Welcome to my gallery: A collection of photos, snapshots, and ideas about teaching
Life Lessons
My seniors wrapped up this week by learning life lessons that I truly hope (and believe) they will take out into the world as they take that next big step. We worked on these while reading Tuesdays with Morrie, so some of them reflect lessons from the book while others are big pictures lessons from their experiences.
To me, this was a great way to highlight student work in a very easy way. I used the paper to as their exit slip for class, to assess that they had learned and participated, while also making the exit slips relevant to their life. They seemed to appreciate it!
First Faculty Meeting
While I have attended many meetings of shapes and sizes, I had the pleasure of attending my first faculty meeting Wednesday, April 17, 2013. It was an eye opening experience that showed me the "backstage" of teaching that I have not seen yet. I loved and appreciated hearing what everyone had to say about their strengths and goals for the year while also reflecting on their weaknesses.
I took wonderful notes during the meeting to help me improve and keep focus. Even though I am here for just a short time, I want the best experience possible.
Countdown!
I created this countdown for the end of the year to give my students something to look forward to and to add some fun to the classroom. I learned of the idea from one of my previous teachers and decided to implement it in my long-term subbing position. I try to think of it as more of "how many days I have left with the students" rather than the days until break :)
It really adds some color to the classroom while also giving my last hour something to do. They seem to really appreciate it as a wrap up for the day and also seem to see it as another way to build classroom community and engagement.
3:1 Ratio
This is my table at Sylvan where I teach students on a 3:1 ratio. The table provides the perfect set-up for working with 3 students at a time. They each have their own space to work in while I am able to seamlessly move from student to student and still be aware of their focus.
I love working with the students in this type of set up because it is so easy to work with them and quickly move from student to students. This is especially important because my students have a large range in age so their needs vary greatly during the hour.
U-Shaped Desk Arrangement
This photo shows the set up of the classroom while I am a long-term substitute. While many of the bulletin boards and order I have not created, I chose to recreate the desk arrangements so that it is more conducive to classroom discussions, community, and most importantly - better suited for acting out Henrik Ibsen's, A Doll House.
I have traditionally strayed away from the arrangement of rows because I want an arrangement that supports students working together and contributing with each other. I have not yet had the opportunity to play with grouping because the type of desks I have used have not allowed for it. In the future, I would love to work with groups.
Vocab and Planning
I am trying desperately to figure out a better way to incorporate vocab into class time. I feel do feel it is important, but there are so many other things to cover, it hasn't gotten the attention that it deserves. In addition to reminding them to study on their own and setting clear dates for the quizzes, I have also begun adding some of the words to the board and having someone read them out.
I called on students to read the words, definition, and example, while also adding in my own description or reminders as well. In the past we also did an activity where each student got a word, defined it, found it in the book and then discussed the passage that it came from. Both of these seem to help improve understanding, but will need some practice including them in with all the other things we have to do.
Fun with Grading
After grading stacks of reading quizzes. I needed some entertainment. I figured the students would too. Knowing that a smile can go along way, I decided the best way to cheer us all up was by including a large variety of smiley faces on my students' quizzes.
Maybe it was something silly. Maybe it was something pointless - but I reminded myself that it is the little things that matter and when the students saw it, I knew it brought a smile to their faces.
Grading
For fun, I took this picture to show one way I maintain a set up for grading. I vary my strategy depending on the assessment, but having my computer out allows me to easily input grades while different piles give me organization.
For larger projects, I generally need more space, but this was a quick assessment and was much more simple to grade than essays or projects.