Final Entry

Last Posting:

a. What you would tell others when joining a teacher listserv, discussion board or Blog?

In my experience this semester, Teacher Blogs have become a very helpful advantage within the teaching world. It’s nice to speak to other teachers, whether new or experienced, to gain their opinions and advice. I had asked a lot about classroom management and I cannot explain the responses I had gotten. It seems like every teacher out there is willing to help you in some way to become a better teacher. They offer you advice on what to do, but instead of leaving it be and saying “Good luck!” they ask how the new implementations are working. I got a real sense of community from these teachers, and it was a comfort to know that advice can be found anywhere.

I would tell new users that it is worth it just to take a look at what these sites have to offer. Just browse around and look at the different threads and comments made by different educators, and see if any of the subject matter relates to what you feel or something that you might need. A lot of the teachers that you will be in contact with are willing to help, and they offer great advice. Even if you don’t actually join a teacher blog, or a board, you can still get good ideas that might help you in the future. Teaching is always a learning experience.



b. How the experience compared to your expectations?

To be honest I wasn’t excited to join teacher boards at all. I am a part of a writing board now, and I had my expectations that it would not be the same. I thought that teachers would simply post what they were doing or some worksheets that they had used for their classrooms and that would be all.

I never expected it to be what I saw. What I had joined was not an internet board where people posted ideas, advice and chatter, but I had become a part of a community of people that shared a common love of teaching. I learned many things from the threads that I joined and it was defiantly a lot more interesting… and fun… than I thought it would be.

IEPs + Math = New post

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  Topics Discussed with dates spanning discussions:
  

Special Education is a hard field to get into these days. Most teachers have to really love working with those types of children since they are very needy, and they need to look for diverse and functional ways to teach these types of students.
I know for a fact that teaching mathematics is not an easy thing to do, and let’s on the idea of teaching students that have an IEP. How do you reach these students? Is there a way to help them? This post was asking fellow teachers how you reach students with special needs in the math realm. In this current teaching era, mathematics has taken big steps and the work has gotten much more difficult. Is there a way to help these students that are struggling in one of the most difficult core subjects we have to teach?


· Explain areas of agreement, disagreement, concerns, advise, etc.

Most of the teachers have had experience with similar situations, and have different advice on teaching students with IEPs or in a resource room/AIS setting. The first idea is to establish where these students are academically. What level are they functioning on? This can give the teacher an idea of where to start with each individual student. It’s easier when most of the students are working on the same (or close to) level, meaning that the teacher can simply work with them as a group. If it so happens that the students are not on the same level, this makes things a little harder. Some of the teachers indicated the use of an assistant within the class. If there happens to be one, have the assistant take a group of students, while the teacher works with the other.

An idea that was interesting to me was the use of a daily do now. While this specifically is not completely new to the classroom, the idea was to have 5 examples up on the board and have the student pick two or three. These questions can me from state tests, or from textbook work that they have done. The do now’s should be refreshers, and can be done as a whole, individually, or in groups. It gives the students a boost of confidence, showing them that they can do math.

One teacher happened to bring up a series on the computer. I enjoyed this idea, but it would be hard since not many schools have a lot of computer access. She indicated a program that would help students work out problems step by step, and had a feature where the teacher can control (or basically lock student computers from outside interference) and show them via the computer how to solve a problem.

• Include any follow up of activities that you tried with your students that you hadlearned about from the list, shared with other teachers, or used for another graduate course.
  

I feel like I am teaching AIS and resource a lot of the time within my classroom. Sadly enough, while this teacher says that she has an hour with each class (6th and 8th grade) I only have 40 minutes. As much as I would enjoy doing a lot of these activities with my classes, I feel that they lack a lot of the motivation to do so. As we all know from past posts, my students aren’t the most well behaved classes.

However, from reading the posts from different authors and gaining their advice I am trying to find ways to get through to my classes. I have gotten many comments and words of wisdom, mainly on keeping them quiet, and I know I will try to implement them more into the future. Hopefully things will work out for the better.

More troubles?

Do we talk too much?

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When teaching, we all hope for that special class that’s perfect. Students work hard, there is a limited amount of discussion, and they are respectable students toward all people that walk within the classroom. And, let’s face it, as a teacher that would be a complete blessing.
But that’s hardly the case, and, especially the upper grades, it’s hard to keep children focused and quiet. Over the years, teachers have gone from pure yelling to more advanced methods of reverse physiology and detention. But what about those starting teachers that are finding their way amongst the sea of misbehaved students? The author is a starting out teacher, as me, and has posed the same question to those aged teachers. She is afraid of writing up her students, and inquired if there were any other methods to keep her rowdy classes silent.

• Explain areas of agreement, disagreement, concerns, advise, etc.
  

A lot of teachers had say in what would help in that situation. Naturally they suggest time to find and develop your own teaching methods, but in the mean time they suggested some of the following:
· Move closer to students causing the disturbance while still teaching the lesson.
· Keep them in during lunch time and have them make up work missed.
· Speak to students after the bell to discuss misbehavior.
· Call parents, but only when necessary, to schedule a meeting where the student explains what happens in class.
· Post consequences in the classroom and online if necessary. Make sure that you stick to them no matter what.
· Don’t yell over students. Instead, try to make them realize what they are doing. Stand quietly and resume when they are silent.
· Have a reward for student who behaves at the end of the week as it gives them something to work toward.

• Include any follow up of activities that you tried with your students that you had
  learned about from the list, shared with other teachers, or used for another graduate course.
  

Once again it is my students. All of my 5th -8th graders, especially my 6th homeroom and my 7th grade, seem to have caught diarrhea of the mouth. My problem is relatively simple. I have tried most of the ideas that the teachers have posted: calling parents, referrals, strict classroom management (although I am trying to figure that one out better), and reward at the end of the week. Still they talk and worst of all they have an extreme attitude problem. The parents that I speak to do more damage than help, and the administration is just completely non-existent.
Sadly this is a school-wide problem, and it’s not looking like it is going to be fixed anytime soon. It is almost Thanksgiving and I know two other teachers that are counting down the days like me. I posted my problem on the board and await to hear what some of the teachers have to say about my “discipline problems”.

Is it too late?

Where to go?

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It’s hard to find a place these days. With the limited amount of jobs out there, teachers (especially newer ones) have a hard time finding the grade they want. From the starting teachers I have talked to they always have a particular grade that they are dying to teach. “Oh I would love a Second grade class!”, “Me? I’d like a higher grade like Seventh.” But is it really all it’s cracked up to be? Are those student teaching memories nothing like the real thing?

One teacher explains her difficulty with teaching the 5th grade. She explains that even through it is her second year of teaching that stage, she doesn’t know if it’s the right age for her. She taught younger grades, and felt as if those subbing days were going to be anything like the real thing. In her short post, she asks for the advice of her fellow teachers on what to do.

• Explain areas of agreement, disagreement, concerns, advise, etc.

Most teachers agreed that they too had other grades they would like to teach, but have found a home in the grades they are in now. A lot of the teachers that responded have been teaching a long time, and have had their pros and cons about each grade.

Some advice was what level of independence you prefer. Were there a lot of hands on play that you would like to do? Did you want to teach the basic levels that prepare students for the later grades? Did you enjoy a certain level of independence? Those questions were a lot of the advice that fellow teachers said that you should ask yourself to verify where you would feel most comfortable.

There was one teacher however, who had been teaching quite a long time, that gave a great piece of advice. He stated that no matter what grade you teach, you need to establish a clear set of rules and be *consistent* with them at all times. Also, if teaching in a K-5 building, go around to the other classrooms and see what happens there. You might be luckier than you thought.

• Include any followup of activities that you tried with your students that you had

learned about from the list, shared with other teachers, or used for another graduate course.

I am in the exact same position that the author is in now. I am currently teaching in Middle School and I am not enjoying myself at all. Honestly, I am counting down the days until June. Many of the teachers I work with feel frustration within my school, and tell me that I am young enough to where I have a lot of freedom still. I go around and check out my school on a constant basis, and still feel the same lost feeling as I do within my own classroom. It could be just the school I am at (since I really enjoyed my experience last year in a different school), and next year could be a completely different tale.

I am close to completing my Master’s, and a whole new door can open for me once I am certified in High School. Though I know those students have their own quirks, I have a feeling I will like it better.