It is very easy to become cynical about teaching in a high needs area. Most of the time my kids are unmotivated, disrespectful, and incredibly confrontational. However, with each day there are inevitably bright spots. For instance, Mr. Mill and I (mostly Mill) have been sponsoring a very informal chess club. We are actually starting to generate some excitement. We now have about four somewhat legitimate student chess players coming to Mr. Mill's room after school. We have two consistent participators and both kids are a pleasure to be around. I cannot express how nice it is to be around kids who act like human beings and appreciate the game of chess. The chess club that Mr. Mill has created has given these two kids an opportunity to escape the world of insanity that is North Panola High School. It has allowed them to act like real kids, making geeky references to Star Wars and Spongebob Squarepants. And these are not geeky kids. They are legitimately funny, interesting people. Unfortunately for them the environment at North Panola doesn't often provide an outlet for interesting people. Our chess club provides a brief escape from the rough environment they must face every day. Now perhaps I am not being too clear in this blog, but I think most teachers will know what I mean.
I think so. My home state of Mississippi needs the help. Mississippi needs talented, cultured, and motivated individuals in its school systems.
Anyway, many other MTC bloggers have written much more eloquently on this topic than I am capable of. Check out Propaghandi's manifesto for evidence of that. In this blog post I will not attempt to comment on all the problems of Mississippi, because for the most part I cannot even begin to wrap my mind around all that is wrong with our state.
I will instead comment on a singular, positive aspect of MTC. The Friendships. Since I joined MTC, I have made several friendships which I feel will last me a lifetime. I know. I know. I shouldn't be writing on something like this. I should instead be pondering the problems of "the system". But like I said, other people have written much more eloquently on that topic. I also feel that another blog post on what qualities a teacher should have to come to da' sip is unneccessary.
Should you be a hardworker if you want to join MTC? Yes.
Should you want to teach? Yes.
Should you be a good teacher? Yes, probably.
To tell you the truth, I feel pretty inadequate as a teacher. I do not have the self-motivation that it takes to become a great teacher. I am decent, but definitely not great. One of the positive things I have gained though my experience with the MTC however is my interaction with a diverse group of people. I have met interesting, talented, and hilarious individuals from every part of the country while I have been teaching. I now have friends from such Yankeeish places as Boston, New York, and Michigan. By the end of the program I will probably have made some of the best friends of my life.
Anyway, thanks for reading. If you need teaching advice, ask someone else.
My classroom management is a lot different from what I said I would do in my classroom management plan. The biggest thing is that I do not really follow the rules and consequences posted in my room. My goal in class is not usually not complete silence. I allow the kids to talk usually until I say "No more talking." Only at that point do I start issuing consequences. I cannot say that this is a very good idea. It usually takes me a couple of minutes to calm every thing down before I start issuing consequences, and this is a huge waste of time. I also havent quite figured out how to deal with sleeping in class. I often just let bad kids sleep. Bad, I know. I think I shall probably have to change things up significantly.
I went to a public school in Mississippi, so I have witnessed poverty in a school before. However, at New Albany High School there was a relatively low amount of visibly impoverished kids. Sure, we had plenty of poor kids at New Albany, but it never seemed like a big deal. Needless to say, things are a little bit different at North Panola High School. It seems that at least ninety percent of the kids are dealing with true poverty, and I don't think that is an exaggeration.
I have made a few observations about the effects of poverty on the children at North Panola. Firstly, I think the poverty experienced by these kids has created a culture in which education is not as valued as is being able to defend one's self verbally and physically. There are a lot of angry kids at North Panola High School, and I think this is because of the environments these kids have grown up in. Losing one's reputation seems to be more important to the kids at North Panola than losing one's opportunity for education.
I have also noticed that without fail the kids with more money do much better in school. When I am on duty outside the school I notice what kind of cars these kids get dropped off in or whether or not they walk to school. Every time I have seen a kid I know get out of a nice car on his way to school he or she is doing well in my class. When I see a kid getting out of a not so nice car he or she is doing poorly in my class. Poverty and academic performance seem to be directly linked in this instance.
The kids that I know pay for lunch inevitably do better in school as well. I do not know why money seems to have such an effect on academic performance. My only guess is that the more fortunate kids grow in more stable environments where they are encouraged to do well. Academic achievement is deemed more valuable than maintaining a "rep."
Well, so far the MTC has been everything I thought it would be. I have met many interesting people from all over the country with completely different views about things. I have found many people that I disagree with about certain issues, but I have found no one that I do not call a friend. I have been pleasantly surprised with the quality of our group. I had expected a bunch of self-righteous, liberal yankees coming down to po' ole Mississippi to save us. I have not found that to be the case. There are plenty of liberal yankees, but I would say that all of them have a great attitude about what they are doing down here, and none of them have a patronizing view that I can see. We have a bright, well-rounded group of very good people, and I feel very happy about all of them helping out my home state. For any MTCer reading this, I wish you luck.
I thought the summer training was excellent. I think that being able to work with such bright teachers during the summer will really help me as a teacher. I also got valuable teaching experience at Holly Springs. I feel like I am not a complete rookie walking in to North Panola this fall. I think one of the main strengths of the summer training is that it provides a way for teachers to get valuable experience without getting completely thrown to the wolves. After summer training I also feel that most of the flaws I had as a teacher have at least been exposed. I may not have learned to correct them yet, but at least I know what they are.
If there were any flaws to the summer program, I would say that the role plays got a little repetitive. I feel that our time might have been better spent if we had alternated days in which we did role plays. I feel that would have made us look forward to the role plays a little more and value them a little more. It is also my opinion that too much opinion is paid to minute details in lessons as opposed to focusing on whether or not the lesson itself was effective. All in all though, I would say that summer training was great.
I will begin by saying that I feel like I have improved a lot over the summer as a teacher. I am a much more confident teacher than the bumbling, nervous teacher I was at the beginning of the summer. This was indicated in the video, as I seemed more sure of myself than before. I had more "presence" if that makes any sense.
One specific thing I noticed that I improved on was moving around the room. In the June video I noticed that I was pacing at the front of the room a lot, but there was very little movement around the entire room. I noticed that I did much better with this in the second video. By moving around the room I was able to make the lesson less about me and more about the students.
One specific thing I noticed that I did wrong was actually pointed out to me by another teacher who was watching the video with me. I thought little of completely turning my back to the entire room as I was writing the bellringer on the board since I was doing this before class had officially started. Carmen Jones pointed out to me that kids are going to be doing stuff behind my back even if it is before class. I definitely need to do better with writing on the board like that with my back completely turned.
I do feel that I was entertaining and made the lesson fun. I sounded enthusiastic and did a good job of getting all my students involved in the lesson. Once again, I have to do better with consistency in classroom discipline, but overall I feel like I did pretty well. We will see how things work out in the fall.
Time management is easily the number one thing that I need to work on. I have to get out of the college mode of procrastination, and start becoming a professional. I have to quit staying up late. I have to stop not getting enough sleep. I am seriously disappointed in the way I have handled myself this summer when it comes to time management. Sure I have managed to make it so far, and I do not think that I have done a bad job at all when it comes to teaching lessons, but I will definitely get burned during the fall if I continue my summer behavior.
I also think I need to get better with being consistent in classroom management. I have begun to get a little lax with it, and as a result students have started to push the envelope more and more. I know that I cannot get lax with classroom management during the fall or I will risk disaster.
My two goals for the fall:
1. Professionalism
2. Consistency
Mrs. Young was my team teacher and she seems to be a very laid back person. However, she was not easy on me at all when it came to evaluations. One thing that Mrs. Young called me out on that noone else had before is my hand writing. My hand writing is abysmal and Mrs. Young let me know that. I think hand writing is definitely something that I am going to have to work on before I start teaching in the fall. I might have to rely completely on pre-printed materials.
Another thing that Mrs. Young taught me is to watch my DOK levels. Before, I had gone by exactly what the framework said. Mrs. Young made me realize that most of my lessons weren't matching the DOK levels that I had indicated. I will need to make sure and get that corrected if I am going to be dealing with the state takeover at North Panola.
Mrs. Young also taught me to deal better with discipline. I had gotten kind of complacent in my classroom management practices partly because of how good my class has been and partly because I got sort of lazy. I definitely need to work on consistency in classroom management.
Well, I filmed myself earlier this week teaching, and I was not surprised that I was surprised at what I saw. Every time I record myself or film myself I am disappointed in how my voice sounds. My voice is not deep at all, and it is more country than I imagine. As far as teaching, one thing I noticed is I tend to pace back and forth at the front of the room but I do not move around the room as much as I should. While I am talking/teaching I stay at the front of the room but I only move to the back when I am not talking.
I consider myself well-liked by my students, so I tolerate a certain amount of "misbehavior". That is, I ignore a certain amount of speaking out as long as everyone focuses on the lesson. However, I did not realize the amount of talking/laughing that goes on that I do not notice. While I am doing all of my pacing, students are talking and snickering amongst themselves. I need to do better with that.
While I dislike watching recording of myself, I found it incredibly useful. I think the things I noticed in the video will do a lot to improve my teaching and the learning experience for the students.
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