EMTI+Journals

November 30, 2011
 * Journal #6 Final Reflection**

I really enjoyed my time at Dakota Meadows Middle School. I am becoming more and more confident in my teaching. I know I need more practice but I am very excited to start my career as a teacher. Working with middle school students has shown me that that is where my passion lies. Helping children transition from elementary to high school is a critical time in their development and I want to make it a positive experience for them.

I have enjoyed teaching middle school because it gives you a varitey of lesson types to work with. I was able to lecture and do activities in the same lesson. I really enjoyed the co-teaching aspect as well. This gave me a chance to work in front of the whole class and one-on-one with the individual students. It was interesting to see a classroom from this perspective rather than sitting in the desk as a student. I now know that there are so many different types of learners and as a future teacher, I will need to learn to accomodate to each type. I also found that some students have input on every question and subject while others do not participate at all. I think it will be important to learn how to make sure each student is understanding and participating in the lesson.

Classroom management is one of my weaknesses. I know when students are being disrespectful and I need to make sure they are not having side conversations and not becoming bored during the lesson. This will take time and skill to learn when to demand respect and when to continue with the lesson.

This was definitely a learning experience and I am have found my strengths and weaknesses as an educator.


 * Journal #5**

November 21, 2011


 * Student Learning and Development**

The last lesson Alex and I taught was on supply and demand. This is a very difficult concept for seventh graders to comprehend, heck I have a hard time comprehending it at times. Even though the lesson was hard to teach, it was easier because I knew the students’ names and faces. I have also learned certain characteristics of some students, like the ones who have an answer to every question or the ones I need to push to get an answer from. I found that it made the idea of supply and demand easier to understand once we used items they are familiar with, i.e. Xbox 360 live.


 * Teaching Strategies**

Alex and I conducted our lesson by starting with a lecture on what supply and demand is, and then we gave the students various activities to give them a chance to implement the concept. As the day went on, we developed a more effective approach to the subject and modified the activity to keep students on task.


 * Assessment**

To assess the students throughout the lesson we used the Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down system. To make sure every student understood what was being taught, we waited until every student was participating. There was no summative assessment for this particular lesson.


 * Classroom Management**

Classroom management was much easier on the last day because the students had more respect for us. It was also easier because if the students did start acting up, when we asked for respect they gave it to us right away. One thing I did notice was that Alex and I need to become more in tune to when to start disciplining the students and asking for respect. We did not have bell ringers for this lesson because they only had two days of class.


 * Journal #4**

November 17, 2011


 * Student Learning and Development**

For this lesson Alex and I taught our seventh grade geography classes about equity. In our activity “Take a Step for Equity” taught the students about four economic classes and what each experiences every day. Our second hour class is probably our most well behaved class of the day. Since it was our first time teaching this lesson we didn’t ask as many in depth questions as we did with other classes because of how the discussion progressed. Our third hour class can be very rowdy but were pretty well behaved during our lesson this time. By the time we got to fifth hour we had a good source of questions and the group participation was very good. The students showed development in knowledge of the vocab words and being able to use them in their explanations for the activity.

We asked students to participate and called on students who raised their hands. If students were reluctant to participate we reminded them that there were no wrong answers and they wouldn’t be laughed at if they said something.

This activity involved a lot of empathy. Students were asked a lot of questions that put them in the situation of others. We asked student how they would feel if they made less than two US dollars a day and how they would be able to support a family if they did. We also let students ask us questions about hunger and poverty to make sure they understood the concept.


 * Teaching Strategies**

We used the parallel teaching strategy for this lesson. Each of us took certain talking points and expanded on them to help make the lesson run smoothly. This seems to work the best for Alex and I because it helps us stay on topic and we have fun with parallel teaching. One thing I would work on for next time is to make sure we both know exactly what we are going to do if we finish early.


 * Assessment**

For this lesson we used continued discussion with the class to make sure they understood the basic concepts of needs and wants and all of the components of our lesson. For a summative assessment, we asked the class to give up one want for a day this weekend and write a journal on their feelings about the day and how they could give things up in the future to help the less fortunate. I think this will give us a sense of whether or not they understood the lesson.


 * Classroom Management**

We used the DMMS classroom management poster on the window to remind students they need to respect one another. When one student began disrupting the class whoever wasn’t teaching would ask the student to behave and discuss with them why their behavior needs to change. This way of classroom management works very well in these classrooms and the student understand that the same rules go for every single one of their classrooms. We did not have bell work for this lesson because many of the student were missing because of the Mankato West High School State football game.

November 14, 2011
 * Journal #3**

For our first lesson, Alex and I started our seventh grade geography class on their economics unit. Through this teaching I have found how important it is to repeat myself throughout the lesson because they have short memory spans. After the first few questions it didn’t take long for many of the students to become involved in the discussion process and be comfortable talking with us. To involve students in the class we made it an open discussion for everyone to participate. If students weren’t answering, we would call on a random student because the class knows to respect each other as part of their rules. We also gave the students the liberty to pick the next student to answer a question. To help the students understand each vocabulary term we asked them to somehow apply it to their lives and give an example in their own words.

We used a co teaching parallel teaching strategy for this lesson. I think this worked very well for the both of us, giving us each equal time to teach. The only thing I would do differently would be to layout which partner talks about what so we don’t have to do it during the lesson.

We used questioning during our lesson to make sure students understood what each word meant. For further assessment, we conducted an activity to quiz the students. This allowed students to show what words they knew and understood and which ones they needed to work on.

Ms. Stow enforces the school’s management guidelines using “PRIDE”. When students are breaking any of the rules, being rude or disrespectful, or are not prepared for class, we remind them about “PRIDE” and many of them change their attitude. Alex and I both need to work on classroom management. I for one didn’t notice the behavior problems as much as Ms. Stow did so I could definitely work on asking students to respect us and others. When students do not abide by the rules they are called out to name which step of “PRIDE” they are not following. In order for students to get focused Ms. Stow has them answer two geography questions and then talks about the top 2-3 news articles for the day.

November 4, 2011
 * Journal 2**

While interviewing our cooperating teacher, Alex and I found out how Ms. Stow manages her classroom and how it is run. Her management is through a poster on her window. DMMS sets standards for their students using the word “PRIDE”. Ms. Stow points to the poster if one of her students is disrupting class or being disrespectful. The problems Ms. Stow sees in her classroom is mostly students not working. There are also students that are out of school for a few days for making poor decisions. Many of the students are respectful and do their work when they are told. Ms. Stow requires her students to use a high level of thinking and asks a different assortment of questions to challenge the students. Many of the classes at DMMS incorporate group work so the students are accustomed to it. Ms. Stow doesn’t necessarily use group work much in her class but when she does, she makes sure each group is made up of different people so they learn to work with others.

For formative assessments Ms. Stow uses techniques such as Fist to Five, Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, and Post it Notes. Fist to Five lets her know on a scale of 0 to 5 if the students understand what the concepts are. Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, does the same type of assessment. Post it notes are for students to write something they learned or a question they had and stick it on the door before they leave. For summative assessment Ms. Stow uses daily work, tests and quizzes, and projects but has no weighted percentages so each of the assignments is worth their total amount, not a percentage of the students’ grades. These are also the elements that make up the grading system. DMMS uses both the MCA II and the NWEA. Ms. Stow believes each of these tests is a good measure of progress to keep teachers accountable and to assess what students have learned and what they understand. She does not, however, like that a student needs to get a certain grade to graduate.

October 28, 2011
 * Journal 1**

Alex and I met with our cooperating teacher the Friday before we started observing and helping in the classroom. We are with Sara Stow who teaches seventh grade geography and is the Athletic Director for Dakota Meadows Middle School. We set up a schedule to meet in the classroom Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next few weeks when DMMS has class. We discussed the expectations we had to achieve by the end of our field experience and what Ms. Stow expected from us. She is very laid back and is giving us the Economics unit to teach to the class. We also went over classroom policies and rules so we could help with classroom management and not overstep boundaries.

For the lessons we will be teaching we are using the People, Place, and Change textbook by Holt Publishers. Ms. Stow also previously created the Economics units and provided an activities and standards packet for us to use and follow. We will be creating lesson plans using information in the textbook and incorporating activities that Ms. Stow provided. We were provided contact information via email and school telephone.