On my second and third visit I continued to see presentations by the students, which were great! Today was the last groups of students who needed to present. When all the students were done presenting, Maria asked them if they had liked doing the project, if so why, and if not why not. This was a way that Maria was getting some feedback from her students. She was showing them that they had a voice in the classroom and did not have to agree with everything that she does in the classroom. She noted to them that their feedback is important because it will help her improve the project and further make it more successful. The students gave her a number of positive comments and a few negative ones that showed her how she can improve the project in the future.
I am excited because I am seeing many of the practices that I have learned throughout my teacher preparation program being successfully applied in the classroom.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
My first day in the Feinstein Middle School of Coventry
My first day in the Feinstein Middle School of Coventry, I had a great time. My coordinating teacher, Maria Dunphy, is wonderful. I am excited because she is very open to new information that I bring into her classroom. She showed me that she is a lifelong learner when she told me that she too wants to learn. I was impressed with what I saw in her classroom on many levels. I observed, and was part of classroom presentations. It is clear to see that Maria uses Ubd because the presentations were performance tasks with communication as its main goal. Although the students were a very basic level, often committing common errors, they seemed to be learning, while having a good time.
One thing that I observed in Maria’s classroom that was awesome was the way she managed her classroom. She is firm with her students and always expects top behavior in her classroom. She manages behavior by having the students’ grade themselves on their own behavior. She uses a rubric which they go by and evaluate their behavior throughout the day. The students grade themselves on a level of four to one, with four being the best. If a student thinks they deserve a better grade than what their behavior really was, Maria simply tells them to think about what grade they have given themselves stating reasons why the student deserves that grade.
I also loved how she promoted and used constructive criticism in her classroom. After each group of students presented she asked the class, now what did group “A” do correctly. This, to me, was awesome. This gives the students automatic feedback, not only form the teacher, but also from their peers. It was clear that Maria commonly uses constructive criticism because the students felt very comfortable giving that automatic feedback.
At the same time that I was encouraged by Maria’s teaching style, I was discouraged by the amount of time she spends with each group of students. She is assigned two groups of students each trimester. The groups interchangeably meet every other day. When it comes down to it, Maria explained to me, the students receive 25-30 hours of Spanish for the year, seeing that the groups change after each trimester. I personally do not think this is a sufficient amount of time to accomplish much language acquisition. I see that this school needs to see the importance of second language learning and the benefits students gain form learning a second language.
One thing that I observed in Maria’s classroom that was awesome was the way she managed her classroom. She is firm with her students and always expects top behavior in her classroom. She manages behavior by having the students’ grade themselves on their own behavior. She uses a rubric which they go by and evaluate their behavior throughout the day. The students grade themselves on a level of four to one, with four being the best. If a student thinks they deserve a better grade than what their behavior really was, Maria simply tells them to think about what grade they have given themselves stating reasons why the student deserves that grade.
I also loved how she promoted and used constructive criticism in her classroom. After each group of students presented she asked the class, now what did group “A” do correctly. This, to me, was awesome. This gives the students automatic feedback, not only form the teacher, but also from their peers. It was clear that Maria commonly uses constructive criticism because the students felt very comfortable giving that automatic feedback.
At the same time that I was encouraged by Maria’s teaching style, I was discouraged by the amount of time she spends with each group of students. She is assigned two groups of students each trimester. The groups interchangeably meet every other day. When it comes down to it, Maria explained to me, the students receive 25-30 hours of Spanish for the year, seeing that the groups change after each trimester. I personally do not think this is a sufficient amount of time to accomplish much language acquisition. I see that this school needs to see the importance of second language learning and the benefits students gain form learning a second language.
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