Thursday, March 3, 2011
Middle School Advisory Field Trip
I hope that you enjoyed witnessing advisory today. For me one of the most important aspects of advisory is the relationship you build with your students. While it is a given that you are trying to make a connection, it is surprising how quickly the students in your advisory become "my students". As indicated by Miss L., that is the most rewarding part of her day, I echo that sentiment. Please reflect on your experience. What were you expecting? Is it what you saw? Do you see the role of the teacher in advisory a little differently than you did before? What is your impression of advisory? Feel free to share your thoughts about our trip. Remember to use initials.
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ReplyDeletePosted by Jennifer
ReplyDeleteThe visit today was another experience that provided reassurance that teaching is the field I want to be in. It was so exciting to see the kids actually open up about their own feelings no matter how shy or insecure they seem to be. I also saw how accomplishing it can be to actually reach out out to the students and model change in their lives that will only benefit them.
The advisory program, I feel, is a successful program that allows these students to come self actualization. I think that these programs help the students to figure themselves out as individuals; how they think, feel, and react to everyday situations. They also learn how to open up and share how the feel. It also provides an experience for them to learn how to handle real life problems and how to accomplish teamwork activities that will benefit them currently as well as later on in their lives.
I honestly, did not expect it the program to be as structured or taken so seriously by both the teachers and the students as it was. Mr. H was constantly walking around the room, encouraging each student to involve themselves, and really made sure that he was showing he had honest concern for what the students had to say.
It never occurred to me how much the teacher impacts the students during these advisory programs. The faculty really does a phenomenal job in creating advisory programs that follow through with what they were made to do. To provide guidance for the students, to provide someone that the students can feel comfortable sharing their problems with, and to provide an opportunity for the students to learn things that will benefit them throughout their lives both inside and outside of the school milieu.
Posted by Jon
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the middle school visit today. I was blown away with the excellent facility they had to work in and was also impressed with the comfortable feeling within the school compared to the last school we visited. I have to admit that I was a bit shocked with the location of the school compared to the rest of the city, but that has nothing to do with advisory. This trip impacted me in the sense that I know that I would like to be more involved in advisory that what Ms. S, whom I was observing.
Getting the opportunity to observe advisory was basically the same as observing a classroom setting. The teacher that I observed seemed to have a very structured personality, but she also moves from building to building teaching in both the high school and middle school. Even when I first met her and was talking to her, thoughts were running through the back of my head wondering if she acts the same way with students. To start off the period, certain students came in and were sitting next to each other. The teacher quickly noticed this and told them that they were not to sit together and they also questioned why. At that time, Ms. S took a stern voice and told the one student that questioned her to please step out of the classroom and that she would be out to speak with her in just a moment. The students were not being disruptive; they were just apparently not in their assigned seats. Ms. S then started the movie and went outside the classroom to address the student. After the video was over, a lecture format started. First students were supposed to write down how they deal with items that upset them. Then students were asked if they wanted to share the ways they deal with situations.
Throughout this entire period, I noticed students laying their heads down on the desks and other students that would not stop talking the entire time to the person they sat next to. I gathered that most the students either did not care for the lesson they we going over, or they just did not care much for the teacher and were not going to pay attention regardless since they were not being graded on this. Following this period I had several questions for the teacher trying to figure out what activities she has performed in her classroom trying to get to know the students any better. She explained that she likes to take them outside to go for walks or play kick ball in the parking lot.
Before going, I was excited to see a teacher that was really involved with the students and had an established relationship with the students they were advising. I know that people’s personalities are sometimes hard to get to know. I feel that you can create activities in which a student has to show their interests, which will allow a teacher to get to know them that much better and possibly establish “that relationship” that makes the difference in a student’s life. I enjoyed all the information from Ms L had to share with us, but leaving; I wish I could have observed a better advisory period.
When I found out that I was going to be observing a school that uses advisory for its middle school students, I was excited. As a teacher-in-training, I am always looking for new and interesting ways to reach and make connections with my students. Upon reflecting on the overall experience, I am a little sad that I did not witness what I thought I was going to see. I was expecting more of a one-on-one between the teacher and student rather than a twelve student group lesson. However, I cannot base my viewpoints on just one 28 minute visit. I had a chance to speak with the teacher after the advisory period and she mentioned to me that they sometimes have one-on-ones with the students, but it isn’t that often.
ReplyDeleteI really like the ideas and concepts of an advisory program. I packet of information that I received during this visit will be valuable in the future. Since there are not many middle schools that offer an advisory program, the information in this packet will allow me to create a mini-advisory program for my own students. I might even some day be able to persuade my future school into starting an advisory program. The advisory program at this school has been very successful for a number of years. However, I still feel as though these are several other aspects of an advisory program that this school could use to be even more successful.
Of all the concepts woven into the Middle School philosophy, the idea of advisory/advocacy is the most exciting to me. In keeping with the fundamental reasoning behind advisory, I feel that a teacher must connect with and understand her students before expecting the students to respect and receive from the teacher. At the middle school we visited, this concept is at the forefront – proven by the fact that advisory has been given a preeminent position at the start of every day. Not only that, but they have increased its time allotment from 20 to 30 minutes a day. Some schools do well to provide advisory just one time each week.
ReplyDeleteBefore attending this advisory observation, my expectation was to see a teacher in a circle with her students, while they each shared a response to a question posed by the teacher. I anticipated discussion and gut-level sharing of feelings and life experiences. However, this is not what I saw. Instead, I observed a teacher interacting very freely with her students, leading them through a group activity/worksheet, and attempting to maintain control of the class. If I had been able to attend the advisory meeting the following day, I would have witnessed the discussion end of things.
It was very apparent that the teacher I observed is completely devoted to her students. She believes advisory is the most important class time of the day and feels a deeper bond with those students than with the students she teaches in her content area. She mentioned that she “talks differently” with her advisory kids than with those in her regular classes. She even tries to attend her advisory students’ games and performances. At the end of class she told the students that she loves them.
For the most part, my observation was a positive experience. There were only two negative aspects I can recall. First, I do not believe name calling has any place in a safe environment and healthy classroom. I observed the teacher playfully calling a student a “do-do-head”. It is my opinion that no matter how well meaning a person is, sarcastic put downs can have adverse consequences. The second and final negative observation I recall is the lack of control she exhibited toward her class. She seemed to expend far too much energy in attempting to quiet the talkers when she could simply change her tactics and lay down the law a bit. I realize her goal is to relate to the kids and create a friendly atmosphere, but time was needlessly wasted and the chaotic interaction seemed to be just plain frustrating to me.
Advisory is a great way for instructors to not only get to know their students, but to maintain constant contact with them throughout the school year and possibly longer. Effective advisory programs remove anonymity from schools and create a sense of community and belonging for students while giving them an adult(s) who has a personal connection to them. The advisory period that I was able to observe definitely had these goals in mind and, in my estimation, met them. I’m not sure going into my observation that I had any distinct idea of what I would witness. I knew what advisory and its objectives were through class readings, instruction, and discussions and went in with an open mind expecting to see some version of what had been presented in class.
ReplyDeleteTwo young, energetic teachers (one male, one female) greeted me and welcomed to into their advisory class. They told the thirteen students in their class that they would be working on a team building exercise for the period. The teachers divided the class into two teams and gave each team a soft volleyball. The teams were then instructed that each member had to touch the ball, no two team members could touch it simultaneously, they couldn’t set the ball down, and they were to attempt to do it faster than the other team.
While the students were brainstorming and using trial and error to come up with the best strategies for accomplishing the task, the teachers were encouraging them and offering helpful insight into ways to do so more swiftly. The female teacher had a stopwatch to time each teams many attempts. Eventually both teams of students devised a system using gravity in which each team member could touch the ball in only 0.1 seconds. After mastering the task in the smaller groups, the students were instructed to meld the groups together and see how fast all thirteen students in the classroom could touch the ball. After working out the logistics, the students were able to accomplish this in 0.3 seconds.
With the extra time in the advisory period, the teachers took the students outside of the classroom into a big open hallway space and played a version of hot potato that the students seemed to be very familiar with as though they play it fairly often during advisory. During this game students were to follow certain directions (i.e. “catch and throw the ball using only your left hand”). After several games, which I participated in, the bell sounded and advisory period was over. The students said goodbye to the teachers and went their separate ways.
I think that team building activities like the one I observed are very effective in constructing a community setting for students. Each student saw the other as an equal and I didn’t witness anything that indicated to me that students were operating in cliques or that they were observing any system of hierarchy within the classroom. Aside from the tendency to socialize more with students of their own gender, the thirteen students I observed interacted with each other without discrimination. Also, all of the activities that the teachers did with the students included a level of active physical participation. Once broken into the original two teams for the first activity, the students never again sat in desks during the advisory period. Physical activity is important for adolescent growth and development and I think that the teachers of the advisory I observed were, maybe because of their youth, more geared toward developing advisory activities for the students that incorporated both physical and mental exercise. Seeing this made me think that I would want to include some of those same types of activities into my advisory plans in the future as I think that both forms of exercise are of the upmost importance to adolescent development. What I witnessed in the classroom that I observed helped me to define the role of an advisory teacher as one who takes in interest in developing relationships with students while meeting a myriad of developmental needs through instructional activities and exercises.
ReplyDeleteMy impression of advisory is that it is beneficial to the student body as a whole as well as to the teachers, as the sense of community it builds includes all people involved. I am an advocate for advisory programs based in part on what I saw during my time in this classroom as well as what I’ve already read and learned about advisory programs. I believe they are an effective way for students and teachers to make connections and build personal relationships without focusing on traditional content.
When I was told about this trip to view an advisory program, I did not know a thing about it. When I looked it up, I came across some not-so-nice-things about advisory programs. There was a very negative outlook to it on the internet so it was a very surprising shock when we went to this middle school and saw what an amazing job they have done with advisory. One of the bad things I came across online was some video footage taken in advisory classrooms and they showed the teacher doing nothing and all the kids creating chaos. It was amazing to see the teacher I observed and how he made a connection with his students and how he grabbed their attention. This teacher did a great job at keeping them focused and connecting with them by telling personal stories that the students might have been able to relate to. With the bad teachers I watched online, it would seem that there is no curriculum or plan because they did nothing with the students. This was not the case with this school. The teachers had a month-by-month theme which the teachers were to talk about. This is something to get the students to prepare for the future and even the class schedule they are currently carrying. I loved the idea behind the themes and then having the teacher do the planning because teachers do different things and what works for one teacher might not work for another. Overall this experience was an eye opener for myself because of only really seeing negativity towards the program and if it is not already in the school I teach at, I will be the first to stand up and get it placed into that school. I believe that when advisory is done in the right fashion, it can open doors for students that might not be open for other students at different schools.
ReplyDeleteThis experience was awesome. This is going to be my favorite part of the day I think. I just love the interaction and connection that you are able to get with the kids. It was neat to see how the teachers connected or in some cases didn’t connect with their students. I observed how some kids really were involved while others seem to be in the background. This had nothing to do with the individual students personality, because one could see they were outgoing but just disconnected. It showed me that it isn’t going to be easy all the time to get that personal connection with a student, but it only means that you need to try harder. Never give up on connecting with a student.
ReplyDeleteI came into this observation with the expectation of seeing a thoughtfulness and caring attitude that would seem forced. However, to my surprise, I saw an authentic relationship. A relationship that would be healthy and would be beneficial to the student and teacher alike. Letting them learn about one another and more importantly learning about themselves in the process.
I can tell you that I saw what I was expecting. I knew going to the school, that they had an excellent program. So I was looking for that and when I left I was not disappointed. They seem to embody what an advisory program should be. Not saying that there are no flaws or anything. What I am saying is that the flaws are minimal and they are defiantly on the right track.
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ReplyDeleteI'm very glad that we got to visit this school because of the reputation they have with their advisory program. My experience was great. I was in the classroom with Miss H. who is in her third year teaching there. She had a great connection with her kids. I caught the very tail end of her previous class so I got to see her teach in her content area. She was very professional, at the board, doing quiz and answers. Once her advisory class started her attitude was much more laid back. She was out walking around by the kids desks and interacted with them. We started the class by watching a video of when people get angry at work and flip out. I thought it was a good way to start off the class because it got the kids laughing and showed them that evem though conflict resolution is a serious thing, they can be open about it. I like that the school works together to come up with themes they want to focus on for each quarter.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked how Miss H. had her room set up. All of the things on her wall were for 'her kids' in her advisory class. The one wall had pictures of the students that they took of themselves and they all wrote a couple of things about themselves on it. The other wall she did like a crossword puzzle using all of their names, including her own, and connected them. I bet they had a ton of fun doing that and would've had to work together to figure out how all the names would fit together. I htink advisory is a great program and really helps teachers connect to their students. What I saw was what I expected and I was glad to be able to experience it firsthand. From what I saw, I believe the students and the teacher both enjoy this time together to bond and talk about subjects that wouldn't be brought up in other classes.
Before visiting a school for their advisory program, I was not sure what to expect. Although we have discussed what there is to an effective advisory, I still had in mind what me experiences with advisory programs were. Whenever I had advisory classes in middle school they were always set up like study halls where you would have to bring homework or a book to read for SSR, and a “No talking rule” was always enforced. Also we usually had advisory on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but exploratory on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
ReplyDeleteThis was very different from the advisory program I witnessed in Miss L’s classroom. In her advisory class there were only nine students. She seemed to have a close relationship with all of them, and talked differently to them than a normal class. She talked to them almost like she was one of them, or around their age, but she was still authoritative. It created a friendlier joking classroom setting.
During this advisory class, Miss L set up and activity that simulated a plane crash where the pilots died, the survivors landed in a very cold forest, and only a few random supplies lasted. To start the activity the students were given a set amount of time to work alone and list the importance of each item for their survival. After time was up the students then got into groups of three where they had to agree on a new list of importance. The class ended with Miss L telling the class the correct order, and saying they would have a class discussion the next day about the importance of the activity and what the students took from it.
There were many things that we were taught in class that I saw were incorporated into the lesson that were effective. One was that when the students were supposed to work alone and not talk, they were allowed to move around the room and get comfortable. Although it took awhile to get organized, this seemed to make it easier for the students to be okay not talking. Afterwards I noticed the collaborative learning. This teaches students to work together, and with a simulation like this one, it is a skill they can use throughout life.
One thing I noticed that made things difficult was that it was an inclusive classroom. I do not believe a student should be completely separated from classrooms because they have special needs, but when the student was given special instructions after the class was given theirs, other students listened in and became confused about what they were supposed to do.
Some things I noticed about the school were the layout. It was convenient and seemed to make things easier for the students; this includes the lines on the floor that “directed traffic.” I think the colors of the school created a soft comfortable atmosphere. I also liked how there was a lot of student work displayed with a common theme; I think this created a sense of school unity.
I really didn't know what to expect when it came to advisory. The only thing that I knew was what we discussed in class but I really had no idea what it was all about. When arriving to the school I really expected something totally different when it came to the school itself. I heard a lot of discussion about how low their socio-economic status was, but the actual school was very nice inside and well run.
ReplyDeleteDuring the advisory that I observed the teacher showed the students a funny video of people getting angry in their offices. Once the video concluded the teacher asked the students what makes them mad. She wrote their responses on the board. The teacher then asked ways the students dealt with their anger. These responses were also written on the board. After everything was on the whiteboard the teacher asked which of the methods of dealing with anger were acceptable. This showed the students appropriate ways to handle stress and anger. The students seemed very excited and enthusiastic during the advisory. The class was student centered with the teacher just guiding the students with the discussions. This allowed for the students to be free to discuss their opinions amongst one another.
After seeing an advisory classroom I really feel that it is useful in helping students discuss issues going on in their lives. I think that it allows the students to talk freely in a safe environment about any changes or social problems going on. I think it would have been nice to have an advisory when I was in school because it could have helped deal with problems going on in the school at the time.