The Dangers of Unsolicited Advice- Subbing April 28th

Today I subbed for an Industrial technology teacher. These are not my favorite classes to sub for. Usually we show movies, or just baby sit the students as they work on something I can’t even begin to answer any of their questions over. Today was the first time a teacher wanted me to watch the students while they were in the shop. They were not allowed to cut anything, just sand and glue, but they were at least able to do something productive. For the most part the students got to work on their projects, but there was one student who was trying to take shortcuts on the project. Another student was trying to help him, and tell him what he needed to do to do the project correctly, but the first student just wanted to get the project done; he didn’t care how well he did the project, he just wanted to get a c. Not only was he doing it incorrectly, he was making it harder on himself. Why is it students will settle for a “c?” This student was offered help and he refused it. He just wanted to do the minimal work he needed to do to get the grade he was okay with. What can we do to change this mentality? I think we need to change the grading system. We need to remove that c barrier so students don’t have something to fall back on.

6th grade boys gym and 7th grade boys health- Subbing April 27th

Yesterday I subbed for a middle school boys gym and health class. This was very interesting because the boys typically have a male teacher for this class due to sensitive subjects in health class and the fact that as a female I could not go into the locker rooms if there was a problem.
    The Health classes were the first three classes of the day. The boys were to complete a quick write which came from the reading they were to complete for the day. I found it odd that the quick write was from a future reading, something they were unfamiliar with, instead of a previous reading or topic from the class. While this will get the students thinking about health and prepared from the class, it doesn’t tie what they are learning with prior knowledge. This is a missed opportunity.
    Next we read from the text book. I took volunteers fro the first class, but this was like pulling teeth, so the next two classes I started out asking for volunteers, then if no one volunteered then we just went down the line and everybody got to read. There was a huge difference in time it took to complete the reading between the first class and the second and third classes. This was due to two factors, the before mentioned reluctance to volunteer to read and the student’s interest in the topic. First hour seemed very interested in what they were reading. They were asking questions about words they didn’t know and processes they didn’t understand. There were also some distraction tactics by some of the boys, but I cut those off as quickly as possible as they were related to some of the sensitive topics that could come up in a boys health class. However, most of the questions seemed like genuine interest on the part of the students. I really wish that most classes were like that. It shows that they are following along and thinking about what they are reading. We were reading about diseases and the students were asking about malaria and how vaccines work. When they asked a question I didn’t know the answer to, “What is dysentery?” I just honestly told them that I didn’t know the answer, and they accepted that.
    After the kids were done with the reading they had worksheets to complete. These worksheets seemed meaningless. They were worksheets that came with the book. From my experience yesterday, which I understand is just one day in the class,I think that the health curriculum in my district depends too much on the book, these are interesting topics that has a real impact on the students’ futures. I just think that there could be a lot more authentic learning going on with these classes than there is at present.

The second half of the day was 6th grade gym class. The school I was subbing at is connected with the community center, so the gym classes are able to take advantage of the facilities, including the pool. Yesterday was a swimming day. The boys were so excited to get to swim, and for most of them they really got a good work out. I was surprised that the students were allowed do to any manner of  flips off of the diving board and jumps into the pool. The it seemed really unsafe. Boys were jumping into groups of boys and jumping off of the diving board in ways that made me cringe. The lifeguards took over the class, but they didn’t seem to being paying much attention. The one that gave the kids instructions and went over the rules was on his phone almost the whole time, hardly ever looking at the boys, and the other life guard made very few comments to the boys. Later in the day there was a shift change, and the new life guard was much more aware of what the boys were doing.

My teacher voice got a good workout in the gym. Noise carries in the gym and it was hard to get the boys attention. I dropped my voice down, to my serious teacher voice projecting without yelling, and the boys all looked at me and did what I told them to do. I really have to work on this voice because my throat hurt a little after three hours of doing this, though the muggy, chlorine filled, pool room sure did not help. 

I actually felt like a teacher today instead of a baby sitter! Subbing April 26

Today I am was in an English classroom! This is quite rare. Not only was I in an English classroom, I got to teach English. A couple of days ago I was subbing at one of the middle schools and walked by a teacher with her son. She said, “oh, hi,” as if she knew me, and she looked vaguely familiar. The next day I ran into her in the teachers lounge. I had been thinking about who she could be, and then it came to me. She was my 7th grade English teacher. We ate lunch together, and towards the end she said she was going to be gone a number of times coming up and she asked if I would sub for her. I said I would be happy to. So when I subbed for her, I actually got to teach. The students were starting a research project based on biographies. I lead discussions on “what is a Biography?”, “What makes a person notable?,” “How do you choose a topic?,” and “What is plagiarism, and How do you avoid it?” These discussions were a lot of fun. It was interesting to see what the students came up with, using their back ground knowledge of biographies then adding on to it with more detail. Most of the students didn’t know what notable meant, so we broke the word down and found part of the word the students knew, note. From there we constructed a definition based on what the students knew. I was surprised that some 6th graders actually knew what plagiarism was and they had some great ideas on how to avoid it. When we were talking about the consequences of plagiarism many of the students connected plagiarism to the more common term of “cheating.” these students are much more familiar with the word “cheating,” so they were able to make a connection and add to the meaning of both cheating and plagiarism. I really like working at the middle schools. The students aren’t so afraid of being wrong, so they have more opportunities for being right!

What is the point of showing a pointless film in class? Subbing April 15

Today I subbed for an instrumental music teacher at one of the middle schools. Music teachers have a hard time leaving real assignments for students when they have subs. Unless it is someone they know, it is very rare that they will get a person that actually knows music. This teacher chose to leave Finding Nemo for his classes to watch. The students were excited, but what does this have to do with music? The teacher could have at least found a movie that focused on music in some way. Like School of Rock, Fantasia, Mr. Holland’s Opus, or The Music Man are a few that come to mind. Another approach would be to analyze the music in a movie that had an award winning score. The students could explore the effect of the music on the viewer, and talk about the feelings the music in certain parts portrays. If you just think about it for a little bit, its not hard to think about ways to make the music class productive while the teacher is out.

Why don't we teach some pop culture? Subbing April 13-14

For the last two days I have subbed for an Orchestra teacher. The class was watching Mr. Holland’s Opus, a movie about a teacher whose dream was to write a truly great piece of music. His teaching career started in the mid 60’s and he was forced to retire in the 90’s. This is a very good movie and actually worth watching in a music class, but the students had no assignment that I was aware of while watching the movie. Considering the movie probably took 4 days of class to watch, it seems that the teacher would want to enrich this experience with an assignment, other wise the students aren’t really paying attention to what is going on. I had no behavior problems during the movie, and the students really seemed to be engrossed in the movie. There is this part in the movie where the Mr. Holland is upset, because John Lennon died. I was shocked to hear a student ask, “Who’s John Lennon?” I asked if they knew the Beatles, and most did, but there were some students that didn’t know that. I explained that John Lennon was a very important musician who was one of the four Beatles and let the movie roll on. Later there were pictures of President Reagan and President Nixon; none of the students were able to name who they were. This made me very sad. However I got to thinking that we need to teach more pop culture. Kelly Gallagher states that students need context for what they are reading. Without knowing who a person is how can they read about them and understand what they read? We can do this in association with novels and history. This might get the students more interested in the times surrounding important historical events, and literature they are reading in the classroom. We could have inquiry assignments that the students lead, then they can connect them to what we are reading in class. They could interview their family members or neighbors to see how they saw the time period. I think it would be fun, and educational.

An Alternative School Subbing April 11

Today I started out as a sub for a para, but then a science teacher had to leave and so I took over for her. I was subbing at the alternative high school. This means smaller classes, more individualized learning, and bigger attitudes. I am always a little wary when I go to work in the alternative school, however, once I get there I quickly find out that I am worrying for no reason. For the most part these students are just misunderstood. They aren’t “bad” kids, they just have behavior problems. The alternative school deals with this by using a B.I.S.T. behavior model. I don’t know much about B.I.S.T. but I can see some of the differences between the alternative school and the regular secondary schools. The classes at the alternative school are much smaller than the classes in the regular schools. The Alternative school has a “grounding” time where the students and teachers talk about themselves. They start out with a rating for how they are feeling and functioning that day. Then they share something positive that has happened to them recently and then they give an answer to the question of the day. I think this procedure helps the students come together as a community better. They know more about each other and so they are more understanding. They also have resource rooms that are used more liberally for behavior type issues, to give themselves a “time out.” One of the important concepts for this program is, it is not okay to interrupt anyone else’s learning. I know that one teacher at the high school I student taught at is employing this system for her class though I don’t know how well it will work if it is not a school wide movement. This is definitely taking a more direct stance on appropriate behavior in class. I think I will look into it more and see what I can incorporate into my own classes in the future.

The students were simply doing book work, as the teacher didn’t have much time to prepare sub plans. I was once again relegated to head babysitter.

We need to teach the students to work around technology too! Subbing April 4-8

This week I subbed for an industrial tech, science teacher. He was out because his wife had their baby and the baby needed surgery because of a hole in its heart. As most of the classes were industrial tech, the teacher left a power point for the students to read, some worksheets for the students to work on and a few assignments. One thing this teacher did that I really liked was discussion questions on blackboard. He gave the students three questions that they needed to research and answer, then he had them reply to at least two answers from other students for each of the questions. The students complained about them at first, but they really got into them. They had a week and a half to complete the questions, but most of them finished the work a week early. When does this ever happen? This also allowed the teacher to observe their thoughts without being in the classroom. This is very similar to what we did in our Theory of teaching reading and writing classes.
    There was a big issue this week with technology. There have been issues with the drives that host the student and teacher files. ITS had been warning the students that they would need to clean out their drives, and that if they they did not clean out their files their account would be frozen, though they would still be able to access their files. Unfortunately, on Friday the student drive disappeared. I subbed for an English class in one of my off hours and they were working on presentations. The students completely shut down, they decided that they couldn’t work on their projects because they couldn’t access their files. I told them there was no excuse for not getting their presentations done. They only lost a class times worth of work and they still had their research. Some of the students had even had files they had emailed to each other so they still had access to those at least. Half of the students grudgingly worked on their projects, but the other half insisted that they couldn’t work on them. I am all for teaching technology and using technology, but we also need to teach the importance of backing up your work and finding alternatives when technology doesn’t work out. It is unacceptable for students to shut down just because they can’t access a few files.