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