The Week in Review

This week in class we have been wrapping up the life and conquests of Napoleon Bonaparte, including his ill fated attempt at defeating the British empire at sea and his attempt to take Russia with a under provisioned army at the onset of winter. I am starting to learn my students and their study habits as well as their willingness to participate in class discussion. I do have a student who has very low self esteem and does not think that she is very smart and therefore is reluctant to put forth very much effort. I have been working with her one on one in an attempt to bring her out of her shell and demonstrate her ability to answer posted questions and participate along with the rest of her classmates. We have been making small progress but progress none the less.

In my other Western Civ class we are finishing up WWI and have been spending a lot of time discussing how the progress in weaponry and new development in technology made this war a turning point in industry. This class seems to be more interactive and asks some great leading questions as well as being more focused.

Assessment Ssrategies Article

I found a great website called Inspiring Teachers that is full of great information. I came across an article titled Getting out of the Assessment Rut. That touched on how teachers really get bogged down when it comes to Assessment Strategies. We try something new and it doesn't work exactly the way we hoped so we go back to the same old methods that we had used over and over before and this becomes a cycle and we are not challenging or motivating the students. In essence we are failing to achieve that goal which is the primary reason behind our profession and that is to educate our students.

The article talks about the necessity to vary assessment and find ways to challenge the students and not just those that are struggling but also develop ways to deal with those that seem to have a good grasp on the subject matter.

Creating Assessments can be quite frustrating for us teachers as well as for the students so make sure you are always reading up on new developments in Assessments and fine tuning your abilities, and don't let yourself get caught up reverting back to multiple choice and fill in the blank.

http://www.inspiringteachers.com/index.html

Classroom Management Strategies for Difficult Students: Promoting Change through Relationships, by Mary Ellen Beaty-O'Ferral, Alan Green & Fred Hanna.

This article looks into helping alleviating classroom issues through the development of relationships between students and teachers. There is some great ideas for redirecting students actions without making them feel that they are in trouble or that you, like most adults in their lives, are mad at them.

Some of the topics regarding empathy and admiring negative attitudes and behaviors I found quite helpful in the manner that I have found in many situations in dealing with students I have found myself reverting back to my military background and focusing on the behavior in a negative manner that is equally disruptive, rather than try to get to the root of the problem or redirecting the negative energy into something more positive.

I feel that for most teachers the most pertinent and important section is Leaving the ego at the door. It reminds us of the nature of the career that we have chosen and that we are there to help guide these students on their journey not to act or portray ourselves as somehow superior.

There is also a great section on working in a multicultural environment and ideas on how to build relationships especially where there is a language and cultural barrier.

Overall I found this article a great addition to a lot of the other techniques we have learned to deal with behavioral conditions in our classrooms.

Things have been real busy at West Valley High School since returning from Spring Break. I am currently teaching in three Western Civ courses, in two we are finishing up the French Revolution and moving on to the Napoleonic Wars and in my other class we have just started WWI, including a great lesson on the relationship that Spokane had with Archduke Ferdinand. I am starting to become more familiar with my students and some of their idiosyncrasies. I have one student who is gone quite a bit and when he is in class he is pretty disruptive. Turns out that he has a some medical issues which include a cyst inside his brain that pushes on his orbital nerve, because he is constantly at a certain pain thresh hold and he doesn't like talking pain meds he tries to keep himself busy. Unfortunately that means he tries to engage others to keep himself busy.
Having been out of high school for quite a while it is funny watching how the kids interact and what is important in their lives. I have had to separate students because they couldn't stop talking during lessons and were more focused on Prom and what they were going to wear than about Napoleons rise to power.
My cooperating teachers are both great teachers but with two completely different styles of teaching and it is a challenge to adjust my lessons to compliment each of their styles. I do feel though that with this variety of styles that I am being exposed to will help me in the development of my teaching style.

So this whole TPA thing to me is a bit of a cluster as far as I am concerned. I respect and understand the need while learning the ropes but overall, once in a classroom and teaching multiple subjects it becomes quite a daunting task. I teach in a school where I have two different history classes, one Econ class and one English class, for me to sit down and create lesson plans for each subject in the manner that is dictated by the format would consume the majority of a day. If you have an initial TPA format at the beginning of the year which answers the majority of the questions in regards to the population that you are teaching and you then maintain your expectations of each lesson or group of lessons as you work your way through the school year. For the most part the demographics of your classroom will not vary that greatly throughout the school year, and if there is a major shift it is easy to update.
For the beginning teacher I do feel that this is a valuable tool but as you progress and find what works for you and develop your own system the TPA then is only a guideline and to ensure that you have your bases covered and your system allows you to flourish in the classroom.