Blogs

(College)

Today only 1 student shows up. He was absent last week and is eager for a private lesson to help him catch up. We review and learn to identify scales. Due to lack of time, the other students in the class will not learn this; it's not essential to identify harmonic and melodic minor scales but it's nice. One student who was absent has missed three weeks in a row, she told me in an email she has been off-campus on weekends due to a combination of family emergencies and other commitments. She says she is practicing on her own so next week we'll see. I emailed the choral director to let him know, but he didn't seem upset. I think it was a mistake to schedule Sunday afternoon class, although it sounded like a good idea at the time.

(Fourth Grade)

...I lead a somewhat complex activity in which the students broke into groups of four and “composed” a rhythm of 8 measures in 4/4 time then performed it. Some groups really took it a great level by adding movements to their performances. Overall, there was a huge range in how long it took groups to write. I tried to hurry some groups along, which didn't really work. I didn't have a back-up for when students finished writing. There were a few times I struggled to get their attention. Ms. Presley urged me to be more “alpha” and to be sure to get them quiet rather than trying to talk over them. This also came up during the “performances”; some were not very good listeners.

Field Notes 4/17- Ms. R 11th grade American History, Mr. T 10th grade English

Today in my field placement I noticed the different teaching styles of Ms. R and Mr. T. They are very similar in they way they plan their lessons, because they are based around Tech Prep’s core values (inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation, reflection). The assignments are often very open-ended and push students to think critically and be creative (I could do a whole post about the actual projects themselves). However, it seems my two teachers have approached this type of project-based curriculum in different ways.

4/12/13

Hi everyone! 

I was thinking about the school-drawing prompts from both our group (Just Dewey It) and the group presenting about creativity (CHES)... So this event caught my attention. 

I've been following Lynda Barry, an artist/cartoonist/all around awesome person, on Tumblr. She recently hosted a workshop doing something similar to our prompt - but involving kids in the process of imagining. Here are some photos from that event: http://thenearsightedmonkey.tumblr.com/post/47543409124/some-photos-from-the-counter-factual-campus 

and here's the poster for the event: http://wid.wisc.edu/content/uploads/2013/03/Drawing-Jam.pdf

Intersections between art, imagination, and planning.. wish I could have gone to this!

I have started reading the newspaper more often and I found something really striking today. The article “Students Face Tougher Test That Outpace Lesson Plans” is self-explanatory demonstrates the issues of our current education system. In my field placement, I often do wonder how much of the school’s curriculum really focuses on the children’s individual needs and also considering their limitations. To what extent is the education system really heading towards the right direction especially if these children’s’ lives are affected by early exposure to stressful situations in this vulnerable childhood development period? Perhaps this question hasn’t been addressed in our class. In terms of literacy, are parents really pushing their children to read beyond their level as fast as possible? Where is the value of failures, mistakes and patience? 

New Spring term this week. (still working with Ms. A and Ms. B)

4-6 yr olds with Ms. B

9:30-11:30am

New boy, E (now there are two boys in the class)

E and A (girl) go to school together

E seems relaxed, gets to drawing in sketchbook right away, talks with other kids, tells me his full first name, but he goes by the shortened version

Today: Matisse Fishbowl paintings (sketch). Mixed Media, pink paint table and background, tempera paint patterns, tank, etc. Paper leaves and flowers, red tissue paper flowers in background

More planned out than usual, Ms. B mentions to me, I agree, comment that’s especially good for the first day. (she laughs, jokingly offended by my comment…)

Paint for the first half, then wash up

Story and snack: Ms. B reads while I clean up

E doesn’t want to sit during story time (he doesn’t have a snack), seems comfortable (happy?) standing for this time

After story, go to gallery. New show of animal art

Play I Spy (introduce to Eli, he asks and makes sure that everyone gets a chance)

Rather overexcited in the gallery, larger class, moving around a lot, not slowly, hiding things behind pedestals

Back to rom, add paper and tissue paper to paintings. When finished, kids go into other room to play (as usual) Some don’t feel like playing, stay and draw in sketchbooks. One doesn’t want to play or draw, seemed content to sit with us while others drew. 

The last time I went to my placement, the students were watching channel 1 news and there was a big focus on the current news with North Korea. Though sometimes this new channel simplifies the news it covers, I felt like they were being really good about not oversimplifying this topic. It was really interesting to see how one student in particular was completely enthralled with it. From my previous conversations with Ms. Morrow, I knew that he had an interest in history but it was cool to see how this could be seen with just how he sat or his repetitive movements stopped because he was so attentive. I was even impressed when he knew answers to questions about North Korea that were not mentioned in the news clip.

I often wish I could see what is going on in the students’ minds since they are so non-vocal. One can see the “gears clicking” when you sit back and observe but I want to know more but I don’t think there is way to do that unless the student was incredibly comfortable with you. But even then, the students don’t say much to Ms. Morrow whom they have known for a long period of time. 

Last Tuesday was the first day I was back at my placement after my students had their spring break. I had not seen them in over a week and I was excited to be back. 

This day, while the students did their independent work, they all worked on test. All of the students seemed to be focused on their test. Some were looking at their paper, some looked around every once in a while (which isn’t unexpected for some students). They all sat quietly which Ms. Morrow worked one on one with students on reading in the back of the room.

In my placement, Ms. R (11th grade history) tends to be more unstructured and hands-off than Mr. T (10th grade English). However, I notice that she often gets frustrated when she gives the students independent work periods but they end up being loud of getting distracted. She mentions to multiple times that they can be a “difficult class.” A few weeks ago, I notice that she tries to change up the pace of the class and create a little more structure. I’ll copy the section from my fieldnotes and then comment on it below: