Communication with families

This is the 2nd week of my own classes, and the 2nd week of developing classroom culture.  One tool that I’ve been using extensively today is communication with families.

I left a voicemail with a family today because the student hasn’t turned in any work.  This student is also highly disruptive, but I am first trying the approach of letting that student know I am in communication with the family.

I left another voicemail today because the student would not relinquish her cell phone.  It was disappointing to find that each phone number we had was disconnected.  I assume this is due to moving, but I am not sure.  I emailed the attendance office who was able to find current numbers for the parent.

I sent three emails to different families ask for parent’s help in getting their student to stay quieter in class.  I asked for any ideas that they had.  Last year, I had great success from sending e-mails just like these.  While I seldom get a reply, I almost always see a difference in the student the next day.

I had the benefit of calling home just as a student came home, and the mom asked me to hold while she proceeded to loudly reprimand her son.  Some of what she said was “you let the other boys be the class clowns” and “she has her high school diploma.”  I now know that graduation is important to his mom and something that he is expected to do.  It is helpful for me to understand this about this student.

I was in a parent conference this morning.  All the student’s teachers were present, as well as the parents, the student, the counselor, and assistance principal.  It was a crowded room.  It was clear that there were trust issues between the student and the parents.  The student is capable, but easily distracted.  When the student asked me to send an email home saying that he’d turned in his homework today, I understood more about how doing this for him would help.

In my 4th period Algebra class, I sent home a very different homework assignment.  I printed out the assignment, handed it out, and had them read it.  I did not verbally give the assignment.  What I wrote was a short paragraph saying, “We as a class will not be able to cover the required materials that will be needed for future math classes because it’s too noisy and we have too many disruptions in the class.  Clearly, I’m not  giving you what you need.  Write and tell me what you need from me, and what you are willing to do to help yourself and this class.  Write it, sign it and have your parents sign it, because I might need to enlist their help.”   This last sentence really got to the students.  A couple of students then reprimanded the others in class and said that they need it quieter to be able to learn.   I was thankful that the students raised their hands and cooperated in a good discussion facilitated by me.  We then went back to the day’s lesson, and the noise level was very reasonable and the participation was excellent.  After the lesson, I gave them feedback that I thought the lesson we’d just had went well and that I could work with that volume level.  When asked if they could also work with that volume level, most of the students raised their hands.

Week 1 of my own classes

This week, I began teaching my own classes.  Three new math classes were formed to relieve the overcrowding in other math classrooms.   I began the week with the benefit of having read some of my cohort’s experiences and having experienced my mentor teacher’s start of year processes.  I wanted this week focused on getting to know each other and creating a classroom culture in which students can most successfully learn. I also wanted to develop the culture while learning math, so we studied math in short increments, with frequent process checks to ensure students were looking at how they worked as individuals and as a class.  This is a process that I intend to continue next week as we establish class procedures together.

In one geometry class, I tried a “get to know you” exercise in which students wrote their name and a superpower that they’d like to have on post-its.  The students wrote, spoke, got out of their seats and posted the notes up, and were attentive listeners as each student participated.  In another geometry class, almost half the students did not want a superpower.  I thought I’d introduced the game in a similar way, but this very different group responded very differently.  In one short week, I can see that the first class has more students with high math ability, and the second class has more students with low math ability.  While both classes have similar distributions of 9th and 10th graders, and both have high and low performers, just a few vocal students are making a big difference in the quality of questions and answers I’m getting from each class.

My first assignment was to answer 7 questions about themselves, including who they are and why they needed to be successful in this class.  I got some useful first impressions as students told me about good and not-so-good math experiences.  For those who didn’t participate, I will be getting back to them individually to understand why.  I saw a few signs of trouble writing and spelling, and I’ll be looking into whether these students can understand the written directions they will be getting on assignments and assessments.

I didn’t assign seats to begin with.  I wanted to see who students self-selected to sit by.  With my algebra class, the rowdiest of my classes, I gave a seating chart on day 3.  Because I’m a traveling teacher using other’s classes during their planning period, I am teaching in 3 different room layouts.  The seminar model is the most difficult for me at this time, but I’ll be trying different approaches to make it work.  So far I like adjacent tables of 2 best, so that students can turn and talk with a partner.  I did move one student from the back to the front because he was squinting to see the board.  I can see that he was too shy to sit where he needed to, and I will be asking him about getting glasses.

On day 2, I asked a student to stay after class because of poor choices in what he was saying.  When he did not stay after school, I tried calling home, and found the number disconnected.  I called work, to find out the mom would be coming in the next morning.  I started to get a picture of SES challenges.  While this doesn’t excuse his poor behavior, it does raise some compassion in me.  He’s supposed to come in half an hour before school on Monday.  I plan to have him read my observations of his behavior the past week, and for him to propose a plan to turn things around.  Until an acceptable plan is proposed, he will lose all privileges to talk in that class.  I’ll be calling his mom to establish contact.  I believe it’s vital in the early stages to establish a constructive atmosphere and put a quick stop to destructive comments.

Diversity In America 10-20-09 Journal Entry

After reading the first 2 chapters of Banks’ Multicultural Education, I thought about my current students, what I know of my world today, and what I want for my daughter.

Regarding my students, the question I asked myself is, “are my unsuccessful students not succeeding because of cultural divisions? Will they learn more if they owned the classroom more?”  It’s true that I don’t have a democratic classroom.  While I’ve been gradually giving my students more voice, it’s still more autocratic than democratic.  If the students owned the classes more, would they own their own education more?  This is a question that was raised but just lightly addressed in the readings.  I’m currently observing a class with another teacher that is about as democratic as I’ve ever seen for a math classroom.  I am noticing that the students are learning about good citizenship, and am looking forward to how the class evolves in its math understanding.

I have to say that what I read about personal and cultural knowledge, specifically related to how some students have a culture that says doing well academically is betrayal to a group they belong to, rang true.  I wondered if this statement is true for some of my African American, Hispanic, or low performing students.  I can think of two specific Hispanic students last year who were very good at math but chose to be in less challenging math classes.  I had interpreted their decisions as choosing to be with their friends instead of choosing to be where they’d be better prepared for their futures but potentially with people they didn’t know.

I mention my daughter because I think the choices I make for her do reflect my values.  Initially, I had her in a Montessori where she flourished in her academic abilities, but she was going to a predominantly White school with some minorities.  The Asian and White mix is what she gets at home.  She is now going to a public school with more minorities than Whites, with a large Hispanic and mixed race population.  I see that while I can help her academically, school provides opportunities for social development, and I think she needs to be comfortable working and playing with people of all backgrounds to really flourish in her life.

One key point for me was to read that at the time the book was written, multiculturalists saw our nation as divided, and want to bring it closer together, while Western traditionalists saw the nation as united and feared that multicultural education would cause divisions.  More than a decade has passed, and it seems to me that because our nation’s foreign-born population has grown, we see a lot more diversity and are influenced by a lot more diversity.  Because I see our nation as more divided than united, and because I think it is part of a teacher’s responsibility to help students develop critical thinking skills and participate in the democratic process, I will put myself leaning toward the multiculturalists.