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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Each session began with introductions and then an activity where teachers chose quotes that resonated with them. The quotes focused on students and writing. Conversations in the morning began rather comfortably, while in the afternoon participants were much more hesitant to talk. In the afternoon I shared my quotes first and then asked for others to begin. One person started, but no one wanted to participate. Once the second person went, she asked that person to call on another member of the group to share and it continued in that way. I was surprised that even though people knew they weren't getting out of talking, they still waited to be called on by a collegue. The majority of participants in the afternoon were very positive and had all the rights words about creating a safe environment for writing, allowing for a lot of practice, teaching rather than assigning, using mentor text, the connection with reading, etc. However, there were two teachers who immediately went to the negatives of the students in their class. In the morning, the participates were much more willing and eager to discuss. Angela and I wondered if the first group knew each other better. The second group seemed much more on opposite ends of the experience spectrum.

The next activity was a diagnostic assessment of students use of dispositions. Angela explained how it would be used with students and then asked the teachers to use it in a slightly different way. Students would + and - the statements (geared toward their use of the dispositions) and teachers labled the statements with which disposition they felt was represented by the statement. Teachers completed this readily and had meaningful conversations around the dispositions and how connected they are to each other. There was then a discussion of the color coding and how that could be used with students.

Next were the disposition centers. These centers were created for students to use to be introduced to the dispositions. I introduced and gave the instructions for the centers and Angela filled in where I wasn't clear. The morning group didn't want to move around, so I ended up passing around the centers to each group when they finished with one. This was not productive and gave many groups the opportunity to have their conversations move off topic and 'hang out' with one center for an extended period of time. Teachers did not follow directions completely and read through the entire center. Most were much more interested in getting the graphic organizer 'done' and copy statements from the description of the disposition instead of going through the center in the way we would expect students to so that they could think about how they might do this in their own classrooms or what they would need to do differently. In the afternoon we set the expectation to MOVE to the different centers. Again the groups were very mixed in their interpretations of the activity and in their motivation to complete it in a meaningful way. One group kept acting confused, multiple individual teachers flew through the centers and filled out their graphic organizer and some worked in singles or pairs and seemed to go through the centers productively.

Take away for myself, my colleagues and my students: I could use the ideas of the centers to introduce any topic to teachers or students. The centers provided a basic description of the disposition and an activity with guiding questions to consider to deepen their understanding. These could be recreated for teachers using the 6 traits, reading strategies, genres, etc. For students these could be used individually for any of the ideas previously mentioned. Where for teachers I would have 6 different centers for the traits, for students I would have multiple copies of a center for ONE of the traits. The negative is that if teachers don't feel motivated to participate, they won't. The quote activity was a great way to get a read on the teachers and see where they are in their thinking. Angela explained to me how the quotes can be very purposeful in gearing the conversation in the direction you want it to go. Time is a huge issue for everyone, I wish I could do things that would allow teachers more time to look into the things their interested in that will help them become better teachers and help students learn what they need to learn to become better readers and writers. I like the idea of creating a Ning for the teachers to share ideas and ask questions on their own time, but I can see where there would be a lot of difficulties. Teachers would complain about lack of time, worries about judgment and criticism, being used for evaluation purposes,

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

This day was filled with confusion and changes in schedules, but Angela never fumbled. She has such a collection of materials and expertise that as long as it's about writing, she can keep things moving. I felt a part of the day because there was a lot of time for teachers to work independently and I was able to have conversations. My biggest revelation of the day is that many of the things I know and do, other teachers do NOT know and do. It's okay, we're at different places and I've had a lot of opportunities available to me to be able to learn the things I know, but do have things to offer.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

WOW, what an amazing day that brought such new perspective to both Angela and I. Last night I was extremely hesitant to teach a lesson at either building. Although I felt generally comfortable with the lesson itself, I was a wreck about working with other students while multiple teachers observed. I did not want to disappoint Angela and not be able to provide a situation that benefited the teachers and the students. Incidentally, when I finally decided to take the risk of teaching the class, it turned out to benefit everyone in ways no one could have predicted. The class was very talkative, which really bothered the teacher. One thing that became obvious throughout the lesson was that the teacher does not provide opportunities for students to talk to each other or work cooperatively. As soon as they were given the opportunity to talk, they frequently went off topic. However it wasn't a problem for me or the lesson, just the teacher. Angela was able to hold back the teacher from approaching the kids about the noise level, cell phone in class, and being off topic. If Angela had not been there, the teacher would have completely derailed the lesson. Yes, the kids were chatty, yes, they talked over me, but YES they participated in meaningful ways, had answers to my questions and created a writing territories list that they can refer back to the next time they are asked to write. Angela was able to observe and talk to the teacher about the things that I was doing such as, modifying instruction as we went. For example, a couple students had 'nothing' to write about, so I approached them one on one and in small groups to repeat directions, offer alternate explanations and help their thinking/writing go in the right direction. Toward the end of the lesson I hadn't yet shared the rubric, but the students didn't have much of a list at this point, so I used the time most wisely to do the other brainstorming activity...thinking of themselves as a child and making a list of the people, things and places they loved as well as their happiest and saddest memories. Although I've done other braining storming activities with my students, I am excited to return to my classroom and complete this activity with my students. When Angela completed the same lesson with a group of high school students, she modified to benefit those students. They didn't need the teaching behind what makes a good idea, they just needed to get ideas on paper. The way she completed the estate activity...having students brainstorm about all of the prompts compared to only one in the junior high...is how I will complete the activity with my students because we will have the time. My students are already clear on what makes a good idea, they just need to generate more of them.