Paul Boslego

Hr:None

Well, its happening. Tomorrow, I am going back to middle school. This time just as an observer and not as a student. I know from correspondence with the teacher that I may be be fielding questions and giving an introduction. That does not make me nervous. I have given plenty of them over the years. What does make me nervous is the fact that I will be working with middle school students. The last time I worked with middle school students, was when they were my peers. I am excited because this is something not a lot of people get to do. I have done as much preparation as I can for this: I have corresponded with the teacher and my partner.

I think the biggest thing for me is just to let things happen as they happen. I should not keep any firm expectations other than what I have described above. I know from experience that lessons often change directions and that students may lose focus. This all ends up with the teacher and what they see the direction of the classroom headed.

Looking forward, I expect I will have a fair amount of takeaways from tomorrow. Not just on the learning environment and teacher, but the students themselves. Specifically, I want to learn more about curricular values/content. I want to see the different strategies the teacher uses to engage the student to accomplish these objectives. I also want observe the language and group routines because that is something that is easier to see as an observer than a participant.

The other morning in class I had the wonderful opportunity to hear from Elise Sheffield, the director of Boxerwood education. In this brief visit she discussed the new frontier of learning among Virginia’s public school systems…project based learning (PBL). In her presentation she explained that the new learning objectives have spawned from a statewide model of a high school graduate. After 12 years of public education it is the state’s expectation that students will be competent in: creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and citizenship. Through the platform of PBL, students will be able to demonstrate these five skills in an environment that requires interaction with other students. The social aspect of this learning campaign is designed to build confidence and understanding when working with other people, both inside and outside of the classroom. While many of my high school courses did not include this approach to learning, I fully understand the benefits of PBL. So much of the work I did in middle school and high school surrounded the idea of independent study and work. I still believe there is a lot that can be learned from the idea of self-reliance; however this can still be achieved in a group environment. As a young student I always worked well with others, but the idea of group projects never excited me. Assignments that included PBL were usually difficult for a number of reasons to include poor teammates, lack of direction, conflicting group ideas, and limited communication. Due to these reasons group projects always seemed uncomfortable and awkward, especially with unfamiliar students. It is my hope that through the program of PBL, teachers and students alike will be able to break down the barriers of working with others. To collaborate and communicate fluently with others is not normally a skill that comes naturally to most people. In my opinion, one of the best aspects of PBL is that it puts students outside of their comfort zone in a controlled learning environment. In my future visits to the local middle school I hope to encourage students to push themselves within the elements of PBL. If young students can understand and be excited about the core principles of PBL, I have no doubt that they will excel in any future path. I can’t wait to see how the elements of PBL are used in the classroom!

In preparing to go into the classroom for the first time next week, several thoughts are running through my mind as to what I expect from my first visit, as well as factors that are inspiring my thinking in my coming visits. One of the first thoughts that crosses my mind is the fact that I never thought that I would enter a high school classroom again after my high school graduation, let alone in a position where I may be instructing a class. While I look forward to the opportunity to work with students in an instructional capacity now, I was anything but excited at the thought of teachers or teaching while in high school. Another thought that crosses my mind is how will the students receive me in the classroom? Again, my own experiences in high school are brought back as I think of how myself and others often were not very enthusiastic learners in the classroom. At the same time, I remain optimistic that my initial visits will at least be met with some curiosity about who I am and where I’m from that can lead to more productive time in the classroom. In addition to this, I am excited about the content that will be taught in the classroom (sustainability), as it is a topic that is applicable to both the high schoolers and me, as well as the fact that it is currently a trending issue. Because of this, I expect that the students should be relatively interested in the topic. Most of all however, is that I expect to learn a lot in my first few visits from not only my observations but from the students as well. Whether I learn about the material they are learning, how students their age learn, or even something about myself, I am looking forward to the opportunity to work together with Ms. Donahue in her classroom in the upcoming weeks.

Going into the first classroom visit at Maury River Middle School, I am feeling both excited and anxious. It’s similar to the feeling I had as a child on the first day of school. The only difference is instead of preparing my outfit the night before, I’m preparing how to adequately interact with students. It’s hard to say my partner and I will only observe in the background the first day, because I know once in the environment I will be full hands on deck. For me throughout my educational career, I can only remember the names of a few teachers. These select groups of teachers had a positive impression and affect on me which I valued. Now that I am standing in their shoes, I want to be one of those positive figures that these students can remember. Elise Sheffield in her presentation helped me realize that kids are craving to learn, they just need to be put in situations where it’s interesting. Furthermore, they should be guided to make interpretations and conclusions for themselves to make the experience meaningful. Like her, I don’t want to be seen as the teacher that is just making the class do an assignment. Rather I’d like to be the eccentric, outside of the box teacher that will make activities enjoyable. I expect students to be shy at first and it’ll take a little to open them up. Once our relationship is established, it will be easier to get productivity out of the classroom. Having contacted Ms. Dowless, I already know we have to deliver a presentation on public speaking. This is our first opportunity to have complete power over the class, so I plan to make the presentation interactive and meaningful. This teaching moment will be our first real impression for the students and we will take advantage of the opportunity to the fullest.

Blog 2

It is difficult for me to imagine how I will be able to go into a class of high school aged students and expect them to automatically listen and respect what I have to say. I know this because I was a high school student once, and it was easy for my classmates and I to disregard what a substitute teacher or guest speaker had to say. I have always believed in the saying that respect is earned, not given, and I believe that this applies to academia not just for respect, but for attention as well. If I am going to walk into a class and get these students to listen to me, I will have to look back at my high school days to remember what made a teacher successful, as well as rely on the readings we’ve done in class so far. I have worked with elementary school students, but they were intrigued to see a high school student come into their class and read them stories. For high school students, they won’t be as easily stimulated by someone only a few years older than them. I will have to make this acknowledgment, let them know that even though I am not much older than them, I have experienced a completely different academic environment as a college junior. After establishing a solid ethos with them, I should try to connect with their interests and general attitudes so they are more likely to listen to and respect what I have to offer.

One lesson that I really connected with from Journeys Through Our Classroom was the fact that students may be struggling without the teachers even knowing about it. Alfredo and Hannah were struggling because they were mixed in with students completely different from them. This makes me realize that not all students are the same, therefore they cannot all be treated the same when it comes to academic instruction. Some require more care and attention to be successful, and there is nothing wrong with that, and they should realize there is nothing wrong with that. That is one major thing that I will strive to achieve when I enter the classroom.

Journal 2
Having many experiences working with middle school students throughout high school and into college, I have the luxury of having some sort of background for the work to come. With that said, I am still a little apprehensive as all of the work that I have done was outside of a classroom environment. This will be my first time working with students within a classroom environment. I am excited to be able to go into the classroom with other cadets accompanying me, as we can each draw from our own experiences to fill in each other’s gaps. Doing the theoretical studies of different educational models, I feel like have also helped prepare me for the upcoming visit. Even though we have yet to actually develop any curriculum from the models ourselves, they have helped me develop my mindset. By looking at lesson plans through the eyes of an instructor rather than those of a student has helped me conceptualize what we will be doing this semester. Having the experts come into class helped in the conceptualization. By having a textbook meant for teachers to build curriculum, it has allowed me to expand my thinking into what it is going to take to create a project from start to finish. Even though it may not be the direction or topic that the project we develop in our own class room goes, seeing an example of a project and learning the steps helped substantially. I may even try and incorporate some aspects of the recycling project into the project, if the city has stopped recycling it must have affected the local schools as well. This would make it closer to home for the students, rather than trying to solve a problem at a foreign school. Most importantly, I think the best thing that we have done in preparation for our visiting is the planning itself. We will not know for sure what to expect, but in those situations, planning is everything. I think by just synthesizing our expectations and inspirations for the visits it is making us better stewards of the field work program.

After emailing Mrs. Staton she informed me of her class and other details regarding the course. There are eight students in this class and they “each bring something unique to the class”. Given that I am in a group of three and the class is so small, I believe that there is room for success because the student to teacher and cadet help ratio is 2:1. I expect this class to be ran together as a whole because of how small it is.

This class is dedicated to a plastic collection project developed by Eco Eagle Council Students. This sounds like a club because it is a small council of students that most likely came together to tackle this project of plastic collection. Since these are 6^th and 7^th grade students I believe that Mrs. Staton will be facilitating the tasks and the overall progress of this project because of the age group. However, I expect the students being the ones developing strategies, ideas, and plans for this project. I feel like there is also room for gaps in this group, because of the size and age. There will be eight different ideas thrown out into the group and this could provide them with a chance to demonstrate some skills that come from major of English. They could have the opportunity to defend their ideas or present their ideas to be more appealing by using rhetoric. I would love to observe the use of rhetoric with this age group of children just to analyze their claims and reasons for why the group should choose their idea to run with.

Like Loretta Brady and Ron Berger in Journeys through our Classrooms I hope I get the chance to help these kids in any way I can. Mrs. Staton’s expectations for my group with the kids is to “have [us] be a role model for them.”

Kempf, Aaron
Fieldwork 411
Blog Post 2

Expectations for Teaching in Fieldwork 411
Tomorrow marks the first day that my partner Casey Marchant and I will be traveling to our local Lexington high school to begin our interaction with 17-18-year-old English students. Being a student of English myself (college level), it is reasonable to understand that while excited, there are some aspects of this challenge that have crossed my mind. Atop this list of questions I have is whether or not students only 3-4 years younger than myself will treat me with respect as I try to stimulate their learning experiences. As seen in the video showed within class, in order for students to be engaged and interested in subject material, they first need to become comfortable about speaking and establishing a healthy relationship with their teacher. While I have every intention of treating students with respect and dignity, seeing them only 5 times through the semester adds pressure that every experience I have with them, I need to bring my A game. One bad day or slip up (such as not looking engaged if a student takes the time to ask me a question) can alter how the students view me for the rest of the semester. Within project-based teaching, I was able to learn the importance of reading student’s emotions as individuals rather than as a whole. For example, we learned that Alfredo had trouble being comfortable in the classroom because of negative home experiences. Personally, I want to be able to learn what makes each student engaged and if they aren’t engaged, I want to learn what role I can play to better equip them for learning. As talked about with Ms. Elise, students in public schools are often pushed through their 4 years of school and viewed as a statistic. Any role I can play in making a student feel like a star in their own right is a win in my book. I look forward to developing these ideas and getting to know the students of the Lexington community! blog post 2

When thinking about classroom expectations and inspirations one thing comes to my mind. You have to make the class fun and hook your students. What do I mean by hook them? Hooking them means to grasp their attention and control that attention. Not by malevolent means, but through the uses of humor and storytelling. Perhaps, ever so often, acting out something so that the students are able to really engage that much more. Therefore, in order to inspire students, you need to provide them with either credibility, or something that is so out of this world they can’t help but pay attention. Now with acting and using humor, some students will want to lash out. Not of malevolent intent, but because they think they are being funny. How do we set a standard that allows the students to have fun, yet not go overboard? We need to make it clear what our expectations are: pay attention, take notes, engage and speak with us. But while engaged and speaking, keep it appropriate. No profanity, no dirty jokes, and only one person may ask a question at a time. How do we keep the class engaged and having fun but still being strict at the same time. As stated in the Project Based Learning, we need to keep the class environment detailed but flexible. This means that we need to have a game plan. We need to know what our objectives for the day are and have an idea of how to get through them. How do we do this? We make a list of objectives for the class period. Not too many but not too few. In doing so we leave room to teach, but also time for the students to try new things on their own and if they’re not getting it, they have time to ask questions. This will keep their minds engaged and enjoying the process of learning much more than if we have them taking notes on a different subject the whole class period. By inspiring the class to learn and giving them space to have fun and learn is important, but so to is setting the expectations. If we are able to find this balance between being detail oriented and yet flexible, we will surely promote learning in a fun and healthy environment. 

In preparation for my first visit to Eagle Academy to observe a 6th grade Science classroom, I intend to look for the class’s norms, the general curriculum of the period, and the environment created by both the teacher and the students. For starters, I expect to meet with Mrs. Gretchen Dowless and then introduce myself to the students so they can become more comfortable and familiar with my presence. In observing the surroundings, I expect to see posters covering the walls that reflect the general culture of the classroom and school in addition to students work. I sense that the school’s norms will reflect a very conservative and overly respectful environment due to their age as well as their placement in southern Virginia. I sense that the teacher will be using a very encouraging and respectful tone. I also expect to see the work that students have been working on and potentially general interests of the students. As suggested in PBL, posters are a good visual way to establish consistent rules for class conduct as well as to provide evidence of quality work (Boss, 19). Another feature of the classroom I expect to see is an environment that is adamantly trying to be conducive to learning, such as comfy chairs, moveable tables, or tools to help promote students to speak up (Boss, 23). In terms of the class content, I expect to notice a curriculum that is focused around the local community as recommended in PBL and as shown in Ron Berger’s story of a school’s important community water expedition (Boss, 42). And so, for students in Lexington, Virginia, I presume to see content that has to do with VMI, W&L, the greater Lexington community, hunting, fishing, farming or potentially popular kid culture. Moreover, through these initial observations I hope to come away with information that can guide my conduct on future visits while also creating a sense of comfortability for the kids. And secondly, I hope to have a conversation or an exchange with a couple kids in order to understand their interest, similar to Mrs. Brady’s experiences with Alfredo and Hannah, which can in turn provide useful information for me when I attempt to develop an inquiry in the future.