Clinicals 5

The last of my clinicals were on the 20th.

It was fun going the last couple of days because I was able to do my mini-lesson and go to their restaurant. The lesson went really well for the first hour, but each hour after that got less and less engaged. They all loved the logos I had done with the brand names taken out of them. I only had 11, if I were to use this in a class I would definitely make more of them. I was doing this to explain that they need a product, price, place, and promotion in order to have a successful business. I also had a poster with the four concepts outlined, so that was useful. There was a school activity where a lot of students were excused, so Mrs. Christensen had to switch her lesson for the day to the one she was going to do the next day. They needed to be able to fill out job applications for the restaurant, and with so many gone she couldn't do that. That's why she has the video instead.

The restaurant was really fun because the kids got to work with the food and actually try and do a job. They do it two days and have half the class cook and the other half eat, then switch. I was able to sit with a couple of boys at a table to make sure students were following the etiquette they had been told to use, and I could talk with the boys. I asked them what they liked about their jobs, and what classes they enjoy. It was interesting to have them comment that they really liked the CTE class because they liked using the swing machines.

Discipline:
During my lesson the classes were quite. I think it was because I'm new, and if they were quiet I would call on them to tell me what the X-box and Nintendo logos were. The rest of that class they watched a video and finished assignments. They were quiet during the video, but Mrs. Christensen sat in a desk with the students, so that helped a lot.

Teaching Strategies:
I really liked the idea of having the students actually fill out their job applications. There were a few who were going to be absent the next day, so I helped them fill out theirs. Most had no idea what a Social Security number was, or what was meant by "social skills" and "work skills". I had to explain to them what they could use for social and work skills, and told them how many digits to make up for their Social Security Numbers.

Management:
The seventh graders were all cooking when I went for the restaurant for the sixth graders. I had to keep them focused. I was constantly pacing and checking on what they were all doing. I also had to watch how big they made their portions so the other classes (and students in their class as well actually) could have some. a couple of girls would not help clean up until I approached them and made sure they knew that they could not leave until the kitchens were clean, even if the bell had rang. The girls were very social, and lunch was next. They didn't want to miss out on chatting with their friends. I also reminded every group that some could be cleaning so they could leave sooner, even though their food was on the stove. The ones who really focused and did that got out on time, the one group that ignored me was far behind the others.


Overall, I loved doing this. I am better with teens than preteens with other things, so being in a Middle School was somewhat scary for me. It was great to learn though. I found that there were a ton of at risk students, luckily at Spring Creek the kids are identified to the teachers by the school, that helps.

I really learned how important it is to organize everything. Students weren't assigned sewing machines, so if there was a mess or something missing there was no one to hold accountable. That was really tough to work with. Also, extra activities that can be counted for points would have been really useful. What the kids had they knew wasn't going to be counted, so they didn't work on it. It was really hard to keep them focused when I knew that it was a waste of time in their minds. What they did work on for credit in the class, Mrs. Christensen threw away. I know that it was to reduce how many papers they take home, but some had worked really hard on their packets, so it being tossed out instead of returned felt like a wasted opportunity to give the parents positive feedback.

I would keep things organized in my class a lot more than what I saw here. It wasn't bad, but it wouldn't work for me. I would also make sure that I had plenty of extra credit or just more assignments in the first place. There was a lot of wasted time by the end of the unit.

Clinical 4

Another full day!

March 12 was the last day of the unit for the 6th graders. I spent the first three classes grading their packets as they turned them in. It really is time consuming.

Discipline:
With many of the students finishing their assignments early, there was a need for them to have an activity to do, or they started distracting the kids that were still working. Mrs. Christensen spent some of her time telling students to sit in their seats and work on their menus, but they didn't have any consequence for being out of their seats and talking, so they didn't listen. They had menus to work on, but many didn't bother. The menu wasn't graded, but it would help them get the job they wanted for their restaurant next week. The ones who didn't care, didn't do it.

Teaching Techniques:
The students had to gather all their assignments for the unit, then put them in order, and staple them. Some of the assignments were already graded, and others I had to check. If they student hadn't put the papers in order, they had to re-staple their assignment with everything in order. this was part of her focus on following directions. Part of the purpose in grading during class, was so students could correct their mistakes. A major focus was on how they spelled foods on one page. They had the names of everything written for them, so it was mostly just copying. I was amazed at how many still spelled words wrong. Some would spell the same word incorrectly three or four times. I felt that it was important, because it would help them be fluent in the terminology they needed in cooking and nutrition, and to help them understand ways to acquire terminology and fluency within a specific content area. Grading them during class made it easier for recording after school, because they would only need to be entered in as done or not.

Classroom management:
The sergers were crazy all day! I had to re-thread each one about four times each class. Since there were two sergers and three classes, this added up. I am mentioning this in classroom management because having working machines helps the kids stay on task. The hardest part was having three of four kids waiting in line as I had to re-thread and test the machines. This left many bored since they had to wait to serge before they could do the next step. These kids got bored and restless, and distracted the others. The noise got out of hand at a few points. Mrs. Christensen shared a good idea with me to help this. She has four or five sergers, and usually keeps a few threaded with the same color so if one stopped working, another could be pulled up to use. She didn't have them then, because some needed to be taken to the shop for repairs, and others had different colors of thread for projects students in another class had been working on. Preparedness is so vital! I wasted a lot of class time checking sergers, if I had been the only one there, the whole class would have had to wait for me to work on those machines.

Clinical 3

Well, today was the first full day. I had a hard time getting there at 7:30, but I still made it.
Did anyone else watch Channel 1 at their schools? They watch it first thing in the morning, and I really was not much more impressed with it than I was when I had to watch it. The news was interesting, but the kids spent more time staring at me than paying attention to the broadcast. It felt like a bit of a waste of time, and since it was an assembly today, the teacher ended it early so the kids would have enough time for their units.

Being prepared is so important! Mrs. Christensen had to use her break hour going to the store to pick up food because she hadn't realized that she was running out. She barely had enough to give all the kids in first hour, and some of the apples they were using for fruit salad had gone bad. Luckily she has second hour break and can walk to Macey's in five minutes. If it wasn't that convenient though, their wouldn't have been enough food for the next class. I also would have liked to see the recipes before I was supposed to help the kids get their food, they would ask me how much of things, and I could only say to look at the recipe. Organization and "withitness" (thanks Barb) really do help so much.

The 6th graders were fun. It was the last day of their unit, so they were a bit restless by this point. It didn't help that there was an assembly, so they were more interested in that and the different schedule than they were in cooking.

Classroom management:
In the morning, Mrs. Monk doesn't come in to help Mrs. Christensen. She works with another teacher at that time. So 6th grade is split into several different groups, each with a color. She has a round robin chart that shows where each group will go for the day. Half of the groups cook, and the other half watch videos or work in their workbooks. Each student has a blue binder which they keep their assignments in. There are also binders for each unit. The papers for the unit are kept in the binder so they can just grab it and she doesn't have to instruct every group each day.

Discipline:
Today was a bit crazy with discipline. The last day of the unit, plus an assembly made for some antsy kids. There was one student who kept stealing ingredients from the kitchen next to his. Mrs. Christensen didn't notice because she was working with other students, so i just stood between the units and watched the two groups. If he tried to grab things, I would ask him to put it back. He stopped after that.
During the assembly it was hard to get the kids to stop whispering. Some teachers spent the whole time moving between students, and moving the students. Others would gently tap anyone talking, or whisper to students out of their reach to be quiet. By the end of the assembly, the latter had students who were being more cooperative than the former. Students that were moved would whisper behind their hands, and the teachers moving around distracted the students who were paying attention. The whispering didn't end, but it was quieter by the end.

*mental note* If conducting an assembly, do not ask the kids a question for them to respond to, they erupt into talking, and then you have to waste time getting them back.

Teaching techniques:
I have noticed that Mrs. Christensen focuses far more on helping the kids follow directions and communicate clearly than she does on what their actual products are. She approaches the activities as ways to help develop life skills. She has them read their directions, and if they ask her about them she refers to the recipe first, then guides them to understand what they need to do. For some of the activities this really worked, others it wasn't as effective.
Some of the kids had to work out math problems on a worksheet for equal measurements. most were easy to figure out just by multiplying or dividing by two, but there was one where they had to multiply to find the equivalent to a cup, then divide to find a third. She had me immediately correct their assignments, so they could fix their answers that class. Most missed that question. I let them try it on their own, and if they missed again, I gave them more instruction to find the answer.

Clinical 2

I have spent the majority of my clinical hours working with students sewing in Mrs. Christensen's class. I have focused on working with the at risk students. These are the kids that I need to help guide their hands when they sew (or else they sew right into the middle of their pajama pants), or they need help staying focused. I have most at one table so I can go between them, but I also float around the room when they are all working to help anyone else who might need it. March 6th was interesting, because the 7th graders all went skiing. I spent most of the day just working on the Bulletin Board.

I have noticed that I frequently just need to rephrase the directions for the kids. It seems like they really just need to hear the directions phrased so they can understand what is expected. Most of them have redone steps two or three times (doing it the same way each time) because they do not understand what they are being told to do. I have told several students that in order to make sure their bobbin cases are in their holders, they need to hear it click. Some were having problems with the bobbin thread bunching up, and it was mostly because they hadn't pushed the case in all the way. Some of these kids have never sewn before, so they weren't sure about that. Once I told them, the problems became less frequent.

Discipline:
The easiest way for Mrs. Christensen to control discipline is to keep the students interested. She told me that the nice part about teaching CTE courses, is that the units change and are so different from each other that the kids can focus on what needs to be done. They are kept interested in each subject. The hardest part of the course is towards the end, when they are into the routine and tired of it. Right now, they are still pretty focused.

Management:
Roll is kept on Powerschool (PowerGrade...yeah). Anyway, she takes roll by looking at the seating chart, she'll call out names of anyone not in their seats because sometimes they wander over to sit by friends. When she calls their name and they are absent, she writes it down on a piece of paper that she prints out with each class labeled on it. The name goes under the respective period, and she enters it all in at the end of the day. This way she isn't trying to enter the roll in between each class, which can be time consuming. The difficulty with this method is that it is time consuming anyway. When I took roll in the classes, the students were moving around in their desks and talking, because they had nothing to do for the first few minutes. It takes a while to write each name when there are several students absent. Then if students are tardy, it needs to be written somewhere else. Overall, I would adjust the arrangement to give them something to do while roll is taken.

Teaching Techniques:
I have observed similar teaching techniques for the last few hours as I saw before, but I did notice some that I started using to help the individual students I was working with. Mrs. Christensen tends to give similar directions to each student, over and over. Some don't really understand this, so I would try to give some examples so they could relate what they were doing to the purpose. I helped a student cut out his pants one day, because he was behind the others. (Mrs. Monk was sick and taken to the Emergency Room suddenly, so he was sewing when he was supposed to be doping the careers group. It was a good thing I came, because things were crazy with everyone working on their sewing projects at once.) He could not understand why he had to line up the grain, so I explained to him how the yarns are lined up, and that if he isn't careful, his pants would twist around and be uncomfortable. He then felt like he had a purpose for doing it, and understood what he needed to do. I told another student that they needed to have even stripes for a sample they were struggling with, and after that it took him ten minutes to finish after spending two days working on it! I have worked to see what the individual students have needed, so I can direct them in ways they understand.

Clinicals 1

I am working with Elfrieda Christensen at Spring Creek Middle School. She has another teacher she works with named Mrs. Monk. The classes they teach are sixth and seventh grade CTE courses. The classes are large, and this can be a challenge, but they have worked out some ways to help manage the size.

Classroom Management:
The biggest part of management that I have noticed, is that they divide the classes into two halves to keep things organized. Mrs. Christensen is currently covering the sewing portion of the course, while Mrs. Monk takes the other half of the class and teaches them the Career Guidance portion. This helps a lot. Most of the classes have 33-39 students in them. The school doesn't have quite that many sewing machines, especially if some break. Dividing the class allows them to each help a smaller group of students, and it also allows them to separate some students if necessary.

Discipline:
For the most part, discipline hasn't been too much of a problem. The students tend to work, and not get into arguments or anything. The most Mrs. Christensen has had to do is to tell the students to get back to work. They have always gone back to working rather than arguing with her or causing disruptions. The first day I went, she marked students down points for not bringing their materials to class. They were not able to work on their projects, so they helped other students with theirs.

Teaching Techniques:
Mrs. Christensen has worksheets which the students have her mark off each step of their projects on. This way she can make sure that they are not making mistakes and not getting them corrected, and she doesn't have to grade everything at the end. She has them form a line to talk to her (she doesn't have to come to them) and she grades them on each step, or tells them how to fix what they have done. She also demonstrates the beginning steps of the project for the whole class. This helps them to see what they have to do. However, she doesn't do this for later steps. The students are at so many different points in their projects, that showing them all every step at the same time doesn't help the ones who are behind. Most of the later steps are similar to the early ones as well, so they usually don't need much instruction to follow directions properly.


That was the first seven hours or so. Another blog will be on its way soon.

I am going to Spring Creek Middle School in Providence. The teacher is Ms. Christensen.
It is a sixth/seventh grade center. I am excited to start doing this. I hope to learn a lot from this experience, but I will admit that middle school is the group I am more nervous about teaching. It should be interesting!