In the High School I am in we have 6 periods and there are 3 lunch periods throughout the day. My cooperating teacher has all 3 lunch periods off. This gives him plenty of time to work on emails and lesson planning. However I have noticed that time can be wasted when students first come into class. My cooperating teacher lets students have free time to unwind on their laptops but when it is time to start a lesson students do not want to put their laptops down.
Another thing that takes more time in the classroom is trying to figure out all the students' schedules. My cooperating teacher spends a lot of his time trying to make a list of all the assignments students are working on outside of his classroom. This means everyone in his classroom is working on something different and it can take awhile to get all students working on something productive. In every directed studies class he must check to see what each student should be working on then walks around to set each student up. By the time he gets students rolling he might have used half the period. Instead he would like to use the time for useful and meaningful instruction where the students can be ready right when they come into class. The problem is getting the students on the same page.
When I asked about building level operations nothing really came up. My cooperating teacher does not feel those activities or meetings are unnecessary or waste his time.
Anna,
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that same idea with my classroom. What kind of classroom room are you in? I have found that my middle schoolers who are in my math resource classroom, always want to have their electronics out whenever they can. Because the middle school I work at lets students use the technology, I have found that they struggle with putting down their chrome books as well. Something my teacher has done is if the students take more than a minute after asked, then they lose that privilege the next day to use them.
Try looking at this article I found and see where your students are at. This may help you in realizing that when you start student teaching, you may want to change some things! I hope this helps because it helped me!
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/meaning-tech-integration-elementary-mary-beth-hertz
Kailee,
DeleteI am in a high school cross categorical resource room, and the technology drives me up the wall. My teacher has also said to students they will lose their privilege to the chrome book but all the assignments and homework are online so it is a empty threat sometimes. I overheard students saying they don't know why they have the chrome books because they are a distraction and "free entertainment". I think teachers need to better education themselves on proper uses of technology to help benefit students learning. Thank you for the article!
Hey Anna,
ReplyDeleteI know the classroom you are talking about. Having kids to unwind will be helpful but it is also important for them to be ready for class. This app is a Sand Timer. If you just place it on the projector, it is a visual for the whole classroom so they can see how many times they still have and they are alerted to put their stuff away. (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/30-30/id505863977?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4)
For remembering all assignments, one thing you can do is write down all the classes they have on the board (maybe some of the same teachers) You can make them be responsible to write down their homework for that class or even you can write it down. Thats what my class did last semester.
Hopefully this helps :)
Gladis,
DeleteThank you for the timer suggestion, I will have to use this! sometimes it can also be difficult for the teacher to remember they gave the students 5-10 minutes to unwind. That often happens in the classroom, the teacher will start doing work and forget to come back in the time given. The visual will help both the student and teacher remember it is time to begin the lesson for the day.
Also my teacher does make a list of all the teachers and assignments but sometimes the list is not complete and he doesn't put it up for students to see. I do like the idea of having the students write down the homework they have for a class and being responsible for their own work.
Hi Anna!
ReplyDeleteThat is so awesome that your cooperating teacher has 3 lunch periods to work on things that need to get done. I'm sure he really appreciates that time! My cooperating teacher has about 50 minutes of planning time while our students go to special (art or strength class).
I think that it is important for students to have time throughout the day to breathe and relax, but too much wind down time can definitely be a negative thing! Especially when it makes it even more difficult to get your students on task, as it seems to be doing in your situation. There is a ton of down time in my placement too (too much if you ask me). I know that our time in the classroom could be used more effectively and that my students could be spending way more time on task. I found this article about time on task and classroom management processes that promote it. It has a lot of valuable information and really helped me think about how to encourage time on task in my future classroom (or when I take over the class student teaching). You should definitely check it out! Here is the link:
https://feaweb.org/time-on-task-a-teaching-strategy-that-accelerates-learning
I hope you find this article as interesting as I did! :)
Samantha,
DeleteYes, the 3 lunch periods off are great for getting on top of work and my CT has students come in to talk. It really is a great opportunity to get to know students.
Too much time off is a negative thing, thank you for your link. I really liked how everything was broke down and it is very easily to read. There is also a lot of valuable information, I will definitely be using the information in my class.
Anna,
ReplyDeleteI have witnessed similar experiences in my placement as well. I feel like there is quite a bit of time wasted before class starts as well as at the end. My students are allowed to spend time on their phones or just sit there and do anything they desire. It can be frustrating to watch because I feel like quality instruction time is wasted and lost.
In my placement my students spend a majority of their day in our classroom so my teacher does not have to worry about figuring out what each student should be working on. She has been working at this high school for 29 years and has created a curriculum that she believes best fits the students that we typically work with. With having created her own curriculum she has no timeline or guidelines on when she has to teach what. Although this is nice for my teacher it does allow for some flexibility and can lead to time wasted.
It sounds like your teacher spends a lot of time trying to figure out what each student should be working on throughout the day. Has he tried talking to the general education teachers in advance? He could attempt to meet with each teacher he works alongside with either at the end of each week or the beginning to try and make his weekly plan. Knowing what each student has to work on throughout the week can reduce the time spent "wasted". I found this article and thought it may be helpful! :) It talks about ways to help teachers and students stay organized.
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2014/05/response_practical_ideas_to_help_students_teachers_stay_organized.html
-Alexandra
Alexandra,
DeleteThat's great that your teacher has come us with a curriculum that works for her students. I think in a lot of classrooms though we see wasted time, it can be difficult to ensure there is not a waste of time.
As for figuring out students schedules everything is in google classroom. My CT is enrolled in other teachers class as a student and I am not 100% on how that works. I think with technology we are losing social and personal skills. Teachers need to communicate face to face to truly know whats going on and I think my CT needs to get a heads up on what will be going on throughout the semester in the gen ed classrooms.
Thank you for your link, it will really help with staying organized and there were a lot of quick simple ideas to be organized.
Lunch hour conference rules (just sayin...).
ReplyDeleteIt has to be difficult to keep student schedules straight. Good link, Alex. In teaching responsibility (again, depends of group of students), perhaps you could begin shifting responsibility on the students, and how technology could help there (I'm being naive here; however, incorporating methods to shift the burden to the students over time could help students as well as teachers).