jcammann
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Provide rich teaching for students ...
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Week 5 of 5
jcammann commits to:
Completing weekly entries with all required components.
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My Commitment Journal
 jcammann
September 27, 2021, 1:21 AM
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a. Name of mindset: Engagement Mindset b. Results from self-assessment: When I reflected on engagement in my classroom, I realized I carry the responsibility for ensuring my students engage in my teaching. I don’t like when I can feel the energy level drop in my classroom, or see kids off-task or chatting when they should be fully engaged. When I see students drifting, I give them directions to follow with their bodies, such as “Put your finger on the capital A on page 5,” or “Give me a thumbs up when you’re finished.” I think moving their bodies in some way helps bring them back on track. When I have a student experiencing high stress, I try to remove as many barriers or distractions as I can, such as moving the child’s seat to the front of the room and away from distractions, or I use physical touch when a student is clearly in distress, such as a pat on the back or a hug. When it comes to group learning, I assign several high-interest projects throughout the year that are not graded but take place in front of an audience of peers and parents and teachers. Every group member wants to do well, so they work hard to make an excellent finished product. c. Questions for Daily Reflection: As I answered these questions and read chapters 16-18 on the engagement mindset, I was pleased to read about some strategies I’m already using in my classroom in order to promote high engagement. We do a lot of turning to partners to talk about an idea or give an answer or encouragement. I use the strategy of having my students repeat after me, as well as ownership strategies like holding their paper up to show they’ve followed directions and are with me. I really liked how the author differentiated between compliance learning and choice learning. I have a classroom full of compliant students, but I need to move beyond compliance if I want my students to remember everything I’m teaching them, and so that I don’t feel like I need to spend precious minutes reteaching. There was a quote at the beginning of chapter 18 that really resonated with me, about how regardless of a students’ preferences for introversion or extroversion, students learn better with social interaction instead of just individually preparing for the next test. This is something I have struggled with in the past, because I want to be respectful of students’ preferences. I often have let introverted students keep to themselves instead of making them work with a group every single time the opportunity presents itself. There’s something to be said about encouraging a student to step out of their comfort zone, and this tidbit about how social interaction helps students learn better is something I need to remember when I’m tempted to let a student work alone. d. There are several strategies I would like to implement in my classroom, but one I can do soon is using hooks to achieve full buy-in. I love the variety of different hooks described in chapter 17. These are all so exciting and different from what they’re used to doing that no matter which I try to use, I’m sure my students will love them. For example, I can easily use safari and take my students to a different location around the school. I can also very easily incorporate music and visual arts to create an effect or set a tone for a lesson. I am already brainstorming how I can effectively combine interior design with costumes to try the theme party suggestion. I love a good theme party, and I love the idea of bringing that into my classroom in order to hook my students into a lesson or at the start of a unit. |
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jcammann
September 18, 2021, 9:21 PM
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a. Name of mindset: Rich Climate Mindset b. Results from self-assessment: While taking the self-assessment, it became clear to me that I have strengths and weaknesses in developing a rich classroom climate. One of my strengths as a teacher is giving all students plentiful opportunities to be heard. One student last year remarked that the best thing about my class was that everyone had a chance to explain their thinking or opinions. In my class, discussions are open to everyone and they go until everyone has been heard. I believe that shows my students how much I value their opinions, and my hope is that it teaches them to see the value in listening to the opinions of others, whether they agree with them or not. That action is a big contributor to my rich classroom climate. On the other hand, I could be more intentional at handling minor discipline issues. I tend to go punitive quickly, and I know it will make more of a difference in the long run if I take the time to stop and have a quick chat with the student in order to show them I’m here for them and that all I want is for them to be successful. c. Questions for Daily Reflection: As I answered these questions and read chapters 10-12 on the rich climate mindset, I realized that I can perfect my classroom discussions. Two takeaways I will be applying in my classroom are thanking the student after they share, and stopping the class whenever anyone interrupts, laughs, or giggles. I think that will help to make them feel more emotionally safe. These chapters also made me think more about my classroom rules and why they exist. I like the idea of simplifying to include only the most essential ones; for example, I think the rule “be nice” is essential, because I want my sometimes very opinionated students to learn to hear others and respectfully disagree. “Be nice” encapsulates that idea. d. There is one strategy I would like to try in my classroom: creating a sense of ownership by way of class jobs. Currently, because of the nature of my class, I don’t assign class jobs. However, I want my students to think of my classroom as our classroom. I want my students to feel empowered when they are in my classroom, and most importantly, feel like they belong to a classroom community. I was thinking about taking the idea of creating class jobs for everyone and tweaking it a bit by having my students brainstorm different jobs and job titles with me, instead of me telling them what our classroom jobs are. I really like the idea of having them apply for the jobs they would like to have and even interviewing with me. This is something that I could do at the beginning of the school year or the semester, so that all students feel that sense of community right away. |
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jcammann
September 18, 2021, 1:29 AM
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a. Name of mindset: Positivity b. Results from self-assessment: While taking the self-assessment, I was reminded of how lucky I am to have the job that I currently do. I almost always start my school day with a positive attitude and am excited to get to work every single day. Am I exhausted at the end of every day? Definitely. Is teaching during a pandemic (for the third school year) one of the hardest things I’ve ever done? Absolutely! But my job and my students truly make me happy. It is rare that I feel helpless about my job or my students’ performance. I know that any students I interact with who are living in poverty need me at my best every single day. I know that their home life affects their ability to believe in their own academic success. I believe that they see everyone around them at home struggling, and they probably hear lots of bad news. I imagine it’s hard for these students to feel much hope or positivity, and that mindset transfers into the classroom. Because I’ve taught growth mindset in the past, I try to encourage positivity and hope in my students by preaching the Power of Yet. I try to instill that positive outlook in my students. c. Questions for Daily Reflection: As I answered these questions and read chapters 7-9 on the positivity mindset, I realized that I already do many things to foster a positive mindset in my classroom. I model optimism daily by teaching and showing my students how they can overcome a setback. They know that I fail and make mistakes. I hope they feel safe enough in my classroom to do the same. Whenever they’re working on something that takes sustained mental effort, I remind them, “Whatever you do, don’t quit on me!” I remind them also that what matters most is what happens after a failure. In chapter 9, I heard the term “emotional set point” for the first time. I found it interesting that emotional set points can be changed for the better, and that consistency is key in doing so. On another note, I very much agreed that students need to see examples of great quality work, and that feedback should focus on the quality of the work instead of just getting the work done. d. There is one strategy I would like to try in my classroom: Using a Power Minute. Since I only see my students once a week, I think it would work best to use this strategy at the beginning of every lesson. I would have two or three students share a bit of positivity by using the suggested topics in chapter 7 each week. I really liked the ideas for how students can choose to share this information. I like that my shyer students might feel most comfortable writing down their answers or sharing with a partner, while others might enjoy sharing with a small group or the entire class. I think the praise component of this strategy is also important for students to continue to feel safe sharing. |
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jcammann
September 11, 2021, 6:10 PM
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a. Name of mindset: Achievement b. Results from self-assessment: While taking the self-assessment, I thought about my opinion of learners just not “being good” at a particular subject. I used to think that about my students as well as myself. I thought the kids who needed extra remediation in a subject just weren’t good at it. I didn’t consider factors, such as goal-setting, that could change my way of thinking. When I goal-set for myself personally, I typically set achievable goals that not everyone accomplishes; for example, earning an Ed.S. degree and running a half marathon. I know I can do these things, but I still feel like they are good goals because not everyone can do them. When I really think about goals I set for my students, I think about my yearly SLO goal, as well as learning objectives I have for each day. Really, that’s all the goal-setting I do in the classroom around students. As far as giving feedback goes, I make sure to give one point of feedback at a time, in order to not overwhelm students about all the things that need to be addressed or corrected. I communicate that feedback through small group conferencing or one-on-one conferring, which means my feedback is usually given verbally. c. Questions for Daily Reflection: As I answered these questions and read chapters 4-6 on the achievement mindset, I realized that I have a lot of room for improvement around goals. I have never incorporated micro goals in my classroom, but after reading about them I can see how beneficial they are. While reading about giving feedback effectively, I thought a lot about the feedback loop, and how that looks in my classroom. I can do better about setting up my class for daily checks for understanding to guide my instruction. Grit is a topic that I’ve never focused on in my classroom; instead, I’ve done more with growth mindset. It was interesting to read about ways to develop grit, especially easy-to-implement ideas like fostering conditions for grit and making grit real. I especially loved the idea of dropping an egg and a bouncy ball on the ground to better illustrate grit. d. There is one strategy I would like to try in my classroom very soon: 3M for Quantitative Feedback. This strategy breaks down the goal and also puts the action step in with it. If a student can identify their milestone, state their mission, and then explain and understand their method, where they currently are and where they want to be are both perfectly outlined. I also really liked asking students to track their progress as they work on the goal. I was looking over Figure 5.8 on page 59 and started revising it to make it work for writing. I replaced the column titled, “Item” with “Writing Prompt”, the “Score” column with “What needs the most work”, and then the final column labeled, “What can you do to improve this score?” was replaced with “What can you do to improve this writing?” Since improving writing scores is the focus not only of my school but also in my classroom, I’m hoping these tools will help in that process. |
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