Some students will make a lasting impression on us. For my student teaching experience it was Joey, a student with ADD - hyperactivity. If someone dropped a pencil 4 rows behind him he would turn to look. He was not engaged by any lessons (I created poor lessons as a student teacher). One day during proving triangles congruent, he actually asked a question about the content and I, excited that he was taking an interest, responded. "Mr. E, what about angle side side?" I excitedly wrote the initials on the overhead to explore his question, "A-S-S". The laughter of the entire class finally clued me in.
For this post please do the following:
- Choose one of your students from student teaching who has made an impression on you.
- Identify the student (first name only or made up name) and give an overview of him or her.
- Explain the reasons he or she has made an impression.
- Explain how this informs or impacts your teaching.
Posted by Len
ReplyDeleteFor this one I will choose a student with an unfortunate ending – DQ. DQ has a tough history, a tough exterior, and a tough time dealing with authority figures. Essentially his first reaction to nearly anything is defensive and he is looking for the challenge in it upon which to pick a ‘fight’. He is a football player and there is a feeling among at least some of the faculty that if not for that he already would be given up on by the school which in itself is a pretty damning sentiment.
During the observation week it was readily apparent that the “traditional” teaching would be lost on DQ as something as simple as enforcing the no eating in the classroom rule could erupt into a full blown confrontation. But when talking one on one with DQ when not standing on the authority box it was clear he was a bright kid that could be reached if an effort was made.
Over the next two weeks I took the time to build a relationship through frequent interaction and seemed to be making progress with him as his work effort increased, grades were decent, and enforcing the rules became a matter of universal fairness as opposed to authority picking on him. Certainly not everything I tried worked as a couple of times things would begin to escalate but when I realized that dynamic was unfolding simply changing the approach from “because I said so” to a more subtle tact could defuse the situation.
The sad part comes at the beginning of week four when a confrontation in the other class he was taking in summer school got him removed from the program (I was not there but the short story is the other teacher felt DQ made a threatening move toward him/her – something I could clearly see as a possibility given a traditional authority teaching model). The real takeaway is that better collaboration with other staff and faculty may have prevented this (or the converse – one teacher can easily even if unintentionally undo the effort and progress made elsewhere). Each classroom clearly can be not an island unto itself in a school setting.
One of my students that has made a lasting impression on me is Kathy. She is the best student in my class. She is well-behaved, smart, participates frequently, and completes all her work. She helps other students with their work. I know that the students who are struggling are really what teaching is all about, but the students who are motivated and consistently on-task bring a joy to teaching as well. During moments in class when I am frustrated or having problems with some of the students, it is good to know that there are students like Kathy out there that are learning and getting a lot from my class. This informs or impacts my teaching because it helps motivate me to see students who are motivated. If all of my students didn’t care, then I think it would be much harder for me to give it my all.
ReplyDeleteI would like to talk about a girl in my 9th grade Algebra I class named J. She is good-natured, always smiling and friendly and sometimes gets too chatty in class, but nothing over the top. In short, she is a pleasure to have in class. She really struggles with math in general though, as do a lot of these kids - particularly with basic skills. Multiplication tables and simple +/- of single digit integers is a problem for her. She did not do well at all on the first test - in fact the lowest grade in the class.
ReplyDeleteFast forward 2 nights later to the parent/teacher conferences. Not only was J one of the VERY FEW students that tagged along, she also asked questions about how she could improve and discussed openly and frankly with her mom there about how she needed to take more ownership of trying to learn the material. She seemed very genuine about wanting to make the effort.
For the next 2 days, she sat in the front row and really focused on what we were doing in class. She also raised her hand to volunteer an answer and again to ask a question. I am keen to see how she does going forward since we are now present.
J affects me in highly positive ways. She instills in me the motivation to do everything I possibly can to help her master math. She also gives me hope and promise there's so many other kids out there like her that just by a little effort will motivate themselves to be engaged learners and more productive people.
One student who has made an impression on me is Donovan. During the first two days of Algebra 1, he had is head on the desk the entire time and slept. Despite repeated pleas from me to pay attention, nothing worked. Then on the third day, I noticed he was sitting upright trying his hardest to participate and do his work. To my surprise, he has consistently earned B's and C's on the exams.
ReplyDeleteWhen I arrive in school usually about 45 minutes before class starts, I notice that he is the first one there in the morning - this despite the fact that he walks to school.
Although I would like to think that it was my great teaching that has caused him to change his ways, I get the distinct feeling that something (or more likely someone) has had a talk with Donovan.
I would really like to know what has happened to this young man and if it can be bottled and sold. But I am not sure of how to go about finding out without invading his privacy.
"Nick" is a student who is intelligent and likable. He is moderately motivated to learn algebra, but struggles with some concepts. For example, he has a difficult time remember that when you multiply variables with exponents that you add the exponents, but when you raise variables with exponents by a power that you need to multiply the exponents. I think in general he only wants to do what he needs to in order to pass the class.
ReplyDeleteI found out recently that he wants to be a fireman and is very enthusiastic about it. He told me that he doesn't know what you have to do to become a fire fighter. So, I did a little research and found a great article online... how much fire fighters make, what the educational requirements are, etc. Then I also found out that Capital Community College has a program to get an associate of science degree in fire science. So, I printed out the college classes and one of the classes is intermediate algebra. So, I'm hoping that he'll see the connection between what he is doing now and what he wants to do in the future.
Jay, is a student who is very good at learning. He is always early to class, never leaves on breaks, and has an SAT review book handy for down time. He challenges me because he always seemed to be a step ahead of me. I provided him with enrichment work while I tried to figure out how I can challenge him and allow him to learn.
ReplyDeleteHe loves to use the calculator, so I empowered him to be our calculator professor and help me when we are using our TIs for projects. I also utilize his skills by pairing him with weaker math students during activities because he loves to explain his solutions to classmates.
When speaking with Jay last week, I learned that he does not like math. He told me that I have made it interesting to him so he wants to stay ahead of the game. He had been reading the Algebra 2 book to prepare himself the night before class. He had even been taking the time to figure out how to program his calculator to do the work we do in class.
He then went further to say that he is not looking forward to my student teaching ending because he has enjoyed how I make learning fun!
The reason that Jay stands out so much to me, is because he was the student that I had to really work hard to make sure he was learning something. I have several students I can sit with to help solve equations by reinforcing math skills, however it wasn't that simple with Jay. His feedback made me feel as though I had succeeded.
The 9:10 was from Brenda
ReplyDeleteOne student who has stood out in my class is Bianca. She has a lot of personality and was the most articulate on the first day of summer school. She continues to participate quite a bit in class. Bianca is maintaining a passing grade even though so many basic algebraic skills that we need in geometry challenge her. Sometimes she stays a few minutes after class (she is the one student who drives herself to school) and we chat. I've learned that she really does not care for math and she declares that her math teachers have s*****d. I've asked her what they do wrong, why they are not good teachers, because I need to learn how to be a great teacher. From what I understand from her, many teachers do not explain things well, they tend to just make kids do worksheets, they sit at their desk a lot - so much so that on tests they don't even notice kids cheating. What she and I have talked about is: that the reason why she is doing well this summer, is that she is taking good notes, she asks questions, and she completes the classwork - which is really the practice that she needs to do well on the assessments. She agrees with that she needs to do the work and acknowledges that her study habits really have been non-existent in the past.
ReplyDeleteI think is important is that students see that they need to take responsibility for their work, and that if a teacher is not clear, helpful or responsive, there are things they can do to find out information if support is not available in the classroom.
I also noticed that if I made mistakes on the board, Bianca would pick them out. So I stressed that teachers make mistakes too and that we are all helping each other. I decided to give out little tickets called DC (dacruz) points. If they catch a mistake, I give them a ticket, a point which will be factored in as a bonus point at the end of the summer session. Ok - I'll admit I've given out a few of these! At least the kids know I'm human, and I know they are paying attention. (And Bianca says she likes geometry.)
The one student who stood out for me this year is T. In general, I got lucky with a pretty good class. I will remember many of them simply because it’s my first group of kids. But I will remember T because he was the one I couldn’t get to and turn around.
ReplyDeleteThe first day I met T, he actually came in the second day of the class, so he was already 3 periods behind. This was field observation week, so I was observing the teacher’s style, the student engagement, etc. T was constantly checking his phone as text messages came in. He really didn’t take notes and was unengaged. He ended up failing the first test. I helped him out a bit that first week and encouraged him to try better. I’ll never forget the look he gave me when he got an 89 on his next test. The smile on his face will be burned in my memory for a while.
Unfortunately, the 89 was short-lived. It turns out that T’s parents were going through a divorce and his mother recently had some sort of surgery that was clearly bothering him, as she was the one he was exchanging texts with in class. As the days went on, my cooperating teacher made multiple calls home as T didn’t do his homework, failed multiple tests, lied about attending after-school tutoring, and much more – including even trying to impersonate his father to call in sick. I spoke with T a few times to try to get him back on track, but I think the personal events in his life were just too overwhelming. His father was angry and his mother obviously was going through some problems, too.
At first, T was pretty easy to talk with, but over time, his frustration started to show through with some “smart” talk and direct lies to me. T is now out of the class and working one-on-one with a tutor during summer school. What disturbed me the most is that I actually tutored him one-on-one and found him to be a bright kid who was able to get the material. With just a bit of effort, he could have easily passed the class.
Adam said...
ReplyDeleteThe student who has stood out the most for me is Kesi. She is in my AP Stats class and she really helped shaped my curriculum for the course this summer. There are not a lot of expectations at ConnCAP in terms of what material to cover and as I began teaching Statistics I really had no idea where to begin. The only statistics I ever took were in graduate school and it seemed that high school Stats was a lot different. The second day of class Kesi asked me if we (the class) could work on their Math summer packet during ConnCAP. I was more than happy to do this and I thought to myself that she was quite the "go-getter." I assumed Math was one of her best subjects because she was doing so well and was always so engaged and ready to answer questions. I later read her interest inventory and I found out that Math was one of the subjects she liked the least because it was always the hardest for her. I read about her other passions (what subjects she did like, where she wanted to travel to etc.) I now knew she was interested in politics and for one class period I devoted most of my examples to politics and even suggested the students visit realclearpolitics.com. I was just so inspired by her dedication to a subject she did not even like that at least I could relate it to something she did like.
I have already posted this but don't see it, so I will try again..
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if I am breaking any blog rules here, but I am choosing to write about a student I had during my observation week. No coincidence at all, it is the same student Len chose to write about. We both connected with DQ right away. I wish I had more time to work with him and try to develop him as a student.
DQ is the type of student that has probably been given the short end of the stick for the majority of his academic career. After witnessing our teacher handle (in better terms, mishandle) a behavioral problem in the classroom, we learned that DQ had an IEP for behavior problems. The teach told us DQ had been arrested and suspended, and that his mother always seemed to think it was the schools fault, not her son's. After seeing the bias in which the teacher handled DQ's removal from class the first time, his statement about DQ's mom peeked my interest. I wanted to get to know who he was and why maybe he was acting this way. I wanted to know what DQ liked, what he didn't like, what works well for him in the classroom, etc. It turns out he was actually one of the smartest students in this particular class, and cared very much about his grades. He was very conscious of his GPA, and wanted to maintain the average he had earned to this point. Maybe his mother was right. From what I saw, the teacher had an opinion of DQ already made up. The student I knew was much different because I chose to invest the time (it wasn't even that much time, but it was TIME) to get to know him and try to help him succeed in the classroom.
I left this class after a week, and when DQ was removed from summer school Len came right to my class to let me know. I, like Len, was infuriated. Mainly because I knew what kind of student he could be, but also because I had a feeling that most of this staff didn't put the effort in the engage him as a human and advance him as a student. I over heard some faculty talking with security guards about DQ's removal in the hallway (not a place this should be occurring). Already a little charged up, I walked over to them and asked if they were talking about DQ? In a very professional tone I explained that it was a shame he was removed from school. I told them that he was one of my favorite students in summer school, and that when interacted with in a way that he can relate to, and that when effort was put into better him as a student, he would amaze them with what he could do and how he would respond. Their response was, "Oh my god, we didn't know that side of him." Predictable.
The lesson I learned is never go by what is just on an IEP or what other teachers tell you. The teacher telling you the information might have failed to reach the student, but that doesn't mean you will.
I will remember Brian. He was an A- student at his school, and was punished for being tardy often. He knows the Algebra 1 material, so we made an agreement that I will give him exercises from Algebra 2 when he knows the material. For example when all students were “suffering” with one and two step equations, he was learning how to solve systems of equations by adding or subtracting one equation from another.
ReplyDeleteOnce I asked him to help a student who could not understand the material and Brian help him. After that day he would help that student without me asking him to do so. He is a leader in the class. Sometime during the group work some students ask him questions and he gladly helps them. When I ask open ended question he is usually the first to give his version, and after him other students would feel comfortable to speak too.
He is a role model for other boys. It is a pleasure to have him in the class and I can rely on this smart, friendly and maturely behaving boy.
There's a girl in my Geometry class, Stela, who really gets it. I told her recently that she should definitely take more math. I don't think she ever felt like she was "good" at math before.
ReplyDeleteI bought a copy of Danica McKellar's Hot X: Algebra Exposed and lent it to her and another girl in my class. I also lent her a book that uses origami to construct polygons, since she's been most intrigued by patterns in what she's seen. Of all my students (and I like quite a few of them), she's the one I'd most like to keep in touch with to encourage her to explore math more.
Posted by Len
ReplyDeleteBruce is a tool - stealing my student..... :)
One student that has made a heart felt impression on me is AJ. AJ is a student who in his own words... hates math. Normally in my class he will come into class and would normally have his head on his desk attempting to rest. I would always call him or walk by speaking and maybe tap the desk or tap his shoulder. I would call on him more often not just to see if he was paying attention but to also keep him awake. But there was something that I noticed about him that I initially did not see. He actually did farely well at the board working out basic problems. I would give him a problem to work out before he went to the board and he never complained. He always gives me the thumbs up if he is undertanding. He normally did nor get high grades and I gave a chapter test last week where he earned a C minus. When I gave him the test back he could not believe it. I told him that he earned that grade and that I was proud of him. I said imagine what the possibilities are if you wrote notes and did your homework or attempted to do it. He agreed with me and said he would try harder. That for me was worth it's weight in gold. Leaving class everyday and drained and to receive comments like that from a struggling student helps inform my teaching that I can not assume a student does not want to try to do better in life. I have a student that if she makes an error she is upset or if she receives a grade less than a A she is unsatisfied. I like that mindset as well as that of AJ. I am still learning how to better scaffold my material. If I am able to do do this effectively I may get much more out of AJ and the rest of the class for them to realize their potential for success if they put in the work.
ReplyDeletePost by Ayileru
ReplyDeletecompletely missed this part
I have about 2 in mind but I will share one. The surprising thing about it is that they are completely opposites. This student “C", was so quiet the first few days in class. She would have her head down at all times. The cooperating teacher actually thought she hated him but it was just her personality. Then she started opening up, I was shocked and taken aback the first time her hands shot up to answer a question. Then she walked up to me have a conversation with me. I see her opening up and speaking more in class, participating, asking and answering questions. She has left an impression.