Field Blog #4

Mrs. Kelm After Class

This time with Mrs. Kelm we talked about cheating, and how to deal with struggling students. She was telling me the way she avoids cheating is by making different tests. That with multiple test if they do cheat she can easily say that it was cheating. Also she was telling me during test she watches her students to make sure they are not cheating. When it comes to homework she says that she does not care that much because they are only hurting themselves. If they actually care they will do the work on their own. She said it isn't that much of a problem with her students. But she said overall with her the classes she teaches it is very difficult. The reason is an English teacher can see how someone just reworded what someone else said. For her the person can copy down the work exactly and how is she suppose to know. It is a tough job for a Math teacher.
We also discussed what to do about a struggling student. She told me when the student is not doing good she talks to the student first. Respects them enough to not get the parents involved. She tries to see if something is going on with the student. If the student continues to struggle she then will call the parents and let them know. She believes that these parents are paying a good amount of money and their child should be doing their best. Visiting that day was a long time, but very cool. I learned a lot about teachers in the classroom and outside of the classroom. How a teacher interacts with the student. Overall it was a great experience I was excited to have done it.

Field Blog #3

Mrs. Kelm After Class


After attending two of Mrs. Kelm's classes I hung out with her for two more hours after to talk about teaching. We talked about grading work, planning, working with other teachers, dealing with students struggling, etc. When it came to grading papers she told me she does not care whose name is at the top of the paper she does not even look. She said she can tell who was the student based on the first page. She had the test with her and went through the first page of the student to see how they did. It took her about 15 minutes to grade 22 quizzes. She flew through the grading.
After that we went through a way to planning out the next week. She had the flexibility to change it up based on how much they accomplished through the day. Also she had like 3 weeks planned in the future. But could change it very easily. Also she would work with her other co workers. They would see how they match up with each other. Who has more stuff done, how the students are doing. They would also help each other with papers. They would give worksheets to each other.
The teachers were very close to each other. They were friendly, always talking to each other having fun. Being able to joke around with each other.
 It was interesting watching the students interact with the teachers outside of class. They were friends. It was a friend asking another friend for help. That is how I want my students to be one day. Feeling comfortable enough to talk to me about almost anything. Thinking of me as a friend not as a teacher. That is one thing she was able to do with her students.

Field Blog # 2

Mrs. Kelm Trig class



I was at NDCL for two class periods, this was the second class I attended. This was a different class then her stats class. This was a more intelligent group of students. The beginning of class they went through the homework assignment. She assigned 22 problems because she had 22 students. She told me that the students answer but not everyone will get involved. She had popsicle sticks with each students name on it and called on whoevers name came up. At first I did not like it for putting the student on the spot, but then I realized it was an affective way of getting the students involved. If the student struggled with the problem then she would walk the students through the problem. One time a student said "How do you not know how to do this problem." She answered very quickly defending her student saying it is okay that they do not know they answer. One great quality of defending her students so quickly showed the kind of person she really is which is awesome. She admitted her mistakes when they arose. She was doing a problem on the white board and at the end of the problem she was told that it was the wrong problem. She said something along the lines of " I'm sorry I messed up, let's do the other problem." It showed that everyone makes mistakes and it is not the end of the world or a big deal at all. The one thing she did great was challenging the students. She was able to push the students far and make them have to think about each problem. She wanted to make sure that they were difficult questions that they had to think about. She also does a lot of examples to drill it into the students brains, so they understand each section of work.

Field Blog #1

Mrs. Kelm Stats


This was the first time I went out into the field by myself and it was very interesting. I went to my former high school and went to my favorite teacher as well. Seeing as how it was my first time there I was nervous that I might be a distraction to the class. I knew many students in the class and I thought that people would try talking to me and asking how college is etc. But she handled the situation perfectly I thought. She told the class who I am, why I was there. She also told the students that I was there for school not to judge anyone and that they should pretty much leave me alone. I just minded my own business and observed her style. It was different actually watching how she taught compared to being taught by her. She was encouraging her students telling them to go out on a limb and take a chance. Which I totally forgot about. I noticed that she would rather have students be wrong then sit there and not answer any question at all. When the student was wrong she was able to see where they made a mistake and tell them how to correct that mistake. One thing she did a lot of was have the students go through problems. She would have the students go through each problem step by step. Each step she would ask a student to help her out. Then she explains each step or has the student explain how they got the right answer. It was interesting to watch her compared to listen to her as a teacher and see how great of a teacher she actually is. The first experience by myself made me realize that I would love to do this, and would be awesome at it.

Clinical Teaching


In our class today we had Ch. 17 in the Educational Foundations book. I thought it went really really good for the first time of any of us teaching to people. We had a great planning meeting getting down into the material and then thinking of what we could do to make a great class. It shows what can happen in the future, collaborating with teachers picking up on ideas and plans.
The class today I thought went really good. I thought we all touched our topics very well, got our point across. I think we opened up people's eyes. To see how Finland teachers actually teach and how it is such a great profession over there. That can make them think the same way here. Think "Hey I'm a teacher this is awesome and I am proud of myself." I feel that the small groups were great. It was a good way to create good discussion and debate. In my own personal group they had a little debate start. One student thought the 3 class idea is terrible, while another person thought I liked that idea, they thought they were doing not as much and could focus on the main topics of what the government wants us to learn.
I thought one thing I could have fixed was to be more confident up there. I understand it was the first time people are nervous, but I think I could have been better if I were more confident. I believe that can be the key to teaching. Confidence is key in everything I believe especially up in front of 20 students. To show them that you understand the topic and that you are confident with it.
Besides for that I thought everything went great. People had good discussion, I felt like they understood the information.

Blog Post 10

All of the Blogs for the whole year (my view on ED100)



The Intro to Education class has been a real eye opener. Coming to John Carroll I was very unsure of what I wanted to do but I had an idea. Education was something I thought of as something I might like. I really can see myself doing this as a profession. Initially  when told about the 10 hours outside of class I was a little shaky on it. By that I mean I thought it might be a waste of time. But that has been my favorite part of the class. Going observing classes, imagining yourself in that position is so cool. I can totally see myself doing that when I get older. I am so excited to learn more about the educational process. It was cool to also see the classroom from a different side. Normally we have seen class as a place to learn information, but here I actually looked at the style each teacher had that I observed. The good part about that is I can take some of their style and create my own. I saw what worked in some classes and what did not work.
One really cool thing I thought was that I really only had 1 teacher I did not like their style of teaching. It just shows how great people are in this profession. I have seen about 8 teachers and all have been wonderful except one really that just shows that teaching is a profession people love to be a part of. Also the people in our class show a great, bright future for the teaching industry. Only a certain person can teach and it is seen throughout our visits. ED100 has shown me that I can do this and would love to do this as well.

Ryan Tyransky

Field Blog

Agnon School

I was in a fourth grade class at the School of Agnon. It was different then what I believed about a 4th grade class. I honestly believed that the children would be wild and loud. I was wrong, they were very well behaved and very respectful. The one thing  I took away from this is that I know I cannot do younger children. I feel that it is a teacher student relationship. I want my relationship to be friendly. A relationship where my students and I are very close. In that situation I feel it is hard to do something like that. But this was awesome so now I know for sure I could not do this. I am a person who wants to teach mature students who have their own ideas and what not. The classroom was set up cool. The students sat at tables together. I like that because I feel like it builds the community of the classroom. The one negative aspect of that though is the students could talk to each other a lot easier. Overall the experience was a great one. It is one of those things where you find out a lot about yourself through what you do not like. Also it seemed like the teacher community was very strong. All the teachers seemed to be very friendly. I was walking to a class and the teachers were very kind and said hello with a smile. I felt very comfortable at that school. The school of Agnon was different. The class set up seemed odd. But the made it work. I liked how they taught Hebrew to the students. Great time at the School of Agnon.