16 posts from 2008

     One of the essential learning objectives for Biology II is to explain the chemical basis for life. I was struggling to find a unit that would be meaningful in this field and comprehensible by my students as their background in chemistry is limited. I was looking through my A.P. Biology notebook from high school and saw a great introductory activity to the 6 properties of water which are important to life. They are, of course, adhesion, cohesion, high heat of vaporization, high specific heat, polarity, and the ability for ice to float on water. I was wondering how to adapt some of these concepts to my classroom as sets to peak interest in this topic which could be bland. So for each property I devised an appropriate demonstration and biologically relevant example to hopefully burn the 6 properties into my students synapses for all of eternity.
     The demonstrations I devised for each are as follows and remembered by my students as the celery experiment for adhesion, pepper floating on water for cohesion, alcohol vs. water in cooling down your hand for high heat of vaporization, a quarter vs. a pen cap heating up rates for high specific heat, oil floating on water for polarity, and ice floating on water, for ice floating on water. I paired each of these with a biological example, and it is the only lesson of the year which I'm sure the kids have understood and might still remember to this very day. I still ask what these properties are at random times throughout the year and the kids are unafraid to answer these questions, as they appear to be with others, because at least they remember the demonstrations. They can normally work out the properties significance when thinking about the demonstration. It proves to me that when I feel like I have the motivation, resources and mental well-being, I can be an effective teacher in some regards. This small glimmer of hope makes me feel like Brady Quinn in his debut season, although I may have started with a good game when well prepared and fresh off the bench, the depth and ferocity of my opposition will surely, and in my case has, left me somewhat shell-shocked and relying on my running game as opposed to razzle-dazzle. Also a success, I believe now I have made a football analogy in 4 straight blog. Also, I realize I might have begun to take on a hatred of the NFC north, a consequence of living with Alex Funt. Is this a success, I know not, but I don't believe its a failure, so I'll take what I can get at this point.

So, I was watching Iron Chef the other day when my roommates were discussing how hopeless the educational system is in Mississippi and the chance for reprieve for the system as a whole was infinitesimal if only the current, half-measures were employed to remedy it. While one of my roommates was suggesting sterilization may be the only viable solution to break the cycle, synapses in my brain fired randomly and coalesced into an idea fusing Iron Chef and the problems facing the educational system of impoverished students in America. The idea, from kindergarten through 8th grade, send students to a school in which they remain in a regimented, disciplined, learning intensive environment for 2 week stints, visiting their parents only every other weekend. This system is employed in Japan, where learning and advancing national goals is prized above all else. Some even more drastic models for education are employed in Japan, and they outstrip our performance in educational assessments regularly. I feel this is the only way to break the current cycle in impoverished households, as currently the parents of most students lack the education themselves to provide the structure and support necessary for success. The African-American community, which this is largely targeted at, could provide at least the management aspect of this system, as I believe a military background would work exceedingly well in establishing the structure necessary for learning to take place. The teachers may have to come from a broader demographic, just as Mississippi Teacher Corps does, but I think it should. I know some feel each community should handle there own problems, but we need to fix internal national problems as a whole people, so all of our citizens can participate and guide the path of our nation.
    So, is this a feasible solution, and by this do I mean, could you sell it. I think it would almost certainly give a larger percentage of kids the chance to succeed in the society which they've been born into. But, selling it is the hard point, just like selling the fact that learning math and biology is important to kids I teach. The United States would have to provide room and board, I believe in K-8 to be effective for all those students who are near or below the poverty line. However, in this model, you would also be spared paying room and board for a large percentage of those students for the 20-60 years of incarceration they would face as an uneducated, apathetic, I just don't give a fuck member of a disenfranchised group. But here in lies the problem, the inability for most people to see the long term advantages of actions now, or the long term consequences. I took a biology class in college, in which I watched a documentary on global warming and other modern issues facing society today, and it said the biggest problem facing the common person, and therefore society as a whole, is the inability to comprehend the exponential function. I kind of bought into it then, I wholly do now. Our students don't see how effort now which has seemingly little return can have enormous return potential in the future. Similarly, legislatures fail to see the how spending more money now could save them such a tremendous amount in the future. And it comes down to this, Republicans are idiots. And Republicans run America right now, because America as a whole is uneducated and fear-prone. God, I hate people who are afraid of irrational things. I hate people who can't understand systems and look for short-term benefits. Well, at least I hate those people making decisions which will impact millions of people for generations. But, I may be digressing. Whatever, its my free-write.
      Do I ever expect this system to be implemented in America, ha, no. Too many rich white people make too much money from incarcerating poor black, hispanic and white people. I am not saying anything earth shattering, but it is still frustrating. Hence why I instead take the Parks approach and just try to throw as many starfish back into the ocean as possible. I am going to try to pick one from each class this year and aide them in achieving their aspirations  if possible. Succumbing to existentialism has always been difficult for me, but at least for now I am a fledgling without the power to accomplish any sweeping changes. I don't know if any one person has the power to overcome such a ridiculous dichotomy between achievement, actually I'm sure they don't, and without a nation caring that part of it has cancer, eventually it will metastasize, and I will be in Ireland. Too rah loo rah loo rah.

  The book that I am reviewing is A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne, which is an attempt to convey some of the skill sets which those in poverty possess and lack, and the reasons why the differences between those in poverty and those in the middle-class make it difficult for those in poverty to succeed in a school system in which middle-class values are perpetuated. I found the most compelling section of the book and that which I have found of most significance for those who struggle in poverty is not a lack of intelligence, but a lack of ability to convey their ideas in an acceptable way and a lack of knowledge of what is required and how to achieve goals they set. This book gives an explanation of the 5 different "registers" which are used by people to convey information and I find that many of my students lack this component of speech. However, some of my students grasp concepts unrelated to English with the same level of comprehension I would expect students in white suburbia to gain understanding, such as the atom. The atom is a concept which one cannot have a great base and foreknowledge for comprehension, as it isn't part of everyday life, unless you parents are quantum physicists. However, sentence structure and ones lexicon is developed from a very early age and it is difficult to develop it greatly at a later age when speech patterns are set. Therefore, some of my students not only don't enjoy speaking formally, but may never be able to achieve the a mastery of any level of speech besides the casual register, which will prevent them from acquiring jobs in most fields. I see this and comprehend it, and the book does give a good treatment of how this arises and the reasons for its impediments to rising out of poverty. Another aspect of poverty which I have been noticing is that many of my students wish to become doctors or lawyers, and yet have absolutely no concept of what would be required of them to achieve their goal. And they lack the ability to plan for long term goals. Without significant relationships and adults who have organizational ability, where can one expect to gain such skills. The most important suggestion posed by the book is how to set up a situation where students can create significant relationships in a school environment which may allow for them to break the cycle of generational poverty. The suggestion of a voluntary program where students would stay with the same teacher for multiple school years seems efficient to me and the arguments created for this system, such as the ability to begin with instruction immediately during the second year due to familiarity with students and teachers, would suggest to me that this is at least feasible in subjects such as English and math where a general knowledge base is sufficient for a teacher, as opposed to the sciences or historical fields.  I find myself having difficultly with doing much more than modeling the behaviors necessary for middle-class success. I still have this crazy notion I am a math teacher and a biology teacher, which is still weird because I should be a chemistry teacher, but I attempt to teach my subjects. I enjoy my subjects. I always hated study skills classes and I don't know how to bring myself to reteach all of the skills students should have acquired from k-8th grade. Most of the students who are focused know how to study and just struggle with math and biology concepts, which I can be of great aide in helping them comprehend. But teaching those students who sleep in my class and then complain they can't understand the material because they don't know how to study or some such nonsense is grade a bologna. Its not my just to teach them math and biology and what they slept through for 8 freaking years. If your parents suck and didn't motivate you and it translated to you sucking, well, thats just how it goes sometimes. But, If you aren't succeeding because your school hasn't been offering enough resources or support on the field you wish to pursue, there is where my charge is. So, I like the book overall, but find some its suggestions to teachers unrealistic.
         The part of the book which was the most fun to read was whether I have the skills to survive in each class, and the chart for what is important to each class. I grew up in what would be considered in the community I grew up in to be the ghetto, I still recall in honors history when we were learning about the ghetto, the whole class literally turned and looked directly at me at the mention of the subject. However, my mom was from an upper-middle class family with a college degree. So I find myself between classes. I feel I already comprehend much of poverty and what is important to them, as I lived in a neighborhood of relative poverty, although I must admit I didn't get out much except to play football. I also have some survival techniques available to the middle-class, but not a comprehensive list. So, this book was not only elucidating to me as a teacher of impoverished students, but as one who has lived in both the world of poverty and the middle-class. I just hope this greater comprehension of myself allows for me to be a better teacher and person, because I can speak the done language, but I am also able to put a cover on my TPS report.

Well, there is no other way to say it, this is the worst strategically placed time for a blog assignment to be due. Ben, don't you realize some of us go out after celebrations such as this and may be regaining our senses till way after 9am. Don't you also realize most of us wait til the last minute to do everything because it gives us a freaking rush. But besides all this, hella good is what I feel. I get to have a clean slate once again and get to forget about the observations where I got 3 points taken off for not writing every objective on the board or not covering one out of 4 objectives in a review. Now I feel like its showtime. This summer felt like 2-a-days. I get a few days to recharge my batteries from them, and then I have to set the tone when its kickoff time, day one. I'm so excited I might actually jack someone up. Thank god I have football practice to go to all next week which will release some of this energy. I can not describe how excited I am for football to start. I have been running through speeches in my head since I found out I had even a slight possibility to coach. I'm trying to channel all of my coaches' sayings from the past that worked so well on me. What I'm really trying to wrap my head around though, is the fact that I don't get to hit anyone. I am going to have to depend entirely on my players to bring the wood on game day, and I know its gonna be rough for awhile. But I think the challenge of coaching will be more than enough to keep my mind distracted from that, and my knees will eventually thank me that my hitting days are over. But, oh what glorious days. 

Anne Monroe's class rocked and helped me keep sanity and have fun while many other people were simply playing up the desperate nature of our charge and how hard our hearts must be when implementing classroom management. I felt the despair of the situation was played up, partially to shock us and be sure we payed attention to the classroom management aspect of class. I am not saying this was completely unnecessary, I was not firm enough at all with classroom management, but I recall at the beginning of the summer thinking about nothing but classroom management and stifling my ideas for fun and creative instructional techniques. I see now that perhaps the base was necessary, but I still wish their was some focus on instructional techniques this summer. I think my students could tell when I was excited about teaching a lesson, and at least some got involved without much management beyond genuine interest in the topic. It is naive to think this will work all the time. In retrospect, I know all the focus on management was probably necessary and it exposed my weaknesses which is probably why I wasn't exactly stoked about it. I've been used to lecturing college chemistry, which students are compelled to pay attention to because they are there of their own accord. Switching my philosophy into a method that will make low-income black students able to learn algebra 2 and biology 2 was a metamorphosis that was challenging, but I enjoyed many aspects of it. I think all the constructive criticism we received was taken well by me, but the fact that we were graded so harshly so quickly is something I struggled with. I shouldn't care about grades anymore, I graduated college, screw it right? But it is engrained in my psyche and I guess I just didn't appreciate we had a grade that was worth a large percentage of our grade for a class the first week we were attempting to do something. Once again, thank god for Anne Monroe's class. If she had not been the teacher for our afternoon class, I don't think my attitude would have remained upbeat for the whole summer. I would have eventually burnt out with constantly being evaluated. I did like the multiple sources of criticism though, it allowed you to depersonalize it and if you heard the same thing from multiple people, chances are you have to work on that aspect. I think if something could be improved I would try to make it imperative that 1st year teachers plan their overall management strategies more cooperatively. Now I think its basically up to the teachers in individual classes their level of cooperation, and when they have differing styles and don't communicate it can be very ineffective. I would have 2 classroom management presentations for grades throughout the year, one joint one in the middle for your summer school and then one you get to modify for your own classroom. Also, I think the summer school expulsion policy cuts the balls off your consequence ladder. I don't want to kick kids out, but sometimes they should get detention. These two consequences shouldn't be related. I'd be remiss if i didn't mention Anne Monroe's construction paper lesson for note-taking and project making. I will be utilizing this lesson nearly weekly in my class. 

I have worked on talking less in my classes, and it has yielded results, although it will still be a focus throughout the year. The biggest problem I've encountered is time with my back to the students. This has occurred mostly through too much talking, not pre-writing my notes for the overhead projector, and bad positioning when I help students in independent practice. I was in shock at the amount of time one student was lip-sinking to others behind my back when I recorded one of my lessons. Although the second class showed marked improvement, it still wasn't at the level I need when I enter a classroom of 30 seniors that don't need my class to graduate. I need to become more vigilant in class and have less blind spots in general. When I do see things happen in my class I need to react without hesitation, and crack things down immediately. Summer school has made me mildly hesitant to do this because of its strict expulsion policy. Some students would have been out during the first week if we stuck to our enforcement. During the year I need to dole out the appropriate punishment and just stick to my guns. I argued with one student during the summer about her detention, and while I knew I was right, and I think somewhere she knew I was right, as Chris Rock says, " She's not in it to be right, she's in it for length and irritability". I enjoy arguing, I can do so and normally win when there is a logical answer because I use empirical evidence, and if I lose to a superior argument, I can concede without feeling dejected. That is my achilles heel in this situation, empirical evidence and whose right is irrelevant, only talking and frustration and the attempt to just make it not worth it to the teacher to argue anymore are the goal of the injured party. They wish to fight a war of attrition, and they have won many because many teachers leave, but what they don't realize, is I don't have anything else to do, and I don't really feel the need to go anywhere else. Plus I really like teaching. So I need to minimize my target area, steel my skin, and make sure I'm prepared to remove all roadblocks toward my target objective, teaching kids about bugs and graphing. 

Mr. Taylor has been a great help in honing my teaching abilities. I'll just get right into the lessons.

Lesson 1- Use the Projector/Back to the Students is chaos: Mr. Taylor had to hammer this lesson to me on many evaluations before I finally got the point. Notes and organization are not my forte, frankly I learn much better from listening and live much better in at least minor chaos, therefore I resisted. By the time I finally acquiesced to his suggestion, he was so adamant that on that lesson plan when he thought I was going to ignore it yet again he wrote the suggestion in all caps. But, since I've started implementing the projector my management has gotten easier and its been less stressful for me in general to teach. I feel a little more  confined by projector notes, but confined means structure and structure is good.

Lesson 2- I can be overbearing: sometimes when I speak to students, although I have no frustration or anger with them, my tonality and volume can frustrate students or cause them to recede from the lesson rather than engage, which is my goal. Therefore, I need to tailor my interactions with specific students to ensure I don't turn them off or alienate them. However, he backed up my decision to give a student a detention for doing a writing assignment during my lecture, which I felt bad about afterward, so he enforced its ok to be forceful when disciplining, but sometimes I must vary my approach when teaching different students.

Lesson 3- Do the things your boss tells you even if you find it pointless- I find writing all the objectives for a review topic pointless. It wastes time at the beginning of the lesson. It allows the students when I asked them what we learned today or what our objectives were to just read it off the board as opposed to thinking about what we that day. I DONT LIKE IT. During one of my formal evaluations when I felt I rocked my lesson, I got a lot of points taken off for this even though the rest of my lesson was solid. I care less about grades now, but I still do somewhat, its rooted in me I suppose. Mr. Taylor understood my frustration, sharing it to some extent, and told me ways I could do the things I find pointless in a more efficient way that will still be acceptable to those evaluating me. It was comforting to be both sympathized with and instructed on how to avoid my frustration. I think this lesson helped me empathize with my students, because sometimes the things I ask them to do will seem pointless, but I will expect them to do it anyway, because I see the benefit. I see the benefit in some of the strict rules to objectives and things of that nature, but I am not the biggest proponent of structure in some areas of learning. I have become more structured in how I form my notes, my lesson, and my approach to management under the tutelage of Mr. Taylor.

Lesson 4- Student Interactions- I tried to sit with my students during first semester, although not many of the other teachers did. I only did a few times because I felt it stripped my authority and mystique away and made classroom management harder. I wanted to get to know my students better and let them know I'm a person as well as their teacher, but one of the books I've read and loved recently is "leadership secrets of attilla the hun". The quote that kept resounding in my head was, "A captain who drinks with his Huns ceases to be a captain". I therefore avoided sitting with and interacting with my students outside the classroom to maintain the perception that I was their leader, not one of them. Mr. Taylor sat with our students right away when he came and started playing basketball with them. I started sitting with them again and played basketball with them and the important thing that happened was that I saw them as people again, even and especially the ones I was most frustrated with. I think its important to remind yourself that while kids may not care what you have to say about math, sometimes you can teach them and interact with them and effect them in different ways. I'm not sure the outcome of this lesson yet, but I now have two differing perspectives on the issue.

So, yes I am a Star Wars nerd. My students have asked me several times if I'm a nerd, and I just tell them I am in certain areas, but I also know who weezy f. baby is and " I can hoop" my students say, so they are getting mixed signals, but I digress. I don't know why after I taught this particular lesson, I didn't feel incredible about it. I didn't feel bad, just not incredible, but after watching the game film, I saw my fundamentals were pretty sound and it was, as Mr. Taylor pointed out and I now agree, my best instruction of the year.
    The lesson was on making 2-dimensional drawing of 3-dimensional shapes. We have been analyzing 3-dimensional shapes in many ways, and I have had to draw them on the board numerous times, alway to a chorus of "DO WE NEED TO DRAW THEEEMM?" and several times criticisms of my pyramids. This class started off in a similar way, but the lead critic even noted my pyramids looked better and I had been practicing, which I had, because I really wanted to knock this lesson out of the park. I was an engineer for 3-years, and  have done this very operation of turning complex 3-dimensional cad drawings into 2-dimensional representations, so I thought if I didn't do this I well I wouldn't be giving the ol' alma matter credit. However initially I struggled with how I would convey this knowledge, so I used some of Mr. Fiels' advice and tried to take a small piece of information and hammer it into their heads, so instead of having them attempt the exceedingly difficult to master trimetric views, I instead focused on making top, front and side view drawings. The beginning of class started well, most students were actually focused on the do now and the questions I received  were on topic. The students shout out answers or questions sometimes, which is technically against our classroom policy, but I'd rather hear their question and answer it, then punish them for curiosity. The class knows me better by now as well, so they know the talking I have a problem with is when other people are trying to work or give an answer, and the arguments I get when giving consequences for misbehavior are  fewer, or are from the people who will always deny, or lie, or think my glasses prescription must be out of date. My set wasn't my favorite I've had, but they are normally my favorite part of the lesson and I hold them to high standards. I asked the students about designing cars and other inventors, and I asked them what they needed to do if they had a new design to make sure no one steals it. The inventors they gave me were mostly foreign to me, designers of hair care products, water guns, and peanut butter(I knew George Washington Carver), much different from my expectation of Alexander Grahm Bell, Thomas Alva Edison and the Wright Brothers, but it still worked. And students knew what a patent was and I explained to them if you wanted to get one and make money, aka ball hard, you needed to make a sketch of your idea. I had drawn an engineering drawing of an orange juice box, which is something they see everyday, so they really got to see how a real life 3-d object can be represented 2-dimensionally. The next improvement in my lesson is the big one, I've started becoming comfortable using the projector for my notes. My face is to the class and the kids, who still talked behind my back, had much less opportunity to goof off. The kids asked many questions about my pre-made drawings, and the drawing of a cube I did along with them, and the kids really seemed to have it down before we went to lunch. I hate having lunch in the middle of my period. Its the worst period to teach. When the students come back from lunch, they are mostly dancing in their seat, rapping to themselves or talking. Now when I say mostly, I mean the 3 students who have that problem anyway, after lunch its just enhanced. Most of my students have become pretty well-behaved and focused when I'm teaching, and seem to genuinely want to learn the material,to some extent anyway. AD and KD have no such desire. They desire to sit sideways in their desk, lip-sink to each other whenever my back is turned, sit there and do very few assignments I tell the class to do, if they do do them they start 5 minutes after everyone else and then ask me for more time on tests and quizzes, dance in their chairs and generally be disruptive to those around them. These students have been real enigmas for me, what do I do with them? Sometimes I want to tell them to get the f*** out of my classroom and stop wasting both of our times and do whatever it is you think or have been told is going to make you successful in life. I actually feel like this most of the time, especially when I see all the other students at least trying, maybe stumbling, but trying. When I see them talk behind my back when I'm trying to teach them, and then they do the worst on the test, its difficult for me to have sympathy. But, I like the two kids. I see them try, very few times, but sometimes. They could get the material if they were properly motivated. So I wonder If I'm just pissed off because I haven't found a way to turn them on to whatever the subject matter is yet. But then I get back to reality, I've tried, some people don't like math and don't want to learn it, and can't be convinced to, these kids are not my charges. I can't set fire to a community, only a classroom, and even then maybe only patches. The third student, AO, is a much different case. Shes smart, tries most of the time, when shes engaged is a fun student to have, but shes a brat. I gave her a detention the other day for copying a writing assignment in my class and then refusing to work for the rest of it, and she has been actively trying to interrupt my class since. Not horribly, and she still participates when I make it clear its for a grade, but otherwise she wishes to be an agent of chaos. This kind of student will be much harder for me to face, I take most things personally, I know this is not good and will be a habit I must break and just roll with some of the attitude I get during the year, but I would much rather take the trouble, whatever it is, to the mat. I like to win, but in this case I have to win the war, not the battle, and teach the kids who are willing to learn, and not let a student's personal vendetta against me affect my attitude, effort, or style of teaching. These three students were all laughing uncontrollably at something when we were starting independent practice, and so I assured the class, any noise for the rest of independent practice which isn't talking to me after raising your hand will assuredly land you a writing assignment. Guess who won the writing assignment raffle, AO, AD, KD. If they thought Mr. Warner was playing, they know he's not now. Independent Practice went well too, enough students got it from Guided Practice that I helped those who really needed assistance.   I closed the lesson with showing an excellent mistake and correction on LKs 2-dimensional drawings that I saw on several others, and I think it hit home, and I also reiterated why converting 3-d shapes into 2-d drawings is an important skill. After watching the lesson, I really could see improvement. I'm starting to tolerate classroom disruption less, have my back to the students less, and I used varied instruction and props today and I talked less, still too much probably, but less. This is a step in the right direction, but my management could have been better still, I think i could have lectured about 5 minutes less and given 5 minutes more for independent practice, but otherwise I thought it was a pretty solid lesson. Oh, and I didn't get marker on my face. I'm not sure whether I'm happy or sad about that, when I do, it kinda makes me feel like its game time.

I recorded myself teaching and watching what I did wasn't scary. I thought the lesson was pretty good, and the guided practice was taught relatively well. I tried to have differentiated instruction time, which I did, but I was probably talking, therefore working, a lot more than I needed to. But, none of this was surprising to me. I knew that talking too much in my class was a problem. I knew that differentiated instruction time was something I needed to focus on and have been. What I was unaware of was exactly how blind I was in my own classroom. First of all, the distraction of having my computer recording myself in the back of the classroom had a strange effect on some students. Most forgot about it, as I did, after 3 or 4 minutes. One student, LQ, was so enamored with the video that anytime I had my back to the board, which I finally understand how much of class I do, she'd wave her hand or throw something across the room. One of my two laugh out loud moments happened with the way one student reacted. TJ is an absolute rock in my class, he always pays attention, always answers questions when asked, and does relatively well on most assessments. Also has a very subtle sense of humor, which he displayed by almost exactly half way into class he turned back into the camera for what seemed like a nano-second, gave a knowing smile, and for the rest of class was his normal focused rock self. My other laugh out loud moment was when we were checking our work on an algebra, i asked a student in several different ways if 9 was the same number as 13, and she didnt answer even after 20 secondds of questioning. My biggest wake up call though was how blind i was to students talking behind my back, or sometimes even right infront of me. I have gotten somewhat good at regconizing all my students voices, but i was unaware they were adept at lip-sinking. One of my students, sitting sideways in his desk, probably lip-sinked to other students in class even longer than I was talking, which is quite a feat. I didn't know exactly how to handle it either, which is probably why I ignored it to some extent. But, if nothing else the video allowed me to gameplan for such an action in the future, so I might make my rule any non-sanctioned communication, whether it be verbal, psuedo-verbal, or note form, is not allowed in my class. So the summary, i want to decrease the percentage of time im talking increase the percentage of time students are working, decrease the amount of time my back is to the students, and decrease the amount of time students talk to each other.