Dealing with Classroom Interruptions

Classroom interruptions are an unavoidable element of any class or school; many times teachers will experience interruptions by intercom, a teacher or student entering the room, or even dealing with behavior issues within the classroom that take up class time. The ability to manage these pauses in instruction is not something that can be taught in school; in my opinion, learning how to deal with class interruptions can only come from experience. In education, we often talk about the idea of "withitness": the ability for a teacher to be present in the classroom and deal with issues as they are noticeable. A teacher must have "withitness" to be able to effectively handle interruptions and move on with instruction.

In my classroom, our most common interruptions are from outside the class; we often encounter announcements from the office for the school or for my students. Thankfully, my seventh grade students are able to handle announcements well. They know that when someone is on the intercom, it is their time to be quiet. I believe that much of the ability to recover from interruptions comes from classroom management strategies that have been implemented with the students from the beginning of the year; because the students have respect for me and know my expectations, I am able to reconvene and continue my lesson immediately after any interruptions.

Utilizing Extra Instruction Time

One common occurrence for even the most well prepared teachers is to finish a lesson with more class time left. Though this may seem to be a time to allow students to talk quietly or work on other classwork, this is not exactly the wisest decision; class time is precious and we as teachers must forgo the urge to take this time for relaxing or working on other things. It is especially unlikely for my class of 7th graders to have the ability to talk quietly or be productive on their own. To help with this unexpected additional class time, I like to keep a set of extra activities in my figurative back pocket that can be presented quickly and executed for any amount of time necessary. I personally believe that this extra class time is great for review of the previous day's lesson. For example, if the students recently defined new vocabulary words, this is a great time to quiz the class on those definitions. However, this does not work in all conditions; if the students recently came back from a break or a long weekend, there is usually not much to review or time for the teacher to prepare review materials. In times like these, being in a geography class with a map is very useful to me. My students began the year with lessons on latitude and longitude, learning intermediate directions, and reviewing the continents. During extra class time, I can call on random students to find a coordinate of my choice on the class map. I can then include another student by calling on someone to tell me what continent or ocean that coordinate is in. This activity is also useful for differentiation techniques because I can challenge higher ability students by having them tell me what country the coordinate is in. This activity was introduced to me by my current mentor teacher, and I feel that I will definitely keep this as a back-up plan of sorts for my future teaching.

Reflecting on my inquiry project

At this point in my inquiry process for this semester, I believe I can say that I have gotten through the most difficult issues posed by my research subject. First and most importantly, I have recently filmed my first set of videos in which my students ask questions about life in China for children their age. I will say, however, that doing so was not easy for all three classes involved in my research. My third period class had numerous behavior problems (which I expected) and were nearly unable to respectfully and efficiently complete their video; I think that though this issue was a bit of a headache for me, this realization that behavior problems in the classroom will also show up in this activity will be helpful to my research and analysis.

I also successfully sent my first video to my colleague in China who has already shown my video to his class and filmed their responses to our questions. As I have stated in previous writings, I could not have picked a more difficult country to try this video communication inquiry with because the Chinese government blocks all sites that allow video sharing. My only alternative is using email to attach my videos, yet this also creates an issue because Google mail has a 25 MB limit. Thankfully, my first video was not very long so this limit was not much of an issue.

My favorite part of my inquiry so far is that I am already seeing the benefits of adding video communication and teaching global awareness into the classroom. I recently talked with the other 7th grade social studies teacher who told me that her students in homeroom have been talking about their excitement for my video activity and showing a great deal of enthusiasm for my class. I have noticed that when students asked about when we were going to watch the video from the students from China, more than anything else they were excited about having communication with people from a different part of the world. I also have been able to use our little project to help the students make connections to abstract ideas and new vocabulary. For example, we recently talked about Thomas Jefferson and his work as an ambassador to France; to explain this, I told the students to think of Mr. Blevins (my colleague in China who is a WVU graduate and US citizen) as our ambassador to China. To this thought, I heard a collective "Ohhh okay" of realization from my class. The sound of understanding is music to my ears.

Taping My Lessons

My first experience taping my lessons at Taylor County Middle School this semester occurred recently when I taught a lesson on maps that allowed students to create a map of our classroom. After taping my lessons several times last semester, I have gotten used to the habit of setting up my camera in the back of the room and carrying on my lesson as usual. It definitely isn't convenient to have to prop up a point and shoot digital camera for an extending period of time, but as teachers I suppose we are expected to work with what we have. I decided to tape this particular lesson because this has been one of the first lessons I have liked so much I decided to keep the lesson plan for future use. In our World Geography class, we have been studying different map features, map types, and projections. To give students an idea of how a map can be used in many different, non-traditional ways, we planned a lesson in which students created a map of our classroom. Students received a printout of the class seating chart and were instructed to add a title (Favorite Pizza Topics in ___ Period) and a legend/key with different types of pizza toppings associated with different colors. We then went around the room and had each student announce what type of pizza they most enjoyed, then as a class we all filled in that person's desk on the seating chart with the color associated with that topping. The students really enjoyed both the coloring and discussion aspects of this activity; I find that this is a great way to teach map skills that I am glad to have ready for my portfolio.

Relationships with Other Staff

In my past years of working with the staff in my Professional Development Schools (Taylor County Middle School and University High School), my relationship with other faculty didn't really go beyond my mentor teacher and coordinator/coordinators. The only individuals I talked to during my time at school were the people I was required to speak to.

This semester has definitely been different for me in this manner. Every moment I have to spend with another member of the staff is so valuable; I truly regret never creating these relationships in the past. Even during "down time" like lunch in the faculty lounge is useful to me. During this time I can talk to the other teachers about their tutors or participants to see how they are doing, ask for advice about how to manage different students, and to stay aware of things going on at the school.

My most useful interaction with the faculty is during our weekly seventh grade team meeting. We usually hold these meeting with all seventh grade teachers and our principal. Sometimes other individuals come into our gatherings to talk to the group about technology integration, new policies, etc. These are wonderful moments of calm to talk about our concerns and see what's going on with students in other classes. Though these meetings are held during our only planning period, I think this time for staff development is extremely valuable to me as an intern. I already know most of the 7th grade staff's names and subjects, so if I have any questions about how to integrate another subject into my curriculum I will know who I can go to for this.

Applying New Policies to the Classroom

On Thursday this past week Taylor County Middle School faculty assembled for a meeting on the county's three hour early dismissal day. This would be my first faculty meeting with the entire school's faculty, and to be honest I was somewhat nervous about participating in this meeting. I was concerned about feeling overwhelmed by policies I don't really understand, and I knew that I was probably being watched by both the faculty and administration to see if I was behaving professionally. However, I now know I didn't have anything to worry about. By being at this meeting I truly got a better idea of what was going on at Taylor County Middle, and I also strengthen my professional raport with the other teachers and administration.

During this meeting one presenter discussed the school's new initiative to integrate physical activity into the classroom every day. According to this presenter, some sort of physical activity every twenty to forty minutes increases student performance. My mentor teacher has already integrated some physical activity into lessons. For example, we had students move around the room to complete puzzles of the continents of the world. We have also been posing questions to the class and having the students answer by standing. We recently talked about the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, and how the position of the sun affects our seasons. Ms. Cooper had students stand if their favorite season occurs when the sun is positioned on the Tropic of Cancer. This does many things at once: this allows students to move around, offer their opinions on a topic and encourages students to learn why the Tropics are important to geography. I always like the take aspects of teaching from my mentors to include into my own practice, and this will definitely be one of the strategies I use in the future.

Prompt - My First TCMS After-School Experience

On Thursday of this week I experienced my first middle school dance as a teacher chaperon. To start off this entry on a positive note, I will say that the experience was greatly helped by my constant presence at the school; students behaved respectfully towards me, and I was familiar with much of the staff and faculty. It really does make a difference to be at the school all day every day from the beginning of the year. However, I must really applaud teachers who help out at after-school functions that require manual labor. Working at the concession stand of this dance after being up and around the class room all day was exhausting. We spent a solid, non-stop two hours filling drinks for the students and handing out pizza. Needless to say, the 50 minute drive back to Morgantown from Grafton wasn't easy.

As much as I can complain about spending a total of 12 hours at the middle school, I really think that my participation in this dance really did a lot for my professional integrity as a student teacher. I met several other faculty members, talked with the school's vice principal, and most importantly I showed the students that I cared about being there even after school let out. I'm truly glad I made the choice to participate at this dance, because only two hours of help truly made a difference that will last the rest of my internship.