Comunicación

This past week at Lincoln Hall has been another great one! I can’t believe how quickly my time there is winding down. Last week, I set two goals: to learn a lot from the Institute day we have on Friday and to invite the principal to one of my lessons this week. On Friday, the institute day was all about using technology in the classroom. We started the day by hearing a speaker talk to us about technology and how students should research in the classroom. He taught us that instead of having them research on something broad, we have to find a way for students to narrow down their study so they don’t come up with millions of results when they type it into google. He showed us an example of what a student might do if he looked up “china” on google and it came up with 3,140,000,000 results. But, when we refined it to the average rainfall in china and looked up only the “.gov” websites, we were down to 250 results. The speaker was very helpful, because my cooperating teacher (and myself in the future) was planning on having students do reports on different Spanish speaking countries. Instead of having students look up results that might not be credible, or relevant, it can be helpful for them to narrow down their topic and show them how to find a good source. Then, I went to two different meetings where I learned about possible technological resources that I could use in a language classroom in the future. I’m really excited to use some of them, such as Voki, Audio Boo, Spaaze, etc when I’m a teacher and even in my upcoming placement.

As for my second goal, I wasn’t able to invite my principal to a lesson, because I didn’t see her around the school much this week. I think she was gone on Monday and Tuesday at various meetings and then Wednesday and Thursday I only saw her briefly, but she was busy and Friday I didn’t see her at the Institute day. Hopefully I will see her this coming week.

My goals for the upcoming week are to come up with a good project with my cooperating teacher for my students to work on during the upcoming week and to set an appointment with superintendent Mark Klaisner this week for a mock interview and to review my resume and cover letter. (I met him at the Institute day and he invited me to come and sit down with him so that he can help me out with these thing, so I figure it would be great to take him up on this.)

One word to best describe this week is personality. Each one of my students displays such a unique personality, which is great! I have also been able to many of the personalities of the staff this week and their attitudes towards various things that are going on around the school. It has been fun and a great learning process.

Unfortunately, we have not had many opportunities to incorporate members of the community or experts in the field in our classroom. One of the reasons is because we are doing a lot of review right now and are moving though old material quickly. The other reason is because the school has strict field trip, movie, and visitor policies. We have tried to include some real world situations in the classroom, however. For example, we are trying to use this program called “Voki” in the classroom where students can practice their speaking skills, which is essential in learning a language. It is a site where they create an avatar, but record their own voice to make it speak. (You can also type what it says, but they can’t pronounce the Spanish.) It’s a great tool, though, because many students are too afraid to try a new language in the classroom. Students really like using Voki.

Although I have had some trouble trying to incorporate the community, or the world, in my classroom up to this point, I have some great ideas for the future when I have my own classroom. To start off, I would like to set my classroom up with ePals right from the start of the school year. This way, they would be able to talk with them all year round and not have to cram it into a month or so. I can also work out any kinks before the school year starts then too. I think that by using ePals, students are putting their knowledge of what their learning to use and can learn a lot from other cultures around the world.

I would also like to use many of the sites I learned about at my institute day, because I would be able to create active learning that students might really enjoy and find relevant. Many of the reviews that a teacher in Brazil got from her students were positive when they were using the web tools to learn. Some of the websites I want to make sure I use as a teacher are Voki, Audio Boo, Fotobabble, Goanimate, and Live type. They are websites in which students can practice using each of the four domains: listening, writing, reading, and speaking.

Collaboration within a school is also essential. At the beginning of my time a Lincoln Hall, my cooperating teacher and I tried to map out what we wanted the seven weeks to look like while I was there. We also meet each week to go over what I’m going to teach and make any adjustments based on how the last week went. I also usually confirm what I’m going to do the next day so that we are on the same page.

Each week, we meet three times with the eighth grade team as well. One of those days, we also meet with the special education teacher, principal and assistant principal to talk about specific students behavior and what we can do about it. It is really important that we have these meetings so that everyone can be on the same page. We have found, may times, that if we are having a problem with a student in one of our Spanish classes, that the student is also struggling with other classes. One of my students, for example, was really struggling in Spanish and we found out he was struggling in other classes too. As a result, we switched his schedule (with his and his parents confirmation) so that he could be in a lower level Spanish class and have a more supportive Literature class.

Keeping my students on task has been going better. Switching my eighth periods seats made a big difference at first, but it has started to get noisy again. As a result, I made them stay after class one day until we got through the notes we needed to get through (which we got through with ease in the other class periods). This made them listen a lot better and I think it might continue to help, because they know if they take my time, then I will take theirs.

Chapter 11 in the Schmidt book also had a lot of great things to say about communication in the school. Keeping parents informed was one of the most important things I took from this chapter. In the section entitled “ten essentials of effective communication” it helped me realize some important things to include when staying in touch with parents. The ones I thought were most important were being proactive, being positive, being inclusive, and being clear. Being proactive means contacting parents before there are any problems in the classroom. By sending parents a personal note, you can gain the respect of students’ parents and can make a big impression on them. It can also make sure that you will be supported if there is a problem in the future. Being positive is also important. If there is a problem in the classroom, the call or letter home should start out with something positive and then transition into the point of your concern. This way, they see why the problem is a big deal and will usually be supportive in helping you fix this problem. By being inclusive, no parents are left out or don’t know what is going on in your classroom. This may mean different ways of communicating with them. Being clear is also essential, because many parents are very busy. Whenever possible, Schmidt says using bullet points can be helpful. Also, using writing simple is important so that everyone know what you’re trying to say.

Being aware cross-culturally is important too, otherwise we may not understand why some parents or students do things the way they do. We may even see it as rude, based on American standards, but for them, it is what they’re used to. In order to communicate successfully with all the families within the community, Schmidt suggests that we should be cognizant of how different cultures may deal with things such as eye contact, distance between people in a conversation, use of gestures, taking turns in conversations, standards to response time, and even down to the color pen we choose to write with. In her book, Schmidt points out sever specific cultural standards. But, if you’re every wondering about something, it might be useful to look it up, not just assume a parent or student is being disrespectful. I believe this is essential, especially if you plan on being a teacher in a diverse area.

La Cultura De La Clase

Hello! Since last week, I have been busy teaching all of the Spanish II classes and helping with the one period of Spanish I. I have also continued to enjoy my time at Lincoln Hall and have been able to get involved in some of their extracurricular activities. Before I start my reflection on this week, however, I would like to review my goals from last week and set a couple new goals for the upcoming week.

Last week, my goals were to finish learning all of my students’ names and to get my action research project going and iron out all the kinks. I am very close to knowing all of my students’ names, but am still have trouble with the names of some of the really quiet students. I aim to continue working on this and making a specific effort to learn the last few names of my students this week.  As for my action research project, I started some research and looked to start doing ePals with them, but found that the site was really particular. I also realized that with using ePals, I would have to rely on the other school to be as serious about participating as well, which, if it didn’t work out, would be a disaster. So, I decided to do my project at my next placement and have already emailed my teacher to explain the project and ask her if she already knew something in particular the students have been struggling with that I could work on with them.

My goals for next week are to get started on my video project and to learn a lot from the Institute day we have on Friday. I would also like to invite the principal to one of my lessons this week.

The word I think that best describes my experience this week is fun. Middle schoolers are just plain fun. I have been able to see a lot of my students’ personalities throughout this week in many different situations, which has been great. I’ve been able to interact with them in class, as a whole and individually, after school, at a student leadership program meeting, and at a school dance. It has been great to see how unique each student is and the different levels they are at developmentally and in maturity.

I continue to learn how important it is for student to access their prior knowledge in as we continue to review concepts from last year. They seem to be recalling a lot of information in a short amount of time, which will help them as they add on to what they’re remembering in new concepts later on in the year.

This week, I have realized how much students’ language, culture and family impacts learning as well as I interacted with students. While talking with some students after school one day, I was telling them that I love how so many different students at the school spoke different languages. Then, one girl explained that her language, Romanian, is also a romance language, so it is similar to Spanish in some ways. Because of this, she sometimes gets what she’s learning in Spanish mixed up with what she already knows in Romanian. Knowing this is important, because I am then able to recognize that some of the mistakes she makes in Spanish might not be because of her misunderstanding of the material, but rather, a switch between Romanian and Spanish. (She also taught me how to say “how are you?”: “Ce mai faci?”.) I also think it’s important for me to remember that for most of the students in my classes, Spanish isn’t only the second language their learning, but their third!

I also learned more about the Muslim culture through a few of my students and my cooperating teacher. My cooperating teacher explained to me when girls started to wear their burka.

One thing that has been helpful in accepting and embracing cultural differences is understanding my own self culturally. In the multicultural education course at Trinity, we learned about how understanding our own cultural identity and the role it plays in our life is essential, because we can then understand how the different cultures in our classrooms can affect them and their learning. As a teacher, I aim to have no cultural biases, but rather to support and appreciate each student for who they are.

I’m not sure I can recall a specific time this week in which I used cultural diversity to teach and enrich instruction other than teaching a language that belongs to many different cultures. Where possible, too, I like to add in different cultural customs from Spanish speaking countries so that students realize how many different places Spanish is spoken and can become familiar with different countries customs. In order to help students understand as I speak, I usually use my hands as well to help different students. When possible, I give visuals or have them act it out as well.

It wasn’t in the past week that this happened, but during Ramadan, my cooperating teacher and I ate our lunch in the Literacy Center (which hadn’t started up yet) with the students who were fasting. I thought this was a good way to show that she respected their culture, even though it’s different from hers.

She also asked her homeroom about the different languages they speak at home. In our class of fifteen, there are fourteen different languages spoken! I was shocked at this. It was really cool to see my cooperating teacher show that she valued them and their culture though. Often times, this can make their affective filters go down and make them more willing to share and participate in class.

My cooperating teacher and I are getting along really well! We discuss lesson plans together and run copies for the week each Friday. She also has invited me to be involved in other school events, such as STAR (a student leadership team) and the school dance, which happened this past Friday. I was able to attend both this past week, which was a great experience. (It was also pretty funny to see some of the middle schoolers dance J)

In our reading of the Schmidt book this week, my understanding of culture was enhanced as I read about the culturally responsive teaching strategies. It was really interesting to hear how most people are used to teaching in the United States and how ineffective it can be when dealing with students from other cultures. We tend to think they don’t understand what is going on because of their response to what is being taught, but, in actuality, it’s the way the lesson was taught. Some of the strategies listed that I thought were the most interesting, were: being extremely vigilant about including all students in discussion, not just the talkative, eager, or ambitious ones; encouraging peer turoring so students can share culturally diverse strategies for learning and all students can be seen as learners and teachers; and encouraging flexible grouping that allows students to interact with students from other culture and realize that the way we do things in other cultures may be unique and very effective. (p. 84-84) 

Including cultural awareness in the curriculum was another section of this chapter that I found to be helpful, as it applied directly to using it in the classroom. Among the ten different examples of activities to incorporate in the classroom, I thought cultural awareness through music was a really good idea. As the book explains, music can often serve as a universal language. Students can listen to the sounds and understand part of the culture. I think this could be a really moving thing to do in the classroom. I also liked the Venn Diagram idea, where a circle is made for each cultural group with in the classroom, all overlapping in the center. Using words and pictures, students will realize that each culture is unique, yet they can find that they all have something in common as well.

This chapter was really helpful and has some good ideas in which to create a classroom the respects and embraces diversity. 

Week 3 at Lincoln Hall

It was another great week at Lincoln Hall! I continued to teach Spanish II five periods of the day and am starting to feel more and more comfortable each day. I feel as if I have started to get to know each student and their personality better, and, in turn, they have gotten more acquainted with me as well.

Last week, I set two goals. The first of my goals was to learn 75% of my students’ names. I’m not sure if I reached the 75% mark, but I’m getting close. I aim to work hard this week to continue learning their names. (I found it helpful to pass back papers to help me learn their names.) My other goal from last week was to have a good observation and to learn from the feedback I was given. I  felt like my lesson on Wednesday went well and was happy that Professor BC could observe me and give me feedback. He pointed out things I did well and then things that I can continue to work on. The things I will work on for the rest of my student teaching is trying to use students’ names to recognize that they did something well or if they need to change their behavior. Also, I need to work on saying “Does that make sense?” or “Are there any questions?” instead of just saying “ok?”.  I thought both of these suggestions were helpful and I will try to work on them.

My goals for next week are to finish learning all of my student’s names and to get my action research project going and iron out all the kinks.

The word I would choose to describe this week is “comfortable” as I continue to mesh with my cooperating teacher, students, and other staff members. I have grown to love Lincoln Hall in such a short time and have become very comfortable there. It is a great community and I am happy to have the opportunity to be a part of it.

As I continue to write lesson plans to go along with the review we are doing in Spanish II, I find that I’m having trouble with the Illinois State Standards. It seems like the standards don’t really apply to what it is actually like to learn a language. Standard 28 is the only foreign language standard that has to do with any sort of grammar, which is the foundation of a language. I have also found that because the standards apply to any foreign language, they don’t seem to line up with specific things that are important in Spanish. For example, it doesn’t mention anything in the standards about conjugating a verb, which is one of the most important things to know how to do in Spanish. I have talked to my cooperating teacher about the trouble I’m having and she has agreed. She even mentioned that her and the seventh grade Spanish teacher talked with the principal when the school decided to do standard based grading and they came up with their own set of Spanish standards which apply specifically to learning Spanish. I try to match the Illinois Learning Standards to my lessons the best I can.

In order to meet my students where they’re at, I discuss lesson plans with Miss Ricotta daily. If students aren’t responding well to something we’re learning in class, we change what we originally had planned for the next day so that we can review what they’re having trouble with. We have only really run into this problem once so far, because my students are doing a lot of review right now. Each day, after I teach my first lesson, Miss Ricotta also gives me feedback on how she thought it went and suggestions for what I can do for the other classes to improve the lesson.

In one lesson I taught this week, I had students do several different activities to help them learn the “tener” expressions in Spanish. I had them play charades with a partner where the other person had to guess which Spanish expression they were trying to use, then I reviewed how to conjugate “tener” in a sentence and explained how to use the expressions properly, then had them translate sentences from English to Spanish as they came up on the powerpoint I put together. This lesson incorporated several of Gardner’s multiple intelligences and met the needs of all of my students (I am hoping at least).  I tried to use some more technology this week in order to relate to my students’ life experiences and I look forwards to using even more in the future.

I haven’t run into any students that I know of yet that have IEP’s. I know of one girl in one of my classes that has a 504 for ADHD, so I have to make sure she is writing down her homework in her daily planner. We are also supposed to try to help her stay organized in other ways, such as with her locker. I do, however, always make sure to mention that students should ask if they are having trouble with anything or to stay after class to talk if they are having trouble understanding something I’m teaching. I want students to know that I’m available and I want to see them succeed.

My cooperating teacher has taught me that accessing students’ prior knowledge is essential. In fact, that is really the whole point of the last few weeks of our Spanish class. We have been reviewing what they learned in Spanish last year, because they went three months over the summer without using what they learned. While I am reviewing concepts and basic grammar with the students, I can tell what things come back to them quickly and what I need to spend more time on. Accessing their background knowledge and bringing all these concepts back to them have really helped so far as they are starting to be able to do more, with more accuracy, with Spanish.

I don’t always show my teacher my lesson plans, because we discuss them at the beginning of the week and then the night before I am going to teach them. If she has any suggestions after I teach my first lesson, I write in what she suggested on my lesson plan and use that to help me teach the next four classes. So far, this system has been working well and we haven’t ran into any major problems.

In the reading of the Schmidt book, I learned a lot about behavior and what drives it.  Schmidt suggests that “all behavior is motivated by one of two basic instincts: to seek pleasure or to avoid pain.” (p.45) So, when a student is acting out or not paying attention, we should ask ourselves which of these two the behavior is being caused by. By doing so, we might be able to help set the student back on track. When Schmidt talks about a student avoiding pain, she suggests that they may be acting out because they are “camouflaging” the fact that they can’t do what is being discussed in class. At my placement, I can think of one girl off the top of my head who is most likely avoiding pain and trying to camouflage the fact that she can’t do the work we give her. In class, or when she is supposed to be working on something, she sometimes just stares off into nowhere, but when I ask her if she needs help, she doesn’t really accept it.

Later in the chapter, Schmidt talks about eight different strategies for teachers to use to reign in their class. The first one is one that I, personally really liked and thought would be useful. That is, providing choices. (p. 57) When you give a student a choice, they are able to choose whichever one they believe their strength lies in, or the one that is the most doable for them. I think it might be helpful to the student that seems lost or like she’s struggling, because then she may feel as if she has more control over what we’re doing and more confident that she can do it. The only question I would have though, is do I offer the different choices to the whole class, or just her?

I also liked the strategy of deferring to the experts. Older, more experienced teachers have dealt with just about any kind of behavior we can imagine, so why not ask them what they did to help that student? In my placement, I find myself asking my cooperating teacher what I can do with some particular students, because I know that she has probably dealt with similar cases before. The ideas older, more experienced teachers give you can be very useful.

Body language is the last strategy that I’ll discuss. I really like the idea of using body language. For example, proximity. Just being nearby can help students feel comfort, because they know we’re available to them. While I teach, I try to use proximity. I want students to know that they can ask me for help if they need it. I am also able to give students advice or encouragement as I walk by. I also think eye contact is important as it draws each student into the class and makes them feel valued. 

Week 2 at Lincoln Hall

Hello again! I finished my second week at school and had a great time! I started teaching quite a few lessons this week and have become more comfortable with my cooperating teacher, other staff members, and all of my students which has been exciting! I also noticed I was a lot less tired than my first week, which is a plus. (I must have gotten more used to the routine.) I look forward to continuing my placement at Lincoln Hall as I have learned a lot and enjoyed my time there already. 

Each week, I will also set a couple goals for myself and discuss my goals from last week and how they went/if they were met. Last week, my goals were to learn at least 50% of the names of my students and to become more comfortable in the classroom as I get to know my students and get the hang of teaching them. It’s hard to tell exactly, but I think I was able to learn 50% of the names of my students, or at least somewhere around there. I also became a lot more comfortable in the classroom as I got to know my teacher and students better. I was able to get a lot of practice teaching this week as well, with made me feel a lot more confident in my own teaching.

New goals:

1. To learn 75% of my students names by next week.

2. To have a good observation this week and to learn from the feedback I’m given. 

Below, I will describe some of the things I did this past week and reflect on them according to the standards we must discuss this week for my college's program. 


1. Knowledge: Describe what you learned this week about creating a learning environment that encouraged social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self motivation.

 This week was my first week actually teaching. On Tuesday, there were a lot of notes that we had to work our way through, as we are reviewing what they learned last year in Spanish. Unfortunately, the time we have to take to review is, by nature, duller than it is to learn new concepts in Spanish. While teaching my first period class, I could just feel how boring the class was and asleep we all seemed. When my teacher asked me how I thought the class period went, I told her it felt “awful”. Then, she helped me come up with some more exciting ways to explain the material and suggested that I use the students in some of my examples. Her advice helped out a lot! I took an active approach to the lesson and it went much smoother for the next four class periods I taught the lesson.

One way students are self-motivated in my class is when they start to recall all the information we are reviewing. At first, they are slightly overwhelmed, but it is evident that they are now starting to feel more comfortable with what they learned last year and are being motivated by that. My role in this is to use examples to explain and to check with them as I go to make sure they are understanding what we are reviewing.  

 2. Performance: What strategies did you use to create a smoothly functioning learning community in which students assumed responsibility for themselves and one another, participated in decision-making, and worked collaboratively and independently? How did you help your students develop the motivation to achieve?

One thing I did to create a smoothly functioning learning community was reflect on and perfect my lesson as the day went on. Once I knew what students were going to struggle with the first time around, I was able to change my lesson to help students or to explain better. I also changed the way I taught if I noticed the students weren’t very engaged. Through this, students have the choice whether they are going to take notes or not in order to take responsibility of their own learning. I find that almost all of my students are taking notes, because they know how helpful they are going to be once we get to the quizzes and tests.

At the end of each class period, I try to give the students a few minutes to work on their homework as well. This way, if they have any questions, they can ask them while they are starting their work. This allows them to take responsibility of their work and stay on task. Some students, however, tend to just put it away and work on nothing.

3. Performance: What approaches did you use to promote social interaction between students with disabilities and students without disabilities?

In the Spanish program at Lincoln Hall, we don’t have many students with disabilities, so I haven’t had to deal with too many issues with this up to this point. We do, however, have a student who wears a microphone in her ear and I wear one around my neck when she’s in my room in order for her to hear better. I haven’t run into anyone giver her a hard time about it or learning her out because of it, but I am aware.

Even though I don’t know of any students with disabilities in my classes that could be left out because of them, I try to make sure that each student is being treated with respect. Bullying is something that the school, as well as myself, takes very seriously and will not stand by to let it happen. If I see it happening, I will discuss it with my cooperating teacher to deal with it according to their school policies.

 4. Performance: What have you done, or will you do, to equip students to “own their learning and not be passive in the classroom”?

In order to equip students to own their learning, I try to get students excited to learn about Spanish. For example, in order to review what we have been learning this week, I tried something new. We listened to a Spanish song, in which they had to fill in the missing lyrics that associated with what we have been reviewing. This showed them how useful the different things we are learning are to Spanish as they came up a lot in the song. Hopefully, it also encouraged them to want to listen to other songs in Spanish and listen for the words they are learning and be excited because they know what it’s saying.

Soon, I would also like to start my students on a site called “Interpals” in which we pair up with a class in a Spanish-speaking country whom are trying to learning English. Each student then gets a language partner that they write back and forth to in their target language. This helps get students motivated to learn and makes them want to take ownership of their learning because it’s exciting. I will also encourage them to not only talk to their partner when I have them do it for class, but on their own as well. 




For class, I am also reading a Classroom Confidential: 12 Secrets to Great Teaching by Schmidt. Each week, I will reflect on what I read. This week I read about "eptness." The opening line about eptness explains that although teachers “may not get to set the culture of their school, they do set the culture of thier classrooms.” (p. 24) I like the way Schmidt explains that the culture of the class, including behaviors, beliefs, conversation style, attitudes, and activities of the classroom are all going to be decided by the teacher. The culture we create in our classrooms can make the world of difference to our students, and thus, in their acceptance and motivation to learning. Students play a huge role in eptness as well, as they are “the ultimate resource” (p. 25).


Later in the chapter, Schmidt talks about 10 behaviors teachers should use. The three that stuck out to me were approximations, encouragement and feedback. Here is how I will use them in class: 


Approximations: I really like how Schmidt explains approximations. Instead of looking for students to do something wrong, it is best to look for approximations of good behavior. When it is seen, let the child know what they have done right and thank them for it. I saw my cooperating teacher do this well last semester, and I aspire to get better at doing so as well. I feel as if students will respond better to this as well.


Encouragement: Encouraging students is a very important tool as it help motivate them. As a teacher, I want to give students courage to try new things, continue to succeed in when they know, and to follow instructions through encouragement. It is essential to note exactly what you are giving a student praise for doing so they understand what they have done right and want to continue doing so.


Feedback: Feedback is another important classroom behavior to use. Feedback should be positive in order to appreciate their efforts and should incorporate their own words so they know they have done a good job. As a teacher, I want to provide students with feedback so they know what they have done a good job on and that I am proud of them.