La Comunidad

This past week was short and sweet. The school I student teach at only had school Monday and Tuesday before we got out for Thanksgiving break. During these two days I could tell my students (and teachers) were a little antsy because they were excited about their days off. 

We also wrapped up our unit on Indirect Object Pronouns, because we figured if we put it off until after break, students would have forgotten some of the information we had been going over. On Monday in class, we went over their homework, which was a little difficult, but good practice. Then, I tried an activity to help reinforce how Indirect Object Pronouns work. For the activity, I created several sentences containing indirect objects. I wrote one word (in Spanish) on each piece of poster board, as well as the each indirect object pronoun on each piece. In class, I took a sentence and handed one word to different students. Then I asked them to come forward and unscramble the sentence to make sense in Spanish. At this time, I also gave six students one of the six indirect object pronouns and asked them to come to the front of the room as well. Some of the sentences that students had to unscramble were harder than others, so I started with the easier sentences and we worked our way to the harder ones. After they formed the sentence, I would go through the four steps with them to finding the indirect object pronoun. First, we found the verb(s). Then we asked “who?” or “what?” based on the verb(s) (the direct object). Then we asked “to whom?” or “for whom?” based on the direct object (the indirect object). Then, we asked which indirect object pronoun we would use based on the indirect object was used. After we identified the indirect object pronoun (IOP), I would have the person holding the corresponding IOP put themselves in the right spot in the sentence. We then reviewed the sentence quickly before we started a new sentence. I think students really liked this activity, because they were able to stand up and be more involved in their learning. They were also able work through the steps and see the placement of the verbs as the students moved their bodies around. I was really happy with how this activity went and believe it helped prepare them for their quiz the next day.

Before I had students take their quiz on Tuesday, I reviewed their homework with them and then worked through a quick review for their quiz. For this review, I tried to model just how the quiz was formatted so there wouldn’t be any surprises on the quiz. Although they were doing well with the material, it seemed as if students doubted their abilities. They almost seemed to think that the way they were doing it was too easy, so it must be wrong. So, I had them work through the four sample sections and explained the answers after they were done. This helped students gain some confidence with the material and proved just how much they know. The grades on the quizzes were very good. There were a few students that I noticed were still having quite a bit of trouble with the material, but the majority of the students either made no mistakes or just small mistakes that they didn’t get much marked off for.

Last week, I set two goals for myself: to write at least four dialogues before break starts on Tuesday and to start using the new overhead projector in our room. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite reach either goal. I started on my dialogues before Thanksgiving break, but did not finish with four of them. I will have to keep working on these for this upcoming week. I also was not able to use the new overhead projector because the technology people are still working on getting it to work. I hope it will be ready to go for this upcoming week, however, so that I can start using it.

The goals I would like to shoot for for this upcoming week are to start planning the unit that will start the first Monday in December in order to better prepare myself to teach new concepts in Spanish, and to enjoy my last few weeks of student teaching while I am also trying to set up a job and finish various things I have left for school. In order to finish with the least amount of stress possible, I have to focus each day on getting things done and in order.

The word I chose to describe this week is anticipation. Not only were students and teachers alike ready for Thanksgiving break, but also it was evident that students were ready to be done with the various tests and quizzes they had to take before their break. I also feel as if the staff at Lincoln Hall is feeling anticipation for their new building, which they are working on designing. There have been, however, a few issues they have run into concerning the new building.  The community around Lincoln Hall is upset that the administration has not been keeping them informed of their plans. They feel like the district is trying to do everything without their input, which is making them mad. Currently, the community is trying to sue, because they don’t like how everything is going.

Throughout my student teaching experience, I have learned just how big of an effect the community can have on a school and vise versa. It is essential that they keep one another informed, because what each of them does has an impact on the other.

Parents and families of students are included in the community. While at Lincoln Hall, I have come to understand the importance of contact and communication with parents. Parents like to hear how their child is doing in school, whether it’s good or bad, so they know how they can help them. It is essential for middle school teachers to have communication with parents especially because a lot of middle school students avoid telling their parents a lot about school. Being able to conduct parent teacher conferences gave me a good chance to work on my communication with parents. Of the students’ parents I conferenced with, I can tell that it benefited their child (at least for the time being), because the parents were able to get their student back on track if they were struggling and/or we worked out a plan to help their child.

Parent teacher conferences were also interesting, because we met parents coming from a wide range of ethnicities. There were some parents that had trouble speaking English, which was sometimes a struggle. It seemed as if we were always able to figure out a way to communicate, however, and ended up on the same page. I noticed that many of the parents were extremely supportive of the teachers, which was great, because they realized that we want to help their child as much as they want to as well. While conferencing with parents and students, we were able to work out plans to help promote students learning and well-being. For example, at conferences, I pointed out to one parent that their daughter always seemed to do her homework and participated in class, but it was like there was some sort of disconnect with the material when she took tests and quizzes. I suggested some things to help their daughter and let them know I was always available to help her and explain things further if she was having trouble explaining. She decided she would start coming in to go over her homework more thoroughly and to ask questions about material she was struggling with. We all decided this would help and everyone was happy with the decision.

I have not had much of a chance to collaborate with students with disabilities and chart their progress because I don’t have any students with disabilities that disrupt their learning. I have a student with ADHD, but she is on medication and is very bright. I also have a student that uses a michrophone because of her hearing, but she does well in class too.

When I have my own classroom I will make sure that I communicate with parents often, be it good information or bad. I think it’s important to inform parents on how their students are doing and to gain their trust and support. When the school year first starts, I would like to try to call all of my students’ parents just to introduce myself and let them know they can contact me if they ever need anything. Then, I will try to call parents right away when I notice a student struggling in hopes to correct the problem quickly. I think it’s nice to contact parents when students do well in school too so they don’t just expect it to be a bad thing when the teacher calls home. My cooperating teacher suggests that I keep a record of when I contact parents, just in case they try to act like I never tried to contact them, which I think is a good idea.

In our Schmidt reading this week, I learned even more about the community and relating it to school. The thing that stuck out most to me in this chapter was using the community to connect to student learning. Learning does not only have to take place in the classroom, but can go beyond. When a teacher incorporates the community and students’ lives into learning, it can benefit learning greatly. One of the most important aspects of using the community as the classroom is that students are the ones in charge of their learning. It gives them the chance to explore and ask questions, which they can learn from. It is also active learning, which is always a good change of pace, which students enjoy. I also really like how Schmidt explained community based learning as life and learning being “fused.” This lets students use real world situations and connect it to their own knowledge and learning.

Using the community as your classroom has endless opportunities, which students will most likely never forget. Relating real life situations to learning helps students comprehend the relevance of learning and makes it more interesting. I look forward to using the community in my lessons as a teacher whenever possible. 

Tecnología en la Aula

This past week flew by yet again. Even though it was a full week, it felt like it was shorter. I started out the week working with a substitute teacher as my cooperating teacher had just gotten married the weekend before.  Although it was hard work to be prepared for everything that happened between Thursday and Tuesday, it was great practice for me as it was more like having my own classroom.  Near the end of the week this week, I could tell my students were starting to get antsy with anticipation for Thanksgiving break, which is quickly approaching. I had trouble keeping students quiet all day, which, from talking to other teachers, seemed to be true in their classrooms as well.

One word I might choose to describe this week, however, is drama. The eighth grade students have been having some trouble with a bully in the school. Today, the drama continued and it was evident that many of the other students were fed up with the actions of the bully. Despite their impatience, they are afraid of turning away from her (the bully) because of what she might do to them. They are not only afraid she will verbally bully them, but also that she might try to physically hurt them. The student has already been suspended twice this year for bullying, but the teachers had not realized how bad the problem had gotten until today when another event took place. When this happened, there were many students chomping at the bit to share their stories of being bullied by this same girl. The girl isn’t only bullying random students in the grade, but the people she calls her friends as well. These so called “friends” shared with my cooperating teacher and I today that they feel afraid to stop being her friend because of what she might try to do to them. 

In some ways I feel like I’m not quite sure what kind of advice to give my students, because I have never seen bullying at this level. My cooperating teacher seems to be experienced in dealing with this sort of situation (although I’m don’t know if she’s seen a case quite as serious before either). She has not only dealt with bullying as a teacher before, but she has had first hand experience with being bullied in middle school. This allows her to give students advice about what they should do and how to deal with it. It’s really hard to see this happening to our students because we can tell how much it is affecting the whole grade. Although bullying is a terrible thing, it’s been helpful to hear about dealing with it as an educator because I know that it is something that may happen quite often in middle school.

On a lighter note, last week I set two goals for myself: to look at the results of each students quiz and figure out which questions many of them got incorrect. Based on these results, I wanted to review the material to make sure they understood before moving on to new topics. I also wanted to have a good mock interview with Superintendent Klaisner and to learn a lot from him and the experience. Unfortunately I was not able to do a mock interview with Superintendent Klaisner because he accidentally double scheduled meetings at the time I was supposed to meet with him. I was able to show up a few minutes earlier than we had planned, but we were only able to review my revised resume and cover letter. He asked me to set up a date to do the mock interview for the beginning of December, however, so I will email his assistant on Monday. It’s really nice of him to be willing to meet with me and help me as all of this is relatively new to me. As for my other goal, I took notes of the most common mistakes and reviewed them with students the following day. What I think helped students the most was not just to correct them, but that I also tried to explain to students how they might have gotten goofed up. This ways students understand how to fix their problem next time as well as understand the difference between different grammatical structures. For example, many students were saying “puedas” instead of “puedes” which cam from their thinking the “poder” was an “ar” verb instead of an “er” verb. By explaining that they had to memorize the infinitive and not forgot what type of verb it was they were able to fix their problem.

Next week I’d like to set a few more goals to work at. The first goal I’d like to to write at least four dialogues (which will be used for assessing students) before I start my break on Tuesday.  My second goal is make is to start using the new overhead projector we recently had installed in our room. It will be a nice tool, but I will have to make an adjustment in my presentation of the material.

Speaking of incorporating technology in the classroom, I have learned a lot throughout the semester about using technology as a fun and helpful tool in the classroom. We have used and learned about (at an institute day) several different technology tools that can be beneficial in the classroom. For example, I wrote about using Voki, which is a site where students create their own avatar and can record their voice to make it talk. Students really seemed to enjoy this tool, not only because they could be creative in creating their own character, but because they were able to rehearse and record their presentation in Spanish, rather than presenting in front of class. This took away some of the nerves of speaking a foreign language in front of piers and allowed them to take more risks and be creative in what they said in Spanish.

At one of our institute days I also learned about several other web 2.0 tools, which can be used in the classroom. The ones that most stuck out to me to have the potential to be effective in a foreign language classroom were Spaaze, Blabberize, WriteComics, Audio-Boo, Stixy, Fotobabble, Goanimate, Live type, and Voicethread. I look forward to using some, if not all, of these technology tools in my classroom in the near future. They have the opportunity to create fun, engaging ways to help students practice their reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in Spanish. With so many useful tools available, it is easy to incorporate technology as a great tool in the classroom.

The district in which I am completing my student teaching is trying to push technology in order to bring the world into the classroom. This is a great idea, which I fully support, because we have so many tools available to us. But, we must be careful with how we use these tools, because they can be less helpful than we think at times. For example, this semester our school wanted my cooperating teacher and I to try a technology tool called VuVox. It was a tool where students could record their voice to pictures moving across the screen. So, we had students do a presentation for Day of the Dead on different famous Hispanics which are dead. Unfortunately, however, this site did not work very well and we were all very frustrated with trying to make it work. Students stuck it out, though and ended up doing alright besides some weird problems with the program. It was good to try, but I don’t think I’ll use that tool again in the future.

Each of the tools I mentioned earlier would be useful in different ways and could apply to various learning goals. For example, in order to help students with speaking tools such as Voki, AudioBoo, and Blabberize would be most useful. Typewithme, Letterpop, and Bitstrips and WriteComics are tools that would be more appropriate to help students with their writing abilities in the target language. To help with reading, there are tools such as online newspapers, manythings.org, and cueprompter.com As for listening skills in the target language, there are tools such as Lyrics training and 10 questions.

Along with using the new overhead projector this week, I would like to start planning a few lessons in the remainder of this semester in which I could incorporate more of the tools I have learned about. I think students would enjoy using them and have the ability to learn a lot.


In order to continue developing my technology skills and my ability to incorporate technology in the classroom, I will attend workshops and study on my own. Many times people will have website which help people learn how to use a technology tool. This will be helpful in learning how to use tools in the classroom. I will also try different tools in my classroom, which will give me more confidence in using them. 

I look forward to the upcoming week, but can’t believe how soon we’re closing in on the end of the semester. It’s going to be really sad to leave Lincoln Hall and I know I will miss it a lot. 

Evaluación

This past week went by extremely quickly yet again. It started out a little rough with illness, but the rest of the week went much better. I was even able to manage the classroom completely by myself this week Thursday as my cooperating teacher was gone to prepare for her wedding, which was Friday. We also had conferences this past week Tuesday and Thursday nights. They went well and I learned a lot about dealing with parents. On Thursday night I had the opportunity to do the conferences on my own as well, which was great practice.

Last week I set two goals for myself: to set up a mock interview with the superintendent in my district and to work on calling some of the more quiet students in class to make sure they are participating and feel involved. I feel as if I was able to fulfill both goals. I set up an interview with Superintendent Klaisner for this coming Wednesday and I worked hard at calling on students that are more quiet this week to make sure they were participating in class. 

This week I would like to set two new goals: to look at the results of each students quiz and figure out which questions many of them got incorrect. Based on these results, I will review the material to make sure they understand before moving on to new topics. I would also like to make it a goal to have a good mock interview with Superintendent Klaisner and to learn a lot from him and the experience.

One word I would choose to describe this week would be tiring. I was sick during the first part of the week, which drained energy out of me, especially when I returned back to school on Tuesday. Then, my cooperating teacher got married on Friday, which meant that I as on my own Thursday for the school day and also for parent teacher conferences at night. Everything went well, but I was quite tired by the time I reached Friday. Thankfully it was Veterans Day on Friday and we didn’t have school. I felt like the weekend was a good time for me to get some extra sleep and completely recover.

Throughout the course of my student teaching I have learned a lot about assessment for two main reasons. The first reason is my action research project. In order to monitor students’ progress and see their improvement over a course of six weeks, I used many different forms of assessment. It was great practice and it allowed me to physically see how my students are doing and what we still needed to work on. I also liked using different forms of assessment, because it gave a wide variety of students the opportunity to show me their comprehension through using their strengths.

Another main reason I have been able to learn so much about assessment is because of the new standard based grading my school has just switched over to. In order to see if students are actually meeting the different standards we have to form assessments that are going to prove whether they did or not. Instead of receiving only a percent grade, we also rank their scores as a “warning,” “below expectations,” or “meeting expectations”. In order to receive a “meets expectations” students have to score at least a 70%. Because of this new system, it has made homework not actually worth any points because it doesn’t count as a true assessment unless it is graded based on accuracy. (We typically just check if the homework is completed and go over the answers as a class.)  Unfortunately many students see the homework as unnecessary because it doesn’t actually affect their grade directly. We try to remind them, however, that because they don’t do the homework, they will most likely receive worse grades on the actual assessments because they haven’t had enough practice with the material. A few students that had this mindset at first have figured this out, but there are some that are still just struggling with seeing the relevance of the homework we assign.

Whenever I give an assessment I look at the results to see what students seem to be struggling with in particular. If I notice a trend in their struggles, I make sure to cover that area more carefully after the assessment to make sure they aren’t missing anything. I try to have the students that already understand help explain how to do whatever other students are having trouble with. This goes along with my first goal, as I will be sure to study the results on my students quiz to make sure they understand the material. If I notice they are having trouble with a certain area I will be sure to review it again in class.

Studying the results of assessments is also especially useful when I give students informal assessments. These are usually only worth between five and ten points and are often while we are still learning the material. I allow students to use their notes as I simply want to make sure that students are understanding what we are doing and are getting practice with it.  I grade these the night before and give them back to them the next day. Based on how students do, I know whether or not I have covered the topic well enough or if it still needs some more instruction. If a lot of students are having trouble with the material I make sure I explain where they are going wrong the next day in class. Then, I give them another informal assessment to make sure they know what we’re doing this time. Sometimes I notice that a student is completely not understanding the material being taught. When this happens, I write on his/her paper to come and see either Miss Ricotta or I to get help. I do this so that the student can get the help they need without slowing the whole class down with explaining things that most people already understand.

So far the only time I gave students the opportunity to do self-assessments was for part of my action research. Before students took the post-assessment, I gave them a sheet that had a list of all of the categories that were included on the test and the questions which fell under each category. Then, I gave students their answers to the pre-test (without the questions) and they marked off each question they got wrong on the categorized sheet. This way, students could see what they had had the most trouble with. Then, I told them to make sure they understood the topics they had the most trouble with before they took the test at the end of the review.

Involving students in self-assessment activities is helpful to them because they become more aware of their strengths and weaknesses. In the future I plan to use more self-assessment activities to encourage students to establish goals for their own learning and to take responsibility for it. I think it is a really useful tool.

Unfortunately I have not learned a lot about monitoring the progress of students with disabilities during my student teaching. Because Spanish is a class that students only take if they’re not in the special education program, I don’t have a lot of students that struggle with disabilities. I do know, however, that it is important to monitor the progress of each students, including students with disabilities, because it gives teachers and students the ability to see what students need to work on and what teachers need to cover more clearly. Assessment is the teachers window into his/her students brains. It lets us see what students need help with and what they are grasping. Sometimes some students struggle more than others, which may call for a different form of assessment.

My cooperating teacher and I recently started creating some modified tests for a few of our struggling students. Because many of our students already speak two languages besides Spanish we find that they sometimes get Spanish a little mixed up with the other language they know. For example, I have a student that is Greek and went to Greek school for nine years when he was younger. While learning Spanish, however, he says that he sometimes gets it mixed up with Greek. This made sense to me, because he had answered a question in class before that didn’t make any sense to me. It turns out that this was because he had answered using some Greek as well.

In order to modify a test for students like this or students that struggle for different reasons, my cooperating teacher and I make changes to take off some of the stress. For example, in the last quiz, we offered a word bank for the vocabulary section, which other students did not get. This way they didn’t have to worry so much about spelling, because it was right in front of them. They just had to be able to identify the different object in Spanish. Slight modifications like these made sure that these struggling students were still being tested on the same material and had to know what the different things were in Spanish, it just allowed them to not worry as much about petty things such as spelling and accents.

In efforts to help students assessment scores, it is also essential to give students time to practice. Each day in class, we take time to practice what we’re learning. Usually this take place through some sort of activity. I also give my students homework nearly every night, because 103 of my 108 students wouldn’t be going home and practicing Spanish otherwise because no one at home speaks Spanish.

Sometimes, however, students get things mixed up in their head even when they’re getting practice. When this happens it is important to make sure to give students time to correct incorrect ideas. This can be done in several ways. One of the ways I give students the chance to correct incorrect ideas is by reviewing the homework as a class. If students have any questions about their homework, I encourage them to ask. This way, if there is something they are not understanding, we can get it taken care of by answering their question.

Unfortunately, some students are more shy than others, which means that they might not ask a question even if they don’t understand something. So, just to make sure students are comprehending the material, I often give short, informal assessments in class to see what mistakes students are making. Then, the next day in class I address the most common mistakes so that they correct their incorrect thoughts. 

Justicia Social y Profesionalidad

It’s hard to believe it’s already November! I feel like this past week flew by as I picked up teaching full time again at my placement. It has been going really well, though and I’m excited to be there everyday, which is a great feeling. It is also such a busy time of the year that my cooperating teacher and I felt like we never got to sit down while we were at school. It was like we started in the morning and then before we knew it, it was the end of tenth period!

Last week I set two goals for myself: to collaborate with my cooperating teacher to get a sense of the rest of the semester and to work on promoting critical thinking and performance skills in my lessons. I’m not sure I can say I completely fulfilled my first goal as we weren’t able to sit down and work out the whole rest of the semester, but we did get to plan for the next couple of weeks and talk about other chapters we’ll get into later on. This week we are hoping we won’t be as busy and will be able to sit down and collaborate even more. As for my second goal, I feel like I have started to challenge my students into using their critical thinking skills as I have been talking more and more Spanish in the classroom. We just started a new chapter in our book this week, which gave me a good opportunity to step up the Spanish in order for my students to get more accustomed to thinking in and hearing Spanish while they are in class. They have been taking to it quite well and some students are starting to ask questions in Spanish, which is exciting.

The new goals I would like to set for this week are to set up a mock interview with the superintendent in my district and to work on calling on some of the more quiet students in class and making sure that they are participating and feel involved. I believe this second goal is extremely important, because often the students who are more shy or quiet can get overlooked with a class of so many students. By involving them more in classroom interactions, they may start to feel more comfortable and realize that I value their input.

Now, I’d like to take some time to reflect on this past week. One word that best describes this past week is whirlwind. This week absolutely flew by, as I mentioned earlier. We started out on Monday, celebrating El Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Day) with the students in class. We finished painting the calaveras (skulls) and talked more about how the day of the dead is celebrated and why. Then, on Tuesday, we had an Institute Day in which we talked about standards based grading and incorporating a global perspective in the classroom. When we had time to branch off into our different groups, the Spanish team met to plan the curriculum for the new 5^th and 6^th grade Spanish program. This was exciting and it was fun to have some input and share ideas. Then, we finished up a chapter with our students on Thursday with a chapter test. Students had some trouble with this test, because it was their first test on a full chapter of new material. Miss Ricotta said that this is typical of the first test on new material and that they usually do better on later tests. I also noticed that students didn’t do as well on their very first quiz in the year, but seemed to do better on later quizzes. Friday, we took started a new chapter entitled En el Mercado (In the Market) in which students will learn about different things that are sold in a market and how to bargain. I started talking in mostly Spanish with my students as well, which they have been doing a pretty good job with. I try to repeat things a couple times so that they can understand. It’s fun to see them put things together and comprehend as I speak Spanish.

While at my placement, I have found there are school policies and procedures that I have to abide by, as there are in every school. With students, I reinforce all of the policies and rules the school has set in place, in a professional manner. For example, the school has a zero tolerance policy for bullying. Although I have not witnessed any of my students bullying another student, I would report it I did see it going on. I have heard about students that have been punished this year for bullying other students already. I also like to keep an feeling of mutual respect in the classroom. I want students to know that I am serious about what I do, but also show them that I am a real person and that I care about them.

I haven’t had a ton of interaction with my students’ parents as of yet, but when I do, I make sure that I am professional and show them how much I care about their childs’ education and well-being. This coming week, we will be having parent-teacher conferences, where I will be able to interact with a lot of my students’ parents.

When working with the other teachers in my building, I try to act professional so that they see that even though I don’t have teaching experience, I am well qualified and have been trained well. I also make sure to listen to their advice and what they have to say in meetings. When we meet with our team each week, it is a good time for me to see how they deal with problems in the school, so that I will know how to do so when I have my own classroom and am part of a team myself.

Not only are there policies and procedures that need to be followed at a school, but there are codes of professional conduct and legal directives that need to be adhered to as well.  One legal issue that we dealt with earlier this year was about a student whose parents didn’t want their son to be in the special education program, even though he qualified for, and was previously part of the special education program.  In order for the school not to supply the student with special education help, they had to get sign permission from his parents saying that he was not supposed to in the program. It’s pretty sad, because we have seen him struggle in some of his classes and he’s not getting the help that he really needs. It may be hard for some parents to admit when their children need help, but it can really do a disservice to students when they don’t receive the help then need. This student started out in our Spanish II class, but dropped down to Spanish I, because it was a better fit for him. We have seen him do a lot better in Spanish I, but hope that he is doing just as well in his other classes.

Although I am not a part of it, the school I am at is dealing with some other legal issues regarding the building of the new school. In order to use some of the bonds they have, they have to connect the new school to the existing elementary school somehow, which is posing some problems. They are also running into some problems with the community because they have not kept them informed throughout the whole process. It’s interesting to hear about all of the legal issues that go along with a school.

There are also identification and referral procedures for students with disabilities at each school. As of yet, I have not had to follow these procedures at my placement, but I do know that a lot of documentation needs to be done beforehand. For example, if you suspected a student of needing any special education, behavioral, or any other kind of services, you would have to monitor the students behaviors and reactions so that you would have documents of specific examples when the students’ disability was inhibiting their progress and/or others’ progress in learning. Once there is documentation, professionals can start working on an IEP, 504, or behavioral plan for the student. Having these sorts of plans set in place can help the teacher better serve the student with the disability, as well as, the other students in the class. When I run into this sort of situation in the future, I will make sure that I figure out the best ways to help the student with the disability succeed in school.

In middle school, you will often have to deal with social justice issues as students don’t quite see the seriousness and harshness in some of the things they say.  Sometimes they think something is funny, not really realizing how what they are saying might hurt someone else.  Whenever I see this going on, I ask students to stop and try to explain to them that what they are saying is offensive and how it is disrespectful. For example, a few weeks ago my students were doing a project where they had to choose a relationship between two people and interrogate one of the people in order to practice forming and answering questions in Spanish. Two of my students had asked if it was ok if they pretended they were a lesbian couple fighting over another girl. They thought this would be funny, but I told them that I didn’t think it was appropriate because it could be offensive to some people. They had a hard time understanding, so I told them that we just never know, so it’s best not to choose this kind of relationship in case they step on anyone’s toes by doing so.

Although it was not in my class, there was also a student who posted some sort of racial comment on google docs just because he was trying to be funny. It ended up offending someone of that race, though, so the student who wrote it was suspended for three days. At this age, it can be hard for some middle school students to see how their words and actions, especially when they think they’re saying it in a joking matter, can be hurtful to people. By showing them that it unacceptable, it will hopefully broaden their awareness and keep them from saying some of the things they do and/or to think before they say them.

Currently, at my placement, I don’t really need any help from my supervisor. Things have been going really well lately, besides feeling a little under the weather. I hope that this coming week will go well and that I’ll learn a lot from the parent teacher conferences.

In my reading in Schmidt’s book this week, it focused on social justice, not only in a small scale as the things I was mentioning, but in a worldly sense. It talked about different things that go on in the world and how important it is to teach our students to be involved in helping create social justice. I liked the example that was given about pretending that your in class one minute and the next thing you know there is an earthquake. It says that before it even ends, you realize that “you’re in new territory” and are going to have to deal with some things you never even thought about before. This kind of project is a real situation in which children can take away a lot while learning from it. The chapter also mentions that students develop a vast amount of skills while experiencing and practicing social justice in class: application of knowledge to a real-life problem, critical thinking skills, problem solving and decision making using multiple intelligences, openness to new experiences and roles, realistic ideas about the world, awareness of community needs, and belief in the power of the individual to make a difference just to name a few.

Reading this chapter in Schmidt made me realize that although the small confrontation with issues that occur in the classroom is good, it is also a good idea to deepen a whole classes understanding of social justice as a class. It has encouraged me to bring a real world problem into the class and have students work on understanding it and figuring out how to help the situation. The chapter gives many tips on how to start a social justice action problem in the classroom, which is also helpful and I will use when I am able to do a project in my own class.