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Education Fieldwork
Welcome to the Education Fieldwork Seminar at Bryn Mawr/Haverford Colleges 2013, a culminating course for Education minors that focuses on these three interconnected goals:
To facilitate multiple perspectives on and ways of learning from an ongoing field placement, including (where possible) gaining additional practical experience as an educator
To support students in exploring complex issues of educational policy and practice in meaningful contexts
To help students gather together and extend their learning across the courses and contexts that have comprised the minor for them in a variety of ways, including through the completion of a final portfolio or comparable final project.
(Image: http://warwicktechnology.wikispaces.com/)
Welcome to the on-line conversation for Education Fieldwork. This is an interestingly different kind of place for writing. The first thing to keep in mind is that it's not a site for "formal writing" or "finished thoughts"; it's a place for thoughts-in-progress. Imagine that you're just talking to some people you've met. This is a "conversation" place, a place to find out what you're thinking yourself, and what other people are thinking. The idea here is that your "thoughts in progress" can help others with their thinking, and theirs can help you with yours.
Who are you writing for? Primarily for yourself, and for others in our class. But also for the world. This is a "public" forum, so people anywhere on the web might look in. So, your thoughts in progress can contribute to the thoughts in progress of lots of people. Feel free to comment on any post below or to create a post via the left sidebar.
Syllabus
Password Protected File of Readings
Instructions for Preparing Your Final Portfolio
bad apples
How is the notion of some students as "bad apples" (from chapter 6 of Whatever It Takes) resonant -- or not -- in your field setting? Who gets categorized in this way, and by whom? what are the "criteria" for this kind of label, or to put it another way, what are students labeled this way like? how they treated? If this "bad apples" idea is NOT relevant to your setting, consider why not -- and what that might suggest about what's happening there. Finally, you could consider these questions on a specific, classroom- or school-based level or more systemically, depending on your site.
Field Notes 3/5/13
Field Notes: March 5th, 2013
I haven’t really noticed the “bad apple” theme come up in my field placement. However, I think the lack of clear “bad apples” says something about student-teacher relationships at my school and the type of learning environment there, although some might argue that it also is reflective of my school’s highly selective student body. I’m interested in talking about this issue more with others in my group and in class, but my field notes this week touch on a wide variety of issues that came up this week for me.
Field Notes 6- 3/6/13. What makes a bad apple?
3/6/13
- How is the notion of some students as "bad apples" (from chapter 6 of Whatever It Takes) resonant -- or not -- in your field setting? Who gets categorized in this way, and by whom? what are the "criteria" for this kind of label, or to put it another way, what are students labeled this way like? how they treated?
- If this "bad apples" idea is NOT relevant to your setting, consider why not -- and what that might suggest about what's happening there.
This question is very interesting to think about in regards to my field placement. At both the Elementary Schools I am placed at, I am in a small pull-out class with anywhere from 1 to 10 students. These students come from many different backgrounds and cultures, and they also speak different languages. Until receiving this prompt, I never thought about “Bad Apples.” In my classes, each of the students is pretty well behaved. To me, a bad apple is a student who acts out often. He or she is identifiable by the rest of the students and the teacher- all would agree that the student has behavioral problems. At my placement, however, this is not the case.
Why doesn’t my placement have a bad apple, or even more than one bad apple? Small class size might have something to do with it. Often times, and in my experience, students act out to get attention. In a class that is small and sometimes has more than one teacher (when I’m there), each student gets more attention than they do in their normal classroom.
Bad Apples?
In thinking about my placement, I feel like I have a very idealistic environment where my teacher doesn’t label her students bad apples and doesn’t necessarily have the pressure of placing her students on specific tracks according to large classroom. Because she only has 8 students in her classroom, she is able to work with them on a more individual basis. Even with this, she sometimes has a hard time getting all of her students to be productive when she needs them to be. Since it is special education, she also has the privilege of being able to evaluate each student individually, since concepts like the IEP require it.
If she were forced to label her students in some way, I believe that she would not be able to. She genuinely believes that each of her students is capable of achieving what is put in front of them though their progress is not as accelerated as students in a regular classroom, when progress is made, students are often proud of themselves. For example, one student, who’s verbal skills are not up to par is always constantly perfecting the way he announces his words. If he does not get it in the first few tries, he will keep trying until he gets it and my teacher will wait, listen and assist until he gets it down.
A "bad apple" story
Before class, Ms. Presley said “we have a special friend in this class.” Michael's home-life is terrible (she didn't get more detailed then that) and he is new this year. He is the only one in the school not allowed to leave the classroom to use the bathroom, and he has been known to leave and not come back. (I wonder when he uses the bathroom.) He will say he is sick, but he isn't really sick. At the beginning of the year, the faculty tried being really nice to him, but didn't make any progress in his behavior. Now they are trying being really tough on him, and Ms. Presley wanted to give me a heads-up that I might see “tough love.”
During a lot of the class, Michael is being silly but the other students call him out on it, telling him to stop doing something every couple minutes. At one point, a student says to another “stop being the teacher” which is good advice, but Michael does in fact seem to be on a different, lower, level of power than the rest of the class somehow. Eventually he crawls over to the corner of the room. Ms. Presley directs him to come back to the circle with everyone else. He says something like “I'm trying to live an isolated existence from society” using similarly philosophical words. He comes back to the circle for a minute and repeats his dedication to isolation from society to another student.
“That's nice,” the other student says. He crawls away again and is called back.
Field Notes 3.6
- An Excerpt from Today's Field Notes:
- This week I visited Hannah D.’s school, which is for children with autism. We have talked about the unique aspects of her school before, but I was struck by the reality of what she has said. There is an aide for nearly every student that I saw there, and the aides are near them at all times, physically modifying their behavior (pulling their hands away from something they should not be doing), encouraging them to participate in activities, and being there if the student needs help.
- All of the children there are what people would say “low on the spectrum,” meaning they are low functioning and would be less successful in a typical classroom. I could observe this from their behavior, and could compare it to students I’ve worked with in the past who are “higher on the spectrum”.
- The first place we went to was the reading specialist, Karen (the teachers call one another by first names, the students are mostly nonverbal so do not frequently address the teachers). She was working with one student, John. John was singing to himself as they worked together. The two of them were sitting very close to one another in front of a computer, their legs touching. At times, John would play with Karen’s hands or touch her to get her attention, and Karen allowed this without comment. She was asking him to spell words, starting with “go”. She gave him plenty of time, and often he would sit there for a few seconds and not respond.
Field Notes, 2/6
Nicole Johnson
Field Notes, 2/6/13
Morris Heights Elementary School, 2nd Grade, Ms. B
Social Studies
- Do: “We will read about places and we will compare and contrast them”
- Compare and contrast à compare, bring hands in together; contrast, spread them apart
- Ven diagram
- Social Studies book p. 90
- Region
- Teacher reads, students follow with fingers. Cardinal directions. “Never Eat Soggy Waffles”
- Where is the equator on the earth? It’s a line that keeps South and North.
- They cut?! “It’s not really cut but it looks like it splits the globe in half”
- Venn diagram with Tropical Rain Forest and Mountain Region
- T is sent to sit at another table because he was hitting his book. He is not allowed to talk or contribute. “Close your book, you’re done”
- Cold calling
- “I will not answer If you’re calling out”
Field Notes Week 5_3/5: Biased Responses to "Good" vs. "Bad" apples?
- I arrived at 9:00am (earlier than usual) because my lead teacher was running the open house leaving only the aide in the classroom. I came early to help the aide manage the classroom.
- In the past I have discussed the certain children who regularly display behavioral issues, and who have been labeled “bad apples.” For them the classroom environment has become somewhat of a biased environment in response to all of their actions.
- For example, this morning when I arrived the children were just arriving and the teacher was not in the room because she was meeting with parents during an open house at the school. The only adults in the room were myself, and the class aide. Two students who have had behavioral issues in the past repeatedly kept getting reprimanded by the aide, even though they were not being disruptive to any measureable amount. One student was sent to time out in another room, while another was sent to the counselor for help on the assignment.
- I found this to be very interesting. I felt that I could have handled the two student’s behavior in the class. I felt that their behavior was manageable.
- For example, this morning when I arrived the children were just arriving and the teacher was not in the room because she was meeting with parents during an open house at the school. The only adults in the room were myself, and the class aide. Two students who have had behavioral issues in the past repeatedly kept getting reprimanded by the aide, even though they were not being disruptive to any measureable amount. One student was sent to time out in another room, while another was sent to the counselor for help on the assignment.
Field Notes 03/05/13
Field Notes 03/05/13
Morning meeting started a little different than usual in class today. I was sitting at the back of the class sorting through student’s reading tests and putting them in piles for each student while teacher B started morning meeting. Usually, Teacher B starts morning meeting by having the students go in a circle and greet each other. Today, however, Teacher B starts by saying “you know, im a little disappointed with you guys right now” and began talking to the students about how they had laughed at a student. Teacher B spoke to the students about had come to her even before the event occurred and had indicated that they were a little insecure that day. Teacher B indicated that while this student may have laughed along with them, it didn’t mean that they weren’t hurting on the inside. At this point, it was unclear to me which student she was specifically talking about since I was facing away from the circle. During class I noticed that one of the students seemed less animated than usual. They were frowning and staring at the desk for the first two periods and were avoiding talking to their peers. It wasn’t until a conversation with Teacher A later that I realized that the student that felt insecure and the student I noticed looked upset were the same person.
peach rings
I'm confused about how discipline/management of student energy should be happening at my placement. A few weeks ago, Mariah, the programming director, briefly told us that Wordsmiths uses a point system. Today, she handed out printouts to each of the kids when they came in - Erica got 75% positive points yesterday, so the circle showed up 75% green. Another student only had 42% positive points.
However, to my knowledge, none of the tutors have learned about this system or how to implement it. I didn't even know some of the rules until today (kids aren't allowed to go upstairs without an adult, students have to ask for permission to go outside, we don't use the "shut up" phrase, we don't use cuss words, no food from outside of Wordsmiths - especially candy).
So I was outside with some of the kids for recess and I saw Bianca was talking with a friend. A few minutes later, I noticed that she was chewing something. Typically, the students are not supposed to have snacks of any kind until after recess when they go back inside (Wordsmiths provides fruit and yogurt). I asked her what she was eating. She said, "Nothing!" and backed away from me. She put one hand behind her back. Erica told her she better finish it quick.
Field notes: 2/22/13
Today at my school placement in a center city private school second grade classroom, the three second grade classrooms were coming together to celebrate the one hundredth day of school. The teachers collaborated on an activity for the students to group up, supervised by a teacher, and tape off specified "100" measurements on the floor around the school.
After the teachers discussed which students will work together well, they put students into groups of three to four, and assigned a teacher to each group. I went along with Teacher P (my mentor teacher)'s group.
The activity didn't have much structure other than the directions of the teachers helping the students measure out 100 centimeters, 100 inches, 100 feet, and 100 meters along the carpeted floor of the school hallways. When we began the activity, arguments immediately ensued about who would have which job, who got to hold the meter stick, who got to put the tape on the ground to mark the measurement this time...it was a little chaotic, especially when we started measuring 100 meters. At this point, Teacher P and I decided to divide the group into two groups--two students to put the meter stick along the floor and mark each one with a small piece of tape, two to take the large roll of tape and follow the other groups' measurements--to help everyone stay on task.
Guided reflection - math strategies
1. and 2.: Collect stories/What happened? – Miranda helped Omar do his math homework
Once again, we had more volunteers than students at tutoring. Mariah – the director of Wordsmiths – asked Miranda and I to work with Omar. He had not been in school that day, so he needed to do both his schoolwork and some homework, which had been compiled into a packet. Since Miranda had worked with him before, I let her lead; so, for the most part, I just watched. Omar said he already knew how to do this, and that they didn’t need to work on it today. Miranda said that he needed to finish as much as possible, since there wouldn’t be tutoring tomorrow or the next day. She repeated that he had to do it today.
Omar started with the first page, which was 3 columns of basic addition (ex: 1 +2 = ?; 3 +7 = ?). For the first few questions on the first column, Omar used one of two strategies: he wrote tally marks for each number and counted up the total (ex: I II = 3; III IIIIIII = 7), or he used his fingers and counted from left to right (ex: 1 finger on one hand next to 2 fingers on the other hand). When the numbers were too big to fit on one hand (ex: 7), he used tallies. Miranda and I both watched him. For some of the equations that Omar was going to use fingers for, Miranda held up her own fingers and told Omar to look up. He counted her fingers and used that number. He said the answer out loud before writing it; when the answer was wrong, Miranda asked, “Are you sure?” or said, “Check that again.”
field notes: workshop 2 and discussions
This week on Tuesday and Thursday night I held a discussion for SJTP participants to debrief the last workshop and to look forward to the next one. I created discussion questions based on a survey they had filled out after the last workshop. The questions were how do we develop social justice skills? How do we move toward competence (referring to the path to competence acitivity)? How can we explore both our dominant and subordinate identities? What are problems with categorization? What are pros and cons of separate spaces for marginalized groups?
The group on Tuesday night spent a lot of time talking about how we can get people to talk about privilege from a place of privilege without making people feel defensive. We also talked about white guilt, the romanticization of oppression, the individual vs. the institution, cultural appropriation, and marginalization.
The group on Thursday night talked a lot about the recent signs that have gone up around campus that say something like “Do you love your gay friends but feel pressured to be gay?” and the student response that pointed out how problematic those signs were and said “Do you love your straight friends but feel pressured to be straight?” We also talked about what safe space is and what an argument or disagreement can look like in a safe space.
On Wednesday I had a meeting with Hallie and Stephanie to plan for the upcoming workshop this weekend, which was mostly discussing logistical issues and thinking forward to our final workshop in April.
Goals for working group
Here are some ideas that Nicole and I discussed today in class - comment if you want to add/change these goals!
Goals for Field notes /posting:
- make our notes more accessible - focus on specific moments or interactions, highlight/bold the sections that you want us to focus on
- respond to at least one person’s notes with a question (or bring a question to class)
Goals for conversations in class:
- bring advice/suggestions
- hold people accountable – ask them to explain their statements
- I (or someone else?) will scan and post my notes from our conversation – this could be a good way to bridge/connect our conversations over time
- Ask each person, “What are you looking for in your next visit?” - if we don't get to each person in the group, then we can at least go back to this question on Serendip
Praxis Notes
Praxis visit, day 2, 2.12.13; only my second day of observation at the school. A Tuesday morning, at 8 AM. On a normal day, they do a combination of math and reading packets and Ms. Morrow works with students individually when they most need it, some students need more one on one help than others. This day, they had to prepare for their special education standardized tests.
coming in late at a disadvantage
12:40-1:25 Fifth Grade
...
Ms. Presley warns me before that this particular fifth grade class can be challenging. Like with all of her classes, she likes doing lots of quick 5-7 minute activities each class; it keeps students attentive and allows her to cover lots of ground.
There are about 15 students; about an equal number male-appearing and female-appearing. Two appear to be Black; the rest appear to be white but a couple others could be people of color. One girl, who is black, looks high-school aged. I will refer to her here as Sydney. Ms. Presley introduces me as Mr. Safran and asks if anyone wants to tell me anything about themselves or Shipley. “It's a school,” says one person. No one else adds any detail.
Classroom Management and discipline
02/15/13
Field Post #6
Notes for Feb. Friday 15th, 2013:
Today the students and the teachers where recovering from the previous testing. They ended up working on a worksheet for fun and then went on to watch a movie that had to do with the stories they had just read for Black history month…
02/21/13
Field Post #7
Notes for Feb. Thursday 21th, 2013:
Today was more of a relaxed day. They played a fact or opinion game with the smart board. They did reading with their teacher on their text books. They did a worksheet that went with their textbook. They then worked on another worksheet that they have to complete at home that is due tomorrow(Friday). From my previous experience I ended up asking the teacher about if she allowed her students to speak Spanish or English only. She responded that for those who didn’t know an English they can speak Spanish but for those who know some English they can only speak English.
02/22/13
Field Post #8
Notes for Feb. Friday 22nd, 2013:
Field Notes Visit 5
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Observation |
Analysis |
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Monday, 1-3:30 p.m. |
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“How many fewer?” (today the class was subtracting 3-digit numbers by regrouping) |
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Today, when Mrs. Dolly broke the class into two groups for math, she gave me the group that doesn’t need much help (this was a larger group than I usually work with) |
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When Mrs. Dolly called on him to give an answer, Diego mumbled. She asked him twice to repeat himself and then moved onto Tina (she knows that he can speak loudly because he is always talking when he shouldn’t be) |
Interesting lesson-I like the way that she explained this two Diego, and that she addressed him again after moving onto Tina. I think it is important that he understand that he needs to stop talking when he shouldn’t be, but I’m glad that she related this lesson back to his behavior in class. |
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Double regrouping in 3-digit subtraction problems very difficult for these kids |
Field Notes Visit 4
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Observation |
Analysis |
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Friday, 1-3:30 p.m. |
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When I arrived during math, the class was working on solving story problems |
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The problem the class was working on was a multiple choice story problem (this is the format that they will see on standardized tests) |
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3 steps to solving problems:
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These steps were written on the board and when Mrs. Dolly gave me a group of students to work with she said that this was the format that I should follow when framing questions |
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Important to remind students to underline important information in the problem |
Field Notes for 2/27 Students Behavior ("Good days" vs. "Bad days")
Today I have decided to focus on behavior within my praxis. There are a few students that I have mentioned in my past notes that I would like to focus on today.
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