Mrs. Tiana Grap

My task today during my volunteer hours was to observe the class for the EDTE 255 classroom observation, the topic of which was diversity in the classroom.  I watched my Special Pal’s mainstream class closely for over 30 minutes, and it was a nice break to be able to simply sit back, watch, and take notes rather than be engaged with all of the students as they completed whatever they were working on.  While I was watching, I was able to distinguish diversity in the classroom that went deeper than just race or ethnicity, which are definite factors but are not the only ones that make a classroom and the students inside it so unique.  I was especially interested in watching the different ways that students approached the projects that they were tasked with because it highlighted the diversity of students’ thought processes and what they were best at.  For instance, one student was studying a map by coloring it, while another was studying it by making flashcards of the fifty states.  I enjoyed that the teacher was able to make a project that could meet the learning needs of all the students in the classroom, and wasn’t just a “blanket project” that assumed all students worked in the same way.  My Special Pal is on a different track from the rest of the students, so she was practicing math problems at this time.  I was especially proud of her today because she realized that the classroom was getting to loud and distracting for her to work on her math effectively, so she asked her teacher politely to finish her work at a desk outside of the classroom door.  He agreed to this, and so I sat with her outside and she was able to get her work done much faster than she would have if she stayed inside of the classroom. 

Today I volunteered in my Special Pal’s mainstream classroom, and was able to experience their time in music class!  Every Wednesday Hooker Oak students get out of school an hour early, so there is usually a rush to get everything completed that day despite the time cut-off.  This day was rushed as usual in the mainstream classroom, even more so because the students had an hour of music class this day.  The music class was taught in the cafeteria, and it was only the fifth grade class that my Special Pal is in at that time.  There was one teacher, and he was extremely enthusiastic about his job and about the music, and he made it great fun to watch.  Unfortunately, the students were very often disrespectful and talked when he was talking for the majority of the time they had together, which was disappointing since it was so short.  He definitely got frustrated with them, but it was obvious that he was so good-natured that the students took advantage of that and didn’t get into trouble.  They practiced two different songs for warm-up that all of the students were familiar with, and after that the teacher passed out small boxes to each student as an acoustic instrument. The students had been practicing a small routine to a song with these boxes, and it was so much fun for me to be able to watch them practice it a few times through! I was seriously impressed by how well the students knew the routine, and the talent that their voices held was apparent as well and quite enjoyable to listen to.  It was fun for me to be able to watch this because it was unique from the regular classroom routines that I have been exposed to weekly.  It was interesting to see how the students, specifically my Special Pal, acted in a different environment that wasn’t as controlled as the classroom they were normally in.  The music teacher was warm and welcoming to my presence, and afterwards directed me to the YouTube link that inspired him for the song that the students were practicing. (Call Your Girlfriend by Lennon and Maisy) My ending thought from this is that I sincerely wish that students were able to participate in music class like this much more often than there is a budget for, because it is so important to the development of children! I am so thankful for the early experience that I had as a child singing and dancing in the Theatre program that my parents put me into, for it definitely helped shape who I am today.

It has been so interesting for me to be in a class that I feel relates directly to my future classroom, which is this education class! The topic that we are covering, which is classroom management, is seemingly scary at first when you think about it, but there are so many helpful resources and strategies available to teach future teachers such as myself! There are several classroom management techniques that I have learned about that I could see myself employing in my future classroom.  One of these is making sure that I am clear with my directions and what I want my students to be doing so that they understand fully what they are expected to do.  I understand that many problems in the classroom can stem from misunderstandings, and I would like to prevent this as much as possible! If I taught a younger class, I would like to have a spectrum that students could move their names along, where there are many opportunities for improvement and the emphasis is on doing good and listening to directions in the classroom.  Lastly, one management technique that I like is to give a student who is not listening choices of the options they have, so that they are able to make the right choice themselves instead of me simply telling them what to do.

Along with these strategies that I would like to employ in my future class, I have found that practice makes perfect and I am extremely lucky that I get to practice these different strategies when I am a nanny! My job right now is taking care of a 5 year old girl three times a week, and although there are many fun times, there are also times where I have to be firm if she is not listening to me.  When I first started out, I would count down from 3 if she wasn’t listening because that seemed to be the only strategy that would work to get her to listen! Now though, after discussing and learning about classroom management techniques, I have been employing a few of those with her and they have worked out great.  The biggest technique that I use with her is giving her choices if she is disobeying, and I have been surprised that every time she decides herself to do the right thing without me having to countdown anymore.

The other times that I have been with my Special Pal so far have been in her mainstream class, which she goes to after her SDC in the morning.  I unfortuately have to do most of my volunteer hours during this time, since all of the ITEC classes are in the mornings up until her lunch time.  It is a 5th grade class, with approximately 30 students, one of whom is in my Special Pal’s SDC with her in the mornings.  My Special Pal and the other SDC student seem to not do much work in the mainstream class, and don’t even engage with the other students.  While the other students are doing work for their class, my Special Pal is usually drawing at her desk, reading to me when I am with her, or sitting at the computer playing math games.  Although I understand the benefits of an immersion classroom, it seems that my Special Pal is not getting any of those benefits because she isn’t really a part of the class due to her not joining in the work that the other students are doing-not even a modified version.  A good majority of her time is spent on the computer playing math games, but from what I have observed the moment she runs across something she is not familiar with or cannot figure out, she quits that game and looks to find another one that is easier-one that doesn’t challenge her.  While I am with her I try my best to help her with problems and try to keep her in more challenging games, but oftentimes she doesn’t want to listen to me.  This is not helped by her wearing headphones to hear the music and talking that occurs in the online games, which provides an added barrier when I try to talk to her.  There was some reward with one game, where I was able to help her understand one of the concepts and then she played it several times over without my help which demonstrated she understood what I had helped her with.  One other challenge I have faced with her is that she doesn’t understand that even though she is not doing any of the work that the other students are doing, when the teacher stops the class to give directions she needs to be quiet as well.  I have had much difficulty in explaining this to her as a concept of respect and practicing listening, but hopefully the more time I spend with her the better she will become at this.

I am placed at Hooker Oak Elementary School with a Special Pal who seems to be excited to have me around, but doesn’t really need me.  She is in a 2nd-5th grad Special Day Class for the first half of the day, and then is placed in a mainstream 5th grade class after lunch to practice her socialization skills.  Due to my busy school and work schedule, and the fact that she gets picked up from school at 2:30 every day, it has been difficult for me to find solid chunks of time in my schedule where I can work with my Special Pal.  I end up going for one hour at a time three days a week, and even with these short amounts of time my patience is definitely developing.  I have spent some time in the mornings in her Special Day Class, where she is given a worksheet or two, usually at least one math worksheet, which she generally breezes through with only a few hiccups.  The main thing I help her with is staying on task, which is what develops my patience because she gets distracted easily and often doesn’t want to listen.  Other than that, there is very little work for me to do compared to my last placement which was in a resource room and I was able to tutor more than one student every week.  It seems that the work she completes is generally easy for her, and may be below her level so I’m interested to see if she is being challenged enough.  She always wants to read a book to me, or have me read to her, which is great because reading is important, but it seems like there should be some follow-up with the books she reads, and maybe even a better selection of more challenging books.  Besides the times that she doesn’t stay on task briefly, there has been only one other time that I have witnessed her having a behavioral problem in her SDC, and that is when the students were seated on the carpet for “calendar and weather time” and she pretended to fall asleep through the entire lesson and didn’t want to “wake up” when she was told.  I have definitely figured out though that I will be evaluating her progress on how many times it takes for me to remind her to stay on task before she finishes a worksheet. 

Adults constantly ask the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, to young children and receive responses such as a firefighter, an astronaut, or a princess.  When I was little, my answer was always, “I want to be a teacher”, and this dream of mine has never changed but rather solidified in my mind and heart over the years. I have always loved working with young children, and have been blessed with ample opportunities to work in teaching and mentoring positions for young pre-school or elementary school-aged children, and through these diverse experiences have found my love of teaching and my love of learning to only grow stronger.  Children are an incredible gift, and as I look back on my elementary education experience, I remember with fondness the teachers I had who individually prepared me for the world ahead and encouraged me to reach my potential and dream big.  I believe that teachers are to be an influential figure in a child’s life, one who encourages them and mentors them by providing a strong social and educational foundation that is built upon over the years.  A child’s education is fundamental to the person that they will grow up to be through habits they will develop and lessons they will learn in the classroom. Teachers are to instill the love of learning into their students, therefore creating life-long learners. A teacher needs to be flexible with her students, realizing that not only do the students learn from her, but they also teach her daily.  Education brings a greater awareness to the student of the world around them and instills in them a passion to help in one form or another and make the world a better place.  I feel called to teach in an area that truly needs not only a teacher for their students, but a role model and mentor for their children.  Whether this is on an Air Force Base anywhere around the world, on an Indian Reserve, or in a neglected area of a city, I am thrilled for the journey of continuous learning and teaching ahead.

Mike Rose states from personal experience that there is often a “misperception of failed performance” of students.  I believe that he is referring to the many ways in which teachers often write-off their students as failing to understand a concept when the student might actually understand it but is not allowed to showcase it in a way that allows the student to shine.  One example of this that we have been discussing lately in class is standardized tests.  Oftentimes testing students at the same level can create a misperception of failed performance because it does not take into account different learning styles and it does not showcase a student’s progress in learning from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.  There is a difference between allowing a student’s work to reflect their learning and using a test score to accomplish this, which Buhrow and Garcia effectively address, “Documenting student work has been important…when thinking about assessment, we have a hard time understanding how scores and grades and getting to the right level on a district benchmark will occupy a space in the hearts and the minds of our children.” (page 146) It is extremely important to understand that each student is uniquely created and connects to learning through different approaches.

Buhrow and Garcia continue to work against this misperception of failed performance through their teaching practices, which they elaborate upon further in chapters 6 through 10.  In chapter 6, they discuss how it is extremely effective to allow the students to work at their own pace and in their own manners when completing inquiry projects.  “Some of them might start by taking notes, and others start with their illustrations and art-its all good. It is a cyclical process, and each of them will work in their own way.” (page 83) By allowing this, each student is able to be engaged in their learning at a deeper level because they are able to cater to their personal learning style, and therefore each student is learning to their best ability at the same time.  Buhrow and Garcia also discuss the misperception of failed performance by ELL students that often occurs when they get boxed into one specific way of thinking.  As teachers, they work to combat this with the mind map activity, which allows students to visibly represent their thinking in tangible ways with pictures, lists, and writing.

Students are allowed to guide their own thinking and learning by choosing topics that are interesting and relate to them in one form or another.  Buhrow and Garcia express the importance of listening to the kids in chapter 7, which lets them know what topics matter to their students.  “Rarely do we find that kids are distracted or bored when they are working on something that they’ve chosen.” (page 93) I love the example of this in the colored insert (Example 5), where one of the students Brayan was assisted in researching rainforests in both Spanish and English books and ended up making a mind map in Spanish, which encourages biliteracy and bilingualism. This creativity and learning was not discouraged by the teachers, but rather encouraged as it promoted learning in a unique way and fully engaged Brayan, just as each student was able to fully engage in their specific topic of learning.  In addition to this, Buhrow and Garcia constantly add depth to their students learning and the charts they create by explicitly focusing on schema, which allows the students to realize that they know a good amount about different topics, and how to utilize this knowledge. Buhrow and Garcia also emphasize the importance of allowing students to share their work and have their work displayed so as students they know they are valued and their work is appreciated. “Sharing our work is a way for ELLs to explore and play with language and for the entire class to work on a variety of comprehension strategies.” (page 101)

Publishing students work is also discussed in chapter 8, and I personally like the idea of the sticky note poster which starts small and then can turn into a big map of ideas and concepts, with drawings to support writings and vice-versa.  This is only one of many ways in which students can publish their work, such as posters, mobiles, poetry, books, and charts, and each way is valued and encouraged so students feel like their way of learning is accepted, especially if it is unique to others’! In chapter nine, Buhrow and Garcia go into depth of various ways to integrate ESL students’ learning into the classroom.  One of the most effective ways I think they do this is by developing vocabulary through “meaningful print”, which is content that the students can connect with. “Text that is not attached to something of significance for an ELL might as well not even exist.” (page 128) Therefore, attaching vocabulary to meaningful drawings, research, etc. can make the vocabulary come alive for the students and promote learning in ways that the students can connect to.

According to Buhrow and Garcia in chapter 10 and the appendices, the assessment of student work is actually for understanding student progress and tapping into a child’s wealth of knowledge, allowing students to reach their full potential in learning.  There is a wide range of levels of learning within the classroom, especially with ELLs, and it is important to not group students together when assessing.  One form of assessment that I really like and hadn’t previously considered as assessment is student portfolios.  I think it is important for student work to be catalogued over time as it makes growth in learning visibly tangible.

As I read further into Ladybugs, I have found that a clearer picture is created of this inquiry-focused classroom, and I absolutely love it! In chapter four the authors discuss how imperative it is that books, magazines, and other reading materials are made easily accessible to the students.  The response from parents after entering their classroom asking, “Is this the library?” (page 69), perfectly illustrates how I envision my future classroom to look like.  The more a child reads and is exposed to different types of literature, the better writers they will become, which demonstrates how fostering a love of books at an early age is a necessity in the classroom.  One practice that Buhrow and Garcia utilize is that of cutting apart books and pasting the pages onto large posters.  This is a completely new concept to me, as I grew up with the idea that it would be a sin to mark up or take apart any book, but I actually really enjoy this concept and would be interested to see it in action.  The teachers discuss how this allows greater access to the books by multiple children, and allows them to focus on a few pages at a time so they can first process the information before moving on.  This develops a deeper understanding of the book as they can slowly move through it rather than trying to finish a book quickly.  Another teaching strategy that is discussed in the fourth chapter is how to expose students to nonfiction books.  They discuss creating nonfiction feature posters, which focuses on one image or idea, as well as practicing nonfiction features and language with the kids so they can develop a deeper understanding initially of how to approach a nonfiction book and draw the most information from it.  They continually fall back upon the gradual release of responsibility model, and stress how imperative it is as teachers to model every aspect of what is expected of the students.  For example, in chapter four Buhrow and Garcia model together what it looks like to write captions for pictures in nonfiction texts. 

Teaching practices that are discussed in chapter five build upon several ideas of chapter four, such as building upon schema, having students choose topics to write about that they are interested in, and creating connections between the text and self and the text and other texts.  They use language frames often, which is a teaching principle that I think is extremely effective, to lead students to create questions about the text they read.  Just like in chapter four, the teachers model questioning for students which is different from a traditional classroom where the teachers are “supposed” to know everything.  I love how Buhrow and Garcia introduce the idea of taking notes to their students with the structured columns of “I learned” and “I wonder”, along with student drawings to go along with their observations and questions.  I had never thought of how effective it would be to introduce the practice of note taking at a young age, and allowing it to go hand-in-hand with creating questions about a topic.