Take Five (Semester Finale)...

So we have reached that time again fondly known as the end of semester. A bittersweet time of nervously realizing all the work and finals you have left to complete in only a week’s time, but also joyfully celebrating the fact that once that week is over you can successfully cross another semester off your college to-do list. And as all good Meredith girls know this is also a time of major reflection. In deep appreciation of your interest in my blog these last few months (and the fact that it was assigned), I have decided to share my innermost thoughts and feelings about my experience in class with you. I have definitely learned more than I expected to as a math teacher in an Intro to Language Arts class. Attending this class has stretched my imagination, strengthened my skills as an effective teacher, and has been lots of fun in the process. I have come to the conclusion that as excited as I am to be a teacher, I will forever be a student. Read aloud will be part of my class in some way shape or form hopefully at least once a week if not more frequently. I am now as resolved as I have ever been to make math accessible to all my students, and more importantly to partner with them in unlocking the door to a promising and obtainable future. This class was more than I ever thought it would be for me, and I must say that I am now a more competent and well-rounded math teacher because of my Intro to Language Arts class. I haven't decided whether or not to consistently continue blogging I'm sure I'll get lax since it's no longer an assignment, but as I have mentioned previously I love doing it and I wish I had more time in my days to appropriate towards it. I can make only one promise...I will return. So I hope reading has been as enjoyable for you as writing has been for me.

Ciao
Melissa

Tra-la-la-La-la

I must confess that at the current time in my life...I don't have a favorite poem. I know, know probably a shock and to some a slight disappoint seeing as I want to be a future teacher and all. However, I can't say I feel the same deep sense of lament about this situation (since this is of course what you all are feeling..lol). Do we all have favorite numbers? I highly doubt it...so do we all have to have favorite poems? Not in my opinion. That being said, I often write my own poetry to vent and process feelings I can't yet talk about or get a good handle on and I feel very comfortable with this form of wirting.
So how do I use my favorite poem in my future classroom, when it doesn't yet exist? To be very blunt, I won't. One thing I am very conscious of and believe whole-heartedly in is dealing honestly and being real with my students. So I won't lie to them and come up with some random poem as my favorite if it's not. And similarly, I will never require them to put on a front of loving math for my sake. If they truly do love math, I'm all for it (and those students get two stars instead of one...not really), but I get that math is an acquired taste that a lot of my students will not possess. But competency in math and a solid understanding in math concepts will be useful in their life, so as a their teacher therein lies my job. My students can hate math as much as they want, but it is my job to help them understand its importance and help them achieve the skills that will allow them to excel in life.

Cuz hate or love it, they'll be usin math in their life
And if they don't get it, it will cause them strife
And I hope with me
They'll get at least a C
But they should shoot for A's, and be proud of a B.

Man, I crack myself up (yes, it's corny). But for those of you that don't know, with a couple of tweaks, I just connected rapper Fifty-Cent to my math class. So stop hating and realize that poetry comes in many different forms. :)

I'm out,
Melissa

Silence: Golden or Grotesque?

"Children should be seen and not heard." If you grew up in the United States and haven't heard this old cliche at least once in your life, NEWSFLASH: You have been living under a rock! This idea has naturally made its way into classroom, a condensed environment reflective of society (like Campbells is a condensed can reflective of soup...j/k...I love me some Chicken Noodle). We expect students to sit quietly for hours, and speak only after they have raised their hands and been called upon. I can even recall the cafeteria ladies controlling our conversation with a traffic light during lunch (who would have thought...smh). And even after being called, we only are concerned with them adressing the topic at hand or answering the question that was asked. Adults frequently overlook the value of a child's voice. Their ideas and opinions are often looked down upon as frivolous and insignificant. How do we expect to get to know and understand them if we keep them silent, constricting their input by curriculum. I pray and hope that I am able to support freedom of speech in my future classroom. I would love my students to reach the point where they are fueling their own learning while answering each others questions. Now I know that talking is not the singular form of communication. But as demonstrated in our class chalk talk (an exercise in which a conversation is held solely through wiriting on the board), though eliminating talking can cause a student to be more reflective and concise, it can also mask things that could be beneficial to the experieince of having them in our class as well.

And I feel like I'm naked in front of a crowd 'cause these words are my diary screamin' out loud...

Writing personal narratives for classroom assignments can be dangerous territory for students, especially if peer conferencing is involved. However, it can be very beneficial for everyone involved if gone about in the correct way.
First of all, a very open and trusting environment is needed. I think this is important because the works being produced and evaluated are the individual creative works of the students. The writer takes risks and share pieces of themselves that they probably have feelings about therefore extreme care should be taken when critiquing their paper. Plus if you are presenting to strangers, they may not be as comfortable correcting your work honestly as someone who knows you. On the other hand, exercises like peer conferences help with teaching students to properly handle constructive critisicm, a skill they will find helpful in the real world. And from the other side of the table their peers learn how to be tactful and considerate when offering assistance to others which will be useful in a society where people get so easily offended. Not too mention the obvious grammar and language skills they are gaining in the process. Sometimes in the midst of their own writing students are not able to see mistakes or struggles they have, but if you ask them to read someone else's paper they might be able to understand or pick up on these concepts easier.
I know personally I feel very vulnerable through my writing but when writing to a vague audience it's not so bad. My dad picks at me sometimes because I'll ask him to proof an assignment, and then when he comes back with suggestions I get disheartened. It's definitely a challenging thing for me to let others read my work with feedback in mind because I feel like by letting them change things, it's no longer mine.
I guess I have mixed feelings all around.

Language Expert in Training

As a youngster way back in the day, I walked 14 miles barefoot in the snow with a ten pound book bag on my back just to get to school in the morning...ok, no I didn't, but I know you've been told a story like that once in your life by a grandparent or someone from the olden days. I always am a little distracted during these stories, unfortunately. All that runs through my mind as I'm sitting there is "Now as much as I appreciate your heroicness in the pursuit of an education, why would anyone in there right mind walk barefoot in the snow? Who's idea was that?" ...but I digress.
What I really wanted to share today was my experience with writing/reading workshops, literature circles, and thematic units. In elementary school, second grade specifically I remember writing a book of stories in class. I don't remember whether or not we went through all the steps of the writing process but I do remember making a final publshed folder. In fourth grade I remember outlining and drafting book reports and in fifth grade we wrote our first research paper ever! I really was not that enthused about it at the time, but I am glad I was put through the torture because it has definitely prepared me well for college writing.
Reader workshops weren't so preavlent though. I remember going through reading groups in early elementary and shared reading in upper elementary; but read alouds, independent reading time, and buddy reading escape my memory. We never did Literature Circles in grade school which is a cryin' shame because those would have been fun. However, I did get to participate in my very first literature circle as a 20 year old college student a couple years ago and my professor now reads aloud to us every week. So, thank you, Meredith College, for filling in the missing gaps of my childhood!
Now a little homily about thematic units (another Meredith first time experience).
I am in love with the idea of a well planned thematic unit. Last semester in Teaching in the Middle School with Dr. Roberts, I had the opportunity of studying what one looked like, and the privilege of creating my own in a group. I find them to be such a useful tool in making classroom learning applicable and relevant to real world situations. And through cross-curriculum learning we are helping students make strong connections that lead to deeper understanding. Students with deeper understanding of course material...music to a true teacher's ear ;) On that note, I am going to make a swift exit before I begin to weep. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Ciao,
Melissa

"Hold Up, Wait a Minute, Let Me Put Some Math In It!"

I know, try to control yourself. While sitting there reading the title I'm sure you almost leapt out of your seat. Who couldn't? I'm actually not going to get too arithmetically deep on you, so hear me out. The more I sit through my Intro to LA class and ponder how I am going to use the skills I am learning in my math class...the more I find answers. Imagine that. One of my questions I always want to consider as a future teacher is "How can I effectively, and appealingly, convey this to my students?" On top of teaching me to think outside the box, my class has once again provided me with an answer. As I have mentioned before, The Giant Jam Sandwich, was my favorite children's book growing up. It's about a community who has a seemingly unsurmountable problem and works together to come up with a solution (theme: working together to solve problems). To me that story couldn't provide a better picture of what I want my future classroom to be -- a community of learners working together to figure out how to solve seeming unsurmountable problems. So I would make a first day/week lesson using this book as a read aloud in order to give the children a light-hearted example of who we are aiming to be. It is very important for me as a teacher to set up these devices of structure and purpose early on because it saves me and my students a lot of heartache and time later on in the year. The primary story element that makes The Giant Jam Sandwich work for my lesson is the plot. I want my students to walk away with the lesson knowing that our class will be a community, I only expect them to be learners (not experts), the fact that everyone has something to contribute, we will share success and failures, and that it will take time. All these points to relate to what happens to the characters in the story. Speaking of which....what happens in the story? I suggest and strongly reccomend that you take the time to go find out! You won't regret it.

So I'm definitely not Shakespeare...

...therefore I won't pretend to ask philosophical questions of myself (the prompt was to blog or not to blog), but...how do I feel this whole blogging ordeal? Basically, I love it and honestly I wish I had more time to spend telling my thoughts to the intangible audience. It allows me to let my creative juices flow a little bit, be witty and sarcastic without accidently offending a specific person, rant and rave from my soapbox, etc. It just feels good to get things out. The guiding questions are always open enough so that I can put my own twist in my writing. Blogging is much more enjoyable than reflection papers, too. I don't have to use formal language and I don't need to worry about being graded to harshly on grammar and struxture. It's a writing assignment I enjoy because it gives me a chance to define some of the rules. Another thing that excites me is that I can touch all 6 language arts in the blogging experince between writing mine and reading other peoples. So I give blogging a ten out of ten, and I am requesting more time in my day that I can devote to this endeavor. If you could get right on that it'd be great...mmk..bu-bye...lol

Ciao,
Melissa