Week 9

           This past week, I have been able to obtain a signal in which the students know to stop in play and listen to directions. This is a whistle blow which is loud and for the most part the students stop on the whistle and listen to directions. However, after I do blow the whistle I tell the students that mouths are closed and eyes are on me for the directions. I feel that doing this helps them remember what they need to do. In the next week or so, I am looking to try another signal to see if it works better or not. This idea is that when the music is being played, then the students participate in their activities, but when the music turns off the the students should listen to my directions. I feel that this may be better and it also provides a positive atmosphere with the students and can increase their physical activity just from having music playing. I am in hopes that something like this will work.

            During the week, I also worked on calling out students who are doing the correct thing. For the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd graders this worked out well because they wanted to show the teacher how well they can behave. I am thinking about obtaining some stickers and then when the students are doing something that I want them to do I give them a sticker telling them how good they are doing. I am not sure how exactly I’ll approach it, but for right now I like the verbal praise to get the student’s attention after I start calling out students and the task they are doing correctly. It seems to have a positive impact where I am not calling on students who are not participating poorly. It gives these students an opportunity to behave appropriately. 

        

Collaboration as with any organization is extremely essential. For most of my experience, I find that collaboration is vital a lot more for me in elementary than in high school. When I began thinking about teaching, I thought that I would love elementary PE a lot more than high school. I’ve come to a realization that I am not sure if that is correct. I have a lot more to learn in elementary PE than I did when I was teaching high school students. I’ve collaborated a lot with my cooperating teacher in the sense that I must remember the cues and remember how much I have to make sure all students are on task with everything I say. At times I have said things that students interpret differently on things that I didn’t think they would not understand. I find that teaching 1^st and 2^nd grade I must keep them busy otherwise I loose them. It is more challenging than I was expecting, but I consider it growing pains and that as I grow with experience here I can develop a better rapport with the students.

      I recently sat in a meeting this past week that had to do with collaboration from the district to the schools. Currently, the schools are trying to incorporate more 1:1 computers with our students. Some teachers find it vital to be continually working on the computer as it brings a lot of differentiation and sources to the classroom. This is not only the only reason, but having these computers also meets the needs of our technology students today. In essence, this trial and error run is being performed in the school currently. Naperville is working with some school where the technology devices are readily available compared to here at Mill Street where checking out laptop carts are difficult to find. In essence, this meeting brought to my attention how much the school is in need of more laptops because teachers  are wanting students to write more frequently and meet their needs. Additionally, the district is apprehensive because of the expense. It was interesting to think of this process on how to budget for materials that are not available currently but something they are looking for in the future. Collaboration on this aspect was operated through a written assessment of how the classroom would utilize the equipment to its fullest extent.  

Here at Mill Street talking to parents is not performed often, but are working with colleagues were are trying to develop a curriculum in which exposes students to a variety of activities. Students and parents in the upcoming weeks are participating in a rock climbing unit. The students and some of their parents are able to join during these activities which I feel develop good relationships with parents and also that they are exposed to an activity that can be fun for the entire family. Developing an effective climate begins at the time students enter the gymnasium. Students participate in their own warm-ups independently which creates an atmosphere of self-directed learning and responsibility. In the past and while working with students at Naperville Central, I collaborated a lot with counselors which helped me understand my student’s lives outside of school. I was able to communicate with parents on what their child may need and emailed them frequently to make sure what I was doing was effective and if there needed to be any adjustments that were necessary beforehand so that I was taking on a preventative approach. The parents respected that and overall went well. For the most part, I enjoy talking with parents and if they have a problem or are being defensive I feel that I can help them understand why I am doing what I am doing to make sure their child succeeds or reason for their safety.

            While collaboration is vital, I have also been exposed to the co-teaching model. At the high school level my leadership class that I was in was all co-teaching. We planned together the activities we wanted to present, but also was able to co-teach just about ever lesson. For the most part I would begin the activity, she would present the meat of the lesson, while finishing I was able to debrief the students while helping them understand what they needed to understand from the material presented. I find that co-teaching is more necessary than anything. I think teachers who have the same knowledge can reach out to more students and may be able to present the material in a different way. I feel that students then, if they don’t care of one teacher, can continue to learn from the other to make their classroom experience more positive. Co-teaching allows for more students to ask questions, more small group activities with the teacher involved, and raises more awareness of self-directed learning. Students, I feel, benefit more from co-teaching than any other teaching because they are listening to different voices keeping their attention longer while teachers are able to collaborate to find the best practice for the material to teach based on two experiences.

            I feel that co-planning and co-teaching is something I enjoy as students are continual learning a variety of material. My ability to co-teach mainly has come from my high school experience and my first day here at Mill Street. I find that co-teaching helps me develop certain professional skills and helps me create new ways to teach based on the reaction from the students from another teacher, which is something we may not see when we are teaching.

            Personally, I have developed collaboration and rapport with other is a variety of ways. At the high school level, I always made sure I followed up with students when they went down to the nurse’s office, came back from the counselors office, and when they need information regarding absences or their grades. Collaborating is something that I feel is necessary and something I feel I do naturally. I love figuring out ways to present material in a new way and figuring out how I can make my students more successful. I like being able to develop positive relationships by stating the positives in the days rather than the negatives. Teachers know about the poor students, but they also want to hear about how the students are performing on a positive level. Each day when the class leaves or comes into the class I like to ask the teacher how they are doing today so that I have a heads up for the day, but I also like to the their classroom teacher how great of a job they did especially when we are able to complete our tasks and more. Collaboration, whether positive or negative, must be done constantly and consistently so that there is an effective learning environment. 

      Overall, this week has been exhausting....