And the Practicum has Begun!

If feels as though it was just yesterday that I was requesting my application to apply to Lesley. I remember talking to a close friend about the process and she was invaluable. And here I am a couple years later and entering my practicum. Time flies when you're having f...uh...when you are busy morning until bedtime.

Officially, my practicum began on January 21st, 2014. Luckily enough for me, I was able to take a spot as an intern at The Maria Baldwin Elementary School and begin earlier - December 2nd to be exact. Thus, this first entry should be considered more of an early summary of what has been going on.

• I am in a second grade classroom. Actually, I am in two second grade classrooms. Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday I am with the ELA specialist who administers reading workshops. Second half of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I am with the mathematics specialist. Both teachers undertake writing, and when time allows, science, and social studies. After almost two months in the classes there has been very little science and zero social studies.
• Memorizing forty-one names was not easy.
• The school itself features students who speak thirty-five different languages. My classes feature several ELL's and inclusion students.
• From day one I have been working individual with students and in small groups.
• The class has been 100% my own for a day and a half when the ELA specialist had to be out. The students were excellent but things were hectic. Being on my own during that time, I knew that teaching was the best career choice I have ever made.
• I have been given guided reading groups. I have browsed the available books for the reading groups in the literacy library and created comprehension questions. The ELA specialist was very impressed with my work. Language arts have always been my specialty as reading and writing are my passions.
• I have attended staff meetings and CPT sessions.
• I have helped organize portions of an all school assembly.
• On my second day I had to start covering morning breakfasts for sixty students -  this will be every other month for the whole school year.
• I have had to cover-up the demise of a loved class pet.
• I have resolved student conflicts and emotional outbursts.

Overall, it has been a very busy start to my practicum. And I imagine it will get even busier. The list above is probably not even close to complete. Perhaps I will add-on pieces to each blog entry should things come to mind. For now though, that is all Ihave to share as I have a lengthy list of readings ahead of me, as well as a three to five page paper.

Once more unto the breach!...or...Our Last Weekend of Class

With the final weekend of class dealing with assessment, I cannot help but think of the term and its application to my return to academia. Did I successfully fulfill the high standards and goals that I set for myself? For now, a certain amount of assessment is purely a proximation and personal reflection of my work.

It has been many years since I have sat in a classroom and the return has been a bit of a challenge. I was unsure of my ability to jump back in and complete work that is comparable to that of my peers, but also, coming into a mostly female dominated profession would I be accepted into the group?

All of my fears have subsided in the past month. A tremendous amount of group work has shown me that my knowledge and perspectives are not completely out of line with other students'. My role in my groups has been solid and people have been very accepting of my suggestions and work. My participation has been of value to others. Assignments such as blogs and papers have been completed and have added to my learning.

It may take me a little longer and a bit more work, but I am happy in my new environment and look forward to each new learning experience. In truth, the final assessment of my work will come in the form of an actual grade. An 'A' may be the ultimate goal, but on a personal level I have proven to myself that yes I belong here and yes I can complete the work and perform well – this being a vital assessment to the beginning of my graduate school learning.

A Step Toward 21st Century learning.

Chapter 8: Personal Reflections, Comments, and AH HA Moments

Cooperative learning and you...and you...and you...and you...and you...

Sometimes I feel very old. My elementary schooling began about 1978 and I graduated form high school in 1991. Many things have changed since then. During my years in elementary school and beyond most of my learning was mostly via lectures. We sat there at our desks and listened. Maybe took notes. Quizzes would spring up. We would write book reports. And that was about it. There was so very little group work. Cooperative learning was non-existent. Having read the text and especially having researched my key assignment, I could not imagine my future classroom being without a plethora of social learning exercises.

I would have to say that the closest I ever came to experiencing the concepts of social constructivism would be in my sixth grade class. My teacher – Mr. O'Connell – had well honed question asking skills. Instead of merely giving us the answers, he would always try and get us to look at whatever problem we faced in a new light. His scaffolding made us a group of thinkers and I owe him for helping me to learn to see the many facets of a singular problem or issue. Which in turn leads into...

Give me an I! Give me a D! Give me an E – A -L! What's that spell?!?!

Having learned the skill of looking at problems in as many ways as possible, I have always been pegged as being a negative person. Especially in work environments, when faced with the possibility of changes I have always looked at positives and negatives. For some odd reason though, co-workers always seemed to center on my “negativity”. It was never a matter of thinking that something will not work, it was instead a way to seek out problems before they happened and thus implement the smoothest and most efficient change as possible.

Whether confronted with an issue at work or looking at a school project that needs completion, I have always identified the problem, figured out what needs to happen, examined options, contemplated the end results, and reflected – welcome to my learning process. Usually.

Open the door and put him in.

Incubation – the ability to think before reacting or answering – is an incredibly important skill to have and utilize. I have always opted to think before I act. Life is usually much easier, or at least less messy. As I was reading the topic I could not help but think of the management exam that has circulated for years with questions such as:

1. How do you put a giraffe in the refrigerator? (answer: open the door, put him in, close the door)
2. How do you put an elephant in the refrigerator? (did you say – open the door, put him in, close the door? Wrong. You have to take the giraffe out first!)

And the line of questions will continue in a similar fashion. Often, people tend to over think and over analyze things, when often, the correct answer is the one that might be the least complex. Or, as Sherlock Holmes said thanks to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”

Chapter 6: Comments, Personal Reflections, and AH HA Moments

On the tip of my tongue...

The Sherrill Library – my home away from home - working on chapter five and making some notes in the margins for my “AH HA” moments. I was almost done reading about short-term memory when an idea for a commentary came to mind. With just a couple sentences to go, I finished the paragraph before jotting down my note. When I finished that portion of reading, any semblance of what I was going to write was completely gone from my short-term memory. Next time I know to make the notes before finishing.

Not just from left-field!

I sometimes wonder if all minds work the way mine does. To elaborate, often is the case that a friend or a family member will mention something and within mili-seconds my mind is thinking of something else entirely. Often, if I need to responding to my friend/family member my response is not even in the realm of what they were looking for. My answers very often require a path of thought - a schemata if you will – to detail how I got from point A to point B. My mind tends to link insignificant or mostly random items together and the links only seem to make sense to me.

Freshly back to school and wondering how I will ever remember everything!

My study habits have varied over the years. On thing that has always helped my studies has been the creation of acronyms or as the text calls them – initial-letter strategies. Coming from an accounting background there were many relatable terms that I could group together to recall at a later date, such as: what account had credit balances, what account had debit balances, and the different line items of financial statements. Thankfully, I have wiped most of that information from my memory instead to focus on education related initial-letter strategies. Of course some acronyms will always stick with me. As my brother was detailing the rainbow cake he was decorating for my niece's birthday he listed off the colors. I had to break the news to him that he forgot one color – indigo. I cited Roy G. Biv (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). My brother “the perfectionist” was forced to start over.

An open letter to the author...

Dear Dr. Slavin,

I have been enjoying your textbook thus far and have found it very useful in thinking not only og how a child may develop on varying levels, but also how it relates to me. As a returning student after seventeen years away from higher education, I have one question for you. Why sir, did you not put the segment entitled, “What Study Strategies Help Students Learn?” at the beginning of your text??? Seriously, I could have used this information about one hundred and sixty-nine pages ago!

Sincerely,

Jason A. Tavares

PS: I actually use a hybrid of PQ4R in conjunction with underlining. My concern is of course for other students.

PQ4R back to sixth grade!

Way back in the sixth grade I had my all-time favorite teacher standing before my class. Mr. O'Connell was instrumental in my being the reader and writer that I am today. Within the four walls of our classroom he introduced us to writing and studying more so than any teacher I had before and possibly since. While it may be true that I have taken much from the myriad classes that I have attended since sixth grade, Mr. O'Connell's basics have stuck with me the longest. Thank you Mr. O'Connell and thank you long-term memory!

Mr. O'Connell was a firm believer in writing each and every day and was especially an advocate of using our creativity on our writing. He demanded that we always question what we were reading and what we were about to write. Typically, he would launch into an almost word for word transcript of the famous Abbot and Costello bit – Who's on First? Each time we proposed an idea he would make us ask ourselves questions: who is your main character? what is the dilemma that is being faced? Where is the story set? Who is on third? No, I don't know is on third...and so on.

Dear Colleague -

Howdy Marcie -

I feel as though it has been too long since we last spoke. Everything on my end has been going swimmingly. My students have really responded to the ideas you had of incorporating music into my class. And they all LOVED the album of children's songs that you created. The kids have all been drawing robots in outer space eating donuts every chance they get. And they keep asking me to share my donuts, but you and I both know that nothing, nothing comes between me and my donuts.

Truth be told, I feel kind of guilty for how well things are going on my end when I know that you and your colleagues are struggling a bit. Getting your email made me wish I was closer so I could sit in on some of your classes and offer some suggestions. You did though given me quite an all encompassing overview of what your students seem to be struggling with. Working with students of such low socioeconomic status can be incredibly difficult at times. From what you have detailed of the area in which you are situated, it must be difficult for students to arrive in class each morning and feel any sort of motivation toward learning.

The difficulties of an unmotivated class upon entering the school is assuredly leading to difficulties in subsequent years. The curriculum you attached was a bit distressing. It sounds as though the administration has you pigeon-holed into an almost dictated teaching style. When will people learn that children learn when they are truly engaged and are an active part of both the learning and teaching experience? I know I always learned soooooo much by sitting in my chair all day and having my teachers talk AT me. Is my sarcasm thick enough there for you?

Fear not, for I am here to help you my dear friend! No knight in white armor, more just a geeky teacher in a flannel, button-down. Sitting at the laptop the other night I dove into the information you passed along. I broke out an old-fashioned notepad and went to work. After taking many notes of my own, I needed to truly see what the problem is that you are facing. If only all issues stemmed from a single problem source. Sadly, I think you are dealing with multiple problems in the lack of motivation for your students. I would suspect that you are facing three different reasons for the problems you are facing:

1. Your students are coming from homes of extremely low socioeconomic status. Imagine if you were leaving a home each morning where the majority of the money coming into the household had to be spent on the necessities of life – food, rent, utilities, and maybe clothing. You have routinely said that your students enter the class each morning as if they were just finishing working one job, just to start a shift at their next job. They are leaving a home environment bereft of happiness and coming to a class where they are tied to their seat for six plus hours a day.
2. You school district has formed some fairly strict guidelines as to the curriculum and methods of teaching. No Child Left Behind seems to have them worried that anything that is not rote in nature must be wrong. “TEACH THE TEST! TEACH THE TEST!” I am confident in saying that someday soon, legislation will be enacted to alleviate some of the mandates that NCLB has established. Needless to say, your students are simply not getting what they need from the environment that you are giving them. Woah! Woah, WOAAAHHHH...I know it is not strictly you. Stop with the pouty face. I know your hands are mostly tied, but I also know you and how you can be so incredibly creative! I have faith in you!
3. Lastly, your students just do not seem to be getting nor enjoying the material. This could perhaps just be that they are not fans of the assignments in front of them but it seems more accredited to the fact that they are not stimulated enough and being engaged enough to form any kind of link or emotional connection to what they are learning.

Knowing why the students are not performing well in your classes and in later years is key to figuring out ways in which the learning environment can be adapted to meet their needs. I truly feel that by tweaking the way you are teaching them you will see a tremendous impact. I can already hear you saying, “But Jason, the administration...” Yes I understand fully. But there must be an approach that you can take that will address the concerns of the curriculum at meeting the demands of standardized testing while at the same time making sure that your students are active participants in the learning process. And trust me, they will be anxious to come to class each and every day! No, I do not sound like one of those late night informercial guys...

Now it is time for you and I to hop into Mr. Peabody's “Way Back Machine”. Recall back if you will to those early days of undergrad and then even in graduate school as you sat in your psychology classes and began your study of learning theories. One of the earliest theories belonged to this Vygotsky guy. Remember him? I always pictured him in a big furry Russian hat and a massive beard and mustache. I think I actually checked one day and was greatly disappointed that my idea of him in my mind was nowhere close to how he actually looked. Oh well, in my mind he will always have that big black beard. Anyway, Vygotsky was a huge proponent on social learning - that students should be brought together in groups where they can and will learn in a very active manner both from the educator/expert and from each other. In a sense you as the teacher would lead groups of students in learning activities and would act more as a facilitator than a giver of straight-forward facts and figures. The technical term for what you would be doing would be either mediated learning or scaffolding. I personally prefer scaffolding as it conjures mental images of an actual scaffold along a building. That scaffold is not there to do the work of the construction workers, but it facilitates and helps them get the job done. Sometimes these little mental pictures help me keep all the theories clear.

Right about now you are saying, “Yeah great but how does this help alleviate the problem and how can I bring these concepts into my classroom? Also, I wonder if I have time to go pick up some mint chocolate chip ice cream?” Knowing me as you do, I am a huge fan of ice cream. Go grab some and come back and we will figure this all out together. Fear not, I will be here when you return.

Back? That was nice and quick. I barely noticed you were gone. Hahaha!

Okay, back to work. Think first and foremost of the environments that your students are exposed to outside of their educational setting. Not very cheery are they? You need to get them out of their chairs. You need to get them moving and interacting. Get them talking and engaging in discussions. Social learning will accomplish all that and so much more. You had noted specifically that your students were having difficulty with their reading of Tom Sawyer. No lie, I am happy to hear your administration has embraced the classics once more. My curriculum is slowing doing the same. As you sit there with your students desks all lined up and spread out, and you ask questions and have them read in turn, how is that making the environment any more exciting or engaging from their home life? Spin those desks around and have them form their own reading clubs. Break them down and balance out the groups. By balancing out the groups I mean put a stronger student in each group that can help mediate their group. They can be your little mini-scaffolds! A scaffold within a scaffold!

Now, as each of your better students begins a discussion in their groups you can act as the overall mediator. You can listen in and ask questions of each group or of the class as a whole. Try and stay away from yes or no questions or ones that have a definitive answer. Kids love to think and rationalize. You will be amazed at what they will come up with with just a small nudge.

I have the utmost confidence though that with your scaffolding, you will get them into the best learning environment while at the same time still maintaining the standards set forth by your administration and curriculum. I am shaking my fists at those standardized test!

Now, you are going to find that once you begin these kinds of social learning practices that kids are going to start to extrapolate those methods and utilize them in other subjects. Perhaps you could also have mini science labs and students can all work experiments together? Small group math clubs anyone? Often I think that students are scared to voice opinions to their teachers. It can be a scary thing to raise a hand and put your thoughts and opinions out to a teacher who hold your grade in their hands. On a peer-to-peer learning level though, they can speak freely to each other and offer more creative thoughts and solutions. You will see that they will quickly begin to expand their thinking and become immersed in the learning environment. They will walk through your door each morning beaming and excited to be there. They will be enthusiastic and craving the next foray into social learning.

Having read all of the above I hope that you find the value in social learning that I and my students have. Seeing their enthusiastic faces as we enter each new learning unit is worth more than all the Stafford Loans I have ever had to apply for. I hope in my heart that you can put some of these ideas into practice. Once your students are engaged they will be craving more and more learning. It is your job to guide them along the process not force feed them facts and opinions. Do me a favor, give it a try over the course of the next few weeks. If you struggle with lesson plans, email or better yet, call me. Just be mindful of the time zone differences.

Your friend and comrade in arms,

- Jason

Chapter 5: Personal Reflections, Comments, and AH HA Moments

At least they did not 'shush' me.

“However, you are also learning that educational psychology is interesting or dull, useful or useless. Without knowing it, you are probably learning about where on the page certain pieces of information are to be found. You might be learning to associate the content of this chapter with unimportant aspects of your surroundings as you read it, such as the smell of books in a library or the temperature of the room in which you are reading. ” Slavin page 116.

After I finished reading the above I let out a louder than appreciated laugh in the Sherrill Library. The students around me may have thought I was a bit “off my rocker” as they may have been able to tell that I was reading Educational Psychology. I sighed and simply had to shake my head though because the quote above was true. Learning can take place in many forms and can happen without paying it too much attention. Freshly back in academia I am struggling to try and get all my reading done and to adequately remember the myriad definitions that I am confronted with in not one or two text books, but five. Some concepts are interwoven amongst the differing texts, but most feel fresh and have taken quite a bit of work to wrap my arms around. I am getting there but my learning has been a slow process, and somewhat unconsciously I am adapting.

The story of my life?

Facing the struggle between “having to” versus “wanting to” it can be said that life is filled with such battles. The Premack Principle always seems to be in place.

“Eat your veggies and you will get some dessert.”

“Clean your room and you can go the movies.”

“Do your homework and you can play video games.”

“Sell six cellphone plans and you will get an extra personal day.”

The concept of motivating a person – child or adult – to undertake an undesirable task is not a new concept and has probably been around since caveman Grog told his son to throw the mammoth bones outside the cave and then he can paint on the walls. The Premack Principle works and perhaps over time children will see the value of completing those enjoyable tasks beyond the obtaining of a pleasurable activity.

“Thanks for showing up – here's your trophy!”

The above is actually the title of a book that I have begin to outline. Will it ever be completed? I hope so. May it sit in the desktop folder of my laptop for periods of time? Certainly. Is the notion that kids are gratuitously over-rewarded for very little actual real activity or performance something I think of often? A resounding “YES!”

I understand that using extrinsic reinforcers can yield some positive results especially as motivational factors, but all too often organizations seem to jump to the ultimate prize and give it to all participants as opposed to really rewarding performance.

My assorted nieces and nephews all participate in various activities at my siblings' behest: sports, musical endeavors, art. In every instance that I can think of, everyone gets a trophy or a big ribbon for having participated. While no one wants to hurt the feelings of a child, the reward should be in-line with the performance.

If I finish reading and commenting on Chapter 5, I can go home and watch the Patriots game.

Throughout my life I have always self-regulated and self-reinforced my behaviors. Even as an adult rewards are necessary. The overbearing sense of needing to do what has to be done forces me to accomplish activities. Every so often though a really difficult, annoying, or exhuasting set of tasks will afford me the thought, “Wow, I worked my behind off and got everything done ahead of schedule! I deserve...a couple of new books or a video game as reward.” I learned early on in my educational and professional worlds that I am responsible for my own actions and the actions that I undertake have affects upon my life and those around me. But why not make those actions a bit easier and reward myself from time to time?