Standard 9: Collaboration, Ethics and Relationships

The practitioner fosters relationships with parents, school colleagues, and organizations in the larger community to support students' learning and development. 

This past week we had student-led parent teacher conferences. During school on Friday, the students went to their homeroom to collect their assignments. The students were each given a black binder and instructed to put their assignments in the binder. The teacher passed back the assignments she wanted placed in the binder. The students were also given a sheet with each of their classes, a grade print out of all their assignments in each class, and an overall grade print out. The students had to fill out what they were doing in each of their classes and state two goals. Jun had asked what his two goals should be. I looked at his grades and saw he had a few low grades on his assignments. I asked him how he felt about math and he said he can’t stand the class but he gets his homework done, he just turns it in late. So we made one of his goals, turn in assignments on time. Then we looked at his overall grade report and he had a few absences in art. I asked why he was missing art and he said he was only tardy but the teacher doesn’t accept coming late as a tardy. So then his second goal was to be on time to art class. 

The students were responsible for walking their parents through their grade report and their assignments they completed in the 8th grade classes. The families would meet in one room and all the teachers would be present. There were multiple tables set up so the teachers could rotate from family to family. If the students/parents did not want to talk to a teacher they didn't have to and could collect their assignments and come and go at their leisure.

Thursday night was more shocking than Monday because of the discussions I heard and the family dynamics I witnessed. Almost every student had one parent or they had two parents, but they were divorced. One discussion that haunted me was when we had a student with ADHD and his two families present. His mom talked about his behavioral disorder and spoke of how drugs didn’t work the first time so we should consider a clinical program. Then his step mom and dad chimed in with their opinion. Everyone was in agreement but the student just sat their in between them staring down at the table, no nodding, just sitting there. The whole conversation made me uncomfortable because I felt as if the student’s opinion was not represented. Then I also thought about my years in middle school. We never had conversations with students about medication they were taking or the clinics they were attending. I feel as if our society has started to turn to the quick fix, such as drugs or having another professional address the issues, instead of confronting the situation and discussing it with the student. This student is very enthusiastic and responsive in class. He just needs to know his boundaries. However he has to be reminded constantly. This conference influenced me to get to know this student better. I interacted with him the next day during social studies. He was talking with his partner about abstract things and not completing their assignment. I came over and asked how it was going. His partner showed me one of her sheets that was completed and I explained that she needed to complete the second sheet (which was blank). Then I asked him how he was doing and he said that he was stuck on a problem. His partner knew the answer because she completed her paper and started to tell him the answer. Then I said, “wait, let’s let him figure it out.” He took the challenge and started to figure out the problem and came up with the answer on his own. Then they started working on the second sheet together. They said that it was hard because they didn’t understand what the question was asking and they didn’t know where to look in the reading. Together we broke down the question and scanned the titles of the paragraphs in the reading. They both were able to choose which paragraph pertained to the question based on the title and worked quietly together. It was awesome to see him being successful but also channeling his energy towards his work and not distracting other students. I would have wanted to share this experience with his family on thursday and to reassure him that he has been making a positive effort in class. 

Standard 8: Foundations, Reflection and Professional Growth

The practitioner continually evaluates the effects of the practitioner's choices and actions on students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community, and activity seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.

During today’s lesson we were building hot and cold houses. The students were given two cardboard houses and the following materials to choose from: cotton balls, newspaper, black construction paper, cloth, socks, and roofs (reflective, clear, or tinted).  The students were to decide what they needed to insulate a house (cool house) and what they needed to absorb energy  (hot house). Before starting the lab the students read the activity and defined the terms : absorb, reflect and transmit. During hour 2 and 3 Mrs. Ash asked the class to define the terms in their own words. However during hour 4, she asked them to define it using the book’s definition and provide examples. Mrs. Ash explained to me that 4th hour can be challenging because a few of the students are fast learners and a few are level 1. To counterbalance the range she changes up her delivery of the lesson for that class. Some students described “absorb” as to capture, take in or collect. One student said, “hostaging energy?” During 2nd period lots of students had insulated materials in both houses or they chose a tinted roof and covered it with a clear roof. I don't think they understood the activity or they didn’t understand the main picture. So the flaw could be in the directions, maybe we need to clarify that one house need to remain cool the other needs to be heated. Maybe we should provide the students with  more context such as a scenario, to give them some reasoning/purpose to create their houses. During 3rd period while the students were making their houses I circulated the room and knew exactly what to look for. I suspected some students would start using multiple roofs, forget to fold down the flap for the thermometer, block the thermometer, forget to record initial temperature, etc. We learned from 2nd period and adjusted accordingly so the data collected would be reasonable and  help the students answer the analysis questions. 

Standard 5: Learning Environment/Classroom Management

The practitioner uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.

I would describe my FoS class as positive, energetic, curious, social, and talkative. I would say that having a positive, energetic and curious class enhances the learning. However the social aspect makes the class very talkative and the class can get off topic often. I have learned that assigning partner-based projects have a negative affect because the work takes longer to complete. The students find themselves off task and talking to each other about non-related topics. After learning about this we made projects individual and if we needed to do group work we would allow no more than two students to be paired together. This required a lot of teacher circulation to answer questions and keep students focused and on task. During lessons all of these adjectives enhanced the lesson. I had some students answer a question and I would refer to them throughout the lesson. If students answered a question I was sure to give them credit for their answer and to keep referring to them throughout the lesson. When we were discussing the lava types of volcanoes we talked about the pyroclastic ash and I asked the students, “imagine if you were out running the ash, where would you go?” Travis answered, “I would get caught in the ash but I’d pose like this...” which added humor and the class laughed. The class also had curiosity:  I had a student confused about how hot magma was and I ended up asking if he was a star wars fan. He said yes and I asked if he watched revenge of the sith. He said yes, and I asked if he remembered the lava battle. He said no and the interest of the class was peaked so I said if we had time after notes I would show them a short clip. Then Dawson asked if they could deactivate volcanoes and we talked about star trek. He said he never saw it and I explained that it takes place in the future and they find a way to do that. If we have time I’ll show you a clip. We ended up not having enough time so I didn’t get to show the clips to them but I thought it would be cool for students to see the visual effects that movies can provide to compliment science. The only negative side to having students ask too many questions during class is that we weren't able to complete the notes. Which we would have to continue tomorrow and I wasn't able to show them the clips to answer their curious questions. 
In the following days we started to review for their volcano assessment. The students were instructed to complete a volcano practice assessment and Travis came to class early after lunch and asked for help on understanding subduction zones. I was flattered that he came to class early to know this topic better. He said he was ready for his quiz and that he wanted to do really well. I had a few students say that they didn’t recieve a practice assessment so I thought that we should at least cover the three types of volcanoes as a class and I figured it would be quick. However when I asked about the lava type (high or low viscosity) the students had two different definitions of viscosity. I knew Travis would have the answer so I asked him to give an example of high viscosity and he said honey and explained why the composite and cinder cone volcano would have high viscosity. Then Reese explained why a shield volcano would have low viscosity. I tried helping the students remember the three types of volcanoes by using mnemonic devices such as: shield- shore, strato- st. helens, cinder cone- cinderella’s dress. Both of these students are normally the social butterflies of the classroom so when they are participating  in the lesson the rest of the class is focused and intrigued to hear what Reese and Travis have to say. This week's rewarding achievement was learning how to channel their energy towards the lesson.