HendrixJournals

Journals from Field Experience:

10/12/11 Today, Laura and I went for our first in-person interaction with Dr. Ulicny at Southern Columbia. The first thing I noticed when we arrived at the school was that from the outside, it pretty much looked exactly like my high school in that it was entirely surrounded by corn. At the office, we were asked to sign in and given a name badge. I thought the school seemed pretty relaxed and trusting, because they didn’t ask for clearances or ID or our reason for being there. We wandered around the school for a little bit before going to our classroom, and pretty much every person we encountered asked us if we needed help or directions (it seems like a very friendly place). The school’s under construction and the paint’s a little dated, but overall it’s a nice physical environment. We finally worked up the courage to enter Dr. Ulicny’s class mid-lesson, and he didn’t mind at all. The desks were set up all facing the front, with a laptop on each desk. Dr. Ulicny was seated at the back so he could monitor students’ activity on the laptops. He told his class to continue working on their PowerPoint note lessons while he talked to us outside. We learned a lot about his personal pedagogy. He said he’s very teacher-centered, but his students don’t seem to mind him talking most of the time. He also likes to use technology because the students seem to get their work done faster and enjoy it more, but he admitted that his knowledge of educational technology is pretty limited. At some point the class got a little loud, and he popped his head in and shouted “GET TO WORK!” while Laura and I looked at each other in terror. After observing his other interactions with the students, I realized that Dr. Ulicny may seem scary, but he’s actually really caring and only wants to ensure that his class is on track. We set up our meeting time (every Wednesday from 1:15-2:18, with 10 minutes of preplanning/lunch, an 11th grade class of 7 students, and 5 minutes of recapping). We learned that his class is in the middle of a unit on Macbeth. I’m excited to come back every week, I think I can learn lots from this placement.

Melissa, I loved hearing your impressions of this class and the students! What did you think of the idea of "teacher-centeredness"? Why is it that, for some teachers, this results in rebellion and for others (like the one you describe), it can be effective? How did this make you think about your own "style"? I look forward to hearing more! user:sherrymi

Personally, "teacher-centered" just isn't my style, because I think it discourages more timid students from getting involved and it can often lead to students acting as informational sponges instead of involved learners (also it makes me uncomfortable, but I'm not sure why). I'm sure it works for Dr. Ulicny because he's had time to fine-tune his methods. When you walk into his class, you know who's in charge, but he definitely handles things in an authoritative manner instead of an authoritarian way. He also has developed good rapport with his students because he takes time to get to know their hobbies, preferences, family lives, etc. This way, students don't feel smothered by his teacher-centeredness, because they know that he truly does care about their well being.

10/26/11 Today I met with Dr. Ulicny for a few minutes during his lunch before the class started. He told me a little bit of his background (he has 31 years of teaching experience!). He also informed me about current issues in the school, the big one being that students are now required to have hall passes because some students were skipping class and selling drugs in the bathrooms. He said that most of the students were really upset about the new policy, and the students who were taking advantage of the school’s trust pretty much ruined it for the 99% of students who follow the rules. Dr. Ulicny said that he intended to address the issue at the beginning of class so that his students weren’t entirely distracted for the whole lesson. I also learned practical things, like the fact that administrators really like it when you save smart board bulb power (because they only last 200 hours and they’re really expensive). When students came in, they knew exactly what to do. They got the laptops out, logged on, watered plants, washed dishes, and did lots of small classroom management things before the bell rang. When Dr. Ulicny addressed the drug/hall pass issue, he wasn’t condescending or preachy at all, and he explained that he loves and trusts every one of his students, and the new hall pass policy isn’t a result of their behavior, it was just a case of the few ruining it for the many. He seems to have a really good relationship with his students, because they felt open enough to vent to Dr. Ulicny about their frustrations with the new policy. After everyone gave their feelings on the matter, the class listened to the afternoon announcements over the loudspeaker (which take about 3-4 minutes of time from this period). During the announcement, it was mentioned that there was a football game versus Mount Carmel High School, which the students and Mr. Ulicny seemed to be really excited about. I always assumed that high school football was big in this area because the games play on the local tv and radio stations on Friday nights, and I realized that sports might be a big part of the culture at the school where I student teach. During the lesson, the desks were arranged facing the front, and Dr. Ulicny sat on a wheely chair in the front of the class. The students read Macbeth aloud while Dr. Ulicny summarized and clarified, and after they made it through a scene, they started reviewing for a vocab test the next day. When it seemed like students were getting off task, Dr. Ulicny was really perceptive, and calmly said “on task, everybody, on task.”

It sounds like you're getting to see a lot of how the school/classroom culture comes into teaching--something that's an important part of creating RELEVANCE and routines that SCAFFOLD instruction. What kinds of moves did/does your teacher make to set up and maintain these routines? to make students feel open enough to vent? user:sherrymi

Dr. Ulicny said that for about two weeks at the beginning of the year, he reinforces classroom routines like crazy, and eventually, they just take hold and become habit. It definitely saves instructional time. As I mentioned before, he gets to know students on a personal (but still professional) level. He later told me that he has a facebook, and he "friends" the students that send him requests, because facebook enables him to remind students about assignments and say "happy birthday" or congratulate students on good work. I admire the rapport he has with his students.

11/2/11 Today was my third visit with Dr. Ulicny's class. He started off telling me about how in-service days work for the district, and it was really informative. I learned that in-service days are the result of teachers asking for raises and the school board asking teachers to work more days per year (the in-service days) in order to justify their raises. He expressed frustration with in-service days, because the in-servicing really concentrates on "learning focused solutions," a system that every classroom is supposed to implement (it includes things like having an essential question and a word wall in each classroom). We also talked about the benefits of being the only English teacher for all of 11th grade (everyone learns basically the same thing and there's continuity between classes). Apparently there's very little guidance from the district curriculum, and Dr. Ulicny usually feels worried that he's not covering enough. We also talked about how much classroom time is really lost during the school year. When the students came in, they were a little confused because the desks weren't in their usual spots (they were arranged like a banquet hall for the banquet scene in Macbeth). Since the class is small, Dr. Ulicny was able to tell each student what to do with his or her backpack when they entered the room. Before beginning the lesson, Dr. Ulicny assembled the students into a standing semicircle in order to address a few classroom concerns (recent test grades, lost & found, Voices of Democracy project, Veterans' Day assembly, hall pass policy, and how to succeed when taking tests). He then placed the students in various spots throughout the classroom according to their character (the banquet guests were at the table, Lady Macbeth was sitting high above the classroom in a swivel chair, the two murderers were lurking in the background, and Banquo's ghost was moving back and forth between the table and the corner of the room). They listened to the murderer scene on audiotape while reading along, and then picked up acting out the play. Dr. Ulicny would pause during to see if students were understanding the language, and he got the students to think critically about several plot elements (my favorite was to see if the students could explain the involvement of the third murderer- the students had really creative ideas that they could back up with textual support). Dr. Ulicny elicited responses from students in different ways, depending on their personalities. For the shyer students, he would gently scaffold a series of questions leading up to a high ordered question, and for the more outgoing students, he would start out with a joke (for example, when he wanted to know what a student thought about the third murderer, he started out by saying, "Matt, you've murdered before, right? What are the pros and cons of having three murderers for two victims?" and working his way up to questions like "why do you think we don't see the third murderer again? What could the missing third murderer mean?"). The class acted out the rest of the play, and Dr. Ulicny was going over the homework when the bell rang.

Sounds fascinating--I remember reading some theories about how the third murderer is/can be played by Macbeth. Love your analysis of how he addressed students differently and used SCAFFOLDING questions :). It's often hard when teaching Shakespeare to get beyond comprehension to interpreting the text; staging is one way that sometimes helps to do this. What other strategies for this are you seeing? user:sherrymi

In Dr. Ulicny's class, I've mainly only encountered the staging method and listening to the play on tape while pausing to check for comprehension. I've had classes in high school that focsed on watching a movie version of the play while reading along, but I didn't get much out of those classes (I'm sure other students did, but I got lost and bored). I like the methods we used in our CUPLS lessons (especially the one about multiple intelligences- it made learning Shakespeare diverse, relevant, and fun).