Fitzpatrick Student Teacher Blog Week #5

This week was the most fun I have had as a student teacher. It was the final week of the dance unit, and Tuesday was PE’s “Winter Dance”; The annual dance the PE teacher hosts for the students which the students dress up in formal attire and perform all the dances they have learned over the past 2 weeks while I got to assess their overall productivity. My 4^th period for this day was also my first evaluation. This was a lot of fun to host, and the students all did a wonderful job demonstrating not just the dancing skills they have obtained, but also their abilities to be considerate, asking politely to dance with partners, and respecting social spacing during dances. I was very proud to be a teacher that day.

            I also had the opportunity to branch away from my cooperating teacher and volunteer for the school’s After School Family Fun Night on Thursday, where I oversaw the “Dinosaur Egg Race” station. This event was much more fun than I had anticipated, plus it was very enjoyable getting to interact with the students outside of the classroom environment. Having the opportunity to meet parents and siblings of the students along with engaging in non-curriculum really created a legitimate “teacher” feeling.

            Inside the classroom, the 3^rd and 4th-grade students spent the week choreographing their own group dances, using a minimum of five dance moves learned in class (demonstrating knowledge of dances) and a minimum of four original dances (promoting creativity and self-efficacy.) To aid in dance productivity, I offered students tips on how to effectively run their dance crews and wrote them on an empty whiteboard as a constant reminder. While I did not make it mandatory so to not interrupt their creativity, the tips that I gave to the students were to designate possible jobs to team members - such as timekeeper and choreographer, only dance to the ability of their personal comfortability, write the sequence of the performance down while trying to practice. I feel that speaking to each group individually about these tips along with writing them on the whiteboard was effective because it served as a constant reminder to students when they were feeling frustrated. For instance, one group in my 3^rd period had a dance but was very nervous, so I showed them the beat of the song with numbers and claps, then told them to move to my beat. By doing so, their dance slowed down to a rhythm conducive to the song and met the time frame of the project. Afterward, one student continued to count the beat out loud as the timekeeper. In the video of the dance, you can see said student counting out loud with the rest of the crew listening. The team ended up with an exemplary based on the rubric. Another example came during the closure when she stated that she enjoyed when one of her teammates chose to be the one to calm the group when they got nervous. Because she gave herself the role, the student says it made the project much more enjoyable.

            In my second period, I am finding myself getting frustrated with my lack of management of a specific student’s actions. I have come to recognize over the past three days that the more I have had to correct the student, the more he has been acting out. I want to ignore his actions, but I know if I do then others in the class will begin to act in the same manner. However, by acknowledging it, students are beginning to react. Finally, today, after wearing my patience, I pulled the student to the side after class and told him his strikes were gone starting Monday, and if he continues to act out in the class he will automatically have to sit out and possibly written up. I hate to make a student sit, but at the time it was the best route I could think of taking. I ran the experience by my cooperating teacher to get her opinion on the matter, and she said I handled it perfectly, which I was happy to hear. I just must be sure to hold my ground.

            I think one of my biggest strengths is also one of my biggest weaknesses. I like to give students of even a young age like 3^rd and 4^th grade a sense of guided independence in the belief that allowing so may aid in the independent building process. However, I am beginning to feel that sometimes my patience is almost a fault because some actions I do not recognize as bothersome are deemed inappropriate to other teachers, such as talking light talking while papers are distributed and laying out instead of sitting up when taking and correcting tests. According to my teacher, allowing students to act the way they do at home at these times can give the students the idea that they can act this same way at any time of the day.

            I had a terrible experience with my co-teacher Thursday during my one double class. During class I had multiple dance crews coming to me for help and advice with their routines. At one point I had three separate crews come to me while I was trying to time another crew. Frustrated and realizing the third group was not even part of my class, I sent them to their teacher for advice. After finishing with the crew, I was working with, I began walking around the class. At this time the co-teacher came to me complaining about the groups I sent to him, stating “This group came up to me and said they have nothing. How do you have nothing? We have been working on this for four days? So, I told them well they better think of something quick because they’re performing tomorrow,” then went on to complain about one of the students in the group. What kind of teaching is that?! Luckily, I had time to go over there and talk to them. Turns out, one student had a ton of ideas, but they had no idea what she was talking about. I appointed that student the choreographer and told everybody to just listen to her. I told that student to slow down and use the names of the dance moves when describing the dance, do not say “let’s do this, and then do this.” Today they performed, and it was great, but it was better than the nothing they had before I helped them.

            Regarding new techniques, I believe I stumbled upon the belief that incorporating mandatory jobs on students working in small groups, especially creative groups in highly beneficial to the overall product. Of all the top dances throughout each class, every one of them had assigned roles to at least one student. Responsibility creates organization which aids in creation.

            This coming week we are beginning our unit on Jump Roping. With basketball, I knew I would be successful with that because I have a general overall knowledge of the game and how to instruct it. With Dance, I was unsure, but I understand rhythm, and much of dance is rhythm and memorization. With Jump Rope, it is all about timing, balance, and hand-eye coordination. There is a lot of style manipulation when it comes to teaching jump rope, and I hope to discover what teaching style needs to gain the organic ability to figure out how to adapt to the unique needs of the students. I have already recognized that, once again, giving each student a role in large jump rope groups is beneficial. I have begun the unit with 1^st and 2^nd grade, with this being 1^st grade's first time to attempt it. Today was our first day jumping with a rope, and of my 14 “groups” 3 of them are already showing progress near mastery, and 5 of them show the ability to jump an average of 3-5 jumps without breaking, which is significant in 1^st grade. They are roles designated by myself without the aid of my cooperating teacher.

            In reference to Standard 2 - Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge – I was able to transfer the theory and concepts of rhythm, tempo, and beat-count of music in relation to the movement and timing sequence of dances to dance groups demonstrating a struggling ability to link this information independently. By doing so the students gained an understanding of the importance if recognizing said concepts and utilized the information to better align their dances in correlation them for a better overall assessment of knowledge.

            In reference to Standard 4 – Learning Environment – I decorated the learning environment of the gymnasium to simulate a standard formal environment where dancing may be experienced. By doing so, student gained the social/emotional stimulus they may interact with