Perilous Territory

I am like Rambo and education is my lethal skillset. I tie the thin, dingy red bandana of past successes around my head. I take a handful of the mud that surrounds my students’ lives and smear it across my face for effective camouflage (and because I need to taste the grit in my teeth; it helps me focus.) What was once a Scotch mist of motivation-sapping moisture has become an intimidating downpour accompanied by the thunder of administration and the lightening of parents. Adversaries are hidden everywhere in the jungle. There are a few boons as well. It is no different in a middle school. A protective mother guerilla is no less dangerous than the parent of a 6^th grade girl is. Traps that were set by teachers and parents generations ago still pack deadly punches. I must tread carefully or end up as worm food on a smooth, classroom floor, swept nightly.

                I begin at a steady pace. Early on there is a downward pitch to the ground. My speed increases. My feet and intentions sometimes move faster than my foresight. This land has grown rocky and uneven. Occasionally I trip and dash my shins or palms on the vicious ground. Thankfully, my blood goes well with my khakis and collared shirt. The students barely seem to notice my wounds. That is good.

Out of the jungle rises a range of peaks. Memories of rudimentary maps flash before my eyes. Others have climbed these mountains. Some were still bleeding from their wounds when they offered me their advice, others look as if they must have flown over the more difficult aspects of the landscape. They tried to show me what to watch out for and what not to grab for purchase during my ascent. I remember some of it, but not all. Like pieces of different maps: incomplete, but enough to get started, if you are like me.

I scale the mountains of acronyms, research findings, academic texts, and teaching methods that my college tenure has exposed to me. I remember many. Some look foreign to my weary eyes. Regardless, I climb. My arms ache, my fingers are calloused and bloody from constantly gripping for stability as the mountain quakes. This is no mountain. This is a volcano. From above, I hear a bone-chilling shriek. I see it now. A great winged beast circles my position. It is a black mass against a stained sky. I have heard the creature's name whispered from the lips of wretched and broken souls who also attempted this very mission. Their eyes darted back and forth, as they relived their own agony.

The beast, known by many names, is most frequently called Burnout, the Inevitable.

Somehow, in this overgrown jungle of life and death, pass and fail, of hope and despair, he has caught my scent. He circles lower as I press myself behind a boulder of calmness. My fingers feel for my weapon as I focus on the moments of serenity I have witnessed it in this mad world.  

I remember the refreshing air that accompanied my students when they wrote. I can hear their brain cells working together to generate words, sentences, and completed thoughts. Smiles frequently accompany wholesome self-expression. The energy flows like a mighty river so long as the path is clear from obstructions, overanalyzing, and disinterest. These fall from the trees above and inhibit the creative course of the river. In spite of the obstacles presented by the constant winds of change in this Pedagogical Jungle, the river can always find a way through. That undeniable force longs to be free within the minds of my students.  

A shriek interrupts my reflection.

Burnout circles lower. It knows where I am and how I am hiding.

I draw my weapon, remember the cause, and rise. Deep breaths. In and out.

My chance has come.  My time is now.    

Nearly Halftime

                Rapidly, I am approaching the last days of the first half of my senior year of college education in preparation for the hopeful acceptance of a position as a middle school educator. I feel somewhat fortunate to be seeking licensure to teach both English and History at the middle school level. It really is because the two subjects so easily intertwine that I chose this program (and the hopes of looking more hirable after graduation.) I have learned to integrate literacy strategies into my lesson designs out of natural training because I am educated about incorporating literacy strategies into my teaching. Most notably, I find that giving students graphic organizers that pave part of the way for them tend to draw out students’ confidence while modeling proper spelling, punctuation and form, and doing so in an intelligible format. I like to encourage students to use their imagination with a choice of a few open ended writing prompts that if properly responded to will show their comprehension of the material that I have tried to teach them. I am also a fan of letting them garner inspiration from an experience. I have successfully persuaded students to write based upon several experience-based prompts this semester:

• ·         A creepy (impromptu) urban legend about the third floor of the school building
• ·         The production of a sidewalk-chalk map on the outdoor basketball court
• ·         Digging holes with shovels (some for the first time in their lives) for engagement with Sachar’s Holes, of course
• ·         And today by creating a nearly full-scale outline of the great pyramid using yarn, stakes, fishing line, ribbon, and three huge balloons (F.Y.I. one must notify the FAA if planning to fly tethered balloons more than 500’ or within 5 miles of an airport.)  

I think that the biggest trick when it comes to increasing student literacy is reaching students at their own levels and helping them to grow in confidence as writers. They must feel that they have something of value to communicate. In order to feel like writers, they must feel that they have a proper genre and audience (one man’s poetry is another man’s song.) Teachers are capable of providing authentic audiences for students in the form of gallery walks, oral or video presentation, online display in blog or other social media form, email exchange with another class, or any other number of ways. Students must first realize the power that they can wield by being literate through experiencing feedback from multiple sources. I will practice peer-workshops and specified real audience opportunities for my students to not only take away some of the students’ apprehensions to give them as many chances as possible to improve at self-expression and comprehension of others expression. Students might develop a greater appreciation for their education if what they learned in one class proved helpful in another class or in life, now. What a novel idea!

http://gawker.com/5992398/the-unbelievable-photos-taken-by-the-crazy-russians-who-illegally-climbed-egypts-great-pyramid

KATE was great!

This past week I had the pleasure of attending the 2014 KATE Conference along with many of my classmates and middle and high school students from around the state. It was a welcome change to finally be in rooms with a speaker and fellow listeners where I was not always the oldest person in the room. College is a young persons’ game to be sure. The conference in general had a palpable buzz of nervous or anxious energy during its opening hours as the attendees filled the ballroom for the opening keynote. All of that turned into camaraderie and commitment with the opening speaker’s comfortable and confident presentation style and message. It was clear to me at that point that we were in for something good.

The first day’s break-out sessions did not disappoint me. The first session I attended caters to my desire to keep many aspects of the classroom traditional, such as hands on art projects when educationally appropriate. Rethinking Language Arts and Crafts gave me several new ideas of ways to incorporate outside the box means of exploring literature and giving students new mediums for expressing their understanding of material. The second session I attended was Power of Discourse:  Engaging Students by Activating Their Voices. This appealed to me because I have always felt that students will take authority over their own literacy if given enough choice and the right opportunities.  I enjoyed sessions about linking music to critical thinking though analysis of lyrics and about connecting local history to our state college readiness standards. I found both of these particularly because of my personal weaknesses (music) and personal strength (history) as means of helping students to master content and develop personal connections to their educations.

On day two, the sessions I attended were equally informative and helpful as I near the beginning of my teaching tenure. One session titled Non-Fiction: Unlocking Creativity suggested methods of incorporating current event stories into class curricula. This is a topic that I feel strongly about making a part of my own teaching. I believe that students should be encouraged to know and analyze the news as future voters, politicians, parents and teachers. The opportunities will never cease presenting themselves. Some wise advice was presented by the presenter of Command Control and Conquer Your Classroom. It was reflective and contemplatively effective for me. The final session I attended; I’m a little embarrassed to admit was in hopes of attaining technological hipness. I finally learned what hashtag meant at Twitter- Not Just Selfies and Food Pics. I also learned some techniques for using Twitter and other social media as a teaching tool as well as for developing professional and personal rapport with students as people.   

I will admit that my choices for sessions were affected by my desire for comfort with classmates and familiarity in the strange new atmosphere of educated, seasoned veteran teachers with years of knowledge, experience, frustrations, successes and failures. I also ventured to sessions without familiar faces out of true interest in the material. Several times, the decisions of which sessions to attend were difficult due to conflicting scheduling. Overall it was a great experience that I hope to make a habit of attending.  I noted many websites and online resources for my future years as an educator. 

One Small and Silent Victory (based upon experiences in a classroom Fall 2014)

FADE IN:

INT. HALL - DAY 1
Bright eyed and slender blonde fifty-something MS. SMITH stands outside the door to her classroom on a Wednesday morning. 

The bald and beautiful, mid 30’s MR. MCCLANE stands beside her watching the presumably controlled chaos that is a middle school hall. 

The air is filled with the commotion and conversations that accompanies hundreds of 6th graders as they scurry from their first class to their second. 

INT. CLASSROOM - DAY 1

It is not yet nine o’clock in Ms. Smith’s classroom as nine 6th grade students mill through the doorway and to their assigned seats. 

One of those students is JOHN, a smiling, constantly moving small boy with the look of someone who is excited about life. John is happily and perpetually distracted. 

John’s binder has papers hanging out and falling to the floor as he takes his spot at a table only long enough to put down the binder and wander to the window to gaze outside as the bell rings.

INT. HALL - DAY 2

Ms. Smith and Mr. McClane, dressed differently than before, stand in the hallway greeting students as they enter the classroom. 

John wanders up to them with a knowing grin, waiting for acknowledgement.

MR. MCCLANE

Hey buddy! Good morning. How ya doing?

John is distracted before the words have left Mr. McClane’s mouth and he wanders away, papers falling from his binder.

INT. CLASSROOM - DAY 3

The students read paperback books and reference a printed worksheet periodically. 

Ms. Smith and Mr. McClane meander through the room looking over students shoulders and approaching students whose hands are raised.

Ms. Smith gives a quick nod in the direction of John, who is straddling his chair, while resting his upper body on the table as he reads his paperback. 

Mr. McClane stifles a smile. 

INT. CLASSROOM - DAY 4

Students enter the room as they are greeted by Mr. McClane at the door. Ms. Smith works near her desk to organize a stack of papers.

As the bell rings, Ms. Smith picks up a stack of papers and smiles to the class.

Mr. McClane wanders along one wall smiling and checking to see that all the students are settled and prepared for class.

MS. SMITH

Good morning. Remember Monday we watched a video about 

the Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe?

The students appear to have some recollection. One dark haired girl, TESS grins and turns to the girl next to her.

TESS

Oooh yeah! Remember that mean guy with the creepy eye?

MR. MCCLANE

He wasn’t necessarily mean, he just had a creepy eye. 

Students shudder with the memory, others laughed. All grew excited. 

John doesn’t speak, but enjoys classmates’ responses.

MS. SMITH

Yes! That’s the video. Well today we are going to 

read the short story together as a class-

The students’ excited energy leaves the room.

MS. SMITH (CONT’D)
But first, we are going to number the paragraphs. Get out a pencil and do this along with me.

Ms. Smith places her copy of the story under the document camera, projecting it onto a screen while 

Mr. McClane passes out  copies to each of the students. He encourages the students to write the appropriate numbers next to the corresponding paragraphs. 

Perhaps intentionally, Ms. Smith makes a couple of errors when numbering the paragraphs. John is quick to correct her.

JOHN

(grinning)Nuh-uh! That’s not number 6 that’s still number 5!

MS. SMITH

Oh, John you’re right. Thank you!

The students finish the numbering activity and look leery. 

MS. SMITH (CONT’D)

OK. Who wants to read paragraph 1?

A couple of students fire their hands into the air as others quickly scan the pages for the shortest paragraphs possible.

Ms. Smith begins counting off student names with paragraphs.

MS. SMITH (CONT’D)

Tess, paragraph 1. Billy, paragraph 2, Maddie, 3, John, 4.

Mr. McClane steps to the center of the chattering students.

MR. MCCLANE

Ms. Smith, can I have them line up in order to keep clear 

who reads when?

Ms. Smith deftly gave approval with a wink.

MS. SMITH

Sure! Why don’t you go with it? 

The students spout to Mr. McClane to claim their desired paragraphs. Some looking for brevity, others length, some only want the word “damnable” to be in their paragraph.

MR. MCCLANE
Tess, you stand here. Billy, Maddie, John...

He calls out their names as they stand along the wall in order. Some offer minor protests but most focus immediately upon the papers in their hands.

MR. MCCLANE (CONT’D)
Ok, Tess. You start.

Tess read the first paragraph, a long one. Students each read in order. Students at the beginning and end of the line are unable hear each other and break rank for audibility’s sake.

The line continues to disintegrate as reading proceeds. 

Two girls, weary from standing for all of three minutes step away and return with their chairs. Soon others are following suit.

Her back to the class, Ms. Smith sits typing at her laptop. 

MR. MCCLANE (CONT’D)

Alright, pause. This line thing isn’t working. Lets all grab a chair and sit in a circle.

The students who are mostly engrossed in Poe’s story quickly grab chairs and drag them into a circle. 

All of the students immediately get back to the reading. 

A chubby boy, GARTH stops reading his paragraph.

GARTH

Wait, this doesn’t make sense the way he’s saying it “If still you think me mad,

 you will think so no longer.”  

A blue-eyed girl, MADDIE, looks up.

MADDIE

Yeah it does. It’s kind of like British. The way British people talk. 

GARTH

More like Yoda.

The students and Mr. McClane laugh and the reading proceeds.

MR. MCCLANE

Who was our next reader?

John smiled hugely and pointed a thumb at his chest.

MR. MCCLANE (CONT’D)

(to John) Go for it.

John valiantly struggles his way through his paragraph. 

When the story is finished the students look at one another and finally to Mr. McClane.

MR. MCCLANE (CONT’D)

So what was that story about?

The students all blurt out responses simultaneously.

Mr. McClane asks for quiet and the students hush. 

JOHN

It was about a creepy eyed guy who got killed by this other guy

 and he buried him under the floor but then the cops showed up 

and they were there and he heard the creepy eyed guy’s heartbeat 

and he went crazy.

Mr. McClane smiles widely as if he had never heard John answer a question correctly. 

MR. MCCLANE

Wow, John! That’s exactly right. Great job. Anyone else have anything to add?

The students chattered with more responses and opinions.

John smiles as his classmates recount their favorite parts of the story.

INT. CLASSROOM - DAY

The bell rings and students rise from their seats, gather their items, and exit the classroom. John moves slower than his peers but his smile never fades as he reachers the door he turns to Mr. 
McClane.

JOHN

You gonna be here tomorrow?

MR. MCCLANE

Yes, sir. Are you?

JOHN

Yeah, I’m here everyday.

John, already distracted by movement in the hall, exits.

MR. MCCLANE

Me too!

Ms. Smith and Mr. McClane stand at the doorway as 6th graders scurry to their next class.

MS. SMITH

That seemed to work really well for him! What did you think?

MR. MCCLANE

I’ve never seen him so on task. I think it helped to be sitting 

in a small circle where he could look right at his classmates while they read. 

MS. SMITH

Well, we will have to do that more often!

MR. MCCLANE

Yes. We will. Yes, we will.

FADE TO BLACK.

Writing for Enjoyment (or to scare the pants off of a classmate)

            I have been spending time in a 6^th grade literacy intervention class this semester. The students are nearly always pleasant and willing to interact with the content. One of the ways the CT is required to measure and improve their literacy skills is through the use of a computer program. Twice a week, this group of students goes to the computer room for time with the reading program. They seem to enjoy the program for the most part as they are frequently calling to me for verbal affirmation after completing a step or lesson. My belief is that they are buying into a sense of self-management. However as someone who is less than technologically confident, when they have computer problems I am quick to call for help from either the CT or the building tech guru.

            Recently two new students were moved into the class while two others (my unofficial favorites) were moved to a different class. The two new students were males, one had just come to Kansas after beginning the school year in Minnesota, the other has an ethnic first and last name that imply Asian or Middle Eastern descent. Neither of them knew each other before their first day in our Literacy Intervention class. Doubling their discomfort, it was a computer day. Because they were new, they did not yet have the proper information to log on to the computers and access the materials. They had panic written on their faces, the CT with her hands already full of dealing with the other students had a similar expression upon her countenance. I offered to take the two new guys and work with them at a nearby table for the period. The CT and the boys were both happy with that option.

            I led the boys just outside the classroom to the foot of a staircase leading from the second floor to the third floor. The third floor at my placement middle school is a place of mystery. Never used (anymore) for daily classes, it is now perpetually dark and presumably empty. I have feigned fear of the “haunted third floor” with other students in the past. These new students accepted my assertion of the third floor as creepy with no resistance. I pointed to the dark doors at the third floor landing and told the boys, “This is your writing prompt; a student went to the third floor and disappeared. No one knows what happened to that student. Go!”

            They nearly tore my hand off as I handed them each a piece of paper and pencils. Immediately they had a few questions. “Can it be about you? Can we make it about a ghost? Can we write about other students?” I answered (perhaps recklessly) in the affirmative to all of their questions. I just wanted them to write. And write they did. For over fifteen minutes straight (that’s like two years in middle school time) their pencils scratched away at their papers. Once a student asked me for help spelling a word, but other than that they were silent, writing, working, and dare I say learning. I joined them and wrote my own story.

            It was clear that they were enjoying the activity as smiles covered their faces. When one student finished he handed me his paper with a proud grin. I read it and some parts of it were good and spooky. His build up to the climax was in place, he used descriptive words and imaginative dialogue. I read the second student’s work when he had finished. Similarly it had several of the important elements a reader looks for in a scary story. Thankfully, neither had abused the privilege of using me or other students in their story, though I did get abducted by ghosts in both stories. Their finished stories would have needed a lot of polish to be perfect. One student used no capital letters or punctuation. The other misspelled several words and made some conventional mistakes, but I did not correct a thing on either paper. We shared our stories and enjoyed creating them. Days later, both students asked to read their stories to the class, something for which I am willing to bet that neither has ever requested permission.

            These students would have probably been discouraged if I had corrected all of the errors on their papers. I did not tell them in so many words but I wanted to communicate “an expectation that students will write well, but not necessarily that the teacher is going to read the writing exclusively for mechanics and require that the student revise on the basis of teacher feedback” (Principal leadership p. 60) rendering it as interesting exercise rather than work. They both seemed aware that their work was not perfect when I pointed out a mistake here or there. I also think that the guarantee of an audience for their work played a part in their strong efforts. I believe that with some work, I could get these students to write more and integrate proper conventions into the prompts. I hope that they will continue to write on their own and seek out interesting prompts like the haunted 3^rd floor. I am already investigating other useful writing prompts within the school building.        

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2012, March 1). Writing, Not Just in English Class. Principal Leadership, 58-60.

Graphic Fables to the Rescue!

Online Reflection #1

            

            The first few weeks of the school year in the classroom, I have observed my CT’s efforts to engage her students in the subject matter of Language Arts. The preferred methods appear to be having the students read along silently with an audio file or teacher read aloud, followed by pair shared reading in order to find textual evidence answer a related question. The class has tackled a few unmemorable short stories by this method. Finding textual evidence to support their claims seems as draining and foreign to them.  Like a dentist with no anesthesia in a cage full of cavity stricken gorillas, the CT struggles to pull answers from her students. They resist and avoid what needs to be done. They just are not acting engaged. This is alarming because I am pre-planning lessons to teach to this same group of un-enthralled students. I want to find a way to engage them in a text.

I feel that a high quality method of helping students to establish a comfort level with a text is to facilitate their production of a written work. We learn best by doing, or so I have been taught. I also recall the notion of writing students are thinking students. My lesson may need to include this facet of literacy training. In the past I have read about a method of fable writing in Beat Not the Poor Desk by Marie Ponsot. Ponsot described a palpable enthusiasm that begins to develop among the students half way through the lesson. The simplicity of the writing task and the personal philosophy that gets to be stated as the “moral” of the story grant young writers a chance to develop confidence and familiarity with the mysterious medium of words. To complement the fable writing lesson with which I will challenge these students, I wish also to include a graphic organizer for them to analyze either their own work and/or that of a peer. The graphic organizer will call for students to critically examine their fables and perhaps their future writings will be better for the experience.

Last year, I observed a CT who had an arsenal of graphic organizers with which his students displayed comfort and familiarity. Such organizers could be used regardless of the textual information’s format (letters, stories, newspaper articles, or textbook pages) and they were an easy way to chunk information for later study. The organizational nature of current graphic organizers amazes me with its practicality and user-friendliness for study or reference. When properly completed, the graphic organizers with which I am growing familiar as an educator can provide excellent study prompts, detail reference, and when they are stored in a binder or notebook, they help explain to students the scaffolding of information that they have been taught. Fisher and Frey claim that graphic organizers aid in “extending student understanding of concepts and the relationship between them” (p.101). The possession of worthy, self-made study/reference material should increase a student’s comfort level with the information as well as their confidence and motivation to show mastery of the material.

Fisher, D. & Frey, N.  (2012). Improving adolescent literacy: Content area strategies at work  (3^rd ed.).  Boston:  Pearson.

Ponsot, Marie, and Rosemary Deen. Beat not the poor desk: writing: what to teach, how to teach it, and why. Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1982. Print.

My goals for this semester are relatively simple goals:

1. Survive- I can be the best potential future teacher in the world, but if I suffer a nervous breakdown during my senior year, it will all be for not.

2. Get better at everything- I plan to immerse myself in my classroom placement. I want to try multiple approaches and test and retest my own strengths and weaknesses.

3. Secure a teaching position- I would really like to nail down a job to start paying off my student loans as soon as they begin coming due.

4. Be awesome- Just because I am not yet a teacher does not mean that I have nothing to offer. I want to share ideas with classmates, colleagues, and students with the hopes of developing a well-rounded perspective from which to educate.