Teacher Ashley C

After this weeks class, which focused on classroom management, I can honestly say that I now know more than I knew before.  My understanding of classroom management has expanded beyond the idea that classroom management is all about student behavior/discipline and routines.  Even though I use components of classroom management everyday in my classroom, I probably could not have clearly articulated my understanding of classroom management had I been asked before class.  This is not the case now.  Throughout our class I was able to pick up valuable tidbits of information from my peers as well as instructors and develop an understanding of classroom management.  From this experience I made the following list that includes the different aspects of classroom management.

1. Clear expectations with consequences (expectations are set high, expectations as well as consequences are posted in the classroom, expectations are set for entering and leaving the classroom)
2. Established routines (class starts with a warm up/bell work, agenda for class is always posted, inbox to collect work that needs to be graded, outbox for work that has been graded and needs to be returned, student folders to collect work for students who missed a class)
3. Physical Space (way the desks, bookshelves, tables and other furniture are arranged, separate area for laboratory work and class work, student area where students can find a pencil sharpen, tape, stapler, three hole punch, absent folders, inbox, outbox, scrap paper and other materials needed for class)
4. Practices and Planning (plan, plan and plan some more, you can never be too prepared, set goals and objectives, plan engaging lessons)
5. Your thinking about your students, your role as a role model, your actions (establish one voice in the classroom, establish dynamic use of voice, respect yourself and others, form relationships with students by talking with students and finding out about their interests, likes/dislikes, families)
6. Transitions and Closure (provide time limits, prior to the next task/activity explain what is coming up next and why, give students time to process information throughout the lesson and at the end of the lesson)
7. Discipline/Behavior

In my opinion you can never know too much about classroom management, reason being, what works in one class may not work in another.  The list is a work in progress, please feel free to add to or make suggestions.

I know what works for me when it comes to studying for a test.  However, what works for me is not necessarily going to work for all of my students.  What can I do to teach my students how to effectively study based on their individual learning styles?

The strategies I have used over the past two years with my students include:

• graphic organizers
• study guides
• re-writing notes
• practice tests with regents questions
• vocabulary flash cards
• re-calculating math problems they have already solved (I encourage students to cover up the work and try the same problems again)

For some students the strategies listed above work, but that is not the case for all of my students.  When it comes time to prepare my students for a unit test I do not feel that I am doing enough with regards to study strategies.  On the other hand I do not feel that my students are doing all they can to prepare because they do not know how to study for a test.

After searching for study strategies on the internet, I found information from the following websites helpful:

1. How To Study: A Brief Guide by William J. Rapaport -This best part about this website is its use of comic strips to supplement the text.
2. A Study Skills Resource Site
3. High School Study Skills - Test Preparation
4. Chemistry Study Cards

What do other teachers do to help students study?  What helps you study?  These are two questions I am eager to learn more about.  If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them!

Safety, in the classroom and lab, has always been one of my top priorities and after last weeks class I was reassured as to why it is so important.  At the beginning of the year my students and I spend a significant amount of time on safety.  For example, one of the assignments I have my students complete is a safety scavenger hunt where they have to find all of the marked safety equipment and draw a detailed map of the classroom that includes the location of the safety equipment.  As they locate and draw the safety equipment they also have to read the description attached to the safety equipment and answer questions about that piece of safety equipment.  When the students find the goggle cabinet many are surprised that they have to wear safety goggle.  Several students will even ask if they have to wear safety goggles if they already wear glasses.  Some students will even say, last year my teacher said I did not have to wear safety goggles because I had glasses.  I make it very clear and explain why it is mandatory for all students to wear safety goggles while working in the lab.

Students do not like to wear the chemical splash goggles and complain they leave marks on their faces.  One way that I have seen to address students who do not wear their goggles at all times in lab comes from my High School Chemistry teacher.  My Chemistry teacher would make students sing the goggle song in front of the whole class if we were caught without our goggles on.  The goggle song is sung to the tune of “I’m a little tea pot”.

After the questions about goggles have been addressed the following questions usually focus on why food and drinks cannot be brought to class and lab.  Where I teach the room is not divided into a lab section and class section.  The pods/tables the students sit at during class are the same pods/tables they use to complete their lab experiments.  Even though all pods/tables are cleaned after each experiment food and drink cannot be brought to class.  After we talk about all the reasons why food and drinks should not be brought to class the students understand the reasons behind this rule.  Many students will stand in the hall and finish eating or drinking whatever they have before they enter the room.

It dawned on me this week as I was working with some students, in my classroom, during advisement ( an eighty minute block built into the students schedules where they can get pre-signed passes to see teachers for extra help) that there is a group of students, under the supervision of another teacher assigned to my classroom during this time.  These students may or may not be taking Chemistry and may or many not be aware of the no food or drink rule.  This is important to point out because during advisement there is a snack cart that sells food and drinks to students.  If there is an advisement in my classroom, which there is, these students are eating and drinking in the Chemistry classroom.  This is not safe!  To complicate things the advisment cannot be moved to a non-science classroom because we are tight for space and all rooms in the school are being used.  From this experience I have learned that there must be communication between the teacher in charge of advisement and myself in order to address this issue.  Right now we are working on possible solutions that work better than having all the students go out in the hall and eat.  During advisement, that would be way to many students in the hall.

With election day being November 4th, students had the day off, but teachers had to report for a professional development day.  Our morning started with a group activity on student engagement.  Then it was off to individual sessions that we had signed up for ahead of time.

I had signed up for two sessions one on designing a classroom website and the other on podcasting.  Learning how to develop a website for the classes I teach was exciting but at times stressful.  So many steps to remember.  Creating a working website for the classes I teach would allow my students and their parents to check homework assignments, see what they missed while they were absent, print materials that they may have miss placed or missed, check their grades, view videos, blog and connect to helpful/useful chemistry websites.  The possibilities seem endless!  Even though there is so much I need to learn before it will be finished, I am thrilled with what I did learn.  As of right now it is a work in progress but hopefully soon it will be a master piece, my fingers are crossed.

After the website session I was feeling great.  Unfortunately, this did not last for long.  Learning how to podcast made me feel like technology is changing so quickly.  For the first time I was unsure how I would be able to keep up.  What we learned in this session was not difficult but it was overwhelming.  I was left asking myself, when do I have the time to put a podcast together, how do I keep up to date with all the technology resources I am learning and how can I make sure I use these technology resources so my students benefit?  Podcasting is a wonderful tool and several teachers at school already use this in their classrooms.  Students can download the podcasts onto their Ipod and watch. What better way to have students use the technology they love and get content specific information out there.  Last year when Ipods were allowed in school one teacher would have students watch his podcast as a way to review before taking their test.  Another idea that was suggested this year is to use podcasts when you are absent.  Send the podcast to the substitute teacher or link it to your classroom website and the day can go on as if you were there.

Learning how to manage and design a website along with learning how to podcast has given me the opportunity to keep up with today’s technologically savvy adolescents.  The goal is to never stop learning! Overall the day was very productive; however, it would be nice to have more time set aside to work on our websites and podcasts.

When students walk into a chemistry classroom one of the first questions they usually ask is can we blow something up.  As a beginning chemistry teacher the number of demonstrations I know how to do are limited.  As for demonstrations that blow something up I know even less.  Even though I do own several books that have plenty of demonstrations I prefer to see demonstrations performed by others or practice demonstrations with other experienced chemistry teachers first before I do them in front of a classroom full of students.  The fact that certain demonstrations can create an explosion makes me nervous about trying new demonstrations on my own.  In addition not knowing all the ins and outs of certain chemicals adds to my concern.  The demonstrations provided in the books I own or even the ones I find online do have warnings, safety precautions and instructions for disposal but it would be nice to have the opportunity to work with and learn from the other chemistry teachers in my department.  The other chemistry teachers at the school I teach at have several years of experience and would be great resources to learn from; however they are very busy and most of the time our schedules do not match up.

This week it happened to be my luck that my schedule did match up with one of the other teachers.  We were able to practice some demonstrations after school and combined our first block classes for some Halloween related experiments.  All of the demonstrations we did were new to me.  We started with Genie in a bottle and renamed it Spirits in a bottle (Genie in a Bottle on YouTube).  Our next demonstration was feeding the hungry goblin using gummy bears and molten potassium chlorate (Gummy Bears Experiment on YouTube) (also known as the hungry dragon) then we did a tower of terror with methane bubbles (Methane Bubbles on YouTube), a polymer pumpkin

lit three orange balloons with hand drawn pumpkin faces filled with hydrogen (Hydrogen Balloons on YouTube) and ended with a bang by carving a pumpkin using a Petri dish, water and calcium chloride (Exploding Pumpkin on YouTube).  The students loved our experiments and I was able to perform all of these demonstrations again for my other three classes.  It was a rewarding experience to work with the other chemistry teacher and put together all these demonstrations.  Hopefully my luck will not run out and there will be many more experiences like this for me to learn from! I am already looking forward to doing these demonstrations again next year. 

I have been on the look out for workshops around the area that focus on chemistry demonstrations for the past two years but unfortunately I have not had any luck locating any.  This year was the first time I heard about the workshops offered in Syracuse and I was looking forward to going.  Unfortunately I could not attend these workshops due to prior engagements.  If you know of any workshops offered in New York State please let me know.  I would love to attend if I can!

Friday of last week was my first observation of the year.  The day before the observation occurs we have a pre-observation where we meet with our assistant principal and discuss the lesson as well as questions that I have filled out prior to the meeting.  This year the pre-observation questions were different.  Last year and the year before the questions focused on literacy development and what students should have learned by the end of the lesson; however this year the focus is on student assessment and engagement.  One question that I had to answer this year was, “How will you know when they have learned what you expected them to learn?  Specifically, what formative assessments will you use throughout the lesson to help you gauge student learning?  (E.g. clarifying questions, questions that produce more complex thinking skills, paper/pen assessments, etc…)”  (Guiding Questions for Pre-observation, 2008, 1).

The timing of my observation fit perfectly with the topic being discussed in our grad class, assessment.  It worked out nicely that our last two grad classes have focused on assessment and in one we specifically talked about formative (informal/formal) and summative (informal/formal) assessments.  Not only was it helpful to organize information about formative and summative assessments in the chart that served as our ticket to leave, but I found it very helpful while filling out the chart to hear examples from my classmates.  The examples that my classmates gave during class especially helped me gather ideas about other formative assessments I could use during my observation.  The best part about the examples given by my classmates was the fact that they were not given as examples in the pre-observation questions above.  Some of the formative assessments I used during my observation included; asking students questions while they were working and using a chart to check off whether or not they understood the concept at hand, a pair/share assignment, self-graded quiz and a ticket to leave.  It was rewarding to learn new ways to formatively assess students, ways that I might not have thought about or come up with without my classmates!

Before last weeks class, it never occurred to me that I have never taken a course that focused on or discussed planning.  Knowing this is true, I am left wondering, how did I learn how to plan.  Did I learn to plan during my student teaching experiences or was it when I worked with my mentor during my first year of teaching or did I learn from a fellow teacher?  Honestly, I cannot remember learning from any of those experiences.  However, if I had to pick one it would be my student teaching experience.

When I was student teaching I remember the teacher I was working with, for my first placement, showing me how she planned.  Her method consisted of looking at the week ahead and determining the topics she would cover each day.  Then she went through and listed the activities, worksheets and labs she was going to use to teach those topics.  I do not remember her listing or referencing the content standards she was teaching.  Maybe she did not do this because she had been teaching for several years and knew the content she needed to cover by heart.   I was very thankful that I worked with this teacher first because the second teacher I worked with was in her first year of teaching and did not have much to share with me in terms of how to plan.  At this point, you might be wondering how I got placed with a first year teacher for my second placement but it is a long story and one I will save for another day.

Now that I have spent some time trying to figure out when I learned how to plan, I have realized that I want to explore and learn how other teachers plan.  The way I plan does not have to be the method I use for the rest of my career.  Even though it might work for me it might not be the best or most efficient.  I am interested and intrigued to find out what else is out their.

This past week I began working with other teachers at my school to learn how they plan.  Many teachers have shown me their approach to planning and it was reassuring to find out that my way of planning is not that much different from the way these experienced teachers plan.  You cannot imagine how relieved I was when I found this out.  For a while I was very nervous that I was doing something wrong because I had very little training/preparation in this area.  Also, it should not go unmentioned that our discussion, on planning, in class last week as well as the examples we were shown in class also reassured me that I was on the right track.  There are small ways in which I will adjust my current planning techniques due to the discussion I have had and will continue to have with fellow teachers.

Please feel free to share how you plan or ways you have seen other teachers plan.  I would like to learn as much as I can in regards to this area of teaching!

Yesterday, my students in Regents Chemistry took their first unit test.  Before the tests were even handed out there were several students asking what options were available if they did not pass.  For example, students wanted to know if they could do test corrections, take another test or complete an extra credit assignment.  This made my heart sink and right away I was nervous for them.  Usually the students asking about other options are the ones who did not take the time to prepare themselves for the test or they are poor test takers.  I can sympathizes with the poor test takers because I am one of them.  However, when I was in high school I cannot remember any teacher ever offering a second chance.  This is not to say that I want to be like the teachers I had in high school but it does make me wonder if the school I teach at is offering so many second chances that the students are not taking the time to adequately prepare for the first chance.  Is this just a school problem or does it extend further?  For example, there are three different times a student can take any regents exam; June, August and January.  What message does this send to students?

In previous years, I have heard the same questions and I have offered mastery tests and test corrections.  I am not sure what it is about this year but I am struggling when it comes to making a decision in regards to the options I make available to the students who do not pass.  Above all else, I want the students to feel a sense of accomplishment when they understand the material.  A failing grade on a test does not give them that.  For some students, it may take a longer period of time before they understand the material.  With that being said why not offer them a mastery test and let them have another chance to show that they understand the material, especially if the goal is to get them to understand the material before the regents exam.  It does not matter when they learn the material, but it does matter that they learn the material.  When I offered test corrections I did not feel that the students were doing the corrections to understand the material better, but rather to get it done and increase their grade.  This was the reason that I switched to a mastery test, in other words a retest with a different name, thanks to a fellow teacher.  In order to take a mastery test I required the students to come in and go over the first test with me, complete extra practice questions and then sign up to take a second test.  Under this system not only did the student have a chance to improve their grade but they had the opportunity to show that they understood the material.  The understanding part was key for me and the grade aspect was key for the students.  In my mind, at the time, it was a win win situation.  As the year went on I started to realize that the students who needed to take the mastery test or the students I required to take the mastery test, because they did not pass the first test, were not taking advantage of this opportunity.

I do know of another option that a fellow teacher is currently using.  This option includes a help session where the students sit through a mini lesson, complete practice questions then take a mini quiz.  Attending these help sessions and participating raises the students test grade to a 65%.  There might be other parts to this option that I am forgetting right now, but it is another option that I am thinking about.  I am open to and interested in any other options that may be out there.

Please help, I want to do what is best for my students!

Throughout my education I have struggled with writing, especially when the assignment involves writing about reading assignment(s).  When it is time to put all the pieces together in writing I freeze.  After several hours of rereading and rewording sentences as well as paragraphs I finally get all my thoughts down on paper.  At this point, when everything is finished, I look back at the assignment and realize that was not so bad.  However, I can only say this at the end because I have worked through all of the material and made sense of the topic.  What I have learned through my struggles has helped me help my students.

For the last two and a half weeks my students have been learning about the structure of the atom.  We have been building off of their prior knowledge about protons, electrons, neutrons, atomic mass and atomic number.  I realized very quickly that these concepts were not making sense to them, one because they could not visual any of them and two because they were not in control of their learning.  As soon as I realized this I decided on a different approach.  The new plan centered around asking questions and having students come up with their own unique way to remember the information.  Students worked with a partner and bounced ideas off one another.  Some students created visuals while others expressed their ideas in writing.  At the end of the class, each pair of students had come up with a different way to remember the information.  It was not until our next class together that I realized how much the students had taken away from that experience.  After this experience the students were answering their own questions about atomic mass and atomic number.  It was a struggle to get the students to this point and along the way they did get frustrated, but it was worth it to see their excitement when they could answer each others questions.

Most of the time the students want to be given the answer.  They do not want to think for themselves.  Making the students think and work through the material to make sense of it, just as I explained in my own personal experience, is what made this experience so rewarding for everyone involved.

Last week two of my regents chemistry classes did a lab on density.  Their task was to make a hard boiled egg float by adding salt to the tap water.  Once their egg floated they were asked to calculate, using significant figures, the density of the tap water, salt water and the egg.  This week two of my general chemistry classes did a different density lab and created a density column.  After last weeks grad class on inquiry and Bell’s article I came up with an idea that would allow me to combine both labs into one inquiry lab.  My though is to have the students build the denisty column first and then present them with the open exploaration activity of making a hard boilded egg float.  The students would be given all the materials they need to make a hard boiled egg float, but it would be up to them to figure out how.  There are two purposes behind combinding both labs.  The first purpose is meant to allow the students the opportunity to learn and refresh their memory in regards to the density concept.  The second purpose is meant to provide the students with an opportunity to explore and construct their understanding of density.  Currently both labs on density are very straight foward and only require the students to follow the procedures to get the desired results.  The only time the students are required to process the purpose of the lab is when they answer the analysis questions and write their conclusion.  I would like to give them the opportunity to process the concept of density much sooner than the analysis questions.  Next year I will blog after we have done the “new” density lab to share how things went and report on whether or not it was a successful inquiry activity.