Cory Bennett’s Week Six Reflection

My first six weeks was a humbling experience. I made a lot of mistakes. I would like a chance to
change my approach and fix those areas in my teaching game going into the Spring for sure. Some of the
failures I feel that I have made are:

1. I neglected the teacher’s lounge in order to build rapport with the students during
lunch. It started out on my first day when a bunch of students asked me if I would sit
with them during lunch. I normally do not eat lunch, but I thought it could be a good
way to bond with them. It became sort of a way for students to talk to me freely outside
of class. As fun as it was, I was failing to see the importance of what I was potentially
missing by not spending that time in the teacher’s lounge. I think what I learned in this
experience is that it is important to spend more time in the lounge at lunch, than in the
cafeteria. I also think my habit of not eating lunch needs to change so that I can have a
better excuse for being in the lounge.
2. I failed to be as punctual as I had hoped. I was absent four days in six weeks. We
switched daycares three times since May. Twice in the past few weeks. We think that
we have finally found a good daycare, but there is no back-up plan in case Canaan
and/or the daycare provider get(s) sick besides either my wife or I having to miss
work/school. We need to find a better “plan B” by Spring.
3. I underestimated the importance of familiarizing myself more with the smartboard.
My understanding of the smartboard was aught when I arrived. I did not see this as a big
problem, because I didn’t think that there would be so many ways to interrupt my own
lesson with it. Taking time to make sure everything is ready to go on the
smartboard/computer will save time by preventing me from having to set it up during
the lesson. It would also save me from the problem of having the students troubleshoot
my issues with me during the lesson. I have found some tutorial videos to watch so I can
gain a better understanding with the smartboard for the future.
4. I was too open about some things that gave me a negative consequence. I mentioned
the possibility of me not working for the public-school system in the future. I was
ignorantly unaware that someone might be offended by this. Some things are better left
keeping to myself. I forgot that a school is a very high gossip zone and that ears have
mouths. In the future I will control my tongue better.
5. I failed to see how important classroom management is. I learned that classroom
management is paramount when I am dealing with a larger class size. The small groups
that I was working with before at Sumner were so easy to manage, that I never thought
that it would become such a large issue. I need to seriously consider every little
contingency when creating lesson plans. I learned that letting students pick their own
groups could potentially leave some students feeling unwanted. Every detail matters. In
one group that seemed to form by default, I had one student who didn’t talk very much
at all but was one of the highest achievers in the class. I had another student who talks

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 a little bit, but never wants to participate in anything. Finally, I had a third student who
never stops talking, and wants to participate in everything but the lesson. The student
that talks a lot was bothering one of the other students in the group to the point of
tears. I realize now that I was partly to blame for those tears. I should have used more
judiciousness in planning for the groups.
6. I failed to keep the student’s attention at times. This was made very evident to me
while reviewing my recorded lessons. I tried to put myself in the students’ shoes. I could
understand how I could be the cause of some students losing focus sometimes. I need
to consider every single student when I am teaching and ask myself if I am helping every
individual student get what they need. I need to have a better flow so I can keep up with
their low attention spans. If they are not interested, it is partially my fault. I need to
make it more fun. I need to make it more personal for them. I need to let them get more
involved in the lesson. Sometimes I forget that I can give them the greatest lecture ever,
but if it doesn’t involve them, I might as well keep quiet. Students like to be involved. A
wise man once said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me
and I learn.” I need to get the students involved more. I plan to ask more questions in
the future. More student-driven activities from now on.
7. I kept forgetting to model. I need to model EVERYTHING! Especially in the beginning of
the year when we are getting into our routines. Modeling is natural for me when
teaching someone submission moves, but it doesn’t seem natural when I am telling
them to line up at the door. I found that I need to model even how to line up at the
door. I had to model for the students how we need to line up behind the kicker in
kickball. I needed to model how to sweep the floor for a few students. I am trying to
remember to model everything from now on, before getting them involved. Student
modeling is something that I learned to do from Mr. N. I will certainly use student
modeling in the future.
8. I am still bad with time. I have had this problem for a long time, but it is time to get
better. I make my own instrumental music at home. I think setting up times on the
computer for my music to play throughout the day will signal for me to realize what
time it is and what I need to do. I also want to use my music for transitions. Keeping a
daily schedule with exact times close by will also be important for me going forward.
9. I am not using enough positive redirection when addressing negative student
behavior. I need to change my language. Instead of saying something like, “Hey! Knock
it off Jack!” I could say something like, “I love how creative you are being right now Jack,
but I need you to focus please.” I feel like this is an area that I am improving on as I go. I
want to stay as positive as I can. Positivity is contagious. I want to create a friendly
environment for students.
10. I haven’t been getting much sleep at home lately. Although I haven’t had very good
sleep since my youngest son was born, I have been losing even more sleep than usual
lately. This effects my performance on all levels, so I really don’t want to bring it to
school. At the moment, my home is pretty chaotic. My wife works a full day, and then
gets off work, only to go to our other house and work until the night trying to fix it up to

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 sell before next month. Meanwhile, I am in school all day, and when I get home, I take
care of the kids. I cook and clean, and I try to get my homework done while watching
the kids. Although I am losing sleep over the anxiety, back problems, and stress, I know
that our situation is only temporary. In about a month, we should be much better off. I
am only mentioning this because I cannot be the teacher I need to be if I am not well
rested. I make mistakes when I am tired.

One frustration I feel regarding the math lessons:

I can’t help but feel like I am setting myself and the student up for failure during the math
lessons. The reason is because half of the class cannot add, subtract, or multiply, and the other half of
the class already knows the material well enough to do it independently. I want to differentiate the
lesson to provide for both groups, but I may have to go backwards for half the students, and forwards
with the other half. Because half the students feel like I am speaking Chinese when teaching the lesson,
they quickly lose interest in the lesson and start to get into trouble as a result. The other half feels like I
am speaking baby talk, and as a result, quickly lose interest in the lesson and get into trouble. The
students are aware of this issue. I know this because they talk to me about things. I feel terrible when
half of the class is asking for my help, and I can’t help them without leaving the lesson plan to do it. As
their teacher, I would do everything in my power to fix this situation ASAP. I think working closely with
the parents can help tremendously with this problem as well.

My 3rd grade class observations on Wednesday the 2nd was inspiring to say the least. As I
walked into the classroom, I felt like I was like walking into another world. I noticed how quiet the room
was. I asked if this was the result of six weeks worth of work, or if the students had brought in this
behavior from the 2nd grade. She said that what I was witnessing was the result of hard work, and that
this was not at all what it was in the beginning.

The teacher was extremely positive. She used very positive language throughout the day. Her positivity
was rubbing off on both the students and myself.

The desks were set up in groups of 5. Every classroom is different. I don’t believe that there is a blanket
answer to seating. All I know is that there is a lot of thought that needs to go into whatever decision one
makes about it.

The structure of the class was amazing. Everything seemed to be a normal routine perfectly executed by
the students and the teacher.

Sentence starters is an excellent idea as it helps guide students to respond. Mr. N uses it too.

After the teacher says something, she will sometimes start a turn and talk to get the students to
reiterate what she said with each other. Brilliant!

The morning meeting was student driven. The teacher gave a morning meeting announcement sheet to
a certain student to announce on a microphone (I love the microphone idea to use with quieter

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students). The morning group activity was interesting. Each student took a turn telling and showing the
class one thing that they can do. Afterward, everyone would copy what the student had modeled. It was
very simple, and very effective.

Hot and cold was another morning activity. One student was randomly chosen to step out of the room.
Then the para chose an item in the room for everyone to know. Then the student that stepped out of
the room is invited back in to walk around guessing as everyone shouted “warm,” “cold,” “hot,” and so
on. The kids seemed to really like this. I would like to alter this game to make it more educational. We
will see.

To allow students to “get it out of their system,” the teacher allows the students to get into groups of
three (something they call a triad) and share with each other about things like what they are planning to
do over the weekend. I think that this is important, because humans go through a very important
thinking process when they are able to talk to someone else. After a few minutes, the teacher asks one
member of each group to share with the class what someone else in their group had said.

“Hands on top! Time to stop!” This is a common attention getter that I have heard. Another common
one is “Class Class! Yes! Yes!” This teacher showed me a new one. She sang, “Da Da Da Da DA!” Then the
class sang, “Da Da!”

She has every student in the class read out loud, which is a practice that I am very fond of.

The teacher says, “Nobody is making fun of anybody around here!”

Recess was used as leverage to get the class to shape up. Mr. N does this too.

Every student in the class was given exact instruction for what they are to do. The teacher also wrote on
the whiteboard so if any students come to her not knowing what they are supposed to do, she can just
point to the board. I too do this and I think it is a useful practice.

Almost every student is now reading a passage on their Chromebook that has a connected quiz. She
reminds the students that they will be graded on those quizzes. Two small groups of about six are
working on phonics with the teacher and the room para.

Is it just me, or is third grade more mature than fourth? The students are being very respectful. One girl
left her chair out, and another student pushed it in for her.

“Thank you!”

“You’re welcome!”

The best part about my 3rd grade observation was the teacher’s close communication with me
throughout the day. While teaching, she not only included me, she told me what she was doing, why she
was doing it, and what mistakes she used to make before getting to this, and most of all she was very
uplifting. I hope I can be as helpful to others someday as she was to me.

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On Thursday I was observing a 5th grade classroom, a few specialists (ESL and reading specialist) during
reading time, and a success room.

I started in the 5th grade classroom, where I was able to witness the morning meeting greetings.
The students took turns greeting each other. Everyone seemed to be happy. The one thing that I noticed
was that the overall volume level of the class was much louder than others that I have observed at
Lakeview. The teacher was much more lenient about students talking to each other and liked the
atmosphere this created.

The morning meeting activity was called “where the warm wind blows.” I have never heard of it
before. It is like musical chairs, but the person who can’t find a seat stands in the middle of the circle of
students and announces things like, “If you’ve ever been out of State.” Those in the circle who have had
this mentioned experience then stand up and move to the opposite side of the circle and attempt to find
a seat; revealing the next person who will be “it.” I don’t think I like this game as much, but it seemed to
go over well with the students.

“Class! Class! Yes! Yes!” was used to get the students’ attention.

I noticed that both the 3rd and 5th grade teacher use a “phone-a-friend” option for when a
student is called upon but does not know the answer. I like this idea because it can reduce embarrassing
situations for kids, but I would only let them use this option an allotted amount of times. I want to
encourage participation.

During snack, the 5th grade class watched CNN 10 and just talked. Even though I like read-a-loud,
I like the idea of building rapport with students during snack too. The students in Mr. N’s classroom
aren’t really given a chance to talk to the teacher very much during the day outside of their recess or
lunch. Even their ability to talk to each other during recess and lunch is about an hour at most (including
quietly walking to and fro these places as a class. So about 5 of the 6 hours in the school day are spent
being told to be quiet.

I was able to see a phonics lesson being taught in the 5 th grade. They were learning the same
thing as the 4th grade phonics lesson, only with larger words. Hopefully these lessons will eliminate
mispronouncing words like “creek,” and “motorcycle.” I like how the teacher identifies his mistakes with
the class. He said, “Oh, I guess I was supposed to show you the next slide before we did this.” I feel that
it is good to be a fallible human in front of students sometimes. They can relate to people who make
mistakes.

The 5th grade class is in small groups for a reading activity. Some students are on their chrome
books reading fun informational tidbits. Others are at a kidney table going over a text with the teacher.
Two students seem to be making a schedule of something (I found out later that they were creating the
jobs list).

The 5th grade teacher has his students move as a whole group when getting materials or going to
recess/lunch; something that the 3rd grade teacher would never do. I still like the idea of older students

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just because I would be able to understand them more. I don’t share much in common with students k-
2.

I watched the 5th grade math lesson/test today, and it seemed like it was all improvised. No
book, smartboard, or videos. The teacher just wrote problems on the board and all the students sat at
their own desks and wrote down answers as the teacher walked around and said yes or no. When
students wrote something down, the teacher told them that they are going to have to back up their
answers. There were a few votes for consensus, but overall it was clearly not the same situation that is
expected from my fourth-grade math lessons. It appears that he was using the test to get ideas for
examples to teach so that when he gives them the test, they would have had a little review first.
Although this technique may help improve the test scores if done immediately after the lesson while
their memories are fresh, I am curious to know what those scores would be if taken next week without
any prep.

After my 5th grade experience, I went to find the reading specialist…

The reading specialist started by handing everyone a copy of a text, and then quizzing the group
of six students about what they learned yesterday; a method that I also would use that I call “review and
enlarge.” “Re-reading things makes us better,” she said. She then had each student read out loud the
same text as before. She was also timing their readings and jotted a few things down. She would often
ask questions related to the text in between readings. The text was about jellyfish. After they all took
turns reading, the teacher paired them up to read aloud to each other. The teacher had frequent
discussions about the text. She was looking for student comprehension. The students were engaged.

I only observed for twenty minutes before moving on to the ESL teacher for the other twenty
minutes.

The ESL teacher handed out similar texts to the reading specialist. The main difference was that
these were about maps instead of jellyfish. It took a good 5-10 minutes of waiting for other students to
show up before they began. She used that time to talk to the students, which is good. She only had five
students to work with. She started by asking them if they can define the word “habit.” They all said no.
Then she wrote on a whiteboard behind her “I think habit means _____...” She then had the small group
partner up and attempt to guess the definition the word. I am unsure how productive this activity was,
since she ended up just giving them the answer after five separate and incorrect answers. The next
words were “obsessed,” “often,” “quickly,” and “infrequently.” Each time a new word was introduced,
the group partnered up and talked about what they thought the new word might mean. Since there
were only five, the teacher partnered up with the standout. It was unique, because the teacher asked
her partner, “what do you think infrequently means?” The student responds, “Like something you aren’t
good at?” The teacher said, “Well I think that infrequently means something you don’t do very much.”
The student said, “Oh.” I study foreign languages too (Japanese and Spanish), and I have never been
asked to define a word by guessing at it first. No language program will use the “guess first” technique. I
believe in a productive struggle, but I am unsure how productive their time was. One of my friends who
works at a school in Arkansas said that this technique could possibly get the students more interested in
finding out the correct answer. I do not know for sure.

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 I also went to a couple of “success rooms” today. Only one that I visited was available as the
teacher I was originally supposed to meet was absent. That was an interesting experience. There was a
lot of laughing, screaming, and crying. The gap between higher functioning and lower functioning
students were obvious. When I arrived, two of the students were playing math games on an iPad. One
student was playing cards with a para friend of mine, and another was at a separate table with another
teacher eating snacks. A third student was bouncing on a ball and laughing hysterically. While typing
this, two more students entered the room and began commenting on the size of my laptop screen size.
When I told them I was going to spend about an hour with them, they were very excited. “Hurray!” they
said. All the lights in the room were covered with the blue cloth. The whole room was like a very well
organized/structured/labeled Montessori model. As I looked around the room, I was wondering how
much limitation each student will carry with them for the rest of their lives; a thought that breaks my
heart. How much will they be able to function as adults? My heart goes out to them and their families. I
want to help, but I don’t want to mess something up. There is another student directly behind me
playing aggressively at a sink full of water making me slightly uncomfortable. There is a small trampoline
in the room that has been getting a lot of use since I got here. The teacher called me over to show me
that one student doesn’t respond very well to voice, but instead they give him cut out words to direct
and instruct him. I curiously watched this, and the method seemed to work well. There are seven
students and three teachers in this room. There are also two other self-contained rooms near this one.
The teacher told me that the students are actually rotating throughout the day. He said the real work is
just getting the students to physically move to the next spot in the room. I asked the teacher if this room
ever stresses him out. He told me with a big smile that although he is just a long-term sub, he has been
teaching for over 42 years. The teacher’s name is Tom, and Tom has a heart of gold. I watched him read
to the students and if there was one thing I took from that observation, it would be that those kids need
someone to care, and Tom really, really cares. I am glad that the other teacher was unavailable, because
I was able to meet Tom. I am feeling emotional now. Maybe it is that I am really sleep deprived, or
maybe it is because I am a sensitive person. I would guess it is probably a little of both.

As with any other improvement in my life, I hope to never stop growing as a teacher. Tell me
how to teach, and I forget. Teach me how to teach, and I may remember. Involve me in the teaching and I
will learn to teach. We get better at things the more we do them, and I want to get better at teaching.