The British Accent Crack-Up

I don't know if I told you about this but Mr. Gunderson gave me the opportunity to lead reading groups outside the classroom. It was challenging working with certain students who just were not interested in doing any work. I spoke to Mr. Gunderson at the end of the day and he said he was glad that I experienced that because he really wanted me to understand how difficult it is to manage a class with rambunctious kids. That experience just reinforced my admiration of teachers.
Now, to the more recent past. My work schedule for the past three weeks has been different. The first week I was not feeling well so I asked Mr. Gunderson to send me a project he and I had been talking about. The project involved coming up with ideas for the Africa section of his curriculum. It was more challenging than I expected it to be but it was an interesting project. It was empowering for me to have the chance to incorporate political and economic crises that I have experienced into a lesson plan. He seemed pleased with the project and said he would share it with the other Geography teacher.
The next week I went in for half the day because the students had MCA tests in the morning. The day before, Mr. Gunderson had sent me an email asking if I could read out aloud to the students. I agreed. The article was an op-ed by a Nigerian woman. In this op-ed the woman shared about her life in the US with the goal of breaking Americans' stereotypes about Africa and Africans. Goodness, was this just not an experience and a half! When I read out aloud I sound more formal and the British tilt to my accent becomes stronger. One kid in one of the classes was just laughing uncontrollably and had to leave the class. It was actually funny for me and I actually kind of saw it coming. That was the only dramatic response though. The rest of the students in that girl's class and in the other two classes listened attentively and applauded at the end. That's the British Accent Crack-Up story :)
Last week the students still had MCA tests but I could not go in that afternoon because I had to attend the Community Recognition Awards ceremony. I asked Mr. Gunderson if I could cover more hours after my classes and exams end and he said it was fine because they only close in June. I think I have 23 hours so I need 7 more.

Crunch Time

I probably spent about 20 hours at my internship between this week and last week. It has been a pretty crazy time.



Last week we put on the Minnesota Design Diaries, an exhibit showcasing the clothes created by teen girls enrolled in Old Arizona's youth program. To celebrate the end of the program, there was a fashion show held in the Old Arizona theater where the girls and their designer mentors were able to show off their creations. It was wonderful to have watched the the entirety of this project: from when the girls met their partner designers two months ago, to the show where they modeled their clothes last Sunday.

Despite the fact that my greatest contribution to the show was that I painted the backdrop, (since I could neither sew nor drape fabric) I could not helping feeling a sense of pride as I heard the audience's applause. I think I was moved by this project because, after speaking with many of the girls, I realized that the power of being able to create something from nothing, then to be applauded for that achievement is a luxury that many of these girls hadn't experienced. Many of these girls grow up in poverty and struggle in many parts of their lives. Having an outlet where they are given the freedom to be creative and safe and cared for is very important. For many of the girls, these clothes were the first ones they've ever sewn and the event was also the first time that many of them got to stand up and be appreciated. It was incredible to see what a difference it made to have been given this attention. After the show, many of the girls were either ecstatic or beaming behind their shy smiles.

You can read what a fashion blogger thought about the show here: http://mnstyle.blogspot.com/2011/04/minnesota-design-diaries.html

Speech Problems at Ramsey

Apologies for the belated post--I have no excuse except for my recent forgetfulness. In the past couple weeks, the students have been working on creating and performing speeches. I started at Ramsey in the middle of the students' previous unit, and it has been nice to get to see this one from start to finish. I spent a lot of time working with kids on basics like how to use power point to display pictures, how to structure speeches, and how to do research. I enjoyed getting the time to interact with the students more one on one and to see aspects of their personalities come out in the speech topics they chose.

When performance time rolled around, some of the kids put together really fabulous speeches and had clearly put a lot of effort into preparing to give their speeches to the rest of the class. That said, many students did not. The classes are all fairly large and it took three days to get through all the students. Those who were prepared signed up for the first day, and from then on, the further down the list their teacher got, the worse the speeches got. I feel like, while exposing kids to public speaking in middle school is important, more time needed to be spent on the "how" part of speech giving. Lots of time was devoted to the kids writing speeches, but I think many needed more help figuring out how to give a solid speech, and they definitely needed more modeling of what that should look like. Granted, I was not there every day, but I'm not sure they ever got a concrete example of a speech being performed. Additionally, many of the students had a lot of anxiety about having to perform their speeches because they lacked confidence in their reading abilities and were afraid to even use note cards in front of 13-year-old peers who are not known for their sensitivity.

I am not sure why there was not more time put into the "how" factor. When the students did their poetry unit, they had weeks upon weeks of writing and examples before compiling their final projects for the unit. Speeches lasted three weeks (I think) and were somewhat disrupted by schedule changes to accommodate state exams. For me, the part that needed the most improvement was helping students prepare to get up in front of their peers and perform original work. I understood why students who had low confidence about reading skills did not feel as though being able to use note cards was going to benefit them. Those students for the most part did not even bother to write speeches because, in true ed psych form, it is easier to not do it than to do it and experience the feared failure. I think the supportive piece that was missing is hard to incorporate into a system with so many kids and so little time, coupled with a constant sense of urgency to get students where they need to be for state exams, but I think that not figure out a way to build in support and caring is going to hurt students more in the long run because it perpetuates feelings of inadequacy and learned helplessness that students have come to equate with school. I don't have a good solution for how to teach skills like public speaking in a way that does not marginalize students, but I hope I can come up with one before I take on my own classroom.

Expo Elementary

The past two weeks have been an interesting experience. The students have started doing MCA testing so the kids were either always very nervous or extremely worn out from the all day testing. It was interesting to watch how Lily tried to get her students relaxed about the test. One day she had the students play a money game where they would move their pieces around the board either gaining or losing their hard earned (fake) cash. This game was helpful because she let the students be as loud and energetic as they wanted to and it often made them forget about the test that was looming ahead of them. Another teacher in the school used a different method to relieve the student's stress. he could been seen out the window leading his students through a marital arts workout and you could tell that nearly every student was having fun. Along with the testing I had the opportunity to help with leading kids through the test. It was interesting to be on the other side of these high stakes testing from the normal student position I had only knew before. It brought back a wave of memories of the days in high school when the entire day was intended to complete these tests.

When the MCA testing was not going on I would often be working one on one with students that were trying to finish projects they had not finished. Since it is a reading class that I help with, most of the time the projects were either writing poetry or researching for an article they had to complete. I have found that during these one on one times students almost never want to work on the project. They would rather fire a barrage of questions at me about what it is like to be in college. This shows that at least at the elementary level the idea of going to college is something they want to some day make real, something that was very heartening to see.

One more week to go!

HSRA Update

Thing's have been going great at the High School for the Recording Arts. Some exciting things have happened since my last update. The teacher I work with and I were able to successfully organize a field trip to Macalester so the students could tour our radio station headquarters and observe a live show of mine. It was by far the most rewarding and fun experience that I've been a part of at HSRA. The students were really excited to come visit, they took times out of their personal lives, not the school day, to come visit and observe, and everything went smoothly. I even put a few students on the spot and asked them to help me introduce songs, read PSA's etc, and they stepped up and performed excellently. Even though somedays the students act tough or don't show much enthusiasm, they couldn't hide how excited they were and how proud they were of themselves. After going on the air they were all beaming for the rest of the evening and still talking about the experience the next time I went to HSRA to help.

The field trip has also inspired a new class that the teacher is hoping to get off the ground next year. The class would be about live-radio broadcasting and I'm trying to talk to program directors at Macalester's station to provide a one-hour time slot weekly next year so this program can really take off. I really hope everything works out for this idea to come to fruition; it will be an incredible opportunity for the students, and I'd also be extremely proud to have helped inspire and start a class at the same school that has provided so much inspiration and help to me throughout the past few months.

I just learned yesterday that after coming on the field trip to the radio station that one of the students I help applied for an internship with a radio station in Minneapolis, 89.9 KMOJ. She's a delightful student with a "gift of gab" so it would be awesome if she gets this internship.

Next week will be my last week at HSRA but I'm getting in touch with people so I can keep volunteering this summer and next year as well. If anyone is ever interested in helping, the teachers tell me every time I come in to bring more Mac students along so they would definitely love to have you. Good luck to everyone finishing the semester strong!

Music!

I don't know if it was a coincidence or not but the first grade class started singing songs the same week I started attending musical rehearsals with my third grade classroom. (Quick sidenote, the sub Ms. Haley for the first grade classroom, had this neat way of singing instructions sometimes that I really liked and it seemed effective.)

There is no full or part-time music teacher at Horace Mann anymore BUT, the PTA raised a $1,000 stipend for the old music teacher to come back and put on a musical with some of the grades. I get to learn the songs (much quicker than the other students) and am a stronger singer than the classroom teachers so now I get to stand up front and be an example while the two classrooms sing, it's very fun and they all smile and at me.

I've been learning a great deal about how Horace Mann manages to keep music in the school despite not having a staff member for it. The first graders have learned songs all year with a CD and the help of their teacher. The third graders sometimes practice with a CD but also have a rehearsal once or twice a week with the ex-music teacher Ms. Barens.

The third grade teacher Ms. Dahl told me that through fund raising and class-room teachers help there is a musical performance of some sort every spring for all the grades. They have overcome budget cuts and still allowed for music to be a part of the students curriculum. Through my interview with Ms. Dahl I also learned that volunteer parents teach the students about orchestral and classical music in the spring. Well it might not be the spring. So music has been great.

Beyond that, I'm becoming a great deal more comfortable with my role as a task-master. I do offer help, I spell words and repeat instructions or read with small groups in the third grade, but most of the time if I'm talking to a student I'm a task master. I'm telling them to focus or pointing out where they went wrong and teachers really aprpeciate that. Having over twenty children together all at once can lead to chaos and they handle it so well but if someone else is in the classroom they are so thankful to have a second pair of eyes, another shusher, someone to run out in the hallway and disperse the mob around the drinking fountain. I have shed my last hesitancy about scolding or feeling I have any credentials to discipline the kids and feel as if I'm helping the teachers by doing this role.

I've gotten confirmation that this is what I should be doing as well, by being asked to circle the classroom or "keep J.W. on task." Things like that. As an in class assistant for an elementary school, you can't expect to be inspiring, I have learned to believe that keeping the kids from talking or stealing someone else's crayon is what I should be doing. And it helps, because the teacher knows more than I do and she wants them doing the task at hand. She's the governor and I'm the cop.

Differences

Everything has been going really smoothly at both the lab and Laura Jeffrey Academy.

Unfortunately for me, L.J. has break until after finals, which means last week was my last time there for this school year. Hopefully, though, I'll return next year and work with the same teacher, Ms. Lizzie. I think very highly of her, her teaching style, and her interpersonal skills with the girls at the school. That would mean I would continue to work with 8th graders on math. The 8th graders I worked with will be graduating this summer, though, which means I won't get to work with them again. I'm sure they're excited to graduate, but I'm bummed that I only had a few weeks to get to know them. They're so cool!

On the positive side, I've found that I really love facilitating math learning. Although I sometimes make mistakes when I'm trying to solve mathematical problems, it can be good to show kids, and especially middle-school aged girls, that it's okay to make mistakes, and that it's possible to still solve a problem even if a few mistakes are made along the way. At least, that was the message I tried to send them as I guided the problem-solving process.

In addition to loving math, I've found that I love being in the school and, in particular, the Laura Jeffrey environment. The energy is inspiring, there's constant mental growth, and it's SO fun to see the students "get it": that point during a tutoring session when the light bulb flicks on and they understand something they previously didn't. That's pretty cool.

At this point, I'm thinking that I'd like to pursue placement at Laura Jeffrey for at least the 2011-2012 school year and maybe longer. I'd like to keep my options open though, because, as much as I love L.J., I want a variety of experiences to help be an effective learning facilitator later in life.

Although I'd like to stay at L.J., I'm not particularly interested in staying in this particular lab at the U. Perhaps I'd like to pursue a different lab, one that has to do with child development or learning, but I'm not as interested in the subject matter of this lab as I thought I'd be. But that's okay! It was a great experience and I LOVED going over to the U. (Beautiful campus and a relaxing bus ride. Plus a Dunn Brothers in the basement of the building I worked in.)

Overall, both experiences have been an enlightening exploration of education and own career interests. It's exciting to contemplate future possibilities . . .

Placement Post #2 Matthew

I was not able to stop by my placement for two weeks since Macalester had spring break and then the public school district had their break the following week. This made me feel out of place when I showed up on Tuesday for the first time in nearly 14 days. I could tell that some of the students had already forgot that I was helping the class. Fortunately it did not take long to get back into the swing of things.

Since the beginning for the semester I have been working with one student who came into the year far below the reading level of his age. At the start he was very had to get motivated to practice and do his work. In the last few weeks however he seems like a completely different student. His reading ability has sky rocketed and he can't wait to read each day. I can tell that this has made the teacher very proud. She often speaks about how difficult it is to get most of the students who are struggling with their work re motivated and interested in school, and to have one student who seems to be internally motivated is a sight for sore eyes. It reminded me of something that I heard in an Education class at Macalester a few semesters back. It was that all students deep down want to learn, and it is our job as instructors to unlock that passion.

This past week I also was given the opportunity to watch as Lily, the teacher I'm following, did testing to see if a student needed to come back to special ed classes. She had mentioned that in his normal classes the student was not having as much success as he had been when he was in her special ed reading class. The normal reading class teacher mentioned that he seems to be skipping much of his work and often off task. When Lily talked to the student about the possibility of having to come back to her classes he was very shocked. He had worked hard to graduate from the special ed class and did not want to return. The testing was very straight forward. First he was timed to see how many words in a short story he could read in one minute. At this task he was well above his grade level so he showed proficiency. The second task was a listening and comprehension task. Lily read him a story and then asked ten questions. He answered 9/10 correctly. I was surprised at this number because in my head I was only able to remember about 7 of them. Both of these tests showed that he should not be struggling with the work he has in his class and he then admitted that he was not trying very hard. This instance reminded that sometimes students need to be told what could happen if then do not put forth a little more effort.

Spring Time at Old Arizona

I got to visit my placement twice this week.

On Thursday I went in mainly to work on administrative tasks like grant writing and inquiring about funding for the organizations' summer programs and future plans. I spent the first hour with the girls coming in for the fashion design class. We talked about their days at school and their plans for the summer. They told me that they still have a long way to go before school is over but that they are excited that the weather is warming up and spring is coming. When the girls went in to their class, I got to speak with Darcy Knight, one of the founders or Old Arizona Collaborative. I was very happy to speak with Darcy because I spend most of my time work very closely with her partner, Elizabeth Trumble, who is in charge of the youth programs. Despite sharing a passion for empowering women, a focus on the arts and their desire to help young inner-city girls from Minneapolis, Darcy and Elizabeth seem very different and I welcomed the opportunity to get to know the other half of this dynamic duo.

Darcy told me that she had never planned to buy an abandoned warehouse to house programming for young girls; it just just happened. She spent her earlier life as a flight attendant traveling the world and going on adventures. She then became a make-up artist for film and tv. Despite the glamor and the glory, she decided she wanted to do something more meaningful with her life. At this point, she has purchases an abandoned barn at the end of Nicollet and to her dismay, had found out that it was the leading corner of drugs and prostitution in the city. After finding out that the girls hanging around the street corner were only about twelve to fourteen years told, Elizabeth and Darcy decided to act: They founded Old Arizona Collaborative Inc., as a way for them to use their talents and passion for the arts to help the the need that surrounded them.

After Thursday's discussion, I was more than excited to go into work this morning. I got to the site and was told to help out with another fashion session. On Saturdays the girls have a special fashion class put on by the Minnesota Historical Society. Each girl is partnered with a local designer and they collaborate to create an outfit that the girls will model in a closing fashion show. This morning I was told that the fashion show is two weeks away and that many of them had yet to start sewing their clothes. Today's class was lead by Kerry of the Red Shoe Clothing Company. Because I can neither sew, stitch or work an iron without getting water everywhere, I spent the morning attempting to be useful by telling the girls their projects looked great and lugging fabric around. I spent a lot of time working with a young girl named Alicia. As she cut her pattern and figured out her fabric, she told me about her life and her love for Lady Gaga.

I am not really sure what I have taken from these last couple of site visits but I know I am getting increasingly comfortable with the organization and its participants. I really enjoy seeing the joy and the power that these girls get from being able to create something. The fact that they can make something beautiful for themselves out of nothing gives them something to be proud of, a feeling that, I hope, will only grow stronger as they discover how many other capabilities they have as they continue to live and grow.

Struggles

The Lab:

Unfortunately, I received an e-mail from my professor yesterday explaining that, due to computer updates, a third of the data from the last experiment is missing. That means data from 40 participants has disappeared. Right now, he's working on recovering everything, but we'll most likely need to replace those data with 40 new participants.

This is a sad, but smooth transition into my experience at the lab lately. . . I'm beginning to understand how research actually works; how difficult it can be to find participants, how frustrating it can be, when analyzing the data, to find participants who didn't even attempt to perform the procedure correctly, how fun it is to start a new experiment, how intensive it is to try to work out kinks, how "in practice" is almost always different than "in theory", and how working with a team is researcher is beyond beneficial to, not only the research itself, but everyone involved.

Laura Jeffrey:

I overheard one of the teachers expressing her opinions about a standardized test the 8th graders will be taking next week and the following week. She says she tries to get the students excited about it by telling them it's a chance for them to show off, but she says it's actually all about White privilege. She also says none of the teachers like the test.

Because I overheard the conversation, and it was in response to something one of the other tutors brought up, I didn't feel it was appropriate to leap into the discussion, but I'd like to ask her more about this during an interview (that I have yet to schedule).

Notes and Comments:

I'd like to interview the Professor at the U and the teacher I work with at Laura Jeffrey; it'd be really fascinating to compare their experiences/viewpoints as teachers. However, it might not be possible to have time with both, but I plan to have at least one interview scheduled by next week.

Overall, things are going well and I'm enjoying my experience. I'm learning a lot about how (and how not) to work effectively with middle-school-aged girls, how to handle the challenges of working in psychological research lab while also learning to appreciate the successes. I'm discovering how teachers cope with conflicting interests and goals, and I'm beginning to think about how I might apply this knowledge to my academic and professional career.

I'm excited to finish up the year and I'm looking forward to (hopefully) volunteering at Laura Jeffrey again next year. I'm not sure if I'll return to the U of M with this particular lab, but, if I can make it work, it'd be great to take a class there. We'll see . . . .

Speeches, Tongue Twisters, and a New Trimester at Ramsey

Before yesterday, it had been a few weeks since I've been to my placement because of Spring Break. This week, the students began a new trimester, which means some have switched classes. In middle school, moving evening one student has the potential to completely disrupt and/or change a class dynamic, as I saw yesterday. It used to be that first period was much smaller than the other sections, and much, much quieter. One of the louder, more impulsive students has been moved into that section, and the difference is remarkable. To put is simply, the noise level has gone way up. First period is now far more similar to the other classes, but the class that the noisy student used to be in has also balanced out a bit with fewer loud students. I think overall, the change in schedules worked in the teacher's favor because her classes are more balanced (if also more generally noisy) than before.
The students have started a speech-writing unit and spent Friday reviewing speech-writing tips, going over their topics of choice (and getting help as need be) for their own speeches, and using tongue twisters to practice speech-giving (specifically, annunciation). I really liked the idea of using tongue twisters to work on public speaking, but wish there had been a little more competition added into the activity (middle schoolers love a little friendly rivalry). The kids got up one at a time, picked a tongue twister out of a basket and had to read it three times to the class while standing at a podium. It was really difficult to keep thirty kids focused and respectful during this activity, because they all felt awkward about going up in speaking, it was towards the end of class, and there was not much incentive for them to pay attention. I think that incorporating the tongue twisters into some sort of game or activity could have kept the students more focused. For example, it might have been fun for the students to break into small groups and make little skits or freeze frames of the tongue twisters, where one student narrated to practice animation, interpretation, and annunciation in speech giving.
Some of the students struggled to come up with a speech idea, or did not want to participate for various reasons. I was working with one student, trying to get him to come up with a topic and was disheartened to see that he had written on his paper for the heading "speech topic": "Why I Hate Everything in the World". He was really sullen and unhappy, and refused flat out to do work. When I asked him why he did not want to work, he told me nobody cared if he was in school. I said I was pretty sure his teachers wanted him to do well and he said that all his teachers just wanted him to get out of school. I spoke to his teacher about it after and she said that this particular student has a difficult home life and you never know whether he will respond as he did with me or if he will show up happy and want to do his work and participate in the class. She seemed to have accepted the inevitability of this cycle and I am sure she knows far more about this boy than I do, but I found it troublesome that this boy was not getting more help. You don't write "Why I Hate Everything in the World" (he was not trying to be funny) if you don't have some pretty big issues to deal with and thirteen year olds have enough drama without the added weight of whatever this boy is going through. I feel like there has to be something else to be done for this student so he feels like he has someone he can talk to about his life, but I am not sure what a good approach would be. He clearly has a lot of anger but a good heart and he has a lot of walls up that nobody is trying to break down. I'll be interested to watch in the coming weeks to see if he makes any progress or changes his demeanor.

HSRA

A lot of exciting things have happened at the High School for the Recording arts in St. Paul since my last entry. The students continually grow more and more comfortable with me and they open up more each visit. A few visits ago I worked one-on-one with students on how to interview people. We discussed how to come up with creative and original interview questions, and then I gave the students a few minutes to prepare questions that they could ask me for an interview. When they felt comfortable with the questions they prepared, the students completed mock-interviews with me, which we recorded so that they would be able to hear how they did afterwards. It was a great activity, that the students were really locked into and focused.

However, the thing I'm most excited about is a field trip that I have planned for this coming Monday night. Seven or eight students who are in the radio/broadcasting class are going to be coming to the Macalester Radio station during my show to observe. I got the idea for this field trip from a woman that we learned about in Ed. Psych last semester. I can't remember her name, but every year she would take children from her school, which was almost all African-American, on a tour of Historically Black Colleges. This was done in hopes of showing the students the real, tangible opportunities that they can take advantage of if they worked hard, set goals, etc. The students from HSRA are really excited for the visit and so am I. It will be very interesting for them because the radio show that they produce is all pre-recorded and edited before it airs, whereas my radio show is all live. This is a great opportunity for them to see another style of radio broadcasting. I'm going to give the students a tour of the whole studio before the show gets started, and then they'll be able to observe my whole show, from the sound-board mixing, to the live interviews, etc.

After the field trip, my plan is to have the students practice live interviews more, and plan out how they would conduct a 1-hour radio show. If everything works out, I'm going to give some of the students an hour of my 2-hour show to actually have to opportunity to host their own live-radio show. I think it will be awesome practice for them, and will continue to spark their interest in the radio and broadcasting industry.

I hope everyone else's placements are going well!

Week 2 - Life Skills in the Gym

My spring break plans changed so I decided to go in for my normal session on Tuesdays. That day Mr. Gunderson and the other Geography teacher were doing a joint lesson in the gym. The lesson was based on three different team building activities. The reason the two teachers decided to do the activities is that it was the beginning of a new quarter and students had just been shuffled around, so they did not all know their new classmates.

I had fun helping with the activities and most of the students seemed to have enjoyed themselves. I was impressed that when explaining the purpose of the lesson, Mr Gunderson chose to speak about the most valued skills in the Fortune 500 companies and that the activities would allow the students to develop such skills. He really treats them like mature people but withdraws this privilege or threatens to withdraw it when they misbehave. It is a unique method of class management.

I am going in again tomorrow. It's pretty tiring to go in for a straight 5 hours so I'll probably be a bit sleepy when I get to class. Oh and it was great that though I hadn't gone in for a week or two, the kids who I had worked with remembered me. I was a lot more comfortable but it could have been because we were playing games.

Not much new has happened over the past two weeks. Last week I was on spring break and this week the students at my site are on spring break. I did get a chance to come back to saint paul and visit the students on tuesday however, over my break. I felt pretty good about that visit because the students were writing, they always work on writing from 1-2 when I'm there, and they were getting used to me. So many of them flagged me down with spelling questions, I got to help Jeremy catch up with the class because he understand what the teacher was saying during group instructions (and she yelled alot, again), and I asked them about the fiction stories they were writing for fun. I was hoping that by asking them to share what their stories they would be excitied to talk to me and I could plant th idea that I was really interested in what they were doing and was impressed by it. I felt as thought that started to work, they would talk quickly and show me pictures, watch as I listened to their neighbors story to see if I would stop by them next. I felt as if I was finally building a relationship.

There is little guidance form Ms. Schwartz as to what I should be doing for the students during my time there. She made a comment about wishing I was there more often and I doubted my decision to split my weeks between two classrooms. I'd made that choice because the volunteer coordinator at the school told me both of the teachers I help were looking for extra afternoon volunteers so I thought it was a good thing. It's too late to back out now but maybe I am stunting my progress as a teacher's aid and student helper by only coming in once a week for two hours in both classrooms. Maybe I should have picked one.

Ms. Dahl is very great about answering my questions, explaining her procedures and tests, and even talking about how she deals with parents. She's much more open but there is time in the afternoon for just us two to talk after her student go to their daily elective (technology, gym, science, or music I believe). I feel a good deal of support for how I should help and which students I should pay attention to in Ms. Dahl's classroom, and I'm just following instinct in the Ms. Schwartz's. However, in Ms. Schwartz's classroom and para or perhaps teacher I'm not sure, comes in the same afternoons I do for an hour to help individual students with writing. I've taken to keeping an eye and ear on her table as she works while I walk around the classroom to see how she handles the students who struggle. She is much more patient and kind, offers more praise. And the students never seem reluctant to join her at the table in the back for individual help. They must like her. I try to pay attention to how often she offers help and how often she waits for students to ask her questions. How many leading questions does she ask? Does she spell out words completely or sound them out with students? I think I might ask if she minds me sitting at that table with her sometime and watching her work with students. She rarely takes disciplinary action so I wouldn't be distracted by what I find to be poor classroom management at times on Ms. Schwartz's part. I think I could learn a good deal about how best to help the students by watching her.

I have found that my role is mainly to answer simply questions, spell things, try to keep students following directions, and help kids read. Also, I do office assistant like things. I correct tests, do classroom cleanup things, I'm like an assistant. So I'm at the bottom rung but seeing a great deal.

Horace Mann Placement

I have been visiting a first grade classroom on Tuesday afternoons and a third grade classroom on Thursday afternoons. I'm doing my best to remain open minded, and to tell myself that I don't know anything about running an elementary school classroom and have forgotten pretty much everything about being a member of one, but there is such a shocking lack of student constructed learning. Everything so structured and discipline centered. Perhaps that's how students at that age need to learn? And in classrooms with 25 plus students, the kids who are above just following orders can be few and far betweens so perhaps they just have to put up with it?

The first grade classroom I have visited only twice, being sick last week and unable to go, so I met a substitute teacher on my first day and the regular teacher my second. Both asked students to be quiet about every four minutes and spoke loudly and often with an irritated tone to the students at large. Ms. Schwartz called a student annoying and warned the students against "making a big fat mess" of their writing projects. She just mean sometimes, I only truly heard her speak very gently when she was reading the students a story and asking them questions about it as she went.

In the first grade classroom students are asked to sit still, be quiet, raise their hands, and follow instructions. The only constructivism I saw was in students trying to spell out words correctly on their own by sounding it out or using their word board (an alphabet with what I assume are past spelling words listed under the letter they start with, it's on the wall in the back of the room) that I assume builds off of past knowledge or vocabulary. They aren't presented problems to solve on their own.

Neither is the third grade classroom, it's all instruction and I'm just set loose on both classrooms. I'm told to walk around, look over shoulders, offer help when needed, answer spelling questions, and I'm not told what not to do, how to speak, which students to push, which students to give extra help, and I feel like I'm going to do more damage than good. On tuesday this week the students were doing non-fiction books on sea turtles and apparently it was writing standard assessment and I wasn't sure how much help I could give or when to keep my mouth shut. In general they seem excited to see me, only one girl wouldn't look at me when I bent down to ehlp her with spelling. The rest are very chatty when I stop by their desks and are excited about a new face.

The third grade classroom I feel a little more at ease in because the students are more competent in helping one another and telling me what their teacher normally does when I help them. I worked with a group of four on a social studies story today and I quite enjoyed it. I even solved my first squabble and found a motivational tool. The little room we went to had one swivel chair and the rest were hard plastic desk chairs and they argued over who got to sit there, so I said we would switch chairs every time we turned a page, so they had to focus on getting through the material. We took turns reading aloud, went over vocab words, and talked about how we help our communities (the theme of the chapter). When Ms. Dahl, their teacher, announced a group would get to work out in the hall with me, the entire class raised their hands, hoping to be called on to come out. That was exciting. Still, everything is very methodical. This is how you study the vocab words, this is how you do your handwriting, this is how we share with the group, this is how we...at the very least they have art projects going on. Last week they decorated cups, and they do something new every week, that is creative though still not constructivst.

They wrote poems earlier in the day which I got to correct, and felt ill prepared to grade third grade poetry. I was to correct spelling and give suggestions, "use more describing words, use more beautiful language." I didn't know when to disapprove or be impressed, I have no idea what the average poetry skills are for this age. I felt very arbitrary when giving suggestions and comments. Ms. Dahl doesn't seem uncomfortable at all asking me to grade things which are subjective, however. I've also graded tests for her which had open ended answers and she'll give me examples of good ones and then just let me grade the tests on my own. It's good experience, and I understand she isn't my teacher. But I feel like it would be better for me and the students if someone was looking over my shoulder as I graded their tests. Oh well, I'll just do my best and ask frequent questions.

Ramsey Placement

After weeks of struggling to find a nearby service learning opportunity that related to the incorporation of civic engagement into higher education, I finally decided to resort to being in a classroom setting. As I explored classroom opportunities I became certain that I did not want to tutor, which left me with the option of serving as a teaching assistant. Tina kindly connected me with a Mr. Gunderson at Ramsey and literally, everything came together within a few minutes.

I am a teaching assistant in a World Geography class for 8th graders at Ramsey. I go in on Tuesdays for 5 hours and assist with 5 classes. I went in for the first time last week. I really did not know what to expect and before classes started Mr. Gunderson gave me a pep talk in which he advised me to be consistent with the kids, build a relationship with them, not to take any offensive comments made by the kids personally and to just respond with a sense of humor. He advised me to just observe for the first day.

The bell rang and the kids for the first class arrived. I was sitting nervously at the back of the classroom not really knowing what to do besides smile at each quizzical face that came with every new body that entered the classroom. Mr. Gunderson had warned me that the kids would likely compare me to the Mac student who had served as an assistant teacher last year, a person that really liked. (No pressure felt!)

Each of the five classes was a different size, had a different ethnic mix of kids and so required one to offer a different, tailored approach to interaction. It struck me that the classes that Mr. Gunderson struggled most to manage were the ones that have a larger percentage of African American children. These kids seemed to struggle to concentrate and thus, were constantly distracted and rambunctious. What impressed me about Mr. Gunderson's approach with each group, particularly the groups with rowdy kids was the consistency of his tone and the way in which he addressed the students as "ladies and gentlemen" even when they were misbehaving.

As for the teaching method, Mr. Gunderson presented a power-point and throughout asked students to relate ideas to their lives here in the Twin Cities. He also asked various students to read out aloud from the text book. Lastly, the element that most closely relates to constructivism is the worksheet that he gave the students, which required them to complete a "sandwich" exercise in which they used a map to find different features, in the middle of two cities or countries. It was at this point that I became of any use. Every time each class would start working on the "sandwich" exercise I would walk around and help different kids. It was awkward during the first class because I was just sitting down nervously wondering what to do then Mr. Gunderson came up to me and said "you can walk around and see what they're doing." Though I gained more confidence in myself, with each new class I did not know what to anticipate. In the end the kids weren't as bad as I thought they would be. There are some difficult kids though. This experience really made me admire teachers, particularly those who teach young children. It is absolutely draining especially when you have kids who are rumbunctuous. At some point there was a girl walking around the classroom, singing a hip-hop song while Mr. Gunderson was teaching. At that point my admiration for teachers rose to its peak.

Placement Update

The last two weeks at my placement have been great. I have finally gotten to meet and engage with the program participants and make more meaningful connections with the staff. My placement site is at a non-profit organization which focuses on exposing youth to the arts. Wednesday through Saturday of each week, youth are given the opportunity to participate in a variety of arts related activities. The program offers singing, fashion design, hip-hop, kickboxing and theatre classes. There is also a flower shop project called, “Petal Pushers,” which is a youth entrepreneurship venture started by four program participants.
The program works with inner-city youth, mainly girls, who live around Nicolette Avenue and its surrounding neighborhoods in Minneapolis. Most, if not all, program participants are from low-income or poor families and majority of the participants are students of color. Because there is a great age and cultural difference between the program participants and the program administrators, who are elder white women, the group has a youth advisory board set up so that participants can help direct the types of programs offered as well as keep communication between the two groups flowing.
Most of the time I spend at my placement site is spent doing administrative work like engaging in grant research and grant writing. While administrative activities take the bulk of my time, my favorite part of each day is spent sitting with the girls. Before each class, program participants spend sixty minutes sitting down to have a snack and talk about life. Over the last couple of weeks, these periods spent with the girls has managed to leave an impression on me. Without meaning to, the program participants have impacted me through their ability to be so painfully honest yet so completely free. Despite the various struggles these girls have face, they manage to retain the lightheartedness which allows them to whisper about boys and giggle about the funny things their classmates said at school. Each of these girls has big dreams, whether it is to become an international spy or a world famous fashion designer, and I just feel so lucky to be around such refreshing people.
I think that most of the programs offered at this site take a very constructivist approach to learning. While this is probably due to the nature of doing art programs, I can see that the group highlights the importance of experiential learning. The unstructured periods before official classes are kept organic so that participants can choose the topics to talk about and be able to learn from one another. The “Petal Pushers” project is also very constructivist as participants created their own business plan to start the idea and continue to learn through experience as they create flower arrangements and learn to run a business.

HSRA Update

My first few weeks at the St. Paul High School for the Recording Arts has gone great so far. I've been working one on one with students who produce a weekly hip-hop radio show for 96.3FM. It's on every Sunday morning at 8AM if anyone ever wants to listen in. So far I've been sharing with the students my background in radio and some of the things I try to do on my show. Also, we've been working on lots of grammatical and speaking errors that the students have been making. Their show isn't produced live, it is pre-recorded and mixed in advance so I have the opportunity to work with them on their language use, pronunciations, etc before the official show airs. Part of the show involves interviewing other people so I've also been working with students on coming up with interesting and diverse questions. After the prep work, I've been helping students one-on-one with the editing of the show on the computer. I'm also in the process of setting up a field-trip for the class so that they can come and tour the Macalester Radio station. One of my main concerns before starting was how to gain the respect of students who were sometimes only a year younger than me, but it hasn't proven to be a problem whatsoever so far. In fact, the relationships with the students I'm working with have formed and grown faster than I expected.

There's been plenty of example of constructivism at work at HSRA so far. The best example is the curriculum of the class. Students take their prior knowledge of english, speaking skills, and computer editing and apply it on their own through experimenting with the show and learning from their mistakes. My student, "Swerve," uses his prior knowledge of speaking skills, etc and conducts interviews all on his own, writing all of the questions and performing the interview as well. He has room to make mistakes, and make discoveries on his own. My other student, "Young Pain," uses his prior knowledge with computer editing, and he applies it in the classroom by editing and mixing the entire show by himself. The teacher is present if he ever needs help, but Young Pain generally works through the show without asking questions, and discovers new things along the way. Everything about the class is extremely hands on, the teacher is simply present to guide and keep the class on task.

I can't wait to keep working with this class, but I'm also hoping to start helping out with some more traditionally academic classes as well.

At the Lab

Despite minor confusions, I've successfully run two participants through the experiment at the U. The investigation itself is quite interesting, but I find it rather intriguing to observe how people act at the beginning of the experiment, how they respond to the trial runs, and how they react to the debriefing form. There's a wide variety of responses and, for the sake of keeping the experiment as uniform as possible, I can only investigate to a certain degree what those responses are reflecting about inner thoughts of the participant. I do, however, get the chance to analyze differences in participants in terms of their performance in the study.

Next week, Professor Varma will be talking to me, Ker, and Danielle (the other two student workers at the lab) about how to analyze the data from the experiments. This is thrilling for me. I’ll get to apply my love of finding patterns to an application that is both constructive and beneficial. In addition, I have the chance to contribute something potentially significant to the research itself. Granted, I’m working with two students, both of whom are seniors, so my expertise won’t match theirs. However, I may be able to spot something that they don’t. Equally, I’m sure, they’ll be able to teach me about the right, wrong, ineffective, effective ways to go about looking for meaningful patterns in this type of data. Overall, it’s very exciting to be in a situation where I have the opportunity to expand and deepen my knowledge of a certain topic.

Professor Varma, in his own way, is constructing a new experiment to expand his own knowledge of schemas and how they affect our understanding of the world. Already, Ker, Danielle and I have contributed to this new study by providing feedback and completing minor research assignments. It’s exciting to know that I’m contributing to the professor’s future work. Between this and running participants, it feels as thought I’m truly beginning to find my niche within this group. However, I still feel like something is missing.

By taking part in the lab at the U I’m definitely learning a lot about the research process; the frustrations of finding participants, the excitement of completing an experiment, etc. However, I don’t feel as though I’m applying my knowledge to other aspects of my life to the extent that I would like. In order to do this, I could to read more papers pertaining to the subject matter and relate that knowledge back to my classes here at Macalester.

I’d also like to apply that knowledge to working at the Laura Jeffrey Academy. I’m still awaiting a response about an interview, but I’m hoping to spend at least some time there. (I miss working with kids!!)

By allowing us to contribute to his research, Professor Varma is utilizing a constructivist approach. Rather than telling us exactly what’s going to happen, how it’s going to happen, and when it’s going to happen, he allows us to provide input and contribute ideas regarding the research. He takes these contributions seriously and actually applies them to his work. As a result, we are all more excited about, engaged with, and have a better understanding of the research.

Placement Update

In the last few weeks of my placement, I’ve gotten to see a lot of the ups and downs inherent in the day-to-day running of a 7^th grade English class. The teacher, Lisa, has an incredibly diverse group of students in terms of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and ability, which adds to the difficulty of keeping 30 middle school students engaged and focused on a lesson. She does her best to hold students to high expectations and check in with the students falling behind, but with so many students, I think it’s difficult for her to follow through all the time. For example, there are two students (a boy and a girl) in one of the classes I’m in that should not sit next to each other. They clearly like each other and spend the entire class talking and engaging in the middle school version of flirting (which is hilarious). Their constant chatter is disruptive to other students and to themselves—every time they receive instructions for something, both students miss what is going on, and then don’t do it. Lisa is frustrated by them and mentioned to me that she has spoken to them a few times and wants to move them, but when I was at Ramsey on Friday, the two were still next to each other. I guess figuring out how to move the two students without messing up the seating order for other students was a task that couldn’t be considered a priority with so much else to do.

The whole time I’ve been in the classroom, the students have been working on a poetry unit. While I know Lisa is trying to make it as engaging as possible, asking middle school students to write poetry seems to me like pulling teeth. Half the class will usually at least humor or her, but there are students in every class (I see three classes) who flat out refuse to write poetry because it’s “stupid.” Even when Lisa has a particularly fun and novel lesson planned, the students don’t take it seriously. She had the students do an activity with orange slices and saltine crackers to talk about “juicy words” (exciting, interesting words that you remember). First, the students crumbled the saltines onto paper plates. Lisa asked them what was left on their hands afterwards (the answer was, some cracker dust but not much else). The cracker represented “dusty” words. Then the students squeezed orange slices, which looked really fun to me. It was messy and sticky and they were supposed to squeeze as much juice out as they could. Lisa asked again what was left on their hands, and the students complained about how sticky their hands remained from the orange juice (I then gave them all wet wipes). The orange slices represented “juicy” words that (literally) stick with you and leave a lasting impression.

I thought this was such a cool way to talk about vocabulary with students but when the next part of the activity came, it was clear many of them had not been paying attention to anything but the act of smashing foods, and still did not understand what she meant by “juicy” words, which was unfortunate because those who had were doing the next part of the activity (a "Juicy Words" Taxonomy) really well and were not recognized for their efforts. I think this lesson was somewhat constructivist in that it was hands-on, involved natural curiosity and novelty, and a bit of social inquiry, though it was more guided by teacher then I think a true constructivist lesson would have been. I see though why it is so difficult to have lessons like that in a public school classroom with so many students, because often they detract from rather than enhance learning. I’m still pondering how that lesson could have been structured and/or executed so that it would have gone better, but I keep coming back to the problem of the over-crowded classroom and I’m not sure how to solve that.

Placement Recap

The past two week s of my placement at EXPO Elementary has gone smoothly and thus far been a good experience. I have worked with three different groups consisting of 3rd, 5th, and 6th graders. The older students mostly only need extra help when trying to spell complex words or when trying to comprehend new ideas form articles or books they are reading. I have been helping the younger students with phonics mostly.

The classroom that I have been placed in is very different from the one that I worked in last semester at Ramsey Junior High. In this classroom thee are a lot more objects and colors around the room. To me it seems like as a student it would seem like a setting where you would feel calm and secure, which we know to be very important for learning to take place.

I'm excited for next week because I get to follow some of the students around to the other classes they go to. This will be interesting since I will get to see the LD students interaction in their mainstream classrooms. So far I think I have had a fun time at my placement and look forward to it every week.