Towards the end of the school year I received a call from a relative on my husbands side asking if I could tutor her second grade daughter in math and that she would pay me. Being that she was a family member of my husbands I couldn't ask for the money and so I said I would do it as a favor. I also felt better not taking money for my service being that I have no experience of tutoring or teaching elementary students since my main focus is on teaching upper level math classes at a high school.
Today was my first day tutoring her and the main purpose for the tutoring is so that she gets caught up with the second grade math curriculum in time for the third grade. Her mother told me that she struggled in math and english all year long and that her test scores were very low. She was concerned that her daughter would fall behind so early on and would then struggle in the many years that follow. I began to think about ways in which I could help. I didn't even know what they taught in the second grade and so I told her mom to bring with her any workbooks, prior worksheets, tests, etc. I then remembered CST standards and released test questions and so I printed those out reviewing the problems. I learned something very fascinating. CST testing for second graders is done a lot differently than in the high school. The teacher reads the problems and directions for each problem out to the students as they work on them. I would really like to sit in on a class one day as students are testing to see how that is done as well as why and how it helps. I also wonder if the students are given the words to follow along.
Anyway, when the girl came over to my house today she brought over a workbook. I looked at the copyright and it was made back in 2007. I wondered how much the curriculum has changed since than and found that multiplication and division has since been pushed back to the second grade...wow...I was shocked. So much has changed since I have been in the elementary school. As I was tutoring I found where the girls strengths and weakness were in math. I found that she did great when it came to inequality symbols and completing statements to make them true. However, she struggled when it came to knowing her addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division for basic 1-10 numbers. I made her flash cards for all four categories and sent them home with her mom to go over them with her.
That really had me thinking about who is responsible for having students memorize their basic math operations for small numbers. Is it the teacher who needs to drill them with it at school and give them minute math tests or is it the parents that need to create flash cards and go through them once a night before bed. That made me think a lot about what I plan to do with my kids when it comes to school and homework. I think it is important for parents to pick up where teachers left off at the end of the day if they have the capability and knowledge to do so. I never realized how becoming a teacher will help me significantly in raising my own kids one day...
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Implementing New Strategies for Classroom Managment
Last year was my first year of full time teaching. Reflecting back on my classroom management in the past school year I can say that I have many things I would like to change for the next school year.
Classroom management wasn't a great focus during the credential program so coming into teaching, I had very little classroom management strategies that I picked up from my master teacher. During the first week of class I posted a set of rules that needed to be followed in the classroom and also wrote them down in the syllabus. I then later came to realize that enforcing the rules was a lot harder than posting them. Part of the problem I faced was being consistent with the enforcement of the rules. For example, when students would have their cell phones out in class my rule would be that they get confiscated and given to the school dean. However, in order to send it to the office I would have to write up a referral and walk it up my self. I was consistent with writing referrals at the beginning, however towards the end more and more students were breaking this rule so I would let it go at some times, and other times I would write up referrals. Another problem I faced was that the school had no detention or saturday school program. Therefore, it made it hard for me to find consequences for students that were breaking rules.
For the next school year I plan to pick about 3 to five short important rules that I plan to be consistent with the entire school year. I also plan to be a broken record when it comes to off task behavior. For example, if a student is out of their seat and disrupting other students I plan on telling the student that they need to get back into their seat and get to work. If they begin to argue I plan to just repeat myself at most four times and afterward, if the student still has not respected my authority, I plan to walk away leaving the student with no one to argue with but themselves. Another classroom management strategy that I plan to use is to go over an agenda at the start of each class period so that students have an idea of what is coming next. By them knowing that after a warm up we are working on an activity they will be read for the next task rather than going off task and getting out of their seats. I hope that I learn more strategies during the masters program so that I can implement the ones which I feel will work with my students in the following school year.
Classroom management wasn't a great focus during the credential program so coming into teaching, I had very little classroom management strategies that I picked up from my master teacher. During the first week of class I posted a set of rules that needed to be followed in the classroom and also wrote them down in the syllabus. I then later came to realize that enforcing the rules was a lot harder than posting them. Part of the problem I faced was being consistent with the enforcement of the rules. For example, when students would have their cell phones out in class my rule would be that they get confiscated and given to the school dean. However, in order to send it to the office I would have to write up a referral and walk it up my self. I was consistent with writing referrals at the beginning, however towards the end more and more students were breaking this rule so I would let it go at some times, and other times I would write up referrals. Another problem I faced was that the school had no detention or saturday school program. Therefore, it made it hard for me to find consequences for students that were breaking rules.
For the next school year I plan to pick about 3 to five short important rules that I plan to be consistent with the entire school year. I also plan to be a broken record when it comes to off task behavior. For example, if a student is out of their seat and disrupting other students I plan on telling the student that they need to get back into their seat and get to work. If they begin to argue I plan to just repeat myself at most four times and afterward, if the student still has not respected my authority, I plan to walk away leaving the student with no one to argue with but themselves. Another classroom management strategy that I plan to use is to go over an agenda at the start of each class period so that students have an idea of what is coming next. By them knowing that after a warm up we are working on an activity they will be read for the next task rather than going off task and getting out of their seats. I hope that I learn more strategies during the masters program so that I can implement the ones which I feel will work with my students in the following school year.
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