Oh, the Places You'll Go!

 

For Dr. Seuss's day the students did a project in which I pre-cut all the construction paper before hand; for this project the students wrote three of their goals on a paper arrow for example going to New York, keeping their room clean or passing their AR goal. After they finished doing their project I posted them all up on the wall and door.
 

Fourth Interview Questions

I will be interviewing Mr. Harper a teacher who is well respected by both his colleges and students.

Questions:

1.      How do you keep parents involve in their child’s academics?

2.      Do you use parents for support? Why or why not?

3.      How do you deal with difficult parents?

4.      Do you ever make good phone calls home? Why or why not?

5.      If you had to choose from only structure, expectations or parent communication for getting the students attention which one would you choose and why?

6.      When you explain your classroom rules how do explain them?

7.      Do you write down your classroom rules for the students to see them on a daily bias? Why or why not?

8.      How do you handle a disruptive student?

9.      When do you decide when you know a student is not going to listen to you anymore and you need to take action?

10.  How many distractions do you have on a regular bias?

11.  If you send a student out of the classroom for misbehavior do you talk about their actions and what they can do differently when they come back? Why or why not?

12.  Do you think that attention getters actually work for example, “hands on top, everybody stop”?

13.  Do you ever ask for your student’s feedback after you taught a lesson or at the end of the year on what worked and what didn’t?

14.  Do give out incentives? Why or why not?

15.  Do you have classroom routines? Why or why not? If you do how do you feel they help you stay on task?

16.  Do you ever change up how you teach for example; do you start the day differently like asking a question to get the students attention?

17.  What do you do when you know you’re losing the students attention?

18.  Have you ever considered giving thank you note or compliment notes? Why or why not? Do you think they would work?

19.   How would you answer the question “How does a teacher set a learning environment where the majority time is spent on teaching and learning rather than disciplining?” and why?

20.   Do you know of anyone I that you think I could interview or learn more from?

Blog 17: Third Answer

Content:

1. My Essential Question is “How does a teacher set a learning environment where the majority time is spent on teaching and learning rather than disciplining?”

2. By having a line of communication with parents teachers spend less time disciplining their classroom and more time teaching.

3. Parents are the students first teachers in which if the child misbehaves the students know that their parents will be contacted. Teachers are able to have the parents as a support, lets be honest when a third grader is messing around and the teacher tells him to stop and they don't, but when they say they will be contacting their parents they will stop. By staying in contact with parents are able to reinforce the teachers rules and habits that are used in class.

4. My best source is Setting Limits in a Classroom by Robert Mackenzie and Lisa Stanzonie. Another source is my mentor because I see first hand how a lot of parents offer their assistance to her because she always try's to keep the parents update by creating a newsletter which is sent out every two weeks.

5. All in all parents are a key element in making sure students are less disruptive in the classroom.

 

 

My Thank You Experiment

I have started my experiment which is on making sure the students are encouraged to do simple tasks for example, keeping their desks clean and will receive a thank you card to see if thanking them will encourage them to do those tasks more often; so far the experiment is going okay I haven't received a lot of response from the students, but I believe it's going to take a little more time for the experiment to work.
 

Answer 2

1. My essential question is "How can a teacher best set a learning environment where the majority time is spent on teaching and learning rather than discipline?"
2. My first answer is a teacher who takes their time in planning an effective structure spends less time disciplining their classroom and more time teaching.
3.  My second answer is a teacher who sets their expectations clear and precise to understand spends less time disciplining their classroom and more time teaching.
4.  My three reasons why this answer is true is: By setting expectations in the classroom the students know what you expect from them for example, raising their hand before speaking. Also having expectations creates its own structure allowing the day to flow smoothly which saves time instead of spending 5 minutes on a disruptive student. Also expectations are important to keep the classroom on task.   
5. The printed source that best supports my answer is Setting Limits in the Classroom by Robert J. Mackenzie and Lisa Stanzonie because if talks about "real" situations and solutions.
6. Another source that supports my answer is my mentor, Mrs. Garay because I see how she sets her classroom expectations and how she enforces them which she gives out incentives which work in her benefit.
7. That’s why for my essential question’s second answer I would like to answer it with expectations because without expectations the students don’t know what you want from them for example, learn instead of talking or study instead of playing around.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

Content:
1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

• What I plan to do for my Independent  Component 2 is do an extra 30 hours of mentoring at my mentorship which is at San Jose School.  What I will be doing there is answering students questions and concerns, make sure students are staying on task, help put up students classwork up on the classroom walls, help my mentor grade and input grades.

 2. Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

• I will be taking pictures of what I do, filling out my Independent Component 2 Hours Log and writing a brief description of what I did that day.

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• By doing more hours at my mentorship I will get more experience overall in my topic which is teaching 3rd grade and be able to use my experience to answer my essential quesstion.

4.  Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log.

• Independent Component 2 Hours

Independent Component 1

   

Content:  

LITERAL (a)  “I, Stephanie Marin, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 31 hours and 30 minutes of work.”

(b)  I did my hours at my mentorship which is at San Jose School with Lourdes Garay. I also used a website called Conerstone to help me with my Independent Component.

Watson, Angela. The Cornerstone RSS. Thecornerstoneforteachers, n.d. Web.  Jan. 2015.

Other helpful resources I read:

1) Mackenzie, Robert, Stanzione, Lisa. "Creating Structure That Works." Setting Limits in the Classroom. By Robert J. Mackenzie. Rocklin, CA: Prima Pub., 2003. N. 1-27. Print.

2) Escobar, Lindia, Kate Ortolano, Roslyn Duffy, and Deborah Owen-Sohocki. "Encouragement & Mistaken Goals." Positive Discipline A Teacher's A-Z Guide. By Jane Nelsen. 2nd ed. New York: Three Rivers, 2001. 1-14. Print.

3) Mackenzie, Robert, Stanzione, Lisa. "How Students Learn your Rules." Setting Limits in the Classroom. . Rocklin, CA: Prima Pub., 2003. N. 84-103. Print.

4)Escobar, Lindia, Kate Ortolano, Roslyn Duffy, and Deborah Owen-Sohocki. ""Good" Students." Postive Discipline A Teacher's A-Z Guide. By Jane Nelsen. 2nd ed. New York: Three Rivers, 2001. 156-158. Print.

5) Mackenzie, Robert, Stanzione, Lisa. ʺHow Teachers Teach Their Rules.ʺ Setting Limits in the Classroom. . Rocklin, CA: Prima Pub., 2003. N. 104-134. Print.

6) Foley, Dave. "6 Classroom Management Tips Every Teacher Can Use .ʺ  National Education Association. .  2010. Web.

7) Bart, Mary. "Dealing with Difficult Students and Other Classroom Disruptions." Faculty Focus Dealing with Difficult Students and Other Classroom Disruptions Comments. Magna Publications, 4 June 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.

8) Watson, Angela. "How to Create Class Rules." Thecornerstoneforteachers. N.p., 10 Oct. 2011. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.

9) Watson, Angela. "Ideas for Classroom Seating Arrangements." The Cornerstone RSS. N.p., 18 Oct. 2011. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.

10) Watson, Angela. "10 Ways to Calm a Class after Lunch or Recess." The Cornerstone RSS. N.p., 2 Dec. 2014. Web. 04 Dec. 2014.

(c)  You can find my updated Independent Component One Hours here or on the side of my blog under links called "Senior Project Hours".

(d) I have done 30 hours and 30 minutes of  doing more research, mentorship experience, seeing other teachers teach and creating my own syllabus and I will explain more below in the "Interpretive" section.

INTERPRETIVE 

For my Independent Component One I volunteered at my mentorship with my mentor, Lourdes Gary. I helped answer questions students had and assisted them on their classwork. I also gave them tickets for good behavior which could later be used for a prize. I also sat in with other teachers to see how they taught and disciplined in their classroom for example, I went to a fourth and fifth combo classroom and to be honest it was difficult to watch the teacher put on a brave face when trying to get both grade levels to listen and learn. I saw how she would quiet one side of the room and while that was happening the other side would start talking and disrupting the class. The way I saw she had an advantage was a promise of a pizza party for good behavior this helped me see how she disciplined her classroom differently from the other teachers I have seen. I also did a lot of research using Cornerstone to create my syllabus. Creating my syllabus was difficult because I had to make it clear and precise to for both parent and student to understand. Another factor that I needed to decide was what rules would I have from all the research I have done it would be best if I only choose five rules, which was not an easy thing to narrow down.

Classroom Rules

1. Raise your hand to speak
2. Do not speak when someone else is speaking
3. Treat all students and adults with respect
4. Follow rules and directions the first time
5. Always try your best!

I have to say I know see syllabus's different than before, I know see all the handwork a teacher puts into making one.

APPLIED

This component helped me understand my senior project more because I have a better understanding of how to answer my essential question since my second answer is expectation in which I was able to create my own syllabus. By creating my own slabs I was able to do extensive research on what actually works in a classroom and what doesn't which as I said before made it hard to create my rules and also my four expectations.

Classroom Expectations

Be Respectful:

• Be Kind                             

• Keep hands/feet to yourself

• Be Responsible:

• Be on time  

• Follow classroom rules              

Be Prepared:  

• Bring materials/supplies daily        

Be a Learner:

• Pay Attention

• Think

• Ask questions

Also by going into other classrooms it gave me another perspective on how to explain my second answer for example, my mentor offers incentives for her third grade class and it actually works, but by going to higher grade levels I saw that it didn't have the same effect, some students wanted the incentive, but the majority of students could care less. Also my continuing to do hours at my mentorship I am growing to what I call as being "mean" which is really not being mean it's just part of what a teacher is suppose to do for example, when the students are talking or off task I am becoming more confident in quickly redirecting them to be back on task. Overall my Independent Component has help me grow into a stronger future teacher, have more knowledge on what works and what doesn't when it comes to having rules and expectations and hopefully when I become a teacher I won't have to teach a combo class (fingers crossed).

 

P.S. Sorry that my syllabus is a bit plain I couldn't add all of my other "fun" stuff on a google docs since I didn't know how to add a Word document on here.