Sunday's thoughts

Hello, out there! I have been doing some thinking today about everything we have been looking at with the CREDE standards. I have been surprised at how much of the standards I do practice, but wonder about making things better. As professionals, we should always be looking for ways to better ourselves. It is a never ending job to grow and learn as teachers. I know that I need to work more on giving the students more individual projects to accomodate those students who work better that way. I know that I need to invite parents to come into my room more, too. Even though I don't have the different cultures, with the different languages, I am sure these parents would have something to give my students. I just have to find out what my parents are strong in and go from there.

As I continued to think today, I could not help but think about Standard 4 and the challenging activities. I really don't give my students a lot of feedback about there performance and the standards. I tell them how the activity ties into the standard we are covering, but when we are done with the activity, we don't go into whether or not there were successful in accomplishing the standard. We need to work on that. I, also, made comments here about student attitude and involvment in the activities. My colleagues at school have talked about how hard it is getting the students this year excited and engaged about anything. They will look right at us and tell us they don't care. How can we get anything out of them with attitudes like that? I thought today that we are just compounding the problem when we have such a negative attitude, too. If we give up, then they will, too. We cannot allow ourselves to do that. We have to stay excited, and positive, and keep challenging them. We are not helping them at all by having that attitude, too. I do have a question, though. My principal and other administrative personnel have told us that we need to be focusing on those students who are so close to passing the state tests. Those who are "on the bubble," so to speak. There are those who will pass, no matter what we do, and there are those who will fail, no matter what we do. We need to hit that group in the middle. I hate to think that that is true and I need to have that mentality going into everything I do, but when I get 6th graders who can only read on a 1st or maybe a 2nd grade level, what else can I do? This is why I can think of these students as the same as the ELL students this class talks about. The only difference is that my students know how to speak the social English and have a general understanding of the academic English. They are the same, though, because the don't have the comprehension of English, just like ELL's. I just can't imagine what it would be like to have ELL's in my classroom without a lot of support from somone who knows the language and can help with translation and culture - at least until I could get a general understanding of it.

Gee, I kind of got off there a little, but I guess that is okay. Well, I think that is about it for this evening. Those were just the thoughts going on my head today that I wanted to share. Talk to you later.

new thoughts

Hello! It is Saturday, October, 17, 2009. I woke up in the middle of the night and was thinking about this assignment. I was thinking about the group work that I have the students do in my room that follows the CREDE indicator 1 on joint activities. I made the comment earlier that I don't do a lot of individual projects and I needed to work on doing more of those. But, what I thought about in the middle of the night is that I like to start out doing the larger group projects, then work our way to pair projects, and then down to individual projects. I like to do this because I feel it builds confidence in those students who don't feel confident in completing projects and doing an oral presentation in front of the class. I like to have the students do an oral presentation as part of the project. So, after thinking about why I do what I do, maybe I am okay as far as Indicator 1 is concerned. If I need to do any work at all in that one. It would be to find smaller activities for the students to complete individually. I have plenty for them to do in their groups. I feel better about this analysis of my CREDE pedagogical standard 1.

I, also, thought about Indicator 2 for language. This one involves the language. Well, since I don't any ELL's in my class, I think of this one as using the vocabulary of my subject. I am always using the particular language of my 6th grade science class in front of my students. For example, we are studying the difference between the plant and animal cells. As we looked at the diagrams in the textbook, I had to tell the students that we don't call the nucleus and ribosomes, and etc. parts, but we call them organelles. The students would rather call them parts because it is easier, but that is not using the correct language. I tell them not to use the words 'stuff' and 'things', but to use the correct science vocabulary. It is very hard for them because they are not used to using this language. I feel like I am teaching a different language to students who have never heard it before. I can find out the language they do have while we have our class discussions. When we start a new topic, I always ask them what they can tell me about it. Most of the class time is spent listening to them. This brings in Indicators 3 and 5 both. These two indicators emphasize bringing in the students' lives and using dialogue instead of lecture. To be honest, I hate standing up there and doing all the talking. I would rather have them do it all and me just guide them. It is more fun that way. Yes, we do get off topic sometimess, but even then, we learn some pretty cool things! During the dialogue, I can model the the correct vocabulary in the hopes that they will use it, too.

There are times that I feel like I have to be an entertainer. I had a fellow teacher come out into the hall a few weeks ago and tell me that she felt like that if she did not constantly entertain them, then they would not do anything. Each group of students is different. This group we have this year is one of those that does need a little more entertaining. I have found that when I put on more of a 'performance', they respond and stay on task more. I don't mind, though. I will do what it takes to get them to complete the material needed to master the necessary benchmarks. Well, I think I am finished for right now. I just had these thoughts in my head and wanted to put them down here. I am sure I will think of something else, too. Until later...

assessment checklist

Hello everyone! I went through the checklist and found out that I am doing pretty well when it comes to the CREDE standards. Now, I do not have any ELL's any my classroom, but I can apply this to my IEP students. There were some indicators of the standards that I could not really use because they applied to ELL's. For example, encouraging students to use the content vocabulary to express their understanding is one of them. My students do speak English, so I have no problems with getting them to speak the language or trying to teach it to them. The indicators that included these are the ones that I really don't use. I did very well when it came to joint productive activity. The only problem I could see is that my room is not really set up for individual work because I only have tables. We do a lot of group work in my room and that seems to go along with some of the indicators of CREDE. It is funny because in Indicator 2, I don't have any students that I would need to encourage to use their second language. For Indicator 4, it talks about giving students challenging activities that will take them to a more complex level. I try to do this, but my students this year are just in this "I don't care" mentality. It is hard to challenge someone who does not care. I keep doing it, though, and sometimes I get lucky. Well, I think I am going to stop for right now. I will have some more to talk about later. I was amazed, when I watched the video, at how much I do of the CREDE standards. I was pretty happy with myself, too. Sorry, but I couldn't help but say that. Talk to you later.

Just starting

Hello to everyone! I am just starting this blog, so I hope I remember how to do it. I have never created my own before. This is kind of cool. I am doing this for a class assignment. Let's hope it is right. I am a 6th grade science teacher in a small rural school in southern Ohio. We have a lot low socioeconomic students at my school and not a lot of higher functioning students. There just isn't much to do in our area that is within a school bus drive away. All the bigger cities would take us a couple of hours to get to. Well, I am going to post this and see what happens. If it works, then I will be back to get started on my assignment. I am in the Integrating Technology masters program through Walden University. This is an alternative assignment, instead of writing a paper. Hope to see you soon!!