Like the others who have gone before me I will tell you a little about myself first and then get on to the blogging shtick. I'm Madge Audy and I'm currently student teaching at Vergennes UHS in a science classroom. Personally I am an avid reader and bird enthusiast! I have a BAS in Biology with concentrations in wildlife and fisheries biology but have come back to school to get my MA in secondary education. Ok but back to the school thing, my cooperating teacher is teaching two different classes this semester which include Intro to Physics and Chem (IPC) as well as Earth and Space Science (ESS). These classes are both required for students to graduate VUHS and as such are very diverse in student interest levels. In IPC the students are mostly 11th graders with some seniors thrown in for spice and then the ESS class is almost completely made up of 9th graders.
My question has to relate mostly with my second section of ESS students. The first section is made up of 9 individuals who are capable of completing independent work (and seem to enjoy it) with one TBI student. The other students always include the TBI student in everything they do so even though I often have to create alternative assignments and other study materials to his level (3rd grade) but this class is not the one that I am often struggling with. I often have to create two completely different lessons as what I plan for the first class won't fly well with the second class.
The second section of ESS has 23 students in it (mostly males) and more than half of them are on some form of 504/IEP plan and I have one Persian ELL as well in this one class. I find that this class has a very short attention span and am wondering if any of you have come across similar classes and if so what strategies have you used in the past to keep them 1) on topic and 2) keep them interested for more than 10 mins in any given learning activity.
So far I have found that as long as I have them moving around every 10-15 mins whether its going into hands on activities, having them actively participate in on the board lectures/projects or small group reading/work works rather well with the class in general. If the students have to sit for more than 30 mins of direct instruction and writing notes they can get stir crazy and then more difficult to have conversations with. Do you guys have any other ideas or strategies that I might be able to try out with these guys?
Thanks for reading!
M
Hi Madge! I'm Taylor, currently attending Castleton University and student teaching at Rutland High School teaching Economics and Civics with seniors and a fundamentals of social studies with students of various grade levels and many with varying social and academic needs. As I was reading your post, the class you were describing is similar to my fundamentals class. My students cannot be sitting still taking notes or listening to a lecture or instructions for longer than 20-30 minutes. My cooperating teacher and I have developed a system where we begin each class by taking a few notes on whatever we are learning that day, and then moving into a hands-on activity. We've done coloring books, word searches, hangman, crafts, and presentations. We have found these activities to work very well because the students can refer to their notes and handouts that we have provided to create their projects or complete worksheets. I'm not sure of what level your students are at academically, but we have found these activities and strategies to be beneficial in the classroom. Hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteHi Madge. I taught with Melissa Muzzy at Vergennes for 12 years. She's the best science educator I know, and I love her to pieces. Tell her I say Hello, ok?
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ReplyDeleteHi! My name is Cassie and I am attending Castleton University. I am student teaching in the Whitehall Central School District in NY. I am in Algebra math classes in the high school. Most of my classes are 9th graders, and 3 of my classes are particularly rowdy. One thing that my students and I love is for them to work on the board. Every class we start with going over the homework from the previous night. The students enjoy getting up and moving and it allows them to compare with their peers. It also gives me a chance to see them work, and I don't have to write it all out! The students have been begging for an outside class. Many topics in math can be taught outside, but we aren't covering them at the moment and the weather hasn't been nice. I am hoping I can take my students outside soon, especially since they can't seem to sit still, or be quiet in class as we get closer to Spring!!
ReplyDeleteMadge,
ReplyDeleteI am simply attaching an url so that you can check out a site that my mentor teacher sent me that suggests a couple ways to captivate your students.
http://thelifetopthings.blogspot.com/2016/01/10-ways-to-grab-students-attention.html
If you have any trouble seeing all 10 ways try a different browser. I have noticed it doesn't work with Safari for some reason.