Coramia’s blog

Blog #2: Modeling

nobody@vox.com(Coramia) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:13:05 -0700

I've learned a lot from Carmen. She is really helpful and glad to offer advice. The most important thing I've learned, though, is to model. She stresses over and over, that I have to model what I ask my students to do before they do it. "MOD-EL-ING," she repeats to me, over and over.

She has the right of it. Just as I can't do anything new without seeing an example, my students can't do anything new by just being told how to do it. I find that my classes go so much more smoothly when I model, and I get so many less questions. I would highly recommend it, and I plan to use it often in the year to come.

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Required Blog #1: Biggest problem.

nobody@vox.com(Coramia) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:05:12 -0700

I have already talked about this, so I'm not going to go into any great detail, but my biggest problem is preparedness and acting confident in my subject. The confidence issue should resolve itself once I'm teaching Spanish. Preparedness is something I'll have to struggle against always, although teaching Spanish should help with that too.

Being prepared has been a problem for me my entire life, probably because it was always so easy for me to throw something together and for it still to be better than adequate. This is one of those things, though, where I can't do that. What I'm doing affects so much more than just me. I have to be prepared because those kids deserve so much more than a minimal effort. Yes, it may be better than what they'll get with another teacher of theirs, but if it's not the best that I can do, they deserve better. They are short-changed in so much in their lives. They deserve better.

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Independence Day

nobody@vox.com(Coramia) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:13:28 -0700

As I sit here with my family watching the Music Man after a long day of family togetherness I am so glad that I am a part of this family. I love them so much. We went to the Amish community today, and it was wonderful. There was soo much rich and solid furniture that I really wanted for my new house. I lamented my lack of money.

Nevertheless, I love Kentucky. Despite the fact that my family is violently opposed to Obama and they talk about it often (my extended family doesn't know that I support him) I love being with them and I feel most comfortable with them.

My trip up here was fraught with peril. I lost myself a number of times and found myself stopping to ask suspicious-looking people for directions. Also, my debit card was left in my house in HS, so I couldn't stop for gas in most places. Criss-crossing through northern Mississippi, I came upon Byhalia by chance. As I continued down the road, I turned into a parking lot in order to turn around and hit 78. Imagine my surprise as before me rose Byhalia High School!

I didn't stop in, but nevertheless I was glad to see it.

An empty church parking lot in Tennessee provided the perfect place to pull in and take a nap for about an hour.

I lost myself the whole way, but it was much easier after the nap.

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Reluctant Discipline?

nobody@vox.com(Coramia) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:17:03 -0700

I don't think I'll be a bit reluctant about it by the time I've gotten through my first week. I will probably be thirsting to discipline my kids.

I'm really just kidding, I hope that I will not be the scary teacher at the school. Rubenstein is right about that. I'm working hard to figure out who I am as a teacher as quickly as I can. I don't think my kids next year deserve to get a teacher who still has to figure herself out. It seems that my kids next year will get gypped because they will be getting a teacher so green.

I was really grateful for his driving home (again) the points about consistency and not arguing. I know that i have problems with both of those things. I am the damn teacher. I don't have to justify anything to my kids, respect and love them as I will. They deserve my best, but that does not mean that they deserve an explanation for the consequences that I give them. I have to get the phrase "If you want to talk about it, talk to me after class," into my head.

Consistency has always been a problem of mine. I'm too passionate (at least, when I get enough sleep, I'm passionate) about too many things to be very consistent in anything. ADD has something to do with that as well. My friend Matt actually told me in November, when I found out that I had gotten into MTC, that consistency would be my main problem. It irks me to know how right he was. I think my best plan will be to do as Tabitha suggests and start to form a curriculum map, so that I have something to stick to, a plan.

I really appreciated its pushing the rules once again and explaining what situations arose from not having strictly enforced rules in place. Not the teacher being strict, but the rules being strict. I can never hear this enough, because it's really hard to reconcile the two in my mind.

When he talks about students needing structure in their lives, I find myself nodding my head along. Until I realize that I am an idiot sitting in a coffee shop nodding my head along to a book with everyone around me giving me slant-wise amused glances.

I have always felt the need for sure structure in my life. I am too loose in my own spirit to be able to stand for looseness in classes. I had to learn to discipline myself during the last few years, but I am not that way naturally. As I once told a history professor when I was begging for guidelines on a paper, "I'm really bad with vague."

I have said this to a number of people, and I find that in general they disagree. I was happy to hear someone that was finally validating that opinion.

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Video killed the radio star

nobody@vox.com(Coramia) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:35:56 -0700

Good lord. I always hated watching myself on video acting, too, but this is so much worse. There are no scripts for this and I have not had months of rehearsal to prepare myself for this role. I've had nine 50 minute sessions of rehearsal and that just doesn't cut it.

If I had been sitting there in that lesson, I would have gone to sleep for sure. At least let my eyes drift closed for a while. Granted, it was a revising essays session, so they definitely had plenty to do, it was just that watching the video was so boring!

What I noticed: Since I wasn't teaching for more than 7 minutes, it was hard to really tell what was wrong with it. I did notice that Ann was right and that I repeat myself too often in giving directions. But seriously, I do it in the hopes that one or two of the kids will understand it better the second time. Doesn't work, usually, but I am the eternal optimist.

I noticed also that J is ridiculously defiant. Toward the end of the class, zi (the neutral pronoun, because I really don't want everyone to know who I'm talking about) got up and got out of zu's desk to walk to another student's desk while my back was turned helping another student. J has impeccable timing, too. I turned my back just before zi got up and just before I turned back, zi sat down.

Also what I noticed: My butt is even bigger than I thought it was.

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Teaching Methods

nobody@vox.com(Coramia) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:06:45 -0700

Probably the teaching method I like the most is using technology (if you count the overhead as technology). I would use more technology if it was available. Scotty uses the overhead all the time, as do I. When I get to school, I'll definitely use my SmartBoard and more interactive spanish stuff, which a number of Spanish teachers have already recommended to me.

I haven't seen any second years addressing special needs, but i do try to be as sensitive to them as possible. There are two boys in our class with vision problems and I try to always make sure that things are readable to them or that they have the option of moving closer to the board when they choose. Neither one wants to move permanently, but they do appreciate moving when they can't see.

Learning from social interactions, group work and stuff like that seems also like it will be a truly helpful strategy in a spanish classroom, as long as the social interactions are in pure spanish. That will be a hard and fast rule in my class. Spanish 1, for the first nine weeks they can speak english in class, but only to the entire class and after that, it's all spanish. I predict a very silent classroom. But I digress. The main point is that it's through interaction that people learn any language, and I think that this will be the most helpful for me.

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Cold Calling - Popsicle Sticks

nobody@vox.com(Coramia) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:36:15 -0700

I've already said this in class, as well as talked with Ann about it, but I used the popsicle sticks yesterday (Friday) in class. I loved it.

The kids, as you all know, are very concerned with fairness. The popsicle sticks work great for this concern, since it's perfectly fair, obviously. I didn't get any kids complaining about not being called on, which I do when I call on them because they knew that they had just as good a chance as anyone and I wasn't showing any favoritism. I noticed that the class seemed even more involved when they got to pick the stick. This helped because it involved 2 students in the asking process.

They seemed to think this was even more fair than me picking the stick. I loved it. The class was really responding well, even though my lesson wasn't that good. I will definitely use that the rest of the summer, and I'll try to use it next fall once I start teaching lessons.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~update~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh yes, I also wanted to mention, I hate it when I ask a question and every kid puts their hand up and they go "Ooo, Ooo!" It just twarks me out. It always makes me annoyed, particularly since many students don't even know the answer, they just put their hands up and figure out what they want to say when/if a teacher calls on them. I rarely actually call on the student with his/her hand up. The sticks eliminate this problem, and they're awesome for this and for me as a teacher.

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Delta Autumn

nobody@vox.com(Coramia) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:01:59 -0700

That title always makes me begin to internally sing Delta Dawn.

I did enjoy reading Delta Autumn. For the most part, it merely reinforced what Ann, Elizabeth, Matt, Ben, all the second-years, my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and all of my first-year teacher books have been telling me for months. It will be hard. As hard as I can imagine. I understand that. That's what I signed on for, and I'll see it out.

I did appreciate that it pushed the discipline issue a lot more and gave me some good ideas about some practical discipline ideas. I know that will be more necessary than anything else this coming year, and the other books I've read didn't put the same emphasis on it, likely since my other books weren't written with Mississippi in mind. I also know that that will be the hardest thing for me. My mom gave me one of the best rules I've heard: Don't smile until Thanksgiving.

The foreign language section was great, particularly as no one except my mother has really been able to help me with preparing to teach Spanish. Some of the methods suggested in there, like the putting students in pairs and having students try to put themselves in the shoes of people from Spanish-speaking countries, I think will be really helpful in the year to come. Also, the sign language suggestions to accompany new vocabulary words seems like a really good idea, and one that I hadn't heard of or used before.

I don't know that I could use the technique they suggest to learn vocabulary words. It seems a little campy and also as though it would take too long. I don't want to spend a lot of time learning three new words/phrases when we have so much to get done. It also seems a little strange and eastern, and rather unlikely to be accepted by Byhalians. I don't know though. I'll have to try it. Spanish class is a little cheesy anyway, since it's an elective. Spanish teachers have to keep trying to ensure that their program will be kept on at the end of the term, so Spanish class can't be too hard and too disciplined, because kids don't want to take it. But then, if it's a party everyday, they don't learn anything. It's going to be a hard line to walk.

All in all, Delta Autumn helped me. The first part of the book wasn't all that much different than anything else I've read on the subject, but the specific parts were great. The Spanish section was great, and I really wish that I had more like it, though I've already started getting in touch with Spanish teachers through Spanish teacher websites and asking advice.

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First Week: Reflections

nobody@vox.com(Coramia) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 05:50:18 -0700

For a few weeks of every year the fresh-water salmon swims upstream to mate and then returns downstream. That is what I feel like. I am the salmon.

The last few years, in undergraduate, I have been swimming upstream. It was really hard and I struggled. That was something I appreciated, and I wouldn't trade my experience in Croft for any other kind, but now it appears that I have turned back downstream, finished my mating cycle, and will die within a few weeks. Okay, I'll do my best to avoid the last part, but nonetheless, nothing better describes the absolute ease with which I've come into MTC.

Maybe it's because I haven't changed schools or locations. Maybe it's because this is all still in the abstract, without students. I know it will get harder, a lot harder, but right now, this week has been one of the most relaxed of my life. I feel at home here, among these people. MTC has been an easy transition thus far, for which I am very grateful.

I was a little surprised to find myself among such a diverse group, and am even more surprised to see how well we all get along, being from such different areas. Thus far, at least, there is nothing cliquey about it, which is something I wouldn't have expected at all. I am so glad that I'm here.

I admit, I was a little disappointed that I am going to be teaching English. I have been preparing myself mentally since January to teach Spanish. I suppose I forgot about our little summer school interlude or I glossed over in my mind it as unimportant in the scheme of things. But now I find myself a bit at a loss with English. Literature, I could teach until the cows come home, but grammar was never taught adequately and therefore the only place I even sort of understand grammar is in spanish.

All in all, this week has been a wonderful week, and I look forward to my next two years with breathless anticipation. I take it back. Y'all aren't THAT cool. But I do look forward to the next two years with y'all.

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Assignment...Specifically

nobody@vox.com(Coramia) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:51:44 -0700

I'll officially be at Byhalia High. I'm really excited.

It seems as though God is really taking care of me in my assignment, and it really makes me thankful.

I think I'm going to check out real estate there, housing situations and all that. I'm really glad about it!

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