Stacy Filocco's blog

Push it to the Limit

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As a second-year, I feel like I have a much better handle on what needs to be done in the classroom on a daily basis.  I have a much firmer idea of where my classes are going, when they will get to each check point, and how I can best facilitate them getting there.  As I’ve looked over lesson plans, worksheets, and powerpoints from last year I can clearly point out errors and potential pitfalls.  Wow, I sometimes think to myself, I can’t believe these kids learned this at all last year!  A significant part of this, I believe, simply comes from experience but experience is not the only difference.

Last year, I was concerned about pushing my students too hard; moving at a pace that was too fast or too aggressive.  Because Spanish is not state-tested, we can really move at any pace and still cover all of our objectives for the year.  (This is facilitated by the state foreign language objective being so vague that if one were to simply open a language book on any given day at least 3 objectives would already be knocked out.  In a given week we probably cover at least 15 different objectives.)  A significant part of this was also my need to gain trust from the students and to change the culture surrounding language class at the school.  So we moved slowly.  In spite of this slower pace I still had students with a wide range of grades. 

This year I decided to sort of test a theory.  I think that a lot of our students are hindered by the fact that they are not challenged in the classroom; someone decides that material is too difficult or too advanced for them and they are deprived of the opportunity to even see it.  At some point last year I asked myself, “Who am I to decide what is too difficult for these students?”  Granted I do observe and assess their work on a daily basis but who is to say that these students are fully extending themselves on every assignment?  I’ve decided to start the year off in a more challenging manner and hold my students to some higher standards.  For example, last year I did not take points off for spelling and, lo and behold, spelling was generally fairly poor.  This year, when confronted with that question I said yes, I would take off for spelling and, like a miracle, the spelling has been much improved this year. 

A few other things that I thought seemed too ambitious last year, like making students write a paragraph in Spanish on their first real test, I decided to go for this year.  If the grades were being too damaged I could always change things.  I was testing my hypothesis that students will retain more or less the same amount of information regardless of the level at which the information is given.  For example, a student who retains 60% of the information in a class will retain 60% of all information provided in that class.  The more information provided, the more this student will know, even though it will still only be 60% of the total information given.  This revelation has been something of a breakthrough for me as I have more or less the same number of students with A’s, B’s, C’s, and D’s though all groups are significantly ahead of where their respective grade groups were a year ago.  

When it comes down to it, grades are not that important.  What is important is maximizing the amount of knowledge that each student receives and retains.  If I can maintain this throughout the year then my students from this year will be significantly more knowledgeable than my students from the previous year although they better hope they don’t have me the following year because my expectations will have again risen exponentially.

Making the Grade

    After talking with several first-years I realized that I have developed a fairly intense grading philosophy over the past year plus of teaching. For me, the most important part of grading is getting the work back to the students as soon as possible.  I love instant feedback and I know that students are anxious for it as well.  To this end, I like going over as much work as possible during class. 

    Of course, some things require collecting and students deserve to have someone else look at their work.  When I grade papers (usually 3-4 times per week) I try to return the work the next day.  This requires some serious concnetration although if assessments are properly thought out they can take much less time to grade then one might think.  With fourth period planning I usually try to grade periods 1-3 during planning period and periods 5-7 after school (out of season) or during the following day's planning period.  The least amount of grading that gets taken home the better!

    When grading, I usually try to correct students' answers on their work.  In my opinion it does little for the student's benefit if they only know if their answer is right or wrong.  If they never find out what the correct answer is, or why they were wrong they lose the benefit of having their work looked at.  I've noticed that students appreciate having comments written on their work and take a few moments to look over their work when it is handed back. 

    I think that this serves multiple purposes.  The students realize that something actually happens when they turn something in- it is not some magical process in which a paper comes in and an arbitrary grade is spit out, the minute that the student takes going over their incorrect answers is about as valuable as the entire week's worth of instruction that led up to that assessment.  Numerous times I have seen students read over the mistakes that they made and that is the trigger that finally turns on the light bulb.  If the work handed back is a mini-assessment then this quick feedback permits them to make the necessary changes before a larger assessment.

 

Every Cloud...

During our first day of school assembly the students always sit by class: freshman on the right, sophomores to their left, juniors to the left of them, and seniors on the stage.  Last year I was amazed at how many freshmen there were but outside of that the number of students and their proportions were unremarkable.  This year the freshman class was again large, the sophomores were a large group as well.  The senior class looked smaller than they had looked as juniors the year before but the biggest surprise was the Juniors.  There were only a handful of Juniors at school the first day.  Junior year is when the students are supposed to be done with all of their state tests, they are focused on graduation and college and moving on; clearly this was not the case.  I could pin-point exactly those juniors who were sitting in the bleachers; they were the 40% of their class that had past the English II State Test.  They were pumped- they had been told the test was hard and that many students had not passed.  These students had found out over the summer that they had passed the test and they were actually excited to get back to school.  Their classmates, unfortunately were feeling the weight of unmet expectations.

I think few things could be more upsetting to a student than learning that your state, the entity that is in charge of your education, has deemed your knowledge level unacceptable.  This is really crushing for many students.  Failing that state test puts it in their mind that they are not smart and are generally unsuccessful.  Now, I’m not advocating that some of these students are not of an unacceptable knowledge level; I’m actually not against state-testing.  But, certainly the psychological damage inflicted by these tests is significant.

On the other hand, I have observed that the students that passed that English II test have gained so much academic confidence that they are now completely outshining their peers.  Already ahead, they now have the added seal of approval from the state of Mississippi.  They have been deemed “Advanced” or at least “Proficient” in their subject area and now they think they are something special.  They have a future and opportunities and they have been given the green light to learn things for the sake of learning instead of for the sake of passing a standardized test.

More than anything, this has proven to me the power of positivity.  I’ve always been a huge believer in self-confidence as a huge key in academic success.  Multiple-choice tests are a lot more difficult when you second guess all of your answers and open-ended questions are completely daunting if you don’t think you have anything worthwhile to write down.  Now I am seeing the curiosity that confidence can inspire.  Enthusiasm for learning and belief in achievement go hand in hand, no matter what the source of confidence is.  Our Juniors have started looking towards the future and even if the sky is cloudy, at least 40% of them have found a silver lining.

The First Days of School

 “How was your first day of school?” my mom asked me.

“Fine, “ I responded for 16 years.

“That’s it?” she would always say.  “Just fine?  What did you do?  Who did you see?  How were your classes?”

“They were ok,” I would respond.

 

“How was your first day of school?” my mom asked me.

“Good, a lot better than I was expecting,” I responded last year.  “My kids seem nice and I like the principal but there are a lot of them and I can’t pronounce all of their names and I’m nervous about getting volleyball started and I have to make copies and memorize my copy number and email address and grade book password and I don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow.  I couldn’t eat this morning because I was nervous; I’ve never felt like that before.  I can’t understand what the kids are saying and I need more posters and I need a projector and I wonder if the kids like me.  I’m not sure if I was mean enough.  I’m not sure I was nice enough.  I smiled too much.  My room smells funny and I can hear kids whispering.  I forgot to tell one class my name.  They think I’m young, they actually listen to me, I don’t have any textbooks and I’ve never actually taught Spanish before.  It’s really hot here, I didn’t go to the bathroom all day and I’ve never woken up so early in my life,” I said, making up for 16 years worth of missing details.

I finally had details to tell her and a long enough car ride to convey them all.  In fact, I had so many details and so much sensory stimulation that I was all over the place.  This question, “How was school today?” was too much and made me analyze too many things.  Eventually my mom and I worked things out and simplified the questions to the two most important in her mind. “Did you have a good day?” and “Did you eat today?”  These were manageable; one being so vague that there was no way that the words “good” or “bad” could even come close to describing my day and the second was concrete enough to actually have a correct or incorrect answer.

 

“How was the first day of school?” my mom asked.

“There is a student in my third period that I’m worried about,” I said.  “I need 3 more desks and a new AA battery for my clock.” 

“That’s it?” she replied. “What did you do?  Who did you see?  How were your classes?”

“They were ok.” I replied.

After 180 days of practicing giving a lesson I am much more attuned to details and concrete changes that need to be made.  My sensory overload has subsided, I can skirt my way around some of the most bizarrely spelled names, and my classroom itself looks tremendously more professional than it did last year.  I have taken my eye off of the big picture during the day and yet I have a much clearer vision of what they future will look like and where my class is headed.  This year I was a lot more critical of my first day.  I wasn’t trying to survive it or trying to establish my subject as a legitimate academic class.  I noticed things that could be problems in the future, I moved students that I thought needed to be in the front, and I cold-called students for answers to set the tone that everyone will participate. 

In fact, I found that the first day had almost lost its sheen.  It wasn’t the magical day where anything could happen.  It was a day, well-planned and focused, that was the first coordinated step between myself and 175 students towards learning the Spanish language.

Great successssss!

As in many aspects of life, it's the little things that make the biggest differences.  I was fortunate to have many successes this year but, like my "failures", I do not tend to hold onto them for very long.  Dwelling on a specific success could lead a teacher to think that he or she has things under control.  I have seen the result of this mindset and it is chaos.  At the end of the day, if I want to come back the next day, I consider that a success.  I felt that way almost every day this year.  That was my greatest success of the year. 

In terms of individual student performance, one particular instance stands out.  As students were filing into the classroom I was straightening papers that had just been turned in and greeting students with my daily, "Buenos días."  Most students mumbled their responses and continued on their way to the bookshelf to pick up their workbooks.  One student responded with a pretty clear, "Buenos días" of his own. 

Sensing his interest, I decided to push it further.  "¿Cómo estás?" I asked him.

"Muy bien," he responded mechanically.  Not bad I thought to myself, but that's just practice, no real comprehension yet.  "¿Y tú?" he asked me.

Well played, Jalen.  He hadn't been thrown off yet, or intimidated by the back and forth.  "Pues," I replied, "Tengo hambre."  (I'm hungry)  This should get him.  I responded using a different verb. tWe've already discussed how he is doing.  This is where conversations with students, even in English, can get awkward. 

And then... he wowed me.  "A mi también," he replied, rubbing his stomach in the classic hungry motion and taking his seat.  It was great.  A well-thought out back and forth, student engagement, student interest and application of what we have learned, and a positive student-teacher conversation. 

Anyone that has studied foreign language knows that the most difficult part is often utilizing what you know in a conversational setting.  I know that my students know vocabulary words and they know the process for conjugating a verb.  But, none of that really matters if they can not put their knowledge to use in a conversation.

We work hard everyday to further our students' knowledge, to engage them in lessons, and convince them to buy what we are selling; that someday it will be important in their lives.  I'm not looking for a student to translate Don Quixote, I'm looking for a student to come in, take the information provided, make it his own, and someday use it for his own benefit and enjoyment.  I actually got to witness this moment and it carried me way past lunch. 

The Unpaved Road is Full of Good Intentions

Generally speaking I had a successful year.  I was able to accomplish several things that I wanted to and, most importantly, I think that I laid a groundwork for next year.  Regardless, everyday included a multitude of "failures" (although I prefer terms like mishandled opportunities, unexpected challenges, and the ever popular opportunities for me to grow as a person).  Letting these things roll of my back was integral to my survival this year and my maintenance of a positive attitude.  The "failures" that hurt the most are the ones in which I allowed myself to have expectations; I should have known better.

I'd had the idea since Christmas Break of doing some sort of book club with several of my sophomore students.  The sophomores that I taught this year were particularly bright (in order for them to take Spanish as sophomores they have to have a certain amount of flexibility in their schedules) and I particularly connected with one group of girls.  At the end of the year I decided to spring this idea on the girls with the help of another MTC teacher.  We chose the book, scheduled meeting times at the library, and created a schedule.  There was just one problem... UPS. 

My mother has always been a HUGE fan of the Postal Service in general.  She once insisted on mailing me a Valentine's Day present even though she was coming to visit me.  I think she was convinced that it would arrive more safely than if she took it on the plane.  Anyway, I trustingly put my faith in Barnes and Noble's Express Delivery service, missing out on a sizable discount,   Everything was perfectly coordinated so that the students in book club would pick up their books when they picked up their report cards from school.  Unfortunately, the books were shipped to Maryland.

Attempting to contact these students and notify them of the change in schedule gave me yet another insight into the lives of my students.  Most of my students do not have their own cell phones, nor do they have home phones.  The school does not have up to date addresses for most of the students, hence they come to school to pick up their report cards.  The frustration that I felt at not being able to contact these students was incredible.  What if this had been an emergency?  What if something had happened at school and I needed to get in touch with their parents? 

The rural lifestyle certainly adds to this difficulty.  "How do I get in touch with So-and-So?"  I asked a volleyball player last week.  "I'll tell her at church on Sunday," she replied.   In the age of e-mail access on cell phones it is difficult to reconfigure time frames and organize schedules in person only.  It requires a level of foresight and organization for which I simply was not prepared

I am very disappointed that the book club did not happen this year.  What is most disappointing is that I feel responsible.  Of course, I learned something from this that I can utilize in the future; anything that I am planning will be planned significantly in advance.  I will make sure that as few things as possible are left to be done outside of school. And, of course, I am re-evaluating my relationship with mail delivery services. 

One Done and Speechless

Teaching Spanish allowed me to better understand where my students are coming from, how they can be 16, 17 years old and not be able to write a complete sentence, make their subjects and verbs agree, or know seemingly basic words like "overthrow".  I could especially see the glaring effects of absenteeism on students' abilities.  I was their foundation for language.  I couldn't help but correlate their development in Spanish, including literacy, with their development in English.  On the one hand, this was great because I got to create the foundation upon which all of their other abilities are built.  Unfortunately, this also means that there is only one person to blame for those students who did not develop these skills- me.  In spite of that, I have been impressed with the level of comprehension and vocabulary that my students have developed in a second language.  I think that I have actually been able to witness the students' actual abilities because they are not already behind in the subject.

My students learned.  My students learned at a level and rate appropriate for their age- this was very important to me.  The textbook we use has the chapters broken down into two week increments and we completed 26 weeks worth of material in 32 weeks (subtracting the 4 weeks in the beginning of the year when we did not have the textbooks).  That's not bad.  Next year, we will do more.  I was concerned that students feel like they could master Spanish, that it would be fun but challenging, and that it would be taken seriously.  To that end, we started a bit slower than I would have liked as I made a conscious effort to earn my students' trust.  The transition to the textbooks then took a bit of time as we were not used to using them or the activities in them.  Next year, we will do more.

5 out of my 6 classes knew exactly what was expected of them, in terms of both academics and behavior.  I let my sixth period slide.  They did not learn at the same pace, they were not held to the same standards, and they did not succeed at the same rate as the rest of my students.  I saw exactly what can happen to students in the development process if they are in a class with other unfocused students or if they do not have a firm foundation for their academics.  Their performance suffered significantly and this must be improved upon next year.  Next year, I will do more.

It is almost too soon for me to reflect on my students' performance this year as I am still knee-deep in final exams.  I am proud and not a little bit surprised that I have survived this year and that I am excited to go back for a second.  I see lots of room for improvement but I can leave my students over the summer knowing that I did my best with them this year.  Next year, we will do more. 

Summer School

Throughout the course of the year there were several things that I realized I needed to improve and summer school is certainly my earliest opportunity to work on them.

1. Procedures shmocedures
I had a few procedures this year that worked well for me.  I did not loan out pens or pencils and I did not have a sharpener, I had scrap paper available for students without paper, I required a very specific binder set-up, and I stamped the finished Do Now assignments every class period before we went over them, to name a few.  There are, however, some procedures that I would like to try out during summer school to fix some other issues.  I would like to institute a bathroom policy in which you may not use the bathroom in the first or last 15 minutes of class and then, only if you have finished your work.  I would also like to be more conscientous with my use of tickets and marbles.  During the course of a class I often got too caught up in the lesson to recall these tangible rewards. 

2. Right is right
I often let students get away with answers that are somewhat right or mostly right.  In order to avoid the dreaded moment of silence (or in same cases, room for chaos to erupt) I often end up doing most of the thinking work by filling in any blanks.  I have learned this year the importance of letting students work those things out for themselves.  Our students' trains of thought are often erratic and unfocused.  Forcing students to come up with a completely correct answer forces them to finish their thought process.  Additionally, it is important that students use complete thoughts to answer questions as it tremendously helps them when they have to move from oral to written activities.  I intend to practice this over the summer by drawing out students' thought processes, allowing them time to truly think, and making students repeat their entire answer in a complete sentence when they have finished.

3. Cold Calling
I have used the cold calling technique all year in various forms but I really became aware of its effect in the last month of school.  As the classroom got hotter, in particular, students began to doze off or lose focus.  I've noticed the huge shift in energy that consistent cold calling has.  Students are engaged, if for nothing else than the fact that they don't want to be "shamed" by not knowing an answer, or not paying attention.  Additionally, the class feels as if it is moving more quickly which is mentally important for students as well; they leave class feeling as if the have accomplished something.

Summer school will be an interesting stage on which to try these techniques for a variety of reasons but I look forward to testing them out in any capacity.

Dear Second Years,

Dear Second Years,
First of all, I'd like to thank you for all of the help and support that you have provided me during my first year.  Entering Oxford for the first time I was nervous, to say the least.  You made me feel so welcome it almost made me more nervous.

Before my first summer school lesson I worried that things would not go smoothly.  You reassured me and then told me just how terribly wrong things could possibly go.  More terribly than I could even imagine.

You sat through my first summer school lessons and somehow kept your eyes open and even gave me feedback and lied and said that you were yawning because you had been up late the night before.

Before my first day of school I worried that my rules weren't right, that my principal would hate me, and that my kids would be out to get me.  Then you detailed exactly how these things would happen and I was relieved that at least I would be aware of my own path to destruction.

Before Thanksgiving I thought I might not make it and you told me that everything was better after Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, and then Spring Break, and then Prom.  And I believed you every time.

I thought I was doing a decent job and then you told me something awesome that you were doing in your classroom and I knew that I could do a lot more.  More than anything you have reminded me that I am not alone in this process.  You are survivors of the first year and even though the fact that you are not as bogged down by the issues of your first year anymore and I resented you for that you were also reminders that next year, if I could just get to next year, I too would be on top of things.  You have shown me that this can be done, and done well.  In spite of your modesty you have worked hard and you have positively affected the lives of students.  That has reminded me that the opportunity that we have in front of us on a daily basis is much bigger than feeling tired or writing lesson plans or school district paper work.  We are in the business of teaching children, for however brief a time, and as silly as it may seem on a daily basis, that is a serious business.

I wish you all the best of luck in anything and everything that you choose to do next.  No matter how far you go and how quickly you get there, I hope that this experience has meant something to you and that you feel that your time here was, in some way, worthwhile.  If nothing else, you probably have stories for a lifetime!

See you at the volleyball tournament next summer,
Stacy 

Just for Sport

This past week Christine hosted the first ever soccer practice at Byhalia High School.  The sign-up was incredible, over 60 kids, and the turn-out was very strong as well.  At least 45 students, boys and girls, showed up to the first practice.  Most of them had never played soccer in their lives but that did not stop them.  They may have been there in jean shorts but, hey, they were out there.

The enthusiasm with which soccer was met was surprising to me.  After all, this is football country, and I feel like I'm constantly reading that soccer is just never going to catch on in the US to the extent that it is popular in the rest of the world (after recently teaching my students about the metric system I can't help but see a strong correlation there).  Anyway, I guess I can't really comment on the state of the popularity of soccer in the US but I can comment on the popularity of viable after school activities for students.  Our students crave these opportunities.  They want to stay after school, they want to participate in activities with other students, they don't mind if an adult is in charge and if that adult will give them some attention, that's even better.  The number of after-school activities is extremely limited and the addition of even one or two was a cause for celebration, at least last Wednesday.

While watching "soccer practice" I realized just how little athletic instruction the students have been given.  This saddened me greatly as athletics have played such a large role in my life.  More than anything, driving home from practice I was thankful for several things.  PE was always taken seriously, at every school that I attended.  In elementary school I looked forward to playing games like Capture the Flag, Scooter Soccer, and even Parachutes.  In middle school we were introduced to "the Fun Run" which was a 1 mile timed cross-country run.  For most of us, this was the first time anyone had ever timed us running and it was also our introduction to running a distance further than Tag permitted.  In high school we got aggressive.  Gym Class at my high school was purely strength and conditioning, whether you played a sport or not.  We were introduced to weight-lifting techniques from bench press to power cleans.  We also learned to calculate our 1-Rep Max and how to develop a workout based on that in order to increase our strength.  At this point physical education may not have included playing any sports but, for the most part, we had turned that responsibility over to another very important group. 

We were very fortunate to have several opportunities to play organized sports in my town.  We could play town sports through the Boys' and Girls' Club, county sports through the Department of Recreation, or travel sports through several different organizations.  Most of these organizations relied heavily on volunteers to do everything from driving kids to practice to coaching the teams.  Outside of Gym Class, this is where we learned the fundamentals of sports.  Everyone played organized basketball at some point and most people also played some soccer and some softball or baseball. 

I am convinced that the effects of this experience were overwhelmingly positive for most the kids that I grew up with and are sorely lacking in my current community.  The positives are numerous.
1) Socialization- Kids learn how to work together blah di blah it's true and important.  Also, sports can provide a good way for boys and girls to interact in a non-sexual way.
2) Parental involvement- Parents have a means of emotionally supporting their child by cheering them on (of course there are numerous stories of this backfiring but these are the exception, not the rule). 
3) Positive role-models- Whether these are the coaches or older players their impact resounds.
4) Building of self-confidence- This is especially important for students who have not found self-confidence in other areas.
5) Goal setting and achievement- This is very important in academic development.
6) Channeling competitiveness- Athletics are often a great outlet for many different emotions.

I know that I am biased in terms of how important athletics are but I have noticed a strong correlation between kids who are involved in sports and those students who are the most outgoing and confident at school.  Even though these students are not always the greatest students in terms of academics, they do usually have a greater understanding of how to interact with others.  In the long run I feel like these students have a much greater chance at being successful.  It is sad that our students have been robbed of the joy that organized athletics brings to so many children.  Simply playing is, of course, great as well and provides many of the same benefits but you miss out on the critical aspect of having a coach.  Additionally, in some ways it is much easier to participate in organized sports because they usually instruct you how to play a sport that you may not be familiar with and they provide you with the always important teammates and competitors.  Unfortunately, it can be much easier to play video games.