Chaos. That was may classroom, utter chaos. I'm not talking about student behavior. I'm talking about student work. It was everywhere, on my desk, on tables, in boxes, and ALL ungraded. I got so far behind with my grading I had to resort to a check system for nearly every assignment for 2nd quarter. Thank goodness christmas came around; I needed a break. During the break I planned to get myself more organized by developing a better system for collecting assignments. Instead of daily assessments, my students had weekly packets to complete. How did that go? It went pretty well for the first few weeks than I ran out of copies and I quickly reverted back to the old system. I have to admit that I was kind of relieved. Doing the weekly packets required me to plan at least a week or two in advance. And at this point in the year I was starting to plan my lessons only a day or two before I actually taught it.
No matter how much or how many times Ben Guest told us to stay a few minutes after school each day and grade our students' work, I couldn't find the energy, time, or motivation to do it. And so the piles began to grow and grow and over flow. It was a vicious cycle. A week or so before grades were due I would try to grade all the piles of student work from that quarter usually only grading approximately 20-40% of student work. Not a true assessment, but an assessment nonetheless.
It was really sad that I didn't see my chaos or “organized chaos” as I call it as a failure until I was cleaning up my classroom at the end of the year. I have leaved my whole life in “organized chaos.” In college I thrived on it. It worked for me. Why would teaching be any different? But it was. It wasn't about me, but about my students. As I packed my room I filled six boxes with student work, only of which two were actually filled with graded work. Two thirds of my students' work was ungraded. I truly failed my students. I did not provide them with the feedback they deserved.
I have found that it is extremely important to give back student work as soon as possible. It keeps them engaged and informed about their grades. No surprises. It also helps with motivation. Not all students are motivated by grades, but some are and for them it is crucial that you hand back their work in a timely manner. I did not do this and I think it disappointed a lot of my students. It left them constantly worried about their grade, whether they were passing or not. It also made it extremely hard to fail someone who I never gave notice to or never gave a chance to make up assignments or come in for extra help. I really dropped the ball with my disorganization. Please DO NOT be like me.
Next year, I'm going to tackle and address my disorganized ways. I need to dismiss the idea that organization takes more time and effort. The truth is organization actually saves time and makes your life as a teacher easier, in the long run. Yes, it requires better/more planning initially, but it's worth it. I'm going to take it one step at a time. Starting with student folders. Organization Take Two.
There is always a time in a teachers career when they question their effectiveness in the classroom. I questioned my effectiveness throughout the school year, daily. Were my students truly learning? Or merely cramming all this in their short-term memories to be later dumped? You say there's an easy solution to that. Make your test or assessments accumulative. I struggled with assessments. My district wanted multiple choice test that mimicked the state exam (MCT2), but what I found out early on was that their reading ability or lack there of was getting in the way. Simply put the kids did not comprehend what they were being asked to do, and did not know the process for problem solving.
I tried to avoid this problem by disregarding the district and gave my own style assessments, free response. My students were doing well, or so I thought, until that day in December when the district decided to give my students and exam to see their progress thus far. The results.... not good, I utterly failed as a teacher. My kids did horrible on that district test. I was shocked, disappointed, an scared. Here I thought I was doing an okay job as a teacher. But all I was doing was enabling my students. They have to read on the MCT 2 and be able to solve those problems. It was then that I completely changed my strategy. I had to teach them how to read math problems and solve them, something they have gotten through school without doing thus far. I decided to stop what I was doing and teach problem solving and critical thinking for three weeks straight. Thats all we worked on. I taught them case.
K- Key words and information. I had my students circle he given information and underline the key words like: sum, total, difference, times, etc.
A- What is the question ASKING you to do? Is it a two part question? What operation(s) are you going to use?
S- Solve. Now that you have the given information and the key words. We can answer the question or questions, using the operation(s).
E- Explain. You should always be able to explain your answer. This step was the hardest to enforce but I made my students check their work and write a sentence or two, explaining what they did and why.
At first my principal was apprehensive; she did not like the idea of me deviating so much from the pacing guide and the other teachers in my department. But after the first week she turned around. She frequently stop by my classroom to observe the students using KASE on activities and assignments. She loved my lessons so much that she asked me to show the other math teachers how to problem solve with KASE and incorporate it in their lessons. My students caught on after week one and by week three they were pros. My students now knew how to problem solve. YAY! From then on, I made sure that my students used KASE to solve all word problems. I made sure to incorporate it in every lesson.
My principal really like my approach to problem solving. She liked it so much that she made sure I taught every student in 7th grade during the state test review. This meant doubling classes, but I was happy for the challenge. What's twenty more in the class? Teaching 35-40 students at a time is a challenge but my classroom management has never been better. I learned that it doesn't matter whether there is 20 or 40 students in the class. You can still be an effective teacher if your classroom management is on point. All in all I think I had a successful year. And to top it, I received the “Rookie Award” at my school. I was recognized for my creative and innovative ideas ,and my commitment to my students during my first year of teaching. I was completely shocked and grateful for this reward, that my administration saw how hard I worked. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” -in the words of Halle Berry during her oscar acceptance speech. Wow, I cannot believe I got that award. I never win, but I did this time.
I like my school district. I like it so much it's named after me, Rosei Springs School District. My district is a pretty classic district. It does not deviate too much from any other school district in the south with the exception to a longer fall break and extra days off here and there. The high school bell schedule is interesting though. In all there are 10 periods. Each period last 40 minutes with 4 minutes between each bell. The 10 period is optional for all those students in good academic standing. There is also a work study program in which a student can attend school for half of the school day (i.e. 1-4 period) then leave for their place of work. There is also an accelerated program for exceptional student where they have a chance to leave campus to go to the local college and take classes there. Another interesting thing about my district is the graduation policy. In order to graduate from Rosei Springs High School you have to have a 2.0 grade point average and if at any time you fall below a 2.0 or you fail a required class you will be placed on academic probation, which means they will be required to take a 10 period class and are no longer eligible for the half day programs. If you want to check out my school district you can go to the this link:
http://roseann-uaihh.posterous.com/school-district-design
Three teacher skills I would like to practice and improve upon this summer at the MTC Summer School are questioning, time management, and organization. I would like to practice my questioning skills. Instead of giving my students DOK 1 questions (recall), I would like to give them more critical thinking questions that use thought and reasoning skills. I am going to give them DOK level 2 and 3 questions. Throughout this past school year I have struggled with time management. It always seemed as if the bell would catch me right before my closure. This summer I am going to move my closure to the end of my lecture/lesson, right before independant practice. That way I won't be caught of guard by the bell. And oh yeah, I plan to get a watch. LOL The last skill I would like to work on is organization. I do not return my students work to them in a timely manner. This summer I'm going to work on a grading system/routine for myself that will be the most efficient.
One thing I do well as a teacher is connect with my students. I share my personal story with them. About how I am the first and the only one in my family to go onto college. How I broke the cycle of poverty through education. I really impress upon my students the importance of education. Many of the student I teach do not know anyone who has gone to college besides their teachers. I have connected with my students through my past struggles and the fact that they know what I went through helps them see that there is a path for them to further education. My students trust me and share things about their home life. I show my students that I really care and that I am there for them always. I care for all my student and I want them to succeed.
