The Power of Touch

I remember us saying we'd post what we wrote for Dr Cook on our blogs, and I just finished up mine. I decided to write a found poem using her tweets. She introduced me to both twitter and found poetry so I thought it fitting to try to do something with that.

Power of Touch

By Joey Bonaldi

For Dr. Cook

Holding on tight

To the narrative

At her core:

There’s a metaphor

for everything.

Fall asleep, take a walk

In the clouding

Mercury-logic of reality,

of memoir.

Meet a new day

Hold on to the memory

Hold on to her life.

The power of touch,

That’s her narrative,

That’s her core

Hold on tight.

High school reflection

My biggest fear going into the high school setting was that the students wouldn’t respond well to my presence there. I worried that they wouldn’t be engaged, that they’d lack energy. When I got there a lot of my fears seemed to come to fruition, but looking back I wonder if what I saw wasn’t simply painted by my expectations.

                I’ve heard from other students that the divorce from your first placement always makes you look at the new placement with tampered eyes. I left the high energy world of middle school to something more laid back. I’m willing to admit the shock of change got the better of me for the first half of this placement. It made me really think about expectations and how they can interfere with how you actually perceive reality. I think I’m starting to understand that engagement is not just hands jumping into the air, and laughter, and smiles. Engagement can be a lot more mellow and harder to see. When I worked with those kids they seemed to enjoy the book, they responded to my questions after some probing, and when given tasks they performed them to their abilities.

                Middle school taught me patience, I had to learn to calm them down and keep my cool, and high school taught me patience in a different way. With high school I had to sit back and let them come to their answers on their own whereas I felt like middle school students genuinely wanted to have an answer as quickly as possible. High school students seemed to pull back more and see what the right answer is. This was particularly hard for me because I had to actively fight that impulse to just give them the answer. I hated those long silences, and I’m glad that I managed to keep myself from giving them answer when the silence got to be too long.

                To change gears a little bit another thing that I found to be beneficial for learning was that my cooperating teacher took one of the mini lessons Cindy and I did and taught it herself. It was a great way to see how our lesson looked on the outside so we could study what we did right and wrong. There were instances where I felt like we modeled well, and then likewise modeled poorly, and we got to see where we could improve. While yes I probably won’t do that specific lesson again, I would definitely do a variation on it, and seeing an experienced teacher give her take on it was eye opening.

                Over all I’m happy I went to the school I did. I’m definitely going to miss it, even with the weird national anthem video they play before the pledge of allegiance. It was a school that took pride in its students and had high expectations. By the end I was proud of the connections I made with my temporary students and look forward to spending time in a classroom a lot longer. 

High school week 3

Week three ended with me making an honest attempt to solve a lot of the problems I had from week 2 and I’m honestly really happy with the outcomes of most of it. For starters the power of looking at the floor while walking through the halls has led to complete avoidance of that creepy teacher that I don’t like. On a serious note though I really am starting to feel like I’m making progress their and that I’m being useful and productive

                Part of it came from actually taking initiative, along with Cindy of course, we started forming our own lessons when we couldn’t see them organically coming up in class which ended up working to our favor. We handled a few of the things that the teacher would do, like creating and going over the writer’s notebook prompts, but we also made our own mini lessons. The biggest one was that we had them reflect on parts of the book they’re reading to create their own small one panel comic to explain some way they relate to the main character. This ended up being a good idea because it is something we are going to carry over to one of our whole lessons so it’s good that we brought this into the classroom once to get them accustomed to it.

                The students seemed to respond well to our mini lessons. I mean it was still a struggle to get them to talk but we ended up pushing them towards an interesting discussion about bullying and why people don’t want to get involved in helping those in need. I was happy with how that (the writer’s notebook went) and the mini comic as well. Honestly I would have liked to have had the students share and talk more during that but I’m starting to realize you have to take the little victories. Not everyone shared, but some did, and that’s good. We collected and graded their work and I could tell that they understood what needed to be done and most students executed the assignment well. So while I didn’t have an energetic group of kids I did have students who followed the instructions and did what I asked them, and that’s awesome!

                I think looking forward I want to be less concerned with what I don’t have and try harder to work with what I do. I’m not saying I won’t try and get my students to be outgoing or anything, but the important thing is that they learn. It’s difficult though, standing up there and listening to the quiet of the classroom. Patience is another thing I have to work on. I know if I just wait them out eventually one of them will speak and answer the prompt, but after a while the wait becomes uncomfortable.

                Over all I think I’m making some solid progress their and I’m excited, but mostly nervous, to teach my lessons. Me and Cindy have a game plan and we know what we want from our students so I’m hopeful that it’ll all end well. 

Hs Week 2

Week 2

                This week was strange for me and all throughout this week I’ve been debating with myself whether I wanted to discuss the content of the classes or some things I’ve learned about myself as a person that may come into play when I am a teacher. I’ll write about both as I think they are both important but I’ll start with the latter of the two options.

                So going into school this week me and Cindy had a chance to mingle with some of the other teachers. Some of them were awesome, some not so much. I wouldn’t begin to say anything about any of their teaching performances, I haven’t seen them in action and even if I did let’s face it I’m so low on the totem pole it would be asinine to make any sort of negative judgments. What I will say is I met one teacher who I thought was a genuinely great guy who made an effort to make me and Cindy feel welcome in this school. We saw him teach our cooperating teachers class, as she had to attend a student teacher meeting, and honestly I can’t speak more highly of this man. The way he walked into a classroom that he had not established a community in and engaged the students was incredible. I think that speaks miles to his skills as an educator and as someone who makes a point of knowing not only his students, but also the students of his school.

                There was another teacher who was, unfortunately, slightly weird/inappropriate towards me and Cindy. I will not say much about him other than that he honestly made me feel uncomfortable to be around. It is what it is and the good of this week largely outweighed the bad.

                That being said I happened upon the school early enough to have to be part of the pledge of allegiance. I’m not wholly against the concept of it, but I myself don’t feel comfortable taking part in it. It got me thinking about my place in the school system and what it will be like when I run my own classroom. I felt I had to take part in it during my stay in someone else’s class, I don’t want to make waves, but in my own classroom I don’t want to have to do it. That got me thinking about the nature of it. Am I there to set a good example? I mean partly the reason I went ahead with it while I’m a guest in someone’s class room is because I feel I have to set an example for the actions the teacher/school want performed. That being said I myself don’t believe in it and, if I’m going to speak honesty, find the idea of watching a bunch of children recite something in unison kind of creepy. I don’t think I have an answer to any of these questions, but it is something to consider when I’m planning out what school community I want to be a part of when I’m looking for potential jobs.

                Well that’s probably enough heavy discussions for one blog post. Time for what I saw in the classrooms. So the train of progress seems to be moving pretty steadily. I’m still not sure where I can find my openings to become a larger part of the classroom dynamic, but I’ve been more motivated to look. We have the two classrooms that we will be focusing on. They’re reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is great, I love that book. We’re still formulating ideas as to what we want to teach with them. I’m been thinking of a few ideas, something involving memoir and recap. I’m not sure though. Right now I’m starting to consider what I want them to get out of this book, during this lesson, and that is proving an interesting challenge. The book is largely about relationships and what they mean, how they are different, but it is also about memoir in some ways. This class is primarily focuses on writing so I’d like to focus the lesson around that.

                The other two classes (I’m observing four but two of them are doing the same thing) are a junior level class and a senior level class. I witnessed some great mediation of what could have ended up being an incident in the junior class. One student had a moment where she could potentially have had an episode in class. The teacher expertly handled the situation by removing her from the class (a negative stimulation) and talking to her one on one. The students were mature enough to keep working while the teacher talked with her and gave her some alone time to mellow out and return to class. Sometimes I get anxious and think that all time has to be strictly about learning and this was important for me to see. That student would have learned nothing in that class, in my opinion, in that state she was in. Sometimes facilitating learning is just as important, if not more important, that the actual learning. You have to build a bridge to education otherwise most of the content will end up drowning in the river along the way.

                I spoke briefly about how I am in two classes that are doing the same content. It is still crazy to me how differently they behave. One class has such low energy, but have no behavioral issues. The teacher tells them to do something and they do it, no questions. The other is livelier, but it is mostly to goof off. A lot of the students seem like their primary interest is looking good, or being a class clown and disruptive, but they seem like good kids for the most part.

                I guess my biggest concern is I want to be a bigger part of the classroom. This week the students should be starting to write more. I think that is the opening I’m looking for. 

High school week 1

Week 1

                Looking back at the last two days I’m not sure what stood out to me exactly. When I entered the school for the first time in over a year (I had observed and taught a few lessons in this school before) I was struck by the size difference between this school and the middle school down the street. The halls were huge and clean and every corner was plastered with their school mission statement. I turned the corner and in a widened space there was a large amount of student made art, I was impressed by the schools devotion to its students, but also a little intimidated by its size.

                When I got to the classrooms, however, a different reality sunk in. While the school itself was huge the classes were incredibly small. I wonder if anyone else noticed this with their first week experience. Aside from the senior class that we observed (which was roughly twenty students) I counted an average of nine or so students in the three other classes. I was shocked, it seemed so small. In middle school we had a solid twenty or so students in each class, but now it seems we’ll be lucky to get half of that. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, truth is I don’t know what it’ll end up being till I’ve dipped my feet in a bit more.

                Another thing I noticed was the lack of energy in the room. With so small a class I’d think the students would be talking and generally showing signs of being in a community. I want to make note that I don’t think this is the fault of the teacher but I think the students just don’t seem to have the energy to talk. It’s like the life has been drained out of them. I’m a bit worried about teaching them because it seems like the biggest struggle will be actually getting them to talk. They don’t seem to have any behavior issues, albeit I only observed the class twice, so that is an advantage I guess. I wonder if there is anything I can do to charge them up. In middle school the kids had too much energy and me and Danielle had to use mediation in order to get them to calm down and focus. What could I do to get the opposite effect out of these students? How can I wake them up?

                That’s not to say all the students are like that. The seniors seem to be the exception to all my observations but I won’t be teaching them. They are starting their senior project prep and the teacher said she’d rather work with them herself to make sure they’re on the right track. I totally get that, this school is a model for senior project and I wouldn’t think to step in on that. It would be far more valuable to observe how this school runs it so I can learn to do it myself one day. 

Middle School Reflection

                As I began thinking about this assignment the first thing I thought about what: what did I think before I started middle school? To be honest the answer was something along the lines of let me just get through this. I had no interest in teaching middle school and I had no interest in middle school students. I thought surely they must be hormone charged rascals that I’d have to baby sit rather than teach. In short I was wrong.

                After teaching my two lessons I learned a few things about myself as a teacher and them as an age group. I won’t try and convince you that everything went perfecting, it didn't. I was always afraid of failing or ruining my lessons or any other uncertainty that comes with teaching, but I think I’m starting to get over that a bit. I’m finally starting to accept that I’m a new teacher and therefore teaching should be new to me, meaning I don’t have to be perfect I just have to try and learn.

                The sixth grade lesson went pretty well, though we ended up finishing our primary lesson a lot earlier than expected. This turned out not to be that big of a deal, instead we just went on to the content we planned for the next day and everything went smoothly.

                Seventh grade was a bit harder. They were a less focused and more apt to act out. I've noticed they are a lot more energetic and tend to need management more, and on top of that the lesson was split by a lunch. Normally this would get to me but I realized that sometimes you just have to step back, take a breath, and check out your variables. Sure they were unfocused, sure lunch would get in the way, sure there was a group of kids that just wouldn't stop talking no matter how many times I asked them to stop. These are problems, but problems don’t go away by ignoring them. After the 8^th time the group of kids ignored my request to stop talking I finally had to scold them. I told them if they talked one more time I’d separate them. It worked, for the most part. It was weird, I don’t really see myself as that kind of person, I’m very low key and easy going, but I’m honestly proud of myself for taking initiative and doing something like that. Last semester I would never have scolded a kid. This is real progress!

                The other problems worked themselves out as best as we could work them. The students had too much energy so we made them rest for five minutes with the lights off. We did that with our sixth graders and it seemed to work well. It worked okay with the seventh graders but they didn’t take it as seriously. Lunch proved to actually be helpful because we reworked a lot of our lesson during the twenty minute gap.

                Over all I had a pleasant experience teaching in middle school. Upon reflection I have to say I wouldn't mind working in this kind of setting and even working with younger students. My only concern is I believe there is a balance with teaching. The younger the student is the more engaged they seem to be which is great but you can’t go as far with the content and it is definitely more management. With older students you have the opposite. It seems that it’s much harder to engage them in the lesson but I find I don’t have to manage their behavior as much and I can go further with the content. It’s a tricky balance but I have to say these last four weeks have shown me that I can actually enjoy myself teaching in a middle school setting. I really enjoyed working with the sixth graders and I've actually been considering getting elementary Ed certified sometime down the line. I’m not sure yet but it is definitely a possibility. 

week 3

Week 3

                I apologize for the lateness of this post. Week three was interesting. Two important things happened during this week. I’ll start of by saying that this was during spring break so I found myself there less than we normally would.

                The first thing was that the students performed their debate. One thing I loved about our cooperating teacher is that she really let us control a lot of the unit planning while we are here. She asked us specifically what we’d like to see the students do and said as long as it fit in the curriculum (this quarter they’re on developing argumentative skills) then she was perfectly happy letting us have a say in the design of the class. This was really cool, I think I can speak for both myself and Danielle when I say it was really empowering to have an actual say in what the students got to do in class. We both really wanted to see them do a debate (both our 6^th and 7^th graders) and so we really pushed for that to happen.

                Seeing the debate happen was something else. Our cooperating teacher requires her students to dress up for them as she put it “They have to dress up for sports why shouldn’t they be expected to do in English class too” which I totally get. It’s a good way to give the kids the opportunity to act professional, something they need a few times in their young lives. That being said I have to say nothing is cuter than seeing a group of 6^th graders dressed up in ties and vests and debating like lawyers. They had a lot of fun with it and they seemed engaged, if not a bit too focused on minute details of the debate.

                That being said it was so awesome to see something we helped design come into being. I was so proud when I watched them debate. I kept thinking this is so cool! We helped make this! I hope feelings like this last because that was definitely a rewarding experience.

                Something else that happened that I thgout was worth noting was that I got to help one of the special ed teachers input parc ( or maybe it was kneecap) data during cpt (common practice time). It was really interesting to learn about that stuff. I recognized some of the names on the list as some of our students (that’s another thing that was so cool, I actually started remembering all their names. That and referring to them as ‘my students’ was awesome) and it was interesting to see their performance in class and their scores on the tests. Not all of them matched the effort I saw in the students and even still I found myself feeling bad when I saw some students with low grades, even the ones I didn’t know, mostly I think because of how little I agree with the tests anyway. It was interesting to see it on the other side though, I’m so used to only hearing people bash standardized testing it was nice to actually get to hold some data in my hand from it and realize it was real and not just this ghoulish thing people yell about. 

RIWP reflections

                To be honest I wasn’t particularly excited about going to this conference. I’ve been to a few of them by now and have only had the pleasure of enjoying one of them, the others ended up being two back to back 50 minute power points which didn’t catch my attention. That being said I actually enjoyed myself this year. Maybe it’s because it was a different organization than the others I’ve attended (which were mostly promising practices) or maybe it was just the luck that I picked two interesting seminars to go to, I’m not sure, but I liked it.

                First there was Newkirk’s speech was interesting and thought provoking: narrative at the core of life. I’m not sure I buy into it as completely as he did but I think the beauty of spreading ideas is that we get to take it  with us and add a little bit of our selves to the idea and maybe that’s what he’s getting at. I’m not really sure, but it’s an idea that I’ve been mulling over in my head for a while. Life/education/people we’re the story but we’re also the narrators and I’m not sure if that makes sense but I think that’s what I got out of his speech.

                I think my favorite part of the day was the first seminar though. It was called “poetry speed dating” and it was so much fun! I love writing poetry and by the end of it I wrote something like eight new poems, I joked with Matt that in 50 minutes we managed get three weeks ahead in our poetry writing class. It was such a cool idea too! I’m not sure how I could integrate it into a lit class by itself but honestly one of my dreams is to teach a creative writing class and I would absolutely love to do this in my class. That being said I think this was a great way to charge up the creative juices. When I got home I felt like I had to write even more and ended up starting something with that motivation. I think this could work to get students active and engaged before a lit class, albeit the exercise would have to be shortened to only two or so poems for time management.

                The last seminar was called “Dizzy drama”. This one was pretty good too, though not nearly as enjoyable as the poetry one. This one consisted of using student made characters to act out scenes. I was a bit confused at how the intro section, having us create a voice for a particularly troublesome student we’ve had (which was difficult since I haven’t had any students) and react to an assignment that I hate, had anything to do with the second more creative assignment. Not that the first was bad or anything, I just wish I could have gotten more out of it. It was a fun assignment and with the right group of students I think it would be fun to do something like this in a classroom. It could be a fun assignment to do after reading a novel or play to get the students to think about the character more, or it could be a cool start to a creative writing assignment.

                Over all I had a surprisingly fun time at the conference and would definitely attend again. I’m glad I got to see all my teachouse peeps (or should I say fellow cookies?) and I look forward to the next meeting. 

Week 2

Week 2

Day one:

 So the first day of this week I went in not exactly looking forward to it honestly. This was the first week where we’d start to interact with the students a lot more but unfortunately all her students were taking their tests that day so I went in with the assumption that I wouldn’t get much out of this day. I was wrong. Me and Danielle got to be teacher’s assistants and help moderate the testing and answer questions for students. It felt good because I could tell we were actually helping our teacher out, a lot of the students had questions and then continued to have them, so it was definitely in helpful to have us there. That was nice because this teacher was nice enough to open her class to us so I’m happy that there are a few times where we can actually make her job easier.

                When I got to the 7^th grade class we quickly started the same protocol but I found myself helping the same student the entire class. Me and Danielle both noticed that these students really struggle with forming context clues to show they really understand the meaning of their vocab words. This student was no exception but he really didn’t make it far into the initial definition portion of the test. I felt bad but I spent the most time with him trying to guide him through it. He didn’t get very far but I did manage to show him a few techniques like process of elimination and grammar checking for appropriate answers that seemed to help him a bit. I’m a bit curious to see how he managed on that test. I wonder if maybe he just needed more time and some better studying techniques. He seemed like an articulate kid but judging from what he was saying it was almost like he’d never seen these words before in his life.

Day two:

                Day 2 we got into some serious teaching. We had both our 6^th grade classes and we were present for half of one 7^th. Both of which we started their respective units. So 6^th we did “Tutankhamen lost worlds” which is a mostly historical piece on excavating tombs. We didn’t get into the text at all this day. For both classes we started with their preliminary vocabulary.

                Something I’ve realized about myself is that I’m not a particular authoritative presence. I’m very good at getting students to behave. This was something that I noticed Danielle was particularly skilled at.  Right away she seemed to be able to cease loud talking, which there was a lot of since this was our first real day up in front of the board and that definitely had an impact on their energy. I did okay at keeping them from losing focus but I always felt a little awkward doing it. It is something I’ve always wanted to get better at.

                That being said I did pretty good interacting with the students and I think, both me and Danielle were engaging. The kids were really funny at times and made a point to ask each of us individually if we were married. It was this day that I realized I could actually see myself working with this age group. I don’t intend to get my middle school endorsement any time soon but I think some time down the road I might actually find myself wanting it.

                It was during the 7^th grade class that I was actually able to be a bit more authoritative. We had them do some research at the library on immigration as they were to start their unity on immigration which would end in a formal debate. We only stayed through half of it but I actually seemed to be able to quell their loud talking a lot. Right before we left me, Danielle, and the teacher were discussing a few things and I noticed the kids were getting very loud (this is a library, manners!). I shouted over their noise that they had to quiet down and they actually listened and I didn’t feel awkward about it. It was most impressive.

Day three:

                Day three we started reading the king tut story with them (the 6^th graders) and posing a question for them that they will later have to do a formal debate on. The question was whether or not we should excavate tombs for artifacts. We only saw the one class that day and it went well I thought. We did a circle read where we had each of them read a small portion of the text. The only negative I saw was that we didn’t get very far as we had to stop and keep having them sift through what we read for pros and cons for their argument. This isn’t bad at all as they needed that but it would have been nice to get a bit further. The one really cool thing is that I’ve noticed I’m starting to remember their names which is awesome but sad because I realized I only have 2 weeks left with them and I’m already starting to get attached! This isn’t fair! I didn’t want to go into a middle school at all, now I don’t want to leave!

Week one! :]

Day one:

                The first day was met with some nervousness, as most first days are, and I even locked my keys in my car absentmindedly. The people who work there are so friendly and we are met with smiling faces as soon as we walk through the door. The school isn’t particularly big and I noted that it was almost identical looking to the high school just up the road.

                As we walked down the halls I was surprised by how neat and tidy everything was. I didn’t expect it to be falling apart or anything but they do seem to take a lot of pride in their school. When we got to the classroom I was blown away by how tiny these children were. I mean I knew they were going to be small but they were itty bitty things. I didn’t expect to be in a 6^th classroom either, this was the first I’d ever heard of 6^th grade being in middle school.

                The first class was full of energy and I noted that it was tough to keep them all focused. It’s something I wonder about when Danielle and I eventually teach. It’ll be difficult to keep their attention but I think if we make our lesson engaging we can manage it fine.

                I also noted that on their walls they had some sort of progress report for some school wide reading competition/quota. On the top of another wall hung drawings and writings from the students which was cool. I really like seeing student work displayed and I’m glad that there seems to be a lot of that happening in this class room.

Day two:

                So honestly day two was over shadowed by the lock down/evacuation that Danielle and I were witness to. From the very little information we got apparently someone scrawled some kind of threat on a bathroom wall and so the school responded accordingly. I was very impressed by the level of security they had and how orderly it was all performed. The only thing that I felt bad about was that many students didn’t have time to get their coats and it was a particularly cold day. I wonder how a teacher manages to conduct a class room after something like that occurs. This happened during lunch so we didn’t actually get to see students return to class as their lunch was extended. This made the following class only 26 or so minutes long. We didn’t stick around to see that class but I have to wonder how a teacher can hold their student’s attention after an event like that and manage to squeeze everything they need into such a short lesson. I have much respect for the teachers that day as they were definitely challenged.

Day three:

                Day three we decided to start interacting with the students more. I think both me and Danielle were starting to feel fidgety sitting around so much. The students were very polite and let us into their groups without missing a beat. I mostly listened to what they were saying and tried to get them to tell me what they were working on, and to explain their answers that way they could maybe think about it more. They seemed to all be doing well and were pretty focused.

                We also got to check out the library which was admittedly incredibly small and outdated. The shear amount of vhs tapes there was kind of disappointing. One thing I’ve noticed is they are a very low tech school which is kind of sad. Even their books are pretty old too. I think the text book we’re using is from 1996. That’s crazy! I’m really enjoying my time at this school but it’s definitely time for them to get an update. 

I believe!

When I think back to high school I can’t tell you much about what I ‘learned’. I can’t tell you the dates to any great war, I can’t tell you how I felt after reading Hamlet, I can’t even tell the name of most of the equations that were drilled into my brain. So hearing that one might think that high school was a waste, that it didn’t work, but I disagree. While I can’t tell you any of those arbitrary facts I can do something better. I know how to learn those dates, what’s more I can reflect on them and think about them in the context in which those wars happened. I can’t tell you how I felt about Hamlet then but I can tell you about it now. I can dissect it and study it, I can use it to explore myself and my own views. And math, well I can calculate tip! Math’s never exactly been a strong suit for me. I guess my point is that teaching isn’t about learning facts, I don’t even think teaching is about what’s happening right there at that moment when the student sits in their chair and the teacher lectures.

                I believe that teaching is about building people, and what I mean by ‘people’ is someone who can enter the world and function successfully with all the tools handed to them. My students might not know the fancy names for all the types of poems out there years after they graduate but they’ll be able to read a poem and hopefully appreciate it. I believe that those fancy words are useful as tools to help bridge the concept of poetry to a student’s brain, each new tool helps them take one step further down the poetry bridge, to extend the metaphor, and with hope and skill those students will be able to find their way back on their own. I say this because as teachers we won’t be with them the rest of their lives. Eventually we have to let them go and hope they can find their way back on their own. As a teacher I think one of the most beneficial things I can do for my students is give them an opportunity to be independent and prove themselves. 

Found poem (specificity)

Here is my found poem. I am so so so sorry for the delay.

Specificity

By Joey Bonaldi

Dangling modifiers

Correct what’s misplaced

Determine the meaning

Of the unknown

Read, write, listen

Use context

Acquire words and phrases

Gather vocabulary

Command the language!

Apply knowledge!

Multiple meaning words

Verify variables

Voice and mood

Recognize the structure

And correct what’s misplaced.