The Power of Questions: List of "happenings" in the classroom

After completing the first three chapters in The Power of Questions, I kept a journal of the "happenings" in the classroom that bothered me, that interested me, and those that excited me.

Events that Bothered Me

• A student with a significant speech and language disorder continues to struggle with simple directions, social situations, and most academic information, even after several attempts at various intervention strategies.  How can I really and truly help this student when her test scores are not quite low enough to qualify her for further special education services?
• I am struggling with finding time to meet with each of my guided reading groups daily and would like to create a schedule so that my lower-level reading groups are getting the time that they need to make progress.
• I have been working daily on implementing the Daily Five pieces for use in guided reading.  When we practice these pieces as a class, everything goes smoothly.  However, when we break into guided reading groups, I notice a significant number of behaviors occurring.  How can I enhance independence without interrupting each behavior?
• When analyzing the weekly student surveys I give regarding feelings about certain parts of the school day, I notice a pattern of very low feelings happening on the bus.  I question how I can help to improve these feelings when I am not there.

Events that Interest Me

• I notice that my lower readers are able to get 100% consistently on their spelling tests and am wondering how I can transfer these skills to reading and writing.
• I have a Chinese ELL student who is very advanced academically.  However, she lacks the skills necessary for problem-solving academically when she does not know an answer, and also in social situations with other students.  I am wondering if and how I can take a step backwards to help her gain these skills.   

Events that Excite Me

• I notice a particular group of students really trying hard to help others all the time, but not for recognition, just because they want to!
• Our new reading series allows for all students to have a voice, as we are all reading books about the same topic. I have been impressed by the connections that students have made with each other and also connections with background experiences that they have had.  I wonder how I can help other students make connections who have less extensive background knowledge.
• We practice handwriting through the introduction of our spelling words, and I've noticed that some students have really improved even just after a few times.  I question how I can help other students transfer these skills with a lack of time in our schedule to spend more time on handwriting.

**Please find my specific questions about these "happenings" underneath the applicable strands.**

Six Hats

White Hat: sharing the facts and figures
Red Hat: expressing feeling and emotion

When completing the reading for this month about the white and red hats, I will admit that I was a bit skeptical about the usage of this method.  I wondered how effective it would be if members of a meeting were constantly saying, "Put on your red hat," or "Let's use our white hat thinking."  However, when I applied it to my own problem, it started to become more clear.

The problem I chose to address with a coworker for our assignment is one that I feel very passionately about.  Unfortunately, I feel that I play the role of the "Pleaser" that Randy Fujishin discusses in Creating Effective Groups: The Art of Small Group Communication.  In most cases, I would rather avoid conflict at any cost than really fight for my own opinion.  Overall, I have never been very opinionated, but I know that learning to communicate my needs and opinions effectively would impact my life very positively.  When I worked through this difficult situation with a coworker using both my white and red hat, I realized that when using them together, I could communicate this problem without being totally confrontational.

I think that reading about each of the last four hats more in depth will help me to become a more effective communicator.  Sometimes problem solving is prevented due to lack of skills in interaction and/or processing. However, I think that the way in which the hats are used and the order in which they are presented could really help with organizing problem-solving methods.

Thus far, I have really only reflected on how I can use the hats to overcome my own problems, or how I can use them in my classroom to help the class come up with a solution to a problem.  With more information on the other hats, I hope to be reflect more on how they can be used in large group discussions, such as grade-level or staff meetings.

Reflection is at the Heart of Practice...

How will reflection help you to become a master teacher?  What gets in your way of reflecting?  What will you do to clear the barriers or get around them?

When I began the Master’s Program, my mentor asked me the ways in which I thought this experience  would help me to become a better educator.  My mind was swarming with all of the ways I knew it would benefit my everyday practice.  After taking a moment to ponder, I responded that I knew this program would help me to reflect in an organized manner that really focused on several significant facets of education.  I find it so easy to get wrapped up in either one way of thinking or one area of reflection.  Having the opportunity to reflect amongst a group of educators from various areas of expertise and various districts will help to me broaden my areas and methods of reflection, which I think is an essential factor in growing as a professional.

Being a second year teacher, I consider myself to be very “moldable.”  I have not yet encountered enough experiences to really have a set-in-stone method of practice.  Change is still somewhat easy for me, as I have not done any one thing for an extended period of time.  I find it extremely valuable to be able to interact with my colleagues in this learning community while we reflect together about some pressing issues in education today.  Reading opinions and experiences brings about additional issues to consider, additional factors to guide my own reflection and increase my knowledge.  To me, becoming a Master Teacher means becoming a more confident teacher and leader to benefit my students, colleagues, and myself, and reflection will be a critical tool in doing so.

As I mentioned before, I think it is so easy to get stuck in one “zone” of reflection, making it more difficult to think outside of the box.  I also think that TIME is a barrier when it comes to reflecting.  Having a solid chunk of time to really sit down and reflect through an entire situation has been difficult for me, although the times I actually did do this have proven to be more successful than doing something on the fly.  The article we read will certainly give me a more organized method of reflection, where if I don’t have the time to reflect all the way through in one sitting, I will at least be able to come back and know where I left off and what I have yet to think about.  I am a visual learner, so having this layout will definitely be beneficial.