Setting Up the Classroom

Time to share about one of my favorite parts of teaching--arranging the classroom.

I love to think about how I would make the classroom if I were a teacher. How would I decorate it? Would the students be in clumps or in rows? What about displays? Pets? So I'm going to share about how I would decorate this classroom if it were mine own (and some general favorite decor), and I'd love to hear about how y'all want to decorate your future classrooms.

My setting for this hypothetical question: 5th Grade Science. Room size and student desks are based on current placement.

First, this poster is going somewhere.

Here's how I'd like to arrange the classroom.

And here's some detail of the poster wall.

Grade Level Standards?

I’m in a 6^th grade classroom and we are still teaching students about nouns, verbs, and how to find the main idea in a story. I feel like these are ideas that students start learning in 2^nd grade, and that they should know these concepts by now. However, when I teach lessons, many students still struggle with those ideas and concepts. I realize that students work on learning more complex aspects of main idea and other standards; however, I think that many times the expectations are similar between grade levels. This means that teachers spend time every year teaching and reteaching the same concepts.

            Since there are so many concepts to teach each year, the classes only spend a few days going over each topic. It doesn’t seem like long enough to go over the concepts in depth, which may be a reason that students need to be retaught the same ideas every year. I was wondering if anyone in grade school thought that they were able to spend a reasonable amount of time on each standard (especially ideas that students are being introduced to for the first time), or whether the teachers seem to speed through them in order to cover all of the topics before testing?

"You're so gay!" "No I'm not!!!"

My kids, who are fifth-graders, are starting to use gay as an insult. And it often genuinely upsets the other student. And it's hard to know how to respond. I do not want students to be insulting each other in any case, but saying another person is gay is 1) not an especially good insult in any case (some Shakespearean insult would be much better, such as "[Thou hath] not so much brain as ear wax"--still problematic for discipline but better). But it is also 2)hard to deal with because it is a touchy subject. I do not want to get involved in the political side of the word gay--parents hold much of this responsibility. But 3)it could be isolating for many students. I do not want any LGQTBA student to feel alone or hated, and I do not want any student, gay or straight, to be plagued by their fellow students with a supposed stigma for their academic career (yes, Mean Girls does come to mind).

So what are some solutions if you are the homeroom instructor? Do you underplay it, "Oh, you mean they're happy? Heeheehee!" (a sub tried this model)? Or do you do a quick recap of what makes a human a human (y'all like Ellen Degeneres, right? Well, guess what.)? Or do you ignore the term itself and go to the intent behind the insult? (Yo! Kids, be nice to each other.)

For Your Enjoyment

So, we get to see the nitty-gritty of schools, true? I mean, there's a lot of ugliness in schools. A lot of tough stuff, kids being mean and administrative gossip and silly assessments to worry over. But we also all love school as aspiring teachers. We chose this profession because we see value in schools and in kids. We want to help, and we think schools are a good place to help. We also think it can be kinda fun. 

Here are some stories from my student teaching thus far to remind us of the romantic and hilarious side of teaching, and humanity. 

(These are not their actual names).

"Did you get a hair-cut?" The other kid says yes, and then they high-five. 

Another story. Say my last name is Spaecle. Well the kids have a hard time with this name, right? because it's a hard name. But I've been with these kids for about a month at this point, and they still have trouble with it. Their pronunciation is fine, but when my mom came to visit it revealed some misconceptions. 

Me: "This is my mom, Mrs. Spaecle."

 Students: "Wait you both have the same name, that's crazy!"

"Doesn't that get confusing? How do you tell each other apart?"

Me: "Well, you see, students, Spaecle is not my first name. No, my mom and I both have different first names." They thought my first name was Spaecle! Ha!

And then lots of them are not sure where the Miss ends and the Spaecle begins. Many students call me Miss Miss-Spaecle. And some of them called my mom Mrs. Miss-Spaecle. Oh the drollery. 

Another story: One day we had outdoor recess. The sub had already taken out most of the kids, and I stayed behind to take out the lagging kiddos. I was walking out with Able, who had a kickball in his hand. As we walked down the hall I immaturely knocked the ball out of his hands (bad hallway behavior, Emily). Then I said to him, "I'm actually just a kid." And he said emphatically, "No you're not." And then I had him guess how old I was and he guessed nineteen. 

Another: Kyle, who has long swooshing hair, is talking with another kid at his table. This other kid, say James, has short bangs. He tries to flick back his hair, and Kyle says, "You should grow your hair out. You would look good with long hair." James pats his bangs and says, "Oh yeah?" Kyle affirms, "Yeah."

Another: Lyle: "How do you have both gum and an oreo?" Jeremy: "I have the gum on the left side of my mouth and the oreo on the right side." Lyle: "I can't do that."

Finally: One of Jeremy's good friends, Joseph, is dancing in his seat to one of the songs that is playing during the slideshow before school. Jeremy is just smiling happily at him the whole time. 

Students Telling on Students

I do not like it when kids tattle tale on other kids. 

Today at the beginning of class, one kid (call him Matt) gets out a coin to spin it on the table. Now, the students are strictly forbidden to have spinners in this classroom (a spinner is a spinning top made out of paper). The spinning can distract them from listening. So, Matt got out this coin to spin. And I believe he did this partially to encourage his classmate at the same table, call him Lyle, to get out his spinner. Matt and Lyle are frequent offenders of the no spinners policy. They often spin them together and the teacher does not notice. As soon as Lyle gets out his spinner, Matt jumps up and comes to the teacher. "Ms. Teacher, Lyle has out his spinner!" he says smugly. The teacher tells Lyle to throw it away, and the special ed teacher who follows the class gives him a strict rebuke ("You want to go to this one college, right? Well at this college they are going to kick you out if you are playing. So get it together.") Lyle goes back to his table and gives Matt a look like, "Dude, what in the world!?" And later in the day Matt is making miniature spinners while I teach. 

So tattling is obnoxious--kids often do it to be cocky and show-off or to try to impress the teacher at someone else's expense. Allowing it does not encourage character or depth in students. And we long for students to be kind to each other, and to leave being the teacher and authority figure to us. 

On the other hand, I want kids to come to me when anything like bullying or cheating or stealing is happening. A few kids ago I believe a student came to the teacher and told her that two of the kids were passing around mean pictures of the other one. And another kid came to me to go talk to the principal about bullying that was happening on the bus. 

So what can we do to encourage kids to come to us about important issues but not to tattle on each other? How do we keep kids from being snitches but not keep them from tolerating bullying? 

Dealing with negativity

So...long story short my field mentor is "on review" at her school this year. She received extremely low scores (both on student TCAP scores and on her observations) last year, so she is on an improvement plan for this year that requires her to meet weekly with the academic dean, turn in all of her lesson plans ahead of time and be observed more frequently. Last week she had another observation by the principal and did extremely poorly. She is worried she'll be fired and not be able to transfer to another school because her scores are below the necessary for transferring. Now she (and other teachers who have come in to console her) has expressed an inordinate amount of negativity about the teaching profession, about her administration, etc. First of all, I feel extremely uncomfortable because (1) it's not my place to say anything negative about her or the school or administration but she talks to me about it frequently and (2) I am going in to the teaching profession for the first time next year!! I like her being honest about the good and bad sides of teaching, but I feel uncomfortable almost daily by her very negative attitude about individual students, her principal, the whole MNPS system, etc.

Have any of you all experienced the same negativity from your field mentor or other teachers at your school? How do you deal?

The Affect of the Home Environment

         Sometimes I find myself feeling extremely sad when hearing about some of my student's lives at home. You can easily tell that there are some students that are greatly affected by their home environment and that their learning and behavior is impacted in a negative way. For example, one student comes into school with dirty clothes everyday and can not possibly sit still and follow directions. My teacher told me that he has no guidance or attention at home. Although this student misbehaves daily and most of the time deserves to "clip down," or be sent to the principal, it is hard to blame him for his behavior. It is extremely sad that this student's life is effected in this negative way.
         Additionally, whenever we clip down a student or write a note on their folder about their behavior, they often cry and complain that they are going to be "spanked," or in so much trouble at home. Because of this they beg us to clip them back up and are sad the rest of the day. This is honestly very unfortunate and is not our intention at all. We do not want students to simply strive to clip up because they wouldn't get in trouble. We want them to understand why good behavior is ideal and that they should behave no matter what the consequences are. There are times that I want to clip them back up to save them from the possible punishment they are going to get. However, that would just teach them that they can complain and cry to get what they want. Instead, we look for positive behavior the rest of the day and clip them back up if it is deserved. However, we make sure to have a conversation about what they need to do better and why. It is not a teacher's attention to punish a student. We just want to encourage positive behavior and have them understand why it is important.