Thursday, December 16, 2010

Last day of school, last post for now!

Wow...almost over. Faster than the blink of an eye it seems. And as always, after reading the responses here, David's experience seems to be the most similar to mine. I also have found that I won't be able to cover nearly as much as I had hoped in science. Despite scheduling everything in detail, I covered maybe 2/3 of what I wanted to do, mostly because my kids ask great questions that provide (I shudder when I hear this phrase) "teachable moments"...I'm not complaining about this at all, but to provide some balance, I had them postpone questions for about a class and a half, so I could teach what I needed to and get to the questions by email or in an optional lunchtime review class. Because although 1/2 of the questions are amazing, the other 1/2 are questions about things that I just haven't gotten to yet, questions that will have answers if I could just finish this goddamned lecture!!! (Not that I ever said such a thing out loud!) ;)

Like David, I have been doing math, even though I have exactly two courses of university math (calculus), not nearly enough for a minor - apparently science and math are frequently lumped together in high school teaching assignments, for some bizarre reason. This is not too hard in grade 7...we finished basic polynomial operations (addition, subtraction and multiplication...with exponents even), and dividing monomials (with multiple variables and exponents).

Getting the students' attention has been a bit of a challenge for me as well - they are quite talkative and easily distracted. I have been described as soft-spoken by my CT (in a good or neutral way I think) even though I often have to use my loud teacher voice to establish some order...I guess I am soft-spoken relative to most other teachers!

However, I find that my 7s are not so mark-focused; the 8s and 9s are moreso. I just gave a test which was really well-written except for about 6 people, half of whom failed, with the other half in the 60s and 70s. But even though they are highly competative students, the people with 60s and 70s were actually not concerned at all with their mark (which was somewhat shocking). I guess they expected to fail...?! And the people who failed readily admitted that they did not study enough.

I already knew that teaching was organising, re-organising and rethinking, but didn't think to express it that way, thanks David, succinctly put! I would add in "learning the material in very great detail"; to teach something well you have to know it well enough to understand the relationships within the hierarchy of knowledge. This is more applicable in the older grades, but a couple of my grade 7s have taken to asking the most incisive questions that cut right to the heart of a concept, exposing the layers of detail that flow from the not-too-broad strokes I've drawn, and it's good to have answers ready.

All-in-all, this environment (private school) has been a hugely positive experience for me, and I think the classes I have taught have benefitted from my presence. With 100% of graduates going on to university, I have found that Redekopp's First Law does not apply so much here: they are like me, to a first approximation. They value the knowledge I have shared enough to be sincerely curious about the places this knowledge leads. Since the school was a perfect fit to my skills, personality and desires, the assessments from my Faculty Advisor were uniformly positive and my Collaborating Teacher has been entrusting more and more to my control. I absolutely cannot wait for March!

I hope all's well with everyone else, and will see everyone soon!

~Chris

Monday, December 13, 2010

3rd assessment complete

Well. It's all but done for the first quarter of our two year program. I was assessed twice today, once with my grade 10's and then last class of the day with my 9's. They weren't the best classes in regards to everythings running smoothly, but they were a good representation of a tougher day and my capabilities in handling the classroom. Wednesday is my assessment of three classes and Friday is my final day with them, final run-throughs of Marriage of Figaro and Wind River Overture, with the principal as our guest audience, then onto Christmas Carols! It's been a great first experience, very tiring, tough, but a good look at what's ahead. I know for sure that I do NOT want a full time position for my first job, I'll have enough on my plate with half time.

Take care all, and I look forward to seeing you in the new year!

Cheers,
Joanne

Thursday, December 9, 2010

EMAIL FROM CHAD (our stream Rep)

Hey Everyone! Finally caught up on the blog, good to read that there are mostly good and funny stories. How did you apology day go rob? Language is a huge problem in my school too...

Any ways here are the emails that were too large to put up on the face book group... I should have just put them up here in the first place as now they are kinda dated...
#1
Hello Cohort Reps!


I hope you've been having a great time in practicum so far... I know I can't believe it's almost half over already!

We just had a student council meeting a little while ago so there is some stuff to bring to your attention.The update pertains mostly to year two cohort reps, but there is something for everyone!


For year twos

Ed expo registration will begin December 4th and run until December 10th. Please tell your cohorts to check their u of m email on Thursday, Dec. 2nd. There will be a link/password emailed out to them so that they can register for the expo. Our Ed expo planners have done an excellent job getting an abundance of school divisions to come out, so let's make the most of it!

For everyone

There have been some break downs in communication from the student council to the cohorts themselves. As a way to make myself more accountable, I ask that you please email me back when you get emails form me, and once again when you forward information. This will help me know which cohorts are getting information, and which ones are sometimes missing it. After meeting all of you, I trust that you are all doing an excellent job; however it is important to establish a bit of a paper trail.


The next student council meeting will be on Thrusday Dec. 16th at 6:30pm. Of course, you're all invited to come! Last time I even scored some popcorn and tea!

Thank-you so much for continuing to do a great job even while being busy with practicum. I'm really looking forward to seeing you all again in the new year!

Of course, if you ever have any concerns from either your cohort or yourself, please feel free to get a hold of me any time.... if anything it'll make me feel wanted :P


Have a great week!

-duff
#2
To all Faculty of Education Students of the University of Manitoba:

The Faculty Council will be hearing and discussing two motions from the Committee on Initial Teacher Education Programs (CITEP) at their meeting on December 13, 2010. These motions concern amendments to the criteria for graduating with distinction and membership on the Dean's Honour Roll (DHL). This is not the first time the issue has arisen; in June, the Faculty Council passed a motion to abolish the DHL entirely, but fortunately, the Senate Committee on Instruction and Evaluation (SCIE) informed the faculty that such an act would violate University of Manitoba policy. Now CITEP has come up with two motions to address the "grade inflation" problem believed to be plaguing our faculty.

I ask that you read this email very carefully and thoroughly. I cannot stress, through this message, the importance of this issue, and thus it is up to you, the student, to read this message in its entirety.

The first motion that could be presented is one to increase the required grade point average (GPA) for the DHL, for any students admitted in September 2011 and beyond, from 3.5 to 4.0. The Education Student Council (ESC, officially) is against this. The students in this faculty have proven themselves to be highly intelligent, and we have a high caliber of students comprising our membership. This is evidenced by the fact that GPAs are weighted at 69% for admission to the faculty (with the written skills exercise, meant to reflect our ability to think critically, making the other 31%). Further, we are being taught by those who have received experience and instruction in teaching. Unlike many other faculties, where instructors may not necessarily want to teach (as they find their research to be more important), and are expected to teach classes of hundreds, the Faculty of Education hires those who have made teaching their life's work. According to CITEP, there is a problem with grade inflation because our grades are skewed to the high side, but this cannot be entirely due to some sort of false assignment of grades. With a high teacher quality coupled with an intellectually strong student body, I would see a normal curve in our grades as a cause for concern, not jubilation. In addition to this, 4.0 is a high GPA for the DHL. This would mean that any student with a B+ would have to offset it with an A+. Even great students have weaknesses, and excluding them from a much-deserved honour is not a solution to the problem that CITEP has perceived. As the present GPA required for this is 3.5, the ESC recommended a modest, more compromising increase, to 3.7, but this was ignored.

The second motion that may be presented to Faculty Council is one to adopt a stricter requirement for graduation with distinction. Currently, those whose GPA is greater than or equal to 3.8 may graduate with distinction. However, at this level, 43% of students tend to graduate with distinction - thus it is not really a distinction at all. Unfortunately, CITEP seems to want to overcompensate for this, and they would like to only take the top 10% of students for graduation with distinction. Again, the ESC disagrees with this proposal. In addition to all that was previously stated about the student excellence to be expected in our faculty, a 10% cutoff is a fluctuating bar. The lowest GPA to get the distinction would easily vary from year to year, and since students could not possibly be expected to know where they stand relative to all others, students would thus not know, until graduation, whether or not their efforts had allowed them to attain the honour of graduating with distinction. The ESC believes a firm bar should be set, perhaps one that gives 25% of students the honour, on average. The faculty should determine the GPA that would allow this, and adopt that as the new cutoff. However, it should not be any higher than 4.1. A GPA of 4.1 ensures that those who graduate with distinction have mainly As and A+s, at least one of the latter, and any lower marks are offset by even more excellent marks; this still marks excellence and a reason for distinction.

As Senior Stick of the Education Student Council, I sit on the Faculty Council. Normally, student members of Faculty Council are expected to excuse themselves from meetings that occur during practicum. However, with this issue arising, I will be present at the meeting, where I plan to garner support from faculty members to ensure that these motions do not pass. I am doing this because when the last motion was passed last school year (to abolish the DHL), a faculty member requested that the vote be postponed until student membership had been established on the council, but that was ignored.

My request to you, a student in the Faculty of Education, is to word your support for the ESC, against the motions from CITEP, in an email to a temporary account set up for this issue: keepthehonourlist@gmail.com. The email can be brief, perhaps just a few sentences; it could, alternately, be as long as this message, or perhaps even longer (if you need a means to occupy your time and wish to write an essay).

I plan to show every single letter of support to Faculty Council. As the next meeting of the council is on December 13, I ask that letters please be sent by December 10 at 10:00 pm. I understand that we are busy with practicum at present, but even a brief email to keepthehonourlist@gmail.com would bolster support. Please take the couple minutes to do this.

Thank you for reading this whole email, which I assume you have done if you are reading this particular sentence. I look forward to your responses.

Sincerely,


Jason Athayde
--
Jason M. J. Athayde
Senior Stick, Education Student Council
Faculty of Education
University of Manitoba

thats it, I'll keep every one up to date on further info on here.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Early Mornings Tip

Ok so this is just a golden nugget which has been working for me. I have troubles getting out of bed early in the morning, so before bed i drink 2-3 large cups of water. This way when my alarm goes of instead of snoozing it for an hour straight i HAVE to get up to pee!


Christmas Party

Hey

Just want to make sure that I got all my bases covered for the Christmas party stuff. So this Saturday Dec 11th at the Pony Coral on Pembina at 7 pm. Please rsvp me on facebook, email, or comment on here by Thursday. For those that want to keep partying that night, we can head down to Area night club afterwards. Hope to see everyone out.

Mitch

9 days left and I cannot believe it's almost over!

First, I just want to say how glad I am to read everyone's experiences here and to see how diverse they are. I was worried at first that some people would get amazing placements and others' would suck, but, at least among people who are responding here, it seems that everyone is having a really good, but fundamentally unique time. This gives me a tremendous amount of hope that wherever I end up in fall 2011, it will be at least as good as where I am now, which is a tall order to be sure.

As with everyone it seems, I have had a single evaluation from my faculty advisor; it contains a superfluity of positive comments, and nothing negative or critical. He did mention one or two points of constructive criticism to me verbally after the lesson that was evaluated, but nothing major. I consider myself lucky though; my kids are in complete violation of Redekopp's First Law: they are, at least to a first approximation, like me. They're a joy to teach, ask insightful questions that always seem to contribute to their understanding of whatever I am teaching, and are fairly independent learners. The most notable aspect of the style of teaching I have implemented with them is that they are given a great deal of freedom and the responsibility that comes with it.

One thing that is a constant source of frustration though is that I see them for about 3 hours every week, depending on the days of the cycle (plus or minus 30 minutes): as I have been charged with the teaching of an entire unit, 3.5 weeks is absolutely not enough time to both teach as much as I want to teach, and teach it in a way that will engage them. I kind of have to pick the topics I care about and focus on them to the ultimate exclusion of everything else. It's just as well: my CT has never taught the unit I am in charge of (The Earth's Crust) in his class. With 1.5 years of science to cram into 1 (this is the advanced class meant to finish 40S science courses in grade 11 so they can do AP in 12), he has been using this teaching model (great depth with only intermittent coverage) for years.

I have also had 3 periods a cycle of younger kids (10 and 11 year-olds), which is a lot of fun (somewhat unexpectedly!), and am helping the grade 8s and 9s in their exam review, and the 9s in their preparation to start learning physics.

My schedule is open enough that I have been able to observe and participate in a whole variety of other classes, from science to gym to english. It is truly amazing how much expectations vary between teachers: some are so much more authoritarian, getting into the perennialist philosophy, while my CT is a fairly obvious progressivist. I suppose you have to expect perennialism in a religious school, but it really surprises me that in an environment where knowledge is valued so much, perennialism exists at all.

Anyway, I'd better stop writing now, I have a class in 20 minutes and while I have an idea of what I'm doing with them, it's pretty vague. I hope everyone's practicum finishes on a high note; it would be nice to hear from some of those who've been silent so far too...I'll write again before this is over I expect. Later, educators of the future!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Mr.Ross

Hi all sorry I have been so absent from this blog. My last few weeks have been interesting. I have had some very good lessons and had a lot of fun teaching. One of my most interesting lessons so far was getting a class full of gr9 students to focus on taking notes about human reproductive anatomy.Last period of the day, with twenty 28 or so 14 year old kids, in a dark room discussing sex with a licence to ask questions. Interesting barely covers it. Did I mention I was being assessed by my faculty advisor. Oh yeah that to. This has been nice I feel like I'm in my element when I'm up in front of the class and lesson planning has been fun. I wonder what it will be like when I have to do it everyday? Hope you all have a great practicum and I can't wait to hear your stories in person.

Mr.Ross

Middle Years is fine by me

Hi Everyone,

It really is great to read everyone's posts. It makes me feel less isolated from you guys. Please keep writing. I know we're all getting quite busy, but I think it's important for us to share this stuff.

The biggest thing I've learned so far is that teaching IS A LOT OF ORGANIZING, and REORGANIZING, and RETHINKING what you are doing and where you want to get to!

By the sounds of things, we're each having very unique experiences. I can't wait to sit down with each of you for a coffee back at the university and exchange stories. Like most of you, I too have been assessed once by my faculty advisor. His feedback seemed completely canned. I had no classroom management issues (thankfully), but almost all of the 'debriefing' time was spent talking about making sure I had a strategy when I needed to regain the class' attention. I have to be honest here. I'm really liking Justin's clapping trick. It seems quite age appropriate in the middle school, so I'm hoping it still works in the high school as well. By the sounds of things (Mitch), it does.

I've dabbled a bit with the odd lesson, activity, or demonstration up to the beginning of this week. Now, I am teaching anywhere between 2 and 4 forty-minute classes per day (mostly science, but some math). I find the fractions in math quite easy to teach, but not very interesting. The science, where my interest lies, is providing me with a continuous challenge. The lesson plans I've generated for the unit seem to be appropriate for about 60 minute lessons, so I'm not getting nearly as much done as I anticipated I would. So basically, I've had to re-jig my lesson plans (for about the 3rd time). Between this and student absences, interuptions, professional development days, and seasonal activities, I'm beginning to realize that I won't be able to accomplish as much as I'd hoped with them.

I'm also struggling with assessment in science class. The kids are VERY focused on whether something is for marks. I know we should be assessing constantly, but it's not as straight forward as it is with math. Teach, give a worksheet, check their understanding by walking around or having them hand it in, then give a quiz. With science, I'm giving them the opportunity to work in groups and create something to show their understanding of what we're learning in class. It's group-work, but it has been suggested that I shouldn't give all of the kids the same grade. I want them to hand something in that they're all proud of, and that they want to share with the other groups, but they seem reluctant to embrace the idea if it isn't 'for marks'. I'll be having them perform a scientific investigation (in groups) soon. Each student will be handing in a 'report' that will be graded. It's tough to assess them on their cooperation within the groups though. It feels wishy-washy to me. Some are obviously working well together. Some are obviously not, but most are in a very grey area in between. Maybe the water will become less-muddy once the reports are actually in.

Keep on writing. It's great to get a glimpse into your lives.