Thursday, April 19th (4-6)
All staff and students have pseudonyms.
4pm
Someone comes in and tells me that I'm in charge until an English teacher gets here. She tells me that they're understaffed so Mr. Jackson is helping her with registration in the front. I tell her that I can do that.
Two students come in and Mrs. Smith, the CCHS math teacher, is still here collecting her things before leaving for the night. I tell the two students, Deanna and Anna, that we don't have Chromebooks yet since there's no teacher in the room yet. Anna tells me that she just saw Mr. Meyer in the foyer with the Chromebooks.
Dr. Meyer comes in; she says, "I'm glad you're here since Mr. Jackson is up front."
After a few minutes, Mr. Jackson comes in and sets his bag and coffee down in front of the teacher desktop computer that he normally uses; Mrs. Brighten comes in and we all say hello to one another.
There are 7 students in the room now; two on Chromebooks and five on desktop computers. Joking, Dr. Meyer speaks Spanish with Deanna, an African American student. She says that she can't speak Spanish even though she completed all of her Spanish classes. Dr. Meyer looks at Anna, a Hispanic student, and asks her if she speaks Spanish at home. She answers with a short, "All the time."
Mr. Jackson gives a student a password. He introduces himself to me again, and I remind him that I've met him before. There are now 9 students in the room.
A student I've never met before comes in with food; she's wearing a Panera shirt. As she sits at one of the tables closer to the front, I wonder if she just got off of work. I'm sure she did.
Mr. Jackson and Dr. Meyer talk about a student and their post-test grade. Mr. Jackson reminds the students about the no phone policy. Kevin, who works quietly beside Mr. Jackson's computer, asks him if he could go over the questions he got incorrect on his quiz. They do; Kevin only got two questions wrong.
As students continue to talk and mess with their cellphones, Mr. Jackson gets frustrated. He decides to move a tall chair in the corner of the room behind him to the space between the door and the long row of desktop computers. He takes out a laptop to work on and sits right beside those students who are continuously on their phones. These students mutter to each other while Deanna and Anna laugh about it from their seats at a table. He is clearly serious about the policy; I wonder if this crackdown is from the administrators asking the teachers to be more consistent with enforcing the policy.
Frank and another student I've never seen before comes in the room.
4:30pm
Mr. Meyer walks around the room asking If anyone has any questions. She hands out pens, highlighters, and pencils to those students who ask for them. Mr. Jackson walks back and forth from his place at the front of the room to the desktop computer.
Dr. Meyer shows me a picture on Anna's phone; it is a picture of her annotated notes with a handwritten chart containing grammar symbols and their meanings. She shows Mr. Jackson the picture also.
Mr. Jackson asks the students that are still talking to get to work. They say, "We are." Mr. Jackson tells them to work without talking.
A student needs to email his essay to the teachers; Mr. Jackson turns off the school block on Gmail so that he can.
Dr. Meyer's phone rings loudly, and she runs to her bag to turn it off. After doing this, she goes back to the student to read his essay and help if she needs to.
I can from my position in the classroom two students that are clicking through their lessons and not reading them. Deanna asks me for a password for her quiz, but I tell her that I don't have it. She asks Mr. Jackson if he can type it in for her.
Mr. Jackson tells the students talking to get to work again. They suck their teeth and groan; he tells them that they can leave if they don't like it. Dr. Meyer is still helping the student with his essay as another student comes in. There are now 14 students in the classroom. Dr. Meyer is done working with the student's essay; she goes around the room asking if anyone needs help. They don't so she returns to her table.
5pm
Dr. Meyer helps Anna with a question she has on the quiz she's working on. Mr. Jackson walks around the room and reminds the students to put up their phones. He then leaves the room.
Kevin raises his hand; I walk to his computer and asks him what he needs. He has a question about the question he's on. He says he thinks it's either A or C, but he's not sure. I look at the title of the book; I've never read it. I tell him that since I've never read the book, I don't want to give him a wrong answer. I tell him that he should ask one of the other teachers. I feel bad that I can't help him.
Mr. Jackson comes back in and helps a student with a question about colons. Kevin, who did not ask another teacher and chose between the two answers he thinks is right, is done with his quiz. He missed two questions so he asks Mr. Jackson if he can see the ones he got wrong. I hear that the question he wanted my help with was one of his missed questions. Mr. Jackson tells two students that keep talking to stop. One of them says, "Oh my God;" Mr. Jackson says, "He's my God too, and He wants you to be quiet."
One of the students cuss loudly; Mr. Jackson looks at him and says, "I get it but if I can't do it, you can't."
A student, Phil, raises his hand, and I go over to his computer to see what he needs. He points to the screen, which is a blue and yellow box with text that is cut-off by the edge of the screen. I can tell this isn't how it's supposed to look. He tells me that he's taking the 9th-grade assessment. I ask Mr. Jackson to help him because I don't know how to fix this technical problem. Mr. Jackson logs onto his computer and looks at Phil's student account through his teacher view. He says that the test should not look like that.
5:30pm
After Mr. Jackson fixes Phil's test, he leaves the room. Dr. Meyer goes over a quiz with Frank. Deanna looks at me and asks, about Phil's test, "What test is that?"
I say, "I think it's an end-of-course test." She says they must have change the way it looks because she's never seen it like that before.
Mr. Jackson comes back in, and Dr. Meyer is still working with Frank, going over his quiz.
There are now 14 students in the classroom. The students work mostly in silence until the break is called at 6pm.
Reflections:
From our class discussions, I thought about standardize testing earlier. With Foothills, students have their notes and the teachers' help to take tests. They are supported until the time they take their final test for the class. In this way, students are not hurt by bad or irrelevant questions. There is a teacher who can work with them one-on-one. They also give them credit for questions that they discuss depending on if the student did know it or if it was just an unclear question.
Another issue that today brought up was the working students again. I think a lot of these students work during the day and come here in the afternoon and night to do work. I saw a student with a Zaxby's shirt on in addition to the one wearing the Panera one. There's no way of knowing how many students worked and then changed before coming here.
I also thought about the technology that this kind of program incorporates within learning. Computers must be used in order to complete a lesson, quiz, test, and class. I think this is great, since we are a technology-obsessed society. The students know how to use it and they love it. But what happens when something goes wrong with the technology, like in Phil's case today? As Mr. Jackson worked on fixing it, Phil sat looking at his computer screen, unable to continue working. This is the only downside to being so heavily-reliant on computers and technology. But I think there are good qualities, such as with the student that needed both teachers to look over his essay. Technology, such as Google, made it possible to for the student to share the paper easily and quickly with them.
The issue of being engaged with the material made me think of one of the books my book club read, Daniel Willingham's Why Don't Students Like School? While it does not directly relate, as this was about the cognitive thinking that students are required to do in school that causes their lack of interest, I think this issue is interesting with the Foothills program. Why are students more willing to come work on a computer? Could it be that they don't have to deal with a classroom of peers and a teacher possibility distracting them from their work? Maybe they'd rather focus on a computer instead of a teacher. Maybe they like the pacing of Foothills and the ability to complete classes at as fast or slow as they'd like.
4pm
Someone comes in and tells me that I'm in charge until an English teacher gets here. She tells me that they're understaffed so Mr. Jackson is helping her with registration in the front. I tell her that I can do that.
Two students come in and Mrs. Smith, the CCHS math teacher, is still here collecting her things before leaving for the night. I tell the two students, Deanna and Anna, that we don't have Chromebooks yet since there's no teacher in the room yet. Anna tells me that she just saw Mr. Meyer in the foyer with the Chromebooks.
Dr. Meyer comes in; she says, "I'm glad you're here since Mr. Jackson is up front."
After a few minutes, Mr. Jackson comes in and sets his bag and coffee down in front of the teacher desktop computer that he normally uses; Mrs. Brighten comes in and we all say hello to one another.
There are 7 students in the room now; two on Chromebooks and five on desktop computers. Joking, Dr. Meyer speaks Spanish with Deanna, an African American student. She says that she can't speak Spanish even though she completed all of her Spanish classes. Dr. Meyer looks at Anna, a Hispanic student, and asks her if she speaks Spanish at home. She answers with a short, "All the time."
Mr. Jackson gives a student a password. He introduces himself to me again, and I remind him that I've met him before. There are now 9 students in the room.
A student I've never met before comes in with food; she's wearing a Panera shirt. As she sits at one of the tables closer to the front, I wonder if she just got off of work. I'm sure she did.
Mr. Jackson and Dr. Meyer talk about a student and their post-test grade. Mr. Jackson reminds the students about the no phone policy. Kevin, who works quietly beside Mr. Jackson's computer, asks him if he could go over the questions he got incorrect on his quiz. They do; Kevin only got two questions wrong.
As students continue to talk and mess with their cellphones, Mr. Jackson gets frustrated. He decides to move a tall chair in the corner of the room behind him to the space between the door and the long row of desktop computers. He takes out a laptop to work on and sits right beside those students who are continuously on their phones. These students mutter to each other while Deanna and Anna laugh about it from their seats at a table. He is clearly serious about the policy; I wonder if this crackdown is from the administrators asking the teachers to be more consistent with enforcing the policy.
Frank and another student I've never seen before comes in the room.
4:30pm
Mr. Meyer walks around the room asking If anyone has any questions. She hands out pens, highlighters, and pencils to those students who ask for them. Mr. Jackson walks back and forth from his place at the front of the room to the desktop computer.
Dr. Meyer shows me a picture on Anna's phone; it is a picture of her annotated notes with a handwritten chart containing grammar symbols and their meanings. She shows Mr. Jackson the picture also.
Mr. Jackson asks the students that are still talking to get to work. They say, "We are." Mr. Jackson tells them to work without talking.
A student needs to email his essay to the teachers; Mr. Jackson turns off the school block on Gmail so that he can.
Dr. Meyer's phone rings loudly, and she runs to her bag to turn it off. After doing this, she goes back to the student to read his essay and help if she needs to.
I can from my position in the classroom two students that are clicking through their lessons and not reading them. Deanna asks me for a password for her quiz, but I tell her that I don't have it. She asks Mr. Jackson if he can type it in for her.
Mr. Jackson tells the students talking to get to work again. They suck their teeth and groan; he tells them that they can leave if they don't like it. Dr. Meyer is still helping the student with his essay as another student comes in. There are now 14 students in the classroom. Dr. Meyer is done working with the student's essay; she goes around the room asking if anyone needs help. They don't so she returns to her table.
5pm
Dr. Meyer helps Anna with a question she has on the quiz she's working on. Mr. Jackson walks around the room and reminds the students to put up their phones. He then leaves the room.
Kevin raises his hand; I walk to his computer and asks him what he needs. He has a question about the question he's on. He says he thinks it's either A or C, but he's not sure. I look at the title of the book; I've never read it. I tell him that since I've never read the book, I don't want to give him a wrong answer. I tell him that he should ask one of the other teachers. I feel bad that I can't help him.
Mr. Jackson comes back in and helps a student with a question about colons. Kevin, who did not ask another teacher and chose between the two answers he thinks is right, is done with his quiz. He missed two questions so he asks Mr. Jackson if he can see the ones he got wrong. I hear that the question he wanted my help with was one of his missed questions. Mr. Jackson tells two students that keep talking to stop. One of them says, "Oh my God;" Mr. Jackson says, "He's my God too, and He wants you to be quiet."
One of the students cuss loudly; Mr. Jackson looks at him and says, "I get it but if I can't do it, you can't."
A student, Phil, raises his hand, and I go over to his computer to see what he needs. He points to the screen, which is a blue and yellow box with text that is cut-off by the edge of the screen. I can tell this isn't how it's supposed to look. He tells me that he's taking the 9th-grade assessment. I ask Mr. Jackson to help him because I don't know how to fix this technical problem. Mr. Jackson logs onto his computer and looks at Phil's student account through his teacher view. He says that the test should not look like that.
5:30pm
After Mr. Jackson fixes Phil's test, he leaves the room. Dr. Meyer goes over a quiz with Frank. Deanna looks at me and asks, about Phil's test, "What test is that?"
I say, "I think it's an end-of-course test." She says they must have change the way it looks because she's never seen it like that before.
Mr. Jackson comes back in, and Dr. Meyer is still working with Frank, going over his quiz.
There are now 14 students in the classroom. The students work mostly in silence until the break is called at 6pm.
Reflections:
From our class discussions, I thought about standardize testing earlier. With Foothills, students have their notes and the teachers' help to take tests. They are supported until the time they take their final test for the class. In this way, students are not hurt by bad or irrelevant questions. There is a teacher who can work with them one-on-one. They also give them credit for questions that they discuss depending on if the student did know it or if it was just an unclear question.
Another issue that today brought up was the working students again. I think a lot of these students work during the day and come here in the afternoon and night to do work. I saw a student with a Zaxby's shirt on in addition to the one wearing the Panera one. There's no way of knowing how many students worked and then changed before coming here.
I also thought about the technology that this kind of program incorporates within learning. Computers must be used in order to complete a lesson, quiz, test, and class. I think this is great, since we are a technology-obsessed society. The students know how to use it and they love it. But what happens when something goes wrong with the technology, like in Phil's case today? As Mr. Jackson worked on fixing it, Phil sat looking at his computer screen, unable to continue working. This is the only downside to being so heavily-reliant on computers and technology. But I think there are good qualities, such as with the student that needed both teachers to look over his essay. Technology, such as Google, made it possible to for the student to share the paper easily and quickly with them.
The issue of being engaged with the material made me think of one of the books my book club read, Daniel Willingham's Why Don't Students Like School? While it does not directly relate, as this was about the cognitive thinking that students are required to do in school that causes their lack of interest, I think this issue is interesting with the Foothills program. Why are students more willing to come work on a computer? Could it be that they don't have to deal with a classroom of peers and a teacher possibility distracting them from their work? Maybe they'd rather focus on a computer instead of a teacher. Maybe they like the pacing of Foothills and the ability to complete classes at as fast or slow as they'd like.
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