Assessment

One of my first trainings as a new teacher in the school district was about formative and summative assessment.  It was very useful because, my district uses a different grading system from the traditional model. My school district focuses on grading improvement rather than busy work, or practice. Formative assessment is practice of a standard, subject, or topic that has been taught, modeled, enriched, remediated, practiced, and even tested. We only count the three final grades of the end of unit summative assessment to grade a standard. For formative assessment, we use the independent practice, the homework, the exercises made in class. I can say that on a scale of 1-10 I am 8. I use exit tickets, I use whiteboards a lot for spelling, and math problems, I use thinking maps, thumbs up and down, I use homework, pretests, pair and share, etc. For summative assessment I use end of unit tests based on the homework, and classroom work, only when a standard has been dominated. This could happen in the form of a paper, project presentation, test, etc.  Assessment results help me reteach something that is not clear in class. Sometimes, kids forget vocabulary words. Sometimes, I reteach those concepts, when I see that they haven’t paired the correct word with the correct concept. Formative and summative assessment results are very useful for differentiating learning styles in students. Some are more visual, other listeners, other independent learners. I could say that I have incorporated, manipulatives, songs, smart board lessons, to reteach for students who didn’t get it the first time.

Special Education

At the beginning of the school year, they told me that I didn’t have any special education students, or any gifted students. That all of them were in the other two classes. They suggested informing parents about gifted testing available for everybody. I informed parents in case they wanted to test their kids to know if they are gifted.

 I have one 504 student with a plan. His plan includes, special seating: soft cushion, preferred seating area close access to the teacher. Peer to peer assistance, make sure he has his homework on his planner every day, and that I need to be aware of his location during emergencies, fire drills, and lockdown drills. There are some low literacy students in my class, but they told me that the literacy specialist help is only until K-3. I chose one student for tutoring; I am doing the reading tutoring of the TIR program with her. I haven’t met with my school’s pre-referral group team, I just talked briefly to the literacy specialist, since this is my first year and they didn’t assign any special education students to my classroom. However, I want to find out more about referring students for special education, and the process. I will ask my mentor about the requirements, and process in the school.

Another of my concerns, is peer relationships in my classroom, I have noticed there is continuous bullying going on, we have an I message campaign but it works for the first message, before it becomes a fight. I referred a couple of students to peer group counseling, with the district specialist. 

How do I feel?

In this blog post I will reflect on my feelings. I feel these last couple of months  have been super busy for me. I’ve dedicated myself completely to my job, and school. I can easily say that it will be great to focus only on my work, and students. The toughest part of the TIR program is to find some time for yourself, and your family. I am married, and I miss time with my husband.  He has been pretty supportive, I couldn’t do this without his help. We don’t have any children yet, it must be extremely hard to do this with a family to take care of. This fall break we tried to spend time as a family, and I feel pretty renewed.  We got to clean my house thoroughly, and some home projects.  I was able to take two midterms, and grade student’s work.  I will love some time for myself as well; joining a Zumba class is what I want to do once I am done with the program. Physically, I feel I want to exercise.

My most difficult students, I see some light at the end of the tunnel. Some of them want attention they are not getting at home, some of them need validation. I am learning everyday about them; most of them are doing well in math. I feel, after recess is my most difficult time. They always come fighting from the playground. It is also hard to get them motivated in Spanish, some of them show absolute no interest for Spanish and it is very frustrating. Positive reinforcement works pretty well, with some of my most challenging students. They need to get something when they do as they are told.  I will implement a couple of new procedures after recess in order to have better results with their attention, and behavior. 

My students who pay attention, are learning a lot, and it is reflected on their grades. Still my goal is the same to have an inviting learning environment for all of them, and that they feel appreciated, and respected always.

Classroom Management

My first week of school my students behaved very well. I feel they were just testing me to see how nice I was. One of the teachers at the school told me, don't smile, you don't want them to see you smiling at least until the end of the first quarter. I didn't listen to her advice right away, but after a couple months you realize you have to do it, because you are there to teach academics, and behavior. Now, I feel I forgot how to smile. As a new teacher you have to let your students know that they are there to work, learn, and you are going to make sure everybody learns.
The school has a behavior management system in place, most of the teachers use this behavior clip chart. Students get three warnings, if they don't correct the behavior by the fourth time, they need to go to the principal's office. For positive reinforcement we have star postal cards sent to the parents for good behavior, they are also announced in the school news network. Additionally, students get a prize after the T.V. announcement. The star cards are a school wide positive reinforcement system. For positive reinforcement within my classroom we have table points, the table with more points by the end of the week gets fun Friday. Sometimes this system works, but I think I need to implement something more customized per student.

Some important components of classroom management are: Clear instructions, students need to know the directions for doing the next activity. Schedule, it helps students know what’s coming up. Patterns, review homework, warm up, guided instruction, independent practice, and homework. I feel that has been a success in my classroom. Positive reinforcement is something I am working on but I want it to be effective.

Today, we had a PBIS training, which is a positive reinforcement system to teach new skills to students. It is a wonderful tool and I will implement it in my classroom as soon as possible. Positive reinforcement needs to be given individually, immediately, consistently, and only given for good behavior. Giving someone your attention is reinforcement, as teachers we need to focus on those students who are behaving as it is expected, more than in those students who are distracting the entire class. For implementing this I will have a treasure box, and tickets. Students who get 5 tickets or more by the end of the week, can get an item from the treasure box. Tickets will be given only when students has applied a positive skill, I will mention it verbally in front of the entire class, and I will specify the good action.
In my classroom I have 14-16 students who can stay on task, listen to instructions, and behave. I have two students, who can disrupt the entire classroom in one second.
www.educationworld.com is a good website to learn what's going on in the education world. Still, I feel the lessons learned in the classroom by teaching, you can't learn anywhere else. Classroom management is one of those areas that you can only learn in the field with children with all sorts of backgrounds. As teachers in residence, we are fortunate to get more hands on experience than any other teacher preparation program.