Webinar Evaluation

Title:  Hanging In: Working with Challenging Students with Jeffrey Benson

Organization: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development -ASCD 

Time Attended: 4:30-5:33pm

Here is the link- Webinar

I have never attended or listened to a webinar until today. After listening I can understand why they are so popular. I was able to stop the webinar at any moment because it was archived. This was a great option for me because I was able to take notes or listen to certain parts again. 

For the most part, this webinar was pretty interactive. It had three survey poles and two different times to ask questions. Also, at the end of the webinar the man speaking gave out all of his contact information if anyone wanted to ask further questions or speak with him about a challenging student. 

There were several ideas I took away from this webinar that I would like to use in my classroom. Here is a quote the man used in his webinar. "Learning is spontaneous, individualistic, and often earned through effort. It is a time-worn, slow, gradual, fits and starts kind of process, which can have a flow of its own, but requires passion, patience, and attention to detail." - John Hattie 2009

This quote reminded me that all students learn at a different pace.  Something that Benson pointed out about challenging students is that these students usually show frustration or extreme signs of angry because they are unsure how to voice their concerns about the assignment. He said hat when teachers assign students a task, they need to analyze the sub tasks that are required for the main task. This point really shed a lot of light on my challenging student. When the student I have becomes upset I usually attribute it to that she is refusing to do the work because she wants attention. However, now I realize I might need to analyze the sub tasks. Maybe there are some sub tasks she is not confident about doing or doesn't know how to do at all. 

There were several other ideas that he addressed that could be helpful too. He spoke on preparing the child for the environment and changing the environment for the child. Also, he pointed out to look for things or structures that are working for the child in the school. 

Overall this was a good webinar. I learned a lot and I plan on sharing with some colleagues at my school. The only thing I felt was a limitation was he did not give any concrete examples of ways to help challenging students in the primary grades. He gave examples of things he had done with older child but not younger children. 

Coaching Conferences

 I have been teaching the Lucy Calkin's workshop model for three years now.  The first year I taught this model it was overwhelming, exhausting, confusing, hard, and frustrating. That first year was like trying to learn how to swim. I had days where I felt confident about my teaching and days I went home crying. There are so many aspects to the workshop model. I finally decided, after months of stress and tears that I needed to focus on one part at a time. My first year I focused on laying the foundation and procedures for reader's and writer's workshop. Then my second year I focused on making sure my teaching point was clear and appropriate in addition to the active engagement part of the model. I worked hard to make sure my students were actively engaging not only with me but with their partner on the carpet as well. 

Now that I am in the third year of teaching this model I have decided I need to work on my coaching during the individual conferences. I have not yet mastered the other goals I worked on during year one and two. However, I do feel more confident about those parts of the workshop model. 

Individual conferences with students make me nervous!! When I approach the student, I always remember to give them a compliment but then after that it's like I forget what to say. Usually I catch myself asking way to many questions and talking to fast! Usually, I am thinking I need to conference with at least four students every day. That doesn't seem like a lot but I don't have a lot time and usually there is always a disruption of some sort. 

The blog post that I read is from a blog called Two Writing Teachers. This blog has some incredible posts from teachers who have been trained from Lucy Calkins. The post is titled Coaching Conferences. In this post it lists five things to keep in mind for an effective independent conference; use very lean prompts, give wait time, coach into independence, making your teaching transferable, and be responsive. Those five tips were very helpful, especially lean prompts and wait time! I need to remember that less is more when dealing with prompting. Also, coaching into independence was a great reminder. I know sometimes I just do things for my students without thinking. However, they will grasp the idea better if they do it on their own. This post really helped me! I am looking forward to using these tips tomorrow!

       

Here is the link:
Coaching Conferences