C4T Assignment #2

C4T #2 Mrs. G

For my C4T #2 I was assigned to view the blog of Mrs. Goerend; better known as Mrs. G. She is a fifth grade teacher at an Elementary school. Her first post titled "Struggles," explains the difficulty of having her class focus on learning rather than being so social.She writes this post during spring. The school is nearing spring break. Her class is about to move on to middle school and she explains the struggle she is having.Although her class is excited to be moving on to middle school and being on summer break, it is also important for them to continue learning! I can truly relate to what she is saying. Mrs. G is considering coming up with a strategy to help her class. The key element is to not yell at the class or sound like a broken record at the end of the day. This is the comment I left her:

"Mrs. Goerend,
This post really hits home for me. While reading it I remember going through some of the same things while in elementary school. You wouldn't believe some of the ridiculous things teachers come up with to make their class "act better," or listen to them. I remember one teacher who turned the lights off and on over and over just to attempt to make us listen to her. Yes, you are right. At the end of the day most teachers do sound like broken records and the class really won't listen then. I am so interested to know how this turned out. I'm sure you came up with something great. It may even be something I can use in my future classroom."
Amber McQueen, EDM310 at the University of South Alabama.


The interesting thing about Mrs. G's blog is that she follows up with the strategy she came up with. This is her second post. In this post she answers her own questions and has found a strategy that'll help her class focus on curriculum rather than being social. First of all she identified as a class the three main behavior areas they struggle in: on task, voice level, and caring/respect toward others. Here's the strategy she came up with: 

• I divided the class into three groups and they each started with what a secure classroom might look like, then went up from there for exceeding and down for beginning and developing. 

• Then we came back together as a class to share out and make sure the language and numbers matched up for the whole rubric. We identified the 3 key times in the day that students struggle most: math, Words Their Way, and independent reading.

4) I chose two students per day to assess the class during those times. Those two students had a quick discussion after each of those subject areas, came to an agreement on how to score the class, and reported their assessment to the class. We did this for four days and then looked at the data and set a goal.

5) I compiled the data by assigning one point to a beginning score, up to 4 points for an exceeding score. The first four days, students scored 65/144. Many were able to see that it was below 50%, and that an average of 50% would be all developing scores. Then we set a goal for the next four days. The class agreed that we should shoot for 50%, so 72/144. Different students continued to assess and report to the class each day.

6) At the end of the four days (yesterday), I compiled the rubrics again. Good news! They exceeded their goal! They got 78/144 - 54%! We set a new goal for next 5 days. Students decided on this goal and are aiming for a little above 50%. We'll see how it continues.

I really admired Mrs. G's compassion and care for her class. I knew this strategy would work just fine for her and the class. Here's my comment I left on her post:

Hello,

My name is Amber McQueen and I am an EDM310 student at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed your post and I found that the three main areas of struggle were right on point. This project seemed very helpful to your class. It taught them many things. I enjoy picking up skills for my future classroom. Great post.