Lady Bugs, Tornadoes and Swirling Galaxies

Chapters 8 -10

SQUARE:

What “squared” with your thinking? That is, what ideas did you encounter in the reading that were consistent with what you already know and/or believe about teaching?

Once again Buhrow and Garcia presents a great read from Ladybugs, Tornadoes, and Swirling Galaxies. These final chapters pull together the stimulating research and observations of curious, enthusiastic, and joyful ELL learners. Now that Buhrow and Garcia have offered ideologies, strategies and connections to incorporate into the classroom to communicate that offer the best possible outcome of engaging students in learning experiences it is time to create and support the learning process by publishing their hard work while maintaining interest and continuously searching for new learning opportunities. “We have been encouraged to continue to reflect on our teaching and to search for new and better ways to make reading, writing, and learning for our ELLs a meaningful experience that they will continue to explore and build on throughout their lives (Buhrow, 2006).” I feel the most important information of this book encourages “reciprocal learning environment” a constant reflection of both lessons and students to continuously revise based on the environment, relationships, ZPD, and interest of the student in order to achieve the highest possible academic engagement that students will be able to not only learn from, yet understand and develop for further knowledge.

TRIANLGE:
What “pointed” you in new directions? What new ideas did you discover in the readings? Discuss the ways in which the readings provided new understandings about teaching and learning.

 Schema, Schema, and more schema! Schema is the framework of learning and making connections to new information for long term knowledge rather than short term memory. ELL students have many opportunities as they learn the English language to make connections with text linguistically, and socially. These connections offer ELL as well as students in general learning opportunities to internalize and remember. Psychologist Jean Piaget describes schema in his stages of cognitive development. Each of his four stages of cognitive development helps to frame learning for the next level. Buhrow states that “fascination grew as he began to learn that there is much more out there.” Schema demonstrates that there is a process in learning which inspires my focus to engage and encourage learners along the way. Through scaffolding and assessments we are able to make important discoveries that will offer exciting, interesting and familiar content to build their schema.

CIRCLE:
What thoughts are still “circling” in your mind? Discuss the ways in which you think you could use the new information to build on what you already know. In addition, you should write about the things that still puzzle you. Write about your concerns. Write questions about things you don’t understand, things that make you think of your own learning, and especially things that you relate to your own teaching.

“In the end, we are all working together and having a lot of fun while also looking critically at what is being introduced in the classroom (Buhrow, 2006).” This quote is an excellent summation of this book as well as this semester. New information was introduced, read, discussed, applied, and reflected upon regularly throughout this semester. As 1^st year graduate students of MAT at GSU, we built relationships that encouraged and supported one another. We learned how repetition of routines, text readings and even assignments help to reflect and refine themes, theories, and ideologies.  I am still anxious of the path ahead and how we will continue to expand our funds of knowledge to further our professional growth as educators.

Bringing it All Together

It seems that although this month was just as full of learning and discovering as any other it has came and went by very quickly! November focused more on cohesiveness for me as I work in an inclusion classroom with two others, a co-teacher and a para. This month demonstrated the importance of Unity and emphasized that teachers are the most important piece of the Unity Unit! As I work to implement new strategies and theories learned I must pause to understand that all teachers in the classroom must and should be on one accord, especially as I focus on the importance of ‘School Family’. I really enjoyed learning about the importance of Conscious Discipline and the strategies it offered to building the ‘school family’ a term we began using with our unit on Families. As a Pre-K teacher making connections to the home is very important to gaining students’ attention and building relationships. Dr. Bailey states that “it is important that children believe they are meaningful contributors to the school family. Meaningful contributions build self-worth and value within the individual. An internal feeling of self-worth extends outward as kindness, sharing and cooperation.” (Bailey, 2000).

After much hesitation on my part I finally implemented a helper’s chart. Why did I wait so long?!?? These last two weeks of November my students have become the most helpful group I have seen in a while. They remind the designated helper of her/his responsibilities, offer to help if a student helper is absent, and are eager to be assigned a helper. I read this and even listened to  fellow classmates discuss how it worked in the classroom yet I felt that it was too time consuming to try and my students would not be interested. BOY WAS I WRONG!

My school family is now ready for takeoff, well not quite.

 As I have been eager about becoming a better educator and implement new techniques in the classroom I seem to have forgot to maintain the connections between my co-teacher and para. The family unit leaders seem to be on my ‘lows’ more than I would have liked this month. I have learned to use my lows for opportunities to improve therefore I am able to have such perspective. Now that I am gaining new theories, ideologies and strategies to use in the classroom of three (3) teachers I need to learn how to share my thoughts of implementing before I do. My co-teacher and para are great supporters yet I want them to feel just as much a part of the school family as the students and myself. I noticed that my teachers began to ‘drift’; not being as connected to the unit as they were while we worked so diligently to build our school family.

 Through all my readings about school routines, school family, connections, classroom culture, etc. I forgot to keep in mind those I work with to make it successful and understandable from another person’s perspective. Did I seem to shut them out? Did I fail to communicate new ideas, strategies? Where was the drop in communication? All of my readings regard the teacher working alone while I work with two others I feel that I need to re-evaluate the communication among us to maintain the progress of the students we teach because students notice a disconnect much earlier than we realize which comes through in their behavior, good and bad. Moving forward I hope to continue the gains of school family through building better student-teacher relationships as well as teacher-teacher relationships because we all need to feel that we belong and are important!

_LADYBUGS, TONADOES, AND SWIRLING GALAXIES_2

The wonders of reading and the connections of new information through inquiry is the focus of chapters 4 - 7. I am amazed at the vibrant examples, suggestions of modeling and inspiration developed as teachers and authors, Burhow and Garcia share the world of learning for CLD and ELL learners. “We can re-read texts we have seen in whole group, moving through them more slowly, emphasizing important words, and using gestures if necessary (Buhrow, Upzac, 2006, p.78).” This helps my students connect to the text and engage more in the discussion each time. I enjoy the increased level of engagement and inquiry from students when text is re-read. Key vocabulary becomes part of the students comments during discussion and “we can do more intense vocabulary practice using images and orally practicing language structures (Buhrow, Upzac, 2006, p. 78).” Creating great readers that enjoy making connections to the text is a process and takes time, especially for ELL and CLD learners. Often rereads in my classroom helps the students to make predictions as the story is recalled during discussions

Children whether they are ELL, SN or general education should always feel connected to their learning experience. “By giving them the opportunity to choose we are giving them the opportunity to think and to explore what is relevant and pertinent to them. This drives their learning, and rarely do we find that kids are distracted or bored when they are working on something that they have chosen (Buhrow, Upzac, 2006, p. 93).” This makes me realize how important it is as an educator to encourage and allow students this opportunity! Students that are shy as well as the ELL and SN could greatly benefit from this process of teaching and learning. As students connect they begin to help one another make new discovers and connections to the lessons and text. The process of “Think Pair Share is a routine that provides ELLs with opportunities to practice talking in a comfortable environment with their peers (Buhrow and Garcia 29).”

These very simple routines, activities and developed structures create a learning environment that is not only comfortable, yet flexible to fulfill all the needs of each individual learner that enters into the classroom. During my reading I was able to make my own connections to the importance of language which made me reflect on my Language and Literacy course because I could recall how general education students learn how to decode as they begin to learn and explore reading. Our first day in the class we pondered the question; What is Literacy? Authors Burhow and Garcia explain that for ELLs (and general learners too) it involves “strategies for both decoding and comprehending text (Burhow, 2006. p60).” Many of the activities discussed are able to be adapted into my Pre-K classroom with some modifications. All learners should indeed have the opportunity to choose the reading to connect to text, in a manner that they will explore, learn, and enjoy it! 

The Essence of Obuchenie

View Discription of Obuchenie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IujxDvk3-s8

As educators we are constantly learning new things about the students that we teach. This process is known as ‘Obuchenie.’ As I reflect over the month of October this is exactly the process that stood out. Each lesson taught gave me the opportunity to learn more about the students in my classroom in a developmentally appropriate manner. In addition, I am able to learn from the perspective of student as I matriculate through the MAT program. This process, learned in my most recent lecture in my Psychology of Learning and Learners course, is a constant teaching and learning that theorist Lev Vygotsky discusses as the response to general influences of behavior in sociocultural environments.

As I reflected on my day of teaching and learning each afternoon I was able to gain more understanding of the needs of my students, the lessons that worked as well as those lessons that I should rethink. The most helpful reflections were those activities that did not go as planned or needed to be altered to meet the needs of the students. I gained a lot of knowledge  not only on the patterns of my students learning, but also on how to handle challenging situations with students that were distracting to the environments. Reading Conscious Discipline reminded me that it is important to implement activities that help both my students as well as myself transition the brain from home to school. “A routine to start the day designed based on current brain research to turn off the stress response, create a favorable emotional climate and help children focus during the transition from home to school.” I am still working out different activities to make sure this is a regular part of our morning meeting. My students are familiar with several breathing techniques to help distress during the day, so I am eager to incorporate the uniting activities on a regular basis.

Learning as I teach is challenging yet beneficial beyond measure! I am eager to implement many of the applications that I am learning about in the MAT program and offer my students the opportunity to engage in deeper thought and understanding as they participate in the classroom activities I plan. 

LTSG

LADYBUGS, TONADOES, AND SWIRLING GALAXIES

As a teacher that has never taught ELL (English Language Learners) or CLD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) students I found this text very useful. I like that the authors, Buhrow and Garcia, state that “many of these approaches are simply good practices and can be successfully implemented with all students.” I have learned that students enter our classroom with minimal, yet very valuable background knowledge and teacher should consider this knowledge as they prepare to teach. The experiences that children bring into the classroom regardless of the type of student she/he may be should offer diversity in a manner that offers opportunity to enhance the lives of those she/he may encounter during their school day. I feel that modeling the expectations of the classroom is very important. The authors used many prompts to catch the attention of the student and encourage a higher order of thinking and create a “reciprocal learning environment.”

The focus on connections to life experiences stood out throughout my reading. In the beginning of relating to the students by setting up the classroom environment, to developing routines that create a culture of thinkers, to moving into engaging in writing and telling stories, to comprehension Buhrow and Garcia constantly emphasized the importance of connections. I would love to incorporate the way the authors started the morning with the daily news! I feel this would offer my students an opportunity to become more capable of thinking about the activities of their day, or even what comes next during a particular time of the day. Buhrow and Garcia discuss in chapter 3 that “this routine allows the kids to contribute to writing, reading, listening, and speaking activity that is all about them.”  In chapter 4 they show that connections help to      “see the kids going to a deeper level of sophistication with their questions and with their reading and writing when they have background knowledge and genuine interest in a topic.” The children whether they are ELL, SN or general education should always feel connected to their learning experience.

Swirling thoughts of the nonfiction books used in the classroom to reach and connect to the ELL students lead me to think about the lack of fantasy or imagination. Most cultures have a way of relating fantasy and reality into the minds of children to encourage them to make connections to life experiences using both fiction and nonfiction. I understand the reasoning given for the students to use nonfiction, yet when Buhrow and Garcia stated that their use of nonfiction “ is not simply the standard definition of nonfiction texts that one would normally think of,” I became puzzled. They further discussed the incorporation of Paolo Freire’s theory of a literacy program. Although I understand the concept and even agree to the methods of reaching the students, I am still puzzled by the use of the term nonfiction. Most of the examples given referred to daily experiences of the students in the classroom while creating connections that encourage higher order of thinking. In my classroom after reading a poem, book or even a discussion about a child’s prior days event we make connections to what is being learned in the classroom to enhance the student’s comprehension as well as encourage more engagement in the conversation. Is this the nonfiction they are referring to?  Are they using real life experiences and connections to such through literacy as their use of nonfiction?  

In chapter 3 they discuss more how nonfiction text is used to offer richer connections to words, pictures, text amongst other things. They talk about nonfiction offering a deeper connections to the content being taught or even teaching the features of nonfiction to increase comprehension and connections for the ELL student. I am concerned that aside from the nonfiction features all these other things such as words, pictures, text, connections and comprehension could also be made using fiction books. I feel that incorporation of both would help the ELL student make even great connections “because we all have different life experiences.” 

NEW BEGINNINGS

This month has been full of new beginnings! Like the students I serve New Beginnings bring excitement, anxiety, and curiosity; and as an educator of preschool students for many years I continue to have these same emotions at the beginning as well. Will I have a full classroom at the start of the year? Will this be the first time for all of them in any type of school environment? Will the parents be overwhelming? Will I have the same co-teacher?
 This year I now have an inclusion classroom which comes with an additional educator to help and guide the "Special Needs" students and myself on the new experiences and challenges separate to those I have learned to expect over the years.  And yet my biggest new beginning is becoming a graduate student at GSU! These new beginnings had many highs and lows throughout the month that I am learning to t record and reflect upon  to become a more involved and professional educator.Taking time out of the day to record moments of importance started out with excitement yet quickly fizzled  to become a list of distractions. I had many difficulties finding positive things that happened throughout my day, I had to constantly remind myself of the focus of this task to ensure that I would be able to benefit from the recordings. After my first week of recording, I realized my focus was on the need for my students to have proper discipline rather than ensuring that I was getting to know them and their needs for developmental growth. I have been teaching and recording the behaviors of my students for so long that it was challenging to begin to shift my focus and record what went good or bad in the learning experience of the day. Although I still found myself recording mostly behavior concerns for my lows I am learning to focus on the learning experiences of the students to see what worked or did not and why. I began to question myself on how can I ensure that the objective of the lesson is successful, should this lesson be repeated, modified, or taken out of the lesson; yet I still was not sure that I was recording things of substance for my highs and lows.
Learning to reflect on these things began to shift my focus from behavior, although not completely. I am learning to connect the many years of experience to theories and research based analysis that help to better understand why and how 4, and 5 year old children behave and respond to classroom experiences. When my graduate coach visited my classroom she brought new ideas to help me shift my perspective of teaching and be flexible with each child's way of learning. The concerns I had of students not engaging and participating in activities as I felt they should have was acceptable and did not indicate the student was not learning.  This reminded me of readings from YardSticks; "Children at four demand school programs which are flexible, exciting and creative because they are flexible, exciting and creative creatures" (p.31).
I am still excited, curious, and anxious to see what will unfold this school year. My New Beginnings are overwhelming to me now and I do know that this will change. I will continue to seek understanding of the students as my perspective shifts to ensure that I am meeting both their academic and developmental goals on an individual bases. I am aware that all these lives matter and it is my hope that I offer them the best learning experience possible!

Embracing New Beginnings....