Maria Lunsford

I can't say that I have a "success story" with a particular student.  However, I do hear from my kids often that I explain math well and that they have never liked math until this year.  Kids will say things like that to be flatterers and get positive attention, but I hear it so often and from so many different students that I am beginning to believe it.  

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I am responding to an article found here.

The articles that I am responding to can be found here and here.

My classroom management has not changed very much since the beginning of the year.  My rules and consequences are all still the same. I still pull tickets for a drawing every friday and I still have a number line for my class competitions. 

For a while my students and I slowly edged away from the “raise your hand to use your voice or leave your seat” rule, mainly the “use your voice” part.  However, that quickly deteriorated and that rule is back stronger than ever.  I wish I was giving less and less consequences throughout the year but that’s not the case- I give A LOT of writing assignments. They still seem to be effective at least for the duration of the class in which they are issued.  

I underestimated the power of good classroom activities in my “philosophy of classroom management.”  I truly believe that, despite all the nonsense that crops up on a day-to-day basis, my kids want to do something “fun” in my classroom and they don’t care if they learn by accident.  Hayley always says, “trick them into doing work,” and that is the direction I need to take my lessons.  If there is dead air, they start talking, so I need to make my classes jam-packed with “fun” activities.  They’re bored and restless and so am I, so novelty is very welcome.

I do have one slight problem in a particular student.  She often says things to me like, “Ms. Lunsford, are you in a bad mood today?” during the beginning of 5th period (a class that is about 9 students larger than all my other classes) when I start slinging writing assignments and zeroes for students who did not sit down to begin the bellwork.  No, thirteen-year-old, I am not in a bad mood, you guys are expected to sit down and do  your work and when you choose to stand up and talk there are consequences, end of story.  She also says “You look like a teenager” and when I gave a zero to a student for cheating on a test then wrote him up for disobedience she said, “Alright Ms. Lunsford, looks like you got your attitude worked out!”  I don’t know what her intentions are, she’s a mildly good student, but her words can be so undermining and it frustrates me.  The kids have a problem with responsibility and would just love for everything that happens in my classroom to be based on my mood and not their choices.

(This is a response to Ruby Payne's book A Framework for Understanding Poverty.

I found Ruby Payne's account of poverty and its effects on our students eye-opening. It provided reasons for some of the obstacles that I have noticed in my classroom in a way that I never would have guessed.

I think the most important change that I will make in my classroom is to make a strong emphasis on procedural self-talk. I have one class in particular that I kept thinking of when Ms Payne described the lack of self-talk, the partially-completed work, and the frequent "quitting."  Most of my classes are actually quite willing to do the work, and have learned how to ask actual questions instead of, "I don't get it."

My fifth period class is another story. Even on the days when I think I have taught an awesome lesson, at least eight students will sit back and do nothing until I come over and say, "What are you doing?" and they say, "I don't get it." "What don't you get?"  "It. All of it."   This is SO FRUSTRATING when they have been instructed and shown a billion times that at LEAST they could figure out the first step of how to solve the problem, which is usually very simple.

If I focus very specifically on procedural self-talk in my lessons, I think this situation will improve.

I think another one of my main problems in the classroom is using my "Parent Voice" instead of my "Adult Voice."  I really do feel awfully maternal sometimes.  It's interesting that Payne suggests that we should build strong relationships with our students, but the Adult voice is very detached and objective.  I think if I took the adult voice position with my students more, it would very much change the relationship I have with them.  

I'll try this week to implement these two procedures more and see what impact it has on my students and overall classroom tone.

There have been tons of these, but I would like to share a quick and awesome one. 

I am trying to keep my goals for this year simple:

Summer Training has come and gone SO quickly! I moved into Northgate Apartments at the Ole Miss campus on May 30, which means it's been almost two months that I've been on my journey to teacherdom. I have learned so much this summer and thankfully some of it is becoming second nature to me.

In our first week of classes we learned how to write a lesson plan which seemed SO lengthy and complicated at first. I thought to myself, "How will I remember all of these parts?" Now, I would feel WEIRD if I wrote a lesson plan without a scripted closure to my class, for example. Thankfully, it's gotten so much easier and I can use lesson plans from the summer school this year!

My Team teacher, Dani, who will be beginning her third year of teaching in a few weeks, was a great inspiration for creative and engaging lesson plans. Math teachers (or at least James and I) like to complain that we have it the hardest when it comes to creative lesson planning. Math is straightforward and lends itself to very direct instruction. Now that I've spent a summer learning from Dani, I feel like Golda (the other teacher in my room) and I might be the MOST prepared first-years when it comes to engaging lesson plans. Whew!

Classroom management role-plays were very helpful. My class had NO rowdy students (I think we never even gave a single verbal warning all summer!) so it was a great opportunity to practice my stern teacher look and learn the ways that students will react to consequences (or impending consequences). I reacted to situations that would have been surprising and probably emotional for me come August, so it's good that I have that safe practice run for reference.

As I said, though, despite getting TONS of real-life practice teaching, I got zero real-life practice dealing with difficult classroom situations, and I've started to have recurring nightmares about a chaotic classroom where my kids mutiny.
I'm hoping the role-plays and level-headed common sense will help me avoid that fate.

I'm anxious about the new school year. I am blogging from the comfort of my parents' home in MD, in my childhood bedroom. (A bit of denial about being a Grown Up Teacher with a Real Job.) 

As Dr. McConnell told us a few nights ago, I'll just do what I was taught! I'm planning on spending my first two or three days going over the rules and procedures of my classroom and having the students model these behaviors until they understand what is expected of them. I promise myself that I will be consistent, provide structure and routine, and know that difficult situations WILL come up, but I am confident and trained as best as I can be in my position and will handle it as best as I can.

I was impressed by all of the projects that the interns presented to us on Saturday- they were all topics that I think we all should be considering very seriously given our situations:

The kids' perspectives on the importance of education
Teen Pregnancy
Prisoner's Rights
Freedom Schools and the Freedom School-inspired movements of today, like the programs the Winter Institute facilitates

The first two project I mentioned is the one that lingers in my mind.

Tahina did video interviews with OUR summer school students and they all said that education is very important. They seemed to mean education as an institution (it's a good thing to have around) and their own personal educations. One student was very forthcoming and seemed quite honest- he wasn't sure exactly how he ended up in summer school, but in school he was hanging out with his friends- something he thinks now he should not have been doing-, goofing off instead of doing work, and ended up failing. He says he wants to go to college. As I shared with the group at the time, he brought to mind one of my own students. Early in the year, he told the teachers in the room (myself included) that he was pumped about taking the ACT as many times as he could, and took the ACT Prep class offered by the summer school clubs. Unfortunately, his practice ACT scores reflect that he will probably never get an acceptable score on the ACT by any standard. I wish I could do something about this but it seems the damage is already done. Will he be able to go to college in such a state? What went wrong? When? What can I do with my students this year to fix something like this?  I went to public school in a great, well-funded school system that is ranked number one in the country for graduation rates. When I was in the sixth grade, I decided that school was nowhere as cool as being a cool kid, and spent all my time on that goal. I can honestly say that there was nothing any teacher could do to change my mind about this- I had to find the motivation to change in myself first.  I really hope that I can help my students, in any way, find that motivation in themselves.

Really, all of the projects were GREAT! Awesome job, all you interns! We'll miss you!

(For all my non-MTC readers: this is a response to a videotaped lesson I taught in July, compared to one in June)

I've improved! That's a really great feeling. Knowing that I can change- priceless.

Here are some distinct changes from June:

My poise and body language were MUCH better. I stopped the permanent hand-clasping, and stood up straighter. It's true, heels help. I was loud, but I could definitely be louder. 

Teacher-talk stayed reduced! Apparently it wasn't a fluke, and I let my students do most of the talking/working. 

I really liked the lesson I did on this day, it was creative and they got to move a bit, but it was still very work-oriented. No down time.

My pacing around the room was slower, and I've gotten better at positioning myself at a student's desk so I can still see the rest of my students. I just need to make sure I scan more.

"Awesome" was happening a lot less, too, but probably only because I was thinking about it A LOT and thought of how upset I would be watching a tape of me saying "awesome" 50 MORE times.

Unfortunately, I didn't look much more excited except for when I was genuinely happy (ie- one student says, in response to, "How would you get to Florida?", "Ride in a blimp.")  I talked to my Team teacher, and we both think it's a good idea if I smile all.the.time.  As in, ALL THE TIME.  If I am smiling, I look comfortable, and enthusiastic. It seems my face has two modes: happy/excited, and bored/angry.  If I look happy and excited all the time, all I will need to do is put on my bored/angry face and the kids will know they should cut it out. God forbid I raise my voice- they will fear it.

Thank goodness I got to watch this tape and learn that I have that kind of power!