Education Psychology
Assignment 2
Learning What it Takes
“Founded in 2000 to offer hope and opportunity to inner-city boys and girls, San Miguel Middle School of Minneapolis is a community school in the Lasallian tradition working with students who face serious socioeconomic challenges. San Miguel exists to provide a safe and stable home for students to dream of their future and help them develop the tools necessary to make their dreams a reality.”
The above information was taken from a pamphlet describing San Miguel Middle School of Minneapolis, the location I spent 40 hours at as a part of my Urban Immersion. I knew being at San Miguel was going to be a great experience from the moment I walked into the lunchroom and was greeted with a handshake and name from all 46 students as well as my supervising teacher, Ms. K. I was fortunate enough to arrive during K’s prep period, so I learned many things about her teaching style and philosophies before the students ever walked into the room. With our initial conversation, five days spent observing and an informal interview, I had the information I needed to explain why K’s classroom runs so smoothly and her students admire and respect her.
The general atmosphere of any classroom depends on several factors including teacher-student interaction, the classroom’s physical features, and student interaction. Ms. K’s room seemed cold at first. It seemed that K was almost nervous to have someone watching her. Her stiffness quickly faded as the first day went on. As for the physical layout of the classroom, the desks are set up in a formal style of three rows of four desks each (none of her classes had more than 11 students), a table sits towards the back of the room, the “Safe Seat” is in the corner, and eight computers sit along the back wall. The one thing that I was really surprised by is the lack of decorations in the room. It was nearly bare except for one bulletin board decorated with math vocabulary. Looking back on my middle school classrooms, they were still partly decorated. It wasn’t until high school that the decorations really started to disappear. This lack of decoration didn’t seem to hinder academic performance, however. Students are free to get out of their desks at any time as long as they have a purpose for being up and about. Many lessons were taught in a formal manner, but the homework from those lessons could be finished in student-selected groups. Overall, K had set up a warm and welcoming classroom that allowed for student learning, safety, and comfort.
K’s rapport with a student depends on what type of student she is dealing with. In my observing, I noticed she seemed to have a better relationship with her female students than the males. The girls were much more likely to approach her with a question, where the boys would struggle a little longer before they had to ask. All of the students seem to feel comfortable sharing their feelings with her. This could be due to a weekly exercise called “The Circle” where the students share ideas by throwing a ball across a circle. Only the person with a ball can talk. Some students opted not to answer the questions Ms. K asked, but most felt free to share their thoughts. I felt K had a good, if not great, relationship with most all of her students and cared for each one of them.
I witnessed a variety of teaching techniques while observing K, depending on what subject she was teaching. Math is very much a lecture class. She reads through a lesson, sets up some examples, asks the students if they have any questions, and lets them get straight to work. Science is based on student-driven, discovery learning. For example, the students were working on a planet project while I was on Immersion. K began the project by doing a quick overview of the all the planets and the solar system in general. She then gave the students a worksheet on everything they must include within their project and told them they would have to include three of their own ideas. Students were offered three resources (computers, books on planets, and encyclopedias) and told they must use at least two of them, preferably all three. Health was different at San Miguel than any other school I have been at. K was reading a book on Anorexia with the girls (health and P.E. are taught to each sex separately). She would read the first chapter and then the girls would take turns reading the next two. Following the daily reading, they would discuss everything they thought was interesting or important and why it applied to health. K’s use of different teaching styles helped her keep the students’ attention and made each subject seem more interesting.
Most of the students at San Miguel are very motivated. They have enrolled to avoid problems they might’ve had at a public middle school in their district and to focus on academics. However, like other children their age, the students in Ms. K’s class sometimes had difficulty getting motivated. The technique I saw her use most in motivating her students was to change their outlook. She had a great way of making students see assignments in an optimistic way. Another technique I witnessed her use was giving alternate options. If students were having trouble working individually on an assignment, she was almost always open to group work. K’s constant positive attitude and open mind make it much easier for students to be motivated.
Like any good educator, Ms. K has the “teacher stare” down to a tee. If any of her students speak up during class when they aren’t supposed to be talking or if someone does something out of line, it only takes one quick glare for them to stop. The students at San Miguel have a surprising amount of self-discipline for their age. Most of them are careful to work hard through the hour and to wait to talk until a break between classes. If students feel they are not in control, they always have the option of sitting at the Safe Seat. The Safe Seat is usually saved for students who are misbehaving, but a student who feels they are on the road to getting into trouble can also voluntarily sit there to avoid a problem. The Safe Seat is a great preventive strategy. If any extreme disciplinary action is necessary the student(s) involved are sent immediately to S. Mary, the school’s principal. K’s personal discipline strategies and the general strategies of San Miguel keep classes running smoothly.
“To work at this school you have to be a Humanist. There is too much going on in these kids’ world outside of school to promote growth in every aspect of their life,” K said when I asked if she followed a particular theory of education. She explained that’s what she loves about teaching in a private school. She is free to talk about religion and the importance of spirituality while still stressing academic success. She feels San Miguel does a great job of developing students socially, encouraging them to introduce themselves to visitors and engage in discussions with fellow students and adults. She tries to teach holistic, meaty lessons that her students can get more out of than just the basic concept and really enjoys hands-on lessons. To grow physically, the students are required to participate in gym class three times a week; however, K feels they are still extremely out of shape and should have gym every day. She is not entirely a humanist, though. She says, “Although I keep total development in mind, I still use ideas from Cognitive theorists and Behaviorists.” K is careful to reinforce her students learning and also teaches many lessons in a discovery learning style. She takes the best ideas from every model and integrates them into every lesson.
K’s favorite teaching techniques are the ones she typically uses in teaching. She enjoys mixing it up and avoids all-period lectures when possible: “I try to remember those poor kids in Charlie Brown. Wah! Wah! Wahh!!” As I mentioned before, she really enjoys hands-on, discovery-based lessons because they allow the kids to explore. She says hands on lessons also allow for more group work which the kids really enjoy. Group work also helps the social development that many of the students are lacking. K also really enjoys telling stories. If she can relate something from her life to what the students are working on, she feels they often understand it a little better. She felt the most important technique was variety: “Try to avoid teaching every lesson the exact same way. Students are bound to get bored if they know the structure of your lessons too well.”
Like at many other schools, there is no one teaching style that caters to every one of K’s students. She says, “There are absolutely too many learning styles here to say how students learn best. I could go on for hours depending on which student we are talking about.” She went on to explain that her use of hands-on lessons seems to be the saving grace in most cases. If the students can get their hands on something and get a feel for how the concept works, they are far more likely to understand and master that concept.
Ms. Sjoberg has trouble dealing with her diverse learners and getting through the language barrier. Some of her Hispanic students have only been speaking English for a few months, and one student who arrived the day we showed up didn’t speak any English at all. For these students, she often has to rely on student-to-student learning because she speaks very little Spanish. The language barrier is often a problem when trying to use textbooks. The students can’t speak or read English, so it often makes teaching a lesson that requires reading very difficult. In situations like this, K tries to have pictures that explain what is happening in the text for those who might not understand and again allows other students to interpret if necessary. At San Miguel, it seems the best way for students to learn is to be open for them doing group work and to let them get their hands dirty.
“These kids live diversity! How often do you have seven Hispanic students, two bi-racial students, one African-American student who has been adopted by Caucasian parents, and the single Caucasian student in one room?” K replies when I ask about teaching multiculturalism and diversity in her classroom. The students do get a first-hand dose of just how diverse our world is when they attend San Miguel. K tries to get the points of view from each culture during class discussions. “It makes for a much more interesting discussion with so many different backgrounds in one room,” she says. She doesn’t really teach any classes that cover different cultures, as she teaches mostly math classes. However, she knows Mr. A, another teacher at San Miguel, does a great job of covering many cultures in social studies and history classes. She says the greatest thing about working in such a diverse environment is that the students understand issues facing people of different cultures, allowing her to learn from them at the same time they learn from her.
Ms. K agrees with my feelings about her students being very motivated for their age. Her best advice for keeping motivation high was something I witnessed her doing a lot while I was at San Miguel. Be positive!! It is difficult for students to be pessimistic if you keep a positive attitude about the work they are doing. Another motivation strategy she has is to make an example out of a student who is doing well: “I try to recognize someone who has been working hard and been very successful. This encourages the example student to continue his or her hard work and motivates the other students to try a little harder.” She tries her best not to make motivation competitive, though, as it creates more problems than motives. K admits it is difficult to be motivating all the time and with every student, but if she thinks hard she can usually figure out a motivational strategy even in the most difficult situations.
We did not speak much on discipline as it is set up very simply at San Miguel: “If students are misbehaving they are given a warning. If the behavior continues, or the student acts inappropriately toward the warning, they are sent to the Safe Seat. At the Safe Seat, they fill out a Think Sheet explaining what they did wrong and why the punishment is just. If students still cannot handle themselves after being sent to the Safe Seat, they are sent right to S. Mary. We don’t put up with misbehavior at San Miguel because the students know what is expected of them the minute they walk in the door.” K feels that of all the discipline policies she’s experienced (she’s worked at three different schools) this one works the best and causes the least classroom disruption.
I tried to grab a few more tidbits of information before the kids returned from lunch. K believes that the most difficult thing about being a teacher is keep her students motivated. No matter how motivated they are, they still have bad days, and it isn’t always easy. She loves seeing her students succeed and says it is so rewarding when they finally “get it.” She enjoys being able to have a relationship with students who can meet her in the middle, whether the student is well-behaved or a bit of a trouble maker. Her philosophy on teaching hasn’t changed much since she left college. She encouraged me to present understandable information, meet the student where they are, and make them feel safe.
Many of the things I learned specifically from K in the interview I saw her put into action as I observed. It was wonderful to work with a teacher who acts upon the things she says she will. After a less-than-ideal experience during my local field, I was so blessed to be with a teacher who really cared for her students, loved her job, and was willing to take the time to show me the way. I learned invaluable ideas about teaching both in observation and through the interview process. I look forward to having my own classroom where I can see which of K’s ideas work and what ideas I will have to adjust for my own students.