5 posts from June 2008

Reading The Reluctant Disciplinarian was akin to viewing a horror film about teaching.  It is my worst fear, and that of many other first years I know, to have a class that is out of control.  So far in summer school, I have not encountered this problem, but I feel that is more of a factor of having a class of seven students then class management.  Currently, my tactics for quelling any talking in class is giving cold glares to the perpetrator and motioning with my hands that they need to stop.  So far, it has worked well, but I am sure that in a larger classroom I will need to do the same and issue warnings to those students.

One of the best points that the Reluctant Disciplinarian gets across is the need for quick and decisive justice in the classroom.  I feel that the only way I will have an effective math class is by having an orderly and stable one, and the only way to achieve stability will be by starting discipline from the first infraction, even if this could be construed as slightly unfair.  The book highlights how if the first infraction may be difficult to give a warning for, the second will be even harder, and the third harder yet.  If it gets to the point that the teacher has slipped and not given a warning/discipline for the first batch of deviance, the class will know what they can get away with, and it is a slippery slope.  

Overall, I hope that by reading the Reluctant Disciplinarian my teaching nightmare of having an unruly class room can stay just that, only a dream.

I have learned quite a bit through observation of my second year teachers at MTC.  I have been lucky with who I've gotten as second years, Ms. Doyle, Ms. Smith, and Ms. Kimmel.  All three have done a terrific job at Holly Springs Middle School, and I have benefited greatly from working with them.  My three major observations of what they do very well is:

    1. Always be assertive with the students
    2. Make the students do the majority of the work in the classroom - it gives     them more chances to learn
    3. Always be confident while teaching

As mentioned earlier, working with the three second years has been most beneficial, from observing them teach, to receiving quality feedback.

Last week I tried the cold calling methods in class to call on students to answer questions or come to the board.  I wrote down everyones name on a slip of paper, put the slips into a plastic Wal-Mart bag, and drew the names out to call on the students.  Overall, the method worked well, but I think it will be better in larger classrooms.  The benefits are that the students are afraid that they will be called on, so they do their work to ensure they have an answer.  Also, it eliminated any students talking out of turn, since they know that they will be called on when the teacher reaches into the bag.  The downside I ran into is that in a class of 7 and with only calling 20 or so names in the class period, some kids where not called, and some where called multiple times.  In a large class this will not be an issue, because in a large class the students will not feel bad about not being called, and their should be less of a possibility of being called multiple times per class.  

Reading Delta Autumn brought me back to when I decided to sign up for Mississippi Teacher Corp.  I attended a public high school in rural Oregon, and I figured that public schools in rural Mississippi could not be that different then Astoria High.  After reading the first chapter, I realized that I was wrong.  

One factor that sets Mississippi public schools apart from those in Oregon, or most other parts of the nation, is the reluctance they had to integrate.  While many schools in the north likely favored segregation as well, the schools in Mississippi took it to a new level.  After reading that their was no mandatory attendance until 1982 was shocking.  1982 is only 26 years ago, roughly one generation.  

Learning is more then just  attending good schools.  It is also a cultural doing.  Given that 26 years ago school was not mandatory, and that many poor workers in the Delta would probably choose (or be recommend to by their bosses/the State) to work in the field rather than attend school, the culture in the delta, by no fault of itself, does not seem geared towards education.

Reading on in Delta Autumn I came across the section of teaching high school math, which I will be doing in the fall.  Perhaps most striking was the statement that students in upper level math courses could be lacking basic math skills that should have been enforced earlier.  I've always viewed math as a pyramid, with the base being basic understandings of "lower" math, such as algebra.  It will certainly be a large challenge to attempt to build up this imaginary pyramid of math while attempting to fix the base.  

Overall, I feel that Delta Autumn will be a useful resource that I will turn to often, both in terms of refreshment on the history of Mississippi public schools, but also for how to manage working at a school with lackluster staff.  Luckily, I will be in Murrah High, of which I've heard nothing but positive remarks about both the staff and the reputation of the school, so perhaps my experience will be less frustrating of those teaching in Delta.  Regardless, after reading Delta Autumn, I have begun to realize that the problem with schools in Mississippi reaches deeper then just the schools themselves, and into the areas history.

So its been a week in teacher corp and I've finally had my first dream about teaching.  I'm standing in front of the classroom, and its empty.  The room is shaped like a lecture hall with stadium seating, and its made of concrete.  The desks are concrete, the chairs are concrete, the walls and floors are concrete.  The the kids file in, and they are quite nice (and not made of concrete), they take their concrete seats, and they look forward at me.  I begin to pass out the syllabus and the kids begin to get strange looks on their faces.  A girl raises her hand and asks me what subject the course is on, and I don't know the answer.  Suddenly, I can see everyone syllabus, and they are all different.  Someone has a syllabus for spanish, another syllabus is for film, and so on.  Thats when I wake up.