How do teachers get students to stay involved?

Today in Mr. I’s class there was a student that kept putting his head down on the desk.  Mr. I asked him over and over again to keep his head up.  Finally, the student was sent to the nurse.  I did not understand at first why the student was sent to the nurse and not the vice principle, but then another student in the class explained it to me; they send students to the nurse to check them for drugs.  Sometimes I feel as if there is so much I do not know.  I know a lot about my subject but as far as “street smarts” . . . I am not so sure? 

I think there is so much I can learn from the students.  I need to understand knew ways of communication and knew methods of interaction.  What works for some students may not work for all students and I need to learn the most effective methods of communication possible.

Mr. I has moved on the lessons about the Middle East.  The students wee working on coloring and labeling maps and answering questions about this area.  They also received their scores on their European test back.  Some of the students did really well, but the students who did not do so well. . .really did not do well.  How can we motivate students to want to do the work?  What is going to get through to these students?

 I am glad for this opportunity to see different teachers in action and to have the opportunity to interact with these students.  These experiences are going to help me when I have my own classes!

Keepin’ it real with Mr. I

Today in Mr. I’s class we reviewed the study guide for the test the students have on Friday.  I walked around the room helping students.   Some students were very interested in working and others were not interested at all.  I felt that he gave them a lot of time to work on the guide and the students were not that interested in filing it out.  However, when they went over the guide as a class the students knew quite a few of the answers.

The atmosphere in the class is very relaxed.  Mr. I lets students know when they are out of line, but he also has fun with the students and they laugh a lot!  I really like that aspect of his teaching style.  This class is a 9th grade World Geography class, and my other class is an 11th grade U.S. History class.  The maturity levels betwee the two classes are amazing.  The 11th graders are much more engaged and they actually do the work outside of class.  The 9th graders seem to need a lot of encouragement and disipline.  I am not quite sure while there is so much difference?  I believe there is more than just the grade levels, but I cannot quite put my finger on what it is . . .?  My goal for the remainer of the block will be to analyse the differences between the two classes and try to figure out while the tones of the two classes are different?

Hola. . . Como estas?

I was very excited to meet my ELL student!  It was an especially great exeperience because my student is also in my 4th period U.S. History class and I had already had the pleasure of meeting her.  Her name is Maribel and she is from Acapulco.  We began our session by reading the letter she had written to me introducing herself.  Maribel wrote her letter in English, but I read the letter back to her in Spanish.  She helped me with my pronunciation and with my Spanish vocabulary.  This was a great way to begin because it helped Maribel to feel comfortable and set her up as the “expert” in teaching me Spanish.  We went on the discuss her classes and what she thinks about Ms. R’s history class in particular.  Maribel did a project about women in the Great Depression.  I shared with her that I hope to teach about women and World War II whenever I have the opportunity too.

In anaylzing my experience with Maribel, I believe it was a wonderful first encounter.  We were able to get more comfortable with each other and establish a rapport that will help us in the future.  I am very excited that I also have Maribel in Ms. R’s class.  I see our relationship as mutually beneficial.  She can help me with my Spanish and also with understanding how it feel to be a English Language Learner in a school full of people who all speak a language that is not your first.  I can learn how to better relate to these students and hopefully not make the same mistakes as many teachers do.  Hopefully, I will be able to share my excitement about learning with Maribel and also encourage her in her pursuit of learning English.

Reflecting on this experience, I hope that all of our sessions fo as well as this first one.  I hope we can continue learning from one another and each of us can grow.

Literature with Mr. R

Today I went to visit Mr. R’s ESL 10th grade literature class.  It was very exciting because I have never had the opportunity to sit in on an English Language Learning class.  The students were very friendly and welcoming.  Today they read a story called Delicious Death.  The story was about a fifteen year old boy who wanted to go hunting with his friends, but his mother was afraid to let him go because he was so young.  The story was about eating the food that you kill and thanking a higher power each time you kill food to eat.  The goal was to compare and contrast the story with another story they had read last week.  In the other story a group of hunters had gone to South America to kill boars for sport.  In the end they were killed by the boars.  The students discussed the merits of each story and the differences between the two stories.  The interesting part of the class for me was that the students who read the poem aloud in English and then discuss the poem in Spanish with Mr. R translating words they did not understand.  The process was very interesting to observe.  I am glad I had the opportunity!