Closing Remarks

This week I collected my final research data and as I sat down to make conclusions and reflect on the information it revealed, I realized that even though my data was based on information from the kids, that information didn't necessarily communicate the entire truth.  As I got to thinking, I began to realize that every survey I had given out, no matter how 'objective' the interpretation on my end, the interpretation in the eyes of the students may have varied by day, week, month, year, position, experience, culture, family, etc.  It was my goal and desire for the data to be objective as possible.  However, objective thinking did not necessarily even cross their minds.  Many times it looked as if student circled or scribbled the closest number to wherever their pencil was resting.  Besides, every student is very different.  Even with the description of what each number means, there is still a huge error chance.  An horrible day to one student might be an awesome day to another and vice-versa.  

Instead of pouting about the fact that research revolving people will never be completely accurate or flawless, I decided that I would attempt to calm my nerves by seeking out more information.  So I passed out a final surveying form, which asked my students to think back over their trimester and conclude for themselves, without any help from the collected data, their feelings about the trimester, their attitude, effort and comfort level in the classroom.  Curious to see the results, I also asked students whether they had any control over their learning experiences.  It was interesting to see that a few students realized their control in experience lay in their perspective, while others were not able to see that, and concluded that they had no control over their learning.  I wonder if the students who had the wisdom to see their own control gleaned that knowledge from others or if they stumbled upon it through reflection and reasoning?  Likewise, I wonder if the other students were told about the power of perspective, if they could find new enjoyment in learning and new depth to their educational experience?

Through these last surveys, I have found that I have been much harder on myself as a teacher then I needed to be.  I set my goal at a level of ideal perfection when I entered the teaching profession, and have been reflecting on all the infinite ways that I could improve my teaching, instead of focusing on improving the strengths that I already have. 

So, in focusing on the positive, I have found through this teaching experience, research and reflection the following:

1. Students are as comfortable with me as I am comfortable with myself
2. Students want friends, and need teachers.
3. Students WANT to learn (this was REALLY encouraging to read on surveys!!!)
4. Students also want to have fun and be social
5. Boundaries are not unwanted, but will always be tested in order to guarantee their stability
6. You cannot judge a student by their expression, just like you cannot judge a book by its cover
7. Students hear what you don't say through your actions
8. Students want to be valued and enjoy success (even the ones who pretend not to, smile about it when they think you are not looking)
9. Students care more if I care more
10. Students can complain about and enjoy the same task.

Likewise, I have learned much about myself:

1. I like to be liked by students, but also take pride in times when they call me 'mean' or 'strict.'
2. I expect my students to all pass with high grades, and to retry if they don't succeed the first time
3. I love to learn and struggle to understand the student who seems uninterested in learning 
4. I sometimes sacrifice too much of myself to help my students and end up being worn-out and less help to them than if I had done/counseled/interacted with/tutored/etc. less deeply.  
5. I struggle seeing students as purposeful in bad behavior.

There is still so much to learn!  I suppose that means there is a necessity for more research in the future. :)

-AmyM

Ideals vs. Stress

I've repeatedly stated that my goal as a teacher is to deliver dynamic, engaging instruction. This has been my goal from day one, but reality and I have recently begun to fight about it a bit. I do want to engage my students, but when it comes down to daily planning, coupled with the demands of work sample, research symposium preparation, and grading tests/essays, I'm afraid it hasn't been as easy as I originally thought.

As I stated previously, when I'm stressed I tend to fall back into more traditional methods of teaching. Also, when time is short, I'm far more likely to simply borrow an assignment or activity from my mentor teacher when it's offered. Not that his ideas and activities aren't great, they are usually fantastic, but they're not my ideas. Teaching someone else's great activity and teaching one that I have personally invested in are not the same thing.

I have some great stuff planned for the last few weeks of the year. Scott and I have concocted a newspaper project to accompany Animal Farm that is just loaded with authentic purpose and opportunities for students to engage with the material, and Beth and I are going to give students in the acting class an authentic look at the audition, casting, and rehearsal process starting in the coming weeks as well. Right now, however, I really feel like I'm just trying to keep my head above water and survive. I always show up for class prepared, but I sometimes feel like I'm doing so just by the skin of my teeth.

Another thing I need to be aware of: when my stress levels go up my temper creeps into my classroom management strategies. I start to think about punishment and correction rather than trying to find ways to encourage students to not talk out of turn or disrupt class in the first place. I don't like that I react this way, and I need to find a way to continually point myself toward positive reinforcement rather than negative.

On Engagement

One definite trend I’m noticing in my research: when I’m stressed or feel like I have a lot going on, the engagement scores of my lessons and in my classes seem to go down. I don’t take the time to think about and look for fun, interesting activities when I feel overwhelmed, and I don’t think that is fair to my classes. If I’m committed to engagement as a priority, I need to be 100% committed, not just when I feel like it. My students will not benefit from the inconsistency. Structure and consistency are important, especially for younger students, and they shouldn’t have to walk into class wondering what to expect every day.

This trend is especially disturbing when I find myself falling back on more traditional methods of teaching, like lecturing and worksheets. I haven’t done this much, but I guess it’s true that you tend to fall back on the way you were taught when you’re unsure or not focused. I want learning to be fun and almost invisible, and there is a time and a place for direct instruction, but I don’t want to be using it simply because I can’t think of anything else or didn’t take the time to come up with anything more creative.

Planning is definitely a weakness of mine. That’s not to say that I walk into class not knowing what I’m doing that day, but I definitely do a lot of “night before” kind of stuff. The students would never know I haven’t planned things out weeks in advance (at least I hope they don’t, my mentor teachers have both said I’m always well prepared), but I often find myself coming up with minor things like journal topics later rather than sooner. Partially this plays into one of my strengths, as I’ve always done my best work when subjected to deadline pressure (being a perfectionist I’m paralyzed at times, until a looming deadline gives me no choice but to accept whatever I come up with), but it’s also an additional source of stress. It would be nice to have the whole term mapped out week by week, but I know I’d end up changing things, and it’s impossible to predict how far we’ll get when reading literature on a given day. Still, it might be helpful to force myself to come up with an outline for the rest of the year, even if I have to shift it around a bit. I can focus on the macro aspect of planning, and leave the micro pieces until the actual day draws nearer.

changing weather

Today my teacher research has hit an interesting peak-I felt, for the first time, as though I was the enemy. I have observed through my interactions with specific students, that apparently my instruction is not working for them. While my research first began as a study of how much they ate, when they slept, how they felt-it seems to have morphed into a study of myself as a teacher. I am not so much aware of, or interested in, what they ate or how well they slept, but how I come to class everyday-do I believe in myself? Do I believe in the students? What does it mean to feel this way? How interesting it is to see the progression of this research.

My research has become a bit of a struggle. I am realizing how little I know and how much I have to learn-not only about myself but also about learning, and how students consume and react to their education. Everyday I think about how I can adapt my instruction to better fit the needs of my students and their process. This is revealing itself to be very difficult and I keep looking around for the rule book or some guidelines and I realize that those things exist but not always in the form that works for your situation.
This week I am going to reflect daily on how my instruction changes to accommodate the learning needs on my students and of myself as an educator.

Trendy Data

Indeed, that is correct.  My data is TRENDY!   No, it's not stylish, or fancy or even conclusive, but it is showing trends.  It's neat to see how numbers are growing and fading in relation to each other.  Although there is so much room for error when interacting with individual people, personalities and an innumerable amount of other influences outside of the classroom, it is good to see that me research is actually producing some information.  :) 

On the other hand, I am finding that the information that I am gathering amounts to very little hardcore evidence.  Mostly, this information is just revealing what I already knew (or thought I knew).  It is backing up my assumptions, and so I wonder how accurately I am measuring this data, and what influences I have attributed to the results.  Since it is all student-given feedback that is producing the most meaningful results, I suppose I am simply an overseer of the data.  However, it is important for me to remember that as I am collecting this data, that there is much more information that I do not know. 

But, in the meantime, with the limited vision of data available, I have seen the following trends:

1. Student effort is consistently related to student enjoyment of class 
2. Student effort and enjoyment raises and falls without direct relation to teacher's feelings or situation.
3. Days unpredictably raise and fall. 

So, now I am wondering when students do better, and when they don't.  Perhaps the day of the weeke has something to do with this?  Perhaps the events of the week, or the assignment load in other classes?  Or perhaps it is related to home life?  OR perhaps it is completely random?  ...too bad I can't be paid to invade schools and research these questions more conclusively and fully.  That would be exciting!!!

-Amy M

A recent reflection I thought might be worth sharing

A startling recent revelation: I have a disturbing tendency to focus on the negative. For example: I have 37 students in my Acting I class. The other day, during independent rehearsal time, I spotted approximately 10 of them sitting and talking with friends, rather than rehearsing. My immediate reaction was to loudly remind students that they should be rehearsing their scenes with their partners, and that those who failed to do so would lose their participation points. My internal thought process also led me to consider stopping rehearsal time and making students get on stage and perform their scenes immediately as a way of "encouraging" those who weren't rehearsing to make better use of their time in the future.

What a horrible decision that would have been. Why punish the 30 students who are actually on-task and doing what they're supposed to be in order to teach the ten who (consistently) choose to not participate a lesson? Why do I zero in on those students so often? Why can't I just be happy that 3/4 of my class is doing what they're supposed to be and celebrate that success? I guess my classroom management philosophy relies upon consistency and I think that by letting that small group of students "get away" with not working I'll lose control of the class or that others will begin to see that I'm perhaps open to that type of behavior, but what good is that attitude really doing me?

Also, I've always said I'll never use acting or writing as a punishment, yet that was exactly what I was contemplating.

I need to relax a bit, clearly. I find myself stressed out going into my acting class because the "vibe" or "energy" in the room has been less than positive. Partially this is because of four students in particular who have been identified by their peers as the origin of some negative comments and feelings, but I've spoken to those students and their behavior has improved. I'm really starting to think that my own behavior and attitude is responsible for the lack of cohesiveness in that class. I'm constantly on the lookout for "bad" behavior, but in doing so I've increasingly gotten away from giving daily positive feedback and celebrating my actors for their individual successes. I'm so obsessed with catching them not working that I don't notice those who are. This is an incredibly-bad way to approach education. Now that I realize I'm doing it, I'm definitely going to take steps to accentuate the positive. There will be times when discipline is necessary and I'm prepared to provide it, but I shouldn't spend my day searching for opportunities to do so, especially when my philosophy is supposed to be based on engaging lessons. I am not a prison warden, I'm a guide, and I need to act accordingly, even with those students who choose to follow other paths than the one I set out.

On Strictness, and Other Revelations

As a response to some questions raised by Neil, I asked my students to rate my "strictness" on a scale of 1-5. Most of the answers were in the 2.5-3 range. I also asked them to indicate what percentage of the time they're engaged or interested in what is going on in the class, and the mean average there was around 70%.

I wrote earlier about how surprised I was to be a fairly strict teacher. I see now that this was perhaps just my interpretation of my own actions, compared to the super laid-back individual I like to think I am. According to my students, I'm pretty much in the middle of the road, which I think is a pretty good place to be in this category. I'm not so strict that they feel like I'm breathing down their necks and waiting for a reason to yell at them, but I'm also not so lenient that they feel they can just do whatever they like for the duration of my class. One student put it pretty well, rating me a "3" and saying "we have fairly controlled fun." "Controlled fun" is pretty much the phrase I would use to describe my ideal classroom management strategy. Hopefully I can keep my strictness right in the middle of the scale, which is a place I'm discovering that I'm pretty comfortable.

The engagement data was honestly a bit surprising to me. We've been going through Romeo and Juliet, and while I do my best to include interesting activities on a daily basis, there really is no substitute for actually reading the play, which is the part the students like the least. I only say this because I'm sure it had some effect on the results of my impromptu survey. 70% engagement is certainly not horrible, but it's not exactly what I expected, either. I think perhaps my initial expectation was a bit inflated, however. It's not realistic to expect all students to be engaged 100% of the time, and no matter how interesting I try to make the daily activities, there's always going to be someone who doesn't like what we do. I'm rapidly learning this because of the journals I'm having them write in each day. Despite the fact that I've repeatedly told them they're free to write about whatever they like, I get several journals each week with entries complaining about my topics and how they're boring. The lesson here is that I'll never be able to entertain or engage all of my students. Some will just choose not to be interested and some will simply not be into what I've planned, and that's okay. While I may have initially thought that I would be able to achieve a 90%+ engagement rating, I'm starting to think that 70% is pretty darn good. Students are never going to love writing daily or reading Shakespeare, no matter how interesting I attempt to make them.

I received some overwhelmingly positive feedback for the Facebook project Scott and I came up with for our 9th grade classes. Students made "Facebook pages" for the characters in the play out of butcher paper, and we've been having them write status updates and comments as a means of summarizing what we read. We eat lunch with most of the English department, and many of the other teachers were raving about how cool the assignment was and how much they wanted to use it in their classes. I took this as a huge compliment. The students for the most part seem to enjoy it as well, they come in to class in the morning and immediately go to the wall to check out what people have written.

At least with this assignment, my goal of engaging as many students as possible seems to be achievable.

Written Words Will Work Wonders

       So for the last few weeks I have been struggling to balance school, teaching and life and am finding that I am coming up short.  As of yet, I haven't begun my new survey with my new set of students, but have been daily implementing a journal project where students write and share their thoughts, feelings, concerns and experiences.  My goal in the journals is two-fold.  First, it is to allow students to experience writing without judgment, correction or expectations.  I want students to write without worrying about someone else reading them, and to be able to become comfortable sharing their thoughts and organizing them into words, sentences and understandable paragraphs.  Second, I am implementing daily journaling in order to get to know my students better.  It is a manner of formative assessment that provides me insight into the lives of my students so that I can better gear lessons to meet their needs.  By reading and responding to their journals, they are also becoming acquainted with me as a teacher, finding similarities between us, and learning that I really do care about them and that I am not there merely to torture them with work.
         Over these last two weeks, I have had a couple of big problems in my classroom.  Since both of my ELD classes are new after Spring break, I have the 'new teacher' struggle all over again as students feel-out the playing field to see what they can get away with.  In my 8th grade class I have a student who has a bitter relationship with his female writing teacher, and has seemed to associate the two of us with synonymous bitterness, being that we both teach writing skills.  Therefore, since the beginning of class he has refused to do work, been creative in his excuses for being tardy to class, and has avoided any interaction with me as if his life depended upon it.  Talking to him in person, his mentor teacher and using the journal as a means of communication from me to him has slowly encouraged him to participate and contribute to class again.  Likewise, a 6th grade student who has been causing school-wide problems in school with refusal has blossomed through his journal writing and has given me a chance to get to know him outside of his poor reputation and attitude towards other required school work.  Also, These journals have also been an opportunity for students to suggest improvement in the program, my teaching, the school, class scheduling, homework, etc.
         Although I already knew this in theory, I have learned through the journaling process that students LOVE feedback.  I collect the journals daily and respond to each journal entry weekly.  This Monday students excitedly opened their journals and began reading over my notes.  Some of them even responded to questions I wrote in reflection to their writing.  They respond because they know I care about what they have to say because I take the time to really interact with them.  I wish I could always do this, but I realize that as life gets busier in the future, I wont be able to respond each and every time so in depth.   But, perhaps I will make this a prerogative at the beginning of every new teaching year in order to connect and delve into the lives of my students.      
        Most interestingly is that I have been very observant of students responses to journaling and have found that the students who appreciate the feedback write the most.  Perhaps this is because I have fed their need for encouragement through the feedback?  Perhaps they just are better with words and therefor appreciate them more?
         Lastly, I have learned that students really care about what their teachers think of them.  Sure, they play 'cool' and say that they don't care, but what and how we speak/comment on students' work is noticed and meaningful.  In my math class I have taken the time to give feedback on student work to help direct them, probe them about their thinking, or applaud neat or thoughtful work.  A student came up to me this week and thanked me for my comment.  I almost said: "That's my job."   But, instead I smiled in response, realizing that teaching is much more than a job, it's an opportunity to impact others.

Written words DO work wonders!

Next time I should have more hardcore data...the surveys begin again :)

-Amy

Several New Developments

Hello, all.

Since I have begun full-time teaching, I've had a wealth of reflection-worthy experiences. I'd like to focus on a pair of them for this entry, though, as they've thus far had the largest influence on my teaching style and led to some of my most significant revelations to date.

First, my Acting I class. Establishing an environment where all students can feel free to act and try new things is an absolute necessity in a class like this, especially when I've got 40 students. This has been a major goal of the first few weeks. I was a bit worried midway through week 1 when a group of young men were continually being disruptive and disrespectful to their fellow students. My response to this was to give a very pointed presentation on audience etiquette to the class and mention that we had the option of making the class completely textbook-based if for some reason everyone didn't want to get on board and be respectful to their peers. That same day, several of the former troublemakers were engaging in an exercise that they truly enjoyed. It was almost as if a light had gone on in their heads, and now they're among my most staunch enforcers of audience etiquette in the class. Simply realizing that they enjoyed acting played a part in a complete turn around for them. This is extremely significant to me, as my personal pedagogical philosophy is based on creating engaging lessons. I believe that engaging lessons lead to more engaged, better behaved students, and I think I had a chance here to see that in action. Special thanks to both of my mentor teachers for their advice and feedback through the process. Now my class runs much more smoothly and I'm really enjoying myself in the theater.

My Freshman English classes, however, have not been as smooth. I've had some trouble getting them to get their journals out and start writing on the assigned topic at the beginning of class each day. I've also had one specific student who has been a lot of trouble, to the point where I've had to pull him out of class on two separate occasions and was forced to write him a referral when he blatantly defied my request to speak with him after class. I'm currently working with my mentor teacher to brainstorm ways to reach this particular student. I don't want to be the teacher who just sends the troublesome individual out of the classroom instead of finding ways to engage him, and this particular students is proving an interesting challenge to my personal philosophy. I'll keep trying things until I find something that works, and hopefully I'll find something relatively soon. It takes a lot of energy to deal with him, and that is energy I could be spending on educating the other 29 students in the room.

I've had every intention of getting my exit cards going, but I keep running out of time on Fridays. Maybe Monday would be a better time to do them or maybe I should do them multiple times a week, so I'm covered in case something comes up.

Update

So, my classes have all flip-flopped.  The teacher I am working with wanted to work with one of my previous classes because he wanted to prepare them for his teaching style for next year (since most of them will be back in his class, just one level in higher in the ELD program).  Since we switched that class, we also switched our other classes, so that he was able to work with all the same level.

Consequently, my data has to reboot from the beginning.  I am now trying to formulate how I would like to collect my data.  The original data collection tools seem to be not as applicable because the new 8th grade class is completely different.   However, I think I might try it out and see what happens.  Adjustments may be added.

(perhaps I will add a question about breakfast?   - Meg inspired me)


-Amy m

So it has been a while since I last posted and for good reason- I was married over spring break!
After much joy and whirlwind I have re-entered reality and am now present to the purpose of this blog. The research I have been collecting has focused on 4 categories
1. Attitude
2. Amount of sleep
3. Eating habits
4. Views on learning

My students have become accustomed to taking the survey during the week and really seem to enjoy having the chance to share their feelings. After collecting data for the past 6 weeks I have decided to teach a health unit during my full time take over.

Below you will find the four questions that I asked the students. I offered the survey Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Directions:
Read questions and then circle the number that best fits you. After you are finished please bring back to Ms. Cowan's desk. You do not have to put your name if you do not want to.

Question 1: How tired are you? (1-5; 1 being exhausted and 5 being very well slept)

Question 2: Ho do you feel about learning today? (1-5; 1 is not interested at all and 5 is super excited)

Question 3: How are you feeling right now? (1-angry, 2-sad, 3-lonely, 4-happy, 5-nothing at all)

Questions 4: Are you hungry? (1-5; 1 being very hungry and 5 being not hungry at all)

The results were interesting although for the most part the students are happy and well slept. There were a couple of students who shared that they were sad and angry and a number of the students come to class without eating any breakfast. For these reasons I really felt like a health unit will benefit them.

Reflections/Research

After feeling overwhelmed with all the data collecting I have decided to try streamlining the process a bit. I am doing daily reflections, rating myself on a scale of 1-5 and I am giving my students exit cards that also have a rating on them. The rating cards ask "How do feel?". I didn't want to be specific because I want their honest feelings about how they feel at the moment they get the card. I want to see if there are certain days students feel better or worse. I am also looking to see if the majority feel a certain way. For the reflections I am doing a free write before/after I get done teaching. What I have learned so far is that I am nervous before I teach and sometimes I am a bit scatter brained! After I teach I tend to over analyze and focus on the negative. I am trying to change my perspective and outlook to a more positive one. I am going to continue doing this and tweaking it, to find a system that works for me.

A bit more from a week-end heart ;)

So, I have no more graphs or charts or amazing information this week to add to our blog of Bi-weekly postings.  The last two weeks have gone by with so much disarray that I haven't deemed it irrational to take time to have kids fill out my survey.  (and besides that, there is little info to submit with testing.)
However, I do have a lot of learnings and self-reflections to add:

Here are some of my reflections from a stressful few weeks (imagine nightmares and hot sweats on a snowy mountain.):

1. Kids need boundaries.  These boundaries must be consistent, firm and non-negotiable. 
2. These boundaries always have an exception.  It is a work of art to balance the 'exception' with the rule.
3. Don't play in the game unless you know the rules.  (aka:  if students challenge you, don't feed into their challenge, unless you know how to win  ;) - and be ready to find out that your confidence was wrong.
4. Don't power struggle.  Instead set-up expectations and consequences that are easy to understand, and logical to use.
5. Follow through, and expect to do so.  (Even if I really don't want to punish students, I need to be ready to do so. That means, I can't set any punishments that I won't be comfortable following through with).
6. Kids want to succeed, but once they give up, its difficult to re-convince them that they CAN.
7. Encouraging the discouraged is HARD work
8. Teaching is akin to counseling...especially in ELD.
9. Take a deep breath when you need it.  Start again if you need to.  (keep your cool)
10. Kids like to be believed in
11. Teachers need encouragement too.
12. Be honest once you diffuse your frustration and anger, let kids know WHY you have felt this way (disappointment...etc.)

and about self:

1.  I have gotten better at keeping my cool
2.  I have learned more about how to express myself for the betterment of students.
3.  I need to raise my expectations of how students will treat ME.
4.  I need to be more on-top-of-it in cracking down on misbehavior.
5.  I need to see my class as a whole, as well as individuals, and not just as individuals...
6.  I want to fix all problems, and need to realize that that is not my job...and not always my lot in life. 


Beyond all these things, I have learned that not every personality meshes and sometimes I am not what a student needs...and I need to be okay with that.   EARTH TO AMY:  "you cannot solve the problems of the world one student at a time...especially if you get stuck on a road bump student...not even if you try harder."  It turns out, that when you stop trying, and just consistently support it is then that change surfaces...


'till next time,

-Amy Marsh

Data Report and Reflection, Volume 2

Student Data
I'm still not teaching full time, but will be in a week or so. Accordingly, my exit card plan has not yet been implemented. I am, however, working with students more and more frequently. I'm working out ways to deliver instruction more clearly and to avoid my own personal tendency to just give them the answer. I'm working with a student in Advanced Acting who is doing an old age makeup project, and at first I caught myself simply telling her which step to take next, but I have since been transitioning to a more discovery-based questioning approach to the process. You can't learn to do makeup without actually putting on makeup, no matter who is telling you what to do.

Adult Data
I had a visit from Charleen and she observed my lesson on costuming in Acting I. Everything went well, just a few hiccups which I received several good suggestions for. One thing I learned was not to tell students that they'll be making their own groups before I've explained the activity. The directions quickly get drowned out as they begin to talk to one another about who will be in who's group.

I also spoke to Beth about the lessons I've been teaching in her acting classes. She had generally positive things to say about my teaching, pointing out specifically that I make good use of demonstration and thoroughly explain what we're working on step by step. She also seemed pleased with the feedback I've been giving the students as we work.

Personal Data
Sleep log hasn't been much changed this time around. I'm still averaging 7-7.5 hours a night. I'm getting a little more comfortable with the schedule and confident with my energy levels, so I've been more willing to stay up a bit later to get things done or attend events (like the play last Monday night).

Attitude check-ins are mostly unchanged, as well. I suspect they'll begin to vary a bit more when I'm teaching all three classes, but for now I spend most of my time feeling content or interested, with the occasional "bored" creeping in (mostly when the students are rehearsing in the acting classes and none need my help).

Reflections focused a lot on my experiences in theatre and how I'm connecting it to my experiences in the English classes. I spent a lot of time watching Beth prepare the students to put on the play and learned a great deal about the whole process of putting on a production. I've been involved before, certainly, but never from the director/teacher's point of view. It was a very enlightening (and a little bit frightening)experience for me.

One memorable moment in the Freshman English class: We've been studying The Odyssey, and one lesson plan involved students acting out the famous "Test of the Bow" at the end of the story. We have a student in 1st period who is also very involved in Theatre. She's a Freshman, obviously, but she completely blew my mind when her group left to prepare their presentation. I tagged along to watch, and she basically morphed into a director for their little scene, teaching and coaching her classmates on stage movement, blocking, and remaining open to the audience. It was so awesome to see a student apply knowledge from one class to another in a meaningful way, and I'm excited to keep exploring ways to integrate theatre into English classes.

Reflections...and a bit of data

So, its taken me a while to post this partially because I have forgotten, and partially because I don't have very good internet access, so it it is, finally being sent in for your viewing pleasure.  Over the last two weeks, I have done my best at giving my students a survey at least twice a week.  When I give them a survey, I am also taking one before and after class and reflecting on my before vs. after feelings.   Its not surprising that my feelings of success during a lesson closely correlate with my students' feelings of success, and vice-a-versa.  

I have chosen to watch this grade 8 ELD class because I am hoping to inspire more learning in the classroom through this feedback, and my own reflections of what works and what doesn't work.  I wish I was a little better at remembering the surveys more often.   This is something to work on. 

Below is the data I have been collecting.  Its been nice to note that students are slowly starting to care and enjoy their class a bit more.  This is super encouraging, because when I came almost all of them would have sooner eaten raw steak than sit through 10 minutes of their ELD class.   Or, like I am still struggling with, many have simply 'checked-out.'  Hopefully this chart keeps growing!!!

 

I was really glad to see the enjoyment line rise in this chart, but I would like to see both rising together.  Their survey asks for a 1-5 rating of effort and enjoyment: 1 is low and 5 is high.  The above graph shows the average over 4 days.  However, because of the small size of the class, when one or two people are gone, the average is thrown off.  Especially because some students are always very positive, while others seem to usually give a lower score no matter the day.  More days and data will be necessary to arrive at any conclusion about the data being collected.  I am interested to see what I will find out! 

Thoughts? Suggestions?  Questions?  Ideas for improvement???

Research Findings/Reflections: 2/7-2/21

I'm about a week late posting this, it seems.

For the initial two-week period:

Student data:
While I have been consistently working with students in all four classes I'm working in right now, I haven't felt like I've done so in a consistent enough manner to pass out exit cards and expect them to accurately reflect the quality of what I'm doing. Mostly I'm working with small groups (though I have taught several full days in the acting classes I'm working with). I fully believe that exit cards will be a fantastic method of data collecting once I'm teaching full time, but at the moment they're not an ideal mesh with what I'm doing in the classroom.

I have been working on student engagement (one of my research areas) by focusing on relationship building. I've got almost all of the students' names down, and I've been actively seeking out one-on-one conversations with as many as possible. This has helped out a lot when I go back to work with them later, and has proven invaluable when it comes to putting together groups for exercises in the theatre classes.

Adult data:
Charleen has not been able to observe me as of yet, so I'm a bit lacking in that feedback category.

Scott and Beth seem pleased with what I'm doing in their classes. I'm gradually taking on more and more responsibility, helping to plan lessons and working with small groups of students and individuals in the English classes and organizing whole-class activities in the acting classes.

A retired SAHS teacher passed away Wednesday night, and Beth was pretty upset about it, so I offered to take over the two acting classes on Thursday afternoon (we spoke at lunch, so I had about 5 minutes to figure out what to do for the day). I led the classes in some activities and games that related to what they've been working on, and everything went smoothly. I'd say the fact that Beth was willing to let me just jump in and take over is a huge vote of confidence from her.

Personal Data:
At the moment, I'm averaging between 7 and 7.5 hours of sleep a night. I've finally begun to adjust to the schedule and find myself getting tired earlier, which has made falling asleep much easier. I've been consciously focusing on getting as much sleep as possible because I spent the first two weeks dozing a bit in the afternoon classes, but that has pretty much gone away now.

Attitude-wise, I tend to feel pretty good throughout my teaching days. I'm feeling less tired in the mornings and most often feel "good" in my surveys. "Bored" is a feeling that began to creep in a bit there, too, but now that I'm becoming more and more actively involved it's not as much of an issue.

My weekly reflections tend to focus on specific, memorable instances. This week it was taking over the acting classes spur of the moment, last week I reflected a lot on how well I was getting to know the students and some specific conversations I've had with them, and the first week I spent a lot of time thinking and reflecting about the conference I attended with the English department on Monday. Mostly positive experiences so far, which is awesome.

Ben's Research Grid

Here's my research grid!

Student (Exit Card Questions)
What lessons worked for you?
What are you still confused about?
General engagement?

Adult
Charleen’s Feedback
Scott’s Feedback
Beth’s Feedback

Me
Weekly Reflections
Attitude Check-in
Sleep Log

I'm also in discussions with Noemi about observing one another (we're both at South Albany), so I may have another adult's feedback to work with.

Survey #1

I chose to have students fill out my survey each morning when they come into the classroom and before class begins. They have a 15 minute window of time and my survey will work well here. My survey is going to ask the following questions:

How tired are you? (1-5; 1 being not tired at all, and 5 being very tired)
how do you feel about learning today? (1-5; 1 is not interested at all, 5 is super super excited)
How are you feeling right now? (1- angry, 2- sad, 3- lonely, 5-happy, 4- nothing at all)
Are you hungry? (1-5; 1-not at all, 5, extremely hungry! I didn't eat dinner or breakfast)

I will share my finding soon!

-Meg

Amy's Method Squared

Here is my 3x3 chart of data collection.
I will be handing out a survey for students in this class every B day and asking them to tell me, on a scale of 1-5, how much they loved/loathed the class as well as how much effort they put into the class.  Also, they need to tell me what they learned in one word, one sentence or a list.

I will also be taking a survey.  It is below.
The Adult supervisors are a bit more tricky as they are not always able to observe consistently.
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Amy Squared Method for an 8th Grade ELD class:

Students	Like it Loathe it	Learn it / Growth	Effort
Adult	Ben Bonser (teacher time vs. student time)	Mr. Tapia  (Student behavior, effort and response)	Nancy Fischer (management)
Self	Feelings survey	Sleep hours	post-reflection

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My Sleep and Feeling Survey: (1=max)
DATE: ______

• Sleep hours   ________
• Hungry (1-5)  __________
• Attitude (1-5)  ___________
• Confidence (1-5) ________
• Other feelings:  

Teacher Research

Students:

*Exit cards-Student Attitudes
*Are students more active during individual, group or teacher lead activities?
*Temp checks

Adults:

*FB from PE mentor
*FB from Health mentor
*How are the students responding to directions(positive/negative).

Me:
*Compare Lessons
*Sleep Log
*Attitude Check

Contract

We, the undersigned, commit to the reflective process of educational and personal growth that will be shared by blog-posting twice a month.  As a community of learners, we also commit to encouragement, challenging and intellectual conversation to establish greater learning both interpersonally and intrapersonally.


*Contract subject to change according to the agreement of all group members and a unanimous vote*

The Beginning

The four of us (Meg, Cindy, Ben and I) will have updates Bi-monthly...or bi-weekly (depending on your perspective of time and English lingo).  Enjoy the blog-reading of our experiences in the classroom and the reflectings of the mind.

Welcome!

Welcome to our Teacher Research blog. I assume you arrived here by mistake unless you're Neil or a member of my editorial group.

Here we'll record the data we've collected and reflect upon it for your amusement. Feel free to comment.

Enjoy!