Nothing I planned to do actually happened. Before coming to Darwin, I did quite a bit of brainstorming and vague planning for the poetry unit I knew I was going to have to teach. I talked to one of my professors about it, planned activities from a poetry book one of my professors had given me, and even brainstormed lesson ideas with Evan on a visit to Grand Rapids. I had a perfect poetry workshopping unit designed that was all about learning how to feel confident writing, reading, and analyzing poetry, as well as working with their peers. However, just like when I arrived and found out I was also teaching the urbanization of China, the content of the poetry unit I was going to teach was no where near as in depth as I had planned for. Though the lessons were scaffolded and differentiated differently for the different levels of classes I taught, we spent 1 week on visual devices (similes, metaphors, personification), 1 week on sound devices (rhyme, repetition, onomatopoeia, assonance, alliteration), 1 week assessing these skills by analyzing poems, and 2 weeks writing and presenting a poetry portfolio. Or at least that was the plan. All in all, I did teach every day all day since the second day I was in Darwin. Though Catherine stayed in the classroom with me most of the time, she was working on marking student work or doing final reports for the students. I was always fully in charge, and the students respected that from the start, surprisingly.
It is typical to use worksheets and the textbook in classes throughout this middle school. So when I first started teaching the visual and sound devices, it was recommended that I just use worksheet resources I found online as well as any activities from the textbook that were appropriate. Though my higher level students could complete the textbook activities, my lower level class was going to struggle. So I was teaching the same content, but in very different ways. As I continued through the poetry unit I constantly battled my lower level students lack of interest in poetry. Though I wanted to get them engaged, there was not much interesting about simple worksheets and tasks that I was being asked to do. Finally, after having conversations with some of the students (who may not have done any work at all but were constantly talking to me about their lives, about my life, and about America) I realized that I needed to take a completely different approach if we were going to have these students turn in a poetry portfolio by the end of the term. This lesson I took two students' suggestions and played rap battles on YouTube for the class. Even though some of the other teachers in the school thought this lesson was inappropriate, too noisy, or non-academic, the students loved it, and they were able to have discussions about how it relates to poetry. At the end of the lesson, though we watched rap battles for the better part of the hour, the students developed an argument via a list of bullet points on the white board about how rap was like poetry and why rap should be taught as a type of poetry in this school. This lesson actually engaged this class of students. Now, it is important to understand that this group of 28 students have about 4 students who ever submit any work, about 8 students who can actually sit in their seat for an entire lesson, and approximately 0.5 students who can sit through a lesson without talking, running around the room, making a mess with food, etc. The day after the rap lesson though, they all showed up to class on time, in a seat, with their attention directly focused on what the lesson for the day would be. So, after I showed them one more rap battle (between two high school students), they were asked to write their own raps to battle for their final assessment. I could not just show them videos the entire lesson again, but I did play some rap music quietly in the background to inspire some creativity for their own raps. I also allowed them to listen to their headphones (against school policy...whoops) to get inspiration as well, so long as they were going to have a rap completed. The higher level students did not have any interest in watching rap battles, and they actually found them quite offensive, so for their assessment, they wrote 5 poems and presented one to the class in a multimodal presentation. After giving them a lesson where I asked them to work in groups, respond to different prompts, and create a brief presentation, they received very poor grades but a lot of feedback on how to make presentations more acceptable, presentable, engaging, and influential. This was a big deal, as these kids had never received a B from their teacher before, and no one received higher than a C on their presentation from me. It was good for them though obviously, because their end of the term poetry assessments were fantastic. In addition to the rap lesson during the poetry unit, I also included other music analysis lessons to engage all of the levels of students, a "chance poem" activity where students had to use their birthdate to look up pages in a book to find specific words that they then had to use in a poem, poetry bingo games with chocolate prizes, and an introduction to slam poetry.
For geography, I was to teach a 5 week lesson on urbanization. Before I came, students had learned urbanization in Australia, so I was to teach urbanization in China and if there was extra time I suggested I teach them a bit about America. I had to do a lot of research on China because I know about as much about urbanization in China as I do about the aliens that live on Jupiter. However, I did find it quite interesting once I started doing my research. I found information on why farmers were moving from the rural areas to the cities, how their lifestyles changed, what problems they faced, and how they struggled to build relationships. I also taught my students about different cultural practices in China such as the one-child policy (now changing to two-child), the hukou system, ghost cities, and hutangs. I showed a variety of videos and presented the information in a variety of ways (WebQuests, maps, graphs, PowerPoints) to help the students become engaged. Though they were not interested in all of the information, the videos that described specific people who had moved from the farms to the cities, the ghost cities explanations, and the videos on the one-child policy were fascinating to all of my students. I was quite impressed! And then of course, I taught the students a bit about America, asking them what they were most interested in learning about. We talked a bit about politics (because they wanted to know about Donald Trump), a bit about racism (because they wanted to know about the Black Lives Matter movement), a bit about gun control (because they wanted to know about the mass shootings that are occurring), and a bit about the classes that I teach and how the students in America are different from them. Their final assessment for this was to create a PowerPoint presentation that outlined the push and pull factors of Australia (which they learned prior to my arrival), the push and pull factors of China, and a comparison between the two countries.
Besides the content, some of the struggles that I faced most often was the fact that the way that the classrooms were set up, other classes could so easily interfere with the class that I was trying to teach. Because there were only partial walls between classes, if another class was doing group work or watching a movie or having a party, my students were never going to be able to hear me giving a lecture. In a similar way, students wandered constantly, and since I had some fun with my students (especially during the rap segment of the unit) students from other classes were constantly coming and going from my class. It was definitely an environment where you had to be flexible because even if I had planned a lecture, I often had to give the students independent assignments or assign a video to relay the information instead because of the classes next door. Another interesting fact about teaching here is that it is not common for teachers to stand at the front of the room in front of a group of students. Instead, the teacher sits at the desk and teaches from the seat, either behind the desk or behind a laptop. This was something I had to get used to and changed as much as I could. It is also not common for teachers to walk around and monitor students when they are working independently. Again, this is a habit I tried to break my students into because I wanted to be engaged in what my students were doing--not sitting at a desk waiting for them to come ask me questions or waiting to scream at students for not doing their work and being too loud.
Some of the highlights:
There are a lot of practices I do not necessarily agree with that happen at this middle school--like streaming students and the attitudes of some of the teachers based on the level of the students, and the fact that most academics end week 8 but school continues until the end of week 10. However, I learned a lot about why we do things the way that we do in the U.S., and I learned a lot about how to build relationships with students in the short time I was here. I learned a lot about who I want to be as a teacher, and I learned a lot about how effective I can be as long as I show students I care. Perhaps the most important thing I learned, and the thing I am most thankful for is that I was able to teach students of such a wide range of academic level. This taught me not only how to differentiate and scaffold instruction for students, but it taught me how important it is to meet students where they are, at their level, and how effective this can be, as well as how easy it is to then gain students' trust and respect. I may have only been with these students for 6 weeks, but the relationships we built were so strong that we were able to be successful and have fun at the same time, two qualities that most of these students do not often experience in their schooling career. So even though nothing went as planned, it went far better than I could have imagined after Day 1. Those kids won me over; almost convinced me to move to Australia. Almost.
It is typical to use worksheets and the textbook in classes throughout this middle school. So when I first started teaching the visual and sound devices, it was recommended that I just use worksheet resources I found online as well as any activities from the textbook that were appropriate. Though my higher level students could complete the textbook activities, my lower level class was going to struggle. So I was teaching the same content, but in very different ways. As I continued through the poetry unit I constantly battled my lower level students lack of interest in poetry. Though I wanted to get them engaged, there was not much interesting about simple worksheets and tasks that I was being asked to do. Finally, after having conversations with some of the students (who may not have done any work at all but were constantly talking to me about their lives, about my life, and about America) I realized that I needed to take a completely different approach if we were going to have these students turn in a poetry portfolio by the end of the term. This lesson I took two students' suggestions and played rap battles on YouTube for the class. Even though some of the other teachers in the school thought this lesson was inappropriate, too noisy, or non-academic, the students loved it, and they were able to have discussions about how it relates to poetry. At the end of the lesson, though we watched rap battles for the better part of the hour, the students developed an argument via a list of bullet points on the white board about how rap was like poetry and why rap should be taught as a type of poetry in this school. This lesson actually engaged this class of students. Now, it is important to understand that this group of 28 students have about 4 students who ever submit any work, about 8 students who can actually sit in their seat for an entire lesson, and approximately 0.5 students who can sit through a lesson without talking, running around the room, making a mess with food, etc. The day after the rap lesson though, they all showed up to class on time, in a seat, with their attention directly focused on what the lesson for the day would be. So, after I showed them one more rap battle (between two high school students), they were asked to write their own raps to battle for their final assessment. I could not just show them videos the entire lesson again, but I did play some rap music quietly in the background to inspire some creativity for their own raps. I also allowed them to listen to their headphones (against school policy...whoops) to get inspiration as well, so long as they were going to have a rap completed. The higher level students did not have any interest in watching rap battles, and they actually found them quite offensive, so for their assessment, they wrote 5 poems and presented one to the class in a multimodal presentation. After giving them a lesson where I asked them to work in groups, respond to different prompts, and create a brief presentation, they received very poor grades but a lot of feedback on how to make presentations more acceptable, presentable, engaging, and influential. This was a big deal, as these kids had never received a B from their teacher before, and no one received higher than a C on their presentation from me. It was good for them though obviously, because their end of the term poetry assessments were fantastic. In addition to the rap lesson during the poetry unit, I also included other music analysis lessons to engage all of the levels of students, a "chance poem" activity where students had to use their birthdate to look up pages in a book to find specific words that they then had to use in a poem, poetry bingo games with chocolate prizes, and an introduction to slam poetry.
For geography, I was to teach a 5 week lesson on urbanization. Before I came, students had learned urbanization in Australia, so I was to teach urbanization in China and if there was extra time I suggested I teach them a bit about America. I had to do a lot of research on China because I know about as much about urbanization in China as I do about the aliens that live on Jupiter. However, I did find it quite interesting once I started doing my research. I found information on why farmers were moving from the rural areas to the cities, how their lifestyles changed, what problems they faced, and how they struggled to build relationships. I also taught my students about different cultural practices in China such as the one-child policy (now changing to two-child), the hukou system, ghost cities, and hutangs. I showed a variety of videos and presented the information in a variety of ways (WebQuests, maps, graphs, PowerPoints) to help the students become engaged. Though they were not interested in all of the information, the videos that described specific people who had moved from the farms to the cities, the ghost cities explanations, and the videos on the one-child policy were fascinating to all of my students. I was quite impressed! And then of course, I taught the students a bit about America, asking them what they were most interested in learning about. We talked a bit about politics (because they wanted to know about Donald Trump), a bit about racism (because they wanted to know about the Black Lives Matter movement), a bit about gun control (because they wanted to know about the mass shootings that are occurring), and a bit about the classes that I teach and how the students in America are different from them. Their final assessment for this was to create a PowerPoint presentation that outlined the push and pull factors of Australia (which they learned prior to my arrival), the push and pull factors of China, and a comparison between the two countries.
Besides the content, some of the struggles that I faced most often was the fact that the way that the classrooms were set up, other classes could so easily interfere with the class that I was trying to teach. Because there were only partial walls between classes, if another class was doing group work or watching a movie or having a party, my students were never going to be able to hear me giving a lecture. In a similar way, students wandered constantly, and since I had some fun with my students (especially during the rap segment of the unit) students from other classes were constantly coming and going from my class. It was definitely an environment where you had to be flexible because even if I had planned a lecture, I often had to give the students independent assignments or assign a video to relay the information instead because of the classes next door. Another interesting fact about teaching here is that it is not common for teachers to stand at the front of the room in front of a group of students. Instead, the teacher sits at the desk and teaches from the seat, either behind the desk or behind a laptop. This was something I had to get used to and changed as much as I could. It is also not common for teachers to walk around and monitor students when they are working independently. Again, this is a habit I tried to break my students into because I wanted to be engaged in what my students were doing--not sitting at a desk waiting for them to come ask me questions or waiting to scream at students for not doing their work and being too loud.
Some of the highlights:
- Grace making me two bracelets during their Friday afternoon lessons where they had free time to play games, and the stories she told me about her life.
- Jackson spending all lesson every lesson asking me questions about America or Googling different places I have been/where I live: Do you really have Wall-Mart? Do they sell guns at Wall-mart? Have you eaten McDonalds? Have you been there (every single picture/video I showed from the U.S.)? What high school do you teach at? Do they have gangs in Detroit? Has anyone ever brought a gun to your class?
- Rhys completing his work because he said he wanted to make me proud; he wanted me to like him, he said.
- Laurence sprinting from across the courtyard, grabbing my arm and pulling me back, when he thought I was leaving school and going to miss his class. I was really just going to the toilet.
- The entire 8.8 class standing at the screen watching the rap battles. Everyone engaged. Everyone interested. Everyone paying attention. Everyone silent.
- Students trying to do an American accent
- Ahmed waving at me from the bus stop every morning.
- 8.1 planning their own Christmas party: one girl made Jell-O shots (non-alcoholic of course) and they all stood together in a circle to take them. It was a scene from a party.
- Students looking up the schools I've worked at and where I live via google earth, and constantly asking me questions about everything around each location: Have you been here Miss? Have you been here? How about here?
- Seeing Laurence and Kyle on the bus back from Causarina over the weekend.
- Leah and Angelina running up to hug me, dripping wet, when I visited them at their waterpark excursion the last week of classes since I could not go as a chaperone with them.
- The Body Shop gift and heartfelt, touching letter from Shanley
- The Christmas card from 8.8 where they begged me not to leave and told me how much I changed their lives
There are a lot of practices I do not necessarily agree with that happen at this middle school--like streaming students and the attitudes of some of the teachers based on the level of the students, and the fact that most academics end week 8 but school continues until the end of week 10. However, I learned a lot about why we do things the way that we do in the U.S., and I learned a lot about how to build relationships with students in the short time I was here. I learned a lot about who I want to be as a teacher, and I learned a lot about how effective I can be as long as I show students I care. Perhaps the most important thing I learned, and the thing I am most thankful for is that I was able to teach students of such a wide range of academic level. This taught me not only how to differentiate and scaffold instruction for students, but it taught me how important it is to meet students where they are, at their level, and how effective this can be, as well as how easy it is to then gain students' trust and respect. I may have only been with these students for 6 weeks, but the relationships we built were so strong that we were able to be successful and have fun at the same time, two qualities that most of these students do not often experience in their schooling career. So even though nothing went as planned, it went far better than I could have imagined after Day 1. Those kids won me over; almost convinced me to move to Australia. Almost.