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Thadra Petkus's BlogPosted by Thadra Petkus In addition to maintaining a comfortable classroom, the environment is improved with positive interactions. Getting students on your side can only benefit the overall tone of the classroom and enhance learning experiences by encouraging students to take risks, give their opinions, and tackle difficult concepts. Teachers Model Positive Interactions Students respect the fact that once they enter the classroom, they may not yell or treat each other or me with disrespect. I model a friendly tone and the students, for the most part, mirror this tone. When something goes wrong, I laugh at my own mistakes or about things which are out of my control. I try to communicate that no one is perfect and that what I expect most out of myself and of others is that we try to do our best each day. Teacher introductions are a great way to establish this practice. Teachers Provide Encouragment and Share Decision-Making When something goes well, praise is abundant. I often congratulate my students for their insightful remarks; this goes a long way towards inciting positive classroom discussions and fosters creative thinking. Students know they can freely express their ideas and I reinforce the notion that there are many perspectives which can be explored regarding literature. Also, students’ suggestions are considered when making administrative decisions and they are given choices about assignments and test dates, etc. whenever possible. We make decisions together when appropriate. I like to think that students not only feel comfortable in my class, but they also feel respected and valued as individual members of a community learning environment. These are just a few ways in which I attempt to be a positive influence on students who enter my classroom, and I have found the rewards to be limitless.Posted by Thadra Petkus I have many interests. I love to go to concerts and listen to all kinds of music, such as rock, jazz, and blues. I also enjoy traveling, camping, and reading. Two years ago, I spent my summer studying in England. Before I started my classes, I enjoyed a thrilling week in London. I took many pictures, some of which are displayed around our classroom, and look forward to sharing my experiences with you. I am excited to learn about your interests and experiences because I find that my students teach me so much throughout the school year. I am looking forward to a great year. It’s important to have variety in the classroom, and I try to make each day interesting in some way. I expect that each of you as unique individuals will contribute to the positive classroom atmosphere. I also think it’s important to be a good listener and hope that you will participate in class discussions. Finally, I am almost always available for extra help, specific questions, or make-up work during lunch or after school. Sincerely, Ms. PetkusPosted by Thadra Petkus August 13, 2003 Dear Students, Hello! My name is Thadra Petkus, your English teacher for the 2004-2005 school year. I have lived in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and California, but I moved down to South Florida thirteen years ago for college. I attended Florida Atlantic University and majored in English. I recently completed my Master’s degree in Education, and I’ve been teaching for seven years. We will have a BookShare for any students who are interested in taking books home with them. The books located on the front bookshelves are yours to borrow during SSR as well; hopefully, some of you will also like to donate books you’ve enjoyed for others to read. I come from a medium-sized family and am a first generation American. I have a sister, Jessica, who is a preschool teacher, and a brother, Alex. I live with my three cats: Taziki, Hunterboy, and Bella. They keep me company when I’m grading essays in the middle of the night.Posted by Thadra Petkus Put simply, I hope that my impact as a teacher can best be described as positive. In as many ways as possible I like to create a positive environment for my students. Student-Friendly Space Encourages Ownership I continuously maintain and decorate my classroom according to the units we are exploring. I want my students to walk into my classroom and feel that it is as much their space, if not more, than it is mine. I have decorated it with plants and posters and bookshelves filled with a library exchange of over 200 books. As we progress through various units, students hang posters and display projects they have worked on for that unit. During lunch, students can earn extra credit to help me decorate, clean desks or alphabetize papers. I think this helps them claim ownership over what goes on in class as well as improve our student-teacher repoire. Student Work Table Develops Responsibility In the back of the room, we maintain a table for make up work which contains a daily calendar detailing what we complete in class each day in addition to homework assignments. A make-up binder contains all handouts throughout the semester. This way, if a student is absent they can look at the calendar and obtain any handouts they missed that day. This procedure establishes a tone of student responsibility as well as helps improve classroom organization as it prevents students from walking up to me and asking me what they missed. We do not lose valuable instructional time and students are responsible for following a specific procedure. I have had positive feedback about these procedures which proves that it works well for them and me.Posted by Thadra Petkus Teachers who work with elementary and middle school students are often very sensitive to the social needs of students starting off a new school year. They design activities to help make students feel comfortable with their peers and their teacher. My experience teaching high school English reveals that high school students are often just as trepidacious as their younger counterparts about starting a new school year. So what can high school teachers do to help ease the transition? Create a Community of Learners With a little planning, high school teachers can create an air of comfort, commeraderie, and mutual-respect in the classroom. Some suggestions for using classroom introductions as a way to create a community of learners can be found here. I would argue that it's more important tp communicate to students what they can expect to feel in your classroom versus what they can specifically expect to learn. This is especially important for students who face learning or social challenges before they enter your classroom. They will want to know answers to the most basic of questions, such as:
Posted by Thadra Petkus As a high school English teacher, I find it easy to incorporate student work in the classroom. Sure, when students give presentations on Greek mythology or their favorite poems revolving around a particular theme, I require they post their visual aid (which is usually a poster but can also be student-made greeting cards, scrapbooks, or character photo albums). In some cases, we’ve built shelves and extend bookcases to create sufficient vertical space in our classroom, but it’s been well worth the effort. In "Students Help Prepare Classroom for New Year," we discuss techniques that can be used to get students involved in decorating their new classroom. I think it’s important to allow a bit of time at the beginning or end of class to encourage students to observe the work of others. This “publication” of their work instills a sense of pride and encourages students to produce masterful and creative visual aids. Seeing students get excited about their work is all the validation I need to repeat this system year after year. Similarly, I post anonymous writing assignments on the bulletin boards, or even directly on the walls. With 150 ninth and tenth graders, I find my little portable classroom gets crowded pretty quickly. But I don’t let that hinder our publication of student work. I structure activities that instruct student how to offer anonymous comments and feedback on posted work. They have to comment on certain rubric criteria such as
Posted by Thadra Petkus There's nothing high school students despise more than "worksheets." In a student's eyes, many exercises fall under this broad category. Students in the mainstream "regular" classroom often feel bored by the rote activities they are expected to complete day in and day out. Teachers try to ensure comprehension by asking many lower-level questions such as Who What Where When No doubt the basics are essential and serve as a foundation for building higher-order thinking skills. But if students aren't pushed to the next level of knowledge that requires them to also analyze and synthesize information, they do not glean meaning from their work. They become bored, restless and removed from the learning experience. Details, facts, dates, and examples begin to appear disjointed and devoid of real significance. I lke to help prevent this sense of student complacency by always challenging my students with the simple question of, "so what?" If they can answer this question, class discussion, collaborative activities, student presentations and, yes, even "worksheets" grow more interesting. This question can be applied to the most basic, knowledge-based questions listed about. Teachers can ask "so what" in a variety of ways, including: Why is this date important? Why should we care about this character? Explain how the plot illustrates the theme of the story. What was going on during this time period that relates to the story being told? How are characters affected by the time period in which they are living? This simple question helps raise the most basic of concepts into the realm of higher order thinking skills.Posted by Thadra Petkus When I attended my first A.P. Summer Institute hosed by the College Board, I was a bit intimidated. I had been teaching high school full-time for three years and still felt, at times, like a novice. Fortunately, one of my esteemed colleagues was the presenter for the week, so she helped put me at ease. Still, I felt a little out of my league. Here I was, sitting next to teachers who have been sucessfully instructing Advanced Placement English classes for years, some for decades. And I was primarily teaching 9th and 10th grade "regular" English. While we went around the room and gave our introductions, we were instructed to explain our primary motivation for attending the course. When my turn came, I answered simply that, "I wanted to teach my kids to be ready for A.P. in case they planned to apply down the road." Other teachers seemed pleased with my response. After that, I started to settle in.Developing Pre-A.P. Skills in High School English. By the end of my week of advanced training, which consisted of five intense but intellectually stimulating seven hour days of instruction, interaction, and idea-sharing, I was exuberant. Though I felt overwhelmed at times and certainly went into an information overload coma tha weekend, I felt validated as a teacher. So much of what was discussed, literary analysis, interpretation and synthesis, for example, were already an inherent part of my curriculum. What I needed to do was learn how to standardize the method by which I helped students develop these important skills. I explore the development of these skills in There's nothing more validating to a newer teacher than to be told by experts that she is on the right track! |
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