The Influences of an Art-Loving Culture

            I was unaware of how rich the French culture was until I met my host family. My host family loved art, literature, music, and films. They were interested not only in French culture but also cultures all over the world. The French love exploring and learning about new cultures, which made it very easy for me to share my Korean-American culture with the people I met aboard. French culture is immersed in art. I have learned so much about how art has shaped and is influencing France, especially Paris, through my art history class. The artwork in the world-renowned museums like the Louve, Orsay, and Orangerie reflect the importance of art in the French culture.

            Since I was already exposed to the art loving culture, I was not surprised when Mr. B told me that the students were learning about Cubism, Futurism, and Impressionism in their classrooms. This was not a separate “Art Class” but it was a part of the curriculum in the International School of Paris. At the end of their curriculum, Mr. B asked me to join the class on a field trip to a museum. It was a museum with a lot of Claude Monet’s famous artworks. I did not want to miss this opportunity. I agreed without hesitation. I assumed that the museum trip was going to be pretty boring for the students. I remembered going to museums when I was younger with my classes and I dreaded the entire trip because all we did was listen to a tour guide talk about the history of the artist. None of that interested me. However, the moment the tour started, I knew my assumption was completely wrong. The students were all taking notes and nodding to the things the tour guide was saying. What could have been so different between these kids and me?! After much thought, I realized that it was the culture we grew up in. At least in my school, they did not really emphasize the importance of art, so I was not taught any art history. My high school did not offer any art history classes, which made appreciating art a lot harder. However, these kids were exposed to the art loving French culture for years now. They learned about the artists throughout the year. Even as 5^th graders, these students were already beginning to appreciate art in a way I never did when I was their age.

            At the end of the tour the class was asked to participate in a very interesting and different activity. Mr. B passed out paper and markers. Students clipped a sheet of paper on their clipboards and sat in front of paintings they admired. Mr. B asked each student to draw the painting. During this activity I felt like I was surrounded by 20 little “Claude Monets”. They were all diligently working on their artworks using their interpretations and perception of each painting. It was truly an eye opening experience because I think it is very rare to experience something like this in the States. After the field trip, the students had discussions with other students about their artwork and Monet’s techniques and influences.

            By simply living in a different country, the curriculum is heavily influenced by the culture. The curriculum then goes on to influencing the students’ interests and appreciations.

"Typical" day of teaching at the International School of Paris

            I could not help but smile as I read this prompt. The prompt asks me to describe a “typical” day at my placement. I think it’s so funny to describe my days in the classroom in Paris as typical because it seemed like each day I went in, I was asked to do different things. Some days I would be teaching math within groups, like I was asked to in the beginning. However, there were days when I would be going around the classroom helping students with their photo gallery and asking questions about the angle in which they placed their cameras to get their picture. I was privileged enough to work in two different classrooms in the same grade. I was able to observe two teachers with very different teaching styles and the various interactions among students.

            I mostly worked with students in the lower level math groups to help them improve their math skills in geometry, subtraction, and addition with 3 digit numbers. Every Wednesday morning I went into Mr. Barker’s class. I worked with 2 groups at a time, running back and forth. This was one of my many challenges. I loved the students and the students seemed to really enjoy the time they spend with me while I was in their classroom. Mr. B, after about 2 weeks, asked if I could work with 2 larger groups so he pay more attention to the remaining groups. There were days when I would be running from one student in one group to another in the second group. The groups worked on the same material but with different levels. For example, one group would work on subtracting 3 digit numbers while the other worked on the same materials but with partitioning. There were times when I would confuse myself with the materials I was teaching because I was running around checking students’ work. Another challenge was the interaction I had with one student. Because I was an “adult”, a “teacher” who came into the classroom once a week, some students regarded me as their friend rather than a teacher in the classroom. Mr. B at the beginning of the semester clearly explained to the students that I was a teacher in the classroom. However, one girl in particular, always seemed to give me an attitude. She was one of the smarter ones in the group so she always wanted to quickly get through the work to show that she was faster than everyone else. Mr. B informed me on this before the semester started. It was difficult to tell the student that she had to take her time to understand the work rather than just the process of finishing her work. I may have experienced a lot of challenges but the greater things that I have gained from this experience overshadow them all.

            Some of the highlights I have experienced were when I worked with this one particular group in October. I had 5 girls in my group and we were reviewing the concept of angles and degrees of angles. When we first started the lesson, three of the girls were lost. I think they were either absent or out of the classroom the day before. Mr. B asked me to help the students use their protractors to draw 45, 90, 135, and 180 degrees in their math notebooks. The more I seemed to use words to describe the concept of degrees and the process of drawing angles, the students seemed lost. That’s when I knew I had to scaffold the activity in order for the students to understand what I was talking about. I stood up and got myself a piece of paper and pencil to model the activity. The moment I placed the protractor on the paper, the students said, “OH!” in synchrony. I held the protractor to explain the increments that were marked on the protractor. After a mini lesson the students were able to go beyond what Mr. B had asked of them. We had about 15 minutes after the lesson and so I decided to give them random degrees to draw into their notebooks. It made me so happy to know that all 5 of them understood the lesson and the materials. Another highlight of my experience was being able to participate in the 5^th grade photo gallery. Both classes, Miss A and Mr. B, had a photo gallery the last week I was aboard. I was able to see all the students’ hard work as they used trifold posters to display their works. I was also able to meet the students’ parents and have conversations about their child. I was also able to communicate with one of the Korean students’ mother in Korean about her child. It was also to hear multiple languages being spoken in the classroom. Since every single student was from a different country, I was able to hear languages from all over the world.

            My “typical” day in my placement may have been a little hectic but each day was truly a rewarding one. I did experience some challenges but the number of highlights I could write and talk about, far exceeds the difficulties.

Science lesson on seeds at Merrylee Primary in Glasgow, Scotland

This blog post is my reflection of a science lesson Mrs. B taught on seeds and how they spread throughout their environment. Mrs. B had planned the lesson earlier, but on the morning of the lesson when I came in, she was organizing her materials. She was sure the PowerPoint was on her laptop ready to go. She has a pile of worksheets on her desk, along with small plastic cups, a large bag of soil, and a packet of sunflower seeds.  On the whiteboard, she wrote the Learning Intention: Today, I will learn the parts of the seed and the ways in which seeds spread. Mrs. B read this out with them once, but having it written allows students to refer back to it throughout the lesson as a sort of check-in.

                First, Mrs. B asked about how plants grow. Confirming some students’ responses, she explained that a seed needs to grow in soil. The students then listed a variety of plants that have seeds in them. Then, she used a PowerPoint to introduce the anatomy of a seed (the seed coat, seed, and embryo). The PowerPoint had bullet points with brief sentences explaining the parts, as well as pictures and labels. Mrs. B then asked questions about where plants grow and how seeds get there. This discussion lead to the next slides which explained the main methods of seed transportation: popping out, animals, and the wind.  I noticed some students were disengaged, but I think that is natural in a lecturing component. Engagement increased as the students were directly involved with the activities.

                The students next completed the worksheet which had pictures of different plants, and the students had to label which method of seed transportation was being used (e.g., acorns are moved by squirrels and dandelion seeds are blown by the wind). The next part of the lesson was exploring the anatomy of an actual sunflower seed. Mrs. B allowed the students to pick their own partners. Each pair received two seeds, one to examine and one to plant (just for decoration according to Mrs. B, as well as creating some responsibility for the students to have by watching over their plants). The students were to break open the seed coat, see the seed, and then try to find the embryo within the seed. Some students had greater luck than others, and those whose seed showed the embryo shared their findings with other classmates. One of the challenges of this lesson was the time constraint. Even though the block was an hour and half, time still passed quickly. In order to have enough time for the next part of the lesson described next, this sunflower seed exploration was rushed. If there was more time, the students who broke their seeds and were unable to locate the embryo would have the chance to examine a new seed.

                With about 25 minutes in the lesson remaining of the 1.5 hour block, we all went outside to the ‘Urban Jungle’, a hilly and treed area in the school yard. The students ran around collecting as many different seeds on or in plants as they could find. Mrs. B and I asked the students to think about how the seeds would be transported, in addition to asking them to point out the known anatomy. The students brought their findings back to the classroom, and Mrs. B called on individuals to share what their plant and seed looked like and their hypothesis on how the seeds were moved. As there was a vast majority of seeds, this sharing time was engaging for all students listening because they were able to compare their own seeds to the ones being discussed.

                This lesson was a great success! The objective focused on just two aspects of seeds as oppose to trying to touch on everything about seeds. The lesson presented the material a variety of important ways: through the PowerPoint, in writing, in discussion (which required recall of prior knowledge), and on-hands through examining the sunflower seed and through searching for new seeds outside (thus applying new knowledge of the characteristics of seeds and then applying the new knowledge of seed transportation).  The final discussion acted as a reflection and wrap-up of the lesson and it being student-directed is much more effective than teacher lecturing. The switching of activities kept students engaged and prevented their boredom though the subject matter remained the same. I can use this lesson in mind when creating my own lessons in the future. I can even use just some aspects of the lesson for shorter mini-lessons that won’t take up as much time as this whole seed lesson took.

Comparing US to Scottish Schools (in my experience)

1.       Two similarities between teaching in Scotland and teaching in Boston are the promotion of the use of technology and teacher collaboration. Two differences I’ve noticed are composite classes and community interaction.

Every classroom in Merrylee is equipped with SmartBoards. There is also a computer- room with about 30 computers that is available to each class through a rotation during the week. Each class gets to use the computers about twice a week, or more. Teaching computer literacy and allowing students to familiarize themselves with such technology are common between both of my experiences teaching in the US and abroad. This emphasizes the global importance technology holds, as well as the understanding that students learn in many ways, and computer use is one of many pathways of promoting learning. Furthermore, the SmartBoard was used in all subjects in my experiences. Even more importantly, I believe, was that teachers allowed students to interact with the SmartBoard (write, tap, etc.) in their lessons, which was both exciting and engaging for these students.

The second similarity is the effectiveness of teacher collaboration. In my practicum experiences, both of the schools, one in Glasgow and one in Boston, supported co-teaching efforts. Also coincidentally, the co-teaching occurred only in the grades where I happened to be prac-ing. Although the other teachers were not necessarily co-teaching, there certainly was collaboration between teachers of the same grades and even between grades. The latter ideally creates smoother transitions for the students between school years due to the forward planning. Co-teaching is successful because students are exposed to different teaching styles and thus are not fixated on just one teaching method. Co-teaching allows for student movement between the classrooms, and this also allows for group work and for students to discuss and share ideas with each other. With a greater number of students involved in a lesson with group work, there is a better chance the abilities are matched up, or there is room for greater differentiation. When it comes to planning for co-teaching and with collaboration, ultimately more ideas arise. This is because there are more minds scheming and bouncing ideas off of each other, as oppose to one teacher just narrow-mindedly, single-handedly planning his or her own lesson.

There is one aspect of Merrylee that I have not yet experienced with teaching in the US. It may exist, but again, I have no experience with it. That is, composite classes. Merrylee had two classrooms where this occurred, between Primary 2 and 3 (grades 1 and 2) and Primary 6 and 7 (grades 5 and 6). There were more students that seats allotted for these grades and so the surplus students from each grade combined to form a new class, in-between both grades. These teachers at Merrylee said that planning instruction was not a daunting supplementary task, but just slightly more involved than traditional planning. They said it was just like differentiation, but sometimes with different subject material. Discussing the concept of composite classes with these Scottish teachers made me realize that I’m not entirely sure what happens in US public schools when there are not enough seats. I know students are bussed to different schools in Boston, but I wonder how it works for other public students elsewhere in the US.

Lastly, I was very impressed by the amount of community interaction the Primary 5 students had at Merrylee. I was fortunate to join Mrs. B’s class on a field trip to a local park, one of four excursions the class would have to the park. This park was funded by government money and served as field trip location for many area schools. The reason Merrylee Primary 5 students would be going four times was to encourage risk-taking, team-building, and self-confidence. With each visit, students would be able to do a little more tree-climbing or fort-building. The idea is that the students familiarize themselves in a visit, and then push themselves beyond that comfort on the next visit. During the last two weeks of my practicum, the school was so busy with visitors and field trips. Some of the girls were involved with gymnastics and had a competition with other neighborhood schools at a local gymnasium. During Christmastime, each class has the chance to go see a pantomime, or a silly play at the local theater. Even members of the Rangers Club, one of the more well-known soccer clubs in Glasgow, came to the school to coach soccer and preach the dangers of smoking to the students. It always seemed that the students were going on a visit or hosting a visitor. It never seemed to be distracting from the main course of study, and I think it’s great that Merrylee focuses on educating the students on the importance of responsibility, health, and contributions to community. In my experiences in the US, I've noticed teachers stress over academics and that there is not enough time to teach everything in the book. Often, there is the pressure of some standardized test in the US. In Scotland, there never appeared the stress of the time crunch, and so there was time for community involvement.

Classroom Management at Merrylee Primary in Glasgow, Scotland

Merrylee Primary is building an addition to accommodate the growing number of students. Due to spacing constraints, the two Primary 5 (grade 4) classes are located in “pods” or modular (temporary rooms). These are a bit smaller than the traditional classrooms, and so spacing issues are very prevalent while dealing with classroom management as well. Mrs. B has 31 students and groups the desks in order to fit everyone. There are five groups of desks (four groups with six desks each and one group in the center with eight). Mrs. B will wait until everyone is quiet before beginning a lesson or giving instructions. She told me that it took a few weeks in the beginning of the school year for the students to really grasp this concept. Now, students recognize when it’s time to be quiet, sit still, and listen. Also, Mrs. B will count down 5-4-3-2-1 until the students settled. If she made it to 1, she expressed disappointment and then counted down again. If students were ever chatty and I was present, that student would come over to me and talk with me about something academic: their latest math problems, the most recent book they have read, their science homework, etc. This allowed the student to talk, but orient themselves back to the focus of academics. The learning objective is written on the board for each lesson and this is used as a reference point throughout the lesson. Mrs. B often will go around asking the students how they are achieving the learning objective. This also keeps them academically focused.

                The students were usually very well-behaved during lessons. I think it helps that they have breaks between each lesson block. The ability for the students to run around outside and socialize let them re-focus in the classroom. Transition time could have been problematic, with the students having to change from their indoor shoes into their outdoor boots and back again. However, Mrs. B always expressed that she expected the students to read quietly at their desk while the rest of the students come in and change their shoes. Sometimes some students didn’t actually read, but as long as they were quiet, Mrs. B didn’t really mind. She always announced how important it is to read, and I think the students understand that. This also gave the students some autonomy and choice in their actions, creating students who are able to make appropriate decisions. At the end of the day, the students know that they have to organize their desks and wait patiently until they are called to exit. Mrs. B will simply announce the end of the lesson, and the students will begin to clean up.

                Overall, I’d say that the expectations Mrs. B has for the students has been enforced enough that the students hold these expectations for themselves. Mrs. B has rules of speaking respectfully to each other, and I even overheard some students politely remind another student to clean, read, or whatever the task was. If students were disrespecting each other, Mrs. B would speak to them directly and remind them of appropriate attitudes and actions, as well as remind them of the expectations she holds for them.