During my second week of student teaching, I didn’t take official lessons. Instead, I took nearly all of the daily transition periods. Yikes. I assumed responsibility for Morning Meeting, Homework Planner and clean-up time, all hallway walking and continued to do Read Aloud. Our class (16 boys and 11 girls) has been having a hard time with transitions both in and out of the classroom. There seems to be constant chatter and a lack of listening in many cases. You can say “Voices off please, we’re in the hallway” and heads will turn and stop talking for a second and immediately go back to what they were saying before. The angels really came out of their shells during week two.
Together with Mrs. H, we drilled our behavior and transition expectations into the students’ brains. Mrs. H. reminded them, while together and seated on the floor in front of her, that they are fourth graders now and they have more responsibilities than they did in third grade. She gave them the task of deciding what behavior they needed to work on the most during transitions and to work on it.
I drew on Mrs. H’s talk with the students for the rest of the week. Before a transition time, I would remind the students that they are to be working on a behavior and our exact expectations of them. My first successful transition change was to and from Morning Meeting. The students all bring their chairs into a circle and it can be complete and sometimes dangerous chaos. I call two tables at a time when they are ready and remind them that I should only hear the noise of the chairs and there should be no chairs on heads. Returning to their desks is the same. I also say to them that they should be able to arrange all of the chairs in a circle without talking, but that they need to pay attention to those around them.
The Morning Meeting is one example of how attentive and consistent you have to be with your behavior expectations for your students. They do listen. They do want to behave-I just know it. As a teacher, we need to give specific instructions for each movement of the day. We also have to remind our students how important listening is. I stressed the need for the class to listen to their peers and the teachers by playing the telephone game in Morning Meeting on Thursday. If they don’t listen carefully, the whole game changes and it can be ruined.
I think our students were truly acting more respectfully by Friday. Or they were simply worn out from the first full week of school. I learned many approaches to respectfully remind the students what our expectations are of them. I also know that I need to find my voice. Mrs. H said it often gets lost over the hubbub. I don’t want to yell, but I need to be heard. I guess that is one more trait that comes with experience.
I will proudly add one thing. There was a substitute filling in for Mrs. H on Tuesday and I knew all about what the class was doing. She told Mrs. H at the end of the day that I was “pretty much in control.” I felt less pressure and more confidence without my cooperating teacher in the room. I told her this and added that I think it is because I know she is watching me and will give me feedback. She agreed and added that it took her many years to adjust to teaching confidently with other adults in the room. She told me that when my supervisor visits, she is planning on leaving the room-I don’t need two adults watching me so closely.
Tomorrow I begin teaching Math in addition to all of the other pieces I am doing. (Concave and convex polygons to be exact.) This means that I will be in control of the students and the classroom from when I pick them up in the lunchroom until I walk them to their last hour specialist class and then a few to the bus at the end of the day. I think this might be easier because Mrs. H and I don’t have to transition back and forth between one another. It will be more realistic for me and I will have to completely plan my supplies and flow from one thing to the next. I am ready.
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The way you are going at student teaching is interesting with week two all about transitions. It sounds like you will have the student's respect before you try to teach the content. After one of my math lessons this week, Ms. R and I talked about how I need to be more assertive when the students are being disrespectful in class. When a few of the student have problems with an answer or what we are doing, they will give a loud sigh under their breath. This leads to a sea of sighs from the class. It sounds like you will have the management under control from the first day of teaching, which will make management a smaller area to worry about.
ReplyDeleteI see you started morning meeting this week. How long do you have in the schedule for this activity? I feel like I have to condense the meeting since we have about ten minutes, and at the end of this time, the students need to be standing at the specialty teacher's room. I would love to go over more about listening and other social skills, but the time is already filled with calendar math and word of the day. I see how teachers have to pick and choose what to keep and what to loose in the day.
The one transition that Ms. R and myself decided needs major work is closing the day. We worked on successful planner fill out all last week since some of the students weren't writing anything in the spaces. We now have a routine for confirming that the planners are filled out fully. Next we need to work on retrieving backpacks, stacking chairs, and putting away materials. There always seem to be a routine that needs a little more tweaking like your group and not talking in the hallway. It might be a yearlong battle with a different routine to review each week.
Rose,
ReplyDeleteRunning the transitions this week was so helpful to me because I was able to practice keeping an eye on the clock and had to make sure I always, always knew what came next. The kid's are in a circle for Morning Meeting and I need to know what they need out on their desks for the next activity. If they busy themselves getting that ready and keep their chatting to a minimum, it has been much easier for Mrs. H to take them back. Same with Read Aloud in the afternoon. They also have specific instructions to follow written on the board when they come in each morning, so that they can focus (hopefully) right away in the morning.
For our Morning Meeting, we also have 10 minutes or less. We always do the same 4 things: Pledge, Greet, Share and Game. We often do a whip share so it goes around the circle really quickly. Our greeting is usually really quick and we even say the Pledge fast.
For homework planners at the end of the day, we go over what is do and I write in on a calendar on the wall and if they need to do it, they write it down. Then there are three things they have to do after their desks are clear: pick up 5 scraps from the floor, stack their chair and have me initial thier planner. I stand by the door so I make sure they don't forget that step.
But all of that, just for two tiny activities in the day! It has been a great help to be in Mrs. H's room because this is how she runs her classroom and it is so efficient. You have to think about every movement and every step of the day I guess. I even know that it only takes about 2 minutes to get to the farthest specialists class at the end of the day and that bathroom/drink breaks can take more than 5. Knowing all of these details will be a huge help to me when I start taking over more teaching responsibilities.
I do hope I have gained some respect from the students. It is scary to be assertive because I worry they will think I am a "meanie" then. But I have used "the look" and the proximity techniques and they do work. I have also made sure to tell them what a good hallway walk that was or that I am hearing no voices-excellent! I hope my balance is enough.
Now that I've visited during a long, complicated math lesson, I can say that your work with transitions is paying off. Just to fill in Rose, when I visited Joanna's classroom yesterday I watched her teach "compass skills" (among others) to her fourth graders--just a lesson behind what Rose taught when I visited her on Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this lesson required no fewer than 3 trips to the rug by everyone in the classroom to see a new stage in the compass lesson, get new directions, then return to their desks to continue working. I thought the kids were great at each of these gatherings, but I also noticed that Joanna doesn't expect silence, or even hushed voices, during her lessons. As a result, kids chatted comfortably while they worked, almost always on task, never exceeding that "inside voice" threshold, and Joanna wasn't spending her time shushing everyone constantly.
Transition expectations are worth spending time on; they make the day pass more pleasurably when everyone is working together, plus lessons go smoothly when kids can count on a predictable routine guided by commonsense and respect.