Staying Strong this Spring!

Austin Mann

Blog Post 2

Dr. Mason

2/21/2015

                  Hello everyone! I am continuing my illustrious student teaching this semester, and it is going fantastically. However, I am very busy with all that I have to do between lesson planning, studying for my PRAXIS, and working on my KPTP, I am feeling like Tom Hanks’s character in Cast Away when he is lost at sea on his make shift raft weeping uncontrollably over losing his volleyball friend Wilson. Graduation is just around the corner and I have a list longer than Santa’s naughty list of items that I need accomplish before that fateful (and glorious) day arrives.       Now that multiple classes have been added to my busy schedule, I am having had a hard and very difficult time trying to find time for my lesson planning. It has been a hard and anguishing time over the last several weeks. I have been having trouble trying to figure out how to get students involved with writing and class discussion specifically, as many of my students are seniors and already in the mindset of summer vacation. I have had an especially hard time with my seniors. I cannot tell if it’s senioritis or if they are just too unwilling to write and participate.

            When it comes to discussions in class, my CT really loves to get the students involved with the activity of the day. I however am not my CT, and I am not pronounced with my discussion leading as she is. My seniors are currently reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and I am having a really hard time getting them to discuss it. They seem almost afraid of what others might say, but always after class they come up to me individually and ask me questions on why the author doesn’t just leave her family, or take another course of action. I am preparing to do a lesson that Smagorinsky suggests in his book Teaching English by Design. In his book Smagorinsky writes about how we as educators can put an author on trial. Smagorisky writes “Students who do not like an author’s or narrator’s deployment of characters may put the author or narrator on trial, prosecuting them for crimes against the characters.” (Smagorisky 34)

 I feel like this would be a great way to mix things up and get the students involved in the book like I know they are. Since the book we are reading isn’t fiction and is the account of the author I would more than likely place the parents on trial for their misdeeds to their children. I am reading other ideas that Smagorinsky has to offer, but my question to you wonderful people is this. What would you do to get your Seniors who have come down with senioritis to do to get them active in the lessons again? Would you follow Smagorinsky’s ideas or do you have one of your own? I hope you all have a wonderful week! Keep doing what you do best and smile!  

Work Cited

Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry out Instructional Units. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Print.

 

Take a Breath

 

It’s going to get worse.

Your perfect student is going to act out and disobey

and your worst student is going to push your patience to the very brink.

Someone will tweet something hurtful about your teaching style

 and plaster it all over the school.

Your favorite shirt will get a coffee stain during passing period.

Your students will fall asleep

after lunch in your class during your lesson that you worked hours on, with drool

spilling

out of their chewing gum infested mouth. Or your para

will remember that she has a dentist appointment

and leave you in the middle of the hour with seven special ed. Students who are acting up.

The other perfect student-

The one that texts a little too often- will forget all of their

work

And will freak out and cry and require you to calm him down putting you behind in your lesson.

No matter how many hours you prepare,

or how many tiny details you brace yourself for, you’ll lose track of time, the date, and the school assembly day.

If your troubled student comes in smelling of booze one day

You’ll come in to see one of your students putting cigarettes into his pocket

and is trying to sell it to other students because he never had the chance to see himself as something more

and probably won’t graduate.

There’s a Christian belief of a man who came into this world to teach and love.

When it came time for him to pay the ultimate price for his students

He did so without hesitation. But he was innocent in his

trial.

And he looks on at his students dividing up his clothes and casting lots for them.

At this point he notices a bowl full of vinegar and water.

He asks the guards crucifying him for a drink

They give him a sponge soaked in the mixture.

So here’s the view, the sun will set, some of your students will fail, you’ll get in a wreck, you won’y make enough money. You’ll lose loved ones.

Oh how sweet a teacher’s love is

so close to your heart.

 

Based on the poem Relax by Ellen Bass

Genre Reflection 2 My Thoughts as a Student

Genre Reflection 2

My Thoughts When I Was A Freshman in English

What time is it? 2:10!

 How can I have only been siting here for ten minutes?

Oh here comes Mr. Irby…

That comb over isn’t fooling anyone.

Sigh this class is so boring…

All he does is drone on and on and on and on and on

Oh what are we learning about today?

Shakespeare? Snore.

WHO CARES ABOUT A DUDE FROM HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO?

Ohhhhh…. Megan Graber is looking at me…. YES!!! She is beautiful! Her smile… am I blushing?

Those green eyes are like sparkling emeralds.

Her blond hair looks like silk, I wonder if it’s soft like suede? Maybe silk?

She just laughed! It’s like sweet music….

I think I love her….….Sigh

Uhoh Mr. Irby is looking at me.

“Austin, what do you think?”

Uh-oh I wasn’t paying attention…

Lord, I promise to pay attention from here on out if you please don’t let me make a fool of myself.”

“Austin! What do you think Shakespeare is trying to convey here in this character?”

Oh crap, Megan is looking at me…SHE’S SMILING!!! I gotta be smooth with my answer.  I need to impress her! Was this why she was laughing?

“Well Mr. Irby, is he trying to convey that this character is a man?”

“No Mr. Mann, Juliet is most certainly not a man…”

Well everyone’s laughing….

I’m just gong to hide forever, Megan will never talk to me now!

OK TIME HAD TO HAVE PASSED…

2:11!!!!! This just isn’t fair.

 

                This is a dialogue of my thoughts from when I was a student in high school. Freshman year to be exact. This was Mr. Irby’s Freshman English class, and he was one of my most boring teachers, or so I thought. I later had Mr. Irby again for Senior English, but this time I paid attention, and I realized, I turned myself off from learning because I didn’t give the subject matter a chance. It’s important to get students interested in the material, but it is not always easy. Those that did pay attention to Mr. Irby’s Freshman English class said I was crazy for thinking it was boring, because he made the material fun and fresh. That’s why this reflection means so much to me. I don’t want my students to tune me out just because they don’t like the subject matter.

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are staying warm during this fall, however it feels more like winter. This semester has been a hard one, but I am staying afloat. No matter what though, I am always looking forward to teaching. It is my breath of fresh air, and getting to be with my students and work with them has been a delight for me this semester. I have truly been blessed with a great class that follows the rules and never speaks out of turn. They are open to trying new things, so I have gotten the opportunity to try some new stuff, and see what sort of things I want to use and don’t want to use in my classroom. There is this one student that I am having trouble with. She shows up late every day and just sits and texts or sleeps the entire class. Whenever I call on her for an answer she just says “Yeah right” and then goes back to texting. At my placement, the school policy states I cannot take the phone away from her, and that I can only take points away.

 

I have been trying to reach her, but she keeps fighting me. At the beginning of the semester she was one of my best students, but now she is distant and cold. I’m guessing it has to do something with her home life, but I cannot be for certain. Like I said I have been able to experiment more with this class, so this semester I have been trying to use conversations and discussions to help bring this student back into the class. According to Bomer “We live in an age where work gets done through collaboration.” (Bomer 135) This statement is absolutely correct. In today’s society, we have never been more connected. We must collaborate if we want to survive in the modern world. Right now I’m collaborating with you reading this post!

 

I read what Bomer had to say on trying to get the students to respond. One of the ideas that he presents really caught my eye. “Pull on the differences to draw them out. Good conversation usually involves negotiating things that members of the group see differently.” (Bomer 139) I used this idea to my advantage with this student of mine. We were having a debate on whether or not alcohol should be banned like it was during prohibition. (We are reading on the Harlem Renaissance) She is one of those students who is very opinionated, especially when it comes to alcohol as I’m assuming she is fan because she has worn a Jack Daniels hoody to class several times. She got really into the debate, and she was way against prohibition, and got into a great debate with several of my students who were siding with the logic of prohibition.

 

Now Bomer’s text isn’t meant to help with problem students. It’s supposed to help me be a better teacher. So my question is, what are some ways you guys would deal with this student? How would you get her to get off her phone and pay attention? Remember I can’t take her phone. I can only take her participation points for the day, and she isn’t breaking any classroom rules. Thanks in advance for your input, and I hope you all are having a blessed year!

 

Till next time, have a great Thanksgiving, and a wonderful holiday season everyone!

Mr. Mann

KATE and My Thoughts on it

 

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having productive semesters thus far, and that you had a very marry Halloween! I was very busy this last week. I was able to attended the KATE conference (Kansas Association for Teachers of English), and I have to tell you all that I had an absolute blast. Not only did I learn a lot, I got to reflect with other educators on all the stresses and joy that the profession of teaching brings. The conference took place on the 30^th and 31^st. The guest speaker was Taylor Mali, and honestly, from what I’ve seen and heard from the man, I was surprised how humble and honest he was. He showed his passion for teaching and the English language, while also making everyone laugh. On a side note, he is fantastic at photobombing.

It was a great conference and I learned a lot of useful ideas for lessons. There was a panel called “Icebreakers, Teambuilding, and Brain Breaks: Using Collaborative Play to Faster Positive Learning.” This panel especially intrigued me, as I was not only lectured on the various types classroom activities, but was also able to participate in them as well! As soon as the day was over, I went home as hastily as I could to alter the lesson plan I had set for later this week, and changed it as I could not offer to miss this opportunity to experiment with one of the ideas that were presented!

There were so many panels, but only so much time. I had to plan which ones I could benefit the most from carefully. Many times there were two panels that I wanted to attend, and it would come down to the last minute for me to decide. One of the better panels was the Making it Stick: Communicating Ideas and Information to Students. To me, this was the most beneficial, as it was taught by two veteran teachers, who both made the point that as educators we want to get fifty points across in a lesson, but ultimately, children won’t remember. That is why we need to get one point across clearly.

Overall this conference was fantastic, I learned so much, and am eager to try some of the things I have learned in my own classroom. It was also nice getting to talk with other teachers who know the ropes and understand the idea of what sort of emotions I’m feeling towards student teaching next semester. Also, getting to meet and hear Taylor Moli speak was a wonderful experience and it made me more passionate about the career I’m pursuing.

That’s all for now! More to come soon!

 

Austin Mann Genre Reflection

(A letter to my Grandfather)

Dear Granddad,

            How are you? Have the cows come home yet? I just wanted to tell you about what I have experienced in my school placing and what you told me to expect. You were right in the regards of students asking me if my last name was truly my last name. They would say “Is that your real name?” I would reply “Yes.”, and they would reply with snickers and laughs. They would then become serious when I took the podium however. There are a few students who would rather be anywhere else instead of my classroom. They think that I can’t see them texting on their phones, but no one looks down in their laps for no reason.

            There are, however, many students who are happy and excited to be in class. They have come to learn, and are in good spirits. I know you taught for over forty years, and I now understand how you loved the experience of giving a student a AH HA moment. Watching their lost face turn from a frown to a luminescent smile. The other day I was teaching my students about character development, and that characters do change when certain circumstances arise. After reading our first book, we discussed the character that changed his views by the end. Once a student raised his hand and asked about another character’s change of opinion and asked if that was character development, I told him yes, and his eyes lit up, realizing that he was able to access the character correctly. It made my week.

            It’s like you always said, the lighting of students’ minds and imaginations makes education the greatest profession in the world today. Another thing I need to ask though is, how did you respond to students who tried to talk back to you? We can’t send them to the principle to receive a paddling any more. How do you think you would handle that? There is a female student who is trying to act all tough in front of her boyfriend. Hope to see you soon!

Love,

Austin

Blog Post #2 Staying Strong!

Hello again everyone! This semester is just flying by! I’m staying as busy as ever and am continuing my pre-student teaching at my school and working closely with my CT on classroom strategies, lesson plans, and other practices. She has been working with me by telling me how she has her classroom set up and her teaching style. Also, I have been able to teach with her, and at times by myself. I must say, I am becoming more and more at ease with my students when I am by myself. I have found that the more I teach, the more it becomes second nature to me.  

My CT has told me something that made me realize what this whole student observations are meant for. My last three semesters were not only to show me different teaching stiles, but to see what kind of classroom I will want have, and what sort of teaching strategies I will want to implement. I was told by CT that every teacher has a different teaching style, and that the observation is for helping me get a better idea of how I want to teach, and how I want my classroom to be laid out, and what sort of technologies and what not I want to use in my lessons.  

Now to help me this semester, I have taken up writing in a journal whenever I get a good idea I think would be a good lesson. Last semester, my CT told me to do this, as it is what he does, and he is a great teacher, and I want to mirror many of his lessons in the future. So far this semester I have been writing a lot in my journal with my new CT’s lessons. Many of the lessons are great, and I have some ideas to expand on them if I teach a class that is longer than the fifty minutes. In our Bomer text, we have been reading about using literacy to manage strategies, and the other day in class we had a debate on how each one of us uses literacy strategies in our own way. Bomer writes “Writers need a way of capturing thoughts, information, and plans, and the writers notebook is a useful tool for those purposes.” (Bomer 64) This passage spoke to me as I have been writing ideas for lessons in a notebook since last semester. My idea is that if I think I have a good idea for a lesson, I will share it with my colleagues and see if they have any ideas that could possibly make it a better lesson.

Also, I have been discussing with my CT plans for my unit plan and lessons. Since the students are on a tight schedule, I am doing my best to read ahead of their lessons, so that I can teach them according to the big picture idea. This semester, my CT and I are teaching the students about different types of character development. Hopefully I will get to do my lesson plan on a secondary character from one of our books that we have been reading. Since the unit plan is a large part of our grade this semester, I have been setting aside an hour a day to help me prepare for this project. Bomer writes “Writing demands a particular kind of energy and sense of time, and that energy and space do not fell equally available at all times in an individual’s daily life.” (Bomer 59) Since Bomer is referring to time here, I have been using this hour for constructing and writing out ideas for my lessons.

Since I don’t have a finalized character or book yet, I have been using my daily hour to think up lessons that can be used across all the books and multiple characters. I have one lesson where I plan on having the students do a before and after of character development of one of the characters that starts off as a villain, but becomes a friend of the protagonist in the end. Hopefully this will allow students the opportunity to see the character from another student’s perspective. For my reflection and idea hour I go to my quiet place away from distractions. This place is also known as my gun room, where there is a desk, and gun cabinets. Bomer states “locations can be extremely important in the construction of reading life.” (Bomer 55) Once again he is referring to writing so I am once again writing my ideas down.

My question to you is, what do you do to lesson plan? Do you need to be with people, or by yourself? Well hope everyone has a fantastic week!

 

Bomer, Randy, Building Adolescent Literacy in Today’s English Classrooms, 2011, Heinemann