The workings of a Teacher

So the year is about to start with my lovely Kindergartener's at Howe School of Excellence in the North Austin community. I had the chance to meet my mentor teacher this week, Ms. Donofrio, who is so sweet and I'm so eager to learn from her. From two weeks of emailing back and forth I can tell that it's going to be a great relationship where I will both be challenged but also molded into that Kindergarten teacher that is somewhere in there. Still very nervous for Kindergarten, they're so little!!

First day walking into Howe and meeting the staff

Can you say WOW!! I have heard about how great the infamous Ms. Campbell was through City Year but man she sure is one great lady who surely knows how to properly greet you. :0 As my co-resident and I took a tour of the school we walked into the front office into a small conference room and was greeted with "OMGs," "they're here," cheering from 3 lovely ladies, the Principal and the 2 assistant principals. A greeting I will never forget. :)

We were also informed that this year the Howe staff will be having their 3 day beginning of school orientation in Lake Geneva!!

So on Thursday, the 4 Howe Residents and our Mentor Resident Coach woke up super early, 4:30..., to depart from Chicago at 6 to arrive in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin two hours later. I was quite nervous to be coming into their orientation the second day and be the "new" people but we were given a lovely introduction the Howe way. Which meant, a full introduction by Ms. Campbell, names on a large screen, standing and waving as the crowd cheered. Such welcoming and warming. From the awesome and motivational speech from the Principal to the cheering and "Welcome to Howe" shouts during our greeting I knew that this year at Howe was going to be great.

I have an awesome school where I can clearly see the determination, collaboration, and support from both administration and staff, my thoughtful and experienced mentor teacher, my goofy and composed mentor resident coach, and 3 eager and terrific fellow residents who will all be going along with me in this crazy and exciting journey.

I know the year will be a tough one as I adjust to working with such young children, develop my teacher skills and moves even more, and juggle between grad school and teaching. But I will be supported all the way by numerous people.

I can't wait for the first day of school!!

TPACK - What is it?

Literacy Strategies

Reading Buddies
Readers Theatre
Literature Circles

Reading Strategies: Word Chunking - UbD

System Failure - CYA Documentary

Watch more free documentaries

Social Situation - Coffee Shop

Starbucks on a busy Friday morning

It's roughly around rush hour (8:45) as people are getting their coffee and other treats at the Starbucks. In the loop, many of the people are dressed in professional wear and a few random folks are wearing more leisurely attire like jeans, shorts, t-shirt, etc.

Everyone that's walking in the shop, is simply walking getting in line, placing their order, walking over to the pick up counter, and then walking out the store. There's only a few people sitting in the small tables however there are only in total 8 seats to sit in.

The customers that are entering the store seems to be in a routine, as there's very little conversation going on between each of the customers especially when they walk in on their own. From an outsiders view it appears to be a fluid motion of a assembly line. The customer or the "object" goes to each station to fulfill the next step. So 1) get in line 2) continue to move slowly up the line 3) when you reach the counter order your beverage 4) Pay 5) walk over to the pick up area 6) wait 7) pick up your drink when it's called 8) walk out the door. There's very little interaction between the customers during this period as they simply stand in place and only speak to the Starbucks staff. They say hello and thank you but scurry out the shop when they have their coffee in their hand.

The Starbucks staff is much more lively this morning. They are behind the counter, greeting each customer with a smile and some even asking if they'd like to also add a scone or muffin with their coffee. There's little conversation with the customer other than repeating the order and thanking them. Behind the counter the staff also appears to be taking on their own roles and sticking to it. There's little conversation going on as they simply shout out an order and ring the order up on the register for the customer. Each person is set a station (register, coffee machine) and stay there the whole time while you have 1 or 2 people going back and forth from behind the counter to behind the closed doors to the back. They appear to be the operations moving the assembly line along. There was very little difficulties during this morning as no major hold ups, or messed up orders/unhappy customers.

The flow of the process at times seemed like it was rehearsed. The were at times a rush of people so the line became congested however a starbucks staff member quickly walked out from behind the counter and started taking orders while they were inline rather than the walk up to the counter procedure I observed before. It was interesting to watch to the customers as many of them were ready to order their drink when asked, and very little of them even looked up at the menu.

Teacher Identity

The Wire - Mr. Prezbo tries to teach fractions

Teacher Role:
From outside the classroom, Mr. Prezbo may appear to be the "leader" in the classroom as he is standing at the front of the classroom directing attention to the blackboard. However, within the classroom it's a different story. Mr. Prezbo continues to explain the problem, walking through and circling the numbers to direct students to focus, however there is plenty of chatter going on in the background. Mr. Prezbo doesn't seem to be frustrated or even agitated by it as he continues on. When a students asks for clarification on what "distribute" means Mr. Prezbo simply rephrases and says to give out. The student responds with "Well, why didn't you just say that." With no comment, Mr. Prezbo simply changes his phrasing. Throughout this whole process, Mr. Prezbo is quite calm as he responds to students directly. He does make a few facial expressions when hearing the students response to the answer but doesn't act upon it. Mr. Prezbo appears to make very little connection with the students as he continues to push forward with the lesson. Later in the clip, outside the classroom however we can see that he truly does care about his students performance and is frustrated by his findings following the quiz he gave them.

Student Role:
The students appear to be in the mode of multitasking. They are chatting with each other however can still hear the teacher talking in the background as they make random comments about it. You see a few students are paying attention however many are not giving Mr. Prezbo their full attention. The student who asked Mr. Prezbo about what distribute means I believe is a student who is engaged as he spoke up when asking for clarification on a word he didn't understand. The way he asked and put Mr. Prezbo on the spot wasn't respectful however this is a student who does want to learn.

Curriculum:
In this lesson, Mr. Prezbo is trying to teach his students fractions. He highlights the numbers that they should be paying attention to and then asks them to solve the problem to figure out if the answer is a, b, c, or d. From my observations, Mr. Prezbo appears to be speaking another language. The context of the problem isn't quite at the students level as the Calvin who went up to the board made fun of context and replaced it with his own.
Looking at Mr. Prezbo's response after the class in the teacher's lounge, Mr. Prezbo clearly sees that many of their students aren't grasping this concept, as many are far from it.