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About Me
- Dr. Susan Ferguson
- I teach English Education, Foreign Language Education, and ESL Education, and I advise STEM Education Majors at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama--and I LOVE IT! I love to invite others to find the poet that is within them--I am certain a poet lies within each of us!
Hi guys,
ReplyDeleteToday I went to a different classroom to experience what it is like to have a classroom full of special-ed inclusion kids. Let me strongly suggest that all of you do this. Get out of those AP classes; go see what it is like in a regular classroom. It is a different world.
In this classroom, at least today, I don't think the kids were the big problem. Though I see how my regular coop teacher has room for improvement, she gets an A compared to the teacher I saw today. I give him a big fat F.
On a similar note, I have a complaint about our evaluations from coop teachers. If they aren't doing the things that we are supposed to be doing on our evaluation sheets, how do they even know how to evaluate us accurately? I have seen some really bad teaching practices (or lack of) going on. It shocks me.
Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that you should all observe and at least try to teach a lesson in a class that is different from your own. My best friend and I had the same problem during our internships. We were at the same school; I was in a low-level but high motivation English II class, and he was in an AP Language and Composition class. Our experiences could not have been any more different. We traded classrooms one day, and he was amazed at how good he had it (and didn't even realize it). I was jealous because his students were so much more motivated and quicker than mine. I knew, though, that I would not get AP students right out of the gate at my first job, so I was thankful to have the experience of a regular ed classroom.
I'm curious as to why did gave the other teacher an F. If it was his teaching style, I would hope you take into consideration the types of students he deals with and how he must approach his class to accommodate for those differences. Sometimes, we cannot do all of the great, idealistic things we wanted to do or planned while we were in college because our "model classes" are never anything close to our real classes.
Hi Brittany,
ReplyDeleteThank you for asking about my experience. There are several reasons why that teacher earned an F from me. First of all, I heard "shut up" from him more times than I care to count in just several short hours. One student was berated by him for a minor offense. The CRT review worksheets he designed were confusing, and he did not walk around the room to monitor the students' progress until I started doing it. The tables were filthy. Everything he told me was negative, and I mean everything. Also, this is what about bowled me over, he made a huge deal out of the sentence, "Max and Tom shared a malted milkshake." This sentence was one where you choose a replacement pronoun. He went on and on about how that sounded "funny" to him (meaning gay) which of course disrupted the entire review and go the kids going.
As I said before, it wasn't the special ed students that were the problem. Their behavior was better than the regular ed students. Really, I could go on, but I think that is enough. One thing he did say was that I must have the magic touch because this was the best the students had behaved all year. All I did was separate the talkers, remind them to stay on task, walk around the room to help them, etc.
I don't know about you, but I think his "approach" of saying shut up over and over, blowing his whistle from a chair, and pointing out gay connotations in sentences earns him an F.
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteI must say...Danielle it sounds like you had an experience with a drill sergeant instead of a teacher. Some of these people really are crazy...I work with some of them.
Although I am guilty of losing it every now and again and telling the kids to shut up...I don't do it often, so they know if I'm upset enough to say that to them, they really listen.
Unfortunately there are a lot of people, it seems, in education that don't really want to be there. They do it because of the benefits and two months break during the summer. It really sucks too, because it gives everyone else who's really trying a bad reputation.
One thing good that came out of your experience though is that you know how NOT to approach things and treat kids. If you treat them like dirt, they won't want to do work or comply with your requests.
I'm sort of curious as to the age of this teacher. Is he over 50? I'm honestly wondering if he may have been in the military or something, because I find that observation really odd.
The NAEP was administered to Dunbar's 4th and 8th grade classes. This was my first experiece being able to hear student feedback on how they felt about the test. It sounds like a pretty wierd assessment. To all you experienced teachers, I am correct, they choose a random selection of students to test on random subjects? What is the point when the results are the same as every other test administered by the state?
ReplyDeleteLadies,
ReplyDeleteMy last week at Causey went well. As all of you already know CRT's are next week, so we have been focusing our lessons on comma splices, run-ons, appositives, etc. I was able to give the students a break and do the Google Earth activity I had mentioned previously; they loved it and began showing me all the cool things I could do to enhance the presentation. The "methods" of the teacher Danielle observed certainly sound militant; however, this is not the approach that all veterans take into the classroom. I have witnessed and observed, as Melanie commented, that treating students like "dirt" doesn't get you anywhere.
Danielle, I can understand you being bummed because of the lousy teachers you have seen in the classroom. When I began my job they put me with my mentor. HA HA! What is a mentor exactly? Because this teacher has not done one single thing to help me be a better teacher. Honestly, she treats me as a stepchild more than a co-worker. It makes my sad when I think of the students who have to spend time with teachers who are so miserable. Well, this week I had eight period tardy to my third block class this week. I was so mad. This class is filled with juniors and seniors. These students are difficult at time, however I handle it. They all got lunch duty, which is gross.
ReplyDeleteDanielle,
ReplyDeleteOkay, all I have to say is "Wow." I have a very relaxed relationship with my students, but I never highlight how something sounds "weird" in the classroom. As a matter of fact, I'm the one that makes my students refrain from making those remarks. Based on your description, I would completely agree with you. I only asked because I remember being an undergrad and hearing horror stories from other students about their "regular ed" teachers they were observing, then I would go observe them to learn by non-example, so-to-speak, but they weren't all that bad, just simply more transmission-oriented instead of transaction-oriented. The teacher you observed, however, just seems to be "going through the motions." I guess you can just chalk that up to "learning by non-example." Sometimes those experiences teach us more than the ones we are really in to!
Well, I am not sure where I posted, but I will try again. I had a CRAZY week! I had cheerleading clinic all week and a drug bust that took up almost two blocks on Wednesday. The drug bust (I will give you all details in class) was something that I had not imagined happening in "my classroom" with "my kids." I was upset and angry, to say the least. Cheerleading tryouts were stressful because I am the one who oversees everything that deals with cheerleading. I got a little heat from my principal on Friday. A girl got her phone stolen out of the locker room during cheer clinic on Wednesday. My principal said that he blames the adult in charge for allowing the door to be unlocked. I WAS NEVER GIVEN A KEY! Also, techincally kids are not supposed to have cell phones on campus anyway. I was a little upset, but I guess that if a parent is breathing down his back then he will breathe down mine.
ReplyDeleteMy last week at Satsuma was a little strange with all the testing that is going on. It seems frustrating for the teachers to plan material during testing week. I am glad to be out of the Senior class. Spring semester Seniors just do not care about being at school. There is a girl in my Honors class that already has 12 abscences for the semester. This is a class that has to be passed for her to graduate. Seems shocking. I am excited about going into the Middle School. I always thought I wanted to teach high school, but now I am not so sure. I am glad that we get to experience different grades during our field experiences. Anyway, Danielle--I agree that this teacher deserves an "F" if that is the way he treats his students. Good for you to take this as a learning experience--for what NOT to do.
ReplyDeleteSome teachers don't want to be there. Be easy on them though. Most all of them started out with good intentions, but their spirit was whittled away due to lack of effort among other things. I know a lot of teachers that are like this. To avoid this I try to challenge my self every year to get at least 5 more kids interested in their own education. Although I will say I have some friends that do teach for the benefits, but most are not like that.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to say that so many of the teachers have fallen into bad habits and practices that some of them don't even recognize. The good news: many of them learn new things from observing you guys and get revitalized to be better teachers after seeing you in practice.
ReplyDeleteIf you are with a teacher with whom you do not think a student teaching placement would be a good situation, please let me know. I will tell the folks in field placement so that they won't put you there for the long haul in the fall.
Ursula,
ReplyDeleteI totally understand your bewilderment from the NAEP test. I mean theoretically they could assign each student to take the test in their worst subject area. Where would test scores be then? Those kids have to be exhausted from all these standardized tests.
My last week at Dunbar was pretty nice. I was able to take pictures with the classes and told them how much I appreciated each of them. I actually taught this week as well. I was able to do a madlib with the classes to practice parts of speech. They absolutely loved it! I think this is a great way to get kids participating in class.
Paige
For my last week at Hankins I was a little bit sad to go. I have really loved getting to my cooperating teacher and the students. While this might sound bad, as I walked out of the school I knew that I would not miss some of those students.
ReplyDeleteOverall I have enjoyed middle school. It really was not as bad as some people make it out to be. I will agree that it takes a special person to be able to stand that age group with all of its problems, I think that I could do it if I found myself in that position.
Remember the Hawthorne Effect? People behave differently when the conditions change. I started teaching on Sept. 20, 2006 in a class of 7th graders who had been taught by a retired English teacher who they referred to as "Killer Miller." She was definitely old school and had great discipline in the class. My first week she sat at the desk working on papers and tying up loose ends from her 4 weeks of subbing. At the end of the week I wondered what all the complaints were about middle school students; these children were pretty well behaved. Once she left and they got used to me, I began to see. I don't want to scare anyone, and maybe you are much more prepared than I was, but don't be suprised if in nearly 900 hours of teaching each year you find yourself doing or saying things you never expected you would. As hard as I try and as many hours as I dedicate to teaching, I'm not "on top of my game" nearly as much as I would like.
ReplyDelete