BLOG THREE

"What are you doing to meet the needs of your special education students?"

The main way in which I am meeting the needs of my special education students is by trying to follow their IEPs closely and adhere to their accommodations and modifications. The main ones that I focus on are whether or not students are allowed to use a calculator and whether or not students should be given extra time or a different testing space during exams.  I also have a paraprofessional in two of my classes and I try to make sure that he is working with my lowest performing students, many of whom are special education students.  This is important because it is very beneficial for those students to have one-on-one instruction and help, especially if we are moving on to a new topic.  I also try to pair my high kids with my lower kids so that they can work together and my high kids can act almost like tutors.  It seems to be a good system so far since the high students in general enjoy helping their peers, and the lower students feel comfortable asking for help from their peers.

BLOG TWO

"In a profession as challenging as teaching, honest self-reflection is key. That means that we must regularly examine what has worked and what hasn't in the classroom..." This year, what has worked and what has not in your classroom.  What will you do differently?

One thing that I have noticed that has worked in my classroom, that I was originally very skeptical about, is allowing my students to listen to music while doing independent work.  Although this might seem like a minor example, I think it definitely ties in to "self-reflection" because at the beginning of the semester I was adamant about not letting my students use their cell phones in any way during class.  When I was in high school cell phones were forbidden and I just didn't understand how that was no longer the case! However, I began to allow my students to listen to music during independent work time or while they are taking a quiz and they actually seem to focus much better and they are much less likely to chat with their neighbors, which was previously one of my biggest issues.  I have also found that telling my students that listening to music is a privilege in my classroom allows me to use it for classroom management.  If students are not paying attention and are misbehaving then they lose their privilege to listen to music that day.

Something that has not worked in my classroom is trying to talk over students/teach while students are talking.  Sometimes I just get frustrated with students continuing to talk so I just start talking over them and trying to teach those students who are actually paying attention.  However, I have discovered that this does not benefit anyone.  Those students who are paying attention get distracted by those who are not and find it difficult to hear me or follow along anyways.  Also, by talking over students I am basically telling those students that it is okay that they continue talking and being distracted.  I am working on "waiting time" where I do not start talking or teaching until every student is silent and paying attention.  Sometimes this is a bit painful but I am noticing that it is working and students realize I will no longer talk over them.

BLOG ONE

“Write about 2 things that are going well in your classroom that you are proud of.  Write about 2 things in your classroom that you wish to improve.  What steps will you take to improve these items?"

The biggest thing that I am proud of so far this school year is that I am creating good relationships with my students.  When the school year started I had trouble connecting with my kids and getting to know them on a more personal level.  However, as the semester has progressed I feel like I have become closer with my students and know more about their interests and there seems to be better classroom culture in general.  Another thing I am proud of is specific students who I have worked a lot with and have improved.  I have several students who have come to tutoring a lot and I have been able to work closely with and I have seen their grades improve quite a bit.

I most want to improve my classroom management.  I have really struggled with getting my students to not talk while I am talking.  I feel like I spend so much time yelling at them to be quiet, and I know I have wasted so much time doing this.  I have tried a lot of different things to improve this so I am not exactly sure what to do at this point.  But this week I have a TFA staff member coming in to specifically look at my classroom management and to work one-on-one with me, so I am hoping this will help me out.
I also hope to improve the overall scores of my students.  While some students that I have worked closely with have improved, my classes as a whole are not improving very much.  I have started to try to improve this by taking more time on topics that confuse students.  Before I stuck to a schedule that I had planned out for each unit, but often students would not understand a topic and I would just move on.  I am trying to be more responsive to my students' understanding.